91 



IV. THE ROMANCE OF THE MISTLETOE. 



"When the Eomans first invaded Britain" says De. Henet, 

 (Hist, of Gt. Britain, Vol. I. p. 136,) "the inhabitants of it 

 were famous, even among foreign nations, for theii* superior know- 

 ledge of the principles, and their great zeal for the rites of their 

 religion. This circumstance we learn from the best authority, 

 the writings of that Ulustrious and observing general Jiilius 

 Caesar, who informs us ; "that such of the Gauls as were desir- 

 ous of being thoroughly instructed in the principles of their 

 religion, (which was the same with that of the Britons) usually 

 took a journey into Britain for that purpose" (Caesar de Bel. Gal. 

 lib. vii c. xiii.) and he then goes on to shew its antiquity — that 

 its first and purest principles had descended with the language 

 from Gomer, the eldest son of Japhet, from whom the Gauls, 

 Britons, and all other Celtic nations derived their origin, (Pezron 

 Antiq : Celt. c. iii.) but that by tradition it had degenerated into 

 "an absurd, wicked, and cruel superstition." 



Mr. Davies in his learned work on the "Mythology and 

 Rites of the British Druids," has endeavoured to trace out "the 

 threads of connection" between the Druidical and Patriarchal 

 religion, from the writings of the ancient Celtic Bards, Taliesin, 

 Aneurin, Llywarch, Hen, Merddin, &c., who were themselves 

 professed Druids. 



One of these old poems, the '-Chair of Taliesin" (Kadeir 

 Taliesin *) furnishes a long list of the apparatus requisite for the 

 due celebration of the feast of Ceridwen, and there we find the 

 Mistletoe mentioned, as one of the ingredients of the celebrated 

 "Mystical Cauldron,'" which was always prepared with the most 

 careful and elaborate ceremony. From this Cauldron, Genius, 



* This poem Mr. Davies thinks from internal evidence, dales "long 

 before the sixth century, in an age when the Britons were acquainted 

 with the Romans, but whilst Rome itself as vet was Pagan. Not a single 

 Christian idea is introduced ; on the contrary, we find an open profession 

 of worshipping the Muon in a general concourse o) men, and the lore of the 

 Druids, is declared to be D?eet for Sovereign princes." (p. 2S0 ) 



