276 ON THE ORIGIN OF THE TERM " SARSEN STONES." 



Hunter differ simply as to the more exact pronunciation of 

 sarsen, not as to tlie origin of the -word. 



I have seen a suggestion that possibly the name sarsen may 

 be derived from Sarsden, a viUage near Andover. But it seems 

 to me that there is a strong presumption against this view, arising 

 from the fact that Sarsden does not seem ever to have been 

 remarkable as a centre of sarsen stones. On the other hand we 

 may learn from Murray's Handbook to Wilts, Dorset and Somerset 

 that there is an extraordinary abundance of them near a rude 

 stone monument called "The Devil's Den," between two and 

 three miles east of Avebury. Then, a little south of Avebury^ 

 there were "in Aubrey's time 3 stones called the 'Devil's 

 Quoits.' " They are now known as the " Long Stones." While,, 

 as regards Stonehenge, the old legend about the " Friar's Heel" 

 shows us the Devil as the traditional builder of the most cele- 

 brated of all the rude stone monuments of Britain. And the 

 remark that stones known in Aubrey's time (1627- 1697) ^^ the 

 "Devil's Quoits," were known as the "Long Stones" twO' 

 centuries later, suggests the probability that stories of the Devil 

 in connection with these ancient megalithic structures may once 

 have been much more numerous than they now are. 



The lines quoted from Burns in ni}^ remarks on the Grey- 

 wethers at Grays (ajite, p. 197) illustrate the identification of the 

 Devil with " Auld Mahoun " in the folk-speech of south-western. 

 Scotland towards the close of the eighteenth century. It seems 

 now desirable to note what evidence there may be of a traditional 

 horror of pagan or diabolical Saracens, or of their connection 

 with rude stone monuments, south of the Solway. While the 

 battle of Tours (a.d. 732) checked for ever the advance of the 

 Saracens into Gaul, and they were driven thence in 755, yet, as 

 Freeman remarks,^ more especially of the ninth and tenth 



centuries : — 



" Every port of Spain and Africa sent forth ships, for ^hat, on a small scale 

 is called piracy, and on a greater, conquest. These sea-rovers were probably the 

 scum of the Saracenic people, and they certainly exhibited the Saracenic character 

 in its most odious colours. They were mere plunderers and destroyers." 



The late Robert Hunt, F.R.S., writing about the traditions- 



and folk-lore of Cornwall more than thirty years ago, noted the 



common belief among the peasantry in the sacred character of 



I Lectures on the History and Conquests of the Saracens. James Parker, Oxford and 

 London. 



