Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions

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Old hnsh Religions.
daughters have they burnt in the fire to their gods." The
animal sacrifice may be but a survival of the human.
Csesar was positive as to the Gauls and Britons doing so.
Strabo, Plutarch, and others said the same. Augustus,
Tiberius, and Claudius opposed the Druids on account of
that cruelty. Yet the Archdruid Myfyr exclaimed— " They
never wrought an atonement for sin by the sacrifice of
bloody carcases of any kind." The writer has heard the
learned Welsh Druid affirm this in most earnest tones. He
would not admit so degrading a practice for his Druids.
Yet Nennius tells how Vortigern, seeking to build a fort,
was constantly annoyed by spirits running off with the
stones ;
and how he was told by his Druids to get a fatherless
boy, kill him, and sprinkle his blood upon the foundation
of the buildings. Similar stories are mentioned in
relation to Jericho, and to the erection of even Christian
ecclesiastical edifices.
O'Curry affirms that there is "no instance of human
sacrifices at any time in Erin." There is only one known
text referring to the custom In Ireland, which occurs in
the DimisencJius. Both men and women were liable to be
burnt to ashes for certain crimes, but not in worship. The
Lives of St. Patrick do not mention such offerings, though
the Book of Leinster and Lucan's verses note their ancient
service. Elton thought that some of the penalties of the
ancient laws seemed to have originated in an age when
criminals were offered to the gods.
Some old poem upon the Fair of Tailte, a pagan cemetery,
has it
" The three forbidden bloods
Patrick preached therein (z. e. the fair)
Yoke oxen, and slaying milch cows,
Also by (against the) burning of the firstborn."
There was, however, in Leitrim a Plain of Shrieking, and
Magh-sleacth was the place of slaughter.