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.* It is rather difficult to light on a Triad peculiarly appropriate to an Ovydd; I will cite a few that breathe a philosophical spirit:-"The three demonstrations of the usefulness of knowledge, wisdom, piety, and tranquillity. Three things that produce correctness, bodily power, expertness of art, and a willing genius. The three primary teachers of man,-a genius loving exertion, considerate reason, and a moral conscience. Three men upon whom all ought to look with affection, he who looks with affection on the face of the earth, he who is delighted with rational works of art, and he who looks lovingly on little children. The three branches of the duty of man,—devotion towards God, benevolence to his fellow-creatures, and the improvement of the sciences." The Triads relating to language may with more certainty be ascribed to the Ovates. "The three correct qualities of a language,-correct construction, correct etymology, and correct pronunciation. The three supports of language,-order, strength, and synonymy. The three things that constitute just description,-just selection of words, just construction of language, and just comparison. The three best things appertaining to just selection, the best language, the best order, and the best object."§ I may just mention another Triad, which tends to confirm the impression that, in those bright and beautiful days, science and literature not only carried away brilliant honours, but also received substantial rewards, that solid beef and pudding, ay, and sparkling mead, which digest so well, and give to praise so agreeable a relish. A philosopher, unless he had something to lose, would not have dictated the following axiom, worthy of the sagacity of a modern detective.|| "The three indications of a thief,—an inquisitive tongue, a prying eye, and a timid avoiding countenance; that is, the three united in one person." * Meyrick's Costumes, p. 24. + Camb. Brit. June 1822. § Ibid. Nov. 1819. The wear and tear of from twenty to thirty centuries, and the decays of memory, have thinned off the great names of art and science, so that not above half-a-dozen survive. If this remnant seem marvellously small, guess what would be our residuum after a similar interval. The three great works of the Isle of Britain would then possibly stand thus: "The Tubular Bridge at Menai, the Thames Tunnel, and the Crystal Palace." The few rescued Ovates were men of science. "The three distinguished astronomers of the Isle of Britain,-Idris the Giant, Gwdion the son of Don, and Gwyn ap Nudd; and by the extent of their knowledge concerning the stars, their natures, and their qualities, they could prognosticate whatever was wished to be known unto the day of doom." The last two are considered to have lived after the Christian era; the first, long before. The giant Idris, we are told, studied the heavenly bodies from the top of one of the loftiest mountains in North Wales; which, in consequence, received the name which it still bears, Cader Idris, the Chair of Idris. On the very summit there is said to be an excavation in the solid rock, resembling a couch, on which whoever rests a night will be found in the morning either dead, raving mad, or inspired. Idris had notions of comfort, or may have experienced what sad inroads petty annoyances make on sublime speculations; so, like a true philosopher as he was, before he ascended to his chair he shook three grains of sand out of his shoe, and there they are now, as large as life,-possibly a little larger, as each would do duty for a respectable mountain out of Wales. "The three beneficent artisans of the Isle of Britain,-Corvinwr the Bard of Ceri, of the long white Lake, who first made a ship with sail and rudder for the nation of the Cymry; Morddal, the man of the torrent, the artisan of Ceraint ab Greidiawl, who first taught the work of stone and lime to the nation of the Cymry, in the time that the Emperor Alexander was bringing the world under him; and Coel ap Cyllin ap Caradawg ap Bran, who first made a mill of sound and wheel for the nation of the Cymry: and they were three Bards."* The last is supposed to have been the grandson of Caractacus. There was also another order, which my fair readers, if any *Camb. Brit. May 1821. venture on this little essay, will think me exceedingly ungallant to have placed where I have; but this comes of compiling however, I have the satisfaction of laying the blame on the authorities whom I have followed. There were Druidesses, as well as Druids, divided, it is said, into three classes. The first class never married, but lived together conventually, in complete retirement from the world. To the second class marriage was permitted, though they must have made but indifferent wives, as they were continually at their prayers and religious services, and scarcely ever at home. The third class were a kind of lay-sisters, answering to our Protestant church-cleaners and pew-openers, who did all the hard work a woman could do, in the care of the temples and preparation for the rites to be performed in them. I have exhausted my pages, not my subject, on which a great deal more might be said. CHAPTER II. BARDISM. The Gorsedd-Circle of Convention-Bardic Devotion to Science-Druidic Circles-Cromlech-What was done at a Gorsedd- Court of ArchDruid-Explanation of Arch-Druid's Robes of Office-Divination – Glain Neidr Excommunication - Capital Punishments · Mode of Execution Erroneous Judgments - Religious Festival - Legend of Llyn Savaddan-Sacred Island-Saxons-The black Beaver-Legend of Hu's Oxen-Bardic Procession-Rites of Initiation-Sarn BadrigThe Sacred River- Consecration of the Oak - The Mistletoe --The Hedge Hyssop-The Vervain-The Birch-Fires on All-Saints' EveBardic Customs at Marriage - Ancient Welsh Games-Invasion of Suetonius Paulinus-Tacitus-Druids vindicated. THE rites and ceremonies of Bardism, the third branch of inquiry, complete our Triad. The principle of the Bardic Institute, confining instruction to oral teaching, and throwing all upon the memory, rendered it necessary, in addition to the ordinary collegiate course, to hold general meetings, at which the scholars might contend in trials of skill, and thus a powerful stimulus to exertion be given. At these general assemblies degrees were conferred, and the business of the Institute transacted. Courts of judicature were also held, and the whole was crowned by a grand religious festival. The Bardic was a lunar year, the months of which were computed to run from the sixth day of one moon to the same day of the next. The reason was, because on the sixth day the moon became distinctly visible. There was also another consideration, which had weight. The affairs of this lower world being supposed to be very much subject to planetary influences, at six days the moon was sedate and matronly, and fit to govern, instead of a giddy young thing, as she must have been when only a few hours old. The four principal conventions were held near the summer and winter solstices and the equinoxes. Subordinate meetings might also take place at every new and full moon, and likewise at the quarter-days, which were chiefly for instructing disciples.* The spot selected as the scene of this great solemnity must have possessed certain natural qualifications—a rising ground embosomed in a grove of trees, with a running stream, lake, or fountain near. Our puny strength, with all modern appliances, would be long in erecting a Druid temple; but it is not quite so hard to build one on paper. Let us try. First, a large space in the centre of a solemn grove of ancient overhanging oaks is to be cleared, in the form of a circle or oval; then huge, unhewn stone pillars, must be set up at certain intervals round the outer rim of the circle; the earth dislodged may serve for a rampart: upon the tops of the pillars we will lay large blocks of stone horizontal, connecting one with the other. Within our circle there shall be, towards the east, a similar smaller circle, which we will call, under learned Mr. Rowlands's direction, the cirque or place of judicature. In the centre of our great circle we will have a triangular slab, resting on two or more supporters, which, without fear of the Court of Arches, we will call a stone altar, or cromlech; in Bardic language, the Stone of the Covenant. Scattered about on the west side there shall be a number of smaller stones in circles, or circularwise, which we will name places of worship for private or secret prayer, or for the offering of lesser oblations. Science, in ages boasting of civilization, has often had cause to complain of coldness and neglect; the Bards paid even more than a just homage, they actually worshipped it. The great circle of their temples symbolized the circle of the zodiac. The lesser circles, consisting of twelve, nineteen, thirty, or sixty stones, represented certain cycles and computations deduced from the study of astronomy. And than the cromlech," as has been acutely remarked by an accomplished contributor to that valuable periodical, the "Archæologia Cambrensis," "there cannot be a form better suited to embody the idea of that balancing and selfadjusting power which is found to control all the celestial motions, and to pervade the whole of the solar system."‡ There are in different parts of the principality several Druidic * Williams's Antiquities of the Cymry, p. 16. Paper in Arch. Camb. April 1849. |