118 C E A N I A BRITANNICA. [CHAP. V.
III!
was especially selected for tlie sacred groves; the Druids in aU their rites using the foliage of this
tree, from wliich they derived their name *. They probably decked the victims with it, and, as
shown on the sculptured stone of Autun, wore garlands of its leaves, just as the Persian Magi
did of myrtle at their sacrifices t- Everything growing on the oak was held sacred, but
especially the Mistletoe, which under the name of all-heal J, was emphatically the sacred
plant of the Druids, by whom it was regarded both as a potent remedy, and, from its perpetual
verdure, a symbol of immortality §. In Pliny's account of the rites with which it was gathered,
seems preserved the description of a great festival at the winter solstice. A sacrifice and banquet
were celebrated under the Oak on which the plant was found. The Druids clad in white
ascended the tree and cut with a sickle of glittering bronze |1, the mistletoe, wliich was received
on a white sagutn. Two white buUs, with horns never before bound, were then sacrificed, and
the blessing of the divinity on his gift invoked with prayers.
The festivals, as here impUed, were often held in woods or remote places, but generally in
or near the groves and other spots, especially consecrated to religion. On these occasions, not
only were sacred rites performed, but councils of war were held and political questions discussed,
by the assembled chiefs, priests, and people T". Por a shelter during the feasts which succeeded,
tents or booths seem to have been erected **. In Britain, and doubtless Gaiil, the beginning and
end of summer had each its festival, when fires were lighted on the hill tops in honour of the
solar god. The former, the Irish Bealteine (BeUn's fire), stm gives its name to the 1st of May.
The latter, Smihum, the 1st of November, corresponds with the feast of AUhallows. On
these days, as well as at the summer solstice, St. John's Day, fires are lighted in Ireland, the
Highlands and Cornwall, and firebrands or torches carried, with ceremonies in which pagan
rites and the memory of human sacrifices may be traced t t . At the autunmal festival, the pagan
Irish extinguished the fires on every hearth and only rekindled them from the sacred fire then
lighted by the Druids tt- By l^s disregard of this, on the occasion of a festival at Tara,
St. Patrick was in great danger from the anger of Laeghaire, A.D. 433. The notion of a
purifying power attached to these fii-es, which the Irish danced round, or passed between with
theu- children and cattle §§. Similar to these were the fires lighted on Soracte in Italy, through
thered by moonlight with a brazen sickle (J3n.lib.iv. T.5!5);
on which one of the commentators observes,—" quia nefas id
ferreis facete." See also Ovid (Met. lib. vii. v. 227) for the
" falx ahena" of Medea. Both here follow Sophocles.
* Pliny (lib. xvi, § S.')) derives the word Druid from the
Greek Spv¡, but it is more naturally traced to the Celtic derw,
oak, derwydd, druid, Camb. The actual word exists in the
Irish, druidh, draoi, druid, darach, oak. Zeuss, Gram. Celt,
p. 8, &c.
t Herod, lib. i.e. 132.
J; The Irish name of the mistletoe is still uiVic or All-heal.
§ As Thierry (Hist, des Gaulois, lib. iv. c. 1) remarks, in
the winter when it was gathered, the mistletoe is most visible,
and its green branches and leaves and yellow tufts, twining
round the naked tree, " présentent seuls l'image de la vie au
milieu d'une nature stérile et mort."
" Quale solét sylvis brumali frigore viscum
Fronde virere nova, quod non sua seminat arbor,
Et croceo foetu teretes circumdare ramos."
Virgil, J®n. lib. vi. V. 205.
il The text of Pliny has "falce aurea." The mistletoe,
however, could hardly have been cut with gold, and we may
perhaps read falce area. Compare Pliny, lib. xxiv. § 6, where
the Druidical rites for gathering the mistletoe are apparently
referred to, and where "sine ferro" seems to imply the use of
bronze.
^ Csesar, B. G. lib. vii. c. 1, 4. Floras, lib. iii. c. 10.
** Such as Ariamnes the Galatian provided for his numerous
guests (Phylarchns a^ud Athen. lib. iv. c. 13) ; and such as
Gregory the Great, in accordance with pagan usage, advised
Augustine to erect about the churches on the feast days. Bede,
Hist. Eccles. lib. i. c. 30.
t t See Brand's " Popular Antiquities" ; Sinclair, " Statistical
Account of Scotland," 1794, vol. v. p. 84 ; vol. xi. p. 620 ;
for Cornwall, Mr. R. Edmonds, in Archajologia Cambrensis,
1858, ser. 3. vol. iv. p. 274.
i i These sacred fires were probably lighted by friction like
the need-fires of the German races. See " Indiculus of Carloman,"
xv. " De Igne fricato de hgno, id est rwd-fyr."
§§ O'Donovan, " On the division of the year among the Ancient
I r ish; " Book of Rights, 1847, p. xlviii.
CHAP. V.] HISTOBICAL ETHNOLOGY OP BRITAIN. 119
which at an annual sacrifice the devotees of Apollo walked, it was said, with unscorched feet*.
The custom of passing round the sacred fires from east to west on the south side, with the right
hand towards the fire, according to the course of the sun, agrees with what is to be gathered
from Posidonius and Pliny, as to the ancient Celtic custom of turning to the right and then
passing to the left when the gods were worshiped t- This is the well-known deiseal of the Gael,
of which there are frequent notices in the ancient Irish writers, and the practice of which remains
to our own times both in Ireland and the Highlands J. In the festivals the women bore a
prominent part, and their songs and dances were protracted through the night. They decked
themselves with the leaves and branches of ivy, or, as Pliny relates, both young and old painted
themselves with woad so as to resemble Ethiopians, and shared in the sacred rites naked.
Many islands of Britain and Gatil were like Samothrace, sacred to religion, and the scene of
orgies which are compared with those of Bacchus, Demeter and the Cabiri§. The description, by
Tacitus, of the frantic rage of the women of Mona rushing about like furies in funereal garb, with
dishevelled hair and carrying torches, completes the picture of these British The
name of CEstrymnides, or islands of the frenzied or inspired, given, as appears from Avienus, by
very early voyagers to the British Cassiterides, is sufficiently explained by these orgies f .
By a necessary poHcy, the Druids were deprived by the Romans of the dangerous power
they had hitherto exercised. Julius doubtless prohibited human sacrifices and their other more
savage rites **. Augustus forbade the practice of their religion to those Gauls who were Roman
citizens, so that Strabo at the close of this reign says that human sacrifices iii Gaul had been
suppressedtt. This must have been partial, as P U n y attributes to Tiberius the efacient supression
of the Druids iJ. That the practice of divination fi-om human victims was here intended by
Pliny is obvious from the context, and is confirmed by the statement of TertuUian, that in
Africa Tiberius crucified the priests who persisted in offering such sacrifices §§. But it was not
untill the time of Claudius that these barbarous rites were completely suppressed H ||; though he
in vain attempted the complete destruction of the Druidical superstitions. Under this emperor a
* Virgil, ^ n . lib. xi. v. 785. Pliny, lib. vii. § 2. Sil. Ital.
lib. V. 175. The fires of the Roman Paffli'a had likewise
many points of resemblance to the Celtic Bealteine.
t Posidon. apud Athen. lib. iv. c. 36. Phny, lib. 28. § 5.
X Reeves, St. Columba, p. 250. O'Donovan, Book of
Rights, pp. 2, 12. Martin, Western Isles, 1716, pp. 116,
118, 140. Weld, Ireland, 1857, p. 82. Deiseal, the right
hand, is synonymous with south m Irish, tuaphol (the reverse
circuit, of ill omen) with north. In Welsh also, the south is
deheidaw, or the right hand ; clearly showing that the cardinal
point of the Celts was the east. (See also Zeuss, p. 67.) The
deiseal is practised to this day by the Brahmin, who completes
his devotions at sunrise by walking towards the south, in imitation
of the course of the sun.
§ Strabo, lib. iv. c. 4. § 6. Pliny, lib. xxii. § 2. Dionys.
Perieg. v. 570. Fest. Avien. Descript. Orb. v. 731.
" Hie chorus ingens
Foeminei coetus pulchri colit orgia Bacchi :
Producit uoctem ludus sacer : aera puisant
Vocibus, et crcbris late sola calcibus urgent."
So also Priscian. Perieg. v. 589, &c.
" Concélébrant, hedevte foliis tectseque corymbis."
II Tacitus, Ann. lib. xiv. c. 30.
^ From olirrpos, metaphorically used to signify a maddening
impulse, and vfiros, a song or hymn.
""" This is implied in what Lucan (lib. i. v. 460) says of the
resumption of barbarous rites by the Drnids during the civil
wars of Rome :—
" Et vos barbáricos ritns, moremque smistrum
Sacrorum, Druidse, positis repetistis ab armis."
Previously to the war m Gaul, Caesar (B.C. 60) appears to have
suppressed human sacrifices at Gades. Cic. pro Balb. c. 18.
t t Strabo, lib. iv. c. 4. § 5. Dionysius of Hahcarnassus
(lib. i. c. 38), writing somewhat earher than Strabo, says of
human sacrifices : " etiam nunc quoque fit apud Gallos et uonnnllas
alias occidentales gentes." In lib. vii. § 2. Phny,
writing about 75 A.D., says, " nupenime trans Alpes hominem
immolari solitum."
Pliny, lib. XXX. § 4. See the edicts under Tiberius, agamst
the Magi and all sorts of foreign diviners. Dion. Cass. lib. Ivii.
c. 15. Sueton. Tiber, c. 36.
§§ Tertull. .4poll. c. 9. This was probably during the wars
with Tacfarinas, A.D. 17-24.
nil Suetonius V. Claud, c. 25 : "Druidarum religionem apud
Gallos dirie imraanitatis, et tantum civibus sub Augusto interdictara,
penitus abolevit." See also Aurel. Viet. Cíes. c. 4.
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