165 



is possible led to a small artificial cave under the moat : the earth 

 has fallen so as to conceal the termination, but the regular shape 

 excites the idea. 



On the top of the hill is a small round tumulus, to which a straight 

 road, about two hundred feet long, and bounded on each side by a 

 low wall, leads. 



At no great distance from it is a large druidical stone. 



On many raths we find circles of crooked stunted hawthorn trees; 

 probably the remains of the wattle fences which Spencer describes 

 the Irish to have used at the time when he wrote his view of Ire- 

 land, both around their houses,* and as a sort of fortification to their 

 strong-holds in the forests. 



Both these customs prevail in the Caucasus; the Tscherkessian 

 or Circassian tribes choose similar situations, and build their dwelling 

 houses of wattle work, well plastered within and without, and 

 thatched with straw ; several houses are placed so as to form a 

 circle ; around this, at about twenty paces distance, they plant a 

 hedge, which they plash or weave together so as to form a strong 

 fence.-f- 



Among the Abassian tribes the dwellings are constructed in the 

 same manner, but not collected in villages ; they stand detached in 

 the woods, having a court or open area before them, the whole, 

 however, of the premises of each tenement is surrounded by a stout 

 wattle hedge : at nightfall it is customary to drive their cattle and 

 herds within this enclosure for security. Throughout the country 

 are scattered many wattle entrenchments with double hedges, in- 

 tended only for the security of the flocks and herds, which are driven 



* See also on Tartarian Tumuli. Archeologia, II. p. 224. 

 f Klaproth's Travels in the Caucasus, p. 2^:8. 



