is a fingle ftone, fet eredt; perhaps to mark the fpot wig
the chieftain held his council, or from whence he delivered !ij
orders.
From this ftone is a fine view o f Cantyre, the Weftern fide of A»]
being feparated from it by a ftrait about eight miles wide.
Leave the hills, and fee at Feorling another ftupendous cairn, a
hundred andiourteen feet over, and of a vaft .height; and from twj
o f the oppofite fides are two vaft ridges; the whole formed of
rounded ftones, or pebbles, .brought from the lhores. XJtefe ira-|
menfe accumulations of ftones are the fepulchral protedbions of the]
heroes among the antient natives of our iflands : the ftone-ckM
the repofitory of the urns and aihes, are lodged in the earth beneath;]
fometimes one, fometimes more, are found thus depofited; and]
have one inftance of,as many asfeventeen of thefe ftone chefts being]
difcovered under the fame cairn. The learned have aifigned othet]
caufes for thefe heaps of ftones ; have fuppofed them to have bet«,
in times of inauguration, the places where the chieftain-eledt ftoodli]
ihew himfelf to the beft advantage to the people ; or the place from]
whence judgment was pronounced; or to have been erected on the!
road fide in honor o f Mercury ; or to have been formed in memory I
o f fiome folemn compadt *. Thefe might have been the reata,j
in fome inftances, where the evidences, o f ftone chefts and urns]
are wanting ; but thofe generally are found to overthrow all other]
fy items.
Thefe piles may be juftly fuppofed to have been proportioned in
fize to the rank of the perfon, or to his popularity : the people of i
* Vide Revjland's man. ant. 50. Btrla/e antiy. CorwviaU 209.
»holti
Ihsle diitrift affembled to Ihew their refpedt to the deceafed, and,
■»anadtive honoring of his memory, foon accumulated heaps equal
i t o t h o f e that aftoniih us at this time. But thefe honors were not
lerely thofe of the day •, as long as the memory of the deceafed en-
lured, not, ft paflenger went by without adding a ftone to the heap :
Ithey fuppofed it would be an honor to the dead, and acceptable to
Bis mam.
Quanquatn feftinas, non eft mora lo n g a : licebit
Injeito ter pulvere, curras.
■ To this moment there is a proverbial exprefiion among the
[ liighlanders allufive to the old pra&ice: a fuppliant will tell his
patron, Curri mi cloch er do charne I will add a ftone to your cairny
Bieaning, when you are no more I will do all poflible honor to your
Hiemory.
I There was another fpecies of honor paid to the chieftains, that I
Believe is ftill retained in this iiland, but the reafon is quite loft:
I that of fwearing by his name, and paying as great a refpedt to that
Has to the moft facred oath f : a familiar one in Arran is, by Nail:
I it is atprefent unintelligible, yet is fufpedted to have been the name
B>f fome antient hero.
I Thefe cairns are to be found in all parts of our iflands, in Corn-
I ■ nal, Wales, and all parts of TV. Britain ; they were in ufe among the
Bforthern nations; Bahlberg, in his 323d plate has given the figure
Bfone. In Wales they are called Carneddau ; but the proverb taken
■rom them, with us, is not of the complimental kind : Karn ar dy
or, a cairn on your head is a token o f imprecation.
* Doftor Macpbtrfin, 319. f Buthius, lib . 1 . p. 4.
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I»r!