Letter

Kilmuir Augst the 18^th
1774

Dr Sir

Tho I had the honour of Your Letter of May the 24^th Long ago in my way to a Synod yet my time was So fully taken Up in the busyness of my Calling And In attending on Some of my friends Who set out for the new world that I had no Leasure at home till this week. I have Examined very intelligent People who Are well Acquainted with the hills of Cūlin who assure me that there are not the Smallest traces of a Vulcano about them. On the East side of this Countrey the Land is faced with a Steep rock of vast height towards the Sea. In a Particular part of it the Giant's causeway is to be seen in Miniature — there is Also the kilted rock, As we call it, which is made Up of different rows of Pillars standing Upon One Another but how far it resembles that at Talisker I cannot Say, having never Seen the Later but I will see it. I shall Enquire after the Trinkets you recommend but I wish you had Spoke of them Last year having then been master of Some Uncommon things. Your book, for which I return You most hearty thanks, comes home by Sea, which is an Uncertain tedious conveyance. I hope You shall have as much honour by it As by Your other Publication. I shall be glad to hear from You when You please As I may be after this in the Way of making you a Speedier Return.

I always am with Sincere Esteem, Dr Sir
Your most obedient
and
Most humble Servant

Don: Macqueen

I inclose the out-lines of three of our gruagich-stones, which you may fling into form When you have Occasion — they Are diminutive things if compared to those you was pleased to Send me. There is no Inclosure about the gruagach Stones, tho indeed they might have been in groves When the Countrey was cover'd over with wood. I am apt to think they were the property of Every body, Else how could the Dairies continue the Practice mentioned above? or how coud Roman Souldiers pay their vows Upon them? which was the case in Inscriptions referred to above.

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Enclosure

Before the Arts of carving ingraving or the Statuary work were invented or in the Countries into which they were not introduced, Representations of the Divinity, whither high or Subordinate, were no other than the trunks of trees or rude unformed stones.¹ The Emblem of the Supreme God at Dodona, consecrated by the Hyperboreans, was the trunk of an Oak And So it was in the Massilian Grove ––––– simulacra que mistei Deorum Arte carent, cosis que extant informia trūncis. The Emblem of Apollo at Delphi, set Up by the Pelasgi, the Primitive Inhabitants of Greece, was no Other than a pillar of stone, Several Examples are mentioned by Clemens Alexandrinus as Also by Eusebius. As the Celtic tribes worshiped Spiritual Gods, Whether the Supreme or Subordinate ones, they well knew that Material Representations coud not be Expressive of them, tho the trunk of a tree or a stone coud very well mark out the Place of Worship in a grove or on the Summit of a mountain, Where the Small Societies in the Neighbourhood might convene on Solemn Occasions or As the Necessity of A Community might seem to require, in order to conciliate the favour and Assistance of the Divinity whom the resorted to. Men of different religious Principles have often been Unjust to One Another, in the common Charge of Idolatry, which the Protestants Lay to the Account of Catholics, the Catholics to the Account of Pagans of all denominations And which they all refúse, who know best what they Are Employed About. They Surely Pray, Such of them As can think, not to a stock or a stone, w^hither in the state of Nature or formed by Art into a statūe, but to the Divinity of which the One or the Other is an Emblem. Among the variety of Subaltern Divinities, which the Celtic tribes worshiped, the Spirit of the Sun was the foremost rank: the Sun being the most chearful And the most Universally beneficent of all created And visible beings. It brought Joy and gladness along with it to all the Animal Creation, to Groves To fields and Meadows. The day of it's retūrn was celebrated in Every district by a feu de Joye, Whence May-day was called in the Gaulic La-Beltein, the day of Bel's fire, Belis being one of the names of the Sun in Gaul. HerodianLib. 8.

The Worship of the Sun was so frequent that Several mistook if for the Principal Object of Adoration. The Inclosures called Granan or Granham, the house of the Sun, are to be met with Every Where, in Which they offered their Sacrifices, commonly horses, burnt up betwixt two Large fires. Whence is derived the Proverb — he is betwixt two Beltein-fires — which is applyed to one in the hands of two Artful persons, whose Intrigues he is not Able to Escape. From these inclosures they Also received Oracular Responses.

When the Elegant Arts were Invented the Celtic Deities appeared carved, ingraved or painted in such forms As the Immagination of the workman Suggested to him as the most Emblematic And Expressive of the common conceit they Entertained of the Divinities they meant to point out. There they changed the rude Lumps into figures resembling Living Creatūres, generaly into Men as bring the most honourable forms. The Spirit of the Sun or the God who according to the Antient Creed guided it in it's course, was figured out as a young Lively man with long yellow dishevelled hair: Under this appearance Apollo hath the Epithet of Xευσο-κομoς, the golden haired given him by Euripides and of aκερσε-κομος the Unshaven by Homer alluding to the beams of the Suns which Are Long And Yellow. This Immaginary conceit of the Hyperborean Apollo made its way to the Highlands of Scotland, where to this day he is called by the name of Gruagach, the fair-haired. The Superstitious or warm Immagination of Ignorant People introduced him as a Sportive Salutary guest into Several families, in which he played many Entertaining tricks And then disappeared. It is Litle more than a Century ago Since he hath been Supposed to have got an honest Man's daughter with Child at Shulista, near Duntulm the Seat of the Family of Macdonald, tho it is more probable that one of the Great man's retinue did that Bussyness for him.

But tho' the Gruagich offers himself to Every One's fancy As a young handsome man with fair tresses, his Emblems, Which Are almost in Every Village are no Other than rude Unpolished Stones of different figures Just as they Seemed to cast Up to the hand of the Druid who consecrated them. Carving was not introduced into the Hebrides And tho it had, Such of the Unformed Images As were preserved, woud for their Antiquity be reverenced, in preference of Any attempts in the Modern Arts.

The Gruagich Stones, as far as Tradition can inform Us, were only honoured with Libations of Milk from the hands of the Dairy, which were offered to Gruagach Upon the Sund-day, for the preservation of the Catle on the Ensuing week — from this Custom Apollo seems to have derived the Epithet Galaxius. This was one of the Sober offerings that well became a poor or a frugal people, who had neither wine or oil to bestow, by which they recommended their only stock And Subsistence to their favourite Divinity whom they always had in their Eye And whose blessings they Enjoyed Every day. The Inscription Apolini Granno (grianich, the Suny) was on a stone of this kind dug up from the ruines of the Roman Pretenture in King James the 6^th's time. The Inscription in Gruter, Apolini Beleno, seems to have been on Such Another And the rock-idols of Cornwal in Dr B----- seem to be of the Same kind tho of different forms, for it was not the Shape but the consecration that pointed out their Uses, for tho they Are Numerous in this Island, you will Scarce meet Any two of them of the ^same Cast. The Only Idol-stones besides, that remain with Us are oblong Square Altars of rough Stone that Ly within the Druid's houses a we call them. Observe Also that the worship of the Sun seems to have continued in England Untill King Canut's time, by a Law of his Which Prohibits that, with other Idolatrous practices.

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Editorial notes

1. MacQueen's account of the Gruagich in this letter is included in an appendix to Pennant, A Tour in Scotland 1772, part II (1776), pp.434-38.