the compact into which he had entered, and caring little for the prisoner's fate, violated his solemn oath, and refused to return to Tyrone, who, at the expiration of the fourteenth day, caused Gaveloc to be executed, in presence of his brother Cormac, Art O'Hagan, and more than a hundred others, whereof part were of the most distinguished men in the country. The executioners were Loughlin Mac Murtagh and his brother, who came from the borders of Meath and Cavan. Camden therefore ventilates a foul calumny, when he insinuates that Tyrone lowered himself to the level of a brutal hangman. The termination of this affair was very curious, for when the Deputy affected to be wroth with Tyrone for hanging Gaveloc, he replied, that he had done no injury to the latter, but that if any injury was done him, it was by Con O'Neill, who fell from a reasonable composition, in whose default execution followed. Gaveloc's death took place in January, 1590, and in the March following, Tyrone obtained the Deputy's licence to proceed to London, where, taking up his abode in the house of Sir Henry Wallop, he remained three weeks restrained from her majesty's court and presence, till he convinced the Lords of the privy council that he had only acted according to the ancient laws of his country by ridding society of a notable murderer, whose father had slain his father and brother, and whose many crimes justified him in cutting off of so vile a miscreant. Elizabeth was finally placated by his artful pleading, and Hatton, the far-famed dancing chancellor and Lord Ormond, offered themselves as securities that he would be forthcoming in Ireland whenever it might suit deputy Fitzwilliam to arraign him for having taken the law into his own hands. Tyrone soon afterwards returned to Ulster, but he had not been long there when Fitzwilliam summoned him to appear before the privy-council. Having signified his readiness to obey the mandate, he despatched his secretary to Dublin with orders to provide a splendid banquet, at which he was to entertain the chiefest of the English nobility, on the night of his arrival. The guests were all assembled when Tyrone entered the city after sunset, but instead of going at once to preside at the feasting, he rode to the castle, and presented himself to the Deputy, who received him with great show of friendship, and told im to return on the morrow. Tyrone was well aware that Fitzwilliam had received private instructions to arrest him; but as he had no wish to join O'Donnell and the other nobles, then prisoners in the castle, he remounted his horse and spurred hard all night, till daybreak saw him beyond the northern boundary of the Pale. The guests imagined that he had been detained by the Deputy on matters of state; but Tyrone was fully satisfied that he had acted as became an honourable man by presenting himself when summoned, and thus exonerating his bailsmen from all responsibility. These," continued the Provincial, "are some of the incidents which I said did not come within the scope of your volume; but let us now return to our subject, and as I forgot to give you my gleanings anent the monastery of Adare, take your pen and write while I dictate."

"Father," observed Purcell, "I was anxious to learn something concerning Tyrone's conduct in that extraordinary marriage with Mabel Bagnal, the Marshal's sister."

"Some other time," replied the Provincial, "I will satisfy your curiosity on that head; but let us now save from oblivion the little that I have to relate concerning our monastery of Adare."

Father Purcell took a pen, and wrote from the dictation of his superior the following history of the monastery of Adare, or as the Celtic word signifies, of the Ford of Oaks.

"Of all our Munster monasteries* there was none more celebrated than that of Adare, whose ruins look down on the silvery Mague. This venerable edifice stands twelve miles S.W. of Limerick, and within eight of the Shannon, where the Mague pours its tributary waters into that mighty river. The Franciscans are mainly indebted for this monastery to Thomas, seventh Earl of Kildare, and Joanna his wife, daughter of James, Earl of Desmond, who laid its first stone in 1464, and erected the church and a fourth part of the cloister within the same year. Kildare and his countess were munificent benefactors to our brotherhood; for, not satisfied with furnishing the church with glass windows, they also bestowed upon it a bell of great value, and two silver chalices. The church was consecrated in honor of Michael the Archangel, on the saint's festival. in 1466, precisely one year before the decease of James,† Earl of Desmond, who was executed in Drogheda for having counselled King Edward IV. to dismiss his wife Elizabeth Woodville, widow of Sir John Grey.

"The places consecrated as cemeteries outside the church, were the cloister, within and without, and both sacristies, together with a field which was destined for public sepulture; south of this a small patch of ground was left unconsecrated, in order that it might be reserved for those who were deprived of Christian burial. The remaining portions of the building were completed by different persons, whose names are inscribed in an ancient Register which I saw in the hands of Father James Hickey, formerly guardian of the convent, and which was read in the chapter-room on all Fridays of the year, when it was customary to pray for the health of our benefactors' souls. Cornelius O'Sullivan erected the belfry, and made an offering of a silver chalice washed with gold. Margaret Fitzgibbon, wife of Cornelius O'Dea, built the great chapel; and John, son of the Earl of Desmond, already mentioned, erected a second one of minor dimensions, to which Margaret, wife of Thomas Fitz Maurice, added another, small, indeed, but exquisitely beautiful. O'Brien of Ara and his wife built the dormitory, while Rory O'Dea completed a portion of the cloister, and presented a silver chalice. Morianus O'Hickey, who subsequently took our habit and died in Adare convent, built the refectory, and it

It is now the parish church of Adare.

He was attainted in a Parliament held at Drogheda, and put to death for "fosterage, alliance and alterage with the Irish."

was he who furnished the northern side of the choir with its beautiful pannellings and stalls. Donald O'Dea and Sabina, his wife, finished another portion of the cloister, and Edmond Thomas, Knight of the Glens, and his wife, Honora Fitzgibbon, built the infirmary. The latter died May, 1503. Another lady, the wife of Fitzgibbon, added ten feet to the length of the chancel, in order that the priests might have ampler space about the great altar, and she likewise caused a vault to be constructed for herself under the choir. O'Sullivan, who erected the belfry, died in 1492; and Margaret Fitzgibbon, who built the chapel under the invocation of the Blessed Virgin, deceased January, 1483. Donough, son of Bernard O'Brien, who built the dormitory, died on the vigil of the feast of St. Francis, 1502; and our founder, Thomas, Earl of Kildare, departed March 25, 1478. Johanna, his wife, died on the feast of St. Antony of Padua, 1486, and was interred in the sacred edifice that owed so much to her munificence. Among the other illustrious personages buried in our convent of Adare was Raymond de Burgh, a friar of our order, and Bishop of Emly, who died July 29, 1562. He is said to have been the last bishop of Emly, for the see was united to that of Cashel in the time of his successor.

"When I was in Cork I saw a considerable portion of the sacred furniture of this convent in possession of Father Thomas Fitzgerald, who shewed me a very beautiful silver-gilt ciborium for the Most Holy Sacrament, a silver cross used in processions, and six or seven chalices, nearly all of which were washed with gold. He also had the Register of the convent, and various suits of sumptuous vestments which were seriously injured by time.

"During the wars of the great Earl of Desmond, our friars were ejected from the convent of Adare; and when Queen Elizabeth bestowed the desecrated edifice on one Wallop, a soldier of fortune, he allowed it to go to ruin. When I visited it the roof had fallen in, but the walls were still standing. Withal it may one day revert to the Franciscans, for whom it was built; aud even if it should not, these few particulars of its history cannot be wholly useless. Enough for the present; so let us postpone the narrative of Tyrone's marriage with Mabel Bagnal till we have more leisure for gossip."

THE DRUSES.

THE recent atrocities committed in Syria have renewed the public curiosity as to the singular race that has now suddenly shown such a deadly, though unaccustomed animosity, to its Christian neighbours. The Druses have frequently been the subject of learned enquiry and conjecture, yet their history and doctrines are still involved in much obscurity, although some circumstances of great interest have been satisfactorily ascertained. By more than one author they have been regarded as a Mohammedan, by others, but with less reason, as a Christian sect. Like the Mohammedans, they observe Friday as a religious festival, and they profess to believe in the unity of God. But they en

tirely differ from the Mohammedans in having a carefully-concealed doctrine, and in maintaining the mission. of a later and greater prophet than the Arabian. They are said to receive the Four Gospels, but they assert them to have been inspired by Solomon the Persian, who is the Messiah of the Druses. They maintain that there has been a succession at various intervals of seven great prophets, each superseding his predecessors, and all being incarnations of the same divine spirit. They place them in this order: Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, and Hamza. It was therefore no poetical exaggeration to introduce the false prophet of this sanguinary delusion as saying:

That holy spirit, settling calm and free From lapse or shadow, centres all in me." The Four Evangelists they term their "preachers," but assert that their souls have reappeared, animating other bodies among the Druses. The meaning and origin of the name Druse have perplexed enquirers, while the investigation of their religious system is impeded by the existence of a secret which is made known to none but the initiated. Hence some have conjectured that they worshipped fire, others that the sun was the object of their veneration, while another and better-founded supposition is, that they retain, among other heathen rites, the ancient and widely-diffused idolatry of the ox, or of the golden calf. It is remarked, that among them, as well as among the Sikhs, the initiated are styled Akals; a name closely agreeing with the Hebrew eghel, as that idol is designated in Exodus. The learned Silvester de Sacy is of opinion, however, that the calf image, though found in the Druse places of worship is only regarded as an emblem of other religions, or of the evil principle. This is a subject for curious enquiry, for which many particulars have been already gleaned by the industry of Adler, Niebuhr, and Burckhardt. The history of the Templars in their degeneracy and decline, may be connected with that of the Druses, and it has even been alleged that these martial Syrians are descendants from De Dreux, and others of the Crusaders whom Godfrey de Bouillon led to the reconquest of the Holy Land from the infidels. Nor was this all, for it has been confidently stated, that the most noble among them, such as the Emir Fakreddin, claimed to be ancestors of the house of Lorraine, which by a marriage with the heiress of the Hapsburgs, has come to inherit the Austrian dominions. This etymology cannot bear comparison with others from Oriental sources. The Druse catechism mentions Durees as one of the names by which their Lord has been known. The same document expressly derives the name in a somewhat cabalistic manner from the Arabic, implying complete isolation from all other sects, and formation into a distinct body. One

of the early leaders of the sect, Mohammed Ben-Ismael, was surnamed El Darazi, or El Druzi. Was it that he was styled "the Druse," or did the sect receive its name from him? The name has been variously traced to a root which signifies true, and to a derivative meaning licentiousness, the propriety of which appears confirmed by much of what is known of the Druse mysteries. Perhaps, we may also connect the Druses with the Haschischen or Assassins who became so well known during the whole period of the Crusades, whose prince, the Sheikh al Gebal, is the Old Man of the Mountain, described by Joinville in his history of St. Louis, and frequently mentioned in the middle age chronicles. The assassination of Raimond Count of Tripoli, and of Conrade, Marquis of Montferratt, in the midst of their own retainers, fearfully exemplified the dauntless resolution of those oriental fanatics. Much that is related of the assassins appears to agree sufficiently with what is known of the manners, practices, and doctrine of the Druses. The description which Jacobus de Vitriaco gives of certain wretches occupying the valleys and defiles of Mount Lebanon, observing great part of the Mohammedan law, but having a secret religion which it is not lawful to reveal except to their sons when grown up, or at the point of death, coincides with what is known of the Druses. The origin of this very peculiar sect is ordinarily referred to the end of the tenth, or beginning of the eleventh century, under the Fatimite Caliph, Hakem Bemrillah, whom it elevated into an object of worship. We believe, although it may then have assumed a detinite form, that much of its constituents has a far greater antiquity; that it combines together old heathen idolatry with some Mohammedan observances, and many of the worst parts of ancient Gnosticism and various early heresies, the entire result being a monstrous compound, of which the existence would be intolerable but for its peculiarity of not attempting to make, or even to accept, proselytes. During the war against Mohammed Ali, about twenty years ago, the Emir Bashir, who then ruled over the Druses, became a Christian, but he had to abandon his country, unless he preferred to suffer martyrdom for e'ther forsaking or divulging the mysterious secrets of his former worship. The Druses are rendered more formidable by their organisation and secret bonds of union than by their actual numbers, which, if we are to credit recent accounts, are inferior to those of the Christian tribes with whom they are intermingled. Early in the present century the Druses were regarded as superior in numbers to both the Christians and Mohammedans in the mountainous region of Syria. But, however the fact may be is to comparative numbers, it is certain that the strength of the Druses is enormously enhanced by their internal arrangements as a ferocious secret association.

The Derusiaeans (Aegovoratoi) are mentioned by Herodotus as a Persian tribe, and it is no very unreasonable supposition that they might have migrated into the region of Mount Lebanon. The Kelbiah, a kindred tribe, may perhaps be traced to the Chalybes of the ancients, and are believed to have their name from the Hebrew and Arabic Keleb, a dog, which is one of the

objects of their worship. The antiquarian Spon has published an inscription found at Palmyra, which attests that the Romans under the Empire had a body of soldiers formed of these Kalbians, or as a profoundly learned orientalist says, "of the Calbians, inhabitants of Mount Lebanon, a nation of the greatest bravery in war." Among the earliest authentic notices of the Druse tribes is the characteristic description given by the Jewish traveller, Benjamin of Tudela, about the middle of the twelfth century, in which their military qualities and impatience of restraint are conspicuous. The German physician, Doctor Leonhart Rauwolff, who visited Mount Lebanon between 1573 and 1576, describes them under the name of Trusci, and speaks of their being in alliance with the Christian inhabitants of their country, "so that they need not to fear any harm from them." He estimates their number as being then about sixty thousand, and describes the fierce resistance which they offered to the attempts made for their subjugation by the Turks. "They are," says he, "warlike people; for the generality, good gunners, that make their own guns and any other sort of arms, &c. They have plenty of corn, oyl, wine, good meat and good fruit, so that they need not any assistance of strangers. They chiefly deal in silk, whereof they wind (from silkworms) about a hundred Rotulas in a year, which is about four hundred and fifty hundred weight, to send from thence into other countries." He distinctly recounts their belief of having a Christian original, an opinion which may perhaps be referred to some early association with the Templars in the period of their degeneracy, when they became infected with the vices and false doctrines of their Syrian neighbours. "The Trusci," says Rauwolf, "pretend to be Christians, and the posterity of those that some years ago, by might and strength, recovered the Holy Land; so that still to this day they have a great affection for Christianswhich those that travel among them to buy silks can testifie-whom they treat and entertain very civilly with good meat and good wine, yet refuse to take any money for it; and say, that what God hath given them, they are bound tɔ distribute among us Christians. But they hate Mahometans and Jews, and keep very good inte!ligence with the Christians of this country. Yet they themselves are neither Christians, Turks, Moors, nor Jews; for they do not go to Mass, nor any other public worship of God. They cry out sometimes to heaven, that God would be pleased to protect them. They also believe that the souls of the deceased transmigrate from one body into another: that the soul of a pious man goeth into a new-born child, and that of an ill man into the body of a dog, or other beast, chiefly if he hath lived very ill. As they believe, so they live also." He then gives some particulars of their licentiousness, in which he is corroborated by Benjamin and other writers. "Else," says he, "they are not given to stealing, killing, or any such like crimes, because they want for nothing; but if any be taken that hath thus transgressed, he is executed immediately. So they live in peace together, and care not for any other monarch." At that time they were

divided into five tribes, each governed immediately by its own Emir, with only a nominal subjection to the Turkish Sultan; but about ten years after Rauwolff's visit, it was determined to reduce them, and their Christian allies, the Maronites. With this purpose, the Sultan Amurath III., sent his sou-in-law, Ibrahim, at the head of a large army, into Syria. The war lasted through two years, 1585 and 1586, with various fortune, but ended in depriving both Maronites and Druses of much of their previous liberty, besides increasing their annual tribute. In the first encounters, the Turks were defeated with great slaughter; but, partly by treachery, partly by taking advantage of the separate interests and divisions of their opponents, they succeeded in subduing them. Soon after the conclusion of this war, the Jesuit Father Hieronymo Dandiui was sen into Syria by Pope Clement VIII., with very extensive faculties, on a mission to the Maronites. In the account of this mission, it is remarkable that Father Dandini does not mention any deadly feud as subsisting between the Maronites and the Druses. The Fathers Besson, Chinon, and others, are equally silent as to any such state of animosity between those intermingled people. But there are many credible testimonies of the goodwill entertained by the warlike Druses for their Christian neighbours, and for the French people. The Sieur Michel Febure, in the middle of the seventeenth century, speaking of the Druses, says "They have a particular love and affection for their fellow-countrymen, the Maronites, with whom they have often planned to deliver the entire country into the hands of the king of France, whom they esteem, love, and honour of all the Christian princes, considering themselves as old subjects and offspring of his kingdom." He adds, "They promise that they will become Chris tians, and to return to the religion of their ancestors, if the French were ever to come into the Holy Land for the conquest of their country." In like manner the Recollet Father Eugene Roger (Descr. Topogr. des Saints Lieux, Paris, 1664) attests their kind disposition towards the Christians, and their hatred of the Mohammedans and Jews.

We have yet to learn how the temper of this people could have been instigated to perpetrate the horrible slaughter of the Christians, at which Europe is now horrified and indignant. What secret intrigues, what artful machinations have led this semi-barbarous people to exercise the most intense enmity on those with whom they had previously been living as friends and neighbours? European intervention, slow as it has been, may yet reach the guilty, but will it trace out and lay bare the causes of the calamity? Will it be noticed, that only for one of the great crimes of the French Revolution, there would have been prompt and effectual assistance ready at no great distance, when the first cry of distress was heard from Syria? Who can doubt that if Malta still belonged to the order of St. John, it would at once have dispatched a naval force to the ports which had received the first Crusaders proceeding to the Holy Land? The successors of De L'Isle Adam, and

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De La Valette, would not have waited for the tedious and perplexing discussions of mere politicians and diplomatic agencies, but at once, with whatever force they had available, would have proceeded to the rescue. small but resolute body of auxiliaries, could, in the early period of the disturbance, have done much, and the Syrian Christians, who at first stood bravely to their defence, would not have had to abandon their efforts in despair. If the Druses were themselves converted to Christianity, the whole of Syria might ere long be rescued from Turkish thraldom. Besides the valour which, in common with their Christian countrymen, they had been accustomed to display in their encounters with the common enemy, they are to be commended for the respect which they have always shown to female chastity, a feature in their conduct to which neither Turks nor Christians can readily show a parallel. On the contrary, the horror of the recent massacres appears to have been everywhere aggravated by the licentious violence of the Turkish soldiery and people.

THE MARONITES.

Fa

THE Maronites are the original Christian people of Syria, who have preserved their faith and communion with the Catholic Church, from the time of the Apostles to the present day. Various opinions have been given as to the meaning and origin of their name, which some would derive from a place, others from a person, others again from a Syriac word signifying Lord, to express their constant devotion to our Lord and Saviour. ther Faustus Nairon, who was himself a Maronite and professor of the Syriac language in Rome, after discussing all these opinions, decides, that the true derivation is from the name of the holy Abbot Maron, who, in the beginning of the fifth century, when many false doctrines were industriously propagated through Syria and other countries of the East, successfully resisted the prevalent corruptions, and in his monastery, and among all within its influence, maintained a strict adherence to the Apostolic faith. The ancient and nearly contemporary ecclesiastical historian Theodoret, bears testimony to his zealous labours, and such was his deserved reputation for holiness, that St. Chrysostom addressed a letter to him, still extant, in which he commended himself to the abbot's prayers. From these facts it appears that this Maron flourished about A.D. 400, so that he was coæval with our apostle St. Patrick. From the name of this Abbot Maron, says the learned Maronite Abraham Ecchellensis, were designated, first, all the monks of th second Syrian province, and afterwards, that is, fron the time of the Council of Chalcedon (A.D. 451,) al those Syrians who, accepting its decrees against heretica opinions, remained constant in the Catholic faith There is extant a letter from the Syrian Archimandrite (or Albots), to Pope Hormisdas early in the sixt century, the first signature to which is that of th Archimandrite of St. Maron's monastery. At a late period, that is, between the sixth and seventh century lived John the Maronite, Patriarch of Antioch, an author of Commentaries on the Liturgy of St. Jame

He has been supposed by some to have given name to his nation, but Abraham Ecchellensis disproves this by citing the following title of one of that patriarch's works: The profession of the faith of the Apostolic Church, which S. John Patriarch of Antioch wrote in the monastery of Maron, situate on the River Orontes, of the province of Apamaea and Hems, and which he sent to Mount Libanus, from which the inhabitants of that mountain are called Maronites, from_the name of the monastery of Maron, and John himself is surnamed Maro, from the name of the monastery. Ecchellensis cites from another ancient Syrian author the following testimony: "The Syrians answered, we return to the judgment of the Monastery of Maron, which is interpreted the House of the Lord," and after stating that there were eight hundred monks of that house, the account proceeds thus: "Then the inhabitants of Mount Libanus, and Hems, Hemat and Aleppo, remained steadfast in the decrees of the holy councils, and were all referred to the monastery of Maron, and they were called Maronites from the name of the monastery." The Syrian author is here relating how the Monothelite heresy had been rejected by the people of Libanus and the neighbouring country. It did however happen in the progress of time that Nestorians, and other schismatical and in various degrees heretical Christians, became intermingled with the faithful Maronites, and from them an imputation was cast upon the entire people. Hence William of Tyre, and some other good authors were led into the belief that the Maronites had separated from the Catholic Church, and had become reconciled to it at the time of the Crusades for recovering the Holy Land. The Cardinal Jacobus de Vitriaco, from the submission of those schismatics, and the general consent of the Maronite people, was induced to view the formal act of abjuring errors as being alike applicable to all, and he speaks of the Maronites as having been for five hundred years previous separated from the Church, and at last having professed the Catholic faith, and renounced their error in the presence of Emeric the Latin Patriarch of Antioch, A.D. 1182. They followed the traditions of the Holy Roman Church. Whence," says the Cardinal, "when all the other Oriental prelates, except only the Latins, do not use episcopal rings and mitres, nor bear the pastoral staff in their hands, nor have the use of bells, but are accustomed to gather the people to the church by striking large wooden tablets with a stick or a mallet, the Maronites in sign of their obedience observe the customs and rites of the Latins. And hence their Patriarch was present in the general Council of Lateran, solemnly celebrated in the city of Rome under the venerable Pope Innocent III.," in November A.D. 1215.

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The Catholic Church has always been indulgent to national and local peculiarities of customs, ceremonial, and discipline, when not inconsistent with the faith. The Maronites, as well as the other Oriental Christians that acknowledge the supremacy of St. Peter's successors, partake of this benefit in many particulars. Their Patriarch of Antioch is always styled Peter, at least

from the time of Pope Honorius I., who died in A.D. 638. Their sacred books are in the old Syriac language, and include a Missal, a Breviary, and a Martyrology. Gabriel Sionita, informs us that the Missal is called the Book of the Oblation; or, the Book of the Consecration. He describes it as containing the liturgies of several saints, but the contents of all being almost the same as those of the Latin Mass. A manuscript in his possession contained sixteen liturgies, the first of which was attributed to S. Xystus, who was Bishop of Rome about the beginning of the second century. All these Syriac Liturgies contain an Introit, the Gloria in excelsis, a Prose, Epistle, Gospel, the Apostles' Creed, the washing of the hands, the Offertory, Preface, Consecration, Commemoration of the Saints, Collects for the Clergy, the Princes, and for the faithful living and dead, the Lord's prayer, the returning of thanks, the blessing of the people, but with some differences of arrangement and ceremonial. Gabriel Sionita concludes that the Missal and other sacred books of the Syrians must be older than the fourth century. The Breviary is divided into the Ferial office, that for Lent, and for the festivals fixed and moveable. Each office is distributed into seven hours of prayer: Vespers; Complin, which is termed Protection; Matins and Lauds which are called the night prayers; Prime, the matin or morning prayer; Tierce, Sext, and None. Each of these hours consists of a commencement, and two, three or more prayers, with as many hymns interposed; and before the last hymn there is always incense burned. The night prayers corresponding to the Latin Matins, consist of four Stations, which the Latins called Nocturns. The first station is addressed to the Blessed Virgin; the second to the Martyrs; the third is for the Dead; the fourth is general to God and the Saints. Each Station is composed of a commencement, two prayers and as many hymns alternately, and with incensing. Eight complete psalms, and four portions, together with the Magnificat, are used daily in this office, but with less variety than in the Western Church, the psalms being the same every day. Sionita remarks that many of the hymns and prayers in this Breviary were composed by the Syrian saints, James of Nisibis, and Ephrem, which he reckons among the evidences of its great antiquity.

The Maronite churches are so disposed, that the entrance is always from the west, and the altar at the other extremity, so that the celebrant looks eastward. The churches generally consist of a nave, with aisles, and three altars screened by chancels, within which none may enter unless the clergy, and they only when fasting. The laity, and especially the female sex, are prohibited to touch the altar, or even to enter the sanctuary; and while the most solemn part of the mass is celebrating, the chancel is secluded from view by a veil, so that even the sight of the divine mysteries is secluded from the laity. In these churches the north aisle is assigned to the women, and they both enter and depart by the door of that aisle. But in churches that have no aisles, the women are placed at the west end at each side of the