of Sein (already mentioned) who foretold the future, and raised or tranquillised storms. The truth of this information has frequently been denied of late, but all ancient religions have confraternities of this kind, all having a similar origin, and all giving rise to, and carrying on, the worship of the Earth-Mother. Druidism did not disappear with Gallic independence, but it underwent fundamental modifications, which must be mentioned here in order to explain the way in which medieval writers have alluded to it. The druids, as public high-priests of the Gallic tribes, lost their old place under the Roman domination. They were suppressed, or rather transformed into Sacerdotes according to the Roman custom; and in the Concilium of the Three Gauls at Lyons, composed of Sacerdotes Romae et Augusti it is possible to trace a Roman interpretation of the druidical assemblies in the land of the Carnutes. The lower priests, prophets, diviners, sages, guardians of temples and sorcerers, survived in obscurity, carrying on their traditions and sought after by devotees and peasants who were faithful to the old popular cults. Thus it came about that the word druid, which was formerly applied to the sacerdotal aristocracy, was finally used to designate these rustic priests, the last survivals of the national religion. When, therefore, the Latin writers mention druids and druidesses in connexion with mistletoe, remedies and witchcraft, it is probable that they allude to these priests of the uneducated people. The word druid is found in medieval writings applied to the native priests of Ireland and the so-called Keltic lands. It is difficult to feel sure that the word is there a direct survival, and that the Irish druids really were the authentic descendants of those mentioned by Pliny and Tacitus. In more than one place, the name and the dignity might have been interpolated by a learned writer who had read Caesar and Strabo. But ought this statement to be made general? and further, is it not possible that all druids found in the West in medieval times are the production of literary men? The present writer refrains from expressing an opinion on the subject. One last question remains in connexion with the druids. Caesar states in his Commentaries that their doctrine (disciplina) was evolved (inventa) in the isle of Britain, from whence it had been taken to Gaul. He adds "those who wish to study it deeply, usually go to the Island, and stay there for a time." A completely satisfactory explanation of this passage has not yet been given. Perhaps it was simply an invention of the Gallic druids, who wished to invest their doctrine with the attractiveness that belongs to a mystery, and therefore evolved this British origin for it. But perhaps their dogmas and their myths really did spring from neighbouring island. In this latter case, two hypotheses must be considered. the large In the time of Caesar the British population was composed of two different groups: a minority consisting of conquerors who had come from Gaul, Belgians or Kelts; and a majority consisting of natives. To which of these two races did the druids ascribe the paternity of their intellectual discipline? If to the Gauls, possibly Britain produced a reforming druid, who restored the religious doctrines of the nation to their primitive purity. If to the natives, it may be that an ancient religious community existed on the Island, with foreign rites and teaching, that nevertheless supplied inspiration to the druids. In either case, one thing seems certain. It is that Britain, the last, in point of date, of the Keltic settlements in Europe, somehow preserved more faithfully than the other countries the religious habits of the common mother-land. It is evident from Caesar that the Britons still respected the most ancient customs of the Gallic race, therefore it is probable that among them religion would have retained the most primitive forms. This may explain why the druids sent their novices there for instruction. The druids of Gaul, like the pontifices of Rome, were writers. Caesar reiterates his account of their long poems; for to prevent their doctrines from being made known to all, they composed (or had composed) thousands of verses, which they compelled their disciples to learn by heart. These poems dealt with the stars, the gods, the earth and nature; probably also with the origin of the Gallic tribes and the human soul. They were at the same time their books of Genesis and Chronicles. Moral precepts were mixed with or added to this theoretical teaching, the best known being that which taught that death is not to be feared, and that another life is to be expected. Probably these didactic poems did not exhaust the religious poetry of the Gauls. Their sacred literature seems to have been extraordinarily rich. We find quotations referring to songs of war and victory, also magnificent melodies, hymns in honour of their leaders, and historical poems, often of an epic character, in which facts and supernatural events alternate bewilderingly. The unfortunate fact is that all this is known to us only by the vague allusions to it to be found in the Classical authors. In connexion with these songs and poems, the word most often used by the ancient writers is Bardi, and this was the ordinary term for poet among the Gauls. These Bardi must be remembered in considering Gallic religion, for it is possible that they were half priests, half prophets, living in dependence on the druids. As well as references to druids and Gallic gods, we come across bards in the celebrated Keltic poems of the Middle Ages; and the same question arises in connexion with all these traces of Gallic religion. Do they all come directly and continuously from the past, or are they nothing more than clever reconstructions due to readers of the Classics? 472 Heathenism in Britain (B) KELTIC HEATHENISM IN THE BRITISH ISLES Just as the general condition of Britain in Roman times is far more imperfectly known than that of Gaul, so, too, we have but scanty data for painting a complete picture of Keltic heathendom in these islands during the period in question, and that which immediately succeeded it. Such evidence as we find is derived partly from inscriptions, partly from the survival in legend of certain names which are either those of known Keltic deities, or which may be presumed from their forms to have been those of divine beings, partly from the allusions found in legend to heathen practices, and partly from inferences based upon a study of existing folk-lore. A consideration of this evidence leads to the conclusion that the condition of heathenism in Britain was very similar to that of Gaul, except that, in North Britain and Ireland and the less Romanised parts of Southern Britain, there had been less assimilation of the native religion to that of Rome. In Britain, as in Gaul, the basis of Keltic religion was largely local in character, and rivers, springs, hills and other natural features were regarded as the abodes of gods and goddesses. The belief in fairies and similar beings, as well as in fabulous monsters supposed to inhabit caves, lakes and streams, which comes to view in medieval and modern Keltic folk-lore, is doubtless a continuous survival from the period of heathenism, and certain of the practices connected with regularly recurring festivals, such as the lighting of bonfires, the taking of omens and the like, have probably come down from the same time. The curious reader can find a very full account of these and similar survivals in Sir John Rhys's Celtic Folk-lore, Campbell's Tales of the Western Highlands and Dr Frazer's Golden Bough. Certain of the deities of Britain may have been tribal, and there are reasons for thinking that, in Britain as well as in Gaul, some deities were worshipped by several Keltic tribes, so that these may be regarded as the major deities of the Keltic pantheon. For instance, the name of Lug, a character of Irish legend, and that of Lleu in Welsh legend, are both cognate with the Gaulish Lugus, a god whose wide worship in the Keltic world is attested by the number of places called after his name Lugudunum or Lugdunum (the fortress of Lugus), and it is highly probable that both Lug of Irish legend and Lleu of Welsh legend were once regarded in their respective countries as divine. The Welsh placenames Dinlleu (the fort of Lleu) and Nantlleu (the valley of Lleu) in Carnarvonshire point in the same direction, no less than the ancient British name of Carlisle, Luguvallium (the embankment of Lugus). The Gods 473 A name corresponding to that of the god Segomo of Gaul is found on an Ogam inscription in Ireland - Netta-Segamonas (the Champion of Segamo), and, later, as Nia-Sedhamain (for Seghamain). The Gaulish god Camulos has his British counterpart in the Camalos or Camulos after whom Colchester received its name Camalodunum or Camulodunum. The proper name Camulorigho (in an oblique case) found on an inscription in Anglesey, as well as Camelorigi, which occurs on an inscription at Cheriton in Pembrokeshire, are further evidence that the god Camulos was not unknown in Britain. This is still more probable, since the name of this deity occurs on an inscription at Barhill,1 while the wide range of his worship is suggested by the existence of his name on inscriptions at Salona, Rome and Clermont. 1 It would be unsafe to take the fact that the name of a deity occurs on an inscription in Britain as evidence that the deity in question was worshipped by the natives, since the inscriptions found in Britain are mostly those of soldiers who often paid their vows to the deities of their own lands. At the same time, the area over which certain inscriptions are found makes it highly probable that the deities mentioned on them were worshipped, among other countries, in Britain itself. The following account of the deities mentioned on inscriptions in Britain will suggest not a few instances where this was doubtless the case. The name Aesus, which is probably identical with the Gaulish Esus, occurs once on a British silver coin, and this fact makes it not unreasonable to suppose that this god was worshipped in Britain. On an inscription found at Colchester, there is mentioned a god identified with Mercury, called Andescox, but of this deity nothing further is known. The name of another god Anextiomarus (a name probably meaning "the great protector") is found, identified with Apollo, on an inscription at South Shields on the Herd sands, south of the mouth of the Tyne, and the beginning of the same name occurs on a stone which is in the Museum at Le Mans. The name Antenociticus is found on an inscription of the second century at Benwell, and Antocus at Housesteads, but the connexion of these gods with Britain is uncertain, as is that of a god Arciaco mentioned on a votive inscription at York. The name Audus, identified with Belatucadrus, on an inscription at Scalby Castle, is probably British, and similarly that of Barrex, a god identified with Mars, mentioned on an inscription at Carlisle.10 A deity, whose name is incomplete (Deo Sancto Bergant . . .), mentioned on an inscription found at Longwood near Slack (Cambodunum), was not improbably the tribal god of the Brigantes. Another name, Braciaca, identified with Mars on an inscription " at Haddon House near Bakewell, was probably that 6 1 C.I.L. vп. 1103. 7 lb. vii. 656. 10 lb. vII. 925. 2 Ib. 11. 8671. 3 lb. vi. 46. Ib. vii. 503. 9 3 4 of a local British god. At Wardale in Cumberland there occurs on an inscription,1 the name of a god Ceaiius, but the connexions of this name are entirely unknown. At Martlesham in Suffolk, there occurs an undoubtedly Keltic name Corotiacus,2 identified with Mars, and probably a British local god. The name Marriga or Riga, which occurs on an inscription at Malton in Yorkshire, is likewise probably that of some local deity identified with Mars. The name Matunus, found on an inscription at Elsdon in Northumberland, may be a derivative of the Keltic "matis" (meaning good), and, as it occurs nowhere else, it may well be a local name. There is an inscription, too, at Colchester (c. A.D. 222-235), set up by a Caledonian (Caledo), which mentions a god Medocius, identified with Mars, and clearly this can hardly have been a foreign deity. On the other hand, the name Mounus,5 which occurs on an inscription at Risingham, is probably a contraction of Mogounus, the name of a god who is identified on an inscription at Horberg in Alsace with Grannos and Apollo, and who is probably unconnected with Britain. One of the clearest instances, however, of the occurrence of the name of a British god on an inscription of Roman times, is in the case of the god Nodons or Nodens, whose name is identical with the Irish name Nuada and the Welsh name Nudd. The Irish name Nuada forms the element -nooth in the name Maynooth (the plain of Nuada). The form Nodens or Nodons (in the dative case Nodenti or Nodonti) occurs four times on inscriptions at Lydney Park, a place on the Severn near Gloucester. It is possible that the name Lydney itself comes from a variant of Nodens, or from the name of a cognate deity Lodens, which has given in Welsh the legendary name Lludd. The name Arvalus, which occurs on an inscription at Blackmoorland on Stainmoor, Westmoreland, is most probably the name of a local deity of Brescia, inscribed by a soldier from that region, and there is some doubt, too, as to the British character of Contrebis (identified with Ialonus), though both names are undoubtedly Keltic, found at Lancaster and Overborough, inasmuch as Ialonus occurs also on an inscription at Nîmes. The name Contrebis probably means "the god of the joint dwellings," and Ialonus, "the god of the fertile land." Another Keltic name, found on inscriptions in Britain as well as in Gaul, is that of Condatis ("the joiner together"), identified with Mars, and occurs on an inscription at Piers Bridge, Durham 10 as well as at Chester-le-Street and Allonne, Sarthe, Le Mans. Even when inscriptions were set up in Britain by foreign troops, it must not be too hastily assumed that they paid no deference to local British gods, since the name Maponos, an undoubtedly Keltic name of a British deity, occurs on an inscription " found at Ribchester, Durham, for the welfare of |