The Goddess Dana and the modern cult of St. Brigit--The Tuatha De Danann or _Sidhe_ conquered by the Sons of Mil--But Irish seers still see the _Sidhe_--Old Irish MSS. faithfully represent the Tuatha De Danann--The _Sidhe_ as a spirit race--_Sidhe_ palaces--The 'Taking' of mortals--Hill visions of _Sidhe_ women--_Sidhe_ minstrels and musicians--Social organization and warfare among the _Sidhe_--The _Sidhe_ war-goddesses, the _Badb_--The _Sidhe_ at the Battle of Clontarf, A. D. 1014--Conclusion. The People of the Goddess Dana, or, according to D'Arbois de Jubainville, the People of the god whose mother was called Dana,[220] are the Tuatha De Danann of the ancient mythology of Ireland. The Goddess Dana, called in the genitive Danand, in middle Irish times was named Brigit.[220] And this goddess Brigit of the pagan Celts has been supplanted by the Christian St. Brigit[220]; and, in exactly the same way as the pagan cult once bestowed on the spirits in wells and fountains has been transferred to Christian saints, to whom the wells and fountains have been re-dedicated, so to St. Brigit as a national saint has been transferred the pagan cult rendered to her predecessor. Thus even yet, as in the case of the minor divinities of their sacred fountains, the Irish people through their veneration for the good St. Brigit, render homage to the divine mother of the People who bear her name Dana,--who are the ever-living invisible Fairy-People of modern Ireland. For when the Sons of Mil, the ancestors of the Irish people, came to Ireland they found the Tuatha De Danann in full possession of the country. The Tuatha De Danann then retired before the invaders, without, however, giving up their sacred Island. Assuming invisibility, with the power of at any time reappearing in a human-like form before the children of the Sons of Mil, the People of the Goddess Dana became and are the Fairy-Folk, the _Sidhe_ of Irish mythology and romance.[221] Therefore it is that to-day Ireland contains two races,--a race visible which we call Celts, and a race invisible which we call Fairies. Between these two races there is constant intercourse even now; for Irish seers say that they can behold the majestic, beautiful _Sidhe_, and according to them the _Sidhe_ are a race quite distinct from our own, just as living and possibly more powerful. These _Sidhe_ (who are the 'gentry' of the Ben Bulbin country and have kindred elsewhere in Ireland, Scotland, and probably in most other countries as well, such as the invisible races of the Yosemite Valley) have been described more or less accurately by our peasant seer-witnesses from County Sligo and from North and East Ireland. But there are other and probably more reliable seers in Ireland, men of greater education and greater psychical experience, who know and describe the _Sidhe_ races as they really are, and who even sketch their likenesses. And to such seer Celts as these,