Polybius, xii. 13. In Darfur a curious power over fire is ascribed to women who have been faithful to their husbands. “It is a belief among the Forians, that if the city takes fire, the only means of arresting the progress of the flames is to bring near them a woman, no longer young, who has never been guilty of intrigue. If she be pure, by merely waving a mantle, she puts a stop to the destruction. Success has sometimes rewarded a virtuous woman” (_Travels of an Arab Merchant_ [Mohammed Ibn-Omar El-Tounsy] _in Soudan_, abridged from the French by Bayle St. John (London, 1854), p. 112). Compare R. W. Felkin, “Notes on the For Tribe of Central Africa,” _Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh_, xiii. (1884-1886) p. 230. Footnote 781: Solinus, xxii. 10. The Celtic Minerva, according to Caesar (_De bello Gallico_, vi. 17), was a goddess of the mechanical arts. Footnote 782: J. Rhys, _Celtic Heathendom_, pp. 73-77; P. W. Joyce, _Social History of Ancient Ireland_, i. 260 _sq._ Footnote 783: Giraldus Cambrensis, _The Topography of Ireland_, chaps. xxxiv.-xxxvi., translated by Thomas Wright; P. W. Joyce, _Social History of Ancient Ireland_, i. 334 _sq._ It is said that in the island of Sena (the modern _Sein_), off the coast of Brittany, there was an oracle of a Gallic deity whose worship was cared for by nine virgin priestesses. They could raise storms by their incantations, and turn themselves into any animals they pleased (_Mela_, iii. 48); but it is not said that they maintained a perpetual holy fire, though Ch. Elton affirms that they did (_Origins of English History_, p. 27). M. Salomon Reinach dismisses these virgins as a fable based on Homer’s description of the isle of Circe (_Odyssey_, x. 135 _sqq._), and he denies that the Gauls employed virgin priestesses. See his article, “Les Vierges de Sena,” _Revue Celtique_, xviii. (1897) pp. 1-8; _id._, _Cultes, mythes, et religions_, i. (Paris, 1905) pp. 195 _sqq._ To me the nuns of St. Brigit seem to be most probably the successors of a Celtic order of Vestals. That there were female Druids is certain, but it does not appear whether they were virgins. See Lampridius, _Alexander Severus_, 60; Vopiscus, _Aurelianus_, 44; _id._, _Numerianus_, 14 _sq._ Footnote 784: Prof. Vl. Titelbach, “Das heilige Feuer bei den Balkanslaven,” _Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie_, xiii. (1900) p. 1. Footnote 785: _Laws of Manu_, iv. 53, translated by G. Bühler (_Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xxv. p. 137). Footnote 786: