BUDDHIST OPINIONS AND MONUMENTS OF ASIA. 265 



rudeness. A few slight notices of their existence, are found in some of the ancient 

 national authors, and various absurd legends, in explanation of the origin of the 

 eDgraved stones, are all that remain of the remarkable history of these antiqui- 

 ties, which can now only be obtained from examining the figures on the stones 

 themselves. 



These sculptured stones of Scotland are large in size, selected with skill, and 

 often brought from great distances. They were erected at convenient central 

 situations, the sacred symbols were traced upon them, and they were consecrated 

 for worship. So various were their decorations, and so modified their sacred sym- 

 bols, that out of nearly two hundred that are supposed to exist, there are not two 

 exactly the same. Such varieties prove that the artists were allowed a consider- 

 able liberty in these illustrations of their belief, so as to suit their own fancy, or 

 render them more acceptable to the people for whom they were intended. We 

 might suppose the individual who traced the symbols on the rock of Galloway 

 (fig. m) to be a zealous missionary, who availed himself of a rock cropping out 

 of the soil, to trace the sacred symbols of the Deity, with such additions as might 

 make them more intelligible to the ignorant people, for whom they were intended ; 

 as we find " rich and zealous Buddhists in Thibet, of the present day, who main- 

 tain at their own expense companies of priestly sculptors, who travel, chisel and 

 mallet in hand, over the country, engraving their sacred formula"* upon the rocks 

 and stones. Such a practice, among the ancient Buddhists of this country, would 

 explain the number of the standing-stones in the east of Scotland — not with in- 

 scriptions, for the people they were intended for were ignorant of letters, but with 

 the sacred symbols of the Deity engraved upon them. 



It was probably after the persecution of the Roman General, Suetonius (a.d. 

 59), and the destruction of the sacred groves of Mona, and other places, that the 

 Druids joined their brethren among the mountains of Scotland, when their superior 

 intelligence, and hatred of the invaders, united the Caledonians in offering that 

 obstinate resistance, and consolidating that Pictish kingdom, on the east coast of 

 Scotland and north of the Firth of Forth, which the bravery and discipline of the 

 Roman legions were never able to conquer. The extent and nature of the reli- 

 gious monuments prove that the Buddhists had enthusiastic followers ; and as 

 the severity of the climate, and proximity of their enemies, prevented their form- 

 ing groves, they changed the manner of conveying instruction, in conformity with 

 new opinions from the East, so as to render it more simple and less mysterious. 

 This was accomplished by erecting standing-stones, which bore the symbols of the 

 objects of their worship, sometimes by themselves, and at other places in connec- 

 tion with circles of stones ; as was the case with the Kinnellar stone, the stones 



* Om mani padme houm, — (Oil ! the prescious lotus, Amen). — Oh ! may I obtain perfection, 

 and be absorbed into Buddha, Amen. See Travels in Tartary, Tibet, and China, vol. i., p. 194. 

 Klaproth, Journ. Asiat., Second Series, vol. vii., p. 188. 



