34(5 



"Why do not you also fling somewhat at Balder ? " said Lok. 



"First," answered Hoder, because I cannot see where he stands, and 

 secondly because I have nothing to throw." 



"Well," says Lok, "hold out your hand slyly — behind you — and I will put 

 into it something to throw at Balder, aud will, moreover, direct your hand, so 

 that you shall take good aim." 



Now, when the Asir saw Hoder making ready to throw this small branch at 

 Balder, they all laughed heartily, and Balder among the rest. 



" Put up your weapon, Hoder, for it seems to me too dangerous a thing to 

 throw." 



Those were the words of Balder. But Lok, at the same moment, directed 

 the aim of Hoder, and the mistletoe-bough went straight to the temples of the 

 White Sun-god, who fell down dead " 



APPENDIX B. 



HISTORIC DOUBTS. 



Exception has been taken so ably to the quotations from Dr. Henry and 

 Mr. Davies which open the last section of this paper, that the subject must not 

 be left altogether unnoticed. It is asked, what proof have we that the Britons 

 were descended from Gomer ? There is an interval of some 2,000 years between 

 the age in which Gomer lived and the earliest period at which we find mention of 

 the Britons. It is a mere unsupported hypothesis. We do not even know that 

 Gomer was, as he is here asserted to be, the eldest son of Japheth. 



Still greater objections are urged against the supposed " connection between 

 the Druidical and Patriarchal religions." The little we do know of what the 

 Patriarchal religion really was shows a most material difference between them. 

 The Patriarchal religion was certainly a worship of the one true God : the 

 Druidical religion was, as certainly, an idolatrous system, consisting as all ac- 

 counts agree, in the worship of the heavenly bodies, and of the gods whom the 

 Romans call Hesus and Teutates. 



Some objectors have even gone further than this, and doubted the existence 

 of Druids at all. This seems a most unreasonable piece of scepticism, in the 

 face of the evidence of such contemporary wTiters as Strabo, Tacitus, Suetonius, 

 Pliny, and, above all, Caesar, the earliest, and by far the best of all our authorities 

 on the subject. 



With very much higher interest and originality, the Rev. Mr. Woodhouse 

 points out the very striking resemblance that exists on some points between 

 Druidism and Brahminism. We know that the maintenance and honour of a 

 sacerdotal caste was the leading feature of the religion of the ancient Britons ; 



