Ferguson — On the Ceremonial Turn, called " Desiul." 361 



[Roxnani e contrario a dextra sinistram versus in orbem convertebant sese ; 

 quod et a nostris sacerdotibus in suis ad aram conversionibus bodie religiosissime 

 observatur ; aliter atque prisci illi Galli, qui sinistrorsum et a leeva dextram versus 

 circumagebantur. (Flm. Hist. Nat., Ed. JDelph., loc. cit.) ] 



Neither has modern ingenuity been more successful in explaining 

 Pliny's meaning. Toland, writing in 1815, thus attempts it; hut 

 falls, as will be seen, into no less confusion : — 



" Tbe vulgar in tbe Islands never come to tbe ancient sacrificing and fire-hallow- 

 ing cams, but tbey walk tbree times round tbem, from east to west, according to 

 tbe course of tbe sun. Tbis sanctified tour, or round by tbe soutb, is called deisul 

 (dextrorsuni), as tbe unhallowed contrary one by tuapholl {sinistrorsum "). . . 

 " Tbis custom was used tbree thousand years ago, and God knows bow long before, 

 by their ancestors, tbe ancient Gauls, of tbe same religion with tbem: who turned 

 round right-hand-wise, wben tbey worshipped their Gods, as Athenieus (lib. iv. 

 p. 152) informs us out of Posidonius, a much older writer : ' Tous theous prosJcu- 

 nousi epi ta dexia strephomenoi.' Nor is this contradicted, but clearly confirmed 

 by Pliny, who says that the Gauls, contrary to the Romans, turned to the left in their 

 religious ceremonies ; for, as they began their worship towards the east, so they 

 turned about, as our Islanders do now, from east to west, according to the course of 

 the sun, that is, from right to left [?], as Pliny has observed ; whereas the left was, 

 among the Romans, reputed the right in Augury, and in all devotions concerning 

 it. . . It is, perhaps, from this respectfrd turning from east to west, that we 

 retain the custom of drinking over the left thumb, or as others express it, according 

 to the course of the sun, the breaking of which order is reckoned no small impro- 

 priety, if not a downright indecency, in Great Britain and Ireland. And no wonder, 

 since this, if you have faith in Homer, was the custom of the Gods themselves. 

 Yulcan, in the first book of the Iliad, filling a bumper to his mother Juno : — 



' To th' other Gods, going round from right to left, 

 Skinked nectar sweet which from full flask he poured.' " 



Letters to Lord Muncaster, pp. 142-5. 



Toland's argument, if at all acceptable to the reason, is this : The 

 right was deemed left, and vice versa, in Augury ; so that when Pliny 

 says the Gauls turned to the left, he speaks as an Augur and means to 

 the right ; which were little to the credit of a writer of Pliny '3 

 accuracy. 



"Whatever differences existed between Roman and Greek augurial 

 usage, the popular Latin "right" and "left" corresponded strictly, as 

 with the Celts, to south and north. Columella has fixed the application 

 of sinistrum to the north. Bess and dextrum must, consequently, agree 

 in meaning as in verbal identity with "south" and "right" in both. 



And indeed, the more closely these augurial anomalies are ex- 

 amined, the less will the substantial difference be found to be. It 

 would be erroneous to say that omens in the left part of heavens were 

 deemed auspicious. The omens that were reputed lucky were those 

 coming from the left and towards the right, and vice versa, in sub- 

 stantial consistency with the "Desiul." Thus, Dion. Halicarnass. ex- 

 plains the " intonuit Icevum : " tlOcvtcu Se Pw/Aaioi ras ck *tw apicrTepuv 

 iirl to. Sefia a<rTp<nra<; alcriov;. (Lib. ii., ad init.) 



