Celtic Mythology and Religion

WELSH AND GAELIC ELYSIUM. 147 .
of gravitation and visibility, unless they chose.
Their persons were more beautiful and majestic
than those of men
; a " sublimated " humanity
characterised them. They appeared among mortals
—sometimes all of a sudden in the midst of an assembly
;
ate, drank, and acted, like mortals, in every
respect. Sometimes they were seen only by one
person in the company, though heard by all,
as in
the story of Condla Cam, whom the fairy enchanted
and abducted. These are, however, the Pagan
gods as seen in Christian myth. Yet we find the
ghosts of departed heroes appearing in much the
same way as the Side and Tuatha-De-Danann. The
ghost of Caoilte is met with in one or two myths
representing different times—in St. Patrick's time
and King Mongan's time—and on each occasion he
appears in "his habit as he lived," full of life and
colour, not pale and shadowy. Besides, these
ghosts can appear in the day time, as Caoilte used
to do. The great poem of the Tain Bo Chuailgne
had been lost by the 6th century and it could be
recovered only by raising its composer, Fergus
MacRoy, from the dead. And this the Saints of
Erin were able to accomplish. " Fergus himself,"
we are told, " appeared in a beautiful form, adorned
with brown hair, clad in a green cloak, and wearing
a collared gold-ribbed shirt, a gold-hilted sword,
and sandals of bronze." He was evidently a very
substantial apparition ! St Patrick was also able,
though indirectly, to raise the spirit of the great