142 



of Egypt," yet like many other ancient appellations it may have pos- 

 sessed a double meaning. 



It is certain that Gilgal continued in after times to be a place of 

 importance ; Samuel went there annually to administer justice ; 

 Saul was crowned there ;* — there he offered sacrifice before Samuel 

 came there to him,-f and there he received the intelligence of his 

 being rejected as king, in the very spot where the people had 

 assembled to confirm the kingdom to him. The coincidence also 

 of the three places of judgment, where in his circuit Samuel yearly 

 judged Israel, with the position of recorded stones of consecration, 

 Gilgal, Bethel and Mitzpeh, is very remarkable : all these circum- 

 stances seem to declare that both the circle of stones and the single 

 stone, were of ancient patriarchal institution, retained by the chil- 

 dren of Israel, and not disapproved of by the Lord until they were 

 perverted to idolatrous uses. .i^tiiii 



Numerous circles remain in Scotland, where universal tradition 

 declares them to have been places of sacrifice and worship in 

 heathen times, and many of the existing names express their ancient 

 sanctity. In the Highlands they are often called Caer, which in 

 Gaelic signifies an oracle, a throne, a place of address. They are 

 also called temple-stones, temples, and chapels. One in Bamfshire 

 is named the Blessed Chapel.;]; The western Highlanders use the 

 expression of going to the clachans, that is, to the stones for going 

 to church — probably the remains of an ancient phrase for going to 

 worship, having now a modern application.§ 



• 1 Sam. X. 8. 



f Ibid. xiii. 8. 



X Dr. Garden on Circular Monuments — Archeologia, I. pp. 315—316. 



§ Pennant's Western Tour. — Jamieson's Gaelic Dictionary, word Clachan. — The number of 

 statistical county surveys there quoted prove the phrase to be in general use throughout the 

 Highlands. 



