The History of Initiation - The Masonic Trowel

132 HISTORY OF INITIATION.
nected with them, and most frequently these places were
subterranean. Few caverns in this country remain to
relate the wonders of Druidical initiation ; but the stu-
Eendous grotto at Castleton, in Derbyshire, 58 called by
tukeley, the Stygian Cave, 59 is sufficient to convince us
that these celebrations were of the most terrific nature;
were performed with the aid of complicated machinery,
and did not yield in interest and sublimity to those which
have been so highly eulogised in the more polished and
civilized nations of Egypt and Greece. They were
usually constructed on the principles of secrecy and re-
vol. i., p. 166.) The husband of Isis was Osiris: a word derived,
according to Vallancey, from two old Celtic words, signifying the
commander of a ship or ark ; Eiss-Aire, or Is-Ir, the very name of
our Cumberland giant who was no other than Osiris or ; Noah, and
was represented by every candidate during the initiations. Gibson,
in Camden, (Col. 842,) says that this giant's cave or grotto was denominated
Isis Parlish, or the cavern of Isis the perilous and the
;
current legend, as we have seen, is, that the monster seized men and
cattle, and dragged them into his cave for a prey. The cattle were
evidently brought there for sacrifice, and the men for initiation, during
the process of which the aspirants were figuratively
said to be
devoured by the giantess Ceridwen or Isis. (Vid. infra. 1. iii.) Re-
specting the giant's grave I must refer to my former volume of Signs
and Symbols, Lect. VII. A similar legend is recorded by Stukeley,
that a giant named Tarquin lived at Brougham Castle, in the same
neighbourhood, and that Sir Lancelet du Lake, then residing at Maryborough,
attacked and slew him.
58
Antiquities of Masonry, p. 107.
59 Some very singular excavations have been discovered between
Luckington and Badminster, Wilts, called the Giants' Caves, which
are thus described in Childrey's Britannia Bacconica, and cited in the
Aubrey MSS. **
They are upon the top of a rising hill, in number
about nine and some of them are or were ; formerly cemented with
lime. Some of them are deeper, and some shallower, some broader and
larger than others. They lie all together in a row The manner of
them is two long stones set upon the sides, and broad stones set upon
the top to cover them. The least of these caves is four feet broad,
and some of them are nine or ten feet long." Sir R. C. Hoare pronounces
them to be ancient sepulchres ; but I conceive the learned
baronet to be mistaken in this point, for the author before cited says,
" the curiosity of some ingenious men, as it is reported, within these
forty years, tempted them to dig into it, and make search for some
ancient remains, but they found no thing but an old spur, and some few
other things not worth mentioning." How could they be sepulchral
if no remains were interred within them ? The fact is, they were no
more sepulchral than were the pyramids of Egypt ; and I have no
hesitation in saying that they were constructed for the selfsame pur-
pose, viz. as places of initiation into the mysteries.