ip of the Sun, Moon, Fire,
Rivers, Wells, Stones, or Forest Trees--Extracts from
Kirk-Session Records--Land dedicated to
Satan--Midsummer and Hallow Fires forbidden--Yule-day,
how kept--Order of the General Assembly as to
Druidical Customs at the Fires at Beltane, Midsummer,
Hallow-e'en, and Yule--Old Customs ordered to be
discontinued.

In our introduction to _The Poets and Superstition_ we noticed briefly
particular classes of Druids--the Bardi and Vates. We now proceed to
give fuller details of the Druids, a class of people who played a not
unimportant part among the nations in olden times. There were male and
female Druids; the latter generally called Druides. Both the men and
women laid claim to supernatural power and knowledge.

The Druids were expert at legerdemain, and, by their astonishing
exploits, sustained among an ignorant people a reputation of being
magicians. They devoted much time to the study of astrology, observing
closely the heavenly bodies, through which they pretended they could
predict events kept secret from ordinary mortals. The Druids exercised
the functions of magistrates, priests, teachers, and physicians. As
judges, their authority was unlimited; they desired the people to
believe that not only had they the power of imposing punishment in
this world, but that they might sentence offenders to torment in the
world beyond the grave.

The Arch-Druid wore a gold chain round his neck, from which was
suspended a gold plate, having engraved thereon, "The gods require
sacrifice," and on the front of the Druid's cap was a golden
representation of the sun, and a silver representation of a half moon.

They believed in one supreme being; supposed that the soul was
immortal; and thought the spirit of man began to exist in the meanest
insect, and that it proceeded through the lower orders of existence,
rising at every new birth until it reached the human body. When the
soul animated the human form, a knowledge of good and evil dawned upon
the being, who then became responsible for the thoughts and actions of
life. If one chose evil instead of good, the soul, it was asserted,
went after death into an inferior grade of animal life, low in
proportion to the sinfulness of that existence. Those who chose the
better part became at last so exalted that evil had no power over
them, and they were happy for ever and ever. It was also believed that
the beatified soul