dren. Heroes enticed away to Elysium enjoyed the
love of its goddesses--Cuchulainn that of Fand; Connla, Bran, and Oisin
that of unnamed divinities. So, too, the goddess Morrigan offered
herself to Cuchulainn. The Christian Celts of the fifth century retained
this belief, though in a somewhat altered form. S. Augustine and others
describe the shaggy demons called _dusii_ by the Gauls, who sought the
couches of women in order to gratify their desires.[1212] The _dusii_
are akin to the _incubi_ and _fauni_, and do not appear to represent the
higher gods reduced to the form of demons by Christianity, but rather a
species of lesser divinities, once the object of popular devotion.

These beliefs are also connected with the Celtic notions of
transformation and transmigration--the one signifying the assuming of
another shape for a time, the other the passing over of the soul or the
personality into another body, perhaps one actually existing, but more
usually by actual rebirth. As has been seen, this power of
transformation was claimed by the Druids and by other persons, or
attributed to them, and they were not likely to minimise their powers,
and would probably boast of them on all occasions. Such boasts are put
into the mouths of the Irish Amairgen and the Welsh Taliesin. As the
Milesians were approaching Ireland, Amairgen sang verses which were
perhaps part of a ritual chant:

"I am the wind which blows over the sea,
I am the wave of the ocean,
I am the bull of seven battles,
I am the eagle on the rock...
I am a boar for courage,
I am a salmon in the water, etc."[1213]

Professor Rh[^y]s points out that some of these verses need not mean
actual transformation, but mere likeness, through "a primitive formation
of predicate without the aid of a particle corresponding to such a word
as 'like.'"[1214] Enough, however, remains to show the claim of the
magician. Taliesin, in many poems, makes similar claims, and says, "I
have been in a multitude of shapes before I assumed a consistent
form"--that of a sword, a tear, a star, an eagle, etc. Then he was
created, without father or mother.[1215] Similar pretensions are common
to the medicine-man everywhere. But from another point of view they may
be mere poetic extravagances such as are common in Celtic poetry.[1216]
Thus Cuchulainn says: "I was a hound strong for combat ... their little
champion ... the casket of every secret for the maidens," or, in another
pla