THE BRITISH DRUIDS, OR MAGI--ORIGIN OF FAIRIES--ANCIENT
SUPERSTITIONS----THEIR SKILL IN MEDECINE, &C.
The British Druids, like the Indian Gymnosophists, or the Persian Magi,
had two sets of doctrines; the first for the initiated; the second for
the people. That there is one God the creator of heaven and earth, was a
secret doctrine of the Brachmans. And the nature and perfection of the
deity were among the druidical arcana.
Among the sublimer tenets of the druidical priesthood, we have every
where apparent proofs of their polytheism: and the grossness of their
religious ideas, as represented by some writers, is very inconsistent
with that divine philosophy which has been considered as a part of their
character. These, however, were popular divinities which the Druids
ostensibly worshipped, and popular notions which they ostensibly
adopted, in conformity with the prejudices of the vulgar. The Druids
well knew that the common people were no philosophers. There is reason
also, to think that a great part of the idolatries were not sanctioned
by the Druids, but afterwards introduced by the Phoenician colony. But
it would be impossible to say how far the primitive Druids accommodated
themselves to vulgar superstition, or to separate their exterior
doctrines and ceremonies from the fables and absurd rites of subsequent
times. It would be vain to attempt to enumerate their gods: in the eye
of the vulgar they defied everything around them. They worshipped the
spirits of the mountains, the vallies, and the rivers. Every rock and
every spring were either the instruments or the objects of admiration.
The moonlight vallies of Danmonium were filled with the fairy people,
and its numerous rivers were the resort of genii.
The fiction of fairies is supposed to have been brought, with other
extravagancies of a like nature from the Eastern nations, whilst the
Europeans and Christians were engaged in the holy war: such at least is
the notion of an ingenious writer, who thus expresses himself: "Nor were
the monstrous embellishments of enchantments the invention of romancers,
but formed upon Eastern tales, brought thence by travellers from their
crusades and pilgrimages, which indeed, have a cast peculiar to the wild
imagination of the Eastern people."[22]
That fairies, in particular, came from the East, we are assured by that
learned orientalist, M. Herbelot, who tells us that the Persians called
the fairies _Peri_, and the Arabs _Genies_, that according: to the
Eastern fiction, there is a certain country inhabited by fairies, called
Gennistan, which answers to our _fairy-land_.[23] Mr. Martin, in his
observations on Spencer's Fairy Queen, is decided in his opinion, that
the fairies came from the East; but he justly remarks, that they were
introduced into the country long before the period of the crusades. The
race of fairies, he informs us, was established in Europe in very early
times, but, "_not universally_." The fairies were confined to the north
of Europe--to the _ultima Thule_--to the _British isles_--to the
_divisis orbe Britannis_. They were unknown at this remote era to the
Gauls or the Germans: and they were probably familiar to the vallies of
Scotland and Danmonium, when Gaul and Germany were yet unpeopled either
by real or imaginary beings. The belief indeed, of such invisible agents
assigned to different parts of nature, prevails at this very day in
Scotland, Devonshire and Cornwall, regularly transmitted from the
remotest antiquity to the present times, and totally unconnected with
the spurious romance of the crusader or the pilgrim. Hence those
superstitious notions now existing in our western villages, where the
spriggian[24] are still believed to delude benighted travellers, to
discover hidden treasures, to influence the weather, and to raise the
winds. "This," says Warton, "strengthens the hypotheses of the northern,
parts of Europe being peopled by colonies from the east!"
The inhabitants of Shetland and the Isles pour libations of milk or
beer through a holed-stone, in honour of the spirit Brownie; and it is
probable the Danmonii were accustomed to sacrifice to the same spirit,
since the Cornish and the Devonians on the border of Cornwall, invoke to
this day the spirit Brownie, on the swarming of their bees.
With respect to rivers, it is a certain fact that the primitive Britons
paid them divine honours; even now, in many parts of Devonshire and
Cornwall, the vulgar may be said to worship brooks and wells, to which
they resort at stated periods, performing various ceremonies in honour
of those consecrated waters: and the Highlanders, to this day, talk with
great respect of the genius of the sea; never bathe in a fountain, lest
the elegant spirit that resides in it should be offended and remove; and
mention not the water of rivers without prefixing to it the name of
_excellent_; and in one of the western islands the inhabitants retained
the custom, to the close of the last century, of making an annual
sacrifice to the genius of the ocean. That at this day the inhabitants
of India deify their principal rivers is a well known fact; the waters
of the Ganges possess an uncommon sanctity; and the modern Arabians,
like the Ishmaelites of old, concur with the Danmonii in their reverence
of springs and fountains. Even the names of the Arabian and Danmonian
wells have a striking correspondence. We have the _singing-well_; or the
_white-fountain_, and there are springs with similar names in the
deserts of Arabia. Perhaps the veneration of the Danmonii for fountains
and rivers may be accepted as no trivial proof, to be thrown into the
mass of circumstantial evidence, in favour of their Eastern original.
That the Arabs in their thirsty deserts, should even adore their wells
of "springing water," need not excite our surprise, but we may justly
wonder at the inhabitants of Devonshire and Cornwall thus worshipping
the gods of numerous rivers, and never failing brooks, familiar to every
part of Danmonium.
The principal times of devotion among the Druids
were either mid-day or midnight. The officiating Druid was cloathed in a
white garment that swept the ground; on his head, he wore the tiara; he
had the _anguinum_ or serpent's egg, as the ensign of his order; his
temples were encircled with a wreath of oak-leaves, and he waved in his
hand the magic rod. As regards the Druid sacrifice there are vague and
contradictory representations. It is certain, however, that they offered
human victims to their gods. They taught that the punishment of the
wicked might be obliterated by sacrifices to Baal.[25] The sacrifice of
the black sheep, therefore, was offered up for the souls of the
departed, and various species of charms exhibited. Traces of the holy
fires, and fire worship of the Druids[26] may be observed in several
customs, both of the Devonians and the Cornish; but in Ireland may still
be seen the holy fires in all their solemnity. The Irish call the month
of May _Bel-tine_, or fire of Belus; and the first of May Lubel-tine, or
the day of Belus's fire. In an old Irish glossary, it is mentioned that
the Druids of Ireland used to light two solemn fires every year, through
which all four-footed beasts were driven, as a preservative against
contagious distempers. The Irish have this custom at the present moment,
they kindle the fire in the milking yards; men, women, and children pass
through or leap over it, and their cattle are driven through the flames
of the burning straw, on the _first of May_; and in the month of
November, they have also their fire feasts when, according to the custom
of the Danmonians, as well as the Irish Druids, the hills were enveloped
in flame. Previously to this solemnity (on the eve of November) the fire
in every private house was extinguished; hither, then, the people were
obliged to resort, in order to rekindle it. The ancient Persians named
the month of November, _Adur or fire_ Adur, according to Richardson was
the angel presiding over that element, in consequence of which, on the
ninth, his name-day, the country blazed all around with flaming piles,
whilst the magi, by the injunction of Zoroaster, visited with great
solemnity all the temples of fire throughout the empire; which, on this
occasion, were adorned and illuminated in a most splendid manner. Hence
our British illuminations in November had probably their origin. It was
at this season that _Baal Samham_ called the souls to judgment, which,
according to their deserts, were assigned to re-enter the bodies of men
or brutes, and to be happy or miserable during their next abode on the
earth.
The primitive Christians, attached to their pagan ceremonies, placed
the feast of All-Souls on the la Samon, or the second of November. Even
now the peasants in Ireland assemble on the vigil of la Samon with
sticks and clubs, going from house to house, collecting money,
bread-cake, butter, cheese, eggs, etc., for the feast; repeating verses
in honour of the solemnity, and calling for the black sheep. Candles are
sent from house to house and lighted up on the Samon. (The next day.)
Every house abounds in the best viands the master can afford; apples and
nuts are eaten in great plenty; the nutshells are burnt, and from the
ashes many things are foretold. Hempseed is sown by the maidens, who
believe that, if they look back, they shall see the apparition of their
intended husbands. The girls make various efforts to read their destiny;
they hang a smock before the fire at the close of the feast, and sit up
all night concealed in one corner of the room, expecting the apparition
of the lover to come down the chimney and turn the _shimee_: they throw
a ball of yarn out of the window, and wind it on the reel within,
convinced that if they repeat the Paternoster backwards, and look at the
ball of yarn without, they shall then also see his apparition. Those who
celebrate this feast have numerous other rites derived from the Pagans.
They dip for apples in a tub of water, and endeavour to bring up one
with their mouths; they catch at an apple when stuck on at one of the
end of a kind of hanging beam, at the other extremity of which is fixed
a lighted candle, and that with their mouths only, whilst it is in a
circular motion, having their hands tied behind their backs.[27]
THE BRITISH MAGI.
The Druids, who were the magi of the Britons, had an infinite number of
rites in common with the Persians. One of the chief functions of the
Eastern magi, was divination; and Pomponius Mela tells us, that our
Druids possessed the same art. There was a solemn rite of divination
among the Druids from the fall of the victim and convulsions of his
limbs, or the nature and position of his entrails. But the British
priests had various kinds of divination. By the number of criminal
causes, and by the increase or diminution of their own order, they
predicted fertility or scarcity. From the neighing or prancing of white
horses, harnessed to a consecrated chariot--from the turnings and
windings of a hare let loose from the bosom of the diviner (with a
variety of other ominous appearances or exhibitions) they pretended to
determine the events of futurity.[28]
Of all creatures the serpent exercised, in the most curious manner, the
invention of the Druids. To the famous _anguinum_ they attributed high
virtues. The _anguinum_ or serpent's egg, was a congeries of small
snakes rolled together, and incrusted with a shell, formed by the saliva
or viscous gum, or froth of the mother serpent. This egg, it seems was
tossed into the air, by the hissings of its dam, and before it fell
again to the earth (where it would be defiled) it was to be received in
the sagus or sacred vestment. The person who caught the egg was to make
his escape on horseback, since the serpent pursues the ravisher of its
young, even to the brink of the next river. Pliny, from whom this
account is taken (lib. 29. C. 3.) proceeds with an enumeration of other
absurdities relating to the anguinum. This _anguinum_ is in British
called _Glain-neider_, or the serpent of glass; and the same
superstitious reverence which the Danmonii universally paid to the
anguinum, is still discoverable in some parts of Cornwall. Mr. Llhuyd
informs us that "the Cornish retain a variety of charms, and have still
towards the Land's-End, the amulets of Maen-Magal and Glain-neider,
which latter they call _Melprer_, and have a charm for the snake to make
it, when they find one asleep, and stick a hazel wand in the centre of
her spirae," or coils.
We are informed by Cambden that, "in most parts of Wales, and
throughout all Scotland and Cornwall, it is an opinion of the vulgar,
that about midsummer-eve (though in the time they do not all agree) the
snakes meet in companies, and that by joining heads together and
hissing, a kind of bubble is formed, which the rest, by continual
hissing, blow on till it passes quite through the body, when it
immediately hardens, and resembles a glass-ring, which whoever finds
shall prosper in all his undertakings. The rings thus generated are
called _Gleiner-nadroeth_, or snake-stones. They are small glass
amulets, commonly about half as wide as our finger rings, but much
thicker, of a green colour usually, though sometimes blue, and waved
with red and white."
Carew says, that "the country people, in Cornwall, have a persuasion
that the snake's breathing upon a hazel wand produces a stone ring of
blue colour, in which there appears the yellow figure of a snake, and
that beasts bit and envenomed, being given some water to drink wherein
this stone has been infused, will perfectly recover the poison."[29]
From the animal, the Druids passed to the vegetable world; and these
also displayed their powers, whilst by the charms of the misletoe, the
selago, and the samopis, they prevented or repelled diseases. From the
undulation or bubbling of water stirred by an oak branch, or magic wand,
they foretold events that were to come. The superstition of the Druids
is even now retained in the western counties. To this day, the Cornish
have been accustomed to consult their famous well at Madem, or rather
the _spirit_ of the well, respecting their future destiny.
"Hither," says Borlase, "come the uneasy, impatient, and superstitious,
and by dropping pins[30] or pebbles into the water, and by shaking the
ground round the spring, so as to raise bubbles from the bottom, at a
certain time of the year, moon and day, endeavour to remove their
uneasiness; yet the supposed responses serve equally to encrease the
gloom of the melancholy, the suspicions of the jealous, and the passion
of the enamoured. The Castalian fountain, and many others among the
Grecians were supposed to be of a prophetic nature. By dipping a fair
mirror into a well, the Patraeans of Greece received, as they supposed,
some notice of ensuing sickness or health from the various figures
pourtrayed upon the surface. The people of Laconia cast into a pool,
sacred to Juno, cakes of bread corn: if the cakes sunk, good was
portended; if they swam, something dreadful was to ensue. Sometimes the
superstitious threw three stones into the water, and formed their
conclusions from the several turns they made in sinking." The Druids
were likewise able to communicate, by consecration, the most portentous
virtues to rocks and stones, which could determine the succession of
princes or the fate of empires. To the Rocking or Logan stone, several
of which remain still in Devonshire and Cornwall, in particular, they
had recourse to confirm their authority, either as prophets or judges,
pretending that its motion was miraculous. These religious rites were
celebrated in consecrated places and temples, in the midst of groves.
The mysterious silence of an ancient wood diffuses even a shade of
horror over minds that are yet superior to superstitious credulity.
Their temple was seldom any other than a wide circle of rocks
perpendicularly raised. An artificial pile of large flat stone usually
composed the altar; and the whole religious mountain was usually
enclosed by a low mound, to prevent the intrusion of the profane. "There
was something in the Druidical species of heathenism," exclaims Mr.
Whitaker, in a style truly oriental, "that was well calculated to arrest
the attention and impress the mind. The rudely majestic circle of stones
in their temples, the enormous Cromlech, the massy Logan, the huge
Carnedde, and the magnificent amphitheatre of woods, would all very
strongly lay hold upon that religious thoughtfulness of soul, which has
ever been so natural to man, amid all the wrecks of humanity--the
monument of his former perfection!" That Druidism, as existing
originally in Devonshire and Cornwall, was immediately transported, in
all its purity and perfection, from the East, seems extremely probable.
Among the sacred rites of the Druids there were none more celebrated
than that they used of the misletoe of the oak. They believed this tree
was chosen by God himself. The misletoe was what they found but seldom:
whenever, therefore, they met with it, they fetched it with great
ceremony, and did it on the sixth day of the moon, with which day they
began both their months and their years. They gave a name to this shrub,
denoting that it had the virtue of curing all diseases. They sacrificed
victims to it, believing that, by its virtue, the barren were made
fruitful. They looked upon it likewise as a preservative against all
poisons. Thus do several nations of the world place their religion in
the observation of trifles.
The Druids were also extremely superstitious in relation to the herb
_selago_, which they reckoned a preservative against sore eyes, and
almost all misfortunes. Another herb called samotis, which they imagined
had a virtue to prevent diseases among cattle, they were very
ceremonious about gathering. The person was obliged to be clad in white,
and was not suffered to handle it; and the ceremony was preceded by a
sacrifice of bread and wine.
The Druids had another superstition amongst them, in regard to their
serpents' eggs, which they supposed were formed of the saliva of many of
those creatures, at a certain time of the moon: these they looked upon
as a sure prognostic of getting the better of their enemies. These, with
many other ridiculous fooleries, were imposed upon the credulous people,
as they were very much attached to divination. The Druids regarded the
misletoe as an antidote against all poisons, and they preserved their
selago against all misfortunes. The Persians had the same confidence in
the efficacy of several herbs, and used them in a similar manner. The
Druids cut their misletoe with a golden hook, and the Persians cut the
twigs of _Ghez_, or _haulm_, called _bursam_, with a peculiar sort of
concentrated knife. The candidates for the British throne had recourse
to the fatal stone to determine their pretensions; and on similar
occasions the Persians had recourse to the _Artizoe_.
From every view of the Druid religion, Mr. Polwhele concludes that it
derived its origin from the Persian magi. Dr. Borlasse has drawn a long
and elaborate parallel between the Druids and Persians, where he has
plainly proved that they resembled each other, as strictly as possible,
in every particular of religion.[31]
FOOTNOTES:
[22] Supplement to the translated preface to Jarvis's Don Quixote.
[23] That the Druids worshipped rocks, stones, and fountains, and
imagined them inhabited, and actuated by _divine intelligences of a
lower rank_, may plainly be inferred from their stone monuments. These
inferior deities the Cornish call _spriggian, or spirits_, which answer
to genii or fairies; and the vulgar in Cornwall still discourse of them,
as of real beings.
[24] See Macpherson's Introduction to the history of great Britain and
Ireland.
[25] This idol, which is called by the Septuagint, Baal, is mentioned in
other parts of scripture by other names. To understand what this god
was, we may observe, that the deities of the Greeks and Romans come from
the East; and it is a tradition among the ancient and modern heathens
that this idol was an obscure deity, which may plead excuse for not
translating some passages concerning it; and this is agreeable to Hosea
(ix. 10). They _went out_ into _Baal Pheor_, and _separated themselves
to their shame_. And it is the opinion of Jerome, who quotes it from an
ancient tradition of the Jews, that _Baal Pheor_ is the _Priapus_ of the
Greeks and Romans; and if you look into the vulgar latin (1 Kings xv.
13.) we shall find it thus rendered, _and Asa, the King removed_ Maacha,
_his mother from being queen, that she might no longer be high Priestess
in the sacrifices of Priapus_. And he destroyed the grove she had
consecrated, and broke the most filthy idol, and burnt it at the brook
_Kedron_. Dr. Cumberland inserts, that the import of the word _Peor_, or
_Baal Pheor_, is he that shews boastingly or publicly, his nakedness.
Women to avoid barrenness, were to sit on this filthy image, as the
source of fruitfulness; for which Lactantius and Augustine justly deride
the heathens.
[26] There was an awful mysteriousness in the original Druid sacrifice.
Descanting upon the human sacrifices of various countries, Mr. Bryant
informs us, that among the nations of Canaan, _the_ victims _were chosen
in a peculiar manner_; their own children, and whatsoever was nearest
and dearest to them, were thought the most worthy offerings to their
gods! The Carthagenians, who were a colony from Tyre, carried with them
the religion of their mother country and instituted the same worship in
the parts where they were seated. Parents offered up their own children
as dearest to themselves, and therefore the more acceptable to the
deity: they sacrificed "the fruit of their body for the sin of their
soul," The Druids, no doubt, were actuated with the same views.
[27] There is no sort of doubt that _Baal_ and _Fire_ were principal
objects of the ceremonies and adoration of the Druids. The principal
season of these, and of their feasts in honour of Baal, was new year's
day, when the sun began visibly to return towards us; the custom is not
yet at an end, the country people still burning out the old year and
welcoming in the new by fires lighted on the top of hills, and other
high places. The next season was the month of May, when the fruits of
the earth began, in the Eastern countries, to be gathered, and the first
fruits of them consecrated to Baal, or to the _Sun_, whose benign
influence had ripened them; and one is almost persuaded that the dance
round the May pole, in that month, is a faint image of the rites
observed on such occasions. The next great festival was on the 21st of
June, when the sun, being in Cancer, first appears to go backwards and
leave us. On this occasion the Baalim used to call the people together,
and to light fires on high places, and to cause their sons, and their
daughters, and their cattle to pass through the fire, calling upon Baal
to bless them, and not forsake them.
[28] In Devonshire and Cornwall it is still considered ominous if a hare
crosses a person on the road.
[29] See _Carew's Survey of Cornwall_, p. 22. Mr. Carew had a stone-ring
of this kind in his possession, and the person who gave it to him
avowed, that "he himself saw a part of the stick sticking in it,"--but
"_Penes authorem sit fides_," says Mr. Carew.
[30] The same superstition still exists in Devonshire.
[31] See account of Druidism in Polewhele's Historical Views of
Devonshire, vol. 1.