of controversy which has ever raged about this
ancient monument of the plain.

THE DRUID QUESTION

Perhaps one of the most persistent traditions which has been passed on
from generation to generation is that which connects Stonehenge with
the Druids. There is, indeed, a vast literature on the subject of
Druidism, but the actual knowledge of the subject is limited, and the
entire question is very obscure. Much of the information existing is
derived from a time when Christianity had long been established. The
early Celtic religion has in fact been overlaid and embellished by so
many later theories as to be particularly confusing to the modern
student. Benedictine historians have discovered in Druidism traces of
revealed religion by the simple process of confusing similarity with
identity. The Gaul adored the oak tree, therefore this must have been
a far-off remembrance of the plains of Mamre.

Another class of writers have invented for the Druids the mission of
preserving in the West the learning of Phoenicia and Egypt. The cults
of Baal and Moloch have been grafted upon them, and so forth, until
the very Druid himself is lost in a mass of crystallisations from
without. The insular Druids, to which our national traditions refer,
were far more likely to be mere "wise men," or "witch doctors," with
perhaps a spice of the conjuror. This, at all events, seems to be the
case at the time when we first acquire any positive information
concerning them. Theirs it would be to summon the rain clouds and to
terrify the people by their charms. The Chief Druid of Tara, decked
out in golden ear-clasps and his torque of heavy gold, is shown us as
a "leaping juggler" as he tosses swords and balls in the air, "and
like the buzzing of bees on a beautiful day is the motion of each
passing the other."

Amazing as is the bulk which has been written about the Druids, their
beliefs, knowledge, and ethics, it seems even more remarkable that so
much should have been said to connect them with the building of the
stone circles which they are credited with having constructed as
astronomical observatories and temples. As has already been indicated,
Stonehenge belongs to an epoch far earlier than any Druidism of which
record remains. This fact rests upon the evidence of both the
archaeologist and the astronomer. It is, therefore, not a little
puzzling that Sir Norman Lockyer, after fixing the date of Stonehenge
at about 1700 B.C., should