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iOF THE DRUIDS. 123.by Strabo, are expresly terind hymn-malers*and I show'd before, tliat the antient Greecs (bytheir own confession) learnt part of their philosophy,and many of their sacred fables, from theGauls. So that this criticism is not so void ofprobability, as many which pass current enoughin the world. However, I fairly profess to give itonely for a conjecture; which I think preferableto the farr-fetcht and discordant accounts of theGreecs ; who, in spight of Plato and good sense,wou'd needs be fishing for the origin of every thingill their own language. In the mean time it is notnnwo^fthy our remark, that as prizes f were adjudg'dto the victors in this CarnSan music amongthe Greecs: so the distributing of prizes to themost successful poets, was not less usual amongthe Gauls and their colonies; whereof there is undeniableproof in the Brittish and Irish histories,as will be seen in our section concerning the Bards.VI. Another criticism relating immediately toApollo (for which 1 think this a proper place) 1give as something more than a conjecture. In thelordship of Merchiston, near Edinburgh, was formerlydug up a stone with an inscription to ApolloGrannus; concerning which Sir James Dalrymplebaronet, in his second edition of Camhdens descriptionof Scotland, thus expresses himself aftert TiiA,&.i;^.^'xx K>pva;« (tyat^ii^^i;,V2VlntarcK in ApophtJiffgiri,