264 A TOUR ROUND NORTH WALES. 



and too lofty for a fire to be kindled on 

 them fufficient to confume the victim 

 without burning the officiating prieft, not 

 to mention the horrid rites with which the 

 Druid facrifice was attended, and which 

 there would not be room to perform in fo 

 perilous a ftation. The upper ftones of 

 feveral of them were fo thin that the in- 

 tenfenefs of the facrifical fire would have 

 cracked and broken them. 



Some have alTerted that they were in- 

 tended as places of worfhip ; but there is 

 juft as little reafon for this fuppofition as 

 the former, for in many the fpace beneath 

 is fo fmall as fcarcely to admit even a man 

 to creep into them : and befides this, many 

 of them were creeled on barrows or heaps 

 of loofe ftones a very uneafy fituation for 

 devotional offices.* 



* See Borlafe's Antiquities, p. 210, &c. where 

 this fubjeft, as well as every other part of Druidical 



antiquity, is treated at great length. 



It 



