ページの画像
PDF
ePub

is to be seen on the muir to the east of Aviemore, in Strathspey.

In the little shire of Mearns, at Anchincorthie, five miles from Aberdeen, are two circles of stones, the exterior twenty-four large paces, consisting of thirteen great stones, besides two that are fallen, and the broad one towards the south, about three yards high and seven or eight paces asunder: the interior about three paces from the other, and its stones three feet high. Twentysix paces east from these circles is a large stone, level with the ground, having a cavity capable of containing near a Scots gallon of water. The other monument, rather larger than this, and about a bow-shot from it, consists of three concentric circles; the stones of the largest are about three yards, and the two others about three feet, and all close together: the innermost circle three paces diameter. One of the stones, on the east side of the largest circle, has at the top a hollow, about three inches broad, running down the side of the stone, as if for libations. Another stone, in the same side of the same circle, standing nearer to the broad stone on edge, which looks towards the south, has a like cavity. The general tradition of the country is, that these circles were places of heathen worship.

On the road from Stonehaven to Montrose, are several remains of the ancient Druids to be traced: one is exceedingly good. In Breadalbane, a part of Perthshire, there are several scattered Druidical circles, called in the Erse language, Tibberd. On the left hand of the road, leading to Taymouth, is a small circle of great stones, thrown down at the foot of the hills; a single stone opposite to it. In Caithness, near Clathron, is a Druidical stone, of stupendous size, set on end. In the highest part of Scotland, there are many traces to be

found among the inhabitants of its ancient customs and superstitions;-such as the belief of spectres, fairies, elf shots, and unlucky days, the third day of May being a dismal day; the beltein, a rural festival on May-day, preceded by a libation to the evil spirits and noxious animals, a remain of Druidism; another sort of beltein is placing crosses dipped in pottage over the doors of the cattle hovels, on Thursday before Easter; the late-wake, or funeral dance; the coranich, or funeral howl; the prediction of death by the Benshi, or the cries of the fairy's wife where a funeral is to pass : superstitious observances respecting marriage. Much more information on this subject might be collected from Camden's Britannica, by Gough.

The large stones at Stanton-Drew, near the town of Pensford, a few miles from Bristol, are undoubtedly the remains of a Druid temple, which seems to be a stupendous model of the Pythagorean system of the world, constructed with ' enormous blocks of marble, taken out of Clay-hole, near Wells. Three circles, representing the sun, the earth, and the moon; together with some stones representing the planets, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn, are still remaining; and it seems highly probable, that the circles of the sun and moon were used as temples, in honour of those luminaries.

In the island of Lewis, at the village of Classerniss, there is a temple extremely remarkable, and another about a quarter of a mile from it: and commonly two temples stand near each other. East of Dumcruy, in the Scottish isle of Arran, is a circular temple; and south of the same village is another temple, in the centre of which still remains the altar; being a broad thin stone, supported by three other such stones. In the largest island of Orkney, commonly called Mainland, there are like

wise two temples, where the natives believe, by means of traditional information, that the sun and moon were worshipped: there is a trench or ditch round each of these temples, like that about Stonehenge.

These temples were surrounded by plantations, chiefly of oak, and these groves were watered by some consecrated fountain or river, and surrounded by a ditch or mound, to prevent the intrusion of improper persons. Lucan has described one of these groves in the following

manner :

"Not far away, for ages past had stood
An old unviolated sacred wood:
Whose gloomy boughs thick interwoven made
A chilly chearless everlasting shade :

There, not the rustic gods, nor satyrs sport,
Nor fawns, and sylvans with the Nymphs resort;
But barb'rous priests some dreadful pow'r adore,

And lustrate ev'ry tree with human gore," &c. &c.*

It is thought that the ancient Britons had no images of their gods, at least none in the shape of men, or animals, in their sacred groves; yet, they had certain visible symbols or emblems of them. Though Major Wilford says, "Whether the Druids of Britain had idols or not, is no where said; but those on the continent certainly had, as well as those of Ireland. From a passage in Gildas, it seems that they had, and that even some remained in his time. The description he gives us of them, shows they did not belong to the Romans, as they looked grim and stiff, like the mœstra simulachra Deoreum of the Germans done without art. There is no reason why we should believe them free from the errors

a Phars. lib. iii. v. 339. Rowe's Lucan, b. iii. 1. 594.

b

of the other Druids on the Continent." a Maximus Tyrius says, "All the Celtic nations worshipped Jupiter, whose emblem or representation among them was the lofty oak." The oaks which they used for this purpose were truncated, that they might be the better emblems of unshaken firmness and stability. Such were those in the Druidical grove, described by Lucan ;

:

[merged small][ocr errors]

Near to the temple, they erected their carnedde, or sacred mounts; their cromlechs, or stone tables, on which they prepared sacrifices, and other things necessary for their worship. Of these temples, sacred mounts, and cromlechs, there are still many vestiges in the British isles, and other parts of Europe.

Carns. On the tops of mountains and other eminences in Ireland, in Wales, in Scotland, in the Scottish islands, and in the Isle of Man, where things have been least disordered or displaced by the frequency of inhabitants, or want of better ground for cultivation, there are great heaps of stones, consisting of all sorts, from one pound to a hundred. They are round in form, and somewhat tapering or diminishing upwards: but on the summit was always a flat stone. These heaps are of all sizes, some of them containing at least a hundred cartload of stones. Such a heap is, in the ancient Celtic language, and in every dialect of it, called CARN; and every Carn so disposed as to be in sight of some other. On the Carn called Crig-y-dyrn, in the parish of Trèlech, in

a Asiatic Researches, vol. xi. p. 129.

b Diff. 38.

Lib. iii. v. 412.

Carmarthenshire, the flat stone on the top is three yards in length, five feet over, and from ten to twelve inches thick. The circumference of this Carn at the bottom is about sixty yards, and it is about sixty yards high; the ascent being very easy, though we may suppose there was originally a ladder for this purpose. This carn may serve for an example of the rest. Devotional rounds were performed by the Druids about the carns; and any circle, or turning about, is in Armoric called cern, (the c being pronounced as k,) as cerna in that dialect is to make such a turn.

Toland, in his History of the Druids, gives a circumstantial account of their festivals. He says, on May-eve the Druids made prodigious fires on those carns, which, being every one in sight of some other, could not but afford a glorious show over a whole nation. These fires were in honour of Beal, or Bealan, latinized by the Roman authors into Belenus, by which name the Gauls and their colonies understood the sun; and therefore, to this hour, the first day of May is by the aboriginal Irish called La Bealteine, the day of Belen's fire. May-day is likewise called La Bealteine by the Highlanders of Scotland, who are no contemptible part of the Celtic offspring. So it is in the Isle of Man: and in Armoric a priest is called Belec, or the servant of Bel, and priesthood Belegieth. Two such fires as we have mentioned, were kindled by one another on May-eve in every village of the nation, as well as throughout Gaul, as in Britain, Ireland, and the adjoining lesser islands: between which fires, the men and the beasts to be sacrificed, were to pass. One of the fires was on the carn, another on the ground. On the eve of the first of November, there were also such fires kindled, accompanied, as they constantly were, with sacrifices and feasting. On the foresaid eve,

« 前へ次へ »