Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1875-05-27
The Druids and Their Temples.

The Druids and Their Temples
Near the town of Carnac, in Brittany
France, there is an extensive plain sew
eral miles wide, with a fiat and barrer
surface. 1t is the last place in the
world a tourist would care about visit
ing, if he were simply travelling il
search of beautiful objects. In Winter
the coolest winds blow over it will
wild force, and in Summer it is unpro
tected by trees or shrubbery from the
scorching shafts of the sun. But it is
not wholly uninteresting, and l pro
pose that We shall make short visit
to it.
We will suppose, then, that you anG
L are stopping at one of the quiet tav'
erns in Carnhc, and have wandered to-
ward the plain for a..walk. Just out.
side the town bit of a 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 long hewn
upright stones, which as far as the eye
can see, are ranged in almost perfect
order, like an army prepared for bat
tie. There are over a thousand 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 cart
ed 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? No
body is quite sure, not even the wisest
of the historians, but we may safely
say that they have held their present
positions for over eighteen hundred
years they have clung to the meager
ground and withstood the combined
assaults of time and storm, while gen.
Grafton after generation of the living
has passed away.
How did they come there ? The SIM
pie, credulous people of old, to whom
all fairy stories were the trueSt histo-
ries, 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 a time when there
less railroads or massive cranes. Years,
perhaps centuries, were occupied, and
to the builders the undertaking must
have seemed 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 a plain near the town of
in En gland. This is called
Stonehenge, land consists of one hum
dred and forty stones, the smallest of
which weigh ten tons and the largest
seventy tons. The remains of men and
animals have been also found in the
vicinity, and these have given the an
tiquaries 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 temples of the Druids, religious
order which possessed great power in
France and England during the centu-
ry after the coming of Christ. They OBJ
tanned complete mastery over the
ignorant and superstitious people then
occupying those countries, by the
practice of mysterious arts, which often
were extremely cruel. They professed
to know the hidden nature of things,
and the ferns and movemenes of the
sun and stars but in reality they we've
not as wise as the children in our pri-
mary schools. and the simplest tricks of
a good modern conjurer would surpass
their most wonderful ones. They were
and herb-doctors as well as
priests and historians, and they attrib-
uted sacred character to many plants.
Human sacrifices formed one of the
most terrible features of their religion.
The victims usually were criminals or
prisoners of war but when there were
none of these, innocent and unoffend-
ing persons were sacrificed.
The favOrite resort of the DruidS was
an island opposite the mouth of the
every year, between sunrise and sunset,
they pulled down and rebuilt the roof
of their temples and any priest who
the smallest part of the sacred
TO fall earelessly, was torn to
pieces by his fellows.
The only traces of the order left to
us are rude stone buildings at Stone!
henge and Carnac. Retreating before
the Romans, the Druids went to the
Isle of Anglesey, in Wales; and when
they saw their cOnquerOrs following,
they made preparations for a battle.
Among their preparations-not exactly
for the battle, but for what they ex-
pected to follow it-were immense al
tars, on which they intended to sacri-
flee the unfortunate Romans who
should be left after the battle. They
wee quite sure that they would need
these affairs, for their oracles gave them
every reason to believe in y glorious
triumph of their arms. But the Ro-
mans were again victorious, and the
Druids themselves were the ones sacri-
ficed.-[ Alexander Wainwright, in st.
Nicholas for June.
A new and fatal diseased has attack
ed the lemon plant, the origin of which
is believed to be the forced cultivation
of the fruit which has taken place
during the last few years. 1t is sort