The Early Races of Scotland and Their Monuments, Volume 1Edmonston and Douglas, 1866 - Scotland |
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Common terms and phrases
Aberdeenshire Account of Scotland altars ancient antiquity Apollo appear Armorica authority Avebury Baal Belinus Beltane Brit British Britons Brittany Cæsar Caledonia called Carnac Celtic Celts century B.C. ceremonies Ceylon Christian church Cingalese circle circular columnar circular fanes Columba columnar stones Cornwall Cyclopean deity derived Diodorus Siculus dolmen Druidical Druids earliest early emblem erected Europe feet fire fountains Gaelic Gaels Gaul Greek groves heathen Hecatæus Hist Inhabitants of Britain Ireland Irish island king land Menhir mentioned monoliths moon Morbihan North Britain notice objects of worship Old Statistical Account original pagan parish period Phoenicians Pictish Picts Plate Pliny practised primitive monuments probably proof race regarding religion religious remains remarkable rites Roman rude sacred sacrifice sacrificed says Scots sculptured stones Silbury Silbury Hill similar Stonehenge stones of Scotland Strabo superstition temple tion tree tribes tumuli unhewn Veneti Western Isles witches word
Popular passages
Page 123 - ... the consistence of a custard ; they knead a cake of oat-meal, which is toasted at the embers against a stone. After the custard is eaten up, they divide the cake...
Page 129 - Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.
Page 123 - They then kindle a fire, and dress a repast of eggs and milk in the consistence of a custard. They knead a cake of oatmeal, which is toasted at the embers against a stone. After the custard is eaten up, they divide the cake...
Page 123 - They put all the bits of cake into a bonnet. Every one, blindfold, draws out a portion. He who holds the bonnet is entitled to the last bit. Whoever draws the black bit is the devoted person who is to be sacrificed to Baal, whose favour they mean to implore, in rendering the year productive of the sustenance of man and beast. There is little doubt of these inhuman sacrifices having been once offered in this country, as well as in the east, although they now pass from the act of sacrificing, and only...
Page 224 - For if those temples are well built, it is requisite that they be converted from the worship of devils to the service of the true God ; that the nation, seeing that their temples are not destroyed, may remove error from their hearts, and knowing and adoring the true God, may the more familiarly resort to the places to which they have been accustomed.
Page 124 - ... each dedicated to some particular being, the supposed preserver of their flocks and herds, or to some particular animal, the real destroyer of them: each person then turns his face to the fire, breaks off a knob, and flinging it over his shoulders, says, This I give to thee, preserve thou my horses; this to thee, preserve thou my sheep; and so on.
Page 122 - ... where it is supposed the fire was kindled. At some distance from this is another temple of the same kind, but smaller, and near it a well still held in great veneration. On Beltane morning superstitious people go to this well, and drink of it ; then they make a procession round it, as I am informed, nine times. After this, they in like manner go round the temple.
Page 226 - Diverse as were the pagan and Scandinavian creeds, their temples may have been of similar character ; and the rude. Norsemen who possessed themselves of the Orkney Islands in the ninth century found far less difficulty in adapting the Temple of Stennis to the shrine of Thor than the Protestants of the sixteenth century had to contend with, when they appropriated the old Cathedral of St. Magnus to the rites of Presbyterian worship.
Page 129 - Even they set up bonfires in every village. When the bonfire is consumed, the ashes are carefully collected into the form of a circle. There is a stone put in, near the circumference, for every person of the several families interested in the bonfire ; and whatever stone is moved out of its place, or injured before next morning, the person represented by that stone is devoted, or fey ; and is supposed not to live twelve months from that day.
Page 124 - This I give to thee, preserve thou my horses ; this to thee, preserve thou my sheep ; and so on.' After that they use the same ceremony to the noxious animals : 'This I give to thee, O fox, spare thou my lambs ; this to thee, O hooded crow ! this to thee, O eagle...