628 EEPORr— 1880. 



* These are all indicative of the serpent or dragon, from frescoes only three 

 centuries old, to sculptures, mounds, or earthworks, and alignements of granite 

 blocks — all being made to represent the serpent, counting as many thousand years. 

 Mons. Julien Sacaze, writing of these stones, which are in the locality where he 

 was born, says : " les alignmnents sinueu.v dtaient des symboles de la divinife," and goes 

 on to quote a number of native persons who admitted, when he interrogated them, 

 that they worshipped them as such, notwithstanding their present religion ; it was 

 the belief of their ancestors they said. The most remarkable of these objects are 

 three moimds, in the forms of serpents, which have been appropriated, one by a 

 chamber of Roman construction, possibly as a security for wealth, one by a very 

 ancient church, and the third, unmolested, has been lately found to contain a large 

 deposition of Celtic iucinerary urns, the place of deposition being almost about 

 midway from the head to the tail. In the same position, in the mound on which 

 is the church, were found a large number of Gallo-Romanic votive altars and other 

 objects. Amongst those of this description in the neighbourhood, some altars 

 dedicated to mountains were found, two peaks of the Maladetta being named, 

 evidently showing that tlie occupation was in early Roman and Pagan times. 



' On the crests and sides of the mountains, on both sides of the Pyrenees, i.e. in 

 Spain and France, are found sepulchral arrangements of stones, somewhat differ- 

 ent from any distinctly recorded amongst our antiquities. Tliese consist of a number 

 of circles adjoining each other ; in the centre of each is a cist with an urn, having 

 burnt bones, and the form of the circles is that of a wavy or serpentine cross. 



' Mons. Gourdon gives a drawing of one on the Spanish aide, and I have found 

 several on the French side of tlie Pyrenees. 



' I purchased the baker's bill, which I now produce, at Perpignan a few months 

 ago, and though not so rustic as that of Brittany, it approaches more to our old 

 Exhequer tally, and to the Welsh stick of writing, described in " Bardas," as well 

 as to some elaborate and really wonderful calendars, still to be seen in the Cheetham 

 Museum at Manchester, than to the rustic tally of Brittany. On crossing into 

 Spain and prosecuting inquiries, I found the serpent or dragon emblem everywhere 

 prominent, and even learned that the Tarasque, the ceremony of which is performed 

 at Tarascon in Provence, was a well-known dragon with the Spanish people. On 

 my explaining that I was making a study of the subject, I was told that though 

 used as a popular diversion at fetes, it had always a religious meaning, and that aa 

 old and well-known Spanish proverb ran thus — 



" No hay funcion sin Tarasque." 

 (No religious solemnity without the dragon.) 



On the eve of Saint John, the whole Pyrenees being alive with the fires handed 

 down from time immemorial as a custom, a vast pine, split into many vertical clefts, 

 is raised at Luchon, and along the route I have described in the most secluded 

 valleys, quite up to the Spanish frontier, as at the Valley du Lys, the pine has a 

 cross of flowers on its summit, and being fi.lled with combustible matter, burns in a 

 brilliant column of fire. 



' But at Luchon, in particular, living serpents are consumed in the flames. The 

 priest, while he applies the torch, turns his face towards Spain and the Maladetta, 

 or mountain of bad omen. The youths of the village have miniature cloven pines 

 which they burn. I procured one with some little difficulty, which I produce ; 

 these they brandish while flaming, in serpentine curves, and cry loudly, " liilla- 

 hilla ! " (dead) — pronounced " ella." Here we have apparently a corruption of the 

 old classic cry of the Bacchanals, who, when lamenting the death of Bacchus, 

 holding serpents in their hands, rushed about wildly crying, " Eva, eva !' These 

 ceremonies are often prolonged into the night, and the wild cries are heard echoed 

 from mountain to mountain. Mons. Sacaze states that this cry is an invocation of 

 the Sun God. Be that as it may, it is the cry of the ancient Bacchanals, and is here 

 accompanied, sometimes with real serpents, sometimes with simulated serpents of 

 fire. 



' The split pine was this year raised in my presence, on the back of the principal 

 serpent mound in the valley I have mentioned, amidst the clanging of bells during 



