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The principal argument for considering these areas to have been designed as places of sepulture is, that human remains are generally found in and around these monuments, and even beneath the dolmens, which, notwithstanding that they sometimes cover funereal deposits; have to all appearance been erected as altars. If all dolmens and every circular fane could be shown to be places of sepulture—which cannot be done, as will appear in treating of the dolmens-that would in no way disprove the primary object of their erection being for religious purposes. Even if we were to admit, without any authority for so doing, that the same race which reared the dolmens at the same period used them as places of sepulture, human remains in abundance may be found beneath the altars or pavements as well as surrounding our most ancient and noble Christian churches; yet these were surely erected for the living not for the dead.

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It is unnecessary to occupy space with multiplied proofs of what is generally known-viz., that most nations endeavour to deposit the remains of their dead within the precincts of, or contiguous to, consecrated places; in holy lands; or in sacred

of the Picts, mentioned in Adamnani Vita St. Columbæ, by Dr. Reeves, p. 152.

1 Under the head of "Spirits worshipped by the Heathen Inhabitants of Britain" I have noticed the sacrifice of human victims to propitiate "the Spirit of the Earth." The remains of these victims were placed beneath any erection that was to cumber the soil; therefore bones found beneath or beside a menhir or the columns of a

circular fane, particularly if .without urn or kistvaen, are more likely to be those of a person sacrificed than of one intended to be honoured.

2 Many an ancient ecclesiastical edifice of Britain was the burial-place of its founder. York Minster previous to 1736 was disfigured, its pavement encumbered, and worshippers obstructed, by an accumulation of monuments and gravestones.

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streams; nor are we likely to forget how, in this century, and in our own country, the accumulated dead had in many cases rendered dangerous the approach of the living to the temples of God.

Another argument adduced in support of the opinion that circular areas defined by rude columnar stones are sepulchral monuments is, that they are occasionally found in groups. From this circumstance an able and accomplished archæologist' has given a somewhat contemptuous notice of those persons who have called such enclosures "Druidical temples." Yet no other reasons are there given for repudiating this designation than the acknowledged facts that these places often contain funereal deposits, and occasionally are found in groups.

Objections to the inference derived from the discovery of human remains in such places have already been stated; and the argument that "Druid circles" being found in groups is proof that they were designed for places of sepulture appears equally inconclusive, if not altogether untenable, for it is opposed to analogies derived from similar monuments in many countries and most religions; and the plan and construction of the best specimens of such remains in Britain and Armorica, with their far-extending stone avenues of approach and Cyclopean altars, negative the opinion that these enclosures were primarily, far less exclusively, designed for sepulchral monuments. In Palestine the Jews, to use the expressive language of the prophet, had so multiplied their places for heathen sacrifice that they were common "as heaps in the furrows of the 1 Quoted in Dr. Wilson's Prehistoric Annals of Scotland, p. 117.

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fields."1 In Hindostan, Ayodhya and Gya, in the early days of Hindus and Buddhists, were cities of religious buildings and monuments. The wonderful rock-cut temples of Karli, Ellora, Kenneri, Adjunta, and many other places of Western India, and those of Dambool, Alue-Wihare, etc., in Ceylon, are in groups. So are the minutely-sculptured marble temples of a later age on Mount Aboo. In Java, in Thibet, in Egypt, and Assyria-in short in all countries that had a religion and a priesthood-religious edifices may be found in groups. The Jews were forbidden to have any except the one temple, but there is ample proof in the Bible, beside the expression above quoted, that they had numerous places for heathen sacrifice; and it appears from recent travellers that in Palestine groups of Cyclopean remains are to be found similar to those in the Celtic countries of Western Europe. Surely no one who has examined the great temple of Avebury will call it a sepulchral monument—with its miles of stone avenues of approach, its high rampart and deep fosse, surrounding a circle of huge monoliths which enclose upwards of twenty-eight acres of land3 and several inferior circles, besides those which terminated at least one of the avenues, and others that were external-and the artificial mount of Silbury,

1 King, in his Munimenta Antiqua, vol. i. pp. 204, 205, says that numerous quotations from Scripture leave no doubt that the high-places in which Jews and Philistines sacrificed were not confined to mountainous places, but that they were artificial fanes, liable to be overthrown and broken,

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which is proved not to have been a tomb, but a portion of the fane. Yet these are a group of circular areas defined by detached masses of stone; and if it cannot be directly proved, it is certainly, from circumstantial evidence, to be deduced that the Druids were the occupants of such fanes in Celtic countries.

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We know that the Britons and Caledonians worshipped many gods. It is therefore natural to presume that in places of peculiar sanctity temples would be erected to those most. reverenced or most dreaded. Moreover, it would only be in accordance with the practice of other nations if the separate tribes of Caledonia reposed their chief confidence in different members of the same Pantheon; and therefore at the great places of assembly we might expect to find temples for the worship of various gods. Although sepulchral tumuli were sometimes surrounded by circles of stones, the cases in which the cairn or mound was removed and the columnar stones were left must have been rare. For if the tumuli were cairns, and the stones were coveted, would the most valuable-viz., those forming the circles-have been left? If the tumuli were removed in consequence of advancing cultivation, why leave the stone circles, which would still prevent tillage? If the answer should be that "superstition protected the circle," then arises the question, How could superstition protect the belt from those who did not fear to destroy the body?

1 Besides the superior deities mentioned by Cæsar, local British deities are alluded to in Roman inscriptions. -See Stewart's Caledonia Romana,

p. 309; Wright's Ancient Inhabitants of Britain, pp. 272-276, etc.; Wilson's Archæology, p. 399.

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More conclusive against the decision of those who scout the idea that groups of "Druid circles" could have been raised for religious purposes, is the fact that several stone circles, close together, even intersecting each other, and lately erected to the same object of worship-viz., to Vital-may any day be seen in secluded rocky places near towns and villages of the Dekhan in India. Near Poonah they are extremely common, and there these primitive fanes first attracted the notice of Dr. Stephenson and Dr. John Wilson.

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Epiphanius, who was born and lived in Syria, described an open circle as a place of prayer formed by the ancient Samaritans ;" and there appears good reason for believing that not only the greater, but all sizes of circular areas defined by monoliths, and containing either dolmens or central menhirs, were temples. The form of the dolmen in simple fanes is a tabular mass of stone of superior size to any other in the circle of which it forms a portion. This stone rests on the

1 In the Botallick circles in Cornwall, and near Harlech in Wales, are circles intersecting each other.

2 Vital is a favourite and very general object of worship in many parts of Western India by the rural and agricultural population. A coincidence, in name at least, appears in the following quotation from Mommsen's History of Rome:-" One of the most ancient myths regarding the Italian race attributes to King Italus (or as the Italians must have pronounced the word, Vitalus or Vitulus) the introduction of agriculture." remark the coincidence of the name of this ante-Brahmanical god of Indian

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cultivators, because Vital has not been so much noticed as other objects of worship less generally venerated, probably because of his being ignored or denounced by the Brahmans. The same author, in the same chapter, in treating of "The Earliest Inhabitants of Italy," refers to names of other gods common to the races that worshipped on the banks of the Ganges, and on the banks of the Ilissus and Tiber.— Theodore Mommsen's History of Rome, translated by Robertson, pp. 14, 18.

3 Kitto's Palestine, vol. i., p. 410.

The more important forms of dolmens are treated of separately.

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