_III. The Nature of the Stars_


The stars now differ in their nature from one another. As to the ten
stars of Gaburn, trembling takes hold of them, and fiery manes are
put over their faces, to foretell a plague or a death of the people.
Other stars there are that bring great heat or great cold or great
mists upon the earth, others there are that run to encourage the dragons
that blow lightnings on the world; others of them run to the end of
fifty years and then ask their time for sleeping. To the end of seven
years they sleep till they awake at the shout of the blessed angels,
and the voices of the dragons of the valley. Other runs through the
six days and the six nights till the coming of the Sunday; at its beginning
they begin their many kinds of music, and they fall asleep again till
the coming again from heaven of God's Sunday, and with that they follow
the same round.




_The Call to Bran_


One time Bran, son of Febal, was out by himself near his dun, and he
heard music behind him. And it kept always after him, and at last he
fell asleep with the sweetness of the sound. And when he awoke from
his sleep he saw beside him a branch of silver, and it having white
blossoms, and the whiteness of the silver was the same as the whiteness
of the blossoms. And he brought the branch in his hand into the royal