“Idem ter socios pura circumtulit unda,
    Spargens rore levi et ramo felicis olivae.”
    AEn. vi. 229.

    “Thrice with pure water compassed he the crew,
    Sprinkling, with olive branch, the gentle dew.”

In fact, so common was it to unite the ceremony of circumambulation with that of expiation or purification, or, in other words, to make a circuitous procession, in performing the latter rite, that the term lustrare, whose primitive meaning is “to purify,” came at last to be synonymous with circuire, to walk round anything; and hence a purification and a circumambulation were often expressed by the same word.

Among the Hindoos, the same rite of circumambulation has always been practised.  As an instance, we may cite the ceremonies which are to be performed by a Brahmin upon first rising from bed in the morning, an accurate account of which has been given by Mr. Colebrooke in the “Asiatic Researches.”  The priest, having first adored the sun while directing his face to the east, then walks towards the west by the way of the south, saying, at the same time, “I follow the course of the sun,” which he thus explains:  “As the sun in his course moves round the world by the way of the south, so do I follow that luminary, to obtain the benefit arising from a journey round the earth by the way of the south.” [93]

Lastly, I may refer to the preservation of this rite among the Druids, whose “mystical dance” around the cairn, or sacred stones, was nothing more nor less than the rite of circumambulation.  On these occasions the priest always made three circuits, from east to west, by the right hand, around the altar or cairn, accompanied by all the worshippers.  And so sacred was the rite once considered, that we learn from Toland[94] that in the Scottish Isles, once a principal seat of the Druidical religion, the people “never come to the ancient sacrificing and fire-hallowing cairns, but they walk three times around them, from east to west, according to the course of the sun.”  This sanctified tour, or round by the south, he observes, is called Deiseal, as the contrary, or unhallowed one by the north, is called Tuapholl.  And he further remarks, that this word Deiseal was derived “from Deas, the right (understanding hand) and soil, one of the ancient names of the sun, the right hand in this round being ever next the heap.”

I might pursue these researches still further, and trace this rite of circumambulation to other nations of antiquity; but I conceive that enough has been said to show its universality, as well as the tenacity with which the essential ceremony of performing the motion a mystical number of times, and always by the right hand, from the east, through the south, to the west, was preserved.  And I think that this singular analogy to the same rite in Freemasonry must lead us to the legitimate conclusion, that the common source of all these rites is to be found in the identical origin of the Spurious Freemasonry or pagan mysteries, and the pure, Primitive Freemasonry, from which the former seceded only to be deteriorated.