of some bones under one in Ireland proves nothing: it is the exception, and not the rule.

A Cromlech, of such magnitude as to be justly called a Druid's cave, is to be seen three miles from Saumur in France. An oblong block of granite nearly sixty-two feet long and thirty wide, forms the pavement: the walls are at least ten feet high, and consist of four stones. One shuts up the end, and the mouth is nearly closed by another. Two immense masses serve as a roof. It is evident that no one could mistake this for an altar. The Cromlechs in that country seem to be in general on a very large scale; and Mr. Deane observes that they cover a larger piece of ground than those in England, and make a chamber, which he calls sepulchral, without any evidence to support the designation, and sometimes two of great dimensions. And not only is their structure most unequivocally hostile to the notion of an altar (for they have sometimes a series of four, or five, or six tabular stones upon the top), but the traditional belief of their character equally contradicts it: for they are called Fairies' Rocks, Roches aux Fées; which proves that they were regarded by those, amongst whom traditions keep their firmest hold, neither as altars, nor as sepulchres, but as the residence of beings who were superior to ordinary mortals. Nor was the mysterious awe which they attached to Cromlechs confined to those of immense magnitude: even when they were reduced to miniature, super

1 Six weeks on the Loire.

2 Deane's Observations on Dracontia, p. 24.

natural virtues were ascribed to them in the same district; for instance, there is a chapel dedicated to St. Cado, who is very appropriately chosen for the Saint of the Ked, and who is said to have expelled the serpents from the country, which, like the stories of conquest over Typhon, and Midgard, and Apophis, and Hydra, is a truly Arkite tradition. In this chapel there is a Cromlech, consisting as usual of four stones, but only measuring three feet in length, and two in width. Of course, it will not admit the whole body of a man, but superstition is not easily baulked by little difficulties. The devout peasants thrust their heads into the open end, in order to be cured of deafness.' But since only those who passed through the door of the Ark obtained the benefits of that extraordinary deliverance, a passage through the commemorative stone, where it has not the structure of a cell, has, in many instances, been deemed essential to the enjoyment of Arkite privileges. Thus at Lanyon, in the parish of Maddern, between two pillars about four feet high, a thin stone standing on its edge has a large hole in the middle, fourteen inches in diameter, through which an intelligent farmer assured Borlase that he had known many persons creep for pains in their back and limbs; and that fanciful parents at certain times of the year drew their young children through it to cure them of the rickets.2 This stone is called Mên an Tol, the

1 Deane's Observations on Dracontia, p. 36. 2 Antiquities of Cornwall, p. 169. of sleeping on stones on a particular lameness, p. 138.

He mentions also the practice night in order to be cured of

stone with a hole; and generally all stones, through which or under which a passage has been formed, are called in Cornwall Tolmens. Thus at Mên, in the parish of Constantine, there is a vast Tolmen placed on the points of two natural rocks, so that a man may creep under the great one, and between its supporters, through a passage about three feet wide, and as many high.'

1 It is 97 feet in circumference, and 60 across the middle. Ibid. p. 166.

AB

AND IN EGYPTIAN MYSTERIES. · PURIFICATION. LUTION IN GREECE, ROME, NEW HOLLAND, ETRURIA,

ROCK BASINS AT THE PEAK, HALIFAX, BRIMHAM, INDIA, ARARAT, TABOR. SANCTIFICATION BY WATER AMONG THE JEWS AND EGYPTIANS, AND IN THE MYSTERIES. BAPTISM, ZECHARIAH XIV.- SPRINKLING OF BLOOD.

IT is a striking proof of the tenacity with which these superstitions maintain their hold through many and many successive generations, when we find that even the light of Christianity has been unable to dissolve the spell among those who profess its faith. A recent traveller, M. Caila, in visiting the churches in the Landes of Gascony, observed several narrow openings in the thickest part of one of the pillars. These were called Vegrines; and persons affected with rheumatism, or paralysis, were made to pass through them that they might be cured. Now since there is no natural connection in these cases between the act and the operation expected from it, it is necessary to look for the source of the superstition in something more remote; in some system of religion which will account for the extraordinary efficacy attributed to a

1 In the admonitions of St. Eloi in the eighth century, he charges the Christians not to follow the pagan superstitions. Qu'on ne fasse point passer le bétail par un arbre creux ou par un trou de la terre. Relig. de Gaules, p. 71.

cause that not only sets all physics and reason at defiance, but moreover by its bare simplicity should startle even credulity itself. But to the passage through the side of the Ark, recovery of health and renovation of life were very naturally ascribed by the Arkites; and, accordingly, we are assured that devout persons in India pass through perforated stones in order to be regenerated.' Heber says that at the extremity of the promontory called Malabar Point in the island of Bombay, he saw the remains of a pagoda, which appears from its situation to have been an Arkite temple, and a hole famous as a place of resort for Hindoo devotees, who believe that by entering it below, and emerg. ing from it above, they are purified from all their sins, and come out regenerate. The same mispersuasion has descended both to Mahommedans and to professors of Christianity. Père Reger, cited by Chateaubriand 3, relates that in the great mosque of Solomon a similar mode of trial is practised by devout Mussulmans. If they can pass between two small columns they are predestinated to the Paradise of Mohammed; and in the Holy Sepulchre, two holes are shewn cut in the rock, and descending into a sort of grotto. The Greek pilgrims go down through the large hole, and come

As. Res. vi. 502. In Ireland there are several of this description. Near Killmelcheder Church in the county of Kerry, there is a stone perforated, like those mentioned by Mr. Wilford in India, through which people passed to be regenerated; and in a corner of the old Church of Aghadoe near Killarney, a stone seven feet long is supported at one end by a smaller one, so as to leave an opening beneath.- Collect. de Reb. Hibern. vi. 182.

2 Heber's Journal, iii. 100.

3 Vol. ii. p. 376.