sed. Goidels and Gauls were allied by race and language and
religion, and it would be strange if they did not both possess a similar
priesthood. Moreover, the Goidels had been a continental people, and
Druidism was presumably flourishing among them then. Why did it not
influence kindred Celtic tribes without Druids, _ex hypothesi_, at that
time? Further, if we accept Professor Meyer's theory that no Goidel set
foot in Britain until the second century A.D., the Gauls could not have
received the Druidic priesthood from the Goidels.

Caesar merely says, "it is thought (_existimatur_) that Druidism came to
Gaul from Britain."[1005] It was a pious opinion, perhaps his own, or
one based on the fact that those who wished to perfect themselves in
Druidic art went to Britain. This may have been because Britain had been
less open to foreign influences than Gaul, and its Druids, unaffected by
these, were thought to be more powerful than those of Gaul. Pliny, on
the other hand, seems to think that Druidism passed over into Britain
from Gaul.[1006]

Other writers--Sir John Rh[^y]s, Sir G.L. Gomme, and M. Reinach--support
on different grounds the theory that the Druids were a pre-Celtic
priesthood, accepted by the Celtic conquerors. Sir John Rh[^y]s thinks
that the Druidism of the aborigines of Gaul and Britain made terms with
the Celtic conquerors. It was accepted by the Goidels, but not by the
Brythons. Hence in Britain there were Brythons without Druids,
aborigines under the sway of Druidism, and Goidels who combined Aryan
polytheism with Druidism. Druidism was also the religion of the
aborigines from the Baltic to Gibraltar, and was accepted by the
Gauls.[1007] But if so, it is difficult to see why the Brythons, akin to
them, did not accept it. Our knowledge of Brythonic religion is too
scanty for us to prove that the Druids had or had not sway over them,
but the presumption is that they had. Nor is there any historical
evidence to show that the Druids were originally a non-Celtic
priesthood. Everywhere they appear as the supreme and dominant
priesthood of the Celts, and the priests of a conquered people could
hardly have obtained such power over the conquerors. The relation of the
Celts to the Druids is quite different from that of conquerors, who
occasionally resort to the medicine-men of the conquered folk because
they have stronger magic or greater influence with the autochthonous
gods. The Celts did not resort to the Druids