IN HONOUR OF THOR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2667, 26 April 1905, Page 75

IN HONOUR OF THOR.

By a Banker

In the early days of Britain the principal ruling power appeared to be mainly vested in the Druids, or priestly caste. "We are accustomed to regard these bearded, white-robed and oakleaf-wreathed bards as having been a bictherhood of poets and musicians, whose time -was principally occupied in playing weird tunes upon a primitive harp, or in singing uncouth choruses in praise of the sacred mistletoe. Contemporary authority, however, and especially the evidence of Julius Caesar, reveal them to have been positive monsters of cruel malignity, revelling in the blood of their fellows, and with pitiless and. remorseless brutality immolating vast hecatombs of their fellow creatures under circumstances of the most inhuman and revolting savagery.

At times they would construct an er.ormous wicker representation of the figure of a man, into which they cast a score or more of writhing, struggling victims. A huge mass of fagots \vas now built up around the fire, and soon the whole was enveloped in flames, and the shrieking mass of men, women, and children were s'owly consumeu, until at length the entire structure collapsed, ite dead and dying human contents falling into the blazing furnace beneath.

But perhaps more intensely pathetic and mournful was the scene on, it is believed, each midsummer day when these barbaric archpriests celebrated the annual sacrifice of a. maiden in honour of Thoi or Odin. "We can dimly gather from the meagre descriptions of the ceremony extant some indistinct idea of the cruel ritual which accompanied this barbaric rite. Robed in white, with her long golden tresses hanging down her back, the young girl, who had but recently been torn from her parents, is led in procession by the relentless Druids beneath the lofty trilithon into the great circle of huge monoliths towards the sacrificial holed stone placed in. the centre of the temple. Euae choral music, accompanied by niany harps, drowns th« agonised shrieks of the young victim, who now stands trembling by the side >i the fatal stone awaiting the moment when the rays of the rising run glint through the further trilithon and impinge upon the strange gnomon.

And now the sacrificing priest, who has been standing at some distance watching far the first red ray, whirls his brazen sword around his head, and with an unearthly cry rushes towards the frightened girl and plunges his weapon into her breast. It is impossible to describe the further savage rites which took place ; suffice it tc say that whether it were in the worship of Moloch, or of Kronos, or of Thor, the cruelties perpetrated in the name of so-called religion were beyond measure atrocious, outrageous, and repulsive. But how entirely different is the puTe and holy Christian religion. For now those who would attain to the glories of the hereafter have but to live a godly life and to make sure that any record against them en high has been blotted out in virtue of the sacrifice of the Son of God. And whosoever will may go to .mm, and with all confidence may claim that gracious pardon.