_Parallels._--We have already noted the use of wild animals by Irish
saints. Findian yoked stags to draw wood (LL, 2552). Patrick kept a
tame stag (TT, p. 28, cap. lxxxii, etc.). In incident XXXVII, Ciaran
is again served by a stag. Cainnech, like Ciaran, made a book-rest of
the horns of a stag (CS, 383), and books which Colum Cille had lost
were restored to him by a stag (TT, _Quinta Vita_, p. 407). In the
life of Saint Cadoc we read an incident which combines docile stags
drawing timber and a forgotten book untouched by rain (_Cambro-British
Saints_, pp. 38, 329).
For Ciaran's prompt obedience to the summoning sound of the bell,
compare what is told of Cainnech, who happened to be summoned by the
head of the monastic school when he was writing, and left the letter
O, which at the moment he was tracing, unfinished, to obey the call
(VSH, i, 153).
There is a parallel in incident XXXVI for the book unwet by rain.
Books written by Colum Cille could not be injured by water (LL, 956).
It is perhaps hardly necessary to infer with Plummer (VSH, i, p.
cxxxviii) that this was a myth of solar origin.