Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions

1 lo Old h'ish Relio-uions.
Once on their adventures, Brian changed them with his
wand into three hawks, that they might seize the apples
;
but the King's daughters, by magic, changed themselves
into griffins, and chased them away, though the Druid, by
superior power, then turned them into harmless swans. One
son gained the pig's skin as a reward for reciting a poem.
A search for the Island of Fianchaire beneath the sea was
a difficulty. But we are told, " Brian put on his waterdress."
Securing a head-dress of glass, he plunged into
the water. He was a fortnight walking in the salt sea
seeking for the land.
Lugh came in contact with a fairy cavalcade, from the
Land of Proviisc. His adventure with Cian illustrated
ideas of transformation.
Cian, when pursued, " saw a great
herd of swine near him, and he struck himself with a
Druidical wand into the shape of one of the swine." Lugh
was puzzled to know which was the Druidical pig. But
striking his two brothers with a wand, he turned them into
two slender, fleet hounds, that " gave tongue ravenously "
upon the trail of the Druidical pig, into which a spear was
thrust. The pig cried out that he was Cian, and wanted to
return to his human shape, but the brothers completed their
deed of blood.
Not only the pig, but brown bulls and red cows figure
in stories of Irish magic. We read of straw thrown into
a man's face, with the utterance of a charm, and the poor
fellow suddenly going mad. Prince Comgan was struck
with a wand, and boils and ulcers came over him, until he
gradually sunk into a state of idiocy. A blind Druid
carried about him the secret of power in a straw placed
in his shoe, which another sharp fellow managed to
steal.
Illumination, by the palms of the hands on the cheek of
one thrown into a magical sleep, was another mode of