we find the Druids
teaching in the depths of a forest or in caverns. In Pliny their
activity is limited to the practice of medicine and sorcery. According
to this writer the Druids held the mistletoe in the highest veneration.
Groves of oak were their chosen retreat. Whatever grew on that tree was
thought to be a gift from heaven, more especially the mistletoe. When
thus found, the mistletoe was cut with a golden knife by a priest clad
in a white robe, two white bulls being sacrificed on the spot. Tacitus,
in describing the attack made on the island of Mona (Anglesea) by the
Romans under Suetonius Paulinus, represents the legionaries as being
awe-struck on landing by the appearance of a band of Druids, who, with
hands uplifted towards heaven, poured forth terrible imprecations on the
heads of the invaders. The courage of the Romans, however, soon overcame
such fears; the Britons were put to flight; and the groves of Mona, the
scene of many a sacrifice and bloody rite, were cut down.

After this the continental Druids disappear entirely, and are only
referred to on very rare occasions. Ausonius, for instance,
apostrophizes the rhetorician Attius Patera as sprung from a race of
Druids.

When we turn to the British Islands we find, as we should expect, no
traces of the Druids in England and Wales after the conquest of Anglesea
mentioned above, except in the story of Vortigern as recounted by
Nennius. After being excommunicated by Germanus the British leader
invites twelve Druids to assist him. These probably came from North
Britain. In Irish literature, however, the Druids are frequently
mentioned, and their functions in the island seem to correspond fairly
well to those of their Gaulish brethren described by classical writers.
The functions of Caesar's Druids we here find distributed amongst
Druids, bards and poets (_fili_), but even in very early times the poet
has usurped many of the duties of the Druid and finally supplants him
with the spread of Christianity. The following is the position of the
Druid in the pagan literature. The most important documents are
contained in MSS. of the 12th century, but the texts themselves go back
in large measure to about A.D. 700. In the heroic cycles the Druids do
not appear to have formed any corporation, nor do they seem to have been
exempt from military service. Cathbu (Cathbad), the Druid connected with
Conchobar, king of Ulster, in the older cycle is accompanied by a number
of