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:01^ THE DRUIDS. 143needs infer, that they were burying places; forgetwhat Cesar, Pliny, Tacitus, and other authors,write of the liuman sacrifices offer'd by the Druidsand, in mistaking the ashes found in the earns,they show themselves ignorant of those several anniversaryfires and sacrifices, for which they wererear'd, as we have shown above. The huge copingstones of these earns were in the nature of altars,and altars of the lesser form are frequentlyfound near them ; as now in the great Latin andGreec churches, there are, besides the high altar,several smaller ones.XIV. There's another kind of altar much bis:-ger than either of these, consisting of a greaternumber of stones; some of 'em serving to supportthe others, by reason of their enormous bulk.These the Britons term Cromlech in tJie singular,Cromlechit in the plural number; and the IrishCromleach or Cromleac, in the plural Crowdeachaor Cromleacca. By these altars, as in the centerof the circular temples, there commonly stands(or by accident lyes) a prodigious stone, whichwas to serve as a pedestal to some deity:for allthese Cromleachs were places of worship, and socall'd from lowing, the word signifying the hoicing-stone^, The original designation of the idolCrmn-cruach (whereof in the next section) maywell be from Cniim, an equivalent word to Tair-* From crom or cnim, which, in Armoric, Irish, ami Welsh,siguiees bcnt^ and Lech or Leac^ a broad stone.