the country, several pillars now standing, unhewn and 
unsculptured, have been erected in modern Christian times 
as a memorial of some great victory. In a similar manner, 
there are several stones with a large round hole in them, 
vugarly called " Odin stones." These were used in later 
times for contracts, and especially for marriage vows. An 
oath made, while the parties joined hands in the hole of the 
stone, was considered most inviolable. 
There is another use to which these pillars were applied, 
viz., as "boundary stones." We read in Josh. xv. 6, "The 
border went up to the stone of Bohan, the son of Reuben." 
So in Josh, xviii. 17; and in Deut. xix. 14; and Proverbs 
xxii. 28, a plain command was given not to remove a neigh- 
bour's landmark, "the ancient landmark, that thy fathers 
have set." That these stones (as well as cairns) were in after 
ages used for this purpose is shewn by the Register of the 
Bishops of Aberdeen : " Thir are the Boundis own my Lord 
of Atholles syde the Stannande Staine, merkit like a horse- 
sho." We remember that Numa Pompilius introduced the 
god Terminus, the keeper of landmarks, into the infant 
kingdom of Rome. And he who moved a landmark was 
accused. Terminus thus became one of the deities of Rome ; 
and the annual festival in his honour was celebrated by the 
ountry paop le, by crowning the landmarks with garlands 
and flowers, and making libations of milk and wine, and, 
in after times, by offering a lamb or young pig. 
These terminalia had their representatives in Britain, viz., 
the Beating Bounds, in Rogation Week. Rogation Week 
falls the very end of April, or the beginning of May, about 
the time of the old beltane. In many parts of England 
there still remain venerable oaks, called gospel oaks, at 
which a portion of the gospel was wont to be read on these 
davs of beatincr bounds. 
J o 
Can we doubt that this is a Christianized form of the old 
