nly
ascertain what views were held respecting any particular matter in
ancient times, we might undoubtedly find traces of them even in modern
days. Let us take for instance only one subject, and see whether traces
of it still exist. Caesar in his _Commentaries_ states of the Druids
that, "One of their principal maxims is that the soul never dies, but
that after death it passes into the body of another being. This maxim
they consider to be of the greatest utility to encourage virtue and to
make them regardless of life."

Now, is there anything that can be associated with such teaching still to
be found? The various tales previously given of hags turning themselves
and others into various kinds of animals prove that people believed that
such transitions were in life possible, and they had only to go a step
further and apply the same faith to the soul, and we arrive at the
transmigration of souls.

It is not my intention to make too much of the following tale, for it may
be only a shred, but still as such it is worthy of record. A few years
ago I was staying at the Rectory, Erbistock, near Ruabon, and the rector,
the Rev. P. W. Sparling, in course of conversation, said that a
parishioner, one Betsy Roberts, told him that she knew before anyone told
her, that a certain person died at such and such a time. The rector
asked her how she came to know of the death if no one had informed her,
and if she had not been to the house to ascertain the fact. Her answer
was, "I knew because I saw a hare come from towards his house and cross
over the road before me." This was about all that the rector could
elicit, but evidently the woman connected the appearance of the hare with
the death of the man. The association of the live hare with the dead man
was here a fact, and possibly in the birthplace of that woman such a
connection of ideas was common. Furthermore, it has often been told me
by people who have professed to have heard what they related, that being
present in the death chamber of a friend they have heard a bird singing
beautifully outside in the darkness, and that it stopped immediately on
the death of their friend. Here again we have a strange connection
between two forms of life, and can this be a lingering Druidic or other
ancient faith?

In the _Dictionary of the Welsh Language_ by the Rev. Canon Silvan Evans,
part i., p. 8, under the word _Abred_, we have an exhaustive statement on
the subject of transmigrat