The Druids offered sacrifices and observed particular days for religious worship. Their sacrifices were carefully selected, and they appear to have had clear views of their propitiatory character. Pliny, describing the gathering of the mistletoe, observes: “After they have well and duly prepared their festival cheer under the tree, they bring thither two young bullocks, milk-white, such as never drew in yoke at plow or wain, and whose heads were then and not before bound by the horns; which done, the priest, arrayed in a white vesture, climbeth up into the tree, and, with a golden hook or bill, cutteth it off, and they beneath receive it in a white cassock or coat of arms. Then they fall to and kill the beasts aforesaid for sacrifice, praying devoutly that it would please God to bless this gift of His to the good and benefit of all those to whom He had vouchsafed to give it.” These sacrifices were offered with very solemn rites, the common people remaining at a distance, while the priests approached with trembling awe the bloody victims, which were carried around the omen-fire. There is no branch of this subject which presents itself in a more interesting aspect than that which relates to the sacred places of this people, and the peculiar manner of their worship. They worshiped in the open air; it being a maxim with them, that it was unlawful to build temples to the gods, or to worship them within walls and under roofs. Their favorite place was a grove of oaks, or the shelter of a majestic tree of this kind. Here they would erect stone pillars in one or two circular rows; and in some of their principal temples, as particularly that of Stonehenge, they laid stones of prodigious weight on the tops of these perpendicular pillars, which formed a kind of circle aloft in the air. Near to these temples they constructed their sacred mounts, their cromlechs or stone tables for their sacrifices, and every other necessary provision for their worship. These sacred places were generally situated in the centre of some thick grove or wood, watered by a consecrated river or fountain, and surrounded by a ditch or mound, to prevent intrusion. TEMPLE OF THE HANGING STONES.