Such is the unvarying style of Adamnan. That he himself credited those versions of stories reported is beyond question. “Our belief in the miracles which we have recorded,” he says, “but which we did not ourselves see, is confirmed beyond doubt by the miracles of which we were eye-witnesses.” Three times in his own experience he saw unfavourable gales changed into propitious breezes. As Book III., dealing with visions and angels, embodies Cummene’s contribution, it is of the highest interest to consider some of its choice memories. “On a certain night,” proceeds chap. ii., “between the conception and birth of the venerable man, an angel of the Lord appeared to his mother in dreams, bringing to her as he stood by her a certain robe of extraordinary beauty, in which the most beautiful colours, as it were, of all the flowers seemed to be portrayed. After a short time he asked it back and took it out of her hands, and having raised it and spread it out he let it fly through the air. But she, being sad at the loss of it, said to that man of venerable aspect, ‘Why dost thou take this lovely cloak away from me so soon?’ He immediately replied, ‘Because this mantle is so exceedingly honourable that thou canst not retain it longer with thee.’ When this was said, the woman saw that the forementioned robe was gradually receding from her in its flight, and that then it expanded until its width exceeded the plains, and in all its measurements was larger than the mountains and forests. Then she heard the following words, ‘Woman, do not grieve for the man to whom thou hast been bound by the marriage bond; thou shalt bring forth a son of so beautiful a character that he shall be reckoned among his own people as one of the prophets of God, and he hath been predestined by God to be the leader of innumerable souls to the heavenly country.’ At these words the woman awoke from her sleep.” A priest, to whose care the sacred youth had been confided, upon returning home from the church after mass found his house illuminated with a bright light, and saw in fact a ball of fire standing over the face of the little boy as he lay asleep. And in after years a higher personage, St. Brendan, reported that he observed a most brilliant pillar wreathed with fiery tresses preceding the same wonderful individual.