As has been seen, some purely Celtic images existed in Gaul.  The Gauls, who used nothing but wood for their houses, probably knew little of the art of carving stone.  They would therefore make most of their images of wood—­a perishable material.  The insular Celts had images, and if, as Caesar maintained, the Druids came from Britain to Gaul, this points at least to a similarity of cult in the two regions.  Youthful Gauls who aspired to Druidic knowledge went to Britain to obtain it.  Would the Druids of Gaul have permitted this, had they been iconoclasts?  No single text shows that the Druids had any antipathy to images, while the Gauls certainly had images of worshipful animals.  Further, even if the Druids were priests of a pre-Celtic folk, they must have permitted the making of images, since many “menhir-statues” exist on French soil, at Aveyron, Tarn, and elsewhere.[985] The Celts were in constant contact with image-worshipping peoples, and could hardly have failed to be influenced by them, even if such a priestly prohibition existed, just as Israel succumbed to images in spite of divine commands.  That they would have been thus influenced is seen from the number of images of all kinds dating from the period after the Roman conquest.

Incidental proofs of the fondness of the Celts for images are found in ecclesiastical writings and in late survivals.  The procession of the image of Berecynthia has already been described, and such processions were common in Gaul, and imply a regular folk-custom.  S. Martin of Tours stopped a funeral procession believing it to be such a pagan rite.[986] Councils and edicts prohibited these processions in Gaul, but a more effectual way was to Christianise them.  The Rogation tide processions with crucifix and Madonna, and the carrying of S. John’s image at the Midsummer festivals, were a direct continuation of the older practices.  Images were often broken by Christian saints in Gaul, as they had been over-turned by S. Patrick in Ireland.  “Stiff and deformed” many of them must have been, if one may judge from the Groah-goard or “Venus of Quinipily,” for centuries the object of superstitious rites in Brittany.[987] With it may be compared the fetich-stone or image of which an old woman in the island of Inniskea, the guardian of a sacred well, had charge.  It was kept wrapped up to hide it from profane eyes, but at certain periods it was brought out for adoration.[988]

The images and bas-reliefs of the Gallo-Roman period fall mainly into two classes.  In the first class are those representing native divinities, like Esus, Tarvos Trigaranos, Smertullos, Cernunnos, the horned and crouching gods, the god with the hammer, and the god with the wheel.  Busts and statues of some water-goddesses exist, but more numerous are the representations of Epona.  One of these is provided with a box pedestal in which offerings might be placed.  The Matres are frequently figured, usually as three seated figures with baskets of fruit or flowers, or with one or more infants, like the Madonna.  Images of triple-headed gods, supposed to be Cernunnos, have been found, but are difficult to place in any category.[989]