DRUID, a member of the Celtic priest hood of ancient Britain and Gaul, which at the period of the Roman invasion existed chiefly in Brittany and along the valley of the Loire, and in the island of Anglesey, in Wales and in Ireland. Scattered throughout these regions, at Carnac in Brittany, at Stonehenge and Ave bury in England and numerous other localities, are' the stupendous stone structures, known as cromlechs, menhirs, dolmens, kistvxns, etc., ascribed by the older archaeologists to the druid ical cult, and still popularly known as druidical temples and altars, but now assigned by scien tists to prehistoric palwolithic and neolithic predecessors, although it is probable these mega lithic monuments were used by the Druids in their mystic rites to impress the populace. Welsh tradition relates that the Druids entered Gaul from the Orient with the Celtic Kymric race, and their religious practices have been va riously described as of Hindu, Persian and Egyptian origin. Accurate knowledge of the sect is limited owing to their inviolable prac tice of not allowing their history to be written, all their lore being committed to memory, and all instructions being imparted orally. The best ancient and contemporary account of the Druids is that by Julius Caesar, who thus de scribes them : °They attend to divine worship, perform public and private sacrifices and ex pound matters of religion. A great number of youths are gathered round them for the sake of education and they enjoy the highest honor in that nation, for nearly all public and private quarrels come under their jurisdiction, and when any crime has been committed, when a murder has been perpetrated, when a contro versy arises about a legacy or about landmarks, they are the judges, too. They fix rewards and punishments; and should any one, whether a private individual or a public man, disobey their decrees, then they exclude him from the sacrifices. This is with them the severest pun ishment. The persons who are thus laid under interdict are regarded as impious and wicked people; everybody recoils from them and shuns their society and conversation, lest he should be injured by associating with them. They cannot obtain legal redress when they ask for it, nor are they admitted to any honorable office. All these Druids have one chief, who enjoys the highest authority among them. When he dies, he is succeeded by the member of the order who is most prominent among the others, if there be any such single individual ; if, how ever, there are several men equally distin guished, the successor is elected by the Druids. Sometimes they even go to war about this su premacy. At a certain time of the year the Druids assemble on the territory of the Car nutes, which is believed to be the centre of all Gaul, in a sacred place. To that spot are gath
ered from everywhere all persons that have quarrels, and they abide by their judgments and decrees. It is believed that this institution was founded in Britannia and thence transplanted into Gaul. Even nowadays, those who wish to become more intimately acquainted with the institution generally go to Britannia for instruc tion's sake.
°The Druids take no part in warfare; nor do they pay taxes like the rest of the people; they are exempt from military service and from all public burdens. Attracted by such rewards, many come to be instructed by their own choice, while others are sent by their parents. They are reported to learn in the school a great number of verses, so that some remain there 20 years. They think it is an unhallowed thing to commit their lore to writing, though in the other public and private affairs of life they fre quently make use of the Greek alphabet.. . . Beyond all things, they are desirous to inspire a belief that men's souls do not perish but trans migrate after death from one individual to an other; and they hold that people are thereby most strongly urged to bravery, as the fear of death is thus destroyed.° Besides being priests and teachers of religion the Druids appear also to have been adept astrologers and magicians, and were versed in the mysterious powers of animals and plants; the oak-tree, the mistletoe when growing on the oak, the vervain, the hyssop and marshwort were held in especial reverence among them, and like the Romans, they drew auguries and prophecies from an inspection of the entrails of sacrificed animals and from the flight of birds; their mysterious rites were usually per formed in the depths of oak forests. The order was divided into three classes: vates or proph ets, bards and priests; with them were asso ciated, but without sharing their prerogatives, three classes of prophetesses or sorceresses.
Before the advent of the Romans the auto cratic powers of the priesthood aroused the antagonism of the warrior element of the tribes, and according to Caesar, the latter had deprived them of much of their political power. The Druids exerted all their powers to oppose the Roman conquerors and continually incited the people to rebellion, until they were driven out of Brittany into Wales, and finally gathered in the island of Anglesey, where they were at tacked by Suetonious Paulinus in 61 A.D., and in 78 A.D. were utterly subdued and almost ex terminated by Agricola. (See DRUIDS). Con sult Rhys, 'Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by Celtic Heathen dom> (London 1888).