Chap. II.

DRUIDICAL AND CELTIC. 5

tlonn- the forty-fifth parallel of north latitude
;
that, in a similar manner, colonies advanced
from the same great nation hy a southern line through Asia, peopling Syria and Africa, and
arriving at last by sea through the Pillars of Hercules at Britain
;
that the languages of
the western world were the same, and that one system of letters viz. that of the Irish
nniids pervaded the whole, was common to the British Isles and Gaul, to the inhabitants
of Italy, Greece, Syria, Arabia, Persia, and Hindostan
;
and that one of the two alphabets
(of the same system) in which the Irish MSS. are written viz. the Beth-luis-nion came
by Gaul through Britain to Ireland
;
and that the other the Bobeloth came through the
Straits of Gibraltar. Jacob Bryant tliinks that the works called Cyclopean were executed
at a remote age by colonies of some great original nation
;
the only difference between his
ojjinion and tliat of Mr. Higgins being, that the latter calls them Druids, or Celts, from the
time of the dispersion above alluded to.
12. Tlie unliewn stones, whose antiquity and purport is the subject of this section, are
fjiind in Hindostan, where they are denominated
"
jjandoo koolies," and are attributed to a
fabulous being named Pandoo and his sons. With a similarity of character attesting their
common origin, we find them in India, on the shores of the Levant and Mediterranean, in
Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, in France, and on the shores of Britain from the
Straits of Dover to the Land's End in Cornwall, as well as in many of the interior parts of
the country. They are classed as follows:

1. The Mngle stone, pillar, or obelisk.

2. Circles of stones of ditlerent numoer and arrangement. 3. Sacrificial stones. 4. Crom-
lechs and cairns. 5. Logan stones. G. Tolmen or colossal stones.
13. (1.)
Single Stones. Passanes abjuiid in Scripture in which the practice of erecting
single stones is recorded. The reader on tiiisj point may refer to Gen. xxviii. 18., Jurh/es, ix.
C, 1 Sam vii. 12., 2 Sam. xx. 8., Joshua, xxiv. 27. Tlie single stone might be an emblem
of the generative power of Nature, and thence an object of idolatry. That mentioned in
the first scriptural reference, which Jacob set up in his journey to visit Laban, his uncle, and
wliicli he had used for his pillow, seems, whether from the vision he had while sleeping upon
it, or from some otlier cause, to have become to him an oliject of singular veneration
;
for
lie set it up, and poured oil upon it, and called it" Bethel" (the house of God). It is
curious to observe that some (nllars in Cornwall, assumed to have been erected by the Phoe-
nicians, still retain the api)ellation Bethel. At first, these stones were of no larger dimen-
sion than a man could remove, as in the instance just cited, and that of the Gilgal of
Joshua (/(//. iv.
20.) ; but tiiat which was set up under an oak at Sliechem (ibid. xxiv. 26.),
was a great stone. And here we may notice aiiotlier singular coincitlenee, that of the Botliel
in Cornwall being set up in a place which, from its iiroximiy to an oak which was near the
spot, was called r?othel-ac ; the last syllable being the Saxon for an oak. It appears from
the Scriptures that tliese single stones were raised on various occasions; sometimes, as
in the case of Jacob's Bethel and of Samuel's Ebenezer, to commemorate instances of
divine interposition; sometimes to record a covenant, as in the case of Jacob and Laban
{Gen. xxxi.
48.) ;
sometimes, like the Greek stekc, as sepulchral stones, as in the case of
Rachel's grave (Gen. xxxvi. 20.), 1700 years B.C., according to the usual reckoning. They
were occasionally, also, set up to the memory of individuals, as in the instance of Absalom's
pillar and others. The pillars and altars of the patriarchs appear to have been erected in
honour of the only true God, Jehovah
;
but wherever the Canaanites appeared, they seem
to have been the objects of idolatrous worship, and to have been dedicated to Baal or the
sun, or the other false deities whose altars Moses ordered the Israelites to destroy. The
similarity of pillars of single stones almost at the ojiposite sides of the earth, leaves no doubt
in our mind of their being the work of a people of one common origin widely scattered
;
and the hypotheses of Bryant and Higgins sufficiently account for their appearance in
places so remote from each other. In consequence, says the latter writer, of some cause, no
matter what, the Hive, after the dispersion, casted and sent forth its swarms. One of the
largest descended, according to Genesis (x. 2.),
from Gomer, went north, and then west,
pressed by succeeding swarms, till it arrived at the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, and ulti-
mately colonised Britain. Another branch, observes the same author, proceeded through
Sarmatia southward to the Euxine (Cimmerian Bosphorus)
;
another to Italy, founding
the states of the Umbrii and the Cimmerii, at Cuma, near Naples. Till the time of the
Romans these different lines of march, like so many sheepwalks, were without any walled
cities. Some of the original tribe found their way into Greece, and between the Carpathian
mountains and the Alps into Gaul, scattering a few stragglers as they passed into the
beautiful valleys of the latter, where traces of them in Druidical monuments and language
are occasionally found. Wherever they settled, if the conjecture is correct, they employed
themselves in recovering the lost arts of their ancestors.
14. To the Canaanites of Tyre and Sidon may be chiefly attributed the introduction of
these primeval works into Britain. The Tyrians, inhabiting a sinall slip of barren land,
vrere essentially and necessarily a commercial peojile, and became the most expert and
idvonturous sailors of antiquity. It has been supposed that the constancy of the needle to
the pole,
"
that path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture's eye hath not seen."