mily![19]

XXXI. HOW CIARAN FLOATED A FIREBRAND ON THE LAKE (LB)

_The Harbour of the Island._--It must be remembered, in reading this
and other island stories, that as a rule "the harbour of the island"
is not, as might be expected, the landing-stage on the island itself,
but the port on the mainland from which ships depart to visit the
island. Thus Portraine, a place on the coast north of Dublin, is
properly _Port Rachrann_, the Port of Rachra--the port from which
voyagers sailed to Rachra, the island now called by its Norse name
Lambay.

_Parallels._--I have not found an exact parallel, but the story
belongs to the same family as that related of Coemgen, who kindled a
fire with the drops of water that fell from his fingers after washing
his hands (CS, 839).

XXXII. CIARAN IN ARAN (LA, LB, VG)

_The Aran Islands._--The marvellous isles of Aran, still a museum of
all periods of ancient Irish history, with their immense prehistoric
forts and their strange little oratories, were from an early date
chosen as the site of Christian communities. Enda ruled over a
community at the southern end of the Great Island; the church still
survives, in ruin, and bears his name. Ciaran must have remained long
enough in Aran to make a permanent impression there, for one of the
ancient churches--much later than his time, however--is dedicated
under his invocation. The reference to saints "known to God only"
reminds us of the dedications to saints "whose names the Lord knows"
in Greek on the font of the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem, and
in Armenian on a mosaic pavement at Jerusalem.

_Prophecy by Vision._--This is not an infrequent incident in the
saints' Lives. It often appears at the beginning of a Life, the
saint's mother having a dream interpreted by some one, whom she
consults, as indicative of the future greatness and holiness of her
unborn son. I have not hit upon another case in these documents of the
same dream appearing to two persons at once.

Ciaran's visit to Enda is described at length in the _Vita Endei_
(VSH, ii, 71-2). We are there told that he was seven years in Aran,
serving faithfully in the monastic threshing-barn, so that in the
chaff-heaps it would have been impossible to discover a single grain;
and that the walls of his threshing-barn were still standing in Aran
when the hagiographer wrote. He then saw the vision of the tree,
which, however, we are not told was seen by Enda also. Enda
interpre