Being swallowed by the earth was a common enough fate for those messing with the "Celtic Saints". This is particularly the case in the Lives of St Patrick** (Translation). In the Jocelyn Life a whole multitude are swallowed: a pagan king(?) called Leogaire sends his ministers to destroy the saint and the earth opens and swallows them all. Patrick seems particularly agrieved by pagan magicians, one of whom gets swallowed entirely and another of whom is swallowed up to his ears and only released when he promises to convert. It is usually the case that the earth is described as opening up before swallowing the victims and it is hard to see this as a case of, for example, the victims sinking into marshes as some have suggested. In one case from the Jocelyn Live of St Patrick, a man who pokes over altar items through a window with a stick is swallowed. Unusually, this victim is described as being swallowed down to hell, and it is possible that this end is implicit in the other accounts.