In the Rennes _Dinnshenchas_ there is a tale about a war among the 'men of the Elfmounds' over 'two lovable maidens who dwelt in the elfmound', and when they delivered the battle 'they all shaped themselves into the shapes of deer'.[252] Midir's sons under Donn mac Midir, in rebellion against the Daghda's son Bodh Derg, fled away to an obscure _sídh_, where in yearly battle they met the hosts of the other Tuatha De Danann under Bodh Derg; and it was into this _sídh_ or fairy palace on the very eve before the annual contest that Finn and his six companions were enticed by the fairy woman in the form of a fawn, to secure their aid.[253] And in another tale, Laeghaire, son of the king of Connaught, with fifty warriors, plunged into a lake to the fairy world beneath it, in order to assist the fairy man, who came thence to them, to recover his wife stolen by a rival.[253] THE _SIDHE_ AS WAR-GODDESSES OR THE _BADB_ It is in the form of birds that certain of the Tuatha De Danann appear as war-goddesses and directors of battle,[254]--and we learn from one of our witnesses (p. 46) that the 'gentry' or modern _Sidhe_-folk take sides even now in a great war, like that between Japan and Russia. It is in their relation to the hero Cuchulainn that one can best study the People of the Goddess Dana in their rôle as controllers of human war. In the greatest of the Irish epics, the _Taín Bó Cuailnge_, where Cuchulainn is under their influence, these war-goddesses are called _Badb_[255] (or _Bodb_) which here seems to be a collective term for _Neman_, _Macha_, and _Morrigu_ (or _Morrigan_)[256]--each of whom exercises a particular supernatural power. _Neman_ appears as the confounder of armies, so that friendly bands, bereft of their senses by her, slaughter one another; _Macha_ is a fury that riots and revels among the slain; while _Morrigu_, the greatest of the three, by her presence infuses superhuman valour into Cuchulainn, nerves him for the cast, and guides the course of his unerring spear. And the Tuatha De Danann in infusing this valour into the great hero show themselves--as we already know them to be on _Samain_ Eve--the rulers of all sorts of demons of the air and awful spirits:--In the _Book of Leinster_ (fol. 57, B 2) it is recorded that 'the satyrs, and sprites, and maniacs of the valleys, and demons of the air, shouted about him, for the Tuatha De Danann were wont to impart their valour to him, in order that he might be more feared, more dreaded, more terrible, in every battle and battle-field, in every combat and conflict, into which he went.'