18 5 S.] Buddhism and dints m. 51 



into Scandinavia, and therefore it must follow that either the Bud- 

 dhists gave the practice directly to the people of the North, or both 

 must have received it from one common source, the plateau of 

 central Asia — that officina gentium whence in the darkness of a 

 time far beyond the limits of history, peoples and races have come 

 forth to take possession of the earth. 



That the former is the case appears probable from the fact of the 

 practice in question having been carried to the North along with 

 the religion of the Buddhists. 



Monumental remains of the Odinists, whether in Scandinavia or 

 elsewhere, may be described as consisting principally of megaliths 

 and mounds. The former include a variety of structures from a 

 siugle erect block of stone implanted on the road-side to the most 

 complicated and cyclopean structures, such as the Stonehenge. 

 They are found universally distributed from India to Scandinavia, 

 and mark the progress of the Buddhists in their migrations to the 

 North. 



The monoliths of India such as the Sati stones and lats are 

 reproduced in Western Europe in the " standing stones," so abun- 

 dant in the Channel Islands, and so peculiar to the Druidical priests. 

 The ortholiths and parallelliths or single and double rows of standing- 

 stones, are equally common in both places, and alike devoted to 

 ceremonial purposes. The next are the cycloliths or circles of 

 erect distinct stones. They sometimes enclosed open spaces, where 

 most probably the Druids performed their ceremonials, and some- 

 times surrounded cromlechs or temples. In Southern India, these 

 are still abundant, and their full development gave rise to the 

 colonnaded enclosures which surround the topes of central India. 

 In the large tope of Sanchi, they are rough-hewn blocks surmounted 

 by top stones. 



Dolmens, cistvaens, cromlechs aud peristaliths are not without 

 their counterparts in India — and they were evidently devoted to the 

 same purpose. Dr. Wise, late Secretary to the General Committee 

 of Public Instruction, in an excellent paper on the subject published 

 in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh,* has collect- 

 ed a large number of instances in which " the general identity, in 

 * Vol, XXI. pt. II. p. 255. 



H 2 



