Ossian Collection > Galic antiquities

Chap. II. T H E D R U I D S. 39
more prcpollent than their hopes, when their fate hangs in a doubt-
ful fcale. — The phrafe is ftill more ufed in converfation, than the
ceremony is in practice. If the milk or meat which he fwallows
come but a little againfl die breath of a child, his nurfe is im-
mediately alarmed left it may go /««'/, and pronounces the word
deas-iul to give it the right direction. On numberlefs other occa-
fions this word is ufed in the fame manner.
Before we lofe fight of the Druids in their facerdotal capacity,
we may remark that they were fometimes confulted with regard to
futurity f. Hence they had the name of Faidhe *, or " Prophets."
As they grafped at every thing that rendered the people more de-
pendent on them, or that brought any acceflion of power to their
order, we need not wonder to fee them lay hold of this engine,
which had fo great an influence over the mind, and which they
would manage with their ufual addrefs and cunning. Their in-
timate acquaintance with the ftate of affairs, arifing from their
own obfervation, and, no doubt, from fecret intelligence ; their
knowledge of human nature, and of the fprings of human actions ;
joined to their acquaintance with hiftory, and long experience,
might enable them to form a flirewd conjecture of any matter with
regard to which they were confulted. Accordingly, we are told
that their predictions were founded on fuch conjectures, as much
as on any rules of augury %. Thefe, as practifed by the Greek
and Roman priefts, were too mean a quarry for the Druids to
xtoop to, at leaft in the time of their profperity and power. With
regard,
t OflianinComala: " "Why didft thou Vid. P. Mela, 3. 1,
not tell me he would fall, &c." — See al- * Hence came the Fates of the Latins,
fo Cathlava, ** What feeft thou, &c." % Cicer. de Divinat. 1. 1. c. 41.