proof of the magnitude and celebrity of this ftructure; and he is of opinion, that STONEHENGE was the identical temple here alluded to. This remark of Mr. Knight is perfectly congenial with my own fentiments on the fubject, and I mean in a future page to give the whole paffage, at length from Diodorus, with fuch ftrictures upon what precedes and follows it as I conceive will place the fact beyond difpute. That Gentleman's confequent obfervation that the large obelisks of ftone, found in many parts of the North, fuch as thofe at RUDSTONE, described in the fifth volume of the Archæologia, and thofe near BURROUGHBRIDGE, delineated in Stukeley's Itinerary, and now called the Devil's Arrows, are veftiges of the fame religion, is made with equal judgement; and evinces the writer's intimate knowledge of the earliest fuperftitions of the East.*

That the Druids not lefs than the Brachmans adored the Sun in a circular dance, is not only evident from the following paffages in Athenæus and Pliny, but from many others in Toland's Hiftory of the Druids, and may be proved from fimilar practices at this

day existing in the Hebrides, and many places where thofe Druids took up their favourite though fecluded refidence. Athenæus tells us that the ancient Gauls, "when they worfhipped their Gods, turned round on the right hand,"* imitating thereby the apparent motion of the heavens from eaft to weft, and the radiant march of the stars. Pliny confirms this account, by exprefsly faying, "that the Gauls, contrary to the practice of the Romans, who were accuftomed in their devotions to turn the body quite round from left. to right, imitating thereby the courfe of the fun and planets, always turned round the body, in adorando, from right to left."+ When you worship the Gods, fays Plautus, worship turning to the right hand. Si deos falutas dextrovorfum cenfeo. It is a curious fact, and by no means to be omitted in this. place, that the ancients, not less than the moderns, made the feftive goblet circulate according to the courfe of the fun, of which no ftronger nor more authentic teftimony, need be brought than that of old Homer himself, who defcribes the immortals as quaff

* Athenæus, lib. iv. p. 152.

+ Plin. Hift. Nat. lib. xxviii. cap. 2.

Plautus, act. i. scene i. verse 70.

ing

ing their nectar in this order; for Vulcan, when he carries the goblet round, goes round

*

avdeğiα, by the right hand, not merely with dexterity, or nimbly, as the tranflators render it, but to imitate the course of the planet who matures the genial grape. Had Pope been like Homer, vinofus, he would have noticed this; but Pope was not celebrated for his hofpitalities.

For the fuller information of the reader on this fubject, I muft beg his attention to the following account of the facred aftronomical dance of the ancients in a former volume. "Befides thefe dances, there exifted in antiquity a folemn and measured dance, more particularly inftituted by the astronomical priests, which imitated the motion of the fun and planets, in their respective orbits. This dance was divided into three parts, the ftrophe, the antistrophe, and that which was called Stationary, or flow and scarcely-perceptible motion before the altar. In the strophe, they danced from the right hand to the left, by which motion, Plutarch is of opinion, they meant to indicate the apparent motion of the heavens, from eaft to weft: in the anti

* Homeri Iliad, lib. i. v. 597.

ftrophe,

ftrophe, they moved from the left to the right, in allufion to the motion of the planets, from weft to eaft; and, by the flow, or stationary, motion before the altar, the permanent stability of the earth. It was in the last fituation that the ad, or ode after the dance, was fung. I cannot, however, avoid being of opinion, that the ancients knew fomething more of the true fyftem of aftronomy than this, and that, by the flow stationary, or hardly-perceptible, motion before the altar, they intended to denote either the revolution of the earth upon its axis, or elfe the folftitial period."

The RAAS JATTRA, or circular dance, of the Indians, an account of which follows the above quotation, will demonftrate the truth - of Lucian's affertion in regard to its existence among the Brachmans; and how much the Druids were devoted to this species of worship we shall presently learn from the proofs adduced, as well from ancient as modern times, in the page of their hiftorian, Mr. Toland.

In the ifles of Scotland, he informs us, at this day the vulgar ftill fhew a great respect for the Druids' houfes, and never come to the ancient facrificing and fire-hallowing

carns,

carns, but they walk three times round them, from east to weft, occording to the course of the fun. This fanctified tour, or round by the South, is called Deifeal, as the unhallowed contrary one by the north Tuapholl. The first is derived from Deas, or Defs, the right hand, and Soil, one of the ancient names of the Sun: the right hand in this round being ever next the carn. The Proteftants in the Hebrides are almoft as much addicted to the Deifeal as the Papifts: hereby it may be feen how hard it is to eradicate inveterate fuperftition. This cuftom was ufed three thousand years ago, and very probably long before, by their ancestors the ancient Gauls, of the fame religion with themselves.*

The fame author acquaints us that the inhabitants of Lewis, one of the largest of the western ifles, ftill practife this circular fpecies of worship; bowing three times, and repeating three folemn prayers, as they morning and evening go in proceffion round the chapel in which their devotions are performed; and that the common mode of paying respect and homage to benefactors and perfons of eminence and dignity, throughout those islands

Toland's Hiftory of the Druids, p. 108.