Letter

Sir

I am Sensible how Litle you will be Entertained by the Inclosed Papper Where you will meet with so many words of a Language to which you Are an Utter stranger And a Subject much out of the common road of the Learned: but you have Laid your Commands Upon Me and I obeyed and found so Many Allusions to the Druids And their Custos Ingrained in the Gaulic that I coud not help, sparingly indeed, to Pick Up some of them. There is none of them however, strained to serve the Purpose — they Are the Plain, Literal words without Undergoing the Least degree of Torture. If the subject was worth the Pursuing And my way of managing it Passable you will see there is a great deal more remains Untouched. Confinement by a Cold gave me Time to throw this trouble in Your Way before I received^had an acknowledgement of Your having received My Last, for the Confusion we are put into by this Emigration for America woud perhaps take Up too Many of My hours which would have been more agreeably Laid out Upon Any the Most barren, obsolete Subject.

If this comes to Your hand at London, you will please present My most humble respects to Mr Archibald Macdonald, who I had Expected woud have made some Effort to Make us Easy. This and the Other Islands in my Neighbourhood Are much in the same situation.

I wish You health And Prosperity And I am with much Esteem
Dr Sir,
Your very humble & Obedient Servant

Don: Macqueen

Kilmuir February the 28^th
1773.
direct. . . . . by sconser

turn over

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[] I have been informed that you picked up in your Travells in the Highlands what we call the Serpent-Stone, found, it is said, among a Cluster of Serpents twisted together in the Open fields and holed thro by their tails when the Substance of it was soft. To this stone our common people attribute many virtues, Such As cūring the bite of a Serpent, Sucess in an Undertaking And particularly Ease And safety to women in Child bed when tyed about the thigh. If it hath not Already Occurred to You, Please to cast your Eye Upon Pliny book the 29^th. Chap. 12^th. And You will find this peice of Priest-craft was not confined to our Country — the Gauls had it among them and I am not so much [...]urprized that the Stupid Blockhead, the Ludibrium Aulæ augusti Augusti, the Deifyed Claudius shoud Put a Roman Knight to Death for carrying this Bauble about him on an Interesting Occassion As that Millions of Rational Creatures shoud in a Long Succession of Ages reckon this peice of Painted Glass or Any Other insignificant Materials a valuable Acquisition because a Druid passed his word for it Several Centuries ago.⁴ An Elderly woman brought me one fo the stones some Litle time since which she had Left her by a Grand mother — the Crust of it was worn Away in different places having been Long And Much Used.

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Enclosure

p. 1^st

On Druidism

¹

The most ignorant and barbarous Nations, have had some knowledge of a Deity, whom they worshiped after some one form or other, whether their Notions were born with them, gathered up from Speculations on the Works of Nature or conveyed traditionally from remote Ancestors hath been made a Question. The thoughtlessness and Ignorance of the human Mind, when void of Culture, would determine one to think, that Religion is derived rather from the Instruction and Practice of Ancestors, one after another and if the Religion of our Celtic Fathers be inquired into, it will appear in all its Branches, to be formed on the Belief and Practice of the Eastern Nations where they drew their original which is a Strong and Irrafragable Proof of our proceeding from one Stock, and of our being instructed by one Father; I therefore propose to attempt deliniating [sic] the Celtic Religion from such traces as remain of it in ^the Highlands of Scotland, and in the Gaulic Language, compared with what can be picked out of the Classical Writers who have transiently touched upon some Articles of their Faith & Practice —

The Greeks and Romans had assigned Names to their Numerous Gods to distinguish them from one another in the croud; but the object of Worship among the Pelasgi was, said Herodote, the God without a Name, nor had the Supreme Caledonian Divinity any other Name than anTi, that is the Being by way of En Eminence. The Worship paid him under Druidism is to this day called anTi-oraough that is, the Worship of Ti. The Hills consecrated to religious Services Shian and Tian in the oblique Cases, the Worshiper himself anShieaorah and Ti-eaorah in the other Cases, now an appellation of the last contempt. The well known sharp pointed Flint commonly called the Elf arrow passes in the Gaulic under the Name Saghoid Ti, that is the Arrow of Ti, the spade Caba-shi and the Sacrificial Knife Skian-Ti the Knife of Ti; which three Implements I have just now on the Table before men and are made of Stone. The Worshipers of Ti having in the absolute want of Iron made use of Flint Tools. as the Finni in Ancient Germany pointed their Arrows with Bone for the same Reason, and to mention one more compound let me add from memory, that Bhen-Ti or the Wife of Ti Bendis is the proper Name of some Women among the Islanders. Ti or

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Dis with a latin tetmination is also the God and Father of the Ancient Gauls. The Germans celebrated in their Songs Teuiston a God according to Tacitus born of the Earth, that is the Son of Teu by Mother Earth, and is no other than the Gaulic Name Heuiston (Hew) which according to the Genius of the language changes the T of the Nominative into H in the oblique cases as Tomois into Homirs in the other cases. Further the Teutons the Teuatamides of Homer with a Greek termination are the sons or descendants of Teu as the Taurisei are no other than the Inhabitants of the Kingdom of Teu, the debatable Crimea of this day. This was the Incorporeal, the inalterable, the God without a Name whom the Pelasgi called Θεos; but as the Greek had no Listame in the time of the Pelasgi θεoς, zεuς, in the Genetive δioς the Latin Deus and Gaulic Dia are derived from the Celtic anTi making but moderate allowance for the Genius of the different languages.

Man sensible of his own frailty and incapacity and of the boundless Nature of the most high split, as it were, his Idea of Him into many Portions, dwelt on and Worshiped that Portion which was for the present most suited to his own occasions and Necessities. Thus in time of War they worshiped anTi the God ^of Armies who had the disposal of Victory: in time of Peace anTi the God or good one who blesseth the Fields with Plenty, in time of Despair anTi who infuseth the needful quantum of thought Spirit and Resolution into the Mind. The Superintendant of the Weather who wields the Thunder was anTi horanich Taranis or Fulminator and he who ruleth the World anTu-oirn that is the Being over in a Designation now appropriated to the Highland Lairds. The same Supreme Being was alone equal to all these offices among the Celts though the other Pagans soon degenerated into the Practice of worshiping a Multitude of Gods under distinct Names with distinct Temples and Images. But anTi the Being th I AM, who is co existent with all the points of time and Space could not be inclosed within Walls or drawn under the appearance of Mortal Man. All Space was his Temple among our Ancestors; and when they joined into one all the Perfections they had any Notion of, they were Sensible that this assemblage was an inadequate Representation ^of him, they therefore Worshipped Him on the Tops of Hills or in secret Groves or in time of War by fixing a Spear or Sword wherever

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the General was pleased to Stop, and the Emblem of the Divinity was the Spear or Sword in the later case for by it they Swore and the Practice was brought down to our own times. In the other Caves a rough shapless [sic] stone or the trunk of a Tree more generally the Oak put them in mind of what they were about.

The One, the Eternal, the incomprehensible was the Father of Gods And Men in the Creed of our old Fathers, for they allowed indeed of Subaltern Divinities who guided and ruled over the different Departments of Nature according as they were assigned them. The Sun the Moon the Fire the Sea the Lakes the Rivers were committed to the care of different Intelligences who as well as Man were formed by the Supreme Being out of the Earth, for these rough spun Mortals wholly guided by ^the undistinct tradition of their Progenitors seem never to have bestowed a thought upon the nature of Matter, that be it purified, exalted, Sublimated by the nicest chemical operation it can never give Birth to Spirit, yet as anTi is the Father of all, the Earth in the Celtic Theogony represents our ^the common Mother Ben-ti ^i.e. the wife of Ti. To preserve the Memory of the Creation the Thracian and Scythian Sovereigns affirmed the Name of Colis that is God-li or Coli' Son and the Queen for her honour went by the Name of Bendis, which according to Hesubius means the Earth. It is easie to shew that the different Tribes piqued themselves upon their divine descent; among the rest Hengist and Horsa Leaders of the Saxons to South Britain asserted their almost their immediate descent from Odin, the Good one: as well as a tribe of Warriors in a Song of Ossians boasted their being of the Children of Ti, the conceit of the divine origin will only account for that almost universal belief which prevailed among the Pagans of their being Indigend for they cannot themselves imagined themselves risen up like Mushrooms from the Earth.

In the Places appointed to public Worship they drew a Circle of Stones to mark out the Sacred Ground, which, though it was a secure Sanctuary to the Wretched whom it was counted Sacriledge to disturb in their passage to it and lay always open to the Priests, was not under the Severest penalties to be profaned by the unhallowed footsteps of the people. Sometimes the Sacred ground was bestrewed with Stones a Signal to the Husbandmen & others not to touch the

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Mould for fear of disturbing the operations of the Divinity who was Supposed to be more peculiarly employed there than any where else. In other places there stands a pillar of Stone upon a plain where the Grove which probably set limits to the Sanctuary is no-more to be seen, there are also prodigious Cairns or Barrows in Sky which an inconsiderate traveler would be apt to Mistake for a Mercurius Teutatis such as stood near new Carthage in Livy, but by the Urns found in the appear to be certainly burial places. The surprising Number of these consecrated placed in this Island bears the strongest Testimony to the religious Zeal of the barbarous Inhabitants, whose idleness and ignorance with the Aid of a little Priestcraft galled them with ^the chains of a cruel Superstition, every little district which Nature had bounded ^with Rocks Rivers or Rising ground being an independent Sovereignty and very probably in a declared State of War with the Neighbourhood supplied itself with a place of Worship.

As in some one period or other the people were equally engaged in the Same religious Solemnities all over Europe it is not to be wondered that in different dialects of the same Language or in Languages perhaps quite different the same Divinity should go under different Denominations especially as it was customary to give the Name of the Mount or Grove which was the Seat of Worship to the Spirit of the place. The Greeks and Romans also who made but Slight Observations upon the religious Ceremonies as having come up on more interesting Errands to the barbarous Nations would be apt to find their own Gods where they met with any Similarity in the Worship, and thus our Ancestors are universally charged with Polytheism, and if Agricola his Fleet had stoped in the Harbours of Sky when they were sailing in our Seas his son in Law might have pointed out foreign Gods here as well as in Germany or Cæsar in Gaul though the religious Monuments which remain obviously declare that anTi was the principal Object of Worship as observed above.

The next object of adoration to Ti was Earth the Mother of all who seems to have been conjoined with the Supreme Father in the August & awfull Solemnities of her Worship, to which She, the Earth, could only be intitled,

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being but a rude insensible Lump, by being supposed the Mother on whom Ti begat his Children or the passive Principle from which the Father of all extracted the best of his works. The Solemnities observed in this Worship I shall attempt to delineate when I have only observed that there is no other Monument besides, of the Druidical Divinities preserved here, not even in language alusions, but of the Sun, Fire, Water and very little of the Moon which were considered as the Seats or Temples of inferior Spirits who had some Respect paid them on account of their Usefulness to the human Race

Anait is a common Druidical place of Worship in the Highlands which I suppose hath been instituted in honour of the Earth. There are four of them in Sky which go under the Name, and as they are all much of the same situation and Construction, I will only described that near the Castle of Dunvegan as being the most intire. It lies in the heart of a plain extensive Muir betwixt the Confluence of two Waters; to the East side of the Muir their stands a Hill and another to the West which gradually slop [sic] down towards the Plain and from which a full & clear Prospect might be had of all the Motions and Ceremonies that passed below. From the one of these Waters to the other there is a Strong Stone wall built which forms an equilateral Triangle, which by the rocks forcing it towards the Waters where every break and Crevice is filled up with Stones regularly laid seems to have been inaccessible in former days; near the middle of this triangular Inclosure there is erected a Small square Edifice of quarried Stones and on each side of the Gate which leads to it from the above mentioned Wall there are the Remains of two houses both within and without, where it seems the Priests and their Wives and their Servants put up together: the Servants more probably on ^the out side who were also inclosed within a Strong Turf Rampart from Water to Water, across a rising ground which hath been cut through by an Artificial road, leading from Tempŭl na Hanait, for so the Edifice is called, a great way into the Muir. To decypher the

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Intent of this religious Fabrick it is necessary to look into the Antiquities of other Nations for neither our own traditions or Language cast any light upon it

Pliny speaks of a Country in Armenia called Anaitica from Anaitis a Goddess in great repute there, where a noble Temple had been built for her which was plundered of all its immense Riches by Anthony's Soldiers in his Parthian Expedition. A Veteran of that Army afterwards entertained Augustus and ^his Court on the Leg of the golden Goddess. The Temple and the Statue were surely Innovations introduced by the Eastern Settlers on that coast. Pausanias speaks of the Temple of Diana the Anait, Plutarch and others affirm that Diana was called Anait among the Persians where Artaxerxes built Six or Seven Temples for her: so that if we find out the original Worship of Diana before it was corrupted by the improvements and fancies which the Adventurers from Phœnicia Ægypt and Babilon imported into Greece we may seem not to have missed our Aim, for Diana was a Celtic Divinity whose Worship was introduced to Greece, Asia Minor and Italy from the Taurica Chersonesus and ^there were several stone Representations of her in Gaul. Hesubius says that Diana is the same with Bendis and that the Athenians thought so and Bendis was the Earth the Wife of Colis or the God Ti the same with Cybele ^so called from a mountain in Asia Minor the Mother of the Gods. The Representation of Cybele brought from Phrygia by an honourable Roman Dignitation at the Suggestion of the Sybilline Priests as an effectual mean [sic] to drive Hannibal out of the State was no other than a rough unpolished Stone such as the religiosa Silex of Rhea (in Gaulic the Queen) on Mount Ida whom the Greeks called also the Earth this Emblem of the Mother of the inferior Gods and of Men was brought to Rome after being washed in the Almo ^a small river Which falls into the Tyber below that City whither also she was [...] led to be washed in an Annual Procession sometime after the Vernal Equinox until Christianity prevailed over the Pagan Superstition. This Goddess was carried out in a covered Chariot from the Temple on Mount Palatin by Patricians and Plebeians and by the Emperor himself when the Government was changed; every one appearing

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in what Dress or Attitude he pleased without Distinction of persons, around the Noise of Trumpets Cymbals Pipes the Gambols and songs of the people forming a kind of Concert, to the Air of which the rambled Merrily in a Dance clashing their Arms against their Shields in a regular well timed Measure. To the Sober Spectators the actors in this busy ludicrous Scene appeared as if they were possessed with the Spirit of Distraction. The most valuable part of the people's Riches Jewels precious Curiosities furniture were carried in pomp before the Chariot of the Goddess while two Phrygians went about among the people and T[...]^owns in their way like Mendicants applying for an Offering less or more to their Mother who came to Visit them and whose Gifts they all enjoyed. The incessant plague of these squeesing Solicitors became disagreeable to such as were less tinctured with the Enthusiasm I do not, said Antistines, Maintain the Mother of the Gods, for the Gods themselves are able to Support her. Here I would hazard a Conjecture, which I will Submit to the judgement of any Highlander. There is a practice prevaild very much in this Country for time immemorial, that every young Gentleman setting out in the World, or any of the better rank who met with distress, should go about to seek Help, attended with some retainers sometimes to the Number of Ten or twelve. The principal person of this gang was Sollicitor for the Gentleman, explained his Connections Respects and Friends, and in particular the Dependance he had on the person he was applying to at the time, when he left no Argument untouched that ought to Stimulate the Generosity of his Vassals on that occasion. This Engine of civil Extortion was called Bleidoir from the Substantive Blehd, which means unwearied squeesing and is Used in this Country in a bad sense. If ever the Procession above described was practised in this Country in any form, I doubt not the Medicant for the Goddess was called Bleidoir, the rather that there is an unknown Druidical Divinity barely mentioned by some of the Antients called Plestorūs, who seems to be no other than the Bleidoir of the Terra Mater. Be this how it will, the Procession of Cybele went on to the Almo, where the Nigellus lapis was taken out of her

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Chariot and washed in the pure Stream as formerly according to the Phrygian custom observed in her Purification in the River Gallus, and then returned amidst the joyful acclamation and Songs of the possessed Votaries into her Seat on Mount Palatin.

If it appears a certain fact that Anait Diana Bendis and the Mother of the Gods under her several Designations in various Languages and Countries are all on the Ceremonies above described and those of oūr Anait must be in some degree Similar, though the Romans as well as Grecians might have added some in a course of time, and pared off others to give them a less barbarous cast and reconcile them to their own more civilized Manners as they Substituted Men of Straw in place of the human Sacrifices formerly practised and these two Nations were as ready to introduce the Worship of Strange Gods into their Country as the former of them was lavish of the Freedom of their City, and the later too when the State number of their Inhabitants was diminished in any of their Republics, for then they received even Slaves and Bastards, as they believed in a Multiplicity of Gods they were afraid of offending any of them by Neglect, and had a Pantheon or Temple for all the Gods that none of them might be ōmitted as the Athenians besides a Temple of this sort had erected an Altar to the unknown God. To the Description already given I will subjoin another from Germany when in a state of Barbarity of the Procession in honour of the Earth, which I will not venture to translate, from an Author so deep in Sentiment and so frugal of his words Tac. de Mor Germ. 40 In commune Herthum id est, Terram Matrem colunt [...] Arcanus hinc terror sanctaque ignorantia quid sit illud quad tantus perituri vident. It is obvious to the first reflection that the Goddess which lay covered in the Chariot was the Emblem of the Earth a Stick or a Stone which they carried about to visit the Neighbourhood which they washed in the Lake to Whom they Sacrificed her Attendants and carried triumphantly to her Sacred Grove again. Thus the Square Chappel within the double fortification of Anait, to which the

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Priests only who lodged in the house close by, seem to have had access, was erected for hiding the Goddess from the Eyes of the profane Vulgar where probably the Sacrificial Implements were laid up in company with her, and the artificial road from it to the Moor hath been contrived to make the Procession easy to the Priests untill they met the unhallowed Votaries at a Distance and the Anait is always upon a Water or the Confluence of two more frequently, that they might have the Convenience of her Purification near them. On this solemn occasion all lawsuits all Pleas of whatever kind were hushed: Love, Friendship, Generosity, Hospitality and Charity reigned over all as being the Children of the same Father & Mother Here a Doctrine was figured out, that must have been a necessary restraint upon these ferocious Mortals.

This same Festival under the Name of Bendideia or Kotittiæ was from Thrace introduced to Athens where the Priests according to Juvenal were called Baptæ, I suppose from their being plunged in the Water along with the Goddess instead of being drowned as at Sparta on the Solemnity of Diana ^the same Divinity the Boys only underwent a Flagellation instead of being Sacrificed according to the original custom. This Diana had a Feast somewhere else called Limnatidia from her being Situated near a Pond and the same was the Situation of the Diana Taurica if we believe Ovid who staid in time of his banishment at Tomos in the Neighbourhood where according to Ammianus Marcellinus the Goddess went under the Name of Orsilochi or Orilochi and I doubt not but this Circumstance is mentioned on Account of her Ablation in the Eupine Lake ^when the Strangers whom came to the Court were offered her. It comes very near to a sort of Demonstration that Anait Diana and Orsiloché are the same Celtic Divinity and their Names have much the same import in Gaulic Anait Ain-ait, that is, the place by the Water, Diana Dia-ian the God by the Water, Orilochi or Orsilochi, Oir or Orse-a-loch the brink of the Lake.

The primitive Inhabitants of Europe giving neither Names or Surnames to their Gods called them Simply anTi the Being to which they joined in the place of Worship or the occasion on which they marked them, which as the Places and occasions were many gave rise to the Conceit

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of their Polytheism and the Superstitious Greeks and Romans naturallized the different Designations one after another as so many strange Deities. The Solemnities also of Terra Mater in so many different places gave cause to their introducing so many Female Deities which upon Examination are found all one. The Names were imported from Egypt — The Priests of Dodona were the first who were prevailed on to adopt them and thereby insensibly overturned their own Religion when Men became the Objects of their adoration instead of Him who is coexistent with all time and Space and thus as far as the Greeks and Romans carried their Victorious Arms among the Celtic Tribes they atempted to bring their own Religion along with them. It was surely after penetrating into the depths of Antiquity that the judicious Juvenal delineating the simple honesty in Saturn's Reign when Jupiter and Juno were Infants and Several other gods had not Existence cried out

Talis, ut est hodie, contentaque sidera paucis
Numinibus miserum urgebant Atlanta minori
Pondere ––––– &c.

²

I shall end with one or two reflections on this Subject just as they offer themselves in my Way. First our Ancestors properly speaking worshiped but one God the Father of all to whom alone and when conjoined in the Annual Solemnities of Anait Human Sacrifices were offered though they paid a Subordinate degree of respect to inferior Intelligences who they supposed were charged with the Care and Superintendance of the several Departments of Nature and the Worship paid the Earth who they knew to be a dead insensible Lump of Matter can arise solely from its being the passive Subject whence they supposed every thing created by the Almighty hand and it is observable that the Divination by Water of the noble Cascade Bereraig in the Neighbouring Parish was called Ti-ghairm an-Uisk, that is calling on the Name of Ti by Water though it was an Article of their Creed that the Water itself was committed to the care of a particular Spirit. It can therefore be no mistake to believe that the Solemnity above described was originally meant to preserve the Memory of the Creation, in which the Earth when she opens her Bosom in Spring to produce Subsistance for Man and

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Beast represents a Mother after Childbearing who upon her Recovery visits her Relations, is with all her Attendants chearfully and hospitably received by them and because the Women in this case were thought polluted by Jews and Gentles before Purification, this Goddess was Washed before she would be received into her holy Seat. This Universal Tradition of a Creation among barbarous unconnected Tribes adds to the Credibility of the Mosaic history. Next, the practice of Sacrificing animals and among these Prisoners, Slaves or Freemen to Ti and at the Festival in honour of the Earth could only be conveyed by Tradition and that Tradition could arise but from Precept: for who could prevail with himself to think that destroying an innocent Creature could honour God or anciliate his favour if he were not assured upon infallible Authority that sheding of Blood was an acceptable Atonement when attended with a proper Disposition of Mind in the Sacrificer; the whole Ceremony consisting in Prayer to Ti, shedding the Blood and Eating the Victim for people who had but ^a scanty livelihood did well not to burn the Flesh to no purpose and the Poor among the Greeks were indulged in the same peice ^of Economy. Human Sacrifice upon a Search into ^the histories of different Sects and Countries would be found almost universally practised from Mexico to the Ultima Thule.³ The Jews themselves did not escape the infection when the numerous Nations around them were given to this barbarous Inhumanity. Upon the whole the Inhabitants of Europe brought their Religion from the East in an early period, but not untill they began to offer Human Sacrifices and to kiss their hands to the Sun and Moon, nor were the Grand Sons or great grand sons ^of Noah under any Necessity on Account of Multiplied Numbers to exchange the pleasant extensive Plains of Asia for the cold Mountainous country of Asia minor or the Still more inhospitable Lands of Europe –––––
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I might properly Enough remark here that their Religious Festivals were Always attended with Songs and dances — that tho Many of the Heroic Songs are preserved As the Military spirit subsisted after the Change of Religion, yet the Zeal of our first Reformers very probably destroyed all Memory of the Sacred Hymns which I am apt to believe is no great Loss to the Curious, for their Religio consisted all in External Ceremonies being very different in Speculation & delicacy. I have heard a Fragment of a Dance song they used at watching their Dead which is Utterly void of Sentiment And the Chorus consists only of bawlings & Exclamations which Animated the dance. I have also hear a more Sober Song contrived to help the Moon out of Labour When Under an Eclipse in concert with the Additional noise of pans & Ketles. They Address themselves to the Golden Queen — the fair one — crying Loud to her in Chorus to Awake — to roll herself — to raise — to Shake off her Covering. The words are Significant but void of Sentiment — Labour and Move stars As the moon gradually clears off her Mask — And I am affraid that Tradition hath brought down to our Herds a small Fragment of that which was sung at the Festival of Anait — It is the Essence of Filthyness and coud not touch any Chaste Ear — the Chorus is a kind of Jo Bàche. Our old Friends coud form no Idea of a Creation but a very course One And their Indelicacy is still preserved in the Names which they gave to some places in the Highlands yet their Chastity was more Pure that of the Present Age.

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96
M^r Macqueen.
Druidism.
glainnaidr.

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Editorial notes

1. A precis of the following treatise on the ancient religion of the Celts appears in Pennant's A tour in Scotland and Voyage to the Hebrides 1772 (1774), pp.341-42.
2. Juvenal, Satires, XIII. Rev. M. Madan's A New and Literal Translation of Juvenal and Persius 2 vols. (London: 1789), renders the lines thus: 'nor was the crowd of gods Such as it is at this day and the stars content with a few Deities, urged miserable Atlas with a less Weight', ii, p.139.
3. Ultima Thule was the name given by ancient geographers and cartographers to the northern-most island of the world, and was used more symbolically by later writers to refer to the extreme north, though it is also occassionally identified with specific landmasses such as Iceland.
4. Pennant describes the 'Glain-naidr' or 'Serpent-stone' in A tour in Scotland and voyage to the Hebrides 1772 (1774), pp.342-43, where, following MacQueen's suggestion, he makes reference to the anecdote from Pliny.