may at once perceive the reason of their anxiety to raise in the most appropriate situations these double emblems of their ancestors' deliverance. The Alps have derived their name, not from their colour, nor yet from their height, but from these inferior consecrated spots; for Alp was a word used by the Germans, to signify those moderate heights, in the bosom of a lofty mountain, that are covered with grass', which are exactly the spots the most appropriate for these sacred structures. We learn from Livy, that the mountain's god was worshipped on Mount Cenis, under the name of Penninus2, who has more durably given his name to the Apennines; and it is a name manifestly derived from the Celtic Pen, a height or mountain. It may possibly be thought, that the mountain itself being in this instance the object of veneration, it is not a case in point, and falls not within our present scope: but a confusion of this sort, introduced by the grossness of idolatry, by no means contradicts the original design. It has been already shown, that Atlas was an Arkite mountain; but there is a part of that range projecting into the sea, and almost

1 Alb, Alp, die, bedeutet eigentlich im Oberdeutschen die mittlern mit gras bewachsenen Stellen der hohen Berge. Allgemeines Deutsches Conversations Lexicon, 1834.

2 At Aoste in Savoy there is an inscription Deo Penino, and another Jovi Poenino. Aoste is at the confluence of the Dora Baltea, with a torrent from the foot of the Grand St. Bernard, and commands both passes, the Grand and the Petit. — Archæ. v. 131. Ab eo quem in summo sacratum vertice Penninum montani adpellant, Liv. lib. xxi. c.38. Barth takes him to be the same as the Scandinavian Thor, and the Celtic Taranis. Now Tor in Irish, according to Vallancey, signifies a Prince; Ann, a Stone Pillar, and Ess, a Ship: so that we may extract this meaning from it, the royal pillar of the Ship; but in Hebrew, Tsor or Tur is a Tower, Turris, or a Rock.

surrounded by it, which is thus described: it was hollow, and lofty, and open to the sea; and it was, to the western Libyans, both a temple and an idol.' The Macedonian Athos was another worthy representative of the diluvian mountain: like Atlas, it was nearly surrounded by the sea; and the cells of the Caloyers, who now inhabit it, were doubtless, in former times, cells of the Arkites: for from the earliest periods of history, down to the present day, it has been a holy mountain. A legend has been preserved respecting it, which, through the usual obscurity, discovers to us enough of light to discern its original design. In the war of the giants against the gods, which, it has been already shown, relates to the æra of the Deluge, the giant Atho tore up this mountain from the Thracian soil, where it was founded below an immeasurable pool2, and hurled it to its present place. Why should the fable represent it as surrounded with water in its original situation, unless there were some traditional belief, that a mountain surrounded by immeasurable waters was in truth its prototype? But the origin of the name is better deduced from a very different source. It is stated by Pausanias, that Jupiter Athous was worshipped on the top of the mountain but Athous in Greek signifies exempt from

3

1 Τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τούτοις ἱερόν ἐστι καὶ ἀγάλμα ὁ "Ατλας — ἔστι δὲ ὁ Ατλας ὄρος κοῖλον, ἐπιεικῶς ὑψηλὸν, ἀνεργὸς πρὸς τὸ πέλαγος. — Μαχ Махimus Tyrius.

Nicander apud Stephanum corrected by Is. Vossius. The Thrace here mentioned is probably Samothrace, which was famous for a worship and traditions plainly Arkite.

3 ̓Αθῶος, ὁ ἐπὶ ̓́Αθω τοῦ ὄρους ἱδρυμένος ἀνδριὰς ὁ Ζεύς

Hesych.

:

punishment'; and how can that term be applied to Jupiter, unless the person so worshipped, were in reality the patriarch. So great is its height, according to Solinus, that its top reaches above the clouds. The assertion is probably correct: for it can be seen at a distance of ninety miles, and clouds charged with rain very frequently descend below the summits of less lofty hills; but the mode by which he arrives at this conclusion is somewhat extraordinary his reason is, because the ashes are never washed down from the altars which it bears on its top, and the mounds which they form never diminish in size. But how could hecatombs enough be offered at so great an elevation to form the mounds of which he speaks? Or, if the term he uses (aggeres) be an ill-chosen and hyperbolical expression, still how happens it that these ashes, undisturbed as they might be by the rains, were also spared by the violent winds, to which they were sure to be exposed? It may well therefore be suspected that neither he nor those whose opinion he expresses, had ever climbed to the mountain top; but they had heard of altars there, and were disappointed at not seeing ashes brought down, for which they accounted after their own fashion they had heard, too, that it was a place of safety from floods of water.

Another remarkable hill temple is that called

2 Est sane Athos sublimis adeo, ut æstimetur altior quam unde imbres cadunt. Quæ opinio eo fidem concepit, quod in aris, quas cacumine sustinet, nunquam cineres eluantur, nec quicquam ex aggeribus suis perdunt, sed in quo relicti cumulo permaneant. - Jul. Solin. Polyhistor. c. 11.

Mehentélé in Ceylon. It is on the border of a lake; and has on the area at the top several small Dagobas, or mounds of earth, inclosing in the centre one of larger dimensions, and surrounded by a stone wall, within which are fifty-two pillars of granite. To the westward, a large Dagoba rises to the height of 120 cubits. On the eastern side are the dwellings of the priests, above which a bare rock of granite rises abruptly, surmounted at the very summit by a heap of stones, precisely similar in character to those met with in Scotland and on the Alps. From this height no less than 360 small Dagobas are to be seen. It is evident that these Dagobas are equivalent to the Celtic Cairns; for at Anarajapura, seven of great height and extent have a hollow space in the inside, where relics are placed, and some of them have three parallel rings of pillars round them. They have, therefore, a near affinity to the Budhist temple in their neighbourhood, which is a square of pillars, that once had a brazen chamber in their centre, containing formerly, as tradition says, a relic held in high veneration, which, during a period of persecution, was destroyed. It is called the Temple of a Thousand Pillars, and the pillars are 100 cubits high.'

1 Trans. As Soc. iii.. p. 472-490.

THE Druidical temple at Carnac, in Bretagne, belongs to the same class of monuments, though the largest portion of it presents the same subject under a different form, which must next engage our attention. It is in truth the largest in the world, for it extends over a space of eight miles ; and although the continuity is now so broken by considerable interruptions, that it is impossible to trace the original design, yet the remaining portions are sufficiently near, to show that there must have been a unity of purpose in those who reared these gigantic structures: and it would be surprising, indeed, if the same utilitarian contempt for antiquities, which has almost demolished the temple of Abury, in this country, had not also sought materials for walls and houses out of the long avenues of Carnac. The cone of earth is not equally destructible, though its figure is apt to receive a little alteration from the hand of time: at Penab it has a bell-shaped form; and measures 206 feet in perpendicular height, and 330 at the base. St. Michael's Mount is a natural hillock, which has been raised artificially to so great a height as to be seen through a circuit of many miles.