224 BRAMBLES AND BAY LEAVES 



ship. The flowers which spring out of the dust of the departed, serve 

 as tokens of the frailty of human loveliness, and tell of that better life 

 to which the lost ones have departed. What a sanctity breathes in 

 these funeral ceremonies ! what holiness pervades them ! How do 

 they speak from the heart to the heart, and convey a poetry of incom- 

 parable worth ! Surely, if flowers are so fitted to mingle with our 

 daily life, and to shed their light upon the varied scenes through 

 which we have to pass, they must be yet more sacred as companions 

 in death. Good, indeed, to honour the memory of departed worth 

 and beauty, and to shed a smile of love above that holy ground — the 

 grave. Yet, why are not flowers scattered when the man is born ? 

 Is not birth as solemn a thing as death ? Why not be equally sorrowful 

 when the infant is first ushered, in pain and imbecility, into the 

 world, as when it is early snatched away ? Or, rather, why be sor- 

 rowful at all at any of God's dispensations ? 



It is an interesting fact, that the word Druid was derived from the 

 Greek cpvg " oak," from the custom of the Druids teaching in 

 forests. This is supported by Pliny, Salmasius, and Vigenere. 

 Bovet obtains the word from the old British or Celtic derw, "oak," 

 whence he takes Opvg to be derived. It matters little now which 

 language should have the priority. The Druids considered the oak 

 a sacred plant ; it was the emblem and token of the Almighty's pres- 

 ence, and all that grew upon it was hallowed, and considered as 

 coming direct from heaven. They adorned their heads with chap- 

 lets of its leaves and fruit, and the altars were strewed with it, and 

 encirled with its boughs. The mistletoe, which grew upon the oak, 

 was considered the most sacred gifc of heaven ; it gave fertility to 

 man and beast, and was a specific against all kinds of poison. It 

 was solemnly sought on the sixth day of the moon, and, when found, 

 was hailed with the most rapturous joy. Then preparations were 

 made for performing the sacrifice. Two white bulls were brought 

 and fastened to the tree by the horns, and the Arch-Druid, robed in 

 white, and attended by a great concourse of people, ascended the tree 

 to crop the mistletoe with a golden pruning-hook, while the people 

 shouted their joyful acclamations. Having secured the sacred plant, 

 he descended the tree, the bulls were sacrificed, and the Deity invoked 

 to bless his benign gift, and render it efficacious in those distempers 

 in which it should be administered. The people of Gaul and Britain 

 devolved the care of their health on the Druids, and these priests 



