±^0 THE RITUAL OF BARROWS AND CIRCLES. 



The specific account of Daniel Rock * declares that the 

 procession, singing all the while, first went out of the presb)i;ery 

 [that part of the church which contains the altar] through 

 its north door, then turned to the right, to the region of 

 warmth, light, and brightness, so that it might follow the 

 sun's seeming path in the heavens. For like reasons, on 

 occasions of woe or sadness, the usage was to turn to the 

 left, to walk the wrong way, the side of gloom and cold and 

 darkness, to go, not along with but against the sun. And 

 reference is made to the aggrieved monks of Winchester f 

 who " processionem nudis pedibus contra solis cursum et morem 

 ecclesiasticum fecerunt." 



When Penitential processions are made against the sun, the 

 influence adverse to evil is perhaps increased. The Penitents 

 would more easily tread down Satan under their feet. 



In fine, circumambulation is a ritual practice which can be 

 traced in almost all the religious systems of the world. 



It is necessary to consider what early authors have said about 

 the Druids. If Diodorus the Sicilian be included, who, though 

 he wrote in Greek, lived for many years in Rome, there are ten 

 Roman writers who mention the Druids of Gaul, but only two of 

 them refer to the Druids of Britain The observations of Pliny, 

 of Diogenes- Laertius, of Suetonius, and of INIarcellinus, though 

 interesting, may be omitted from the present inquiry. Tacitus 

 states that both Gaul and Britain have the same religious rites 

 and the same superstition ; and that Suetonius, in his conquest of 

 Anglesea, cut down the religious groves of the Druids, dedicated 

 to barbarous rites. In those recesses the natives imbrued their 

 altars with the blood of their prisoners, and in the entrails of men 

 explored the will of the gods. X 



Suetonius himself describes the Druidic religion among the 

 Gauls as one of terrible cruelty. 



Ch. of our Fathers, 1850, III. ii. pp. 181, 182. 

 t Annal., Eccl. Wintou, A.D., 1122. 

 + An. XIV. 30. 



