102 
murder committed, or any dispute about inheritance, they 
decide in respect of them. They appoint rewards and penal- 
ties, and if any private or public person abides not by their 
decree, they restrain him from the sacrifices. This is with 
them the most severe punishment. . . . One presides over all 
these Druids, who possesses the supreme authority among 
them. . . . 
“ The Druids usually abstain from war, nor do they pay taxes 
together with the others. ... In particular they wish to 
inculcate this idea, that souls do not die, but pass after death 
from one body to another; and they think that by this means 
men are very much instigated to the practice of bravery, tho 
fear of death being despised. 
“ They also dispute largely concerning the stars and their 
motion, the magnitude of the world and of the earth, the 
nature of things, the force and power of the immortal gods, 
and instruct the youth in their principles.” 
This we may safely rely upon as on the whole a veracious 
account (b.c. 99-44) of this remarkable system, which, as far 
as Caesar could learn, originated in Britain. This accords 
with the traditions of the Bards, who say that Bardism 
originated in the Isle of Britain. “ No other country ever ob- 
tained a proper comprehension of Bardism. Three nations 
corrupted what they had learned of the Bardism of the Isle 
of Britain, blending it with heterogeneous principles, by 
which means they lost it — the Irish, the Cymry of Armorica, 
and the Germans.” * 
It was, then, db origins, a purely Welsh institution, but 
not, as I think, originating in Wales. The resemblance is far 
too strong to the other great priestly dynasties of Egypt, 
of Chaldea, and of Persia to allow the tradition of an indepen- 
dent origin to have much weight. We might as well suppose 
the orgies of Ceridwen independent of those of Demeter in 
Samothrace. 
Strabo, Book iv., tells us that amongst all the Gauls “ there 
are three sorts of persons who enjo j particular consideration. 
They are the Bards , the Vates (diviners), and the Druids. The 
Bards composed and sang hymns ; the Vates occupied them- 
selves with sacrifices and the study of nature ; and the Druids 
joined to this study that of ethic philosophy. They have such 
a great opinion of the justice of the Druids that both public 
and private causes are referred to their decision. Formerly 
they were even the arbiters of wars, which they succeeded 
* Barddas, Preface, xxvii. 
