éminent person, sung over it. "Such was the song of the Bards when they raised the tomb. Isung over the grave when the King of Morven came." (Darthula.) Where the character of the deceased was disliked, "no song was raised over him." (§ Temora, B. i.) "His stone was raised without a tear. No Bard sung over Erin's King." (Temora, B. i.) Macpherson adds, To have no funeral elegy sung over his tomb, was among the Celta reckoned the greatest misfortune that could befal a man; as his soul could not otherwise be admitted to the airy ball of his fathers." The weeping of Virgins over Tombs" is mentioned 66. in Sulmalla of Lumon. Whatever may be the authenticity of Ossian, as Macpherson has dressed it up, there is little doubt but in the main the fabove accounts, so far as they go, pretty accurately describe the funeral ceremonies of our ancestors before the Roman invasion, in the periods of Barrow Burial: they could be proved by some direct and much analogous evidence. T. D. F. M. Mr. URBAN, Paris, Aug. 4. 1816. BRUAND baving just pub ⚫lished a highly curious account of the superb Mosaic found at Estavaye, which throws a consider able light on many interesting and not generally known points of Antiquity, I have made a careful abstract of the whole, and send you the engravings. JOHN LE CHEVALIER, In 1717, in the plain of Poligny, near Tourmont, in the canton of Estavaye, in the South of France, part of a superb Mosaic was discovered. The science of Antiquities was but little cherished; the Mosaic was covered up, without any particular notice being taken of it; and the plough passed over one of the most interesting monuments, for years, without exciting either curiosity or regret. About 30 years after this event, Professor Dunod, hearing of the circumstance, again explored the hidden treasure, and discovered the whole of the Mosaic No. 1. (See Plate II.) and published a description of it in his History of the Church of Besançon. No farther notice was taken of it until the year 1754, when M. Chevalier and the Marquis de Montrichard visited it in succession; the former GENT. MAG. January, 1817. inserted a description of it in his Historical Memoirs on Poligny, which was essentially the same as that of Dunod. The Marquis sent a Drawing of it to the Count de Caylus, who engraved and published it in his grand Collection of Egyptian, Etruscan, Greek, Roman, and Gaulish Antiquities; the Count announcing that he regarded the figures as simple of naments. During the whole of the year 1754 the Mosaic was exposed to public view; and vulgar curiosity threw heavy stones upon it, in order to detach morsels to carry away with them. The tenant of the land at length again closed it up, and the plough regularly passed over it, the sock sometimes detaching various coloured cubes, and thereby proving the constant deterioration of the precious monument of Antiquity. In 1809 the French Government demanded information of the state of the Monuments of Antiquity existing in the department of Jura, of which M. Bruand was Sous-Prefect and Private Secretary to the Prefect. His learning and ardent love of Archæology were accordingly exercised on the Mosaic of Estavaye. The result of his researches induced him to reject the conjectures of M. Chevalier and the Count de Caylus: the latter, as we have observed, regarded it as a fancy-piece, the former as an allegorical History of Virginia, and the abolition of the Decemvirat. The Lion chained in the centre was supposed to represent Appius Claudius; the Sheep devoured, Virginia murdered. The Centaurs at the angles, the Roman Knights who flew to arms on the report of the tragic event. The two Mercurys, Numitorius and Icilius, who flew with the news to the people in Mount Aventine. The two Women crowned with laurel, Virtue and Justice, who triumphed over the iniquity and the malice of Claudius. The eight Griffins pursued and flying, the eight Decemvirs, who remained after Claudius and Appius were poisoned, and who were exiled. The Four Seasons (at the external angles), the garlands, the vases, &c. represented the crowns and flowers which the Roman Virgins strewed on the bier of Virginia, represented by the external border of a deep violet; signifying that Abund ance, ance, Peace, and Joy, were the results of the expulsion of the Decemvirs, and the re-establishment of the Tribunate. M. Bruand very properly rejects such a forced explanation. He observes, that the study of Archeology has made immense progress since the period of Chevalier and Caylus. To the researches of Dupuis have rapidly succeeded the immense and precious labours of the Antiquarian Societies of London and Calcutta, and the Egyptian Institute. These productions of genius, and the works of Dutens, Millin, Cambry, Alexander Le Noir, &c. have rendered, if we may be allowed the expression, the study of Monuments an exact science. On the one hand, copies, scrupulously correct, of the constructions of the primitive ages, clear up the grand question of the common origin of the Nations of the Old and New Continent. On the other band, the immense lucubrations of the learned have torn off the veil of time, explained all the mythological systems, fixed the real succession of the grand moral and physical revolutions, revealed the secret of the Theogonies, and illuminated History by the means of cosmical and astronomical data the most positive. With such means it is difficult to find a monument mute: let us essay to employ them in the Mosaic of Poligny. The centre of the Picture, the most salient part, presents, in a circle, a Lion devouring a Ram. Next follows the Centaurs, then the Griffins; afterwards four figures, which, from their attributes, are easily ascertained to be the Four Seasons. At the four angles of the third compartment we find four busts, two of bearded men, two of women, with boughs and branches or horns on each side of the head. The Lion, called by the Arabs, the Syrians, the Hebrews, the Persians, the Turks, the Indians, the Greeks, the Germans, the Peruvians, and the Latins, Asedaton, Aryo, Arisch, Shir, Aslân, Schir, Leo, Low, Puma, Clonæum-Sydus, is the celestial animal which lends his attributes to Hercules. He is found under the thrones of Harus of Solomon, in the temples of Heliopolis, on the monument of Mythra, and under the symbolic Ship of The World, and the figure of Osimandius near Vishnou. He is the first of the four animals of the Apocalypse at the head of the Sothiac period: he is united to Sirius to denote Solstitial heat. It is the abode of the Sun, the seat of Jupiter, Cybele, and the element fire, consecrated to Vulcan; it is the chief of the celestial motions, and of fatality. The symbol of Summer-do we not behold him in the Mosaic devouring Aries, or the Spring, and commencing the destruction of the repairing Lamb of Nature, the first celestial sign which dies annually to rise again triumphant. The Centaur, Kentaurus of the Arabs, Acris Venator, which we observe near the lion-is it not here the sign corresponding to Autumn at the time of the vintage, represented with a wine-vessel or a Thyrsus as a sportsman and the friend of Hercules, armed with the spear, and piercing the wolf or panther? The Griffins flying-do they not designate by their liberty the Winter, the end of the Sun's course, who, according to Claudian, Sidonius Apollinaris, and Servius, attached these animals to his car? This astronomical animal, the lower part of whose body is a winged lion, and the head and neck those of an eagle, was consecrated to Jupiter as the principle of the world, and to Apollo, shadowed as the God of Light. The abbreviations or Sigles of the Picture are found at the four angles. The first has near him a bouquet of flowers, the symbol of Spring; the second a sheep, announcing the labours of Summer; the third, a vine laden with fruit, indicating the produce of Autumn; the fourth, enveloped in a blue drapery, as a preservative against cold, shews the first care that the frozen season demands, and presents a perfect identity with the representations of Winter on the antient Monuments. The custom of placing the labours of the year by the side of the Astronomical Signs is common in Antiquities; and we find several traces of it in the Monuments of the middle ages. More recent examples may be found in the Church of Autun, at Minizent, at St. Denis, and at Notre Dame, at Paris. M. De M. Delalande has also observed the same thing in an Indian Zodiac. As to the four figures with branches on their heads, is it not probable that they were Gaulish Divinities, whom the Romans, who always received those of the vanquished, might have inserted in the Mosaic. In such case we might easily recognize the Demi Gods, the protectors of the Groves of Poligny-those Genii of both sexes, those Suléves, those Sylphs, or beings placed by the antient Creeds between man and the Divinity, and from whom many boasted to be descended. D. Martin has engraven (tom. 2, p. 185, de la Religion des Gaulois) a Statue formerly preserved at Besancon, which represented one of those Divinities thus attired. He mentions also a similar figure designed on a MS. in the Library of the Emperor of Germany. Besides, these four busts, according to Dunod, are ornamented with light crowns of Vervain, with which we know the Gauls decorated their Divinities. As to the number, eight, of the Centaurs and Griffins, these were ei ther repeated by the Artist to render his design regular, or by the repetition, perhaps, to indicate that the Autumn and Winter, designated by these signs, are the principal or more determined seasons of the Jura. As to the borders, we are decidedly of opinion that they were intended as simple ornaments, without any allegorical meaning. We have already shewn that the Centaur was a celestial sign, and intended as such in our Astronomical Picture; and what Chevalier regarded as scymetars in their hands, appear to be the upper parts of the bow with which the Centaurs are generally armed; and they appear in the act of having just shot an arrow. It remains to be explained why an Astronomical Monument of this nature should exist near Poligny. Father Chevalier, a Jesuit, who wrote a Latiu Poem in honour of this his native town, assures us, that the Latin name of Poligny is derived from Apollo. David de St. George fancies he has found the etymology of Poligny in the antient Celtic. This town, which in antient records is called Poligniacum, might be a contraction of the three Celtic words Beil-tin-ac, translated by Apollinis ignis acumen, abridged to Poligniacum. The Celtes, according to Procopius, adored the Sun, whom they represented at stated periods by great fires in high places, a custom still preserved in the Jura. The Divinity thus designated was called Be-il, a contraction of Beanil, the life of all things; it is the Baal of the Palestines, the father of all, the Belus of the Assyrians, the source, lus, from whence comes lux light, the principle of light, the Belenus or Belinus of the Latins, of which we find the explanation in the names of certain Druidical or sacred forests, as Sauva Belin, a corruption of Silva Beleni. It is the Beel Samin of the Phenicians, and the Bel or Beau of the old French. The Druidical Feast of Beil-tin, or the Feast of the Fire of Beil, explains one part of the word. The Celtic final ac, according to the Roman custom, would take the neutral termination of um. It signifies an elevation, such as those where the first religious ceremonies were celebrated. Poligny and Polignac are words which have a great similarity; and many of the learned discover in the latter the indication of a high place consecrated to the worship of Apollo. Gruter and Millin are of this opinion. But to come more closely to the point. The worship of the Sun really existed in Gaul, and particularly in the two Burgundies. When in 1598 there was opened near Dijon the tomb of the Grand Druid Chyndonax, there was found in it a round hollow stone, and on it this inscription, in Greek characters: "In the grove of Mithra this tomb covers the body of Chyndonax, the Chief Priest. Impious, hence! the Protecting Deities watch over my ashes." Cæsar informs us that the Gauls revered Apollo; and it is well known they invoked him under the name of Belenus. The Poet Ausonius says to Allius Patera, "If Fame deceive us not, thou art descended from the Druids of Bayeux, and datest thy sacred origin from the Priests of Belenus, whence thy name of Patera (for thus the Priests of Apollo were called). The names of thy father were derived from that of Phoebus, and thy son has taken that of Delphidius.” There |