tell us a great deal of kings, and battles, and
conspiracies, but very little of the daily domestic life
of the people. In this respect the history of Erin is
much the same as the rest; but some leading facts we do
know. Their religion, in Pagan times, was what the moderns
call _Druidism_, but what they called it themselves we
now know not. It was probably the same religion anciently
professed by Tyre and Sidon, by Carthage and her colonies
in Spain; the same religion which the Romans have described
as existing in great part of Gaul, and by their accounts,
we learn the awful fact, that it sanctioned, nay, demanded,
human sacrifices. From the few traces of its doctrines
which Christian zeal has permitted to survive in the old
Irish language, we see that _Belus_ or "Crom," the god
of fire, typified by the sun, was its chief divinity--that
two great festivals were held in his honour on days
answering to the first of May and last of October. There
were also particular gods of poets, champions, artificers
and mariners, just as among the Romans and Greeks. Sacred
groves were dedicated to these gods; Priests and Priestesses
devoted their lives to their service; the arms of the
champion, and the person of the king were charmed by
them; neither peace nor war was made without their
sanction; their own persons and their pupils were held
sacred; the high place at the king's right hand and the
best fruits of the earth and the waters were theirs. Old
age revered them, women worshipped them, warriors paid
court to them, youth trembled before them, princes and
chieftains regarded them as elder brethren. So numerous
were they in Erin, and so celebrated, that the altars of