“The Druids,” adds Schedius, “seek studiously for an oak tree, large and handsome, growing up with _two principal arms, in form of a cross_, beside the main stem upright. If the two _horizontal arms_ are not sufficiently adapted to the figure, they fasten a _cross_-beam to it. This tree they consecrate in this manner. Upon the right branch, they cut in the back, in fair characters, the word _Hesus_: upon the middle or upright stem, the word _Taramis_: upon the left branch, _Belenus_: over this, above the going off of the arms, they cut the name of God, _Thau_: under all, the same repeated _Thau_.”[327] “The form of the great temple,” observes Dr. Macculloch, “at Loch Bernera, in the Isle of Lewis the chief isle of the Hebrides, is that of a _cross_, containing, at the intersection, a circle with a central stone; an additional line being superadded on one side of the longest arms, and nearly parallel to it. Were this line absent, its proportion would be nearly that of the Roman cross, or common crucifix.” And then, in reply to the supposition of its having been converted by the _Christians_ into this form, he avers that “the whole is too consistent, and too much of one age, to admit of such; while at the same time, it could not, under any circumstances, have been applicable to a Christian worship. Its essential part, the circular area, and the number of similar structures found in the vicinity, equally bespeak its ancient origin. It must, therefore, be concluded, that the cruciform shape was given by the original contrivers of the fabric; and it will afford an object of speculation to antiquaries, who, if they are sometimes accused of _heaping additional obscurity on the records of antiquity_, must also be allowed the frequent merit of eliciting light from darkness. _To them I willingly consign all further speculations concerning it._”[328]... “Yet it seems _unquestionable_ that the figure of a cross was known to the Gothic nations, and also used by them _before they were_ converted to Christianity.”[329] I do not know whether or not would the Doctor deem _me_ an “antiquary,” or if he did, in _which class_ would he assign me a place. I will undertake, notwithstanding, to solve this difficulty with as much precision as I have the others before it. The _existence_ of the “cross,” and its _worship_, anterior to the Christian era, being no longer liable to dispute, it remains only that we investigate the _cause_ which it commemorates.[330] Our first aid in this research will be the notice of its accompaniments; and when we find that it goes ever in the train of a particular divinity, are we not compelled to connect that divinity with the idea of a crucifixion? _Taut_, amongst the Egyptians, is emblemised by _three_ crosses.[331] The Scandinavians represent their _Teutates_ by a cross. And a cross is the device by which the Irish _Tuath_ is perpetuated.