Ossian Collection > Galic antiquities

Chap. II. T H E D R U I D S. 33.
fanctions of modern laws, are very remarkable. In many parts of
Scotland, thefe Hallow-eve fires continue ftill to be kindled * ; and,
in fome places, ihould any family, through negligence, allow their
fire to g© out on that night or on Whitfuntide, they may find
a difficulty in getting a fupply from their neighbours the next
morning. So hard it is to eradicate the remains of fuperftition,
however ridiculous or abfurd its tenets.
Besides thefe two great feflivals, the Druids obferved the full
moon f, and the fixth day of it, on which they gathered their
mljleto; with fome other feafons, which were regulated by the phafes
of the fame planet, the progrefs of the fun through the zodiac J,
or the return of days inflituted in commemoration of fome re-
markable events.
We next inquire what kind of facrifices were offered on thefe
occafions by the Druids. Many have charged them with ceremo-
nies, which, if true, they had good reafon to perform in the darkeft
fhades, and to conceal induftrioufly from the public view. If the
Druids ever offered any human facrifices, it is no more than moft
other ancient nations, and even the Greeks and Romans, are known
to have been often guilty of §. From the general ftrain of fimplicity
and good fenfe which ran through the religion of the Druids, one
would be tempted to think, that it was after their intercourfe with
E fome
* The Galic councils forbade this bitants of thefe places obferved every
pra&ice, in their territoiies, under pain thirtieth year a folemn feftival in honour
of death. Borlafe, Ant. Corn. p. 131. of Saturn, when his ftar entered the fign
f Strabo, 1. 3. Plin. 1. 16. c. 44, &c. of Taurus. Plut. de Defect. Oracul. — et
X That the Druids of the Britifh ifles de facie in orbe Lunx.
were acquainted with the conftellations, § Tertull. in Apol. Ladtant. Elias
and with the figns of the zodiac, appears Sched. de Dis Germ. Syn. 2. c. 31. et
from Plutarch, who fays, that the inha- au£t. citat. ab ii«.