1890-91.] CKLTIC, ROMAN AND GREEK TYPES. 207 



I found, on visiting Swansea, tliat a Gorsedd was in progress, and was 

 much interested in the ceremonies. An Eisteddfod most people know 

 to be a meeting at which Welsh poetry and Welsh music are enthusiasti- 

 cally listened to and admired. It is not so generally known that exactly 

 one year before the opening of an Eisteddfod, a Gorsedd or meeting 

 of the bards must be held to proclaim it in the proposed place of 

 meeting. 



The Swansea Gorsedd was held in an open space (such is the rule), 

 where was a fence (made of Canadian pine scantling), within which were 

 twelve unhewn stones as a circle. There were three other and larger 

 stones within the circle, at the west side. A " Druid " was perched upon 

 each of the twelve stones, and a "bard" upon the three others. There was 

 a harp, and a poet sang to its accompaniment some original verses, in 

 Welsh, which were strange in rhythm and pleasing in melody. The 

 Druids unsheathed a sword in a peculiar fashion, and three times asked 

 if there was peace. The surrounding people said there was peace. 

 Then the Eisteddfod was proclaimed. When any thing was said by 

 the speaker (in Welsh) which pleased the assemblage, they shouted 

 " cleuch, cleuch," meaning " hear, hear." And when the sword was 

 sheathed and the ceremony was at an end, a good clergyman spoke 

 for a long time in Welsh, and in English. The Welsh speeches 

 and the verses were translated for me by a local scholar, and I 

 found in the whole ceremony a resemblance to Indian pow-wows I 

 have seen, especially one near Rat Portage. There appears in both 

 to be some reference to the sun ; the Druids enter the circle from 

 the east ; face the east when speaking ; the Indians sit in a circle too, 

 their music (if their drum-beating can be called by that name) in the 

 inside too ; their old men dancing round witJi the sun, etc., etc. The 

 good clergyman patronized the whole proceedings in a friendly way, as I 

 have seen our Indian agents patronize a pow-wow. I cannot, however, 

 think there is in the Gorsedd, as I saw it, any real survival of a true 

 Druidic observance, while as for the music and rhyming, it is on a line 

 with cottage flower shows and Highland athletic meetings — a pleasant, 

 harmless diversion, not without its uses. The facts show Welsh to be a 

 dying language in Wales as Breton is in the corresponding peninsula in 

 France, though it may last another hundred years or so in common use, 

 in remote districts. The nomenclature of places will continue perhaps 

 for thousands to betray Celtic origin, as it does in Europe. Nor will the 

 character of the people quickly change. Short of stature, thick set in 

 build, dogged in temperament, somewhat choleric, rebellious by nature, 

 as deeply addicted to strong drink as semi-barbarous races, hospitable to 

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