Ossian Collection > Galic antiquities

Chap. II. T H E D R U I D S. 29
Among the Ethiopians, Arabians, Greeks, and Romans, as well
as among the Celts, fuch plain and rude pillars fcem to have beer^
ufed very early to mark out their places of worfhip f . Among all
of them, it is probable, thefe pillars had originally the fame mean-
ing ; ibme of them being monuments of events, and others fym-
bols of the unity, liability, and power of God J. Among them all,
a high degree of veneration feems alfo to have been paid to thefe
objects. But the nature of this veneration feems to have been very
different. Among the Ethiops and Arabs, it is generally allowed
to have dwindled into downright idolatry ; and among the Greeks
and Romans, if it did not proceed thus far, yet it feems to have
nearly approached it. That form of fwearing, " Per Jovem lapi-
dem," feems to intimate, that they thought fomewhat of the divi-
nity had been refiding in the ftone itfelf. Whereas, among the
Celts, this fuperftitious regard, owing to the attention of their
Druids to all religious matters, never grew to fuch a height. The
very name of thefe flonfes, as mentioned above, feems to prove,
that they were only confidered as marks to point out their places
of worfhip. If this had not been the evirrent idea of thefe clacban^
or ftones, at the introduction of Chriflianity, how fhould the word
come to denote, then, and flill, a place of u/otjhip? The names of
the mofl venerated kind of their tumuli or heaps, fhew, in like man-
ner, that their ideas of them were far from any thing of an idola-
trous regard. Thefe were called Si'uns*, or mounts of peace; and
feem, from their very name, to have the fame origin with that
which Jacob and Laban raifed in token of their mutual reconcilia-
tion,
f Among the Hebrews, alfo, pillars % Max. Tyr. Serm. 38.
were very anciently ufed for the fame * Sio-dhun, « mount of peace, or re=
purpofe. Gen. iii. 14. conciliation."