“Ours is no sapling, chance sown by the fountain, Blooming at Beltane in winter to fade;” etc.

The other great festival of the Druids was called “Samh’in,” or “fire of peace,” and was held on Halloweve (first of November), which still retains this designation in the Highlands of Scotland.  On this occasion the Druids assembled in solemn conclave, in the most central part of the district, to discharge the judicial functions of their order.  All questions, whether public or private, all crimes against person or property, were at this time brought before them for adjudication.  With these judicial acts were combined certain superstitious usages, especially the kindling of the sacred fire, from which all the fires in the district, which had been beforehand scrupulously extinguished, might be relighted.  This usage of kindling fires on Hallow-eve lingered in the British islands long after the establishment of Christianity.

Besides these two great annual festivals, the Druids were in the habit of observing the full moon, and especially the sixth day of the moon.  On the latter they sought the Mistletoe, which grew on their favorite oaks, and to which, as well as to the oak itself, they ascribed a peculiar virtue and sacredness.  The discovery of it was an occasion of rejoicing and solemn worship.  “They call it,” says Pliny, “by a word in their language, which means ’heal-all,’ and having made solemn preparation for feasting and sacrifice under the tree, they drive thither two milk-white bulls, whose horns are then for the first time bound.  The priest then, robed in white, ascends the tree, and cuts off the mistletoe with a golden sickle.  It is caught in a white mantle, after which they proceed to slay the victims, at the same time praying that God would render his gift prosperous to those to whom he had given it.”  They drink the water in which it has been infused, and think it a remedy for all diseases.  The mistletoe is a parasitic plant, and is not always nor often found on the oak, so that when it is found it is the more precious.

The Druids were the teachers of morality as well as of religion.  Of their ethical teaching a valuable specimen is preserved in the Triads of the Welsh Bards, and from this we may gather that their views of moral rectitude were on the whole just, and that they held and inculcated many very noble and valuable principles of conduct.  They were also the men of science and learning of their age and people.  Whether they were acquainted with letters or not has been disputed, though the probability is strong that they were, to some extent.  But it is certain that they committed nothing of their doctrine, their history, or their poetry to writing.  Their teaching was oral, and their literature (if such a word may be used in such a case) was preserved solely by tradition.  But the Roman writers admit that “they paid much attention to the order and laws of nature, and investigated and taught to the youth under their charge many things concerning the stars and their motions, the size of the world and the lands, and concerning the might and power of the immortal gods.”