its story, would require an enchanter's wand. Other old faiths, of
Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Rome, are known to us. But in their case
liturgies, myths, theogonies, theologies, and the accessories of cult,
remain to yield their report of the outward form of human belief and
aspiration. How scanty, on the other hand, are the records of Celtic
religion! The bygone faith of a people who have inspired the world with
noble dreams must be constructed painfully, and often in fear and
trembling, out of fragmentary and, in many cases, transformed remains.

We have the surface observations of classical observers, dedications in
the Romano-Celtic area to gods mostly assimilated to the gods of the
conquerors, figured monuments mainly of the same period, coins, symbols,
place and personal names. For the Irish Celts there is a mass of written
material found mainly in eleventh and twelfth century MSS. Much of this,
in spite of alteration and excision, is based on divine and heroic
myths, and it also contains occasional notices of ritual. From Wales
come documents like the _Mabinogion_, and strange poems the personages
of which are ancient gods transformed, but which tell nothing of rite or
cult.[2] Valuable hints are furnished by early ecclesiastical documents,
but more important is existing folk-custom, which preserves so much of
the old cult, though it has lost its meaning to those who now use it.
Folk-tales may also be inquired of, if we discriminate between what in
them is Celtic and what is universal. Lastly, Celtic burial-mounds and
other remains yield their testimony to ancient belief and custom.

From these sources we try to rebuild Celtic paganism and to guess at its
inner spirit, though we are working in the twilight on a heap of
fragments. No Celt has left us a record of his faith and practice, and
the unwritten poems of the Druids died with them. Yet from these
fragments we see the Celt as the seeker after God, linking himself by