, and the date at which S. Columba's
education should begin, was similarly discovered.[864]

The _Imbas Forosnai_, "illumination between the hands," was used by the
_File_ to discover hidden things. He chewed a piece of raw flesh and
placed it as an offering to the images of the gods whom he desired to
help him. If enlightenment did not come by the next day, he pronounced
incantations on his palms, which he then placed on his cheeks before
falling asleep. The revelation followed in a dream, or sometimes after
awaking.[865] Perhaps the animal whose flesh was eaten was a sacred one.
Another method was that of the _Teinm Laegha_. The _File_ made a verse
and repeated it over some person or thing regarding which he sought
information, or he placed his staff on the person's body and so obtained
what he sought. The rite was also preceded by sacrifice; hence S.
Patrick prohibited both it and the _Imbas Forosnai_.[866] Another
incantation, the _Cetnad_, was sung through the fist to discover the
track of stolen cattle or of the thief. If this did not bring
enlightenment, the _File_ went to sleep and obtained the knowledge
through a dream.[867] Another _Cetnad_ for obtaining information
regarding length of life was addressed to the seven daughters of the
sea. Perhaps the incantation was repeated mechanically until the seer
fell into a kind of trance. Divination by dreams was also used by the
continental Celts.[868]

Other methods resemble "trance-utterance." "A great obnubilation was
conjured up for the bard so that he slept a heavy sleep, and things
magic-begotten were shewn to him to enunciate," apparently in his sleep.
This was called "illumination by rhymes," and a similar method was used
in Wales. When consulted, the seer roared violently until he was beside
himself, and out of his ravings the desired information was gathered.
When aroused from this ecstatic condition, he had no remembrance of what
he had uttered. Giraldus reports this, and thinks, with the modern
spiritualist, that the utterance was caused by spirits.[869] The
resemblance to modern trance-utterance and to similar methods used by
savages is remarkable, and psychological science sees in it the
promptings of the subliminal self in sleep.

The _taghairm_ of the Highlanders was a survival from pagan times. The
seer was usually bound in a cow's hide--the animal, it may be
conjectured, having been sacrificed in earlier times. He was left in a
desolate place, and