作者：(英)托马斯-尼尔森公司
出版社：天津人民出版社
格式: AZW3, DOCX, EPUB, MOBI, PDF, TXT
英国历史读本（英汉对照）试读：
THE EARLY BRITONS早期不列颠人
chariots, cars used in war. pagans, idolaters; heathens
cleared, cut down. savage, wild.
dense, thick; close. terrible, fierce; frightful.
mistletoe, an evergreen plant which grows till, delve or plough.
on certain trees. worshipped, took as their gods.
1. Two thousand years ago, the country in which we live was almost covered with dense forests, where roamed wolves, bears, wild boars, and white-maned bulls. The Britons who lived in it then were the forefathers of the Welsh. But they were a wild and almost savage race. The country was very little known to other nations.[1]
2. In those days there were no large towns, nor pretty villages, nor well-built houses; no churches, nor school-houses. Here and there, where the forest had been cleared, there were a few poor huts, made of rods tied into the shape of a bee-hive or a sugarloaf, and covered with mud and turf. Perhaps a trench or ditch was cut around the huts, to keep off the wild beasts.
3. The Early Britons did not till the soil. They sowed no corn or other seeds. They lived on roots and fruits, and on the flesh of animals kill in hunting. In winter, they wore skins to keep themselves warm; but in summer they went almost naked; and they painted strange figures on their bodies, to make them look terrible to their enemies.
4. Those who lived near the south coast were not so savage. They traded in tin and in pearls with people who came across the English Channel. From their visitors they learned to till the soil, to grow corn, and to rear cattle. They had also learned to wear gay clothing, and chains of silver and of gold.
5. The Britons were fond of war. They fought with bows and arrows, with spears and clubs. They fought on foot and on horseback, and in chariots armed with scythes, which they drove wildly among their foes.
6. In religion they were pagans. They worshipped the sun and the moon and the serpent; and they looked on the oak, with the mistletoe growing on it, as a sacred tree. Their priests were called Druids[2]. They had long beards, and they wore white robes. They made laws, they taught the young, they healed the sick, and they offered sacrifices to their gods. Sometimes these sacrifices consisted of men, —criminals and prisoners taken in war, —who were burned in large cages of wicker-work.中文阅读
1. 两千年前，我们如今生活的这片国土几乎到处都覆盖着茂密的森林，狼群、黑熊、白鬃牛也时常在各处悠闲踱步。这个时期生活于此的不列颠人，便是今天威尔士人的祖先，不过那时的他们还是一个野蛮的、尚未开化的民族。那时的这片国土还是一块处女地，几乎不被外界其他邦国[3]所知。
2. 在那个时候，没有大型的城镇，没有秀美的乡村，没有富丽堂皇的房屋；也没有教堂，没有学校。只是在一些森林被砍伐掉的地方，会有一些简陋的小屋，它们由木棒捆扎成蜂房或圆锥的形状，被泥土和草皮覆盖着。在这些小屋周围可能还挖有沟渠或者坑道，以防止野兽的侵袭。
3. 早期的不列颠先民们不耕种土地，也不播种玉米和其他庄稼。他们以某些植物的根茎、果实以及猎取的动物为食。冬天，他们会穿上动物的皮毛来保暖御寒；夏天，他们则几乎处于裸奔状态，并且在身体上画上许多稀奇古怪的图案线条，让自己看起来很可怕，以此恐吓敌人。
4. 那些生活在南部沿海的先民们却并非如此野蛮，他们会用锡和珍珠与跨越英吉利海峡而来的人做交易，并从这些来访者那里慢慢学会了耕种土地、栽种庄稼以及饲养牲口，还学会了穿华丽的衣服，戴金银项链。
5. 不列颠人非常好战，弓箭、长矛、棍棒都是他们战斗的武器。他们可以徒步战斗，也能在马背上征战，还可动用装备有长柄大镰刀的战车，驾驶着它们野蛮而粗暴地冲向敌人。
6. 在宗教信仰方面，那时他们算是异教徒。他们崇拜太阳、月亮，还有蛇。当他们看见那些长有槲寄生[4]的橡树时，也不由得觉得这是神圣的树木，于是他们的神职祭司就叫做德鲁伊[5]长老。这些长老们留着长胡子，穿着一袭白色长袍。他们为自己的族群制定法律、教育年轻人、给病人治病，不时还要向他们的神祇献上祭品。这些祭品有时就是大活人，比如罪犯或者战争中的俘虏，这些人会被装进树枝编制的笼子里，在献祭时活活烧死。
[1] Other nations. —In early times, some of the ancient nations of the Mediterranean coasts used to visit the Scilly Isles and the coast of Cornwall. They carried away tin with them, and called the islands the “Tin Islands.”
[2]Druids. —From a word meaning the oak-tree.
[3] 其他邦国：在远古时期，地中海沿海的一些古代邦国也时常造访今天的锡利群岛以及康沃尔郡沿岸。每次离开，他们都会随身带走一些锡制品，并因此把这些岛屿叫做“锡岛”。
[4] 槲寄生：顾名思义，是一种寄生在其他植物上的植物，可以从寄主植物上吸取水分和无机物，进行光合作用制造养分。它四季常青，开黄色花朵，入冬结出各色的浆果。——译者注
[5] 德鲁伊：英文Druid，是从一个寓意橡树的单词中变化而来，意为“了解橡树的人”或“智者”。02
HOW THE EARLY BRITONS LIVED早期不列颠人的生活
approach, go near to. manufacture, make.
bracelet, ornament for the arm. osier, willow.
chequering, mingling with; relieving. pliant, easily bent.
conical, round and pointed. primitive, early; old-world.
coracle, little boat. smouldering, burning slowly.
dusky, dark-coloured. venison, deer’s flesh.
foliage, woods; trees.
1. A village, nestling under the shadowy skirts of a great wood in Kent, lies encircled by its wooden paling or stockade. Not far off, among the dark tangles of underwood, or in the caves of rocky hillocks, lurk bears, boars, and wolves, the cries of which as they prowl around the huts by night, startle the sleeping children. In the stream hard by, the beaver swims and builds. Deer of many kinds glance past in the openings of the trees.
2. Chequering the green of the grassy sweep, which stretches out from the village for a mile or so, until the view is again shut in by a dark mass of foliage, wave many patches of yellow grain; and on the rich pasture-land between, dotting it with white and red, numerous sheep and oxen graze peacefully in scattered groups.
3. As we approach the collection of pointed roofs, from which thin lines of blue wood-smoke rise lazily into the summer air, we catch the low sweet notes of a woman’s voice, singing an old Celtic air, akin to those which live still in the harp music of Ireland and Wales. Dressed in a tunic of dark-blue woollen cloth, over which is loosely thrown a scarf of red-striped plaid, fastened on the breast with a pin of bronze, she sits at the door of her cabin, grinding corn in a little quern.[1] A string of dusky pearls adorns her neck, and silver rings glitter on her arms.
4. At her sudden call, from the low archway which serves as both door and window to the hut, there comes a child, yellow-haired and blue-eyed like her mother. The girl runs quickly to the well for water, which she carries in a clumsy pot of coarse sun-dried clay, beside the tawny surface of which, full of lumps and cracks, the most common red flower-pot of our gardens would seem beautiful and smooth. When the meal is mixed with water, the wet dough is set on a heated stone to bake.
5. Let us take a peep through the smoke at the inside of the hut, the walls of which are of pliant rods tied together, while its conical roof is of simple thatch. The floor, dug below the surface in the shape of a bowl, is lined with thin slates, in the middle of which some bits of wood lie smouldering in their white ashes. Round blocks of wood serve for seats and table; a few fleeces or deer-skins—the bedding of the family—lie piled by the wall, on which hang the long pointless sword of the chieftain and his small round shield. In a corner rest a bronze-headed spear, and a bundle of reed arrows tipped with flint.
6. These wooden platters and bowls of yellow clay are of home manufacture; but not that ivory bracelet, those amber beads, or that drinking-cup of glass. They are from Gaul; and proud indeed is the chieftain’s wife of owning them, for the possession of such rare foreign treasures entitles her to hold her head high among the matrons of her tribe.
7. While the cake is baking for supper, the wife takes from one of those pretty osier baskets, which serve both as wardrobes and cupboards, a roll of knitted stuff, on which she needs to work hard against the coming winter; for both husband and children look to her for the clothes they wear. Spinner, knitter or weaver, dyer, seamstress, cook, dairy-keeper, corn-grinder, this lady of primitive Britain has her hands quite full of work, although her establishment is not upon the grandest scale.
8. Meanwhile the men of the village are scattered in different directions. The chief, having looked after his sheep and oxen, has taken his spear or quiver, has whistled for his dogs, and is away into the heart of the woods in search of venison or wild boar. One man has launched his light coracle of skin, stretched on a slender wooden frame, and is paddling down-stream with net and line. When the sun sets, the weary sportsmen will come home to a heavy supper of beef or of mutton, hot bread, fresh butter, and curds, washed down with large draughts of mead or of barley ale; and will then sink, almost with the falling night, into a deep sleep upon shaggy skins, covered only with the mantles they wear by day.
A QUERN OR HAND-MILL.
9. Dawn sees the whole village astir. But in southern Britain, by the time of Caesar’s invasion, hunting had become rather a pastime than the serious business of life. The Britons of the south had ceased, long before that, to be savages. The tending of their flocks and herds; the manuring of their tilled land with chalk marl; the sowing and reaping of their grain; the storing of the unthreshed ears m under-ground chambers, from which the daily supply was pulled by the hand, to be roasted and beaten out with a stick, —these duties occupied much of their working time.
10. Many other things had also to be done. Wicker baskets were woven, probably by the older men and boys, to whose aid the women sometimes came. The moulds have been found into which the Britons ran melted tin and copper, to make heads for their axes and their spears. Heaps of flint flakes of various colours—red, yellow, gray, and black—were brought from the quarry to be chipped by skilful hands into shapely arrow-points. And when the cutting was done, a hole had to be bored through the flint, that the thin thong of hide, which bound the point to the slender shaft, might hold it firm and straight.
11. Then there was often a canoe to be hollowed out, not with fire and stone axe only, but probably with hammer and celt.[2] The supply of pottery, too, needed to be kept up in the village; and so the soldier and hunter of one day might be seen on another up to the shoulders in yellow clay, kneading and modelling, tracing simple patterns of line and dot with a pointed stick on the soft ware, and then, with an artist’s pride, placing the rude vessel he had formed with all the simple skill he could command out before the door of his cabin, to dry in the sun.中文阅读
1. 在肯特郡一片大树林的边缘，树荫掩映着一个篱笆环绕的小村庄。而在不远处的低矮灌木丛旁边，或者山坡上的岩石洞穴里，躲藏着不少黑熊、野猪和大灰狼。宁静的夜晚，它们不时会溜到小木屋周围，徘徊踱步并发出一声声嗥叫，常常把睡梦中的孩子们吓得够呛。在近处的小溪里面，时常有河狸[3]在机灵地游动，并在岸边筑窝。在树林的开阔处，各种各样的小鹿常从这里蹦跶而过，不时还与你来一次深情对视。
2. 绿油油的草地从小村庄错落有致地延伸开去，差不多到一英里远处，又是杂乱茂密的树林。在这草地上还有一块块金黄的稻田，麦穗正随风翻滚着麦浪；旁边肥沃的牧场上，白色和红色的小野花星星点点，羊群和牛群正安静而悠闲地咀嚼着青青芳草。
3. 在夏日清爽的空气中，淡蓝色的袅袅炊烟正从那些尖尖的屋顶上缓缓升起，如果朝着这些小房子多走几步，我们还能听见一位妇人甜美的声音，正浅吟低唱着古老的凯尔特曲调，风格韵味一如今天爱尔兰和威尔士还依然保留着的竖琴民乐。她穿着深蓝色的束腰羊毛外衣，一条红色条纹格子的披肩落落大方地搭在外衣上，并用一根古铜色的别针固定在胸前。她正坐在她闺房的门槛上，用小石磨[4]研磨着玉米。一串珍珠项链映衬着她的妩媚，手臂上的银镯子在阳光下闪着银光。
4. 她忽然招呼了一声，从旁边既当门又当窗户的低矮拱道里走出了一个小女孩，长着跟她妈妈一样的黄头发、蓝眼睛。小女孩跑到井边取水，装水用的是一个外形笨拙的粗糙瓦罐，外表是粘土的黄褐色，还布满了包块和裂纹，今天我们花园里任何一个最普通的红色花盆和这比起来，也显得无比精美而优雅。准备好的膳食和水搅拌均匀之后，发好的生面团也就放到加热的石头上开始烤焙了。
5. 现在让我们绕开烤面团香喷喷的烟雾，到小屋里面去看看吧。我们发现，屋子的墙壁是由柔韧的木条捆扎而成，圆锥形的屋顶是由普通的茅草做成的；地面从地表往下挖深了一些，整齐铺着薄石板；屋子中央堆着一小堆还在阴燃的柴火，大半截已经燃成了灰烬；大块的圆木头就是桌子和凳子；墙边铺摊着一些羊皮或者鹿皮，这就是这个家庭睡觉的地方了。墙上挂着屋主人的一柄不太锋利的长剑，以及一个小小的圆形盾牌，这是他作为部落首领的象征。墙角立着一根青铜长矛，还有一捆箭头上镶着打火石的芦苇箭。
6. 屋里的这些木头做的盘子和黄泥巴做的碗，都是家里人自己手工做的；但那些象牙手镯可不是这样，还有那些琥珀制成的珠链，以及琉璃材质的水杯，它们的来路可没这么简单——它们全都来自高卢[5]。作为部落首领的妻子能拥有它们，也的确算是一份荣耀，因为能拥有如此稀有的外来珍宝，可以让她在整个部落的主妇中间深感优越。
7. 这边当作晚餐的糕点还在烤着，女主人顺手从旁边一堆既当壁柜又当碗橱的精美柳条筐里拿出一卷羊毛纺织线，她得为即将到来的冬天辛勤工作了，她的丈夫和孩子们都指望着她做厚衣服穿呢。纺纱、织布、烫染、缝补、做饭、清洁、打谷，这一堆家务事让这位远古的英国主妇根本没有闲下来的时候，尽管她的家还远谈不上富丽堂皇。
8. 同时村里的男人们也被分为不同岗位，各司其职。部落首领在看管完牛羊之后，便带上他的长矛，背上他的弓箭，吹一声口哨，招呼上他的猎犬，到树林深处搜寻野鹿野猪去了。另一个男人则解开他的皮划小舟，拿一根长木头当船桨，沿着小溪顺流而下，撒网捕鱼去了。每当日落，这些劳作了一天的男人们会回到家里享受一顿丰盛的晚餐，有牛羊肉、有热面包、有新鲜的黄油和奶酪，一边吃还一边喝着大碗的蜂蜜酒或者麦芽酒。然后夜幕降临，他们会在粗糙的皮毛毡毯上美美地睡上一觉，穿了一天的外衣这时就成了他们温暖的被子。
9. 黎明时分，我们也能见到整个村子生机勃勃的早晨。到了恺撒入侵之后，打猎已经不再是不列颠南部居民们的每日要务了，更多的只是一项业余活动，南部的不列颠人至此结束了作为野蛮民族的漫长时代。如今他们一大清早要放牧牛羊，要用白泥灰给耕地施肥，要播种和收割粮食，要在地窖里储存没有脱粒的稻谷。这些保证日常生活的事务，全都要靠他们用双手去完成，也占去了他们每天绝大部分的劳作时间，就像一根无形的棍棒不停地敲打着他们，让他们非常疲惫。
10. 这还没完，还有很多其他的事呢。比如用藤条编制篮筐，当然这可能更多由老年男人和男孩子们完成，妇女们有时也会过来帮忙。我们现在还发现了不列颠人使用的一些模具，他们用这些模具来浇铸融化的锡和铜，以制成斧头和长矛的锋刃。还有红黄灰黑各色的燧石被从采石场开采出来，送到能工巧匠那里切削打磨成锋利的箭头。当这些削磨工作结束以后，还要在燧石箭头上打个孔，穿一根细细的皮革线将箭头和长杆牢牢捆住，以此确保稳固和箭头的笔直。
11. 很多时候还得制作独木舟，不仅要用到火和石斧，可能还需用到榔头和骨刀[6]。陶器的制作一样是在村子里完成的，因此很可能前一天的士兵或者猎手第二天却在另外一个地方肩并肩地一起捏揉黄土，然后做成模型，再用尖木棍在柔软的表面描上点线构成图案，然后以一个艺术家的自豪感，把他用尽所有才艺才大功告成的粗糙杰作放到小屋门外面，等它晒干。
[1] Quern. —A hand-mill, consisting of two round stones, the upper movable, the lower fixed. The upper one, moved by a wooden handle, revolved in the cup-shaped hollow of the lower. The corn was ground between the stones.
[2] Celt. —A chisel or small axe-head, made of bronze.
[3] 河狸：也叫河狸鼠，是啮齿动物的一种，体型肥壮，头短而钝、眼小、耳小及颈短。门齿锋利，咬肌尤为发达，一棵40厘米宽的树只需2小时就能咬断。身上的皮毛细密光亮，体重17～30kg、体长60～100cm、尾长21～38cm。——译者注
[4] 石磨：由两块贴合的圆形石片组成，上面的可以运动，下面的固定。上面的由一个木手柄推动，并在下面石片的杯状凹槽中转动，玉米就在两片石头之间被研磨。
[5] 高卢：英文Gaul，是指现今西欧的法国、比利时、意大利北部、荷兰南部、瑞士西部和德国莱茵河西岸的一带。前文说女主人哼唱着凯尔特风格的曲调，意指他们属于凯尔特人，而凯尔特人正是高卢地区的主要居民。——译者注
[6] 骨刀：一种动物骨头制成的凿子或斧头形状的刀具。03
CUSTOMS OF THE DRUIDS德鲁伊宗教的流风习俗
appease, quiet. immortal, deathless.
Arch-Druid, chief druid. intently, earnestly.
ban, curse. mystery, secrecy.
circular, round. parasite, a plant nourished on the sap of
crescent, curve. another.
criminals, persons accused of crime. prominent, principal.
embodied, set forth. pronounced, spoken; called down.
hedged, fenced; guarded.
1. The 10th of March has come and gone. The moon, now a thin silver crescent, has reached its sixth day. Bearded Druids, pacing solemnly along the dark avenues of the oak wood which surrounds their circular temple of stones, have long watched through summer days the yellowish leaves of mistletoe peeping out from among the darker foliage of one old tree, and have grown glad at heart when autumn withered the pointed oak leaves, and left the sacred evergreen hanging on a naked bough, ripe for the golden knife. The apple-tree being the favourite home of this pretty parasite, its presence on the oak, where it rarely grew, was considered a special mark of Divine favour.
2. Calling his priests together, the Arch-Druid, a priest of extraordinary power, hedged with a dignity far beyond what earthly kingship could bestow, leads a procession to the tree. The Oakmen, whose short hair, flowing beards, and loose white robes distinguish them from the lines of awe-struck people, between which they slowly pass, march to the hallowed spot, moving, perhaps, to the wild music of the chants with which the holy maidens of the Sacred Island profess to raise storms and to cure the sick.
STONE-CIRCLES AT STONEHENGE.
3. Two milk-white bulls are led along, and are bound by their horns to the trunk of the oak. And when the Arch-Druid has climbed the tree, and the mistletoe, cut with a golden knife, has fallen into the snowy cloth stretched out lest the branch should touch the earth and lose its magic power, another knife pierces the pinky throats of the oxen. The sacrifice is offered. A blessing is pronounced on the sacred plant, the leaves and berries of which are believed to possess wonderful virtues against poison and disease. Then the ceremony—most solemn of all the Druid rites—is wound up by a banquet, probably consisting of the flesh of the sacrifice.
4. But there were bloodier scenes than this in the Druid worship. Within a huge cage of wicker-work, woven in imitation of the human form, a huddled heap of men and oxen were roasted alive in one great offering, to appease the wrath of some offended deity; and, as the wretched victims shrieked out in wordless agony amid the red-tongued flames, songs, shouted to the music of harps and the loud beating of drums, drowned their screams. Criminals and prisoners of war generally suffered this fearful death.
5. The Druids, whose creed is thought to have grown out of Eastern fire-worship, paid homage to many gods. They worshipped the sun and the moon; and fire played a prominent part in all their great festivals—the first of May, Midsummer Eve, the last day of October, and that day of March on which the mistletoe was cut. They also worshipped the serpent, and are said to have worn, hung from the neck, a ball like an apple, generally cased in gold, which they called a serpent’s egg.
6. They had other deities, whom Caesar calls by the Roman names, placing Mercury first, and after him Apollo, Jupiter, Mars, and Minerva. That the soul was immortal they believed; but the simplicity of that doctrine was marred by their notion that it passed through a series of brute bodies before it was received into the abode of final bliss.
7. According to the wont of ancient priesthoods, they clothed their rites and their lives with a mystery which the common people beheld with the deepest awe. The shadowy oak glades, which formed their college halls, were thronged with noble youths, who devoted many years to the study of those charms and songs in which the secrets of the order were embodied. These verses were never committed to writing, although the Druids wrote their common documents in the Greek character. They studied the stars intently; and their woodland life enabled them to acquire a knowledge of herbs, with which they performed some simple cures.
DRUID CUTTING THE MISTLETOE.
8. They sat as judges in the weightiest matters. The true wielder of the British sceptre then was the Arch-Druid, who held the keys of life and death, of peace and war. A word from those powerful lips could shut a man out even from the hearts in which his own blood ran. None dared give food or fire to the wretch on whom the ban had fallen. Need we wonder that the British kings—huge swordsmen though they were—were merely puppets in the hands of this dark and merciless superstition?中文阅读
1. 年复一年，每当3月10日过后，一弯银月又挂到了天边。新月第六日的夜晚，留着胡子的德鲁伊长老们正在橡树的黯淡树荫下庄严踱步，被橡树林所包围的便是他们用石头搭成的圆形神殿。在漫长的夏日里，他们每天都会注目于一颗老树上的槲寄生，看着它在浓密的枝叶空隙中慢慢长出淡黄的叶子。而当秋天来临，尖尖的橡树叶子渐渐凋落，槲寄生依然在树冠中心茂盛地生长，最终留下一丛神圣的青绿悬挂在裸露的枝干上，这标志着槲寄生已成熟，可以用金刀来切割它们了。苹果树是这种寄生植物最喜爱的寄主树种，而橡树上面长势很好的槲寄生就非常少见了，因此它们被视为一种超凡神迹的特别标志。
2. 德鲁伊大长老是一位拥有超凡精神力量的神职祭司，笼罩在远远超出王权可以授予的神圣与高贵的光环之中。现在他正呼唤着他的僧众，排成队列向着橡树缓步走去。这些橡树之子们造型特别，短发、冉冉的胡须、宽松的长袍，把他们和外围充满敬畏的人群明显区别开来。他们正在人群的夹道中缓慢经过，一步一步走向神坛。在这过程中，可能还有粗陋的圣歌乐曲的伴奏，和着音乐的拍子。这个神圣岛屿上贞洁的少女们正在祈求风雨，以及祷告疾病的康复。
3. 两头乳白色的公牛孤零零地被牵过来，它们的犄角被绳子拴在橡树树干上。大长老爬上树，用一把金刀砍断树上的槲寄生，让它们滚落在雪白的长袍上，长袍在地上伸展得很开，以避免槲寄生直接接触地面，这样会丧失魔力。这时另外一把刀则刺向白牛粉红的喉咙，于是献祭就大功告成了。祷告便在这神圣的植物旁开始宣读，人们相信槲寄生的叶子和浆果拥有神奇的美德与法力，能抵御罪恶与疾病。接下来的仪式，就是德鲁伊信仰中最庄严神圣一刻：一场生肉盛宴。
4. 但在德鲁伊信仰中，还有远比这更为血腥的场面。在一个巨大的用枝条编制成的人型笼子里，挤成一堆的人和牛正被活生生地放在火上烤，他们认为这是上好的祭品，可以用来消弭被冒犯的神灵的愤怒。被用来献祭的人在临死前的巨大痛苦中挣扎哀嚎，而火舌还在燃烧，圣歌还在唱响，竖琴还在演奏，鼓乐还在敲打，他们的尖叫早已被淹没得一干二净。罪犯和战争中的俘虏常常会面对这样可怕的死亡。
5. 关于德鲁伊的教义，有人认为是起源于东方的拜火教，并且崇拜许多神灵，是多神教。他们崇拜太阳和月亮，火在他们的所有重大节日中也都有着突出的意义，比如五月首日节、仲夏夜、十月尾日节，还有三月份砍获槲寄生的日子。他们还崇拜蛇，据说还在脖子上挂着一个像苹果一样的球，球外面包裹着黄金，他们把这玩意叫蛇蛋。
6. 他们还信奉其他神灵，若以恺撒的罗马叫法，这些神有：太阳神、宙斯神、战神、智慧女神[1]。他们相信灵魂不朽，但这一简单质朴的教义却被它们的另一个观念毁坏了，那就是灵魂在被最终摄回极乐世界之前，还要在牲畜的身体内流转一番。
7. 这些远古神职祭司的日常习俗，把他们的仪式与生活都蒙上了一层神秘的色彩，也让普通人深深敬畏。橡树林也变成了他们的学院会堂，年轻的贵族们常常在此济济一堂，花费很多年学习德鲁伊教义中的咒文和圣歌，社会秩序便在无形中隐秘地开始了孕育。但在学习的过程中，这些咒文严禁被写下来，只能心传口授，不过德鲁伊长老们可以用希腊文撰写文书。他们还专心致志地研究星象，林地的生活也使得他们获取了一些关于草药的知识，让他们能应付一些简单的疾病治疗。
8. 在一些重大事情上，他们还充任法官。在那个时代，德鲁伊大长老成了真正意义上的不列颠王权的行使者，他们能决定人的生死，也能决定国家的战争与和平。他们的一句话，就可以让一个人被排斥在亲族之外，没有人敢给这些被降罪的人提供食物和温暖。我们不禁要问，在如此黑暗残忍的恐怖迷信中，不列颠的国王们，也就是那些伟岸的剑客们，难道就仅仅是别人手中的木偶吗？
[1] Apollo, Jupiter, Mars, Minerva分别是罗马神话中阿波罗、朱庇特、玛尔斯和雅典娜，译文用的是他们的神位译名。——译者注04
THE ROMAN TIMES罗马时代
55 B. C. to 410 A. D.（公元前55年~公元410年）
expelled, driven out. principal, chief.
galleys, vessels moved forward by sails sack, storming; plundering.
and oars. skyline, line made by the meeting of the
legions, armies. sky and the sea.
oppose, prevent. standard, banner or a flag-staff.
1. Fifty-five years before the birth of Christ, Julius Caesar, a great Roman general, landed in Britain with a number of men. On an August morning, some Britons looking out to sea from the top of the chalk cliffs on the south coast, saw a number of dark specks on the sky-line. They were Caesar’s ships—galleys rowed by very many oars.
2. When the Britons saw that the ships were filled with armed men, they gathered in great numbers on the shore to oppose their landing. At first the Romans were afraid to leap into the sea and to fight with the Britons, of whom they had heard terrible tales. But an officer, seizing the Roman standard—the image of an eagle—jumped into the water, calling out, “Follow me!”
3. Then the Romans swarmed on shore in great numbers, and a terrible battle was fought, in which the Britons were defeated. Having forced the Britons to pay him tribute-money, Caesar went back to France (then called Gaul); but he returned to Britain next year, and seized on the south coast. This was the beginning of the Roman Times in British history. They lasted four hundred and sixty-five years.
4. It was not until nearly one hundred years after this that the Romans gained any sure footing in Britain. In the time of the Emperor Claudius they came in great numbers and made themselves masters of a large part of the country. A brave British chief, named Caradoc or Caractacus[1] was defeated and taken prisoner; and the Druids were expelled from Mona (Anglesey).
THE LANDING OF THE ROMANS.
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