56. If we confine ourselves to the Gauls, we may observe
that they intrusted not only their lives, but even their
money, to the security of another world. Vetus ille mos
Gallorum occurrit (says Valerius Maximus, l. ii. c. 6, 10)
quos, memoria proditum est, pecunias mutuas, quae his apud
inferos redderentur, dare solitos. The same custom is more
darkly insinuated by Mela, 1. iii. c. 2. It is almost
needless to add that the profits of trade hold a just
proportion to the credit of the merchant, and that the
Druids derived from their holy profession a character of
responsibility which could scarcely be claimed by any other
order of men.