A TOUR ROUND NORTH WALES. 245 



Whatever religious opinions the Dm- 



r 



ids might privately entertain, they cer- 

 tainly, in public, either worfhipped a 

 multiplicity of Deities, or one God un- 

 der feveral titles and appellations; of 

 which was Teutates, or Mercury, the 

 inventor of arts, and the chief conductor 

 of travels and expeditions ; then, next in 

 order, came Apollo, Mars, Jupiter, and ' 

 Minerva, under different Britifh names.* 

 To thefe they offered human vi6tims. 

 On folemn occafions, they reared huge 

 images, whofe members, wrought with 

 oziers, they filled with living men, or 

 with different kinds of animals; and, 

 fetting fire to them, confumed thefe mi- 

 ferable victims, as iacrifices to their 

 cruel Deities. Thieves, robbers, and 

 other malefaclors, were preferred for 

 this purpofe ; but if thefe were wanting, 

 innocent perfons were taken. -f Diodorus 



* Caf. f. 17. t Ibid, f. 1 6 Strabo, VI. 198. 



Siculus 



