Malcolm, son of Keneth, and Sueno the Dane. We also find them as
witnesses to covenants, like that of Jacob and Laban, which, though
originally an emblem of a civil pact, became afterwards the place of
worship of the whole twelve tribes of Israel. All these relics, to say
nothing of the cromlechs in Malabar, bear a silent and solemn testimony
of some by-gone people, whose religious and civil customs had extended
wide over the earth. Their monuments remain, but their history has
perished, and the dust of their bodies has been scattered in the wind.
The Druids availed themselves of those places most likely to give an
effect to their vaticinations; and not only obtained, but supported by
terror the influence they held over the superstitious feelings of our
earliest forefathers. Where nature presented a _bizarre_ mass of rocks,
the Druid worked, and peopled it with his gods, the most remarkable of
which is the subject of our engraving, called the Wring Cheese, or
Cheese Wring, in the parish of St. Clare, near Liskeard, in Cornwall.
This singular mass of rocks is 32 feet high. The large stone at the top
was a logan, or rocking-stone. Geologists are inclined to consider it as
a natural production, which is probably the case in part, the Druids
taking advantage of favourable circumstances to convert these crags to
objects of superstitious reverence. On its summit are two rock basins;
and it is a well-known fact, that baptism was a Pagan rite of the
highest antiquity, (vide the Etruscan vases by Gorius.) Here, probably,
the rude ancestor of our glorious land was initiated amidst the mystic
ceremonies of the white-robed Druid and his blood-stained sacrifices. A
similar mass exists at Brimham, York; and in the "History of Waterford,"
p. 70, mention is made of St. Declan's stone, which, not liking its
situation, miraculously _swam_ from Rome, conveying on it St. Declan's
bell and vestment.

J. SILVESTER.