OfOXF 0^ D,S HI%E. 34* 



ter a Pyramidal form ; which Mahadeu, he faith, in their Lan- 

 guage fignifies the great God y n And after this fafhion, he faith, 

 'tis the cuftom of the Brachmans to reprefent Mahadeu *. 



1 06. All which being put together, efpecially as recommend- 

 ed by fo Learned a Perfon as the Reverend Dr. Stillingfleet , have 

 prevailed with me much : However, the Reader is free toufe his 

 judgment, whether they are memorials of the dead, as common- 

 ly thought, or reprefentations of the Deities of the ancient Bri+ 

 tans, given them by fome Companions of the Eaftern Merchants, 

 trading hither for Tin, to the C affiterides . 



107* Other Antiquities contemporary, with the fiones above- 

 mentioned, I met with none here in Oxford-Jhire, but thofe three 

 Rings lincked one within another, and engraven by miftake a lit- 

 tle out of their place, Tab. 16. Fig. 4. for that they are not like to 

 be Britijb or Roman, I think is pretty certain. The Britans, 'tis 

 true, ufed Rings inftead of Mony, yet as C<efar teftifies, they were 

 only of Iron*. And though the Romans, amongft their other 

 dona militaria, did ufually give Calbeos b , five armillas, bracelets^ 

 yet they were conftantly I find, either of gold or filver ; where- 

 as ours, as in number, are of three different materials ; the largeft 

 copper? the fecond iron? and the leaft green glafs, or fome Hone of 

 that colour. 



108. It remains they muft therefore be either Saxon or Vanift, 

 but whether of the two, we muft not hope to determin, fince we 

 find fuch rings ufed by both Nations. That the Saxons had fuch 

 bracelets, is plain from King JElfred, who notwithftanding he 

 came to the Kingdom, long habituated as it were to rafines and 

 murders, yet brought it before his death into fo good a pofture-, 

 (as is learnedly made out, and by what degrees he did it, in that 

 excellent Hlslory of his Life, now in the Prefs*) that he could, and 

 did hang up fuch bracelets of gold in the high- ways, which no 

 Traveller dared touch. ^Elfredus per publicos aggeres, ubi femitde 

 finduntur in qua drum, Armillasjubebat aureat> appendi, utViantium 

 aviditatem irritaret, cur non effet qui ea6 acciperet, fays Florilegut 

 of him c . Where, by the way, perhaps it may not beamifs to 

 note, that thefe Rings were drawn out of the River Cherwel with 

 a Fifhing-net, near Hampton Gay, not far from the meeting of 



I Pet- delta Valle Viaggi, f. 3 Lett. 1 . $.15. p. 107. * Ibidem. * "Jul. Cafarii Comment, de bello GaUicoj 

 lib 5. b VidSexti?omp.Fefli,Fragment.libro-$. t Matth.Weftmon. Flora Hifl. in An.%<)i. 



X x fuch 



