conformity, which induced Cæsar, from agreement in attributes with the Roman Mercury, to give him the name of that deity, so as to be more readily intelligible to his countrymen, in the famous passage, "De Bello Gallico," lib. 2, chap. 15:—"Deum maxime Mercurium colunt; hujus sunt plurima simulacra; hunc omnium inventorem artium ferunt; hunc viarum atque itinerum ducem." The end, however, of this long migration, is universally fixed in Sweden, as, indeed, also the end of the then known world; and it is there we find the best examples of these stone circles, and their use and customs preserved to comparatively modern dates, as well as chronicled with a minuteness which makes us cognizant, when aided with the auxiliary traditions above, and the correspondence of existing monuments elsewhere, of their primary destination. The principal Swedish circle is called the Morasteen, a name which I have applied as generic to your Kingston stone under consideration, for reasons subsequently stated. This Morasteen is situate about half a league from Old Obsola (hodie Upsala), and it is first described by Sturleson, in the passage of the "Heimskringla," as follows:—"Odin selected his residence near the Môlar Lake, on the Ast, where it is called the Old Sigtuna (for us, Sigtunor), and erected there a huge temple and altars of sacrifice, according to the custom of the Asi; and to each of the twelve temple-overseers he gave a dwelling; and thus, as in Asia, so here in Upsala, sacrifices were offered to Odin and his twelve primates: they were called gods, and worshipped as such." For a description so old, its particularity is remarkable; but the following, condensed principally from Geijer's "History of Sweden," and Pontanus, will carry down the account to the latest period, and supply many omissions of the earliest author.
