The Circle in South African Myth. 187 



Sir Norman Lockyer calls the men-an-tol. It is very complete, and 

 has two attendant pillars or gnomons. Sir Norman's opinion of 

 these holed stones is that they were used for sighting the summer 

 solstice; the fact that the gnomons effectually block up the line of 

 sight does not seem to cause him to have a suspicion of doubt as to 

 the correctness of this view. Near by, at Tregaseal, there is another 

 gnomon, or long stone, and at the foot of it a whole nest of holed 

 stones, small ones, this time, like our Tikoes, and I imagine that 

 Sir Norman would consider these as early attempts of the ancient 

 Britons at making opera-glasses. 



In all these circles the disc is upright, but the same idea is 

 conveyed by a recumbent circle, examples of which occur in the 

 Greek temples, and thus one is led to connect the holy wells and 

 clefts with this same worship of the circle. 



In an almost inaccessible part of Burmah there is a remarkable 

 temple built on a boulder whirh balances on the edge of a cliff. 

 Legend tells how this boulder, which is not a rocking-stone, in days 

 of greater piety used to float free above the summit. There are 

 those who argue that even now a fine thread can be drawn between 

 the boubJer and the rock. The sacredness of the boulder, however, 

 which caused the temple to be built, is a rounded segregation on the 

 side looking over the valley, which produces on the surface of the 

 stone the holy circle — Siva's eye, watching over the world. General 

 Forlong, who worked his way through almost impenetrable forest to 

 the spot, savs that his followers no sooner came near the place than 

 everyone, believers and unbelievers alike, l>egan fishing for treasure 

 which the devout had thrown down the many fissures hereabout, 

 with long bamboos having wax fastened to the end. The General 

 states that his partv was unsuccessful, but he was told that often 

 jewels of very great value could thus be recovered. The whole cliff 

 is sacred on account, firstlv, of the Sivaic eye in the boulder, 

 secondly, on account of the many fissures around, and the temple 

 is shaped like a gnomon capping the eye, capping the fissures, in the 

 same sense as the gnomon caps the oval in the Roman altar, or the 

 stone needle caps the serpent pit at Constantinople. 



We arrive, then, from a consideration of mystic symbols all o\'er 

 the world, at the conclusion that primitive people saw in the circle, 

 pit or crevice, some divine meaning, but concurrently with these there 

 was always a hand, gnomon, pillar or tree which completed the sacred 

 couple. Tet us applv these facts, learned from comparative religion, 

 to the great question of the Zimbabw-e ruins. The chief temple 

 contains a solid masonrv gnomon. When the British Association 

 visited South Africa, we learned from Dr. Mclver that this gnomon 

 was of no significance precisely, because there w'ere no signs of the 

 complementary circle to be found ; small gnomons are frequently 

 unearthed, but nothing of the nature of a holed stone. If Dr. Mclver 

 had not been in such a hurry, or if the explorers of the great Zimbabwe 

 had had a knowledge of comparative religion, they would have seen 

 that the whole reason for the temple being in the position it is, is 



