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Article AN ACCOUNT OF DRUIDISM. ← Page 5 of 8 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
An Account Of Druidism.
the same deity . " Ye are they that forget my holy mountain ( says Isaiah ) , that prepare a' table for Gad , and furnish the drink-offering unto Meni . " According to Jerom and several others , Gad signifies fortune , or good fortune , and in this sense is used in the I ith verse of the 30 th chapter of Genesis . Those passages in Jeremiah , where the prophet marks the superstition of the J ^ ews , in . making cakes for the
queen of heaven , are very similar to this of Isaiah . At this very day we discover vestiges of the festival of the sun on the e-ve of All-Souls . As , at this festival , the Pagans " ate the sacrifices of the dead "— * so our villages , on the eve of All-Souls , burn nuts and shells to fortune , and pour out libations of ale to Meni . 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 convulsion of his limbs , or the nature and position of his entrails . But the British priests had various kinds of divination . B y the nuniber of criminal causes , and by the increase or diminution of their own order , they predicted fertility or scarceness . From the neighing or prancing of white horses , harnessed to a consecrated chariot—from the turnings or 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 * . Of all creatures , however , the serpent exercised in the most curious manner the invention , of the Druids . To the famous Anguinum they attributed hig h virtues . The Anguinum , or serpent ' s egg ,, was a congeries of small snakes rolled together , and incrusted with a shell , formed by the salivaor 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 f , from whom this account is taken , proceeds with an enumeration of other absurdities
relating to the Anguinum . This A'ig"i" ! l"i is if British called Glain-neider or the serpent of glass ; and the same superstitious reverence which the Damnpnii universally paid to the Anguinum , is still discoverable in some parts of Cornwall . Mr . Llhuyd J informs us , that " the Cornish retain variety of charms , and have still , towards the Land ' s-end , the amulets of Maen-Maga ! arid Glain-neiderwhich latter they call a Melprcv ,
, and have a charm for the snake to make it , when they have found one asleep , and stuck a hazel wand in the centre of her spira .. " Camden fells us , that " in most parts of Wales , and throughout all Scotland and Cornwall , it is an opinion of the vulgar , that about Midsummer-eve
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
An Account Of Druidism.
the same deity . " Ye are they that forget my holy mountain ( says Isaiah ) , that prepare a' table for Gad , and furnish the drink-offering unto Meni . " According to Jerom and several others , Gad signifies fortune , or good fortune , and in this sense is used in the I ith verse of the 30 th chapter of Genesis . Those passages in Jeremiah , where the prophet marks the superstition of the J ^ ews , in . making cakes for the
queen of heaven , are very similar to this of Isaiah . At this very day we discover vestiges of the festival of the sun on the e-ve of All-Souls . As , at this festival , the Pagans " ate the sacrifices of the dead "— * so our villages , on the eve of All-Souls , burn nuts and shells to fortune , and pour out libations of ale to Meni . 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 convulsion of his limbs , or the nature and position of his entrails . But the British priests had various kinds of divination . B y the nuniber of criminal causes , and by the increase or diminution of their own order , they predicted fertility or scarceness . From the neighing or prancing of white horses , harnessed to a consecrated chariot—from the turnings or 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 * . Of all creatures , however , the serpent exercised in the most curious manner the invention , of the Druids . To the famous Anguinum they attributed hig h virtues . The Anguinum , or serpent ' s egg ,, was a congeries of small snakes rolled together , and incrusted with a shell , formed by the salivaor 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 f , from whom this account is taken , proceeds with an enumeration of other absurdities
relating to the Anguinum . This A'ig"i" ! l"i is if British called Glain-neider or the serpent of glass ; and the same superstitious reverence which the Damnpnii universally paid to the Anguinum , is still discoverable in some parts of Cornwall . Mr . Llhuyd J informs us , that " the Cornish retain variety of charms , and have still , towards the Land ' s-end , the amulets of Maen-Maga ! arid Glain-neiderwhich latter they call a Melprcv ,
, and have a charm for the snake to make it , when they have found one asleep , and stuck a hazel wand in the centre of her spira .. " Camden fells us , that " in most parts of Wales , and throughout all Scotland and Cornwall , it is an opinion of the vulgar , that about Midsummer-eve