98 
were,” says Mr. Hardiman, “ anciently overshadowed with wood, of 
which there are still very evident remains. This circumstance, 
combined with their retired situation and wild appearance, rendered 
them peculiarly well adapted for the celebration of the pagan rites 
of the early Irish. The immense cairns, stone monuments or altars, 
circles, and other Druidic remains, yet to be seen here, show that 
these Islands were formerly the resort of that famous order of hea- 
then priests.”* 
These interesting monuments can receive little or no philosophic 
attention from a tourist, happening to be unacquainted with the 
Druidic doctrines and ceremonials: a species of knowledge, of the 
want of which many of the most learned have candidly complained. 
To be obtained practically, recourse must be had to the physical 
remains of the ancient and celebrated worship of the Celts. The 
Aranites, in their simplicity, consider these remains of Druidism still 
sacred and inviolable; being, they imagine, the inchanted haunts 
and property of aerial beings, whose power of doing mischief they 
greatly dread and studiously propitiate. For entertaining this kind 
of religious respect, they have another powerful motive: they be- 
lieve that the cairns, or circular mounts, are the selpulchres, as 
some of them really are, of native chiefs and warriors of antiquity, 
of whose military fame and wondrous achievements they have 
abundance of legendary stories. The well attended winter-evening 
tales of the Scealuidhe, or story-tellers, are the only historical enter- 
tainments of this primitive, simple, and sequestered people. In this 
credulous and superstitious propensity, they exactly resemble their 
brethren, the Scots of the Highlands and Isles. Indeed, the soli- 
tude and romantic wildness of their “ seagirt’’ abode, and the ve- 
» Hist. of Galway, p. 319. 
