held there with the left hand. Several rode on horseback; rarely with a side-saddle, and often with no saddle at all. The men's dress was ordinary. A fine effect was produced by this gay and lengthened procession, now winding along the shores of the fine bay of Firth, and now slowly toiling amid the desolate hills, and valleys of the interior.

As I approached Steinhouse, or Stennis, the crowds became less and less; and, when I stepped from the gig at the branch road, not a human being could I see, except a peasant employed in piling up a peat stack. Leaving my knapsack in his keeping, I walked at once to the temple of the Moon, which lies on a level plain very near the road.

Of this remarkable object only three stones remain; two, seventeen feet high, standing erect; and a third, which has fallen from its high estate, upwards of eighteen feet long, and more than five feet broad, with a thickness of nearly two feet. On the outside of these, there is a semicircular mound of earth, still clearly defined, with a diameter of near one hundred feet, opening to the south. There are several fragments of the other stones, which once completed the semicircle: but

the horizontal slab, supposed to be the sacrificial stone, on which human victims were offered to Thor and Odin, has entirely vanished.

Another stone, eight feet high, which stood at a little distance from the temple, has also been removed within these few years; it was called the "Pillar of Odin," and having a perforation in it, antiquarians conjecture that the victim was tied to it, preparatory to the sacrifice. But it was used for a very different purpose, down to a late period in the last century. Contracting parties used to meet at its foot, and with hands united through the pillar, uttered a vow of mutual fidelity, which was termed "the promise of Odin." This simple ceremony was considered equivalent to marriage, and none were ever known to violate its obligation without the joint consent of both parties. In that case they repaired together to the church of Stennis, which was built, after the model of the temple, in semicircular form; and walking out of it by opposite doors, were supposed to be thus absolved from their vow, and to be able to set at naught the vengeance of the Pagan divinity.

Many a young Norseman, ere he left his home in the isles, and sailed away for the deep sea fishing in those perilous icy climes, has prevailed on

the flaxen-haired maiden, whom he loved, to repair with him to that mystic temple; and there, while the moon flung down her silver light upon her own grey time-stained columns, with hands locked fast through the charmed pillar, and with hearts locked faster still, the young pair would pour out their vows of enduring affection, and invoke the stern warrior god, as a witness to the troth which they plighted.

Passing, near the bridge of Broigar, a single stone, sixteen feet high, five feet broad, and more than a foot in thickness, and proceeding along the rising tongue of land which intersects Loch Stennis, we come to the Temple of the Sun. It appears, that previous to the introduction of the religion of Odin, who, as the victorious leader of the Gothic tribes, was elevated from a hero to a god, the worship of the heavenly bodies was cultivated in these districts. The temples, which

I am now describing, were constructed while the earlier religion prevailed; and their forms, respectively circular and semicircular, are admirably symbolical of the great luminaries to which they were dedicated. But, when the ancient creed was superseded, these vast hofs, or roofless temples, did not perish with them. The barbarous Scandina

vians entertained more respect for the mighty works of their forefathers than did the Scotch Reformers, and rightly judged that the old temples would do extremely well for the new religion. Therefore they destroyed them not, but merely rededicated them to the new divinities, Odin, Thor, and the other heroes, whose exploits on earth obtained for them the honours of a seat in heaven.

The Temple of the Sun has its columns considerably smaller than those of the Moon; yet from the vastness of its plan, and its better preservation, it is infinitely more striking. The upright stones were once probably about thirty-five in number, but only fourteen of them preserve their original position and altitude of from ten to fourteen feet. There are several more, however, about a yard high, which apparently have been broken off, while others of them lie prostrate on the ground. The diameter of the circle, which they form, is more than three hundred and thirty feet. They are surrounded, at the distance of about fifteen or twenty feet, by a broad deep trench, the soil from which seems to have been thrown upon the interior circle, as that space is higher than the external ground. The trench is about thirty feet wide, and its present depth is not more than five