relics amounting altogether to those of two hundred individuals.

In the wild and lawless times of Scottish history the caverns of the highlands, situated in almost inaccessible fastnesses, sheltered the bandit in the prosecution of crime. A cavern on the coast of Galloway was for twenty-five years the home of Donald Bane, the miserable freebooter of 1600, who brought up a numerous family in it, to a robber-life, his entire progeny, to the number of forty-eight, being finally captured and put to death at Edinburgh. Josephus gives an interesting account of the measures adopted by Herod, to rid Judæa of numerous gangs of robbers, who had their head-quarters in the caves of the mountain districts, from whence they sallied to commit their depredations in the open country. These caves, probably those in the wild upland region of Engedi, were at a considerable height in precipitous cliffs, only to be reached by narrow rugged paths, where a few resolute individuals might successfully make a stand against an army. Herod therefore caused a number of his soldiers to be let down in large chests by iron chains from the top of the rocks. Upon reaching the mouth of one of the caves, the

soldiers, with long poles armed with hooks, hauled out the robbers, and dashed them headlong down the precipices. In other cases, where the marauders could retire so far back as to be out of the reach of these weapons, the soldiers leaped into the caves and overpowered them; and where there were combustible materials, they kindled fires, and speedily despatched the outlaws. "Mischief" and "violent dealing," sooner or later, have thus yielded a return of pains and penalties; and every unrenounced course of sin has this consequence invariably attached to it. However effectually concealed from human observation the crime may be, and secure from temporal chastisement the person of the criminal, "God is witness" of what transpires in every solitude, and will "render unto every man according to his deeds." It is salutary to have the sublime truth strongly impressed upon the mind:"Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there."

:

CHAPTER IX.

CAVERN TEMPLES.

Scandinavian mythology-Thor's cavern-India Cave of Elephanta- Description Sculptures-Head of ShivaBrahminism and Budhism-Distinction of cavern temples→→→ Mr. Erskine-Salsette - Ellora - -Egypt-Ipsambul-Minor temple-Rameses the Great-Grand rock temple-Colossi— Giovanni Finati-Dimensions of statues-Sir F. HennikerGreece-Caves sacred to rural deities Plato- Grotto on Hymettus- Described by Chandler - Corycian cave - Mr. Raikes-Greek mythology.

BEFORE the light of Christianity and civilisation dawned upon northern Europe, while a barbarous mythology held sway over its tribes, woods and caves seem to have been specially devoted to the celebration of its rites, and the natural gloom of such situations was in accordance with the revolting nature of the ritual observed. Odin's grove, and Thor's cavern, are the local names of sites which preserve the memory of the service in former times connected with them. The latter "the bloodsmear'd mansion of gigantic Thor," to whom the Druids are said to have offered human

victims-is near the beautiful valley of Dovedale in the Peak, an incongruous connexion, one of the most remarkable caverns in the whole range of the limestone district. Its commanding situation, its noble entrance and capacious interior, its application during heathen times to the savage purposes of the Scandinavian idolatry, and its connexion with names that have acquired celebrity, however undesirable in some cases-Darwin, Rousseau, Congreve, and others-concur to invest it with interest. It opens broadly to the daylight, at a considerable elevation, in the face of a stupendous rock, and is reached by a contracted path which requires to be trod with caution. The dry channel of the Manifold curves round the foot of the mountain, the stream, except in very rainy reasons, sinking hard by into a fissure of the limestone strata, as mentioned in a former chapter, and following for some distance a subterranean course. The lofty vaulted entrance of the cavern, and its ponderous branching roof, give it the aspect of a place intentionally constructed to be a temple. About twenty paces within, an aperture on one side of fifty feet in height forms a natural window reaching almost to the

floor. This, with the spacious opening in front, serves to make the excavation light, airy, and commodious, and enables the whole proportions of the cavern to be grasped at one view. Farther within, on an elevated part of the floor, where the gloom begins to struggle with the light, there is a detached stone in the form of an altar, on which it may be feared that many a human victim has been sacrificed to the idol god Thor, whose name the site retains. Happily the darkness has passed, the true light now shines upon our hills and valleys, making manifest a revelation breathing "peace on earth, and good-will to men."

In India, cavern-temples, upon a gigantic scale, occur in great numbers, and an amount of labour and skill, which it is difficult to estimate, has been expended upon their formation and adornment. In the first instance, caves in their natural state were, no doubt, employed for religious purposes, the ready shelter they afforded suggesting such an appropriation of them ; but the disposition to honour the idol god, as well as to accommodate a multitude of priests, would soon lead to the conversion of natural excavations into symmetrical and gorgeous shrines upon a larger