Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/278

 270 DRUIDS some writers Brittany was their cradle ; but the Welsh traditions relate that they entered Gaul from the remote east at the same time with that branch of the Celtic race which is denom- inated the Kymric or Cymraeg. At least it is evident that they did not prevail among the Belgic branches of the people of Gaul at the north, nor yet among the Aquitanian or Basque branches at the south. Their capital in Gaul was in the territory of a tribe called the Car- nutes, corresponding nearly to the province of Orleanais. Julius Caesar is the ancient writer who has given the clearest account of the druids, and Godfrey Higgins, in his "Celtic Druids," the modern who has most elaborately investigated their faith ; but the Welsh triads are regarded by many as the most authentic sources of information in regard to them. Their characteristics, in the view of Mr. Hig- gins, consisted in the adoration of one Supreme Being, in the belief of the immortality of the soul and a future state of rewards and punish- ments, taking the form of a species of metem- psychosis, in the use of circular temples open at the top, in the worship of fire as the em- blem of the sun, in the celebration of the great Tauric festival (when the sun entered Taurus), and in the knowledge of an alphabet of 17 letters, though their instructions were always oral. If they acknowledged but one supreme God, they admitted other inferior deities, such as Hesus, Tarann, Belen, &c., to whom they paid a qualified worship. In their sacrifices to these the bodies of human victims often smoked on the same altars with the car- casses of beasts. Their objects were apparently moral, for they professed " to reform morals, to secure peace, and to encourage goodness;" yet with these high aims they connected pernicious superstitions and pretences to a magical knowl- edge. They assumed, says Casar, to discourse of the hidden nature of things, of the extent of the universe and of the earth, of the forms and movements of the stars, and of the power and rule of the gods. On all these subjects their instructions were conveyed orally, and by means of verses, which required a novi- tiate of 20 years before they could be well com- mitted to memory. The triads of the Welsh bards are supposed to be specimens of this species of verse. They undoubtedly possessed some knowledge of the movements of the heavenly bodies, beyond what simply pertained to the regulation of their religious festivals, in- asmuch as they composed the year by luna- tions, which supposes an acquaintance also with the solar year. Various relics found in Ireland among the druidical remains, thought to be astronomical instruments designed to show the phases of the moon, are described by Sir William Betham in the " Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy." At the same time not a little of astrology, divination, and magic was mixed up with their purer science. In their doctrine of medicine particularly there was far more of superstition than of knowl- edge. To a great many plants they attribu- ted a mystic sacred character; and most of all to the mistletoe, which they esteemed an antidote to all poisons and a cure for all dis- eases. It was gathered at certain seasons, with the most formal and pompous ceremo- nies. As soon as it was discovered, twining the no less sacred oak, the druids collected in crowds about the tree, a banquet and a sacrifice were prepared, a priest in white vestments cut the twig with a golden sickle, two other white- robed priests caught it in a white cloak, two milk-white heifers were instantly offered up, and the rest of the day was spent in rejoicing. Under similar mystic faith they plucked the samolus, or marshwort, with the left hand, fasting, and without looking at it; and the helago, or hedge hyssop, after ablutions, or offerings of bread and wine, barefooted, and without a knife. The vervain likewise de- manded distinct ceremonials. All these plants were regarded as powerful prophylactics and remedies, not only in respect to physical dis- eases, but to the dark workings of evil. They were carried about as charms, as well as amber beads, which the druids manufactured for war- riors in battle, and which are still found in their tombs. A more potent talisman was the ser- pent's egg, which, according to Pliny, oozed out of the mouths of serpents when knotted together, and which they supported in the air by their hissings. That was the moment to seize it ; and he who attempted to do so must suddenly dart from his hiding place, catch it in a napkin, and mounting a horse gallop off at full speed, to escape the pursuing serpents, until he had put a river between him and them. Among the druids, as among the Ro- mans, auguries of the future were made from the flight of birds, and from an inspection of the entrails of sacrificed animals. Their pro- founder ceremonies, performed in the depths of the oak forests or of secluded caves, are known to us only through the vaguest tradi- tions, and in the stupendous but dilapidated stone monuments which strew the surface of France and Britain. The druids were organ- ized into a regular hierarchy, consisting of a triad, like almost everything else among them, viz. : the bards, the vates or prophets, and the priests proper. The bards were poets not only of a religious but of a martial and satirical class. (See BARD.) The vates were the di- viners or revealers of the future, who were charged with the conduct of sacrifices and other external ceremonies, and who, mingling in almost every event and relation of common life, stood as mediators or interpreters between the people and the more mysterious hiero- phants. These were the druids proper, or the priests, who dwelt in the depths of the oak forests, preserving the mystic doctrines of the faith, and consulting more directly the secret will of the divinity. They were the teachers of the youth, who resorted to them in great numbers ; and they also exercised the judicial