>Similarly, yoked cattle (I think... Help me out here, Miriam) determined the
>resting place of St Walstan in Norfolk; a cow determined the site of St
>Arilda's church at Oldbury-on-Severn, Gloucestershire; another revealed the
>grave (and church site) of St Kenelm at Romsley, Worcestershire. That's three
>cases from England. From Catalunya I can offer yoked mules determining the
>resting place of a miraculous Mother-of-God at Montblanc. Can someone
point us
>in the direction of a detailed discussion of this motif?

Cattle was also involved in the case of St. Furseus. It seems interesting
to note that some Christian authors told a similar yet derisory story about
a camel determining the site of Mohammed's grave. For this legend see
Enrico Cerulli, _Nuove ricerche sul Libro della Scala e la conoscenza
dell'Islam in Occidente, Citta\ del Vaticano: Biblioteca Apostolica
Vaticana, 1972 (= Studi e Testi, 271), pp.250-254 ("La reliquia della
gamba"). It represents one branch of the probably older legend about the
prophet's foot or ancle (_Liber Nicholay_, 12th cent.?, see Cerulli p.251)
and seems to be attested for the first time in one of the vernacular
writings of Pedro Pascual (m. 1300), ed. by P. Armengol Valenzuela, _Obras
de San Pedro Pascual Ma/rtyr_, Roma 1908, vol. IV, p.141, quoted by Cerulli
p.251s. 

A Latin adaption of Pedro Pascual's account can be found in an anonymous
text "qualiter iniquus Mahometus venit et a quibus et quo modo processit",
discovered by Augusto Mancini in a Pisan manuscript (probably from the 15
cent.) and published by him in the Rendiconti della R. Accademia Nazionale
dei Lincei, Classe di scienze morali, storiche e filologiche, serie VIa,
vol. X, Roma 1934, pp.325-349(_Per lo studio della leggenda di Maometto in
Occidente_, cited by Cerulli p.252s.).

In this tradition, the story about the camel was part of the story that
Muhammed was secretly murdered by the relatives of a "pulcerrima hebrea"
(named Carufa in the _Liber Nicholay_) when he visited her at night and
wanted to force her to become his concubine (ed. Mancini, pp.347-349):

	Parentes vero ei statim, ut interfecerunt, ipsa hebrea 
   suggerente, eius sinistrum pedem absciderunt et reliquum 
   cadaver iniquum in cloaca <porcis> proiecerunt. Qui statim 
   ab eis ita commestus est ut nec pillus de eo unquam fuerit 
   inventus. Et hec est causa odii inter Saracenos et Iudeos. 
   Et propter hanc causam abominabitur comedere porcos, quod in 
   principio electos habebant cibos. Quia in tanto Sarracini 
   <male> dicunt eos ut non liceat eis neque aquam bibere nisi 
   maledixerint eos christianos, aut maledicunt donec vivunt. 
   Predicta ergo hebrea pedem nequissimi Mahumet accipiens 
   sale[m] illum et aliis aromatibus condivit, in panno serico
   involutum studiose in sua eum archa locavit. Denique 
   Sarraceni videntes quod eorum rex et propheta plus quam 
   solito redire tardebat, ceperunt inter se querere ubi 
   posset esse et timebant ne forte ei aliquid adversitatis 
   accideret. Cumque inter se plurimum exitarent et quod de eo
   actum esset penitus ignorarent, post expectationem quinque
   mensium habuerunt inter se consilium et ceperunt eum 
   querere in domibus concubinarum suarum. Cumque diu 
   quererent, pervenit ad aures eorum quod istam diligebat 
   suprascriptam hebream. Qui statim armati cum maximo furore
   perrexerunt ad eam et dixerunt ei: nisi statim ostendis 
   dominum et regem et prophetam nostrum, inficiemus te et 
   genus tuum totum. At illa dixit eis: Domini mei, revera 
   sciatis quia me dominus rex dilexit ad me in tali nocte 
   secrete venit ac mecum simul in lecto cubavit. Cumque nos 
   sopori dedissemus, a Deo missi venerunt angeli et eum per 
   brachia accipientes levare ceperunt. Ego autem hoc sciens
   futurum quod a me deberet requiri, eius sinistrum pedem 
   tenui. Angeli vero ad se illum trahebant sursum, et ego 
   similiter deorsum. Et sic per totam noctem pugnantes, 
   circa auroram tandem angeli sua multitudine, quia forciores 
   me erant, corpus acceperunt, pedem maxima vi ex corpore 
   disiunctum mihi derelinquerunt. Quem propter vestrum 
   honorem conditum aromatibus in hoc precioso involvi 
   panno et in meo honorifice reposui scrinio. Et ite: 
   habetis quod vestrum est. Accipite eum et diligenter 
   custodite ac iuxta mandatum domini vestri illum 
   silvestro camelo imponite et <luctum?> reprimite. 
   Quem sequentes in quo loco se camellus proi<e>cerit, 
   ibi sepulcrum ipsius de adamantino lapide facite
   et pedem illuc debito cum honore locate.
	Et sic demum adorantes eum ad loca vestra re[d]dite, 
   et de cetero peregrinatio gentis vestre illuc fiat omni 
   tempore. Quo visa complentes fecerunt omnia que illos 
   iusserat hebrea. Et posito in supradicto monte arduo et 
   influcoso [p.349:] loco, reversi sunt unusquisque ad 
   locum suum. Et sic crescente eorum populo usque in 
   hodiernum diem tenent et venerantur et colunt errorem 
   iniquum.

In Pedro Pascual, the part about the camel reads (Cerulli 1972, p.252):

   ... e sabed que mandamiento avedes del Sen~or que pongades ese pie/ en
   una caxa sobre un gamello sin guiador, e que dexedes yr ese gamello, 
   e vos seguidle yendo en pose/l, e en logar do se echare el dicho
   gamello, alli/ le faredes onrrado sepulchro de piedra adiamante, e
   meted ay el pie/ de vuestro Sen~or e vuestro propheta con la mayor
   onra que pudieredes; e la peregrinacion e la romeria de vuestra
   gente sera/ a ese sepulchro en todo tiempo.

A much later variant -- leaving out the story about the camel finding the
site of the grave, but making the relic to be the ankle of a camel -- has
been found by Cerulli in Antonio de Castillo, _El devoto peregrino_, who
had heard it during his journey to Palestine (1612), and who tells that
Muslims make their pilgrimage to Mekka to see what they believe to be the
relic of "el zancarron de Mahoma" but which, according to Antonio de
Castillo, is nothing but "una pierna de un camello" ("y assi no muestran
sino una pierna de un camello, diziendo que es la de Mahoma, porque dizen
era un hombre muy grande; y por esso muestran esta pierna de camello y de
aqui vino el dezir y llamar el zancarron de Mahoma", quoted by Cerulli p.253).

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