Computer Science – Performance
Scientific paper
Jun 1907
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1907natur..76..127l&link_type=abstract
Nature, Volume 76, Issue 1962, pp. 127 (1907).
Computer Science
Performance
Scientific paper
FROM the very interesting communication of the Rev. John Griffith (May 2, p. 9) it would at first sight appear that the modern ``Druids'' had indeed preserved a tradition of the May year as well as of the solstitial year in connection with the circles set up by them for the performance of their ceremonies. I should be glad to think that this was the case, but I find considerable difficulty in connecting the modern circles with the ancient ones; there is no ancient circle which shows any sign of ever having possessed such an array of outlying stones as appears in the plan given by Mr. Griffith, and the outlying stones that remain do not always conform to it either; nor is there any ancient circle, except those in which a sepulchral cist forms the central point, and Stonehenge, which has a flat stone in the centre. The late ``Myfyr Morganwg, Archdruid of Wales,'' set up a circle round the rocking stone at Pontypridd in the middle of the last century, but in place of the eight outlying stones figured by Mr. Griffith it has curved avenues forming the head and tail ends of a serpent, so it does not appear that modern ``Druidic'' authorities are agreed upon this important subject. ``Myfyr Morganwg'' also published a book in Welsh, the principal illustration to which represents a Druid standing on a flat stone (sometimes it is a three-legged dolmen), surrounded by a circle of twelve others, on which converge three rays of light coming from the north-east, east, and south-east, and forming, no doubt, the original model of the ``broad arrow'' and of the ``Y cross,'' but without any outlying stones, though three smaller stones are represented in those lines inside the circle; three stones which may represent these, or may, with others there, be intended for an inner circle, also exist in his Pontypridd circle. The central stone for sitting or standing on seems to be a sine quâ non with the modern ``Druids,'' but it is not found in ancient circles. There are upright stones in the middle of the circles at Callernish, Boscawen-un, the Stripple Stones, and the Marshpool or Hoar-stone circle (Shropshire), and there was one in the middle of the southern inner circles at Avebury, where also the middle of the northern inner circles was occupied by a ``cove,'' or open shrine of three stones, as again was the case at Arborlow, but at none of these places, except perhaps in the Shropshire circle, could any man stand or sit on these stones, though he might stand in front of them. In the other great British circles (Stonehenge, which occupies a place by itself amongst them, excepted) there is nothing in the centre nor any appearance of there ever having been anything, although there is reason to believe that whatever was done in them was done at or about the centre.
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