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Article AN ACCOUNT OF DRUIDISM. ← Page 6 of 8 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
An Account Of Druidism.
( though m the time they do not all agree ) , the snakes meet in companies , and that by joining heads together and hissing , a kind of bubble is formed , which the rest , by continual hissing , blow on till it passes quite through the body , when it immediately hardens , and resembles a glass . ring , which whoever finds shall prosper in all his undertakings . The rings thus generated are called Gleinu-nadroeth , or snake-stones . They
are small glass amulets , commonly about half as wide as our fingerrings , but much thicker , of a green colour usually , though sometimes blue , and waved with red and white . " Carew says , that " the country people in Cornwall have a persuasion that the snakes breathing upon a hazel wand produce a stone ring of blue colour , in which there appears the yellow figure of a snake , and that beasts bit and envenomed , being
given some water to drink wherein this stone has been infused , will perfectly recover of the poison * . " From the animal the Druids passed to the vegetable world ; and there also displayed their powers , whilst by the charms of the misletoe , the selago , and the samolus , they prevented or repelled disease , and * every species of misfortune . They made all nature , indeed , subservient to their magical art , and rendered even the rivers and the rocks prophetic . From the undulation or bubbling of water stirred by an oak branch , or magic wand , they foretold events that were to come .
This superstition of the Druids is even now retained in the western counties . To this day the Cornish have been accustomed to consult their famous well at Madern , or rather the spirit of the well , respecting their future destiny . " Hither , " says Borlase , " come the uneasy , impatient , and superstitious , and by dropping pins f or pebbles into the water , and by shaking the . ground round the spring , so . as to raise bubbles from the bottomat a certain time of the yearmoonand day
, , , , endeavour to remove their uneasiness : yet the supposed responses serve equally to encrease the gloom of the melancholy , the suspicions of the jealous , and the passion of the enamoured . The Castalian fountain , and many others among the Grecians , were supposed to be of a prophetic nature . By dipping a fair mirror into a well , the Patraians of Greece received , as they supposed , some notice of ensuing sickness
or health from the various figures pourtrayed upon the surface . The people of Laconia cast into a pool sacred to Juno cakes of bread-corn : if the cakes sunk , good was portended ; if they swam something dreadful was to ensue . Sometimes the superstitious threw three stones into the water , and formed their-conclusions from the several turns they made in sinking . " The Druids were likewise able to communicate , by consecration , the most portentous virtues to rocks and stones , which could determine the succession of princes or the fate of empires . To the Rocking , or Logan Stone | , in particular , they had recourse to confirm
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
An Account Of Druidism.
( though m the time they do not all agree ) , the snakes meet in companies , and that by joining heads together and hissing , a kind of bubble is formed , which the rest , by continual hissing , blow on till it passes quite through the body , when it immediately hardens , and resembles a glass . ring , which whoever finds shall prosper in all his undertakings . The rings thus generated are called Gleinu-nadroeth , or snake-stones . They
are small glass amulets , commonly about half as wide as our fingerrings , but much thicker , of a green colour usually , though sometimes blue , and waved with red and white . " Carew says , that " the country people in Cornwall have a persuasion that the snakes breathing upon a hazel wand produce a stone ring of blue colour , in which there appears the yellow figure of a snake , and that beasts bit and envenomed , being
given some water to drink wherein this stone has been infused , will perfectly recover of the poison * . " From the animal the Druids passed to the vegetable world ; and there also displayed their powers , whilst by the charms of the misletoe , the selago , and the samolus , they prevented or repelled disease , and * every species of misfortune . They made all nature , indeed , subservient to their magical art , and rendered even the rivers and the rocks prophetic . From the undulation or bubbling of water stirred by an oak branch , or magic wand , they foretold events that were to come .
This superstition of the Druids is even now retained in the western counties . To this day the Cornish have been accustomed to consult their famous well at Madern , or rather the spirit of the well , respecting their future destiny . " Hither , " says Borlase , " come the uneasy , impatient , and superstitious , and by dropping pins f or pebbles into the water , and by shaking the . ground round the spring , so . as to raise bubbles from the bottomat a certain time of the yearmoonand day
, , , , endeavour to remove their uneasiness : yet the supposed responses serve equally to encrease the gloom of the melancholy , the suspicions of the jealous , and the passion of the enamoured . The Castalian fountain , and many others among the Grecians , were supposed to be of a prophetic nature . By dipping a fair mirror into a well , the Patraians of Greece received , as they supposed , some notice of ensuing sickness
or health from the various figures pourtrayed upon the surface . The people of Laconia cast into a pool sacred to Juno cakes of bread-corn : if the cakes sunk , good was portended ; if they swam something dreadful was to ensue . Sometimes the superstitious threw three stones into the water , and formed their-conclusions from the several turns they made in sinking . " The Druids were likewise able to communicate , by consecration , the most portentous virtues to rocks and stones , which could determine the succession of princes or the fate of empires . To the Rocking , or Logan Stone | , in particular , they had recourse to confirm