certain philosophers and theologians held in great honour whom they
call Druids."[56] Whether this designation is actually of Celtic
derivation is, however, uncertain. Pliny thought it was from the Greek
affected by the Druids and connected with their oak-tree worship.
Professor Rhys mentions that the earliest use of the word in
extant Welsh literature is in the Book of Taliesin, under the form
_Derwyddon_,[57] and that in Irish is to be found the cognate form
_Drui_. But these are as likely to be derived from the Greek [Greek:
_drouides_] as this from them. Diodorus adds that they have mighty
influence, and preside at all sacred rites, "as possessing special
knowledge of the Gods, yea, and being of one speech [[Greek:
homophônôn]] with them." This points to some archaic or foreign
language, possibly Greek, being used in the Druidical ritual. Their
influence, he goes on to say, always makes for peace: "Oft-times, when
hosts be arrayed, and either side charging the one against the other,
yea, when swords are out and spears couched for the onset, will these
men rush between and stay the warriors, charming them to rest [[Greek:
katepasantes]] like so many wild beasts."

H. 6.--With the Druids Diodorus associates two other religiously
influential classes amongst the Britons, the Bards [[Greek: bardos]]
and the Seers [[Greek: manteis]]. The former present the familiar
features of the cosmopolitan minstrel. They sing to harps [[Greek:
organôn tais lurais homoiôn]], both fame and disfame. The latter seem
to have corresponded with the witch-doctors of the Kaffir tribes,
deriving auguries from the dying struggles of their victims
(frequently human), just as the Basuto medicine-men tortured oxen to
death to prognosticate the issue of the war between Great Britain
and the Boers in South Africa. Strabo, in the next generation, also
mentions together these three classes, Bards, Seers [[Greek: Ouateis]