5

OF TPE DRU11>S. 131
be men, transforw'd into stones by the magic of the
Pr^ids.
This is j^lso the notion the vnlgar have
in Oxfardshiw of Jfiollmigi't stones, and in CornwaU
of the hurlen; erect stones so caU'd, but belonging
to a different class frow the Obelises, whereof
I now discourse. And indeed in every country
the ignorant people ascribe to the devil or some
supevnatural power, at least to giants, all works
which seem to them to excede human art or abili^
ty, Thus among other things (for recording their
traditions will have its pleasure as well as usefulness)
they account for the Roman camps and military
ways, calling such the diveVs dt/kes, or the
bite:
while the more reasonable part are persuaded,
that the erecf^ stones of which we speak, are
the monuments of dead persons, whose ashes or
bones are often found near them ; sometimes in
uims, and sometimes in stone-coffins.wherein scales,
hammers, pieces of weapons, and other things have
been often found, some of them very finely gilt or
polish'd. Dogs also have been found bury'd with
their masters. The erect stones in the midst of
stone-circles (whereof before I have done) are not
of this funeral sort ;
nor does it follow, that all those
haye been erected in christian times, which have
christian inscriptions or crosses on them: for we
I'ead ofmany such Obelises thus sanctify'd, as they
speak, in Wales and Scotland.
histories, we find
himself;
And, in our Irish
the practice as early as Patric
who, having built the church of Douachq2