Sometimes the formation of streams was ascribed to great hail-storms--an evident mythic rendering of the damage done by actual spates, while the Irish myths of "illimitable sea-bursts," of which three particular instances are often mentioned, were doubtless the result of the experience of tidal waves. Although no complete account of the end of all things, like that of the Scandinavian Ragnarok, has survived, scattered hints tell of its former existence. Strabo says that the Druids taught that "fire and water must one day prevail"--an evident belief in some final cataclysm.[785] This is also hinted at in the words of certain Gauls to Alexander, telling him that what they feared most of all was the fall of the heavens upon their heads.[786] In other words, they feared what would be the signal of the end of all things. On Irish ground the words of Conchobar may refer to this. He announced that he would rescue the captives and spoil taken by Medb, unless the heavens fell, and the earth burst open, and the sea engulphed all things.[787] Such a myth mingled with Christian beliefs may underlie the prophecy of Badb after Mag-tured regarding the evils to come and the end of the world, and that of Fercertne in the _Colloquy of the Two Sages_.[788] Both have a curious resemblance to the Sybil's prophecy of doom in the Voluspa. If the gods themselves were involved in such a catastrophe, it would not be surprising, since in some aspects their immortality depended on their eating and drinking immortal food and drink.[789] FOOTNOTES: [766] Avienus, _Ora Maritima_, 644 f. [767] _IT_ i. 25; Gaidoz, _ZCP_ i. 27. [768] _Annales de Bretagne_, x. 414. [769] _IT_ i. 50, cf. 184; _Folk-Lore_, vi. 170. [770] Cæsar, vi. 18. [771] See p. 341, _infra_. [772] Diod. Sic. v. 24; Appian, _Illyrica_, 2. [773] Amm. Marcel, xv. 9. [774] D'Arbois, ii. 262, xii. 220. [775] _Antient Laws of Ireland_, i. 23. In one MS. Adam is said to have been created thus--his body of earth, his blood of the sea, his face of the sun, his breath of the wind, etc. This is also found in a Frisian tale (Vigfusson-Powell, _Corpus Poet. Bor._ i. 479), and both stories present an inversion of well-known myths about the creation of the universe from the members of a giant. [776] Sébillot, i. 213 f., ii. 6, 7, 72, 97, 176, 327-328. Cf. _RC_ xv. 482, xvi. 152. [777] Sébillot, ii. 6. [778] _LL_ 56; Keating, 117, 123. [779] _RC_ xv. 429, xvi. 277. [780] See p. 191, _supra_. [781] Sébillot, ii. 41 f., 391, 397; see p. 372, _infra_. [782] _Triads_ in Loth, ii. 280, 299; Rh[^y]s, _HL_ 583, 663. [783] _RC_ xvi. 50, 146. [784] Apoll. iv. 609 f. [785] Strabo, iv. 4. 4. [786] Arrian, _Anab._ i. 4. 7; Strabo, vii. 3. 8. Cf. Jullian, 85. [787] _LL_ 94; Miss Hull, 205. [788] _RC_ xii. 111, xxvi. 33.