Betnains of Druidical Temples near Penzance, 125 



The city and temple here referred to are supposed to have 

 been those of Old Sarum and Stonehenge, and to have been 

 erected under the superintendence of the Druids v^ho came 

 to Mount' s-Bay from Canaan in Tyrian ships, and were re- 

 ceived as priests by the aborigines of this island. The 

 Druidical temples, however, in the neighbourhood of Pen- 

 zance, being of much ruder construction, and formed of un- 

 hewn* stones, are considered still more ancient than that of 

 Stonehenge, and to have been erected by Druids who had 

 migrated from Canaan before the Jewish temple was built, 

 and when the Jews had only their tabernacle, the court of 

 which, where the victims were slain, being, like our Druidi- 

 cal temples, all open to the sky, and inclosed by pillars placed 

 at distances of 5 cubits, or about 9 feet from each other, 

 the object in each case being apparently to exclude all who 

 were not especially engaged in the sacrifices, and at the same 

 time to allow the people on the outside to behold what was 

 transacting within ; for the Jews believe that the victims 

 were slain in sight of all the congregation, and as the court 

 could not hold a tenth part of the congregation, it seems 

 probable (Scripture being silent on the point) that the pillars 

 from which the curtains (5 cubits in breadth) were sus- 

 pended, were, like those of our Druidical temples, sufficiently 

 low to allow the people to look over them. The circular 

 forms of the latter might be traced to the worship of the sun. 

 It is also to be observed, that the Druidical priesthood re- 

 sembled that of the Jews, in being confined to the descend- 

 ants of one man, as recorded in the quotation. 



The passage, after mentioning that the Hyperboreans 

 used " their own natural language,'' and had " of long and 

 ancient time a special kindness for the Grecians," concludes 

 with the following statement : — " They say, moreover, that 

 Apollo once in nineteen years comes into the island, in which 

 space of time the stars perform their courses and return to 

 the same point, and therefore the Greeks call the revolution 

 of nineteen years the Great Year." 



This mythological reference to the cycle of nineteen years, 



* Ex. XX., 25. 



