DRUIDISM THE ANCIENT FAIH OF BRIATIN

CHAPTER I

THE ORIGIN OF DRUIDISM

It is problematical whether the question, asked so frequently both
in the past and the present, as to what period in the history of the
world witnessed the foundation of Druidism, will ever be answered with
definiteness. Some writers have maintained that it was a development
or offshoot of the Egyptian religion and, along with Freemasonry,
originated in the sublime teachings of Ptah, which, by some, are believe
to have been brought out of Egypt by Moses. Faber, in his Pagan
Idolatry, expressed the opinion that the Druidical Bards were probably
the founders of Freemasonry; certainly members of the Craft will be
able to trace many analogies and similarities between Druidic and
Masonic ceremonial and practices, but the extent, if any, to which the
one has been drawn from, or is dependent upon, the other, must be more
or less a matter of speculation.

Philology does not render much assistance in determining the origin
of Druidism, the possible derivation of the various Druidical terms bein
very conflicting, although few modern scholars probably now maintain
dogmatically the opinion, regarded seriously at one time, that the word
Druid is derived from the Greek word drus, meaning " an oak," on
which was founded, in part at any rate, the theory that the Druids had
their original habitat among the oaks of Mamre, to which reference is
made in the book of Genesis. Another derivation frequently given is
that derwydd means " the body of an oak," that word being formed from
two other words, derw, "oak," and ydd, a substantive terminal In like
manner Ovydd (Ovate) was said to mean " sapling" or "unformed...