The Four Cerda of the Ollamh Searles O'Dubhain Sun Dec 17 12:19:56 2000 The four feats of an Ollamh that were performed in the last year of training were the feat of Ladchend mic Bairchida and the feat of Chota and the feat of Bicni and the feat of Béci. I'll provide what I've gleaned regarding the references to these feats in my replies to this posted message. I'm thinking that the feat of Bicni has to do with dream interpretations but I'm not sure off the top of my head (it the feat of mac Baircheda, and the feat of Béci are all referenced and described in the Metrical Dindshenchas). Many of the feats seem to have involved skills like using incantation to ease a troubled mind, some form of divination to do with horns and a kind of spontaneous poetical composition associated with the wearing of a robe (guessing on this one). These feats (or cearda) are mentioned in Auraceipt na n-E/ces (The Scolars' Primer)where it describes the curriculum of the schools of the Poets.*p*Perhaps we can discuss what is known about these cerda to better understand how we can perform acts that are similar in today's world?*br* *br*The interpretation of dreams and clairvoyant dreams was one of the four skillful feats of the Ollamh. What other skills and magic did they work? What do we know about their workings? The two references I've seen on the topic are the rhetorics in the traditional writings known as roscanna and the placename stories of the Irish that are called the Metrical Dindshenchas. That is where I will begin my own descriptions and discussion of the Feats of the Ollamh.*p*Searles*p**br*