Читать книгу Sketches of Imposture, Deception, and Credulity - R. A. Davenport - Страница 4

Table of Contents

Remote Origin of Oracles—Influence of Oracles—Opinions respecting them—Cause of the Cessation of Oracles—Superstition early systematized in Egypt—Bœotia early famous for Oracles—Origin of the Oracle of Dodona—Ambiguity of Oracular Responses—Stratagem of a Peasant—Oracles disbelieved by Ancient Philosophers—Cyrus and the Idol Bel—Source of Fire-Worshipping—Victory of Canopus over Fire—The Sphinx—Sounds heard from it—Supposed Cause of them—Mysterious Sounds at Nakous—Frauds of the Priests of Serapis—The Statue of Memnon—Oracle of Delphi—Its Origin—Changes which it underwent—The Pythoness—Danger attendant on her office—Tricks played by Heathen Priests—Origin of the Gordian Knot—The Knot is cut by Alexander—Ambrosian, Logan or Rocking Stones—Representations of them on Ancient Coins—Pliny’s Description of a Logan Stone in Asia—Stones at Sitney, in Cornwall, and at Castle Treryn—The latter is overthrown, and replaced—Logan Stones are Druidical Monuments.

The knowledge of the origin of the ancient oracles is lost in the distance of time; yet it seems reasonable to suppose, that traditionary accounts and confused recollections of the revelations graciously vouchsafed to Noah, to Abraham, and the Patriarchs, more especially Moses, may have been the foundation of these oracles, which were venerated in ancient times; and established in temples, which were, in some instances, supposed to be even the abode of the gods themselves: thus, Apollo was supposed to take up his occasional residence at Delphos, Diana at Ephesus, and Minerva at Athens.

The manner of prophecy was various, but that employed by oracles enjoyed the greatest repute; because they were believed to proceed, in a most especial manner, from the gods themselves. Every thing of essential consequence being, therefore, referred to them by the heads of states, oracles obtained a powerful influence over the minds of the people; and this popular credulity offered tempting opportunities to the priests for carrying on very lucrative impostures, nor did they disdain or neglect to take advantage of those opportunities. Added to this, the different functions of the gods, and the different and often opposite parts which they were made to take in human affairs by the priests and poets, were plentiful sources of superstitious rites, and therefore of emolument to those who, in consequence either of office or pretension, were supposed to have immediate communications with the deity in whose temples they presided.

Much has been written on this subject; and some have even gone so far as to suppose that Divine permission was granted to certain demons, or evil spirits, to inhabit pagan shrines, and thence, by ambiguous answers, to deceive, and often to punish, those who sought by their influence to read the forbidden volume of futurity.

This doctrine was strenuously opposed by Van Dale; and Mœbius (of Leipsic), although opposed to Van Dale’s opinion, allows that oracles did not cease to grant responses immediately at the coming of Christ; and this has been considered a sufficient proof as well as argument, that demons did not deliver oracular responses; but that those responses were impostures and contrivances of the priests themselves.

The true cause of the cessation of oracular prophecy, however, appears to be, that the minds of men became enlightened by the wide-spreading of the Christian faith; and by the circumstance, that their superstition was compromised by the metamorphoses of their favourite heroes and deities into saints and martyrs. As an instance of which, it will hereafter be shown, that the statues of the ancient gods, even to this day, are allowed to stand and hold places in the churches and cathedrals of many Catholic countries.

Those who argue that oracles ceased immediately at the coming of Christ, relate, in confirmation of their opinion, that Augustus having grown old, became desirous of choosing a successor, and went, in consequence, to consult the oracle at Delphos. No answer was given, at first, to his inquiry, though he had spared no expense to conciliate the oracle. At last, however, the priestess is reported to have said, “the Hebrew Infant, to whom all gods render obedience, chases me hence; He sends me to the lower regions; therefore depart this temple, without speaking more.”

Superstition was formed into a system in Egypt at an age prior to our first accounts of that country. Vast temples were built, and innumerable ceremonies established; the same body, forming the hereditary priesthood and the nobility of the nation, directed with a high hand the belief and consciences of the people; and prophecy was not only among their pretensions, but perhaps the most indispensable part of their office.

Bœotia was also a country famous for the number of its oracles, and from its localities was well suited for such impostures, being mountainous and full of caverns, by means of which sounds and echoes, apparently mysterious, could be easily multiplied to excite the astonishment and terror of the supplicants.

Herodotus informs us, that one of the first oracles in Greece was imported from the Egyptian Thebes. It happened, says Mr. Mitford in his History of Greece, that the master of a Phœnician vessel carried off a woman, an attendant of the temple of Jupiter, at Thebes on the Nile, and sold her in Thesprotia, a mountainous tract in the northwestern part of Epirus, bordering on the Illyrian hordes. Reduced thus unhappily to slavery among barbarians, the woman, however, soon became sensible of the superiority which her education in a more civilized country gave her over them; and she conceived hopes of mending her condition, by practising upon their ignorance what she had acquired of those arts which able hands imposed upon a more enlightened people. She gave out that she possessed all the powers of prophecy to which the Egyptian priests pretended; that she could discover present secrets, and foretell future events.

Her pretensions excited curiosity, and brought numbers to consult her. She chose her station under the shade of a spreading oak, where, in the name of the god Jupiter, she delivered answers to her ignorant inquirers; and shortly her reputation as a prophetess extended as far as the people of the country themselves communicated.

These simple circumstances of her story were afterwards, according to the genius of those ages, turned into a fable, which was commonly told, in the time of Herodotus, by the Dodonæan priests. A black pigeon, they said, flew from Thebes in Egypt to Dodona, and, perching upon an oak, proclaimed with human voice, “That an oracle of Jupiter should be established there.” Concluding that a divinity spoke through the agency of the pigeon, the Dodonæans obeyed the mandate, and the oracle was established. The historian accounts for the fiction thus: the woman on her arrival speaking in a foreign dialect, the Dodonæans said she spoke like a pigeon; but afterwards, when she had acquired the Grecian speech and accent, they said the pigeon spoke with a human voice.

The trade of prophecy being both easy and lucrative, the office of the prophetess was readily supplied both with associates and successors. A temple for the deity and habitations for his ministers were built; and thus, according to the evidently honest, and apparently well-founded and judicious, account of Herodotus, arose the oracle of Jupiter at Dodona, the very place where tradition, still remaining to the days of that writer, testified that sacrifices had formerly been performed only to the nameless god.

The responses of the oracles, though given with some appearance of probability, were for the most part ambiguous and doubtful; but it must be acknowledged that the priests were very clever persons, since, while they satisfied for the time the wishes of others, they were so well able to conceal their own knavery. A fellow, it is said, willing to try the truth of Apollo’s oracle, asked what it was he held in his hand—holding at the time a sparrow under his cloak—and whether it was dead or alive—intending to kill or preserve it, contrary to what the oracle should answer—but it replied, that it was his own choice whether that which he held should live or die.

Many of the sages and other great men evidently paid no regard, or real veneration, to the oracles, beyond what policy dictated to preserve their influence over others.

The researches of modern antiquaries and travellers have discovered the machinery of many artifices of the priests of the now deserted fanes, which sufficiently account for the apparent miracles exhibited to the eye of ignorance. There remain many instances of this kind to show how general this system of imposture has been in all ages; and, as may be supposed, the priests did not fail to exact a liberal payment in advance.

Cyrus,—according to the apocryphal tradition,—a devout worshipper of the idol Bel, was convinced by the prophet Daniel of the imposture of this supposed mighty and living god, who was thought to consume every day twelve measures of fine flour, forty sheep, and six vessels of wine, which were placed as an offering on the altar. These gifts being presented as usual, Daniel commanded ashes to be strewed on the floor of the temple, round the altar on which the offerings were placed; and the door of the temple to be sealed in the presence of the king. Cyrus returned on the following day, and seeing the altar cleared of what was placed thereon, cried out “Great art thou, O Bel, and in thee is no deceit!” but Daniel, pointing to the floor, the king continues, “I see the footsteps of women and children!” The private door at the back of the altar leading to the dwellings of the priests was then discovered; their imposture clearly proved, they were all slain, and the temple was destroyed.

The circumstance of fire being so frequently an object of veneration amongst pagans, is thought to have arisen thus: the sun, as a source of light and heat, was the most evident and most benignant of the natural agents; and was worshipped, accordingly, as a first cause, rather than as an effect; as however it was occasionally absent, it was typified by fire, which had the greatest analogy to it.

This element, first respected only as the representative of the sun, in time became itself the object of adoration among the Chaldeans; and Eusebius relates the following circumstance with respect to it. The Chaldeans asserted that their god was the strongest and most powerful of all gods; since they had not met with any one that could resist his force; so that whenever they happened to seize upon any deities, which were worshipped by other nations, they immediately threw them into the fire, which never failed of consuming them to ashes, and thus the god of the Chaldeans came to be publicly looked upon as the conqueror of all other gods: at length a priest of Canopus, one of the Egyptian gods, found out the means to destroy the great reputation which fire had acquired. He caused to be formed an idol of a very porous earth, with which pots were commonly made to purify the waters of the Nile; the belly of this statue, which was very capacious, was filled with water, the priest having first made a great many little holes and stopped them with wax. He then challenged the fire of the Chaldeans to dispute with his god Canopus. The Chaldeans immediately prepared one, and the Egyptian priest set his statue on it; no sooner did the fire reach the wax than it dissolved, the holes were opened, the water passed through, and the fire was extinguished. Upon this a report was soon spread, that the god Canopus had conquered and destroyed the god of the Chaldeans. As a memorial of their victory, the Egyptians always afterwards made their idols with very large bellies.

The celebrated sphinx, still more interesting as a wonderful production of art, is said to have been made by an Egyptian king, in memory of Rhodope of Corinth, with whom he was passionately in love: yet it was subsequently considered as an oracle, which, if consulted at the rising of the sun, gave prophetic answers. There has lately been discovered a large hole in the head; in which the priests are supposed to have concealed themselves, for the purpose of deluding the people. At sunrise music was said to be heard. The latter might even occur from natural causes. Messieurs Jomard, Jollois, and Devilliers heard at sunrise, in a monument of granite, placed in the centre of that spot on which the palace of Karnak stood, a noise resembling that of a string breaking; this was found on attentive examination to proceed from a natural phenomenon, occurring near the situation of the sphinx. Of this circumstance the ingenuity of the priests would no doubt be sure to avail themselves; and this may also account for the hour of sunrise being chosen for the oracular responses.

To confirm the probability of this solution of the mystery, it may be mentioned that Baron Humboldt was informed by most credible witnesses, that subterranean sounds, like those of an organ, are heard towards sunrise by those who sleep upon the granite rocks on the banks of the Oroonoko. Those sounds he philosophically supposes may arise from the difference of temperature between the external air and that contained in the narrow and deep crevices of the rocks; the air issuing from which may be modified by its impulse against the elastic films of mica projecting into the crevices; producing, in fact, a natural and gigantic eolina, the simple but beautiful arrangement of musical chords which is now so commonly heard.

A somewhat similar phenomenon, which gives rise to an Arab superstition, occurs about three leagues from Tor, on the Red Sea. The spot, which is half a mile from the sea, bears the name of Nakous, or the Bell. It is about three hundred feet high, and eighty feet wide, presents a steep declivity to the sea, and is covered by sand, and surrounded by low rocks, in the form of an amphitheatre. The sounds which it emits are not periodical, but are heard at all hours and at all seasons. The place was twice visited by Mr. Gray. On the first visit, after waiting a quarter of an hour, he heard a low continuous murmuring sound beneath his feet, which, as it increased in loudness, gradually changed into pulsations, resembling the ticking of a clock. In five minutes more it became so powerful as to resemble the striking of a clock, and, by its vibrations, to detach the sand from the surface. When he returned, on the following day, he heard the sound still louder than before. Both times the air was calm, and the sky serene; so that the external air could have had no share in producing the phenomenon; nor could he find any crevice by which it could penetrate. The noise is affirmed by the people of Tor to frighten and render furious the camels that hear it; and the Arabs of the desert poetically ascribe it to the bell of a convent of monks, which convent they believe to have been miraculously preserved under ground. Seetzen, another visiter, attributes the phenomenon to the rolling down of the sand.

Rufinus informs us that, when it was destroyed by order of Theodosius, the temple of Serapis at Alexandria was found to be full of secret passages and machines, contrived to aid the impostures of the priests; among other things, on the eastern side of the temple, was a little window, through which, on a certain day of the year, the sunbeams entering fell on the mouth of the statue of Memnon. At the same moment an iron image of the sun was brought in, which, being attracted by a large loadstone fixed in the ceiling, ascended up to the image. The priests then cried out, that the sun saluted their god.

This Memnon was said to be the son of Tithonus and Aurora, and a statue of him in black marble was set up at Thebes. It is also related that the mouth of the statue, when first touched by the rays of the rising sun, sent forth a sweet and harmonious sound, as though it rejoiced when its mother Aurora appeared; but, at the setting of the sun, it sent forth a low melancholy tone, as if lamenting its mother’s departure.

On the left leg of one of the colossal figures called Memnon are engraved the names of many celebrated personages, who have borne witness, at different times, of their having heard the musical tones which proceeded from the statue on the rising and setting of the sun. Strabo was an ear-witness to the fact that an articulate sound was heard, but doubted whether it came from the statue.

The oracle which held the greatest reputation, and extended it over the world, was Delphi; yet upon what slight grounds were the minds of people led captive by the love of the marvellous and a proneness to superstition! Of this celebrated place so many fables are related, some of them referring to times long before any authentic account of the existence of such an oracle, that it is difficult to decide upon the real period.

On the southern side of Mount Parnassus, within the western border of Phocis, against Locris, and at no great distance from the seaport towns of Crissa and Cirrha, the mountain-crags form a natural amphitheatre, difficult of access, in the midst of which a deep cavern discharged from a narrow orifice a vapour powerfully affecting the brain of those who came within its influence. This was first brought into public notice by a goatherd, whose goats, browsing on the brink, were thrown into singular convulsions; upon which the man, going to the spot, and endeavouring to look into the chasm, became himself agitated like one frantic. These extraordinary circumstances were communicated through the neighbourhood; and the superstitious ignorance of the age immediately attributed them to a deity residing in the place. Frenzy of every kind among the Greeks, even in more enlightened times, was supposed to be the effect of divine inspiration; and the incoherent speeches of the frantic were regarded as prophetical. This spot, formerly visited only by goats, now became an object of extensive curiosity. It was said to be the oracle of the goddess Earth. The rude inhabitants from all the neighbouring parts resorted to it, for information concerning futurity; to obtain which any one of them inhaled the vapour, and whatever he uttered in the ensuing intoxication passed for prophecy. This was found dangerous, however, as many, becoming giddy, fell into the cavern and were lost; and in an assembly it was agreed that one person should alone receive the inspiration, and render the responses of the divinity. A virgin was preferred for the sacred office, and a frame prepared, resting on three feet, whence it was called tripod. The place bore the name of Pytho, and thence the title of Pythoness, or Pythia, became attached to the prophetess. By degrees, a rude temple was built over the cavern, priests were appointed, ceremonies were prescribed, and sacrifices were performed. A revenue was necessary. All who would consult the oracle henceforward must come with offerings in their hands. The profits produced by the prophecies of the goddess Earth beginning to fail, the priests asserted that the god Neptune was associated with her in the oracle. The goddess Themis was then reported to have succeeded mother Earth. Still new incentives to public credulity and curiosity became necessary. Apollo was a deity of great reputation in the islands, and in Asia Minor, but had at that time little fame on the continent of Greece. At this period, a vessel from Crete came to Crissa, and the crew landing proceeded up Mount Parnassus to Delphi. It was reported that the vessel and crew, by a preternatural power, were impelled to the port, accompanied by a dolphin of uncommon magnitude, who discovered himself to be Apollo, and who ordered the crew to follow him to Delphi and become his ministers. Thus the oracle recovered and increased its reputation. Delphi had the advantage of being near the centre of Greece, and was reported to be the centre of the earth; miracles were invented to prove so important a circumstance, and the navel of the earth was among the titles which it acquired. Afterwards vanity came in aid of superstition, in bringing riches to the temple: the names of those who made considerable presents were always registered, and exhibited in honour of the donors.

The Pythoness was chosen from among mountain cottagers, the most unacquainted with mankind that could be found. It was required that she should be a virgin, and originally taken when very young; and once appointed, she was never to quit the temple. But, unfortunately, it happened that one Pythoness made her escape; her singular beauty enamoured a young Thessalian, who succeeded in the hazardous attempt to carry her off. It was afterwards decreed that no Pythoness should be appointed under fifty years of age.

This office appears not to have been very desirable. Either the emanation from the cavern, or some art of the managers, threw her into real convulsions. Priests, entitled prophets, led her to the sacred tripod, force being often necessary for the purpose, and held her on it, till her frenzy rose to whatever pitch was in their judgment most fit for the occasion. Some of the Pythonesses are said to have expired almost immediately after quitting the tripod, and even on it. The broken accents which the wretch uttered in her agony were collected and arranged by the prophets, and then promulgated as the answer of the god. Till a late period, they were always in verse. The priests had it always in their power to deny answers, delay them, or render them dubious or unintelligible, as they judged most advantageous for the credit of the oracle. But if princes or great men applied in a proper manner for the sanction of the god to any undertaking, they seldom failed to receive it in direct terms, provided the reputation of the oracle for truth was not liable to immediate danger from the event.

Theophrastus, bishop of Alexandria, showed the inhabitants of that town the hollow statue into which the former priests of the pagan oracle had privately crept whilst delivering their responses; and a modern traveller corroborates this fact, by a similar discovery made among the excavations at Pompeii. “In the temple of Isis,” says Dr. J. Johnson, “we see the identical spot where the priests concealed themselves, whilst delivering the oracles that were supposed to proceed from the mouth of the goddess. There were found the bones of the victims sacrificed; and in the refectory of the abstemious priests were discovered the remains of ham, fowls, eggs, fish, and bottles of wine. These jolly friars were carousing most merrily, and no doubt laughing heartily at the credulity of mankind, when Vesuvius poured out a libation on their heads which put an end to their mirth.”[2]

“To cut the Gordian knot” has long been proverbial for an independent and unexpected way of overcoming difficulties, however great. It took its rise from a circumstance related with some variations by several ancient authors, and with great simplicity by Arrian; it is the more a curiosity as coming from a man of his eminence in his enlightened age.

At a remote period, says he, a Phrygian yeoman, named Gordius, was holding his own plough on his own land, when an eagle perched on the yoke and remained whilst he continued his work. Wondering at a matter so apparently preternatural, he deemed it expedient to consult some person among those who had reputation for expounding indications of the divine will. In the neighbouring province of Pisidia the people of Telmissus had wide fame for that skill; it was supposed instinctive and hereditary in men and women of particular families. Going thither, as he approached the first village of the Telmissian territory, he saw a girl drawing water at a spring; and making some inquiry, which led to further conversation, he related the phenomenon. It happened that the girl was of a race of seers; she told him to return immediately home, and sacrifice to Jupiter the king. Satisfied so far, he remained anxious about the manner of performing the ceremony, so that it might be certainly acceptable to the deity; and the result was that he married the girl, and she accompanied him home.

Nothing important followed till a son of this match, named Midas, had attained manhood. The Phrygians then, distressed by violent civil dissensions, consulted an oracle for means to allay them. The answer was, “that a cart would bring them a king to relieve their troubles.” The assembly was already formed to receive official communication of the divine will, when Gordius and Midas arrived in their cart to attend it. Presently the notion arose and spread, that one of those in that cart must be the person intended by the oracle. Gordius was then advanced in years. Midas, who already had been extensively remarked for superior powers of both body and mind, was elected king of Phrygia. Tranquillity ensued among the people; and the cart, predesigned by heaven to bring a king the author of so much good, was, with its appendages, dedicated to the god, and placed in the citadel, where it was carefully preserved.

The yoke was fastened with a thong, formed of the bark of a cornel tree, so artificially that no eye could discover either end; and rumour was become popular of an oracle, which declared that whosoever loosened that thong would be lord of Asia. The extensive credit which this rumour had obtained, and the reported failure of the attempts of many great men, gave an importance to it. Alexander, in the progress of his campaign in Asia, arrived at Gordium, and of course visited the castle in which was preserved the Gordian knot. While, with many around, he was admiring it, the observation occurred that it being his purpose to become lord of Asia, he should, for the sake of popular opinion, have the credit of loosening the yoke. Some writers have reported that he cut the knot with his sword; but Aristobulus, who, as one of his generals, is likely to have been present, related that he wrested the pin from the beam, and so, taking off the yoke, said that was enough for him to be lord of Asia.

Thunder and lightning on the following night, says Arrian, confirmed the assertion that Alexander had effected what the oracle had declared was to be done only by one who should be lord of Asia. Accordingly on the morrow he performed a magnificent thanksgiving sacrifice, in acknowledgment of the favour of the gods, thus promised: a measure as full of policy as devotion.

In Cornwall are to be found enormous piles of stone, which bear the name of Ambrosian, Logan, or Rocking Stones. Structures of this kind, as they may, perhaps, reasonably be called, are of very great antiquity, being represented on medals of Tyre. They appear to have been composed of cones of rock let into the ground, with other stones adapted to their points, and so nicely balanced, that the wind could move them; and yet so ponderous, that no human force, unaided by machinery, could displace them. The figures of Apollo Didymus, on the Syrian coins, are placed sitting on the point of the cone, on which the more rude and primitive symbol of the Logan stone is found poised; and we are told, that the oracle of the god near Miletus existed before the emigration of the Ionian colonies, more than eleven hundred years before Christ.

Pliny, in his second book, relates that there was one to be seen at Harpasa in Asia, exactly answering the description of those found in Cornwall. “Lay one finger on it, and it will stir; but thrust against it with your whole body, and it will not move.” Hephæstion mentions the Gigonian stone, near the ocean, which may be moved with the stalk of an asphodel, but cannot be removed by any force. Several of these stones may be seen in the neighbourhood of Heliopolis, or Baalbeck, in Syria; and one in particular has been seen in motion by the force of the wind alone.

The famous Logan stone, commonly called Minamber, stood in the parish of Sithney, Cornwall. The top stone was so accurately poised on the one beneath, that a little child could move it; and all travellers went that way to see it; but in Cromwell’s time, one Shrubsoll, Governor of Pendennis, with much ado caused it to be undermined and thrown down, to the great grief of the country: thus its wonderful property of moving so easily to a certain point was destroyed. The cause which induced the Governor to overthrow it appears to have been that the vulgar used to resort to the place at particular times, and pay the stone more respect than was thought becoming good Christians.

A similar destructive act was committed, a few years since, by one of his majesty’s officers, the commander of a revenue cutter. His achievement had, however, not even the excuse of a mistaken religious feeling to plead in its behalf; it seems to have been prompted merely by the spirit of mischief. Having landed a part of his crew, he, with infinite labour, succeeded in overturning the most celebrated Logan stone in Cornwall. But such was the odium with which he was visited in consequence of his exploit, that he undertook the gigantic task of restoring the stone to its original situation; and he was fortunate or skilful enough to succeed. A description of the situation and magnitude of the enormous mass which he had to raise will give some idea of the difficulty which he had to encounter. It is situated “on a peninsula of granite, jutting out two hundred yards into the sea, the isthmus still exhibiting some remains of the ancient fortification of Castle Treryn. The granite which forms this peninsula is split by perpendicular and horizontal fissures into a heap of cubical or prismatic masses. The whole mass varies in height from fifty to a hundred feet; it presents on almost every side a perpendicular face to the sea, and is divided into four summits, on one of which, near the centre of the promontory, the stone in question lies. The general figure of the stone is irregular: its lower surface is not quite flat, but swells out into a slight protuberance, on which the rock is poised. It rests on a surface so inclined, that it seems as if a small alteration in its position would cause it to slide along the plane into the sea, for it is within two or three feet of the edge of the precipice. The stone is seventeen feet in length, and above thirty-two in circumference near the middle, and is estimated to weigh nearly sixty-six tons. The vibration is only in one direction, and that nearly at right angles to the length. A force of a very few pounds is sufficient to bring it into a state of vibration; even the wind blowing on its western surface, which is exposed, produces this effect in a sensible degree. The vibration continues a few seconds.”

Such immense masses being moved by means so inadequate must naturally have conveyed the idea of spontaneous motion to ignorant persons, and have persuaded them that they were animated by an emanation from the Deity or Great Spirit, and, as such, might be consulted as oracles.

“Behold yon huge

And unhewn sphere of living adamant,

Which, poised by magic, rests its central weight

On yonder pointed rock; firm as it seems,

Such is its strange and virtuous property,

It moves obsequious to the gentlest touch.”

It cannot be doubted that those Logan stones are druidical monuments; but it is not certain what particular use the priests made of them. Mr. Toland thinks that the Druids made the people believe that they could only be moved miraculously, and by this pretended miracle they condemned or acquitted an accused person. It is likely that some of these stones were of natural formation, and that the Druids made and consecrated others; by such pious frauds increasing their private gain, and establishing an ill-grounded authority by deluding the common people. The basins cut on the top of these stones had their part to act in these juggles; and the ruffling or quiescence of the water was to declare the wrath or testify the pleasure of the god consulted, and somehow or other to confirm the decision of the Druids.