d hence all
the details which classical authorities have left us of continental
Druidism appear as part of the Celtic religion, while in Britain these
details are for the most part absent. But this is not all. There are
certain rites in Britain noted by the early authorities which are not
attached to any particular cult. They are not Druidic; they are not
Celtic. They are, as a matter of fact, special examples of rites
practised in only one locality, and accordingly referred to as
something extraordinary and not general. From this it is clearly
correct to argue that the British Celts had in their midst a cult
which, if they did not destroy, they certainly did not absorb, and
that therefore this cult being non-Celtic must have been pre-Celtic.

I do not wish to argue this point out further than is necessary to
explain the position which, it appears to me, Druidism occupies, and I
will therefore only add a note as to the authorities for the
statements I have advanced. The differences between continental and
British Druidism are definite and pronounced,[473] the mixture of the
continental Celts with the Iberic people, which they displaced, is
attested, by ancient authority and modern anthropology,[474] while the
only evidence of such a mixture in Britain is the prominently recorded
instance of the Picts intermarrying with the Gael,[475] and this has
to be set against the close distinction between tribesmen and
non-tribesmen, which is such a remarkable feature of Celtic law;[476]
the existence of local cults in early Britain having all the
characteristics of a ruder and more savage origin, and not identified
with Celticism, is a point derived from our early authorities.[477]
These are the main facts of the case, and the subject has to be
worked out in considerable detail before it can be settled.

There is one other primary subject which bears upon the question of
race distinctions in folklore. With the fact of conquest to reckon
with, the relationship of the conqueror to the conquered is a matter
to consider. In the European tribal system it was a definite
relationship, so definite that the conquered, as we have seen, formed
an essential part of the tribal organisation--the kinless slaves
beneath the tribal kindred. There was a place for the kinless in the
tribal economy and in the tribal laws. There was also a place for them
in the tribal system of belief, and the mythic influence of the
conquered is a subject that need