Colonel Ton's Observations on a Gold Ring found at Montrose. 56.5 



laries of Rome ; but good authority proves the reverse.* That most interest- 

 ing town, Falaise, wliich exhibits so many vestiges of Celtic superstition, is, 

 like Paris and the Parisii, derived from the symbolic worsliip of the same 

 Ahnmty—Vhaloi-Isis, contracted Falaisia, Falesia, Falaise. On the site of 

 her temple, " dont les deux gables subsistent encore," is erected the church 

 of the Sainte Trinite, of which these gables form the " croisillon," or transept. 

 They are described to have been pierced for celestial observation : « Dans 

 " le "-able qui regarde le midi, on pratiqua deuxfenetres, fune de solstice d'Inver, 

 " a la hauteur d'environ dix pieds de Varie, et Fautre du solstice d'ete, au-dessus 

 " de la galerie des eqiiinoxes."\ Here we see the chief celestial revolutions 

 were the objects of devotion with the Celts of Gaul ; to one of which the 

 ring before us has allusion. The statue of the goddess was placed in a 

 cen'tral position of this sacred observatory : " En face de la double fenetre 

 >■' du milieu, ils placerent une statue d'Isis, sous la forme d'unrfemme, qui avoit 

 " sur la tete un croissant, et qui tenait avec affection su> les genoux des enfans 

 " qui lui tendoient les bras." Here in the Celtic Isis of Falaise, we have a 

 more pleasing form of the universal mother, the Isaiii of the Hindus, than 

 that of the Parisii. This is the Mata Janoni, or mother of births ; and 

 thoun'h I have never seen her head so ornamented with the crescent, yet that 

 of the One, Creator of all, has a cross on the very apex of its pyramidal 

 roof, at the sacred lake of Poshkur. 



But supposing it might be disputed that the statues had been formed after 

 intercourse with the Romans, we have still stronger proof in the worship of 

 the identical symbols, such as I detected at Pffistum and Pompeii, and such 

 as are on the ring before us, in various parts of France. 



A very interesting work has been written chiefly in the Celtic monuments 

 at Toull,t the Tullum of the Romans, and the capital of the Luci, a tribe 

 renowned as archers, who appear to have worshipped Isis under the same 

 symbols as those on the ring before us. Like the martial Rajpoot, the Luci 

 had these emblems of life placed beside their sepulchres. The author 

 specifies thirty-five monuments yet existing, •' qui ont la forme d'un cone 



• Recherches sur les Ruines et les Monuraens de la ville Celtique de Toull. 

 f Dissertation sur Belenus, prefixed to " Recherches sur Falaise," p. 19. 

 + I have to regret my ignorance of these remains when I passed through Toull a few months 

 ago, and stopped some time to examine its superb Gothic cathedral. 



Vol. II. * D 



