NOTES ON DtTLOE CIKCTTLAR ENCLOSTTBE. lOl 



and have received names accordingly. The Giants' Dance, the 

 Devil's Dyke, the Hurlers, Pipers, Merry-maidens, the Grrey- 

 wethers, Druid's Altar, the Giant's Hedge, Tom-Devil stile, the 

 Devil's Whetstone, Arthur's Coit, &c., are terms which immedi- 

 ately occur to us in such connexion. 



We may yet, then, find in the name of Duloe circle some 

 fanciful description of a similar kind. 



The stones are mystically placed; they present a sombre 

 aspect, — venerable and grim ! They are awe-inspiring, to 

 beholders, by day ; and doubtless have been objects of terror, to 

 the lonely wanderer, by night. 



Perhaps, in olden times, the dwellers around regarded the 

 Stonetown circle as " Demons" or " DevUs," standing in a ring : 

 that is, looked upon the stones as "buccas," "bugbears," 

 ''bogies," "hobgoblins," "fiends," or "diaboloi." 



In old Cornish, the very term to express this idea was 

 '■'■Bewolow''' {Duloe'i) ! — the word for Devil or fiend being Deawl, 

 diawl ; Jawl or jowl; which became, iu the plural, Dewolow, 

 dywolow, dewlugy, or Jowlow, — devils, fiends : — derived, of 

 course, like the English word* from the Greek and Latin. 



Williams, in his Cornu-Britannic Lexicon, has quoted, 

 amongst other lines illustrating this word, the following sentences 

 from the old Cornish manuscripts " Origo Mundi" and 

 "Eesurrectio Domini" : — 



C Devils without number, always grinning at thee ! 

 \ Bewolow hep nyver pup ur orthys ow skrynkye ! 



C Ye princes of the devils, immediately open the gates ! 

 \ Why pryncys an Bewolow, scon egereuch an porthow ! 



We can refer to an instance in another part of Cornwall, in 

 which a stone gave name, — through the Cornish designation it had 

 acquired, — to a surrounding region. The Pomano-British 



*The Greek verb Diaballo (Ata/3aAAw), — compounded of dia, &c., — has 

 the meaning "traduce, falsify, deceive, mislead ;" whence diabolos (Sca/JoAos), 

 slanderer, deceiver, the devil ; Latin, diabolus ; Spanish, diablo ; Italian, diavolo ; 

 Cornish and Welsh, diavol, diafol, &c. (Cornish plural, dewolow, &c.) ; Armoric, 

 diaoul ; Irish, diabhal (pronounced diowl); Gaelic, diabhol ; Scottish, deil ; French, 

 diable; Anglo-Saxon, deofol or deofl : English, devil. 



Some etymologists derive the Cornish personal or family name JoU or Jewell 

 from Deawl or Jowl, devil. 



