596 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 



When the Gaels allowed their sons to be initiated in the Druid 

 teachings they certainly did not forget their own Indo-European 

 religion, and the same was the case with the Gauls who later con- 

 quered Britain and adopted Druidism from its inhabitants as the 

 Gaels had from the aborigines. Thus the peculiar contrast between 

 higher and lower doctrines as found among the Druids is easily 

 explained. When Pliny the Elder described the Druids as merely 

 conjurers and priests of the oak, he told his contemporaries something 

 new; their lofty doctrines were long before that generally known. 



There are elsewhere instances of an advanced religion tolerating 

 the old, crude faith. When to the present day in Catholic countries 

 the Adonis festival is observed and the old heathen feasts of the 

 solstices and harvest are tolerated by the church, it can be assumed 

 that in the British Isles even under the domination of the Celts the 

 non-Indo-European religion was in part preserved. 



Andrew Lang, in his work " Custom and Myth," quotes an instance 

 of a similar toleration which was transmitted by Garcilasso de Vega, 

 the son of a Spanish conqueror and an Inca princess. 



Before the time of the Incas every Indian believed himself a descendant of a 

 river or of a wild animal and sacrificed to them. But descent was also derived 

 from insignificant creatures, such as frogs and toads. When the Incas 

 appeared and introduced the sun cult, they allowed the old animal worship to 

 persist and the magniflcenl temples of the sun also harbored images of the 

 animals which tlie Indians formerly worshiped. 



That Druidism had its origin in the British Isles and was not 

 brought thither by the Celts, there is almost certain proof. 



Pliny the Elder depicts the Gallic Druids as priests of the oak 

 cult in which also the mistletoe played an important role. (Hist. Nat., 

 xvi, 270 sequ.) The worship of the oak as part of the Indo-Euro- 

 pean religion is well attested and it also can be proven that the 

 mistletoe had a great significance in this cult. The fact is so gen- 

 erally known that it does not require special proof. Besides, Max. 

 Tvrius also says that the Celts worshiped Zeus in the image of a 

 high oak. The Druids are thus seen as priests of an Indo-European 

 cult. 



If then the Celts before the conquest of the British Isles already 

 had Druids, who were priests of the oak cult, they would certainly 

 have brought this cult to Ireland; for Ireland was in ancient times 

 exceedingly rich in oak forests and even now there are more than 

 1,300 place names which begin with " doire, daire " (oakwood), An- 

 glicised " derry " — not to mention other compounds — so that the 

 name of the oak in place names is much more frequent than that of 

 any other tree. 1 



1 Joyce, Irish Names of Daces, 3d edition, p. 487. 



