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

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îiECLAiîETH imto them." — " They sacrifice upon the top*
of the mountauis^ and burn incense upon the hills^ under
oaks, and poplars, and elms, because the shadow thereof
is good." Hos. iv. Ì2, 13.
Again, — Isaiah xix. 11 to 15, The prophet speaks of
the zvise men of Egypt being deceived in their d'ninations,
and dech\res, — " Neither shall there be any work for
Egypt, which the head, or tail, branch, or rush, mp.y
do." Here is a manifest allusion, not merely to the im-
plements of writing, or of the geometrician ; but, evi-
dently, to a superstitious practice, in which rush, Sjnabra?ick
Avere employed.
Ezekiel terminates his climax of abominations by these
Avords : — " Lo ! they put the branch to their nose !"
Ch. viii. 17.
Upon the Avhole, then, some general, but evident ana-
logies to the symbolical system thus intimated, may be
found in the sacred records, and carried back to very an-
cient periods.
There was another ancient custom amongst the Asiatics,
which approaches to an identity with our Druidical, and•
German method of divining by lots, as described by TacituSy
and quoted above. This practice was called, by the Greeks,-
Rhabdomantia, or Belomantia, divination by rods, or by
arrows, either the one or the other being used for this pur-
pose, as it might be most convenient. But, in this appli-.
cation, the rods, or the arrozcs, were marked, or inscribed,
like the German lots : they were no longer viewed, ia
themselves, as symbols of tlie distinct ideas.