ceffively visited the coast of Britain. Ignorant of its external furface, however, the deep and productive mines, with which the island abounded, afforded that inquifitive race à noble opportunity of contemplating its internal wonders, and advancing far in the knowledge of minerals, metals, gems, and other productions of the fubterraneous world. Of geometrical knowledge, alfo, no inconfiderable portion may fairly be affigned them, as being fo intimately connected with aftronomy, and the mechanical arts in which they had evidently made fo great a proficiency. Dr. Borlafe, indeed, from his own perfonal investigation, greatly confirms this latter pofition; for, on one of the rocks of the famous Karmbre-Hill, in Cornwall, he difcovered a very regular elliptical bafon, ten inches by fourteen, which, he obferves, could hardly be fo exactly delineated, without ftationing the two focuses of the ellipfis mathematically; a ftrong evidence that not only the faid bafon was made by the Druids, but that they underftood the principles of geometry.*

* Borlafe's Antiquities of Cornwall, p. 119.

THE STAFF OF BRAHMINS, THE ORIENTAL

TIARA, AND WHITE VESTMENTS OF THE

PRIESTS OF MITHRA, WERE ALL IMMEMORIALLY USED BY THE DRUIDS OF BRITAIN,

THE Druids invariably carried a facred wand, or ftaff, in their hands, which is one of the difcriminating fymbols by which the Brahmin order is known; and, being conftantly ufed by them in their rites of magic, probably came from them, to be employed in fimilar ceremonies throughout all the Eaft. The rod, or caduceus, of Hermes, the western Mercury, intwined with ferpents, that facred Afiatic fymbol for ever occurring in the Mithriac mysteries, and the facred thyrfi used by the frantic bacchanals in the myfteries of Ifis, have, I conceive, a very near relation to the Brahmin ftaff and the Druid wand. The Perfian youths, who, on the pompous proceffion defcribed by Curtius, attended the horfes of the fun, were arrayed in white garments, and bore in their hands golden rods, or wands, pointed

pointed at the end in imitation of the folar ray.* This explanation immediately points out its allufion in the ancient myfteries which were all relics of the original folar fuperftition. It fymbolized the folar beam that explores Nature's moft fecret depths, and penetrates into the abyss of matter, Diviners, therefore, in their lofty pretenfions to be acquainted with her arcana, and, as if converfant with her myfterious operations, in their nocturnal orgies, waved on high the folar wand, in circles imitative of the revolution of his orb.

I would by no means be understood as applying this obfervation to the rod of Mofes, by which Aaron wrought before the hardened Pharoah the prodigies of Egypt. It unfortunately happens, that, in this as in many other delicate inftances which have before occurred, the Mosaic and the Pagan customs, generally established in Afia, very nearly correspond, and it might be thought that I, therefore, ought to confider the latter as corruptions of the former; but the hypothefis which I have adopted, added to the allowed high antiquity of the Indian nation, does not always admit of my doing this, It fhould be

remembered, alfo, that the Deity, out of his indulgence to the weakness of human nature, permitted the Hebrew nation to retain in their ritual a few of the facred fymbols of their Afiatic neighbours; as, for inftance, that of fire, fanctifying the fymbol by its adoption into a nobler and purer system of devotion. In truth, the rod of Mofes was originally the paftoral wand with which he guided his flock; from those flocks he was taken to be the paftor of Ifrael; with that fimple inftrument he was enabled, by Jehovah, to awe the fovereign of Egypt, and to confound the magicians opposed to him. . Those magicians, indeed, had their rods, fuch as we have defcribed peculiar to their iniquitous profeffion; but that of Mofes, by annihilating the others, proved at once the fuperiority of its origin, and the irrefiftible might of him under whofe aufpices it was employed. Aaron, alfo, had his peculiar rod, that bloffomed, was folemnly depofited in the ark, and, on all folemn occafions, ornamented the hand of the high prieft of the Jewish nation. The heads of all the tribes had alfo their refpective rods; but these are to be confidered rather as badges of distinction than as facred

fymbols;

fymbols; for virga is frequently in Scripture ufed in the fense of fceptre.

The Druids, alfo, wore on their heads a tiara of linen, very much resembling, in form, that of the Brahmins, and which, in the preceding volume, it has been obferved, confifted of a piece of muflin, many yards in length; and, as every thing in their worfhip had an allufion to the fun and planets, rolled round in form of a turban, to imitate the convolutions of the orbs. The Egyptian priests performing the facrifice to the fun, represented in one of the plates of the fecond volume of this work, wear on their heads this tiara, which rifes in the form of a cone; in Afiatic mythology, a conftant emblem of the fun. The high priest of the Jewish nation wore a tiara of this kind, which was called cidaris; but, to prevent any mistaken allufion to the folar worthip, a golden plate was placed on the front of it, on which was confpicuously engraven the awful name of Jehovah. Thefe parts of the ancient drefs and ornaments of the Afiatic priests are visible in the crofier and mitre of the episcopal order of Europe, now fanctified by their use in the service of that God who made the fun and all the hoft of heaven.

White