mentioned on inscriptions (at Nantes, Craon, and Les Provencheres near
Craon), meant originally 'an ass.' The goddess Epona, also, whose
worship was widely spread, was probably at one time an animal goddess in
the form of a mare, and the name of another goddess, Damona, either from
the root _dam_=Ir. _dam_, (ox); or Welsh _daf-ad_ (sheep), may similarly
be that of an ancient totem sheep or cow. Nor was it in the animal world
alone that the Celts saw indications of the divine. While the chase and
the pastoral life concentrated the mind's attention on the life of
animals, the growth of agriculture fixed man's thoughts on the life of
the earth, and all that grew upon it, while at the same time he was led
to think more and more of the mysterious world beneath the earth, from
which all things came and to which all things returned. Nor could he
forget the trees of the forest, especially those which, like the oak, had
provided him with their fruit as food in time of need. The name Druid,
as well as that of the centre of worship of the Gauls of Asia Minor,
Drunemeton (the oak-grove), the statement of Maximus of Tyre that the
representation of Zeus to the Celts was a high oak, Pliny's account of
Druidism (_Nat. Hist_., xvi. 95), the numerous inscriptions to Silvanus
and Silvana, the mention of Dervones or Dervonnae on an inscription at
Cavalzesio near Brescia, and the abundant evidence of survivals in folk-
lore as collected by Dr. J. G. Frazer and others, all point to the fact
that tree-worship, and especially that of the oak, had contributed its
full share to the development of Celtic religion, at any rate in some
districts and in some epochs. The development of martial and commercial
civilisation in later times tended to restrict its typical and more
primitive developments to the more conservative parts of the Celtic
world. The fact that in Caesar's time its main centre in Gaul was in the
territory of the Carnutes, the tribe which has given its name to
Chartres, suggests that its chief votaries were mainly in that part of
the country. This, too, was the district of the god Esus (the eponymous