5

OF THE DRUIDS. 157
of the Iliad*, filling a bumper to his mother
Juno,
To th' other gods, going round from right to left,
Skenk'd Nectar sweet, which from full flask he pour'd.
Butmoreof the righthand inthe chapter of^w^wry,
XVIII. To resume our discourse about the
Druids houses, one of them in the iland of St.
Kilda is very remarkable; and, according to the
tradition of the place, must have belong'd to a
Druidess. But be this as it will, it is all of stone,
without lime, or mortar, or earth to cement it:
'tis also arch'd, and of a conic figure;
but open at
the top, and a fire place in the middle of the floor.
It cannot contain above nine persons, to sit easy
by each other: and from this whole description
'tis clear, that the edifice call Arthur's Oven in
Sterlingshire, just of the same form and dimensions,
is by no means of Roman original, whatever
our antiquaries have thoughtlesly fancy'd to
the contrary.
Some make it the temple of Terminus,
and others
a triumphal arch, when they
might as well have fancy'd it to be a hog-trough:
so little is it like any of those arches. As to the
house in St. Kilda, there go off from the side of
the wall three low vaults, separated from each
other by pillars,
persons a piece.
and capable of containing five
Just such another house in all
respects, but much larger, and grown over with a
J2v«j(«(, y>.mv nuraf tmo Xfnrapoc o-'i/virs-m.—II, 1. vcr, 597.