On Druidical Remains, 297 



" no water feems to bid more juftly for the 

 *' preference in thofe facred rites, than this. 



" It may with great probability be advanced, 

 " that fo drift a feft as that of the Druids 

 *' could not be ignorant of fo univerfal a cuf- 

 " torn, nor knowingly forbear to adopt fo anci- 

 '* ent and fpecious a rite for a part of their fyf- 

 " tern : my opinion, therefore, is, that the 

 *' Druids, as well as other priefthoods, had the 

 *' rites of external purification by wafhings and 

 " fprinklings ; for this, they had their holy 

 " water j that this holy water was rain or fnow, 

 " or probably both j and that thefe rock-bafons 

 " were vefTels mod ingenioudy contrived to 

 ** procure that holy water. They likewife had 

 " their waters of jealoufy, as well as the Jews, 

 ** and, near the banks of the Rhine, ufed the 

 *^ waters of that river to purge the fufpedted. 



** Thefe bafons are moftly placed above the 

 " reach of cattle, frequently above the infpec- 

 '■* tion of man." Thefe long hollows, fuch as 

 Robin Hood's bed upon the done called pan- 

 cake, Borlace fuppofes " were to receive 

 <' the bodies, of men and children for particular 

 " diforders, that by the healing virtue attri- 

 " buted to the god, who inhabited the rock, 

 " they might be cured of their ailment j or, 

 " by being prodrated on fo holy a place, might 

 *^ be fitted for, and confecrated to the fervice 



" of 



