276 ON THE ORIGIN OF THE TERM "SARSEN STONES."
Hunter differ simply as to the more exact pronunciation of
sarsen, not as to the origin of the word.
I have seen a suggestion that possibly the name sarsen may
be derived from Sarsden, a village near Andover. But it seems
to me that there is a strong presumption against this view, arising
from the fact that Sarsden does not seem ever to have been
remarkable as a centre of sarsen stones. On the other hand we
may learn from Murray's Handbook to Wilts, Dorset and Somerset
that there is an extraordinary abundance of them near a rude
stone monument called "The Devil's Den," between two and
three miles east of Avebury. Then, a little south of Avebury,
there were "in Aubrey's time 3 stones called the 'Devil's
Quoits.'" They are now known as the "Long Stones." While,
as regards Stonehenge, the old legend about the "Friar's Heel"
shows us the Devil as the traditional builder of the most cele-
brated of all the rude stone monuments of Britain. And the
remark that stones known in Aubrey's time (1627-1697) as the
"Devil's Quoits," were known as the "Long Stones" two
centuries later, suggests the probability that stories of the Devil
in connection with these ancient megalithic structures may once
have been much more numerous than they now are.
The lines quoted from Burns in my remarks on the Grey-
wethers at Grays (ante, p. 197) illustrate the identification of the
Devil with "Auld Mahoun" in the folk-speech of south-western
Scotland towards the close of the eighteenth century. It seems
now desirable to note what evidence there may be of a traditional
horror of pagan or diabolical Saracens, or of their connection
with rude stone monuments, south of the Solway. While the
battle of Tours (a.d. 732) checked for ever the advance of the
Saracens into Gaul, and they were driven thence in 755, yet, as
Freeman remarks,1 more especially of the ninth and tenth
centuries :—
" Every port of Spain and Africa sent forth ships, for what, on .1 small scale
is called piracy, and on a greater, conquest. These sea-rovers were probably the
scum of the Saracenic people, and they certainly exhibited the Saracenic character
in its most odious colours. They were mere plunderers and destroyers."
The late Robert Hunt, F.R.S., writing about the traditions
and folk-lore of Cornwall more than thirty years ago, noted the
common belief among the peasantry in the sacred character of
1 Lectures on the History and Conquests of the Saracens, James Parker, Oxford and
Loudon.