Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 May 1875 — The Druids and Their Temples. [ARTICLE]

The Druids and Their Temples.

JSear the town of Carnac, in Brittany, France, there is an extensive plain several miles wide, with a flat and barren surface. It is the last place in the world a tourist would care about visiting if he were simply -traveling in search ofbeautiful objects. In winter the coldest winds blow over it whh wild force, and in summer it is unprotected by trees or shrubbery from the scorching shafts of the sun. But it is not wholly uninteresting, and I propose that we shall make a short visit to it. We will suppose, then, that you and I are stopping at one of the quiet taverns ia-Carnac, and have wandered toward the plain for a walk. Just outside the town

a bit of hill rises high enough to show us the surrounding country. There are few houses or trees on the plain; but it is divided into several avenues by long rows .of unhewn, upright stones, which, as far as the eye can see are ranged in almost perfect order like an army prepared for battle. There are over a thousand of them, and they stretch across the country from east to west for nearly seven miles. The largest are twenty-two feet high and the smallest ten feet. A few have fallen, abd others have been carted away; but originally they were placed apart at regular distances. When you come nearer to them you will see many signs of age upon them. They are seamed, mossy and battered. How old do you guess they are? Nobody is quite sure, not even the wisest of the historians, but we may safely say that they have held their present positions for over 1,800 years. For 1,800 years they have clung to the meager ground and withstood the combined assaults of time and storm, while generation after generation of the living has passed away. How did they come there? The simple] credulous people of old, to whom all fairy stories were the truest histories, believed that giants brought them and planted them; but we know better than that. They were erected by ordinary men, and you may imagine how much labor the work cost atwYime when there were no carts or wheelbarrows, much less railroads or massive cranes. Years, per haps centuries, were occupied, and to the builders the undertaking must have seemed as stupendous as the erection of the East River bridge seems to us. Similar stones are found at other places in Brittany; but the most famous collection is on a plain near the town of Salisbury, in England. This is called Stonehenge, and consists of 140 stones, the smallest of which weighs ten tons and the largest seventy tons. The remains of men and animals have been also found in the vicinity and these have given the antiquaries a clew as to the objects for which the stones were raised.

Nothing positive is known about them, but it is supposed that they mark the temples of the Druids, a religious order which possessed great power in France and England during the century before and the century after The coming of Christ. "They obtained a complete mastery over the ignorant and superstitious people then occupying those countries by the practice of mysterious arts which often were extremely cruel. They professed to know the hidden nature of things and tbe forms and movements of tbe sun and stars; but in reality they were not as wise as the children in our primary schools, asnd the simplest tricks of a good modern conjuror would surpass most wonderful ones. They were astrologers and herb-doctors as well as priests and historians and they attributed a sacred character to many plants. Human sacrifices formed one of tbe most terrible features of their religion. The victims usually were criminals or prisoners of war; but when there were none of these, innocent and unoffending persons were sacrificed. Tbe favorite resort of the Druids was an island opposite the mouth of the River Loire, in France, where, once every year, between sunrise and sunset, they pulled down and rebuilt the roofs of their temples; and any priest who allowed the smallest part of the sacred materials to fall carelessly was torn to pieces by his fellows. The only traces of the order left to us are the rude stone buildings at Stonehenge and Carnac. Retreating before the Romans, the Druids went to the Isle of Anglesey, in Wales; and when they saw their conquerors following they made preparations for a battle. Among their preparations—not exactly for battle, but for what they expected to follow it—were immense altars, on which they intended to sacrifice the unfortunate Romans who should be left after the battle. They were quite sure that they would need these altars, for their oracles gave them every reason to believe in a glorious triumph of their arms. But the Romans were again victorious, and the Druids themselves were the ones sacrificed.— Alexander Wainriqht, in St. Nicholas.