,transcribed from the #aijf ,archibald  
,constable  ,co4 ,ltd4 edition by ,david
  ,price1 ccx#jgd;coventry4ac4uk        
,,celtic ,,religion  ,,in               
,,pre-,,christian ,,times      ,by      
,,edward ,,anwyl1 ,m4,a4    ,,late      
,,classical ,,scholar ,,of ,,oriel      
,,college1 ,,oxford  ,,professor ,,of   
,,welsh ,,and ,,comparative ,,philology 
,,at  ,,the ,,university ,,college ,,of 
,,wales1 ,,aberystwyth                  
,,acting-,,chairman ,,of ,,the ,,central
 ,,welsh ,,board  ,,for ,,intermediate  
,,education    ,,london  ,,archibald    
,,constable  ,,co ,,ltd  #af ,,james    
,,street ,,haymarket  #aijf             
,edinburgh3 ,t4 and ,a4 ,,constable1    
,printers to ,his ,majesty              
,,foreword      ,it is only as          
prehistoric archaeology has come to     
throw more and more  light on the early 
civilisations of ,celtic lands that it  
has become  possible to interpret       
,celtic religion from a thoroughly      
modern viewpoint4  ,the author cordially

 acknowledges his indebtedness to       
numerous writers on  this subject1 but  
his researches into some portions of the
 field  especially have suggested to him
 the possibility of giving a new        
presentation to certain facts and groups
 of facts1 which the existing  evidence 
disclosed4  ,it is to be hoped that a   
new interest in the  religion of the    
,celts may thereby be aroused4    ,e4   
,,anwyl4    ,,aberystwyth1  ,february   
#ae1 #aijf4          ,,chapter          
,i--,,introductory3 ,,the ,,celts       
,in dealing with the subject of ',celtic
 ,religion' the first duty of the       
writer is to explain the sense in which 
the term ',celtic' will be used in  this
 work4  ,it will be used in reference to
 those countries and districts  which1  
in historic times1 have been at one time
 or other mainly of ,celtic  speech4    
,it does not follow that all the races  
which spoke a form of the  ,celtic      
tongue1 a tongue of the ,indo-,european 
family1 were all of the same  stock4    

,indeed1 ethnological and archaeological
 evidence tends to  establish clearly   
that1 in ,gaul and ,britain1 for        
example1 man had lived  for ages before 
the introduction of any variety of      
,aryan or ,indo-,european  speech1 and  
this was probably the case throughout   
the whole of ,western  and ,southern    
,europe4  ,further1 in the light of     
comparative philology1 it  has now      
become abundantly clear that the forms  
of ,indo-,european speech  which we call
 ,celtic are most closely related to    
those of the ,italic  family1 of which  
family ,latin is the best known         
representative4  ,from  this it follows 
that we are to look for the centre of   
dissemination of  ,aryan ,celtic speech 
in some district of ,europe that could  
have been the  natural centre of        
dissemination also for the ,italic      
languages4  ,from this  common centre1  
through conquest and the commercial     
intercourse which  followed it1 the     
tribes which spoke the various forms of 

,celtic and  ,italic speech spread into 
the districts occupied by them in       
historic  times4  ,the common centre of 
radiation for ,celtic and ,italic speech
 was  probably in the districts of      
,noricum and ,pannonia1 the modern      
,carniola1  ,carinthia1 etc41 and the   
neighbouring parts of the ,danube       
valley4  ,the  conquering               
,aryan-speaking ,celts and ,italians    
formed a military  aristocracy1 and     
their success in extending the range of 
their languages  was largely due to     
their skill in arms1 combined1 in all   
probability1  with a talent for         
administration4  ,this military         
aristocracy was of  kindred type to that
 which carried ,aryan speech into ,india
 and ,persia1  ,armenia and ,greece1 not
 to speak of the original speakers of   
the ,teutonic  and ,slavonic tongues4   
,in view of the necessity of discovering
 a centre1  whence the ,indo-,european  
or ,aryan languages in general could    
have  radiated ,eastwards1 as well as   

,westwards1 the tendency to-day is to   
regard these tongues as having been     
spoken originally in some district      
between the ,carpathians and the        
,steppes1 in the form of kindred        
dialects  of a common speech4  ,some    
branches of the tribes which spoke these
  dialects penetrated into ,central     
,europe1 doubtless along the ,danube1   
and1  from the ,danube valley1 extended 
their conquests together with their     
various forms of ,aryan speech into     
,southern and ,western ,europe4  ,the   
proportion of conquerors to conquered   
was not uniform in all the  countries   
where they held sway1 so that the amount
 of ,aryan blood in  their resultant    
population varied greatly4  ,in most    
cases1 the families  of the original    
conquerors1 by their skill in the art of
 war and a  certain instinct of         
government1 succeeded in making their   
own tongues the  dominant media of      
communication in the lands where they   
ruled1 with the  result that most of the

 languages of ,europe to-day are of the 
,aryan or  ,indo-,european type4  ,it   
does not1 however1 follow necessarily   
from this  that the early religious     
ideas or the artistic civilisation of   
countries  now ,aryan in speech1 came   
necessarily from the conquerors rather  
than the  conquered4  ,in the last      
century it was long held that in        
countries of  ,aryan speech the         
essential features of their             
civilisation1 their  religious ideas1   
their social institutions1 nay1 more1   
their inhabitants  themselves1 were of  
,aryan origin4    ,a more critical      
investigation has1 however1 enabled us  
to distinguish  clearly between the     
development of various factors of human 
life which in  their evolution can      
follow and often have followed more or  
less  independent lines4  ,the physical 
history of race1 for instance1 forms a  
problem by itself and must be studied by
 anthropological and ethnological       
methods4  ,language1 again1 has often   

spread along lines other than those  of 
race1 and its investigation appertains  
to the sphere of the  philologist4      
,material civilisation1 too1 has not of 
necessity followed  the lines either of 
racial or of linguistic development1 and
 the search  for its ancient            
trade-routes may be safely left to the  
archaeologist4  ,similarly the spread of
 ideas in religion and thought is one   
which has  advanced on lines of its own1
 and its investigation must be conducted
 by  the methods and along the lines of 
the comparative study of religions4     
,in the wide sense1 then1 in which the  
word ',celtic religion' will be used  in
 this work1 it will cover the modes of  
religious thought prevalent in  the     
countries and districts1 which1 in      
course of time1 were mainly             
characterised by their ,celtic speech4  
,to the sum-total of these  religious   
ideas contributions have been made from 
many sources4  ,it would  be rash to    
affirm that the various streams of      

,aryan ,celtic conquest made  no        
contributions to the conceptions of life
 and of the world which the  countries  
of their conquest came to hold 7and the 
evidence of language  points1 indeed1 to
 some such contributions71 but their    
quota appears to  be small compared with
 that of their predecessors2 nor is this
  surprising1 in view of the immense    
period during which the lands of their  
conquest had been previously occupied4  
,nothing is clearer than the  marvellous
 persistence of traditional and         
immemorial modes of thought1  even in   
the face of conquest and subjugation1   
and1 whatever ideas on  religion the    
,aryan conquerors of ,celtic lands may  
have brought with them1  they whose     
conquests were often only partial could 
not eradicate the  inveterate beliefs of
 their predecessors1 and the result in  
the end was  doubtless some compromise1 
or else the victory of the earlier      
faith4    ,but the ,aryan conquerors of 
,gaul and ,italy themselves were not men

 who  had advanced up the ,danube in one
 generation4  ,those men of ,aryan      
speech  who poured into the ,italian    
peninsula and into ,gaul were doubtless 
in  blood not unmixed with the older    
inhabitants of ,central ,europe1 and had
  entered into the body of ideas which  
formed the religious beliefs of the  men
 of the ,danube valley4  ,the common    
modifications of the ,aryan tongue1  by 
,italians and ,celts alike1 as compared 
with ,greek1 suggests contact  with men 
of different speech4  ,among the names  
of ,celtic gods1 too1 like  those of    
other countries1 we find roots that are 
apparently irreducible  to any found in 
,indo-,european speech1 and we know not 
what pre-,aryan  tongues may have       
contributed them4  ,scholars1 to-day1   
are far more alive  than they ever were 
before to the complexity of the         
contributory elements  that have entered
 into the tissue of the ancient         
religions of mankind1  and the more the 
relics of ,celtic religion are          

investigated1 the more  complex do its  
contributory factors become4  ,in the   
long ages before  history there were    
unrecorded conquests and migrations     
innumerable1 and  ideas do not fail to  
spread because there is no historian to 
record them4    ,the more the scanty    
remnants of ,celtic religion are        
examined1 the clearer  it becomes that  
many of its characteristic features had 
been evolved  during the vast period of 
the ages of stone4  ,during these       
millennia1 men  had evolved1            
concomitantly with their material       
civilisation1 a kind of  working        
philosophy of life1 traces of which are 
found in every land where  this form of 
civilisation has prevailed4  ,man's     
religion can never be  dissociated from 
his social experience1 and the painful  
stages through  which man reached the   
agricultural life1 for example1 have    
left their  indelible impress on the    
mind of man in ,western ,europe1 as they
 have in  every land4  ,we are thus     

compelled1 from the indications which we
 have of  ,celtic religion1 in the names
 of its deities1 its rites1 and its     
survivals in folk-lore and legend1 to   
come to the conclusion1 that its        
fundamental groundwork is a body of     
ideas1 similar to those of other  lands1
 which were the natural correlatives of 
the phases of experience  through which 
man passed in his emergence into        
civilised life4  ,to  demonstrate and to
 illustrate these relations will be the 
aim of the  following chapters4         
,,chapter ,,ii--,,the ,,chief ,,phases  
,,of ,,celtic ,,civilisation      ,in   
the chief countries of ,celtic          
civilisation1 ,gaul1 ,cisalpine and     
,transalpine1 ,britain and ,ireland1    
abundant materials have been found for  
elucidating the stages of culture       
through which man passed in prehistoric 
times4  ,in ,britain1 for example1      
palaeolithic man has left numerous      
specimens of his implements1 but the    
forms even of these rude implements     

suggest that they1 too1 have been       
evolved from still more primitive       
types4  ,some antiquarians have thought 
to detect such earlier types in  the    
stones that have been named 'eoliths'   
found in ,kent1 but1 though  these      
'eoliths' may possibly show human use1  
the question of their  history is far   
from being settled4  ,it is certain1    
however1 that man  succeeded in         
maintaining himself for ages in the     
company of the mammoth1  the cave-bear1 
and other animals now extinct4  ,whether
 palaeolithic man  survived the ,ice    
,age in ,britain has not so far been    
satisfactorily  decided4  ,in ,gaul1    
however1 there is fair evidence of      
continuity between  the ,palaeolithic   
and ,neolithic periods1 and this        
continuity must  obviously have existed 
somewhere4  ,still in spite of the      
indications of  continuity1 the         
civilisation of primitive man in ,gaul  
presents one aspect  that is without any
 analogues in the life of the           

palaeolithic men of the  ,river ,drift  
period1 or in that of man of the ,new   
,stone ,age4  ,the feature  in question 
is the remarkable artistic skill shown  
by the cave men of the  ,dordogne       
district4  ,some of the drawings and    
carvings of these men reveal  a sense of
 form which would have done credit to   
men of a far later age4  ,a  feature    
such as this1 whatever may have been its
 object1 whether it arose  from an      
effort by means of 'sympathetic magic'  
to catch animals1 as ,m4  ,salomon      
,reinach suggests1 or to the mere       
artistic impulse1 is a standing         
reminder to us of the scantiness of our 
data for estimating the lines of  man's 
religious and other development in the  
vast epochs of prehistoric  time4    ,we
 know that from the life of hunting man 
passed into the pastoral stage1  having 
learned to tame animals4  ,how he came  
to do so1 and by what  motives he was   
actuated1 is still a mystery4  ,it may  
be1 as ,m4 ,salomon  ,reinach has also  

suggested1 that it was some curious and 
indefinable  sense of kinship with them 
that led him to do so1 or more probably1
 as  the present writer thinks1 some    
sense of a need of the alliance of      
animals against hostile spirits4  ,in   
all probability it was no motive  which 
we can now fathom4  ,the mind of early  
man was like the unfathomable  mind of a
 boy4  ,from the pastoral life again man
 passed after long ages  into the life  
of agriculture1 and the remains of      
neolithic man in ,gaul  and in ,britain 
give us glimpses of his life as a       
farmer4  ,the ox1 the  sheep1 the pig1  
the goat1 and the dog were his domestic 
animals2 he could  grow wheat and flax1 
and could supplement the produce of his 
farm by  means of hunting and fishing4  
,neolithic man could spin and weave2 he 
could obtain the necessary flint for his
 implements1 which he made by  chipping 
and polishing1 and he could also make   
pottery of a rude variety4  ,in its     
essentials we have here the beginnings  

of the agricultural  civilisation of man
 all the world over4  ,in life1         
neolithic man dwelt  sometimes in       
pit-dwellings and sometimes in          
hut-circles1 covered with a  roof of    
branches supported by a central pole4   
,in death1 he was buried  with his kin  
in long mounds of earth called barrows1 
in chambered cairns  and cromlechs or   
dolmens4  ,the latter usually consist of
 three standing  stones covered by a    
cap-stone2 forming the stony skeleton of
 a grave that  has been exposed to view 
after the mound of earth that covered it
 has  been washed away4  ,in their      
graves the dead were buried in a        
crouching  attitude1 and fresh burials  
were made as occasion required4         
,sometimes  the cromlech is double1 and 
occasionally there is a hole in one of  
the  stones1 the significance of which  
is unknown1 unless it may have been for 
the ingress and egress of souls4        
,graves of the dolmen or cromlech type  
are found in all the countries of       

,western ,europe1 ,north ,africa1 and   
elsewhere1 wherever stone suitable for  
the purpose abounds1 and in this  we    
have a striking illustration of the way 
in which lines of development  in man's 
material civilisation are sooner or     
later correlated to his  geographical1  
geological1 and other surroundings4     
,the religious ideas of  man in         
neolithic times also came into          
correlation with the conditions of  his 
development1 and the uninterpreted stone
 circles and pillars of the  world are a
 standing witness to the religious zeal 
of a mind that was  haunted by stone4   
,before proceeding to exemplify this    
thesis the  subsequent trend of ,celtic 
civilisation may be briefly sketched4   
,through the pacific intercourse of     
commerce1 bronze weapons and  implements
 began to find their way1 about #bjjj   
,b4,c4 or earlier1 from  ,central and   
,southern ,europe into ,gaul1 and thence
 into ,britain4  ,in  ,britain the      
,bronze ,age begins at about #aejj or   

#adjj ,b4,c41 and it is  thought by some
 archaeologists that bronze was worked  
at this period by  the aid of native tin
 in ,britain itself4  ,there are        
indications1 however1  that the         
introduction of bronze into ,britain was
 not by way of commerce  alone4  ,about 
the beginning of the ,bronze period are 
found evidences in  this island of a    
race of different type from that of     
neolithic man1 being  characterised by a
 round skull and a powerful build1 and  
by general  indications of a martial    
bearing4  ,the remains of this race are 
usually  found in round barrows4        
,this race1 which certainly used bronze 
weapons1 is generally believed to  have 
been the first wave that reached        
,britain of ,aryan conquerors of        
,celtic speech from the nearest part of 
the continent1 where it must have       
arrived some time previously1 probably  
along the ,rhine valley4  ,as the  type 
of ,celtic speech that has penetrated   
farthest to the west is that  known as  

the ,goidelic or ,irish1 it has not     
unreasonably been thought that  this    
must have been the type that arrived in 
,britain first4  ,there are             
indications1 too1 that it was this type 
that penetrated furthest into the  west 
of ,gaul4  ,its most marked             
characteristic is its preservation of   
the  pronunciation of ,u as 'oo' and of 
,,qu1 while the ',brythonic' or ,welsh  
variety changed ,u to a sound pronounced
 like the ,french 'u' or the ,german    
'u' and also ,,qu to ,p4  ,there is a   
similar line of cleavage in the ,italic 
languages1 where ,latin corresponds to  
,goidelic1 and ,oscan and ,umbrian to   
,brythonic4  ,transalpine ,gaul was     
probably invaded by ,aryan-speaking     
,celts  from more than one direction1   
and the infiltration and invasion of    
new-  comers1 when it had once begun1   
was doubtless continuous through these  
various channels4  ,there are cogent    
reasons for thinking that ultimately    
the dominant type of ,celtic speech over

 the greater part of ,gaul came to  be  
that of the ,p rather than the ,,qu     
type1 owing to the influx from the      
,east and ,northeast of an overflow from
 the ,rhine valley of tribes  speaking  
that dialect2 a dialect which1 by force 
of conquest and culture1  tended to     
spread farther and farther ,west4  ,into
 ,britain1 too1 as time  went on1 the ,p
 type of ,celtic was carried1 and has   
survived in ,welsh and  ,cornish1 the   
remnants of the tongue of ancient       
,britain4  ,we know1 too1  from the name
 ,eporedia 7,yvrea71 that this dialect  
of ,celtic must have  spread into       
,cisalpine ,gaul4  ,the latter district 
may have received its  first ,celtic    
invaders direct from the ,danube valley1
 as ,m4 ,alexandre  ,bertrand held1 but 
it would be rash to assume that all its 
invaders came  from that direction4  ,in
 connection1 however1 with the history  
of ,celtic  religion it is not the      
spread of the varying types of ,celtic  
dialect that  is important1 but the     

changes in the civilisation of ,gaul and
 ,britain1  which reacted on religious  
ideas or which introduced new factors   
into the  religious development of these
 lands4    ,the predatory expeditions   
and wars of conquest of military ,celtic
 tribes  in search for new homes for    
their superfluous populations brought   
into  prominence the deities of war1 as 
was the case also with the ancient      
,romans1 themselves an agricultural and 
at the same time a predatory race4  ,the
 prominence of war in ,celtic tribal    
life at one stage has left us the  names
 of a large number of deities that were 
identified with ,mars and  ,bellona1    
though all the war-gods were not        
originally such4  ,in the ,roman        
calendar there is abundant evidence that
 ,mars was at one time an  agricultural 
god as well as a god of war4  ,the same1
 as will be shown  later1 was the       
probable history of some of the ,celtic 
deities1 who were  identified in ,roman 
times with ,mars and ,bellona4  ,caesar 

tells us that  ,mars had at one time    
been the chief god of the ,gauls1 and   
that in ,germany  that was still the    
case4  ,in ,britain1 also1 we find that 
there were  several deities identified  
with ,mars1 notably ,belatucadrus and   
,cocidius1  and this1 too1 points in the
 direction of a development of religion 
under  military influence4  ,the ,gauls 
appear to have made great strides in    
military matters and in material        
civilisation during the ,iron ,age4     
,the  culture of the ,early ,iron ,age  
of ,hallstatt had been developed in     
,gaul on  characteristic lines of its   
own1 resulting in the form now known as 
the  ,la ,tene or ,marnian type4  ,this 
type derives it name from the striking  
specimens of it that were discovered at 
,la ,tene on the shore of ,lake         
,neuchatel1 and in the extensive        
cemeteries of the ,marne valley1 the    
burials of which cover a period of from 
#cej-bjj ,b4,c4  ,it was during the     
third century ,b4,c4 that this          

characteristic culture of ,gaul reached 
its  zenith1 and gave definite shape to 
the beautiful curved designs known as   
those of ,late-,celtic ,art4  ,iron     
appears to have been introduced into    
,britain about #cjj ,b4,c41 and the     
designs of ,late-,celtic ,art are here  
represented best of all4  ,excellent    
specimens of ,late-,celtic culture have 
been found in ,yorkshire and elsewhere1 
and important links with  continental   
developments have been discovered at    
,aylesford1 ,aesica1  ,limavady1 and    
other places4  ,into the development of 
this typical ,gaulish  culture elements 
are believed to have entered by way of  
the important  commercial avenue of the 
,rhone valley from ,massilia            
7,marseilles71 from  ,greece 7via       
,venetia71 and possibly from ,etruria4  
,prehistoric  archaeology affords       
abundant proofs that1 in countries of   
,celtic speech1  metal-working in       
bronze1 iron1 and gold reached a        
remarkably high pitch  of perfection1   

and this is a clear indication that     
,celtic countries and  districts which  
were on the line of trade routes1 like  
the ,rhone valley1  had attained to a   
material civilisation of no mean        
character before the  ,roman conquest4  
,in ,britain1 too1 the districts that   
were in touch with  continental commerce
 had1 as ,caesar tells us1 also         
developed in the same  direction4  ,the 
religious counterpart of this           
development in civilisation  is the     
growth in many parts of ,gaul1 as       
attested by ,caesar and by many         
inscriptions and place-names1 of the    
worship of gods identified with         
,mercury and ,minerva1 the deities of   
civilisation and commerce4  ,it is no   
accident that one of the districts most 
conspicuous for this worship was  the   
territory of the ,allobrogic            
confederation1 where the commerce of the
  ,rhone valley found its most          
remarkable development4  ,from this     
sketch of  ,celtic civilisation it will 

readily be seen how here as elsewhere   
the  religious development of the ,celts
 stood closely related to the           
development of their civilisation       
generally4  ,it must be borne in mind1  
however1 that all parts of the ,celtic  
world were not equally affected by  the 
material development in question4  ,part
 of the complexity of the  history of   
,celtic religion arises from the fact   
that we cannot be always  certain of the
 degree of progress in civilisation     
which any given  district had made1 of  
the ideas which pervaded it1 or of the  
absorbing  interests of its life4       
,another difficulty1 too1 is that the   
accounts of  ,celtic religion given by  
ancient authorities do not always       
harmonise with  the indisputable        
evidence of inscriptions4  ,the         
probability is that the  religious      
practices of the ,celtic world were no  
more homogeneous than its  general      
civilisation1 and that the ancient      
authorities are substantially  true in  

their statements about certain          
districts1 certain periods1 or  certain 
sections of society1 while the          
inscriptions1 springing as they do  from
 the influence of the ,gallo-,roman     
civilisation1 especially of ,eastern    
,gaul and military ,britain1 give us    
most valuable supplementary evidence    
for districts and environments of a     
different kind4  ,the inscriptions1     
especially by the names of deities which
 they reveal1 have afforded most        
valuable clues to the history of ,celtic
 religion1 even in stages of            
civilisation earlier than those to which
 they themselves belong4  ,in the  next 
chapter the correlation of ,celtic      
religious ideas to the stages of        
,celtic civilisation will be further    
developed4          ,,chapter           
,,iii--,,the ,,correlation ,,of ,,celtic
 ,,religion ,,with ,,the ,,growth ,,of  
,,celtic  ,,civilisation      ,in       
dealing with the long vista of          
prehistoric time1 it is very difficult  

for us1 in our effort after perspective1
 not to shorten unduly in our  thoughts 
the vast epochs of its duration4  ,we   
tend1 too1 to forget1 that  in these    
unnumbered millennia there was ample    
time for it to be possible  over certain
 areas of ,europe to evolve what were   
practically new races1  through the     
prepotency of particular stocks and the 
annihilation of  others4  ,during these 
epochs1 again1 after speech had arisen1 
there was  time enough to recast        
completely many a language1 for before  
the dawn of  history language was no    
more free from change than it is now1   
and in  these immense epochs whatever   
ideas as to the world of their          
surroundings  were vaguely felt by      
prehistoric men and formulated for them 
by their  kinsmen of genius1 had        
abundant time in which to die or to win 
supremacy4  ,there must have been aeons 
before the dawn even of conscious       
animism1 and  the experiment of trying  
sympathetic magic was1 when first       

attempted1  probably regarded as a      
master-stroke of genius4  ,the ,stone   
,age itself was  a long era of great if 
slow progress in civilisation1 and the  
evolution  of the practices and ideas   
which emerge as the concomitants of its 
agricultural stage1 when closely        
regarded1 bear testimony to the mind's  
capacity for religious progress in the  
light of experience and  intelligent    
experiment1 and at the same time to the 
errors into which it  fell4  ,the ,stone
 ,age has left its sediment in all the  
folk-lore of the  world4  ,to the casual
 observer many of the ideas embedded in 
it may seem  a mass of error1 and so    
they are when judged unhistorically1 but
 when  viewed critically1 and at the    
same time historically1 they afford many
  glimpses of prehistoric genius in a   
world where life was of necessity a     
great experiment4  ,the folk-lore of the
 world reveals for the same stages  of  
civilisation a wonderful uniformity and 
homogeneity1 as ,dr4 ,j4 ,g4  ,frazer   

has abundantly shown in his ,golden     
,bough4  ,this uniformity is  not1      
however1 due to necessary uniformity of 
origin1 but to a great  extent to the   
fact that it represents the state of    
equilibrium arrived at  between minds at
 a certain level and their environment1 
along lines of  thought directed by the 
momentum given by the traditions of     
millennia1  and the survival in history 
of the men who carefully regarded them4 
,the  apparently unreasoned prohibitions
 often known as 'taboos1' many of which 
still persist even in modern civilised  
life1 have their roots in ideas  and    
experiences which no speculation of ours
 can now completely fathom1  however    
much we may guess at their origin4      
,many of these ancient  prohibitions    
have vanished under new conditions1     
others have often  survived from a real 
or supposed harmony with new            
experiences1 that have  arisen in the   
course of man's history4  ,after passing
 through a stage  when he was too       

preoccupied with his material cares and 
wants to consider  whether he was       
haunted or not1 early man in the ,celtic
 world as  elsewhere1 after long epochs 
of vague unrest1 came to realise that he
 was  somehow haunted in the daytime as 
well as at night1 and it was this sense 
of being haunted that impelled his      
intellect and his imagination to seek   
some explanation of his feelings4       
,primitive man came to seek a solution  
not of the ,universe as a whole 7for of 
this he had no conception71 but of  the 
local ,universe1 in which he played a   
part4  ,in dealing with ,celtic         
folk-lore1 it is very remarkable how it 
mirrors the characteristic local        
colouring and scenery of the districts  
in which it has originated4  ,in a      
country like ,wales1 for example1 it is 
the folk-lore of springs1 caves1        
mountains1 lakes1 islands1 and the forms
 of its imagination1 here as  elsewhere1
 reflect unmistakably the land of its   
origin4  ,where it depicts  an 'other   

world1' that 'other world' is either on 
an island or it is a  land beneath the  
sea1 a lake1 or a river1 or it is       
approachable only  through some cave or 
opening in the earth4  ,in the          
hunting-grounds of the  ,celtic world   
the primitive hunter knew every cranny  
of the greater part  of his environment 
with the accuracy born of long          
familiarity1 but there  were some peaks 
which he could not scale1 some caves    
which he could not  penetrate1 some     
jungles into which he could not enter1  
and in these he  knew not what monsters 
might lurk or unknown beings might live4
  ,in  ,celtic folk-lore the belief in  
fabulous monsters has not yet ceased4   
,man  was surrounded by dangers visible 
and invisible1 and the time came when   
some prehistoric man of genius          
propounded the view that all the objects
  around him were no less living than   
himself4  ,this animistic view of the   
world1 once adopted1 made great headway 
from the various centres where it       

originated1 and man derived from it a   
new sense of kinship with his  world1   
but also new terrors from it4  ,knowing 
from the experience of  dreams that he  
himself seemed able to wander away from 
himself1 he  thought in course of time  
that other living things were somehow   
double1  and the world around him came  
to be occupied1 not merely with things  
that  were alive1 but with other selves 
of these things1 that could remain in   
them or leave them at will4  ,here1     
again1 this new prehistoric philosophy  
gave an added interest to life1 but it  
was none the less a source of  fresh    
terrors4  ,the world swarmed with       
invisible spirits1 some friendly1  some 
hostile1 and1 in view of these beings1  
life had to be regulated by  strict     
rules of actions and prohibitions4      
,even in the neolithic stage  the       
inhabitants of ,celtic countries had    
attained to the religious ideas  in     
question1 as is seen not only by their  
folk-lore and by the names of  groups of

 goddesses such as the ,matres 7or      
mothers71 but by the fact that  in      
historic times they had advanced well   
beyond this stage to that of  named and 
individualised gods4  ,as in all        
countries where the gods were           
individualised1 the men of ,celtic      
lands1 whether aborigines or invaders1  
had toiled along the steep ascent from  
the primitive vague sense of being      
haunted to a belief in gods who1 like   
,esus1 ,teutates1 ,grannos1 ,bormanus1  
,litavis1 had names of a definite       
character4    ,among the prohibitions   
which had established themselves among  
the races  of ,celtic lands1 as         
elsewhere1 was that directed against the
 shedding of  the blood of one's own    
kin4  ,there are indications1 too1 that 
some at any  rate of the tribes         
inhabiting these countries reckoned     
kinship through  the mother1 as in fact 
continued to be the case among the      
,picts of  ,scotland into historic      
times4  ,it does not follow1 as we know 

from other  countries1 that the         
pre-,aryan tribes of ,gaul and ,britain1
 or indeed the  ,aryan tribes themselves
 in their earliest stage1 regarded their
 original  ancestors as human4  ,certain
 names of deities such as ,tarvos 7the  
bull71  ,moccos 7the pig71 ,epona 7the  
goddess of horses71 ,damona 7the goddess
 of  cattle71 ,mullo 7the ass71 as well 
as the fact that the ancient ,britons1  
according to ,caesar1 preserved the hen1
 the goose1 and the hare1 but did  not  
kill and eat them1 all point to the fact
 that in these countries as  elsewhere  
certain animals were held in supreme    
respect and were carefully  guarded from
 harm4  ,judging from the analogy of    
kindred phenomena in  other countries1  
the practice of respecting certain      
animals was often  associated with the  
belief that all the members of certain  
clans were  descended from one or other 
of them1 but how far this system was    
elaborated in the ,celtic world it is   
hard to say4  ,this phenomenon1 which   

is widely known as totemism1 appears to 
be suggested by the prominence  given to
 the wild boar on ,celtic coins and     
ensigns1 and by the place  assigned on  
some inscriptions and bas-reliefs to the
 figure of a horned  snake as well as by
 the effigies of other animals that have
 been  discovered4  ,it is not easy to  
explain the beginnings of totemism in   
,gaul  or elsewhere1 but it should      
always be borne in mind that early man  
could  not regard it as an axiomatic    
truth that he was the superior of every 
other animal4  ,to reach that proud     
consciousness is a very high step in    
the development of the human            
perspective1 and it is to the credit of 
the  ,celts that1 when we know them in  
historic times1 they appear to have     
attained to this height1 inasmuch as the
 human form is given to their  deities4 
,it is not always remembered how great a
 step in religious  evolution is implied
 when the gods are clothed with human   
attributes4  ,m4  ,salomon ,reinach1 in 

his account of the vestiges of totemism 
among the  ,celts1 suggests that        
totemism was merely the hypertrophy of  
early man's  social sense1 which        
extended from man to the animals around 
him4  ,this  may possibly be the case1  
but it is not improbable that man also  
thought  to discover in certain animals 
much-needed allies against some of the  
visible and invisible enemies that beset
 him4  ,in his conflict with the  malign
 powers around him1 he might well have  
regarded certain animals as  being in   
some respects stronger combatants       
against those powers than  himself2 and 
where they were not physically stronger1
 some of them1 like  the snake1 had a   
cunning and a subtlety that seemed far  
to surpass his  own4  ,in course of time
 certain bodies of men came to regard   
themselves  as being in special alliance
 with some one animal1 and as being     
descended  from that animal as their    
common ancestor4  ,the existence side by
 side of  various tribes1 each with its 

definite totem1 has not yet been fully  
proved for the ,gaulish system1 and may 
well have been a developed social       
arrangement that was not an essential   
part of such a mode of thought in  its  
primary forms4  ,the place of           
animal-worship in the ,celtic religion  
will be more fully considered in a later
 chapter4  ,here it is only  indicated  
as a necessary stage in relation to     
man's civilisation in the  hunting and  
the pastoral stages1 which had to be    
passed through before  the historic     
deities of ,gaul and ,britain in ,roman 
times could have come  into being4      
,certain of the divine names of the     
historic period1 like  ,artio 7the      
bear-goddess71 ,moccus 7the pig71 ,epona
 7the mare71 and ,damona  7the sheep71  
bear the unmistakable impress of having 
been at one time  those of animals4     
,as for the stage of civilisation at    
which totemism originated1 there is     
much difference of opinion4  ,the stage 
of mind which it implies would  suggest 

that it reflects a time when man's mind 
was preoccupied with wild  beasts1 and  
when the alliances and friendships1     
which he would value in  life1 might be 
found in that sphere4  ,there is much   
plausibility in the  view put forward by
 ,m4 ,salomon ,reinach1 that the        
domestication of animals  itself implies
 a totemistic habit of thought1 and the 
consequent  protection of these animals 
by means of taboos from harm and death4 
,it  may well be that1 after all1 the   
usefulness of domestic animals from a   
material point of view was only a       
secondary consideration for man1 and a  
happy discovery after unsuccessful      
totemistic attentions to other  animals4
  ,we know not how many creatures early 
man tried to associate  with himself but
 failed4    ,in all stages of man's     
history the alternation of the seasons  
must have  brought some rudiments of    
order and system into his thoughts1     
though for  a long time he was too      
preoccupied to reflect upon the         

regularly  recurring vicissitudes of his
 life4  ,in the pastoral stage1 the     
sense of  order came to be more marked  
than in that of hunting1 and quickened  
the  mind to fresh thought4  ,the earth 
came to be regarded as the ,mother from 
whom all things came1 and there are     
abundant indications that the earth  as 
the ,mother1 the ,queen1 the ,long-lived
 one1 etc41 found her natural  place as 
a goddess among the ,celts4  ,her names 
and titles were probably  not in all    
places or in all tribes the same4  ,but 
it is in the  agricultural stage that   
she entered in ,celtic lands1 as she did
 in other  countries1 into her          
completest religious heritage1 and this 
aspect of  ,celtic religion will be     
dealt with more fully in connection with
 the  spirits of vegetation4  ,this     
phase of religion in ,celtic countries  
is one  which appears to underlie some  
of its most characteristic forms1 and   
the  one which has survived longest in  
,celtic folk-lore4  ,the ,earth-mother  

with her progeny of spirits1 of springs1
 rivers1 mountains1 forests1  trees1 and
 corn1 appears to have supplied most of 
the grouped and  individualised gods of 
the ,celtic pantheon4  ,the ,dis1 of    
whom ,caesar  speaks as the ancient god 
of the ,gauls1 was probably regarded as 
her son1  to whom the dead returned in  
death4  ,whether he is the ,gaulish god 
depicted with a hammer1 or as a huge dog
 swallowing the dead1 has not yet  been 
established with any degree of          
certainty4          ,,chapter           
,,iv--,,celtic ,,religion ,,and ,,the   
,,development ,,of ,,individualised     
,,deities      ,like other religions1   
those of the ,celtic lands of ,europe   
supplemented  the earlier animism by a  
belief in spirits1 who belonged to      
trees1  animals1 rocks1 mountains1      
springs1 rivers1 and other natural      
phenomena1  and in folk-lore there still
 survives abundant evidence that the    
,celt  regarded spirits as taking upon  
themselves a variety of forms1 animal   

and  human4  ,it was this idea of       
spirits in animal form that helped to   
preserve the memory of the older        
totemism into historic times4  ,it is   
thus that we have names of the type of  
,brannogenos 7son of the raven71        
,artogenos 7son of the bear71 and the   
like1 not to speak of simpler names     
like ,bran 7raven71 ,march 7horse71     
surviving into historic times4  ,bronze 
images1 too1 have been found at         
,neuvy-en-,sullias1 of a horse and a    
stag  7now in the ,orleans museum71     
provided with rings1 which were1 as ,m4 
,salomon ,reinach suggests1 probably    
used for the purpose of carrying these  
images in procession4  ,the wild boar1  
too1 was a favourite emblem of  ,gaul1  
and there is extant a bronze figure of a
 ,celtic ,diana riding on a  boar's     
back4  ,at ,bolar1 near ,nuits1 there   
was discovered a bronze mule4  ,in the  
museum at ,mayence is a bas-relief of   
the goddess of horses1 ,epona  7from the
 ,gaulish ,epos,lat4 equus1 horse71     

riding on horseback4  ,one  of the most 
important monuments of this kind is a   
figure of ,artio1 the  bear-goddess     
7from ,celtic ,artos1 a bear71 found at 
,muri near ,berne4  ,in  front of her   
stood a figure of a bear1 which was also
 found with her4  ,the  bull of the     
,tarvos ,trigaranos bas-relief of ,notre
 ,dame was also in all  likelihood      
originally a totem1 and similarly the   
horned serpents of other  bas-reliefs1  
as well as the boar found on ,gaulish   
ensigns and coins1  especially in       
,belgic territory4  ,there is a         
representation1 too1 of a  raven on a   
bas-relief at ,compiegne4  ,the name    
',moccus1' which is  identified with    
,mercury1 on inscriptions1 and which is 
found inscribed at  ,langres1 ,trobaso1 
the valley of the ,ossola and the ,borgo
 san ,dalmazzo1 is  undoubtedly the     
philological equivalent of the ,welsh   
moch 7swine74  ,in  ,britain1 too1 the  
boar is frequently found on the coins of
 the ,iceni and  other tribes4  ,in     

,italy1 according to ,mr4 ,warde        
,fowler1 the pig was an  appropriate    
offering to deities of the earth1 so    
that in the widespread  use of the pig  
as a symbol in the ,celtic world1 there 
may be some ancient  echo of a          
connection between it and the           
earth-spirit4  ,its diet of  acorns1    
too1 may have marked it out1 in the     
early days of life in forest-           
clearings1 as the animal embodiment of  
the oak-spirit4  ,in the legends of  the
 ,celtic races1 even in historic times1 
the pig1 and especially the  boar1 finds
 an honoured place4  ,in addition to the
 animals  aforementioned1 the ass1 too1 
was probably at one time venerated in   
one  of the districts of ,gaul1 and it  
is not improbable that ,mullo1 the name 
of a god identified with ,mars and      
regarded as the patron of muleteers1    
mentioned on inscriptions 7at ,nantes1  
,craon1 and ,les ,provencheres near     
,craon71 meant originally 'an ass4'     
,the goddess ,epona1 also1 whose        

worship was widely spread1 was probably 
at one time an animal goddess in  the   
form of a mare1 and the name of another 
goddess1 ,damona1 either from  the root 
dam,ir4 dam1 7ox72 or ,welsh daf-ad     
7sheep71 may similarly  be that of an   
ancient totem sheep or cow4  ,nor was it
 in the animal world  alone that the    
,celts saw indications of the divine4   
,while the chase and  the pastoral life 
concentrated the mind's attention on the
 life of  animals1 the growth of        
agriculture fixed man's thoughts on the 
life of  the earth1 and all that grew   
upon it1 while at the same time he was  
led  to think more and more of the      
mysterious world beneath the earth1 from
  which all things came and to which all
 things returned4  ,nor could he  forget
 the trees of the forest1 especially    
those which1 like the oak1 had  provided
 him with their fruit as food in time of
 need4  ,the name ,druid1  as well as   
that of the centre of worship of the    
,gauls of ,asia ,minor1  ,drunemeton    

7the oak-grove71 the statement of       
,maximus of ,tyre that the              
representation of ,zeus to the ,celts   
was a high oak1 ,pliny's account of     
,druidism 7,nat4 ,hist41 xvi4 #ie71 the 
numerous inscriptions to ,silvanus  and 
,silvana1 the mention of ,dervones or   
,dervonnae on an inscription at         
,cavalzesio near ,brescia1 and the      
abundant evidence of survivals in folk- 
lore as collected by ,dr4 ,j4 ,g4       
,frazer and others1 all point to the    
fact  that tree-worship1 and especially 
that of the oak1 had contributed its    
full share to the development of ,celtic
 religion1 at any rate in some          
districts and in some epochs4  ,the     
development of martial and commercial   
civilisation in later times tended to   
restrict its typical and more  primitive
 developments to the more conservative  
parts of the ,celtic  world4  ,the fact 
that in ,caesar's time its main centre  
in ,gaul was in the  territory of the   
,carnutes1 the tribe which has given its

 name to  ,chartres1 suggests that its  
chief votaries were mainly in that part 
of  the country4  ,this1 too1 was the   
district of the god ,esus 7the eponymous
  god of the ,essuvii71 and in some     
degree of ,teutates1 the cruelty of     
whose  rites is mentioned by ,lucan4    
,it had occurred to the present writer1 
before finding the same view expressed  
by ,m4 ,salomon ,reinach1 that the      
worship of ,esus in ,gaul was almost    
entirely local in character4  ,with     
regard to the rites of the ,druids1     
,caesar tells us that it was customary  
to make huge images of wickerwork1 into 
which human beings1 usually  criminals1 
were placed and burnt4  ,the use of     
wickerwork1 and the  suggestion that the
 rite was for purifying the land1       
indicates a  combination of the ideas of
 tree-worship with those of early       
agricultural  life4  ,when the ,emperor 
,claudius is said by ,suetonius to have 
suppressed  ,druidism1 what is meant is1
 in all probability1 that the more      

inhuman  rites were suppressed1 leading1
 as the ,scholiasts on ,lucan seem to   
suggest1 to a substitution of animal    
victims for men4  ,on the side of  civil
 administration and education1 the      
functions of the ,druids1 as the        
successors of the primitive medicine men
 and magicians1 doubtless varied        
greatly in different parts of ,gaul and 
,britain according to the progress  that
 had been made in the differentiation of
 functions in social life4  ,the more we
 investigate the state of the ,celtic   
world in ancient times1  the clearer it 
becomes1 that in civilisation it was    
very far from being  homogeneous1 and   
this heterogeneity of civilisation must 
have had its  influence on religion as  
well as on other social phenomena4  ,the
 natural  conservatism of agricultural  
life1 too1 perpetuated many practices   
even  into comparatively late times1 and
 of these we catch a glimpse in ,gregory
  of ,tours1 when he tells us that at   
,autun the goddess ,berecyntia was      

worshipped1 her image being carried on a
 wagon for the protection of the  fields
 and the vines4  ,it is not impossible  
that by ,berecyntia ,gregory  means the 
goddess ,brigindu1 whose name occurs on 
an inscription at ,volnay  in the same  
district of ,gaul4  ,the belief in      
corn-spirits1 and other  ideas connected
 with the central thought of the        
farmer's life1 show1 by  their          
persistence in ,celtic as well as other 
folklore1 how deeply they  had entered  
into the inner tissue of the            
agricultural mind1 so as to be  linked  
to its keenest emotions4  ,here the     
rites of religion1 whether  persuasive  
as in prayer1 or compulsory as in       
sympathetic magic1 whether  associated  
with communal or propitiatory sacrifice1
 whether directed to  the earth or to   
the heaven1 all had an intensely        
practical and terribly  real character1 
due to man's constant preoccupation with
 the growth and  storage of food for man
 and beast4  ,in the hunting1 the       

pastoral1 and  above all in the         
agricultural life1 religion was not a   
matter merely of  imagination or        
sentiment1 but one most intimately      
associated with the  daily practice of  
life1 and this practical interest       
included in its  purview rivers1        
springs1 forests1 mountains1 and all the
 setting of man's  existence4  ,and what
 is true of agriculture is true also1 in
 a greater or  less degree1 of the life 
of the ,celtic metal-worker or the      
,celtic sailor4  ,even in late ,welsh   
legend ,amaethon 7old ,celtic           
,ambactonos71 the patron  god of farming
 7,welsh ,amaeth71 and ,gofannon1 the   
patron god of the  metal-worker 7,welsh 
gof1 ,irish gobha71 were not quite      
forgotten1 and  the prominence of the   
worship of the counterparts of ,mercury 
and ,minerva  in ,gaul in historic times
 was due to the sense of respect and    
gratitude1  which each trade and each   
locality felt for the deity who had rid 
the  land of monsters1 and who had      

brought man into the comparative calm of
  civilised life4          ,,chapter    
,v--,,the ,,humanised ,,gods ,,of       
,,celtic ,,religion      ,one of the    
most striking facts connected with the  
,celtic religion is the  large number of
 names of deities which it includes4    
,these names are  known to us almost    
entirely from inscriptions1 for the most
 part votive  tablets1 in acknowledgment
 of some benefit1 usually that of       
health1  conferred by the god on man4   
,in ,britain these votive tablets are   
chiefly  found in the neighbourhood of  
the ,roman walls and camps1 but we      
cannot be  always certain that the      
deities mentioned are indigenous4  ,in  
,gaul1  however1 we are on surer ground 
in associating certain deities with     
certain districts1 inasmuch as the      
evidence of place-names is often a      
guide4  ,these inscriptions are very    
unevenly distributed over ,gaulish      
territory1 the ,western and the         
,north-,western districts being very    

sparsely represented4    ,in the present
 brief sketch it is impossible to enter 
into a full  discussion of the relations
 of the names found on inscriptions to  
particular localities1 and the light    
thus thrown on ,celtic religion2 but  it
 may be here stated that investigation  
tends to confirm the local  character of
 most of the deities which the          
inscriptions name4  ,out of  these      
deities1 some1 it is true1 in the       
process of evolution1 gained a  wider   
field of worshippers1 while others1 like
 ,lugus1 may even have been  at one time
 more widely worshipped than they came  
to be in later times4  ,occasionally a  
name like ,lugus 7,irish ,lug71 ,segomo 
7,irish1 in the  genitive1 ,segamonas71 
,camulos1 whence ,camulodunum           
7,colchester71 ,belenos  7,welsh        
,belyn71 ,maponos 7,welsh ,mabon71      
,litavis 7,welsh ,llydaw71 by  its      
existence in ,britain as well as in     
,gaul1 suggests that it was either  one 
of the ancient deities of the ,aryan    

,celts1 or one whose worship came  to   
extend over a larger area than its      
fellows4  ,apart from a few  exceptional
 considerations of this kind1 however1  
the local character of  the deities is  
most marked4    ,a very considerable    
number are the deities of springs and   
rivers4  ,in  ,noricum1 for example1 we 
have ,adsalluta1 a goddess associated   
with ,savus  7the river ,save74  ,in    
,britain 'the goddess' ,deva 7the ,dee71
 and ,belisama  7either the ,ribble or  
the ,mersey71 a name meaning 'the most  
warlike  goddess1' are of this type4    
,we have again ,axona the goddess of the
 river  ,aisne1 ,sequana1 the goddess of
 the ,seine1 ,ritona of the river ,rieu1
  numerous nymphs and many other deities
 of fountains4  ,doubtless many  other  
names of local deities are of this kind4
  ,aerial phenomena appear  to have left
 very few clear traces on the names of  
,celtic deities4  ,vintios1 a god       
identified with ,mars1 was probably a   
god of the wind1  ,taranucus1 a god of  

thunder1 ,leucetios1 a god of lightning1
 ,sulis 7of  ,bath7 a sun-goddess1 but  
beyond these there are few1 if any1     
reflections  of the phenomena of the    
heavens4  ,of the gods named on         
inscriptions  nearly all are identified 
with ,mercury1 ,mars1 or ,apollo4  ,the 
gods who  came to be regarded as        
culture-deities appear from their names 
to be of  various origins3 some are     
humanised totems1 others are in origin  
deities  of vegetation or local natural 
phenomena4  ,as already indicated1 it is
  clear that the growth of commercial   
and civilised life in certain  districts
 had brought into prominence deities    
identified with ,mercury and  ,minerva  
as the patrons of civilisation4         
,military men1 especially in  ,britain1 
appear to have favoured deities like    
,belatucadros 7the brilliant  in war71  
identified with ,mars4    ,about        
fourteen inscriptions mentioning him    
have been found in the ,north  of       
,england and the ,south of ,scotland4   

,the goddess ,brigantia 7the patron-    
deity of the ,brigantes71 too1 is       
mentioned on four inscriptions3         
,cocidius1 identified with ,mars1 is    
mentioned on thirteen3 while another    
popular god appears to have been        
,silvanus4  ,among the most noticeable  
names of the ,celtic gods identified    
with ,mercury are ,adsmerius or         
,atesmerius1 ,dumiatis 7the god of the  
,puy de ,dome71 ,iovantucarus 7the      
lover of youth71 ,teutates 7the god of  
the people71 ,caletos 7the hard71  and  
,moccus 7the boar74  ,several deities   
are identified with ,mars1 and of  these
 some of the most noticeable names are  
,albiorix 7world-king71  ,caturix       
7battle-king71 ,dunatis 7the god of the 
fort71 ,belatucadrus 7the  brilliant in 
war71 ,leucetius 7the god of lightning71
 ,mullo 7the mule71  ,ollovidius 7the   
all-knowing7 ,vintius 7the wind-god71   
and ,vitucadrus 7the  brilliant in      
energy74  ,the large number of names    
identified with ,mars  reflects the     

prominent place at one time given to war
 in the ideas that  affected the growth 
of the religion of the ,celtic tribes4  
,of the gods  identified with ,hercules1
 the most interesting name is ,ogmios   
7the god of  the furrow7 given by       
,lucian1 but not found on any           
inscription4  ,the  following gods too1 
among others1 are identified with       
,jupiter3 ,aramo 7the  gentle71         
,ambisagrus 7the persistent71           
,bussumarus 7the large-lipped71         
,taranucus 7the thunderer71 ,uxellimus  
7the highest74  ,it would seem from     
this that in historic times at any rate 
,jupiter did not play a large part  in  
,celtic religious ideas4    ,there      
remains another striking feature of     
,celtic religion which has not  yet been
 mentioned1 namely the identification of
 several deities with  ,apollo4  ,these 
deities are essentially the presiding   
deities of certain  healing-springs and 
health-resorts1 and the growth of their 
worship into  popularity is a further   

striking index to the development of    
religion  side by side with certain     
aspects of civilisation4  ,one of the   
names of a  ,celtic ,apollo is ,borvo   
7whence ,bourbon71 the deity of certain 
hot  springs4  ,this name is            
,indo-,european1 and was given to the   
local fountain-  god by the             
,celtic-speaking invaders of ,gaul3 it  
simply means 'the  ,boiler4'  ,other    
forms of the name are also found1 as    
,bormo and ,bormanus4  ,at ,aquae       
,granni 7,aix-la-,chapelle7 and         
elsewhere the name identified with      
,apollo is ,grannos4  ,we find also     
,mogons1 and ,mogounus1 the patron deity
  of ,moguntiacum 7,mainz71 and1 once or
 twice1 ,maponos 7the great youth74     
,the essential feature of the ,apollo   
worship was its association in ,gallo-  
,roman civilisation with the idea of    
healing1 an idea which1 through the     
revival of the worship of ,a,esculapius1
 affected religious views very  strongly
 in other quarters of the empire4  ,it  

was in this conception of  the gods as  
the guides of civilisation and the      
restorers of health1 that  ,celtic      
religion1 in some districts at any rate1
 shows itself emerging  into a measure  
of light after a long and toilsome      
progress from the  darkness of          
prehistoric ideas4  ,what ,caesar says  
of the practice of the  ,gauls of       
beginning the year with the night rather
 than with the day1 and  their ancient  
belief that they were sprung from ,dis1 
the god of the lower  world1 is thus    
typified in their religious history4    
,in dealing with the deities of the     
,celtic world we must not1 however1     
forget the goddesses1 though their      
history presents several problems of    
great difficulty4  ,of these goddesses  
some are known to us by                 
groups--,proximae 7the kinswomen71      
,dervonnae 7the oak-spirits71 ,niskai   
7the water-sprites71 ,mairae1 ,matronae1
 ,matres or ,matrae 7the mothers71      
,quadriviae 7the goddesses of cross     

roads74  ,the ,matres1 ,matrae1 and     
,matronae are often qualified by some   
local name4  ,deities of this type      
appear to have been popular in ,britain1
 in the neighbourhood of ,cologne  and  
in ,provence4  ,in some cases it is     
uncertain whether some of these  grouped
 goddesses are ,celtic or ,teutonic4    
,it is an interesting parallel  to the  
existence of these grouped goddesses1   
when we find that in some  parts of     
,wales ',y ,mamau' 7the mothers7 is the 
name for the fairies4  ,these  grouped  
goddesses take us back to one of the    
most interesting stages in  the early   
,celtic religion1 when the earth-spirits
 or the corn-spirits had  not yet been  
completely individualised4  ,of the     
individualised goddesses  many are      
strictly local1 being the names of      
springs or rivers4  ,others1  again1    
appear to have emerged into greater     
individual prominence1 and of  these we 
find several associated on inscriptions1
 sometimes with a god of  ,celtic name1 

but sometimes with his ,latin           
counterpart4  ,it is by no means        
certain that the names so linked        
together were thus associated in early  
times1 and the fashion may have been a  
later one1 which1 like other  fashions1 
spread after it had once begun4  ,the   
relationship in some cases  may have    
been regarded as that of mother and son1
 in others that of  brother and sister1 
in others that of husband and wife1 the 
data are not  adequate for the final    
decision of the question4  ,of these    
associated  pairs the following may be  
noted1 ,mercurius and ,rosmerta1        
,mercurius and  ,dirona1 ,grannus       
7,apollo7 and ,sirona1 ,sucellus and    
,nantosvelta1 ,borvo and  ,damona1      
,cicolluis 7,mars7 and ,litavis1        
,bormanus and ,bormana1 ,savus and      
,adsalluta1 ,mars and ,nemetona4  ,one  
of these names1 ,sirona1 probably meant 
the long-lived one1 and was applied to  
the earth-mother4  ,in ,welsh one or    
two names have survived which1 by their 

structure1 appear to have been  ancient 
names of goddesses2 these are ,rhiannon 
7,rigantona1 the great  queen71 and     
,modron 7,matrona1 the great mother74   
,the other ,british  deities will be    
more fully treated by another writer in 
this series in a  work on the ancient   
mythology of the ,british ,isles4  ,it  
is enough to say  that research tends   
more and more to confirm the view that  
the key to the  history of the ,celtic  
deities is the realisation of the local 
character  of the vast majority of them4
          ,,chapter ,,vi--,,the ,,celtic
 ,,priesthood      ,no name in          
connection with ,celtic religion is more
 familiar to the  average reader than   
that of the ,druids1 yet there is no    
section of the  history of ,celtic      
religion that has given rise to greater 
discussion than  that relating to this  
order4  ,even the association of the    
name with the  ,indo-,european root     
dru-1 which we find in the ,greek word  
drus1 an  oak1 has been questioned by   

such a competent ,celtic scholar as ,m4 
d',arbois de ,jubainville1 but on this  
point it cannot be said that his        
criticism is conclusive4  ,the writers  
of the ancient world who refer to  the  
,druids1 do not always make it          
sufficiently clear in what districts    
the rites1 ceremonies1 and functions    
which they were describing  prevailed4  
,nor was it so much the priestly        
character of the ,druids that  produced 
the deepest impression on the ancients4 
,to some philosophical  and theological 
writers of antiquity their doctrines and
 their apparent  affinities with        
,pythagoreanism were of much greater    
interest than their  ceremonial or other
 functions4  ,one thing at any rate is  
clear1 that the  ,druids and their      
doctrines1 or supposed doctrines1 had   
made a deep  impression on the writers  
of the ancient world4  ,there is a      
reference to  them in a fragment of     
,aristotle 7which may not1 however1 be  
genuine7 that  is of interest as        

assigning them a place in express terms 
both among the  ,celts and the ,galatae4
  ,the prominent feature of their       
teaching which had  attracted the       
attention of other writers1 such as the 
historian ,diodorus  ,siculus and the   
,christian theologian ,clement of       
,alexandria1 was the  resemblance of    
their doctrine concerning the           
immortality and  transmigration of the  
soul to the views of ,pythagoras4       
,ancient writers1  however1 did not     
always remember that a religious or     
philosophical  doctrine must not be     
treated as a thing apart1 but must be   
interpreted in  its whole context in    
relation to its development in history  
and in the  social life of the community
 in which it has flourished4  ,to some  
of the  ancients the superficial        
resemblance between the ,druidic        
doctrine of the  soul's future and the  
teaching attributed to ,pythagoras was  
the essential  point1 and this was      
enough to give the ,druids a reputation 

for  philosophy1 so that a writer like  
,clement of ,alexandria goes so far as  
to  regard the ,druids of the ',galatae'
 along with the prophets of the         
,egyptians1 the ',chaldaeans' of the    
,assyrians1 the 'philosophers of the    
,celts1' and the ,magi of the ,persians 
as the pioneers of philosophy among  the
 barbarians before it spread to the     
,greeks4  ,the reason for the           
distinction drawn in this passage       
between the ',druids of the ,galatae'   
and  'the philosophers of the ,celts' is
 not clear4  ,diodorus ,siculus calls   
attention to the ,druidic doctrine that 
the souls of men were immortal1  and    
that after the lapse of an appointed    
number of years they came to  life      
again1 the soul then entering into      
another body4  ,he says that there  were
 certain 'philosophers and theologians' 
that were called ,druids who  were held 
in exceptional honour4  ,in addition to 
these1 the ,celts1 he  says1 had also   
seers1 who foretold the future from the 

flight of birds  and by means of the    
offering of sacrifices4  ,according to  
him it was  these priestly seers who had
 the masses in subjection to them4  ,in 
great  affairs they had1 he says1 the   
practice of divination by the slaughter 
of  a human victim1 and the observation 
of the attitude in which he fell1 the   
contortions of the limbs1 the spurting  
of the blood1 and the like4  ,this1  he 
states1 was an ancient and established  
practice4  ,moreover1 it was the        
custom1 according to ,diodorus1 to make 
no sacrifice without the presence  of a 
philosopher 7apparently a ,druid in     
addition to the sacrificing  seer71 the 
theory being that those who were        
authorities on the divine  nature were  
to the gods intelligible mediators for  
the offering of gifts  and the          
presentation of petitions4  ,these      
philosophers were in great  request1    
together with their poets1 in war as    
well as in peace1 and were  consulted   
not merely by the men of their own side1

 but also by those of  the enemy4  ,even
 when two armies were on the point of   
joining battle1  these philosophers had 
been able1 ,diodorus says1 to step into 
the space  between them and to stop them
 from fighting1 exactly as if they had  
charmed wild beasts4  ,the moral which  
,diodorus draws from this is1 that  even
 among the wildest of barbarians the    
spirited principle of the soul  yields  
to wisdom1 and that ,ares 7the god of   
war7 even there respects the  ,muses4   
,it is clear from this account that     
,diodorus had in mind the three  classes
 of non-military professional men among 
the ,celts1 to whom other  ancient      
writers also refer1 namely1 the ,bards1 
the ,seers1 and the ,druids4  ,his      
narrative is apparently an expansion1 in
 the light of his reading and           
philosophical meditation1 of information
 supplied by previous writers1  notably 
,posidonius4  ,the latter1 too1 appears 
to have been ,julius ,caesar's  chief   
authority1 in addition to his own       

observation1 but ,caesar does not       
appear expressly to indicate the triple 
division here in question4  ,the        
account which he gives is important1 and
 would be even more valuable than  it is
 had he told us how far what he         
describes was written from his own      
personal information1 and the degree of 
variation 7if any7 of religious         
practice in different districts4        
,however1 ,caesar's statements deserve  
the closest consideration4  ,after      
calling attention to the division of    
the ,gaulish aristocracy into two main  
sections1 the ,druids and the  ,knights1
 he proceeds to speak of the ,druids4   
,these were occupied1 he  says1 with    
religious matters1 they attended to     
public and private  sacrifices1 and     
interpreted omens4  ,moreover1 they were
 the teachers of  the country4  ,to them
 the young men congregated for          
knowledge1 and the  pupils held their   
teachers in great respect4  ,they1 too1 
were the judges  in public and private  

disputes3 it was they who awarded       
damages and  penalties4  ,any contumacy 
in reference to their judgments was     
punished by  exclusion from the         
sacrifices4  ,this sentence of          
excommunication was the  severest       
punishment among the ,gauls4  ,the men  
so punished were treated as  outlaws1   
and cut off from all human society1 with
 its rights and  privileges4  ,over     
these ,druids there was one head1 who   
wielded the  highest influence among    
them4  ,on his death the nearest of the 
others in  dignity succeeded him1 or1 if
 several were equal1 the election of a  
successor was made by the vote of the   
,druids4  ,sometimes the primacy was    
not decided without the arbitrament of  
arms4  ,the ,druids met at a fixed  time
 of the year in a consecrated spot in   
the territory of the ,carnutes1  the    
district which was regarded as being in 
the centre of the whole of  ,gaul4      
,this assembly of ,druids formed a court
 for the decision of cases  brought to  

them from everywhere around4  ,it was   
thought1 ,caesar says1  that the        
doctrine of the ,druids was discovered  
in ,britain and thence  carried over    
into ,gaul4  ,at that time1 too1 those  
who wanted to make a  profounder study  
of it resorted thither for their        
training4  ,the ,druids  had immunity   
from military service and from the      
payment of tribute4  ,these  privileges 
drew many into training for the         
profession1 some of their own  accord1  
others at the instance of parents and   
relatives4  ,while in  training they    
were said to learn by heart a large     
number of verses1 and  some went so far 
as to spend twenty years in their course
 of preparation4  ,the ,druids held it  
wrong to put their religious teaching in
 writing1  though1 in almost everything 
else1 whether public or private affairs1
  they made use of ,greek letters4      
,caesar thought that they discouraged   
writing on the one hand1 lest their     
teaching should become public  property2

 on the other1 lest reliance upon       
writing should lessen the  cultivation  
of the memory4  ,to this risk ,caesar   
could testify from his  own knowledge4  
,their cardinal doctrine was that souls 
did not perish1  but that after death   
they passed from one person to another2 
and this  they regarded as a supreme    
incentive to valour1 since1 with the    
prospect  of immortality1 the fear of   
death counted for nothing4  ,they       
carried on1  moreover1 many discussions 
about the stars and their motion1 the   
greatness of the universe and the lands1
 the nature of things1 the  strength and
 power of the immortal gods1 and        
communicated their knowledge  to their  
pupils4  ,in another passage ,caesar    
says that the ,gauls as a  people were  
extremely devoted to religious ideas and
 practices4  ,men who  were seriously   
ill1 who were engaged in war1 or who    
stood in any peril1  offered1 or        
promised to offer1 human sacrifices1 and
 made use of the  ,druids as their      

agents for such sacrifices4  ,their     
theory was1 that the  immortal gods     
could not be appeased unless a human    
life were given for a  human life4  ,in 
addition to these private sacrifices1   
they had also  similar human sacrifices 
of a public character4  ,caesar further 
contrasts  the ,germans with the ,gauls1
 saying that the former had no ,druids  
to  preside over matters of religion1   
and that they paid no attention to      
sacrifices4    ,in his work on          
divination1 ,cicero1 too1 refers to the 
profession which  the ,druids made of   
natural science1 and of the power of    
foretelling the  future1 and instances  
the case of the ,a,eduan ,diviciacus1   
his brother's  guest and friend4        
,nothing is here said by ,cicero of the 
three classes  implied in ,diodorus1 but
 ,timagenes 7quoted in ,ammianus7 refers
 to the  three classes under the names  
'bardi1' 'euhages' 7a mistake for       
'vates'71  and 'drasidae' 7a mistake for
 'druidae'74  ,the study of nature and  

of the  heavens is here attributed to   
the second class of seers 7vates74  ,the
  highest class1 that of the ,druids1   
were1 he says1 in accordance with the   
rule of ,pythagoras1 closely linked     
together in confraternities1 and by     
acquiring a certain loftiness of mind   
from their investigations into  things  
that were hidden and exalted1 they      
despised human affairs and  declared the
 soul immortal4  ,we see here the view  
expressed that socially  as well as     
intellectually the ,druids lived        
according to the ,pythagorean           
philosophy4  ,origen also refers to the 
view that was prevalent in his  time1   
that ,zamolxis1 the servant of          
,pythagoras1 had taught the ,druids the 
philosophy of ,pythagoras4  ,he further 
states that the ,druids practised       
sorcery4  ,the triple division of the   
non-military aristocracy is perhaps     
best given by ,strabo1 the ,greek       
geographer1 who here follows            
,posidonius4  ,the three classes are the

 ,bards1 the ,seers 7ouateisvates71 and 
,druids4  ,the ,bards were hymn-writers 
and poets1 the ,seers sacrificers and   
men of  science1 while the ,druids1 in  
addition to natural science1 practised  
also  moral philosophy4  ,they were     
regarded as the justest of men1 and on  
this  account were intrusted with the   
settlement of private and public        
disputes4  ,they had been the means of  
preventing armies from fighting  when on
 the very verge of battle1 and were     
especially intrusted with the  judgment 
of cases involving human life4          
,according to ,strabo1 they and  their  
fellow-countrymen held that souls and   
the universe were immortal1  but that   
fire and water would sometime prevail4  
,sacrifices were never  made1 ,strabo   
says1 without the intervention of the   
,druids4  ,pomponius  ,mela says that in
 his time 7c4 #dd ,a4,d471 though the   
ancient savagery was  no more1 and the  
,gauls abstained from human sacrifices1 
some traces of  their former practices  

still remained1 notably in their habit  
of cutting  a portion of the flesh of   
those condemned to death after bringing 
them to  the altars4  ,the ,gauls1 he   
says1 in spite of their traces of       
barbarism1  had an eloquence of their   
own1 and had the ,druids as their       
teachers in  philosophy4  ,these        
professed to know the size and form of  
the earth and  of the universe1 the     
motions of the sky and stars1 and the   
will of the  gods4  ,he refers1 as      
,caesar does1 to their work in          
education1 and says  that it was carried
 on in caves or in secluded groves4     
,mela speaks of  their doctrine of      
immortality1 but says nothing as to the 
entry of souls  into other bodies4  ,as 
a proof of this belief he speaks of the 
practice  of burning and burying with   
the dead things appropriate to the needs
 of  the living4  ,lucan1 the ,latin    
poet1 in his ,pharsalia1 refers to the  
seclusion of the ,druids' groves and to 
their doctrine of immortality4  ,the    

,scholiasts' notes on this passage are  
after the manner of their kind1 and  add
 very little to our knowledge4  ,in     
,pliny's ,natural ,history 7xvi1  #bdi71
 however1 we seem to be face to face    
with another1 though perhaps a          
distorted1 tradition4  ,pliny was an    
indefatigable compiler1 and appears     
partly by reading1 partly by personal   
observation1 to have noticed phases  of 
,celtic religious practices which other 
writers had overlooked4  ,in the  first 
place he calls attention to the         
veneration in which the ,gauls held  the
 mistletoe and the tree on which it     
grew1 provided that that tree was  the  
oak4  ,hence their predilection for oak 
groves and their requirement  of oak    
leaves for all religious rites4  ,pliny 
here remarks on the  consonance of this 
practice with the etymology of the name 
,druid as  interpreted even through     
,greek 7the ,greek for an oak being     
drus74  ,were  not this respect for the 
oak and for the mistletoe paralleled by 

numerous  examples of tree and          
plant-worship given by ,dr4 ,frazer and 
others1 it  might well have been        
suspected that ,pliny was here quoting  
some writer  who had tried to argue from
 the etymology of the name ,druid4      
,another  suspicious circumstance in    
,pliny's account is his reference to the
  serpent's egg composed of snakes      
rolled together into a ball4  ,he states
  that he himself had seen such an      
'egg1' of about the size of an apple4   
,pliny1 too1 states that ,tiberius      
,caesar abolished by a decree of the    
,senate the ,druids and the kind of     
seers and physicians the ,gauls then    
had4  ,this statement1 when read in its 
context1 probably refers to the         
prohibition of human sacrifices4  ,the  
historian ,suetonius1 in his account  of
 the ,emperor ,claudius1 also states    
that ,augustus had prohibited 'the      
religion of the ,druids' 7which1 he     
says1 'was one of fearful savagery'7  to
 ,roman citizens1 but that ,claudius had

 entirely abolished it4  ,what is  here 
also meant1 in view of the description  
given of ,druidism1 is  doubtless the   
abolishing of its human sacrifices4  ,in
 later ,latin writers  there are several
 references to ,druidesses1 but these   
were probably only  sorceresses4  ,in   
,irish the name drui 7genitive druad7   
meant a  magician1 and the word derwydd 
in mediaeval ,welsh was especially used 
in reference to the vaticinations which 
were then popular in ,wales4    ,when we
 analyse the testimony of ancient       
writers concerning the ,druids1  we see 
in the first place that to different    
minds the name connoted  different      
things4  ,to ,caesar it is the general  
name for the non-military  professional 
class1 whether priests1 seers1 teachers1
 lawyers1 or judges4  ,to others the    
,druids are pre-eminently the           
philosophers and teachers of  the       
,gauls1 and are distinguished from the  
seers designated vates4  ,to  others    
again1 such as ,pliny1 they were the    

priests of the oak-ritual1  whence their
 name was derived4  ,in view of the     
variety of grades of  civilisation then 
co-existing in ,gaul and ,britain1 it is
 not improbable  that the development of
 the non-military professional class    
varied very  considerably in different  
districts1 and that all the aspects of  
,druidism  which the ancient writers    
specify found their appropriate places  
in the  social system of the ,celts4    
,in ,gaul and ,britain1 as elsewhere1   
the  office of the primitive tribal     
medicine-man was capable of indefinite  
development1 and all the forms of its   
evolution could not have proceeded  pari
 passu where the sociological conditions
 found such scope for  variation4  ,it  
may well be that the oak and mistletoe  
ceremonies1 for  example1 lingered in   
remote agricultural districts long after
 they had  ceased to interest men along 
the main routes of ,celtic civilisation4
  ,the  bucolic mind does not readily   
abandon the practices of millennia4     

,in addition to the term ,druid1 we find
 in ,aulus ,hirtius' continuation of    
,caesar's ,gallic ,war 7,bk4 viii41 c4  
xxxviii41 #b71 as well as on two        
inscriptions1 one at ,le-,puy-en-,velay 
7,dep4 ,haute-,loire71 and the other at 
,macon 7,dep4 ,saone-et-,loire71 another
 priestly title1 'gutuater4'  ,at       
,macon the office is that of a 'gutuater
 ,martis1' but of its special  features 
nothing is known4          ,,chapter    
,,vii--,,the ,,celtic ,,other-,,world   
,in the preceding chapter we have seen  
that the belief was widely  prevalent   
among ,greek and ,roman writers that the
 ,druids taught the  immortality of the 
soul4  ,some of these writers1 too1     
point out the  undoubted fact1 attested 
by ,archaeology1 that objects which     
would be  serviceable to the living were
 buried with the dead1 and this was     
regarded as a confirmation of the view  
that the immortality of souls was  to   
the ,celts an object of belief4  ,the   
study of ,archaeology on the one  hand1 

and of ,comparative ,religion on the    
other1 certainly leads to the           
conclusion that in the ,bronze and the  
,early ,iron ,age1 and in all           
probability in the ,stone ,age1 the idea
 prevailed that death was not the  end  
of man4  ,the holed cromlechs of the    
later ,stone ,age were probably         
designed for the egress and ingress of  
souls4  ,the food and the weapons  that 
were buried with the dead were thought  
to be objects of genuine  need4  ,roman 
religion1 too1 in some of its rites     
provided means for the  periodical      
expulsion of hungry and hostile spirits 
of the dead1 and for  their pacification
 by the offer of food4  ,a tomb and its 
adjuncts were  meant not merely for the 
honour of the dead1 but also for the    
protection  of the living4  ,a clear    
line of distinction was drawn between   
satisfied  and beneficent ghosts like   
the ,manes1 and the unsatisfied and     
hostile  ghosts like the ,lemures and   
,larvae4  ,to the ,celtic mind1 when its

  analytical powers had come to birth1  
and man was sufficiently  self-conscious
 to reflect upon himself1 the problem of
 his own nature  pressed for some       
solution4  ,in these solutions the      
breath1 the blood1 the  name1 the head1 
and even the hair generally played a    
part1 but these  would not in themselves
 explain the mysterious phenomena of    
sleep1 of  dreams1 of epilepsy1 of      
madness1 of disease1 of man's shadow and
 his  reflection1 and of man's death4   
,by long familiarity with the scientific
  or quasi-scientific explanations of   
these things1 we find it difficult to   
realise fully their constant fascination
 for early man1 who had his  thinkers   
and philosophies like ourselves4  ,one  
very widely accepted  solution of early 
man in the ,celtic world was1 that      
within him there was  another self which
 could live a life of its own apart from
 the body1 and  which survived even     
death1 burial1 and burning4  ,sometimes 
this inner  self was associated with the

 breath1 whence1 for example1 the ,latin
  'anima' and the ,welsh 'enaid1' both  
meaning the soul1 from the root an-1  to
 breathe4  ,at other times the term     
employed for the second self had        
reference to man's shadow3 the ,greek   
'skia1' the ,latin 'umbra1' the ,welsh  
'ysgawd1' the ,english 'shade4'  ,there 
are abundant evidences1 too1 that  the  
life-principle was frequently regarded  
as being especially associated  with the
 blood4  ,another tendency1 of which    
,principal ,rhys has given  numerous    
examples in his ,welsh folk-lore1 was to
 regard the soul as  capable of taking a
 visible form1 not necessarily human1   
preferably that  of some winged         
creature4  ,in ancient writers there is 
no information as  to the views         
prevalent among the ,celts regarding the
 forms or the abodes  of the spirits of 
the dead1 beyond the statement that the 
,druids taught  the doctrine of their   
re-birth4  ,we are thus compelled to    
look to the  evidence afforded by myth1 

legend1 and folk-lore4  ,these give fair
  indications as to the types of earlier
 popular belief in these matters1  but  
it would be a mistake to assume that the
 ideas embodied in them had  remained   
entirely unchanged from remote times4   
,the mind of man at  certain levels is  
quite capable of evolving new myths and 
fresh folk-lore  along the lines of its 
own psychology and its own logic4  ,the 
forms which  the soul could take        
doubtless varied greatly in men's       
opinions in  different districts and in 
different mental perspectives1 but      
folk-lore  tends to confirm the view    
that early man1 in the ,celtic world as 
elsewhere1 tended to emphasise his      
conception of the subtlety and  mobility
 of the soul as contrasted with the     
body4  ,sooner or later the  primitive  
philosopher was bound to consider       
whither the soul went in  dreams or in  
death4  ,he may not at first have       
thought of any other sphere  than that  
of his own normal life1 but other       

questions1 such as the home  of the     
spirits of vegetation in or under the   
earth1 would suggest1 even  if this     
thought had not occurred to him before1 
that the spirits of men1  too1 had      
entrance to the world below4  ,whether  
this world was further  pictured in     
imagination depended largely on the     
poetic genius of any  given people4     
,the folk-lore of the ,celtic races     
bears abundant testimony  to their      
belief that beneath this world there was
 another4  ,the 'annwfn'  of the ,welsh 
was distinctly conceived in the         
folk-lore embodied in  mediaeval poetry 
as being 'is elfydd' 7beneath the       
world74  ,in mediaeval  ,welsh legend1  
again1 this lower world is regarded as  
divided into  kingdoms1 like this world1
 and its kings1 like ,arawn and ,hafgan 
in the  ,mabinogi of ,pwyll1 are        
represented as being sometimes engaged  
in  conflict4  ,from this lower world   
had come to man some of the blessings of
  civilisation1 and among them the much 

prized gift of swine4  ,the lower  world
 could be even plundered by enterprising
 heroes4  ,marriages like  that of      
,pwyll and ,rhiannon were possible      
between the dwellers of the one  world  
and the other4  ,the other-world of the 
,celts does not seem1  however1 to have 
been always pictured as beneath the     
earth4  ,irish and  ,welsh legend       
combine in viewing it at times as       
situated on distant  islands1 and ,welsh
 folk-lore contains several suggestions 
of another  world situated beneath the  
waters of a lake1 a river1 or a sea4    
,in one  or two passages also of ,welsh 
mediaeval poetry the shades are         
represented  as wandering in the woods  
of ,caledonia 7,coed ,celyddon74  ,this 
was no  doubt a traditional idea in     
those families that migrated to ,wales  
in post-  ,roman times from             
,strathclyde4  ,to those who puzzled    
over the fate of the  souls of the dead 
the idea of their re-birth was a very   
natural solution1  and ,mr4 ,alfred     

,nutt1 in his ,voyage of ,bran1 has     
called attention to the  occurrence of  
this idea in ,irish legend4  ,it does   
not follow1 however1  that the souls of 
all men would enjoy the privilege of    
this re-birth4  ,as  ,mr4 ,alfred ,nutt 
points out1 ,irish legend seems to      
regard this re-birth  only as the       
privilege of the truly great4  ,it is of
 interest to note the  curious          
persistence of similar ideas as to death
 and the other-world in  literature     
written even in ,christian times and by 
monastic scribes4  ,in  ,welsh1 in      
addition to ,annwfn1 a term which seems 
to mean the ',not-world1'  we have other
 names for the world below1 such as     
'anghar1' the loveless  place2 'difant1'
 the unrimmed place 7whence the modern  
,welsh word  'difancoll1' lost for      
ever72 'affwys1' the abyss2 'affan1' the
 land  invisible4  ,the upper-world is  
sometimes called 'elfydd1' sometimes    
'adfant1' the latter term meaning the   
place whose rim is turned back4         

,apparently it implies a picture of the 
earth as a disc1 whose rim or lip  is   
curved back so as to prevent men from   
falling over into the 'difant1'  or the 
rimless place4  ,in modern ,celtic      
folk-lore the various local other-      
worlds are the abodes of fairies1 and in
 these traditions there may  possibly   
be1 as ,principal ,rhys has suggested1  
some intermixture of  reminiscences of  
the earlier inhabitants of the various  
districts4  ,modern  folk-lore1 like    
mediaeval legend1 has its stories of the
 inter-marriages  of natives of this    
world with those of the other-world1    
often located  underneath a lake4  ,the 
curious reader will find several        
examples of such  stories in ,principal 
,rhys's collection of ,welsh and ,manx  
folk-lore4  ,in  ,irish legend one of   
the most classical of these stories is  
that of the  betrothal of ,etain1 a     
story which has several points of       
contact with the  narrative of the      
meeting of ,pwyll and ,rhiannon in the  

,welsh ,mabinogi4  ,the  name of        
,arthur's wife1 ,gwenhwyfar1 which means
 'the ,white ,spectre1' also  suggests  
that originally she too played a part in
 a story of the same  kind4  ,in all    
these and similar narratives1 it is     
important to note the  way in which the 
,celtic conceptions of the other-world1 
in ,britain and in  ,ireland1 have been 
coloured by the geographical aspects of 
these two  countries1 by their seas1    
their islands1 their caves1 their       
mounds1 their  lakes1 and their         
mountains4  ,the local other-worlds of  
these lands bear1  as we might have     
expected1 the clear impress of their    
origin4  ,on the  whole the conceptions 
of the other-world which we meet in     
,celtic legend  are joyous2 it is a land
 of youth and beauty4  ,cuchulainn1 the 
,irish  hero1 for example1 is brought in
 a boat to an exceedingly fair island   
round which there is a silver wall and a
 bronze palisade4  ,in one ,welsh       
legend the cauldron of the ,head of     

,annwfn has around it a rim of pearls4  
,one ,irish story has a naive           
description of the glories of the       
,celtic  ,elysium in the                
words--',admirable was that land3 there 
are three trees  there always bearing   
fruit1 one pig always alive1 and another
 ready  cooked4'  ,occasionally1        
however1 we find a different picture4   
,in the  ,welsh poem called ',y         
,gododin' the poet ,aneirin is          
represented as  expressing his gratitude
 at being rescued by the son of         
,llywarch ,hen from  'the cruel prison  
of the earth1 from the abode of death1  
from the  loveless land4'  ,the salient 
features1 therefore1 of the ,celtic     
conceptions of the other-world are their
 consonance with the suggestions  made  
by ,celtic scenery to the ,celtic       
imagination1 the vagueness and          
variability of these conceptions in     
different minds and in different  moods1
 the absence of any ethical             
considerations beyond the incentive     

given to bravery by the thought of      
immortality1 and the remarkable         
development of a sense of possible      
inter-relations between the two  worlds1
 whether pacific or hostile4  ,such     
conceptions1 as we see from  ,celtic    
legend1 proved an admirable stimulus and
 provided excellent  material for the   
development of ,celtic narrative1 and   
the weird and  romantic effect was      
further heightened by the general belief
 in the  possibilities of magic and     
metamorphosis4  ,moreover1 the          
association with  innumerable           
place-names of legends of this type gave
 the beautiful  scenery of ,celtic lands
 an added charm1 which has attached     
their  inhabitants to them with a subtle
 and unconquerable attachment scarcely  
intelligible to the more prosaic        
inhabitants of prosaic lands4  ,to the  
poetic ,celt the love of country tends  
to become almost a religion4  ,the      
,celtic mind cannot remain indifferent  
to lands and seas whose very beauty     

compels the eyes of man to gaze upon    
them to their very horizon1 and the     
lines of observation thus drawn to the  
horizon are for the ,celt continual     
temptations to the thought of an        
infinity beyond4  ,the preoccupation of 
the ,celtic mind with the deities of his
 scenery1 his springs1 his rivers1  his 
seas1 his forests1 his mountains1 his   
lakes1 was in thorough keeping  with the
 tenour of his mind1 when tuned to its  
natural surroundings4  ,in  dealing with
 ,celtic religion1 mythology1 and       
legend1 it is not so much  the varying  
local and temporal forms that demand our
 attention1 as the  all-pervading and   
animating spirit1 which shows its       
essential character  even through the   
scanty remains of the ancient ,celtic   
world4  ,celtic  religion bears the     
impress of nature on earth far more than
 nature in the  heavens4  ,the sense of 
the heaven above has perhaps survived in
 some of  the general ,indo-,european   
,celtic terms for the divine principle1 

and  there are some traces of a         
religious interest in the sun and the   
god of  thunder and lightning1 but every
 student of ,celtic religion must feel  
that the main and characteristic        
elements are associated with the earth  
in all the variety of its local         
phenomena4  ,the great earth-mother and 
her varied offspring ever come to view  
in ,celtic religion under many  names1  
and the features even of the other-world
 could not be dissociated  for the ,celt
 from those of his mother-earth4  ,the  
festivals of his year1  too1 were       
associated with the decay and the       
renewal of her annual life4  ,the       
bonfires of ,november1 ,may1 ,midsummer1
 and ,august were doubtless meant  to be
 associated with the vicissitudes of her
 life and the spirits that  were her    
children4  ,for the ,celt the year began
 in ,november1 so that its  second      
half-year commenced with the first of   
,may4  ,the idea to which  ,caesar      
refers1 that the ,gauls believed        

themselves descended from ,dis1 the  god
 of the lower world1 and began the year 
with the night1 counting their  time not
 by days but by nights1 points in the   
same direction1 namely that  the        
darkness of the earth had a greater hold
 on the mind than the  brightness of the
 sky4  ,the ,welsh terms for a week and 
a fortnight1  wythnos 7eight nights7 and
 pythefnos 7fifteen nights7 respectively
  confirm ,caesar's statement4  ,to us  
now it may seem more natural to         
associate religion with the             
contemplation of the heavens1 but for   
the  ,celtic lands at any rate the main 
trend of the evidence is to show that   
the religious mind was mainly drawn to a
 contemplation of the earth and  her    
varied life1 and that the ,celt looked  
for his other-world either  beneath the 
earth1 with her rivers1 lakes1 and seas1
 or in the islands on  the distant      
horizon1 where earth and sky met4  ,this
 predominance of the  earth in religion 
was in thorough keeping with the        

intensity of religion  as a factor in   
his daily pursuits4  ,it was this       
intensity that gave the  ,druids at some
 time or other in the history of the    
,western ,celts the  power which ,caesar
 and others assign to them4  ,the whole 
people of the  ,gauls1 even with their  
military aristocracy1 were extremely    
devoted to  religious ideas1 though     
these led to the inhumanity of human    
sacrifices4  ,at one time their sense of
 the reality of the other-world was so  
great1  that they believed that loans   
contracted in this world would be repaid
  there1 and practical belief could not 
go much further than that4  ,all  these 
considerations tend to show how         
important it is1 in the comparative     
study of religions1 to investigate each 
religion in its whole  sociological and 
geographical environment as well as in  
the etymological  meaning of its terms4 
,in conclusion1 the writer hopes that   
this brief sketch1 which is based on  an
 independent study of the main evidence 

for the religious ideas and  practices  
of the ,celtic peoples1 will help to    
interest students of  religion in the   
dominant modes of thought which from    
time immemorial held  sway in these     
lands of the ,west of ,europe1 and which
 in folk-lore and  custom occasionally  
show themselves even in the midst of our
 highly  developed and complex          
civilisation of to-day4  ,the thought of
 early man  on the problems of his      
being--for after all his superstitions  
reveal  thought--deserve respect1 for in
 his efforts to think he was trying to  
grope towards the light4                
,,short ,,bibliography      ,,rhys1     
,hibbert ,lectures on ,celtic           
,heathendom4    ,,rhys1 ,celtic         
,folk-lore1 ,welsh and ,manx4           
,,reinach1 ,s41 ,cultes1 ,mythes et     
,religion4    ,,nutt1 ,,alfred1 ,the    
,voyage of ,bran4    ,,squire1          
,mythology of the ,british ,islands4    
,,gaidoz1 ,esqiusse de ,mythologie      
gauloise4    ,,bertrand1 ,la ,religion  

des ,gaulois1 les ,druides et le        
,druidisme4    ,,frazer1 ,the ,golden   
,bough4    ,,joyce1 ,the ,social        
,history of ,ireland4    ,d',,arbois    
,,de ,,jubainville1 ,les ,druides et les
 dieux celtiques a forme  d'animaux4    
,,windisch1 ,irische ,texte mit         
,worterbuch4    ,,cynddelw1 ,cymru ,fu4 
,,foulkes1 ,enwogion ,cymru4            
,,campbell1 ,popular ,tales of the ,west
 ,highlands4