{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_18041/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_18041","id":"gutenberg_18041","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18041","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Archaeology & Anthropology","Category: History - Ancient","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Celts -- Religion","Mythology, Celtic"],"text":"Transcribed from the 1906 Archibald Constable & Co. Ltd. edition by David\nPrice, ccx074@coventry.ac.uk\n\n\n\n\n\nCELTIC RELIGION\nIN PRE-CHRISTIAN TIMES\n\n\nBy\nEDWARD ANWYL, M.A.\n\nLATE CLASSICAL SCHOLAR OF ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD\nPROFESSOR OF WELSH AND COMPARATIVE PHILOLOGY AT\nTHE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF WALES, ABERYSTWYTH\nACTING-CHAIRMAN OF THE CENTRAL WELSH BOARD\nFOR INTERMEDIATE EDUCATION\n\nLONDON\nARCHIBALD CONSTABLE & CO LTD\n16 JAMES STREET HAYMARKET\n1906\n\nEdinburgh: T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to His Majesty\n\n\n\n\nFOREWORD\n\n\nIt is only as prehistoric archaeology has come to throw more and more\nlight on the early civilisations of Celtic lands that it has become\npossible to interpret Celtic religion from a thoroughly modern viewpoint.\nThe author cordially acknowledges his indebtedness to numerous writers on\nthis subject, but his researches into some portions of the field\nespecially have suggested to him the possibility of giving a new\npresentation to certain facts and groups of facts, which the existing\nevidence disclosed.  It is to be hoped that a new interest in the\nreligion of the Celts may thereby be aroused.\n\nE. ANWYL.\n\nABERYSTWYTH,\n_February_ 15, 1906.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I--INTRODUCTORY: THE CELTS\n\n\nIn dealing with the subject of 'Celtic Religion' the first duty of the\nwriter is to explain the sense in which the term 'Celtic' will be used in\nthis work.  It will be used in reference to those countries and districts\nwhich, in historic times, have been at one time or other mainly of Celtic\nspeech.  It does not follow that all the races which spoke a form of the\nCeltic tongue, a tongue of the Indo-European family, were all of the same\nstock.  Indeed, ethnological and archaeological evidence tends to\nestablish clearly that, in Gaul and Britain, for example, man had lived\nfor ages before the introduction of any variety of Aryan or Indo-European\nspeech, and this was probably the case throughout the whole of Western\nand Southern Europe.  Further, in the light of comparative philology, it\nhas now become abundantly clear that the forms of Indo-European speech\nwhich we call Celtic are most closely related to those of the Italic\nfamily, of which family Latin is the best known representative.  From\nthis it follows that we are to look for the centre of dissemination of\nAryan Celtic speech in some district of Europe that could have been the\nnatural centre of dissemination also for the Italic languages.  From this\ncommon centre, through conquest and the commercial intercourse which\nfollowed it, the tribes which spoke the various forms of Celtic and\nItalic speech spread into the districts occupied by them in historic\ntimes.  The common centre of radiation for Celtic and Italic speech was\nprobably in the districts of Noricum and Pannonia, the modern Carniola,\nCarinthia, etc., and the neighbouring parts of the Danube valley.  The\nconquering Aryan-speaking Celts and Italians formed a military\naristocracy, and their success in extending the range of their languages\nwas largely due to their skill in arms, combined, in all probability,\nwith a talent for administration.  This military aristocracy was of\nkindred type to that which carried Aryan speech into India and Persia,\nArmenia and Greece, not to speak of the original speakers of the Teutonic\nand Slavonic tongues.  In view of the necessity of discovering a centre,\nwhence the Indo-European or Aryan languages in general could have\nradiated Eastwards, as well as Westwards, the tendency to-day is to\nregard these tongues as having been spoken originally in some district\nbetween the Carpathians and the Steppes, in the form of kindred dialects\nof a common speech.  Some branches of the tribes which spoke these\ndialects penetrated into Central Europe, doubtless along the Danube, and,\nfrom the Danube valley, extended their conquests together with their\nvarious forms of Aryan speech into Southern and Western Europe.  The\nproportion of conquerors to conquered was not uniform in all the\ncountries where they held sway, so that the amount of Aryan blood in\ntheir resultant population varied greatly.  In most cases, the families\nof the original conquerors, by their skill in the art of war and a\ncertain instinct of government, succeeded in making their own tongues the\ndominant media of communication in the lands where they ruled, with the\nresult that most of the languages of Europe to-day are of the Aryan or\nIndo-European type.  It does not, however, follow necessarily from this\nthat the early religious ideas or the artistic civilisation of countries\nnow Aryan in speech, came necessarily from the conquerors rather than the\nconquered.  In the last century it was long held that in countries of\nAryan speech the essential features of their civilisation, their\nreligious ideas, their social institutions, nay, more, their inhabitants\nthemselves, were of Aryan origin.\n\nA more critical investigation has, however, enabled us to distinguish\nclearly between the development of various factors of human life which in\ntheir evolution can follow and often have followed more or less\nindependent lines.  The physical history of race, for instance, forms a\nproblem by itself and must be studied by anthropological and ethnological\nmethods.  Language, again, has often spread along lines other than those\nof race, and its investigation appertains to the sphere of the\nphilologist.  Material civilisation, too, has not of necessity followed\nthe lines either of racial or of linguistic development, and the search\nfor its ancient trade-routes may be safely left to the archaeologist.\nSimilarly the spread of ideas in religion and thought is one which has\nadvanced on lines of its own, and its investigation must be conducted by\nthe methods and along the lines of the comparative study of religions.\n\nIn the wide sense, then, in which the word 'Celtic religion' will be used\nin this work, it will cover the modes of religious thought prevalent in\nthe countries and districts, which, in course of time, were mainly\ncharacterised by their Celtic speech.  To the sum-total of these\nreligious ideas contributions have been made from many sources.  It would\nbe rash to affirm that the various streams of Aryan Celtic conquest made\nno contributions to the conceptions of life and of the world which the\ncountries of their conquest came to hold (and the evidence of language\npoints, indeed, to some such contributions), but their quota appears to\nbe small compared with that of their predecessors; nor is this\nsurprising, in view of the immense period during which the lands of their\nconquest had been previously occupied.  Nothing is clearer than the\nmarvellous persistence of traditional and immemorial modes of thought,\neven in the face of conquest and subjugation, and, whatever ideas on\nreligion the Aryan conquerors of Celtic lands may have brought with them,\nthey whose conquests were often only partial could not eradicate the\ninveterate beliefs of their predecessors, and the result in the end was\ndoubtless some compromise, or else the victory of the earlier faith.\n\nBut the Aryan conquerors of Gaul and Italy themselves were not men who\nhad advanced up the Danube in one generation.  Those men of Aryan speech\nwho poured into the Italian peninsula and into Gaul were doubtless in\nblood not unmixed with the older inhabitants of Central Europe, and had\nentered into the body of ideas which formed the religious beliefs of the\nmen of the Danube valley.  The common modifications of the Aryan tongue,\nby Italians and Celts alike, as compared with Greek, suggests contact\nwith men of different speech.  Among the names of Celtic gods, too, like\nthose of other countries, we find roots that are apparently irreducible\nto any found in Indo-European speech, and we know not what pre-Aryan\ntongues may have contributed them.  Scholars, to-day, are far more alive\nthan they ever were before to the complexity of the contributory elements\nthat have entered into the tissue of the ancient religions of mankind,\nand the more the relics of Celtic religion are investigated, the more\ncomplex do its contributory factors become.  In the long ages before\nhistory there were unrecorded conquests and migrations innumerable, and\nideas do not fail to spread because there is no historian to record them.\n\nThe more the scanty remnants of Celtic religion are examined, the clearer\nit becomes that many of its characteristic features had been evolved\nduring the vast period of the ages of stone.  During these millennia, men\nhad evolved, concomitantly with their material civilisation, a kind of\nworking philosophy of life, traces of which are found in every land where\nthis form of civilisation has prevailed.  Man's religion can never be\ndissociated from his social experience, and the painful stages through\nwhich man reached the agricultural life, for example, have left their\nindelible impress on the mind of man in Western Europe, as they have in\nevery land.  We are thus compelled, from the indications which we have of\nCeltic religion, in the names of its deities, its rites, and its\nsurvivals in folk-lore and legend, to come to the conclusion, that its\nfundamental groundwork is a body of ideas, similar to those of other\nlands, which were the natural correlatives of the phases of experience\nthrough which man passed in his emergence into civilised life.  To\ndemonstrate and to illustrate these relations will be the aim of the\nfollowing chapters.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II--THE CHIEF PHASES OF CELTIC CIVILISATION\n\n\nIn the chief countries of Celtic civilisation, Gaul, Cisalpine and\nTransalpine, Britain and Ireland, abundant materials have been found for\nelucidating the stages of culture through which man passed in prehistoric\ntimes.  In Britain, for example, palaeolithic man has left numerous\nspecimens of his implements, but the forms even of these rude implements\nsuggest that they, too, have been evolved from still more primitive\ntypes.  Some antiquarians have thought to detect such earlier types in\nthe stones that have been named 'eoliths' found in Kent, but, though\nthese 'eoliths' may possibly show human use, the question of their\nhistory is far from being settled.  It is certain, however, that man\nsucceeded in maintaining himself for ages in the company of the mammoth,\nthe cave-bear, and other animals now extinct.  Whether palaeolithic man\nsurvived the Ice Age in Britain has not so far been satisfactorily\ndecided.  In Gaul, however, there is fair evidence of continuity between\nthe Palaeolithic and Neolithic periods, and this continuity must\nobviously have existed somewhere.  Still in spite of the indications of\ncontinuity, the civilisation of primitive man in Gaul presents one aspect\nthat is without any analogues in the life of the palaeolithic men of the\nRiver Drift period, or in that of man of the New Stone Age.  The feature\nin question is the remarkable artistic skill shown by the cave men of the\nDordogne district.  Some of the drawings and carvings of these men reveal\na sense of form which would have done credit to men of a far later age.  A\nfeature such as this, whatever may have been its object, whether it arose\nfrom an effort by means of 'sympathetic magic' to catch animals, as M.\nSalomon Reinach suggests, or to the mere artistic impulse, is a standing\nreminder to us of the scantiness of our data for estimating the lines of\nman's religious and other development in the vast epochs of prehistoric\ntime.\n\nWe know that from the life of hunting man passed into the pastoral stage,\nhaving learned to tame animals.  How he came to do so, and by what\nmotives he was actuated, is still a mystery.  It may be, as M. Salomon\nReinach has also suggested, that it was some curious and indefinable\nsense of kinship with them that led him to do so, or more probably, as\nthe present writer thinks, some sense of a need of the alliance of\nanimals against hostile spirits.  In all probability it was no motive\nwhich we can now fathom.  The mind of early man was like the unfathomable\nmind of a boy.  From the pastoral life again man passed after long ages\ninto the life of agriculture, and the remains of neolithic man in Gaul\nand in Britain give us glimpses of his life as a farmer.  The ox, the\nsheep, the pig, the goat, and the dog were his domestic animals; he could\ngrow wheat and flax, and could supplement the produce of his farm by\nmeans of hunting and fishing.  Neolithic man could spin and weave; he\ncould obtain the necessary flint for his implements, which he made by\nchipping and polishing, and he could also make pottery of a rude variety.\nIn its essentials we have here the beginnings of the agricultural\ncivilisation of man all the world over.  In life, neolithic man dwelt\nsometimes in pit-dwellings and sometimes in hut-circles, covered with a\nroof of branches supported by a central pole.  In death, he was buried\nwith his kin in long mounds of earth called barrows, in chambered cairns\nand cromlechs or dolmens.  The latter usually consist of three standing\nstones covered by a cap-stone; forming the stony skeleton of a grave that\nhas been exposed to view after the mound of earth that covered it has\nbeen washed away.  In their graves the dead were buried in a crouching\nattitude, and fresh burials were made as occasion required.  Sometimes\nthe cromlech is double, and occasionally there is a hole in one of the\nstones, the significance of which is unknown, unless it may have been for\nthe ingress and egress of souls.  Graves of the dolmen or cromlech type\nare found in all the countries of Western Europe, North Africa, and\nelsewhere, wherever stone suitable for the purpose abounds, and in this\nwe have a striking illustration of the way in which lines of development\nin man's material civilisation are sooner or later correlated to his\ngeographical, geological, and other surroundings.  The religious ideas of\nman in neolithic times also came into correlation with the conditions of\nhis development, and the uninterpreted stone circles and pillars of the\nworld are a standing witness to the religious zeal of a mind that was\nhaunted by stone.  Before proceeding to exemplify this thesis the\nsubsequent trend of Celtic civilisation may be briefly sketched.\n\nThrough the pacific intercourse of commerce, bronze weapons and\nimplements began to find their way, about 2000 B.C. or earlier, from\nCentral and Southern Europe into Gaul, and thence into Britain.  In\nBritain the Bronze Age begins at about 1500 or 1400 B.C., and it is\nthought by some archaeologists that bronze was worked at this period by\nthe aid of native tin in Britain itself.  There are indications, however,\nthat the introduction of bronze into Britain was not by way of commerce\nalone.  About the beginning of the Bronze period are found evidences in\nthis island of a race of different type from that of neolithic man, being\ncharacterised by a round skull and a powerful build, and by general\nindications of a martial bearing.  The remains of this race are usually\nfound in round barrows.\n\nThis race, which certainly used bronze weapons, is generally believed to\nhave been the first wave that reached Britain of Aryan conquerors of\nCeltic speech from the nearest part of the continent, where it must have\narrived some time previously, probably along the Rhine valley.  As the\ntype of Celtic speech that has penetrated farthest to the west is that\nknown as the Goidelic or Irish, it has not unreasonably been thought that\nthis must have been the type that arrived in Britain first.  There are\nindications, too, that it was this type that penetrated furthest into the\nwest of Gaul.  Its most marked characteristic is its preservation of the\npronunciation of U as 'oo' and of QU, while the 'Brythonic' or Welsh\nvariety changed U to a sound pronounced like the French 'u' or the German\n'u' and also QU to P.  There is a similar line of cleavage in the Italic\nlanguages, where Latin corresponds to Goidelic, and Oscan and Umbrian to\nBrythonic.  Transalpine Gaul was probably invaded by Aryan-speaking Celts\nfrom more than one direction, and the infiltration and invasion of new-\ncomers, when it had once begun, was doubtless continuous through these\nvarious channels.  There are cogent reasons for thinking that ultimately\nthe dominant type of Celtic speech over the greater part of Gaul came to\nbe that of the P rather than the QU type, owing to the influx from the\nEast and Northeast of an overflow from the Rhine valley of tribes\nspeaking that dialect; a dialect which, by force of conquest and culture,\ntended to spread farther and farther West.  Into Britain, too, as time\nwent on, the P type of Celtic was carried, and has survived in Welsh and\nCornish, the remnants of the tongue of ancient Britain.  We know, too,\nfrom the name Eporedia (Yvrea), that this dialect of Celtic must have\nspread into Cisalpine Gaul.  The latter district may have received its\nfirst Celtic invaders direct from the Danube valley, as M. Alexandre\nBertrand held, but it would be rash to assume that all its invaders came\nfrom that direction.  In connection, however, with the history of Celtic\nreligion it is not the spread of the varying types of Celtic dialect that\nis important, but the changes in the civilisation of Gaul and Britain,\nwhich reacted on religious ideas or which introduced new factors into the\nreligious development of these lands.\n\nThe predatory expeditions and wars of conquest of military Celtic tribes\nin search for new homes for their superfluous populations brought into\nprominence the deities of war, as was the case also with the ancient\nRomans, themselves an agricultural and at the same time a predatory race.\nThe prominence of war in Celtic tribal life at one stage has left us the\nnames of a large number of deities that were identified with Mars and\nBellona, though all the war-gods were not originally such.  In the Roman\ncalendar there is abundant evidence that Mars was at one time an\nagricultural god as well as a god of war.  The same, as will be shown\nlater, was the probable history of some of the Celtic deities, who were\nidentified in Roman times with Mars and Bellona.  Caesar tells us that\nMars had at one time been the chief god of the Gauls, and that in Germany\nthat was still the case.  In Britain, also, we find that there were\nseveral deities identified with Mars, notably Belatucadrus and Cocidius,\nand this, too, points in the direction of a development of religion under\nmilitary influence.  The Gauls appear to have made great strides in\nmilitary matters and in material civilisation during the Iron Age.  The\nculture of the Early Iron Age of Hallstatt had been developed in Gaul on\ncharacteristic lines of its own, resulting in the form now known as the\nLa Tene or Marnian type.  This type derives it name from the striking\nspecimens of it that were discovered at La Tene on the shore of Lake\nNeuchatel, and in the extensive cemeteries of the Marne valley, the\nburials of which cover a period of from 350-200 B.C.  It was during the\nthird century B.C. that this characteristic culture of Gaul reached its\nzenith, and gave definite shape to the beautiful curved designs known as\nthose of Late-Celtic Art.  Iron appears to have been introduced into\nBritain about 300 B.C., and the designs of Late-Celtic Art are here\nrepresented best of all.  Excellent specimens of Late-Celtic culture have\nbeen found in Yorkshire and elsewhere, and important links with\ncontinental developments have been discovered at Aylesford, Aesica,\nLimavady, and other places.  Into the development of this typical Gaulish\nculture elements are believed to have entered by way of the important\ncommercial avenue of the Rhone valley from Massilia (Marseilles), from\nGreece (_via_ Venetia), and possibly from Etruria.  Prehistoric\narchaeology affords abundant proofs that, in countries of Celtic speech,\nmetal-working in bronze, iron, and gold reached a remarkably high pitch\nof perfection, and this is a clear indication that Celtic countries and\ndistricts which were on the line of trade routes, like the Rhone valley,\nhad attained to a material civilisation of no mean character before the\nRoman conquest.  In Britain, too, the districts that were in touch with\ncontinental commerce had, as Caesar tells us, also developed in the same\ndirection.  The religious counterpart of this development in civilisation\nis the growth in many parts of Gaul, as attested by Caesar and by many\ninscriptions and place-names, of the worship of gods identified with\nMercury and Minerva, the deities of civilisation and commerce.  It is no\naccident that one of the districts most conspicuous for this worship was\nthe territory of the Allobrogic confederation, where the commerce of the\nRhone valley found its most remarkable development.  From this sketch of\nCeltic civilisation it will readily be seen how here as elsewhere the\nreligious development of the Celts stood closely related to the\ndevelopment of their civilisation generally.  It must be borne in mind,\nhowever, that all parts of the Celtic world were not equally affected by\nthe material development in question.  Part of the complexity of the\nhistory of Celtic religion arises from the fact that we cannot be always\ncertain of the degree of progress in civilisation which any given\ndistrict had made, of the ideas which pervaded it, or of the absorbing\ninterests of its life.  Another difficulty, too, is that the accounts of\nCeltic religion given by ancient authorities do not always harmonise with\nthe indisputable evidence of inscriptions.  The probability is that the\nreligious practices of the Celtic world were no more homogeneous than its\ngeneral civilisation, and that the ancient authorities are substantially\ntrue in their statements about certain districts, certain periods, or\ncertain sections of society, while the inscriptions, springing as they do\nfrom the influence of the Gallo-Roman civilisation, especially of Eastern\nGaul and military Britain, give us most valuable supplementary evidence\nfor districts and environments of a different kind.  The inscriptions,\nespecially by the names of deities which they reveal, have afforded most\nvaluable clues to the history of Celtic religion, even in stages of\ncivilisation earlier than those to which they themselves belong.  In the\nnext chapter the correlation of Celtic religious ideas to the stages of\nCeltic civilisation will be further developed.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III--THE CORRELATION OF CELTIC RELIGION WITH THE GROWTH OF CELTIC\nCIVILISATION\n\n\nIn dealing with the long vista of prehistoric time, it is very difficult\nfor us, in our effort after perspective, not to shorten unduly in our\nthoughts the vast epochs of its duration.  We tend, too, to forget, that\nin these unnumbered millennia there was ample time for it to be possible\nover certain areas of Europe to evolve what were practically new races,\nthrough the prepotency of particular stocks and the annihilation of\nothers.  During these epochs, again, after speech had arisen, there was\ntime enough to recast completely many a language, for before the dawn of\nhistory language was no more free from change than it is now, and in\nthese immense epochs whatever ideas as to the world of their surroundings\nwere vaguely felt by prehistoric men and formulated for them by their\nkinsmen of genius, had abundant time in which to die or to win supremacy.\nThere must have been aeons before the dawn even of conscious animism, and\nthe experiment of trying sympathetic magic was, when first attempted,\nprobably regarded as a master-stroke of genius.  The Stone Age itself was\na long era of great if slow progress in civilisation, and the evolution\nof the practices and ideas which emerge as the concomitants of its\nagricultural stage, when closely regarded, bear testimony to the mind's\ncapacity for religious progress in the light of experience and\nintelligent experiment, and at the same time to the errors into which it\nfell.  The Stone Age has left its sediment in all the folk-lore of the\nworld.  To the casual observer many of the ideas embedded in it may seem\na mass of error, and so they are when judged unhistorically, but when\nviewed critically, and at the same time historically, they afford many\nglimpses of prehistoric genius in a world where life was of necessity a\ngreat experiment.  The folk-lore of the world reveals for the same stages\nof civilisation a wonderful uniformity and homogeneity, as Dr. J. G.\nFrazer has abundantly shown in his _Golden Bough_.  This uniformity is\nnot, however, due to necessary uniformity of origin, but to a great\nextent to the fact that it represents the state of equilibrium arrived at\nbetween minds at a certain level and their environment, along lines of\nthought directed by the momentum given by the traditions of millennia,\nand the survival in history of the men who carefully regarded them.  The\napparently unreasoned prohibitions often known as 'taboos,' many of which\nstill persist even in modern civilised life, have their roots in ideas\nand experiences which no speculation of ours can now completely fathom,\nhowever much we may guess at their origin.  Many of these ancient\nprohibitions have vanished under new conditions, others have often\nsurvived from a real or supposed harmony with new experiences, that have\narisen in the course of man's history.  After passing through a stage\nwhen he was too preoccupied with his material cares and wants to consider\nwhether he was haunted or not, early man in the Celtic world as\nelsewhere, after long epochs of vague unrest, came to realise that he was\nsomehow haunted in the daytime as well as at night, and it was this sense\nof being haunted that impelled his intellect and his imagination to seek\nsome explanation of his feelings.  Primitive man came to seek a solution\nnot of the Universe as a whole (for of this he had no conception), but of\nthe local Universe, in which he played a part.  In dealing with Celtic\nfolk-lore, it is very remarkable how it mirrors the characteristic local\ncolouring and scenery of the districts in which it has originated.  In a\ncountry like Wales, for example, it is the folk-lore of springs, caves,\nmountains, lakes, islands, and the forms of its imagination, here as\nelsewhere, reflect unmistakably the land of its origin.  Where it depicts\nan 'other world,' that 'other world' is either on an island or it is a\nland beneath the sea, a lake, or a river, or it is approachable only\nthrough some cave or opening in the earth.  In the hunting-grounds of the\nCeltic world the primitive hunter knew every cranny of the greater part\nof his environment with the accuracy born of long familiarity, but there\nwere some peaks which he could not scale, some caves which he could not\npenetrate, some jungles into which he could not enter, and in these he\nknew not what monsters might lurk or unknown beings might live.  In\nCeltic folk-lore the belief in fabulous monsters has not yet ceased.  Man\nwas surrounded by dangers visible and invisible, and the time came when\nsome prehistoric man of genius propounded the view that all the objects\naround him were no less living than himself.  This animistic view of the\nworld, once adopted, made great headway from the various centres where it\noriginated, and man derived from it a new sense of kinship with his\nworld, but also new terrors from it.  Knowing from the experience of\ndreams that he himself seemed able to wander away from himself, he\nthought in course of time that other living things were somehow double,\nand the world around him came to be occupied, not merely with things that\nwere alive, but with other selves of these things, that could remain in\nthem or leave them at will.  Here, again, this new prehistoric philosophy\ngave an added interest to life, but it was none the less a source of\nfresh terrors.  The world swarmed with invisible spirits, some friendly,\nsome hostile, and, in view of these beings, life had to be regulated by\nstrict rules of actions and prohibitions.  Even in the neolithic stage\nthe inhabitants of Celtic countries had attained to the religious ideas\nin question, as is seen not only by their folk-lore and by the names of\ngroups of goddesses such as the Matres (or mothers), but by the fact that\nin historic times they had advanced well beyond this stage to that of\nnamed and individualised gods.  As in all countries where the gods were\nindividualised, the men of Celtic lands, whether aborigines or invaders,\nhad toiled along the steep ascent from the primitive vague sense of being\nhaunted to a belief in gods who, like Esus, Teutates, Grannos, Bormanus,\nLitavis, had names of a definite character.\n\nAmong the prohibitions which had established themselves among the races\nof Celtic lands, as elsewhere, was that directed against the shedding of\nthe blood of one's own kin.  There are indications, too, that some at any\nrate of the tribes inhabiting these countries reckoned kinship through\nthe mother, as in fact continued to be the case among the Picts of\nScotland into historic times.  It does not follow, as we know from other\ncountries, that the pre-Aryan tribes of Gaul and Britain, or indeed the\nAryan tribes themselves in their earliest stage, regarded their original\nancestors as human.  Certain names of deities such as Tarvos (the bull),\nMoccos (the pig), Epona (the goddess of horses), Damona (the goddess of\ncattle), Mullo (the ass), as well as the fact that the ancient Britons,\naccording to Caesar, preserved the hen, the goose, and the hare, but did\nnot kill and eat them, all point to the fact that in these countries as\nelsewhere certain animals were held in supreme respect and were carefully\nguarded from harm.  Judging from the analogy of kindred phenomena in\nother countries, the practice of respecting certain animals was often\nassociated with the belief that all the members of certain clans were\ndescended from one or other of them, but how far this system was\nelaborated in the Celtic world it is hard to say.  This phenomenon, which\nis widely known as totemism, appears to be suggested by the prominence\ngiven to the wild boar on Celtic coins and ensigns, and by the place\nassigned on some inscriptions and bas-reliefs to the figure of a horned\nsnake as well as by the effigies of other animals that have been\ndiscovered.  It is not easy to explain the beginnings of totemism in Gaul\nor elsewhere, but it should always be borne in mind that early man could\nnot regard it as an axiomatic truth that he was the superior of every\nother animal.  To reach that proud consciousness is a very high step in\nthe development of the human perspective, and it is to the credit of the\nCelts that, when we know them in historic times, they appear to have\nattained to this height, inasmuch as the human form is given to their\ndeities.  It is not always remembered how great a step in religious\nevolution is implied when the gods are clothed with human attributes.  M.\nSalomon Reinach, in his account of the vestiges of totemism among the\nCelts, suggests that totemism was merely the hypertrophy of early man's\nsocial sense, which extended from man to the animals around him.  This\nmay possibly be the case, but it is not improbable that man also thought\nto discover in certain animals much-needed allies against some of the\nvisible and invisible enemies that beset him.  In his conflict with the\nmalign powers around him, he might well have regarded certain animals as\nbeing in some respects stronger combatants against those powers than\nhimself; and where they were not physically stronger, some of them, like\nthe snake, had a cunning and a subtlety that seemed far to surpass his\nown.  In course of time certain bodies of men came to regard themselves\nas being in special alliance with some one animal, and as being descended\nfrom that animal as their common ancestor.  The existence side by side of\nvarious tribes, each with its definite totem, has not yet been fully\nproved for the Gaulish system, and may well have been a developed social\narrangement that was not an essential part of such a mode of thought in\nits primary forms.  The place of animal-worship in the Celtic religion\nwill be more fully considered in a later chapter.  Here it is only\nindicated as a necessary stage in relation to man's civilisation in the\nhunting and the pastoral stages, which had to be passed through before\nthe historic deities of Gaul and Britain in Roman times could have come\ninto being.  Certain of the divine names of the historic period, like\nArtio (the bear-goddess), Moccus (the pig), Epona (the mare), and Damona\n(the sheep), bear the unmistakable impress of having been at one time\nthose of animals.\n\nAs for the stage of civilisation at which totemism originated, there is\nmuch difference of opinion.  The stage of mind which it implies would\nsuggest that it reflects a time when man's mind was preoccupied with wild\nbeasts, and when the alliances and friendships, which he would value in\nlife, might be found in that sphere.  There is much plausibility in the\nview put forward by M. Salomon Reinach, that the domestication of animals\nitself implies a totemistic habit of thought, and the consequent\nprotection of these animals by means of taboos from harm and death.  It\nmay well be that, after all, the usefulness of domestic animals from a\nmaterial point of view was only a secondary consideration for man, and a\nhappy discovery after unsuccessful totemistic attentions to other\nanimals.  We know not how many creatures early man tried to associate\nwith himself but failed.\n\nIn all stages of man's history the alternation of the seasons must have\nbrought some rudiments of order and system into his thoughts, though for\na long time he was too preoccupied to reflect upon the regularly\nrecurring vicissitudes of his life.  In the pastoral stage, the sense of\norder came to be more marked than in that of hunting, and quickened the\nmind to fresh thought.  The earth came to be regarded as the Mother from\nwhom all things came, and there are abundant indications that the earth\nas the Mother, the Queen, the Long-lived one, etc., found her natural\nplace as a goddess among the Celts.  Her names and titles were probably\nnot in all places or in all tribes the same.  But it is in the\nagricultural stage that she entered in Celtic lands, as she did in other\ncountries, into her completest religious heritage, and this aspect of\nCeltic religion will be dealt with more fully in connection with the\nspirits of vegetation.  This phase of religion in Celtic countries is one\nwhich appears to underlie some of its most characteristic forms, and the\none which has survived longest in Celtic folk-lore.  The Earth-mother\nwith her progeny of spirits, of springs, rivers, mountains, forests,\ntrees, and corn, appears to have supplied most of the grouped and\nindividualised gods of the Celtic pantheon.  The Dis, of whom Caesar\nspeaks as the ancient god of the Gauls, was probably regarded as her son,\nto whom the dead returned in death.  Whether he is the Gaulish god\ndepicted with a hammer, or as a huge dog swallowing the dead, has not yet\nbeen established with any degree of certainty.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV--CELTIC RELIGION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF INDIVIDUALISED DEITIES\n\n\nLike other religions, those of the Celtic lands of Europe supplemented\nthe earlier animism by a belief in spirits, who belonged to trees,\nanimals, rocks, mountains, springs, rivers, and other natural phenomena,\nand in folk-lore there still survives abundant evidence that the Celt\nregarded spirits as taking upon themselves a variety of forms, animal and\nhuman.  It was this idea of spirits in animal form that helped to\npreserve the memory of the older totemism into historic times.  It is\nthus that we have names of the type of Brannogenos (son of the raven),\nArtogenos (son of the bear), and the like, not to speak of simpler names\nlike Bran (raven), March (horse), surviving into historic times.  Bronze\nimages, too, have been found at Neuvy-en-Sullias, of a horse and a stag\n(now in the Orleans museum), provided with rings, which were, as M.\nSalomon Reinach suggests, probably used for the purpose of carrying these\nimages in procession.  The wild boar, too, was a favourite emblem of\nGaul, and there is extant a bronze figure of a Celtic Diana riding on a\nboar's back.  At Bolar, near Nuits, there was discovered a bronze mule.\nIn the museum at Mayence is a bas-relief of the goddess of horses, Epona\n(from the Gaulish _Epos_=Lat. _equus_, horse), riding on horseback.  One\nof the most important monuments of this kind is a figure of Artio, the\nbear-goddess (from Celtic _Artos_, a bear), found at Muri near Berne.  In\nfront of her stood a figure of a bear, which was also found with her.  The\nbull of the Tarvos Trigaranos bas-relief of Notre Dame was also in all\nlikelihood originally a totem, and similarly the horned serpents of other\nbas-reliefs, as well as the boar found on Gaulish ensigns and coins,\nespecially in Belgic territory.  There is a representation, too, of a\nraven on a bas-relief at Compiegne.  The name 'Moccus,' which is\nidentified with Mercury, on inscriptions, and which is found inscribed at\nLangres, Trobaso, the valley of the Ossola and the Borgo san Dalmazzo, is\nundoubtedly the philological equivalent of the Welsh _moch_ (swine).  In\nBritain, too, the boar is frequently found on the coins of the Iceni and\nother tribes.  In Italy, according to Mr. Warde Fowler, the pig was an\nappropriate offering to deities of the earth, so that in the widespread\nuse of the pig as a symbol in the Celtic world, there may be some ancient\necho of a connection between it and the earth-spirit.  Its diet of\nacorns, too, may have marked it out, in the early days of life in forest-\nclearings, as the animal embodiment of the oak-spirit.  In the legends of\nthe Celtic races, even in historic times, the pig, and especially the\nboar, finds an honoured place.  In addition to the animals\naforementioned, the ass, too, was probably at one time venerated in one\nof the districts of Gaul, and it is not improbable that Mullo, the name\nof a god identified with Mars and regarded as the patron of muleteers,\nmentioned on inscriptions (at Nantes, Craon, and Les Provencheres near\nCraon), meant originally 'an ass.'  The goddess Epona, also, whose\nworship was widely spread, was probably at one time an animal goddess in\nthe form of a mare, and the name of another goddess, Damona, either from\nthe root _dam_=Ir. _dam_, (ox); or Welsh _daf-ad_ (sheep), may similarly\nbe that of an ancient totem sheep or cow.  Nor was it in the animal world\nalone that the Celts saw indications of the divine.  While the chase and\nthe pastoral life concentrated the mind's attention on the life of\nanimals, the growth of agriculture fixed man's thoughts on the life of\nthe earth, and all that grew upon it, while at the same time he was led\nto think more and more of the mysterious world beneath the earth, from\nwhich all things came and to which all things returned.  Nor could he\nforget the trees of the forest, especially those which, like the oak, had\nprovided him with their fruit as food in time of need.  The name Druid,\nas well as that of the centre of worship of the Gauls of Asia Minor,\nDrunemeton (the oak-grove), the statement of Maximus of Tyre that the\nrepresentation of Zeus to the Celts was a high oak, Pliny's account of\nDruidism (_Nat. Hist_., xvi. 95), the numerous inscriptions to Silvanus\nand Silvana, the mention of Dervones or Dervonnae on an inscription at\nCavalzesio near Brescia, and the abundant evidence of survivals in folk-\nlore as collected by Dr. J. G. Frazer and others, all point to the fact\nthat tree-worship, and especially that of the oak, had contributed its\nfull share to the development of Celtic religion, at any rate in some\ndistricts and in some epochs.  The development of martial and commercial\ncivilisation in later times tended to restrict its typical and more\nprimitive developments to the more conservative parts of the Celtic\nworld.  The fact that in Caesar's time its main centre in Gaul was in the\nterritory of the Carnutes, the tribe which has given its name to\nChartres, suggests that its chief votaries were mainly in that part of\nthe country.  This, too, was the district of the god Esus (the eponymous\ngod of the Essuvii), and in some degree of Teutates, the cruelty of whose\nrites is mentioned by Lucan.  It had occurred to the present writer,\nbefore finding the same view expressed by M. Salomon Reinach, that the\nworship of Esus in Gaul was almost entirely local in character.  With\nregard to the rites of the Druids, Caesar tells us that it was customary\nto make huge images of wickerwork, into which human beings, usually\ncriminals, were placed and burnt.  The use of wickerwork, and the\nsuggestion that the rite was for purifying the land, indicates a\ncombination of the ideas of tree-worship with those of early agricultural\nlife.  When the Emperor Claudius is said by Suetonius to have suppressed\nDruidism, what is meant is, in all probability, that the more inhuman\nrites were suppressed, leading, as the Scholiasts on Lucan seem to\nsuggest, to a substitution of animal victims for men.  On the side of\ncivil administration and education, the functions of the Druids, as the\nsuccessors of the primitive medicine men and magicians, doubtless varied\ngreatly in different parts of Gaul and Britain according to the progress\nthat had been made in the differentiation of functions in social life.\nThe more we investigate the state of the Celtic world in ancient times,\nthe clearer it becomes, that in civilisation it was very far from being\nhomogeneous, and this heterogeneity of civilisation must have had its\ninfluence on religion as well as on other social phenomena.  The natural\nconservatism of agricultural life, too, perpetuated many practices even\ninto comparatively late times, and of these we catch a glimpse in Gregory\nof Tours, when he tells us that at Autun the goddess Berecyntia was\nworshipped, her image being carried on a wagon for the protection of the\nfields and the vines.  It is not impossible that by Berecyntia Gregory\nmeans the goddess Brigindu, whose name occurs on an inscription at Volnay\nin the same district of Gaul.  The belief in corn-spirits, and other\nideas connected with the central thought of the farmer's life, show, by\ntheir persistence in Celtic as well as other folklore, how deeply they\nhad entered into the inner tissue of the agricultural mind, so as to be\nlinked to its keenest emotions.  Here the rites of religion, whether\npersuasive as in prayer, or compulsory as in sympathetic magic, whether\nassociated with communal or propitiatory sacrifice, whether directed to\nthe earth or to the heaven, all had an intensely practical and terribly\nreal character, due to man's constant preoccupation with the growth and\nstorage of food for man and beast.  In the hunting, the pastoral, and\nabove all in the agricultural life, religion was not a matter merely of\nimagination or sentiment, but one most intimately associated with the\ndaily practice of life, and this practical interest included in its\npurview rivers, springs, forests, mountains, and all the setting of man's\nexistence.  And what is true of agriculture is true also, in a greater or\nless degree, of the life of the Celtic metal-worker or the Celtic sailor.\nEven in late Welsh legend Amaethon (old Celtic _Ambactonos_), the patron\ngod of farming (Welsh _Amaeth_), and Gofannon, the patron god of the\nmetal-worker (Welsh _gof_, Irish _gobha_), were not quite forgotten, and\nthe prominence of the worship of the counterparts of Mercury and Minerva\nin Gaul in historic times was due to the sense of respect and gratitude,\nwhich each trade and each locality felt for the deity who had rid the\nland of monsters, and who had brought man into the comparative calm of\ncivilised life.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V--THE HUMANISED GODS OF CELTIC RELIGION\n\n\nOne of the most striking facts connected with the Celtic religion is the\nlarge number of names of deities which it includes.  These names are\nknown to us almost entirely from inscriptions, for the most part votive\ntablets, in acknowledgment of some benefit, usually that of health,\nconferred by the god on man.  In Britain these votive tablets are chiefly\nfound in the neighbourhood of the Roman walls and camps, but we cannot be\nalways certain that the deities mentioned are indigenous.  In Gaul,\nhowever, we are on surer ground in associating certain deities with\ncertain districts, inasmuch as the evidence of place-names is often a\nguide.  These inscriptions are very unevenly distributed over Gaulish\nterritory, the Western and the North-Western districts being very\nsparsely represented.\n\nIn the present brief sketch it is impossible to enter into a full\ndiscussion of the relations of the names found on inscriptions to\nparticular localities, and the light thus thrown on Celtic religion; but\nit may be here stated that investigation tends to confirm the local\ncharacter of most of the deities which the inscriptions name.  Out of\nthese deities, some, it is true, in the process of evolution, gained a\nwider field of worshippers, while others, like Lugus, may even have been\nat one time more widely worshipped than they came to be in later times.\nOccasionally a name like Lugus (Irish _Lug_), Segomo (Irish, in the\ngenitive, _Segamonas_), Camulos, whence Camulodunum (Colchester), Belenos\n(Welsh _Belyn_), Maponos (Welsh _Mabon_), Litavis (Welsh _Llydaw_), by\nits existence in Britain as well as in Gaul, suggests that it was either\none of the ancient deities of the Aryan Celts, or one whose worship came\nto extend over a larger area than its fellows.  Apart from a few\nexceptional considerations of this kind, however, the local character of\nthe deities is most marked.\n\nA very considerable number are the deities of springs and rivers.  In\nNoricum, for example, we have Adsalluta, a goddess associated with Savus\n(the river Save).  In Britain 'the goddess' Deva (the Dee), and Belisama\n(either the Ribble or the Mersey), a name meaning 'the most warlike\ngoddess,' are of this type.  We have again Axona the goddess of the river\nAisne, Sequana, the goddess of the Seine, Ritona of the river Rieu,\nnumerous nymphs and many other deities of fountains.  Doubtless many\nother names of local deities are of this kind.  Aerial phenomena appear\nto have left very few clear traces on the names of Celtic deities.\nVintios, a god identified with Mars, was probably a god of the wind,\nTaranucus, a god of thunder, Leucetios, a god of lightning, Sulis (of\nBath) a sun-goddess, but beyond these there are few, if any, reflections\nof the phenomena of the heavens.  Of the gods named on inscriptions\nnearly all are identified with Mercury, Mars, or Apollo.  The gods who\ncame to be regarded as culture-deities appear from their names to be of\nvarious origins: some are humanised totems, others are in origin deities\nof vegetation or local natural phenomena.  As already indicated, it is\nclear that the growth of commercial and civilised life in certain\ndistricts had brought into prominence deities identified with Mercury and\nMinerva as the patrons of civilisation.  Military men, especially in\nBritain, appear to have favoured deities like Belatucadros (the brilliant\nin war), identified with Mars.\n\nAbout fourteen inscriptions mentioning him have been found in the North\nof England and the South of Scotland.  The goddess Brigantia (the patron-\ndeity of the Brigantes), too, is mentioned on four inscriptions:\nCocidius, identified with Mars, is mentioned on thirteen: while another\npopular god appears to have been Silvanus.  Among the most noticeable\nnames of the Celtic gods identified with Mercury are Adsmerius or\nAtesmerius, Dumiatis (the god of the Puy de Dome), Iovantucarus (the\nlover of youth), Teutates (the god of the people), Caletos (the hard),\nand Moccus (the boar).  Several deities are identified with Mars, and of\nthese some of the most noticeable names are Albiorix (world-king),\nCaturix (battle-king), Dunatis (the god of the fort), Belatucadrus (the\nbrilliant in war), Leucetius (the god of lightning), Mullo (the mule),\nOllovidius (the all-knowing) Vintius (the wind-god), and Vitucadrus (the\nbrilliant in energy).  The large number of names identified with Mars\nreflects the prominent place at one time given to war in the ideas that\naffected the growth of the religion of the Celtic tribes.  Of the gods\nidentified with Hercules, the most interesting name is Ogmios (the god of\nthe furrow) given by Lucian, but not found on any inscription.  The\nfollowing gods too, among others, are identified with Jupiter: Aramo (the\ngentle), Ambisagrus (the persistent), Bussumarus (the large-lipped),\nTaranucus (the thunderer), Uxellimus (the highest).  It would seem from\nthis that in historic times at any rate Jupiter did not play a large part\nin Celtic religious ideas.\n\nThere remains another striking feature of Celtic religion which has not\nyet been mentioned, namely the identification of several deities with\nApollo.  These deities are essentially the presiding deities of certain\nhealing-springs and health-resorts, and the growth of their worship into\npopularity is a further striking index to the development of religion\nside by side with certain aspects of civilisation.  One of the names of a\nCeltic Apollo is Borvo (whence Bourbon), the deity of certain hot\nsprings.  This name is Indo-European, and was given to the local fountain-\ngod by the Celtic-speaking invaders of Gaul: it simply means 'the\nBoiler.'  Other forms of the name are also found, as Bormo and Bormanus.\nAt Aquae Granni (Aix-la-Chapelle) and elsewhere the name identified with\nApollo is Grannos.  We find also Mogons, and Mogounus, the patron deity\nof Moguntiacum (Mainz), and, once or twice, Maponos (the great youth).\nThe essential feature of the Apollo worship was its association in Gallo-\nRoman civilisation with the idea of healing, an idea which, through the\nrevival of the worship of AEsculapius, affected religious views very\nstrongly in other quarters of the empire.  It was in this conception of\nthe gods as the guides of civilisation and the restorers of health, that\nCeltic religion, in some districts at any rate, shows itself emerging\ninto a measure of light after a long and toilsome progress from the\ndarkness of prehistoric ideas.  What Caesar says of the practice of the\nGauls of beginning the year with the night rather than with the day, and\ntheir ancient belief that they were sprung from Dis, the god of the lower\nworld, is thus typified in their religious history.\n\nIn dealing with the deities of the Celtic world we must not, however,\nforget the goddesses, though their history presents several problems of\ngreat difficulty.  Of these goddesses some are known to us by\ngroups--Proximae (the kinswomen), Dervonnae (the oak-spirits), Niskai\n(the water-sprites), Mairae, Matronae, Matres or Matrae (the mothers),\nQuadriviae (the goddesses of cross roads).  The Matres, Matrae, and\nMatronae are often qualified by some local name.  Deities of this type\nappear to have been popular in Britain, in the neighbourhood of Cologne\nand in Provence.  In some cases it is uncertain whether some of these\ngrouped goddesses are Celtic or Teutonic.  It is an interesting parallel\nto the existence of these grouped goddesses, when we find that in some\nparts of Wales 'Y Mamau' (the mothers) is the name for the fairies.  These\ngrouped goddesses take us back to one of the most interesting stages in\nthe early Celtic religion, when the earth-spirits or the corn-spirits had\nnot yet been completely individualised.  Of the individualised goddesses\nmany are strictly local, being the names of springs or rivers.  Others,\nagain, appear to have emerged into greater individual prominence, and of\nthese we find several associated on inscriptions, sometimes with a god of\nCeltic name, but sometimes with his Latin counterpart.  It is by no means\ncertain that the names so linked together were thus associated in early\ntimes, and the fashion may have been a later one, which, like other\nfashions, spread after it had once begun.  The relationship in some cases\nmay have been regarded as that of mother and son, in others that of\nbrother and sister, in others that of husband and wife, the data are not\nadequate for the final decision of the question.  Of these associated\npairs the following may be noted, Mercurius and Rosmerta, Mercurius and\nDirona, Grannus (Apollo) and Sirona, Sucellus and Nantosvelta, Borvo and\nDamona, Cicolluis (Mars) and Litavis, Bormanus and Bormana, Savus and\nAdsalluta, Mars and Nemetona.  One of these names, Sirona, probably meant\nthe long-lived one, and was applied to the earth-mother.  In Welsh one or\ntwo names have survived which, by their structure, appear to have been\nancient names of goddesses; these are Rhiannon (Rigantona, the great\nqueen), and Modron (Matrona, the great mother).  The other British\ndeities will be more fully treated by another writer in this series in a\nwork on the ancient mythology of the British Isles.  It is enough to say\nthat research tends more and more to confirm the view that the key to the\nhistory of the Celtic deities is the realisation of the local character\nof the vast majority of them.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI--THE CELTIC PRIESTHOOD\n\n\nNo name in connection with Celtic religion is more familiar to the\naverage reader than that of the Druids, yet there is no section of the\nhistory of Celtic religion that has given rise to greater discussion than\nthat relating to this order.  Even the association of the name with the\nIndo-European root _dru_-, which we find in the Greek word _drus_, an\noak, has been questioned by such a competent Celtic scholar as M.\nd'Arbois de Jubainville, but on this point it cannot be said that his\ncriticism is conclusive.  The writers of the ancient world who refer to\nthe Druids, do not always make it sufficiently clear in what districts\nthe rites, ceremonies, and functions which they were describing\nprevailed.  Nor was it so much the priestly character of the Druids that\nproduced the deepest impression on the ancients.  To some philosophical\nand theological writers of antiquity their doctrines and their apparent\naffinities with Pythagoreanism were of much greater interest than their\nceremonial or other functions.  One thing at any rate is clear, that the\nDruids and their doctrines, or supposed doctrines, had made a deep\nimpression on the writers of the ancient world.  There is a reference to\nthem in a fragment of Aristotle (which may not, however, be genuine) that\nis of interest as assigning them a place in express terms both among the\nCelts and the Galatae.  The prominent feature of their teaching which had\nattracted the attention of other writers, such as the historian Diodorus\nSiculus and the Christian theologian Clement of Alexandria, was the\nresemblance of their doctrine concerning the immortality and\ntransmigration of the soul to the views of Pythagoras.  Ancient writers,\nhowever, did not always remember that a religious or philosophical\ndoctrine must not be treated as a thing apart, but must be interpreted in\nits whole context in relation to its development in history and in the\nsocial life of the community in which it has flourished.  To some of the\nancients the superficial resemblance between the Druidic doctrine of the\nsoul's future and the teaching attributed to Pythagoras was the essential\npoint, and this was enough to give the Druids a reputation for\nphilosophy, so that a writer like Clement of Alexandria goes so far as to\nregard the Druids of the 'Galatae' along with the prophets of the\nEgyptians, the 'Chaldaeans' of the Assyrians, the 'philosophers of the\nCelts,' and the Magi of the Persians as the pioneers of philosophy among\nthe barbarians before it spread to the Greeks.  The reason for the\ndistinction drawn in this passage between the 'Druids of the Galatae' and\n'the philosophers of the Celts' is not clear.  Diodorus Siculus calls\nattention to the Druidic doctrine that the souls of men were immortal,\nand that after the lapse of an appointed number of years they came to\nlife again, the soul then entering into another body.  He says that there\nwere certain 'philosophers and theologians' that were called Druids who\nwere held in exceptional honour.  In addition to these, the Celts, he\nsays, had also seers, who foretold the future from the flight of birds\nand by means of the offering of sacrifices.  According to him it was\nthese priestly seers who had the masses in subjection to them.  In great\naffairs they had, he says, the practice of divination by the slaughter of\na human victim, and the observation of the attitude in which he fell, the\ncontortions of the limbs, the spurting of the blood, and the like.  This,\nhe states, was an ancient and established practice.  Moreover, it was the\ncustom, according to Diodorus, to make no sacrifice without the presence\nof a philosopher (apparently a Druid in addition to the sacrificing\nseer), the theory being that those who were authorities on the divine\nnature were to the gods intelligible mediators for the offering of gifts\nand the presentation of petitions.  These philosophers were in great\nrequest, together with their poets, in war as well as in peace, and were\nconsulted not merely by the men of their own side, but also by those of\nthe enemy.  Even when two armies were on the point of joining battle,\nthese philosophers had been able, Diodorus says, to step into the space\nbetween them and to stop them from fighting, exactly as if they had\ncharmed wild beasts.  The moral which Diodorus draws from this is, that\neven among the wildest of barbarians the spirited principle of the soul\nyields to wisdom, and that Ares (the god of war) even there respects the\nMuses.  It is clear from this account that Diodorus had in mind the three\nclasses of non-military professional men among the Celts, to whom other\nancient writers also refer, namely, the Bards, the Seers, and the Druids.\nHis narrative is apparently an expansion, in the light of his reading and\nphilosophical meditation, of information supplied by previous writers,\nnotably Posidonius.  The latter, too, appears to have been Julius Caesar's\nchief authority, in addition to his own observation, but Caesar does not\nappear expressly to indicate the triple division here in question.  The\naccount which he gives is important, and would be even more valuable than\nit is had he told us how far what he describes was written from his own\npersonal information, and the degree of variation (if any) of religious\npractice in different districts.  However, Caesar's statements deserve\nthe closest consideration.  After calling attention to the division of\nthe Gaulish aristocracy into two main sections, the Druids and the\nKnights, he proceeds to speak of the Druids.  These were occupied, he\nsays, with religious matters, they attended to public and private\nsacrifices, and interpreted omens.  Moreover, they were the teachers of\nthe country.  To them the young men congregated for knowledge, and the\npupils held their teachers in great respect.  They, too, were the judges\nin public and private disputes: it was they who awarded damages and\npenalties.  Any contumacy in reference to their judgments was punished by\nexclusion from the sacrifices.  This sentence of excommunication was the\nseverest punishment among the Gauls.  The men so punished were treated as\noutlaws, and cut off from all human society, with its rights and\nprivileges.  Over these Druids there was one head, who wielded the\nhighest influence among them.  On his death the nearest of the others in\ndignity succeeded him, or, if several were equal, the election of a\nsuccessor was made by the vote of the Druids.  Sometimes the primacy was\nnot decided without the arbitrament of arms.  The Druids met at a fixed\ntime of the year in a consecrated spot in the territory of the Carnutes,\nthe district which was regarded as being in the centre of the whole of\nGaul.  This assembly of Druids formed a court for the decision of cases\nbrought to them from everywhere around.  It was thought, Caesar says,\nthat the doctrine of the Druids was discovered in Britain and thence\ncarried over into Gaul.  At that time, too, those who wanted to make a\nprofounder study of it resorted thither for their training.  The Druids\nhad immunity from military service and from the payment of tribute.  These\nprivileges drew many into training for the profession, some of their own\naccord, others at the instance of parents and relatives.  While in\ntraining they were said to learn by heart a large number of verses, and\nsome went so far as to spend twenty years in their course of preparation.\nThe Druids held it wrong to put their religious teaching in writing,\nthough, in almost everything else, whether public or private affairs,\nthey made use of Greek letters.  Caesar thought that they discouraged\nwriting on the one hand, lest their teaching should become public\nproperty; on the other, lest reliance upon writing should lessen the\ncultivation of the memory.  To this risk Caesar could testify from his\nown knowledge.  Their cardinal doctrine was that souls did not perish,\nbut that after death they passed from one person to another; and this\nthey regarded as a supreme incentive to valour, since, with the prospect\nof immortality, the fear of death counted for nothing.  They carried on,\nmoreover, many discussions about the stars and their motion, the\ngreatness of the universe and the lands, the nature of things, the\nstrength and power of the immortal gods, and communicated their knowledge\nto their pupils.  In another passage Caesar says that the Gauls as a\npeople were extremely devoted to religious ideas and practices.  Men who\nwere seriously ill, who were engaged in war, or who stood in any peril,\noffered, or promised to offer, human sacrifices, and made use of the\nDruids as their agents for such sacrifices.  Their theory was, that the\nimmortal gods could not be appeased unless a human life were given for a\nhuman life.  In addition to these private sacrifices, they had also\nsimilar human sacrifices of a public character.  Caesar further contrasts\nthe Germans with the Gauls, saying that the former had no Druids to\npreside over matters of religion, and that they paid no attention to\nsacrifices.\n\nIn his work on divination, Cicero, too, refers to the profession which\nthe Druids made of natural science, and of the power of foretelling the\nfuture, and instances the case of the AEduan Diviciacus, his brother's\nguest and friend.  Nothing is here said by Cicero of the three classes\nimplied in Diodorus, but Timagenes (quoted in Ammianus) refers to the\nthree classes under the names 'bardi,' 'euhages' (a mistake for 'vates'),\nand 'drasidae' (a mistake for 'druidae').  The study of nature and of the\nheavens is here attributed to the second class of seers (vates).  The\nhighest class, that of the Druids, were, he says, in accordance with the\nrule of Pythagoras, closely linked together in confraternities, and by\nacquiring a certain loftiness of mind from their investigations into\nthings that were hidden and exalted, they despised human affairs and\ndeclared the soul immortal.  We see here the view expressed that socially\nas well as intellectually the Druids lived according to the Pythagorean\nphilosophy.  Origen also refers to the view that was prevalent in his\ntime, that Zamolxis, the servant of Pythagoras, had taught the Druids the\nphilosophy of Pythagoras.  He further states that the Druids practised\nsorcery.  The triple division of the non-military aristocracy is perhaps\nbest given by Strabo, the Greek geographer, who here follows Posidonius.\nThe three classes are the Bards, the Seers (ouateis=vates), and Druids.\nThe Bards were hymn-writers and poets, the Seers sacrificers and men of\nscience, while the Druids, in addition to natural science, practised also\nmoral philosophy.  They were regarded as the justest of men, and on this\naccount were intrusted with the settlement of private and public\ndisputes.  They had been the means of preventing armies from fighting\nwhen on the very verge of battle, and were especially intrusted with the\njudgment of cases involving human life.  According to Strabo, they and\ntheir fellow-countrymen held that souls and the universe were immortal,\nbut that fire and water would sometime prevail.  Sacrifices were never\nmade, Strabo says, without the intervention of the Druids.  Pomponius\nMela says that in his time (c. 44 A.D.), though the ancient savagery was\nno more, and the Gauls abstained from human sacrifices, some traces of\ntheir former practices still remained, notably in their habit of cutting\na portion of the flesh of those condemned to death after bringing them to\nthe altars.  The Gauls, he says, in spite of their traces of barbarism,\nhad an eloquence of their own, and had the Druids as their teachers in\nphilosophy.  These professed to know the size and form of the earth and\nof the universe, the motions of the sky and stars, and the will of the\ngods.  He refers, as Caesar does, to their work in education, and says\nthat it was carried on in caves or in secluded groves.  Mela speaks of\ntheir doctrine of immortality, but says nothing as to the entry of souls\ninto other bodies.  As a proof of this belief he speaks of the practice\nof burning and burying with the dead things appropriate to the needs of\nthe living.  Lucan, the Latin poet, in his _Pharsalia_, refers to the\nseclusion of the Druids' groves and to their doctrine of immortality.  The\nScholiasts' notes on this passage are after the manner of their kind, and\nadd very little to our knowledge.  In Pliny's _Natural History_ (xvi,\n249), however, we seem to be face to face with another, though perhaps a\ndistorted, tradition.  Pliny was an indefatigable compiler, and appears\npartly by reading, partly by personal observation, to have noticed phases\nof Celtic religious practices which other writers had overlooked.  In the\nfirst place he calls attention to the veneration in which the Gauls held\nthe mistletoe and the tree on which it grew, provided that that tree was\nthe oak.  Hence their predilection for oak groves and their requirement\nof oak leaves for all religious rites.  Pliny here remarks on the\nconsonance of this practice with the etymology of the name Druid as\ninterpreted even through Greek (the Greek for an oak being _drus_).  Were\nnot this respect for the oak and for the mistletoe paralleled by numerous\nexamples of tree and plant-worship given by Dr. Frazer and others, it\nmight well have been suspected that Pliny was here quoting some writer\nwho had tried to argue from the etymology of the name Druid.  Another\nsuspicious circumstance in Pliny's account is his reference to the\nserpent's egg composed of snakes rolled together into a ball.  He states\nthat he himself had seen such an 'egg,' of about the size of an apple.\nPliny, too, states that Tiberius Caesar abolished by a decree of the\nSenate the Druids and the kind of seers and physicians the Gauls then\nhad.  This statement, when read in its context, probably refers to the\nprohibition of human sacrifices.  The historian Suetonius, in his account\nof the Emperor Claudius, also states that Augustus had prohibited 'the\nreligion of the Druids' (which, he says, 'was one of fearful savagery')\nto Roman citizens, but that Claudius had entirely abolished it.  What is\nhere also meant, in view of the description given of Druidism, is\ndoubtless the abolishing of its human sacrifices.  In later Latin writers\nthere are several references to Druidesses, but these were probably only\nsorceresses.  In Irish the name _drui_ (genitive _druad_) meant a\nmagician, and the word _derwydd_ in mediaeval Welsh was especially used\nin reference to the vaticinations which were then popular in Wales.\n\nWhen we analyse the testimony of ancient writers concerning the Druids,\nwe see in the first place that to different minds the name connoted\ndifferent things.  To Caesar it is the general name for the non-military\nprofessional class, whether priests, seers, teachers, lawyers, or judges.\nTo others the Druids are pre-eminently the philosophers and teachers of\nthe Gauls, and are distinguished from the seers designated _vates_.  To\nothers again, such as Pliny, they were the priests of the oak-ritual,\nwhence their name was derived.  In view of the variety of grades of\ncivilisation then co-existing in Gaul and Britain, it is not improbable\nthat the development of the non-military professional class varied very\nconsiderably in different districts, and that all the aspects of Druidism\nwhich the ancient writers specify found their appropriate places in the\nsocial system of the Celts.  In Gaul and Britain, as elsewhere, the\noffice of the primitive tribal medicine-man was capable of indefinite\ndevelopment, and all the forms of its evolution could not have proceeded\n_pari passu_ where the sociological conditions found such scope for\nvariation.  It may well be that the oak and mistletoe ceremonies, for\nexample, lingered in remote agricultural districts long after they had\nceased to interest men along the main routes of Celtic civilisation.  The\nbucolic mind does not readily abandon the practices of millennia.\n\nIn addition to the term Druid, we find in Aulus Hirtius' continuation of\nCaesar's _Gallic War_ (Bk. viii., c. xxxviii., 2), as well as on two\ninscriptions, one at Le-Puy-en-Velay (Dep. Haute-Loire), and the other at\nMacon (Dep. Saone-et-Loire), another priestly title, 'gutuater.'  At\nMacon the office is that of a 'gutuater Martis,' but of its special\nfeatures nothing is known.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII--THE CELTIC OTHER-WORLD\n\n\nIn the preceding chapter we have seen that the belief was widely\nprevalent among Greek and Roman writers that the Druids taught the\nimmortality of the soul.  Some of these writers, too, point out the\nundoubted fact, attested by Archaeology, that objects which would be\nserviceable to the living were buried with the dead, and this was\nregarded as a confirmation of the view that the immortality of souls was\nto the Celts an object of belief.  The study of Archaeology on the one\nhand, and of Comparative Religion on the other, certainly leads to the\nconclusion that in the Bronze and the Early Iron Age, and in all\nprobability in the Stone Age, the idea prevailed that death was not the\nend of man.  The holed cromlechs of the later Stone Age were probably\ndesigned for the egress and ingress of souls.  The food and the weapons\nthat were buried with the dead were thought to be objects of genuine\nneed.  Roman religion, too, in some of its rites provided means for the\nperiodical expulsion of hungry and hostile spirits of the dead, and for\ntheir pacification by the offer of food.  A tomb and its adjuncts were\nmeant not merely for the honour of the dead, but also for the protection\nof the living.  A clear line of distinction was drawn between satisfied\nand beneficent ghosts like the Manes, and the unsatisfied and hostile\nghosts like the Lemures and Larvae.  To the Celtic mind, when its\nanalytical powers had come to birth, and man was sufficiently\nself-conscious to reflect upon himself, the problem of his own nature\npressed for some solution.  In these solutions the breath, the blood, the\nname, the head, and even the hair generally played a part, but these\nwould not in themselves explain the mysterious phenomena of sleep, of\ndreams, of epilepsy, of madness, of disease, of man's shadow and his\nreflection, and of man's death.  By long familiarity with the scientific\nor quasi-scientific explanations of these things, we find it difficult to\nrealise fully their constant fascination for early man, who had his\nthinkers and philosophies like ourselves.  One very widely accepted\nsolution of early man in the Celtic world was, that within him there was\nanother self which could live a life of its own apart from the body, and\nwhich survived even death, burial, and burning.  Sometimes this inner\nself was associated with the breath, whence, for example, the Latin\n'anima' and the Welsh 'enaid,' both meaning the soul, from the root _an_-,\nto breathe.  At other times the term employed for the second self had\nreference to man's shadow: the Greek 'skia,' the Latin 'umbra,' the Welsh\n'ysgawd,' the English 'shade.'  There are abundant evidences, too, that\nthe life-principle was frequently regarded as being especially associated\nwith the blood.  Another tendency, of which Principal Rhys has given\nnumerous examples in his Welsh folk-lore, was to regard the soul as\ncapable of taking a visible form, not necessarily human, preferably that\nof some winged creature.  In ancient writers there is no information as\nto the views prevalent among the Celts regarding the forms or the abodes\nof the spirits of the dead, beyond the statement that the Druids taught\nthe doctrine of their re-birth.  We are thus compelled to look to the\nevidence afforded by myth, legend, and folk-lore.  These give fair\nindications as to the types of earlier popular belief in these matters,\nbut it would be a mistake to assume that the ideas embodied in them had\nremained entirely unchanged from remote times.  The mind of man at\ncertain levels is quite capable of evolving new myths and fresh folk-lore\nalong the lines of its own psychology and its own logic.  The forms which\nthe soul could take doubtless varied greatly in men's opinions in\ndifferent districts and in different mental perspectives, but folk-lore\ntends to confirm the view that early man, in the Celtic world as\nelsewhere, tended to emphasise his conception of the subtlety and\nmobility of the soul as contrasted with the body.  Sooner or later the\nprimitive philosopher was bound to consider whither the soul went in\ndreams or in death.  He may not at first have thought of any other sphere\nthan that of his own normal life, but other questions, such as the home\nof the spirits of vegetation in or under the earth, would suggest, even\nif this thought had not occurred to him before, that the spirits of men,\ntoo, had entrance to the world below.  Whether this world was further\npictured in imagination depended largely on the poetic genius of any\ngiven people.  The folk-lore of the Celtic races bears abundant testimony\nto their belief that beneath this world there was another.  The 'annwfn'\nof the Welsh was distinctly conceived in the folk-lore embodied in\nmediaeval poetry as being 'is elfydd' (beneath the world).  In mediaeval\nWelsh legend, again, this lower world is regarded as divided into\nkingdoms, like this world, and its kings, like Arawn and Hafgan in the\nMabinogi of Pwyll, are represented as being sometimes engaged in\nconflict.  From this lower world had come to man some of the blessings of\ncivilisation, and among them the much prized gift of swine.  The lower\nworld could be even plundered by enterprising heroes.  Marriages like\nthat of Pwyll and Rhiannon were possible between the dwellers of the one\nworld and the other.  The other-world of the Celts does not seem,\nhowever, to have been always pictured as beneath the earth.  Irish and\nWelsh legend combine in viewing it at times as situated on distant\nislands, and Welsh folk-lore contains several suggestions of another\nworld situated beneath the waters of a lake, a river, or a sea.  In one\nor two passages also of Welsh mediaeval poetry the shades are represented\nas wandering in the woods of Caledonia (Coed Celyddon).  This was no\ndoubt a traditional idea in those families that migrated to Wales in post-\nRoman times from Strathclyde.  To those who puzzled over the fate of the\nsouls of the dead the idea of their re-birth was a very natural solution,\nand Mr. Alfred Nutt, in his _Voyage of Bran_, has called attention to the\noccurrence of this idea in Irish legend.  It does not follow, however,\nthat the souls of all men would enjoy the privilege of this re-birth.  As\nMr. Alfred Nutt points out, Irish legend seems to regard this re-birth\nonly as the privilege of the truly great.  It is of interest to note the\ncurious persistence of similar ideas as to death and the other-world in\nliterature written even in Christian times and by monastic scribes.  In\nWelsh, in addition to Annwfn, a term which seems to mean the 'Not-world,'\nwe have other names for the world below, such as 'anghar,' the loveless\nplace; 'difant,' the unrimmed place (whence the modern Welsh word\n'difancoll,' lost for ever); 'affwys,' the abyss; 'affan,' the land\ninvisible.  The upper-world is sometimes called 'elfydd,' sometimes\n'adfant,' the latter term meaning the place whose rim is turned back.\nApparently it implies a picture of the earth as a disc, whose rim or lip\nis curved back so as to prevent men from falling over into the 'difant,'\nor the rimless place.  In modern Celtic folk-lore the various local other-\nworlds are the abodes of fairies, and in these traditions there may\npossibly be, as Principal Rhys has suggested, some intermixture of\nreminiscences of the earlier inhabitants of the various districts.  Modern\nfolk-lore, like mediaeval legend, has its stories of the inter-marriages\nof natives of this world with those of the other-world, often located\nunderneath a lake.  The curious reader will find several examples of such\nstories in Principal Rhys's collection of Welsh and Manx folk-lore.  In\nIrish legend one of the most classical of these stories is that of the\nbetrothal of Etain, a story which has several points of contact with the\nnarrative of the meeting of Pwyll and Rhiannon in the Welsh Mabinogi.  The\nname of Arthur's wife, Gwenhwyfar, which means 'the White Spectre,' also\nsuggests that originally she too played a part in a story of the same\nkind.  In all these and similar narratives, it is important to note the\nway in which the Celtic conceptions of the other-world, in Britain and in\nIreland, have been coloured by the geographical aspects of these two\ncountries, by their seas, their islands, their caves, their mounds, their\nlakes, and their mountains.  The local other-worlds of these lands bear,\nas we might have expected, the clear impress of their origin.  On the\nwhole the conceptions of the other-world which we meet in Celtic legend\nare joyous; it is a land of youth and beauty.  Cuchulainn, the Irish\nhero, for example, is brought in a boat to an exceedingly fair island\nround which there is a silver wall and a bronze palisade.  In one Welsh\nlegend the cauldron of the Head of Annwfn has around it a rim of pearls.\nOne Irish story has a naive description of the glories of the Celtic\nElysium in the words--'Admirable was that land: there are three trees\nthere always bearing fruit, one pig always alive, and another ready\ncooked.'  Occasionally, however, we find a different picture.  In the\nWelsh poem called 'Y Gododin' the poet Aneirin is represented as\nexpressing his gratitude at being rescued by the son of Llywarch Hen from\n'the cruel prison of the earth, from the abode of death, from the\nloveless land.'  The salient features, therefore, of the Celtic\nconceptions of the other-world are their consonance with the suggestions\nmade by Celtic scenery to the Celtic imagination, the vagueness and\nvariability of these conceptions in different minds and in different\nmoods, the absence of any ethical considerations beyond the incentive\ngiven to bravery by the thought of immortality, and the remarkable\ndevelopment of a sense of possible inter-relations between the two\nworlds, whether pacific or hostile.  Such conceptions, as we see from\nCeltic legend, proved an admirable stimulus and provided excellent\nmaterial for the development of Celtic narrative, and the weird and\nromantic effect was further heightened by the general belief in the\npossibilities of magic and metamorphosis.  Moreover, the association with\ninnumerable place-names of legends of this type gave the beautiful\nscenery of Celtic lands an added charm, which has attached their\ninhabitants to them with a subtle and unconquerable attachment scarcely\nintelligible to the more prosaic inhabitants of prosaic lands.  To the\npoetic Celt the love of country tends to become almost a religion.  The\nCeltic mind cannot remain indifferent to lands and seas whose very beauty\ncompels the eyes of man to gaze upon them to their very horizon, and the\nlines of observation thus drawn to the horizon are for the Celt continual\ntemptations to the thought of an infinity beyond.  The preoccupation of\nthe Celtic mind with the deities of his scenery, his springs, his rivers,\nhis seas, his forests, his mountains, his lakes, was in thorough keeping\nwith the tenour of his mind, when tuned to its natural surroundings.  In\ndealing with Celtic religion, mythology, and legend, it is not so much\nthe varying local and temporal forms that demand our attention, as the\nall-pervading and animating spirit, which shows its essential character\neven through the scanty remains of the ancient Celtic world.  Celtic\nreligion bears the impress of nature on earth far more than nature in the\nheavens.  The sense of the heaven above has perhaps survived in some of\nthe general Indo-European Celtic terms for the divine principle, and\nthere are some traces of a religious interest in the sun and the god of\nthunder and lightning, but every student of Celtic religion must feel\nthat the main and characteristic elements are associated with the earth\nin all the variety of its local phenomena.  The great earth-mother and\nher varied offspring ever come to view in Celtic religion under many\nnames, and the features even of the other-world could not be dissociated\nfor the Celt from those of his mother-earth.  The festivals of his year,\ntoo, were associated with the decay and the renewal of her annual life.\nThe bonfires of November, May, Midsummer, and August were doubtless meant\nto be associated with the vicissitudes of her life and the spirits that\nwere her children.  For the Celt the year began in November, so that its\nsecond half-year commenced with the first of May.  The idea to which\nCaesar refers, that the Gauls believed themselves descended from Dis, the\ngod of the lower world, and began the year with the night, counting their\ntime not by days but by nights, points in the same direction, namely that\nthe darkness of the earth had a greater hold on the mind than the\nbrightness of the sky.  The Welsh terms for a week and a fortnight,\n_wythnos_ (eight nights) and _pythefnos_ (fifteen nights) respectively\nconfirm Caesar's statement.  To us now it may seem more natural to\nassociate religion with the contemplation of the heavens, but for the\nCeltic lands at any rate the main trend of the evidence is to show that\nthe religious mind was mainly drawn to a contemplation of the earth and\nher varied life, and that the Celt looked for his other-world either\nbeneath the earth, with her rivers, lakes, and seas, or in the islands on\nthe distant horizon, where earth and sky met.  This predominance of the\nearth in religion was in thorough keeping with the intensity of religion\nas a factor in his daily pursuits.  It was this intensity that gave the\nDruids at some time or other in the history of the Western Celts the\npower which Caesar and others assign to them.  The whole people of the\nGauls, even with their military aristocracy, were extremely devoted to\nreligious ideas, though these led to the inhumanity of human sacrifices.\nAt one time their sense of the reality of the other-world was so great,\nthat they believed that loans contracted in this world would be repaid\nthere, and practical belief could not go much further than that.  All\nthese considerations tend to show how important it is, in the comparative\nstudy of religions, to investigate each religion in its whole\nsociological and geographical environment as well as in the etymological\nmeaning of its terms.\n\nIn conclusion, the writer hopes that this brief sketch, which is based on\nan independent study of the main evidence for the religious ideas and\npractices of the Celtic peoples, will help to interest students of\nreligion in the dominant modes of thought which from time immemorial held\nsway in these lands of the West of Europe, and which in folk-lore and\ncustom occasionally show themselves even in the midst of our highly\ndeveloped and complex civilisation of to-day.  The thought of early man\non the problems of his being--for after all his superstitions reveal\nthought--deserve respect, for in his efforts to think he was trying to\ngrope towards the light.\n\n\n\n\nSHORT BIBLIOGRAPHY\n\n\nRHYS, _Hibbert Lectures on Celtic Heathendom_.\n\nRHYS, _Celtic Folk-lore_, _Welsh and Manx_.\n\nREINACH, S., _Cultes_, _Mythes et Religion_.\n\nNUTT, ALFRED, _The Voyage of Bran_.\n\nSQUIRE, _Mythology of the British Islands_.\n\nGAIDOZ, _Esqiusse de Mythologie gauloise_.\n\nBERTRAND, _La Religion des Gaulois_, _les Druides et le Druidisme_.\n\nFRAZER, _The Golden Bough_.\n\nJOYCE, _The Social History of Ireland_.\n\nD'ARBOIS DE JUBAINVILLE, _Les Druides et les dieux celtiques a forme\nd'animaux_.\n\nWINDISCH, _Irische Texte mit Worterbuch_.\n\nCYNDDELW, _Cymru Fu_.\n\nFOULKES, _Enwogion Cymru_.\n\nCAMPBELL, _Popular Tales of the West Highlands_.","title":"Celtic religion in pre-Christian times","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":14225}