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STORIES OF
*< And did so truly fast As he did only drink what crystal Hodney yields, And fed upon the leeks he gathered in the fields. In memory of whom in each revolving year The Welshmen on his day that sacred herb do wear."
Other authorities trace it back to Druidic times and customs, and insist that the leek from ancient days and ancient peoples has ever been a vegetable of honour and utility. During the funeral rites of Adonis at Byblos, leeks and onions were exhibited in " pots with other vege-tables, and called the gardens of that deity." The leek was worshipped at Ascalon (whence the modern term of scullions) says the erudite Hone, as it was in Egypt. Leeks and onions were deposited in the sacred chests of the mys-teries of Isis and Ceres, the cendven of the Druids, and assuming that the leek was a Druidic symbol employed in honour of the British cendven, or Ceres, there does not seem anything very improbable in presuming that the Druids were a branch of the Phoenician priest-hood, and both were addicted to oak worship. However, no matter the origin, the fact remains that the leek is reverenced more or less in the Principality, and that there is a National song known as " Dydd Gwyl Dewi," of the Leek, sung at all the festivals of " The Society of Ancient Britons." St. David was canonized, by
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