clear distinction between the god-race and our own:--In _The Colloquy with the Ancients_, as St. Patrick and Caeilte are talking with one another, 'a lone woman robed in mantle of green, a smock of soft silk being next her skin, and on her forehead a glittering plate of yellow gold,' came to them; and when Patrick asked from whence she came, she replied: 'Out of _uaimh Chruachna_, or "the cave of Cruachan".' Caeilte then asked: 'Woman, my soul, who art thou?' 'I am _Scothniamh_ or "Flower-lustre", daughter of the Daghda's son Bodhb derg.' Caeilte proceeded: 'And what started thee hither?' 'To require of thee my marriage-gift, because once upon a time thou promisedst me such.' And as they parleyed Patrick broke in with: 'It is a wonder to us how we see you two: the girl young and invested with all comeliness; but thou Caeilte, a withered ancient, bent in the back and dingily grown grey.' 'Which is no wonder at all,' said Caeilte, 'for no people of one generation or of one time are we: _she is of the Tuatha Dé Danann, who are unfading and whose duration is perennial; I am of the sons of Milesius, that are perishable and fade away_.' The exact distinction is between Caeilte, a withered old ancient--in most ways to be regarded as a ghost called up that Patrick may question him about the past history of Ireland--and a fairy-woman who is one of the _Sidhe_ or Tuatha De Danann.[227] In two of the more ancient Irish texts, the _Echtra Nerai_[228] or 'Expedition of Nera', a preliminary tale in the introduction to the _Táin bó Cuailnge_ or 'Theft of the Cattle of Cuailnge'; and a passage from the _Togail Bruidne dâ Derga_, or 'Destruction of Da Derga's Hostel',[229] there seems no reasonable doubt whatever about the Tuatha De Danann or _Sidhe_ being a race like what we call spirits. The first text describes how Ailill and Medb in their palace of Cruachan celebrated the feast of _Samain_ (November Eve, a feast of the dead even in pre-Christian times). Two culprits had been executed on the day before, and their bodies, according to the ancient Irish custom, were left hanging from a tree until the night of _Samain_ should have passed; for on that night it was dangerous to touch the bodies of the dead while demons and the people of the _Sidhe_ were at large throughout all Ireland, and mortals found near dead bodies at such a time were in great danger of being _taken_ by these spirit hosts of the Tuatha De Danann. And so on this very night, when thick darkness had settled down, Ailill desired to test the courage of his warriors, and offered his own gold-hilted sword to any young man who would go out and tie a coil of twisted twigs around the leg of one of the bodies suspended from the tree. After many had made the attempt and failed, because unable to brave the legions of demons and fairies, Nera alone succeeded; but his success cost him dear, for he finally fell under the power both of the