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38 THE MANNER OF LIFE OF
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
The Bkitons. The It The Is Days Difficul...
It is not easy to determine the exact office of the Druidesses . We tired of the oft-repeated tale of their resistinglike enraged
grow , furies , the advance of the Romans upon the sacred altars of Mona , with hair dishevelled and flaming torches in their
handsimpreca-, ting the wrath of heaven upon the invaders of their country . Like the Druids , the Druidesses of Gaul and Britain are said to
have been divided into three classes . Those of the first class had taken the vow of perpetual virginity , and lived apart from the
world in sequestered groves and remote wilds . They received the of appellation divination of and Sena were , or consulted venerable as women oracles . They and professed hets . the It is arts to prop
, them that Tacitus is supposed to refer in the following passage : — " There is in their inion something sacred in the female sex , and
even the power of op foreseeing future events . Their advice is therefore always heard ; they are frequently consulted , and their responses
are deemed oracular . We have seen in the reign of Vespasian , the famous Veleda ( a prophetess of the Bructerian nation ) regarded as
a divinity by her countrymen . Before her time , Aurinia and others were held in equal veneration ; but a veneration founded on
sentiment and superstition , free from that servile adulation which pretends to le heaven with human deities . " We are further
told by Pomponius peop Mela , that in an island on the coast of Brittany , there was an ancient oracle , where nine virgins attended as
priestesses and issued the responses . Strabo relates , that among the Cambrian women , there were several who had the gift of
_prop hecy , and marched barefooted in the midst of the soldiers , _^ indeed distinguished so far b back y their as the grey first hair invasion and milk of - Britain white linen mention robes is . made And
, , of women being consulted by the _Celtee on matters of peace or war ; but whether this refers to the sex in general or to the Druidesses
. aloneis not stated . Julius _Csesar simply says that on inquiry of the prisoners , whthe declined an engagementhe found
that it was the cu y stom of enemy the women to decide by lot and , divinationwhether it was proper to hazard a battle , and that on this
occasion , The they second had declared class is against supposed comin to have g to included action before the wives the new of
moon . Druidswho took -part with them in the ceremonials of religion . As the , Druids were the teachers of youthso it is presumed that
Druidesses held similar classesto which , women were admitted , who were instructed by them , in every known accomplishment ,
_- _minent among which lace . the The harp third , the class distaff of Druidesses , and basket consisted -weaving of held those a pro who - p
" performed the most servile offices about the temple and the sacrifices Turn . ing from general observations to particularswe find that
, the lives of two British women are recorded by Roman historiansthe other her misfortunes
the Cartismandu one remarkable a and Boadicea by her crimes . Of , the first , we by have few details — ,
38 The Manner Of Life Of
38 THE MANNER OF LIFE OF
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), March 2, 1863, page 38, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_02031863/page/38/
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