sacred fish of a district
invaded by them, just as Egyptians of one nome insulted those of another
by killing their sacred animals.[619] In old Irish beliefs the salmon
was the fish of knowledge. Thus whoever ate the salmon of Connla's well
was dowered with the wisdom which had come to them through eating nuts
from the hazels of knowledge around the well. In this case the sacred
fish was eaten, but probably by certain persons only--those who had the
right to do so. Sinend, who went to seek inspiration from the well,
probably by eating one of its salmon, was overwhelmed by its waters. The
legend of the salmon is perhaps based on old ritual practices of the
occasional eating of a divine animal. In other cases, legends of a
miraculous supply of fish from sacred wells are perhaps later Christian
traditions of former pagan beliefs or customs concerning magical methods
of increasing a sacred or totem animal species, like those used in
Central Australia and New Guinea.[620] The frog is sometimes the sacred
animal, and this recalls the _Maerchen_ of the Frog Bridegroom living in
a well, who insisted on marrying the girl who drew its waters. Though
this tale is not peculiar to the Celts, it is not improbable that the
divine animal guardian of a well may have become the hero of a
folk-tale, especially as such wells were sometimes tabu to women.[621] A
fly was the guardian spirit of S. Michael's well in Banffshire. Auguries
regarding health were drawn from its movements, and it was believed that
the fly, when it grew old, transmigrated into another.[622]

Such beliefs were not peculiarly Celtic. They are found in all European
folk-lore, and they are still alive among savages--the animal being
itself divine or the personification of a divinity. A huge sacred eel
was worshipped by the Fijians; in North America and elsewhere there were
serpent guardians of the waters; and the Semites worshipped the fish of
sacred wells as incarnations or symbols of a god.

Later Celtic folk-belief associated monstrous and malevolent beings with
rivers and lakes. These may be the older divinities to whom a demoniac
form has been given, but even in pagan times such monstrous beings may
have been believed in, or they may be survivals of the more primitive
monstrous guardians of the waters. The last were dragons or serpents,
conventional forms of the reptiles which once dwelt in watery places,
attacking all who came near. This old idea certainly survived