360 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



upward action in preference to its outward and upward, is perhaps the- 

 true solution of the practice. But, however it may have originated, 

 it is to its agreement with the course of the sun that regard appears 

 to have been had in its adoption into the ceremonial of religion. 



The apparent reversal of the motion, according to the side froni 

 which we regard the moving object, has been a fruitful source of seem- 

 ing contradictions. In a passage of Pliny's twenty-eighth book of 

 "Natural History (c. 5) a statement is made which has led to much of 

 this kind of confusion : — 



" In the act of adoration, we cany the right hand to the lips, and turn round 

 onr whole body, -which the Gauls esteem it religiosius to do left-hand-wise." 



[In adorando dextram ad osculum referimus totuinque corpus crrcumagimus, 

 quod in lsevum f ecisse Galli religiosius credunt.] 



Here note the kissing of the right hand, which probably formed 

 part of the demonstration made by Marcellus towards the sun, as he 

 reined his horse into the " right-wheel." ~SVe may also here observe 

 the common idea which connects the Greek irpoo-Kvelv, "to worship" 

 (literally "to kiss"), with the less favoured derivation of the Latin 

 adorare — "mamim ad os admovere ;" and in this connexion we may 

 glance at that phrase of Job : — 



" If I beheld the sun which shined, or the moon walking in brightness ; if my 

 heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand." (xxxL 

 26, 27.) 



Now, Pliny, as he has been generally understood, seems here to draw 

 this distinction between the Gaulish and Eoman modes, that whereas- 

 the Romans used to turn right-hand- ways, in their worship, the Gauls,. 

 on the contrary, thought it more proper to turn left-hand-ways. 



Considering the intimate associations between Gaul and the British 

 Isles, in Cassar's time, in all matters of religion, and the religious- 

 observance in these islands, down to the present day, of the Latin 

 "round" (for we may still see it practised at all our "stations" and 

 places of pilgrimage), it appears difficult, at first sight, to give credit 

 to this statement of Pliny. It is, apparently, in direct contradiction 

 to what Athenaeus (iv. p. 152) adduces froni Posidonius, as to the- 

 custom of the Celts : — " They worship the Gods, turning round to the 

 right," — "Tor? 0€ov? 7rpo<TKvvovariv IttI Se£ia crrpee/>o//.evoi." 



In commenting on it, Hermolaus Barbaras, Pliny's first editor, whose 

 note has been transmitted through subsequent editions, falls into great 

 confusion, owing, apparently, to his regarding the movement at one 

 time in the point of view of a spectator, and, at another, of an actor.. 

 " Contrariwise," says he, "the Eomans turned themselves roundfrora 

 the right towards the left [where he ought to have said " froni the- 

 left towards the right"], which our priests at the present day re- 

 ligiously take care to do, in their turns at the altar ; quite differently 

 from those ancient Gauls who turned themselves left-hand-ways, and 

 wheeled round from left to right" [where he ought to have said 

 « from right to left"]. 



