Not only have the religious tenets of the ancient Druids been thus accurately ascertained, but also the particulars of the costume, ceremonial of initiation, discipline, and gradual progress through the degrees of the Druidic order, are detailed with great minuteness by many writers, and have been collected and related as though they were supposed to be true history, as lately as 1853.1

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'The three orders of this great institution, were," says this author, "Bards, Druids, and Ovates. The Bards were poets. The Druids were priests and judges: august functions, filling to the eye of the stranger the whole field of vision; hence the second order gave a name to the whole three. The Ovates were a mixed class, replenished from the ranks of the people. The cultivators of science and art: these occupied no mean position, though from the nature of their employments they drew to themselves less observation.

"To begin at the lowest step; a Bardic student bore a distinctive title-Awenydd. The indispensable qualifications for a scholar, were noble birth and unimpeachable morals. On matriculation, he bound himself by oath not to reveal the mysteries into which he was about to be initiated. He was, however, seldom initiated into anything of importance, until his understanding, affections, morals, and general character, had undergone severe trials. He was closely observed when he was least aware of it; there was an eye, to him invisible, continually fixed upon him, and from the knowledge thus obtained, an estimate was formed of his principles and abilities." "An Awennydd wore a plaid dress of the Bardic colours, blue, green, and white." "The candidate who had passed the ordeal was not immediately invested with the full privileges of the Bardic order; he became an Inceptor, or

priesthood, in possession of recognised public rights and immunities, more than one hundred years after the proscription of the Druidic priesthood in Gaul, and the destruction of their stronghold in Anglesey by Suetonius Paulinus. This absurd fable is taken from the Welsh Triads.

1 Welsh Sketches, by E. S. Appleyard, A.M. First Series. London, 1853.

Inchoate Bard, under the title Bardd-Caw, and wore for the first time the band of the order. Not till after he had presided at three Gorseddau or assemblies, was he fully qualified to exercise all the functions of the office. A full Bard could proclaim and hold a Gorsedd, admit disciples and Ovyddion, and instruct youth in the principles of religion and morality. The dress of the Bard was uni-coloured, of sky-blue, an emblem of peace and truth."

"The Druids were the second order, but it was necessary to pass through the first to reach it. That is to say, a Druid must have been a Bard, though it was by no means required that a Bard should be a Druid." "The Druids were priests and judges; this union in their persons of the sacerdotal and judicial functions gave them great weight and authority, and caused their office to be in much request."

"The place of meeting of the Druids was called Gwyddfa, which, as the name implies, a place of presence," was an eminence either natural or artificial, according to the conveniency of the situation." "A white robe emblematic of truth and holiness, and also of the solar light, was the distinguishing dress of the Druids. "The judicial habit of the Arch Druid was splendid and imposing. He was clothed in a stole of virgin-white, over a closer robe of the same, fastened by a girdle, on which appeared the crystal of augury encased in gold. Round his neck was the breastplate of judgment, said to possess the salutary but uncomfortable property of squeezing the neck on the utterance of a corrupt judgment. Below the breastplate was suspended the Glain Neidr, or serpent's jewel. On his head he had a tiara of gold. On each of two fingers of his right hand he wore a ring; one plain, the other, the chain ring of divination. As he stood beside the stone

1 In Owen's Dict., gwyddfa, a tumulus or tomb.

2 This statement as to the breastplate of judgment, is taken from the account of the breastplate or collar of the Brehon judges of Ireland, and trans

ferred without comment or authority to imaginary functionaries of the same kind in Britain. See Vallancey, Collect.

altar, his hand rested on the Elucidator, which consisted of several staves called Coelbrenan, omen sticks, on which the judicial maxims were cut; and which, being put into a frame, were turned at pleasure, so that each stave represented a triplet when formed of three sides.

"The third order was the Ovydd or Ovate, to which the candidate could be immediately admitted without being obliged to pass through the regular discipline. The requisite qualifications were, in general, an acquaintance with discoveries in science, the use of letters, medicine, language, and the like. The Ovydd could exercise all the functions of Bardism; and by some particular performance he became entitled to other degrees on the confirmation of a Gorsedd. The candidate for the order of Ovydd, was elected at a Gorsedd, on the previous recommendation of a graduated Bard of any of the three orders who might from his own knowledge, declare that he whom he proposed, was duly qualified. If the candidate were not known to a Bard, the recommendation of a judge or magistrate, or twelve respectable men, could constitute him a candidate; on which he was immediately elected by ballot. The dress of the Ovydd was green, the symbol of learning, as being the colour of the clothing of nature; and it was unmixed with any other, to show that it was uniform, like truth.”

For these "historical" statements, the author in question cites as his authorities, Meyrick's Costumes of the Ancient Britons; Dr. Giles's History of the Ancient Britons; Wood's Ancient British Church; Owen's Welsh Dictionary, and certain Institutional Triads, in which the opinions and "sermons" of these orders are supposed to be preserved.

They are however, in fact, mainly derived from Dr. Owen's Essay on Bardism, prefixed to his translation of the poems of Llywarch Hen. That learned Welshman and scholar, appears readily to have credited the fantastic reveries of Edward Williams, otherwise called Iolo Morganwg, and the exaggerations, if not forgeries, with which he pretended to support them.

The Essay on Bardism, published in 1792, was drawn up

from the communications, and with the assistance of Edward Williams. The latter claimed to be a regularly graduated Bard of the Island of Britain, president of the Bardic chair of Glamorgan, and a legitimate successor to, and representative of, the ancient Druids.

We shall have occasion to inquire into the value of the assertions of Edward Williams when examining the authorities on the subject of the Druidical Metempsychosis.

All the information which can be obtained respecting the learning and condition of the Bards, and the doctrines, whether Christian or Pagan, which they may have inculcated in their writings prior to the tenth century, must, of course, be extracted from such writings, if any, as are extant of an earlier date. Fortunately for the true understanding of this question, the same materials, in the same, or even a better condition, which were at the disposal of Dr. Owen Pughe and the Rev. Edward Davies, are at command at the present day, and to these we must turn for any satisfactory elucidation of the subject.

References to British poems of the sixth century are so frequently made by writers on these subjects, that it will be well to ascertain, in the first place, what we really possess in the shape of Ancient British literature.

The most ancient manuscripts containing fragments of the Welsh language, according to Zeuss,1 are as old as the tenth, possibly as old as the ninth century. They are not, it is true, Druidical, or even Bardic, but simply glosses written by British individuals, probably monastic persons, as marginal or interlinear interpretations or references, on manuscripts still in existence.

The oldest of these is the Oxford Codex, preserved in the Bodleian Library, which contains, among other things:1. A portion of the Treatise of Eutychius the grammarian, with interlinear British glosses.

1 Grammatica Celtica. Lipsia, 1853.

2. A portion of Ovid's Ars Amatoria, also with interlinear glosses in the same tongue.

These remains of the old British language are stated by Zeuss to be of equal age with the oldest Irish MSS., and to belong to the end of the eighth or the commencement of the ninth century.

3. In the same Codex are two other documents: an alphabet called the alphabet of Nemnivus,2 a rude imitation of Runic forms, with the names of the letters attached. Also a fragment of a treatise on Weights and Measures, written partly in British, partly in Latin. These are probably as old, though not as valuable, as the former.

4. The second Oxford Codex, also in the Bodleian Library, contains a vocabulary of Latin words with British interpretations.

5. The Lichfield Codex, Llandaff Gospel, or St. Chad's Book, in which donations to the church of Llandaff are enumerated, contains many words and sentences in the British tongue, describing the boundaries of the estates given to the church, as old as the commencement of the ninth century.

6. Of the same age is a leaf found attached to the cover of a Codex in the Luxembourg Library.

"All these," says Zeuss, "are genuine ancient monuments, preserved in writing, and coeval with the older forms of the Cambric tongue.

The Liber Landavensis, the ancient Chartulary or Register Book of the Cathedral of Llandaff, called also the Book of

1 Grammatica Celtica. Lipsiæ, 1853.

2 It is thus prefaced :—“ Nemnivus invented these letters on the occasion of a certain Saxon remarking reproachfully that the Britons had no letters; whereupon Nemnivus at once made these up out of his own invention, and so got rid of the reproach cast upon his nation."

3 These glosses have been published by Zeuss in an Appendix to his Grammatica Celtica. Several of them had been previously noticed by Edward Lhuyd in his Archæologia Britannica, by Wanley, and Archbishop Usher; but it was reserved for a foreigner to publish these most ancient memorials of the British language, and, after Lhuyd, the only critical examination of the Celtic dialects.