stone with a hole; and generally all stones, through which or under which a passage has been formed, are called in Cornwall Tolmens. Thus at Mên, in the parish of Constantine, there is a vast Tolmen placed on the points of two natural rocks, so that a man may creep under the great one, and between its supporters, through a passage about three feet wide, and as many high.'

1 It is 97 feet in circumference, and 60 across the middle. Ibid. p. 166.

LUTION IN GREECE, ROME, NEW HOLLAND, ETRURIA, EGYPT, AND INDIA. HOLY WATER AND WELLS. ROCK BASINS AT THE PEAK, HALIFAX, BRIMHAM, INDIA, ARARAT, TABOR. SANCTIFICATION BY WATER AMONG THE JEWS AND EGYPTIANS, AND IN THE MYSTERIES. BAPTISM, ZECHARIAH XIV. — SPRINKLING OF BLOOD.

It is a striking proof of the tenacity with which these superstitions maintain their hold through many and many successive generations, when we find that even the light of Christianity has been unable to dissolve the spell among those who profess its faith. A recent traveller, M. Caila, in visiting the churches in the Landes of Gascony, observed several narrow openings in the thickest part of one of the pillars. These were called Vegrines; and persons affected with rheumatism, or paralysis, were made to pass through them that they might be cured. Now since there is no natural connection in these cases between the act and the operation expected from it, it is necessary to look for the source of the superstition in something more remote; in some system of religion which will account for the extraordinary efficacy attributed to a

1 In the admonitions of St. Eloi in the eighth century, he charges the Christians not to follow the pagan superstitions. Qu'on ne fasse point passer le bétail par un arbre creux ou par un trou de la terre. Relig. de Gaules, p. 71.

cause that not only sets all physics and reason at defiance, but moreover by its bare simplicity should startle even credulity itself. But to the passage through the side of the Ark, recovery of health and renovation of life were very naturally ascribed by the Arkites; and, accordingly, we are assured that devout persons in India pass through perforated stones in order to be regenerated.' Heber says that at the extremity of the promontory called Malabar Point in the island of Bombay, he saw the remains of a pagoda, which appears from its situation to have been an Arkite temple, and a hole famous as a place of resort for Hindoo devotees, who believe that by entering it below, and emerg. ing from it above, they are purified from all their sins, and come out regenerate. The same mispersuasion has descended both to Mahommedans and to professors of Christianity. Père Reger, cited by Chateaubriand 3, relates that in the great mosque of Solomon a similar mode of trial is practised by devout Mussulmans. If they can pass between two small columns they are predestinated to the Paradise of Mohammed; and in the Holy Sepulchre, two holes are shewn cut in the rock, and descending into a sort of grotto. The Greek pilgrims go down through the large hole, and come

As. Res. vi. 502. In Ireland there are several of this description. Near Killmelcheder Church in the county of Kerry, there is a stone perforated, like those mentioned by Mr. Wilford in India, through which people passed to be regenerated; and in a corner of the old Church of Aghadoe near Killarney, a stone seven feet long is supported at one end by a smaller one, so as to leave an opening beneath. - Collect. de Reb. Hibern. vi. 182.

2 Heber's Journal, iii. 100.

3 Vol. ii. p. 376.

up through the small one; in which, if they succeed, they are thought to be in a fit state for heaven. For the same purpose, pilgrims repair to a celebrated cavity in the rocks of Upper India, called the Cow's Belly. The very name connects this spot with Arkite worship; and it is a name not given at random, or without a meaning: for the Hindoos were directed by their teachers to seek for regeneration by inclosing themselves in a golden statue, either of a woman or a cow. They had a great opinion, not of the necessity, but of the utility of regeneration for the laws of Menu declare, that his second, or divine birth, ensures life to the twice-born, both in this world and hereafter eternally, a life exempt from age and death.3 Nor was the obligation, which it imposed upon him, of a trifling or ordinary nature. For with various modes of devotion, and with austerities ordained by the law, the whole Veda, which was the Scripture of the Hindoos, must be read by him, who had received the new birth.4

It is interesting to observe how the traditional knowledge of that second state of existence, into which, not only the earth itself, but those also who returned to it from their death-like imprisonment in the Ark, may be said to have been born, mingled itself with a consciousness of sin and a longing to be renewed in a more perfect state, although the methods which it suggested for effecting that purpose were only the blunders of natural religion 1 Buckingham's Travels in Palestine, i. 387.

2 As. Res. vi. 538.

3 Sir W. Jones's Works, vii. 135.

4 Ibid. p. 138.

aiming above its level, and blind to spiritual objects. Of the two modes which have been mentioned as prescribed to the Hindoos, the first is evidently that coarsest notion of a new birth, which occurred to Nicodemus in his conversation with our Lord upon the same subject.' The other bears a more direct reference to the Ark, though we must have recourse to Egypt, in order to explain it; but if Sir W. Jones had sufficient warrant for maintaining that the regeneration of the Lama in Thibet was connected with the Apis of Egypt 2, we need not hesitate to resort to the same quarter for the explanation of a similar mystery. The cow in this case, though for obvious reasons the sex is changed, stands upon the same footing in Hindoo mythology as the sacred bull of Siva. Now, the bull Apis was in Egypt the representative of the moon, which was signified by a white crescent, marked upon his right side, and hence he was worshipped as a deity. But the mark which stamped him with this sacred character was not a half moon, though that would have been quite sufficient to designate the planet. It was absolutely necessary that it should, like the Bari, have the curvature of the moon in her first quarter. When, therefore,

1 St. John, iii. 4.

2 Sir W. Jones's Works, iii. 366. Some say that the soul of Osiris transmigrated into the body of Apis; others say that he was inclosed in a wooden cow by Isis. - Diod. Sic. lib. i. p. 76. Hence Dionusus is called in the Orphic Hymns Taupoyens, and by Plutarch Βουγένης.

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Cornibus lunæ crescere incipientis, says Pliny, or, according to Solinus, corniculantis lunæ refert faciem. Jul. Sol. Pol. c. 32. Where Salmasius observes, Solus, quod sciam, Ammianus Apin lunæ, Mnevin soli consecratum sciscit, p. 311.