Ferguson — On the Ceremonial Turn, called " Desiul." 359 



settles on the ground, and another at going away in August, which ceremony is 

 much approved by the tenant of the isle, and is one of the chief arguments he makes 

 use of for making the like round as he sets out to sea with his boat. 



" There is a great flock of plovers, that come to this isle from Skie, in the be- 

 ginning of September ; they return again in April, and are said to be near two 

 thousand in all. I told the tenant he might have a couple of them at every meal 

 during the Winter and Spring, but my motion seemed very disagreeable to him ; 

 for he declared he had never once attempted to take any of them, though he might 

 if he would ; and at the same time told me he wondered how I could imagine that 

 he would be so barbarous as to take the lives of such innocent creatures as come to 

 him only for self-preservation." {Western Islands, p. 167.) 



If the plovers were safe in the humanity of this generous islander, 

 we may conclude that the Coulter-neb was equally so in his religious 

 regards, and may well believe that he would have considered any 

 molestation of it, while making its round, to be a great offence and 

 justly punishable by some mark of heavenly displeasure. 



The language of Martin may also solve a further question which 

 the Classical examples will have raised in our minds but failed to satisfy. 

 Why should a ceremonial turn to the right be more appropriate to the 

 worship of Apollo than a turn to the left ? Tbe answer is : Because 

 that was the turn "sun- ways," as Martin expresses it; being, in 

 other words, the idea that Plutarch, in Kuma, suggests by saying that 

 the Trepta-Tpocfir] i-vl Se^td was a symbol of the cosmical rotation ; and, in 

 turning round or performing a circuit from left to right, or right-hand- 

 vi-wise, we so far follow the course of the sun, that, whilst looking 

 southward, the motion we make accompanies the apparent path of the 

 sun in the heavens ; and, in completing the circuit, whilst facing the 

 north, our motion corresponds to the sun's returning progress under 

 the horizon ; and, if we followed the course of the luminary so much 

 farther north as to give a continuous view of its apparent progress, 

 would correspond to it all round. 



But, in latitudes south of the Equator, these motions should be re- 

 versed ; and if we would follow the course of the sun there, we should 

 turn from right to left, or left-hand-m-wise, which may afford a pretty 

 sure argument that the practice originated in our northern hemisphere. 



To the spectator regarding such a round from a fixed point, it is 

 obvious that what in the more distant part of the course is, as regards 

 him, from left to right, will, in the nearer semicircle, appear from 

 right to left — as, for example, the horses that start in a race are at 

 first seen by the spectator to pass from right to left, then, at the 

 farther side of the course to repass from left to right. But the course 

 of the race itself is, all the while, according to ancient observance, 

 from left to right, cVt <5e£ict, dextroversum, right-hand-m-wise, and 

 according to the course of the sun. 



The same course of movement is taken by all processions. It is 

 the turn which the host gives to the service of his table, which the 

 house-wife gives to her spinning-wheel, and the soldier to his bran- 

 dished weapon. That it results from some physiological impulse to 

 use the right hand in preference to the left, and to use its inward and 



