ORIGIN OF DRUIDISM POKORNY. 595 



the king in the presence of his Druid was not allowed to speak until 

 after the latter had spoken. 



A dim recollection of the fact that the Druids were once the sor- 

 cerers of a hostile race survives in the Celtic myths, which relate 

 that the magic virtue of the Druids was so great that they even 

 triumphed over the gods, a trait which, on the one hand recalls 

 the shamans, on the other, becomes easily intelligible when it is 

 remembered that the Druids having been originally the sorcerers of 

 the aborigines were the enemies of the Celts and also of their gods. 



So also the peculiar contrast between the Druids and the Celtic 

 gods, which, for instance, makes itself prominent in the " Echtra 

 Connla," is explained in this way. 



No wonder that the Gaelic poet prophets (Irish, filid, fdithi, for 

 the Celts had also their soothsayers), considered their new rivals 

 with jealous eyes, a jealousy which finally led to the extermination 

 of the Druids (637, battle of Mayrath) in Ireland, for when St. 

 Patrick wanted to introduce Christianity into Ireland he found in 

 the Druids his worst enemies, and he could only overcome them by 

 allying himself with the -filid. 



It is not strange that the more highly civilized Celts considered 

 the priests of the savage aborigines as mighty sorcerers, since we find 

 something similar among the Germans. 



The Finns, who in prehistoric times had occupied a large portion of the 

 Scandinavian Peninsula, were considered by the invading Germans as conjurers, 

 so that old Norse finngert, literally Finnish work, is unequivocally used for 

 witchcraft, and in their own religion the wizard, the shaman, who mediates the 

 relations between men and gods, nay even coerce the latter through his art 

 into his service, holds the central position. 1 



Prof. Much calls my attention to the fact that in the Edda poem. 

 Hyndlulioth, p. 31, all sorcerers are derived from " Schwarzkopf " 

 (Blackhead), who by his name is marked as the representative of a 

 non-Indo-European race (Lapps). Thus the Germans, while they 

 knew sorcerers, referred them to the Lapps, a non- Indo-European 

 people. And as the Irish, in order to learn the art of sorcery traveled 

 to Scotland, so we also have the Norse expressions, as " f ara til finna " 

 and " gera finnfarar," i. e., to travel to the Finns (Lapps) in order 

 to learn the arts of sorcery. 



Is it too rash to assume that the crude aborigines of the British 

 Isles had a civilization similar to that of the Finnish-Lappish peoples ? 

 Similar primitive conditions produce similar civilizations, and J. F. 

 Campbell, an eminent authority on Finnish antiquities, was so aston- 

 ished at the surprising similarity between many Scottish cave-dwell- 

 ings and those of the Finns that he did not hesitate to declare the 

 aborigines of Britain a people related to the Finns. 



i R. Much, Deutsche Stammeskunde, p. 31, 



