reland, over the origin of which there has in the
past been so much controversy, are now pretty generally admitted to be
analogous in their use and design to Stonehenge, Abury, and other extant
monolithic structures.

Many writers have endeavored to prove that these towers were belfries
used in connection with Christian churches; others that they were
purgatorial columns or penitential heights, similar in design to the
pillar of St. Simeon Stylites. Others again have argued that they were
used as beacons and others that they were intended simply as receptacles
for the sacred fire known to have formerly been in use in the British
Isles. Although numberless arguments have been brought forward to refute
these theories, it is thought that the expensive architecture alone of
the elegant and stately columns known as Round Towers contradicts
all these "guesses," and that their grandeur and almost absolute
indestructibility proclaim for them a different origin from that of the
lowly and miserable huts which in a later age were erected beside them
for purposes of worship by the Romish Christians. The same objection is
made also against the theory that these monuments were erected in memory
of the several defeats of the Danes. As an answer to the argument that
they were erected by the Danes to celebrate their victories, it is
declared that such is the character of the hieroglyphics upon them as to
make this theory worthless. Besides, throughout the country of the Danes
and Ostmen, there is nowhere to be found an example of architectural
splendor such as is displayed in the construction of these columns.
In the north of Scotland was one of these monuments upon which were
depicted war-like scenes, horses and their riders, warriors brandishing
their weapons, and troops shouting for victory, while on the other side
was a sumptuous cross, beneath which were two figures, the one evidently
female, the other male.

In Cordiner's Antiquities of Scotland is a description of an elaborately
carved obelisk. On one side of this column appears a mammoth cross, and
underneath it are figures of uncouth animals. Among these carvings are
to be seen the Bulbul of Iran, the Boar of Vishnu, the elk, the fox,
the lamb, and a number of dancing human figures. In fact all the
configurations are not only in their nature and import essentially
Eastern, but are actually the symbols of the various animal forms
under which "the people of the East contemplated