Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions

German D^'jiidism.
^g
GERMAN DRUIDISM.
Louis de Baecker, 1854, gave an account of Teutonic
Druidism, similar to that of the BclgcU of Britain, in his
De la Religion dii Nord de la France avant le Ckristiauisnie.
He, unhke men of the Welsh Druidic school, joins Dr.
Ledwich, and some Irish authorities, in tracing Druidism to
the German and Scandinavian races, saying, " The religion
of our pagan ancestors was that of Odin or Woden." But
he evidently refers to north-eastern France rather than
north-western, as he derives the religion from the Edda.
In the book Volu-Spa, or the Priestess, the first song of the
poetic Edda, he discovers what Ossian and other British
and Irish bards describe as Spirits of the air, of earth, of
waters, of plains, and woods.
" Cssar was deceived," says
he, "when he said that the Germans had neither priests
nor religious ceremonies ;
for Tacitus mentions them in his
Gennania in the most formal manner." By the wa}^, if
Caesar was so mistaken about the Germans, whom he knew
so well, is his evidence about Gaulish Druids worth much ?
Baecker's northern Gauls had priests of various kinds.
The sacrificers were called Blodinanner, or Pluostari ; the
sustainers of order were Ewart and Gotes-ewart ;
the protectors
of sacred woods, Harugari^ Parawari, or Wi/iesmart
; the prophets, Spaniadhr, Wizago, Vitega, Veitsga,
Weissager, Wetekey. The Priestesses were the Vauliir,
The horse, bull, boar, and sheep were sacrificed. " It was in
the middle of the wood," he writes, " that the Bclgai offered
their sacrifices." The Belgic Britons, doubtless, had a
similar
Druidism.
C;esar asserts that the Germans had no Druids, while
he credits the German Belga^ of South Britain with having
them.
E