mM.^.Mm Book._ALM \' .V (i3/~ ^ ON SOME ANTIC^UITIES IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF DUNECHT HOUSE ABERDEENSHIRE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS C. F. CLAY, Manager LONDON : FETTER LANE, B.C. 4 NEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN CO. BOM HA V \ CALCflTA MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd. MADRAS TORONTO : THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltu. TOKYO: MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA ALL RIGHTS RRSKRVRD ON SOME ANTIQUITIES IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF DUNECHT HOUSE ABERDEENSHIRE BY ^ THE RIGHT REV. G.' F. BROWNE D.D. (C. & O.), D.C.L., LL.D., F.S.A., Hon. F.S.A.Scot. Honorary Fellow of the British Academy Formerly Disney Professor of Art and Archaeology in the University of Cambridge, Bishop of Stepney, and Bishop of Bristol CAMBRIDGE AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 1921 ^^^^ V^J^ Br THE SjIME JUTHOR The Cross-shaftJ of Bcwcastle and Ruthwell. Recollections of a Bishop. King Alfred's Books. The Life and Writings of the \'cncrable Bede. The Christian Church in these Islands before Augustine. Augustine and his Comp-mions. The Conversion of the Heptarchy. Theodore and Wilfrith. St Aldhclm of Malmcsbury. Alcuin of York. Boniface of Crcditon. Importance of Women in Anglo-S.txon times, the Cultus of St Peter and St Paul, &c. Church and State in English Histor)'. Off the Mill, Holiday Essays. Ice-Caves of France and Switzerland. Q c^ ^ U 3 3. TO THE BRIGHTNESS OF FRIENDSHIP AT DUNECHT HOUSE PREFACE IN the autumn of 19 19 some of the guests of Lady Cowdray at Dunecht House, on her Scottish estate of Dunecht, found marked on a large-scale Ordnance Map a Stone Circle, about 3 miles off in a direct line, quite near a main road, and about a mile further on another Stone Circle, also quite near a road. A car was called for, and Lord Cowdray and two friends, one of them an engineer, the other a person devoted to archaeology, went to look for the circles. They found the first circle in a small wood of fir trees. The archaeologist declared the principal feature of the circle to be unique in his experience, while mentioning the fact that he had never studied rude stone monuments which had neither patterns nor inscriptions to give them human interest. They went on to the next circle, and found the same apparently unique feature. Later on, they went to yet another Stone Circle marked on the map, and again found the apparently unique feature. Only the first circle was complete. The second circle had lost several of its stones. The third had lost more, but two or three of them were lying down in situ. In the autumn of 1920 Lady Cowdray and the writer visited and measured a large number of circles, unfortunately in terrible weather for the most part. It was known to the archaeologist that there were ogam inscriptions in the district, two of them being among the most important in Caledonia ; and that within an easy motor drive there was a minuscule inscription of six lines of which no satisfactory explanation had been given. This inscription they had visited in a previous year. Further, the quick eye of the hostess of Dunecht had caught sight of some curious sculptures on a stone by the road-side on the way to the minus- cule inscription ; and other like stones in the neighbourhood had been shewn in Stuart's two volumes of Sculptured Stones of Scotland. The suggestion was then made that for the sake of visitors at Dunecht a sort of guide book should be prepared, giving some simple description of the several objects and their meaning and uses. Of course the thing grew, grew beyond all original ideas of what it should be. As will be seen by any one who is good enough to glance at it, a good deal of investigation and enquiry has been involved, and the enquiry has now and then led towards scientific matters. But the book does not profess to be scientific, and has no sort of claim to be conclusive or positive or exhaustive or didactive. It is meant to quicken interest in some of the many interesting B.D A. j, viii Preface objects which are still to be found between Dee and Don ; to quicken interest is to effect an insurance against neglect or destruction. It is not meant for the experts on any of the many points touched ; but the writer has done his best to avoid misleading his reader, even when he has ventured upon fields where experts will not tread. It is the work of one who knows just enough about it to know how little he knows. Unfortunately on one point of great importance in dealing with old stones, namely petrology, he knows nothing at all. How great a loss this is, both to the interest in the stone circles and to the reputa- tion of their prehistoric builders for skill and knowledge, is pointed out in the course of the book. The largest Plates are almost all of them from photographs specially taken by the local photographer Mr R. Benzie of Dunecht. The half-size Plates are almost all of them from photographs presented by Mr James Ritchie of Hawthorn Cottage, Port Elphinstone, Inverurie, who has given learned help in all directions for which the writer is deeply grateful. His best thanks are due also, and are here tendered, to the authorities of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, for allowing him to make use of their articles on several of the stone circles of Aberdeenshire, and for putting at his disposal plans of circles from their Proceedings, and their block of the Maiden Stone, Plate LVI. The writer has been advised on Gaelic points by Dr Sinton of Dores Manse, Inverness, and has received valuable help of many kinds from many others ; to some of whom his thanks are expressed in the text. It will be obvious to the reader that Sir Norman Lockyer's investigations and theories have added greatly to the interest of the Aberdeenshire circles. The writer has quoted largely and gratefully from his important volume on Stonehenge and other stone monuments, in the second edition of which the Aberdeenshire stone circles are dealt with. But earnest gratitude does not include the accept- ance of a range of dates from 2000 B.C. to 1300 B.C. for fourteen of the circles dealt with, as shewn on page 33, depending as it does upon the supposition that fourteen great recumbent stones lie exactly in the line in which they did lie, when first placed where they now are, at the dates named. Not that the dates are in themselves even improbable. It will be seen in the concluding chapter that elaborate investigations are leading to a claim that the astronomer- priests in this country had registration-marks on their stones which enabled them to predict eclipses from 2250 b.c. to 1000 B.C. G. F. BROWNE. 2 Campden House Road, London, W. 8. 22 June 1 92 1. PAGE CONTENTS CHAPTER I Characteristic antiquities of this district of Aberdeenshire. — Circles, ogams, sculptures. — Uniqueness of the Circles. — Druids' Temples. — Importance of druidism. — The Magic Art. — Julius Caesar's description of the Druids. — Human sacrifices. — Comparison with Welsh and Irish Druids. — The elder Pliny's account — King Alfred's Druids. — Accounts by Tacitus. — Human sacrifice by Rhadagaisus. — By the Aztecs. — Zoroastrianism , i CHAPTER II Druidism the religion of a very early race in Caledonia. — Columba's contest with the Pictish Druids. — An altar essential in a Druids' Temple. — Old Testament illustrations. — Other Oriental illustrations. — The worship of stones as gods. — Meteoric stones. — Two main elements in our early heathenism. — The one Aryan, the other pre-Aryan. — The pre-Aryan Magic Art. — Christian use of pagan religious sites. — Cessation of human sacrifice. — Altars still necessary. — Continuity of religious worship at "the stones." — Earnestness of pagan worship. — Worship of gods of nature a preparation for the worship of God. — The Lord, our God. — Meaning of "religion," "pagan," "heathen," "super- stition." — Survival of the black art .......... 12 CHAPTER III Varieties of stone circles. — The Recumbent Stone and Flankers. — The magic circle. — The south-west position. — Facing the north-east. — Sunrise and star-rise. — The magician's announcement of the passage of time by day. — By night. — The Candle Hill stones. — The Calendar. — Lunations. — The daily change of position of sunrise. — The sun and the stars in oriental climes. — Native use of the stars as clocks. — Accuracy of early astronomers. — Method and purposes of marking the point of rise of a special star. — Effect and reason of change of position of star-rise. — Egyptian and Greek star-rise temples. — Was the rise and development of stone worship due to one race of men, or common to many? — St Marnan's Chair. — .^ throned deity 22 CHAPTER IV Stellar and solar circles. — Azimuth and Declination. — List of stellar circles with sup- posed dates. — The transport of heavy stones. — The sacred circle. — Places of assembly. — Places of incineration. — Astronomical observatories. — Denderah 3100 b.c. — Britain 2300 B.C. — Early clocks, the clepsydra. — The sun dial. — Solstitial circles. — May Year circles. — Abnormal alignments. — Beltane. — The farmer's year. — New Year's Day. — Beltane celebrations. — Eggs and egg similes. — Mystery of the circles.^Are the stones other than the Recumbent Stone and Flankers set in a fixed order? — Test applied at three of the circles 32 Contents CHAPTER V PAGE Origin of the name Echt. — Description of the fortifications. — The name Barmekyn. — Barbicans. — Barbacanes at Tripoh, Tyre, Pisa. — The Crusaders. — The gold coin of Islam. — Importance of the site. — Dr John Hill Burton. — The Catertuns. — The Norman Dykes. — Professor John Stuart. — Mr James Skene. — The Old Statistical Account. — Dr J. Mitchell. — Remarkable noises "on the toppe of the hill of Duneycht." — Gavin Douglas's Bramkin of Troy. — Paper by W. Douglas Simpson. — Fortifications of Benachie. — The parish of Echt. — Its Druidical Temples. — The House of Echt and Housedale. — Successive owners .......... 45 CHAPTER VI An early Report on Aberdeenshire Circles. — Lustration by water. — The Sin Hinny Circle. — Cup-marking. — Excavations at Sin Hinny. — The Midmar Circle. — The Seat of Justice. — Standing Stones as places of assembly. — The Circle at Castle Eraser. — Outlying monoliths ............. 55 CHAPTER VII Petrology. — The shapes of stones. — Christian sites. — Malcolm Canmore's grants. — Confirmation by Hadrian IV. — Christian districts. — Ancient spellings. — Auquhorthies, Circle and Plan. — Loanhead of Daviot, Circle and Plan. — Newcraig, Daviot, Circle and cup-marked stone. — Kirkton of Bourtie, Circle. — South Ley Lodge, Circle. — Tomnagorn, Circle and Plan. — Taurobole. — Penetralia. — South Fornet, Circle. — Cothie Muir, Circle. — Keig Parish. — Auld Keig, Circle. — Stonehead, Circle. — Candle Hill Insch, Circle. — Inschfield, Circle. — Ardlair, Circle and excavations. — A May-year Circle. — Wanton Wells, Circle. — Rothiemay, Circle and cup-marked stone. — Auld Kirk o' Tough, Circle. — Whitehill, Circle. — Braehead of Leslie, recumbent stone. — Candle Hill Oyne, Circle, Plan, and excavations. — The Esthonians .... 66 CHAPTER VIII Dyce, Circle. — Strichen, Circle. — Old Rayne, Circle. — An early lawsuit. — Balquhain, Circle, obelisk, cup-marks. — Louden Wood, Circle. — Aikey Brae, Circle. — Culsalmond, Circle.— Backhill, Circle.— The Devil's Ninepins.— The Clava Circles, Nairn.— The Druids' Temple Farm Circle, Inverness. — The Cullaird Circle, Torbreck ... 89 CHAPTER IX The Ogam script. — Its origin. — Secret finger-speaking. — Not veryancient. — The Aboyne ogam. — Boustrophedon reading. — The Brandsbutt stone. — Its ornament. — Its read- ing. — The Brodie ogam. — The Scoonie ogam. — A Scots bishop trained in Ireland dying among the Picts. — The talkativeness of the Irish and Brythonic Gael. — The silence of the Pict 102 CHAPTER X ( The Newton Stone) Supposed hopelessness of the inscriptions. — British Association at Cambridge 1862. — Earl of Aberdeen's letter on decay. — The Catanian inscription. — Third and sixth lines of minuscule are Greek.— The stone of St Wallach or Volocus. — His legend. — His Fair at Logie-Mar. — Coldstone. — His Bath etc. at Walakirk. — Beldorney and Insch.— Date of St Wallach. — The ogam inscription. — The other four lines of minuscules. — The Stone of King Aed or Aedh. — Burial at Inverurie 1 10 Contents xi CHAPTER XI PAGE Remarkable figures incised on rude stones. — The Maiden Stone. — The Brandsbutt Stone. — Who were the Picts? — Herodotus and dog-men. — Jerome. — Sacrifice and cannibalism. — The Picts. — The name Pict. — Carvers. — Tatoo. — Among the Saxons. — Territory occupied by Picts. — Union with Scots. — Sculptures on dressed stones. — Figures transferred from tatoo. — The combination with the Christian Cross. — The several figures and symbols. — The Elephant. — The Crescent. — The Spectacles. — Origin of the three symbols. — The Pitfour Stone. — The Centaurs. — The sacred tree. — The Serpents. — Possible dates. — The Earl of Southesk's theory. — Possible origin of the combination of Christian and pagan religious symbols . . . . .125 CHAPTER XII Topographical distribution of Pictish sculptured stones. — Rude stones and dressed stones. — The number between Dee and Don. — Distribution of the main Pictish symbols on rude and on dressed stones. — Description of several rude stones with sculpture. — Number of objects incised. — Description of six dressed stones with sculp- tures. — Guinevere's Stone. — The Maiden Stone. — The sculptures remain unique and mysterious. — The Craigmyle Stone . . .141 CHAPTER XIII The Druids and the stars. — Charts of stars. — Knowledge of stars by savage races. — The Pleiades. — Nilsson's Primitive Time-Keepiitg. — Modern ignorance of the stars. — Instruction in the stars among savages. — The Picts likely to make charts on stone. — Their circles were astronomical. — The Dunecht Observatory. — The Sin Hinny con- stellations. — Unmistakable. — The Rothiemay Stone. — A chart of bright stars. — The names of some. — The inversion of the area of stars. — Druids' star schools. — Scandinavian cup-markings. — Many constellations recognisable. — The name-animal on stone instead of a group of cups. — Mr Mann's theories of cup-marks as scientific astronomical registrations, apart from possible exceptional cases of star-charts. — Cup-marks in the Channel Islands . . . . . . . . . -iSS Index 167 LIST OF PLATES I. Radial plans of three Circles. II. The Barmekyn of Echt from above, III. The Barmekyn of Echt from below. IV. Pen drawings of Recumbent Stones and Flankers. V. Wester Echt. Two Stones and Flanker. Nether Corskie Flankers. VI. The Sin Hinny Circle. The Seat of Justice, Midmar. The Bass of Inverurie. VII. Sin Hinny, Recumbent Stone and Flankers. VIII. Sin Hinny, Cup markings. IX. Midmar, Recumbent Stone and Flankers. X. The Midmar Circle. XI. Castle Eraser, Recumbent Stone and Flankers. XII. Auquhorthies, Recumbent Stone, Flankers, and Props. XIII. Loanhead, Daviot, Recumbent Stone and Flankers. XIV. Loanhead, Daviot, double Recumbent Stone. XV. Newcraig, Daviot, Recumbent Stone and Flankers. XVI. Newcraig, Cup-marked Stone. XVII. Kirkton of Bourtie, Recumbent Stone and Flankers. XVIII. South Ley Lodge, Recumbent Stone and Flankers. XIX. Tomnagorn, Recumbent Stone and Flanker. XX. South Fornet, Flankers. XXI. Cothie Muir, Recumbent Stone and Flankers. XXII. Auld Keig, Recumbent Stone and Flankers. XXIII. Stonehead, Recumbent Stone and Flankers. XXIV. Candle Hill, Insch, Recumbent Stone and fallen Flankers. XXV. Inschfield(NetherBoddam),RecumbentStoneandFlanker. XXVI. Ardlair, Recumbent Stone, Flankers, and Props. XXVII. Wanton Wells, Insch, Recumbent Stone and Flanker. XXVIII. The Rothiemay Circle. ROTHIEMAY, CUP MARKED RECUMBENT STONE. XXIX. Auld Kirk o' Tough. Whitehill Wood, Monymusk. Recumbent Stone and Flanker. List of Plates xiii XXX. Braehead of Leslie. Recumbent Stone. Candle Hill, Oyne. Recumbent Stone and Flankers. XXXI. Dyce. Recumuent Stone and Flankers. Stricken. Recumbent Stone and Flankers. XXXII. The Old Rayne Circle. Old Rayne. Recumbent Stone and fallen Flankers. The Dyce Circle. XXXIII. The Cothie Muir Circle. The Balquhain Circle and Obelisk. Balquhain. Recumbent Stone and Flankers. XXXIV. Standing Stones of Echt. Aikey Brae. Recumbent Stone and Flankers. Louden Wood. Recumbent Stone and Flankers. XXXV. Druids' Farm Monolith, Inverness. Drosten, Meigle, Clonmacnois. The Aed Chronicle. XXXVI. Clava Monolith. XXXVII. Druid.s' Temple Farm Circle, Inverness. XXXVIII. Druids' Temple Farm Circle, Inverness. XXXIX. The Cullaird Circle, Torbreck, Inverness. XL. The Newton Stones. The Ogam script. The Newton inscriptions. The Aboyne Ogams ; The Scoonie Ogams. XLI. The Aboyne Stone. The Brandsbutt Stone. XLI I. The Newton Ogams. The Newton Minuscules. XLIII. The Cataman Inscription. The Conyng Hillock, Inverurie. XLIV. Drimmies Farm. Tillytarmont, Rothiemay. XLV. Dyce, in the Old Church (TWO). The Crow Stone, Rhynie. XLVI. Kintore Church Yard (Back and Front). XLVII. Logie Elphinstone (two). XLVIII. Logie Elphinstone. Inverurie Churchyard. XLIX. Inverurie Churchyard (two). L. Rhynie Churchyard. Newton of Mounie. LI. Broomend of Crichie. Clatt Churchyard. LI I. St WoLOCK's Stone, Logie Coldstone. Tillypronie. LI 1 1. ToFTHiLLS, Clatt. On the lawn, Dunecht. LIV. Glammis. Aberlemno. Eassie. LV. RossiE, Inchture. Meigle (two). XIV List of Plates LVI. The Maiden Stone. LVII. Legionary Tablets. LVI 1 1. Legionary Tablets. LIX. The Craigmyle Stone. LX. The Rothiemay Stone. LXI. The Rothiemay Stars. LXII. Scandinavian Stars. LXIII. The Northern Heavens. FIGURES IN THE TEXT Wester Echt from an old drawing Ground Plan, Auquhorthies . „ „ LOANHEAD DAVIOT . „ „ TOMNAGORN „ Hatton OF Ardoyne SI 69 71 74 86 CHAPTER I Characteristic antiquities of this district of Aberdeenshire. — Circles, ogams, sculptures. — Unique- ness of the Circles. — Druids' Temples. — Importance of druidism. — The Magic Art. — Julius Cxsar's description of the Druids. — Human sacrifices. — Comparison with Welsh and Irish Druids. — The elder Pliny's account. — King Alfred's Druids. — Accounts by Tacitus. — Human sacrifice by Rhadagaisus. — By the Aztecs. — Zoroastrianism. The district of Aberdeenshire in which the great hill fort of Echt is situ- ated has three special characteristics, each of which is redolent of antiquity. They are, (i) the presence of a large number of stone circles unique in type; (2) the presence of a number of examples of so-called Pictish sculptures on rude stones, apparently casual stones though possibly boundary or memorial stones; (3) the presence of two of the most important of the few ogam inscrip- tions found in Caledonia, and a third of less importance perhaps but not of less interest. In a class entirely by itself, quite unique, is the minuscule inscription which is found in connection with the longest of the ogam inscriptions, on a great stone now in the grounds of the Gordons of Newton by Insch. The Aberdeenshire stone circles will occupy by far the largest part of our space. We have described them as unique, because, so far as we are informed, no one as yet has found and published any example elsewhere of a striking feature common to all of them. This is, a great Recumbent Stone, lying tangentially on the circumference of the circle, weighing many tons; with two high pillar stones standing on the circumference of the circle one at each end of the Recumbent Stone, as Flankers or supporters ; not as props, not of necessity even in contact with the ends of the Recumbent Stone. It is evident, on the face of it, that this curious and striking feature presents a series of problems of great interest, and presumably of at least considerable importance. What race of men set them up ? Where did they learn the plan ? What was their purpose ? How did they use the stones, when they had set them up ? What sort of date can we assign to them ? How did they fall into disuse ? The sight of them tends to set the archaeologist imagination running riot. It is natural to ask the question, why should there be this curious difference between the stone circles of this one district of Aberdeenshire and the circles of other parts of Pictish Caledonia? One answer is, that there are other examples of curious differences in regard to the use and arrangement of rude stones in districts bordering upon one another. Thus the late Dr Tristram, in his Land of Moab, pages 300-302, speaks of "the three classes of primaeval monuments in Moab," the stone circles, the dolmens, and the cairns. They all exist, he says, in great abundance. B. D. A. I 2 Dunecht Antiquities They exist in three different parts of the country, but never side by side. The cairns are exclusively in the east, on the spurs of the Arabian range; the stone circles south of the Callirrhoe; the dolmens north of that valley. His surmise is that this fact may indicate three neighbouring tribes, co-existent in the pre- historic period, each with different funeral or religious customs. We find a curious parallel to this in Devon and Cornwall. Stone rows, called avenues, are common on Dartmoor and almost unknown in Cornwall. Cromlechs are common in West Cornwall and only one genuine example is mentioned on Dartmoor. Similarly it is said that in the Morbihan while stone rows and cromlechs are common, and there are stone circles in connection with stone rows, circles independent of stone rows are all but unknown there. But while that is so, the difference with which we are concerned is deeper and more subtle. It is a racial— or rather a tribal — difference, and that in regard to deep-seated feelings and views of the manner of approaching the gods of nature. The Aberdonians might fairly say that their predecessors, if not in blood at least in locality, were religious — or superstitious — beyond other Picts. Looked at more closely, we may say that the traditional division of Pictland into seven provinces, and the actual differences in the stone records of religious worship in adjoining parts of the same province, indicate the inherence in the race of disruptive tendencies, tendencies of isolation, of having no superiors, indeed of having no equals. This is shewn perhaps in its clearest and most recent development, the clan jealousies of the Highlanders, which came to a head in comparatively modern history when the ancient race of the Caledonian kings died out, and shewed itself fatally when their immediate descendants ceased to reign over North Britain and South Britain combined. The Roman grammarian Festus, writing on the Latin word sacellum about A.D. 150, tells us that sacella are small places, consecrated to gods, without a roof Hence the Latin dictionary gives as the meaning of sacellum (literally the diminutive of sacrum a shrine), " a small uncovered place consecrated to a divinity." That we may take to have been the original root idea of a stone circle ; with the correlative idea of the exclusion of hostile powers from the area, — "without are dogs." This does not at all imply that there was a con- tinuous fence all round. The twelve stones, or some such number, set on the circumference of the circle, were the adequate symbol of exclusion. Mystery can be stronger than a continuous wall of stones. Tacitus tells us {Germania, c. ix) that the Germans think it derogatory to the majesty of the heavenly beings to enclose them within walls. We have said "the twelve stones or some such number." We find in the book of Joshua, chapter iv, two special mentions of twelve stones, as representing the twelve tribes of Israel. " Take you twelve men, out of every Drtiidism 3 tribe a man, and command them, Take you out of the midst of Jordan, where the priests' feet stand firm, twelve stones upon your shoulders, and carry them over Jordan. And they carried them over to the place where they lodged and laid them down there; and those twelve stones did Joshua pitch in Gilgal.... And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan where the feet of the priests stood firm, and they are there to this day." Is it a mere coincidence that the only circles of those now under consideration which are complete, Sin Hinny and Auchorthies, have twelve stones each ? One result of rather careful enquiry on the spot and in such records as are available stands out clearly. It is impossible to laugh at traditions of Druids and Druidism, as some learned folk have been accustomed to laugh. As we shall see when we come to descriptions of the circles, the regular name for the circles of Aberdeenshire, recurring in parish after parish, was " Druids' Temples," in the great collection of parochial records and descriptions known as the Old Statistical Account of Scotland, published in and about 1794. It is out of the question to imagine that some one had set to work to invent the idea of " Druids' Temples," and had persuaded the common folk to create in a whole large district a new name for a very old and very prominent feature in their everyday life, which certainly had an old name of some kind among them. And this remark by no means applies only to the district under con- sideration. A short drive out of Inverness, the spot on which Broichan the arch-druid of the Pictish king Brude, and Saint Columba the arch-saint of the Lord and Saviour, fought out their stand-up fight, brings you to Glendruid. If you push on, you come to Druids' Temple Farm, and in a wood near by you find the Temple, three concentric rings of stones, respectively 12 ft, 43 ft., and -]"] ft. in circumference. Not very far from that, about a mile from Ness Castle and near Cullaird, there is a curious little " Druids' Temple " of nine stones, about 22 ft. in diameter, with two large stones 6 ft. apart looking very like the Flankers of our Aberdeenshire Recumbent Stone but with no surviving indication of the presence of such a stone. At Clava, on the Nairn, there is a large group of Druids' Temples. Thus the designation " Druids' Temple " in the land of the northern Picts of Caledonia is far too general to have been a comparatively late invention. We must take it that the inhabitants have through the ages retained the true tradition that these were the sacred places of worship when Druidism, or art magic, was the national religion. It is not easy to imagine a later origin for this long series of " Temples." So long ago as 1692, Dr Gordon of Aberdeen wrote that the general tradition throughout the district was that they were used as places of worship in heathen times. As we shall see, " heathen worship " in those districts certainly meant Druidism, or by its other name the practice of magical art, "Druid" and "magician" being convertible terms. 4 DiDiecht Autiqmties '■ We shall make a very great mistake if we ridicule or under-rate the power of the pagan priests whom our Christiafi predecessors found everywhere in possession. Classical mythology treats the gods of Greece and Rome as intensely important beings; and their priests were dominant. We must assign a like position to the gods and the priests of our pagan predecessors. When Apollo was consulted in Diocletian's presence (about a.d. 290), an answer w^as given in a hollow voice, not by the priest but by Apollo himself, that the oracles were restrained from answering truly ; and the priests said this pointed to the Christians. And when the entrails of victims were examined in augury on another of Diocletian's expeditions, and found not to present the wonted marks, the chief soothsayer declared that the presence of Christians caused the failure. Just such scenes were enacted, with at least as much of tragic earnest- ness, when Patrick worsted the Druid Lochra in the hall of Tara, or when Columba baffled the devices of Broichan, the arch-druid of Brude the Pictish king. We have a very curious and instructive use of the word drui in a prayer attributed to Columba at a critical turning-point of his life. " J/y drui," he is made to say in a very early account of his doings on a great occasion, "My drui is the Son of God." He evidently regarded the drui diS meaning one that worked wonders. It is yet another argument that the system of druidism was in itself not only the development of astronomy and natural philosophy, but also a preparation for the acceptance of the loftiest idea of the one Supreme Almighty God. It seems to be practically impossible to resist the conviction that a sacri- ficial altar was a main part oi the religious worship of our pagan predecessors in this island. Nor can it be doubted that human sacrifices were the sacrifices most highly regarded by them. Nor again can it be doubted that human sacrifices were frequent. If a man felt seriously ill, or found himself in sudden danger in war, the recognised course of procedure was to sacrifice a human being, or if that could not be conveniently eftected, to vow that a human sacrifice should be offered as soon as it could be arranged. Criminals were the natural victims ; but if such could not be had, an innocent victim must be pro- •cured. Not only was this true of our predecessors in this island, but it was specially true of them. Ca?sar, writing a generation before the birth of Christ, tells us that any one who wished really to study the magic art with its human sacrifices went to Britain to study it. The elder Pliny, writing two generations after the birth of Christ, tells us that the people of Britain carried the magic art and its human sacrifices so far and with so great ceremonial, that it mii^ht have been supposed that the Britons had taught its practice to the Persians, though it was well known that the Persians learned it from Zoroaster in prehistoric times. Caesar and Pliny call the priests of these magic arts and sacrifices Druids. Driiidism 5 To shew the full force of what these two very careful observers and recorders say, it will be well to give the whole of their record, including that which affects our special point, the practice of human sacrifice'. Julius Cresar, de Bcllo Gallico, vi. 13, 14, 15. Throughout Gaul there are two classes of persons of definite account and dignity.... One consists of Druids, the other of Knights. The Druids are concerned with divine worship, the due performance of public and private sacrifices, and the interpretation of reh'gious matters ; a great number of young men gather about them for the sake of instruction and hold them in great honour. They decide in almost all disputes, public and private. If any crime has been committed, if murder has been done (caedes facta), if there is any dispute about succession or boundaries, they decide it. They determine rewards and penalties. If any individual person, or any bod\' of people, will not abide by their decision, they interdict them from sacrifices : this is their heaviest penalty. Those who are under interdict are counted among the impious and profane. All men avoid them, flee their presence and discourse, lest they get harm from their contact. Neither justice nor honour is open to them. Among the druids one is chief, who has the highest authority among them. At his death, if any be pre-eminent he succeeds. If there are several with equal claim, they strive for the position as chief, appealing to the votes of the druids, sometimes resorting to armed force. At a certain time of the year the druids meet in the territory of the Carnutes, which is reckoned to be the centre of the whole of Gaul, and hold session in a con- secrated spot. Thither assemble from all sides all that have disputes, and they abide by the decisions and judgments of the druids. It is believed that their discipline was found in Britain and brought thence into Gaul, and to this day those who wish to go more fully into the matter for the most part go to Britain for information. It is the custom of the druids to abstain from war, and they do not pay war-taxes {tributa) as others do. They are exempt from military service and all public duties. Tempted by these advantages, many young men join them of their own accord to receive their training, many are sent by parents and relatives. They are said to learn a great number of verses in their schools, and some are said to remain under instruction for twenty years. It is a duty not to commit to writing the things that are taught, though in most other matters, and in their public and private accounts {rationibus), they make use of Greek letters. This rule of not committing their teaching to writing I think they have instituted for two reasons. They do not wi.sh that their teaching should become common property, and they do not wish the learners to rely upon writing and so neglect the cultivation of the memory. It does in fact usually happen that the assistance of writing tends to relax the attention of the student and the action of the memory. The main doctrine which they seek to teach is that souls do not die, but after death ' We quote the passages which include Britain in their reference. Diodorus tells of the horrid cruelty and the large scale of human sacrifice among the Gauls by the Saronidae (Chaldaeans). Strabo gives further detail. Suetonius tells of horrid cruelties. Dion Chrysostom tells that the druid priests exercised royal authority and the Celtic kings were their servants. 6 Dunecht Antiquities pass from one to another. This belief they hold to be the greatest incentive to valour, as the fear of death is thereby cast aside. Besides this, they have many discussions touching the stars and their motion, the size of the universe and of the earth, the nature of things, the force and power of the immortal gods ; and these they hand on to the young men. The whole nature of the Gauls is greatly devoted to religious observances. On this account, those who are smitten with grievous maladies or are engaged in the perils of battle, either offer human sacrifices, homines immolant, or vow that they will do so. They employ the druids as the ministers of these sacrifices, believing that unless for a man's life a man's life be paid, the majesty of the immortal gods may not be appeased ; and like sacrifices of a public character are performed. Others have simulacra of immense size, whose members, woven with twigs, they fill with living men and set on fire, and the men perish in a sheet of flame. They believe that the execution of those who have been caught in the act of theft or robbery or some crime is more pleasing to the immortal gods ; but when the supply of malefactors fails, they resort to the sacrifice of the innocent, Julius Caesar's account of the functions of the druids does not agree with what we know of the druids of Ireland and the druids of Wales. He tells us that there were only two classes of persons that really counted, druids and knights. The druids conducted public worship and public and private sacrifices, and interpreted religious matters. But that was very far from being their one function. They decided in almost all disputes, public and private. We cannot say whether Caesar meant that they decided all disputes except those which went to the arbitration of war, or whether he was thinking of the rules of classical times, where the head of the state could settle cases which might arise, with a few special e.xceptions which went before a general council. On the whole the former of those two explanations seems the more probable. The penalty of disobedience to the decision of the druids was excommunication, " interdiction from sacrifices," a very telling idea, evidencing the primary importance of sacrifices in their religion. Further, they were the repositories of bardic knowledge. Great numbers of verses were taught in their schools. These verses must not be committed to writing. They were so numerous that the full teaching sometimes occupied twenty years. We might have supposed that the young men who desired not to rank among the warrior class and resorted to this instruction as an e.xemption from war tax and war service, would form a separate class. But it seems quite clear from Caesar's account that this was not so. There was no such separate class. They all counted as druids. This would appear not to have been the case in Wales and in Ireland. In Ireland there were druid priests and there were judges, brehons, as a separate class. In Wales there were druid priests and there were bards, apparently as a separate class. Dniidisin 7 On these points we may quote a passage from Mr J. W. Willis Bund's The Celtic Church in IVa/es^; "One instance of the difference between Wales and Ireland will be seen in the position of the Druids and Bards in Wales, as compared with the Druids and Brehons in Ireland, after the establishment of Christianity. In both Ireland and Wales the Druid and Brehon, or Druid and Bard, lost part of the power which the Christian priest acquired. But the Welsh Druid never took the place that the Irish Druid did after the establish- ment of Christianity. In Ireland, both Druid and Brehon continued for some time to exercise their restricted rights; the Brehon lingered on to a comparatively modern date. But in Wales, while the Bards continued, the Druid dropped at once into the position of a second rate magician, and gradually lost all power and influence." Pliny's statement is contained in the 30th book of his Natural History, where he writes of religion and its connections with the art of medicine, with science, with magic. He appears to be chiefly concerned with magic. This art he says undoubtedly arose in Persia, derived from Zoroaster. The Roman historian Orosius says {King Alfred's Books, Orosius, page 96) that Ninus the king of Assyria began to reign one thousand three hundred years before the building of Rome, that is, 2053 years before Christ. Clinton's calculations give the date as 2182 b.c. As one of the great events of the reign of Ninus, Orosius relates that he slew Zoroaster the king of the Bactrians, who was reported to be the first discoverer of the magic art". It may seem unnecessary to say that the historic Zoroaster is placed some fifteen or sixteen hundred years later, about the time of the prophet Daniel. We return to this on page 1 1. In connection with our main contention regarding druidism, it is very interesting to find that King Alfred uses the Anglo-Saxon dry for sorcerer or magician. The y would be written in rune as a u enclosing an i. Thus the king uses the same word as drui, for druidh, to describe a magician. Later on in his " Orosius" the king uses mid dry -crcsf turn for "with sorceries." Pliny proceeds to describe the spread of the art magic. He does not mention human sacrifices, but he suddenly names them as a matter of course, as if they were the pith and chief feature of the whole thing. ' At length, he says, in the 657th year of the City, the Senate made a decree " that there be no sacrifice of a man," ne homo immolaretur\ It — apparently the magical art including human sacrifice — held the Galliae also, and that to our own time. For the reign of Tiberius did away with their Druids and that class of sooth- sayers and medicine men. It crossed the sea also, and at the present time Britain celebrates it with astonishing zeal, with so great ceremonies that Britain ' London, D. Nutt, 1897, page 137. ' Magicae, ut ferunt, artis repertorem. Or. i. 4. 3. 8 DiDiccJit Antiquities might seem to have taught it to the Persians. It is impossible to estimate how much is owed to the Romans, who destroyed the monstrous forms in which it was held a most religious act to slaughter men, and most salutary to be ordered.' These last words no doubt refer to Caesar's remarks on the " figures " in which men were enclosed for slaughter, and to the custom of ordering a human sacrifice if you didn't feel well or were greatly afraid. Julius Cxsar himself, by the way, violated the decree nc homo i))n)iola)-etiir, for we are told in Dio that he ordered two men to be slaughtered on the Campus Martius, as a religious ceremony. Pliny has referred to the action of Tiberius. We learn from Tacitus' that in the time of Tiberius, a.d. 15-3S, soothsayers and sorcerers had become a public danger. Libo Drusus, a member of an exalted family, w'as accused of encouraging Chaldaean soothsayers, the rites of the magicians, luxury, and lust. He put an end to himself. The Senate passed a decree for the expulsion of mathematicians (the astronomers and astrologers) and magicians from Italy. Two oi the number were put to death, Lucius Pituanius being cast down from the rock, Publius Marcius being put to death " in the ancient manner" by the consuls at the Esquiline gate on sound of trumpet. Some years later, an illus- trious man of great wealth was got rid of by a charge of magic arts ; he put himself to death. The late Dean Liddell set out the passages from Greek and Latin writers which speak of human sacrifices', and argued that they did not prove "that human sacrifices were in use among the Romans, " " human sacrifices " meeming with him " innocent victims offered to appease the wrath of the gods." He took Pliny's statement that in 97 B.C. a decree was made by the Senate ne homo imtnolaretur to have reference to certain barbarous practices connected with the introduction of magic arts of foreign origin. That explanation suits our general argument very well. Of self-sacrifice among the Romans Suetonius (iv. 27) tells a quaint stor)-. The Emperor Caligula was a general favourite on his accession. He had a serious illness, and his friends oft'ered to expose their lives in the Arena for his recover)-, while others of them vowed their lives to the infernal deities in exchange for the Emperor's life. Caligula recovered ; and, being a stickler in such things, he compelled his friends to fulfil their vows. Both in his Annals and in his Histories Tacitus* makes special mention of Druidae as the leaders of the people in war and in politics in Britain. The Roman governor Paulinus Suetonius, having had to deal in the east of Britain with an outraged British queen, had next to deal with very violent British women in the west. In each case the women were almost too much for him. ' Tacitus, Annals, ii. 37. ii. 32, xii. 59. ' Archnologia, xl. 242-256. ' Tacitus, Annals, xiv. 30, //is/, iv. 54. DniiiUsni 9 Suetonius had found that the island Mona, which we English call by our own name Anglesey, was the resort of turbulent fugitives. He made prepara- tions for attacking it. Ships landed his foot soldiers ; his horsemen swam the straits. But Britons met them on the shore, excited to resistance by maenad women, Fury-like, rushing about among them with blazing torches, streaming hair, and vehement gestures and incantations, the Druidae, hands raised to heaven, uttering dire prayers. The Roman soldiery were arrested in their advance. The leader himself had to call upon them not to be afraid of a pack of women and fanatics. They nerved themselves to advance, bore down the resistance of the Britons, and burned them with their own torches. He did what he could to stamp out druidism, with its cruel superstitions, for its priests held it a sacred duty to offer sacrifice by pouring the blood of captives on their altars' and to seek omens from their gods on the entrails of men. This evidence of blood-stained druid altars must not be left out of our consideration. In the Histories we learn from Tacitus, who accompanied his father-in-law Agricola in his difficult task of governing Britain a.d. 78-84, a period which included the great invasion of Caledonia, that when news reached Britain of successes against Rome by various tribes, the Druidae, with their vain superstitions, chanted hymns of the coming time when the Transalpine peoples should possess the world. We find women druids in Ireland, the ban-dt-ui. We find also that in a.u. TfjT) the Roman emperor Valens committed great excesses at Antioch under the plea of suppressing magic art. It may safely be said that Paganism put all its strength in its conflict with Christianity into the claim of mysterious power of divination and command of the processes of nature. The struggle for dominance between Columba and Broichan was in little the real struggle between Christianity and Paganism. We must not pass without notice the difficulties attaching to the idea of magic and magician. But, equally, w^ must not dwell upon them. It has been said by a recent writer that the problem of the definition of magic constitutes a veritable storm-centre in the anthropological literature of the present day'. That — with which we venture to agree — is a fair indication of the difficulties to which we have referred. The word Magic comes of course from the Magi of the Persians, and it has been taken to refer to the religion, learning, and occult practices, of the sect of Zoroaster. Hence the word was from the first used in an unfavourable sense in the various languages in which we find it, and this unfavourable sense of witchcraft it has never lost in European languages. Bacon endeavoured to attach to it, as its natural meaning, the force of natural science in practical operation ; and when in this present book we speak of magicians and medicine ' Thus the "altar" was not the "slaughter stone." ' R. R. Marett, in Hastings' Encyclopnedia of Religion and Ethics, under the heading Magic. B. D. A. 2 lo Dunecht Antiquities men, we are not really going beyond that idea, however much of imposture there may have been in their manner of working upon the ignorant minds of those who looked to them as their guides. A writer of the highest discretion and distinction' holding the view that the analogy between the magical and the scientific conception of the world is close, has developed the interesting summary that magic is next of kin to science but is a bastard sister. One of his humblest admirers is inclined to doubt the illegitimacy of origin, while allowing the fundamental differences between the sisters in their methods of operation. The further, and fascinating, question of the similarities and the dissimilarities of claim, as between the magician and the Christian priest, is clearly outside the modest aim of this book. We have an appropriate example of the late continuance of human sacrifices in the History of Orosius against the Pagans. Orosius was writing of events in his own time and under his own observation in Rome. His Histoty ended with A.D. 41 7. He is telling of the two brother-kings of the Goths, and of the sack of Rome by Alaric in 410. We may note that about the time of the con- clusion of Orosius's History, Ninian was preparing his mission to that branch of the Southern Picts that was seated in the parts of Galloway ; and we are not aware of any former mission that should have put an end to the worst features of their old established discipline of sacrifices. The same Roman commander who had fought against Alaric was the commander who invaded Caledonia and fought against the Northern Picts as recorded by his companion the poet Claudian'. This is what Orosius wrote^ : — Shortly afterwards, Alaric became a Christian. Rhadagaisus remained a heathen, and daily sacrificed to idols by slaying men ; and he was always most pleased if they were Romans. A curious and instructive development of the practice and meaning of human sacrifice is to be found in the remarkable manuscript and pictorial histories of the Aztecs which form part of Lord Cowdray's Mexican treasures, and are now being catalogued and indexed by Mr T. A. Joyce at the British Museum. Mr Joyce's book on Mexico is well known, but should be much better known. His clear and full knowledge was so kindly put at the disposal of this present writer that a few main facts can be simply stated. The Aztec development was very late, about 1400 A.r>. They were wandering hunters, and they came upon an agricultural people and took pos- session. They appear to have brought with them the cult of stellar deities; but the Sun God was the centre of their highly developed system of human sacrifice. The Sun God needed perpetual sacrifice of human heart and blood, to keep him strong enough to perform his daily labour of heating and fructifying the world. ' Sir J. G. Frazer. ^ See page izS. ' vii. 37. See my King Alfred's Books, 1920, page 129. Druidism 1 1 Hence it came that war was with them only a factor in their rehgious rites, the perpetual sacrificial offerings of human blood and life. They fought, not to kill, though that would mean the shedding of human blood, the destroy- ing of human life, but to take prisoners, that the shedding of blood and the slaughtering might be a religious act, ceremonially performed by the priest. The victim was painted the proper death colours and tufted with bits of eagle down. He was laid on his back, stretched out on the Sacrificial Stone. Four priests held his feet and his hands. The chief priest gashed him across the chest with an obsidian knife, tore out his heart, and flung it and the life-blood on the ground. On page 7 we have referred to the date of Zoroaster, and on page 9 to his supposed responsibility for the more evil of the occult practices of the magicians. The recent studies of Dr Rendel Harris and Dr James Hope Moulton, both of Cambridge, have brought illumination upon the date and history of their religious hero Zarathushtra, whose name is classicalised into Zoroaster'. The tradition of mediaeval Persia gave his date as 660-583 u.c, about Daniel's time, but his era was probably some four or five centuries earlier. The most recent view is that he was the earliest religious teacher whose name is known to us among the Aryan-speaking peoples. As to his responsibility for the evil practices of black magic, the probability seems to be that he came as a reformer to a people holding the ancient nature-worship, whose gods were Sky and Earth, Sun and Moon, Fire, Rivers, Winds, and their priests were as the medicine-men and .sorcerers of the savages of New Guinea, except that in New Guinea they take no risks; they have two clans of sorcerers, the one to give rain and produce fruitful crops, the other to give poison and impose slow- working curses. In our view, when we deal with the worst features of the druids of Caesar and Pliny in this island of ours, whether the British or the Caledonian parts, we are dealing with pre-Aryan practices, naturally bound up with the nature-worship of savages in all ages, indigenous in savage lands, not needing importation from Persia or elsewhere. The magicians who presided over the horrid rites here were as far off" from the rites of Zoroastrianism with its ultimate triumph of the Good as they were from the spirit of the Three whose incessant study of the heavens and of the records of the ages enabled them by some means mysterious to us to offer gold and frankincense and myrrh at the cradle of the Infant Saviour. ' See Dr Moulton's Hibbert Lectures for 191 2 on Early Zoroastrianism, and his posthumous work The Treasure of the Magi, Oxford University Press. CHAPTER II Druidism the religion of a very early race in Caledonia. — Coluraba's contest with the Pictish Druids. — An altar essential in a Druids' Temple. — Old Testament illustrations. — Other Oriental illustrations. — The worship of stones as gods. — Meteoric stones. — Two main ele- ments in our early heathenism. — The one Aryan, the other pre-Aryan. — The pre-Aryan Magic Art. — Christian use of pagan religious sites. — Cessation of human sacrifice. — Altars still necessary. — Continuity of religious worship at "the stones." — Earnestness of pagan worship. — Worship of gods of nature a preparation for the worship of God. — The Lord, our God. — Meaning of " religion," " pagan," " heathen," " superstition." — Survival of the black art. The greater part of the Britons with whom Caesar came in contact were comparatively recent immigrants from Belgic Gaul. His description, and Pliny's description, of the great ceremonial worship of the Druids in this island must be supposed to apply to the earlier races of occupation of the land, those who had not as yet been dispossessed by the later comers and driven off to further parts. There is every reason to suppose that Druidism was the form of worship among those mysterious people the Picts, with whom we shall have so much to do in our enquiry into the Antiquities of our special part of Aber- deenshire. We can carry the history of dominant Druidism among the Northern Picts down to the later part of the sixth century. Adamnan, Abbot of lona, was the first cousin four times removed of his predecessor St Columba. He was the ninth Abbot, a.d. 679-704, Columba the first Abbot having held that ofifice from 593 to 597, in which year Augustine came to Kent. In the first chapter of his Life of Columba Adamnan brings on to his canvas both Picts and Magi, that is, Druids. Columba had apparently come by sea to spend a few days among the Picts to the east of Inverness where he had established himself, and miraculously sailed back against a contrary wind to confound the magi. On another occasion (i. ^sl) Columba's magnificent voice was used to defeat the Druids. His voice was so remarkable that hearers a thousand paces off could distinguish by the separate syllables what verse he was singing. We can practically locate the spot where the power of his voice defeated the Druids. The Saint and a few brethren were singing the evening praises of God outside the king's fortress, close to the fortress, and the Druids came upon them and made as much noise as they could, to prevent the Divine praise being heard by the gentile people. We may fairly place the Saint on the south of the Castle Hill, and bring the disturbing Druids from their neigh- bouring head-quarters among the noble stones of the Druids' Temple, still standing some two miles off. When the Saint found what they were doing, he Pagan Worship 13 began to sing the forty-fifth Psalm, "My heart is inditing of a good matter"; and in a marvellous manner his voice was so lifted up in the air that it sounded like dreadful thunder, and the king and the people were stricken with intoler- able fear. Adamnan has two long chapters on Columba's dealings with Broichan, the chief Druid, the foster-father of Brude the king reigning at Inverness. In each case the Saint had the better of the Druid, and in the end Brude was converted. According to Bede, it was this Brude king of the Picts who gave the island Hy to Columba. An Irish record, less early, makes the gift come from the king of the Dalriad Scots, which is locally more probable, but Dr Reeves maintained the other view, Brude having recently inflicted a severe check upon the king of the Dalriad Scots. We have to notice at a later period the continual strife between the eastern Picts and the western Scots who were called the Scots of Dalriada. The strife between Columba and Broichan may serve to remind us that in our wonderful treasure-house of detailed records of Egypt in early times, in the books we call Genesis and Exodus, we have this very same picture of the strife between the servants of the true God and the servants of the false gods, with the eventual discomfiture of the false. The chief officers of Pharaoh's household, and later on Pharaoh himself, dreamed remarkable dreams. They had official interpreters of dreams, but they lost confidence in them by reason of their failure to interpret. Joseph had in charge the chief officers of the household, and finding them troubled by dreams he interpreted their dreams, and his interpretation of life to the one and death to the other came true. Pharaoh, much troubled in turn by a dream, sought interpretation from Joseph with such great success that he put it to his chief men, " Can we find such an one as this, in whom the spirit of God is.-*"; and he set him over the kingdom. In course of time oppression came, and Moses arose. He demanded relief for his oppressed fellow-countrymen and it was denied. In the course of time, Pharaoh determined to put a stop to his importunity, and demanded as credentials that Moses should perform a miracle. Moses cast down his rod and it became a serpent. The magicians did the like, but Moses' serpent swallowed theirs. Moses turned the waters of the rivers and lakes into blood ; the sorcerers and magicians did the like. Moses brought forth frogs ; so did the magicians. And so it went on till Moses did that which, when once done, could not be done again. All the first born were slain. The magicians were completely beaten and Pharaoh gave in. The art magic of the pagan gods could not prevail against Jehovah, Israel's God. We have noted the necessity of an altar in the places of worship of the Druids, and its difference from the slaughter stone, a difference which appears to be frequently overlooked by opponents of the "sacrificial stone" theory. 14 Dunecht Antiquities It has been suggested that if the Aberdeenshire Recumbent Stones really had been intended for altars, more shapely stones would have been selected, and there would at least have been some signs of the removal of irregularities of surface. But here, as so often, the Old Testament comes to our help. In Exodus XX. 25 we read : — "And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone ; for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it." Further, the altar was to be a Recumbent Stone, the surface of which could be reached by a man standing on the ground (xx. 26). It is tempting to suggest that the two supporters which in every case the Recumbent Stone has or has had, are the representatives of the sacred tree which stood by the Recumbent Sacrificial Stone in early Israel. It was rather the symbol of a tree than a tree itself. A tree could not always be found where it was wished to have an altar, and a pole was used, placed by the Recumbent Stone, to represent the sacred tree. When Deborah judged Israel and was the head priestess, she had a real sacred tree, a prominent tree. The word which occurs and recurs in the Old Testament among idolatrous objects, the " groves," is a mistranslation of Asherah. The Asherah were sacred poles. The Syrians and Phoenicians commonly erected such pillars in front of their temples. They stood for deity, and they are supposed to have been a feature of the phallic (sexual) worship of which there is more and more evidence in the ancient world. The Syrian god Melkart was represented by two such pillars in front of his temple at Tyre\ Before the temples at Paphos and Hierapolis there were two pillars. It has been suggested that Hiram set up Jachin (he shall establish) and Boaz (in it is strength) as an ornamental adjunct to the temple of Jehovah, because the pagan temples he had studied had such pairs of pillars in front of them. When we adduce parallelisms between our surviving stone-circles and the paganism which preceded and survived alongside of Jehovah-worship, it is not at all necessary to imagine that our stone-circle ancestors were the far-off representatives of the stone- worship peoples of Palestine. It is quite likely that they were contemporaries, and that the world was a stone-worship world over vast areas of its surface. In other words, the outward expression of fear and love of the sun deities and the star deities and the nature deities took the same form in the mind of man in at least many of the habitable areas of the world ; and set, by transmigration of tribes, an example that was grasped at in regions where it had not been spontaneously developed. There must have been spaces set apart as sacred to the several deities. They must by some outward mark have been set apart, so that all could recognise them. The one perfect form and shape for such purpose was a circle. The one natural manner ' Herodotus, ii. 44. Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible, under Boaz. Pagan H^orship 15 of setting apart a circle was by setting stones on its circumference. Either at its centre, or much more probably at the point furthest from the place of entry, there must have been an altar stone. Sir J. G. Frazer mentions a point which is illustrated by a local tradition connected with at least one stone circle ; it is "the place where the people used to pray to the stones." The idea, he says, of a stone tenanted by a god or a powerful spirit was not peculiar to ancient Israel. It has been shared in many lands. Arabs and Greeks worshipped stones. In the older time all the Greeks worshipped unwrought stones instead of images. In the market place of Pharae in Achaia there were thirty square stones to each of which the people gave the name of a god'. In the temple at Olmones in Boeotia the god was represented not by an image but in the old fashion by an unwrought stone. At Thespiae in Boeotia, Love was honoured above all gods, and Lysippus and Praxiteles wrought glorious images of the deity in bronze and marble ; but the people paid their devotions to an uncouth idol of the god in the shape of a rough stone^ On a hill in Radnorshire there are two standing stones, 6 feet high, called " the gods," and the farm is called in Welsh the gods-hill farm. The worship of rude stones, as representing or containing a deity is supposed to have come from the fall of meteoric stones, which the ancients naturally regarded with deep wonder, and imagined to be representations of deities sent down from heaven to man. Among the many remarkable facts we find recorded in the mine of rare information which we call the Acts of the Apostles, we have the town clerk of Ephesus reminding his fellow-citizens that every one knew their city to be " the temple-keeper of the great Artemis and of the heaven-sent " ; the image that had fallen from the gods, or from Jupiter, a stone of grotesque character. The worship paid to this heaven-sent stone had no doubt more to do with the worship of the oriental Astarte, Ashtoreth, the chief female divinity of the Phoenicians, than with a goddess of the Romans. Is it permissible, in connection with the idea of stones with in-dwelling life or power of life, to wonder whither John Baptist took up his quarters in the wilderness at some well-known circle of great stones, and made reference to ancient tradition when he said, "God is able of these stones — de lapidibus isiis, iK Toiv \id