From other classic authors we learn that they held the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, which, as
they taught, does not perish, fafot paaes aiks into other bodies, either directly or iftsa time. They used this belief as an iaeeetin te %| among their countrymen, since death vas o^ tk* trance-way to a higher and better lifb for tie bn man, and in keeping with thb faith tlwj pit cf a settlement of accounts and the exactioo it (kte the future meeting in another life, and sho teziad n the dead articles useful to the living, of w]aA ^via we find proof in the contents of their btrrovs sr^ exhumed in recent times. Cesar's aoo^at kae implies a recognition of the vicarioa$ natsre dm> fices. Strabo says that they taught that tfaa &ai world would never be annihilated, but maSap i «• cession of revolutions through the igeocy dktti water : this latter element, it would appear five tfis accounts, they also held sacred, and in aam mci t? shipped. Diogenes Laertius sums op their etbd t^ tem with that of the Hindoo gynmo60|tl^ k ^ favorite triad form, ^* to honor the godi, to k bo ri and to practice manliness." Accordmg te H^pu the characteristics of Druidism in aD agei tai a:ia\ were * * the worship of one supreme Beiag tlie itrsai of metempsychosis and future rewards ndp^i ments, hatred of images, open circular Usijin, & worship of fire as the emblem of the saa,tk «ieia> tion of the most ancient Tauric festiTal, lad tk jc session of a seventeen-letter alphabet, di&es^ tiar: instructions were always orally given."
In their character of priests thej bad csitid <f u; matters pertaining to divine worship, officirted ua public and private sacrifices and other oereiB«l:3i In the gloomy recesses of their deqily-sbdei a^ grove temples, human victims writhed BDdff tbe ici baric cruelty of their forms of sacrifice. Soee^ the victim was stabbed above the diaphngia, sr ^ during a lingering death auguries might be l^n-j firom the contortions of the rafierer, aod the mr^ and flow of his blood. Some were cnc^: »» shot to death with arrows. Sometimes hoge mas of wicker-work were filled with liring men, & aa and animals, and then sot on fire, so that all paisM together. Diodoms states that crimioals wm ^ under ground fbr five years, and then saoffiee^ U'tit gods by being impaled and burned in grBBtfre^^ gether with vast quantities of other offeihigs; ts^^ prisoners taken in war were immolated, and viii:^ the captured cattle destroyed. C»ar tari tbi t^ held criminals to be the more acceptable aSein ^ the gods, but in default of such victims tbejr w^^ the innocent. We may suppose that in some of C9 cases civil and not religious ends were eoagiHB' ishment and not sacrifice.
In the capacity of judges they took eegaiseff ^ all questions, civil and criminal, pul^ aad fcivia enforcing their decrees by the terrible powerf «>| terdict applied to communities as well as iadiniiu^ which excluded the recusants fW>n) the sacnko.^' consequently fh>m the associadon or i^psthrcf -'| ers, who shunned the excommunicatad ai bebf v^ out the pale of human or divine protection, ifi^i^^ ing with their guilt and pollution all who hcH tfj ^ teroourse with them. Accordmg to C«sar, ml 5*1 at a stated period, the Gallic Druids were voat t« H in a consecrated place within the territories <tftbr Ci^ nutes, whither all litigants repaired to hare thdr ^ troversies decided. This would seem to hsn \ff-* high court of appeals, and perhaps a like oae fo ^ ain met at Stonehenge, (nr in the ialasd of Aa^ the ancient Mona.
They were also the teachers of youth, and pa«*' some knowledge of Astronomy, Geography, G«®f^ Botany, Medicine, Physics, Mathematici, Rl***^ " other polite arts. This, in addition to their iwp* doctrines, was imparted to the pupils who dir^ their schools. Attracted by the bonon and priva? belonging to their order, many even of noHe ts.
DRUMMOND
899
DRFSES
irly sought admission into it^ though a rigid novi- s, sometiines lasting twenty years, was required, ast n amber of verses, in wMch doubtless the his- , doctrines, and precepts of the order were con> ed, had to be committed to memory, for the Druids ade the writing out of these instructions, although, »rdins to Csesar, they were acquainted with written racters, and used them for other purposes. Wliile r sanction was requisite in all undertakings, they i no taxes, and were exempt from the dangers of , and we are told that their highest order enjoyed '-. revenues, and lived in more than regal splendor, iivin^ the homage of the people seated on golden mea.
lie Dmidesses are divided by Borlase into three ses : " 1. Those who vowed perpetual virginity,
were constant attendants on the sacred rites, [liose who were married, but only saw their hus- ds once a year, that they might have children. 8. >se who were married, and performed all conjugal les" (Fosbroke). The priestesses of Dionysus, lo- id by Strabo on an island near the mouth of the it Loire, and by Pomponius Mela on the isle of la, in the British Sea, were doubtless Druidesses of
Ist and 2d class. Notwithstanding the severe cts of the emperors Augustus, Tiberius, and Clau- 3 against the Druids, the order seems not to have m entirely suppressed until a mach later period, e vast structures, of which remains still exist at mehenge and Averbury, in Wiltshire, England, and mac, in Brittany, together with numerous smaller i& in Great Britain and France, are supposed to be Druidical oi%in. (See illustrations, under Altab, this Cydopsedia, i, 178, and Ark, p. 401.) Similar ea are also found in various parts of Europe and ia.