You may think that, as the Britons had such poor houses and beds, they were not much better off for clothes.
In the winter they used to wrap themselves up in the skins of the beasts they could shoot with their bows and arrows. In the summer they were naked, and instead of clothes they put paint upon their bodies. They were very fond of a fine blue color, made out of a plant, called Woad, which they found in their woods. They squeezed out the juice of the Woad, and then stained themselves all over with it, so that in summer they looked as if they were dressed in tight blue clothes.
They were as ill off for eating as for clothes. Only a few of the very richest Britons could get bread; the rest of the people ate acorns and berries, which they found in the woods, instead of bread. They had beef, mutton, and deer, and hares, and wild birds. They drank milk, and knew how to make cheese; but most of them were forced to spend a good deal of time in hunting for wild animals in the woods, and often went without their dinners when they could not get near enough to a beast or bird to shoot it with their arrows.
In time, however, the Britons in the south learned how to grow corn, to work in metal, and other useful things. They traded with the nearest part of Europe, which is now called France, but was then named Gaul. They were very brave in war, and fought from chariots, with blades like scythes sticking out to cut down their enemies.
CHAPTER II.
Religion of the ancient Britons—the Druids—the misletoe—the Druids’ songs.
I am sorry to say that the old Britons had no churches; and they did not know anything about the true God. Their oldest and cleverest men only thought God must be somewhere, and because they saw that oaks were the largest, and oldest, and best trees in the woods, they told the people that God must be where the oaks grew; but they were mistaken, you know, for God is in heaven, and He made the oaks, and everything else that you can see, and everything that you can think of. But as these poor people did not know any better, they chose some of the oldest and wisest men to be their priests, and to say prayers for them, under the shade of the oaks. These priests they call Druids. They had long white beards, and wore better clothes than the other people, for they had white linen robes. They knew how to cure sick people, by giving them different parts of the plants that grew in the woods; and if they were burnt, or cut, they made salves to heal them; and they would not teach the common people how to use these things of themselves, so everybody was obliged to go to them for help. And the people gave the Druids a part of what they had, whether it was corn, or warm skins to make beds of, or paint, or tin, or copper, or silver, that they found among the mountains, for curing them.
One of the things they used to cure the sick people with, was a plant called misletoe. It does not grow on the ground, but on the branches of trees; sometimes, but rarely, on the oak. The Druids knew the time of year when its berries were ripe, and made a great feast, and all the people came to it; and the oldest Druid, dressed in white, and with a white band round his head, used to take a golden sickle, and go up into the trees where the misletoe grew, and cut it while the others sang songs, and said some prayers to their false gods, because they did not know the true God.
These Druids used to advise the kings what to do, and what rules to give the people; and because nobody in England could write, the Druids made songs and verses about everything that happened, and taught them to the young people, that they might teach them again to their children. Those who made these songs were called Bards.
Now you know that, though it is a very good thing to be able to repeat fine verses about things that happened long ago, it is much better to have them written down; because people might forget some of the verses, and then their children would not know what had happened in their country before they lived themselves.