240 



The Picts. 



. . . "To the same people, perhaps, and about the same period, 

 must be referred another class of objects, that in different places,, 

 raised their lofty heads to arrest the attention of the curious. These 

 are the huge standing stones, one or more of which, may be seen in 

 most of the islands. They are commonly from twelve to twenty 

 feet in height above ground, their breadth five, and thickness 

 one or more ; and as the most of them seem, from the places in 

 which they are erected, to have been carried from a considerable dis- 

 tance, it may justly excite wonder, how in the ignorance of mecha- 

 nical power (?) this could be effected. Numbers and perseverance 

 united, will achieve deeds, to conceive which would baffle the efforts 

 of imagination. 



" By whatever means they were brought, or in whatever manner 

 erected, they are rude blocks of hard stone, of the same shape in which 

 they are brought from the quarry ; without any marks of an instru- 

 ment ; without carving, inscription, or hieroglyphics ; they are plainly 

 the monuments of an early age, when the people were ignorant of arts 

 and letters (?). 



" For what purpose, or with what design, they were erected, an- 

 tiquity furnishes us with no account; records are silent; and tra- 

 dition, to which recourse must be sometimes had, in the penury of 

 other evidence, ventures not in this case to hazard an opinion. 



" Some have supposed them intended to mark the spot that con- 

 tained the bones, or ashes, of a beloved prince, or brave chieftain, 

 or dear departed friend ; or to serve as a boundary between the ter- 

 ritories of one great man and those of another : while others have 

 imagined them designed to preserve the remembrance of some 

 noted event that concerned the safety, the honor, or the advantage 

 of the community. 



" Since no tumuli, urns, or graves, have ever been found near 

 them, they cannot certainly be considered memorials of the dead; 

 nor is it more probable that they were intended to mark the limits 

 of contiguous proprietors, as land-marks, equally well calculated 

 to serve the purpose, might have been erected with infinitely less 

 labour. If therefore, they were not intended to serve the purpose 

 of places of worship, they were most likely raised to preserve the 



