“In the first place, then, uncle, what were those mysterious Druids?”
“The Druids were the priests or ministers of the religion of the ancient Britons. Their worship was devoted chiefly to the sun; but they had, it is thought, several inferior deities. They offered human victims in sacrifice, and practised many extraordinary rites; the caverns and gloomy groves of oak in which they dwelt, and the dread which hung over their mysterious worship, gave them a terrific influence over the minds of the people. Music aided superstition in preserving this influence; for they were attended by bards, whose effusions, supposed to be inspired, either raised or lulled the passions as they chose. This is expressed in the address of the chorus in Caractacus to Mador the chief of bards:—
Mador, thou
Alone shalt lift thy voice; no choral peal
Shall drown thy solemn warblings; thou best know’st
That opiate charm which lulls corporeal sense:
Thou hast the key, great Bard! that best can ope
The portal of the soul; unlock it straight,
And lead the pensive pilgrim on her way
Through the vast regions of futurity.
“The Druids alone had the privilege of wearing white clothes; their persons were inviolable; and they were exempted from all service and taxes. What little knowledge there was in those times was entirely confined to them; so that, besides their priestly duties, the practice of medicine and the administration of justice were in their hands; and those who resisted their decrees were placed under a dreadful ban, or interdict, during which no one dared to speak or look at the culprit. Thus possessing all the real power of the state, and venerated as the immediate interpreters of the gods, the children of the highest families were eagerly made over to them; and even princes were ambitious to belong to their fraternity. This unbounded influence and their great riches naturally exciting the jealousy of the Romans, in the reigns of Claudius and of Nero, they were nearly destroyed; and the oak woods of Anglesea, or, as it was then called, Mona, the residence of the chief Druid, were burned. There are still many remains of their temples in this island, and it is said that some of their caves have been traced,
—————— where underneath
The soil we tread, a hundred secret paths,
Scooped through the living rock in winding maze,
Lead to as many caverns dark and deep.
“You spoke of their riches, papa,” said Mary; “but by what means could those inhabitants of rocks and woods have acquired any?”
“I think we may conclude that those who possessed such an unlimited ascendancy over the people must have known how to enrich themselves; and you may also recollect, that as their principal establishments were in our best mining districts, it is probable that they supplied the country with all the tin, copper, and lead that were used. It has been further suggested that they availed themselves of the famous Parys copper mine in this island, not only for its valuable produce, but for the purpose of imposing on the credulity and superstition of their followers; for the apparent conversion of bits of iron into copper, when steeped in the strongly saturated water of the mine, as well as the blood-coloured streams which were thus produced, could have been easily represented as resulting from the supernatural power of those crafty impostors.”
“You said, uncle, that the worship of the Druids was chiefly directed to the Sun; from which I suppose they were the fire-worshippers you mentioned on May-day, who came here from the East.”
In reply, my uncle told me, that “there certainly were some points of resemblance between the Persian Magi and the Druids of Britain. They were each forbidden to worship the deity within covered buildings; and all acts of devotion were confined to open temples or consecrated forests. Like the Persians, they beheld the Creator in the works of nature; and gigantic trees and massive rocks, were the symbols of Almighty power which they most admired.
“The Druids and the Baal worshippers of Asia formed sacred heaps of stones on the tops of the hills. Many of these are to be found in Cornwall, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland—and the name which they bear of Cairn, is derived from a Hebrew word descriptive of buildings like the pyramids of Egypt, or the cone-shaped pagodas of India, which are supposed to have been emblematical of the rays of the sun.”