overed with small processes like the discs
on the arms of an octopus. This can scarcely have been, as most
commentators suppose, the shell of an echinus (with which Pliny was
well acquainted), even if fossil. His description rather seems to
point to some fossil covered with _ostrea sigillina_, such as are
common in British green-sands. He adds an account of the Druidical
view of its production, how it is the solidified poison of a number of
serpents who put their heads together to eject it, and how, even when
set in gold, it will float, and that against a stream. This "egg," it
will be seen, was from Gaul. The British variant of the superstition
was that the snakes thus formed a ring of poison matter, larger or
smaller according to the number engaged, which solidified into a gem
known as _Glain naidr_, "Adder's glass."[65] The small rings of green
or blue glass, too thick for wear, which are not uncommonly found in
British burial-places, are supposed to represent this gem. So also,
possibly, are the much larger rings of roughly-baked clay which occur
throughout the Roman period. For superstitions die hard, and Gough
assures us that even in 1789 such "adder-beads" or "snake-stones" were
considered "lucky" in Wales and Cornwall, and were still ascribed to
the same source as by the Druids of old.

H. 12.--After its suppression by Claudius, Druidism still lingered
on in Britain beyond the Roman pale, and amid the outlaws of the
Armorican forests in Gaul, but in a much lower form. The least worthy
representatives of the Brahmanic caste in India are those found in
the least civilized regions, whose tendency is to become little better
than sorcerers.[66] And in like manner it is as sorcerers that the
later Druids of Scotland and Ireland meet us in their legendary
encounters with St. Patrick and St. Columba. They are called "The
School of Simon the Druid" (_i.e._ Simon Magus), and a 9th-century
commentary designates Jannes and Jambres as "Druids." But the word did
not wholly lose its higher associations. It is applied to the Wise Men
in an early Welsh hymn on the Epiphany; and in another, ascribed to
Columba himself, the saint goes so far as to say, "Christ, the Son of
God, is my _Druid_."[67]

CHAPTER II

THE JULIAN INVASION, B.C. 55, 54

SECTION A.

Caesar and Britain--Breakdown of Roman Republican
institutions--Corruption abroad and at home--Rise of Caesar--Conquest
of Gaul.

A. 1.--If the connection of Brit