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BothNOTES. 30-5clal^ as well as a religious circle. Whoever mmutely examine*the Druidical circles will find this distinction well founded. Thesun (Beal or Bealan) was the principal Celtic deity, and thecast, or sun rising, the most honourable point. The religiouscircleoccupied this honourableposition and the judicial one stoodcommonly due west of it. The former was generally larger andmore magnificent than the latter.The temple consisted of on«circle of erett stones. In the centre stood an erect stone largerthan any of the rest. Near this, and generally due cast of it,lay an oblong flatstone, which served the purpose of an altar.On thp north point, which was the door or entry, stood a trough,filled with water, with which every one who entered was sprink,led.It appears to have been the same as the Greek Perirrante^rion, and to have served exactly the same purpose.See Pctter^sAntiquities of Greece, v. 1. p. 176. These circles consist of 7,12, or 19 erect stones, all of which are supposed to have hadtheir respective astronomical references, to the number of daysin the week, the signs of the Zodiac, or the cycle of the moon.These particulars may suffice as the outlines of a Druidical temple.Though the judicial circle in the exterior differed nothing frOMthe temple, in the interior it differed widely.There was commonlyno obelise in the centre, no altar, no perirranterion, orsprinklingtrough. It consisted always of ont , sometimes of two, andwhen the establishment was of great magnificence, of three septsor divisions, being three circles all terminating inthe southerapoint, and intended to accommodate the three different ranks otthe Celts, whom Caesar (lib. 6. cap. 13.) divides into Druidesequites^ and plehs— i. e. Druids, nobility, and commoni. Amignorance of, or want of attention to the above distinction, hatled those who are Celtic.mad to imagine that all these circle*were Druidic temples, whilst Pinkarton, who was certainlyGoihic-mad, asserts thatcourts of justice.,they were, without exception, vGothifare extreme!, and truth lies between.This diversity of opinion obliges me to treat the Druidic circlesin two different points of view— Irao, as temples; 2dp, as courts•f justice.