54, xx. 309, xxii. 159, xxiv. 221;
Bertrand, _passim_; Courcelle-Seneuil, _Les Dieux Gaulois d'apres les
Monuments Figures_, Paris, 1910.

[990] See Courcelle-Seneuil, _op. cit._; Reinach, _BF passim_,
_Catalogue Sommaire du Musee des Ant. nat._{4} 115-116.

[991] Reinach, _Catal._ 29, 87; _Rev. Arch._ xvi. 17; Blanchet, i. 169,
316; Huchet, _L'art gaulois_, ii. 8.

[992] Blanchet, i. 158; Reinach, _BF_ 143, 150, 152.

[993] Blanchet, i. 17; Flouest, _Deux Steles_ (Append.), Paris, 1885;
Reinach, _BF_ 33.

[994] P. 30, _supra_.

[995] Hirschfeld in _CIL_ xiii. 256.

[996] _RC_ xii. 107; Joyce, _SH_ i. 131.

[997] Blanchet, i. 160 f.; Muret de la Tour, _Catalogue_, 6922, 6941,
etc.

[998] _View of the State of Ireland_, 57.

[999] _RC_ xx. 7; Martin, _Etudes de la Myth. Celt._ 164.

[1000] _IT_ i. 206; _RC_ ix. 144.

[1001] _CM_ xiii. 168 f.; Miss Hull, 44, 221, 223.

CHAPTER XX.

THE DRUIDS.

Pliny thought that the name "Druid" was a Greek appellation derived from
the Druidic cult of the oak ([Greek: _drus_]).[1002] The word, however,
is purely Celtic, and its meaning probably implies that, like the
sorcerer and medicine-man everywhere, the Druid was regarded as "the
knowing one." It is composed of two parts--_dru_-, regarded by M.
D'Arbois as an intensive, and _vids_, from _vid_, "to know," or
"see."[1003] Hence the Druid was "the very knowing or wise one." It is
possible, however, that _dru_- is connected with the root which gives
the word "oak" in Celtic speech--Gaulish _deruo_, Irish _dair_, Welsh
_derw_--and that the oak, occupying a place in the cult, was thus
brought into relation with the name of the priesthood. The Gaulish form
of the name was probably _druis_, the Old Irish was _drai_. The modern
forms in Irish and Scots Gaelic, _drui_ and _draoi_ mean "sorcerer."

M. D'Arbois and others, accepting Caesar's dictum that "the system (of
Druidism) is thought to have been devised in Britain, and brought thence
into Gaul," maintain that the Druids were priests of the Goidels in
Britain, who imposed themselves upon the Gaulish conquerors of the
Goidels, and that Druidism then passed over into Gaul about 200
B.C.[1004] But it is hardly likely that, even if the Druids were
accepted as priests by conquering Gauls in Britain, they should have
affected the Gauls of Gaul who were outside the reflex influence of the
conquered Goidels, and should have there obtained that power which they
posses