250 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



their religious rites make the circuits sinistrally i. e., contrary 

 to the apparent course of the sun, or, as physicists say, contra- 

 clockwise. The Mokis also are careful to stir medicines according 

 to the sinistral circuit. But countless instances go to show that 

 among Asiatic and European peoples the general belief or feeling 

 is that the dextral circuit i. e., clockwise, or with the apparent 

 motion of the sun is the correct and auspicious direction. 



The following illustrations of this I quote from "William Simp- 

 son's Meeting the Sun: * "They [people of past times] held that 

 going sunwise was good and lucky, while going the opposite way 

 was unpropitious. The Lama monk twirls his raani or praying 

 cylinder in one direction on this account, and he fears lest a 

 stranger should get his wheel and turn it the other way, thus de- 

 stroying whatever virtue it had acquired. They also build piles 

 of stones, and uniformly pass them on one side in going and on the 

 other side in returning, thus making a circuit in imitation of the 

 sun. The ancient dagopas of India and Ceylon were also thus cir- 

 cumambulated. The Mohammedan performs the ' taivaf or circuit 

 of the Caaba after the same fashion ; and it is an old Irish and 

 Scotch custom to go ' Deisul/ or sunwise, round houses and graves, 

 and to turn their bodies in this way at the beginning and end of 

 journeys for luck, as well as at weddings and various ceremonies." 



To turn the opposite way was called by them " withershins," 

 and supposed to be an act intimately connected with the purposes 

 of the evil one. Witches danced this way, and in imitation of 

 the same read prayers backward. The author of Olrig Grange, 

 in an early poem, describes this most graphically : 



" Hech ! sirs, but we bad grand fun 

 Wi' the muckle black deil in the chair, 

 And the muckle Bible upside doon 

 A' ganging withershins roun' and roun', 

 And backwards saying the prayer. 

 About the warlock's grave, 

 Withershins gangin' roun', 

 And kimmer and carlins had for licht 

 The fat of a bairn they buried that nicht, 

 Unchristened beneath the moon." f 



The Imperial Dictionary gives the derivation of the word 

 withershins as from the Anglo-Saxon wither, against, and sunne, 

 the sun that is, contrary to the motion of the sun though I be- 

 lieve there has been some disagreement regarding the origin of 

 the word. It is sometimes spelled wider 'shins ; which would imply 

 a direct relation to the German wider and schein. Withershins 

 movements were generally used in working spells or counter- 



* Pp. 340, 341. \ Confessions of Aunaple Gowdie, from The Bishop's Walk. 



