coast (so stormy and dangerous) of Armorica, and next the peculiar number of eleven rows of monumental stones-it struck me that, the whole number of stones having been estimated by unprejudiced travellers to have been probably ten or twelve thousand, the original arrangement may have been (or, if never quite completed, may have been designed to be) one thousand in each rowmaking in all eleven thousand. The whole might thus be intended (according to the character and religious feeling of the people and the times) to be a great national memorial of the tragic end of the eleven thousand British ladies.

So close to the sea (as I have since been informed) do the stones begin, that at St. Pierre, near Erdeven, some of them have been actually washed away. It is therefore out of the very waves themselves, so to speak, that the monument commences to run inland. Without wishing to magnify any circumstance unduly, one may ask, could any arrangement more happily represent monumentally the fate of a host of unfortunate adventurers who had arrived by sea, were attempting to land, and perished in the attempt?

As to the probability of the rows having been intended to contain one thousand stones each, it is only fair to add, that since this notion occurred to me, I have been told by a friend (a well-known English archeologist, who has been on the spot for a considerable time, and from whose pen I hope the public will ere long receive what would certainly be the most accurate and minute account ever given of this wonderful district), that the Carnac stones (speaking generally) occur in several systems or groups, separated by a wide distance one from another; that in one system there are now only two rows, in another eight, in a third eleven, and in a fourth there appear to have been twelve. Owing to some irregularity, it is not easy to pronounce with certainty. But by far the most perfect are those near Le Menec, in eleven rows, and it is these which have always attracted most attention. It is impossible to say what may or may not have been; so that (taking the thing altogether), in the variety of number of rows as at present existing I do not see anything fatal to the idea that the stones at Carnac, as a whole, may have been erected (upon some strange plan now inexplicable to us) as an enduring memorial of the luckless Princess Ursula and her followers of every degree. In order that I may not be misrepresented, or charged with bringing forward the fable of "Ursula and the Eleven thousand Martyrs," let it be carefully distinguished that I allude to the historical account of the colony stated to have gone to Britanny in Gaul in A.D. 383 or thereabouts, and not to the fable in the Golden Legend. That fable was not in existence until nearly nine hundred years afterwards, viz. A.D. 1260, when it was manufactured by an archbishop of Genoa (Jacobus

de Voragine). In its details the Golden Legend story is quite different from the ancient historical account above given. Yet it is evidently based upon the old history, because the scene in the Golden Legend story lies also in Britanny; and among the dramatis persone are a King of England; his son, the lover of Ursula; and "Maximian," a "felon prince of the Roman chivalry," and there is also a passage over the sea. The rest of the story is quite different; but the names and characters are clearly borrowed from the old history, and are worked up into a sort of religious novel. I apply Carnac, not to the Ursula and eleven thousand martyrs of the Golden Legend of A.D. 1260, but to the British ladies of the original colony in A.D. 383.

What then is the result to which this explanation of Stonehenge and Carnac brings us? It is, that two of the most celebrated and perplexing of the greatest known megalithic structures may be accounted for, not by fanciful theories, nor by attributing them to foreigners in some remote and nebulous period (for all of which there is not an iota of historical proof), but by what may be called a native interpretation. It presents both as erected by British hands, both on British ground, in the same period of British customs and ideas (Carnac being the older by about one hundred years); both (not cemeteries, but) sepulchral memorials, and that of great national disasters; and last, but not least of all, both those disasters actually described and patriotically lamented in the written record of ancient British history.

These, then, are my reasons for believing that the key to Stonehenge, and more particularly Carnac -so long mislaid or overlooked - has been all the while lying at home! Not, indeed, precisely where (as to Carnac) the tradition of Breton sailors and peasants still tells you that it is to be found, "in the Tower of London," but simply hidden under the events of British history. To sum up my opinion in a few words, it is: That Carnac (the older of the two) is a national memorial of the tragic fate of the first Insular British colony to Continental Britain in A.D. 383; and that Stonehenge, as we see it, is also a national memorial of another tragedy-the treacherous massacre of the native British princes and ecclesiastics upon the Saxon invasion of Insular Britain about A.D. 470.

This idea (I offer it as nothing more) as to Carnac occurred to me several years ago. Partly from a wish to reconsider it carefully, more perhaps from a disinclination to incur some endless controversy, I have never produced it. But now, having during this interval met with nothing to warn me that it is wholly extravagant and untenable, I start it as a fresh fox for archæological and antiquarian sportsmen to run after. I do not pledge myself to fight à toute outrance in defence

"A spacious trench (grobe) was formed, and then covered over with planks (bohlen), having holes pierced through them. Upon this place was slaughtered the victim-an ox or ram-so that the blood, trickling down through the holes in the planks, should fall as a shower of rain upon the person who was placed beneath in the trench, and who received it all over his body, taking especial care that his ears, cheeks, lips, eyes, nose, and tongue were bedewed with it. (Prudent. Peristeph. x. 101, sqq.; Firm. Mat. De Err. prof. rel. c. 27.) Dripping with blood he then stepped out of the trench, and showed himself to the multitude, who (as being thus one fully purified and consecrated) saluted and cast themselves down before him. As to the clothes which had absorbed the blood, they were used by him until they were completely worn out. (See the verses of Salmasius, edited by Van Dale, Dissert. ix. Amsterdam, 1743, p. 48.) The person who went through the process of such a Taurobolium was thereby made pure and acceptable to the gods for twenty years from that time. At the end of that period he could again have himself purified by another blood-shower. There was a certain Sextilius Edesius

who declared that by the use of the Taurobolium as well as Kriobolium he had been regenerated for all eternity. (ap. Van Dale, p. 127.)

Not only might there be a Taurobolium for one's own sake and special purification, but likewise for the weal of others, and particularly for the emperor and imperial family; and frequently these took place in accordance with the express command of the mother of the gods herself, as notified through her friends (Ex vaticinatione Puronii Juliani Archigalli,' as it is so said, for instance, in an inscription found near the Rhone.-Colonia, Hist. Litt. de Lyon, p. 206: Ex imperio Matris D. Deûm'). Whole cities or provinces had a Taurobolium executed for the welfare of the emperors, and on such occasions it was generally women that were consecrated with the shower of blood. With such solemnity was the proceeding conducted, that at one of them, for instance, there were present the priests of Valence, Orange, and Viviers (Colonia, 1. c. p. 223); and further, at such a sacrifice, which the town of Lyons had performed on the Vatican hill at Rome, for the prosperity of the Emperor Antoninus, the man Æmilius Carpus, who had been the recipient of the blood-expiation on the occasion, brought with him back to Lyons the frontal bone with the gilt horns of the Ox, and they were there buried with religious ceremonies. "The first example of the Taurobolium that has been as yet discovered is to be found, in the year 133, in an inscription (Mommsen, Inscript. R. Neap. n. 2602): for the act was held to be so important and effective that, even where it merely concerned a private individual, its remembrance was perpetuated in a monument. Meanwhile it is to be observed that the sacrifice of 133 does not refer, like all the rest, to the Phrygian mother of the gods, but to the Carthaginian Celestis, who has been declared to be identical with Cybele. The common opinion, that the Taurobolic blood-expiation had taken its rise as an imitation of Christian baptism, is certainly erroneous; first, because the right occurs originally at a time when the heathens did not think of imitating a Christian institution, at a time when those who spoke the sentiments of heathens-Plutarch, Pliny, Dion, Aristides, Pausanias-either knew nothing at all of the Christians, or who, regarding them with silent contempt, did not deem them to be worthy of any notice. Secondly, it is to be remembered that the heathens had, for a long time, a substitute for Christian baptism, namely, their own washings and bathings. It may, however, well be that in the fourth century, when the Taurobolia were very numerous, and the foremost ministers of the state and priests submitted themselves to this disgusting rite,

the feeling as to the necessity for a sacrament, in the potency of which one could place confidence, as the Christians confided in baptism and communion, may have co-operated in the multiplication of such a sacrifice."

The passages here quoted are taken from the eighth book, paragraphs 97, 98, 99, pp. 626-628. I have looked in vain to other works for information concerning the Taurobolia. I can find not the slightest reference to them in Macrobius, Coelius Rhodiginus, Alexander ab Alexandro, Potter, Kennett, Adams, nor Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. Beyond what is stated by Döllinger, I have been able to discover nothing by my own research but a single passage in the Life of Antoninus Heliogabalus :

"Matris etiam deûm sacra accepit, et tauroboliatus est ut typum eriperet et alia sacra quæ penitus habentur condita."

Salmasius, in his note upon this passage of Spartian's or Ælius Lampridius's biography of Heliogabalus, gives a more minute account than Döllinger of the process, for he says:

"Taurobolinus etiam dicebatur, qui taurobolium accipiebat et consecrandus erat: in scrobem profundam terra egesta ad hoc ipsum factam demittebatur: deinde scrobs illa, plancis vel tabulis, quæ multis locis erant foraminatæ, consternebatur: super quem pontilem stratum multis pertusum locis, taurus mactabatur auratis cornibus, ut sanguis per foramina in scrobem deflueret, quem capite, naribus, oculis, auribus, et toto denique corpore excipiebat sacerdos in ea caverna defossus, et tauri sanguine se abluebat; quem sacri morem luculentis versibus describit Prudentius in Romano :

And the Supreme himself shall establish her.
In the record of the nations Jehovah declares,
"This man shall be born a glory for ever."
I will reckon Egypt and Babylon,
Philistia, and Tyre, and Ethiopia,

Among those who shall acknowledge Me
In psalms and melodies;

All my thoughts are on Thee.

I suppose that this 87th psalm, which has been greatly obscured by mistranslations and transpositions, is a grand prophecy of the birth of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, near Jerusalem, and His registration when brought into the temple thereof as an infant. The most earnest hope or expecta

tion of Israel was the birth of the Messiah as the glory of their race. Now this Messiah was to be the Saviour of Israel, and the Saviour, in Hebrew, is called Joshua or Jesus. But the most specific name the Jews employed to designate Him was A-Ishu. In this compound word the A stands for Adonai, the Lord, and Ishu for Jesus the Saviour. All this is proved in Schindler's Hebrew dictionary. Read A-Ishu-aish rather than aish u aish. The common rendering this and that man was born in her, or near her, is evidently wrong, as deficient in sense, and requiring a verb in the plural. The prophecy seems to allude not merely to the conversion of the Jews, but likewise of the surrounding nations that are mentioned. That prophecy was fulfilled, for all of them were mainly Christianised during the first six centuries. This psalm is evidently connected with the 19th chapter of Isaiah, from the 20th to the last verse. In this it is said concerning Egypt and the other nations, God shall send them a Saviour, a great one, a Deliverer. Did space permit, many other arguments might be brought forward to show that this wonderful psalm contains the most distinct prophecy concerning Jesus, by his very name in all the Old Testament, declaring that he shall be born near Zion, and so He was, in the neighbouring village of Bethlehem.

The passage is thus rendered in a new metrical version of the Psalms, published at Hull, 1838, a work abounding in the highest poetry :—

"God shall exalt thy head,

And-brightest crown that doth thy brow adorn,
Of thee it shall be said.

There was the Holy One of Israel born." The most remarkable confirmation of my statement is the fact that I possess the picture of a medal of Christ, supposed by Dr. Walsh and other antiquaries to have been made soon after His crucifixion, which exhibits His profile with this very title-A-Ishu. On the back we have these words: "Messiah Melak-ba be-salem u auth Adam oshui Chai"-Messiah the King-he came in peace, and being made the example of mankind he lives. 99 See Dr. Walsh's Essay on Ancient Coins, Medals, and Gems, 1830.

FRANCIS BARHAM.

HALTER-DEVIL CHAPEL, DERBYSHIRE.—In an outlying hamlet of the parish of Mugginton there is a quasi-Palladian chapel, about fifteen feet square, which is commonly known by the above sobriquet. The story is that one Francis Brown, who had a bad reputation both for drunkenness and for feeding his horses at the expense of his neighbours, went forth one night to bring home a truant steed, and, in spite of drink and darkness, found the animal without difficulty. On reaching home and bringing out a lantern, he discovered that the halter was round the neck of a horned beast, which conscience suggested must be the Devil himself! He repented of his evil deeds, and, by way of atonement, attached a chapel to his own little farm, which was situated on a stretch of land taken into Mugginton from the adjoining parish of Hulland. The grotesque attempt at classical architecture which the little chapel presents contrasts strangely enough with the farmbuildings to which it is attached. I am told that it has never been consecrated or licensed, but a curate officiates in it once a month, and receives the rental of some seventeen acres of land, which forms the endowment. On a tablet in the pediment of the chapel are the lines

"Francis Brown in his old age

Built him here this hermitage"; and the register of Mugginton parish contains the following entry :

"1731, June 11. Francis Brown of Hulland Ward, Buried. Intakes Founder of Chappel in yo Intakes Hulld Ward to be annexed to Mugginton for ever after death of his widow, his daughter & her husband Edwd Allen."

Mugginton church has several points of interest, and I should be glad to have an account of the Kniveton brasses and the numerous coats of arms upon the altar-tomb, which the whitewash has nearly obliterated. The open seats of rough oak were made and presented to the church, as appears by an inscription, in the year 1600:

"William Ienkinson gave to this Church xxx shillings weh made theise formes Anno Domini MDC." C. J. R.

Bath.