The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1875-06-05
The Druids and Their Temples.

Nedr Ine tOWn Vi CaTnaC, IN Brittany,
France, there is an extensive plain several
miles wide, with flat and barren surface.
1t is the last place in the world tourist
would care about visiting, if he were SIM
ply travelling in search of beautiful objects.
In Winter the coolest winds blow over it
with wild force, and in Summer it is un-
protected by trees or shrubbery from the
scorching shafts of the sun. But it is not
wholly uninteresting, and l propose that
we shall make short visit to it.
We will suppose, then, that you and
are stopping at one of the quiet taverns in
Carnac, and have wandered toward the
plain for walk. Just outside the town a
bit of hill rises high enough to show us
the surrounding country.
There are few houses or trees on the
plain; but it is divided into several avenues
by long rows of unhewn upright stones,
which, as far as the eye can see, are ranged
in almost perfect order, like an army pre-
pared for battle. There are over thous-
and of them, and they stretch across the
country, from east to west, for nearly seven
miles. The largest are twenty-five feet
high, and the smallest ten feet. A few
have fallen, and others have been carted
away; but originally they were placed apart
at regular distances.
When you come nearer to them you will
see many signs of age upon them. They
are scanned, messy, and battered. How
old do you guess they are? Nobody is
quite sure, not even the wisest of histor-
ians, but we may safely say that they have
held their present positions for over eigh-
teen hundred years. For eighteen hundred
years they have chung to the meager ground
and withstood the combined assaults of
time and storm, while generation after gen.
GRAFTON of the living has passed away.
How did they come there? The simple,
credulous people of old, to whom all fairy
stories were the truest histories, believed
that giants brought them and planted them;
but we know better than that.
They were erected by ordinary men, and
you may imagine how much labor the work
cost at time when there were no carts or
wheel barrows, much less railroads or mas
sive cranes. Years, perhaps centuries, were
occupied, and to the builders the under
taking must have seemed as stupendous as
the erection of the East River bridge seems
to US.
Similar stones are found at other places
in Brittany; but the most famous collection
is on plain near the town of Salisbury, in
England. This is called Stonehenge, and
consists of one hundred and forty stones,
the smallest of which weigh ten tons and
the largest seventy tons. The remains of
men and animals have also been found in
the vicinity, and these have given the an
tiquaries a clue as to the objects for which
the stones were raised.
Nothing positive is known about them,
but it is supposed that they mark the tenn
pies of the Druids, religious order which
possessed great power in France and Eng
land during the century before and the
century after the coming of Christ. They
obtained a complete mastery over the ignor-
ant and superstitious people then occupy
ing those countries, by the practice of
mysterious arts, which often were extreme
ly cruel. They professed to know the hid
den nature of things, and the forms and
movements Of the sun and stars; but in
reality they were not as wise as the chill
dren in our primary schools, and the SIM
plest tricks of a good modern conjurer
would surpass their most wonderful ones.
They were astrologers and herb-doctors as
well as priests and historians, and they at
tributed a sacred character to many plants.
Human sacrifices formed one of the most
terrible features of their religion. The
victims usually were criminals or prisoners