261 



Tliese symbols are merely intensitive, from the simplest for the third 

 degree of the priesthood, to the Waidelot, which, for the Ewarte and 

 Krive, was duplicated and triplicated, and therefore it will be sufficient 

 to give the description of the lowest. 



" Symbolumjurisdictionis communi sacerdotisjasjudicandi habentis, 

 "Waidelote vel alii id generis, vulgari sermone Buthus nuncupatis, talem 

 habuit formam. 



'^Baculus longiusculus ligno simplici querci supra quern est una virga 

 curvata in modum nodi paululo inclinatse rursumque junctione una bursa 

 pendet; sed et sigilla eorum portabunt talia symbola ut ait chronista 

 Euthenus." 



We have before remarked that the next stage in the priesthood had 

 this symbol doubled, and the third or highest had it trebled ; and from 

 it the pontiifs of Eome may have taken their hint of a symbol for their 

 threefold claim of power over hell, on earth, and in heaven, in the papal 

 tiara. 



In the imperfect drawing, however, of this heathen symbol we may 

 readily find in the top bend the penannular Irish ring ; and not impro- 

 bably in the lines and bends surmounting it, the imperfect rudiments of 

 a moveable swivel, to bring it into perfect conformity with the principal 

 object of our inquiry. 



Had Von Ledebur, in his above-quoted work, given a drawing of 

 the following enigmatical (rathselhaft) object, described at p. 32, we 

 might possibly have found the swivel in an evidently heathen magiste- 

 rial symbol, dug up from beneath a tumulus near Schwerin in Mecklen- 

 burg, and in an urn ! "' 



" It exhibits -the upper portion of a buckle (biigel), an inch broad, 

 and Z\ inches wide at the head, which on the under surface is flat, but 

 on its upper is ornamented with lines and rings. In its centre is a 

 four-sided pyramid, with one step, andj in its upper portion a hand ring 

 or catch (griff) 7noves freely Its bronze material, incrusted with a 

 beautiftd aerugo nobilis, is finely v^^orked, and glitters on some places, 

 where worn by friction, like gold." 



It is to this moveable portion of the emblem that we particularly 

 direct attention, as, from whatever cause or concatenation of ideas, judi- 

 cial importance attaches to a moveable ring in Scottish jurisprudence. 

 It is solely to the antiquarian knowledge of the great Scotch novelist, 

 in The Antiquary" (8vo edit., 1846, Part i., p. 476, cap. xi.), that 

 I owe my knowledge of this fact ; for my search elsewhere in books has 

 been fruitless, and I have no personal legal friends in the north from 

 whom to make inquiries. 



The transaction refers to an execution put into Wardour Castle, and 

 the resistance offered to the officer by the hot-headed zeal of the High- 

 land soldier, M'Intyre : — 



The legal officer confronted him of the military ; grasped with one 

 doubtful hand the greasy bludgeon which was to enforce his authority, 

 and with the other produced his short official baton, tipped with silver, 



E. I. A. PEOC. — VOL. VIII. 2 



