338 
in Assyria, the king of Babylon being represented by Ezekiel 
as divining by looking into the liver. Various authors attribute 
the same custom to the Druids of Britain, and something very 
similar was practised in Mexico, and by the Roman augurs, 
who, it is assumed, also practised this species of aruspicy. 
Here, at least, we have evidence of a widely-spread custom m 
different continents associated with death by sacrifice. 
25. Impressed in my youth with the remarkable emblems on the 
Indian temples, I had for many years pursued the study ot the 
symbols of different religions by travel and personal inspection 
in various countries, and finally devoted several consecutive 
years to searching the Hebrides, and those remote and secluded 
districts in the West Highlands of Scotland, in which I felt 
convinced there ought still to be some remains, beyond mere 
stone circles and sepulchral tumuli ; and I consider, although I 
have prosecuted the search at a great expenditure of time and 
cost I have yet been amply rewarded. The diagrams J, A, .b, 
C H A, "j, Y, illustrate several of the remarkable monuments 
I have discovered, with what appear to me unparalleled results, 
giving, I think, a further corroboration to the evidence we have 
in favour of the construction, for religious purposes, of serpent 
forms and emblems. These diagrams should be compared with 
G, H, L, I, on which are representations of the American mounds .* 
My investigations in the East, and in Greece, Italy, and Spain, 
were made purely for the satisfaction of my own private desire 
to know more concerning what appeared to me an interesting 
subiect, but I never deemed the matter one likely to become of 
public interest in these days, till the valuable work on Serpent 
Worship by Dr. James Fergusson showed that I was not a solitary 
student of such forms of religion. 
26. There are, moreover, certain other emblems of a very 
peculiar character, some of which are markedly identified with 
the religions to which I have referred. The cross was evidently 
one of the very oldest emblems among pre-historic men. I have 
heard it urged that there is nothing surprising in this, as it is 
the simplest form of a sign that might be made alike by 
children and the most uncultivated savages, to indicate any 
purpose. But it is in the highest positions of veneration, and 
not in accidental or inferior positions, that it appears. It is 
* The letters refer to many diagrams exhibited, from which the numbered 
figures in these pages are a few selections. The reader is referred to Good 
Words and the Illustrated London News for figures of some of the Scotch 
mounds, of the respective dates of March, 1872, and 26th October, 1872 ; 
the first being by Miss C. F. Gordon Cumming. Also to a work by the 
author, Results of a Recent Investigation into Ancient Monuments and Relics. 
