16.
The nation of all the Gauls is extremely devoted to
superstitious rites; and on that account they who are troubled with unusually
severe diseases, and they who are engaged in battles and dangers, either
sacrifice men as victims, or vow that they will sacrifice them, and employ the
Druids as the performers of those sacrifices; because they
think that unless the life of a man be offered for the life of a man, the mind
of the immortal gods can not be rendered propitious, and they have sacrifices of
that kind ordained for national purposes. Others have figures of vast size, the
limbs of which formed of osiers they fill with living men, which being set on
fire, the men perish enveloped in the flames. They consider that the oblation of
such as have been taken in theft, or in robbery, or any other offense, is more
acceptable to the immortal gods; but when a supply of that class is wanting,
they have recourse to the oblation of even the innocent.
C. Julius Caesar. Caesar's Gallic War. Translator. W. A. McDevitte. Translator. W. S. Bohn. 1st Edition. New York. Harper & Brothers. 1869. Harper's New Classical Library.
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