As a proof of the magnetic, lucid vision obtained by the great ollamhs
of poetry, it is recorded of the blind poet, Louad Dall, that his
attendants having brought him the skull of an animal found upon the
strand, they asked him to declare its history. And thereupon placing
the end of his wand upon the skull, he beheld with the inner vision,
and said—
“The tempestuous waters have destroyed Breccan, and this is the skull
of his lapdog; and but little of greatness now remains, for Breccan and
his people have perished in the waves.”
And this was “divination by the staff”—a power possessed only by the
chief poets, and by none else.