Celtic Mythology and Religion

38 CELTIC MYTHOLOGY AND RELIGION.
and springs and grassy meadows coming up to the
council of the Olympian gods, or the dryads growing
with the leafy pines and oaks, and uttering screams
of pain when the woodman's axe strikes the trunk."
These nature spirits play a most important part
in folk-lore, appearing in the tales of the river demon,
the water kelpie, who drowns his victim in the whirlpool
; and in the giants, trolls, and dwarfs, who
represent mountain and earth spirits ;
the healing
waters of sacred wells have only adopted saints'
names in place of the old pagan deities ; while the
little elves and fairies of the woods are but dim
recollections of the old forest spirits.
Of magic, a word or two may be said.
It must be
remembered that the gods could change their shape
at pleasure ; their normal shape among Aryan
nations was the human, but they could assume the
shape of particular men or beasts, or even of inanimate
objects, for Jupiter came into Danae's
prison in a shower of gold.
Perseus' magical hat of
darkness and shoes of swiftness belong to the same
cloud-changing character.
Spells and enchantments
form an important feature of magical powers, and
have their origin in spirit-explanations of the
numbing power of frost, the relaxing power of heat,
the power of drugs, as of the Indian Soma, and doubtless
in the magnetic influence exerted by some men
and animals, notably the serpent.
And if we descend
still lower, we find magic as a rule depend on a false
use of analogies.
The Zulu who has to buy cattle