] In other tales women perform all such magical
actions as are elsewhere ascribed to Druids.[1094] And after the Druids
had passed away precisely similar actions--power over the weather, the
use of incantations and amulets, shape-shifting and invisibility,
etc.--were, and still are in remote Celtic regions, ascribed to witches.
Much of the Druidic art, however, was also supposed to be possessed by
saints and clerics, both in the past and in recent times. But women
remained as magicians when the Druids had disappeared, partly because of
female conservatism, partly because, even in pagan times, they had
worked more or less secretly. At last the Church proscribed them and
persecuted them.

Each clan, tribe, or kingdom had its Druids, who, in time of war,
assisted their hosts by magic art. This is reflected back upon the
groups of the mythological cycle, each of which has its Druids who play
no small part in the battles fought. Though Pliny recognises the
priestly functions of the Druids, he associates them largely with magic,
and applies the name _magus_ to them.[1095] In Irish ecclesiastical
literature, _drui_ is used as the translation of _magus_, e.g. in the
case of the Egyptian magicians, while _magi_ is used in Latin lives of
saints as the equivalent of the vernacular _druides_.[1096] In the sagas
and in popular tales _Druidecht_, "Druidism," stands for "magic," and
_slat an draoichta_, "rod of Druidism," is a magic wand.[1097] The
Tuatha De Danann were said to have learned "Druidism" from the four
great master Druids of the region whence they had come to Ireland, and
even now, in popular tales, they are often called "Druids" or "Danann
Druids."[1098] Thus in Ireland at least there is clear evidence of the
great magical power claimed by Druids.

That power was exercised to a great extent over the elements, some of
which Druids claimed to have created. Thus the Druid Cathbad covered the
plain over which Deirdre was escaping with "a great-waved sea."[1099]
Druids also produced blinding snow-storms, or changed day into
night--feats ascribed to them even in the Lives of Saints.[1100] Or they
discharge "shower-clouds of fire" on the opposing hosts, as in the case
of the Druid Mag Ruith, who made a magic fire, and flying upwards
towards it, turned it upon the enemy, whose Druid in vain tried to
divert it.[1101] When the Druids of Cormac dried up all the waters in
the land, another Druid shot an arrow, and where it fell the