boasted of being able to throw mountains on the enemy, and frequently Druids made trees or stones appear as armed men, dismaying the opposing host in this way.  They could also fill the air with the clash of battle, or with the dread cries of eldritch things.[1103] Similar powers are ascribed to other persons.  The daughters of Calatin raised themselves aloft on an enchanted wind, and discovered Cuchulainn when he was hidden away by Cathbad.  Later they produced a magic mist to discomfit the hero.[1104] Such mists occur frequently in the sagas, and in one of them the Tuatha De Danann arrived in Ireland.  The priestesses of Sena could rouse sea and wind by their enchantments, and, later, Celtic witches have claimed the same power.

In folk-survivals the practice of rain-making is connected with sacred springs, and even now in rural France processions to shrines, usually connected with a holy well, are common in time of drought.  Thus people and priest go to the fountain of Baranton in procession, singing hymns, and there pray for rain.  The priest then dips his foot in the water, or throws some of it on the rocks.[1105] In other cases the image of a saint is carried to a well and asperged, as divine images formerly were, or the waters are beaten or thrown into the air.[1106] Another custom was that a virgin should clean out a sacred well, and formerly she had to be nude.[1107] Nudity also forms part of an old ritual used in Gaul.  In time of drought the girls of the village followed the youngest virgin in a state of nudity to seek the herb belinuntia.  This she uprooted, and was then led to a river and there asperged by the others.  In this case the asperging imitated the falling rain, and was meant to produce it automatically.  While some of these rites suggest the use of magic by the folk themselves, in others the presence of the Christian priest points to the fact that, formerly, a Druid was necessary as the rain producer.  In some cases the priest has inherited through long ages the rain-making or tempest-quelling powers of the pagan priesthood, and is often besought to exercise them.[1108]

Causing invisibility by means of a spell called feth fiada, which made a person unseen or hid him in a magic mist, was also used by the Druids as well as by Christian saints.  S. Patrick’s hymn, called Faed Fiada, was sung by him when his enemies lay in wait, and caused a glamour in them.  The incantation itself, fith-fath, is still remembered in Highland glens.[1109] In the case of S. Patrick he and his followers appeared as deer, and this power of shape-shifting was wielded both by Druids and women.  The Druid Fer Fidail carried off a maiden by taking the form of a woman, and another Druid deceived Cuchulainn by taking the form of the fair Niamh.[1110] Other Druids are said to have been able to take any shape that pleased them.[1111] These powers were reflected back upon the gods and mythical personages like Taliesin or Amairgen, who appear in