It was unusually warm late that summer. Floin had his haughty and vaguely disrespectful introductions all planned ahead. He thought the Druids a formal and stiff lot. He traveled by mule to the west country where the academy was located, not far from Salisbury plain, Stonehenge, and others of the mystical stone circles.
He stood before the registering priestess at her desk with his satchel of belongings attired in his riding sandals and nothing else. He smirked as he introduced himself. "I hope I have not offended anyone, but among us commoners in the hot days of the year, we think it imprudent to be clad in our garments lest they be soiled especially by our labors that provide for the abundance of all the good tribes' people."
To his surprise, she replied nonchalantly and almost approvingly. "Of course, no offense taken, Novice Floin of the east. To the contrary, most commendable. We all have our responsibilities and obligations to our communities at this time of the year and must conduct ourselves accordingly. It is not uncommon at all for new and returning novices to arrive bereft of any garments under the circumstance of a warmer than normal late summer. But you must understand that to advance beyond this point into the classrooms and cloisters of the academy, you must wear a novice's robe." Naturally, she glanced just enough to observe the form and character of his male parts as people of both genders do when acquainting themselves with a young man in his nudity for the first time.
At this point, a somewhat older priestess who was busy scratching something on a parchment and hardly noticed him, pushed back her chair to pad part way down the stone-lined hall to a small pantry along one wall and pull out a garment. "This should fit him."
While the older woman was retrieving the garment, the registrar informed him of greater details. He was to pay his compliments to the dean in the old tower and be instructed of his schedule for the first term at his earliest convenience. "Classes start in 6 days. Perhaps you would enjoy a soothing bath at the bathing vats just beyond the men's dorms where you will reside at the end of the left hall. You can be shorn of your robe and any other garment to your heart's content in the baths."
"Men's dorms? You mean all the students will not be in residence and bathing together?"
"Absolutely not," the registrar sternly retorted. "That is the privilege of only the accomplished and senior novice students after several months."
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Before I continue on, to those readers who know only the Christian ways of civilization, at about the time that boys and girls turn to men and women, there was much more freedom for Celts in acquainting themselves with those body parts that were opposite their own in sexual identity and how such flesh could be handled and embraced to countenance great pleasures and entertain deep curiosities. Especially among Druid folk, such study and exploration was encouraged to initiate and fortify what would be great powers of magic in strengthening the always necessary fertility and good health among the tribes' people. The one invocation of restraint and prohibition was the sacred merger of lingum and yoni before a betrothed couple was actually joined in wedlock. Even the stimulations of tongue and lips or the merger of lingum with his selected woman's anus (sometimes called "false yoni") were deeply discouraged, as these actions only enhanced the temptation to do that which was forbidden.
Perhaps to mitigate impending frustrations among young flesh, but also to soothe the aggressive dispositions and competitions between young men and avoid rowdy violence among the aging youth within tribes that needed to maintain peaceful order, activities of the most intimate and close association were tolerated between men and sometimes even encouraged. This is not to say that such events and displays of physical passion did not create problems. Sometimes such attachments and bonds would ensue such that men would couple as devoted lovers and lose interest in their wives and betrothed altogether. Druids would intervene with magic and spells to reinstate families, but only with limited successes. It was known that many Druids who lusted only after those of their own sex were among the most skilled and powerful in the practice of their craft. In fact, they were held in greatest esteem.