DRUIDISM AND MAGIC 93
to explain. He was known to the early Church as a notorious
opponent of the apostles, and his name became identified with all
that was pagan and anti-Christian : thus, the ancient Druidic
tonsure usual among the clergy of the British Church till the latter
half of the eighth century, and among those of the Irish Church
not quite so late, was probably a Druidic tonsure continued. At any
rate, it was described by those who had adopted the Roman tonsure
as that of Simon Magus. As to Ireland, in particular, all the fiercest
opposition there to Christianity is described as headed by the Druids,
who competed with Patrick and other saints in working miracles.
So it would be natural enough to Christian writers to liken the chief
Druids of Ireland to Simon, especially seeing that when they used
the Latin tongue the native word drui, " Druid," had to be rendered
by magus, " a magician." Vice versa, Simon Magus became in Irish
Simon Drui, or " Simon the Druid " : nay, he was at last claimed
as an Irish ancestor and as such he appears as Simon Brec, or Simon
the Freckled, son of Starn, or Stariath, of the family of Nemid, and
as ancestor of the Fir Bolg, who, owing to Simon's eastern origin,
are made to come from the east on one of the motiveless wanderings
so common in the legendary history of Ireland.
" The m)-thical creation, known as Roth Fail, or Fail's Wheel,
and Roth Ramach, or the wheel with paddles, is said to have been
made by Simon Magus, assisted by Mog Ruith, a celebrated Irish
Druid from the island of Valencia, who, having learned all the
Druidism or magic that could be learned in these islands, went with
his daughter to take lessons from Simon Magus, in whose contest
with St. Peter he is represented as taking a part. The wheel was
to enable Simon to sail in the air ; but it met with an accident,
and Mog Ruith's daughter brought certain fragments of it to Ireland,
one of which she fixed as the rock or pillar stone of Cnamchoill, a
place near Tipperary, the name of which has been Anglicised into
Cleghile. The stone was believed to have produced blindness if
looked at, and death if touched."
In Ireland the modern art of magic is known as Druidity and the
magician's wand as the " Rod of Druidism." The Irish Druids of ancient
times are said to have been a species of sorcerers, to have been in league
with the demons of paganism, and to have been able, through their
agency, to do good to their friends and to work mischief upon their
enemies. They were credited by the people with the power of transform-
ing men into stone pillars by magical means, and this credulity assisted
in making the Druids as great as, if not greater than, any priesthood
in ancient or modern times. They were held in such veneration by