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154 THE HISTORYdestructive, being solely useful to the priests thathave the management of it; while it not onelydisturbs or distresses society, but very often confoundsand finally overturns it,abounds with examples.XVII. I come now toof which historythe Druids houses, bywhich I don't mean their forts or towns, of whichthey had many, but not as church-lands ;nor yetthe houses for their schools, situated in the midstof pleasant groves ; but I mean little, arch'd, round,stone buildings, capable only of holding one person,where the retir d and contemplative Druidsat, when his oak could not shelter him from theweather. There's another sort of Druids housesmuch larger. Of both these sorts remain severalyet intire in the He of Sky, and also in some otheriles; being by the natives call'd Tighthe nanDruicUmeach*, that is, Druids houses. Many ofthem are to be seen in Wales, and some in Ireland;but different from those under-ground-Iiouses, or artificial caves, which are in all thoseplaces, consisting frequently of several chambers,and generally opening towards rivers or the sea;having been, as those of the Germans describedby Tacitus f,magazins against the extreme rigor* Corruptly Tinan Druinich,+ Solent et subterraneos specus aperire, eosque multo insuperfimoonerant: suffugium hiemi, ac receptaculum frugibus; quiarigorem fiigorum ejusmodi locis raoUiunt. Et si quaiido hostis.adveoit, aperla populatur: abdita autem et defossa aut ignorau-