304 Another View of Levitation. [July, 
of the ford, and alighted at the boss of Ferdiaidh’s shield, 
—upon which Ferdiaidh gave the shield a blow of his left 
elbow, and cast Cuchallain off from him, as if he were a 
bird, back to the brink of the ford. Cuchallain again sprang 
from the brink of the ford, and alighted on Ferdiaidh’s 
shield, for the purpose of striking him on the head.” These 
are stages of the flying, and they can readily be traced 
through many degrees; and of course we can readily believe 
that the origin exists in the intensity of wishing in the 
human soul, by which the slow progress of human beings 
moving by machinery of flesh and bones envies the addi- 
tional apparatus of the fowls, and finishes—if it does finish 
—by balloons. The feeling has its true expression, like 
many other of our greatest truths, in the words of the 
Psalmist :—‘‘ Oh that I had the wings of a dove, that I 
might flee away and be at rest.” 
If the following rather shocks Spiritualists, and sends 
them to re-consider their facts, it will do no harm, and it 
will give to those who have not seen any of the wonders of 
old Irish literature a curious taste, and may add a few 
readers of its remarkable writings to the small number 
among us :—In the ‘‘ Battle of Magh Rath,” on Moira, we 
have an account of the madness of Suibhne, or Sweeny. 
Taking O’Donovan’s translation, as published by the Irish 
Archeological Society, we find, at p. 231,—‘‘ With respect 
to Sweeny, the son of Colman Cuar, the son of Cobhthach, 
king of Dal Araidhe, we shall treat of him for another while. 
Fits of giddiness came over him at the sight of the horrors, 
grimness, and rapidity of the Gaels; at the looks, brilliancy, 
and irksomeness of the foreigners ; at the rebounding furious 
shouts and bellowings of the various embattled tribes on 
both sides, rushing against and coming into collision with 
one another. Huge flickering, horrible, aérial phantoms 
rose up, so that they were in cursed commingled crowds 
tormenting him; and in dense, rustling, clamorous, left- 
turning hordes, without ceasing; and in dismal, aérial, 
storm-shrieking, hovering, fiend-like hosts, constantly in 
motion, shrieking and howling as they hovered about them 
(i.e., about both armies) in every direction, to cow and dis- 
may soft youths, but to invigorate and mightily rouse cham- 
pions and warriors, so that—from the uproar of the battle 
—the frantic pranks of the demons, and the clashing of 
arms, the sound of the heavy blows reverberating on the 
points of heroic spears and keen edges of swords, and the 
warlike borders of broad shields, the noble hero Suibhne 
(Sweeny) was filled and intoxicated with tremor, panic, 
