INTRODUCTION. xxvii 



view also held by modern antiquarians), "denoting the 

 twelve signs of the Zodiac, the four principal winds sub- 

 divided each into four others, by which, and the nineteen 

 stones on each side the avenue, betokening the cycle of 

 nineteen years." He goes on to say that he " can prove 

 it to have been dedicated principally to the sun, but 

 subordinately to the seasons and elements, particularly to 

 the sea and the winds, as appears by the rudder in the 

 middle." The resemblance of the central stone to a 

 rudder was a fancy of Martin's, who little foresaw that it 

 would be seized upon by a prophet of the Druids to guide 

 his reasoning faculties into an abyss of conjecture. If 

 Toland made so much of the fanciful rudder in the Lewis 

 circle, one wonders what he would have made of the ship- 

 form graves in Scandinavia, where in some cases the position 

 even of the mast is distinctly indicated. But Toland 

 went further than enumerating mere generalities. He 

 convinced himself, and probably convinced others, that the 

 Callernish stones are neither more nor less than the remains 

 of the Temple of Apollo in the Hyperborean island so 

 celebrated in Greek literature. He claimed Hecateus as 

 an authority for this theory, and perhaps had as much 

 reason on his side as those who have located the Hyper- 

 borean temple of the ancient Greeks at, respectively, 

 Anglesea and Stonehenge. According to Toland, then, 

 the Hyperboreans of the Ancients were Lewismen, and 

 Apollo's arrow was hidden in the island of Lewis a legend 

 which recalls the story of Thor and his lost hammer in 

 Scandinavian mythology. Was it not in the Hyperborean 

 island that Apollo's temple made of wings stood ? And 

 what clearer proof can there be that this temple was at 

 Callernish, when one considers the number of seabirds that 

 swarm in the neighbourhood of Loch Bernera ? So Mr. 

 Toland argued. Lest, however, this application should 

 appear to the critical somewhat far-fetched, he suggested 

 that the temple of wings might have meant a " winged " 

 temple, in which case, the shape of the Callernish structure 

 would obviously supply the allusion. In the same strain 



