Blair Collection > Celtic researches, on the origin, traditions & language, of the ancient Britons

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accounts from them. All the information we have ob-
tained, amounts to little more than vague conjecture, or
mythological fiction. We see the symbolical system of the ■
ancients only in its exterior application ; we see a certain
species οϊ crowns, and rods, used upon particular occasions ;
we see particular Gods venerated under the symbols of their
appropriate ^;/a«is, or trees ; and the learned content them-
selves by remarking, in general, as follows : — Frimis mor•
talibus maximus erat honos arboribus : nam et pro Deorum
imaginibus, into magis, pro ipsis Diis, colebantur. Hinc
forsan est, quod, no7i modo, singulis Diis, singulce esscnt
iirbores, veruni etiam, singulis arboribus, suce Nymphs, quas
Δξυαίας et Ά,ααοξ^αοα? superstitiosu antiquittts appellavit."
Bax. Gloss. Antiq. Rom. v. Arbor, But, as the super-
stition of these ancients, respecting trees, bore a marked
and striking analogy to the system of Druidical symbols.
Vie may conclude that it Avas of the same nature, and sprung
originally from the same fountain.
This analogy may be observed in the terms of Greek and
Ή,οηιαη languages: but, as these terms are more ancient
than grammars of those languages, Avhich are extant,
a latitude must be allowed in the derivation of tliem.
Thus Δξνας may be derived from ^ξυς arbor, and from
αω, spiro, sono, loquor : for even the terminations of
nouns were originally expressive terms. Dryades, and
Hamadryades, then, may, in the sacred colleges, have
indicated nothing more than the r'oites and consonancies
of trees, or specific ideas, which those trees were severally
to represent, in the symbolical system. This notion of
them is corroborated, and strongly, supported by a passage,
quoted above, " The points of the counterfeited trees :
îè'hat is it they whisper so forcibly ? or, Avhat breathings