128 



to practices similar to those wiiicli have been ascribed to the idolatrous 

 Druids : — Then shall ye know that I am the Lord, when their slain 

 men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every 

 high hill in all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, 

 and under every thick oak, the place where they did offer sweet savour 

 to all their idols." 



Again, in Hosea, iv. 13, we read of the idolatrous practices of the 

 people of Israel: — They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and 

 burn incense upon the hills, under oaks, and poplars, and elms, because 

 the shadow thereof is good." 



The custom of setting up on end over graves masses of unwroaght 

 stone, as memorials of the dead, may be presumed to be referred to in Ge- 

 nesis, XXXV. 20, in relation to Eachel's burial on the way to Ephrath : — 

 And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave : that is the pillar of EacheFs 

 grave unto this day." 



The practice of frequenting places set apart chiefly for religious uses, 

 for public convocations and assemblages for dispensing justice, is sup- 

 posed to be referred to in the following passage in 1 Samuel, vii. 16, 17 : 

 — " And he (Samuel) went from year to year in circuit to Eethel, and 

 Gilgal, and Mizpeh, and judged Israel in all those places. And his re- 

 turn was to Eamah : for there was his house : and there he judged 

 Israel, and there he built an altar unto the Lord." 



Wright, in his ^' Louthiana," 4to, 1748, lib. iii. p. 7, observes that 

 the Irish Druids, whose works we trace over some parts of Ulster, and 

 also in Leinster, undoubtedly had analogous rites and doctrines with 

 some of the patriarchal tribes of the east. It was customary with the 

 Druids of idolatrous usages, not only to live, but likewise to be buried, 

 in the recesses of groves, and on the shady tops of hills ; and they were 

 not only the chief places of resort on public festivals and for certain cere- 

 monies, but were used for places of public worship and sepulchral pur- 

 poses, for the remains of eminently privileged and distinguished person- 

 ages. 



"Wright elsewhere, refuting the opinion of some archaeologists that 

 the cromlechs were solely or mainly used as altars for religious rites, 

 says : — " I apprehend it will manifestly appear from what follows that 

 they (cromlechs) were all erected over graves, and are no other than 

 tombstones or sepulchral monuments raised to the memory of the most 

 eminent men of those times. I could never bring myself to believe, from 

 their vast heights and unevenness at top, that they could be designed 

 purposely for altars, and especially as they seemed to be placed on so 

 precarious a foundation. Having but three supports, if any one of them 

 should be disturbed, the incumbent load must inevitably fall, and crush 

 every thing in its way, which a fourth would have prevented from any 

 such accident, and have rendered the whole together much more perma- 

 nent and lasting." — " Louthiana," Book iii. p. 11. 



The reason given in support of Wright's opinion in favour of the 

 exclusive use of cromlechs for sepulchral purposes is of little value, 

 independently of the notable error into which he has fallen in his 



