Human Sacrifices in Ancient Gaul
In strange
discord, however, with the lofty words of Cæsar stands the
abominable practice of human sacrifice whose prevalence he noted
among the Celts. Prisoners and criminals, or if these failed even
innocent victims, probably children, were encased, numbers at a time,
in huge frames of wickerwork, and there burned alive to win the
favour of the gods. The practice of human sacrifice is, of course,
not specially Druidic—it is found in all parts both of the Old and
of the New World at a certain stage of culture, and was doubtless a
survival from the time of the Megalithic People. The fact that it
should have continued in Celtic lands after an otherwise fairly high
state of civilisation and religious culture had been attained can be
paralleled from Mexico and Carthage, and in both cases is due, no
doubt, to the uncontrolled dominance of a priestly caste.
