ST. DAVID'S DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 51, 1 March 1935, Page 5

ST. DAVID'S DAY.

THE DRUIDS OF WALES PLACE IN ANCIENT LIFE. PERSISTENCE OE CULTURE.

(By M.M.) j

To-day Wales celehrates St. David's Day, and it is fitting at this time to speak of the greatness of Wales in ancient days. We have all heard of the Druids, how they worked for the welfare of their nation, and for the cause of spiritual progress, but few of us realise the vast contribution they made to the life of the ancient Britons, a contribution which is one of the real reasons why Wales to-day is one of the foremost of all countries in education and in religion. If you have never seen them, then go to Wales during the first week in \ August and ask where the National j Eisteddfod is being held, and there you j will see the Druids in the same kind of j dress as was worn by the ancient i Druids 3000 years ago, and you will i j find that the colours worn are not chosen by chance. They have exactly the same symbolic value as colours have I had among seers of all ages. I Who, then, are the Druids? They are the priests of the ancient I Britons, and.they are divided into three orders, presided over by the Arch Druid. There were the Druids, the bards and the ovates. The ovates were sometimes candidates for the higher orders, and sometimes they were persons of standing and repute who were willing to work for the good of the people, but were not inclined, or not able to enter into the higher orders because they had their own work in life. This order wore green robes. Green is the colour of the young vegetable life, and therefore the appropriate colour- of a young candidate,

The Highest Order. The bards wore 'blue robes. Blue is the emblem of truth, peace and equanimity. But, you say, the bard should be full of fire and inspiration, therefore blue is not an appropriate colour. Not so. The idea was that the real bard must try to get beyond mere passion and into the calmer regions where he could draw on deep universal truths. There were probably two degrees of bards originally —those who sang the praises of famous men and those whose work was more definitely religious and prophetical. These latter were called faids. It is a term like that of the Roman Vates, i.e., poets who sang of the future and inspired men to make the future greater than the present, i The Druids proper were the highest order and they wore white, the symbol of purity and of the ineffable joy of spiritual things. It took 20 years to train a Druid, and persons of the highest rank were only too anxious to be admitted to this order. There were among | the Druids many subdivisions, even the j highest of these orders contained no less | than six subdivisions. The position of I Arch Druid was so highly valued that it j sometimes occasioned civil war when the ! position fell vacant. In time there came i to be two Arch Druids, one in Anglesca ! and the other in the Isle of Man. I All the Druids proper wore collar, | bracelet and armlet of brass and a tiara of oak leaves. The tiara of gold was I reserved for the Arch Druid, and he also ! carried the sceptre. From the Triads of the Cymru we know what was laid down as the work for the various orders of the Druids. First, concerning the bards They had to make the country habitable. ' They had to civilise the people. They had to promote science. How many of our poets to-day would regard that as a programme. It makes us think of James Russell Lowell's lines: "He who would be the tongue of this wide world must string his harp with cords of banded iron, and strike it with a toil-embrowned hand."

Lasting Influence. That they did live up to their work we know from the fact that in the reign of Henry V. a special law was made to break the influences of the bards in Wales. The law made it a

criminal offence to keep any boy of lowly-parentage learning when he should be at work. Even to-day the influence of the bards is wonderful, for the Welsh, are the best educated people in the world. Their appreciation of music and poetry is indeed wonderful, while their grasp of all intellectual and practical problems is exceptional. The work of the Druid was to keep his word, to keep his secret, and to keep the peace. And 60 well did he keep the second that we find the greatest difficulty iu finding out what their real beliefs were, for nothing was allowed to be written down, but all was handed down by word of mouth. The Druids studied medicine, and a great deal of power was obtained by this knowledge. They were eminently sensible as regards rules of health, for we read: "People should exercise cheerfulness, temperance, exercise and early rising." The ceremonies of the Druids were usually in oak groves, for the oak was a symbol of the ] Supreme Being. Whatever "grew on the I oak was holy, hence mistletoe from the ! oak was sacred. Mistletoe from apple | trees was not considered holy. ! The onion was also sacred. The onion was the symbol of the eternal unfolding of the Divine nature, the necessity of not thinking that the outer is everything. Their great temples were at Stonehenge and at Avebury, where the oak grove was entered through a winding avenue. What "did they teach, in those groves?

Ponder over the Gorsidd invocation, and consider well whether this prayer, which lias been handed down through the ages from the ancient Druids, year after year, and which still opens the Eisteddfod ceremony every August, cannot be put down as that of great souls who sensed the unity of all nations: — God, impart strength, and in that strength knowledge, and in that knowledge wisdom, and in wisdom love, and in that love the love of all things, and in the love of all things the love of Thee, 0 Lord.