Liadaine (his mother) was asleep On her bed. When she turned her face to heaven A star fell into her mouth. Thence was born the marvellous child Ciaran of Saigir who is proclaimed to thee.
[196] There is evidence in the Gaelic manuscripts that time was measured by the apparent movements of the stars. Cuchullin, while sitting at a feast, says to his charioteer: "Laeg, my friend, go out, observe the stars of the air, and ascertain when midnight comes".
In the north and north-west Highlands the aurora borealis is called _Na Fir Chlis_ ("the nimble men") and "the merry dancers". They are regarded as fairies (supernatural beings) like the sea "fairies" _Na Fir Ghorm_ ("blue men"), who were probably sea gods.
The religious beliefs of the Romans were on no higher a level than those of the ancient Britons and Gaels.
The evidence dealt with in the foregoing chapters throws considerable light on the history of early man in Britain. We really know more about pre-Roman times than about that obscure period of Anglo-Saxon invasion and settlement which followed on the withdrawal of the Roman army of occupation, yet historians, as a rule, regard it as "pre-historic" and outside their sphere of interest. As there are no inscriptions and no documents to render articulate the archæological Ages of Stone and Bronze, they find it impossible to draw any definite conclusions.
It can be urged, however, in criticism of this attitude, that the relics of the so-called "pre-historic age" may be found to be even more reliable than some contemporary documents of the "historic" period. Not a few of these are obviously biassed and prejudiced, while some are so vague and fragmentary that the conclusions drawn from them cannot be otherwise than hypothetical in character. A plainer, clearer, and more reliable story is revealed by the bones and the artifacts and the surviving relics of the intellectual life of our remote ancestors than by the writings of some early chroniclers and some early historians. It is possible, for instance, in consequence of the scanty evidence available, to hold widely diverging views regarding the Anglo-Saxon and Celtic problems. Pro-Teutonic and pro-Celtic protagonists involve us invariably in bitter controversy. That contemporary documentary evidence, even when somewhat voluminous, may fail to yield a clear record of facts is evident from the literature that deals, for instance, with the part played by Mary Queen of Scots in the Darnley conspiracy and in the events that led to her execution.