Masonic Notes And Queries.

and by dropping pins * or pebbles into the water , and by shaking the ground around the spring , so as to raise bubbles from the bottom , at a certain time of the year , inoon , and day , endeavour to remove their uneasiness ; yet the supposed responses serve equally to increase the gloom of the melascholy , the suspicions of the jealous , and the passion of the enamoured . The Castalian

fountain , and many others among the Grecians , were supposed to be of a prophetic nature . By dipping a fair mirror into a well , the Patr-Bans of Greece received , as they supposed , some notice of ensuing sickness or health from the various figures pourtrayed upon the surface . The people of Laconia cast into a pool sacred to Juno , cakes of bread corn ; if the cakes sunk , good was portended ;

if they swam something dreadful was to ensue . Sometimes the superstitious threw three stones into the water and formed their conclusions from the several turns they made in sinking . " The Druids were likewise able to communicate , by consecration , the most portentous virtues to rocjks and stones , which could determine the succession of princes or the fate of empires . To tbe Bookingor

, Logan-stone . f in particular , they had recourse to confirm their authority , even as prophets or judges , pretending that its motion was miraculous . _ In what consecrated places or temples those religious rites were celebrated , seems to be the next inquiry ; and it appears that they were , for the most part , celebrated in the midst of groves . The mysterious silence of an

ancient wood diffuses even a shade of horror over minds that are yet superior to superstitious credulity . The majestic gloom , therefore , of their consecrated oaks , must have impressed the less informed multitude with every sensation of awe that might be necessary to the support of their religion and thc dignity of the priesthood . The religions wood ivas generally situated ou the

top of a hill or a mountain , where tho Druids erected their fanes and their altars . Tho temple was seldom any other than a rude circle of rock perpendicularly raised . An artificial pile of large flat stone in general composed the altar ; and the whole religious mountain was usually enclosed by a low mound , to prevent the intrusion of the profane . Among the primaeval people of the east , altars enclosed b

were y groves of trees , and these groves consisted of plantations of oah . Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem—unto the oah of Moreh ; and the Lord appeared unto Abram ; ane there he builded an altar unto the Lord , who appeared unto him beside the oak of Moreh . I That particular places aud temples in Danmonium were appropriated to particular deities is

an unquestionable fact . Borlase tells us , that the old British appellation of the Cassiterides , or Scilly Islands , was Sulleb or Sylleb , which signifies rocks consecrated to the sun . § _ This answers to the temples of Iran , which were dedicated to the sun and the planets : and the sacred ceremonies of Iran are represented by sculptures in the ruined city of Jemschid |[; and a number of places

in Danmonium still preserve , in their names , the lasting memorials of the British deities . In Tresadam we have the town or house of Saturn , in Nausadarn , the valley of Saturn ; and many of the enormous rocks which rise with peculiar grandeur in those wild places , were undoubtedly appropriated to the fire-worship of the god . We have also pi ; c . es in Danmonium which retain the

names of Mars and of Mercur }* , as Tremor , the toton of Mars , and Gan Mar ' r and Kelli Mar ' r , tha Downs and tbe Grove of Mercury . It was in the Phenician age , the corrupted age of Druidism , that temples were erected to-Belisanui , or tlie aneen of heaven , both in the metropolis of the island * , and in the chief city of Danmonium f ; that a temple was consecrated to Onca at Bath Jand

, that sacred buildings were probably frequented at the-Start-point by the votaries of Astarte , and at the promontory of Hertland , by the worshippers of Hercules . From all those views of tho Druid religion , I have no doubt but it derived its origin immediately from Asia-Dr . Borlase bas drawn a long and elaborate parallel between tbe Druids and Persians ; where he has lainl

p y proved that they resemble each other , as strictly as possible , in every particular of religion . It was thesublime doctrine of the primitive Druids of Danmonium , that the Deity was not to be imaged by any human figure ; and the Magi of Persia , before and long after Zoroaster , admitted no statues iuto their temples . The Druidsworshippedindeedthe whole expanse of heaven ; which

, , they represented by their circular temples : and the Persians held , that the whole round of heaven was their jupiter . Prom all their monuments that remain , it appears , that tbe Druids never admitted of covered temples for the worship of their gods ; and the antient Persians performed all the offices of their religion in tho open air . Both tbe Druids and tlie Persians worshipped

their gods on the tops of the mountains . The Persians worshipped the serpent , as thc symbol of their god Mithras , or the Sun : and from their veneration for . the Anguinum , and other circumstances , we may conclude that tbe Druids paid divine honours to the serpent . The-Persians maintained , that their god Mithras was born of a i * ock ; beside other absurdities of this nature -. and the ?

rock-worship of tbe Druids is sufficiently known . The-Druids maintained the transmigration of the soul ; and the Persians hold the same doctrine . As to the priesthood , and the ceremonials of religion , the Druids , and the Persian Magi , were of the noblest order in the state r the Druids were ranked with the British kings ; and the Magi with the kings of Persia . The Druid priest was

clothed in white ; the holy vesture , called the Sagus , was white ; tbe sacrificial bull was white ; the oracular horses-Avere white . In like manner the Persian Magus was clothed in white ; the horses of the Magi were white -, the king ' s robes were white ; and so were the trappingsof his horses . The Druids wore sandals ; so also did the-Persians . The Druids sacrificed human victims ; so did

the Persians . Eitnal washings and purifications werealike common to the Druids and Persians . The Druids bad their festal fires , of which we have still instances in these western parts of the island : and the Persians had also their festal fires , at thc winter solstice and on the Oth of March . The holy fires were alike familiar to the Druids and the Persians . The Druids used the holfire

y as an antidote against the plague , or the murrain in cattle ; and the Persians placed their sick before the holy fire , as of great and healing virtue . In Britain , the people were obliged to rekindle the fires in their own houses , from the holy fires of tbe Druids ; and the same custom actually exists at this day in Persia . The day after their feast , which is kept on the 24 th of April , the