Egypt
Comparative reference for druids in Celtic Folklore, paralleling Pentateuch magicians.
Egypt appears in Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx as a comparative reference point for understanding the druid's role. The source observes that "the druid, recalling as he does the magician of the Egypt of the Pentateuch and the shaman of the Mongolian world of our own time, represented a profession probably not of Celtic origin" (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx, Volume II, Chapter XI). This comparative framework places the druidic tradition within a broader pattern of priestly-magical professions across cultures.
The two attestations in Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx both address the same comparative argument, drawing a line from Egyptian magicians through Mongolian shamans to Celtic druids (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx, Volume II, Chapter XI). The analytical move is characteristic of Victorian comparative folklore: the druid is understood not as uniquely Celtic but as a local manifestation of a widespread professional type. The suggestion that the druidic profession was "probably not of Celtic origin" is presented as a scholarly inference rather than a certainty, and the Egyptian comparison serves to de-exoticize the druids by connecting them to better-known traditions.