136 



suffice. In Nepaul, tumuli of this nature are numerous, and a 

 divine spirit is supposed to inhabit them, the natives therefore never 

 pass by one vt'ithout stopping to adore the divinity.* Another 

 example offers a curious existing parallel for those superstitious 

 practices, which have very lately been described as annually oc- 

 curring at the holy well of Struil, in the county of Down. In the 

 Karnatic are three tumuli which they call temples, each of which 

 however is only a cairn of stones, containing a small chamber, 

 like the Ciste-Bhanas found in so many of our smaller cairns; these 

 are dedicated to the spirits of men who have died unmarried, and 

 therefore became Virika, a sort of deified spirit. To those manes of- 

 ferings are made, with superstitious rites, and if these ceremonies be 

 neglected they are supposed to appear in dreams, and to torment 

 and menace those who ought to have performed this duty.-f- Thus 

 we see the sanctity with which the pagan world at the present day 

 as, universally in old limes, invests the high place. In all coun- 

 tries, Egypt, India, and the European nations, it bore, and in parts 

 of America and the islands of the Pacific Ocean, as well as in 

 many parts of the East, it does still bear the i-ame character, the 

 same mysterious union of sepulchral and adoralive rites. 



Closely connected with the cairn, are the circles of upright 

 stones, usually called Druidic circles. These are to be found in 

 various countries, and always retaining tl.e same connexion. On 

 Mount Ida in Phrygia the high place sacred to Idean Jove,J on 

 Lebanus, in Persia,§ in Norway, and Sweden, where they usually 



• Account of Nepaul, by Colonel Kirkpatric, p. 60. 

 f Buchanan's Journey in Mysore, &c. I. p. 359. 



X Origin of Pagan Idolatry Clarke's Travels, II. p. 132. quarto ectition. 



^ Ousely's Travels in the East, II. p. 132. 



