Chapter 34 - Page 2

without success. The Druids observed two festivals in each year. The former took
place in the beginning of May, and was called Beltane or "fire of
God." On this occasion a large fire was kindled on some elevated
spot, in honor of the sun, whose returning beneficence they thus
welcomed after the gloom and desolation of winter. Of this
custom a trace remains in the name given to Whitsunday in parts
of Scotland to this day. Sir Walter Scott uses the word in the
Boat Song in the Lady of the Lake: "Ours is no sapling, chance-sown by the fountain,
Blooming at Beltane in winter to fade." The other great festival of the Druids was called "Samh'in," or
"fire of peace," and was held on Hallow-eve (first of November),
which still retains this designation in the Highlands of
Scotland. On this occasion the Druids assembled in solemn
conclave, in the most central part of the district, to discharge
the judicial functions of their order. All questions, whether
public or private, all crimes against person or property, were at
this time brought before them for adjudication. With these
judicial acts were combined certain superstitious usages,
especially the kindling of the sacred fire, from which all the
fires in the district which had been beforehand scrupulously
extinguished, might be relighted. This usage of kindling fires
on Hallow-eve lingered in the British Islands long after the
establishment of Christianity. Besides these two great annual festivals, the Druids were in the
habit of observing the full moon, and especially the sixth day of
the moon. On the latter they sought the mistletoe, which grew on
their favorite oaks, and to which, as well as to the oak itself,
they ascribed a peculiar virtue and sacredness. The discovery of
it was an occasion of rejoicing and solemn worship. "They call
it," says Pliny, "by a word in their language which means 'heal-
all,' and having made solemn preparation for feasting and
sacrifice under the tree, they drive thither two milk-white
bulls, whose horns are then for the first time bound. The priest
then, robed in white, ascends the tree, and cuts off the
mistletoe with a golden sickle. It is caught in a white mantle,
after which they proceed to slay the victims, at the same time
praying that god would render his gift prosperous to those to
whom he had given it. They drink the water in which it has been
infused, and think it a remedy for all diseases. The mistletoe
is a parasitic plant, and is not always nor often found on the
oak, so that when it is found it is the more precious." The Druids were the teachers of morality as well as of religion.
Of their ethical teaching a valuable specimen is preserved in the
Triads of the Welsh Bards, and from this we may gather that their