The metempsychosis or transmigration of
souls was one of the articles of their belief long before the time of
Pythagoras; it had probably been drawn from the storehouse of Atlantis,
whence it passed to the Druids, the Greeks, and the Hindoos. The Druids
had a pontifex maximus to whom they yielded entire obedience. Here again
we see a practice which extended to the Phoenicians, Egyptians, Hindoos,
Peruvians, and Mexicans.
The Druids of Gaul and Britain offered human sacrifices, while it is
claimed that the Irish Druids did not. This would appear to have been a
corrupt after-growth imposed upon the earlier and purer sacrifice of
fruits and flowers known in Atlantis, and due in part to greater cruelty
and barbarism in their descendants. Hence we find it practised in
degenerate ages on both sides of the Atlantic.
The Irish Druidical rites manifested themselves principally in sun
worship. Their chief god was Bel or Baal--the same worshipped by the
Phoenicians--the god of the sun. The Irish name for the sun, Grian, is,
according to Virgil, one of the names of Apollo--another sun-god,
Gryneus. Sun-worship continued in Ireland down to the time of St.
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