236 Gleanings from the 



this characteriftically circular ornamentation may 

 be feen in the fmgular curves and circles of early 

 Celtic and prehiftoric times, many of which are 

 ftill preferved in ftone. And yet there are points 

 to conned Scandinavian with Oriental ftone- 

 fculpture. Even in Ceylon ftones may be feen 

 with elephants, crefcents, ferpents, and geefe 

 carved on them. At Canna, in the Hebrides, in 

 a little churchyard, a broken crofs of yellow fand- 

 ftone exifts bearing curious carvings, and, among 

 other things, exhibiting a camel, 1 "the only 

 inftance of it known in Scotland." Lions are 

 alfo, at leaft twice, found among the creatures 

 carved on the fculptured ftones of Scotland. Such 

 marvellous kinfhip is there between the different 

 families of the human race ; fo curioufly have 

 early beliefs expanded, fhrunk, difappeared, and 

 again emerged in the moft unexpected localities. 



Another fertile fource of zoological myths 

 among the ancients was their total ignorance in 

 many cafes, in others what is equally dangerous, 

 their little knowledge of natural hiftory. Pliny 

 knew a little about the cuckoo, for inftance ; but, 

 trading on this, he fimply invented the fable that 

 it is eaten by its own kind. This tendency may 

 often be feen in his recitals. The fea-monfter, 

 Kr)roc, was idealized from the large fharks of the 

 Mediterranean by the help, in all probability, of 



1 "The Hebrides," by Mifs Gordon Gumming, 1883, 

 p. 112. See alfo "Rude Stone Monuments," by Ferguflbn, 

 pa/Jims " The Sculptured Stones of Scotland " (Spalding Club), 

 2 vols. fol., by John Stuart, 1856-67; "The Bookhunter," 

 J. H. Burton, p. 396 (Edinburgh, 1863). 



