Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions

Druidical Magic.
6i
watch ;
and, as soon as they resumed their human appearance,
he set upon them and killed both.
The Book of Lcinster records several cases of Druids
taking opposite sides in battle. It was Greek meeting
Greek. The northern Druids plagued the southern men
by drying up the wells ; but Mog Ruth, of the South,
drove a silver tube into the ground, and a spring burst
forth. Ciothrue made a fire, and said a charm with his
mountain-ash stick, when a black cloud sent down a shower
of blood. Nothing daunted, the other Druid, Mog Ruth,
transformed three noisy northern Druids into stones.
Spiritualism, as appears by the Banquet of Dun na n-Gecih,
was used thus :— " This is the way it is to be done. The
poet chews a piece of the flesh of a red pig, or of a dog or
cat, and brings it afterwards on a flag behind the door, and
chants an incantation upon it, and offers it to idol gods
;
and his idol gods are brought to him, but he finds them
not on the morrow. And he pronounces incantations on
his two palms ; and his idol gods are also brought to him,
in order that his sleep may not be interrupted. And he
lays his two palms on his two cheeks, and thus falls asleep.
And he is watched in order that no one may disturb or
interrupt him, until everything about which he is
engaged
is revealed to him, which may be a minute, or two, or three,
or as long as the ceremony requires—one palm o\'cr the
other across his cheeks."
The author of The Golden Bough, J. G. P^'razcr, judiciously
reminds us that "the superstitious beliefs and
practices, which have been handed down b\' word of
mouth, are generally of a far more archaic t\-pc than the
religions depicted in the most ancient literature of the
Aryan race." A careful reading of the chapter on the
"Superstitions of the Irish" would be convincing on tliat
.point.