C A I 



fll 



C A I 



( 4>rr. day, in places where murder* or suicides are com- 

 * v mitted ; and there can be no doubt, that many of 

 the ancient cairns arc designed to celebrate events of 

 more propitious omen. 



As religion, however, even in the rudest states of 

 society, has always deeply interested the feelings of 

 men, we may naturally expect numerous monuments 

 relating to this important subject. Connected with 

 religion is the sepulture of the dead, an object of 

 great importance in the estimation both of civilized 

 and barbarous nations ; and there can be no doubt 

 that the cairns in Britain have often been consecrated 

 to both these purposes. Without travelling far into 

 the region of conjecture, we might claim for these 

 humble monuments, the same origin and use which 

 have been ascribed to the lofty pyramids of Egypt. 

 Accordingly, some of our antiquarians have suppo- 

 sed the cairns to be relicts of Druidical superstition, 

 and originally dedicated to the worship of the sun ; 

 whilst others have contended, that they are to be 

 considered merely as funeral monuments. The first 

 opinion derives some support from a practice common 

 in former times, of going round these cairns at par- 

 ticular periods, according to the course of the sun, 

 when a favourable issue was desired to any event or 

 undertaking ; and of moving in an opposite direc- 

 tion, when vengeance and imprecations were denoun- 

 ced against obnoxious individuals : The second opi- 

 nion derives confirmation, from the circumstance of 

 urns and bones being generally found under these 

 monuments. But the two opinions are not at all in- 

 consistent. The place consecrated to religious uses, 

 would naturally be considered as the most proper re- 

 ceptacle for the sacred reliques of the dead ; whilst, 

 on the other hand, the feelings which arise from con- 

 templating the remains of our relations and friends, 

 dispose the mind to devotion, and fit the place 

 which contains them for the hallowed purposes of 

 religion. 



Cairns are to be found in almost every part of Scot- 

 land ; and, in a great variety of instances, where 

 their contents have been examined, they have been 

 found to enclose urns, implements of war, ornaments 

 of dress, &c. See Statist. Account passim ; and 

 Chalmers's Caledonia, voh i. 



A late traveller in America pretends, that he has 

 discovered some very singular monuments of this 

 kind. He says, that, on a certain occasion, after 

 removing a quantity of loose stones on the top of an 

 eminence, he came at last to something resembling a 

 tesselated pavement ; beneath this he found the fi- 

 gure of a warrior, with a large serpent under his 

 teet, all formed of coloured wood, which fell to pie- 

 ces on endeavouring to lift it. He also found seve- 

 ral rings of metal, which aflbrds him an opportunity 

 of speculating on the ancient civilization of America. 

 See Ashe's Travels. We should regard the facts as 

 very singular, were we perfectly satisfied as to their 

 authenticity.* 



There is a proverb among the Highlanders in 



Scotland, expressive of honour to the dead, " I will 

 add a itone to your cairn." 



Mr Pennant thus describe* a large cairn in Wales. 

 " The name of this place is taken from an immense 

 i (irrn-il !, or heap of stones, surrounded with great 

 upright stones in an adjacent field. It seems to hare 

 beneath it, passage* formed on the tide* and tops 

 with flat stones or flags. These were the reposito- 

 ries of the dead. Not that bones or urns are always 

 discovered in them ; for the founders, like those of 

 tic- pyramids of Egypt, appear often to be disap- 

 pointed in their hopes of having their reliques lodged 

 in these laboured mausoleums. A few years ago, 

 there were discovered under a carnedd, near the seat 

 of Sir Nicholas Bay ley, a passage three feet wide, 

 four feet two or three inches high, and about nine- 

 teen feet and a half long, which led into a room 

 about nine feet in diameter, and seven in height. 

 The form was an irregular hexagon, and the sides 

 composed of six -ude slabs, one of which measured 

 in its diagonal, eight feet nine inches. In the middle 

 was an artless pillar of stone, four feet eight inches 

 in circumference. This supported the roof, which 

 consisted of one great stone, near ten feet in diame- 

 ter. Along the sides of the room was, if I mar be 

 allowed the expression, a stone bench, on which 

 were found human bones, which fell to dust almost 

 at a touch : it is probable, that the bodies were ori- 

 ginally placed on the bench. There are proofs that 

 it was customary with the Gauls to place their dead 

 in that form in cells ; and that they added to the head 

 of each body a stone weapon, which served as a pil- 

 low ; but nothing of the kind was discovered in this 

 sepulchre. The diameter of the incumbent oarnedH 

 is from ninety to a hundred feet. This seems to be 

 that which Mr Rowland takes notice of in his Mono 

 antiqua." Pennant's Tour in Wales, vol. iii. See 

 BARROWS, (g) 



CAIRO, or, as it is often called, GRAND CAIRO, 

 the chief city of Egypt, stands on the right or eastern 

 bank of the Nile, a few leagues above the commence- 

 ment of the Delta. The body of the town is dis- 

 tant about half a league from the river ; and situated 

 in the entrance to that immense plain, composed of 

 alluvial soil, which here suddenly spreads out from 

 the Nile, and comprehends the whole of Lo 

 Egypt. Towards the east of Cairo stands the cita- 

 del, built on a lofty rock in the neighbourhood of a 

 mountain called Mokaddcm ; about a mile to the west 

 stand the ruins of Boulac, lately the flourishing port of 

 Cairo ; and at the same distance up the river is si- 

 tuated the populous suburb of Fostat, formerly the 

 capital of all Egypt. 



Cairo, " the queen of cities," and the boast and 

 ornament of the East, was founded, according to the 

 Oriental writers, in the tenth century of our xra, by 

 Moaz, the first Fatemite caliph, who called it El Ka- 

 hira, or victorious, in commemoration of his conquest 

 of Egypt. This prince having soon after transferred 

 his seat of empire from Barbary to Fostat the Egyp- 





 Cairo. 



We have some suspicion, that these Travelt arc of home manufacture, though the Edinburgh Review does not question 

 their authenticity, nor express any doubts as to the facts above mentioned. On the contrary, it afllnru such monument* t 

 fce common. 



