1847.] 



2^eilgherry Hills, S^^c. 



113 



This si7igle stone, I have no hesitation in saying, was the idol re- 

 ferred to by the communicative Thaiitawar. 



My readers acquainted with the forms of the Scythic or Druidical 

 religion, from what I have previously written will have expected 

 such an issue to an examination of the Thautawar temple. They 

 will recollect that the single stone was the most conspicuous instru- 

 ment of superstition in the Druidical religion. Shaped to a point at 

 the top, in most cases, and inserted in an upright position in the 

 ground, it was regarded by the priests as an emblem of the solar ray, 

 or their deity the sun. The Pyramids and Obelisks of the Egyptians 

 terminating in a point possess the same signification, and were pro- 

 bably commemorative of Osiris or Anubis, under which names the 

 sun was adored by them. 



Mountain peaks which are natural Pyramids of vast dimensions^ 

 in all likelihood were venerated by the Druids as they now are by 

 the Buddhists and Thautawars on the same account. 



In one of the Chaldean Oracles of Zoroaster, given on the autho- 

 rity of Proclus the Platonist, occurs the following passage : 



" Theurgists assert that he is a god, and celebrate him as both 



older and younger, as a circulating and eternal god, as understand- 

 " ing the whole number of all things moved in the world, and more- 

 " over infinite through his power, and of a spiral form*' 



Now, this spiral form of a deity is only another expression for 

 flame the great emblem of god among the Magi ; and the Obelisk or 

 spiral stone of the Egyptians ; and the upright stones of the Druida 

 are nothing but types of the same superstition : indeed in all Pagan 

 religions we find traces of the primeval form of worship adopted bj'- 

 the children of Adam, and more fully made known in the 22nd 

 chapter of Genesis in the following verses : 



" 7. And Isaac spake unto Abraham bis father, and said, My 

 " father : and he said. Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold 

 ** the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt ofi'er- 

 *'ing?" 



'* 8. And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb 

 *' for a burnt off*ering : so they went both of them together." 



*' 9. And they came to the place which God had told him of ; 

 " and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, 

 *' and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the 



wood." 



p 



