for a chamber, and sometimes no space worth mentioning. The tabular stone, varying in the dip of its inclination, has often a gibbous form, and hence undoubtedly derived the name of "cromlech," the gibbous flat stone, just as the roundshouldered smith of Sir Walter Scott was called the "Gow Crom." A whole district in Perthshire borrowed its corrupted form of Cromlix from this word.

This was, probably, the nucleus of the Druidical altar.

Fourth, the Maen-hir or Hirvaen, with its varieties, from the huge and formless masses, remarkable principally for their magnitude and material, generally a gritstone, not always found in their vicinity, to the less rude monoliths, on which the hand of man has evidently been employed.

The hirvaen was, in general, an adjunct of the circle.

Fifth, the Stone Circle in all its varieties: some are single circles, others are several concentric circles. There are ovals, ellipses, and semicircles. Mr. Daniel Wilson, page 112 Preh. Annals, writes:-"The varieties apparent in their grouping and structure are such as may well justify the conclusion, that instead of being the temples of a common faith, they are more probably the ruins of a variety of edifices designed for diverse purposes, and it may be even for the rites of rival creeds. This, at least, is certain, that the latest, if not the only, unquestionable evidence of their use which we possess, is not as religious temples, but as courts of law and battle rings, wherein the duel or judicial combat was fought; though this, doubtless, had its origin in the invariable union of the priestly and judicial offices in a primitive state of society."

The Latin word for a circle was circus, the Cymric cylch, from which the name kirk or church, for an ecclesiastical building, was widely taken. In Minshew's Dictionary, under the word Church, we have the following list:

Skinner, in his Etymologicon, says, that kirk was used for church by the Northern Angles and Scots," who borrowed it immediately from the circus of the Romans. The true Scot or Gael called the same building a clachan or stones. The Cymric word llan expresses the same meaning as the Gaelic clachan, for it means an open space within a fence-as may be seen in the compounds ydlan, a corn-yard, or hay-yard; perllan, an orchard; corphlan, a cemetery or churchyard, &c.; and to this day the word henllan, old llan, is often used for places where we in vain look for a traditionary church.

A great portion of Northern Europe having been Christianized by Celtic missionaries, seems to have borrowed the Cymric cylch to indicate the church. Wachter, in his glossary, under the word Kilch, calls it a sacred edifice, and quotes a very ancient translation of the Psalms, where the Holy Church is uns heilich chilcha, and proves that the words chrydir altan kilchin meant the creed of the old Church. Now kilchin is the Cymric cylchyn, a circle. He also states that the Helvetians, tenacious of their ancient language, called even in his time a church or temple kilch. I am, myself, convinced that the modern form kil, in the names of churches in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, is mainly derived from this source.

The appropriation of the Druidical TeμEVOS to the use of the Christian Church may be proved from the stone memorials of the olden worship, which are still to be seen on some of the oldest church lands in these islands. The vicinity of St. David's Cathedral is studded with such remains, and even Iona was once the island of the Druids, and within the historical period had its cromlech.

Sixth, the Cistvaen, or the stone coffin, however fashioned, from its rudest form under the green mound or stone cairn to those more elaborate sepulchres, many-chambered and often buried under huge tumuli, sometimes crowned by large stones, and encircled at the base by a stony ring. The latter have nothing to do with our cromlech. They belong to a different and different rites.

age

I believe that all, or at least most, of the five preceding classes were by the ancient Cymry embraced under the general name of coelvein, or coclveini, and coclveinau, which Pughe translates stones of omen; stones of testimony; good tidings; the Gospel; honorary rewards.

Now coel, translated an omen, belief, trust, and coelio, to believe, were the words which, in the transition from Druidism to Christianity, seem to have been displaced by the Latin fides and credere, corrupted into the forms fydd and credu.

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"Thus coelbren, made up of coel and pren, a tree, or wood, plural coelbrenau, now meaning simply a lot or ballot, were the divining rods or tablets, or twigs by which the will of the gods might be ascertained by man, whatever the inquiry might be; and coclcerth, made up of coel and certh, certain, was the religious fire, sacrificial and expiatory, in which holocausts of victims, both animal and human, were offered up at their great festivals by our ancestors. It is curious that an oblation, something similar to the Druidical coelcerth, the certa fides of the heathen, should in modern days have been named an act of faith; an auto de fé."

There can be no doubt that the Church of Rome waged war against the principle, " Da 'r maen gyda'r Evengyl," and pronounced an anathema against all persons who honoured with any veneration those stone monuments which had not been converted to Christian purposes. And, as Rome was dominant for centuries, the priesthood succeeded in inducing the population, to a great extent, to regard them as abominations. Hence, the bad names by which many of them, especially in remote places, are known to this day. If such a monument was not appropriated to a saint, it was handed over to the foul fiend. Hence, in Wales, such names as Llech yr Ast, Llech y Dyra; in England, Hellstone and Devil's Quoit; in Brittany, Pouqualay, that is, the Stone Puck.

Hence, a friend of mine says, "We cannot derive any valuable tradition on a point in which there is so complete a disruption between the present and the past, especially in countries like

Brittany and Ireland, where every monument was converted to the use of some saint or devil, to answer the purpose of superstition under the garb of religion."

In the language, literature, and monuments of the Cymry, we have instruments by which we are enabled to traverse, not only the medieval darkness of the corrupt Church, but also the Hellenismus of the ancient world, which invented new gods, and introduced a new religion-in singular contradiction to the religion of God delivered to the Noachida.

ON THE

MEGALITHIC STRUCTURES IN AUVERGNE.

It has been too much the practice among Celtic Archæologists to overlook the numerous remains of megalithic stuctures in other parts of France, and principally to devote their labours to those to be found in Bretagne alone. In fact, all the countries occupied by the Galli or Celta of Cæsar are studded with fragments of these megalithic structures, in all pants which belong to the older geological formations, and were not, in ancient times, covered with undrained lakes or marshes. In the latter case, they are to be found only in detached spots which were once islands. This is peculiarly the case with Auvergne, the province of the ancient Arverni, whose capital, the "urbs Arverna," is now Clermont. The Statisque Monumentale du Departement du Puy de Dome, published by Monsieur Bouillet, inspector in that department of historical monuments, will furnish the student with ample proofs of this. The authors who have ascribed such structures to the Druids, are perfectly justified in their assertions, although they cannot quote the authority of written documents in support of them: seeing the Druids themselves consigned none of their religious tenets to written documents, nor permitted themselves to record their erection by lettered inscriptions. Still we have historical evidence to show that the religion of the ancient population of Gaul was intimately connected with these structures, and that their religion was the Druidical, brought from Britain into Gaul. This Druidical religion, which had doc