Such ideas, however, belonged to the metaphysical side of Druidism. Far more important to the practical primitive mind are ritual and sacrifice, by the due performance of which the gods are persuaded or compelled to grant earth’s increase and length of days to men. Among the Druids, this humouring of the divinities took the shape of human sacrifice, and that upon a scale which would seem to have been unsurpassed in horror even by the most savage tribes of West Africa or Polynesia. “The whole Gaulish nation”, says Caesar, “is to a great degree devoted to superstitious rites; and on this account those who are afflicted with severe diseases, or who are engaged in battles and dangers, either sacrifice human beings for victims, or vow that they will immolate themselves, and these employ the Druids as ministers for such sacrifices, because they think that, unless the life of man be repaid for the life of man, the will of the immortal gods cannot be appeased. They also ordain national offerings of the same kind. Others make wicker-work images of vast size, the limbs of which they fill with living men and set on fire.”[43] We find evidence of similarly awful customs in pagan Ireland. Among the oldest Gaelic records are tracts called _Dinnsenchus_, in which famous places are enumerated, together with the legends relating to them. Such topographies are found in several of the great Irish mediæval manuscripts, and therefore, of course, received their final transcription at the hands of Christian monks. But these ecclesiastics rarely tampered with compositions in elaborate verse. Nor can it be imagined that any monastic scribe could have invented such a legend as this one which describes the practice of human sacrifice among the ancient Irish. The poem (which is found in the Books of Leinster, of Ballymote, of Lecan, and in a document called the Rennes MS.)[44] records the reason why a spot near the present village of Ballymagauran, in County Cavan, received the name of Mag Slecht, the “Plain of Adoration”. “Here used to be A high idol with many fights, Which was named the Cromm Cruaich; It made every tribe to be without peace. “’Twas a sad evil! Brave Gaels used to worship it. From it they would not without tribute ask To be satisfied as to their portion of the hard world. “He was their god, The withered Cromm with many mists, The people whom he shook over every host, The everlasting kingdom they shall not have. “To him without glory They would kill their piteous, wretched offspring With much wailing and peril, To pour their blood around Cromm Cruaich. “Milk and corn They would ask from him speedily In return for one-third of their healthy issue: Great was the horror and the scare of him.