MOORLAND IDYLLS. 



saplings over the barrow or tumulus of some 

 barbaric chieftain ; not a few of them, indeed 

 like the King's Oak at Tilford, near 

 Farnham still retain some title which recalls 

 their royal or funereal origin. The sacred 

 stone, which in every case seems once to 

 have stood under their dense shade, was 

 doubtless at first the standing-stone or 

 gravestone of the buried chief; though 

 later it probably served as an unhewn altar 

 for the village sacrifices, like that offering 

 of the lamb which till recent years was still 

 torn to pieces on an anniversary festival 

 in the Ploy-Field at Holne, in Devonshire. 

 Every year, in point of fact, the people of 

 each village used once to perambulate their 

 bounds, as at the Roman Terminalia, and 

 offer up at each holy tree and each terminus 

 stone, which formed the main landmarks, a 

 human sacrifice. The victims were usually 

 boys most probably captives from neigh- 

 bouring tribes or villages ; failing that, they 

 were " bought with a price " within the tribe 

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