my, at once detected the star which
indicated the fulfilment of Balaam's prophecy."

The earliest name borne by the island of Iona, so far as known in
modern times, was Innis-nan Druidneach, or Isle of the Druids. The
Druids retained their power not only in Iona until the year 563 or
564, but also on the mainland and in the islands. Mullingar is
supposed to have been the last place in Ireland where the Druids had
a residence. In the beginning of the last century a number of gold
coins, found on the hill Karn Bre, near Truro, were thought to be
Druidical coins. Some of them, Mr. Davies thinks, were impressed with
rude hieroglyphics, symbolical of Ceridiven. Objects of different
kinds are combined in one compound figure. To an arc or half moon is
added the head of a bird, probably symbolical of the mother of the
mystical egg. On other coins found there, magical ceremonies are
represented, and on others the mystical sow appears sketched out.

In Druidical times there were rocking stones, or stones of judgment.
They were large, some of them weighing fifty tons, and having sharp
edges, on which they stood nicely balanced. A rocking stone of
judgment, says Mr. Rust, "had been intended to test difficult
questions, which could not be proved, disproved, or solved in the
ordinary way, or for want of evidence, or which required the divine
interposition of some particular deity, likely a bloodthirsty one; for
as they had different deities, different temples, and different
altars, they had also different judgment stones attached to them, and
different ordeals through which the tried individuals, whether
devotees, criminals, or captives, had to pass. These judgment stones
had been anciently very common." According to the number of times a
stone oscillated or refused to oscillate, the Druids determined to
convict or acquit the suspected person.

Of the misletoe, and the esteem in which it was held by the Druids, we
have written in page 127. This parasitical plant was regarded as a
charm of no ordinary virtue. But the misletoe was only one of many
articles they had possessing occult virtue.

Glass rings, manufactured by Druidical priests, were worn by the
ancient Britons, as preventatives against witchcraft and the
machinations of evil spirits.

A ridiculous legend is told concerning Stonehenge, the supposed
Druidical temple near Salisbury. Aurelianus Ambrosius, a famous
general of the ancient Britons, of Roman extraction, was, a