ld by the Druids, Pliny adds,
as an antidote to every kind of poison. Other herbs had like remedial
properties in their eyes. The fumes of burning "_selago_"[60] were
thus held good for affections of the eyesight, only, however, when
the plant was plucked with due ceremonies. The gatherer must be all
in white, with bare and washen feet, and must hallow himself, ere
starting on his quest, with a devotional partaking of bread and wine
[_sacro facto ... pane vinoque_]. He must by no means cut the sacred
stem with a knife, but pluck it, and that not with bare fingers, but
through the folds of his tunic, his right hand being protruded for
this purpose beneath his left, "in thievish wise" [_velut a furante_].
Another herb, "_samolum_," which grew in marshy places, was of avail
in all diseases both of man and beast. It had to be gathered with the
left hand, and fasting, nor might the gatherer on any account look
back till he reached some runlet [_canali_] in which he crushed his
prize and drank.

H. 10.--Pliny's picture has the interest of having been drawn almost
at the final disappearance of Druidism from the Roman world. For some
reason it was supposed to be, like Christianity, peculiarly opposed
to the genius of Roman civilization, and never came to be numbered
amongst the _religiones licitae_ of the Empire. Augustus forbade the
practice of it to Roman citizens,[61] Tiberius wholly suppressed it in
Gaul,[62] and, in conquering Britain, Claudius crushed it with a
hand of iron. Few pictures in the early history of Britain are more
familiar than the final extirpation of the last of the Druids, when
their sacred island of Mona (Anglesey) was stormed by the Roman
legionaries, and priests and priestesses perished _en masse_ in
the flames of their own altars.[63] Their desperate resistance was
doubtless due to the fact that Rome was the declared and mortal
enemy of their faith. So baneful, indeed, did Druidism come to be
considered, that to hold even with the least of its superstitions
was treated at Rome as a capital offence. Pliny tells us of a Roman
knight, of Gallic birth, who was put to death by Claudius for no other
reason than that of being in possession of a certain stone called
by the Druids a "snake's egg," and supposed to bring good luck in
law-suits.[64]

H. 11.--This stone Pliny himself had seen, and describes it (in his
chapter on the use of eggs) as being like a medium-sized apple, having
a cartilaginous shell c