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162 THE HISTORYtion and manners. Egypt, I mean, and the iksof Scotland.Yet this they have in common, thatEgypt, once the mother of all arts and sciences, isnow as ignorant of her own monuments, and as fabulousin the accounts of them, as any Highlanderscan be about theirs. Such changes, however,are as nothing in the numberless revolutions ofages. But to our subject. Herodotus says, inthe second book of hishistory, that near to theentry of the magnificent temple of Minerva at Saisin Egypt (of which he speaks with admiration) hesaw an edifice 21 cubits in length, 14 in breadth,and 8 in heigth, the whole consisting onely of onestone; and that it was brought thither by sea, froma place about 20 days sailing from Sais. This ismy first instance. And, parallel to it, all thosewho have been in Hoy, one of the Orkneys, doaffirm (wifhout citing, or many of them knowingthis passage of Herodotus) that there lies on abarren heath in this Hand an oblong stone, in avalley between two moderate hills, call'd, Isuppose,antiphrastically, or by way of contraries, theDwarJi/'Stone. It is 36 foot long, 18 foot broad,and 9 foot high. No other stones are near it.Tis all hollow'd within, or (as we may say)scoop'd by human art and industry, having adoor on the east side 2 foot square, with a stoneof the same dimension lying about two foot fromit, which was intended, on doubt, to close thisentrance. Within tliere is, at the south end of it,