Hen feddegyaeth kymrie : (antient Cymric medicine) and lecture memoranda, British Medical Association meeting, Swansea, 1903.

Date:
[1903]
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Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: Hen feddegyaeth kymrie : (antient Cymric medicine) and lecture memoranda, British Medical Association meeting, Swansea, 1903. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ihc Druids, wliich knowledge they probably acquired from the Phix'iiicians. Among the deities venerated by the Druids were Mercury, who was regarded as the inventor of the arts, Apollo, Mars and Jupiter. 'J'he cube was used by them as the symbirl of Mercury, and also to signify truth, while the tallest and fairest oak-tree in the wood was consecrated to Jupiter. With the general consent of the whole order, the Arch- Druiil fi.xed on the most beautiful oak-tree in the grove, and then performed the rite of consecration. All the side branches having been first cut off, he proceeded to join two of them to the highest part of the trunk, so that they extended on either side like the arms of a man, and formed in the whole the shape of a cro.ss. Above the insertion of these branches, and below, they inscribed in the bark of the tree the word “Thau,” and before it performed their most sacred rites. Of all trees the oak appears to have been held in the highest veneration by the Aryan race. It ranked among the holy trees of the Germans, and was, indeed, their chief deity, distinct traces of its worship having survived almost to the present day. 'I'o the ancient inhabitants of Italy the oak was sacred above all other trees. The image of Jupiter Ca])itolinus at Rome, according to Livy, was nothing but a natural oak tree. The civic crown of the Romans was of oak, and a chaplet of oak was the reward of eminent services rendered to the State. The Greeks worshipped Zeus as residing
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