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 LONDON 
 
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?W/ 
 
RUDE STONE MONUMENTS 
 
 ALL COUNTRIES; 
 
 THEIR AGE AND USES. 
 
 By JAMES FERGUSSON, D.O.L., F.R.S. 
 
 V.P.R.A.S., F.R.I.B.A.. &c. 
 
 Demi-Dolmen, Eerland. 
 
 WITH TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 LONDON: 
 JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 
 
 1872. 
 
 The right of Translation is rt served. 
 
HMKTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET, 
 AND CHARIXG CROSS. 
 
 THE GETTY RESEARCH 
 INSTITUTE LIBRARY 
 
PEEPACE 
 
 When, in the year 1854, I was arranging the scheme for the 
 ' Handbook of Architecture,' one chapter of about fifty pages was 
 allotted to the Eude Stone Monuments then known. When, 
 however, I came seriously to consult the authorities I had marked 
 out, and to arrange my ideas preparatory to writing it, I found the 
 whole subject in such a state of confusion and uncertainty as to be 
 wholly unsuited for introduction into a work, the main object of 
 which was to give a clear but succinct account of what was known 
 and admitted with regard to the architectural styles of the world. 
 Again, ten years afterwards, while engaged in re-writing this 
 ' Handbook as a ' History of Architecture,' the same difficulties 
 presented themselves. It is true that in the interval the Druids, 
 with their Dracontia, had lost much of the hold they possessed on 
 the mind of the public ; but, to a great extent, they had been 
 replaced by prehistoric myths, which, though free from their 
 absurdity, were hardly less perplexing. The consequence was that 
 then, as in the first instance, it would have been necessary to 
 argue every point and defend every position. Nothing could be 
 taken for granted, and no narrative was possible. The matter was, 
 therefore, a second time allowed quietly to drop without being 
 noticed. I never, however, lost sight of the subject, and I hoped 
 some time or other to be able to treat of it with the fulness its 
 interest deserves ; and in order to forward this project, in July, 
 1860, I wrote an article in the 'Quarterly Eeview,' entitled 
 ' Stonehenge,' in which I stated the views I had then formed on 
 the subject ; and again, ten years afterwards, in April of last 
 year, another article, entitled 'Non-Historic Times' in the same 
 
 h 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 journal, in which I added such new facts and arguments as I had 
 gathered in the interval. The principal object it was sought to 
 attain in writing these articles, was to raise a discussion on the 
 moot points which I hoped would have tended towards settling 
 them. If any competent archaeologist had come forward, and 
 could have pointed out the weak point in the argument, he would 
 have rendered a service to the cause ; or if any leading authority 
 had endorsed the views advocated in these articles, the public 
 might have felt some confidence in their correctness. This expec- 
 tation has not been fulfilled, but they have probably not been 
 without their use in preparing the minds of others for the views 
 advanced in them, while, as no refutation has appeared, and no 
 valid objection has been urged against them, either in public 
 or in private, I may fairly consider myself justified in feeling 
 considerable confidence in their general correctness. 
 
 Till antiquaries are agreed whether the circles are temples or 
 tombs or observatories, whether the dolmens are monuments of 
 the dead or altars for sacrificing living men, and whether the 
 mounds are tombs or law courts, it seems impossible, without 
 arguing every point, to write anything that will be generally 
 accepted. Still more, till it is decided whether they are really 
 prehistoric or were erected at the periods where tradition and 
 history place them, it seems in vain to attempt to explain in a 
 simple narrative form either their age or uses. As a necessary 
 consequence of all this confusion, it is scarcely practicable at 
 present to compile a work which shall be merely a Historical and 
 Statistical account of the Rude Stone Monuments in all parts of 
 the world; but till something is settled and agreed upon, we 
 must be content with one which to a certain extent, at least, 
 takes the form of an argument. Many of its pages which would 
 have been better employed in describing and classifying, are 
 occupied with arguments against some untenable theory or date, 
 or in trying to substitute for those usually accepted, some more 
 reasonable proposition. Notwithstanding this, however, it is hoped 
 
PEEFACE. vii 
 
 that this work will be found to contain a greater number of new 
 facts regarding Eude Stone Monuments, and of carefully selected 
 illustrations extending over a larger area, than have yet been put 
 together in a volume of the same extent. 
 
 It may fairly be asked, and no doubt will, how I dare to set up 
 my opinions with regard to these monuments in opposition to 
 those of the best informed antiquaries, not only in this country 
 but on the Continent ? The answer I would venture to suggest 
 is, that no other antiquary, so far as I am aware, has gone so 
 carefully and' fully into the whole subject, or has faced all the 
 difficulties with which the questions are everywhere perplexed. 
 The books that have hitherto been written are either the work of 
 speculative dreamers, like Stukeley, Higgins, or Vallancey, who 
 having evolved a baseless theory out of their own inner conscious- 
 ness, seek everywhere for materials to prop it up, and are by no 
 means particular as to the inferences they draw from very obscure 
 or slender hints : or they are, on the other hand, the works of local 
 antiquaries, whose opinions are influenced mainly by what they 
 find in their own researches. The works of such men are in- 
 valuable as contributions to the general stock of knowledge, 
 but their theories must be received with caution, as based on 
 too narrow a foundation either of facts or inferences ; for it need 
 hardly be insisted upon that no amount of local experience can 
 qualify any one to write on such a subject as this. It does not 
 even seem sufficient that an author should be familiar with all 
 the varieties of megalithic remains. Unless he has also mas- 
 tered the other forms of architectural art, and knows in what 
 manner and from what motives the styles of one people are 
 adopted from or influenced by that of another race, he will hardly 
 be able to unravel the various tangled problems that meet him 
 at every step in such an investigation. When looked at, however, 
 from the same point of view, and judged by the same laws as 
 other styles, that of the dolmen builders does not appear either 
 
 b 2 
 
Vill PREFACE. 
 
 mythical or mysterious. They seem to be the works of a race of 
 men actuated by the same motives and feelings as ourselves, and 
 the phenomena of their arts do not seem difficult of explanation. 
 
 It is because I have spent the greater part of my life in studying 
 the architecture of all nations, and through all ages, that I believe 
 myself entitled to express an opinion on the perplexed questions 
 connected with megalithic remains, though it differs widely from 
 that generally received, and that I dare to face the objection 
 which is sure to be raised that my work is based on too narrow 
 an induction, and that I have overlooked the evidences of 
 primaeval man which exist everywhere. It is not, however, 
 that I have neglected either the evidence from the drift, 
 or from the caves, but that I have rejected them as irre- 
 levant, and because I can hardly trace any connexion between 
 them and the megalithic remains, to the investigation of 
 which this work is specially devoted. I have also purposely 
 put on one side all reference to hut circles, Picts' houses, 
 brochs, and other buildings composed of smaller stones, which 
 are generally mixed up with the big stone monuments. I 
 have done this, not because I doubt that many of these may 
 be coeval, but because their age being doubtful also, it would 
 only confuse and complicate the argument to introduce them, and 
 because, whenever the age of the great stones is determined these 
 minor monuments will easily fit into their proper places. At 
 present, neither their age or use throws any light either for 
 or against that of the great stones. 
 
 It need hardly be remarked, to anyone who knows anything 
 about the subject, that the difficulties in the way of writing 
 such a book as this are enormous, and I do not believe any 
 one could, in a first edition at all events, avoid all the pitfalls 
 that surround his path. The necessary information has to be 
 picked up in fragments from some hundreds of volumes of 
 travels, or the Transactions and Journals of learned Societies, 
 none of which are specially devoted to the subject, and very 
 
PREFACE. ix 
 
 few of which are indexed, or have any general resume of their 
 contents. Add to this that the older works are all untrust- 
 worthy, either from the theories they are twisted to support, or 
 from bad drawing or imperfect knowledge ; and too many of the 
 modern examples are carelessly sketched and still more carelessly 
 engraved. Another source of difficulty is, that it is rare with 
 readers of papers and writers in journals to quote references, and 
 sometimes when these are given they are wrong. I have thus been 
 forced to limit the field from which my information is taken very 
 considerably. I have tried hard to introduce no illustration I could 
 not thoroughly depend upon, and I have not intentionally quoted a 
 single reference I had not verified from the original authorities. 
 
 In one respect I cannot but feel that I may have laid myself 
 open to hostile criticism. On many minor points I have offered 
 suggestions which I do not feel sure that I could prove if chal- 
 lenged, and which, consequently, a more prudent man would have 
 left alone. I have done this because it often happens that such 
 suggestions turn the attention of others to points which would 
 otherwise be overlooked, and may lead to discoveries of great 
 importance ; while if disproved, they are only so much rubbish 
 swept out of the path of truth, and their detection can do no harm 
 to any one but their author. Whatever my shortcomings, I am 
 too much in earnest to look forward with any feelings of dismay 
 to such a contingency. 
 
 Besides the usual motives which prompt the publication of such 
 a work as this, there are two which seem to render its appearance 
 at this time particularly desirable. The first is to promote enquiry 
 by exciting interest in the subject ; the second is to give precision 
 to future researches. So long as everything is vague and mythical, 
 explorers do not know what to observe or record : this work, how- 
 ever, presents a distinct and positive view of the age or use of the 
 megalithic remains, and every new fact must tend either to upset 
 or confirm the theory it seeks to establish. With this view, I 
 need hardly add that I shall be extremely grateful for any new 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 facts or additional sources of information which may be communi- 
 cated to me, either through the public press or privately. Nume- 
 rous persons having local experience must know many things which 
 may have escaped me. It is very probable that these may induce 
 me to modify some of the details of this work ; but so much is 
 now known, and the field from Avhich my inductions are gathered 
 is so wide, that I have no fear that they will touch the main 
 arguments on which the theory of this work is founded. 1 
 
 However this may be, I trust that this work may lay claim 
 to being, in one respect at least, a contribution to the cause of 
 truth regarding the much-disputed age and use of these Kude 
 Stone Monuments. It states distinctly and without reserve one 
 view of the mooted question, and so openly that any one who 
 knows better can at once pull away the prop from my house of 
 cards and level it with the ground. If one thing comes out more 
 clearly than another in the course of this investigation, it is that 
 the style of architecture to which these monuments belong is a 
 style, like Gothic, Grecian, Egyptian, Buddhist, or any other. It 
 has a beginning, a middle, and an end ; and though we cannot 
 yet make out the sequence in all its details, this at least seems 
 clear — that there is no great hiatus; nor is it that one part is 
 prehistoric, while the other belongs to historic times. All belong 
 to the one epoch or to the other. Either it is that Stonehenge 
 and Avebury and all such are the temples of a race so ancient as 
 to be beyond the ken of mortal man, or they are the sepulchral 
 monuments of a people who lived so nearly within the limits of the 
 
 1 What is really wanted now is, a 
 " Megalithic Monument Publication So- 
 ciety." After the meeting of the Pre- 
 historic Congress at Norwich, a com- 
 mittee for this purpose was formed in 
 conjunction with the Ethnological So- 
 ciety. After several meetings every- 
 thing was arranged and settled, but, 
 alas! there were no funds to meet the 
 necessary expenses, or, at least, risk of 
 publication, and the whole thing fell 
 
 through. To do what is wanted on a 
 really efficient scale a payment or a gua- 
 rantee of 1000?. would be necessary, and 
 that is far beyond what is attainable in 
 this poor country. If it could be ob- 
 tained, the materials are abundant. Sir 
 Henry Dry den alone could fill a volume 
 with the materials he already possesses ; 
 and Lieut. Oliver, Mr. Conwell, and 
 others, have drawings sufficient to keep 
 the society at work for a long time. 
 
PEEFACE. xi 
 
 true historic times that their story can easily be recovered. If 
 this latter view is adopted, the whole, it appears to me, hangs so 
 perfectly together, and presents so complete and so rational an 
 account of all the local or historical facts which are at present 
 known concerning these remains, that I feel great confidence that 
 it must eventually be adopted as the true explanation of the 
 phenomena. If it is it will have this further advantage, that when 
 any serious attempt is made to investigate either the history or 
 the manners and customs of these ancient peoples, it is probable 
 that these megalithic remains will be found to be the best and 
 surest guide. 
 
 From the circumstances above detailed, this work would have 
 been a much more meagre production than it is hoped it will be 
 found, had it not been for the kindness of many friends who have 
 assisted me in my undertaking. My chapter on Ireland, for in- 
 stance, would have been much less full had not Sir W. Wilde, 
 Mr. Eugene Conwell, and Mr. Moore assisted me with illustrations 
 and information ; and for my knowledge of Scotch antiquities I 
 owe much to my friend John Stuart, of Edinburgh, while Sir 
 Henry Dryden's invaluable collections have been of the utmost 
 service to me both as regards Scotland and Brittany. Professor 
 Save and Mr. Hildebrand have materially aided me in Sweden, 
 and M. Riano in Spain ; but the post apparently suppresses any 
 correspondence on archaeological subjects with France and Denmark. 
 Without the kindness of Sir Bartle Frere and his elder brother 
 in lending me drawings, or Colonel Collinson in procuring in- 
 formation, my account of the Maltese antiquities would have been 
 very much less satisfactory than it is ; and I also owe my best 
 thanks to Mr. Walhouse, of the Madras Civil Service, and Mr. 
 Burgess, of Bombay, for their assistance in respect to Indian 
 antiquities. I have tried in the text to acknowledge my obli- 
 gations to these and all other parties who have assisted me. If I 
 have omitted any, I trust they will believe it has not been inten- 
 tionally, but through inadvertence. 
 
XH PREFACE. 
 
 For myself, I hope I may be allowed to plead that I have 
 spared no pains in investigating the materials placed at my 
 disposal, and no haste in forming my conclusions ; and I may also 
 add, they are by no means those of predilection or that I wished 
 to arrive at. When I first took up the subject, I hoped that the 
 rude stone monuments would prove to be old, — so old, indeed, as 
 to form the "incunabula " of other styles, and that we might thus, 
 by a simple process, arrive at the genesis of styles. Bit by bit 
 that theory has crumbled to pieces as my knowledge increased, 
 and most reluctantly have I been forced to adopt the more prosaic 
 conclusions of the present volume. If, however, this represents 
 the truth, that must be allowed to be an ample compensation for 
 the loss of any poetry which has hitherto hung round the mystery 
 of the Rude Stone Monuments. 
 
 Langham Place, Dec. 1, 1871. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGK 
 
 Introductory .. .. 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Preliminary Observations. Tumuli — Dolmens— Circles — Avenues 
 
 —Menhirs 29 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 England. Avebury and Stonehenge 61 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Minor English Antiquities. Aylesford — Ashdown — Bollright — 
 Penrith — Derbyshire — Stanton Drew — Smaller Circles — 
 Dolmens 116 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Ireland. Moytura — Cemeteries — Boyne — Lough Crew — Clover 
 
 Hill— Dolmens 175 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Scotland. Orkney Stone Circles— Orkney Barrows — Maes-Howe 
 Dragon and Serpent-Knot — Holed Stone of Stennis — Callernish 
 — Aberdeenshire Circles — Fiddes Hill — Clava Mounds— Stone 
 at Aberlemmo — Sculptured Stones — Crosses in Isle of Man .. 239 
 
xiv CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Scandinavia and North Germany. Introductory — Battle-fields 
 — Harald Hildetand's Tomb — Long Barrows — Tumuli — 
 Dolmens — Drenthe: Hunebeds 275 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 France. Introductory — Distribution of Dolmens — Age of Dol- 
 mens — Grottes des Fees — Demi-Dolmens — Booking Stones 
 — Carnac — Locmariaker — Alignments at Crozon — Age of 
 the Monuments — Wbat are these Monuments ? — Tbey must 
 be Trophies — Time of the Fight — M. Bertrand's List of 
 Dolmens in Thirty-one Departments of France 325 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Spain, Portugal, and Italy. Introductory — Dolmens — Portugal 
 
 — Italy 377 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 A lgeria and Tripoli. Introductory — Bazinas and Chouchas — 
 Free-Standing Dolmens — Age of Dolmens — Circle near Bona 
 — The Nasamones — Origin of African Dolmen-Builders — 
 Tripoli: Trilithons — Buddhist Monument at Bangkok . . .. 395 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Mediterranean Islands. Malta — Sardinia — Balearic Islands 415 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Western Asia. Palestine — Sinai — Arabia — Asia Minor — Cir- 
 
 cassia — The Steppes — Cabul 438 
 
CONTENTS. xv 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 India. Introductory — Eastern India — Khassia — Western India 
 
 — Geographical Distribution — Age of the Stone Monuments 
 
 — Comparison of Dolmens — Buddhism in the West .. .. 455 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 America. North America — Central America — Peru 510 
 
 Appendix A. — Glens Columbkille and Malin 520 
 
 „ B.— Oden's Howe, &c, Upsala 526 
 
 „ C. — Antiquities of Caithness 527 
 
 Index 533 
 
( xvii ) 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Frontispiece. — Standing Stones of Stennis. Vignette. — Demi-Dolmen at Kerland. 
 
 NO. PAGE 
 
 1. Section of Tomb of Alyattes .. 31 
 
 2. Elevation of Tumulus at Tantalais 32 
 
 3. Plan and Section of Chamber in 
 
 Tumulus at Tantalais . . . . 32 
 
 4. Section and Plan of Tomb of Atreus 
 
 at Mycenra 33 
 
 5. View of Cocumella, Vulci . . . . 33 
 
 6. View of principal Chamber in 
 
 Regulini Galeassi Tomb . . . . 34 
 
 7. Dolmen in Castle Wellan, Ireland 45 
 
 8. Dolmen de Bousquet 46 
 
 9. Tee cut in the Rock on a Dagoba 
 
 atAjunta 47 
 
 10. Nine Ladies, Stanton Moor .. .. 49 
 
 11. Chambered Tumulus, Jersey .. 51 
 
 12. Avenues, Circles, and Cromlech, 
 
 near Merivale Bridge, Dartmoor 55 
 
 13. Lochcrist Menhir 60 
 
 14. View of Avebury restored .. .. 62 
 
 15. Plan of Avebury Circle and Kennet 
 
 Avenue 63 
 
 16. Circle on Hakpen Hill 76 
 
 17. Section of Silbury Hill .. .. 78 
 
 18. Iron Bit of Bridle, Silbury Hill .. 81 
 
 19. Plan of Avebury 81 
 
 20. Elevation of the Bartlow Hills .. 83 
 
 21. Marden Circle 85 
 
 22. General Plan of Stonehenge . . 90 
 
 23. Stonehenge as at present existing 92 
 
 24. Plan of Stonehenge restored . . 93 
 
 25. Tomb of Isidorus, at Khatoura . . 100 
 
 26. Country around Stonehenge .. 102 
 
 27. Countless Stones, Aylesford .. 117 
 
 28. The Sarsen Stones at Ashdown .. 122 
 
 29. Sketch Plan of King Arthur's 
 
 Round Table, with the side, 
 obliterated by the road, restored 128 
 
 30. Arbor Low 140 
 
 31. Vases and Bronze Pin found in 
 
 Arbor Low 141 
 
 32. Section of Gib Hill 141 
 
 33. Summit of Minning Low, as it 
 
 appeared in 1786 142 
 
 34. Plan of Chambers in Minning Low 143 
 
 35. Fragment of Drinking Cup from 
 
 Benty Grange 145 
 
 36. Fragment of Helmet from Benty 
 
 Grange 145 
 
 37. Circles at Stanton Drew .. ' .. 149 
 
 38. View of the Circles at Stanton 
 
 Drew 150 
 
 39. Rose Hill Tumulus 155 
 
 40. Snaffle-Bit found at Aspatria .. 156 
 
 41. Side Stone, Aspatria Cist .. .. 157 
 
 42. Mule Hill, Isle of Man, View of 
 
 Cists 158 
 
 43. Circle of Cists at Mule Hill .. 158 
 
 44. Circles on Burn Moor, in Cumber- 
 
 land 160 
 
 45. Boscawen Circles 161 
 
 46. Park Cwn Tumulus 164 
 
 47. Tumulus, Plas Newydd .. .. 167 
 
 48. Entrance to Dolmen, in Tumulus, 
 
 Plas Newydd 167 
 
 49. Dolmen at Pentre Ifan .. .. 168 
 
 50. Dolmen at Plas Newydd .. .. 169 
 
 51. Arthur's Quoit, Gower .. .. 170 
 
 52. Plan of Arthur's Quoit .. ..171 
 
 53. Hob Hurst's House, on Baslow 
 
 Moor, Derbyshire 172 
 
 54. Circle on Battle-field of Southern 
 
 Moytura 177 
 
 55. Cairn on Battle-field of Southern 
 
 Moytura 178 
 
 56. The Cairn of the "One Man," 
 
 . Moytura 179 
 
 57. Urn in the Cairn of the " One 
 
 Man," Moytura 179 
 
 58. Battle-field of Northern Moytura 181 
 
 59. Sketch Plan of Circle 27, Northern 
 
 Moytura 182 
 
 60. View of Circle 27, Northern 
 
 Moytura 183 
 
 61. Dolmen, with Circle, No. 7, North- 
 
 ern Moytura 183 
 
 62. Rath na Riog, or, Cathair of Cor- 
 
 mac, at Tara 194 
 
 63. View of Mound at New Grange .. 201 
 
 64. New Grange, near Drogheda . . 203 
 
 65. 66. Ornaments at New Grange . . 206 
 
 67. Branch at New Grange .. .. 207 
 
 68. Sculptured mark at New Grange, 
 
 of undecided character . . . . 207 
 
win 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 NO. PAGE 
 
 69. Chambers in Mound at Dowth . . 208 
 70,71. Ornaments in Dowth .. .. 211 
 
 72. Cairn T, at Lough Crew .. ..214 
 
 73. The Hag's Chair, Lough Crew .. 215 
 
 74. Two Stones in Cairn T, Lough 
 Crew 216 
 
 75. Cell in Cairn L, at Lough Crew 217 
 
 76. Stone in Cairn T, Lough Crew .. 222 
 
 77. Stones in Sculptured Graves, 
 
 Clover Hill 223 
 
 78. Dolmen at Knockeen 229 
 
 79. Plan of Dolmen at Knockeen .. 230 
 
 80. Calliagh Birra's House, north end 
 
 of Parish of Monasterboice . . 230 
 
 81. Plan and Section of Chamber in 
 
 Greenmount Tumulus .. .. 232 
 
 82. Dolmen of the Four Maols, 
 
 Ballina 233 
 
 83. Sketch-Plan of Monument in the 
 
 Deer Park, Sligo 234 
 
 84. Circle at Stennis 242 
 
 85. Dragon in Maes-Howe . . . . 245 
 
 86. Wurm-Knot, Maes-Howe . . . . 245 
 
 87. Plan and Section of Maes-Howe 246 
 
 88. View of Chamber in Maes-Howe 247 
 
 89. Monument at Callernish . . . . 259 
 
 90. Circle at Fiddes Hill .. ..264 
 
 91. Plan of Clava Mounds .. .. 266 
 
 92. View of Clava Mounds .. ..266 
 
 93. Stone at Coilsfield 267 
 
 94. Front of Stone at Aberlemmo, 
 
 with Cross 268 
 
 95. Back of Stone at Aberlemmo .. 269 
 
 96. Cat Stone, Kirkliston .. ..272 
 
 97. 98. Crosses in Isle of Man, bearing 
 
 Kunic Inscriptions 273 
 
 99. View of Battle-field at Kongs- 
 
 backa 279 
 
 100. Part of the Battle-field of Braa- 
 
 valla Heath 281 
 
 101. Harald Hildetand's Tomb at 
 
 Lethra 282 
 
 102. Long Barrow, Kennet, restored 
 
 by Dr. Thurnam 284 
 
 103. Long Barrow at Wiskeharad, in 
 
 Halland 288 
 
 104. Battle-field at Freyrso .. .. 292 
 
 105. Dragon on King Gorm's Stone, 
 
 Jellinge 296 
 
 106. Dolmen at Herrestrup .. .. 303 
 
 107. Dolmen at Halskov 305 
 
 108. Dolmen at Oroust 306 
 
 109. Diagram from Sjoborg .. .. 307 
 
 110. Dolmen near Liineburg .. .. 308 
 
 111. Double Dolmen at Valdbygaards 309 
 
 112. Plan of Double Dolmen at Vald- 
 
 bygaards 309 
 
 NO. PAG It 
 
 113. Triple Dolmen, Hobisch .. .. 309 
 
 114. View of Interior of Chamber at 
 
 Uby 311 
 
 115. Plan of Chamber at Uby .. ..311 
 
 116. Dolmen at Axevalla 313 
 
 117. Head-stone of Kivik Grave .. 314 
 
 118. Graves at Hjortehammer .. .. 316 
 
 119. Circles at Aschenrade .. .. 317 
 
 120. Plan of Hunebed near Emmen . . 320 
 
 121. Dolmen at Ballo 321 
 
 122. Dolmen at Sauclieres .. .. 335 
 
 123. Dolmen at Confolens 337 
 
 124. Plan of Dolmen at Confolens .. 337 
 
 125. Dolmen near Mettray .. .. 342 
 
 126. Dolmen at Krukenho . . . . 342 
 
 127. Holed Dolmen, at Trie .. .. 344 
 
 128. Dolmen of Grandmont .. .. 344 
 
 129. Demi-dolmen, Morbihan .. .. 345 
 
 130. Demi-dolmen, near Poitiers .. 346 
 
 131. Demi-dolmen at Kerland .. .. 346 
 
 132. Pierre Martine 347 
 
 133. Pierre Martine, end view .. .. 348 
 
 134. Pierre Branlante, near Huelgoat, 
 
 in Brittany 348 
 
 135. Map of Celtic Antiquities, near 
 
 Carnac 352 
 
 136. Carnac Antiquities, on enlarged 
 
 Scale 353 
 
 137. Head of Column at St.-Barbe .. 355 
 
 138. Long Bai-row at Kerlescant .. 356 
 
 139. Hole between Two Stones at Ker- 
 
 lescant 357 
 
 140. Entrance to Cell, Rodmarton .. 357 
 
 141. Vases found at Kerlescant .. 357 
 
 142. Plan of Moustoir-Carnac .. .. 358 
 
 143. Section of Moustoir-Carnac . . 358 
 
 144. Section of Chamber of Moustoir- 
 
 Carnac 359 
 
 145. 146. Sculptures at Mane Lud .. 361 
 
 147. View of Dol ar Marchant .. .. 361 
 
 148. End Stone, Dol ar Marchant .. 362 
 
 149. Hatchet in Pvoof of Dol ar Mar- 
 
 chant 362 
 
 150. Stone found inside Chamber at 
 
 Mane er H'roek 364 
 
 151. Plan of Gavr Innis 364 
 
 152. Sculptures at Gavr Innis .. .. 365 
 
 153. Holed Stone, Gavr Innis .. .. 365 
 
 154. Alignments at Crozon .. .. 367 
 
 155. View of the Interior of Dolmen 
 
 at Antequera 383 
 
 156. Plan of Dolmen called Cueva de 
 
 Menga, near Antequera . . . . 384 
 
 157. Dolmen del Tio Cogolleros . . . . 385 
 
 158. Sepultura Grande 386 
 
 159. Plan of Dolmen at Eguilar .. 387 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 xix 
 
 KO. TAGE 
 
 160. Plan of Dolmen at Cangas de Onis 387 
 
 161. Dolmen of San Miguel, at Arri- 
 
 chinaga 388 
 
 162. Dolmen at Arroyolos 389 
 
 163. Dolmen at Saturnia 392 
 
 164. Bazina 397 
 
 165. Choucha 398 
 
 166. Dolmen on Steps 398 
 
 167. Tumuli, with Intermediate Lines 
 
 of Stones 399 
 
 168. Group of Sepulchral Monuments, 
 
 Algeria 399 
 
 169. Plan and Elevation of African 
 
 Tumulus 400 
 
 170. Dolmen with Two Circles of 
 
 Stones 401 
 
 171. Dolmens on the Road from Bona 
 
 to Constantine 402 
 
 172. Four Cairns enclosed in Squares 402 
 
 173. Tombs near Djidjeli 404 
 
 174. Circle near Bona 405 
 
 175. Trilithon at Ksaea 411 
 
 176. Trilithon at Elkeb 412 
 
 177. Buddhist Monument at Bangkok 413 
 
 178. Giants' Tower at Gozo .. .. 417 
 
 179. Plan of Monument of Mnaidra . . 419 
 
 180. Section through Lower Pair of 
 
 Chambers, Mnaidra .. .. 419 
 
 181. Entrance to Chamber B, Mnaidra, 
 
 showing Table inside . . . . 420 
 
 182. North End of Left-hand Outer 
 
 Chamber at Mnaidra .. .. 421 
 
 183. Plan of Hagiar Khem, partially 
 
 restored 423 
 
 184. View of Madracen 424 
 
 185. Nurhag 428 
 
 186. Nurhag of Santa Barbara . . . . 428 
 
 187. Section and Ground-plan of Nur- 
 
 hag of Santa Barbara .. .. 429 
 
 188. Map of La Giara 430 
 
 189. Talyot at Trepuco, Minorca .. 435 
 
 190. Talyot at Alajor, Minorca .. 435 
 
 191. Dolmens at Kafr er Wal .. .. 441 
 
 1 92. Holed Dolmen 447 
 
 1 93. Holed Dolmen, Circassia . . . . 447 
 
 194. Baba 449 
 
 195. Four-cornered Grave .. .. 449 
 ] 96. Tumulus at Alexandropol . . . . 450 
 
 no. PAGE 
 
 197. Uncovered Base of a Tumulus at 
 
 Nikolajew 451 
 
 1 98. Circle near Peshawur . . . . 452 
 
 199. Circle at Deh Ayeh, near Darab- 
 
 gerd 453 
 
 200. View in Khassia Hills .. ..462 
 
 201. Khassia Funereal Seats .. .. 463 
 
 202. Menhirs and Tables 464 
 
 203. Turban Stone, with Stone Table 464 
 
 204. Trilithon 464 
 
 205. Dolmen at Rajunkoloor . . . . 468 
 
 206. Plan of Open Dolmen at Rajun- 
 
 koloor ' .. 469 
 
 207. Closed Dolmen at Eajunko- 
 
 loor 469 
 
 208. View of Closed Dolmen at Rajun- 
 
 koloor 469 
 
 209. Arrangement of Dolmens at Ra- 
 
 junkoloor 470 
 
 210. Cairns at Jewurgi 471 
 
 211,212. Sections of Cairn at Jewurgi 471 
 
 213. Double Dolmen, Coorg .. ..473 
 
 214. Tomb, Nilgai Hills 473 
 
 215. Sepulchral Circles at Amravati . . 474 
 
 216. Iron Pillar at the Kutub, Delhi .. 481 
 
 217. Sculpture on under side of cap- 
 
 stone of Nilgiri Dolmen . . . . 483 
 
 218. Dolmen at Iwullee 484 
 
 219. Plan of Stone Monuments at 
 
 Shahpoor 485 
 
 220. Cross at Katapur 486 
 
 221. Dolmen at Katapur 487 
 
 222. Dolmen with Cross in Nirmul 
 
 Jungle 488 
 
 223. Lanka Ramayana Dagoba . . . . 490 
 
 224. Dolmen at Pullicondah .. ..491 
 
 225. Rail at Sanchi, near Bhilsa .. 492 
 
 226. View of the Senbya Pagoda, Bur- 
 
 mah 497 
 
 227. Enclosure in Newark Works, 
 
 North America 511 
 
 228. Plan of Uprights, Cromlech D I., 
 
 Columbkille 521 
 
 229. Position of Stones of D III. .. 522 
 
 230. Plan of D VI 522 
 
 231. Plan of Cromlechs of Group E. . . 523 
 
 232. Horned Cairn, Caithness . . . . 528 
 
 233. Dolmen near Bona, Algeria . . 532 
 
 DIRECTION TO BINDER. 
 The Map illustrating the distribution of Dolmens to be placed at the end of the Volume. 
 
KUDE STONE MONUMENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 So great and so successful has been the industry recently applied 
 to subjects of archaeological research that few of the many 
 problems in that science which fifty years ago seemed hopelessly 
 mysterious now remain unsolved. Little more than forty years 
 have elapsed since Champollion's discoveries enabled us to 
 classify and understand the wonderful monuments of the Nile 
 Valley. The deciphering of the cuneiform characters has in 
 like manner enabled us to arrange and affix dates to the temples 
 and palaces of Babylon and Nineveh. Everything that was 
 built by the Greeks and the Romans has been surveyed and 
 illustrated; and all the mediae val styles that arose out of them 
 have been reduced to intelligible sequences. The rcck-cut 
 temples of India, and her still more mysterious dagobas, have 
 been brought within the domain of history, and, like those of 
 Burniak, Cambodia, or China, shown to be of comparatively 
 modern date. The monuments of Mexico and Peru may be said 
 still to defy those who are endeavouring to wrest their secrets 
 from them ; but even for these a fairly approximate date has been 
 obtained. But amidst all these triumphs of well-directed research 
 there still remain a great group of monuments at our own doors, 
 regarding whose uses or dates opinions are nearly as much divided 
 as they were in the days of rampant empiricism in the last 
 century. It is true that men of science do not now pretend 
 to see Druids sacrificing their bleeding victims on the altar at 
 Stonehenge, nor to be able to trace the folds of the divine serpent 
 through miles of upright stones at Carnac or at Avebury ; but all 
 they have yet achieved is simple unbelief in the popular fallacies, 
 nor have they hitherto ventured to supply anything better to take 
 
 B 
 
2 INTRODUCTORY. Iktbod. 
 
 their places. They still call the circles temples, but without 
 being able to suggest to what god they were dedicated, or for 
 what rites they were appropriate, and, when asked as to the 
 age in which they were erected, can only reply in the words of 
 the song, that it was " long long ngo." 
 
 This state of affairs is eminently unsatisfactory, but at the 
 same time to a great extent excusable. Indeed it is not at first 
 sight easy to see how it is to be remedied. The builders of the 
 megalithic remains were utterly illiterate, and have left no written 
 records of their erection ; nor are there any legible inscriptions 
 on the more important monuments which would afford any hints 
 to the enquirer. What is even more disheartening is that in 
 almost every instance they are composed of rough unhewn stones, 
 not only without any chisel marks, but even without any 
 architectural mouldings capable of being compared with those 
 of other monuments, or, by their state of preservation, of giving 
 a hint as to their relative age. 
 
 " They stand, but stand in silent and uncommunicative majesty." 
 
 So silent, indeed, that it is hardly to be wondered at that fanciful 
 antiquaries have supplied them with voices most discordantly and 
 absurdly various, or, on the other hand, that the better class of 
 enquirers have shrunk from the long patient investigations and 
 thoughtful ponderings which are necessary to elicit even a modicum 
 of truth from their stolid reticence. 
 
 If the investigation into the age and uses of the megalithic 
 remains were a new subject which had for the first time been taken 
 up some thirty or forty years ago, it is probable that a solution 
 might have been obtained before now, or at all events would 
 not be far off. When, however, an investigation gets into a 
 thoroughly vicious groove, as this one has done, it is very 
 difficult to rescue it from its false position. The careless are 
 willing to accept any empirical solutions that are offered, how- 
 ever absurd they may be, and the thoughtful are deterred from 
 meddling with an enquiry which has hitherto led only to such 
 irrational conclusions. 
 
 The first of those who, in this country at least, led off the wild 
 dance was the celebrated Inigo Jones, the architect of Whitehall. 
 
Introd. INTRODUCTORY. 3 
 
 It seems that when King James I. was on a visit to the Earl of 
 Pembroke at Wilton, he was taken to see Stonehenge, and was so 
 struck with its majesty and mystery that he ordered his architect 
 to find out by whom it was built, and for what purpose. Whether 
 the treatise containing the result of his enquiries was ever submitted 
 to the King is not clear. It certainly was not published till after 
 its author's death, and though it shows a very creditable amount 
 of learning and research, the results he arrived at were very 
 startling. After a detailed statement of the premises, his con- 
 clusions — as condensed in the Life prefixed to his treatise — were 
 " That it was a Roman temple, inscribed to Coelus, the senior of 
 the heathen gods, and built after the Tuscan order." 
 
 This theory was attacked by Dr. Charleton, one of the physician > 
 of Charles JI. He had corresponded for some time with Olaus 
 Wormius, the celebrated Danish antiquary, and struck with the 
 similarity in form and of construction that existed between 
 the monuments in Denmark and those of this country, he came 
 to the conclusion that Stonehenge and other similar monuments 
 were erected by the Danes, and consequently after the departure 
 of the Romans. This attack on the theory of Inigo Jones raised 
 the wrath of a Mr. Webb, by marriage a relative, who replied 
 in a very angry treatise, in which he reiterates all Jones's argu- 
 ments, and then, adding a considerable number of his own, he 
 concludes by triumphantly — as he supposes— restoring Stone- 
 henge to the Romans. 1 
 
 So far no great harm was done ; but Dr. Stukeley, who next 
 appeared in the controversy, was one of the most imaginative of 
 men and one of the wildest of theorists. His studies had made 
 him familiar with the Druids, whom classical authorities describe 
 as the all-powerful priests of the Celtic race, but who had no 
 temples; on the other hand, his travels made him acquainted with 
 Stonehenge and Avebury, to the latter of which attention had just 
 been called by the researches of his friend Aubrey. Here, then, 
 were temples without priests. What could be so natural as to join 
 
 1 These three treatises were afterwards rej ublished in one volume, small folio, 
 with all the plates, &c, in L( ndon, 1725. It is from this volume that the above is 
 abstracted. 
 
 B 2 
 
4 INTRODUCTORY. Lntrod. 
 
 these two, though in most unholy matrimony. Our stone circles 
 must be temples of the Druids ! But there was still one difficulty. 
 What divinities did they worship therein? Caesar tells us that 
 the Celts or Celtic Druids principally worshipped Mercury and 
 some other Iioman gods whom he named; 1 but no images of 
 these gods are found in these temples, nor anything that would 
 indicate a dedication to their worship. Unfortunately, however, 
 Pliny 2 tells a very silly tale, how in Gaul the snakes meet together 
 on a certain day and manufacture from their spittle an egg 
 {Anguinum), which, when complete, they throw aloft, and if auy 
 one wants it, he must catch it in a blanket before it falls to the 
 ground, and ride off with it on a fleet horse, for if the snakes catch 
 him before he crosses a runniug stream, a worse fate than Tarn o' 
 Shanter's may befall him ! He then goes on to add that this egg 
 was considered as a charm by the Druids. From this last hint 
 Dr. Stukeley concluded that the Druids were serpent-worshippers, 
 and consequently that Stonehenge, Avebury, &c, were serpent 
 temples — Dracontia, as he calls them, daringly assuming that a 
 word, which in the singular was only the name of a plant, was 
 actually applied by the ancients to serpent temples, of the form 
 of which, however, they were as ignorant as the Doctor himself. 
 Having advanced so far, it only remained to adapt the English 
 circles to this newly discovered form of worship, and Avebury was 
 chosen as the principal illustration. There was a small circle on 
 Hakpen Hill, which had a stone avenue formed by six or eight 
 stones running east and west ; between West Kennet and Avebury 
 there was another avenue leading to the circles, but trending north 
 and south. By introducing a curved piece between these frag- 
 ments, Hakpen became the head of the snake, the avenue its body ; 
 Avebury a convoluted part of it, and then a tail was added, a 
 mile long, on the authority of two stones in the village, and 
 a dolmen, called Long Stone Cove, about half-way between Ave- 
 bury and the end of the tail ! Stanton Drew and other circles 
 were treated in the same way ; curved avenues, for which there is 
 not a shadow of authority, except in the Doctor's imagination, were 
 added wherever required, and serpents manufactured wherever 
 
 1 Caesar, ' De Bell. Gal.' vi. 13-20. 2 ' Hist. Nat.' xxix. 3 
 
Ixteod. INTRODUCTORY. 5 
 
 wanted. It never seems even to have occurred to the Doctor 
 or his contemporaries to ask whether, in any time or place, any 
 temple w r as ever built in the form of the gods to be worshipped 
 therein or thereat, or how any human being could discover the 
 form of the serpent in rows of stones stretching over hills and 
 valleys, crossing streams, and hid occasionally by mounds and 
 earthworks. On a map, with the missing parts supplied, this is 
 easy enough ; but there were no maps in those days, and in the 
 open country it would puzzle even the most experienced surveyors 
 to detect the serpent's form. 
 
 Had so silly a fabrication been put forward in the present day, 
 it probably would have met with the contempt it deserves ; but 
 the strangest part of the whole is that it was then accepted as a 
 revelation. Even so steady and so well informed an antiquary 
 as Sir Eichard Colt Hoare adopts Dr. Stukeley's views without 
 enquiry. His magnificent works on ' Ancient and Modern 
 Wiltshire,' which are not only the most splendid, but the most 
 valuable works of their class which this country owes to the 
 liberality and industry of any individual, are throughout dis- 
 figured by this one great blemish. He sees Druids and their 
 Dragons everywhere, and never thinks of enquiring on what 
 authority their existence rests. 
 
 It is not of course for one moment meant to contend that there 
 were not Druids in Europe in ancient days.. Caesar's testimony on 
 this point is too distinct, and his knowledge was too accurate to 
 admit of any doubt on this point. It is true, however, that the 
 description of them given by Diodorus, 1 and Strabo, 2 who mix them 
 up with the bards and soothsayers, detracts somewhat from the 
 pre-eminence he assigns to them : but this is of minor importance. 
 The Druids were certainly the priests of the Celts, and had their 
 principal seat in the country of the Carnutes, near Chartres, where, 
 however, megalithic remains are few and far between. Neither 
 Caesar, however, nor any one else, ever pretended to have seen a 
 Druid in England. Suetonius met "Druidae" in the Island of 
 Anglesea (Mona), 3 but none were ever heard of in Wiltshire, or 
 Derbyshire, or Cumberland, where the principal monuments are 
 
 1 ' Hiatoria,' v. 31. 2 ' Geographica,' iv. 273. 3 Tacitus, ' Ajin.' xiv. 29. 
 
6 INTRODUCTORY. Ixtbod. 
 
 situated ; nor in the Western Islands, or in Scandinavia. Still less 
 are they known in Algeria or India, where these megalithic 
 remains abound. According to the Welsh bards and Irish annalists, 
 there were Druids in Wales and Ireland before the introduction 
 of Christianity. But, even admitting this, it does not help us 
 much ; as even there they are nowhere connected with the class 
 of monuments of which we are now treating. Indeed, it has 
 been contended lately, and with a considerable show of reason, 
 that the Celts themselves, even in France, had nothing to do 
 with these monuments, and that they belong to an entirely 
 different race of people. 1 It is not, in short, at all necessary to 
 deny either the existence of the Druids or their power. The 
 real difficulty is to connect theni in any way, directly or indi- 
 rectly, with the stone monuments: and it seems still more difficult 
 to prove that the Celts ever worshipped the serpent in any shape 
 or form. 2 
 
 Notwithstanding all this, in the present century, an educated 
 gentleman and a clergyman of the Church of England, the Eev. 
 Bathurst Deane, adopts unhesitatingly all that Stukeley and his 
 school had put forward. He took the trouble of going to Brittany, 
 accompanied by a competent surveyor, and made a careful plan 
 of the alignments of Carnac. 3 Like the avenues at Avebury, 
 they certainly bore no resemblance to serpent forms, to eyes 
 profane, but looked rather like two straight lines running nearly 
 parallel to one another at a distance of about two miles apart. 
 But may not an intermediate curvilinear piece some three miles 
 long have existed in the gap and so joined the head to the tail ? 
 It is in vain to urge that no trace of it now exists, or to ask how 
 any human being could trace the forms of serpents seven or eight 
 miles long in an undulating country, and how or in what manner, 
 or to what part of this strange deity or monster, he was to address 
 his prayers. 
 
 It would be incorrect, however, to represent all antiquaries as 
 
 1 See controversy between M. Ber- 
 tinnd and M. Henri Martin, in volume of 
 ' Congres prehistorique ' (Paris, 1867), 193, 
 207, &o. See also ' Eevue arche'ologique,' I at length 
 aout, 1864, 144. | =» ' Arehreologia,' sxv. 1S8 el seqq 
 
 2 For further information on the sub- 
 
 ject, the reader is referred to ' Tree and 
 Serpent Worship,' by the author, p. 26 
 et seqq., where the subject is treated of 
 
Intbod. INTRODUCTORY. 7 
 
 adopting the Ophite heresy. Another group have argued stoutly 
 that Stonehenge was an observatory of the British Druids. This 
 theory was apparently suggested by views published by Daniell 
 and others of the observatories erected by Jey Sing of Jeypore 
 at Delhi, Ougein, Benares, and elsewhere in India. All these, 
 it is true, possess great circles, but each of all these circles 
 contains a gnomon, which is as essential a part of such an astro- 
 nomical instrument as it is of a sun-dial, and no trace of such 
 a feature, it need hardly be said, occurs in any British circle. 
 One antiquary, who ought to be better informed, 1 concluded 
 that Stonehenge was an observatory, because, sitting on a stone 
 called the Altar on a Midsummer morning, he saw the sun 
 rise behind a stone called the Friar's Heel. This is the only 
 recorded observation ever made there, so far as I know; and 
 if this is all, it is evident that any two stones would have 
 answered the purpose equally well, and as the Altar stone is 
 sixteen feet long, it allows a latitude of observation that augurs 
 ill for the Druidical knowledge of the exact sciences. Neither 
 Mr. Ellis, however, nor Dr. Smith, nor the Rev. Mr. Duke, 2 
 nor indeed any of those who have taken up the astronomical 
 theory, have yet pointed out one single observation that could be 
 made by these circles that could not be made as well or better 
 without them. Or, if they were orreries, as is sometimes pre- 
 tended, no one has explained what they record or represent in 
 any manner that would be intelligible to any one else. Till 
 some practical astronomer will come forward and tell us in 
 intelligible language what observations could be performed with 
 the aid of the circles of Stonehenge, we may be at least allow ed 
 to pause. Even, however, in that case, unless his theory will 
 apply to Avebury, Stanton Drew, and other circles so irregular 
 as to be almost immeasurable, it will add little to our know- 
 ledge. 
 
 It might be an amusing, though it certainly must be a 
 profitless, task to enlarge on these and all the other guesses which 
 have from time to time been made with regard to these mysterious 
 remains. It is not, however, probable that theories so utterly 
 
 1 Mr. Ellis, ' Gent. Mag.' 4th aeries, ii. 317. 
 
 - ' Proceedings of the Archaeological Institute, Salisbury,' volunie 113. 
 
8 INTRODUCTORY. Intbod. 
 
 groundless will be put forward again, or, if promulgated, that they 
 will be listened to in future. The one excuse for them hitherto 
 has been that their authors have been deprived of all their usual 
 sources of information in this matter. It is not too much to assert 
 that there is not one single passage in any classical author which 
 can be construed as alluding directly or indirectly to the niega- 
 lithic remains on these isles or on the continent. With all their 
 learning and industry, the antiquaries of the last century could 
 only find one passage which, with all their misapplied ingenuity, 
 they could pervert to their purposes. It was this — in his second 
 book, Diodorus, quoting from Hecatseus, mentions that in an island, 
 not less in size than Sicily, and opposite to Celtica, there existed 
 among the Hyperboreans a circular temple magnificently adorned. 1 
 Stukeley and his followers immediately jumped to the conclusion 
 that the island not less than Sicily and opposite Gaul must be 
 England, and the circular temple Stonehenge, which was conse- 
 quently dedicated to Apollo and the serpent Python, and our 
 forefathers were the Hyperboreans, and our intercourse with 
 Greece clear and frequent. It is marvellous what a super- 
 structure was raised on such a basis. But against it may be 
 urged that the whole of the second book of Diodorus is dedicated 
 solely to a description of Asia. In the preceding chapter he 
 describes the Amazons, who, if they ever existed, certainly lived 
 in that quarter of the globe. In the following chapters he 
 describes Arabia, and even in this one (xlvii.) he speaks of the 
 Hyperboreans as inhabiting the northern parts of Asia. By 
 the utmost latitude of interpretation we might assume this 
 island to have been in the Baltic — CEsel probably, Gothland 
 possibly, but certainly not further west. It is impossible Diodorus 
 could be mistaken in the matter, for in his fifth book he 
 describes the British Isles in their proper place, and with a 
 very considerable degree of accuracy. 2 But, after all, what does 
 it amount to ? In this island there was a circular temple. AYe are 
 not told whether it was of wood or of stone, whether hypaethral, or 
 roofed, or vaulted, and certainly there is not a shadow of a hint 
 that it was composed of a circle of rude stones like those in this 
 
 1 Diodorus, ii. 47. 2 Ibid. v. 21 el seqq. 
 
Intkod. INTRODUCTORY. 9 
 
 country with which the antiquaries of the last century tried to 
 assimilate it. 
 
 It is little to be wondered at if all this rashness of speculation 
 and carelessness in quotation should have produced a belief that 
 the solution of the problem was impossible from any literary or 
 historical data, or if consequently our modern antiquaries should 
 have grasped with avidity at a scheme, first proposed by the Danes, 
 Avhich seemed at all events to place the question on a scientific 
 basis. No country could well be more favourably situated for 
 an enquiry of this sort than Denmark. It is rich in megalithic 
 remains of all sorts. Its tumuli and tombs seem generally to 
 have been undisturbed ; and it Avas exceptionally fortunate in 
 having a government with sufficient common sense to enact a law 
 of treasure-trove, so just and, at the same time, so liberal as to 
 prevent all metal articles from finding their way to the melting 
 pot, and governors so intelligent as fully to appreciate the scientific 
 value of these early remains. In consequence of all this, the 
 museums at Copenhagen were soon filled with one of the richest 
 collections of antiquities of this sort that was ever collected, 
 and when brought together it was not difficult to perceive 
 the leading features that connected them in one continuous 
 sequence. 
 
 First it appeared that there was an age extending into far pre- 
 historic times, when men used only implements of stone and bone, 
 and were ignorant of the use of any of the metals ; then that an 
 age had succeeded to this when the use of bronze was known, and 
 also probably that of gold ; and, lastly, that there was a third age, 
 when iron had been introduced and had superseded the use of all 
 other metals for weapons of war and utilitarian purposes. 
 
 The Danish antiquaries were somewhat divided in opinion as to 
 the exact period when bronze was first introduced, some carrying- 
 it back as far as 2000 B.C., others doubting whether it was known 
 in Denmark more than 1000 or 1200 years B.C. ; but all agreed 
 that iron was introduced about the Christian era. Having satisfied 
 themselves on these points, the Danish antiquaries proceeded at 
 once to apply this system to the monuments of their country. 
 Any tomb or tumulus which was devoid of any trace of metal was 
 
10 INTRODUCTORY. Intro r- 
 
 dated at once at least 1000, probably 2000, years before Christ, 
 and might be 10,000, or 20,000 years old, or even still older. 
 Any tomb containing bronze was at once set down as dating 
 between the war of Troy and the Christian era ; and if a trace of 
 iron was detected, it was treated as subsequent to the last-named 
 epoch, but still as anterior to the introduction of Christianity, 
 which in Denmark dates about the year 1000 a.d. 
 
 This system seemed so reasonable and philosophical, compared 
 with the wild theories of the British antiquaries of the last century, 
 that it was instantly adopted both in the country of its birth and in 
 England and France ; and the succession of the three ages — stone, 
 bronze, and iron — w 7 as generally looked upon as firmly established 
 as any fact in chronology. Gradually, however, it has been per- 
 ceived that the hard and fast line at first drawn between them 
 cannot be maintained. At the last meeting of the International 
 Archaeological Congress, held at Copenhagen in the autumn of 
 18G9, it was admitted on all hands that there was a considerable 
 overlap between each of the three ages. Men did not imme- 
 diately cease to use stone implements when bronze was intro- 
 duced; and bronze continued to be employed for many purposes 
 after the use of iron was well known. 1 Antiquaries have not yet 
 made up their minds to what extent the overlap took place ; but 
 on its determination depends the whole value of the scheme as a 
 chronometric scale. 
 
 If the Danes, instead of breaking up their "finds" and dis- 
 tributing them in cases according to a pre-conceived system, had 
 kept and published a careful record of the places where the con- 
 tents of their museums were found, and in what juxtaposition, 
 we should not probably be in our present difficulty. Under the 
 circumstances, it is perhaps fortunate that we had no central 
 museum, but that our antiquaries have published careful narra- 
 tives of their proceedings. Sir Kichard Colt Hoare's great works 
 are models of their class, but are scarcely to be depended upon 
 
 1 The volume containing the account carried or admitted. A short account 
 
 of the proceedings of the congress has j of the Congress was published by Gen. 
 
 not yet been published ; so those who , Lefroy, in the ' Journal of the Archseo- 
 
 were not present cannot feel sure to i logical Institute,' Nov. 18C9, p. 58 et 
 
 what extent these modifications were ' seqq. 
 
Inteod. INTEODTJCTOEY. H 
 
 iri the present instance, as the importance of flint and flint imple- 
 ments was not appreciated in his time to the extent it now is. 1 
 The explorations of the Messrs. Bateman in Derbyshire are more 
 completely up to the mark of the science of the present day. 
 A few extracts from one of their works will show how various and 
 how mixed the contents of even a single group of tombs are, 
 and will prove consequently how little dependence can be placed 
 on any one class of objects to fix the age of these monuments. 
 
 In his ' Vestiges of the Antiquities of Derbyshire,' published in 
 1848 by Thomas Bateman, we find the following among other 
 interesting facts, taking them as they are found arranged in his 
 volume, without any attempt at classification : — 
 
 On Winster Moor (p. 20), a gold Greek cross — undoubtedly 
 Christian, with a fibula of the same metal richly ornamented, and 
 a quantity of glass and metal ornaments. 
 
 Pegges Barrow (p. 24). Several Anglo-Saxon ornaments, most 
 probably of the seventh or eighth century. 
 
 In a barrow at Long Roods (p. 28) were found two urns, with 
 calcined bones and a brass coin of Constantine, of the type " Gloria 
 exercitus." 
 
 In Haddon Field Barrow (p. 30) w T ere found 82 brass coins : 
 among them Constantine 9, Constans 17, Constantius II. 9, family 
 of Constantine 3, Urbs Boma 1, Constantinopolis 2, Valentinian 5, 
 Valeus 12, Gratian 3. The remainder illegible. 
 
 At Gib Hill, near Arbor Low (p. 31), of which more hereafter, 
 there were found a flint arrow-head 2^ inches long, and a fragment 
 of a basaltic celt; also a small iron fibula, and another piece of 
 iron of indeterminable form. 
 
 On Cross Flatts (p. 35) the weapons found with the skeleton 
 were an iron knife, the blade 5 inches long ; a piece of roughly 
 chipped flint, probably a spear-head ; and a natural piece of stone 
 of remarkable form. A similar iron knife and a stone celt were 
 
 1 " According to an analysis made by j 67 of bronze, and 11 of iron, while one- 
 Sir John Lubbock, of the contents of ! half of them contained nothing to indi- 
 
 250 tumuli described by Sir Eichard 
 Colt Hoare, in the first volume of his 
 'Ancient Wiltshire,' 18 only had any 
 implements of stone, only 31 of bone, 
 
 cate their age; but whether those that 
 contained nothing are earlier or more 
 modern is by no means clear." — Pre- 
 historic Times, 2nd edit. p. 131. 
 
12 INTRODUCTORY. Introd. 
 
 afterwards found within a few yards of the barrow, probably- 
 thrown out and overlooked when first opened. 
 
 In Galley Lowe (p. 37), a very beautiful gold necklace set with 
 garnets, and a coin of Honorius; but towards the outer edge of 
 the Lowe, and consequently, as far as position goes, probably later, 
 another interment, accompanied with rude pottery, a small arrow- 
 head of grey flint, and a piece of ironstone. 
 
 In the great barrow at Minning Lowe (p. 39) were found coins 
 of Claudius Gothicus, Constantine the Great, Constantine Junior, 
 and Valentinian. 
 
 In a smaller barrow close by were found fragments of a coarse, 
 dark-coloured urn, a flint arrow-head, a small piece of iron, part 
 of a bridle-bit, and several horses' teeth ; lower down, a cist with 
 an iron knife, with an iron sheath ; and on the outer edge another 
 interment, accompanied by a highly ornamented drinking-cup, a 
 small brass or copper pin, and a rude spear or arrow-head of dark 
 grey flint. 
 
 In Borther Lowe (p. 48) were found a flint arrow-head much 
 burnt and a diminutive bronze celt. 
 
 In Eolley Lowe (p. 55) were found a brass coin of Constantine, 
 and a brass pin 2| inches long ; and lower down a rude but highly 
 ornamented urn, and with it two very neat arrow-heads of flint 
 of uncommon forms : and in another part of the barrow a spear- 
 head of coarse flint, with the fragments of an ornamented 
 drinking-cup. 
 
 In a barrow on Ash ford Moor (p. 57) were found, scattered in dif- 
 ferent parts, a small iron arrow-head and five instruments of flint. 
 
 In Carder Lowe (p. 63) were found several instruments of flint, 
 amongst the latter a neatly formed barbed arrow-head ; and lower 
 down, with the primary interment, a splendid brass or bronze 
 dagger ; a few inches lower down a beautiful axe hammer-head 
 of basalt. In another part of the barrow another interment was 
 discovered, accompanied by an iron knife and three hones of sand- 
 stone. 
 
 A barrow was opened at New Inns (p. 66), where, along with 
 the principal interment, was found a beautiful brass dagger, with 
 smaller rivets than usual ; and in another part a skeleton, with 
 two instruments of flint, and some animal teeth. 
 
Istbod. INTRODUCTORY. 13 
 
 In Net Lowe (p. 68), close to the right arm of the principal 
 interment, a large dagger of brass, with the decorations of its 
 handle, consisting of thirty brass rivets ; two studs of Kimmeridge 
 coal. With the above-mentioned articles were numerous frag- 
 ments of calcined flint, and amongst the soil of the barrow two 
 rude instruments of flint. 
 
 At Castern (p. 73), in one part of the mound, an instrument 
 was found, with a fine spear-head of flint, and a small arrow-head 
 of the same. In other parts, but in apparently undisturbed earth, 
 a circular instrument, and various chippings of flint, and the 
 handle of a knife of stag's horn, riveted in the usual way on to the 
 steel. A similar one is figured in Douglas's ' Nenia Britannica,' 
 plate 19, fig. 4, as found with an interment in one of the barrows 
 on Chartham Downs, Kent. 
 
 In Stand Lowe (p. 74), on digging towards the centre, nume- 
 rous flint chippings and six rude instruments were found, and 
 above the same place a broken whetstone. The centre being 
 gained, an iron knife was found of the kind generally attributed 
 to the Saxons. Tins was immediately followed by a bronze box and 
 a number of buckles, fibulae, and articles of iron, silver, and glass, 
 all showing the principal interment to have been of very late 
 date. Mr. Bateman adds — " the finding of instruments of flint 
 with an interment of this comparatively modern description is 
 rather remarkable, but by no means unprecedented." 
 
 In a barrow midway between Wetton and Ham (p. 79) with 
 the interment were found three implements of flint of no great 
 interest, some fragments of an ornamented urn, and an iron pin, 
 similar to the awl used by saddlers at the present day. Mr. 
 Bateman adds — " one precisely similar was found in a barrow on 
 Middleton Moor in 1824." 
 
 In a second barrow near the same place were found the 
 remains of a coarse and rudely ornamented urn with its deposit of 
 burnt bones. A third brass coin of Constantine the Great was 
 also found on the summit, just under the surface. 
 
 In Come Lowe (p. 95), with an interment of a very late period, 
 were found gold and iron ornaments and glass beads, as well as 
 the usual chippings of flint and rats' bones. 
 
 In Dowe Lowe (p. 96) the most remote interment consisted of 
 
14 INTRODUCTORY. Ixtrod. 
 
 two much decayed skeletons lying on tlie floor of the barrow 
 about two yards from its centre ; one was accompanied by a 
 fluted brass dagger placed near the upper bone of the arm, and an 
 amulet of iron ore with a large flint implement, which had seen 
 good service, lying near the pelvis. 
 
 The other tumuli examined by this indefatigable explorer 
 either contained objects generally of the same class or nothing 
 that was of interest as marking their age. If his other works, 
 or those of others, were abstracted in the same way, numerous 
 examples of the same sort might be adduced. The above, how- 
 ever, are probably sufficient to show how little reliance can be 
 placed on the hard and fast distinction between the flint, bronze, 
 and iron ages which have hitherto been supposed to govern every 
 determination of age in this science. If in a hundred short pages 
 of one man's work so many instances of overlapping, and, indeed, 
 of reversal of the usual order of things, can be found, it is easy to 
 understand how many might be added if other works were also 
 examined. All, however, that is wanted here is to show that the 
 Danish system is neither perfect nor final, and that we must look 
 for some other menus of ascertaining the age of these monuments 
 if we are to come to a satisfactory conclusion regarding them. 
 
 The fact is that, though a tomb containing only stone and bone 
 implements may be 10,01)0 or 20,000 years old, unless it can also be 
 shown that stone and bone were no longer used after the Christian 
 era, it may also be as modern, or more so, than that epoch. Unless, 
 also, it can be proved that stone implements were never used 
 after iron was introduced, or that bronze was never employed 
 down to a late period, this system is of no avail ; and after the 
 examples just quoted from the Bateman diggings, it seems the 
 merest empiricism to assume that the use of each class of imple- 
 ments ceased on the introduction of another ; and till it can be 
 shown at what date their use did really cease, any argument based 
 on their presence is of very little value. This, however, is a task to 
 which no antiquary has yet applied himself; all have been content 
 to fix the age of the monuments from the assumed age of their 
 contents, empirically determined. It is a far more difficult task, 
 however, to ascertain the age of the contents from that of the 
 monument in which they are found ; it is a task that requires an 
 
IXTEOD. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 15 
 
 investigation into the history and circumstances of each particular 
 example. With the scant, materials that exist, this is by no 
 means easy ; but as it seems the only mode by which truth 
 can be arrived at, it is the task to which we propose to devote 
 the following pages; should it prove impossible, we may indeed 
 despair. 
 
 It is curious to observe how different would have been the fate 
 of this science, had the Scandinavians followed up the line of 
 investigation commenced by their writers in the sixteenth century. 
 Olaus Magnus, for instance, Archbishop of Upsala, writing in 1555, 
 describes the megalithic remains of Sweden with the sobriety and 
 precision with which a man in the present day might give an 
 account of the cemeteries of Kensal-green or of Scutari. Some, 
 he tells us, marked battle-fields, some family sepulchres, others 
 the graves of greatly distinguished men. 1 In like manner, Olaus 
 Wormius, in 1643, describes the tombs of the kings of Denmark as 
 a writer in the present day might the Plantagenet sepulchres in 
 Westminster Abbey. 2 Neither have any doubt or hesitation about 
 the matter, and though Dr. Charleton was hasty in following this 
 author too implicitly in applying his data to this country, still, so 
 far as I can form an opinion, if that line of research had been 
 steadily followed out, there would now have been as little doubt 
 about the age of Stonehenge, as there is about that of Salisbury 
 Cathedral. Stukeley, however, cut the vessel adrift from the 
 moorings of common sense, and she has since been a derelict tossed 
 about by the winds and waves of every passing fancy, till recently, 
 when an attempt has been made to tow the wreck into the misty 
 haven of prehistoric antiquity. If ever she reaches that nebulous 
 
 1 "Yetenxm Gotliorum et Suevorum 
 antiquissinius inos est ut ubi acr'ores 
 in campis seu mnntibus instituissent et 
 perfecissent pugnas, illic erectos lapides 
 quasi Egyptiacas pyraniides collocare 
 soliti sunt . . . Habent itaque hsec 
 saxa in pluribus locis erecta longitudine 
 x. vel ST. xx. aut xxx. tt aniplius et 
 latitudine iv. vel vi, pedum, mirabili situ 
 sed mirabiliori ordine et mirabilissirao 
 cbaractere, ob plurimas rationes collocata 
 literato, rectoqne et longo ordine videlicet 
 pugilarum certamina, quadrate-, turmas 
 
 bellantium, et spberico familiarum desig- 
 nantia sepulturas ac cuueato equestrium 
 et pedestrium aeies ibidem vel prope for- 
 tunatum trinmphasse," &c. &c. — Be 
 Gentibus Septenfrionalibus, &c. p. 48.' 
 
 Or again : — " Quos humi recondere 
 placuit bonorabiles statuas lapidum 
 excelsorum prout bodie cernuntur mira 
 compagine in modum altLssimas et latis- 
 simse januse, sursum transversumque 
 vir.bus gigantum erecta.'' — Ibid. 49. 
 
 2 'Danicorum Monumentoruni,' libri 
 sex, 22 et seqq. 
 
16 INTRODUCTORY. Iktbod. 
 
 region, she may as well be broken up in despair, as she can be 
 of no further use for human purposes. 
 
 Whether this will or will not be her fate must depend on the 
 result of the new impulse which has within the last ten or twelve 
 years been given to the enquiry. Hitherto it seems certainly to 
 be in a direction which, it is to be feared, is not likely to lead 
 to any greater degree of precision in the enquiry. While the 
 Danish "savans" were arranging their collections in the museums 
 at Copenhagen, M. Boucher de Perthes was quietly forming 
 a collection of flint implements from the drift gravels of the 
 valley of the Somme, which far exceeded all hitherto found 
 in antiquity. For many years his discoveries were ridiculed and 
 laughed at, till in 185S the late Hugh Falconer visited his 
 museum at Abbeville, and being then fresh from his investi- 
 gations at Kent's Hole and the Gower Caves, 1 he at once saw 
 their value and proclaimed it to the world. Since then it has not 
 been disputed that the flint implements found in the valley of the 
 Somme are the works of man, and that from the position in which 
 they are found their fabricators must have lived at a period on the 
 edge of the glacial epoch, and when the configuration of the con- 
 tinent differed from what it now is, and when probably the British 
 isles were still joined to France. Similar implements have before 
 and since been found in Suffolk, 2 and other parts of England 
 in analogous circumstances, and all allied with a fauna which 
 was extinct in these parts before historic times. 3 If you ask a 
 geologist how long ago the circumstances of the globe were such 
 as these conditions represent, he will answer at once not less 
 than a million of years! But they deal in large figures, and 
 it is not necessary to investigate them now. It was a very long 
 time ago. 
 
 Even more interesting than these for our present purposes was 
 
 Memoirs of Hugh Falconer,' by Dr. 3 In the first years of the last century 
 
 Murchison, ii. p. 596. 
 
 2 In 1797, Mr. John Frere found flint 
 implements identical with those at Abbe- 
 ville, and published an account of them, 
 with engravings, in vol. xiii. of the 
 ' Archseologia,' in lbOO. 
 
 a flint implement, together with some 
 bones of the Elephas primigenue, were 
 found in an excavation in Gray's Inn 
 Lane. An engraving of it was published 
 in 1715, and the implement itself is now 
 in the British Museum. 
 
Introd. INTRODUCTORY. 17 
 
 the discovery a few years later of human remains in the valleys 
 of the Dordogne and other rivers of the south of France. Here 
 geology does not help us, but climatology does. At that time the 
 climate of the south of France was so cold that the inhabitants of 
 these caves had all the habits of people now dwelling in the Arctic 
 regions. Their principal domestic animal was the reindeer, but they 
 were familiar with the woolly-haired mammoth, the cave bear, and 
 the aurochs. The climate was so cold that they could throw on 
 one side the debris of their feasts, and floor their dwelling with 
 marrow bones and offal without dreading pestilence or even suffer- 
 ing inconvenience. They were, in fact, in every respect, so far as 
 we have the means of judging, identical with the Esquimaux of the 
 present day, and must have inhabited a climate nearly similar to 
 that of Arctic North America. How long ago was this ? We know 
 from the pictures in the tombs near the pyramids that the climate 
 of Egypt was the same 5000 or 6000 years ago as it is now, and 
 we have no reason to suppose that, while that of the southern 
 shores of the Mediterranean remained unchanged, the northern 
 would vary in any very different ratio. Clearing of forests may 
 have done something, but never could have accounted for such a 
 change as this. If we take 50,000 or 60,000 years instead of 5000 
 or 6000, it will not suffice for such a revolution, though geologists 
 will be wroth if we assume only 100,000 ; as a convenient number 
 this will answer our present purposes. 
 
 Having at least this space of time at their disposal, the tendency 
 of modern antiquaries has been to sweep everything into this 
 great gulf. Why, they ask, may not Stonehenge and Avebury be 
 10,000, 20,000, or 50,000 years old ? Man then existed, and why 
 may he not have erected such monuments as these ? Of course 
 he might, but there is no proof that he did, and as no single tangible 
 reason has yet been adduced for supposing them so old, the mere 
 presumption that they might be so cannot count for much. 
 
 To my mind the force of argument seems to tend the other way. 
 If a race of men lived on the face of the globe for 100,000 years 
 so utterly unprogressive as these cave men, incapable of discover- 
 ing the use of metals for themselves during that long period, or 
 even of adopting them from Egypt and the East, where bronze 
 certainly, and most probably iron, were known at least 6000 or 
 
 c 
 
18 INTRODUCTORY. Iktrod. 
 
 7000 years ago ; if this people used flint and bone during all this 
 period, is it likely that they would adopt new-fangled implements 
 and new customs the first time they were presented to them ? The 
 Esquimaux have been familiar with the Danish settlers in Greenland 
 for some centuries, and could easily have procured improved im- 
 plements and many of the advantages of civilization had they been 
 so inclined. They have not been changed a hair's-breadth by the 
 influence of the stranger. The red man of North America has been 
 in contact with the white man for centuries now. Has he changed, 
 or can he change ? In Alaska, and to the northward of Van- 
 couver's Island, there is a race of savages, called Hydahs, with all 
 the artistic tastes and faculties of the men of the Dordogne caves, 
 and with about the same degree of civilization. 1 All these are 
 dying out, and may soon disappear, but they present at this day 
 exactly the same phenomenon as we see in the south of France, 
 say 10,000 years ago. They have been exterminated in all the 
 civilized parts of Europe by the progressive Aryan races who have 
 usurped their places ; and it seems only too certain that, like them, 
 their American kindred must perish before the growing influence 
 of the white man, but they cannot change. In so far as we can 
 judge from such facts as are before us, if any family of this old 
 people still lurked among our hills or on any rocky island, their 
 habits, or customs, and their implements, would be as like those 
 of the cave men as those of the Esquimaux or Alaska savages are 
 at the present day. It appears most unphilosophical to apply to 
 those people the principles of progress that are found among the 
 higher races of mankind, and to represent them as eagerly seizing 
 on any improvement offered them, and abandoning their old faith 
 and their old habits at the bidding of any wandering navigator 
 that visited their shores. 
 
 This is not the place to enter on such an enquiry, but so far 
 as can at present be seen, it seems that mankind has progressed 
 not so much by advance within the limits of certain races as 
 by the superposition of more highly organized races over those 
 of an inferior class. Thus we have those stone men of the caves 
 who possessed the world for 100,000 or a million of years, and 
 
 
 1 For the last, and one of the best, accounts of the Hydahs, see ' Proceedings of the 
 Royal Geographical Society,' vol. xiii. No. V. p. 38G et seqq., by Mr. Brown. 
 
Ikthod. INTKODUCTOEY. 19 
 
 made no more progress in that period than the animals they were 
 associated with. Even the progress from a chipped to a polished 
 stone implement seems to have been taught them by a foreign 
 bronze-using peojjle. We have then such races as the Egyptian, 
 the Chinese, or the Mexican, who can progress to a certain point, 
 but stop and cannot go beyond ; and, lastly, we have the Aryans, 
 the last to appear in the field, but the most energetic, and the only 
 truly progressive race. Our great error in reasoning with regard 
 to the older races seems to be that we insist on applying to them 
 the reasoning and principles which guide us, but which are wholly 
 inapplicable to the less progressive races of mankind. 
 
 All this will be plainer in the sequel ; but in the meanwhile 
 it may safely be asserted that, up to this time, no royal road has 
 been discovered that leads to an explanation of our megalithic 
 antiquities. No one has yet been able so to classify the contents 
 of cognate monuments as to construct a chronometric scale which 
 is applicable for the elucidation of their dates ; and no a priori 
 reasoning has been hit upon that is of the smallest use in ex- 
 plaining either their age or their peculiarities. The one path that 
 seems open to us is a careful examination of each individual monu- 
 ment, accompanied by a judicial sifting of all or any traditions that 
 may attach to it, and aided by a comparison with similar monu- 
 ments in other countries. By this means we have a chance of 
 arriving at a fair proximate degree of certainty ; for, though no 
 one monument will tell its own tale directly, a multitude of 
 whispers from a great number may swell into a voice that is clear 
 and distinct and be audible to every one; while no system yet 
 invented, and no a priori reasoning, can lead to anything but 
 deepening the ignorance that now prevails on the subject. This 
 is especially true with regard to the great megalithic circles in 
 this country. With the rarest possible exceptions, no flint and no 
 bronze or iron implements have been found within their precincts. 
 They cannot be older than the invention of flint implements, and 
 iron has been in continuous use since the art of smelting its 
 ores was first discovered. If, therefore, they have no written or 
 traditional history which can be relied upon, their age must for 
 ever remain a mystery. The conviction, however, under which this 
 book is written is that such a history does exist ; that, when all 
 
 c 2 
 
20 INTRODUCTORY. Ixtrod. 
 
 the traditions attached to the monuments are sifted and weighed, 
 they amount to such a mass of circumstantial evidence as suffices 
 to prove the case and to establish the main facts of their 
 history and use, wholly independently of any system or of any 
 external testimony. 
 
 Direct literary evidence, in the sense in which the term is 
 usually understood, cannot be said to exist. As before mentioned, 
 no classical author alludes, either directly or indirectly, to these 
 megalithic structures ; yet they could not have been iguorant of 
 them if they existed. When Caesar and his army witnessed the 
 fight between his galleys and the fleet of the Veneti in the Mor- 
 bihan, he must have stood — if he occupied the best place — on 
 Mont St. Michel, if it then existed, and among the stone avenues 
 of Carnac. Is it likely that such an artist would have omitted 
 the chance of heightening his picture by an allusion to the 
 " standing stones " of Dariorigum ? The Romans occupied Old 
 Sarum probably during the whole time they remained in this 
 island, and the Via Badonica passed so immediately under Silbury 
 Hill that they could not have been ignorant of either Stonehenge 
 or Avebury. Nor in France could they possibly have missed 
 seeing the numerous dolmens with which the country is covered. 
 Notwithstanding all this, the silence is absolute. The circular 
 temple of the Hyperboreans is the only thing any one has ever 
 pretended to quote against this ; and that, for reasons given above 
 being inadmissible, any argument based on it falls to the ground. 
 
 Neither Caesar nor Tacitus, though describing the religious 
 observances of our forefathers, make any mention of temples ; nor, 
 indeed, does any other classical author. Tacitus l tells us that the 
 Germans worshipped only in groves; and though this is hardly to 
 the point, his relations with Agricola were so intimate that had 
 the Gauls and Britons had temples of stone, he could hardly have 
 avoided alluding to them. The inference from Caesar and all the 
 other authors is the same, but there is no direct evidence either way. 
 
 There is no passage in any classical authors which connects the 
 Druids, either directly or indirectly, with any stone temples or 
 stones of any sort. 
 
 1 ' Germania,' 9. 
 
Intkod. INTRODUCTORY. 21 
 
 Dracontia are wholly the creation of Dr. Stnkeley's very fertile 
 imagination. 
 
 So far, therefore, as negative evidence goes, it is complete in 
 showing that our megalithic circles did not exist in the time of 
 the Romans, and that they were hot temples. Unfortunately, 
 however, no amount of negative evidence is sufficient to prove 
 an affirmative, though it may suffice to establish a strong pre- 
 sumption in favour of a particular view, and, at all events, clears 
 the way for the production of any direct evidence which we may 
 have. The direct written evidence that has been adduced is, 
 however, of the most shadowy character. It amounts to little 
 more than this: — that every allusion to these monuments in 
 mediaeval authors, every local tradition, every scrap of intelligence 
 we have regarding them, points to a post-Eoman origin. No 
 writer, of any age or country, suggested their being pre-historic or 
 even pre-Roman before the age of Stukeley, — say 1700. 
 
 There is, so far as I know, only one paragraph in any classical 
 author which mentions a French or British temple ; but it be- 
 longed to so exceptional a community that it would hardly be safe 
 to base an argument upon it. A " hieron," Strabo tells us, existed 
 at the mouth of the Loire, inhabited by a colony of women who 
 lived apart from their husbands, but the roof or thatch of the 
 roof of whose temple was renewed annually : x a fact that shows, 
 in the first place, that it had a roof, and in the second, that it was 
 not a very dignified or permanent structure. 
 
 It would add very much to the clearness of our conception on 
 this subject if the early Christian writers had left us some descrip- 
 tions of the temples of the Britons when the missionaries first 
 came among them. Though not quite so silent on the subject as 
 the classical authors, their direct evidence is far from being so 
 complete as might be wished. One of the passages most distinctly 
 bearing on this question is found in a letter which Pope Gregory 
 the Great addressed to the Abbot Millitus, then on a mission to 
 England. In this letter he instructs him by no means to destroy 
 the temples of the idols belonging to the English, but only the idols 
 which are found in them ; and adds, " Let holy water be made, and 
 
 1 Strabo, iv. p. 198. 
 
22 INTRODUCTORY. Intbod. 
 
 sprinkled over them. Let altars be constructed, and relics placed 
 on thern ; insomuch as if these temples are well constructed, it is 
 necessary that they should be converted from the worship of daemons 
 to the service of the true God. So that the people, seeing their 
 temples are not destroyed, may put away errors from their hearts, 
 and, acknowledging the true God and adoring Him, may the more 
 willingly assemble in the places where they were accustomed to 
 meet." 1 A little further on he adds, in order that no apparent 
 change may be made, "that on great festivals the people may 
 erect huts of boughs around those churches which have been con- 
 verted (commutatas) from temples." 
 
 The fair inference from this paragraph seems to be that there 
 was so little difference between the temples of the Pagans and 
 the churches of the Christians that a little holy water and a few 
 relics — as much esteemed in the West as in the East in those 
 clays— were all that was required to convert the one into the other. 
 We gather the same impression from another transaction which 
 took place at Canterbury abowt the same time. After taking pos- 
 session of the Cathedral, built of old by the Romans, 2 St. Augustine 
 obtained from the recently converted King Ethelbert the cession 
 of the temple in which he had been accustomed to worship his 
 idols, and without more ado dedicated it to St. Pancras, and 
 appropriated it as a burying place for himself and his successors 
 from the circumstance of its being outside the walls. 3 We further 
 learn from Gervaise 4 that it was so used till Cuthbert, the second 
 archbishop, got permission to allow burials within the walls, and 
 then erected the baptistry of St. John for this purpose, where 
 
 1 Bede, ' Hist. Eccles.' i. 30. 
 
 2 '' Inibi antiquo Eomanomm fideliuin 
 opere factam," Bede, 'Hist. Eccles.' i. 32. 
 
 3 Thorn, 'Dec. Script. Col.' 1760:— 
 " Erat autem non longe ab ipsa civitate 
 ad orientem quasi medio itinere inter 
 ecclesiain Sti. Martini et muros civitatis 
 Phanuni sive ydolum situm ubi rex 
 Ethelbertus secundus riturn gentis suae 
 
 mutavit in ecclesiam, et earn in nomine 
 Sti. Pancratii martyris dedicavit." 
 
 Of this " Fane " we further karn from 
 Godselinus (' Leland Collect.' vol. iv. 
 • p. 8), that " extat adhuc condita ex lon- 
 gissimis et latissimis lateribus more 
 Britannico ut facile est videre in muris 
 Verolamiensibus," and may now be seen 
 in this very church at Canterbury. " Ba- 
 
 solebat orare et cum nobilibus suis dae- j silica Sti. Pancratii nunc est ubi olim 
 
 moniis et non deo sacrificare. Quod I Ethelbertus idolum suum coluit. Opus 
 
 Phanum Augustinus ab iniquinamentis exiguum structuin tamen de more vete- 
 
 ct sordibus gentilium purgavit et sirau- rum Britannorum." 
 
 lacro quod in eo erat infracto, synagogam 4 Gervaise, 'Ace. Pont. Cant.' p. 1640. 
 
Inteod. INTRODUCTORY. 23 
 
 apparently Becket's crown now stands. Afterwards the monas- 
 tery of SS. Peter and Paul, now St. Augustine's, was erected 
 " in fundo Tenipli " — whatever that may mean — but at that time 
 St. Augustine seems to have accepted the Pagan temples as 
 perfectly appropriate to Christian rites. 
 
 In like manner when King Eedwald, after his conversion to 
 Christianity was persuaded by his wife not rashly to forsake the 
 faith of his forefathers, he set up two altars side by side in his 
 temple (in fano), and dedicated the one to Christ, the other to the 
 " victims of the daemons." 1 The temple, apparently, was equally 
 appropriate to either. 
 
 A still more instructive example is the description of the 
 destruction of the church at Godinundingham by Coifi — the 
 heathen priest — on his conversion to Christianity. He first 
 desecrated it by throwing a spear into it — whether by the door 
 or window we are not told — and then ordered his people to burn 
 it to the ground with all its enclosures. These, therefore, must all 
 have been in wood or some equally, combustible material. 2 
 
 All this is not much nor very distinct, but by these passages, and 
 every hint we have on the subject, it would appear that the 
 temples of the Pagans, between the departure of the Romans and 
 the time of Alfred, were at least very similar to those of the 
 Christians. Both were derived from the same model, which was 
 the temple or basilica of the Romans, and both were apparently 
 very rude, and generally, we may infer, constructed of wood. The 
 word circular does not occur in any description of any Pagan 
 temple yet brought to light, nor the word stone ; nothing, in fact, 
 that would in the remotest degree lead us to suppose that Bede, 
 or any one else, was speaking or thinking of the megalithic monu- 
 ments with which we are now concerned. 
 
 Although the classical authorities are silent regarding these 
 rude stone monuments, and contemporary records help us very 
 little in trying to understand the form of the temples in which our 
 forefathers worshipped, till they were converted to Christianity, 
 still the Decrees of the Councils render it quite certain that Rude 
 
 1 Bede, ' Hist. Eccles.' ii. 15. 
 " Succendeie fanum cum omnibus septis suis," Bede, ' Hist. Eccles.', ii. 13. 
 
21 INTRODUCTORY. Introd. 
 
 Stone Monuments were objects of veneration — certainly in France, 
 anl, by implication, in England — down to the times of Charlemagne 
 and Alfred, at least. 
 
 One often-quoted decree of a Council, held at Nantes, exhorts 
 " Bishops and their servants to dig up, and remove, and hide in 
 places where they cannot be found, those stones which in remote 
 and woody places are still worshipped, and where vows are still 
 made." * Unfortunately the date of this Council is not certain ; but 
 Richard places it in 658, which is probably at least nearly correct. 2 
 This, however, is of comparatively little consequence, as in 452 
 a Council at Aries decreed that "if, in any diocese, any infidel 
 either lighted torches or worshipped Trees, Fountains, or Stones, 
 or neglected to destroy them, he should be found guilty of sacri- 
 lege;" 3 and about a century later (567), a Council at Tours 
 exhorts the clergy to excommunicate those who, at certain Stones 
 or Trees or Fountains, perpetrate things contrary to the ordinances 
 of the Church. 4 
 
 Still another century further on (681), a Council held at Toledo 
 admonishes those who worship Idols or venerate Stones, those who 
 light torches or worship Fountains or Trees, that they are sacrificing 
 to the devil, and subject themselves to various penalties, &c. 5 
 Another Council held in the same city, in the year 692, enumerates 
 almost in the same words the various heresies which were con- 
 demned by the preceding Council. 6 A Council at Rouen, about 
 the same time, denounces all who offer vows to Trees or Fountains 
 
 1 Summo decertare debent studio epis- 
 copi et eorum ministri ut — Lapides 
 quoque, quos iu ruinosis locis et silvestri- 
 bus, deiQonum ludificatiouibus decepti 
 venerantur ubi et vota vovent et de- 
 ferunt, funditus effodiantur, atque in tali 
 loco projiciantur ubi nunquam a cul- 
 toribus suis iuveniri possint et omnibus 
 annunciatur quantum scelus est ido- 
 latria. — Labbeum, t. ix. 474. 
 
 2 Richard, 'Analyse des Conciles,' i. 646. 
 
 3 Si in alicujus episcopi territorio 
 infideles, aut faculas accendunt, aut ar- 
 bores, fontes vel Saxa venerentur si hoc 
 eruere neglexerit, sacrilegii reum se esset 
 cognoscat.— Labb., iv. 1013. 
 
 4 Contestamur illam solicitudincm tarn Baluz, vi. 1337. 
 
 pastores quam presbyteros, gerere ut 
 quemcunque in hac fatuitate persistere 
 viderint, vel ad nescio quas petras aut 
 arbores vel fontes, designata loca gen- 
 tilium perpetrare, quae ad ecclesise ra- 
 tionem non pertinent eos ab ecclesia 
 sancta auctoritate repellant. — Baluz, i. 
 51S. 
 
 8 Cultores idolorum, veneratores La- 
 pidum, accensores facularum excolentes 
 sacra fontium vel arborum admonemus, 
 &c— Baluz, vi. 1234. 
 
 6 Illi diversis suadelis decepti cul- 
 tores idolorum efficiuntur, veneratores 
 Lapidum, accensores facularum, exco- 
 lentes sacra fontium vel arborum, &c. — 
 
Introd. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 25 
 
 or Stones as they would at altars, or offer candles or gifts, as if 
 any divinity resided there capable of conferring good or evil. 1 
 
 Lastly, a decree of Charlemagne, dated Aix-la-Chapelle in 789, 
 utterly condemus and execrates before God Trees, Stones, and 
 Fountains, which foolish people worship. 2 
 
 Even as late as in the time of Canute the Great, there is a 
 statute forbidding the barbarous adoration of the Sun and Moon, 
 Fire, Fountains, Stones, and all kinds of Trees and Wood. 3 
 
 The above which are taken from Keysler 4 are not all he quotes, 
 nor certainly all that could be added, if it were worth while, from 
 other sources ; but they are sufficient to show that, from Toledo 
 to Aix-la-Chapelle — and from the departure of the Eomans till the 
 tenth, or probably the eleventh century — the Christian priesthood 
 waged a continuous but apparently ineffectual warfare against 
 the worship of Stones, Trees, and Fountains. The priests do not 
 condescend to tell us what the forms of the Stones were which 
 these benighted people worshipped, whether simple menhirs or 
 dolmens, or " grottes des fees," nor why they worshipped them ; 
 whether they considered them emblems of some unnamed and 
 unknown God, or memorials of deceased ancestors, in whose honour 
 they lighted candles, and whom they propitiated with offerings. 
 Nor do they tell us what the form of that worship was ; they 
 did not care, and perhaps did not know. Nor do we ; for, except 
 an extreme veneration for their dead, and a consequent ancestral 
 worship, 5 mixed with a strange adoration of Stones, Trees, and 
 Fountains, we do not know now what the religion was of these rude 
 people. The testimony of these edicts is, therefore, not quite so 
 
 1 Si aliquis vota ad arbores, vel fontes, 
 vel ad Lapides quosdani, quasi ad altaria, 
 faciat aut ibi eandelani, seu quolibet 
 niunus deferet velut ibi quoddam Numen 
 sit quod bonuru aut maluui possit in- 
 ferre— Baluz, 1. 2, p. 210. 
 
 2 Item de arboribus vel Petris vel 
 fontibus ubi aliqui stulti luminaria vel 
 aliquas observationes faciunt omnino 
 mandamus, ut iste pessimus usus et deo 
 execrabilis ubicunque inveuitur tolletur 
 et distruatur. — Baluz, t. i. p. 235. 
 
 3 Barbara est autem adoratio, sive 
 quas idola (puta gentium divos), Solem, 
 
 Lunam, Ignem, Profluentem, Fontes, 
 Saxa, cujusque generis arbores lignam 
 coluerunt. — Keysler, ' Antiquitates Sep- 
 temtrion.' (Hanoverse, 1720), p. 18. He 
 quotes also a canon of Edgar (967) to the 
 same effect. 
 
 4 ' Ant. Sept.' chap. ii. 
 
 5 Laing in his wrath seems to have, by- 
 accident, very nearly guessed the truth, 
 when, refuting the authenticity of Ossian, 
 he accuses Macpherson of "having ren- 
 dered the Highlanders a race of unheard- 
 of infidels, who believed in no Gods but 
 the ghosts of their fathers." 
 
26 INTRODUCTORY. Inthod. 
 
 distinct as we might wish, and does not enable us to assert that 
 the Rude Stone Monuments, whose age and uses we are trying 
 to ascertain, were those alluded to in the preceding paragraphs. 
 But what it does seem to prove is, that down to the 11th century 
 the Christian Priesthood waged a continuous warfare against the 
 veneration of some class of Rude Stone Monuments, to which 
 the pagan j)opulation clung with remarkable tenacity, and many, 
 if not most of which may consequently have been erected during 
 that period. This is, at all events, infinitely more clear and 
 positive than anything that has been brought forward in favour of 
 their pre-historic antiquity. If, like the other branches of the 
 written argument, this is not sufficient to prove, by itself, that 
 the monuments were generally or even frequently erected after 
 the Christian era, it certainly entitles that assertion to a fair locus 
 standi in the argument we are attempting to develop. 
 
 If, however, the pen has been reticent and hesitating in its 
 testimony, the spade has been not only prolific but distinct. It 
 is probably not an exaggeration to say that three-fourths of the 
 megalithic monuments — including the dolmens, of course — have 
 yielded sepulchral deposits to the explorer, and, including the 
 tumuli, probably nine-tenths have been proved to be burial places. 
 Still, at the present stage of the enquiry, it would be at least 
 premature to assume that the remaining tenth of the whole, or the 
 remaining fourth of the stone section, must necessarily be sepul- 
 chral. Some may have been cenotaphic, or simply monuments, 
 such as we erect to our great men — not necessarily where the bodies 
 are laid. Some stones and some tumuli may have been erected to 
 commemorate events, and some mounds certainly were erected as 
 " Motes" or "Things" — places of judgment or assembly. In like 
 manner some circles may have been originally, or may afterwards 
 have been used as places of assembly, or may have been what 
 may more properly be called temples of the dead, than tombs. 
 These, however, certainly are the exceptions. The ruling idea 
 throughout is still of a sepulchre, with what exceptions, and 
 at what age erected, is the thesis which we now propose to 
 investigate. 
 
 At present these are mere assertions, and it is not pretended 
 
Intbod. INTRODUCTORY. 27 
 
 that they are more, and they are only brought forward in this 
 place in order to enunciate the propositions it is hoped we may be 
 able to prove as we advance in this enquiry. These are, — 
 
 First, that the Eude Stone Monuments with which we are 
 concerned are generally sepulchral, or connected directly, or indi- 
 rectly, with the rites of the dead. 
 
 Secondly, that they are not temples in any usual or appropriate 
 sense of the term, and, 
 
 Lastly, — that they were generally erected by partially civilized 
 races after they had come in contact with the Romans, and 
 most of them may be considered as belonging to the first ten 
 centuries of the Christian Era. 
 
 In stating these three propositions so broadly, it must be borne 
 in mind, that the evidence on which their proof or disproof rests 
 is eminently cumulative in its character ; not perhaps with regard 
 to the use to which the monuments were applied, that probably 
 will be admitted as settled, as so large a proportion of the tumuli 
 can be shown to have a fair title to a sepulchral character, and 
 most of the stone monuments can equally lay claim to being 
 erected for the same purpose to which one-half of them have been 
 certainly proved to have been dedicated. This is the more clear, 
 as, on the other hand, in spite of every surmise or conjecture, no 
 one monument of the class we are treating of can be proved to 
 have been erected as a temple, or as intended for any civic or civil 
 purpose. 
 
 With regard to their age, the case is not quite so easily settled. 
 Except such monuments as those of Gorm and Thyra, and one or 
 two others, to be mentioned hereafter, few can produce such proof 
 of their age as would stand investigation in a court of law. But 
 when all the traditions, all the analogies, and all the probabilities 
 of the case are examined, they seem to make up such an accumu- 
 lation of evidence as is irresistible ; and the whole appears to pre- 
 sent an unbroken and intelligible sequence which explains every- 
 thing. The proof of all this, however, does not rest on the 
 evidence of two or three, or even of a dozen, of instances, but is 
 based upon the multiplication of a great number of coincidences 
 derived from a large number of instances, which taken together 
 in the cumulative form, make up a stronger body of proof than 
 
28 INTRODUCTORY. Intbod. 
 
 could be obtained from the direct testimony of one or two cases. 
 To appreciate this, however, the whole must be taken together. 
 To try to invalidate it by selecting one or two prominent cases, 
 where the proof is manifestly insufficient when taken by itself, is to 
 misunderstand and misrepresent the whole force of the argument. 
 
 One point, I fancy, there will be very little difficulty in proving, 
 which is, that the whole form one continuous group, extending in 
 an unbroken series, from the earliest to the latest. There is no 
 hiatus or break anywhere ; and if some can be proved to belong 
 to the 10th century, it is only a question how far you can, by 
 extenuating the thread, extend it backwards. It can hardly be 
 much beyond the Christian era. It seems that such a date satis- 
 fies all the known conditions of the problem, in so far as the Stone 
 Monuments at least are concerned. There is, so far as I know 
 at present, absolutely no evidence on the other side, except what 
 is derived from the Danish system of the three ages : if that 
 is established as a rule of law, cadit questio, there is no more 
 to be said on the subject. But this is exactly what does not 
 appear to have yet been established on any sufficient or satis- 
 factory basis. There need be no difficulty in granting that men 
 used stone and bone for implements, before they were acquainted 
 with the use of the metals. It may also be admitted, that thev 
 used bronze before they learned the art of extracting iron from 
 its ores. But what is denied is, that they abandoned the use 
 of these primitive implements on the introduction of the metals; 
 and it is contended that they employed stone and bone simul- 
 taneously with bronze and iron, down to a very late period. The 
 real fact of the case seems to be, that the people on the shores of 
 the Baltic and the North Sea, were as remote from the centres of 
 civilization on the Mediterranean and to the eastward of it in the 
 earlier centuries of our era, and were as little influenced by them, 
 as the inhabitants of the islands in the Pacific and Arctic America 
 were by Europe in the last century. In the remote corners of the 
 world, a stone and bone age exists at the present day, only 
 modified by the use of such metal implements as they can obtain 
 by barter or exchange : and this appears to have been the state of 
 northern Europe, till, with their conversion to Christianity, the 
 new civilization was domesticated among its inhabitants. 
 
Chap. II. PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 29 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 Before attempting to examine or describe particular instances — 
 in which, however, the main interest of the work must eventually 
 be centred — it would add very much to the clearness of what 
 follows if a classification could be hit upon, which would correctly 
 represent the sequence of forms. In the present state of our 
 knowledge such an arrangement is hardly possible, still the 
 following 5 groups, with their subdivisions, are sufficiently distinct 
 to enable them to be treated separately, and are so arranged as 
 roughly to represent what we know of their sequence, with 
 immense overlapping^, however, on every joint. 
 
 I. — Tumuli .. ..a. Or barrows of earth only. 
 
 b. With small stone chambers or cists. 
 
 c. With megalithic chambers or dolmens. 
 
 d. With external access to chambers. 
 
 II. — Dolmens .. ..a. Free standing dolmens without tumuli. 
 b. Dolmens upon the outside of tumuli. ' 
 
 III. — Cikcles ,. ..a. Circles surrounding tumuli. 
 
 b. Circles surrounding dolmens. 
 
 c. Circles without tumuli or dolmens. 
 
 IV. — Avenues .. ..a. Avenues attached to circles. 
 
 b. Avenues with or without circles or dolmens. 
 
 V. — Menhirs .. ..a. Single or in groups. 
 
 b. With oghams, sculptures, or runes. 
 
 Tumuli. 
 
 The first three of the sub-divisions of the first class are so mixed 
 together that it is almost impossible in the present state of our 
 knowledge to separate them with precision either as to date or 
 locality, while, as they hardly belong to the main subject of this 
 book, it will not be worth while to attempt it here. 
 
 Without being too speculative, perhaps, it may be assumed that 
 
30 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. Chap. II. 
 
 the earliest mode in which mankind disposed of the bodies of 
 their deceased relatives or neighbours was by simple inhumation. 
 They dug a hole in the earth, aud, having laid the body therein, 
 simply replaced the earth upon it, and to mark the spot, if the 
 person so buried was of sufficient importance to merit such care, 
 they raised a mound over the grave. It is difficult, however, to 
 believe that mankind were long content with so simple a mode of 
 sepulture. To heap earth or stones on the body of the beloved 
 departed so as to crush and deface it, must have seemed rude and 
 harsh, and some sort of coffin was probably early devised for the 
 protection of the corpse, — in well-wooded countries, this would be 
 of wood, which, if the mound is old, has perished long ago — in 
 stony countries, as probably of stone, forming the rude cists so 
 commonly found in early graves. That these should expand 
 into chambers seems also natural as civilization advanced, and as 
 man's ideas of a future state and the wants and necessities of such 
 a future became more developed. 
 
 The last stage would seem to be when access was retained to 
 the sepulchral chamber, in order that the descendants of the 
 deceased might bring offerings, or supply the wants of their 
 relative during the intermediate state which some nations 
 assumed must elapse before the translation of the body to another 
 world. 
 
 It is probable that some such stages as these were passed through 
 by all the burying races of mankind, though at very various 
 intervals and with very different details, while fortunately for our 
 present subject it seems that the earliest races were those most 
 addicted to this mode of honouring their dead. All mankind, it is 
 true, bury their dead either in the flesh or their ashes after cre- 
 mation. It is one of those peculiarities which, like speech, dis- 
 tinguish mankind from the lower animals, and which are so strangely 
 overlooked by the advocates of the fashionable theory of our ape 
 descent. All mankind, however, do not reverence their dead to the 
 same extent. The peculiarity is most characteristic of the earlier 
 underlying races, whom we have generally been in the habit of 
 designating as the Turanian races of mankind. But if that term 
 is objected to, the tomb-building races may be specified — beginning 
 from the East — as the Chinese ; the Monguls in Tartary, or Mogols, 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 TUMULI. 
 
 31 
 
 as they were called, in India ; the Tartars in their own country, or 
 in Persia ; the ancient Pelasgi in Greece ; the Etrurians in Italy ; 
 and the races, whoever they were, who preceded the Celts in 
 Europe. But the tomb-building people, par excellence, in the old 
 world were the Egyptians. Not only Mere the funereal rites the 
 most important element in the religious life of the people, but they 
 began at an age earlier than the history or tradition of any other 
 nation carries us back to. The great Pyramid of Gizeh was 
 erected certainly as early as 3000 years before Christ ; yet it must 
 be the lineal descendant of a rude-chambered tumulus or cairn, with 
 external access to the chambers, and it seems difficult to calculate 
 how many thousands of years it must have required before such 
 rude sepulchres as those our ancestors erected — many probably 
 after the Christian era — could have been elaborated into the most 
 perfect and most gigantic specimens of masonry which the world has 
 yet seen. The phenomenon of anything so perfect as the Pyramids 
 starting up at once, absolutely without any previous examples 
 being known, is so unique 1 in the world's history, that it is 
 impossible to form any conjecture how long before this period the 
 Egyptians tried to protect their bodies from decay during the pro- 
 bationary 3000 years. 2 
 
 Outside Egypt the oldest tumulus we know of, with an abso- 
 lutely authentic date, is that which Alyattes, the father of Croesus, 
 
 1. Section of Tomb of Alyattes. From Spiegelthal. No scale. 
 
 king of Lydia, erected for his own resting-place before the year 
 561 B.C. It was described by Herodotus, 3 and has of late years 
 
 1 It is so curious as almost to justify 
 Piazzi Smyth's wonderful theories on the 
 subject. But there is no reason what- 
 ever to suppose that the progress of art 
 in Egypt differed essentially from that 
 elsewhere. The previous examples are 
 
 lost, and that seems all. 
 
 2 Herodotus, ii. 123 ; and Sir Gardner 
 Wilkinson's ' Ancient Egyptians,' second 
 series, i. 211; ii. 410 et passim. 
 
 3 Herod, i. 93. 
 
32 
 
 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 Chap. II. 
 
 been thoroughly explored by Dr. Olfers. 1 Its dimensions are very 
 considerable, and very nearly those given by the father of history. 
 It is 1180 feet in diameter, or about twice as much as Silbury 
 Hill, and 200 feet in height, as against 130 of that boasted monu- 
 ment. The upper part, like many of our own mounds, is composed 
 of alternate layers of clay, loam, and a kind of rubble concrete. 
 These support a mass of brickwork, surmounted by a platform of 
 masonry ; on this still lies one of Steles, described by Herodotus, 
 and another of the smaller ones was found close by. 
 
 There is another group of tombs, called those of Tantalais, found 
 near Smyrna, which are considerably older than those of Sardis, 
 though their date cannot be fixed with such certainty as that last 
 described. Still there seems no good reason for doubting that the 
 one here represented may be as old as the eleventh or twelfth 
 
 2. Elevation of Tumulus at Tantalais. From Tester's 
 ' Asie Mineure.' 100 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 3. Flan and Section of Chamber 
 in Tumulus at Tantalais. 
 
 century B.C., nor does it seem reasonable to doubt but these tumuli 
 which still stand on the plain of Troy do cover the remaius of the 
 heroes who perished in that remarkable siege. 2 
 
 A still more interesting group, however, is that at Mycena?, known 
 as the tombs or treasuries of the Atrida?, and described as such by 
 
 1 ' Lydische Konigsgraber,' Berlin, of understanding it, it appears to me 
 
 1859. 
 
 2 I am, of course, aware that the now 
 fashionable craze is to consider Troy a 
 myth. So far, however, as I am capable 
 
 that the ancient solar myth of Messrs. 
 Max Midler and Cox is very like mere 
 modern moonshine. 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 TUMULI. 
 
 33 
 
 Pausanias. 1 The principal, or at least the best preserved of these, 
 is a circular chamber, 48 feet 6 inches in diameter, covered bv a 
 
 
 ,^ 
 
 K 
 
 
 5 10 21 31 40 50 ft. 
 
 Ill I I I I 
 
 4. Section and Plan of Tomb of Atreus at Jlycena;. Scale of plan 1 00 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 horizontal vault, and having a sepulchral chamber on one side. 
 Dodwell discovered three others of the five mentioned by Pau- 
 sanias, 2 and he also -explored the sepulchre of Minyas at Orcho- 
 menos, which had a diameter of 65 feet. 
 
 Another group of tombs, contemporary or nearly so with these, 
 are found in the older cemeteries of the Etrurians at Ccere, Yulci, 
 and elsewhere. One of the largest of these is one called Cocu- 
 mella, at Yulci, which is 240 feet in diameter, and must originally 
 
 5. View of Cocumella, Vulci. 
 
 have been 115 to 120 feet in height. Near the centre rise two 
 steles, but so unsymmetrically that it is impossible to understand 
 why they were so placed and how they could have been grouped 
 into anything like a complete design. The sepulchre, too, is 
 placed on one side. 
 
 1 Paus. ii. ch. 16 ; ' Dodwell's Pelasgic Kernains in Greece and Italy,' pi. 11. 
 
 2 Dodwell, 1. c. p. 13. 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 Chap. II. 
 
 A still richer and more remarkable tomb is that known as the 
 Regulini Galeassi Tomb at Coere, the chamber of which is repre- 
 sented in the annexed 
 woodcut. 
 
 It is filled, as may be 
 seen, with vessels and 
 furniture, principally of 
 bronze and of the most 
 elaborate Avorkmanship. 
 The patterns on these 
 vessels are so archaic, 
 and resemble so much 
 some of the older ones 
 found at Nineveh, whose 
 dates are at least ap- 
 proximately known, that 
 we may safely refer the 
 tomb to an age not later 
 than the tenth, cen- 
 tury B.C. 1 
 
 We have thus around 
 the eastern shores of the 
 Mediterranean a group of circular sepulchral tumuli of well 
 defined age. Some, certainly, are as old as the thirteenth century 
 B.C., others extend downwards to, say 500 B.C. All have a podium 
 of stone. Some are wholly of that material, but in most of them 
 the cone is composed of earth, and all have sepulchral chambers 
 built with stones in horizontal layers, not so megalithic as those 
 found in our tumuli, but of a more polished and artistic form of 
 construction. 
 
 The age, too, in which these monuments were erected was 
 essentially the age of bronze ; not only are the ornaments and 
 furniture found in the Etruscan tombs generally of that metal, but 
 the tombs at Mycenae and Orchomenos were wholly lined with 
 it. The holes into which the bronze nails were inserted still 
 
 6. View of principal Chamber in Regulini Galeassi Tomb. 
 
 1 More particulars and illustrations of these tombs will be found in the first 
 volume of my ' History of Architecture,' and they need not, therefore, be repeated 
 here. 
 
Chap. II. TUMULI. 35 
 
 exist everywhere, and some of the nails themselves are in the 
 British Museum. It was also the age in which. Solomon furnished 
 his temple with all those implements and ornaments in brass — 
 properly bronze — described in the Bible, 1 and the brazen house 
 of Priam and fifty such expressions show how common the metal 
 was in that day. All this, however, does not prove that iron 
 also was not known then. In the Egyptian paintings iron is 
 generally represented as a blue metal, bronze as red, and through- 
 out they are carefully distinguished by these colours. Now, in 
 the tombs around the pyramids, and of an age contemporary with, 
 them, there are numerous representations of blue swords as 
 there are of red spear-heads, and there seems no reason for 
 doubting that iron was known to the Greeks before the war of 
 Troy, to the Israelites before they left Egypt (1320 B.C.), or to 
 the Etruscans when they first settled in Italy. Hesiod's asser- 
 tion that brass was known before iron may or may not be true. 2 
 In so far as his evidence is concerned we learn from it that 
 iron was certainly in use long before his time (800 B.C.) ; so long 
 indeed that he does not pretend to know when or by whom it 
 was invented, and the modes of manufacturing steel — abacas — 
 seem also to have been perfectly known in his day. 
 
 In India, too, as we shall see when we come to speak of that 
 country, the extraction of iron from its ores was known from the 
 earliest ages, and in the third or fourth century of our era reached 
 a degree of perfection which has hardly since been surpassed. 
 The celebrated iron pillar at the Kutub, near Delhi, which is 
 of that age, may probably still boast of being the largest mass of 
 forged iron that the world yet possesses, and attests a wonderful 
 amount of skill on the part of those who made it. 
 
 When from these comparatively civilized modes of sepulture we 
 turn to the forms employed in our own country, as described by 
 Thurnam 3 or Bateman, 4 we are startled to find how like they are, 
 but, at the same time, how infinitely more rude. They are either 
 long barrows covering the remains of a race of dolicocephalic 
 
 1 1 Kings, vii. 13 et seqq. ; 2 Chron. iv. 
 1 et seqq. 
 
 2 Hesiod. ' Works and Days,' 1. 150. 
 
 3 ' Crania Britannica,' passim. ' Ar- 
 
 chseologia,' sxxviii. 
 
 4 ' Vestiges of the Antiquities of Der- 
 byshire,' 1848. 'Ten Years' Diggings,' 
 1861. 
 
 D 2 
 
36 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. Chap. II. 
 
 savages laid in rudely-framed cists, with implements of flint and 
 bone and tlie coarsest possible pottery, but without one vestige of 
 metal of any sort, or circular tumuli of a brachycephalic race 
 shown to have been slightly more advanced by their remains 
 beiug occasionally incinerated, and ornaments of bronze and spear- 
 heads of that metal being also sometimes found buried in their 
 tombs. 
 
 According to the usual mode of reasoning on these subjects, the 
 long-headed people are older than the broad-pated race, the one 
 superseding the other, and both must have been anterior to the 
 people on the shores of the Mediterranean, for these were familiar 
 with the use of both metals, and fabricated pottery which we 
 cannot now equal for perfection of texture and beauty of design. 
 
 The first defect that strikes one in this argument is that if it 
 proves anything it proves too much. We certainly have sepulchral 
 barrows in this country of the Roman period, the Bartlow hills, 
 for instance — of which more hereafter — and Saxon grave mounds 
 everywhere ; but according to this theory not one sepulchre of any 
 sort between, the year 1200 B.C. and the Christian era. All our 
 sepulchres are ruder, and betoken a less advanced stage of civili- 
 zation than the earliest of those in Greece or Etruria, and there- 
 fore, according to the usually accented dogma, must be earlier. 
 
 It may be argued, however, that several are older than the 
 Argive examples. That the Jersey tomb (woodcut No. 11), not- 
 withstanding the coin of Claudius, is older, because more rude, 
 than the Treasury at Mycenaj (woodcut No. 4) ; but that the 
 Bartlow hills and the Derbyshire dolmens and tumuli above 
 alluded to (page 11 et seqq.), containing coins of Valentinian and 
 the Roman Emperors, are more modern. Such an hypothesis as 
 this involves the supposition that there is a great gap in the 
 series, and that after discontinuing the practice for a 1000 or 
 1500 years, our forefathers returned to their old habits, but 
 with ruder forms than they had used before, and after continuing 
 them for five or six centuries, finally abandoned them. This 
 is possible, of course, but there is absolutely no proof of it that 
 I know. On the contrary, so far as our knowledge of them at 
 present extends, the whole of the megalithic rude stone monu- 
 ments group together as one style as essentially as the Classical or 
 
Chap. II. TUMULI 37 
 
 Gothic or any other style of architecture. No solution of continuity 
 can be detected anywhere. All are — it may be — prehistoric; or 
 all, as I believe to be the case, belong to historic times. The 
 choice seems to be between these two categories ; any hypothesis 
 based on the separation into a historic and a prehistoric group, 
 distinct in characteristics as in age, appears to be utterly un- 
 tenable. 
 
 The argument derived from the absence of iron in all our 
 sepulchres also proves more than is desirable. The Banish 
 antiquaries all admit that iron was not known in that country 
 before the Christian era. Our antiquaries, from the testimony of 
 Caesar as to its use in war by the Britons, are forced to admit an 
 earlier date, but it is hardly, if ever, found in graves. It is, on the 
 other hand, perhaps correct to assume that its use was known in 
 Egypt 3000 years before Christ ; even if this is disputed, it 
 certainly was known in the 18th dynasty, 15 centuries B.C., and 
 generally in the Mediterranean shortly afterwards. If, then, the 
 knowledge of the most useful of metals took 3000 or even 1500 
 years to travel across the continent of Europe, it seems impossible 
 to base any argument on the influence these people exercised 
 on one another, or on the knowledge they may have had of each 
 others' ways. 
 
 Or to take the argument in a form nearer home. When Caesar 
 warred against the Veneti in the Morbihan, he found them in 
 possession of vessels larger and stronger than the Roman galleys, 
 capable of being manoeuvred by their sails alone, without the use 
 of oars. Not only were these vessels fastened by iron nails, but 
 they were moored by chain cables of iron. To manufacture such 
 chains, the Yeneti must have had access to large mines of the 
 ore, and had long familiarity with its manufacture, and they used 
 it not only for purposes on shore like the Britons, but in vessels 
 capable of trading between Brest and Penzance — no gentle sea 
 — and quite equal to voyages to the Baltic or other northern 
 ports, which they no doubt made ; it is asserted that, in 50 B.C., 
 the Scandinavians were ignorant of the use of iron, though 
 their country possessed the richest mines and the best ores of 
 Europe. 
 
 The truth of the matter appears to be that, a century or so 
 
3S 
 
 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 Chap. II. 
 
 before Christ, England and Denmark were as little known to 
 Greece and Italy, and as little influenced by their arts or civilization, 
 as Borneo or New Zealand were by those of modern Europe at the 
 beginning- of the last century. Even now, with all our colonization 
 and civilizing power, we have had marvellously little real influence 
 on the native races, and were our power removed, all traces would 
 rapidly disappear, and the people revert at once to what they were, 
 and act as they were wont to do, before they knew us. 
 
 In like manner the North American Indians have been very 
 little influenced by the residence of some millions of proselytizing 
 Europeans among them for 200 years, and while this is so, it 
 seems most groundless to argue because a few Phoenician traders 
 may have visited this island to purchase tin, that, therefore, they 
 introduced their manners and customs among its inhabitants ; or 
 because a traveller like Pytheas may have visited the Cimbrian 
 Chersonese, or even penetrated nearly to the Arctic Circle, that his 
 visit had, or could have, any influence on the civilization of these 
 countries. 1 Civilization, as far as we can see, was only advanced 
 in northern and western Europe by the extermination of the ruder 
 races. Had this rude but effective method not been resorted to, 
 Ave should probably have a stone-using people among us at the 
 present day. 
 
 We may not know much of what happened in northern Europe 
 before the time of the Romans, but we feel tolerably safe in asserting 
 that none of the civilized nations around the Mediterranean basin 
 ever colonized and settled sufficiently long in northern Europe to 
 influence perceptibly the manners or usages of the natives. What 
 progress was made was effected by migrations among themselves, 
 the more civilized tribes taking the place of those less advanced, 
 and bringing their higher civilization with them. 
 
 If these views are at all correct, it seems hopeless by any 
 empirical theories founded on what we believe ought to have 
 happened or on any analogies drawn from what occurred in other 
 countries to arrive at satisfactory conclusions on the subject. It 
 is at best reasoning from the unknown towards what we fancy 
 
 1 See controversy between Sir George 
 Comewall Lewis in his ' Astronomy of 
 thr Ancients,' p. 467 ct seqq. and Sir 
 
 John Lubbock, in 'Prehistoric Times,' 
 p. 59 et seqq. with regard to Pytheas 
 and his discoveries. 
 
Chap. II. DOLMENS. 39 
 
 may be found out. A much more satisfactory process would be to 
 reason from the known backwards so far as we have a sure foot- 
 ing, and we may feel certain that by degrees as our knowledge 
 advances we shall get further and further forward in the true track, 
 and may eventually be able to attach at least approximative dates 
 to all our monuments. 
 
 From this point of view, what concerns us most, in the first 
 instance at least, is to know how late, rather than how early, our 
 ancestors buried in tumuli. We have, for instance, certainly, the 
 Bartlow Hills, just alluded to, which are sepulchres of the Roman 
 period, probably of Hadrian's time ; and we have in Denmark the 
 tumuli in which King Gorm and his English wife, Queen Thyra 
 Danebode, were buried in a.d. 950. We probably also may be 
 able to fill in a few others between these two dates, and add some 
 after even the last. Thus, therefore, we have a firm basis from 
 which to start, and working backwards from it may clear up some 
 difficulties that now appear insuperable. 
 
 Dolmens. 
 
 The monuments alluded to in the last section were either the 
 rude barrows of our savage ancestors, with the ruder cists, or 
 the chambered tumuli of a people who, when we first became 
 acquainted with them, had attained nearly as high a degree of 
 civilization as any Turanian people are capable of attaining. The 
 people who erected such buildings as the Tombs of Mycenae or Or- 
 chomenos must have reached a respectable degree of organization. 
 They possessed a perfect knowledge of the use of metals, and 
 great wealth in bronze at least, and had attained to considerable 
 skill in construction. Yet it is not difficult to trace back — in 
 imagination, at least — the various steps by which a small rude 
 chamber in a circular mound, just capable of protecting a single 
 body, may by degrees have grown into a richly-ornamented brazen 
 chamber, 50 or 60 feet in diameter and of equal height. Nor is 
 it more difficult to foresee what this buried chamber would have 
 become, had not the Aryan occupation of Greece — figured under 
 the myth of the return of the Heracleidse — put a stop to the tomb- 
 building propensities of the people. Before long it, must have 
 
40 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. Chap. 11. 
 
 burst from its chrysalis state, and assumed a form of external 
 beauty. It must have emerged from its earthen envelope, and 
 taken a form which it did take in Africa ] a thousand years after- 
 wards, — a richly-ornamented podium, surmounted by a stepped 
 cone and crowned by a stele. In Greece it went no further, and 
 its history and its use were alike strange to the people who after- 
 wards occupied the country. 
 
 In Italy its history was somewhat different. The more mixed 
 people of Eome eagerly adopted the funereal magnificence of the 
 Etruscans, and their tumuli under the Empire became magnified 
 into such monuments as the Tomb of Augustus in the Campus 
 Martius, or the still more gorgeous mausoleum of Hadrian, at the 
 foot of the Vatican hill. 
 
 In like manner, it would not be difficult by the same process 
 to trace the steps by which the rude tepes of the Tartar steppes 
 bloomed at last into the wondrous domes of the Patan and Mogol 
 Emperors of Delhi or the other Mahomedan principalities in the 
 East. To do all this would form a most interesting chapter in 
 the history of architecture, more interesting, perhaps, than the 
 one we are about to attempt; but it is not the same, though 
 both spring from the same origin. The people or peoples who 
 eventually elaborated these wonderful mausoleums or domed 
 structures affected, at the very earliest periods at which we become 
 acquainted with them, what may be called Microlithic architec- 
 ture. In other words, they used as small stones as they could use, 
 consistently with their constructive necessities. These stones were 
 always squared or hewn, and they always sought to attain their 
 ends by construction, not by the exhibition of mere force. On the 
 other hand, the people whose works now occupy us always affected 
 the employment of the largest masses of stone they could find or 
 move. With the rarest possible exceptions, they preferred their 
 being untouched by a chisel, and as rarely were they ever used 
 in any properly constructive sense. In almost every instance it 
 was sought to attain the wished-for end by mass and the expression 
 of power. No two styles of architecture can well be more different, 
 either in their forms or motives, than these two. All that they 
 
 1 In the Kubber Roumeia, in the Sahil, or the Madracen, near BlWah. 
 
Chap. II. DOLMENS. 41 
 
 have in common is that they both spring from the same origin 
 in the chambered tumulus, and both were devoted throughout 
 to sepulchral purposes, but in form and essence they diverged at a 
 veiy early period. Long before we become acquainted with either ; 
 and, having once separated, they only came together again Avhen 
 both were on the point of expiring. 
 
 The Buddhist Dagobas are another offshoot from the same source, 
 which it would be quite as interesting to follow as the tombs of 
 the kings or emperors; for our present purposes, perhaps, more 
 so, as they retained throughout a religious character, and being 
 consequently freed from the ever- varying influence of individual 
 caprice, they bear the impress of their origin distinctly marked 
 upon them to the present day. 
 
 In India, where Buddhism, as we now know it, first arose, the 
 prevalent custom — at least among the civilized races — was cre- 
 mation. We do not know when they buried their dead ; but in 
 the earliest times of Buddhism they adopted at once what was 
 certainly a sepulchral tumulus, and converted it into a relic 
 shrine : just as in the early ages of Christianity the stone sarco- 
 phagus became the altar in the basilica, and was made to contain 
 the relics of the saint or saints to whom the church was dedicated. 
 The earliest monuments of this class which we now know are 
 those erected by the King Asoka, about the year 250 B.C.; but 
 there does not seem much reason for doubting that when the 
 body of Buddha was burnt, and his relics distributed among 
 eight different places, 1 Dagobas or Stupas may not then have 
 been erected for their reception. None of these have, how- 
 ever, been identified ; and of the 84,000 traditionally said to 
 have been erected by Asoka, that at Sanchi 2 is the only one we 
 can feel quite sure belongs to his age ; but, from that date to the 
 present day, in India as well as in Ceylon, Burmah, Siam, and 
 elsewhere, examples exist without number. 
 
 All these are microlithic, evidently the work of a civilized and 
 refined people, though probably copies of the rude forms of more 
 primitive races. Many of them have stone enclosures ; but, like 
 
 1 See Tumour iu 'J. A. S. B.' vii. p. 1013. 
 
 2 Cunningham, 'Bilsah Topes,' passim; and 'Tree and Serpent Worship,' by the 
 author, p. 87-148. 
 
42 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. Chap. II. 
 
 that at Sanchi, erected between 250 B.C. and 1 a.d., so evidently 
 derived from carpentry that we feel it was copied directly, like all 
 the Buddhist architecture of that age, from wooden originals. 
 Whether it was from the fashion of erecting stone circles round 
 tumuli, or from what other cause, it is impossible now to say ; 
 but as time went on the form of the rail became more and more 
 essentially lithic, and throughout the middle ages the Buddhist 
 tope, with its circle or circles of stones, bore much more analogy 
 to the megalithic monuments of our own country than did the 
 tombs just alluded to ; and we are often startled by similarities 
 which, however, seem to have no other cause than their having a 
 common parent, being, in fact, derived from one primaeval original. 
 There is nothing in all this, at all events, that would lead us to 
 the conclusion that the polished stone monuments of India were 
 either older or more modern than the rude stone structures of the 
 West. Each, in fact, must be judged by its own standard, and by 
 that alone. 
 
 For the proper understanding of what is to follow the dis- 
 tinctions just pointed out should always be borne in mind, as 
 none are more important. Half indeed of the confusion that 
 exists on the subject arises from their having been hitherto 
 neglected. There is no doubt that occasional similarities can 
 be detected between these various styles, but they amount to 
 nothing more than should be expected from family likenesses 
 consequent upon their having a common origin and analogous 
 purposes. But, except to this extent, these styles seem absolutely 
 distinct throughout their whole course, though running parallel 
 to one another during the whole period in which they are 
 practised. If this is so, any hypothesis based on the idea that 
 the microlithic architecture either preceded or succeeded to the 
 megalithic at once falls to the ground. Nor, if these distinctions 
 are maintained, will it any longer be possible to determine any 
 dates in succession in megalithic art from analogies drawn from 
 what may have happened at any period or place among the 
 builders of microlithic structures. The fact which we have got 
 to deal with seems to be that the megalithic rude stone art of 
 our forefathers is a thing by itself — a peculiar form of art 
 arising either from its being adopted by a peculiar race or peculiar 
 
Chap. IL DOLMENS. 43 
 
 group of races among mankind, or from its Having been practised 
 by people at a certain stage of civilization, or under peculiar 
 circumstances, and this it is our business to try to find out and 
 define. But to do this, the first thing that seems requisite is 
 to put aside all previously conceived notions on the subject, 
 and to treat it as one entirely new, and as depending for its 
 elucidation wholly on what can be gathered from its own form 
 and its own utterances, however indistinct they may at first appear 
 to be. 
 
 Bearing this in mind, we have no difficulty in beginning our 
 history of megalithic remains with the rude stone cists, generally 
 called kistvaens, which are found in sepulchral tumuli. Sometimes 
 these consist of only four, but generally of six or more stones set 
 edgeways, and covered by a capstone, so as to protect the body 
 from being crushed. By degrees this kistvaen became magnified 
 into a chamber, the side stones increasing from 1 or 2 feet in 
 height to 4 or 5 feet, and the capstone becoming a really mega- 
 lithic feature 6 or 10 feet long, by 4 or 5 feet wide, and also of 
 considerable thickness. Many of these contained more than one 
 funeral deposit, and they consequently could not have been covered 
 up by the tumuli till the last deposit was placed in them. This 
 seems to have been felt as an inconvenience, as it led to the third 
 step, namely, of a passage communicating with the outer air, and 
 formed like the chambers of upright stones, and roofed by flat 
 ones extending across from side to side. The most perfect 
 example of this class is perhaps that in the tumulus of Gavr 
 Innis in the Morbihan. Here is a gallery 42 feet long and from 
 4 to 5 feet wide, leading to a chamber 8 feet square, the whole 
 being covered with sculptures of the most elaborate character. 
 
 A fourth stage is well illustrated by the chambers of New 
 Grange, in Ireland, where a similar passage leads to a compound 
 or cruciform chamber rudely roofed by converging stones. Another 
 beautiful example of the same class is that of Maeshow in the 
 Orkneys, which, owing to the peculiarity of the stone with which 
 it is built, comes more nearly to the character of microlithic art 
 than any other example. It is probably among the last if not 
 the very latest of the class erected in these isles, and by a curious 
 concatenation of circumstances brings the megalithic form of art 
 
44 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. Chap. II. 
 
 very nearly up to the stage where we left its microlithic sister at 
 Mycenae some two thousand years before its time. 
 
 All this will be made clearer in the sequel, but meanwhile there 
 are one or two points which must be cleared up before we can 
 go further. Many antiquaries insist that all the dolmens 1 or 
 cromlechs, 2 which we now see standing free, were once covered 
 up and buried in tumuli. 3 That all the earlier ones were so, 
 is more than probable, and it may since have' been originally 
 intended also to cover up many of those which now stand free ; 
 but it seems impossible to believe that the bulk of those we now 
 see were ever hidden by any earthen covering. 
 
 Probably at least one hundred uncovered dolmens in these 
 islands could be enumerated, which have not now a trace of 
 any such envelope. Some are situated on uncultivated heaths, 
 some on headlands, and most of them in waste places. Yet it is 
 contended that improving farmers at some remote age not 
 only levelled the mounds, but actually carted the whole away and 
 spread it so evenly over the surface that it is impossible now to 
 detect its previous existence. If this had taken place in this 
 century when land has become so valuable and labour so skilled 
 we might not wonder, but no trace of any such operation occurs 
 in any living memory. Take for instance Kits Cotty House, it is 
 exactly now" where it was when Stukeley drew it in 1715, 4 and 
 there was no tradition then of any mound ever having covered it. 
 Yet it is contended that at some earlier age when the site was 
 probably only a sheep-walk, some one carried away the mound 
 for some unknown purpose, and spread it out so evenly that we 
 cannot now find a trace of it. Or take another instance, that 
 at Clatford Bottom, 5 also drawn by Stukeley. It stands as a 
 chalky flat to which cultivation is only now extending, and which 
 
 1 Dolmen is derived from the Celtic bodied in a few very distinct words in the 
 word Daul, a table — not Dol, a hole — Norwich volume of the 'Prehistoric Con- 
 and Men or Maen, a stone. gress,' p. 218, but had previously been 
 
 2 Crom, in Celtic, is crooked or curved, put forward in a paper read to the Wilt- 
 and therefore wholly inapplicable to the shire Archaeological Society in 1SG1, and 
 monuments in question ; and lech, stone. afterwards in the ' Kilkenny Journal.' 
 
 3 The most zealous advocate of this v. N. S. p. 492 et seqq. 
 
 view is the Rev. W. C. Lukis, who, with 4 ' Iter Curiosum,' pi. xsxii. andxxxiii. 
 
 his father, has done such good service in s ' Stonehenge and Avebury,' pi. xxxii. 
 
 the Channel Islands. His views are em- xxxiii. and xxxiv. 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 DOLMENS. 
 
 45 
 
 certainly was a sheep-walk in Stukeley's time, and why, therefore, 
 any one should have taken the trouble or been at the expense of 
 denuding it is very difficult to understand, and so it is with nine- 
 tenths of the rest of them. In the earlier days when a feeling for 
 the seclusion of the tomb was strong, burying them in the recesses 
 of a tumulus may have been the universal practice, but when 
 men learned to move such masses as they afterwards did, and to 
 poise them so delicately in the air, they may well have preferred 
 the exhibition of their art to concealing it in a heap which had no 
 beauty of form and exhibited no skill. Can any one for instance 
 conceive that such a dolmen as that at Castle Wellan in Ireland 
 
 1. Dolmen in Castle Wellan, Ireland. From a drawing by Sir Henry James. 
 
 ever formed a chamber in barrow, or that any Irish farmer 
 would ever have made such a level sweep of its envelope if it 
 ever had one ? So in fact it is with almost all we know. When 
 a dolmen was intended to be buried in a tumulus the stones sup- 
 porting the roof were placed as closely to one another as possible, 
 so as to form walls and prevent the earth penetrating between 
 them and filling the chambers, which was easily accomplished by 
 filling in the interstices with small stones as was very generally 
 done. These tripod dolmens, however, like that at Castle Wellan, 
 just quoted, never had, or could have had walls. The capstone is 
 there poised on three points, and is a studied exhibition of a tour 
 de force. No traces of walls exist, and if earth had been heaped 
 upon it the intervals would have been the first part filled, and the 
 
46 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. Chap. II. 
 
 roof an absurdity, as no chamber could have existed. These tripod 
 dolmens are very numerous, and well worth distinguishing, as it 
 is probable that they will turn out to be more modern than the 
 walled variety of the same class. But with our present limited 
 knowledge it is hardly safe to insist on this, however probable it 
 seems at first sight. 
 
 The question, however, fortunately, hardly requires to be argued, 
 inasmuch as in Ireland, in Denmark, 1 and more especially in 
 France, we have numerous examples of dolmens on the top of 
 tumuli, where it is impossible they should ever have been covered 
 with earth. One example for the present will explain what is 
 meant. In the Dolmen de Bousquetin the Aveyron 2 the chamber 
 
 8. Dolmen de Bousquet. From a drawing by E. Cavtailhac. 
 
 is placed on the top of a tumulus, which from the three circles of 
 stone that surround it, and other indications, never could have 
 been higher or larger than it now is. 
 
 So far as I know, none of these dolmen-crowned tumuli have 
 been dug into, which is to be regretted, as it would be curious to 
 know whether the external dolmen is the real or only a simulated 
 tomb. My own impression would be in favour of the latter 
 hypothesis, inasmuch as a true and a false tomb are characteristic 
 of all similar monuments. In the pyramids of Egypt they co- 
 existed. In every Buddhist tope, without exception, there is a 
 Tee, which is in every case we know only a simulated relic-casket. 
 Originally it may have been the place where the relic was depo- 
 sited, and as we know of instances where relics were exposed to 
 
 1 Madsen, ' Antiquite's Preliistoriques,' pi. 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. 
 
 2 Norwich volume of ' Prehistoric Congress,' p. 355, pi. vi. 
 
Chap. II. CIRCLES. 47 
 
 the crowd on certain festivals, it is difficult to understand where 
 they were kept, except in some external case like this. In 
 every instance, however, in which 
 a relic has been found it has 
 been in the centre of the Tope 
 and never in the Tee. A still 
 more apposite illustration, how- 
 ever, is found in the tombs 
 around Agra and Delhi. In all 
 
 those Of any pretension the body 9. Tee cut in the Rock on a Dagoba at Ajunta. 
 
 is buried in the earth in a vault 
 
 below the floor of the tomb and a gravestone laid over it, but on 
 the floor of the chamber, under the dome, there is always a 
 simulated sarcophagus, which is the only one seen by visitors. 
 This is carried even further in the tomb of the Great Akbar 
 (1556, 1605). Over the vault is raised a pyramid surrounded, 
 not like this tumulus by three rows of stones, but by three rows 
 of pavilions, and on the top, exposed to the air, is a simulated 
 tomb placed exactly as this dolmen is. No two buildings could 
 well seem more different at first sight, but their common parent- 
 age and purpose can hardly be mistaken, and it must be curious 
 to know whether the likeness extends to the double tomb also. 
 
 This, like many other questions, must be left to the spade to 
 determine, but, unless attention is turned to the analogy above 
 alluded to, the purpose of the double tomb may be misunderstood, 
 even when found, and frequently, I suspect, has already been mis- 
 taken for a secondary interment. 
 
 Circles. 
 
 Circles form another group of the monuments we are about to 
 treat of, in this country more important than the dolmens to which 
 the last section was devoted. In France, however, they are 
 hardly known, though in Algeria they are very frequent. In 
 Denmark and . Sweden they are both numerous and important, 
 but it is in the British Islands that circles attained their greatest 
 development, and assumed the importance they maintain in all 
 the works of our antiquaries which treat of megalithic art. 
 
 The cognate examples in the microlithic styles afford us very 
 
t8 I'RICLIMINAttY OBSERVATIONS. Chap. 1]. 
 
 littlo assistance in determining either the origin or use of this 
 class of monument. It might, nay has been suggested, that the 
 podium which surmounts such a tumulus, for instance, that of 
 the Cocumella (woodcut No. 5) would, if the mound were removed, 
 suggest, or be suggested, by the stone circles of our forefathers. This 
 podium, however, seems always to have been a purely constructive 
 expedient, without any mystic or religious significance, for unless 
 the base of an earthen mound is confined by a revetement of this 
 sort it is apt to spread, and then the whole monument loses that 
 definition which is requisite to dignity. 
 
 The Kails of the Indian Buddhists at first sight seem to offer a 
 more plausible suggestion of origin, but it is one on which it 
 would be dangerous in the present state of our knowledge to rely 
 too much ; if for no other reason, for the one just given, that up 
 to the time of Asoka, B.C. 250, they, like all the architecture of 
 India, were in wood and wood only. Stone as a building material, 
 either rude or hewn, was unknown in that country till apparently 
 it was suggested to them by the Bactrian Greeks. Unless, there- 
 fore, we are prepared to admit that all our stone circles are subse- 
 quent, by a considerable interval of time, to the epoch of Asoka, 
 they were not derived from India. My own impression is that all 
 may ultimately prove to have been erected subsequently to the 
 Christian Era, but till that is established we must look elsewhere 
 than to India for our original form, and even then we have only 
 got a possible analogy ; and nothing approaching to a proof that 
 any connexion existed between them. 
 
 The process in this country, so far as I can make out, was 
 different, though tending to a similar result. The stone circles in 
 Europe appear to have been introduced in supercession to the 
 circular earthen mounds which surround the early tumuli of our 
 Downs. These earthen enclosures still continued to be used, 
 surrounding stone monuments of the latest ages, but, if I mistake 
 not, they first gave rise to the form itself. Such a circle, for 
 instance, as that called the Nine Ladies on Stanton Moor, I 
 take to be a transitional example. The circular mound, which 
 is 38 feet in diameter, enclosed a sepulchral tumulus, as was, 
 no doubt, the case from time immemorial, but, in this instance, 
 was further adorned and dignified by the circle of stones erected 
 
--*?. ::. circles. 49 
 
 upon it A century or so afterwards, when stone had become 
 more recognized as a building material, the circular mound may 
 
 l;-r T '-.—z. i:-"" ; -:. :-.r.i t.tI. :ir ^:it ::r?~e - ~_ .1 .:: f reziiii. 
 
 These stone circles are fonnd enclosing tumuli, as in the Dolmen 
 de Bousquet (woodcut Ho. 8), in three rows, and sometimes Eve 
 or seven rows are fonnd. They frequently also enclose dolmens, 
 either standing on the level plain or on tumuli, but often, especi- 
 ally in this country, they are found enclosing nothing that can 
 be seen above ground. This has led to the assumption that they 
 are "Things, 3 * comitia — or places of assembly — or, s till more 
 commonly, that they are temples, though, now that the Druidical 
 theory is nearly abandoned, no one has been able to sugges: k 
 what religion they are, or were, dedicated. The spade, however, is 
 gradually dispelling all these theories. Out of say 200 stone : : 
 which are found in these islands, at least one-half, on being dug 
 out, have yielded sepulchral deposits. One-quarter axe ?7ill 
 untouched by the frzavator, and the remainder which have not 
 yielded up their secret are mostly the larger circles. Their 
 evidence, however, is at best only negative, for. till we know 
 exactly where to dig, it would require that the whole area should 
 be trenched over before we can feel sure we had not missed the 
 sepulchral deposit. When, as at Avebury, the circle encloses an 
 area of 28 acres, 1 and the greater part of it is occupied by a 
 village, no blind digging is likely to lead to any result, or can be 
 accepted as evidence. 
 
 StiD. the argument would be neither illegitimate nor illogical if, 
 in the present state of the evidence, it were contended that all 
 stone circles, up say to 100 feet diameter, were sepulchral, as nine- 
 tenths of them have been proved to be, but that the larger circles 
 were cenotaphic, or, if another expression is preferred, temples 
 
 Sir H. Colt Hoare, ' Awjpnt Wiltshire,* iL 71. 
 
50 TKELIMINAKY OBSERVATIONS. Chap. II. 
 
 dedicated to the honour or worship of the dead, but iu which no 
 bodies were buried. But to admit — and it cannot now be denied 
 — that all circles up to 100 feet are sepulchral, yet to assert that 
 above that dimension they became temples dedicated to the sun, 
 or serpents, or demons, or Druids, without any other change of 
 plan or design but increased dimensions, appears a wholly un- 
 tenable proposition. 
 
 All this will, it is hoped, be made more clear in the sequel when 
 we come to examine particular examples, regarding which it is 
 more easy to reason than merely from general principles ; but 
 in the meanwhile there is one other peculiarity which should be 
 pointed out before proceeding further. It is that where great 
 groups of circles are found, they — so far as is at present known — 
 never mark cemeteries where successive generations of kings or 
 chiefs were buried, but battle-fields. The circles, or dolmens, or 
 cairns grouped in these localities seem always to have been erected 
 by their comrades, to the memory of those who on these spots 
 "fiercely fighting, fell," and are monuments as well of the prowess 
 of the survivors as of those who were less fortunate. The proof 
 of this also must depend on individual examples to be brought 
 forward in the following pages. It does not, however, seem to 
 present much difficulty, the principal point in the argument being 
 that they are generally found in solitary places far removed 
 from the centres of population, or are sometimes single and 
 that they show no progression. Had they been cemeteries or 
 sepulchres of kings, several would undoubtedly have been found 
 grouped together ; progression and individuality would have been 
 observed; and lastly, they are just such monuments as an army 
 could erect in a week or a month, but which the inhabitants 
 of the spot could not erect in years, and could not use for any 
 conceivable purpose when erected. 
 
 Avenues. 
 
 It is somewhat unfortunate that no recognized name has yet 
 been hit upon for this class of monument. Alignment has been 
 suggested, but the term is hardly applicable to two rows of 
 stones, for instance, leading to a circle. Parallellitha is, at best, 
 a barbarous compound, and as such better avoided. Though 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 AVENUES. 
 
 51 
 
 therefore, the word avenues can hardly be called appropriate to 
 rows of stones leading from nowhere to no place, and between 
 which there is no evidence that anybody ever was intended to 
 walk, still it seems the least objectionable expression that has 
 yet been hit upon, and as such it will be used throughout. 
 
 These avenues are of two classes. First, those leading to circles. 
 About the origin of this class there can be very little hesitation. 
 They represent externally the passages in tumuli which lead to the 
 central chamber; take, for instance, this example from a now 
 
 Tfeet 
 
 Chair bercd Tumulus, Jeis y. 
 
 destroyed x tumulus near St. Helier, in Jersey. 2 The circular 
 chamber was 24 feet in diameter, and contained originally seven 
 little cells, each roofed by a single slab of stone. This circular 
 area was approached by an avenue, 17 feet long at the time of its 
 destruction, which was roofed throughout the whole length with 
 slabs of stone. The central chamber never, however, appears to 
 have been vaulted, so that access to the tombs through this passage 
 could never have been possible after the mound was finished. The 
 chamber was found filled with earth, and the whole monument 
 covered up by a tumulus of considerable extent. It need hardly 
 be observed that it is more unlikely that any people should cover 
 up such a monument at any subsequent age, than that they 
 
 1 The stones of which it was composed were transported by General Conway 
 to Park Place, near Henley-on-Thames, and re-erected there. 
 
 2 ' Archseologia,' viii. p. 384. 
 
 e2 
 
52 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. Chap. II. 
 
 should dig out such monuments and leave them standing without 
 their envelopes, as is so generally assumed. The tumulus was 
 removed, because the officer in command of the neighbouring 
 fort wanted a level parade-ground. As it stood uncovered it was 
 a miniature Avebury, and the position of its cells may give us 
 a hint where the bodies may be found there — near the outer 
 circle of stones, where they have not been looked for. But of 
 this hereafter. It is meanwhile evident that while these 
 monuments were in course of erection they stood as shown in 
 the last woodcut, and it is also tolerably clear that when 
 people became familiar with their aspect in this state, they 
 may have learned to regret hiding under a heap of earth what 
 we certainly would have thought more interesting as it was. 
 In like manner, as John Stuart well remarks, " If the cairns 
 at New Grange were removed, the pillars w 7 ould form another 
 Callernish." x It is true, however, that if the Jersey monument is 
 the type of Avebury, the latter must be comparatively modern, 
 as a coin of Claudius, found in one of the cells at St. 
 Helier, 2 probably fixes its date. Again, as we expect to be 
 able to prove that New Grange is subsequent to the Christian 
 era, Callernish must be more modern also. Be this as it may, 
 I think there can be very little doubt that these exposed 
 circles, with their avenues, took their rise, as in the case of 
 dolmens, from people becoming familiar with their forms before 
 they were covered up, and eventually reconciling themselves to 
 dispense with the envelope. In the case of the circles, the new 
 plan was capable of infinitely greater extension than in that 
 of the dolmens ; but the process seems to have been the same in 
 both instances. 
 
 Before leaving the Jersey circle, if any one will compare it with 
 the chamber at Mycenae (woodcut No. 4), they can hardly fail to 
 perceive the close similarity and probable identity of destination 
 that exists betw r een them ; but as the island example is very much 
 ruder, according to the usual reasoning it must be the more ancient 
 of the two. This, however, is the capital fallacy which has pervaded 
 all reasoning on the subject hitherto. It is true that nothing can 
 
 1 'Sculptured Stones of Scotland,' ii. Introd. p 25. 2 ' Archseologia,' viii. p. 3S5. 
 
Citap. II. AVENUES. 53 
 
 be more interesting or more instructive than to trace the progress of 
 the Classical, the Mediaeval, and the Indian styles through their 
 ever-changing phases, or to watch the influence which one style had 
 on the other. That progress was, however, always confined within 
 the limits of a nation, or community of nations, and the influence 
 limited to such nations as from similarity of race or constant 
 intercourse were in position to influence reciprocally not only the 
 architecture, but their arts and feelings. In order to establish 
 this in the present instance, we must prove that there was such 
 community of race and frequency of intercourse between the 
 Channel Islands and Greece 1000 years B.C., that the latter 
 would copy the other, or rather that 2000 years B.C. the Channel 
 Islanders gave the Greeks those hints which they were enabled 
 to elaborate, and of which the chambers at Mycenae about the 
 time of the Trojan war were the result. Had this been the case 
 the influence could hardly have ceased as civilization and inter- 
 course with other countries increased, and we ought to find Tholoi 
 in great perfection in these islands, and probably temples and 
 arts in all the perfection to which they w r ere afterwards expanded 
 in Greece. In fact, we get into such a labyrinth of conjecture, 
 that no escape seems possible. It would be almost as reasonable 
 to argue that the images on Easter Island, which we know con- 
 tinued to be carved in our day, were prehistoric, because they 
 are so much ruder than the works of Phidias. The truth is, that 
 where we cannot trace community of race or religion, accom- 
 panied by constant and familiar intercourse, we must take each 
 people as doing what their state of civilization enabled them to 
 accomplish, wholly irrespective of what was doing or had been 
 done by any other people in any other part of the world. All 
 that it is necessary to assume, in. this case is, that a dead-revering 
 ancestral-worshipping people wished to do honour to the departed, 
 as they knew or heard was done by other races of their family of 
 mankind elsewhere, and that they did it in the best manner the 
 state of the arts among them admitted of— rudely, if they were 
 in a low state of civilization, and more perfectly if they had 
 advanced beyond that stage in which rude forms could be 
 tolerated. 
 
 It is much more difficult to trace the origin of the avenues 
 
51 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. Chap. II. 
 
 which are not attached to circles, and do not lead to any important 
 monuments. Nothing that is buried at all resembles them in 
 form, and no erections in the corresponding microlithic style, 
 either in the Mediterranean countries or in India, afford any 
 hints which would enable us to suggest their purpose. We 
 are thus left to guess at their uses solely from the evidence 
 which can be gathered from their own form and position, and 
 from such traditions as may exist ; and these, it seems, have not 
 hitherto been deemed sufficient to establish even a plausible 
 hypothesis capable of explaining their intention. 
 
 Take, for instance, such an example as the parallel lines of 
 stones near Merivale Bridge on Dartmoor. They certainly do 
 not form a temple in any sense in which that word is under- 
 stood by any other people or in any age with which we are 
 accpiainted. They are not procession paths, inasmuch as both 
 ends are blocked up ; and, though it is true the sides are all doors, 
 we cannot conceive any procession moving along their narrow 
 gangway, hardly three feet in width. The stones that compose 
 the sides are only two and three feet high ; so that, even 
 if placed side by side, they would not form a barrier, and, 
 being three to six feet apart, they are useless except to form 
 an " alignment. " There is no place for an image, no sanctuary 
 or cell ; nothing, in fact, that can be connected with any religious 
 ceremonial. * 
 
 If the inhabitants of the place had really wanted a temple, 
 in any sense in which we understand the term, there is a magni- 
 ficent tor, a few hundred yards off to the northward, where Nature 
 has disposed some magnificent granite blocks so as to form niches 
 such as human hands could with difficulty imitate. All that was 
 wanted was to move the smaller blocks, lying loose in front of it, 
 a few yards to the right or left, and dispose them in a semi-circle 
 or rectangular form, and they would have one of the most 
 splendid temples in England in which to worship the images 
 which Ca?sar tells us they possessed. 1 They, however, did nothing 
 of the kind. They went to a bare piece of moorland, where there 
 
 1 Deum niaximc Mercurium colunt. Hujus sunt plurima simulacra. ' Bell. Gal.' 
 vi. 10. 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 AVENUES. 
 
 55 
 
 were no stones, and brought those we find there, and arranged 
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 The only answer to the question that occurs to me is that these 
 stones are intended to represent an army, or two armies, drawn 
 up in battle array ; most probably the former, as we can hardly 
 
56 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. Chap. IT. 
 
 understand the victorious army representing the defeated as so 
 nearly equal to themselves. But if we consider them as the first 
 and second line, drawn up to defend the village in their rear — 
 which is an extensive settlement — the whole seems clear and 
 intelligible. The circle in front would then represent the grave 
 of a chief; the long stone, 40 yards in front, the grave of another 
 of the "menu" people; and the circles and cromlech in front of 
 the first line the burying-places of those who fell there. 
 
 There is another series of avenues at Cas Tor, on the western 
 edge of Dartmoor, 1 some 600 yards in length,, which is quite as 
 like a battle array as this, but more complex and varied in plan. 
 It bends round the brow of the hill, so that neither of the ends 
 can be seen from the other, or, indeed, from the centre ; and it is 
 as unlike a temple or anything premeditated architecturally as this 
 one at Merivale Bridge. There are several others on Dartmoor, 
 all of the same character, and not one from which it seems possible 
 to extract a religious idea. 
 
 When speaking of the great groups of stones in England and 
 France, we shall frequently have to return to this idea, though 
 then basing it on traditional and other grounds ; but, meanwhile, 
 what is there to be said against it ? It is perhaps not too much to 
 say that in all ages and in all countries soldiers have been more 
 numerous than priests, and men have been prouder of their prowess 
 in war than of their proficiency in faith. They have spent more 
 money for warlike purposes than ever they devoted to the service 
 of religion, and their paeans in honour of their heroes have been 
 louder than their hymns in praise of their gods. Yet how was 
 a rude, illiterate people, who could neither read nor write, to 
 hand down to posterity a record of its victories ? A mound, such 
 as was erected at Marathon or at Waterloo, is at best a dumb 
 witness. It may be a sepulchre, as Silbury Hill was supposed to 
 be ; it may be the foundation of a caer, or fort, as many of those 
 in England certainly were ; it may be anything, in short. But a 
 savage might very well argue : " When any one sees how and 
 where our men were drawn up when we slaughtered our enemies, 
 
 1 Sir Gardner Wilkinson in 'Journal, Archfeological Association,' xvi. p. 112, 
 pi. 6 for Cas Tor, and pi. 7 for Mterivale Bridge. 
 
Chap. II. MENHIES. 57 
 
 can he be so stupid as not to perceive that here we stood and 
 fought and conquered, and there our enemies were slain or ran? " 
 We, unfortunately, have lost the clue that would tell us who 
 " we " and " they " were in the instance of the Dartmoor stones 
 at least; but uncultivated men do not take so mean a view of 
 their own importance as to fancy this possible. 
 
 This theory has at least the merit of accounting for all the 
 facts at present known, and of being at variance with none, which 
 is more than can be said for any other that has hitherto been 
 proposed. Till, therefore, something better is brought forward, 
 it must be allowed to stand at least as a basis to reason upon, 
 in order to explain the monuments we have to describe in the 
 following pages. 
 
 Men hies. 
 
 The Menhirs, or tall stones, 1 form the last of the classes into 
 which we have thought it necessary for the present, at least, to 
 divide the remains of which we are now treating. They occur 
 in all the megalithic districts, but from their very singleness 
 and simplicity, it is almost more difficult to ascertain their 
 purpose than it is that of any more complicated monuments ; 
 nor do the analogies from the cognate microlithic styles help 
 us much. The stones mentioned in the early books of the Old 
 Testament, though often pressed into the service, were all too 
 small to bear any resemblance to those we are now concerned 
 with. Neither Greece nor Etruria help us in the matter, and 
 though it is true that the Buddhists in India, from Asoka's time 
 downward, were in the habit of setting up Lats or Stambas, 
 it seems with them to have been always, or nearly so, for the 
 purpose of bearing inscriptions, which is certainly not a distin- 
 guishing characteristic of our Menhirs. It is true that we have in 
 Scotland two stones. The Cat stone near Edinburgh, bearing the 
 name of Vetta, the grandson of Hengist (who probably was slain 
 in battle there), 2 and the Newton stone in Garioch, which is still 
 
 1 From Maen, as before, stone, and Mr— high. Minar is supposed to be the 
 same word. It cannot, at least, be traced to any root in any Eastern language. 
 
 2 ' Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland,' iv. 119 et seqq. 
 
58 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. Chap. IT. 
 
 unread. We have also one in France near Brest, 1 equally illegible, 
 and no doubt others exist. Perhaps these may be considered as 
 early lispings of an infant, which certainly are the preludes of 
 perfect speech, and only to be found where that power of words 
 must afterwards exist. Here the analogy is, to say the least of it, 
 remote. 
 
 There also are, especially in Ireland, but also in Wales and in 
 Scotland, a great number of stones with Ogharn inscriptions. So 
 far as these have been made out they seem to be mere headstones 
 of graves, intimating that A, the son of B, lies buried there. A 
 custom, it need hardly be observed, that continues to the present 
 day in every cemetery in the land. The fact seems to be that so 
 soon as the use of stone was suggested and men were sufficiently 
 advanced to be able to engrave Oghams, it was at once perceived 
 that a stone pillar with an inscription upon it was not only a 
 more durable but a more intelligent and intelligible record of 
 a man's life or death than a simple mound of " undistinguishable 
 earth." It in consequence rapidly superseded the barrow, and 
 has continued in use to the present time, and been adopted by 
 both Christians and Mahomedans, by all, in fact, who bury, as 
 contradistinguished from those who burn their dead. 
 
 In Scotland the story of the stones is slightly different. A great 
 many of these are no doubt cat stones or battle memorials, but as 
 they have not even Ogham inscriptions, they tell no tale. It is 
 doubtful, indeed, if an Ogham inscription could describe a battle, 
 or anything more complex than a genealogy, and still more so 
 if it did whether we could read it. But without it how can we 
 say what they are ? If, for instance, the battle of. Largs had 
 not been fought in historic times, how could we tell that the 
 tall stone that now marks the spot was erected in the thirteenth 
 century? Or how, indeed, can we feel sure of the history of 
 any one? By degrees, however, in Scotland they faded into 
 those wonderful sculptured stones which form so marked and so 
 peculiar a feature of Pictland. Whether we shall ever get a 
 key to the hieroglyphics with which these stones are covered is 
 by no means clear, but even if we do they probably will not 
 
 1 ' Frcminvillc, Finisterc,' pi. iv. p. 248. 
 
Chap. II. MENHIRS. 59 
 
 tell us much. They certainly contain neither names nor dates, 
 but even now their succession can be made out with tolerable 
 distinctness. The probability seems to be that the figures on 
 them are tribal marks or symbols of rank, and, as such, would 
 convey very little information if capable of being read. 
 
 It is easy to trace the perfectly plain obelisk being developed 
 into such as the Newton stones, which have only one or two 
 Pagan symbols, but are certainly subsequent to the Christian era. 
 From these we advance to those on the back of which the 
 Christian cross timidly appears, and which certainly date after 
 St. Columba's time (a.d. 563), and from that again to the erection 
 of Sweno's stone, near Forres, in the first years of the eleventh 
 century, where the cross occupies the whole of the rear, and an 
 elaborate bas-relief supersedes the rude symbols in the front. 
 
 In Ireland the rude stones do not appear to have gone through 
 the " symbol stage," but early to have ripened into the sculp- 
 tured cross, for it was not from a timidly engraved cross as in 
 Scotland that they took their origin. The Irish crosses at once 
 boldly adopted the cross-arms, surrounded by a glory, with the 
 other characteristics of that beautiful and original class of 
 Christian monuments. 
 
 In France the menhir was early adopted by the Christians; so 
 early that it has generally been assumed that those examples 
 which we see surmounted by a cross were pagan monuments, on 
 which at some subsequent time Christians have added a cross. 
 This, however, certainly does not appear to have been always 
 the case. In such a cross, for instance, as that at Lochcrist, the 
 menhir and the cross are one, and made for one another, 
 and similar examples occur at Cape St. Matthieu, at Daoulas, and 
 in other places in Brittany. 1 In France the menhir, after being 
 adopted by the Christians, does not seem to have passed through 
 the sculptured stage 2 common to crosses in Scotland and Ireland, 
 but to have bloomed at once into the Calvary so frequent in 
 
 1 All these, and many others, are 
 to be found illustrated in Taylor and 
 Nodier's ' Voyage Pittoresque dans l'an- 
 cienne Brctagne ;' but as the plates in that 
 work are not numbered they cannot be 
 
 referred to. 
 
 2 I know only one instance of sculp- 
 tured stone in France ,- it occurs near the 
 Chapelle St. Marguerite, in Brittany. 
 
60 
 
 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 Chap. II. 
 
 Lochcri^t Alfiihir. 
 
 Brittany. Here the cross stands out as a tall tree, and the 
 figures are grouped round its base, but how early this form 
 
 was adopted we have no means of 
 knowing. 
 
 In Denmark the modern history 
 of the Bauta stones, as the grave 
 or battle stones are there called, is 
 somewhat different. They early re- 
 ceived a Runic as the Irish received 
 an Ogham inscription, but Denmark 
 was converted at so late an age to 
 Christianity (the eleventh century) 
 that her menhirs never passed 
 through the early Christian stage, 
 but from Pagan monuments sank at 
 once into modern gravestones, with prosaic records of the birth 
 and death of the dead man whose memory they were erected to 
 preserve. 
 
 In all these instances we can trace back the history of the 
 menhirs from historic Christian times to non-historic regions when 
 these rude stone pillars, with or without still ruder inscriptions, 
 were gradually superseding the earthen tumuli as a record of 
 the dead. It is as yet uncertain whether we can follow back 
 their history with anything like certainty beyond the Christian era. 
 This, however, is just the task to which antiquaries should address 
 themselves. Instead of reasoning as hitherto from the unknown to 
 the known, it would be infinitely more philosophical to reason 
 from the known backwards. By proceeding in this manner every 
 step we make is a positive gain, and eventually may lead us to 
 write with certainty about things that now seem enveloped in mist 
 and obscurity. 
 
Chap. II L AVEBUKY AND STONEHENGE. 61 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 AVEBUEY AND STONEHENGE. 
 
 If there existed any acknowledged facts or accepted data with 
 regard to the megalithic remains Ave are now treating of, the logical 
 method of following out the subject would be to describe first 
 their geographical distribution, and then their uses and dates. 
 While, however,, everything concerning them is considered as 
 uncertain — in fact, as unknown, such a mode of treatment, though 
 satisfactory to believers, would fail to carry conviction to the 
 minds of those who doubt. It appears, therefore, that under the 
 circumstances a preferable mode will be to take three or four 
 of the principal and best known British groups, and to subject 
 them to a tolerably exhaustive examination. If it is possible to 
 dispel the errors that have grown up around them, and to fix 
 their uses and dates on anything like a reasonable basis, the rest 
 will be easy ; but so long as men believe in Druids or Dragons, 
 or even think it necessary to relegate these monuments to pre- 
 historic antiquity, it is useless to reason regarding them. By the 
 process it is proposed to follow, it is hoped at least to be able 
 to dispel these mists. Others must judge whether the landscape 
 their dispersion will reveal is either real, or pleasing to con- 
 template. 
 
 The first monument we propose selecting for examination is 
 Avebury, as the largest, and in some respects the most important 
 of the class in this country. Stonehenge might at first sight seem 
 to have equal claims to precedence, but it is exceptional. It is 
 the only hewn stone monument we possess, the only one where 
 trilithons are found with horizontal architraves, and where the 
 outer circle also possesses these imposts. It is, in fact, the 
 megalithic monument which exhibits the most civilized forms, 
 and to prove its age and use would not necessarily prove those 
 of any rude stone monument found elsewhere. Avebury, on the 
 contrary, though larger than the others, is constructed on pre- 
 
62 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 Chap. III. 
 
 cisely the same principle. It has the enclosing vallum, with its 
 ditch inside, like Arborlow, Harden, Arthur's round table, at 
 Penrith, and others we shall meet with further on, while its 
 circle and avenues are identical, as far as we can judge, with 
 numerous examples found elsewhere. 
 
 Before, however, proceeding to reason about Avebury, the first 
 point is to ascertain what the group really consists of, which is 
 a much more difficult task than would at first sight appear. 
 Stukeley has introduced so many of his own fancies into his 
 description of the place, and they have been so implicitly followed 
 by all who have since written on the subject, that it is now no 
 easy task to get back to the original form. 
 
 The principal monument at Avebury consists of a vallum of 
 earth nearly, but not quite, circular in form, with an average 
 
 
 14. View of Avebury restored, a. Silbury Hill. b. Watlcn Hill. 
 
 diameter of about 1200 feet. Close on the edge of its internal 
 ditch stood a circle apparently originally consisting of about 100 
 stones, with a distance consequently of about 33 feet from centre 
 to centre. Inside this were two other double circles, placed not 
 in the axis of the great one, but on its north-eastern side. The 
 more northern one was apparently 350 feet in diameter, the other 
 325 feet. 1 In the centre of the northern one stood what is here 
 called a cove, apparently consisting of three upright stones 
 supporting a capstone — a dolmen, in fact, such as we shall 
 
 1 These particulars are taken from a careful survey made by Sir E. Cult Hoare, in 
 1812, and published in his 'Ancient Wilts,' vol. ii. pi. xiii. p. 70 et seqq. 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 AVEBUEY AND STONEHENGE. 
 
 63 
 
 %p 
 
 
 frequently meet with in the following pages. In the southern 
 circle there was only one stone obelisk or menhir. These facts 
 we gather from Stukeley and 
 Colt Hoare, for all is now so 
 completely ruined and destroyed, 
 that without their description 
 no one could now make even an 
 approximate plan of the place. 
 The stones that comprise these 
 inner as well as the outer circle 
 are all the native Sarsens, which 
 occur everywhere on these downs. 
 In some places, such as Clatford 
 Bottom, about a mile from Ave- 
 bury, they lie still in numbers 
 sufficient to erect a dozen Ave- 
 burys, and many are still to be 
 seen in the Bottoms to the south- 
 ward, and indeed, in every place 
 where they have not been utilized 
 by modern civilization. No mark 
 of a chisel is to be seen on any of 
 the stones now standing here. For 
 their effect they depend wholly 
 on their mass, and that is so great 
 as to produce an impression of 
 power and grandeur which few 
 of the more elaborate works of 
 men's hands can rival. 
 
 From the outer vallum a stone 
 avenue extended in a perfectly 
 straight line for about 1430 yards, 
 in a south-easterly direction. The 
 centre was apparently drawn from 
 the centre of the great 1200 feet 
 circle, not from those of the smaller 15 
 ones. This is called the Kennet 
 Avenue, from its pointing towards the village of that nanie. I am 
 
 J 
 
 Plan of Avebury Circle and Kennet Avenue, 
 from Sir R. Colt Hoare. 
 
64 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 Chap. III. 
 
 extremely sceptical with regard to the existence of another, called 
 the Beckhampton Avenue, on which Dr. Stukeley lays so much 
 stress. Aubrey did not see it, though he saw the Long Stone Cove, 
 the " Devil's Quoits," as he called them ; and Stukeley is obliged to 
 admit that in his day not one stone was standing. 1 It seems that 
 here, as, indeed, everywhere over this country, a number of Sarsen 
 stones were lying about, and his fertile imagination manufactured 
 them into the body of a snake. None, however, are shown in Sir E. 
 Colt Hoare's survey, and none exist now ; and beyond the Cove 
 even Stukeley admits that he drew the serpent's tail only because 
 a serpent must have a termination of that sort. There were no 
 stones to mark its form any more then than now. The first objec- 
 tion that appears against admitting the existence of the very 
 hypothetical avenue is, that no curved avenue of any sort is known 
 to exist anywhere, or attached to any monuments. All the curves 
 of the Kennet avenue are the Doctor's own, introduced by him to 
 connect the straight-lined avenues which were drawn from the 
 circle at Avebury, and that on Hakpen Hill. There are none at 
 Stanton Drew, or other places where he audaciously drew them. 
 Near the church there are, or were, two stones placed in the open- 
 ing like that called the Friar's Heel, and the prostrate stone at 
 Stonehenge, but these are all that probably ever existed of the 
 Beckhampton Avenue. The question is not, however, important. 
 As there were two circles inside the Avebury vallum, there may 
 have been two avenues. All that is here contended for is, that 
 there is no proof of the existence of the second. A dolmen, called 
 the Long Stone Cove, existed near where Stukeley draws its 
 sinuous line, but there is nothing to show that it ever formed any 
 part of such an alignment ; and around it there were some standing 
 stones, or rather, even in Stukeley's time, stones which apparently 
 had stood, but there is nothing to show whether forming part of a 
 circle, or as detached menhirs, or as parts of an avenue. 
 
 The second member of the Avebury group is the double circle, 
 or rather double oval, on Hakpen hill — Haca's Pen ; 2 this was, 
 
 1 ' Stonehenge and Avebury,' p. 34. 
 
 2 Haca, or Haco, according to Kemble, 
 was some mythical person with a very 
 Danish name which is found in Hamp- 
 
 shire and Berkshire, as well as here. 
 Pen seems to mean merely enclosure, as 
 it does now in English. See Kemble, in 
 ' Journal Arch. Inst.' xiv. p. 134. 
 
Chap. III. AVEBURY AND STONEHENGE. C5 
 
 according to Stukeley, 138 feet by 155 feet, and had an avenue 
 45 feet wide, as compared with 51 feet which Sir E. C. Hoare 
 gives for those of the Kennet avenue of Avebury. The avenue 
 is supposed to have extended in a perfectly straight line for above 
 a quarter of a mile, pointing directly towards Silbury Hill, which 
 is about one mile and a quarter distant. 
 
 The third member of the group is the famous Silbury Hill, 
 about a mile distant due south from Avebury. That these two 
 last named are of the same age, and part of one design, seems 
 scarcely open to doubt; but it is quite an open question whether 
 Hacas Pen belongs either to the same age or the same design. 
 Its stones were very much smaller, its form different, and its 
 avenue pointing towards Silbury looks as if that monument 
 existed, and may have long existed before it was built; but of 
 this hereafter. 
 
 Besides these three there are numerous barrows, both long and 
 round, in the neighbourhood, and British forts and villages; but 
 these we propose to pass over at present, confining our attention 
 in the first instance to the three monuments above enumerated. 
 
 The first question that arises on looking at such a structure 
 as Avebury, is whether it is a temple at all. It has already 
 been attempted in the preceding pages to show what the temples 
 of Britain were in the ages immediately succeeding the Boman 
 occupation; but even if it is conceded that they were small 
 basilicas, it will be contended that this is no answer to the ques- 
 tion. If Avebury, it will be said, is a temple, it belonged to 
 a mysterious, mythical, prehistoric people capable of executing 
 such wonderful works before they came in contact with the 
 Romans, but who, strange to say, were incapable of doing anything 
 alter the civilizing touch of that great people had left them 
 feebler, and more ignorant than they were before ! 
 
 If this question, What is Avebury? is addressed to one — brought 
 up in the Druidical faith as most Englishmen have been — he at 
 once answers, It is a temple of the Druids. If pressed and re- 
 minded of the groves and the oaks these sectaries delighted in, 
 he will perhaps admit that no soil is so little likely to grow 
 oaks as the chalk downs of "Wiltshire, and that there is no proof 
 that any oaks ever grew in the neighbourhood. But this is not 
 
 F 
 
66 ENGLAND. Chap. IIT. 
 
 a complete answer, for it may be contended that for some reason 
 we cannot comprehend, the Druids may have dispensed with trees 
 on this occasion. The real difficulty is, as before mentioned, that 
 no stones or stone structures are ever mentioned in connection 
 with Druids. 
 
 If an educated man whose mind is free from prejudice or pre- 
 conceived ideas is asked the question, he runs over in his own mind 
 what he knows of the temples of other peoples — Egypt, Assyria, 
 Greece, Home, in the ancient or the middle ages. They produced 
 nothing of the sort. Persia, India, China, or the countries in the 
 Eastern seas are all equally unsuggestive ; nor will Mexico or Peru 
 help him. The first conclusion, therefore, that he inevitably 
 arrives at is, if these were the temples of the Britons, they must 
 indeed have been a "Peculiar people," unlike any other race that 
 lived at any time in any part of the world. 
 
 If they were temples, to what god or gods were they dedicated? 
 It could hardly have been Mercury, or Apollo, or Mars, Jove, 
 or Minerva, mentioned by Caesar, 1 as the gods worshipped by the 
 Druids — and though perhaps these were only the nearest synonyms 
 of Roman gods applied to Celtic divinities, still there must have 
 been such resemblances as to have justified these appellations. 
 We know of what form the temples of these gods were, and cer- 
 tainly they were not built after the fashion of the circles at Avebury. 
 Some antiquaries have timidly suggested a dedication to the Sun. 
 But there is certainly no passage in any author, classical or 
 mediaeval, which would lead us to suppose that our forefathers 
 were addicted to the worship of a deity so unlikely to be a 
 favourite in such a climate as ours. But again, what is a sun 
 temple ? Does one exist anywhere ? Had the Wiltshire shepherds 
 attempted it, they probably would have found the same difficulty 
 that beset the fire-worshipping Persians of old. It is not easy to 
 get the sun into a temple fashioned by human hands, aud his rays 
 are far more available on high places or on the sea-shore than 
 inside walls or enclosures of any sort. 
 
 Even putting aside the question to what god it was dedicated, 
 what kind of worship could be performed in such a place ? It 
 
 Be]]. Gall.' vi. 17. 
 
Chap. III. AVEBURY AND STONEHEXGE. 67 
 
 could not be for speaking in. Our largest cathedrals are 6C0 
 feet long, and no man would attempt from the altar of the 
 lady chapel to address a crowd beyond the west door ; still less 
 would he in the open air attempt to address a crowd in a circle 
 1200 feet in diameter, and where from the nature of the arrange- 
 ments one half of the audience must be behind him. Still less 
 is it fitted for seeing. The floor of the area is perfectly flat, and 
 though people talk loosely of the crowd that could stand on the 
 vallum, or on the berm, or narrow ledge between the internal 
 ditch and the foot of the rampart, they forget that only one 
 row of persons could stand on a sharp-pointed mound, and that 
 the berm is on the same level as the rest of the floor, and is 
 the last place any one would choose, as 100 great stones were put 
 up in front of it as if especially designed to obstruct the view. 
 This was, in fact, the case with all the stones. Assuming the 
 ceremony or action to take place in the centre of either of the two 
 inner circles, the double row of stones which surround them is so 
 placed as to obstruct the view in every direction to the utmost 
 possible extent. It may be suggested that the priest might climb 
 on to the cap-stone of the cove, in the northern circle, and there 
 perform his sacrifice in sight of the assembled multitude. It 
 would be difficult to conceive any place so ill suited for the 
 purpose ; and even then, how would he manage on the point of 
 the obelisk in the centre of the southern circle ? No place, in fact, 
 can be so ill adapted for either seeing or hearing as Avebury ; 
 and those who erected it would have been below the capacity of 
 ordinary idiots if they designed it for either purpose. Besides 
 this, it has none of the ordinary adjuncts of a temple. There is no 
 sanctuary, no altar, no ark, no procession path, no priests' house, 
 nothing that is found more or less promiuently forming a part of 
 every temple in every part of the world. 
 
 Why so hypeethral ? Are we to understand that the climate of 
 the Wiltshire downs is so perfect and equable that men can afford 
 to dispense wdth roofs or the ordinary protection against weather ? 
 or are we to assume that the men who could move these masses of 
 stone and raise these mounds were such utter savages that they 
 could not erect an enclosed building of any sort ? 
 
 Egypt possesses the finest and most equable climate in the 
 
 f 2 
 
68 ENGLAND. Chap. II r. 
 
 world ; yet all her temples are roofed in a more careful manner 
 and more stately than our mediaeval cathedrals, and so are all 
 those of India and the Eastern climes where shelter is far less 
 wanted than here. In all these countries and climes the temples 
 of the gods are the dwellings or halls of men, enlarged and 
 improved. What they did well for themselves, they did better 
 for their deities. Are men therefore to assume that the Wiltshire 
 shepherd slept on the snow in winter, with no other protection 
 than a circle of widely spaced stones, and had no idea of a roof ? 
 Yet, if he were not hardened by some such process, it is difficult 
 to see why he should build a temple so exposed to the inclemency 
 of the weather that no ceremony could be properly performed in 
 it for one half of the days of the year. 
 
 Another objection to the temple theory that would strike most 
 people, if they would think about it, is the enormous size of 
 Avebury. Its area is at least five times that of St. Peter's at 
 Rome ; 250,000 people could easily be seated within its vallum, 
 and half a million could stand. Men generally try to adapt the 
 size of their buildings to the amount of accommodation required. 
 But where should such a multitude as this come from ? How 
 could they be fed ? How could they be lodged ? There is no 
 reason to suppose that in any ancient time before the introduction 
 of agriculture, the pastoral population on these downs could ever 
 have been greater than, or so great as, that which now exists there. 
 When Doomsday Book was compiled, there were only two hides of 
 arable land in the manor, and they seem to have belonged to the 
 church. A fair inference from which seems to be that, but for 
 the superior knowledge and influence of the priesthood, the in- 
 habitants of these downs might, in the eleventh century, have 
 remained in the same state of pastoral barbarity in which there is 
 every reason to believe they were sunk in pagan times. How a few 
 shepherds, sparsely scattered over these plains, could have erected 
 or have required such a temple as this, is the mystery that requires 
 to be explained. A very small parish church now suffices for 
 their spiritual wants; and if 10,000 pilgrims, even at the present 
 day, when agriculture has been extended to every available patch 
 of ground, visited the place for a week, many of them would be 
 starving before it was over. 
 
Chap. III. AVEBURY AND STONEHENGE. 69 
 
 It would be easy to adduce fifty other arguments of this sort. 
 Many more must indeed occur to any one who will give himself 
 the trouble to think of the matter ; but to those who are accus- 
 tomed to such investigations the two most convincing probably 
 are, first, that there is no evidence whatever of progress in the 
 design of Avebury. It was built and finished as first designed. 
 The second is, that in it there is a total absence of ornament. 
 In India, we have temples as big as Avebury ; but their history 
 is written on their faces. The first step in the process is generally 
 that a small shrine, with a narrow enclosure and small gateway, 
 becomes from some cause or other, sacred or rich, and a second 
 enclosure is added to contain halls for the reception of pilgrims or 
 the ceremonial display on festal occasions. But no god in that 
 pantheon can live alone. New shrines are added for other deities, 
 with new halls, new residences for priests, and more accommo- 
 dation for all the thousand and one requisites of a great idol 
 establishment. This requires a third or fourth new enclosure, up 
 even to a seventh, as at Serin gham. But in all this there is pro- 
 gress : 200 or 300 years are required, and each century — sometimes 
 each decade — leaves its easily recognised mark as the work pro- 
 gresses. In like manner, the great temple at Karnac, though 
 covering only one-third the area of Avebury, took the Egyptians 
 three centuries to build, and every step of its progress can be 
 easily traced. The works of the earlier Thotmes differ essentially 
 from those of Manepthah and Eameses, and theirs again from 
 those of Seshonk ; and these again differ essentially from the little 
 shrine of Osortasen, which was the germ of the whole. 
 
 So it was with all our cathedrals. The small Saxon church was 
 superseded by the Norman nave with a small apsidal choir. This 
 was enlarged into the Early English presbytery, and beyond this 
 grew the lady chapel, and as the ill-built Norman work decayed, 
 it was replaced by Tudor constructions. But there is nothing of 
 the sort at Avebury. Had the temple been built or begun by the 
 sparse inhabitants of these downs, we should have seen something 
 to show where the work began. They must have brought one 
 stone one year and another the next, and inevitably they would 
 have employed their leisure hours, like the inhabitants of Easter 
 Island, in carving these stones either with ornaments, or symbols, 
 
70 ENGLAND. Chap. 111. 
 
 or fashioning them into idols. There is absolutely no instance 
 in the whole world where some evidence of care and of a desire 
 after ornament of some sort is not to be traced in the temples 
 of the people. Nothing, however, of the sort occurs here. 
 Indeed, if there is one thing more evident than another about 
 Avebury, it is that, as it was begun, so it was ended. There is no 
 hesitation, no sign of change : the same men, to all appearance, 
 who traced its plan saw its completion ; and as they designed 
 it, so they left it. There is no sign of any human hand having 
 touched it from that hour henceforward till the sordid greed 
 of modern farmers set to work to destroy it, to build with 
 its materials the alehouse and the village which now occupies a 
 small portion of the enclosure. 
 
 So too with regard to ornament. This structure, we may fairly 
 assume, if a temple, must have been in use for some centuries ; 
 but during that time, or any shorter time that may be assumed, 
 no man had the skill or the inclination to adorn the greatest temple 
 of his native land either with carving or emblems or ornament of 
 any kind. The men who could conceive the great design — so great 
 and noble — could do nothing more. Their hands drooped in listless 
 idleness by their sides, and they were incapable of further exertion ! 
 Such a state of affairs, if not impossible, is certainly unparalleled. 
 No such example exists anywhere else with reference to any 
 temple, so far as we know, in any part of the world. Tombs do 
 show these peculiarities at times, temples never. 
 
 If these reasons are sufficient to prove that Avebury was not a 
 temple, there are more than can be required, to show that it was 
 not a place of meeting of ancient Britons. Whatever may be 
 thought of the extent of prehistoric assemblies, it will hardly be 
 contended that it was necessary to provide accommodation for the 
 250,000 men who could be seated in the great circle. Even 
 supposing it were intended only to accommodate 12,000 or 13,000 
 lords and as many commons in the two subordinate rings, they 
 would hardly have arranged an inner circle of great stones in the 
 middle of each assembly, or placed a spiked obelisk for a woolsack 
 in the one or a tall dolmen under or behind the Speaker's chair in 
 the other. Nothing in fact could be conceived so utterly unsuited 
 for the purpose as these rings, and unless these primeval men 
 
Chap. III. AVEBURY AND STONEHENGE. 71 
 
 were very differently constituted from ourselves, any assembly 
 of elder-men who were likely to meet at Avebury would have pre- 
 ferred a room however rude, and of one-hundredth, part of the 
 extent, for their deliberations to the unsheltered and unsuitable 
 magnificence of the Big Stones. Of course, among all rude people, 
 and often also among those more civilized, open-air assemblies of 
 the people will take place ; but then these will always be near the 
 great centres of population. Men will go into the desert for reli- 
 gious purposes, but they prefer talking politics nearer borne. In 
 some communities a Campus Martius or a Thing field may be set 
 apart for the purpose ; but the first requisite of such a place of 
 assembly is that it shall be open and free from encumbrance of 
 any sort. A Mote hill too, like the terraced Tynwald Mount in 
 the Isle of Man, is an intelligible arrangement, not for a delibera- 
 tive assembly, but as a rostrum from which to proclaim law. We 
 can also understand why Shire courts should be held on barrows, 
 as seems often to have been the case. For here the judge occupied 
 a dignified position on the summit. His assessors stood behind him, 
 and the pleaders and people in front. Instances are also known in 
 the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries where local courts were sum- 
 moned to meet at the "standing stones," or in circles, in Scotland 
 at least; 1 but in all these instances it was apparently to settle 
 territorial disputes on the spot, and the stones or mounds were 
 merely indicated as well-known marks and, consequently, convenient 
 trysting-places. Even if this were not so, it would not be at all 
 to be wondered at that in the middle ages sepulchral circles or 
 mounds were habitually used as meeting-places. They were then 
 old enough to be venerable ; and their antiquity must have con- 
 ferred on them a dignity suitable to the purpose, whatever their 
 original destination may have been. But all this is very different 
 from erecting as a place of assembly so huge and inconvenient 
 a place as Avebury is, and always must have been. 
 
 It seems needless to follow this line of argument further, for unless 
 it can be shown that the people who erected Avebury were so differ- 
 ently constituted from ourselves that no reasoning derived from our 
 experience can be applied to them, the answer seems inevitable. 
 
 1 'Sculptured Stones of Scotland,' ii. p. xli. 
 
72 ENGLAND. Chap. III. 
 
 That no such Temple, nor has any such meeting-place, been 
 built or attempted by any set of men in any part of the world. 
 But is there any reason for supposing that the inhabitants of these 
 downs differed so essentially from ourselves? Dr. Thurnam 
 has examined with care some hundreds of skulls gathered from 
 the grave-mounds in this neighbourhood, and has published 
 decades on decades of them. 1 Yet the most learned craniologists 
 cannot detect — except perhaps in degree — any difference that 
 would lead us to suppose that these ancient men were not actuated 
 by the same motives and governed by the same moral influences as 
 ourselves. If this is so, Avebury certainly was not erected either 
 as a temple or a place of assembly, in any sense of the word which 
 we can understand, and those who insist that it was either are bound 
 to explain what the motives or objects could have been which 
 induced the inhabitants of the Wiltshire downs to act in a manner 
 so entirely opposed to all we know of the actions or feelings of all 
 other nations in all other parts of the world. 
 
 If, therefore, Avebury was neither a temple nor a place of 
 assembly, what was it ? The answer does not seem far to seek. It 
 must have been a burying-place, but still not a cemetery in the 
 ordinary sense of the term. The inhabitants of these downs could 
 never have required a bigger and more magnificent burying-place 
 than any other community in Great Britain, and must always 
 have been quite unequal to raise such a monument. But what is 
 more important than this, a cemetery implies succession in time 
 and gradations in rank, and this is exactly what is most conspi- 
 cuously wanting at Avebury. It may be the monument of one 
 king or two kings, but it is not a collection of the monuments 
 of individuals of various classes in life, or of a series of indi- 
 viduals of the same rank, erected at different intervals of 
 time. As before remarked, it is in one design — " totus teres 
 atque rotundus," erected with no hesitation and no shadow of 
 change. 
 
 If, however, we assume that Avebury was the burying-place of 
 those who fell in a great battle fought on the spot, every difficulty 
 
 1 Thiimam, 'Ciania Britaunica ; ' London, 1S5G to 1865. 
 
Chap. III. AVEBURY AND STONEHENGE. 73 
 
 seems at once to vanish. It is now admitted that men did bury in 
 stone circles or under dolmens, and beside headstones and within 
 earthen enclosures, and what we find here differs only in degree 
 from what we find elsewhere. It seems just such a monument as 
 a victorious army of say 10,000 men could, with their prisoners, 
 erect in a week. The earth is light, and could easily be thrown up 
 into the form of the vallum, and the Sarsen stones lay all over the 
 downs, and all on a higher level than Avebury, which perhaps for 
 that very reason is placed on the lowest spot of ground in the neigh- 
 bourhood. With a few rollers and ropes, 10,000 men would very- 
 soon collect all the stones that ever stood there, and stick them up 
 on their ends. They probably would have no skilled labour in their 
 ranks, and no leisure, if they had, to employ it in ornamentation 
 of any sort. Without this, it is just such a monument as might 
 and would be raised by an illiterate army wishing to bury with 
 honour those who had fallen in the fight, and having at the same 
 time no other means of leaving on the spot a record of their own 
 victory. 
 
 On theoretical grounds, there seems to be no argument that can 
 be urged against this view ; and during the ten years that it has 
 been constantly before the public none have been brought forward 
 that deserve notice. It is urged, however, that the evidence is 
 not complete, and that nothing written serves to confirm this view. 
 Those who make the objection forget that one of the first condi- 
 tions of the problem is that those who erected such a monument 
 should be illiterate. If they could have written to any primeval 
 ' Times,' they would not have taken such pains to lithograph their 
 victory on the spot. Had they been able either to read or 
 write, an inscription would have done more than the 200 or 300 
 stones of Avebury; but because they could not write, they raised 
 them, and, for that reason also, left us the problem of finding out 
 why they did so. 
 
 We are not, however, wholly without evidence on this subject. 
 Many years ago Mr. Kemble printed a charter of King Athelstan, 
 dated in 939, which, describing the boundaries of the manor of 
 Overton, in which Avebury is situated, makes use of the following 
 expression : — " Then by Collas barrow, as far as the broad road to 
 Hackpen, thence northward up along the Stone row, thence to the 
 
74 ENGLAND. Chap. III. 
 
 burying-places." * It does not seem to be a matter of doubt that 
 the stone row here mentioned is the Kennet Avenue, nor that the 
 burying-places (byrgelsas) are the Avebury rings ; but it may be 
 urged that the Saxon surveyor did not know what he was talking 
 about ; and as, unfortunately, he does not say who were buried 
 there, and gives no corroborative evidence, all we learn from this 
 is that they were so considered in the tenth century. 
 
 Something more tangible was nearly obtained shortly before 
 Stukeley's time, when Lord Stawell levelled the vallum next the 
 church, where the great barn now stands. The original surface 
 of the ground was " easily distinguishable by a black stratum of 
 mould on the chalk. Here they found large quantities of buck- 
 horns, bones, oyster-shells, and wood-coals. An old man who 
 was employed on the work says there was a quantity of a cartload 
 of horns, that they were very rotten, and that there were very 
 many burned bones among them." 2 On the same page, Dr. 
 Stukeley adds : " Besides some Eoman coins accidentally found in 
 and about Abury, I was informed that a square bit of iron was taken 
 up under one of the great stones upon pulling it down." Other 
 Roman coins have, I understand, been found there since, but there 
 is no authentic record of the fact which can be quoted. This is to 
 be regretted ; for the presence, if ascertained, of these coins would 
 go far to prove that the erection of the monument was after their 
 date, whatever that may be. 
 
 Unfortunately no scientific man saw these bones, so no one was 
 able to say whether they were human or not ; but the presumption 
 is that they were, for why should burned bones of animals be placed 
 in such a situation ? The answer to this is that the Wiltshire 
 Archaeological Society have made some excavations at Avebury, 
 and found nothing. In 1865, they tapped the vallum in various 
 places, and dug one trench to its centre, and, as they found 
 nothing, concluded that nothing was to be found. But in a mound 
 4442 feet long, according to Sir R. Colt Hoare, there must be 
 many vacant spots, especially if the bodies were burnt ; and such 
 negative evidence cannot be considered as conclusive, nor as suffi- 
 
 1 ' Codex diplomaticus fflvi Saxonici,' v. p. 238, No. 1120. 
 8 Stukeley, ' Stonehenge ami Abury,' p. 27. 
 
Chap. III. AVEBUEY AND STONEHENGE. T5 
 
 cient to disprove the evidence acquired in Lord Stawell's diggings. 
 Stukeley's honesty in recording facts of this sort is hardly to be 
 suspected, though the inferences he draws from his facts are 
 generally to be received with the extremest caution. The Society 
 also dug in the centre of the northern circle, where the dolmen 
 stood, and penetrated to the original chalk, but found nothing 
 except the ruins of the stones which had baen destroyed by fire, 
 and express great disappointment at finding "no human bones 
 whatever." 1 If the bodies were burnt — as we should be led to 
 infer from what Lord Stawell found under the vallum — what they 
 probably would have found, had the " Cove " been complete, would 
 have been a vase or urn with ashes. The barbarians who destroyed 
 the stones are scarcely likely to have spared so worthless a piece 
 of crockery ; and if it were broken at the time, it would be in vain 
 a hundred years afterwards to look either for it or for bones that 
 in all probability were never laid there. Nor need better results 
 have been expected from their trench, 60 feet long. A man must 
 know very exactly what he is looking for, and where to look for it, 
 who expects to find an object like an urn, a foot in diameter, in a 
 28-acre field. Judging from the experience obtained at Crichie, 
 in Scotland, where a funereal deposit was obtained at the foot of 
 every one of a circle of stones that stood inside a ditch like the 
 internal one at Avebury, it is there we should expect to find 
 the deposit. 2 That is just where nobody lias thought of looking 
 at Avebury, though nothing would be easier. There are fifty 
 or sixty empty holes, and any one might without difficulty be 
 enlarged, and if there were a deposit at the foot of each, it would 
 then inevitably be found. 
 
 To this we shall return presently. Meanwhile let us see what 
 evidence, if any, is to be obtained from the circle on Hakpen 
 Hill. 
 
 As before mentioned, this monument consists of two ovals, 
 according to Dr. Stukeley the outer one was 138 by 155 feet and 
 
 1 The particulars are taken from a ' Hist. Society,' printed at Devizes, but, 
 
 pamphlet entitled ' Excavations at Ave- , so far as I know, not yet published, 
 
 bury, under the direction of the Secre- . 2 ' Sculptured Stones of Scotland,' 
 
 tary of the Wiltshire Archaeol. and Nat. | vol. i. introd. p. xx. 
 
76 ENGLAND. Chap. III. 
 
 the inner 45 by 51 feet. He does not give the dimensions of the 
 stones; but Aubrey calls them from 4 to 5 feet in height, which 
 
 is confirmed bv the 
 
 
 <p°° °=>o Doctor's engraving ; 
 
 e* \ and, altogether, 
 
 t> o» oo o . tliey do not seem 
 
 u, • * 
 
 AMt/e ^ ■ « to average one- 
 
 ^?- ^> 1 °ooo c ^ fl quarter the size of 
 
 % e those at Avebury. 
 
 ,2T-, ra => ° ° ""* Of the avenue, onlv 
 
 so too 150 FT 7 J 
 
 i i i i ■ l i i i i I i i i !=n 
 
 SCAt - E four stones are 
 
 16. Circle on Hakpen Hill. From Stukeley. 
 
 shown in the plan 
 woodcut (No. 16), and. the same number is shown in the view 
 (plate xxi.). In both instances, the avenue is represented as per- 
 fectly straight, and as trending rather to the southward of Silbury 
 Hill. 1 It extended, according to Aubrey, a quarter of a mile — 
 say 440 yards. 
 
 The most curious circumstance, however, connected with this 
 circle is that, at the distance of about 80 yards from the outer oval, 
 there were found two rows of skeletons, laid side by side, with 
 their feet towards the centre of the circles. In a curious letter, 
 written by a Dr. Toope, of Oxford, dated 1st December, 1685, 
 addressed to Mi-. Aubrey, and published by Sir E. Colt Hoare, 2 
 it is said: — "I quickly perceived them to be human." "Next 
 day dugg up many bushells, with which I made a noble medicine. 
 The bones are large and nearly rotten, but the teeth extream and 
 wonderfully white. About 80 yards from where the bones were 
 found, is a temple 40 yards diameter, with another 15 yards ; round 
 about bones layd so close that scul toucheth scul. Their feet 
 all round turned towards the temple, 1 foot below the surface of 
 the ground. At the feet of the first order lay the head of the 
 next row, the feet always tending towards the temple." Further 
 
 1 A plan of it was published about 
 Stukeley' s time by a Mr. Twining, in a 
 pamphlet, which was written to prove 
 that this group of monuments was 
 erected by Agricola, to represent a map 
 of England! A plan accompanies it, 
 
 which shows all the avenues as straight ; 
 but what weight can possibly be at- 
 tached to any evidence coming from a 
 man with such a theory as this ? 
 - ' Ancient Wiltshire,' ii. p. 63. 
 
Chap. III. AVEBUEY AND STONE HENGE. 77 
 
 on Aubrey asserts that a ditch surrounded the temple, which 
 Stukeley denies; but there seems no difficulty in reconciling the 
 two statements. The destruction of the monument bad com- 
 menced before Aubrey's time. For it is impossible to conceive 
 bodies lying for even 1000 or 1200 years in so light a soil, at the 
 depth of 1 foot or even 2 feet, exposed to the influence of rain and 
 frost, without their being returned to earth. Most probably there 
 was a ditch, and where there was a ditch there must have been a 
 mound, and that, if heaped over the bodies, might have protected 
 them. The vallum had disappeared in Aubrey's time ; the ditch 
 was filled up before Stukeley's, and stones and all had been 
 smoothed over in Sir R. Colt Hoare's ; so that now the site can 
 hardly be defined with certainty. A trench, however, cut across it, if 
 it can be traced, might lead to some curious revelation?, for there 
 can be no doubt whatever with regard to the facts stated in Dr. 
 Toope's letter. He was a medical man of eminence, and knew 
 human bones perfectly, and was too deeply interested in the 
 diggings, from which he drew " his noble medicine," and to which 
 he frequently returned, to be mistaken in what he stated. 
 
 Meanwhile, however, what interests us more at this stage of 
 the enquiry are the differences as well as the similarities of the 
 two monuments. The circles at Hakpen are on a very much 
 smaller scale both as to linear dimensions and the size of the 
 stones than the circles at Avebury ; and the difference between 
 burning and burying, which, so far as the evidence goes, seems to 
 have prevailed in the two places, is also remarkable. Do they 
 belong to two different ages, and, if so, which is the elder ? The 
 evidence of the tumuli is uniform that the inhabitants of this 
 island buried before they burnt. But can these bones be so old 
 as this would force us to admit they were ? So far as the evidence 
 at present goes, it seems impossible to carry the burials on Hakpen 
 Hill back to the earliest period of prehistoric interments ; the 
 condition of the bones is sufficient to render such an hypothesis 
 untenable. Unless the phosphates and other component adjuncts 
 remained in them, they would have been as useless for medicine as 
 for manure, and the exposed position in which they lay would have 
 reduced these to dust or mud in a very few centuries. From the 
 descriptions we have, the bodies certainly were not in the contracted 
 
78 ENGLAND. Chap. III. 
 
 doubled-up position usual in the so-called bronze age, and there 
 were no traces of the cremations apparently introduced by the 
 Romans, and practised for some time after they left. All appear to 
 have been laid out in the extended position afterwards adopted and 
 continued to the present day. In fact everything would lead us 
 to suppose that Camden was not far wrong in saying that these 
 were the bones of the Saxons and Danes slain at the battle of 
 Kennet in a.d. 1006. 1 Even then, unless there was a mound over 
 them, they could hardly have lasted 600 years in the state in which 
 they were found. If we do not adopt this view, but insist that 
 Hakpen and Avebury are contemporary monuments, and part 
 of one great plan, the only hypothesis that occurs to me that 
 will at all account for their peculiarities is that the victorious 
 army burnt and buried their dead at Avebury, and that the 
 defeated force got permission to bury their dead more modestly 
 on Hakpen Hill. 
 
 Silbury Hill, which forms the third member of our group, is 
 situated nearly due south from Avebury, at a distance of 1200 
 yards from the outside of the ring, of the former, to the foot of 
 
 102f 
 
 SCALE OF FEET. 
 
 Seciion of Silbury Hill. 
 
 the hill, or, as nearly as may be, one Roman mile from centre 
 to centre. Mr. Rickman 2 based an argument on the latter fact, 
 as if it proved the post-Roman origin of the group; and like 
 the many recurring instances of 100 feet and 100 yards, which 
 run through all the megalithic remains, it may have some value, 
 but, as a single instance, it can only be looked upon as a co- 
 incidence. 
 
 The dimensions of the hill, as ascertained by the Rev. Mr. Smith, 
 
 1 Camden, ' Britannia,' 127. " ' Archa?ologia,' xxviii. p. 399 et seqq. 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 AVE BURT AND STONEHENGE. 
 
 79 
 
 of Yatesbury, 1 are that it is 130 feet in height, 552 feet in 
 diameter, and 1657 feet in circumference ; that the flat top is 
 104 feet or 102 feet across, 2 according to the direction in which 
 it is measured ; this last being another Eoman coincidence, as 
 the top has no doubt both sunk and spread. The angle of the 
 slope of the sides is 30 degrees to the horizon. 
 
 In the year 1777 a shaft was sunk from the top of the mound 
 to the base, by order of the then Duke of Northumberland and 
 Colonel Drax, but no record has been preserved of what they 
 found, or rather did not find, for had they made any discovery 
 of the least importance, it certainly would have been communi- 
 cated to some of the learned societies of the day. Subsequently, 
 in 1849, a shaft was driven nearly horizontally from the southern 
 face on the level of the original soil to the centre, where it met 
 the Duke's shaft ; and subsequently a circular gallery was carried 
 round the centre, but in vain ; nothing was found in these excava- 
 tions that would show that the mound had ever been used for 
 sepulchral purposes, or that threw any light whatever on its 
 history or destination. 3 
 
 Judging from the analogies gathered from our knowledge of 
 the parallel Indian series, we ought not to be surprised if this 
 really were the only result. From the accounts of the Chinese 
 travellers who visited India in the fifth and seventh centuries, we 
 learn that about one-half of the topes they saw and described 
 were erected to commemorate events, and not to contain relics, or 
 as simulated tombs. Wherever Buddha or any of his followers 
 performed any miracles, or where any event happened of sufficient 
 importance to make it desirable that the memory of the locality 
 where it happened should be preserved, there a Tope was erected. 
 To take an example as bearing more directly than usual on our 
 present subject. When Dutthagamini, king of Ceylon (161 B.C.), 
 
 1 ' Journal Wiltshire Archseol. and 
 Nat. Hist. Society,' vii. p. 1861. 
 
 2 Curiously enough these dimensions 
 are almost identical with those of the 
 mound erected by the Belg'c-Dutch, to 
 commemorate the part they did not take 
 in the battle of Waterloo. Its dimen- 
 sions are 130 feet high, 544 feet in 
 
 diameter, and 1632 feet in circumfer- 
 ence. The angle of the slope of the 
 sides is lower, being 27J degrees, owing 
 to the smaller diameter of the flat top, 
 which is only 40 feet. 
 
 3 Douglas, 'Nenia Brit.' p. 161. See 
 also Salisbury volume of the Archaeolo- 
 gical Institute, p. 74. 
 
80 ENGLAND. Chap. III. 
 
 defeated the usurper Ellala, and restored the trr.e faith, "he 
 erected near the capital a dagoba in commemoration of his victory. 
 A stone pillar marks the spot where the action commenced, and 
 another stone pillar exists there with an inscription to the effect 
 that it marks the spot rendered sacred by the death and blood of 
 Ellala." 1 The dagoba is a simple mound of earth, and, so far as 
 known, has never been opened. In Afghanistan, many of the topes 
 opened by Messrs. Masson and Honigberger were found to be 
 what they call " blind topes," but they were not able to detect 
 by any external sign whether their researches were likely to be 
 rewarded with success or to end in disappointment. 2 
 
 Whether these analogies are worth anything or not, nothing 
 appears, at first sight at least, more probable than that, if the 
 fallen chiefs of a victorious army are buried at Avebury, the 
 survivors should have employed their prisoners as slaves to erect 
 a mound on the spot probably where the chiefs were slain and 
 the battle decided. The tradition, however, having been lost, the 
 mound stands silent and uncommunicative, and it is not easy now 
 to read its riddle. 
 
 It is very premature, however, to speculate either on these analogies 
 or on the negative results of the explorations made into the hill : 
 these last were undertaken, like the diggings at Avebury, on the 
 empirical assumption that the principal deposit would be found in 
 the centre, and at Silbury on the ground level, which is exactly the 
 place where almost certainly it was not. Supposing that there is a 
 low-level sepulture at Silbury, it probably will be found within 
 30 or 40 yards of the outer face of the mound, on the side looking 
 towards Avebury, if it is connected with that monument. But 
 the knowledge Ave have acquired, as will be afterwards detailed, 
 from the examination of the Minning Lowe, Arbor Lowe, Rose 
 Hill tumuli, and other monuments of this class, would lead us 
 to expect to find the principal deposit near the summit. The 
 bit of a bridle (woodcut No. 18) and the traces of armour which 
 were found in Stukeley's time, near the summit, mark in all 
 
 1 ' Journal Eoyal Asiatic Soc.' xiii. p. 164 ; and Major Skinner's plan of 
 Anurajapura. 
 
 2 Wilson, ' Ariana Antiqua,' p. 41 ; and Masson*s ' Memoir," passim, 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 AVEBUEY AND STONEHENGE. 
 
 81 
 
 18. Iron Bit of Bridle. Found in Silbury Hill. 
 
 probability the position of the principal' graves, and nothing would 
 surprise me less than if five or six entombments were found 
 arranged around the upper 
 plateau at a small depth below 
 the surface. We shall be in 
 a better position to judge how 
 far this is probable when we 
 have finished this chapter; 
 but till the evidence is ad- 
 duced, it is useless to speculate on its effect. 
 
 At one time I hoped that the Roman road might be found to have 
 passed under the hill, and if this were the case, it would settle the 
 question as to whether it were pre- or post-Roman. In order to 
 ascertain this, some excavations were made into the hill in 1867, 
 and simultaneously on the high ground to the southward of it. 
 As traces which seemed undoubtedly to mark the existence of the 
 road running past the hill, at about 50 to 100 yards to the south- 
 ward, were found there, the excavations into the hill were dis- 
 continued, and the line of the road considered as established. 
 Owing to various mishaps, no plan of these discoveries has yet 
 been published, but the annexed woodcut, which is traced from 
 
 f^ms^ff^iij^^^ Jr ,r J|y 
 
 19. Plan of Avebury, from Ordnance Survey. The line of the Roman road is hatched throughout. 
 
 the Ordnance Survey sheet, will suffice to explain its bearing on 
 the question. 
 
 Standing on Silbury Hill and looking westward, the road coming 
 from Bath over the downs seems to come direct at the hill. After 
 passing the Devizes road, it trends to the southward, and shortly 
 
 G 
 
82 ENGLAND. Chap. III. 
 
 again resumes its orio-inal direction. About a mile before it reaches 
 
 the hill, it again resumes its southward direction, and passes it 
 
 at a distance of between 50 to 100 yards, making, apparently, 
 
 for the spot where the bridge over the Kennet now exists, and 
 
 may have existed in Koman times. Those who contend for the 
 
 pre-Eoman antiquity of the hill rest their case on the assumption 
 
 that the Romans always made or wished to make their roads 
 
 perfectly straight, and that this being deflected to the south, 
 
 it was in consequence of the hill being there at the time the road 
 
 was made. This, however, is singularly contradicted by the line 
 
 of this very road westwards from the Devizes road. According to 
 
 the Ordnance Survey, it is set out in a curve for 3^ miles till 
 
 it meets the Wands-dyke. Why this was done is not clearer 
 
 than why the road should have been curved to the eastward of 
 
 the Devizes road. But, on the other hand, supposing the hill to 
 
 have been where it now stands, and the Romans wished the road 
 
 to be straight, nothing in the world was so easy as for them to 
 
 set out a line mathematically straight between the Devizes road 
 
 and the point where it passes the hill. The country is and was 
 
 perfectly open, and quite as flat as any Roman road-maker could 
 
 desire, and signals could have been seen throughout with perfect 
 
 facility. It is crediting the Roman surveyors with a degree of 
 
 stupidity they certainly did not show elsewhere, to say, if they 
 
 wanted a straight road, that seeing the hill before their eyes, they 
 
 first set out their road towards it, when they knew that before 
 
 they had advanced a mile, they must bend it so as to avoid that 
 
 very obstacle. Even then they would have tried to make it as 
 
 straight as possible, and would have adopted the line of the 
 
 present coach-road, which runs inside their line and between it 
 
 and the hill. At the same time, if any one will turn to Sir R. 
 
 Colt Hoare's map of the Roman roads in this district — " Stations 
 
 Calne and Swindon" — which includes Avebury, he will find that 
 
 all are set out in lines more or less curvilinear, and sometimes 
 
 violently so, when any object was to be gained by so doing. 
 
 Though, therefore, as a general rule, it is safe to argue on the 
 
 presumption of the straightness of Roman roads, it may lead to 
 
 serious error to rely on such evidence in every instance. 
 
 The inference drawn from the piece of the Roman road further 
 
Chap. III. AYEBURY AND STONEHENGE. 83 
 
 eastward on Hakpen Hill is the same. It is perfectly distinct and 
 quite straight for about a mile, but if it had been continued in that 
 line, it would have passed the hill at a distance of at least 200 yards 
 to the southward, and never have joined the other piece till long 
 after it had passed the Devizes road. It was deflected northward 
 in the village of Kennet, apparently to reach the bridge, and then 
 to join the piece coming from Bath. 
 
 The result of all this seems to be, that the evidence of the 
 Roman road is inconclusive either way and must be withdrawn. 
 Taking the point where it passes the Devizes road, and the piece 
 which is found on Hakpen hill as fixed points, to join these it 
 must have passed considerably to the southward of the hill; 
 whether it did so in a mathematically straight line or in one 
 slightly curved, was a matter for the judgment of the surveyor ; 
 but till we know his motives, it is not in our power to found any 
 argument upon them. 
 
 If, however, the Roman road refuses to give evidence in this 
 cause, the form of the hill offers some indications which are of 
 value. As before mentioned, it is a truncated straight-lined cone, 
 sloping at an angle of 30° to the horizon, while all the British 
 
 20. Elevation of the Bartlow Hills. From the ' Archajologia,' xxx. 
 
 barrows known are domical or, at least, curvilinear in section. 
 In all his experience, Sir R. Colt Hoare met with only one 
 straight -lined monument of this class, which consequently he 
 calls the Conical Barrow. Whether it was truncated or not is not 
 quite clear. There are bushes, or weeds, growing out of the top, 
 which conceal its form. 1 Nothing was found in the barrow to 
 indicate its age except a brass (bronze?) spear-head, but it was 
 attached to a British village, apparently of the Roman period, 
 inasmuch as iron nails and Roman pottery were found in it. 2 
 Be this as it may, there are a range of tumuli at Bartlow, on the 
 
 1 Sir R. C. Hoare, ' Ancient Wiltshire,' i. pi. ii. fig. 8. 2 Ibid. i. p. 191. 
 
 G 2 
 
84 ENGLAND. Chai\ IK. 
 
 boundary between Essex and Cambridgeshire, which are all 
 truncated cones, and are undoubtedly of Koraan origin. A coin 
 of Hadrian was found in the chamber of one of them, and 
 Mr. Gage, and the other archaeologists who were present at the 
 opening, were all agreed that all the four opened were of about the 
 same age. 1 We may therefore feel assured that they were not earlier 
 than the time of Hadrian, though from the style of workmanship 
 of the various articles found, I would feel inclined to consider 
 them somewhat more modern, but that is of little consequence. 
 The point that interests us most is, that the angle of the Conical 
 Barrow quoted above is 45° to the horizon, that of the principal 
 tumuli at Bartlow 37|°, and that of Silbury Hill 30°. Here we 
 certainly have a sequence not long enough to be quite satis- 
 factory, but still of considerable value, as an indication that 
 Silbury hill was post-Koman. 
 
 On the other hand, we have undoubted evidence that the 
 truncated conical form was common in post-Roman times. We 
 have one, for instance, at Marlborough, close by, and if that place 
 was Merlin's bury, as Sir R. Colt Hoare would fain persuade us it 
 was, it assists us considerably in our argument. Without insisting 
 on this, however, Mr. George Clark, in his most valuable paper 
 on Ancient English Castles, 2 enumerates ninety truncated cones 
 erected in England, he considers, between the Roman times and 
 the Norman conquest. "These earthworks," he says, "may be 
 thus described : First was cast up a truncated cone of earth, 
 standing at its natural slope from 50 feet to 100 feet in diameter 
 at the top, and from 20 feet to 50 feet high." 3 Mr. Clark does 
 not believe that these were ever sepulchral, nor does it occur 
 to him that they might be memorial. I should, however, be 
 disinclined to accept the first conclusion as absolute till excava- 
 tions had been made into some of them, at least, where I fancy 
 we may find indications rather tending the other way. Whether 
 they were memorial or not must depend on traditions that 
 have not hitherto been looked for. Mr. Clai-k's contention 
 was that all had at some time or other been used for resi- 
 
 1 ' Archfeologia.' xxx. p. 300 et seqq. 2 ' Arch. Journ.,' xxiv. pp. 92 and 319. 
 
 3 Ibid. p. 100. 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 AVEBUEY AND STONEHENGE. 
 
 85 
 
 dential purposes, and as fortifications, and many are recorded 
 as having been erected as castles. All this is probably quite 
 correct, but the point that interests us here is, that there are 
 nearly one hundred examples of truncated cones of earth thrown 
 up in England after the Koman times, and not one before. If this 
 is so, the conclusion seems inevitable that Silbury Hill must belong 
 to the latter age. Whether this conclusion can be sustained or 
 not, must depend on what follows from the other monuments we 
 are about to examine. The evidence of the monument itself, 
 which is all we have hitherto had an opportunity of bringing 
 forward, may be sufficient to render it probable, but not to prove 
 the case. Unless other examples can be adduced whose evidence 
 tends the same way, the case cannot be taken as proved, however 
 strong a prima facie presumption may be established. 
 
 Though a little distant, it may be convenient to include the 
 Marden circle in the Avebury group. It is situated in a village 
 of that name seven miles 
 south of Silbury Hill. 
 When Sir E. Colt Hoare 
 surveyed it fifty years ago, 
 the southern half of the 
 vallum had been so com- 
 pletely destroyed, that it 
 could not be traced, and 
 he carried it across the 
 brook, making the "whole 
 area about fifty-one acres. 1 
 My impression is that this 
 is a mistake, and that the 
 
 area of the circle was only about half that extent. The rampart 
 was of about the same section as Avebury, and the ditch was inside 
 as there. Within this enclosure were two mounds, situated un- 
 symmetrically, like the circles at Avebury. The greater one was 
 opened with great difficulty, owing to the friable nature of the 
 earth of which it was composed ; and Mr. Cunnington was con- 
 
 21. Marden Circle. From Sir R. C. Hoare. No Scale. 
 
 1 ' Ancient Wiltshire,' ii. 5. Unfortunately there is no scale attached to the plan 
 of the Marden Circle, and no dimensions quoted in the text. 
 
86 ENGLAND. Chap. III. 
 
 vinced that it was sepulchral, and contained one or more burials by 
 cremation ; but Sir K. Colt Hoare was so imbued with the Druidical 
 theory as to Avebury, that he could not give up the idea that so 
 similar a monument must be also a Druidical altar, and the whole 
 a temple. The second barrow was too much ruined to yield any 
 results, and on revisiting the spot, it was found to have been 
 cleared away. A great part of the vallum had also been removed, 
 but in it was found at least one skeleton of a man who had been 
 buried there. 1 How many more there may have been it is im- 
 possible to say. The destroyers of these antiquities were not likely 
 to boast of the number of bodies they had disturbed. 
 
 The great interest of this circle is that it contains in earth the 
 counterpart of what was found at Avebury in stone ; not that this 
 necessarily betokens either an earlier or a later age. There are 
 no stones to be found at Marden, which is on the edge of the 
 chalk, while the country about Avebury was and is covered with 
 Sarsens to this day. It may, however, be considered as very 
 positive evidence of the sepulchral nature of that monument, 
 if such were needed, and if it were thoroughly explored, might 
 perhaps settle the question of the age of both. In this respect, 
 the Marden monument affords a better field for the explorer than 
 Avebury. The destruction or disfigurement of its mound, or 
 vallum, would be no great loss to antiquaries, if a proper record 
 were kept of their present appearance ; while to do anything 
 tending towards the further dilapidation of Avebury is a sacrilege 
 from which every one would shrink. 
 
 Before leaving the neighbourhood it now only remains to try 
 and determine who the brave men were who were buried at 
 Avebury, and who the victors who raised the mound at Silbury, 
 assuming that the one is a burying place, and the other a trophy. 
 Some years ago I suggested it was those who fell in Arthur's last 
 and greatest battle of Badon Hill, fought somewhere in this 
 neighbourhood in the year a.d. 520, 2 and nothing that has since 
 
 1 ' Ancient Wiltshire,' p. 7. 
 
 2 I adopt Dr. Guest's dates for this 
 pari of the subject, not only because I 
 
 think, from his knowledge and the special 
 attention he has bestowed on the subject, 
 he is most likely to be right. See SaHs- 
 
 11 link them most probable, but because I bury Volume Arch. Journal, p. 62. 
 
Chap. III. AVEBUKY AND STONEHENGE. 87 
 
 occurred has at all shaken my conviction in the correctness of this 
 determination, 1 but a good deal has tended to confirm it. 
 
 The authors of the ' Monumenta Britannica ' fix the site of this 
 battle at Banesdown, near Bath, which is the generally received 
 opinion. 2 Carte, and others, have suggested Baydon Hill, about 
 thirteen miles west by north from Avebury, while Dr. Guest 
 carries it off to Badbury, in Dorset, 3 a distance of forty miles. 
 Unfortunately, Gildas, who is our principal authority on this 
 matter, only gives us in three words all he has to say of the 
 locality in which it was fought — " Prope Sabrinum Ostium" ; 4 and 
 it has been asserted that these words are an interpolation, be- 
 cause they are not found in all the ancient MSS. If they are, 
 however, an insertion, they are still of very ancient date, and 
 would not have been admitted and repeated if they had not been 
 added by some one who knew or had authority for introducing 
 them. As the words are generally translated, they are taken 
 to mean near the mouth of the Severn, a construction at once 
 fatal to the pretensions of Bath, which it is impossible any one 
 should describe as near that river, even if any one could say where 
 the mouth of that river is. It is most difficult to determine 
 where the river ends and the estuary begins, and to a mediaeval 
 geographer, especially, that point must have been much nearer 
 Gloucester than even Bristol. This, however, is of little conse- 
 quence, as the words in the text are not " Sabrinse ostium," but 
 " Sabrinum ostium " ; and as the river is always spoken of as 
 feminine, it is not referred to here, and the expression can only be 
 translated as " near the Welsh gate." Nor does it seem difficult 
 to determine where the Welsh gate must have been. 
 
 The Wandsdyke always seems to have been regarded as a barrier 
 erected to stop the incursions of the Welsh into the southern 
 counties, and that part of it extending from Savernake forest west- 
 ward, for ten or twelve miles, seems at some comparatively recent 
 period to have been raised and strengthened 5 (either by the Belgae 
 or Saxons) to make it more effectual for that purpose. According 
 as an army is advancing northward from Winchester, or Chichester 
 
 1 ' Athenfeum Journal,' Dec. 13, 1865. 
 
 2 ' Mori. Brit.' p. 15. 
 
 3 ' Salisbury Vol.' p. Go. 
 
 4 ' Mon. Brit.' p. 15. 
 
 5 Colt Hoare, ' Ancient Wiltshire,' ii. 
 p. 22. 
 
88- ENGLAND. Chap. III. 
 
 to the Severn valley, or is marching from Gloucester or Cirencester 
 towards the south, the rampart either protects or bars the way. 
 In its centre, near the head-waters of the Kennet, the Saxons 
 advanced in 557 to the siege of Barbury Castle, and having gained 
 that vantage ground, they again advanced in 577 to Deorham, and 
 fought the battle that gave them possession of Glewanceaster, 
 Cvrenceaster, and Bathanceaster. 1 What they then accomplished 
 they seem to have attempted unsuccessfully thirty-seven years 
 earlier, and to have been stopped in the attempt by Arthur at 
 Badon Hill. If this is so, there can be very little difficulty in 
 determining the site of the Welsh gate as that opening through 
 which the road now passes 2J miles south of Silbury Hill, in the 
 very centre of the strengthened part of the Wandsdyke. If this 
 is so, the Saxons under Cerdic must have passed through the 
 village of Avebury, supposing it then existed, on their way to 
 Cirencester ; and if we assume that they were attacked on Waden 
 hill by Arthur, the whole history of the campaign is clear. If we 
 may rely on a nominal similarity the case may be considered as 
 proved. Waden is the name by which the hill between Avebury 
 and Silbury is called at the present day by the people of the 
 country, and it is so called on the Ordnance survey sheets, 
 and etymologically Waden is more like Badon than Baydon, or 
 Badbury, or any other name in the neighbourhood. The objection 
 to this is that Waden Hill is not fortified, and that Gildas speaks of 
 the " Obsessio Montis Badonici." It is true there is no trace of any 
 earthworks on it now, but in Stukeley's time there were tumuli 
 and earthen rings (apparently sepulchral) on its summit, which are 
 represented in his plates ; but no trace of these now remains. 
 The hill was cultivated in his day, and in a century or so beyond 
 his time all traces of ramparts may have been obliterated, supposing 
 them to have existed. The true explanation of the difficulty, how- 
 ever, I believe to be found in Jeffrey of Monmouth's account of these 
 transactions. He is a frail reed to rely upon; but occasionally 
 he seems to have had access to authorities now lost, and their 
 testimony at times throws considerable light on passages of our 
 history otherwise obscure. According to him there was both a 
 
 1 Saxon Chronicle, in ' Mon. Brit.' p. 304. 
 
Chap. III. AVEBURY AXD STONEHENGE. 89 
 
 siege and a battle; and his account of the battle is so circum- 
 stantial and so probable, that it is difficult to believe it to be 
 a pure invention. If it is not, every detail of his description 
 would answer perfectly to an attack on an army posted on Waden 
 Hill. 1 The siege would then probably be that of Barbury Hill, 
 which Cerdic would be obliged to raise on Arthur's advance ; and 
 retreating towards the shelter of the Wandsdyke, he was over- 
 taken at this spot aDd defeated, and so peace was established for 
 many years between the Brits and the Saxons. It may be true 
 that the written evidence is not either sufficiently detailed or 
 sufficiently precise to establish the fact that the battle was 
 fought on this spot. It must, however, be conceded that 
 nothing in all that is written contradicts what is here advanced, 
 and when to this we add • such a burying place, Avebury at 
 one end of Waden Hill, and such a monument as Silbury Hill 
 at the other, the proofs that it was so seem to me to amount as 
 nearly to certainty as we can now expect to arrive at in such 
 matters. 
 
 Those who believe, however, that all these monuments are 
 absolutely prehistoric, will not, of course, be convinced by any 
 argument derived from a single monument ; but if it should turn 
 out that even a more certain case can be made out for the 
 equally modern age of others, that point must eventually be con- 
 ceded. When it is, I feel no doubt that it will come eventually to 
 be acknowledged that those who fell in Arthur's twelfth and 
 greatest battle were buried in the ring at Avebury, and that 
 those who survived raised these stones and the mound at 
 Silbury in the vain hope that they would convey to their latest 
 posterity the memory of their prowess. 
 
 Stonehenge. 
 
 Although from its exceptional character Stonehenge is not so 
 valuable as some others for evidence of the age or uses of the rest 
 of the monuments of this class, it is in some respects even more im- 
 portant for our argument, inasmuch as it possesses a more complete 
 
 1 ' Jeffrey of Monmouth..' ix. p. 4. 
 
90, 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 Chap. III. 
 
 mediaeval history than almost any other of the series. It must 
 be confessed that this history is neither so clear nor so complete 
 as might be wished; but, with the other evidence that can be 
 adduced, it makes up a case so strong as to leave little to be 
 desired. Before, however, proceeding to this, it is necessary to 
 ascertain what Stonehenge really is, or rather was, for strange 
 
 „«mHl»'»'«"""' '""»«IIIIH„„„ 
 
 General Plan of Stonehenge. From ' Knight's Old England.' 
 
 to say, though numberless restorations of it have been published, 
 not one is quite satisfactory. There is very little discrepancy of 
 opinion with regard to the outer circle or the five great central 
 trilithons, but there is the greatest possible variety of opinion as to 
 the number and position of the smaller stones inside the central or 
 between the two great circles. 
 
 There seems to be no doubt that the outer stone circle originally 
 consisted of thirty square piers, spaced tolerably equally in the 
 circle. Though only twenty-six can now be identified, either 
 standing or lying in fragments on the ground, it seems equally 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 AVEBUEY AND STONEHENGE. 
 
 91 
 
 certain that they were all connected by a continuous stone 
 impost or architrave, though only six of these are now in situ. 1 
 The diameter of the circle is generally stated to be about 100 feet, 
 and as this has been suggested as a reason for its being considered 
 as post-Roman, it is important to know what its exact dimensions 
 are. It turns out that from the face of one pier to that of the 
 opposite one, where both are perpendicular, the distance is 97'6, 
 or exactly 100 Roman feet. The distance from the outer face of 
 these piers to inside of the earthen vallum that surrounds the whole 
 is again 100 feet, though that cannot now be ascertained within 
 a foot or two, or even more ; but as this makes up the 100 yards 
 and the 100 feet which recur so often in these monuments, these 
 dimensions can hardly be considered accidental, and "valeant 
 quantum " are an indication of their post-Roman date. 2 
 
 Inside these outer circles stand the five great trilithons. Since 
 the publication of Sir R. Colt Hoare's plan, their position and plan 
 may be considered as settled. According to him, the height of 
 the outer pair is 16'3, of the intermediate pair 17*2, and of the 
 great central trilithon as it now stands 21*6. In their simple 
 grandeur they are perhaps the most effective example of mega- 
 lithic art that ever was executed by man. The Egyptians and 
 Romans raised larger stones, but they destroyed their grandeur 
 by ornament, or by their accompaniments ; but these simple square 
 masses on Salisbury plain are still unrivalled for magnificence in 
 their own peculiar style. 
 
 1 The history of the plan given on 
 page 92, and from which all the dimen- 
 sions in the text are quoted, is this. 
 When I was staying with my friend, 
 Mr. Hawkshaw, the eminent engineer, 
 at Eversley, I was complaining of the 
 incorrectness of all the published plans, 
 when he said, " I have a man in my office 
 whose plans are the very essence of minute 
 accuracy. I will send him down to make 
 one for you." He did so, and his plan 
 —to a scale of 10 feet to 1 inch, is before 
 me. I afterwards took this plan to 
 Stonehenge, and identified the position 
 and character of every stone marked 
 upon it. 
 
 2 I am almost afraid to allude to it 
 even in a note, lest some one should 
 accuse me of founding any theory upon 
 it, like Piazzi Smyth's British inches in 
 the Pyramids, but it is a curious coinci- 
 dence that nearly all the British circles 
 are set out in two dimensions. The 
 smaller class are 100 feet, the larger 
 are 100 metres in diameter. They are 
 all more than 100 yards. The latter 
 measure is at all events certainly acci- 
 dental, so far as we at present know, 
 but as a nomenclature and "memoria 
 technica," the employment of the terms 
 may be useful, provided it is clearly under- 
 stood that no theory is based upon it. 
 
92 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 Chap. III. 
 
 All the stones in these two great groups are Sarsens, as they are 
 locally called, a peculiar class of silicious sandstone that is found 
 as a local deposit in the bottoms of the valleys between Salisbury 
 and Swindon. It is the same stone as is used at Avebury, the 
 difference being that there the stones are used rough in their 
 natural state, here they are hewn and fitted with very considerable 
 nicety. Each of the uprights has a tenon on its surface, and the 
 undersides of the architrave, or horizontal piece, have each a 
 mortice, or rather two mortices, into which these tenons fit with 
 considerable exactness. 
 
 23. Stonehenge as at present existing, from Mr. Hawkshaw'e plan. 
 
 Besides these there are even now eleven stones, some standing, 
 others thrown down, but still existing, within the inner circle. 
 These are of a different nature, being all cut from igneous rocks, 
 such as are not to be found nearer than Cornwall or even Ireland. 
 It has not been exactly ascertained whence they came ; indeed, 
 they seem to be of various kinds, and consequently must have 
 been brought from different places. Locally they are called Blue 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 AVEBURY AND STONEHENGE. 
 
 93 
 
 stones, and it may be well to adopt that short title for the present, 
 as involving no theory, and as sufficing to distinguish them from 
 the local Sarsens. 
 
 None of the blue stones are large ; one of the finest (23 in Sir E. 
 Colt Hoare's plan) is 7 feet 6 inches high, 2 feet 3 inches wide at 
 base, tapering to 1 foot on top. The others are generally smaller. 
 One blue stone opposite 23 is grooved with a channel from top to 
 bottom, though for what purpose it is not easy to guess. On the 
 most cursory glance, it is evident that these stones generally stood 
 
 SCALE 
 
 Plan of Stonehenge restored. 
 
 in pairs, about 3 feet apart; but some are so completely over- 
 thrown and displaced, that it is not quite clear whether this can 
 be predicated of all. Entering the choir on the left hand we find 
 one that seems to stand alone. But we may infer that this was 
 not always so, from the circumstance that there lies close by it an 
 impost stone with two mortice holes in it, only 3 feet 6 inches 
 apart, which must have belonged to a smaller order of trilithons, 
 
94 ENGLAND. Chap. III. 
 
 and is just such as would fit a pair of blue stones. The next pair 
 on the left is very distinct, and stands between the two great 
 trilitbons. The next pair is also similarly situated. On the op- 
 posite side there are two pairs, but situated, as far as can be made 
 out, in front of, and not between the trilithons ; and again, there 
 are two blue stones behind the stone called the Altar stone, but 
 so displaced by the fall of the great trilithon behind them, that 
 it is impossible to make out their original position with certainty. 
 
 It will probably be impossible to determine whether all the 
 pairs of the stones were miniature trilithons or not, till we are able 
 to turn over all the stones that now strew the ground, and see if 
 there is a second stone with two mortices 3 or 4 feet apart. In 
 the meanwhile there is a passage in Henry of Huntingdon's work 
 which may throw some light on the subject. He describes 
 "Lapides mirae magnitudinis in modum portarum elevati sunt, 
 ita ut porta? portis superpositoe videantur." l With a very little 
 latitude of translation, this might be taken as referring to the 
 great trilithons towering over the smaller ; but if we are to adhere 
 to the literal meaning of the words, this is inadmissible. Another 
 explanation has therefore been suggested. The impost stone of 
 the great trilithon has apparently mortice holes on both sides. If 
 those on one side are not mere wearings of the weather, this must 
 indicate that something stood upon it. If we assume two cubical 
 blocks, and raise on them the stone now called the Altar stone, 
 which is of the exact dimensions required, we would have an 
 arrangement very similar to that of the Sanchi gateway, 2 a cast 
 of which is now exhibiting at South Kensington, and which would 
 fully justify Huntingdon's words. If it is objected that it is a 
 long way to go to Sanchi to look for a type, it may be answered 
 that the Imperial coins of Cyprus show a very similar construction, 
 and both may be derived from a common centre. On the whole, 
 however, I am inclined to the first explanation. There certainly 
 were large and small trilithons, and too great accuracy of 
 description is not to be expected from a Latin writer in the 
 middle ages. 
 
 A good deal of astonishment has been expressed at the labour 
 
 1 ' Historia,' in 'Mon. Brit.' 694. 2 'Tree and Serpent Worship,' by the author, 
 plates iii. et seqq. 
 
Chap. III. AVEBURY AND STONEHENGE. 95 
 
 it must have required to transport these blue stoues from Cornwall 
 or Wales and to set them up here. If we refer them to the pre- 
 Roruan times of our naked blue painted ancestors, the difficulties 
 are, of course, considerable. But after Roman times, the class of 
 vessels they were in the habit of building in these islands must 
 have made their transport by sea easy, even if they came from 
 Ireland, as I believe they did. And any one who has seen with 
 what facility Chinese coolies carry about monolithic pillars 10 feet 
 and 12 feet long, and thick in proportion, will not wonder that 
 twenty or thirty men should transport these from the head of 
 Southampton water to Stonehenge. 1 With the works the Romans 
 left, and the modicum of civilization the natives could not fail to 
 have imbibed from them, the whole was simple, and must have 
 been easy. 
 
 Still more wonder lias been expressed at the mass of the stones 
 composing the great trilithons themselves, and speculations have 
 been rife as to how our forefathers could, without machinery, drag 
 these masses to the spot, and erect them as they now stand. 
 A good deal of this wonder has been removed, since it was under- 
 stood that the Sarsens of which they are composed are a natural 
 deposit, found on the surface on all the bottoms in the Wiltshire 
 downs. Owing to the progress of civilization, they have disap- 
 peared about Salisbury, but they are still to be seen in hundreds 
 in Clatford bottom, and all about Avebury, and in the northern 
 portion of the downs. The distance, therefore, that the stones of 
 Stonehenge had to be dragged was probably very small ; and over 
 a hard, even surface of chalk down, with a few rollers and ropes, 
 must have been a task of no great difficulty. Nor would the 
 process of blocking them up with a temporary mound composed of 
 wood and chalk be one that would frighten a rude people with 
 whom time was no object. After all, Stonehenge is only child's 
 play as compared with the monolithic masses the Egyptians 
 quarried, and carved, and moved all over their country, long- 
 before Stonehenge was thought of, and without machinery in the 
 sense in which we understand the term. In India, our grand- 
 fathers might have seen far more wonderful things clone before we 
 
 1 Twenty Chinese coolies would carry any one of them up in a week. 
 
96 ENGLAND. Chap. 111. 
 
 crushed all feeling and enterprise ont of the people. The great 
 gateway, for instance, at Seringhani is 40 feet high, 21 feet wide, 
 and 100 feet deep. The four door posts are each of a single block 
 of granite, more, consequently, than 40 feet in length, for they 
 are partially buried in the earth. The whole is roofed by slabs of 
 granite, each more than 21 feet long, and raised to the height 
 of 40 feet; and all of these, though of granite, are elaborately 
 carved. Yet the building of the gateway was stopped by our 
 quarrel with the French for the possession of Trichinopoly in the 
 middle of the last century. The Indians in those days had no 
 machinery, but with plenty of hands and plenty of leisure moun- 
 tains may be raised ; and it is on this principle that barbarous 
 nations act and by which they achieve such wonders. The masses 
 of Stonehenge are not, however, so very great after all, but they 
 impose by their simplicity. To use an apparent paradox, it is one 
 of the most artistic buildings in the world from its very want 
 of art. The 40 feet monoliths of Seringham do not impress as 
 much as the 20 feet stones of Stonehenge, because the one is 
 covered with sculpture, the other more nearly in a state of nature, 
 and the effect on the mind is immensely enhanced by the 
 monolithic simplicity of the whole. 
 
 Strange to say, this very grandeur and apparent difficulty is one 
 of the most common reasons adduced for its pre-Roman antiquity. 
 Few can escape from an ill-defined impression that what is great 
 and difficult must also be ancient, though the probability is, that 
 if the feeling were analyzed it would be found to have arisen from 
 the learning we imbibed in the nursery, and which told us of the 
 giants that lived in the olden time. If, however, we turn from the 
 teachings of nursery rhymes to the pages of sober history, what 
 we learn is something very different. Without laying too much 
 stress on the nakedness and blue paint of our ancestors, all history, 
 and the testimony of the barrows, would lead us to suppose that 
 the inhabitants of this island, before the Romans occupied it, were 
 sparse, poor in physique, and in a very low state of civilization. 
 Though their national spirit may have been knocked out of them, 
 they must have increased in number, in physical comfort, and in 
 civilization during the four centuries of peaceful prosperity of the 
 Roman domination, and therefore in so far as that argument goes, 
 
Chap. III. AVEBURY AND STONEHENGE. 97 
 
 became infinitely more capable of erecting such a monument as 
 Stonehenge after the departure of the Komans than they had been 
 before their advent. 
 
 It certainly appears one of the strangest inversions of logic to 
 assume that the same people erected Stonehenge who, during the 
 hundreds, or it may be the thousands, of years of their occupation, 
 could attempt nothing greater than the wretched mole-hills of 
 barrows which they scraped up all over the Wiltshire downs. 
 Not one of those has even a circle of stone round its base; nowhere 
 is there a battle stone or a stone monument of any sort. Though 
 the downs must have been covered with Sarsens, they had neither 
 sense nor enterprise sufficient even to set one of those stones on 
 end. Yet we are asked to believe that the same people, in the 
 same state, erected Stonehenge and Avebury, and heaped up 
 Silbury Hill. These monuments may be the expression of the 
 feelings of the same race ; but if I am not very much mistaken, 
 in a very different and much more advanced state of civilization. 
 
 We shall be in a better position to answer a question which 
 has frequently been raised, whether or not the blue stones were 
 a part of the original structure, or were added afterwards, when 
 we have discussed the materials for the history of its erection ; 
 meanwhile we may pass from these, which are the really interesting 
 part of the structure, to the circle which is generally supposed to 
 have existed between the outer circle of Sarsens and the inner 
 choir of great stones. 
 
 With regard to this nothing is certain, except in respect to 
 eight stones, which stretched across the entrance of the choir, and 
 may consequently be called the choir screen. Of the four on the 
 right hand side only one has fallen, but it is still there ; on the 
 left hand only two remain, and only one is standing, but the 
 design is perfectly clear. The two central stones are 6 feet high, 
 and the stones fall off by regular gradation right and left to 
 3 feet at the extremities. They are rude unhewn Sarsen stones, 
 but there is nothing to indicate whether they were, or were not, 
 a part of the original design. 
 
 Beyond this, between the two great Sarsen circles, there exist 
 some nine or ten stones, but whether they are in sitti or not, or 
 
 H 
 
98 ENGLAND. Chap. III. 
 
 whether they were ever more numerous, it seems impossible to 
 determine. On the left hand, near the centre, are a pair that may- 
 have been a trilithon, but the rest are scattered so unsymmetrically 
 that it would be dangerous to hazard any conjecture with regard to 
 their original arrangement. It seems, however, most improbable 
 that while the choir screen is so nearly entire even now, that 
 this circle, if it ever existed, should have been so completely 
 destroyed. Had it been complete, it would probably have consisted 
 of 40 stones (excluding, of course, the choir screen), and of these 
 only 10, if so many, can be said to belong to it. These are rude 
 unhewn stones, and of no great dimensions. 
 
 In addition to these, there are two stones now overthrown lying 
 inside the vallum, unsymmetrically with one another, or with any- 
 thing else. Here again the question arises, Avere there more? 
 There is nothing on the spot to guide us to our answer, and as 
 nothing hinges upon it, I may perhaps be allowed to suggest that 
 each of these marks a secondary interment. At the foot of each, 
 I fancy urns or bones, or some evidence of a burial might be found, 
 and if the place had continued for a century as a burying place, 
 it might have been surrounded by its circle of stones, like Avebury, 
 or Crichie, or Stanton moor. The place, however, may have 
 become deserted shortly after these two were erected, and none 
 have been added since. 
 
 There are still two other stones, one standing, one lying in the 
 short avenue that leads up to the temple. Their position is 
 exactly that of the two stones, which are all that is visible of the 
 so-called Beckhampton avenue, at Avebury. But what their use 
 is it is difficult to guess. Were either of the places temples, they 
 would have been placed opposite one another on each side of the 
 avenue, so that the priests in procession and people might pass 
 between, but being placed one behind the other in the centre 
 of the roadway, they must have had some other meaning. What 
 that may have been I am unable to suggest. The spade may 
 tell us if judiciously applied, but except from the spade I do not 
 know where to look for a solution of the riddle. 
 
 Those who consider that Stonehenge was a temple have certainly 
 much better grounds for such a theory than it would be possible 
 to establish in respect to Avebury. Indeed, looking at the ground 
 
Chap. III. AVEBURY AND STONEHENGE. 99 
 
 plan above, there is something singularly templar in its arrange- 
 ment. In the centre is a choir, in which a dignified service 
 could be performed, and a stone lies now just in such a 
 position as to entitle it to the appellation it generally receives 
 of the altar stone. Unfortunately for this theory, however, it lies 
 flush with the ground, and even if we assume that the surface has 
 been raised round it, its thickness is not sufficient to entitle it 
 to be so called, judging from any analogous example we know of 
 elsewhere. Around the choir is what may fairly be considered 
 the procession path ; and if its walls had only been solid, and 
 there were any indications that the building had ever been roofed, 
 it would be difficult to prove that it was not erected as a temple, 
 and for worship. As, however, it has no walls, and it is 
 impossible to believe that it was ever intended to be roofed, 
 all the arguments that apply to Avebury in this respect are 
 equally applicable here, with this one in addition. Unless its 
 builders were much more pachydermatous, or woolly, than their 
 degenerate descendants, when they chose this very drafty and 
 hypsethral style of architecture, they would certainly have selected 
 a sheltered spot on the banks of the Avon close by, where, with 
 trees and other devices, they might have provided some shelter 
 from the inclemency of the weather. They never would have 
 erected their temples on the highest and most exposed part of 
 an open chalk down, where no shelter was possible, and no ser- 
 vice could be performed except at irregular intervals, dependent 
 on the weather throughout the year. As, however, it differs 
 not only in plan but in construction — being hewn and having 
 imposts — from all the rude stone circles we are acquainted with 
 elsewhere, no theory will be quite satisfactory that does not 
 account for this difference. My belief is, that this difference 
 arises from the fact that alone of all the monuments we know 
 of its class, it was erected leisurely and in time of peace by a 
 prince retaining a considerable admixture of Roman blood in 
 his veins. All, or most of the others, seem to be records of 
 battles erected in haste by soldiers and unskilled workmen: but 
 of this hereafter. 
 
 Owing to its exceptional character, the usual analogies apply 
 less directly to Stonehenge than to almost any other monument, 
 
 h 2 
 
100 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 Chap. III. 
 
 We shall be better able to judge how far those derived from India 
 apply, when we have described the monuments of that country. 
 In Europe the trilithon is certainly exceptional, and its origin not 
 easily traced. My own impression is, that it is only an improved 
 dolmen, standing on two legs instead of three, or four; but 
 if that is so, the intermediate steps are wanting which would 
 enable us to connect the two in a logical manner. They were not, 
 however, quite unknown in the Roman world. Several exist in 
 Syria, for instance ; three of these are engraved in De Vogue's 
 work. One (the tomb of Emilius Keginus, a.d. 195) consists of 
 two Doric columns, with an impost; another (woodcut No. 25) is 
 
 the tomb of a certain 
 Isidorus, and is dated 
 a.d. 222, and is more 
 like our Salisbury ex- 
 ample ; both these 
 last-named are situ- 
 ated near Khatoura. 1 
 The bearing of such 
 an example as this on 
 the question of the 
 age of these monu- 
 ments admits of a 
 double interpretation. 
 According to the usual 
 and specious mode of 
 reasoning, the ruder 
 form must be the 
 earliest, and the architectural one copied from it. But this theory 
 I believe to be entirely at variance with the facts, as observed. 
 The rudeness or elaboration of a monument will probably be 
 found in all instances to be an index of the greater or less 
 civilization of the people who erected it, but seldom or ever 
 a trustworthy index of time. What interests us more at present 
 
 Tomb of fsidorus, at Khatoura. 
 
 spi i • 
 
 1 'Syne Centrale,' by Comte Melchior i No text has yet been published, and no 
 
 de Vogue. Though this work was coin- maps, which makes the identification of 
 
 menced Borne ten years ago, and sub- the places singularly difficult, 
 scriptions obtained, it is still incomplete. 
 
Chap. III. AVEBURY AND STONEHENGE. 101 
 
 is the knowledge that these Syrian examples are certainly 
 sepulchral, and their form is thus another argument in favour of 
 the sepulchral character of Stonehenge, if any were needed. More 
 satisfactory than this, however, is the testimony of Olaus Magnus, 
 archbishop of Upsala, quoted above. 1 He describes and figures 
 "the most honourable monuments of the great of his country as 
 erected with immense stones, and formed like great gates or 
 trilithons" (in modum altissinice et latissimse januse sursum trans- 
 versumque viribus gigantum erectaj. There is no reason for 
 supposing that this author ever saw or even heard of Stonehenge, 
 yet it would be difficult to describe either the purpose or the 
 mode of construction of that monument more correctly than he 
 does; and in so far as such testimony is considered valuable, it 
 is decisive as to both the age and use of the monument. 
 
 Passing on from this branch of the enquiry to such local indica- 
 tions as the spot affords, we find nothing very relevant or very 
 important either for or against our hypothesis. It has been argued, 
 for instance, that the number of tumuli that stud the downs within 
 a few miles of Stonehenge, is a proof that this temple stood there 
 before the barrows were erected, and that they gathered round its 
 sacred precincts. The first objection to this view is, that it is 
 applying a Christian precedent to a Pagan people. Except the 
 Jews, who seem to have buried their kings close to their temples, 2 
 I do not know of any people in ancient or modern times except 
 Christians who did so, and we certainly have no hint that the 
 ancient Britons were an exception to this universal rule. 
 
 Assuming, however, for the sake of argument, that this were 
 otherwise, we should then certainly find the barrows arranged 
 with some reference to Stonehenge. Either they would have 
 gathered closely around its precincts, or ranged in rows alongside 
 the roads or avenues leading to it. Nothing of the sort, how- 
 ever, occurs, as will be seen from the woodcut in the following page. 
 Within 700 yards of the monument there is only one very insig- 
 nificant group, eight in number (15 to 23 of Sir E. Colt Hoare's 
 plan). Beyond that they become frequent, crowning the tops of 
 the hills, or clustering in the hollows, but nowhere with the 
 
 1 Vide ante, footnote, p. 15. 2 ' Topography of Jerusalem,' by the Author, p. 58. 
 
102 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 Chap. III. 
 
 least apparent reference to Stonehenge. If any one will take 
 the Ordnance Survey maps, or Sir H. Colt Hoare's plans, he will 
 
 find the barrows 
 pretty evenly sown 
 all over the surface 
 of the plain, from 
 two or three miles 
 south of Stonehenge 
 as far as Chidbury 
 camp, eight miles 
 north of it. In- 
 deed, if Sir R. Colt 
 Hoare's plans are 
 to be trusted, they 
 were thicker at the 
 northern end of 
 the plain than at 
 the southern; 1 but 
 as the Ordnance 
 maps do not bear this out, it must not be relied upon. Nowhere 
 over this large area (say 10 miles by 5 miles) is there any trace 
 of system as to the mode of placing these barrows. Indeed, 
 from Dorchester up to Swindon, over a distance of more than 
 seventy miles, they are scattered either singly or in groups so 
 completely without order, that the only feasible explanation 
 seems to be, that each man was buried where he lived; it may 
 possibly have been in his own garden, but more probably in his 
 own house. The hut circles of British villages are in grouping 
 and in form so like the barrows, that it is difficult not to suspect 
 some connexion between them. It may have been that when the 
 head of a family died, he was buried on his own hearth, and an 
 earthen mound replaced the hut in which he lived. Be this as it 
 may, there is one argument that those overlook who contend that 
 the barrows came to Stonehenge. It is admitted that Stonehenge 
 belongs to the so-called Bronze age, 2 but one half of the barrows 
 
 26. Country around Stonehenge. From Ordnance Survey maps. 
 Scale 1 inch to 1 mile. 
 
 1 ' Ancient Wiltshire,' i. p. 178, plan vi. 
 
 2 Sir John Lubbock, ' Prehistoric Times,' p. 11G. 
 
Chap. III. AVEBUEY AND STONEHENGE. 103 
 
 contain only flint and stone, and consequently were there before 
 Stonehenge was built. Nor is it by any means the case that 
 the nearest it were those which contained bronze or iron, it 
 is generally quite the contrary; with all his knowledge, even 
 Sir E. Colt Hoare never could venture to predict from the 
 locality whether the interment would be found to belong to one 
 class or to another, nor can we now. 
 
 One of the most direct proofs that this argument is untenable 
 is found in the fact, that the builders of Stonehenge had so little 
 respect for the graves of their predecessors, that they actually 
 destroyed two barrows in making the vallum round the monument. 
 Sir E. C. Hoare found an interment in one, and from this he 
 adds, " we may fairly infer that this sepulchral barrow existed on 
 the plain, I will not venture to say before the construction of 
 Stonehenge, but probably before the ditch was thrown up." x 
 
 It seems needless, however, to pursue the argument further. 
 Any one who studies carefully the Ordnance Survey sheet must, 
 I think, perceive that there is no connexion between the earthen 
 and the stone monuments. Or if this fail to convince him, if he 
 will ride from Stonehenge over Westdown to Chidbury camp, 2 he 
 can hardly fail to come to the conclusion that Stonehenge came to 
 the barrows, not the barrows to Stonehenge. 
 
 One other indication drawn from the barrows has been thought 
 to throw some light on the subject. In one of those (No. 16) 
 near Stonehenge, about 300 yards off, were found chippings of 
 the same blue stones which form the inner circle of the monu- 
 ments ; but there was nothing else in this barrow to indicate its 
 age except a spear-head of brass in fine preservation, and a pin 
 of the same metal, which seemed to indicate that it belonged to 
 the bronze age. In another (No. 22) a pair of ivory tweezers 
 were found. From this discovery it was inferred, and not with- 
 out some show of reason, that the barrows were more modern 
 than Stonehenge ; and if we are to believe that all barrows are 
 pre-Christian, as some would try to persuade us, there is an end 
 of the argument. But is this so? We have just seen that the 
 
 1 Sir R. Colt Hoare, 'Ancient Wiltshire,' i. p. 145. 
 
 2 The'nanie is written as Sidbury in the Ordnance maps. 
 
104 ENGLAND. Chap. IT. 
 
 Bartlow hills were certainly Roman. We know that the Saxons 
 buried in hows in the country, down at least to Hubba the 
 Dane, 1 who was slain in 878, and in Denmark, as we shall 
 presently see, to a much later period; and we do not know 
 when the Ancient Britons ceased to use this mode of interment. 
 Whoever they were that built Stonehenge, they were not 
 Christians; or, at all events, it is certainly not a Christian 
 building, and we have no reason to assume that those men who 
 were employed on its erection, and who had for thousands of 
 years been burying in barrows, changed their mode of sepul- 
 ture before their conversion to Christianity. It is infinitely more 
 probable that they continued the practice very long afterwards ; 
 and till we can fix some time when we feel sure that sepulture in 
 barrows had ceased, no argument can be drawn from this evidence. 
 That the chief mason of Stonehenge should be buried in his own 
 house, or own workshop, appears to us the most natural thing in 
 the world ; and that a village of barrows, if I may use the expres- 
 sion, may be contemporary with the monument I regard also as 
 probable ; but unless from some external evidence we can fix 
 their age, their existence does not seem to have any direct bearing 
 on the points we are now discussing. 
 
 The diggings inside the area of Stonehenge throw more light on 
 the subject of our enquiry than anything found outside, but even 
 they are not so distinct or satisfactory as might be desired. The 
 first exploration was undertaken by the Duke of Buckingham, and 
 an account of it is preserved by Aubrey. He says, " In 1620 the 
 duke, when King James was at Wilton, did cause the middle of 
 Stonehenge to be digged, and this underdigging was the cause 
 of the falling down and recumbencie of the great stone there," 
 meaning evidently the great central trilithon. In the process of 
 digging they "found a great many bones of stagges and oxen, 
 charcoal, batter dashes (whatever that may mean), heads of 
 arrows, and some pieces of armour eaten out with rust. Bones 
 rotten, but whether of stagges or of men they could not tell." 2 
 He further adds " that Philip Earl of Pembroke did say that an 
 altar stone was found in the middle of the area here, and that it 
 
 1 ' AichsBologia,' vii. pp. 132-134. - 'Ancient. Wiltshire,' i. p. lf>4. 
 
Chap. III. AVEBURY AND STONEHENGE. 105 
 
 was carried away to St. James'." What this means it is not easy 
 to discern, for Inigo Jones distinctly describes as the altar the 
 stone now known by that name, which measures, as he says, 16 
 feet by 4. It seems impossible that any other could have existed 
 without his knowing it, and if it existed it would have favoured 
 his views too distinctly for him not to mention the fact. 
 
 As the digging above referred to must have taken place between 
 what is now called the altar stone and the great trilithon, it is of 
 considerable interest to us. But strange to say it leaves us in 
 ignorance whether the bones found there were human or not ; one 
 thing, however, seems tolerably certain, that the arrow-heads and 
 armour were of iron, from the state of rust they are described as 
 being in, and this so far is indicative of a post-Eoman date. 
 
 Another curious fact is mentioned by Camden. In his plate 
 (page 122), half plan, half elevation — at a spot marked C outside 
 the vallum, men are represented as making an excavation, and 
 the reference is " Place where men's bones are dug up." This is 
 of no great value in so far as Stonehenge itself is concerned, but it 
 is curious from its analogy with the place where the bones were 
 found on Hakpen Hill, and may serve as an indication to the spot 
 where the bones may yet be found in Avebury. As we shall see 
 further on, there are strong reasons for believing that the prin- 
 cipal interment at least was not inside the circle, but situated 
 externally on one side. 
 
 In more modern times, Sir E. Colt Hoare adds — "We have 
 found, in digging (within the circle), several fragments of Eoman 
 as well as coarse British pottery, parts of the head and horns of 
 deer and other animals, and a large barbed arrow-head of iron," 
 thus confirming what Aubrey tells us of the Duke of Buckingham's 
 excavation to the fullest extent. Mr. Cunnington also dug near 
 the altar to a depth of nearly 6 feet, and found the chalk had 
 been moved to that depth. At about the depth of 3 feet he found 
 some Eoman pottery. Soon after the fall of the great trilithon, 
 in 1797, he dug out some of the earth that had fallen into the 
 excavation, and " found fragments of fine black Eoman pottery, 
 and since then another piece on the same spot." l 
 
 1 ' Ancient Wiltshire,' i. p. 150. 
 
106 ENGLAND. Chap. III. 
 
 No excavation in the area lias been undertaken since Sir K. 
 Colt Hoare's day, but as both he and Mr. Cunnington were 
 experienced diggers, and perfectly faithful recorders of what they 
 found, it seems impossible to doubt, from the finding of iron 
 armour an 1 Roman pottery in such places, and at such depths 
 that the building must have been erected after the Romans settled 
 in this island. As no one now will probably be found to adopt 
 Inigo Jones' theory that it was built by the Romans themselves, 
 we must look to some date after their departure to which we may 
 assign its erection. 
 
 For the written history of Stonehenge we are unfortunately 
 forced to rely principally on Jeffrey of Monmouth, who, though a 
 recorder of historical events, was also a fabulist of the most exu- 
 berant imagination. It is consequently easy to throw discredit on 
 his testimony, and some consider themselves justified in putting 
 it aside altogether. If, however, we are to reject every inediseval 
 author who records miracles, or adorns his tale with fables, we 
 may as well shut up our books at once, and admit that, between 
 the departure of the Romans and the arrival of the Normans, the 
 history of England is a mere confused jumble, in which may be 
 found the names of some persons and of the battles they fought 
 with one another, but nothing more. It is an easy process, and 
 may be satisfactory to some minds. The attempt to separate 
 the wheat from the chaff is a more tedious and laborious task, 
 surrounded by difficulties, and open to criticism, but it is one that 
 must be undertaken if truth is to be arrived at. In the present 
 instance the choice of difficulties seems to be clear. Either we 
 must reject the history of Jeffrey as entirely fabulous and 
 unworthy of credit, or admit his principal statement that Stone- 
 henge was erected by Aurelius Ambrosius as a monument to the 
 memory of the British chiefs treacherously slain by Hengist. 
 
 The first account we have of the event which led to its erection 
 is in Nennius, who lived much nearer to the time of the occurrence 
 than Jeffrey, who copied his narrative. It is as follows: — The 
 Saxons having been defeated in several actions on the coast of 
 Kent by Vortimir, were shut up in Thanet and forced to wait till 
 they could summon succour from home. When these arrived, 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 AVEBURY AND STONEHENGE. 
 
 107 
 
 Hengist, before attempting open force, had recourse to stratagem, 
 and at a feast held at the palace or monastery at Amesbury, to 
 which it was agreed all should come unarmed, three hundred 
 British nobles were treacherously slain by the followers of Hengist, 
 who had concealed their weapons under their cloaks. War 
 ensued on this, and lasted apparently for four years, when 
 Ambrosius, who had succeeded to Vortigern, forced the Saxons to 
 sue for peace. 1 That being established, Jeffrey represents him 
 as erecting Stonehenge by the aid of Merlin as a monument to 
 those who were so treacherously slain by Hengist. The massacre 
 took place apparently in the year 462, and the erection of Stone- 
 henge consequently may have been commenced about the year 
 466, and carried on during the following years, say down to 470 
 a.d. If he had been content to tell the story in as few words as 
 are used here, it probably never would have been doubted ; but 
 Merlin, in the first place, has a bad character, for he is mixed 
 up with the mediaeval romances which made the story of Arthur 
 famous but fabulous, and the mode in which he is represented by 
 Jeffrey as bringing the stones from Ireland is enough to induce 
 incredulity in all sober minds. 2 As I understand the narrative, it is 
 this — there existed on a mountain in Ireland a monument some- 
 thing like Stonehenge, which Merlin, when consulted, advised the 
 King to copy. This certainly is the view taken of the matter by 
 Geraldus Cambrensis in 1187, inasmuch as he tells us, that in the 
 spot referred to " similar stones, erected in a similar manner, were 
 to be seen in his day," though in the same sentence he tells us, 
 that they, or others like them, were removed to Salisbury Plain 
 by Merlin. 3 As he probably speaks of what he saw with his own 
 
 1 Nennius, in ' Mon. Bvit.' p. 69. 
 
 2 Jeffrey, viii. c. 9. 
 
 3 " Fuit antiquis teniporibus in Hi- 
 bemia lapidum congeries admiranda, 
 quae et Chorea gigantum dicta fuit, 
 quia gigantes earn ab ultimis Africa? 
 partibus in Hiberniam attulerunt et in 
 Kildarienes planicie non procul a Castro 
 Nasensi, tarn ingenii quam virinm opere 
 mirabiliter erexerunt. Unde et ibidem 
 lapides qnidam aliis simillimi similique 
 modo erecti usque in hodiernum conspi- 
 
 ciuntur. Mirum qualiter tanti lapides 
 tot etiam et tarn magni unquam in unum 
 locum vel congesti fueriut vel erecti: 
 qua:i toque artificiis lapidibus tarn magnis 
 et all is alii superpositi sint non minores; 
 qui sic in pendulo et tanquam in inani 
 suspendi videntur ut potius artificum 
 studio quam suppositorum podio inniti 
 videantur. Juxta Britannicam histo- 
 riam lapides istos rex Britonum Aure- 
 lius Ambrosius divina Merlini diligeutia 
 de Hibernia in Britanniam advehi pro- 
 
108 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 Chap. III. 
 
 eyes, his words furnish tolerably clear evidence that Merlin had 
 not removed what still remained at Kildare so many centuries 
 after his death. It is also evidence, however, that the design of 
 the monument was brought from Ireland, and even copied from a 
 circle, the remains of which may probably still, if looked for, be 
 found. So far as we know there was nothing like Stonehenge 
 existing in England, nor in France, in the 5th century. But, as 
 we shall presently see, there probably may have been in Ireland. 
 The only trilithons I know of elsewhere are three in a monument 
 in the Deer Park near Sligo. They are small and simulate 
 portals, but they are more like Stonehenge than any else now 
 known. At the age we are now speaking of Ireland had contrived 
 to nurse her old traditions uninfluenced by Eoman or foreign 
 examples, and had attained to that stage in art which would enable 
 her to elaborate such a style of architecture. While in England 
 it is most improbable that anything so purely original could have 
 been elaborated during the Roman occupation of the island. Still 
 a monument like this must have had a prototype, and unless we 
 can prove its existence here before Caesar's time, it is to Ireland 
 or some foreign country that we must look for the model that 
 suggested the design. But, after all, are we not fighting with 
 a shadow ? May it not be that the tradition of a monument being 
 brought from Ireland applies only to the blue stones ? I have 
 been assured by competent geologists, though I have not seen the 
 fact stated in any form I can quote, that these belong to rocks 
 not found in Great Britain, but which are common in Ireland. If 
 this is so, there would be no greater difficulty in bringing them 
 from the Sister Island than from Wales or Cornwall. Once on 
 board ship the difference of distance is nothing. If they did come 
 from Ireland nothing is more likely than that, after a lapse of 
 eight or ten centuries, the facts belonging really only to a part 
 should be applied to the whole ; and in that case the aid of 
 
 curavit ; et ut tanti facinoris egregivun 
 aliquod niemoriale relinqueret eodem or- 
 dine et arte qua prius in loco constituit 
 ubi occultis Saxonum cultris Britannia? 
 flos oocidit et sub pacis obtentu nequi- 
 tia? telis male tecta regni juventus occu- 
 buit.'' — Topogr. Hibernise, vol. ii. ch. xviii. 
 
 If we could trust Ware, tbey still 
 existed in tbe beginning of the last 
 century. He speaks of " Saxa ilia? in 
 gentia et rudia qua? in planitie non 
 longe a Naasa in agro Kildarknsi et 
 alibi visuntur." — Hist. Rib., xxiv. 103. 
 
Chap. III. AVEBURY AND STONEHENGE. 109 
 
 Merlin or of some equally powerful magician would certainly 
 have become indispensable. In that age, at least, I do not know 
 any other agency that could have accomplished the transference, 
 and I am not at all surprised, under the circumstances, that 
 Jeffrey arrived at the same conclusion. 
 
 The true explanation of the mystery seems to be, that the design 
 of Stonehenge may have come from Ireland, the native style of 
 art having been in abeyance in England during the Roman 
 occupation, and that the bine stones most probably came from the 
 Sister Island, which is quite enough to account for the Merlin 
 myth ; but of all this we shall be better able to judge when we 
 have discussed the Irish antiquities of the same age. 
 
 To return to our history, however, a little further on Jeffrey 
 asserts that Aurelius himself was buried "near the convent of 
 Ambrius within the Giant's Dance (chorea gigantum), which in 
 his lifetime he had commanded to be made." 1 As far as it goes, 
 this is a distinct assertion that the place was used for burial, 
 otherwise from the context we would gather that the Britons slain 
 by Hengist were buried in the cemetery attached to the monastery, 
 and that Stonehenge was consequently a cenotaph and not a 
 monument. But again, in recording the life of Constantine, the 
 nephew and successor of Arthur, after relating how he defeated 
 the Saxons and took vengeance on the nephews of Mordred, he 
 goes on to say — " Three years after this he was killed by Conan, 
 and buried close to Uther Pendragon, within the structure of 
 stones which was set up with w T onderful art, not far from Salisbury, 
 and called in the English tongue Stonehenge." 2 This last event, 
 though no date is given, must have occurred some time between 
 546, or four years after Arthur's death, and 552, the date of the 
 battle of Banbury Hill, where Conan his successor comman'led. 
 Assuming for the moment that this may be the case, may it not 
 suffice to explain one of the mysteries of Stonehenge, the presence 
 of the pairs of blue stones inside the choir ? Why may we not 
 suppose that these were erected in memory of the kings or others 
 who were buried in front of them ? Why may not Aurelius 
 and Constantine have been buried in front of the two small 
 
 Hist. Brit.' viii. ch. xvi. " ' Hist. Brit.' xi. ch. iv. 
 
110 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 Chap. III. 
 
 pairs at either end of the so-called altar stone? If this were 
 so, and it appears to me extremely probable that it was, the last 
 remains of the mist that hangs over the uses of this monument 
 avouM be dispersed. 
 
 From the time of Jeffrey (1147) all subsequent mediseval 
 historians adopt the account of these events given by him, with 
 occasional but generally slight variations, and even modern critics 
 are inclined to accept his account of Constantine and Conan, as 
 his narrative can be checked by that of Gildas, who was cotem- 
 porary with these kings. Similar statements are also found in the 
 triads of the Welsh bards, which some contend are original and 
 independent authorities. 1 My own impression is that they may 
 be so, but I do not think their independence has been so clearly 
 established as to enable us to found any argument upon it. On 
 the other hand, the incidental allusion of Jeffrey to the erection 
 of Stonehenge as a cenotaph to the slain nobles, and the sub- 
 sequent burial there of the two kings, seems so likely and natural 
 that it is difficult to see why they should be considered as inven- 
 tions. The two last-named events, at all events, do not add to the 
 greatness or wonder of the kings, or of his narrative, and are not 
 such things as would be inserted in the page of history, unless 
 they were currently known, or were recorded somewhere in some 
 writing to which the historian had access. 
 
 Before quitting Stonehenge there is one other antiquity con- 
 nected with it, regarding which it is necessary to say a few words. 
 Both in Sir B. Colt Hoare's plan and the Ordnance Survey, there 
 are marked two oblong enclosures called the greater and lesser 
 " Cursus," and along which the antiquaries of the last century 
 amused themselves by picturing the chariot races of the Ancient 
 Britons, though as they ascribed the introduction of races to the 
 Bomans, they admitted that they must have been formed after 
 the subjection of the island by that people. 2 The greater cursus 
 is about a mile and three-quarters long, by 110 yards wide. 
 The smaller is so indistinct that only its commencement can 
 be identified ; but even as concerns the larger, I walked twice 
 
 1 This is the principal argument of 
 Herbert's ' Cyclops Christianus.' 
 
 2 'Ancient Wiltshire,' i. p. 158. See 
 
 also woodcut No. 26, p. 102. The dotted 
 part of the smaller cursus is a restoration 
 of my own. 
 
Chap. III. AVEBURY AND STONEHENGE. Ill 
 
 across it without perceiving its existence, though. I was looking 
 for it, and no one I fancy would remark it if his attention 
 were not turned to it. Its boundary mounds never could have 
 been 3 feet high, and now in many places are very nearly 
 obliterated. 
 
 That these alignments were once race-courses, appears to me one 
 of the most improbable of the various conjectures which have been 
 hazarded with regard even to Stonehenge. No Eoman race-course, 
 that we know of, omitted to provide for the horses returning at 
 least once past the place, they started from, and no course was 
 even a mile, much less a mile and three-quarters long. What sort 
 of horse-races the British indulged in before the Conquest I don't 
 know, nor will I hazard an opinion on the subject ; but if they 
 wanted the races to be seen, there are several beautiful and 
 appropriate spots close at hand where they could have laid out a 
 longer course along one of the bottoms, where tens of thousands 
 might conveniently have witnessed the sport from the sloping 
 banks on either hand, whereas here only the front rank could 
 have seen the race at all, and that imperfectly. It may also be 
 remarked that the east end of the cursus is closed by a mound 
 which must have been a singularly awkward position for the 
 judges, though that is the place assigned to them by Sir Richard ; 
 and the west end is cut off also by an embankment, behind which 
 are several tumuli on the course, which seems a very unlikely 
 racing arrangement. 
 
 But if not race-courses, what were they ? If any one will turn 
 back to woodcut No. 12, p. 55, representing the alignments at 
 Merivale bridge, and compare them with the cursus as shown in 
 woodcut No. 26, p. 102, representing the ground about Stone- 
 henge, I think he must perceive that the two cursus, if complete, 
 would occupy exactly the same relative position with regard to 
 Stonehenge — on a much larger scale of course — as those at 
 Dartmoor do to the circle there. The arrangements are so 
 similar that the purposes can hardly be different. At first sight 
 this seems to tell against the battle theory. We know of no 
 battle fought on Salisbury Plain. This, however, is the merest 
 negative assumption possible. We know that the massacre at 
 Amesbury was followed by a four years' war, between Ambrosius 
 
112 ENGLAND. Chap. III. 
 
 and the Saxons. 1 Battles there must have been, and many, 
 and what so likely as that the crowning victory should have 
 been fought in the immediate proximity of the capital of one 
 of the contending parties. If these cursus do mark the battle- 
 field, it will at once account for the somewhat anomalous position 
 of Stonehenge. What is so likely as that the victor should have 
 chosen the field of his final victory to erect there a monument 
 to the memory of those whose treacherous slaughter had been 
 the cause of the war ? Of course this is only an hypothesis, and 
 it is only put forward as such, but it seems to me infinitely nearer 
 the truth than that of the gratuitous suggestion of a race-course, 
 and looks like one of the coincidences sure to occur when the 
 investigation is on the right path towards the true solution. 
 
 The first impression that the narrative of the preceding pages 
 will convey to most readers, will probably be that there must be 
 something more to be said on the subject, or that something 
 important is left out. If, it may be argued, the case is so clear as 
 here stated, it could never have been doubted, and must have 
 been accepted long ago. All I can say in answer is, that if any- 
 thing is omitted I am not aware of it. Everything I know of has 
 been stated as fully and as fairly as seemed necessary for its 
 being clearly understood. In this iustance it must be remembered 
 that the usual arguments drawn from the division into stone, 
 bronze, and iron ages hardly come into play. Nothing has been 
 found inside Stonehenge but iron and Roman pottery. Even 
 admitting the barrows in the immediate proximity of Stonehenge 
 to be coeval, before their testimony can be of any avail, it must be 
 ascertained when men ceased to be buried in barrows, and when a 
 man might not wish a bronze spear-head to be entombed with him 
 as a relic, even if he did not fight with it in his lifetime. Even 
 then, however, the evidence would be too indistinct to outweigh 
 that of the finds inside the circle. 
 
 If, after what has been said above, any one still maintains that 
 Stonehenge is a temple, and not sepulchral, we have no common 
 ground from which to reason, and need not attempt it. Or if any 
 
 1 Vide ante, p. 107. 
 
Chap. III. AVEBURY AND STONEHENGE. 113 
 
 one as familiar with the locality as I am personally, or who has 
 studied the Ordnance maps with the same care, likes to argue that 
 the barrows came to Stonehenge, and not Stonehenge to the 
 barrows, we see things with such different eyes that we equally 
 want a common basis for argument. 
 
 In a case like the present, however, the great difficulty to be 
 overcome is not so much cool argument and close reasoning, as a 
 certain undefined feeling that a monument must be old because 
 we know so little about it. " Omne ignotum pro antiquo " is a 
 matter of faith with many who will listen to no argument to the 
 contrary, and in the case of Stonehenge the false notion has been 
 so fostered by nearly all those who have written about it since 
 the time of James I., that it will be very difficult now to over- 
 throw it. Those who adhere to it, however, hardly realize how 
 dark the ages were between the departure of the Romans and 
 the time of Alfred the Great, and how much may have been 
 done in that time without any record of it coming down to our 
 day. Even if we give them all the megalithic monuments we 
 possess, it is very little indeed for so large a population in so 
 long a time. 
 
 Even at a much later period of English history than we are 
 now occupied with, it is wonderful how little we should know of 
 our monuments if we depended on the " litera scripta " for our 
 information. Any one who is familiar with the guide-books of the 
 last, or beginning of the present century, will see what dire con- 
 fusion of dates existed with regard to the erection of our greatest 
 cathedrals and mediaeval monuments. Saxon and Korman were con- 
 founded everywhere, and the distinction of any of the styles between 
 Early English and Perpendicular was not appreciated, and fre- 
 quently the dates were reversed. In fact, it was not till Eickman 
 took the matter in hand that order emerged out of chaos, and he 
 succeeded because his constructive knowledge enabled him to per- 
 ceive progressive developments which formed true sequences, and 
 he was thus able to supply the want of written information. Every 
 tyro now can fix a date to every moulding in any of our mediaeval 
 buildings, but if we had only written history to depend upon, in 
 nine cases out of ten he could not prove that the building was not 
 erected by the Romans or the Phoenicians, or anybody else. If 
 
 i 
 
114 ENGLAND. Chap. III. 
 
 this is the case in an age when writing was so common as between 
 the Conquest and the Reformation, should we be surprised if we 
 find matters so much darker between the departure of the Romans 
 and Alfred, when written history hardly helps us at all ? But 
 Rickrnan's method will, when applied to Stonehenge and similar 
 monuments, if I am not very much mistaken, render their dates 
 nearly as clear as those of our mediaeval monuments have been 
 rendered by the same method. 
 
 None but those who have had occasion specially to study the 
 subject can be aware how devoid of all literary records the period 
 is of which we are now treating. So meagre and so scarce are 
 they, that many well-informed persons doubt whether such a 
 person as King Arthur ever lived ; and scarcely one of his great 
 actions is established by anything like satisfactory contemporary 
 testimony. Yet, in all ages, and in all countries where histories 
 either written or oral exist, they are filled with the exploits of 
 favourite national heroes — as Arthur was — which, even where they 
 are fullest and most diffuse, it is the rarest possible thing to find 
 in them a record of the building of any temple or tomb. From 
 the building of the Parthenon to the completion of Henry VIII.'s 
 Chapel, the notices of buildings in general histories are as few and 
 meagre as may be, and are comprised in a few paragraphs scat- 
 tered through many hundred volumes. No one, I am convinced 
 who has thought twice on the subject, would expect to find any 
 notice of buildings in the few pages which are all we possess of 
 history between the departure of the Romans and the time of the 
 Venerable Bede ; yet the absence of record is the argument which, 
 if I am not mistaken, has had more influence on the popular mind 
 than almost any other. Too generally it is assumed that, as we 
 know nothing about them, they must be old. To me, on the 
 contrary, nothing appears so extremely improbable as that the 
 builders, while leaving no record of their exploits, should have left 
 any written account of the erection of the Rude Stone Monuments. 
 
 One other point seems worth alluding to before concluding this 
 chapter, which is that nothing has been advanced, so far as I 
 know, that would lead us to suppose that the people of this 
 island were, before the time of the Romans, either more numerous 
 or more powerful, and consequently more capable of erecting 
 
Chap. III. AVEBUBY AND STONEHENGE. 115 
 
 such monuments as Stonehenge and Avebury, than they were 
 after that people had resided for four centuries among them. 
 All our existing knowledge seems to tend to a diametrically 
 opposite conclusion, and now that the day for vague declamation 
 and a priori reasoning is past, if any proof to the contrary can 
 be brought forward, it would be well that it were now adduced, for 
 otherwise judgment may go by default. If we mistake not, the 
 case must be strong and clear that is to outweigh the evidence 
 just brought forward in reference to the two monuments the use 
 and age of which we have just been discussing. 
 
116 ENGLAND. Chap. IV. 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 MINOR ENGLISH ANTIQUITIES. 
 
 Aylesford. 
 
 The detailed examination of these groups at Avebury and Stone- 
 henge will probably be deemed sufficient to establish at least a 
 prima facie case in favour of the hypothesis that these monuments 
 were sepulchral — that at least some of them marked battle-fields, 
 and lastly, that their antiquity was not altogether prehistoric. If 
 this is so, it will not be necessary to repeat the same evidence in 
 treating of those monuments or groups we are about to describe. 
 Incidentally the latter will, if I am not mistaken, afford many 
 confirmations of those propositions, but it will not be necessary to 
 insist or enlarge on them to the same extent as has been done 
 in the previous pages. 
 
 Among the remaining groups of stones in England, one of the 
 most important is — or rather was — that in front of Aylesford in 
 Kent. The best known member of this group is that known as 
 Kit's Cotty — or Coity-house, which has, however, been so often 
 drawn and described that it is hardly necessary to do much 
 more than refer to it here. It is a dolmen, composed of four 
 stones, three upright; the two side stones being about 8 feet 
 square and 2 in thickness, the third somewhat smaller; these 
 form three sides of a chamber, the fourth side being — and 
 apparently always having been — left open. These three support 
 a cap stone measuring 11 feet by 8 feet. If we can trust 
 Stukeley's drawing, 1 it was an external dolmen standing on the 
 end of a low long barrow. At the other end of the mound lay an 
 obelisk, since removed, but in Stukeley's time it was said to mark 
 " the general's grave." The mound has since been levelled by the 
 
 1 ' Iter Curiosum,' pi. xxxiii. 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 AYLESFORD. 
 
 117 
 
 plough, but the whole forms an arrangement so common both in 
 England and in Scandinavia, that I am inclined to place faith in 
 the drawing. So little, however, hinges on it here that it is not 
 worth while insisting on it, but a trench across the site of the 
 barrow might lead to interesting results. Nearly due south of 
 Kit's Cotty-house, at the distance of about 500 yards, is another 
 monument of the same class, popularly known as the Countless 
 Stones, but so ruined — apparently by searchers after treasure — 
 that its plan cannot now be made out. In Stukeley's time, 
 however, it was more perfect, and as his pencil is always more to 
 be trusted than his pen, it may be worth while to reproduce 
 his drawings, 1 for the arrangement of the stones was peculiar, but 
 
 ^€_^_W, 
 
 27. Countless Stones, Aylesford. From a draXring by Stukeley. 
 
 may have analogies elsewhere. Between these two a third dolmen 
 is said to have existed within the memory of man, but no trace 
 of it is now to be found. In the rear of these groups, nearer the 
 village, there exists, or existed, a line of great stones, extending 
 from a place called Spring Farm, in a north-easterly direction, for 
 a distance of three-quarters of a mile, to another spot known as 
 Hale Farm, 2 passing through Tollington, where the greater 
 number of the stones are now found. In front of the line near 
 the centre at Tollington lie two obelisks, known to the country 
 
 1 ' Iter Curiosum,' p. xxxii. 
 
 2 When I was there four ytars ago I 
 was fortunate enough to find an old man, 
 a stonemason, who had been employed 
 
 in his youth in utilizing these stones. 
 He went over the ground with me, and 
 poiuted out the position of those he 
 remembered. 
 
118 ENGLAND. Chap. IV. 
 
 people as the coffin-stones — probably from their shape. They 
 are 12 feet long by 4 to 6 broad, and about 2 or 3 feet thick. 1 
 They appear to be partially hewn, or at least shaped, so as to 
 resemble one another. 
 
 Besides these stones, which are all on the right bank of the 
 river, there are several groups at or near Addingtou, about five 
 miles to the westward of Aylesford. Two of these in the park at 
 Addington have long been known to antiquaries, having been 
 described and figured in the ' Archaeologia ' in 1773. 2 The first is 
 a small circle, about 11 feet in diameter, the six stones comprising 
 it being 19 feet high, 7 wide, and 2 in thickness. Near it is the 
 larger one of oval form, measuring 50 paces by 42 paces. The 
 stones are generally smaller than those of the other circle. 
 The other groups or detached stones are described by Mr. Wright, 3 
 who went over the ground with that excellent and venerable 
 antiquary the Rev. L. B. Larking. They seem to have adopted 
 the common opinion that an avenue of such stones existed all the 
 way from Addington to Aylesford, but it seems to me that there 
 is no sufficient evidence to justify this conclusion. Many of the 
 stones seem natural boulders, and in no place is any alignment 
 distinctly perceptible. 
 
 In addition to these, Mr. Wright found, and attempted to 
 excavate some smaller monuments of a sepulchral character, 
 near Kit's Cotty House, but situated on the brow of the 
 hill immediately above it. These " consist generally of groups 
 of stones buried partly on the ridge of the hill, but evidently 
 forming, or having formed, small sepulchral chambers." "Each 
 group," he adds, "is generally surrounded by a circle of stones." 4 
 
 There only now remains the question, why were all these 
 stones placed here, and by whom ? Mr. Wright is far too 
 sober and too well-informed an antiquary to repeat the usual 
 nonsense about such monuments having been Druid temples or 
 altars. The conclusion at which he arrives (p. 183) is that Kit's 
 
 1 It is extremely difficult to be precise I - ' Archaeologia,' ii. 1773, p. 107. 
 
 about the dimensions. One is almost | 3 ' AVauderings of an Antiquary ; ' 
 win illy buried in the earth, aud its Loudon, 1854, p. 175 tt seqq. 
 dimensions can only be obtained by * loc tit. 175. 
 
 probing ; the other is bait' buried. 
 
Chap. IV. AYLESFORD. 119 
 
 Cotty-house, and the cemetery around it, with that in the parish 
 of Addington, together formed the grand necropolis of the Belgian 
 settlers in this part of the island. Against this it must be 
 observed that the Belgians erected no such monuments in their 
 own country, Gallia Belgica being exactly that part of France 
 in which no stone monuments are found, and it is very unlikely 
 that the Belgians should have done here what they did not do 
 at home. But another objection is, that the theory is wholly 
 gratuitous, no shadow of tradition, no analogy, and no reason 
 being adduced to show why it should be so, and, to say the 
 least of it, it is most unlikely. If a straight line were drawn 
 from the mouth of the Humber to the head of Southampton 
 Water, this is the only group of this class of monuments to 
 the eastward of the line, and what possible reason can we have 
 for supposing that the princes or people of that vast district 
 chose this place, and this only, for their necropolis? Had it 
 been some vast plain like Salisbury, or some gloomy valley, or 
 the site of some ancient sacred city, the choice might have been 
 intelligible, but a more unromantic, unlikely spot than the valley 
 of the Medway could hardly have been chosen. It is neither 
 central nor accessible, and neither history nor tradition lends any 
 countenance to the suggestion. 
 
 Suppose, on the other hand, we assume that these erections are 
 a record of the battle which, according to the Saxon chronicle, 1 
 was fought on this spot between Yortigern and Hengist and 
 Horsa, in the year 455, and in which Catigren was slain on the 
 side of the British, and the redoubted Horsa fell on that of 
 the Saxons. This at least has the merit of accounting for all we 
 see — the line of stones at Tollington is just such a position 
 as the British army would take up, to cover the ford at 
 Aylesford against an enemy advancing from Thanet. The two 
 obelisks in front would represent the position of the two chiefs ; 
 Kit's Cotty-house would become the tomb of Catigren, which 
 tradition always represented it to be ; the circles at Addington 
 would become the graves of chiefs who were wounded in the battle, 
 and taken to the rear and buried with due honours, at or near the 
 
 1 ' Mon. Hist. Brit.' p. 299. 
 
120 ENGLAND. Chap. IV. 
 
 spot where they died ; and lastly the tumulus at Horstead would 
 also in accordance with ancient tradition be the grave of Horsa. 
 
 So much depends on this last determination, that last year 
 through the kindness of Colonel Fisher, B.E., the assistance of 
 a party of sappers was procured from Chatham, and the mound 
 was thoroughly explored. It was found that a cremation (it is 
 presumed of a human body) had taken place on the natural 
 surface of the ground, and that a tumulus had been raised over 
 it. The chalk was dug down to some depth and found quite undis- 
 turbed, but no ornament or implement was found anywhere. At 
 first this seemed disappointing; but on Mr. Godfrey Faussett, 
 who was present at the digging, referring to certain passages 
 in ' Beowulf,' it appears to be exactly what should have been 
 expected. The poem, in the first place, is about the best authority 
 we could have, inasmuch as, according to Kenible, "it gave ac- 
 counts of exploits not far removed, in point of time, from the 
 crossing of Hengist and Horsa into Britain, and the poem was 
 probably brought hither by some of those Anglo-Saxons, who, 
 in 495, accompanied Cerdic and Cyneric." * After Hengist's con- 
 flict with Fin, the body was burnt (1. 2232-2251) ; but after 
 Beowulf's death not only cremation is mentioned, but a splendid 
 mound is raised over the spot where the funeral pile stood, " ad 
 on Eorthen" (1. 6266), on the surface of the ground. At Beo- 
 wulf's funeral, vases, and arms, and jewels of all kinds, were 
 thrown upon the pile and burnt with him ; and no wonder, con- 
 sidering the wealth just rescued from the guardianship of the 
 " Wurni" by the victorious hero. Poor Horsa died defeated, and 
 all his friends could expect would be to be allowed to bury him 
 under a flag of truce, with such rites as would ensure his proper 
 reception in the next world. Had they attempted to bury any 
 treasures with him, they probably would have been appropriated 
 by the victorious Brits. 
 
 Bede's expression that Horsa's tomb was situated in "orien- 
 talibus partibus Cantiae," 2 has more than once been quoted to 
 disprove this identification. But what did Bede mean by " eastern 
 
 1 'Beowulf: an Anglo-Saxon Poem,' translated by J. W. Kemble, 1835, preface, 
 P- xix. * 'Mon. Hist. Brit.' p. 121. 
 
Chap. IV. • ASHDOWN. 121 
 
 parts"? May it not have been that in his day the Medway 
 divided Kent into east and west? Or he may have spoken 
 without sufficient local knowledge. But that Horsa fell at 
 Aylesford, is as well authenticated as any fact in that age : he 
 most probably was buried near the battle-field; and the village 
 where the mound is situated has probably ever since been called 
 Horstead, as it is at this day. 
 
 All this, it appears to me, makes so strong a case, that I cannot 
 help thinking it might be accepted till, at least, something is 
 advanced against it. At present I am not aware of any argument 
 to the contrary that seems to me entitled to any serious considera- 
 tion. No flint, or bronze, or iron implement of any sort, so far as 
 I know, have been found on the spot — this may be only because 
 they have not been looked for ; but as the case at present 
 stands, the Danish system cannot be pleaded for or against this 
 view. 
 
 The real difficulty to be feared in obtaining acceptance of this 
 explanation of the stone at Aylesford, is its extreme simplicity. 
 After all that has been written about the unfathomable mystery 
 and the primaeval antiquity of this class of monuments, to be told 
 that these are merely the memorials of a battle fought on the 
 spot in the year 455, is too terribly prosaic to be tolerated, nor 
 ought it perhaps to be accepted if it stood alone. If, however, 
 it proves to be only one of many instances, the ultimate admission 
 of the above views can hardly be doubtful. 
 
 ASHDOWN. 
 
 In the neighbourhood of Uffington, in Berkshire, there are three 
 monuments, two at least of which still merit a local habitation 
 and a name in our history. One of these is the celebrated white 
 horse, which gives its name to the vale, and the scouring of which 
 is still used by the inhabitants of the neighbourhood on the 
 occasion of a triennial festival and games, which have been so 
 graphically described by Mr. Thomas Hughes. 
 
 The second is a cromlech, known as Way! and Smith's Cave, and 
 immortalized by the use made of it by Sir Walter Scott in the 
 
122 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 novel of ' Keiiilworth.' The third is as remarkable as either, but 
 still wants its poet. The annexed woodcut will give a fair idea of 
 its nature and extent. 1 It does not pretend to be minutely accu- 
 rate, and this in the present instance is fortunately of no great 
 
 The Sarsen Stones at Ashdown. From a drawing by A. L. Lewis, Esq. 
 
 consequence. All the stones are overthrown : some lie flat on the 
 ground, some on their edges, and it is only the smallest that can 
 be said to be standing. The consequence is, that we cannot feel 
 sure that we know exactly where any of them stood, nor whether 
 they were arranged in lines, like those at Carnac ; nor if so, in 
 
 1 This woodcut is copied literally from 
 one by Mr. Lewis published in the 
 'Norwich Volume of the International 
 Prehistoric Congress,' and the figures 
 
 and facts I am about to quote are mostly 
 taken from the paper that accompanied 
 it. The inferences, however, are widely 
 different. 
 
Chap. IV. ASHDOWN. . 123 
 
 how many rows, or whether they always had the confused appear- 
 ance they now present. They are spread over an area of about 
 1600 feet north and south, and of half that distance east and 
 west. The gap in the centre was made purposely to clear the 
 view in front of the house when it was built, and many of the 
 stones it is feared were employed in the erection. They are 
 the same Sarsens as are used at Avebury and Stonehenge, and the 
 largest are about 10 feet long from 6 to 9 wide, and from 3 to 
 4 feet high (in their present recumbent position) ; but there are 
 few so large as this, the majority being from 2 to 4 feet in length 
 and breadth, and from 1 to 3 high. 1 
 
 No one has yet attempted to give any explanation of the monu- 
 ment beyond repeating the usual Druidical formulae. To me it 
 appears almost incontestable that it is a memorial of the battle 
 fought here between the Saxons and the Danes in the year 871. 
 From Asser we learn that the Pagans, advancing from Eeading, 
 occupied the higher ground. It is sometimes supposed that 
 Uffington Castle was thrown up by them on the occasion, which 
 is by no means impossible. Advancing eastward, they then 
 attacked the Christians under Alfred, who occupied the lower 
 ground. This, and the ill-timed fit of devotion on his brother's 
 part, nearly lost the Christians the day; but Alfred's skill and 
 intrepidity prevailed, and the victory was complete. 2 This being 
 so, nothing appears more probable than that the victorious army, 
 either by themselves or with the assistance of the peasantry, 
 should have collected together the Sarsens in the neighbourhood, 
 and have arranged them as Alfred and his army stood, when he 
 first received the shock of the Pagans. It seems also probable 
 that he would have engraved the emblem of the white horse on 
 the side of the hill where the Pagans had encamped the night 
 before the battle, and where probably the fight ended on the 
 following day. 
 
 The question whether Weyland Smith's Cave belongs to the 
 same group, or to an earlier date, is not so easily settled. My 
 impression is that it is older. It is a three-chambered dolmen 
 
 ' Norwich Volume of the International Prehistoric Congress,' p. 37. 
 Asser, in ' Mem. Hist. Brit.' p. -176. 
 
124 ENGLAND. Chap. IV. 
 
 almost identical in plan with Petrie's No. 27, Carrowmore, to be 
 described in the next chapter, but with this difference, that 
 whereas the circle of stones in the Irish example contained 
 thirty-six or thirty-seven stones, and was 60 feet in diameter, 
 this one contained probably only twenty-eight, and was only 
 50 feet in diameter. This and the fact of the one consisting of 
 Sarsens — the other of granite blocks — account so completely for 
 all the difference between them, that I cannot believe that so 
 great a lapse of time as eight centuries could have taken place 
 between the erection of the two. I fancy it must have been erected 
 for the entombment of a local hero in the early centuries of the 
 Christian era ; but of this we will be better able to judge when we 
 are further advanced in our survey of similar monuments. 
 
 KotLRIGHT. 
 
 At Rollright, between Chipping Norton and Long Compton, in 
 Oxfordshire, there is a circle, which, from what has been written 
 about it, has assumed an importance in the antiquarian world, 
 which is certainly not due either to its dimensions or to any 
 traditions that attach to it. Every antiquary, from Camden down 
 to Bathurst Deane, has thought it necessary to say something 
 about this splendid temple of the Druid priesthood, so that the 
 traveller, when he visits it, is sure to be dreadfully disappointed. 
 It is an ordinary 100-foot circle, the entrance to which is appa- 
 rently from the south opposite to the five largest stones, which 
 are placed in juxtaposition on the north, the tallest in the centre 
 being about 5 feet in height. The others average about 3 or 
 4 feet, but are uneven in height and irregularly spaced, but with 
 a tendency to form groups of threes, which is a peculiarity 
 observable in some similar circles on Dartmoor. 
 
 Across the road, at a distance of about 50 yards, stands a single 
 obeliscal stone, about 10 feet high, on a mound which appears to 
 be artificial. If it is so, however, it was raised with the materials 
 taken out of a pit, which still exists on one side, and not from a 
 ditch surrounding it, as is usual in such cases. In another direc- 
 tion, about a quarter of a mile from the circle, stands a dolmen, 
 which is the finest feature in the group. The cap stone, which has 
 
Chap. IV. EOLLRIGHT. 125 
 
 fallen, measures 8 feet by 9, and is of considerable thickness ; and 
 three of the supporting stones are 7, 8, and 10 feet in height 
 respectively. 
 
 This circle appears to have been examined by Ralph Sheldon, 
 but without results. 1 The mound, so far as is known, is yet 
 untouched, and the dolmen could not now be explored without 
 causing its complete ruin; I presume no one will contest its 
 being sepulchral. It would be difficult now to bring to the test 
 of experiment the question whether the circle is so or not, as 
 some forty or fifty years ago, it and the plot round it were planted 
 with larch trees, whose roots have spread over the surface and 
 could with difficulty be now got rid of. This is to be regretted, 
 as from its isolated position the group affords an excellent oppor- 
 tunity of testing the usual theories regarding these monuments. 
 If it was a temple, it gives us a very low idea of the religious 
 state of our ancestors, that for a district of from twenty to thirty 
 miles' radius they should have possessed only one single small 
 enclosure, surrounded by a low imperfect wall, 3 or 4 feet high. 
 If any other had ever existed, traces of it must have been found, 
 or why has this one remained so complete, for not one stone 
 apparently is missing. It is also strange that, as in other 
 instances, it should be situated on the highest and bleakest part 
 of the surrounding country. It is, in fact, not only the unlike- 
 liest form, but the most inconvenient site for a temple. It also 
 gives us a very low idea of their civilization. The circle at 
 Rollright is a sort of monument that the boys of any of our 
 larger schools could set up in a week, supposing the stones to 
 be found lying about, at no great distance, which there is little 
 doubt was the case when it was erected. The dolmen lnierht 
 require a little contrivance to get the cap stone hoisted ; but there 
 is nothing that the villagers in the neighbourhood could not now 
 complete in a few days, if so inclined, and certainly nothing that a 
 victorious army, of say even 1000 men, could not complete between 
 sunrise and sunset in a summer's day. Even if the sepulchral 
 character of the group is admitted, it can hardly be the burying- 
 ground of a chief, or clan, or family. In that case, instead of one 
 
 1 Stukeley, ' Avebuiy,' p. 12; Borlase, p. 210. 
 
126 ENGLAND. Chap. IV. 
 
 dolmen there must have been several, smaller it may be, but in 
 succession. The chief must have had ancestors, or successors, 
 or relations, and they would not be content that one, and one 
 only, of their family should possess an honoured tomb, and that 
 they themselves should rest in undistinguished graves. As in 
 other cases, unless we are prepared to admit that it marks the 
 site of a battle, I know of nothing that will explain the situation 
 and the form of the group ; nor do I see why we should reject 
 Camden's explanation of the circumstances under which it was 
 erected : " These would, I verily think, to have been the monu- 
 ment of some victory, and haply erected by Rollo the Dane, who 
 afterwards conquered Normandy." " In what time he with the 
 Danes troubled England with depredations we read that the Danes 
 joined battle with the English thereby at Hock Norton, a place 
 for no one thing more famous in old time than for the woful 
 slaughter of the English on that foughten field, under the reign 
 of King Edward the Elder." l This last, however, is apparently 
 a mistake, for it was Eadward (901-923) who was really the con- 
 temporary of Rollo. He was also the contemporary of Gorm the 
 Old, of Denmark, of whose tumulus and Pagan habits we shall 
 hear hereafter. 
 
 This again will appear a very prosaic anti-climax to those who 
 are nursed on ideas of the hoar antiquity and wondrous magni- 
 ficence of such monuments as Ashdown and Rollright. A visit 
 to them is sufficient to dispel one part of that illusion, and a little 
 common-sense applied to the other will probably show that the 
 more moderate view meets perfectly all the real exigencies of 
 the case. 
 
 Penrith. 
 
 In the neighbourhood of Penrith in Cumberland there is a 
 group, or perhaps it should be said there are three groups of 
 monuments, of considerable importance from their form and 
 size, but deficient in interest from the absence of any tradition 
 to account for their being where we find them. Thev extend in 
 
 1 Camden, 'Britannia,' i. p. 285. Pec also Charleton's 'Stonehenge restored to 
 the Danes,' j>. 36. 
 
Chap. IV. PENKITH. 127 
 
 a nearly straight line from Little Salkelcl on the north to Shap 
 on the south, a distance of fourteen miles as the crow flies, 
 Penrith lying a little to the westward of the line, and nearer to 
 its northern than its southern extremity. 
 
 . About half a mile from the first named village is the circle 
 known popularly as Long Meg and her Daughters, sixty-eight in 
 number, if each stone represents one. It is about 330 feet (100 
 metres) in diameter, but does not form a perfect circle. The 
 stones are unhewn boulders, and very few of them are now erect. 
 Outside the circle stands Long Meg herself, of a different class 
 of stone from the others, about 12 feet high, and apparently 
 hewn, or at all events shaped, to some extent. 1 Inside the circle, 
 Camden reports " the existence of two cairns of stone, under 
 which they say are dead bodies buried ; and indeed it is probable 
 enough," he adds, " that it has been a monument erected in 
 honour of some victory." 2 No trace of these cairns now remains, 
 nor am I aware that the centre has ever been dug into with a view 
 of looking for interments. My impression, however, is that the 
 principal interment was outside, and that Long Meg marks either 
 the head or the foot of the chief's grave. 
 
 Close to Penrith is another circle called Mayborough, of about 
 the same dimensions — 100 metres — as that at Little Salkeld, but 
 of a very different construction. The vallum or enclosure is entirely 
 composed of small water-worn stones taken from the beds of the 
 Eamount or Eden rivers. The stones are wonderfully uniform in 
 size, and just about what any man could carry without incon- 
 venience. This enclosure mound is now so mined that it is 
 extremely difficult to guess what were its dimensions. It may 
 have been from 15 feet to 20 feet high, and twice that in 
 breadth at its base. The same cause makes it difficult to deter- 
 mine the dimensions of the internal area. The floor of the circle 
 I calculated as 290 feet from the foot of one slope to the foot 
 of the opposite one, and consequently the whole as from 320 feet 
 
 1 On this stone Sir Gardiner Wilkin- 
 son traced one of those circles of con- 
 centric rings which are so common on 
 stones in the north of England. I did 
 not see it mvself, but assuming it to be 
 
 true — which I have no doubt it is — it 
 will not help us much till we know 
 when and by whom these circles were 
 engraved. 
 2 'Brit.' p. 1021. 
 
128 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 to 340 feet 1 from crest to crest; but these dimensions must be 
 taken as only approximative till a more careful survey is made 
 than it was in my power to execute. Near, but not quite in the 
 centre, stands a single splendid monolith ; it may be 12 feet in 
 height, but is more than twice the bulk of Long Meg. In 
 Pennant's time there were four stones still standing in the centre, 
 of which this was one, and probably there may originally have been 
 
 29. Sketch Plan of King Arthur's Round Table, with the side, obliterated by the road, restored. 
 
 several more forming a small circle in the centre. 2 In his day also 
 he learned that there were four stones — two pairs — standing in a 
 gap in the vallum looking like the commencement of an avenue. 
 The place, however, is too near Penrith, and stone is there too valu- 
 able to allow of such things escaping, so that nothing now remains 
 which would enable us to restore this monument with certainty. 
 Close by this is a third circle known as Arthur's Pound Table. 
 
 1 Pennant in his text calls the diameter 88 yards, but the scale attached to his plan 
 makes it 110 yards marly. - ' Tour in Scotland, 1772,' pi. xxxvii. p. 276. 
 
Chap. IV. PENRITH. 129 
 
 It consists, or consisted, of a vallum of earth, as near as can be 
 made out, 300 feet from crest to crest ; but about one-third of the 
 circle being cut away to form a road, it is not easy to speak with 
 certainty. Inside the rampart is a broad berm, then a ditch, and 
 in the centre a plateau about 170 feet in diameter, slightly raised 
 in the centre. No stone is visible on the surface, though the 
 rampart when broken into shows that it is principally composed of 
 them. There is now only one entrance through the rampart and 
 across the ditch, but as both entrances existed in Pennant's time 
 (1772), and are figured in his plan of the monument, I have not 
 hesitated to restore the second accordingly. 1 The distance between 
 Mayborough and King Arthur's Bound. Table is about 110 yards, 
 and at about the same distance from the last-named monument, a 
 third circle existed in Pennant's time. It seems, however, to have 
 been in his day at least only a circular ditch, and has now entirely 
 disappeared. 
 
 Owing to their more ruined state, the remains at Shap are more 
 difficult to describe. They were, however, visited by Stukeley in 
 1725, but he complains it rained all the time that he was there, 
 and rain on a bleak exposed moor like Shap is singularly inimical 
 to antiquarian pursuits. 2 The remains were also described by 
 Camden, 3 but not apparently from personal observation, and others 
 have described them since, but the destruction has been so rapid, 
 the village being almost entirely built out of them, that it is 
 now extremely difficult to ascertain what they really were. All, 
 however, are agreed that the principal monument was an align- 
 ment, according to some of a double row of stones, of which others 
 can only trace a single row. So far as I could make out on the 
 spot, it commenced near a spot called the Thunder-stone, in 
 the. north, where there are seven large stones in a field; six are 
 arranged as a double row; the seventh seems to commence a 
 
 1 Near Lochmaben, in Annandale, a class, but for tbe view which I distrust 
 
 excessively, but which makes it look like 
 a fortification. As I have no means of 
 verifying the facts, I can only draw 
 
 circle exists, or existed, called Wood 
 
 Castle, whicb, in so far as tbe plan and 
 
 dimensions are concerned, is identical 
 
 with Ibis. It is figured in General j attention to tbem. 
 
 Eoy's ' Military Antiquities of the i 2 ' Iter Boreale,' p. 42. 
 
 Romans,' pi. viii. I would not besitate 3 ' Brit.,' Gougii edit. iii. p. 401 
 
 in quoting it as a monument of this 
 
 K 
 
130 ENGLAND. Chap. IV. 
 
 single line, from this all the way to a place at the southern 
 extremity of the village, called Karl Lofts, single stones may be 
 traced at intervals, in apparently a perfectly straight ; line and 
 still beyond this, at a farmyard called Brackenbyr, Mr. Simpson 
 fancied he could, in 1859, trace the remains of a circle 400 feet in 
 diameter, with a large obelisk in the centre. 1 I confess I was not 
 so fortunate in 1869, and I also differ from him as to the position 
 of the stone row. He seems to fancy, from the description of 
 Stukeley, that it was situated to the southward of Karl Lofts, 
 though he could not detect any traces of it. My impression is that 
 it commenced with the circle at Brackenbyr, immediately south of 
 Karl Lofts, and proceeded in a north- westerly direction for nearly 
 a mile and a half to the Thunder-stone, as before mentioned. 
 .Rather more than half a mile due south of Brackenbyr stands a 
 portion of what was once a very fine circle. It was partially 
 destroyed by the railway, but seems to have been a hundred- 
 foot circle, and to have stood considerably in advance of the 
 line of the avenue, in the same relative position to the stone 
 row as the circle at Merivale Bridge (woodcut No. 12), or as 
 Stonehenge to its cursus (woodcut No. 26), whether we assume 
 that it was continued in this direction, or terminated as above 
 indicated. In front of the circle is a noble tumulus, called Kemp 
 How, in which the body of a man of gigantic stature is said to 
 have been found. 2 
 
 According to the popular tradition the stone avenue originally 
 extended to Muir Divock, a distance of rather more than five 
 miles, to which it certainly points. Though this is most 
 improbable, it is not wholly without reason, as on Muir Divock 
 there are five or six circles of stone and several tumuli. The 
 circles have most of them been opened recently, and in- all 
 instances were found to contain cists or other evidence of inter- 
 ments. 3 Immediately over the Muir stands a commanding hill, 
 1747 feet high, marked on the Ordnance Survey as Arthur's Pike. 
 Besides these, on the hill behind Shap, to the eastward, are 
 several stone circles, some single, some double, but none are of 
 
 i ( 
 
 ; Archaeological Journal,' xviii. p. 29. • Ibid., xviii. p. 37. 
 
 3 I am not aware that any account of these diggings has been published. The 
 facts I ascertained on the spot. 
 
Chap. IV. PENRITH. 131 
 
 any great size, or composed of stones of very large dimensions. 
 The whole aspect of the country is that of a district used as a 
 burying-place to an extent far beyond anything that the usual 
 inhabitants of the locality could have required, for a bleaker 
 and more ungenial spot is not inhabited in any part of these 
 islands. 
 
 So far as I know, no credible tradition attaches to these 
 monuments so as to connect them with any historical or local 
 incident. We are, therefore, left almost wholly to their intrinsic 
 forms, or to analogies, to determine either their history or their 
 purposes. 
 
 No one will now probably be found seriously to maintain that 
 the long stone row at Shap was a temple either of the Druids or 
 of any one else. At least if these ancient people thought a siDgle 
 or even a double row of widely-spaced stones, stretching to a mile 
 and a half across a bleak moor, Avas a proper form for a place to 
 worship in, they must have been differently constituted from our- 
 selves. Unless they possessed the tails, or at least the long-pointed 
 ears with which Darwin endows our ancestors, they would have 
 adopted some form of temple more nearly similar to those used 
 in all other countries of the world. Nor was it a tomb. Not 
 only have no sepulchral remains been found here, but nowhere 
 else has any trace of such a purpose been found connected 
 with such alignments. Even, however, if it is contended that it 
 is sepulchral, it certainly was not the burying-place of the hamlet 
 of Shap, or of its neighbourhood, for a more miserable spot for 
 habitation does not exist in England, and it cannot be that 
 Shap, like Avebury, should require the most magnificent ceme- 
 teries in the island, while nothing of the sort exists near the 
 great centres of population. Had the country been as thickly 
 inhabited as China, we might fancy the people seeking waste 
 uncultivable spots in which to bury their dead, but even at the 
 present day Woking is the only cemetery that has been selected 
 on this principle in England, and at any previous time to which 
 we can look back, the idea appears too absurd to be entertained 
 for a moment. 
 
 If, therefore, the alignment at Shap was sepulchral, it must 
 
 k 2 
 
132 ENGLAND. Chap. IV. 
 
 have been the burying-place of those that fell in some battle on 
 the spot ; this in fact brings us to the only suggestion 1 am aware 
 of that seems at all tenable : that it marks a battle-field like 
 those on Dartmoor (ante, p. 54), and others we shall meet with 
 hereafter. 
 
 Excavations have proved that all the smaller circles which 
 abound in the neighbourhood are graves, and if those from 
 60 feet to 100 feet in diameter are so, all analogy must lead us to 
 the inference that the 100-metre circles are so also. Direct proof 
 has not, however, yet been obtained of this, but that may arise 
 first from the difficulty of excavating so large an area; or it may 
 be that the bodies were buried outside the circle, as at Hakpen 
 (mite, p. 76), or at the foot of the stones, as at Crichie (ante, 
 p. 75) or in those circles which have no erect stones in a similar 
 position — at the toe of the inner slope of the rampart — and these 
 are just the places where they have not been looked for. Mean- 
 while the cairns in the inside of the circle of Long Meg's 
 Daughters seem to favour this view of their sepulchral purpose. 
 But if sepulchres, certainly they were not family or princely 
 tombs. If that was their destination they would not be found only 
 in two or three groups in the wildest and most remote parts of the 
 country, but in far greater numbers, and nearer those places where 
 men most do congregate. We are in fact driven to Camden's 
 suggestion, that they may have been made to celebrate some 
 victory; but, if so, what victory? It looks like riding a hobby 
 very hard to make the same suggestion as was made with regard 
 to Avebury, but I confess I know no other that can be brought 
 forward with so much plausibility as that of considering them 
 to be memorials of Arthur's campaigns against the Saxon 
 invaders. 
 
 The first objection that will naturally be raised to this hypothesis 
 is, that King Arthur was a myth, and never fought any battles at 
 all. It was not necessary to examine this when speaking of Ave- 
 bury. All that was then required was to know if Waden Hill was 
 Badon Hill. If it was the site of that iamous battle, there was no 
 further enquiry necessary. Arthur, and he only, commanded 
 there ; and if we admit the fact of the battle being fought, we 
 admit at the same time the existence of him who commanded 
 
Chap. IV. PENRITH. 133 
 
 there. But with regard to the other eleven battles mentioned by 
 Nennius * the case is not so clear, and according to the present 
 fashionable school of historical criticism it is thought reasonable 
 to reject the whole as a myth, because the evidence is not such as 
 would stand examination in a court of law, and also because the 
 story as it now stands is so mixed up with incredible fables as to 
 throw discredit on the whole. It is very much easier to heap 
 ridicule on the silly miracles which Merlin is said by mediaeval 
 minstrels to have performed, and to laugh at the marvellous 
 exploits of Arthur and the Knights of his Bound Table, than to 
 attempt to glean the few facts which their wild poetry has left 
 unobscured. But if any one will attempt the same process with 
 one of the many ' Lhystoires da noble et vaillant roy Alexandre le 
 grand,' he will find exactly the same difficulties. Aristotle and 
 his master have been rendered quite as fabulous persons as Merlin 
 and Arthur, and the miracles of the one and the feats of the 
 other are equally marvellous. In Alexander's case we fortunately 
 have Arrian and Curtius, and others, who give us the truth with 
 regard to him ; but Arthur had no contemporary history, and 
 instead of living in a highly civilized state that continued for 
 ages after him, he was the last brilliant light of his age and 
 race, and after him all was gloom for centuries. It was not till 
 after a long eclipse that his name was seized upon in a poetical 
 and an uncritical age as a peg for bards whereupon to hang their 
 wild imaginings. 
 
 This is not the place to examine so large a question. It will 
 be sufficient to state what I believe to be the main facts. Those 
 who do not admit them need not read further. Arthur, it 
 seems to me, was born the prince of one of the smaller states in 
 the West of England, probably Cornwall, and after the death of 
 Ambrosius, in or about the year 508, took up the struggle the 
 latter had carried on with varying success against the hordes of 
 Saxons and others who were gradually pushing the Bryts out of 
 Enodand. My impression is, that even before the Romans left, 
 Jutes, Angles, and Danes had not only traded with, but had 
 
 1 Here, again, I quote from the copy in the ' Mon. Hist. Brit.' p. 47 et seem., to 
 which it will not be necessary to refer every time the name is mentioned. 
 
13 1 ENGLAND. Chap. IV. 
 
 settled, both on the Saxonicum littus of Kent, and on the coast 
 of Yorkshire, Northumberland, and the Lothians ; and that during 
 the century that elapsed between the departure of the Eomans 
 and the time of Arthur, they were gradually pushing the British 
 population behind the range of hills which extends from Carlisle 
 to Derby and forms the back-bone of England. It was in the 
 plains behind this range and further south that all Arthur's battles 
 seem to have been fought. With Cumberland, Wales, and Corn- 
 wall behind him, he was not only sure of support from the native 
 population in his rear, but had a secure retreat in case of adverse 
 fortune overtaking him. In all this range of country I do not 
 know any spot so favourable strategically for a defender of 
 his country to take up as the high land about Shap, or the 
 open country extending from thence to Salkelcl. The ridges at 
 Shap protected his right against an enemy advancing by Lancaster, 
 the Caledonian Forest and a very rugged country covered his left, 
 and in front there was only a wild inhospitable tract by which the 
 invader from the opposite coast could advance against him, while 
 by a single day's march to his rear he was among the inaccessible 
 mountains and lakes of Cumberland. 
 
 I am afraid to lay much stress on the fact of one of the circles 
 at Penrith and the hill opposite Shap bearing Arthur's name, 
 because in the last few years we have seen two hard-headed sober- 
 minded Scotchmen proving, to their own satisfaction, that Arthur 
 was born north of the Tweed — that all his battles were fought 
 and all his exploits performed in the northern portion of the island. 
 Even Ganora — the faithless Guinevere — if not a Scotchwoman, 
 was at all events buried in Miegle churchyard under a stone, which 
 some pious descendant sculptured some centuries later. 1 Even 
 here, however, I fancy I can perceive a difference between the two 
 cases. In the middle ages the Scotch had historians like Boece 
 and Fordun, who recorded such fables for the edification of their 
 countrymen, and with proper patriotism were willing that their 
 country should have as large a share of the world's greatness or 
 great men as they could well appropriate. They were followed 
 
 1 Stuart Glennie, 'King Arthur.' 1867. L. W. Skene. 'Ancient Books of 
 Wales,' i. 52 et seqq. 
 
Chap. IV. PENRITH. 105 
 
 by an educated class throughout the country, who were actuated 
 by the same motives, and did exactly what Stukeley and his 
 followers did with English monuments. They found Druids who 
 had no temples, and remains which they supposed to be temples 
 with no priests ; so, putting the two together, they made what 
 they fancied was a perfect whole out of two incongruous halves. 
 So the Scotch, having a rich repertory of fables on the one hand, 
 and on the other having hills without names and sculptured 
 stones without owners, joined the two together, and went on 
 repeating in the same manner their inventions till, from dire 
 reiteration, they took the likeness of fact. 
 
 The case was, if I mistake not, very different in Cumberland. 
 The boors of that land had no literature — no learning, and none 
 of that ardent patriotism which enabled the Scotch poets and 
 pedants to manufacture a quasi history for themselves out of other 
 people's doings. It is difficult to fancy the inhabitants of Cum- 
 berland troubling themselves with Arthur and his affairs, and 
 Avishing to apply his name to their hills or antiquities, unless some 
 ancient tradition had made it probable, and, " valeat quantum," 
 these names may therefore be considered as suggesting a real 
 connexion between the place and the man. 
 
 Owing to the extreme brevity of the record in Nennius, 1 there 
 are few things about which greater discrepancy of opinion exists 
 even among the believers in Arthur than the localities of his 
 battles. Taking them in the order in which they are mentioned, 
 the first is said to have been fought on the river G-leni of Glein, 
 which the editors of the ' Monumenta Historica Britannica ' 
 suggest may be a river of that name in Northumberland. The 
 river indicated is so small a brook that it is difficult to fancy its 
 name should be attached to so important an event. 
 
 If we must go so far north, I would rather feel inclined to place 
 it at Wood Castle, near Lochmaben, in Dumfriesshire, where there 
 is a circular enclosure identical in plan and dimensions with King- 
 Arthur's Eound Table at Penrith. 2 Strategically, it is a much 
 more likely spot than the exposed east coast of Northumberland ; 
 
 1 ' Mon. Hist. Brit.' p. 73. 
 
 2 General Roy's ' Mil. Ant. of the Romans,' pi. viii. 
 
136 ENGLAND. Chap. IV. 
 
 but, except the plan of Wood Castle, I know of no authority for 
 placing this battle-field in Annandale. 
 
 There is no indication where the second, third, or fourth battles 
 were fought ; but for the fifth we have this important designation 
 that it was fought " super aliud flunien quod vocatur Dnglas vel 
 Dubglas quod est in regione Linuis," or in another MS. Linnuis. 
 A marginal note suggests Lindesay, in Lincolnshire, but for no 
 other reason apparently than from the first three letters being the 
 same in both. There is a Biver Duglas flowing past Wigan, in 
 Lancashire, which Whittaker, in his ' History of Manchester,' 
 boldly adopts as the place indicated, and others have been inclined 
 to accept his determination. After going carefully over the ground, 
 I confess no spot appears to me more unlikely for a great battle 
 than the banks of this river, nor does any local evidence of their 
 having been so now remain. One cannot but feel that if Arthur 
 ever allowed himself to be pushed into such a corner, with 
 nothing but the sea behind him to retreat upon, he certainly was 
 not the general that made so successful a stand against the 
 Saxons. I am much more inclined to believe that Linnuis is 
 only a barbarous latinization of Linn, which in Gaelic and Irish 
 means sea or lake. In Welsh it is Lyn, and in Anglo-Saxon 
 Lin, and if this is so, " In regione Linnuis " may mean " In the 
 Lake Country." 
 
 The name of the river does not appear to me at all an 
 insuperable difficulty. All the rivers about Penrith, the Lowther, 
 the Eamount, and the Eden, have names that were certainly given 
 to them by the Saxons, but they must have had Celtic names 
 before they came ; and Dubh as an adjective is dark or black, and 
 G-las, green or grey, is used as a substantive to denote the sea, in 
 Irish. Such an epithet would apply admirably to the Lowther ; 
 and if it could be identified with the river mentioned by Nennius, 
 our difficulties would be at an end. These speculations, however, 
 must of course be taken for what they are worth. There is, so 
 far as known, no authority for the name Duglas or Dubhglas 
 being applied to the Lowther or Eden. 
 
 The sixth battle was on a river called Bassas. It has been 
 suggested that this means the Bass Bock in the Frith of Forth ; 
 but it need hardly be objected that a rock is not a river, and there 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 PENRITH. 
 
 137 
 
 is an extreme improbability that Arthur ever saw the Lothians. 
 In Derbyshire there is a Bas Lowe x in a neighbourhood where, as 
 we shall presently see, there is reason to believe Arthur fought one 
 or more of his battles, but I am not aware of any river so called 
 in that neighbourhood. 
 
 The seventh war was in Silva Calidonis, "id est Cat Coit Celidon." 
 The Cat in the last name is evidently Cat or Cath, "a battle," 
 which we frequently meet with, and shall again in describing these 
 matters. Coit, only so far as the dictionaries tell us, means 
 coracle, and would seem to indicate a struggle in boats. The 
 Caledonian Forest, is what will really determine the locality. 
 Generally it is understood to be the forest that extended from 
 Penrith to Carlisle ; and, if so, any one of our Penrith circles might 
 be assumed to mark the site of the seventh battle. Most probably 
 in that case it would be the Salkeld circle, or it might be one 
 known as the Grey Yawds, near Cumrew, about eight or nine 
 miles further north. 2 
 
 The eighth battle was in Castello Guinnion, or Gain, which, 
 from the sound of the name, can hardly escape being in Wales 
 or the Welsh border, unless indeed we assume that these Welsh 
 appellations were common to the whole country before the Saxons 
 re-named many of the places. . In that case we have nothing to 
 guide us as to where the battle was fought. 
 
 The ninth battle was " in Urbe Legionis;" This may be either 
 Chester or Caerleon in South Wales. It most probably was the 
 latter, as in another MS. it is added "quae Britannice Karlium 
 dicitur," or Cair lin in another. 
 
 The tenth war was on the shores of a river which was called 
 Kibroit. Though this is spelt in various MSS. Tribruit, Trath- 
 reuroit, and Trattreuroit, it seems impossible to identify it. But 
 it must have been a large river, or the expression " in littore " 
 would hardly have been used. 
 
 The eleventh battle " fuit in Monte quod dicitur Agned Cath- 
 
 1 Bateman, ' Ten Years' Diggings,' 
 p. 87. 
 
 2 I have not seen this circle myself, 
 though I made a long journey on pur- 
 pose. It is said to consist of eighty- 
 
 eight stones, and one larger than the 
 rest, standing outside the circle, at a 
 distance of about five yards, or exactly 
 as Long Meg stands with reference to 
 her daughters. 
 
138 ENGLAND. Chap. IV. 
 
 regoimon ;" and in different MSS. this is spelt Cathregomion, 
 Cabregonnon, Catbregonnion, and in one it is added, " in Somer- 
 setshire quern nos Cathbregion appellamus." No such name 
 seems now to be known in that country ; but as we shall presently, 
 I hope, see reason for believing, the spot is probably that now 
 known as Stanton Drew. 
 
 The twelfth battle was that of Mount Badon, the position of 
 which, as we have already pointed out, may almost certainly be 
 fixed in the immediate neighbourhood of Avebury. 
 
 All this is indistinct enough, it must be confessed, and much 
 of it depends on nominal similarities, which are never very 
 satisfactory ; still the general impression it leaves seems worthy 
 of acceptance. It would lead us to think that Arthur commenced 
 his struggles with the invaders in the north of England, probably 
 in the time of Ambrosius, and fought his way southwards, till 
 after twelve campaigns, or twelve battles, he reached his crowning- 
 victory at Badon Hill, which gave him peace for the rest of his 
 days. At all events, with respect to the first seven battles, there 
 si ems no reason why we should not appropriate any of them 
 except perhaps the first — to our Cumberland circles. The proof 
 of whether or not it is reasonable to do so will of course depend on 
 the case we can make out for the other circles we have to 
 examine, and on the general interdependence which the whole 
 series can be shown to have on one another. 
 
 At present it may be allowed to stand on an hypothesis, which 
 certainly has the merit of explaining the facts as now known ; 
 but the probability or disproof of which must depend on the facts 
 aud arguments to be adduced hereafter. 
 
 Derbyshire. 
 
 The next group of monuments with which we have to deal is 
 perhaps as interesting as any of those hitherto described. As 
 before mentioned, when speaking of the labours of William and 
 Thomas Bateman, the north-western portion of the county is 
 crowded with barrows, but none apparently of so ancient a 
 character as those excavated by Canon Greenwell in Yorkshire, 
 and most of them containing objects of so miscellaneous a character 
 
Chap. IV. DERBYSHIRE. 139 
 
 as to defy systematic classification. As these, however, hardly 
 belong to the subject of which we are now treating, it is not 
 necessary to say more about them at present; and the less so, 
 that the group which falls directly in with our line of research is 
 well defined as to locality, and probably also as to age. 
 
 The principal monument of this group is well-known to 
 antiquaries as Arbe or Arbor Low, 1 and is situated about nine 
 miles south by east from Buxton, and by a curious coincidence is 
 placed in the same relative position to the Koman Koad as 
 Avebury. So much is this the case, that in the Ordnance Survey 
 — barring the scale — the one might be mistaken for the other if 
 cut out from the neighbouring objects. Minning Low, however, 
 which is the pendant of Silbury Hill in this group, is four miles 
 off, though still in the line of the Eoman road, instead of only one 
 mile, as in the Wiltshire example. Besides, there is a most in- 
 teresting Saxon Low at Benty Grange, about one mile from Arbor 
 Low. Gib Hill, Kens Low, Bingham Low, End Low, Lean Low, 
 and. probably altogether ten or twelve important mounds covering 
 a space five miles in one direction, by one and a half to two 
 miles across. 
 
 Arbor Low consists of a circular platform, 167 feet in diameter, 
 surrounded by a ditch 18 feet broad at bottom, the earth taken 
 from which has been used to form a rampart about 15 feet to 
 18 feet high, and measuring about 820 feet in circumference on 
 the top. 2 The first thing that strikes us on looking at the plan 
 (woodcut No. 30) is that, in design and general dimensions, the 
 monument is identical with that called "Arthur's Bound Table," 
 at Penrith. The one difference is that, in this instance, the 
 section of the ditch, and consequently that of the rampart, have 
 been increased at the expense of the berm ; but the arrangements 
 of both are the same, and so are the internal and external 
 dimensions. At Arbor Low there are two entrances across the 
 ditch, as there was in the Cumberland and Dumfriesshire 
 
 1 First described in the 'Archie- Vinson's paper in the 'Journal of the 
 logia,' vol. viii. p. 131 et seqq., by the Archaeological Association,' xvi. p. 116, 
 Rev. S. Pegge, in 1783. and may consequently be thoroughly 
 
 2 These dimensions, as well as the | depended upon, 
 plan, are taken from Sir Gardner Wil- | 
 
140 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 examples. As mentioned above, only one is now visible there, the 
 other having been obliterated by the road, but the two circles are 
 
 y(i$?.n** .t 
 
 -3ARR0W 
 
 30. Arbor Low. From a thawing by Sir Gardner Wilkinson. 
 
 in other respects so similar as to leave very little doubt as to their 
 true features. 
 
 The Derbyshire example, however, possesses, in addition to its 
 earthworks, a circle of stones on its inner platform, originally 
 probably forty or fifty in number ; but all now prostrate, except 
 perhaps some of the smallest, which, being nearly cubical, may 
 still be in situ. In the centre of the platform, also, are several 
 very large stones, which evidently formed part of a central 
 dolmen. 
 
 There is another very interesting addition at Arbor Low, 
 which is wanting at Penrith, this is a tumulus attached unsym- 
 nietrically to the outer vallum. This was, after repeated 
 attempts, at last successfully excavated by the Messrs. Bateman, 
 and found to contain a cist of rather irregular shape, in which 
 were found among other things two vases 1 one of singularly elegant 
 
 Bateman, ' Vestiges,' p. <J5. 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 DERBYSHIRE. 
 
 141 
 
 shape, the other less so, In themselves these objects are not 
 sufficient to determine the age of the barrow, but they suffice to 
 show that it was not 
 very early. One great 
 point of interest in this 
 discovery is its position 
 with reference to the 
 circle. It is identical 
 with that of Lono* Me£- 
 with reference to her 
 daughters, and perhaps 
 some of the stones out- 
 side Avebury, supposed 
 
 to be the commencement of the avenue, may mark the principal 
 places of interment. 
 
 Attached to Arbor Low, at a distance of about 250 yards, is 
 another tumulus, called Gib Hill, apparently about 70 to 80 feet 
 in diameter. 1 It was carefully excavated by Mr. T. Bateman in 
 1818 ; but after tunnelling through and through it in every direc- 
 tion on the ground level and finding nothing, he was surprised at 
 finding, on removing the timber which supported his galleries, that 
 the side of the hill fell in, and disclosed the cist very near the 
 
 Vases and Bronze Pin found in Arbor Low. 
 
 , " il \ \ ,#H 
 
 32 Section of Gib Hill. No scale. 
 
 summit. The whole fell down, and the stones composing the cist 
 were removed and re-erected in the garden of Lumberdale House. 
 It consisted of four massive blocks of limestone forming the sides 
 of a chamber, 2 feet by 2 feet 6 inches, and covered by one 4 feet 
 square. The cap stone was not more than 18 inches below the turf. 
 By the sudden fall of the side a very pretty vase was crushed, the 
 
 1 These dimensions are taken from Sir Gardner Wilkinson's plan. The Batemans, 
 with all their merits, are singularly careless in quoting dimensions. 
 
142 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 fragments mingling with the burnt bones it contained ; but though 
 restored, unfortunately no representation has been given. The 
 only other articles found in this tumulus were " a battered celt of 
 basaltic stone, a dart or javelin-jjoint of flint, and a small iron fibula, 
 which had been enriched with precious stones." 1 
 
 Though Gib Hill is interesting as the first of the high-level 
 dolmens which we have met with in this country, Minning Low is 
 a still more striking example of that class which we hinted at 
 before as common in Aveyron (ante, woodcut No. 8), and which 
 we shall meet with frequently as we proceed. When it first 
 attracted the attention of antiquaries in 1786, Minning Low 
 seems to have been a straight-lined truncated cone, about 300 
 feet in diameter, and the platform on its summit measured 
 
 Summit of Minning Low, as it appeared in 1786. From Douglas. 
 
 80 feet across. 2 Its height could not be ascertained. 3 It was 
 even then planted over with trees, so that these dimensions, 
 except the breadth of the platform, are hardly to be depended 
 upon, and since then the whole mound has been so dug into 
 and ruined, that they cannot now be verified. On the platform 
 
 1 Ante, p. 11. 
 
 2 Douglas, ' Nenia Brittaniea,' p. 16S, 
 pi. xxxv. 
 
 3 If we knew its height we might 
 guess its age. If it was 65 feet high, its 
 
 angle must be 30 degrees, and its age 
 probably the same as that of Silbury 
 Hill. If 100 feet, and its angle above 
 40 degrees, it must have been older. 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 DERBYSHIRE. 
 
 143 
 
 at the top in 1786 there stood live kistvaens, each capable of 
 containing one body; and, so far as can be made out from 
 Douglas' plates and descriptions, the cap stone of these was flush 
 with the surface, or possibly, as at Gib Hill, they may have been 
 a few inches below the surface, and, becoming exposed, may have 
 been rifled as they were found ; but this is hardly probable, because 
 unless always exposed, it is not likely they would have been either 
 looked for in such a situation, or found by accident. Below them 
 — at what depth we are not told — a stone chamber, or rather three 
 chambers, were found by Mr. Bateman, apparently on the level of 
 
 Plan of Chambers in Minning Low. 
 
 the ground on the south side of the Barrow. 1 To use Mr. Bateman's 
 own words ('Vestiges,' &c, p. 39): "On the summit of Minning 
 Low Hill, as they now appear from the soil being removed from 
 them, are two large cromlechs, exactly of the same construction as 
 the well-known Kit's Cotty-house, near Maidstone, in Kent. In 
 the cell near which the body lay were found fragments of five 
 urns, some animal bones, and six brass Boman coins, viz., one of 
 Claudius Gothieus (270), two of Constantine the Great, two 
 of Constantine, junior, and one of Yalentinian. There is a 
 striking analogy between this and the great Barrow at New 
 Grange, described by Dr. Ledwich, of which a more complete 
 investigation of Minning Low would probably furnish additional 
 proofs." Mr. Bateman was not then aware that a coin of Yalen- 
 
 1 : Ten Years' Diggings,' p. 82. 
 
144 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 Chap. IV 
 
 tinian had been found in the New Grange mound, 1 which is one 
 similarity in addition. 
 
 The fact of these coins being found here fixes a date beyond 
 which it is impossible to carry back the age of this mound, but not 
 the date below which it may have been erected. The coins found 
 in British barrows seem almost always those of the last Emperors 
 who held sway in Britain, and whose coins may have been pre- 
 served and to a certain extent kept in circulation after all direct 
 connexion with Rome had ceased, and thus their rarity or antiquity 
 may have made them suitable for sepulchral deposits, No coin 
 of Augustus or any of the earlier Emperors was ever found in or 
 on any of these rude tumuli, which must certainly have been the 
 case had any of them been p re-Roman. This mound is conse- 
 quently certainly subsequent to the first half of the fourth 
 century, and how much more modern it may be remains to be 
 determined. 
 
 Be this as it may, if Mr. Bateman's suggestion that this monu- 
 ment is a counterpart of Kit's Cotty-house is correct — and no one 
 who is familiar with the two monuments will probably dispute it — 
 this at once removes any improbability from the argument that 
 the last-named may be the grave of Catigren. The one striking 
 difference between the two is, that Kit's Cotty-house is an external 
 free-standing dolmen, while Minning Low is buried in a tumulus. 
 This, according to the views adopted in these pages, from the 
 experience of other monuments, would lead to the inference that 
 the Kentish example was the more modern of the two. It 
 is not, however, worth while arguing that point here; for our 
 present purpose it is sufficient to know that both are post- 
 Roman, and probably not far distant in date. 
 
 Another barrow belonging to this group is at Benty Grange, 
 about a mile from Arbor Low, which, though of a different " 
 character, may be connected with the others. One body only was 
 buried in it, of which no trace, however, remained but the hair. 2 
 There was apparently little more than 2 feet of earth over it. The 
 first thing found was a leather drinking-cup, ornamented in silver 
 
 1 ' Petrie's Life,' by Stokes, p. 234. 
 
 2 The complete disappearance of the 
 boily of tins undoubted Saxon chief 
 
 ought to make us cautious in ascribing 
 remote antiquity to many comparatively 
 fresh bodies we find elsewhere. 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 DEEBYSHIEE. 
 
 145 
 
 with stars and crosses. Two circular enamels were also there, 
 adorned with that interlacing pattern found in the earliest Anglo- 
 Saxon or Irish MSS. of the sixth or seventh centuries, or it may be 
 a little earlier; a helmet also was found, formed of iron bars, Avith 
 
 35. Fragment of Drinking Cup from Benty Grange. 
 
 36. Fragment of Helmet from B nt} 7 Grang 
 
 bronze and silver ornaments, and surmounted by what Mr. Bateman 
 assures us was a perfectly distinct representation of a hog. He 
 then quotes from Beowulf several passages, in which the poet 
 describes : " The boar an ornament to the head, the helmet lofty 
 in wars" (1. 4299). ..." They seemed a boar's form to bear over 
 their cheeks" (1. 604). ..." At the pile was easy to be seen, the 
 mail-shirt covered with gore, the hog of gold, the boar hard as 
 iron" (1. 2213). As Beowulf lived, as shown above, probably 
 in the fifth century, the poem may be taken as describing per- 
 fectly the costume of the warriors of his day; and nothing could 
 answer more completely his description than the contents of this 
 tomb. 
 
 In Kenslow Barrow, between Minning Low and Arbor Low, 
 were found a few implements of flint and bone ; 'but on clearing 
 out the grave in the rock, which had been examined before in 1821, 
 Mr. S. Bateman found some portions of the skeleton undisturbed, 
 and with them a small neat bronze dagger, and a little above these 
 
 L 
 
146 ENGLAND. Chap. IV. 
 
 an iron knife of the shape and size usually deposited in Anglo- 
 Saxon interments. 1 Of course the theory of successive interments 
 is called on to explain away these disturbing facts ; but there 
 seems nothing here to justify any other inference than that in this 
 case all the deposits belonged to the same age. This, therefore, 
 may be added to the examples quoted from the ' Vestiges,' to show 
 how little the Danish system is really applicable to the class of 
 monuments of which we are treating. 
 
 On Stanton Moor, four miles east from Kenslow, and about five 
 miles from Arbor Low and M inning Low respectively, there are 
 many monuments, both of eartli and stone, which, though on a 
 smaller scale, seem to belong to the same age as those just de- 
 scribed. They seem to have been very much overlooked by the 
 Batemans, but a very detailed account of them is given by Mr. 
 Rooke in the sixth volume of the ' Archseologia,' in 1780. One of 
 them, called the Nine Ladies, has been given already {ante, p. 49) ; 
 but westward of it stands or stood a stone, called the King Stone, at 
 a distance of 34 yards, thus suggesting a similarity to the Salkeld 
 circle. Half a mile west from this, nearer Arbor Low, is another 
 group of nine stones, the tallest 17 feet in height, and 75 yards 
 southward two stones of smaller dimensions ; 200 yards from this 
 an oval ring, the major axis of which measures 243 feet, the minor 
 156 feet. It has what Mr. Rooke calls a double ditch, a rampart 
 outside the ditch as well as one inside ; it is, in fact, a less-developed 
 example of that form of which Arbor Low and Arthur's Round 
 Table are finished examples. On the east side of the Moor were 
 three tall isolated stones, which in Rooke's time the natives still 
 called Cat Stones, showing clearly that the tradition still remained 
 of a battle fought there, but when or by whom no tradition lingers 
 on the spot to enlighten us. 
 
 All these monuments and many more which it would be tedious 
 and uninteresting to particularize, are contained within a circle, 
 which may be described with a radius of about three miles, 
 the centre being half way between Henty Grange and Stanton 
 Moor. It would perhaps be too much to assert that they are all 
 of one age ; but there is certainly a very strong family likeness 
 
 1 Bateman, • Ten Years' Diggings,' p. 21. 
 
Chap. IV. DERBYSHIRE. 147 
 
 among them, and they cannot differ much either in age or purpose. 
 It may also perhaps be conceded that they are not the tombs 
 or temples of the inhabitants of the moors on which they stand. 
 The country where they are situated is a bleak inhospitable 
 tract, only not quite so bad as Shap, but hardly more able to 
 support a large population, if left only to their own resources, 
 than the Wiltshire Downs. These three localities could never 
 consequently have been so much richer in this class of monu- 
 ments than settlements in the more fertile parts of the island. 
 Strangers must have erected them, and to determine who these 
 strangers were, is the task to which antiquaries have now to apply 
 themselves. 
 
 Whatever may be determined on the point, one thing, I think, 
 must and will be conceded, which is, that Arthur's Table at Penrith, 
 Arbor Low, and Avebury, are monuments of the same age, and 
 were dedicated to the same purposes. The first is a simple earthen 
 monument, of a certain design and with certain dimensions ; the 
 second has the same design and dimensions, with the addition of a 
 circle of stones and dolmen in the centre ; the third has all the 
 features that the other two possess, with the addition of increased 
 dimensions, and the internal circles being doubled. But the 
 internal ditch, the rampart, and the character of the circle and 
 other features, are so like each other, and so unlike what are found 
 elsewhere, that they must stand or fall together. If any one of 
 these belonged to the age of Arthur, all three certainly did. If, 
 on the other hand, any one of the three can be proved to belong- 
 to another age, the other two will hardly be able to maintain their 
 position. The circles at Cumrew, Salkeld, and May borough, 
 present so many points of similarity, that they, too, must probably 
 be classed with these three, though there is not the same evidence 
 to justify their being classed together. The stone avenue at Shap 
 is also most probably the counterpart of that at Kennet ; but the 
 destruction of the circle at Brackenbyr, and the limited knowledge 
 we have of it, prevent anything very definite being predicated 
 regarding it. 
 
 If we may consider Gib Hill as the analogue of Silbury Hill, its 
 place and position may throw some light on the mystery attaching 
 to the latter. The relative distances of these satellites to their 
 
 l 2 
 
148 ENGLAND. Chap. IV. 
 
 primaries is nearly proportional to the diameter of the circles, and 
 they both present the peculiai-ity that they have no interment in 
 their base. The Archaeological Institute in 1849 did exactly what 
 the Batemans had done before them. They tunnelled and explored 
 the base of Gib Hill, and gave it up in despair, when an accident 
 revealed to them the grave over their heads, within 18 inches of 
 the surface. The antiquaries were not so fortunate at Silbury ; 
 but judging from the analogy of Gib Hill, and still more from 
 that of Minning Low, the graves may be expected to be found 
 arranged around the plateau on the summit, probably six or seven 
 in number, and as probably within a few feet of the surface. 
 There was none in the centre of the platform at Minning Low, 
 though there was in the smaller tumulus of Gib Hill ; and this 
 may account for the Duke of Northumberland's ill-success when 
 he dug into the hill in 1776. Poor Stukeley was very much 
 laughed at for prizing a very modern-looking iron bit, belong- 
 ing to a bridle that was found on the top of the hill 1 (woodcut 
 No. 18); yet it may turn out to be the only real fact he brought 
 away from the place. Nothing but an iron sword was found in 
 the kistvaen, on the top of Minning Low, but it was nearly 
 perfect ; 2 why should not the bridle be found, for we know that 
 horses were frequently buried with the warriors they had borne 
 in battle? 
 
 Omitting Cornwall for the present, the circles at Stanton Drew 
 form the only other group of any importance in England for which 
 it remains to find a purpose and a name ; and I confess I see no 
 reason for separating them from those just named. There are so 
 many points of similarity, that they can hardly be of an age far 
 apart, and their purpose certainly is the same. If there is anv- 
 thing in the arguments adduced above, they must^nark a battle- 
 field. They are certainly not a family or a princely sepulchre. 
 
 1 "In 1723 the workmen dug up the ] along wilh the monarch. There were 
 body of a great king buried there ■ deer horns and an iron knife, with a 
 
 in the centre, a very little below the 
 
 surface. The bones were extremely 
 
 rotten, and, six weeks after, I came 
 
 luckily to rescue a great curiosity which I The bridle is figured, pi. xxxvi. 
 
 they took out there— an iron chain, as ! " Douglas, ' Nenia Brit.' p. 168 
 
 they called it. It was the bridle buried 
 
 bone handle, too, all excessively rotten, 
 taken np along with it." — Stukeley 's 
 ' Stonehenge and Avebury,' pp. 41-12. 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 STANTON DREW. 
 
 149 
 
 still less a local cemetery, nor need it now be added, certainly not 
 a temple. 
 
 Mm* 
 
 \& ■<■■, 
 
 '"■!■ 
 
 '■ji/f/m 
 
 ??/'■/, 
 
 f ', 
 
 ''jIHllI 
 
 o* » 
 
 ' 96 FI a 
 
 37. 
 
 m ¥ ^ 
 
 Circles at Stanton Drew. From a plan by Sir K. 0. Hoare. 
 
 Their arrangement will be understood from the annexed wood- 
 cut (No. 37). The group consists of one first-class circle or oval, 
 378 feet (?) by 345 feet — 100 metres ; and two of the second class, 
 one 96 feet, the other 129 ; and a dolmen near the church, at 
 
150 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 a distance of 157 yards from the last-named. 1 Attached to the 
 two principal circles are short straight avenues, pointing appa- 
 rently to two stones very near to one another — the one at a 
 distance of 300 feet from the large circle, the other at the 
 
 38. View of lie Circles at Stanton Drew. From a sketch by Percy Shelton, E^q. 
 
 distance of about 100 from the smaller one, or at distances 
 relative to their diameters. There is also a very large stone, 
 called the King Stone, by the roadside, but beyond the limits of 
 the plan. This, with the stones to which the avenues point, are 
 probably the analogues of the detached stone, known as Long 
 Meg, at Salkeld, or the King Stone, which stands 180 feet from 
 one of the circles at Avebury ; perhaps also of the two which 
 are assumed to be the commencement of the Beckhampton 
 avenue at that place, or of the Friar's heel at Stonehenge, or of 
 the King Stone at Stanton Moor. In fact, all these circles seem 
 to have detached stones standing at some little distance from 
 
 1 Nothing can exceed the effrontery 
 with which Stukeley inserted curved 
 avenues between these circles, so as to 
 make the whole into a serpent form. 
 Nothing of the kind exists, nor existed 
 
 in 1S26, when Mr. Croker made, for Sir 
 R. C. Hoare, the survey from which the 
 woodcut is copied, with Sir Gardner 
 Wilkinson's corrections. 
 
Chap. IV. STANTON DREW. 151 
 
 them outside. It is there that I would look for the principal 
 interments, rather than in the circles themselves ; but this is one 
 of the questions that the spade, and the spade only, can decide. 
 There is, however, also attached to the smaller of the two circles 
 at Stanton Drew a heap of stones which is apparently the ruins 
 of a dolmen, and these may mark the real place of interment, as 
 does the tumulus attached to Arbor Low, which corresponds with 
 them in position. 
 
 The only recorded tradition with regard to this monument 
 at Stanton Drew represents Keyna, a holy virgin in the fifth 
 century, the daughter apparently of a Welsh prince, obtaining a 
 grant of the land on which the village of Keynsham now stands 
 from the prince of the country. She was warned, however, of the 
 insecurity of the gift, in consequence of the serpents of a deadly 
 species that infested the place. She accepted the gift notwith- 
 standing, and by her prayers converted the serpents into the 
 stones we now see there, 1 so at least Stukeley and Bathurst 
 Dean assure us. 
 
 Such a tradition is only valuable as indicating the date that is 
 popularly ascribed to the monument. In this instance the fifth 
 century is suggested, which may be 50 or even 100 years earlier 
 than I would be inclined to assign it to, but such data are of 
 little consequence. The date is also shadowed forth in the 
 incident related ; for not only in Ireland, but in France, and 
 frequently also in England, the early struggles of the first 
 Christian missionaries are represented as victories over the 
 snakes or snake worshippers. St. Hilda, for instance, at Whitby 
 signalized the establishment of Christianity in the seventh 
 century by converting the Yorkshire snakes into Ammonites, 
 which are still found there in quantities, which in the eyes 
 of the peasantry are much more like stone snakes than the 
 stones into which St. Keyna transformed her Somersetshire 
 enemies. 
 
 Whatever the value of these and such like traditions, one 
 thing seems quite certain, that every local tradition which has 
 yet been quoted represents these monuments as erected subse- 
 
 Archaeologia,' xxv. p. 189. 
 
152 ENGLAND. Chap. IV. 
 
 quently to Koman times, and generally as belonging to that 
 transitional age when Christianity was smuggling with Paganism 
 for the mastery. The common people are generally willing 
 enough to amuse themselves with fables about giants and demi- 
 gods, and to wander back into prehistoric times ; but with regard 
 to these monuments they do not seem to have clone so. I do not 
 recollect a single tradition that ascribes any stone circle to the 
 pre-Roman period. 
 
 If, however, I am correct in assuming that these great groups 
 of circles belong to the Arthurian age, we have no difficulty in 
 assigning to this one its proper place in the series of his 
 battles. The ninth, as we have seen above, was probably fought 
 at Caerleon on the Usk ; which would seem to indicate that, 
 at a certain point in his career, Arthur was forced back quite 
 out of England into South Wales; but his return on that hypo- 
 thesis is easily traced. The tenth battle was on the shore 
 of some large river, which ought in consequence to be the 
 Severn, though the name given in the text lends no counte- 
 nance to this supposition ; the eleventh was " In monte quod 
 dicitur Agned in Somersetshire," which would answer perfectly, 
 except in name ; for Stanton Drew, in that case, would be in 
 the direct line of advance to Badon Hill, where the twelfth and 
 crowning victory was fought. 
 
 The name here, as throughout, creates the difficulty, but 
 Stanton on the Stones, or Stone Town, is simply an epithet 
 applied to all these groups by the Saxons at some period sub- 
 sequent to that of which we are speaking, when the memory of 
 their purpose was lost, or little cared for by those of a different 
 race, and speaking a different language, who had succeeded 
 to the Bryts, who had erected them. Unless we assume 
 that Stonehenge, Stanton Drew, the circles on Stanton Moor, 
 and the stones at S tennis, and others, were erected by the 
 Saxons themselves, they must originally have borne Celtic names, 
 and it would be these names that Nennius would quote, and 
 which consequently could not be those by which they are now 
 known. 
 
 The expression " in monte " is singularly confirmatory of this 
 determination, inasmuch as one of the remarkable features of the 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 STANTON DREW. 
 
 153 
 
 locality is the fortified hill known as Maes 1 Knoll, which 
 literally looks into Stanton Drew, and is the most remarkable 
 feature seen from it, and a fight on its ridge is as probable an 
 operation as any likely to be undertaken in this quarter. 
 
 If the above were all the evidence that could be produced in 
 support of the hypothesis that all these great circles belonged 
 to the Arthurian age, it might be admitted to be sufficient to 
 establish not a conclusion but a fair 'prima facie case. The 
 reasonableness, however, of what has been here advanced will, 
 it is hoped, become more and more apparent as we proceed. 
 Absolute mathematical or logical proof it is to be feared, in the 
 present state of the evidence, is not available. Till attention 
 is fairly turned to a certain definite line of argument, the experi- 
 ments are not made, and the authorities are not read, which bear 
 upon it, or if made or read are not understood ; but when the 
 arguments are examined with the earnest desire to prove or 
 disprove them, new light springs up from every quarter, and 
 before long there may be grounds for a positive answer. 
 
 Meanwhile it may be well to point out, before going further, 
 that this class of circles is peculiar to England. They do not 
 exist in France or in Algeria. The Scandinavian circles are all 
 very different, so too are the Irish. The one circle out of England 
 that at all resembles them is that at Stennis, or rather Brogar, in 
 the Orkneys, which will be described in detail further on. There 
 we have a great 100-metre circle, with a ditch (but no rampart), a 
 smaller 100-foot circle, with a ruined dolmen in its stone circle, as 
 at Stanton Drew, and we have the Maes Knoll for the Maes How. 
 The Stennis group has also the detached stones, though it wants the 
 rudimentary avenues, and some minor peculiarities, and it may be 
 more modern, but it is very similar ; whereas those in Cornwall and 
 elsewhere are small and irregular, and totally wanting in the dignity 
 belonging to those which we have ventured to call Arthurian. 
 
 1 What is the meaning of the word 
 " Maes " ? It is singular that the Maes 
 How, in Orkney, should hear the same 
 relative position to the Standing Stones 
 of Stennis, in Orkney, that Maes Knoll 
 does to the group of circles. I do not 
 
 know of the name occurring anywhere 
 else. According to the dictionaries, it 
 merely means "plain" or "field." In 
 Irish " Magh " pronounced " Moy ;" but 
 that can hardly be the meaning here. 
 
154 ENGLAND. Chap. IV. 
 
 The arguments adduced iu the preceding pages will probably be 
 deemed sufficient to make out a strong case to show that these 
 great circles were erected, at all events, after the departure of the 
 Romans, and if this is so, it confines the field for discussion within 
 very narrow limits. Either they must have been erected by the 
 Romanized Britons before they were so completely Christianized 
 as to be entirely weaned from their Pagan habits, or they were the 
 works of the Saxons or Danes. We shall be in a better position 
 to judge how far it is likely that the latter were the authors, when 
 we have examined the rude stone monuments of Scandinavia or 
 Friesland, from which countries the Northmen descended on our 
 shores. When this is done, we shall probably come to the con- 
 clusion that, as they erected Dolmens as burying-places for their 
 dead, and Menhirs or Bauta Stones and circles in their battle- 
 fields, there is no improbability of their having done so also here. 
 The question, however, is, did they erect these great 100-metre 
 circles? These are unique, so far as I know; a class quite 
 by themselves, and so similar, whether found in Cumberland or 
 Derbyshire, or in Wilts or Somersetshire, that, with the probable 
 exception of the Orkney group, they must be the work of one 
 people, and also nearly of the same age. If, in fact, they do 
 not mark the battle-fields to which I have attempted to ascribe 
 them, they must mark something nearly approximating to them 
 in date, and as nearly analogous in intention and purpose. 
 
 Smaller Circles. 
 
 It would be as tedious as unprofitable to attempt to enumerate 
 all the smaller circles existing in various parts of England ; but 
 there are two or three which are curious in themselves, and 
 interesting as illustrating the large circles of which we have just 
 been treating. The first to be mentioned is one situated in 
 Englewood Forest, near Rose Hill, and therefore nearly equi- 
 distant from Cumrew, Salkeld, and Carlisle. Locally, therefore, 
 it belongs to the Cumberland group, described above, and may do 
 so in date also. It is a low platform, it can hardly be called a 
 tumulus, as it is only 12 feet high. It is circular, and measures 
 63 feet across. On the platform stand, or at least stood in 1787, 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 SMALLER CIRCLES. 
 
 155 
 
 three bilithons, or groups of two tall stones standing side by side, 
 like those in the inner circle at Stonehenge. Mr. Booke dug in 
 front of one of these, with the intention of seeing now deep it was 
 in the ground, but to his astonishment he found a cist formed of 
 six perfectly well fitted hewn stones, but measuring little more 
 than 2 feet each way. In front of the other outside group lie 
 found a similar cist, but a little larger, 2 feet 10 inches by 2 feet 
 2 inches, and further removed from the central pair of upright 
 
 Rose Hill Tumulus. From the Archteologia,' vol. x. 
 
 stones, and nearer the centre of the circle, a third cist, formed 
 equally of hewn and well fitted stones. In all three of these were 
 found human bones, fragments of skulls, teeth, &c, but no imple- 
 ments or ornaments of any sort, only under one head a metallic 
 lump, with apparently particles of gold in it. 1 This was sent to 
 the Society of Antiquaries for examination, but with what result 
 
 1 ' Archfeologia,' x. pi. xi. p. 106. 
 
156 ENGLAND. Chap. IV. 
 
 is not stated. 1 According to the plan, it would appear as if there 
 were originally six interments in the mound. In fact, that it was 
 the counterpart of the top of Minning Low, with the addition of 
 the pairs of obelisks. Mr. Rooke was, however, so much puzzled at 
 finding Druids buried six feet below the floor of their own temple, 
 that he did not seek further. But if the mound still exists, it would 
 be very interesting to know if any more cists exist in the mound, 
 or any burial deeper down below them, as in the Derbyshire 
 example. It might contain coins, and if so, would be interesting 
 as another example of its date ; but meanwhile its truncated con- 
 oidal form and arrangement of graves, and of trilithons, are 
 sufficient to show that it was cotemporary with Minning Low and 
 Stonehenge, or at all events not far from their date. 
 
 In the same paper in which Mr. Rooke describes the Eose 
 Hill tumulus he gives an account of an excavation at a place 
 called Aspatria, a little farther westward, and near St. Bees. They 
 cleared away a barrow about 90 feet in diameter, and at 3 feet 
 below the original surface of the ground found a cist in which lay 
 the skeleton of a man of gigantic stature. As he lay extended, 
 he measured 7 feet from the head to the ankle. His feet were 
 decayed and rotted off. At his side, near the shoulder-blade, was 
 an iron sword 4 feet in length, the handle elegantly ornamented 
 with inlaid silver flowers ; a gold fibula or buckle was also found, 
 
 with portions of the shield and 
 his battle-axe. One of the most 
 curious things found was the bit 
 of a snaffle-bridle, which is so 
 modern -looking that it would 
 not excite interest if seen on a 
 
 Snaffle-Bit found at Aspatria. 
 
 stall in Seven Dials. The main 
 interest resides in its similarity to that which Stukeley found 
 at Silbury Hill (woodcut No. 18, p. 81). He cleaned and polished 
 his one carefully. Mr. Rooke had his engraved with all the rust 
 upon it, so, at first sight, they are not so similar as they are in 
 reality. The fact of this one being found in an undoubtedly 
 
 1 It probably may have been a piece of iron pyrites, and may have been used for 
 striking a light. 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 SMALLER CIRCLES. 
 
 157 
 
 ancient grave, takes away all prima facie improbability from the 
 suggested age of the other. From its form, Stukeley's appears 
 to be the older of the two ; but we have no chronometric scale 
 for bridle-bits. 
 
 All these things make this grave look as if it were very modern; 
 but on the outside of the stones forming the cist were engraved a 
 variety of figures which are of interest as a means of comparison 
 with the Irish and Danish engravings we shall meet with here- 
 after. They are not very artistically drawn, and are probably 
 worse engraved ; but it is easy to recognize the cross in the circle 
 
 41. Side Stone, Aspatria Cist. ^ . 
 
 There are the concentric circles with dots in the centre and 
 straight lines proceeding from them and other figures found on 
 rocks and elsewhere, which antiquaries have hitherto been 
 inclined to ascribe to a primaeval antiquity, but which this tomb 
 would bring down at least to the Viking age — of which more 
 hereafter. 
 
 The circle of cists on Mule Hill, in the Isle of Man, are inte- 
 resting from another cause ; for unfortunately they all have been 
 laid bare and rifled before any antiquary took cognisance of them, 
 and we have consequently nothing by which their date can be 
 even guessed at. Their interest lies in their arrangement, which is 
 that of eight cists arranged in a circle, with, it would seem, others 
 at right angles at certain intervals. 1 From simple inspection it is 
 
 1 ' Archseologia Cambriensis,' third 
 series, vol. xii. p. 51. A fancy plan of 
 the same circle appears in the same 
 
 volume, but is utterly untrustworthy. 
 It is reproduced by "Waring, ' Mon.' &c. 
 pi. xli. 
 
]58 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 evident that these cists must at one time have been covered with 
 earth. They are not dolmens, or anything that would do for self- 
 
 
 Mule Hill, View of Cists. 
 
 standing monuments. If covered with earth, they would form a 
 circular mound 45 feet in diameter internally, and 65 feet across 
 
 
 
 ej~i 
 
 
 Csf 
 
 §3 
 
 -f^r 
 
 43. Circle of Cists at Mule Hill, Isle of Man. 
 
 to the foot of the outer slope, and, as far as one example can 
 go, would tend to prove that the circular vallum at Avcbury and 
 
Chap. IV. SMALLER CIRCLES. 159 
 
 many other places was a place for the deposit of bodies. Except 
 in the instance spoken of in describing the circle at Marden, I am 
 not aware of bodies having been found in England under these 
 ramparts ; but they have not been sought for. Of one thing we 
 may feel certain, that nothing is unique in these matters, and that 
 what occurred once, occurred frequently, and will no doubt be 
 found when looked for. 
 
 Another peculiarity of this circle is worth observing. There are 
 two gaps or openings in the circle opposite one another, as at 
 Arbor Low and Penrith. One must not rely too much on this, 
 as the gaps here may arise from the removal of cists ; but the 
 coincidence is at least curious, and if Ave restored this monument 
 in the sense just indicated, and could rely on that restoration, 
 the secret of the vallum surrounding Avebury and other similar 
 monuments would no longer be a mystery. To my mind it has 
 not been so for many years past ; but though I dare not yet ask 
 others to follow at once, I trust sufficient evidence has been accu- 
 mulated in the preceding pages to render it probable that they 
 were only continuous tumuli. 
 
 The circle or rather circles, on Burn Moor, near Wast Water, 
 Cumberland, are described by Mr. Williams as consisting of a 100- 
 foot circle, formed of forty-four stones, beyond which, at a distance 
 of 25 feet is an outer circle of fourteen large stones. A niche or 
 square enclosure on one side of the inner circle contains a 
 cairn 25 feet in diameter, and within the circle are four others, 
 irregularly spaced, and measuring 21 to 25 feet in diameter ; each 
 like the circle itself, surrounded by fourteen stones. These, on 
 being opened, were found to contain a rude chamber formed of 
 five stones, in which were found remains of burnt bones, horns 
 of stags, and other animals. 1 
 
 One point of interest in this monument is, that it explains the 
 existence of a similar square enclosure on one side of a well-known 
 100-foot circle near Keswick. There is no sign of a cairn there 
 now ; it may have been removed, as those at Salkeld were, or it 
 may be that the body was interred without this external indi- 
 cation ; but that it lies, or lay, in this enclosure seems certain. The 
 
 1 'Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries,' iii. p. 22q. 
 
160 ENGLAND. Chap. IV. 
 
 principal reason for referring to it here is that it is undoubtedly 
 sepulchral. We shall find many examples equally so further on, 
 but it is well, in the meanwhile, to illustrate one which certainly 
 was neither a temple nor place of assembly, and which contains, 
 besides, several peculiarities to which we shall have occasion to 
 advert hereafter. 
 
 o 3 
 
 9 " t ^ 
 
 * • 
 
 ■j 9 
 
 * 
 
 ^ih, .1 
 
 \ o a 
 
 <5> 
 
 
 ^s 
 
 
 
 \ ■■!■■ ,m }V> 
 
 «o 
 
 <WneO° 
 
 CD 
 
 
 <s> 
 
 3 
 
 o 
 
 ip ; 
 
 
 a - • ,,. 
 
 
 Q3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Si 
 
 & Q 
 
 © Q 
 
 ft 
 
 44. Circl?s on Burn Moor, Cumberland. 
 
 It seems almost equally clear that the Boscawen circles, with 
 which we close our illustrations of English circles for the present, 
 were neither Temples nor Things. It is very difficult to see how 
 any one could fancy that anything so confused as the centre of 
 these circles is, could be a temple, still less a place of assembly. 
 But Borlase, though generally admitting the sepulchral nature of 
 the circles, maintains that this one was a temple, and describes the 
 
Chap. IV. DOLMENS. 161 
 
 position of the serving Druids and all the ceremonies down to 
 the minutest particulars. The circles are small, the largest being- 
 only 75 feet in diameter, and the whole group only 200 feet across, 
 neither are the stones by any means of imposing dimension-!. 
 
 e 
 
 \ 
 
 
 «a, 
 
 
 \ 
 
 o 
 
 * S- 
 
 % at. 
 
 c 3 
 
 
 
 
 fe 
 
 
 
 en * - 
 
 
 3 °" ffi ' 
 
 ^OB a ^ 
 
 « 
 
 °<5 
 
 <3 
 
 ■^ » Q 
 
 
 
 
 a <& 
 
 
 & 9 
 
 & 
 
 
 
 B 
 6 
 
 
 a 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 % 
 
 
 
 S5, 
 
 
 « * 
 
 Q 
 
 
 
 «&, 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 45. Boscawen Circles. From Borlase. 
 
 Another circumstance worthy of being noticed, is that there are 
 detached stones in front of the principal circles. Interesting 
 results might be obtained by excavating at their bases, as, for 
 reasons above stated, it seems as if the principal interment might 
 be found at their feet. 
 
 Dolmens. 
 
 As stated above, England seems to be the native country of 
 the great circles, no 100-metre circles having yet been found 
 anywhere out of England, excepting, of course, that at Stennis. 
 France, on the contrary, seems to be the native country of the 
 dolmens. They exist there in numbers far "beyond anything we 
 can show, and of dimensions exceeding anything we can boast 
 of. In England proper, when we have enumerated Kit's Cotty- 
 house, the dolmen in Clatford Bottom, Wayland Smith's Cave, 
 that at Kollright, and one at Drewsteignton, in Devonshire, our 
 
 M 
 
162 ENGLAND. Chap. IV. 
 
 list is nearly exhausted. There may be heaps of stones which 
 seem dolmens, or something like them ; and chambered tumuli, 
 whose internal kistvaens, if exposed, might be entitled to rank 
 with dolmens ; but, taking the word in its broad sense, it is difficult 
 to carry our list beyond the half-dozen. 
 
 In Cornwall the case is different. In the corner to the westward 
 of Falmouth there are at least twice as many as in all England. 
 In Wales, I think I could enumerate twice as many as in Corn- 
 wall ; and in Anglesea * there are certainly as many as in 
 Cornwall, perhaps more ; and in the Isle of Man they are also 
 numerous. It is difficult to be precise, as the same monument is, 
 sometimes at least, recorded under two names ; but it is not an 
 exaggeration to say that from fifty to sixty have been described, 
 and most of them figured, as found in the West country, and I 
 should not be surprised if an industrious statistician carried the 
 number to 100, including, of course, many that are now ruinous. 
 
 There are two points of view 'from which this geographical dis- 
 tribution of English dolmens may be regarded. The first and 
 most obvious would be to consider that they were erected by the 
 Briton's after they were driven into the mountain fastnesses of 
 the West, first by the Romans, and more completely afterwards by 
 the Saxons. The other view would be that they are the work of a 
 different race, who, we have every reason to believe, occupied the 
 western country in the time of the Romans. Tacitus is particu- 
 larly explicit on this point. He divides the inhabitants of the 
 country into three classes. The red-haired Caledonians, resembling 
 the Germans and inhabiting the north ; the Silures, of dark 
 complexion and curling hair, and whom he describes as living 
 in that part of the country which is opposite Spain, and 
 he suggests that the ancient Iberians crossed over and occupied 
 these regions ; and he then adds : " Those nearest to Gaul 
 are similar to the inhabitants of that country." 2 There is so 
 much in the present aspect of the people of this country to 
 confirm this general classification that there seems very little 
 reason for doubting its general correctness; and as all these 
 
 1 The Hon. W. C. Stanley enumerates by name twenty-four in Anglesea. — 
 ' Archteologia Cambrensis,' fourth series, vol. i. p. 58. 
 
 2 Tacitus, 'Vita AgricolaV chap. v. 
 
Chap. IV. DOLMENS. 163 
 
 dolmens are found in the country of the Silures it may be argued 
 that they belong to them. If he had joined the Aquitanians to 
 Iberians he would probably have expressed more completely the 
 whole facts of the case as we now know them. 
 
 Admitting, however, this ethnographic view of the case to the 
 fullest possible extent — which I am prepared to do, it still leaves 
 the question of elate wholly unsettled. It would be answered if we 
 dared to assume that the Silures were driven from the fertile 
 parts of the valley of the Severn, which we have reason to suppose 
 they occupied in Agricola's time, to the mountain fastnesses, and 
 that it was then only that they began to repeat in stone what 
 previously they had only erected in earth. If this could be 
 established, we should get both an ethnographical and a chrono- 
 logical determination of no small value; but of this we shall be 
 better able to form an opinion after discussing the monuments 
 of France. 
 
 Meanwhile there is one point bearing upon the subject to which 
 it may be as well to draw attention. In "Wales and Anglesea, 
 which we may assume to have been the country of the Silures 
 or that to which they were driven, there are no circles, but only 
 dolmens. In Cornwall, where the blood was certainly more mixed, 
 there are both circles and dolmens, and the same is the case at 
 the other extremity of the western district in the Isle of Man. 
 
 If it is contended that, being nearer to Spain or Aquitaine 
 than Wales, Cornwall must have been earliest and most exclusively 
 inhabited by the dark race, the answer is, that though it may 
 originally have been so, the races in Cornwall had been mixed 
 with Celtic and other blood before the age of the stone monu- 
 ments ; while in the Isle of Man we shall probably see reason for 
 believing that northern blood was infused into the veins of the 
 people, at a very early age, when few, if any, monuments of this 
 class existed, and certainly before all had been completed. 
 
 Even a cursory examination of these West Coast dolmens would, 
 I think, be sufficient to prove to any one that the theory that all 
 were originally covered with earthen mounds is utterly untenable. 
 That such chambered graves as those at Uley in Gloucestershire, 1 
 
 1 ' Somerset Archseo. Soc. Proceedings,' viii. p. 51. , 
 
 M 2 
 
164 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 or Stoney Littleton in Somersetshire, 1 were always intended to be 
 so covered up is clear enough. So was this one at Park Own, in 
 the peninsula of Gower, recently opened and described by Sir 
 John Lubbock. 2 It is of the same type as Uley and Stoney 
 Littleton, but has only four chambers arranged on each side of the 
 
 Park Cvvn Tumulus. Scale 16 feet to 1 inch. 
 
 central passage. One of its most remarkable characteristics is 
 the beautiful masonry of the retaining walls on each side of the 
 funnel-shaped passage leading to the cells. These are so carefully 
 built that it is evident that they were meant to be seen, and 
 the entrance to be kept open. Indeed, unless we fancy it was the 
 monument of some fight, which there seems no reason for supposing, 
 
 1 ' Archseologia,' xix. p. 43 et seqq. 
 
 - 'Journal of the Ethnological Society,' January, 1S71, p. 41(i. 
 
Chap. IY. DOLMENS. 165 
 
 it is evident it must have been kept open till forty deaths had 
 occurred in the family of the chief to which it served as sepulchre, 
 as at least that number of bodies were found in the chambers, 
 but in a dreadfully confused condition, as if the grave had 
 been rifled before, but no implements or trace of metal were left 
 to indicate even approximately its age. 
 
 At Uley, in Gloucestershire, half way between Berkeley and 
 Tetbury, there is a tumulus which, in its internal arrangement, is 
 very similar to that last described. The entrance is of the same 
 form, and there are four side-chambers ; but those at Uley are 
 grouped more artistically in the centre, instead of being separated 
 by a passage, as at Park Cwn. Externally the differences are 
 more apparent ; the Gloucestershire example being oblong, or 
 rather heart-shaped, while that in Gower is more circular in form. 
 The Uley tumulus was first opened by a Mr. Baker, in 1821, but 
 subsequently examined with great care by Dr. Thurnam ; and a 
 very careful account, resulting from his own observation compared 
 with the records of Mr. Baker's, published by him in the 'Archaeo- 
 logical Journal.' 1 The bodies in the chambers, which were 
 numerous, had been disturbed and were lying in disorder, as at 
 Park Cwn; but among them was found a vessel resembling a 
 Eoman lachrymatory, and some pottery which may have been 
 either Bomano-British or Mediaeval. There were also found 
 some fragments of flint implements, apparently arrow-heads, and 
 outside two stone axes — one of flint. Near the summit of the 
 mound, exactly over the easternmost chamber, there had been 
 another interment, and beside the skeleton were found three brass 
 coins of the sons of Constantine the Great. 
 
 On this evidence, Dr. Thurnam, with the approval probably of 
 every antiquary in England, comes to the conclusion that the 
 original erection of the chambered tumulus belongs to the long 
 prehistoric past ; that the pottery, &c, were accidentally intro- 
 duced; and that the coins belong to a secondary post-Boman 
 interment. The only evidence for this being the presence of the 
 flints above mentioned, and the assumptions based on them; they 
 having become articles of faith with antiquaries which it is rank 
 
 1 Vol. xi. p. 315 et seqq. 
 
166 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 heresy to dispute. As I have already stated, till some one can 
 show at what period flint ceased to be used in any particular 
 locality, this evidence is worthless. With regard to the secondary 
 interments, it appears to be inconceivable that, after the lapse 
 of 500 or 600 years at least, and the civilizing influence of the 
 Eoman occupation, any one should choose the top of one of 
 the mounds of the long-forgotten pagan savages for a burying- 
 place. If burying in barrows had been the fashion in Gloucester- 
 shire, as it was on the wolds of Yorkshire or the downs of 
 Wiltshire, something might be said in favour of such an hypo- 
 thesis if we could also assume that the races had been undisturbed 
 in the interval. But there are hardly half-a-dozen tumuli in the 
 whole county. They, like Uley, Rodmarton, 1 Stoney Littleton, 2 
 are all chambered tumuli of one class and apparently of one age. 
 All too, it may be remarked, are close to Eoman stations and 
 surrounded by evidences of Roman occupation. 
 
 In the previous pages we have already met with several 
 instances of summit interments, as at Gib Hill, Manning Low, &c, 
 which are certainly not secondary, and we have reason to suspect 
 that more will be found when looked for ; and the finding of 
 Roman coins on or near the top of tumuli is too frequent to be acci- 
 dental, and occurs even in Ireland, where the Romans never went. 
 
 We shall have occasion to recur to this subject when speaking 
 of the tomb of King Harald Hildetand at Lethra, and then 
 propose to treat it more in detail ; but meanwhile it seems clear 
 that the evidence of the coins and the pottery must be allowed to 
 outweigh that of the flints ; and if this is so, not only Uley but 
 all the chamber-tumuli in Gloucestershire or Somerset belong 
 either to the Romano-British, or rather to the post-Ronian period 
 of British history. 
 
 Another and even more interesting example of this class has 
 recently been brought to light by the Hon. W. O. Stanley, 
 at Plas Newydd, not far from the great dolmen represented 
 on woodcut No. 50. 3 It is a chamber or cist, 3 feet 3 inches 
 
 1 ' Fro. Soc. Ant.,' second series, ii. 
 '275. Thnrnam, ' Archajologia,' xlii. 
 217. 
 
 2 ' Archteologia,' xix. p. 43. 
 
 3 ' Archreologia Canibrensis,' fourth 
 series vol. i. p. 51 et seqq. 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 DOLMENS. 
 
 167 
 
 wide by about 7 feet long, and covered by two slabs. Before 
 being disturbed, the supporting slabs must have formed nearly 
 
 SO YARDS 
 
 Tumulus, Plas Newydd. 
 
 perfect walls, thus distinguishing the cist from those standing on 
 widely-spaced legs. Its principal point of interest, however, is the 
 
 Entrance to Dolmen, in Tumulus, Plas Newydd. 
 
 widely-splayed avenue of stones leading up to it, showing that it 
 was always intended to be visited ; and still more curious are the 
 
168 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 two holes that were pierced in the slab that closed the entrance. 
 The upper part of this slab is now broken off, but so much remains 
 that it is easy to see that they were originally circular and about 
 10 inches in diameter. Such holed stones are very frequent 
 in Eastern dolmens, and are also common in Cornwall and 
 elsewhere ; l but what their purpose may have been has not yet 
 been explained. Further on it may be attempted. At present it 
 is the relation of this form of chambered tumuli to external 
 dolmens that principally interests us. 
 
 Almost all the so-called dolmens in the Channel Islands are of 
 this class. One has already been given (woodcut No. 11), and 
 it may safelv be asserted that all chambers which were wains- 
 
 
 Dolmen at lVntre Ifan. From ' Arcluvolojiia Cambrensis.' 
 
 coted with slabs, so as to form nearly perfect walls, and all that 
 had complicated quasi-vaulted roofs were, or were intended to be, 
 covered with mounds — more especially those that had covered pas- 
 sages leading to them. There is, however, a very wide distinction 
 between these sepulchral chambers and such a monument as this 
 at Pentre Ifan, in Pembrokeshire. 2 The top stone is so large 
 that it is said five persons on horseback have found shelter under 
 
 1 For Rodmarton, see ' Proceedings Soc. Ant.' /. s. c. ; for Cornish, see paper by 
 M. Brash, 'Gent. Mag.,' 1864. 
 
 - ' Arehseologia Cambrensis,' third series, xi. p. 284. 
 
ClIAP. IV. 
 
 DOLMENS. 
 
 169 
 
 it from a shower of rain. Even allowing that the horses were 
 only Welsh ponies, men do not raise such masses and poise them 
 on their points for the sake of hiding them again. Besides that, 
 the supports do not and could not form a chamber. The earth 
 would have fallen in on all sides, and the connexion between the 
 roof and the floor been cut off entirely, even before the whole was 
 completed. Or, to take another example, that at Plas Newydd, 
 on the shore of the Menai Strait. Here the cap stone is an 
 enormous block, squared by art, supported on four stone legs, but 
 with no pretence of forming a chamber. If the cap stone were 
 
 50. Dolmen at Plas Newydd. From ' Aicha3olog ; a Cambrensis.' 
 
 merely intended as a roofing stone, one a third or fourth of its 
 weight would have been equally serviceable and equally effective 
 in an architectural point of view, if buried. The mode of archi- 
 tectural expression which these Stone men best understood was 
 the power of mass. At Stonehenge, at Avebury, and everywhere, 
 as here, they sought to give dignity and expression by using 
 the largest blocks they could transport or raise — and they were 
 right ; for, in spite of their rudeness, they impress us now ; but 
 had they buried them in mounds, they neither would have 
 impressed us nor their contemporaries. 
 
 As before mentioned, however, the great argument against the 
 theory of their having been always covered up is the impossibility 
 of accounting for the disappearance of the tumuli. If they had 
 been situated on fertile plains where the land was valuable for 
 
170 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 agricultural purposes, it might be assumed that a civilized people 
 with highly cultivated antiquarian tastes might have been at the 
 trouble and expense of removing the tumuli for the sake of the 
 land, and of preserving the dolmens for their historical value. But 
 that the rude peasantry of Cornwall and Wales should have done 
 this is inconceivable, more especially as by far the greater number of 
 these monuments are situated on bleak moorlands of no agricultural 
 value whatever. Still more inconceivable is it that they should have 
 done it so neatly and so carefully that no trace of the mound can 
 now be found either around the stones or in the neighbourhood. 
 
 If any history were attached to these Western dolmens, or 
 any remains had been found under them which would enable us 
 to fix their dates, even approximately, or to arrange them in 
 .any intelligible sequence, it might be worth while recapitulating 
 their names or illustrating their forms. Nothing of the sort, how- 
 ever, has yet been attempted; and apparently no materials exist 
 from which any such series could be elaborated. 
 
 Only one dolmen in Wales, so far as I know, bears a name ; but 
 
 - $**t^'- — — — ~^ 
 
 Arthur's Quoit, Gower. From a drawing by Sir Gardner Wilkinson. 
 
 it is the illustrious one of King Arthur. The dolmen bearing his 
 name is situated in the peninsula of Gower, on the northern slopes 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 DOLMENS. 
 
 171 
 
 of the bleak Bryn Cefn, about ten miles west from Swansea. 1 It 
 forms the centre of a very extensive group of monuments — eighty 
 cairns, at least, are still to be counted in an area less than half a 
 mile in length, by a quarter of a mile in width. These are mostly 
 small, 12 to 15 feet in diameter; one, 20 feet across, was opened 
 by. Sir Gardner Wilkinson, but proved to contain no interment. 
 The largest is 68 feet in diameter, but has not been opened. About 
 350 feet from this is the dolmen. The cap stone is 14 feet 6 inches 
 in length, 7 feet 5 inches in height, and 6 feet 8 inches in breadth 
 
 52. Plan of Arthur's Quoit. 
 
 even now, but a very large piece has been broken off, and now lies 
 beside it, measuring upwards of 3 feet in thickness ; and another 
 piece seems to have been broken off on the other end, so that when 
 complete it must have weighed between 35 and 40 tons. It rested 
 originally on ten or eleven upright stones, two of which, however, 
 have fallen, and only four now touch the cap stone. Sir Gardner 
 is of opinion that it once was covered with a tumulus ; but this 
 
 1 The following particulars are taken 
 from a paper by Sir J. Gardner Wilkin- 
 son, in the first volume, fourth series, of 
 the ' Archseologia Cambrensis,' 1870. It 
 
 is not on'y the last, but the best descrip- 
 tion which I know, and, being from the 
 pen of so accurate an observer, I have 
 relied on it exclusively. 
 
172 ENGLAND. Chap. IV. 
 
 appears very doubtful. The slight mound, backed up with large 
 stones, that now surrounds it, with a diameter of 73 to 74 feet, 
 seems an enclosure more like that of Hob Hurst's House (woodcut 
 No. 53) than the remains of a tumulus, and till some further 
 evidence is adduced, we must be allowed to doubt whether any cap 
 
 53. Hob Hurst's House, on Baslow Moor, Derbyshire. From a drawing by Thomas Bateman. 1 
 
 stone on legs was ever so treated. Sir Gardner traced, doubtfully, 
 an avenue, of which, however, only five stones now remain, ex- 
 tending to about 500 feet in a direction that would have passed 
 the dolmen on the north, as that at Shap did the circle at its 
 front, or the lines at Merivale Bridge, the circle still found there ; 
 Sir Gardner also points out some small circular enclosures, which, 
 from the analogy of those found on Dartmoor, he assumes to be 
 hut-circles. 
 
 What, then, is this group of monuments ? Sir Gardner assumes 
 that it is a cemetery of the ancient Britons ; but, if so, why are 
 not other cemeteries found in the fertile valleys and plains in South 
 Wales ? Why did they choose one of the barest and bleakest hill- 
 sides, and one farthest removed*from their habitations as a place in 
 which to bury their dead ? Why did they not, like the inhabitants 
 of Salisbury Plain, disperse their graves pretty equally over an area 
 of 30 miles by 10 ? Why crowd them into less than half-a-mile ? 
 Without reverting to my previous suggestion of a battle-field, I do 
 not see how these questions can be answered ; and if so, I do not 
 think we have far to go to look for its name ? As hinted above, 
 Arthur's eighth battle must have been fought in Wales. The 
 name of the place is written Guin (Gwyn), Guinon, Guinnon, 
 Gunnion, 2 which certainly is Welsh; and when we find it imme- 
 
 1 ' Ten Years' Diggings,' p. 87. - Dare one suggest Gower ? 
 
Chap. IV. DOLMENS. 173 
 
 diately preceding the battle of Caerleon on the Usk, and the prin- 
 cipal monument still bearing Arthur's name, we may fairly, I think, 
 adopt the suggestion till, at least, a better is offered. 
 
 Be this as it may, I think all antiquaries will agree with Sir 
 Gardner Wilkinson in assuming that this is the stone of Cetti 1 
 mentioned in the Welsh triads. ' The 84th Triad ' speaks of the Cor 
 of Emmrys in Caer Caradawg (another name for Salisbury), and 
 the 88th of the three mighty achievements of the Isle of Britain, 
 the raising of the stone of Cetti, the building of the work of Emmrys, 
 and the heaping of the pile of Cyvragnon. 2 The work of Emmrys 
 (Ambrosius) is generally admitted to be Stonehenge. If this is 
 the stone of Cetti, which I see no reason for doubting, it only 
 remains to identify the third. Most antiquaries suggest Silbury 
 Hill ; and, if I am correct in placing these three monuments so 
 near one another in date, this seems also extremely probable, and 
 so far as it goes, is a satisfactory confirmation of what has been 
 advanced above from other sources. 
 
 From my ignorance of the Welsh language I am not in a 
 position to say what amount of reliance should be placed in the 
 evidence of these triads. But Herbert and other competent 
 scholars consider it undoubted that Emmrys is Ambrosius, and 
 the ' Work ' referred to certainly Stonehenge. If this is so, it 
 fixes its date beyond question, and as the other two are mentioned 
 in the same breath it is probable they were not distant in date. 
 All this may be, I believe certainly is so, but the circumstantial 
 evidence adduced above seems to me so much clearer and so 
 much more to be relied upon, that it derives very little additional 
 force from the utterance of the Welsh bards. It is, however, no 
 doubt satisfactory that their evidence coincides with everything 
 that has been brought forward above, as bearing directly or 
 indirectly on their age or use. 
 
 Before proceeding, it may be as well to revert for one moment 
 to Hob Hurst's House. It is quoted here to show .how a tumulus, 
 with a dolmen on the top of it, may be connected with a low ram- 
 
 1 Is this the same word as " Cotty," as applied to Kit's Cotty-houae, in Kent ? 
 It looks very like it.— Coity? 2 Herbert, 'Cyclops Christiaims,' p. 35. 
 
174 ENGLAND. Chap. IV. 
 
 part so as not to conceal it, exactly, I believe, as is the case with 
 Arthur's Quoit. But the name of the place where it is situated 
 may afford a hint which may lead to something hereafter. It will 
 be recollected that Arthur's sixth battle was fought " super flumen 
 quod vocatur Bassas." This mound is situated on " Bas " Moor, 
 the Low being merely the name of the mound itself. These 
 nominal similarities are too treacherous to be relied upon ; but 
 the more the whole group is looked at the more does it appear 
 that there ai*e coincidences of name, or form, or purpose, between 
 those monuments here called Arthurian, which cannot all be 
 accidental. Individually they may not be able to resist hostile 
 criticism, but in their cumulative form they appear to me to make 
 up a very strong case indeed. 
 
 If any of the other dolmens in the West had even so good a title 
 to a date as Arthur's Quoit, it might be possible to arrange them 
 in a series ; but as none have even traditional dates, all we can 
 now do is to suggest that the dolmen at Plas Newycld (woodcut 
 No. 50) is of about the same age as Arthur's Stone : perhaps 
 something more modern, as it is more carefully squared ; but this 
 may arise from the one being a battle-stone, the other a peaceful 
 sepulchre. In like manner it would seem that such an exaggerated 
 form as Pentre Ifan (woodcut No. 49) is a " tour de force" of a still 
 more modern date ; and if we could get one certainly older than 
 any of these, a tentative scheme could be constructed which might 
 lead us to satisfactory results. 
 
 I by no means despair of being able eventually to construct such 
 a scheme of classification, and, even before this Work is concluded, 
 to make it tolerably clear that the thing is possible, and then it 
 will only remain, if one or two fixed or probable dates can be 
 ascertained, to bring the whole within the range of historical 
 investigation. 
 
Chap. V. IRELAND.— MOYTURA. 175 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 IRELAND. 
 
 MOTTUEA. 
 
 It is probable, after all, that it is from the Irish aimals that the 
 greatest amount of light will be thrown on the history and uses of 
 the Megalithic monuments. Indeed, had not Lord Melbourne's 
 Ministry in 1839, in a fit of ill-timed parsimony, abolished the 
 Historical Commission attached to the Irish Ordnance Survey, we 
 should not now be groping in the dark. Had they even retained 
 the services of Dr. Petrie till the time of his death, he would have 
 left very little to be desired in this respect. But nothing of the sort 
 was done. The fiat went forth. All the documents and informa- 
 tion collected during fourteen years' labour by a most competent 
 staff of explorers were cast aside — all the members dismissed on 
 the shortest possible notice, and our knowledge of the ancient 
 history and antiquities of Ireland thrown back half a century, 
 at least. 1 
 
 Meanwhile, however, a certain number of the best works of the 
 Irish annalists have been carefully translated and edited by John 
 'Donovan and others, and are sufficient to enable any one not 
 acquainted with Irish to check the wild speculations of antiquaries 
 of the Valiancy and O'Brien class, and also to form an opinion on 
 the value of the annals themselves, though hardly yet sufficient to 
 enable a stranger to construct a reliable scheme of chronology or 
 history out of the heterogeneous materials presented to him. We 
 must wait till some second Petrie shall arise, who shall possess a 
 sufficient knowledge of the Irish language and literature, without 
 losing his Saxon coolness of judgment, before we can hope to 
 possess a reliable and consecutive account of ancient Ireland. 
 
 1 Stokes, ' Life of Petrie ;' London, 1868, p. 99 et seqq. 
 
176 
 
 IRELAND. 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 When this is done, it will probably be found that the Irish 
 possess a more copious literature, illustrative of the eocene period 
 of their early history, than almost any other country of Europe. 
 Ireland may also boast that, never having been conquered by 
 the Romans, she retained her native forms, and the people their 
 native customs and fashions, uninterrupted and uninfluenced by 
 Roman civilization, for a longer time than the other countries of 
 Europe which were subjected to its sway. 
 
 As most important and instructive parts of the Irish annals, it 
 is proposed first to treat of those passages descriptive of the two 
 battles of Moytura 1 (Magh Tuireadh), both of which occurred 
 within a period of a very few years. A description of the fields 
 on which they were fought will probably be sufficient to set at 
 rest the question as to the uses of cairns and circles ; and if we 
 can arrive at an approximative date, it will go far to clear up the 
 difficulties in understanding the age of the most important Irish 
 antiquities. 
 
 The narrative which contains an account of the battle of Southern 
 Moytura, or Moytura Cong, is well known to Irish antiquaries. 
 It has not }et been published, but a translation from a MS. in 
 Trinity College, Dublin, was made by John O'Donovan for the 
 Ordnance Survey, and was obtained from their records above 
 alluded to by Sir William Wilde. He went over the battle-field 
 repeatedly with the MS. in his hand, and has published a detailed 
 account of it, with sufficient extracts to make the whole intelligible. 2 
 The story is briefly this : — At a certain period of Irish history a 
 colony of Firlolgs, or Belgae, as they are usually called by Irish 
 antiquaries, settled in Ireland, dispossessing the Fomorians, who 
 are said to have come from Africa. After possessing the country 
 
 1 In the following pages it is proposed 
 to follow the popular and pronounceable 
 spelling of Irish proper names. One 
 half of the difficulty of following the 
 Irish annals is the unfamiliar and un- 
 couth mode in which proper names are 
 spelt, and which we learn, from Eugene 
 U' Curry s lectures, never represents the 
 nioile in which they are pronounced. 
 Iu a learned work intended for Irish 
 scholars, like the 'Annals of the Four 
 
 Masters,' the scientific mode of sjielling 
 is, of course, the only one that could be 
 adopted, but in such a work as this it 
 would be only useless and prejudicial 
 pedantry. 
 
 2 'Lough Corrib, its Shores and 
 Islands.' Dublin, 1867. Sir William 
 possesses a residence oti the battle-field, 
 where I was hospitably entertained for 
 some days when I visited that neigh- 
 bourhood last year. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 MOYTUEA. 
 
 177 
 
 for thirty-seven years, they were in their turn attacked by a colony 
 of Tuatha de Dananns coming from the north, said to be of the same 
 race and speaking a tongue mutually intelligible. On hearing of 
 the arrival of these strangers, the Firbolgs advanced from the plains 
 of Meath as far as Cong, situated between Lough Corrib and Lough 
 Mask, where the first battle was fought, and, after being fiercely 
 contested for four days, was decided in favour of the invaders. 1 
 
 The second battle was fought seven years afterwards, near Sligo' 
 under circumstances which will be detailed more fully below, 
 and resulted equally in favour of the Tuatha de Dananns, and 
 they in consequence obtained possession of the country, which, 
 according to the Four Masters, they held for 197 years. 2 
 
 The field on which the four-days' battle of Southern Moytura 
 was fought extends from five to six miles north and south. Near 
 the centre of the space, and nearly opposite the village of Cong, 
 is a group of five stone circles, one of which, 54 feet in diameter, 
 is represented in the annexed woodcut (No. 54). Another, very 
 
 54. Circle on Battle-field of Southern Moytura. From Sir W. Wilde. 
 
 similar, is close by; and a third, larger but partially ruined, is 
 within a few yards of the first. The other two can only now be 
 traced, and two more are said to have existed close by, but have 
 entirely disappeared. On other parts of the battle-field there are 
 six or seven large cairns of stone, all of them more or less ruined, 
 
 1 These, and all the particulars of the 
 battle of South Moytura, are taken from 
 the eighth chapter of Sir W. Wilde's 
 book, pp. 211-248, ami need not, there- 
 
 fore, be specially referred to. 
 
 2 ' Annals of the Four Masters,' trans- 
 lated by J. O'Donovan,' i. p» 23. 
 
178 
 
 IRELAND. 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 the stones having been used to build dykes, with which every 
 field is surrounded in this country ; but none of* them have been 
 scientifically explored. One is represented (woodcut No. 55). Sir 
 W. Wilde has identified all of these as connected with incidents 
 in the battle, and there seems no reason to doubt his conclusions. 
 The most interesting, however, is one connected with an incident 
 in the battle, which is worth relating, as illustrating the manner 
 in which the monuments corroborate the history. On the morning 
 of the second day of the battle, King Eochy retired to a well to 
 refresh himself with a bath, when three of his enemies looking 
 down, recognised him and demanded his surrender. While he 
 
 55. Cairn on Battle-field of Southern Moytura 
 
 was parleying with them, they were attacked by his servant 
 and killed ; but the servant died immediately afterwards of his 
 wounds, and, as the story goes, was interred with all honours in 
 a cairn close by. In the narrative it is said that the well where 
 the king had so narrow an escape is the only open one in the 
 neighbourhood. It is so to the present day ; for the peculiarity of 
 the country is, that the waters from Lough Mask do not flow into 
 Lough Corrib by channels on the surface, but entirely through 
 chasms in the rock underground, and it is only when a crack in 
 the rock opens into one of these that the water is accessible. The 
 well in question is the only one of these for some distance in 
 which the water is approached by steps partly cut in the rock, 
 partly constructed. Close by is a cairn (woodcut No. 56), called 
 to this day the "Cairn of the One Man." It was opened by Sir 
 W. Wilde, and in its chamber was found one urn, which is now 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 MOYTUEA. 
 
 179 
 
 deposited in the Museum of the Boyal Academy at Dublin, the 
 excavation thus confirming the narrative in the most satisfactory 
 manner. 
 
 " The battle took place on Midsummer day. The Firbolgs were 
 
 56. The Cairn of the "One Man," Moytnra. 
 
 defeated with great slaughter, and their king, who left the battle- 
 field with a body-guard of 100 brave men in search of water to 
 allay his burning thirst, was followed by a party of 150 men, led 
 by the three sons of Nemedh, who pursued liim all the way to 
 the strand, called Traigli 
 Eothaile, near Ballysadare, in 
 the county of Sligo. Here 
 a fierce combat ensued, and 
 King Eochy (Eochaidh) fell, 
 as well as the leaders on the 
 other side, the three sons of 
 Neniedh." 1 A cairn is still 
 pointed out on a promontory 
 jutting into the bay, about a 
 mile north-west of the village 
 
 C5 
 
 of Ballysadare, which is said 
 to have been erected over 
 
 57. Urn in the Cairn of the "One Man," Moytura. 
 
 the remains of the king, and bones are also said to have been found 
 between high and low water on the strand beneath, supposed to 
 be those of the combatants who fell in the final struggle. It 
 
 1 Eugene O'Cuny's 'Materials for Ancient Irish History,' p. 246. 
 
 N 2 
 
180 IRELAND. Chap. V. 
 
 may be otherwise, but there is a consistency between the narrative 
 and the monuments on the spot which can hardly be accidental, 
 and which it will be very difficult to explain except in the 
 assumption that they refer to the same events. 
 
 In fact, it would be difficult to conceive anything more satis- 
 factory and confirmatory of the record than the monuments on the 
 plain ; and no one, I fancy, could go over the field with Sir William's 
 book in his hand, without feeling the importance of his identifi- 
 cations. Of course it may be suggested that the book was written 
 by some one familiar with the spot, to suit the localities. The 
 probability, however, of this having been done before the ninth 
 century, and done so soberly and so well, is very remote, and the 
 guess that but one urn would be found in the cairn of the " One 
 Man," is a greater piece of luck than could reasonably be expected. 
 Even, however, if the book was written to suit the localities, it 
 will not invalidate the fact that a great battle was fought on this 
 spot, and that these cairns and these circles mark the graves of 
 those who fell in the fight. 
 
 The collection of monuments on the battle-field of Northern 
 Moytura is even more interesting than that on Moytura Cong, and 
 almost justified the assertion of Petrie " that, excepting the monu- 
 ments at Carnac, in Brittany, it is, even in its present state of 
 ruin, the largest assemblage of the kind hitherto discovered in the 
 world." * They have also this advantage, that the principal group, 
 consisting of some sixty or seventy monuments, are situated on 
 an elevated table-land, and in an area extending not more than 
 a mile in one direction, and about half a mile in another. The 
 country, too, is much less stony than about Cong, so that the 
 monuments stand out better and have a more imposing look. 
 Petrie examined and described sixty-four monuments as situated 
 in or around this space, and came to the conclusion that originally 
 there could not have been less than 200. 2 My impression is that 
 there may have been 100, but hardly more, though, of course, this 
 is only a guess, and the destruction of them is going on so rapidly 
 that he may be right after all. 
 
 In the space above described almost every variety of Megalithic 
 
 1 Stokes, ' Life of Petrie,' p. 253. 2 7. c v . 242. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 MOYTURA. 
 
 181 
 
 art is to be found. There are stone cairns, with dolmens in their 
 interiors — dolmens standing alone, but which have been evidently 
 always exposed ; dolmens 
 with single circles ; others 
 with two or three circles of 
 stones around them ; and 
 circles without dolmens or 
 anything else in the centres. 
 The only form we miss is 
 the avenue. Nothing of the 
 sort can now, at least, be 
 traced, nor does it seem 
 that any of the circles 
 possessed such appendages. 
 The annexed woodcut 
 (No. 58) will explain the 
 disposition of the principal 
 group. It is taken from 
 the Ordnance Survey, and 
 is perfectly correct as far 
 as it goes, but being only 
 on the 6-inch scale, is too 
 small to show the form 
 of the monuments. 1 In 
 the centre is, or rather 
 was, a great cairn, called 
 Listoghil. It is marked by 
 Petrie as No. 51, but having for years been used as a quarry for 
 the neighbourhood, it is now so mined that it is difficult to make 
 out either its plan or dimensions. Petrie says it is 150 feet in 
 
 Battle-field of Northern Moytura. 
 Scale 6 inches to 1 mile. 
 
 1 I regret very much that the state of 
 my health, and other circumstances, pre- 
 vented my mapping and drawing these 
 remains, but I hope some competent 
 person will undertake the task before 
 long. Carrowmore is more easily acces- 
 sible than Carnac. The inns at Sligo 
 are better than those at Auray, the 
 remains are within three miles of the 
 
 town, and the scenery near Sligo is 
 far more beautiful than that of the 
 Morbihan ; yet hundreds of our country- 
 men rush annually to the French mega- 
 liths, and bring home sketch-books full 
 of views and measurements, but no one 
 thinks of the Irish monuments, and no 
 views of them exist that are in any way 
 accessible to the public. 
 
182 IRELAND. Chap. V. 
 
 diameter ; I made it 120. It was surrounded by a circle of great 
 stones, within which was the cairn, originally, probably, 40 or 50 feet 
 high. All this has been removed to such an extent as to expose 
 the kistvaen or dolmen in its centre. Its cap stone is 10 feet 
 square and 2 feet thick, and is of limestone, as are its supports. 
 All the other monuments are composed of granite boulders. 
 " Those who first opened it assert that they found nothing within 
 but burnt wood and human bones. The half-calcined bones of 
 horses and other animals were and are still found in this cairn 
 in great quantities" (Petrie, p. 250). In a note it is said that a large 
 spear-head of stone (flint ?) was also found in this cairn. 
 
 The annexed woodcut (No. 59) will give an idea of the general 
 disposition of a circle numbered 27 by Petrie. 1 It is of about the 
 
 medium size, being 60 feet 
 
 # i^#a ^ in diameter. The general di- 
 
 §^ ^ mensions of the circles are 40, 
 
 9* _..__ % 60, 80, and one (No. 46) is 120 
 
 H^ , x - ^ feet in diameter. The outer 
 
 || : da ^ circle of No. 27 is composed of 
 
 § I #<% W|» ^ I! large stones, averaging 6 feet 
 
 H «* mWW W p J M in height, and some 20 feet 
 
 ^ i J* / |j in circumference. Inside this 
 
 ^ ^^ r ^ ^ is a circle of smaller stones, 
 
 % . ^ nearly obliterated by the 
 
 %> ^ § turf, and in the centre is a 
 
 three-chambered dolmen, of 
 t |0 Mt £ o6 which fifteen stones still 
 
 I . ,1 1 , fT 
 
 remain; but all the cap 
 stones, except that of the 
 central inner chamber, are gone, and that now stands on its edge 
 in front of its support. 
 
 The general appearance of this circle will be understood from the 
 annexed view (woodcut No. 60), taken from a photograph. It does 
 not, however, do justice to its appearance, as the camera was placed 
 too low and does not look into the circle, as the eye does. In the 
 
 59. Sketch-plan of Circle 27, Northern Moyturn 
 
 1 It is unfortunately only an eye- I stones outside, that look like the rudi- 
 sketch, hurriedly taken, and thus not to tnents of the avenue, I lake to mark 
 be implicitly depended upon. The two | only an external interment. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 MOYTURA. 
 
 183 
 
 distance is seen the hill, called Knock na Kea, surmounted by the 
 so-called Cairn of Queen Meave, of which more hereafter. 
 
 WSUSh^OO^j^ 
 
 
 : 
 
 60. View of Circle 27, Northern Moytura. From a photograph. 
 
 Another of these circles, No. 7, is thus described by Petrie : — 
 " This circle, with its cromlech, are perfect. Its diameter is 37 feet, 
 and the number of stones thirty-two. The cromlech is about 8 feet 
 high, the table-stone resting on six stones of great magnitude: it 
 is 9 feet long and 23 feet in circumference." Its general appear- 
 ance will be seen in the annexed view from a photograph (woodcut 
 
 61. Dolmen, with Circle, No. 7, Northern Moytura. From a photograph. 
 
 No. 61) ; though this, as in the last instance, is far from doing justice 
 to its appearance. 1 
 
 No. 37 is described by Dr. Petrie (p. 248) as a triple circle. The 
 inner one 40 feet in diameter. The second of twelve large stones, 
 and of 80 feet, the third as a circle of 120 feet in diameter. " The 
 cromleac is of the smallest size, not more than 4 feet in height. 
 The circumference of the stone table is 16 feet, and it rests on 
 five supporters." 
 
 1 These, and several other photo- 
 graphs of the field and localities near it, 
 were specially made for me by Mr. A. 
 
 Sleater, 26, Castle-street, Sligo, 'who 
 executed my commission both cheaply 
 and intelligently. 
 
184 IRELAND. Chap. V. 
 
 Excavations were made into almost all these monuments either 
 by Mr. Walker, the proprietor of the ground, or by Dr. Petrie, and, 
 with scarcely one exception, they yielded evidence of sepulchral 
 uses. Either human bones were found or urns containing ashes. 
 No iron, apparently, was found in any. A bronze sword is said to 
 have been found, forty years ago, in 63 ; but generally there was 
 nothing but implements of bone or stone. At the time Petrie 
 wrote (1837) these were not valued, or classified, as they have 
 since been ; so we cannot draw any inference from them as to 
 the age of the monuments, and no collection, that I am aware of, 
 exists in which these " finds " are now accessible. Indeed, I am 
 afraid that Petrie and those who worked with him were too little 
 aware of the importance of these material points of evidence, 
 to be careful either to collect or to describe the contents of these 
 graves; and as all or nearly all have been opened, that source 
 of information may be cut off for ever. 
 
 Besides these monuments on the battle-field, there are two 
 others, situated nearly equi-distant from it, and which seem to 
 belong to the same group ; one known as the Tomb of Misgan 
 Meave, the celebrated Queen of Connaught, who lived apparently 
 contemporaneously with Caesar Augustus, or rather, as the annal- 
 ists insist, with Jesns Christ; 1 though, according to the more 
 accurate Tighernach, her death occurred in the 7th year of Ves- 
 pasian, in a.d. 75. 2 It is situated on the top of a high hill 
 known as Knock na Rea (woodcut No. 60), at a distance of 
 two miles westward from the battle-field. It was described by the 
 lit. Hon. William Burton, in 1779, as an enormous heap of small 
 stones, and is of an oval figure, 650 feet in circumference at the 
 base, 79 feet slope on one side and 67 feet on the other. The area 
 on the top is 100 feet in its longest diameter and 85 feet in its 
 shortest. When Petrie visited it in 1837, it was only 590 feet in 
 circumference, and the longest diameter on the top only 80 feet. 
 It had in the interval, in fact, been used as a quarry ; and I have 
 no doubt but that the flat top originally measured the usual 
 100 feet, and was circular. "Around its base," says Petrie, "are 
 
 1 O'Curry's ' Materials i'or Ancient Irish History,' Appendix xxv. p. 41. 
 
 -' "Meaba Regina occisa est a Furba dio filio (Joucobari 7 Vespasiano,"' ii. p. '23. 
 
Chap. V. MOYTURA. 185 
 
 the remains of many sepulchral monuments of lesser importance, 
 consisting of groups of large stones forming circular or oval 
 enclosures. A careful excavation within these tombs by Mr. 
 Walker resulted in the discovery not only of human interments, 
 but also of several rude ornaments and implements of stone of a 
 similar character to those usually found in sepulchres of this class 
 in Ireland, and which, being unaccompanied by any others of a 
 metallic nature, identify this group of monuments as of contem- 
 poraneous age with those of Carrowmore, among which no iron 
 remains are known to have been discovered, and mark them as 
 belonging to any period of semi-civilized society in Ireland." 1 
 
 From their situation, it seems hardly possible to doubt that 
 these smaller tombs are contemporaneous with or subsequent to 
 the Great Cairn ; and if this really were the tomb of Queen 
 Meave, it would throw some light on our subject. The great 
 cairn has not, however, been dug into yet ; and till that is done 
 the ownership of the tomb cannot be definitely fixed. There are 
 several reasons, however, for doubting the tradition. In the first 
 place, we have the direct testimony of a commentary written by 
 Moelmuiri, that Meave (Meahbh) was buried at Kathcroghan, 
 which was the proper burying-place of her race; "her body 
 having been removed by her people from Fert Medhbha ; for they 
 deemed it more honourable to have her interred at Cruachan." 2 
 As the Book of the Cemeteries confirms this, there seems no 
 good reason for doubting the fact, though she may have first 
 been laid in this neighbourhood, which may have given rise to 
 the tradition. 
 
 If, on the other hand, we may trust Beowulf's description of a 
 warrior's grave, as it was understood in the 5th century, no tomb in 
 these islands would answer more perfectly to his ideal than the 
 Cairn on Knock na Ilea : — 
 
 " Then wrought 
 The people of the Westerns 
 A mound over the sea. 
 It was high and broad, 
 By the sea-faring man 
 To he seen afar." 
 
 Stokes, ' Life of Petrie,' p. 256. 2 Petrie's 'Eound Towers,' p. 107. 
 
18(5 IRELAND. Chap. V. 
 
 That an Irish queen should be buried on a mountain-top over- 
 looking the Western Ocean seems most improbable, and is opposed 
 to the evidence we have ; but that a Viking warrior should be so 
 buried, overlooking the sea and a battle-field, seems natural ; but 
 who he may have been is for future investigators to discover. 
 
 The other cairn is situated just two miles eastward from the 
 battle-field, on an eminence overlooking Loch Gill. It is less in 
 height than the so-called Queen's Tomb, but the top is nearly 
 perfect, and has a curious saucer-like depression, as nearly as can 
 be measured, 100 feet in diameter. It has never been dug into, 
 nor, so far as I could learn, does any tradition attach to it. 
 
 The history of the Battle of Northern Moytura, as told in the 
 Irish Annals, is briefly as follows i 1 — 
 
 Nuada, who was king of the Tuatha de Dananns when the battle 
 of Southern Moytura was fought, lost his arm in the fight. This, 
 however, some skilled artificers whom he had with him skilfully 
 replaced by one made of silver ; so that he was always afterwards 
 known as Nuada of the Silver Hand. Whether from this cause 
 or some other not explained, he resigned the chief sovereignty to 
 Breas, who, though a Foniorian by birth, held a chief command 
 in the Tuatha de Danann army. Owing to his penurious habits 
 and domineering disposition, Breas soon rendered himself very 
 unpopular with the nobles of his Court ; and, at a time when 
 the discontent was at its height, a certain poet and satirist, 
 Cairbre, the son of the poetess Etan, arrived at his Court. He 
 was treated by the king in so shabby a manner and with such dis- 
 respect, that he left it in disgust ; but, before doing so, he wrote 
 and published so stinging a satire against the king, as to set the 
 blood of the nobles boiling with indignation, and they insisted on 
 his resigning the power he had held for seven years. "To this 
 call the regent reluctantly acceded ; and, having held a council 
 with his mother, they both determined to retire to the Court of 
 his father Elatha, at this time the great chief of Fomorian pirates, 
 or Sea Kings, who then swarmed through all the German Ocean 
 and ruled over the Shetland Islands and the Hebrides." 
 
 1 It will be found at more length in E. O' Curry's ' Materials for Ancient Irish 
 History,' pp. 247-250. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 MOYTURA. 
 
 187 
 
 Elatha agreed to provide his son with a fleet to conquer 
 Ireland for himself from the Tuatha de Danann, if he could ; and 
 for this purpose collected all the men and ships lying from Scan- 
 dinavia westwards for the intended invasion, the chief command 
 being entrusted to Balor of the Evil Eye, conjointly with Breas. 
 Having landed near Sligo, they pitched their tents on the spot — 
 Carrowmore — where the battle was afterwards fought. 
 
 Here they were attacked by Nuada of the Silver Hand, accom- 
 panied by the great Daghda, who had taken a prominent part in 
 the previous battle, and other chiefs of note. The battle took 
 place on the last day of October, and is eloquently described. The 
 Fomorians were defeated, and their chief men killed. King 
 Nuada was slain by Balor of the Evil Eye, but Balor himself fell 
 soon after by a stone flung at him by Lug his grandson by his 
 daughter Eithlenn. 
 
 After an interval of forty years, acaording to the ' Annals of the 
 Four Masters,' the Daghda succeeded to the vacant throne, and 
 reigned eighty years. 1 
 
 From the above abstract — all the important passages of which 
 are in the exact words of the translation — it is evident that the 
 author of the tract considered the Fomorians and the Tuatha de 
 Danann as the same people, or at least as two tribes of the same 
 race, the chiefs of which were closely united to one another by 
 intermarriage. He also identifies them with the Scandinavian 
 Vikings, who played so important a part in Irish history down to 
 the Battle of Clontarf, which happened in 1014. 
 
 This may at first sight seem very improbable. We must not, 
 however, forget the celebrated lines of Claudian: 2 "Maduerunt 
 
 1 It was, according to the same autho- 
 rities, " during this interval that Lugh, 
 the then reigning king, established the 
 fair at Tailtean, in commemoration of 
 his foster-mother, the daughter of Magh 
 Mor, king of Spain," " This fair," adds 
 Dr. O'Donovan, " continued famous down 
 to the time of Eoderic 0' Conor, last 
 monarch of Ireland ; and the traditions 
 of it are still so vivid, that Telltown was 
 till recently resorted to by the men of 
 Meath for hurling, wrestling, and manly 
 sports." It would be a wonderful in- 
 
 stance of the stability of Irish institu- 
 tions if a fair, established in a miserable 
 inland village eighteen centuries before 
 Christ, should floimsh through the 
 middle ages, and hardly now be extinct ! 
 It may have been established about the 
 Christian era, but certainly not before, 
 and thus becomes another piece of evi- 
 dence as to the date of the events we 
 are describing. — ■' Annals of the Four 
 Masters,' p. 23. 
 
 2 ' Mon. Hist. Brit.' xcviii. 
 
188 
 
 IRELAND. 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 Saxone fuso Orcades: incaluit Pictorum sanguine Thule: Scotorum 
 cumulos flevit glacialis Ierne." This, it may be said, was written 
 three or even four centuries after the events of which we are now 
 speaking ; but it was also written five centuries before the Northmen 
 are generally supposed to have occupied the Orkneys or to have 
 interfered in the affairs of Ireland, and does point to an earlier 
 state of affairs, though how much anterior to the poet's time there 
 is nothing to show. 
 
 It has been frequently proposed to identify the Dananns with the 
 Danes, from the similarity of their names. Till I visited Sligo, I 
 confess I always looked on this as one of those random guesses from 
 identity of mere sound which are geuerally very deceptive in investi- 
 gations of this sort. The monuments, however, on the battle-field 
 correspond so nearly to those figured by Madsen in his ' Antiquites 
 prehistoriques du Danemark,' x and their disposition is so similar to 
 that of the Braavalla feld 2 and other battle-fields in Scandinavia, 
 that it will now require very strong evidence to the contrary to 
 disprove an obvious and intimate connection between them. 
 
 In concluding his account of the battle, Mr. O'Curry adds : 
 " Cormac Mac Cullinan, in his celebrated Glossary, quotes this 
 tract in illustration of the word Nes ; so that so early as the ninth 
 century it was looked upon by him as a very ancient historic 
 composition of authority." 3 If this is so, there seems no good 
 reason for doubting his having spoken of events and things 
 perfectly within his competence, and so we may consider the 
 account above given as historical till at least some good cause is 
 shown to the contrary. 
 
 It now only remains to try and find out if any means exist by 
 which the dates of these two battles of Moytura can be fixed with 
 anything like certainty. If we turn to the ' Annals of the Four 
 Masters,' which is the favourite authority with Irish antiquaries, 
 we get a startling answer at once. The battle of Moytura Cong, 
 according to them, took place in the year of the world 3303, and 
 the second battle twenty-seven years afterwards. 4 The twenty is 
 
 1 Madsen, 'Antiquites prehistoriques 
 du Danemark.' Copenhagen, 1S69. 
 
 2 Sjoborg Samlingar for Nordens For- 
 n'alakaxe,' i. p. 12. 
 
 3 ' Materials for Ancient Irish His- 
 tory,' p. 250. 
 
 4 ' Annals of the Four Masters,' trans- 
 lated by J. O'Donovan, i. p. 21. 
 
Chaf. V. MOYTURA. 189 
 
 a gratuitous interpolation. This is equivalent to 1896 and 1869 
 years before Christ. Alphabetical writing was not, as we shall 
 presently see, introduced into Ireland till after the Christian 
 Era, the idea therefore that the details of these two battles should 
 have been preserved orally during 2000 years, and all the inter- 
 mediate events forgotten, is simply ridiculous. The truth of the 
 matter seems to be that the 'Four Masters,' like truly patriotic 
 Irishmen in the middle of the seventeenth century, thought it 
 necessary for the honour of their country to carry back its history 
 to the Flood at least. As the country at the time of the Tuatha 
 de Dananns was divided into five kingdoms, 1 and at other times 
 into twenty-five, they had an abundance of names of chiefs at their 
 disposal, and instead of treating them as cotemporary, they wrote 
 them out consecutively, till they reached back to Ceasair — not 
 Julius — but a granddaughter of Noah, who came to Ireland forty 
 days before the Flood, with fifty girls and three men, who conse- 
 quently escaped the fate of the rest of mankind, and peopled the 
 western isle. This is silly enough, but their treatment of the hero 
 of Moytura is almost as much so. Allowing that he was thirty 
 years of age when he took so prominent a part in the second 
 battle, in 3330, he must have been seventy-one when he ascended 
 the Irish throne, and, after a reign of seventy-nine years, have 
 died at the ripe old age of 150, from the effects of a poisoned 
 wound he had received 120 years previously. The ' Four Masters ' 
 say eighty years earlier, but this is only another of their thousand 
 and one inaccuracies. 
 
 When we turn from these to the far more authentic annals of 
 Tighernach, who died 1088 a.d., we are met at once by his often 
 quoted dictum to the effect that " omnia Monumenta Scotorum 
 usque Cimboeth incerta erant." 2 It would have been more satis- 
 factory if he could have added that after that time they could 
 be depended upon, but this seems by no means to have been the 
 case. As, however, Cimboeth is reported to have founded Armagh, 
 in the year 289 B.C., it gives us a limit beyond which we cannot 
 certainly proceed without danger and difficulty. We get on surer 
 ground when we reach the reign of Crimthaun, who, according to 
 
 1 O'Curry, ' Materials for Ancient Irish History,' p. 246. 
 
 '* O'Connor, ii. p. 1. O'Curry, 'Materials for Ancient Irish History,' p. 63. 
 
190 IRELAND. Chap. V. 
 
 Tighernach, died in the year of our era 85, after a reign of 
 16 years. 1 The ' Four Masters/ it is true, make him contemporary 
 with Christ; but even Dr. O'Donovan is obliged to confess that 
 all these earlier reigns, after the Christian era, are antedated to 
 about the same extent. 2 Unfortunately for our purpose, however, 
 Tighernach's early annals are almost wholly devoted to the 
 chronicles of the kings of Emania or Armagh, and it is only inci- 
 dentally that he names the kings of Tara, which was the capital 
 both of the Firbolgs and Tuatha de Dananns, and he makes no 
 allusion to the battles of Moytura. Though our annalist, therefore, 
 to a certain extent deserts us here, there are incidental notices of 
 the Daghda and his friends in Irish manuscripts referring to other 
 subjects, which seem sufficient to settle the question. The best of 
 these were collected together for another purpose by Petrie, in his 
 celebrated work on the Bound Towers, and, as they are easily 
 accessible there, it will not be necessary to quote them in extenso, 
 but merely the passages bearing directly on our subject. 3 
 
 The first extract is from a very celebrated work known as the 
 'Leabhar na l'Uidhre,' written apparently before 1106, which is 
 given by the ' Four Masters ' as the date of the author's death. 
 Speaking of Cormac, the son of Art and grandson of Conn of 
 a Hundred Battles : — " Before his death, which happened in 267, 
 he told his people not to bury him at Br ugh, on the Boyne, where 
 the kings of Tara, his predecessors, were buried, because he did 
 not adore stones and trees, and did not worship the same god as 
 those interred at Brugh, for he had faith," adds the monkish 
 chronicler, " in the one true God according to the law." 
 
 The tract then goes on to say that " the kings of the race of 
 Heremon were buried at Cruachan until the times of Crimthann, 
 who was the first king of them that was buried in Brugh." The 
 others, including Queen Meave, were buried at Cruachan, because 
 they possessed Connaught. " But they were interred at Brugh 
 from the time of Crimthann to the time of Leoghaire, the son of 
 Niall (a.d. 428), except three persons, namely Art the son 
 
 ' Tighernachi Ann.' O'Connor, p. 11-23. 
 
 ' Annals of the Four Masters,' i. p. 99. 
 
 ' Essay on the Ancient Architecture of Ireland,' by G. Petrie, pp. 97-109. 
 
Chap. V. MOYTUEA. 191 
 
 of Conn, and Cormac the son of Art, and Niall of the Nine 
 Hostages." A little further on we have the following paragraph : 
 — " (101.) The nobles of the Tuatha de Danann were used to bury 
 at Brugh, i. e., the Dagdha with his three sons, and also Lughaidh 
 and Oe, and Ollani and Ogma, and Etan the poetess, and Corpre 
 the son of Etan, and Crimthann followed them because his wife 
 was one of the Tuatha Dea, and it was she that solicited him that 
 he should adopt Brugh as a burying-place for himself and his 
 descendants." 
 
 In the ' Book of Ballymote ' (p. 102) it is said, " Of the monu- 
 ment of Brugh here, viz., The Bed of daughter of Forann. The 
 monument of the Daghda. The mound of the Morrigan. The Bare 
 of Crimthann in which he was interred. The Carnail (stone cairn) 
 of Conn of a Hundred Battles," &c. In a second passage we 
 recognise the following names rather more in detail : " The Bed 
 of the Dagdha first, the two paps of the Morrigan, at the place 
 where Cermud Milbhel, the son of the Dagdha was born 1 — (the 
 monuments of) Cirr and Cuirrell wives of the Dagdha — there are 
 two hillocks ; the grave of Aedh Luirgnech, son of the Dagdha." 
 Again, in a prose commentary on a poem which Petrie quotes, 
 we have the following apparently by Moelmuori. The chiefs of 
 Ulster before Conchobar (he is said to have died 33 2 ) were buried 
 at Talten . . . The nobles of the Tuatha de Dananns, with the 
 exception of seven who were interred at Talten, were buried in 
 Brugh, i.e., Lugh and Oe, son of Ollamh and Ogma, and Carpre 
 the son of Etan, and Etan (the poetess herself), and the Daghda 
 and her three sons, and a great many others besides of the 
 Tuatha de Danann, Firbolgs, and others." 
 
 There is no doubt but that many similar passages to these 
 might be found in Irish MSS., if looked for by competent scholars, 
 but these extracts probably are sufficient to prove two things. 
 First, that the celebrated cemetery at Brugh, on the Boyne, 
 six miles west from Drogheda, was the burying-place of the 
 kings of Tara from Crimthann (a.d. 84) till the time of St. 
 
 1 Could thi3 be the great Eath close 
 to the Netterville domain ? See Sir "W. 
 Wilde, 'The Boyne and the Black- 
 water,' p. 211. 
 
 2 Tighernaeh, O'Connor, ii. p. 23, 
 Carcoharus Alius Nessas obiit hoc anno 
 -33." 
 
192 IRELAND. Chap. V. 
 
 Patrick (a.d. 432), and that it was also the burying-place of all 
 those who were concerned — without being killed — in the battles of 
 Aloytura. "We are not, unfortunately, aide to identify the grave 
 of each of these heroes, though it may be because only one has 
 been properly explored, that called New Grange, and that had 
 been rifled before the first modern explorers in the seventeenth 
 century found out the entrance. The Hill of Dowth has only 
 partially been opened. The great cairn of Enowth is untouched, 
 so is the great eaim known as the Tomb of the Dagdha. Exca- 
 vations alone can prove their absolute identity ; but this at least is 
 certain, we have on the banks of the Boyne a group of monuments 
 similar in external appearance at least with those on the two 
 Moytura battle-fields, and the date of the greater number of 
 those at Brugh is certainly subsequent to the Christian era. 1 
 
 The second point is not capable of such direct proof, but seems 
 equally clear. It is that the kings of the race of Crirathann 
 immediately succeeded to the kings of the Tuatha de Danann. 
 who fought at Moytura. If, indeed, we could trust the assertion 
 that Crimthann was the first king that was buried at Brugh, we 
 should be obliged to find a place for the Dagfada under some 
 pseudonym afterwards, and it is possible that may be the case, 2 
 but for the present it seems more reasonable to assume that he 
 preceded him at a very short interval. 
 
 According to the 'Four Masters,' the Tuatha de Danann had 
 been extinct for nearly 2000 years when we find Crimthann 
 marrying a princess of that race, and one of sufficient influence 
 to induce him to adopt what appears literally to have been the 
 family burying-place of the Dagdha for that of himself and his 
 race ; and it seems impossible to believe that when this took place 
 it could have been old, or neglected, or deserted. 
 
 1 In the' Annals of the Four Masters' I have arrived at from other circum- 
 
 (i. p. 89) there is a king called Eoehaid stances. He lived, according to the 
 
 Aireamb. ''Ideo dictus." says Lynch. 'Four Masters.' US B.C. According to 
 
 translating Keating. " quod tumulos the more correct Tighernach, 45 B.C. 
 effodi primus in Hibernia curavit." I - The real name of the Daghda -was. 
 
 have no doubt the etymology is correct. according to the -Four Masters.' Eochaidh 
 
 and the fact also ; but it would hardly do Ollathair ; and Eoehaid. or Eoehy. is one 
 
 to base our argument upon it, though it of the most common names in Irish his- 
 
 accords perfectly with the conclusion torv. and constantly recurring. 
 
Chap. V. MOYTUEA. 193 
 
 According to the ' Four Masters/ the Firbolgs reigned thirty- 
 seven years only, so that they do not in this case seem to err on 
 the side of exaggeration, and the Tuatha de Danann 196 years. 
 From this, however, we must deduct the twenty years they un- 
 necessarily interpolated between the two battles, and we must 
 take something from the eighty years the Dagdha reigned after 
 he was ninety-one years of age. If we allow, then, a century, 
 it will place the battles of Moytura 20 to 30 B.C., and the arrival 
 of the Firbolgs about the middle of the first century B.C. This, 
 with a small limit of error either way is, I am convinced, pretty 
 nearly the true date of these events. 1 
 
 If we turn to the celebrated Hill of Tara, about ten miles off, 
 where those resided who were buried at Brugh-na-Boinne, we find 
 a great deal to confirm the views expressed above. When Petrie 
 was attached to the Ordnance Survey, he had a very careful plan 
 made of the remains on that hill, and compiled a most elaborate 
 memoir regarding them, which was published in the eighteenth 
 volume of the ' Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy.' It con- 
 cludes with these words (p. 231) : " From the historical allusions 
 deduced it will be seen that, with the exception of the few last 
 described, 2 they are all nearly contemporaneous and belong to the 
 third century of the Christian era. The era of the original 
 Tuatha de Danann Cathair belongs to the remote period of un- 
 certain tradition. The only other monuments of ascertained date 
 are those of Conor Mac Nessa and Cuchullim, both of whom 
 flourished in the first century. These facts are sufficient to prove 
 that before the time of Cormac Mac Art, 3 Tara had attained to no 
 distinguished celebrity." 
 
 1 Since the above was written I have , perior to that of the Hiberni." — Irish 
 been gratified to find so eminent an j Kennius, translated by J. H. Todd, D.D., 
 
 authority as Dr. Henthom Todd, late 
 President of the Eoyal Irish Academy, 
 arriving, by a very different road, at 
 very nearly the same conclusion: — "The 
 
 Appendix C. 
 
 2 The principal one of these is the 
 rath of Queen Meave, at some distance 
 off. She. according to Tighemach, was 
 
 Firbolgs, or Belgse," he says, "invaded : s'.a'n by her stepson, in the seventh 
 
 Ireland, not from France, but from year of Vespasian, a.d. 75. 
 
 Britain — Dumnonii, or Devon." " The 3 According to Tighemach, Cormac, 
 
 conquest of Ireland was not much older the grandson of Conn of a Hundred 
 
 lhan Caesar's time, if it were not a good Battles, commonly called Cormac Mac 
 
 bit later, and was the first influx of Art, reigned 218-266 a.d. 
 
 civilization rude, indeed, but much su- 
 
 
 
194 
 
 IRELAND. 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 The only difficulty in this passage is the allusion to the Tuatha 
 cle Danann. At the time Petrie wrote it he, like most Irish 
 antiquaries, had been unable to emancipate himself from the spell 
 of the 'Four Masters,' and, struck by the pains they had taken, 
 aud the general correctness of their annals after the Christian 
 era, had adopted their pre-Christian chronology almost without 
 question. The Cathair here alluded to is only an undistinguishable 
 part of the Rath of Cormac, to which tradition attaches that name, 
 but neither in plan, nor materials, nor construction can be separated 
 from it. That the Dananns had a Cathair on this hill is more 
 than probable if, as I suppose, they immediately preceded the 
 Crimthann dynasty, who certainly resided here. It may also well 
 be that they occupied this site, which is the highest on the hill, 
 and that their palace was afterwards enlarged by Cormac. The 
 plan of it is worth referring to (woodcut No. 62), from its curious 
 
 , 
 
 / ''/ 
 
 I 
 
 62. Rath oa Kiogh, or, Cathair of Cormac, at Tara. 
 
 resemblance to that of Avebury; what was here done in earth 
 was afterwards done in stone in Wiltshire, and it seems as if, as 
 
Chap. V. MOYTUEA. 195 
 
 is so often the case, the house of the dead was copied from the 
 dwelling of the living. 
 
 The Dagdha had apparently no residence here. From the con- 
 text I would infer that he resided in the great Eath, about 300 feet 
 diameter, at Dowth, where his son, apparently, was born, and 
 near to which, as above shown, he also was buried. If, however, 
 he had no residence on the Royal hill, his so-called spit was one 
 of the most celebrated pieces of furniture of the palace. .It was a 
 most elaborate piece of ironmongery, and performed a variety of 
 cooking operations in a very astonishing manner, and shows, at all 
 events, that the smith who made it had no little skill in the 
 working of iron, of which metal it was principally composed'. 1 
 
 The Eath of Leoghaire (429-458 a.d.) is interesting to us, not 
 only as the last erected here, but from the circumstances of its 
 builder being buried in its ramparts. It seems that, in spite of 
 all the preaching and persuasions of St. Patrick, who was his con- 
 temporary, Leoghaire refused to be converted to the Christian 
 religion ; but like a grand old Pagan, he ordered that he should 
 be buried standing in his armour in the rampart of his Eath, 
 and facing the country of the foes with whom he had contended 
 during life. That this was done is as well authenticated as any 
 incident of the time, perhaps even better; 2 and I cannot help 
 fancying from the appearance of the Eaths, that some others of the 
 kings were interred here also. JBe that as it may, this circum- 
 stance ought to prevent our feeling any surprise at the actual 
 discovery of the skeleton of a man under the rampart at Marden 
 {ante p. 86), or if human bones were still found under the vallum 
 at Avebury, in spite of the negative evidence of the partial 
 explorations of the Wiltshire Archaeological Society. 
 
 There is still another point of view from which this question 
 may be regarded, so as to throw some light on the main issue of 
 the age of the monuments in question. If we can ascertain when 
 the art of writing was first practised in Ireland, we may obtain 
 an approximate date before which no detailed history of any events 
 could be expected to exist. Now all the best antiquaries of Ireland 
 
 1 'Hist, and Ant. of Tara Hill.'— ' Trans. E. I. A.' xviii. p. 212. 
 
 2 Ibid, xviii. pp. 81, 137, 170, &c. 
 
 o 2 
 
196 IRELAND. Chap. V. 
 
 are agreed that no alphabetic writing was used in Ireland before 
 the reign of Cormac Mac Art, a.d. 218-266. There seems to be 
 evidence that, as above mentioned, he was converted to Christianity 
 by some Romish priest; and though it is unlikely that he himself 
 acquired the art of writing, he seems to have caused certain tracts 
 to be compiled. None of these, it is true, now exist, but they are 
 referred to and quoted from an ancient Irish MS. in a manner 
 that leaves little doubt that some books were written in Ireland 
 in the third century, but almost certainly there were none before 
 that time. It is true, however, that Eugene O'Curry pleads hard 
 for some kind of Ogham writing having existed in Ireland before 
 that time, and even before the Christian era. 1 But though we 
 may admit the former proposition, the evidence of the latter is of 
 the most unsatisfactory description. Even, however, if it could be 
 established it would prove very little. It would be as difficult to 
 write a connected history in Ogham as it would be in Exchequer 
 tallies, and so far as is known, it never was attempted. The utmost 
 Ogham ever did, or could do, was to record genealogies ; and such 
 detailed histories as we possess of the Moytura battles are quite 
 beyond its powers. On the other hand, Mr. O'Curry's own account 
 of Senchan's difficulties in obtaining copies of the celebrated 
 ' Tain Bo Chuailgne,' or ' Cattle Spoil of Cooley,' after the year 
 598, shows how little the art was then practised. No copy of this 
 poem, which contains the life and adventures of Queen Meave, 
 in the first century, then existed in Ireland. A mission was con- 
 sequently sent to Italy to copy one said to have existed there, and 
 though the missionaries were miraculously spared the journey, 2 
 the inference is the same, that no written copy of their most 
 celebrated work existed in Ireland in the year 600. 
 
 Petrie is equally clear on the subject. In his history of Tara 
 he states that the Irish were unacquainted with letters till the 
 introduction of Christianity in the fifth century, with the doubtful 
 exception of the writings ascribed to Cormac Mac Art. He con- 
 sequently believes that the authentic history of Ireland commences 
 only with Tuathal, a.d. 130, 160, in which he is probably correct. 3 
 
 ' Materials for Ancient Irish History,' Appendix ii. p. 4Go el seq>j. 
 
 Ibid. p. 29 et seqq. 3 ' Hist, and Ant. of Tara.'—' Trans. E. I. S." xviii. p. 4b'. 
 
Chap. V. MOYTURA. 197 
 
 But here the question arises — Before the introduction of writing 
 into a country, how long could so detailed a narrative as that which 
 we possess of the Battles of Moytura, and one so capable of being- 
 verified by material evidences on the spot, be handed down orally 
 as a plain prose narrative ? Among so rude a people as the Irish 
 avowedly then were, would this period be one century or two, or 
 how many? Every one must decide for himself. I do not know 
 an instance of any rude people preserving orally any such detailed 
 history for a couple of centuries. With me the great difficulty is 
 to understand how the memory of the battles was so perfectly 
 preserved, assuming them to have taken place so long ago as the 
 first century B.C. As it is not pretended that the narratives were 
 reduced to writing so early as the time of Cormac, I should, from 
 their internal evidence, be much more inclined to assume that 
 the battles must have taken place one or two centuries after the 
 birth of Christ. At all events, it seems absolutely impossible that 
 the date of these battles can be so remote as the Four Masters place 
 them, or even as some Irish antiquaries seem inclined to admit. 
 
 The truth of the matter appears to be that, in the Eocene period 
 of Irish history or in the one or two centuries that preceded the 
 introduction of writing, we have a whole group of names so inex- 
 tricably mixed together that it is impossible to separate them. 
 We have the Dagdha and his wives and their sons. We have 
 Etan the poetess and her ill-conditioned son. There is Queen 
 Meave of the Cattle Kaid, and her husband Conchobhar McNessa. 
 There is Cumbhail, the Fingal of Macpherson and Cuchullin ; 
 and then such semi-historical persons as Tuathal the Accepted, and 
 Conn of a Hundred Battles. All these lived almost together in one 
 capital, and were buried in one cemetery, and form a half-historic, 
 half-mythic group, such as generally precedes written history in 
 most parts of the world. Many of their dates are known with 
 fairly approximate certainty, whilst that of others cannot be fixed. 
 There seems, however, enough to justify us in almost positively 
 affirming that the Battle' of Moytura, which raised the Dagdha 
 to fame, happened within the fifty years that preceded or the 
 fifty that followed the birth of Christ. My own impression is in 
 favour of the former as the more probable date. 
 
198 IRELAND. Chap. V. 
 
 To some this may appear an over-laboured disquisition to prove 
 an insignificant point. It is not, however, one-tenth part of what 
 might be advanced on the subject from translated and printed 
 documents, and, certainly, it would be difficult to exaggerate its 
 importance with reference to the subject matter of this work. If 
 the two groups of monuments at Cong and Carrowmore can be 
 proved to be the monuments of those who fell in the two battles of 
 Southern and Northern Moytura, we have made an immense step 
 towards a knowledge of the use of these monuments ; and if it can 
 be shown that they date from about the Christian Era, we gain 
 not only a standpoint for settling the age of all other Irish anti- 
 quities, but a base for our reasoning with reference to similar 
 remains in other countries. 
 
 No Irish antiquary, nor indeed of any other country, so far as 
 I know, has ventured to hint a doubt that they mark the battle- 
 fields. Nor, in the present state of the evidence, do I see any reason 
 for questioning the fact ; and, for the present at least, we may assume 
 it as granted. The second proposition is more open to question. Irish 
 antiquaries generally will dissent from so serious a reduction in the 
 antiquity of these two great battles. But, after the most earnest 
 attention I have been able to give to all that has been written and 
 said on the subject and a careful comparison of the monuments on 
 these fields with those of other countries, I would, on the whole, be 
 inclined to bring them forward a century or two, if I could find a 
 gap to throw them into, rather than date them earlier. They look 
 older and more tentative than the English circles described in the 
 last chapter, but not so much so as to lead us to expect a difference 
 of four or five centuries. On the other hand, they are so like those 
 on the Bravalla field, and other monuments in Scandinavia, to be 
 described hereafter, that it is puzzling to think that seven or ten 
 centuries elapsed between them. But, taking all the circum- 
 stances of the case into consideration, the conclusions above 
 arrived at appear fair and reasonable, and in conformity, not only 
 to what was said in the last chapter, but to the facts about to be 
 adduced in the following pages. 
 
Chap. Y 
 
 CEMETERIES. 
 
 199 
 
 Cemeteries. 
 
 Although Irish, antiquaries have succeeded in identifying the 
 localities of a considerable number of the thousand and one battles 
 which, as might be expected, adorn at every page the annals of 
 a Celtic race ; yet, as none of these are described as marked with 
 circles or cairns, like those found on the two battle-fields of Moy- 
 tura, they are of no use for our present purpose, and our further 
 illustrations must be drawn from the peaceful burying-places of 
 the Irish, which are, however, of singular interest. 
 
 In the history of the Cemeteries, eight are enumerated -, 1 but of 
 these only the first three can be identified with anything like cer- 
 tainty at the present day. But as the antiquities of Ireland have 
 never yet been systematically explored, others may yet be found, 
 and so also may many more stone-marked battle-fields. Mean- 
 while our business is with 
 
 " The three cemeteries of the idolaters : 
 The Cemetery of Tailten the select, 
 The Cemetery of the ever fair Cruachan, 
 And the Cemetery of Brugh." 2 
 
 The two last are known with certainty. The first is most probably 
 the range of mounds at Lough Crew, recently explored by Mr. 
 Conwell; but, as some doubt this identification, we shall take 
 it last, and speak first of those regarding which there is more 
 certainty. 
 
 Cruachan, or Rathcrogan, is situated five miles west from Carrick- 
 on-Shannon, and consists, according to Petrie, of a circular stone 
 ditch, 3 now nearly obliterated, 300 feet in diameter. Within this 
 " are small circular mounds, which, when examined, are found to 
 cover rude sepulchral chambers, formed of stone, without cement 
 of any kind, and containing unburnt bones." The monument of 
 Dathi (428 a.d.), which is a small circular mound with a pillar- 
 stone of Eed Sandstone, is situated outside the enclosure, at a 
 short distance to the east, and maybe identified from the folio wing- 
 notice of it by the celebrated antiquary Duald Mac Tirbis. "The 
 body of Dathi was brought to Cruachan, and was interred at 
 
 1 Petrie, ' Round Towers,' 100 et seqq. 
 
 2 L. c. 105. 
 
 3 The Irish use diteh, as the Romans 
 
 used vallum, or the Scotch dyke, to de- 
 signate either a rampart* or the hollow 
 
 from -which it was taken. 
 
200 IRELAND. Chap. V. 
 
 Relip; na Rio°:h, where most of the king's of the race of Heremon 
 were buried, and where to this date the Ked Stone pillar remains 
 on a stone monument over his grave, near Rath Cruachan, to this 
 time (1666). 1 
 
 Here, therefore, we have the familiar 300-foot circle, with the 
 external burial, as at Arbor Low, and external stone monument 
 as at Salkeld and elsewhere. The chief distinction between this 
 and our English battle-circles seems to be the number of cairns, 
 each containing a chamber, which crowd the circle at Rath 
 Crogan, and it is possible that if these were opened with great 
 care, a succession might be discovered among them ; but at 
 present we know little or nothing of their contents. 
 
 At present there are only two names that we can identify with 
 certainty as those of persons buried here. Queen Meave, who, as 
 before mentioned, was transferred from Fert Meave — or Meave's 
 Grave, her first bury ing-pl ace, to this Rath, about the end of the 
 first century, and Dathi, at the beginning of the fifth. Whether 
 any other persons were interred here before the first-named queen 
 seems doubtful. From the context, it seems as if her being buried 
 in her own Rath had led to its being consecrated to funereal rites, 
 and continuing to be so used till Christianity induced men to seek 
 burying-places elsewhere than in the cemeteries of the idolaters. 
 
 By far the best known, as well as the most interesting, of Irish 
 cemeteries is that which extends for about two miles east and west 
 on the northern bank of the Boyne, about five miles from Drogheda. 
 Within this space there remain even now some seventeen sepulchral 
 barrows, three of which are pre-eminent. 2 They are now known 
 by the names of Knowth for the most westward one, Dowth for 
 that to the east, and about half-way between these two, that known 
 as New Grange. In front of the latter, but lower down nearer 
 the river, is a smaller one, still popularly known as that of the 
 Dagdha, and others bear names with more or less certainty ; but 
 no systematic exploration of the group has yet been made, so 
 that we are very much in the dark as to their succession, or who 
 the kings or nobles may be that lie buried within their masses. 
 
 1 Quotation from ' Book of Geneal,' p. 251. Petrie, ' Round Towers,' p. 107. 
 
 2 Sir W. Wilde, ' The Boyne and the Black water,' 1819, p. 188. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 CEMETERIES. 
 
 201 
 
 That at Knowth has never been carefully measured, nor, so far 
 as I know, even described in modern times. At a guess, it is 
 a mound 200 feet in diameter, and 50 to 60 feet in height, with a 
 flat top not less than 100 feet across. It is entirely composed of 
 small loose stones, which have been extensively utilized for road 
 making and farm buildings, so that the mound has now a very 
 dilapidated appearance, which makes it difficult to ascertain its 
 original form ; and so far as is known, its interior has not been 
 accessible in modern times. Petrie identifies it (p. 103) with 
 "the cave of Cnodhba, which was searched by the Danes on an 
 occasion (a.d. 862), when the three kings, Amlaff, Imar, and 
 Auisle, were plundering the territories of Flanu, the son of 
 Conain£. If this is so, its entrance ought not to be difficult to 
 find, but the prospect of the explorers being rewarded by any 
 treasure or object of value is very small indeed. 
 
 Less than a mile from this one is the larger and more celebrated 
 mound of New Grange. It is almost certainly one of the three 
 
 63. View of Mound at New Grange. From a drawing by Colonel Forbes Leslie. 
 
 plundered by the Danes 1009 years ago. No description of it has 
 anywhere been discovered, prior to the time when Mr. Llwyd, the 
 keeper of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, mentioned it in a 
 letter dated Sligo, 1699. 1 He describes the entrance, the passage, 
 and the side chapels, and the three basins as existing then 
 exactly as they do now, and does not allude to the discovery 
 of the entrance as being at all of recent occurrence, though 
 
 1 Rowland's ' Mona Antiqua,' p. 314. 
 
202 IRELAND. Chap. V. 
 
 Sir Thomas Molyneux, in 1725. says it was found apparently not 
 long before he wrote, in aeciclently removing some stones. 1 The 
 first really detailed account, however, is that of Governor Pownall, 
 in the second volume of the ' Archreologia ' (1770). He employed 
 a local surveyor of the name of Bouie to measure it for him, but 
 either he must have been a bungler, or the engraver lias mis- 
 understood his drawings, for it is almost impossible to make out 
 the form and dimensions of the mound from the plates published. 
 In the 100 years that have elapsed since his survey was made, 
 the process of destruction has been going on rapidly, and it 
 would now require both skill and patience to restore the monu- 
 ment to its previous dimensions. Meanwhile the accompanying 
 cuts, partly from Mr. Bouie's plates, partly from personal observa- 
 tions, may be sufficient for purposes of illustration, but they 
 are far from pretending to be perfectly accurate, or such as one 
 would like to see of so important a monument. 
 
 Its dimensions, so far as I can make out, are as follows : it has 
 a diameter of 310 to 315 feet for the whole mound, at its junction 
 with the natural hill, on which it stands. The height is about 
 70 feet, made up of 14 feet for the slope of the hill to the floor 
 of the central chamber, and 56 feet above it. The angle of external 
 slope appears to be 35 degrees, or 5 degrees steeper than Silbury 
 Hill, and consequently if there is anything in that argument, it 
 may, at least, be a century or two older. The platform on the 
 top is about 120 feet across, the whole being formed of loose stones, 
 with the smallest possible admixture of earth and rubbish. 
 
 Around its base was a circle of large stone monoliths (woodcut 
 No. 63). They stand, according to Sir W. Wilde, 10 yards apart, 
 on a circumference of 400 paces, or 1000 feet. If this were so, they 
 were as nearly as may be 33 feet from centre to centre, and their 
 number consequently must originally have been thirty, or the same 
 number as at Stonehenge. From Bouie's plan I make the number 
 thirty-two, but this is hardly to be depended upon. From this dis- 
 position it will be observed that if the tumulus were removed, or 
 had never been erected, we should have here exactly such a circle 
 — 333 feet in diameter — as we find at Salkeld or at Stanton Drew, 
 
 1 ' Philosophical Transactions,' Nos. 335-336. 
 
1% stm im. 
 
 < : 
 
 -1^ ft 
 
 o 
 
 O 
 
 '" life; ° 
 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 Q 
 
 
 
 o -*?. 
 
 © 
 
 _ — _- 
 
 New Grangp, near Drogheda. 
 
204 IRELAND. Chap. V. 
 
 and it seems hardly doubtful but that such an arrangement as 
 this on the banks of the Boyne gave rise to those circles which 
 we find on the battle-fields of England two or three centuries 
 later. Llwyd, in his letter to Rowland, mentions one smaller 
 stone standing on the summit, but that had disappeared, as 
 well as twenty of the outer circle, when Mr. Bouie's survey was 
 made. 
 
 At a distance of about 75 feet from the outer edge of the 
 mound, and at a height of 14 or 15 feet above the level of the 
 stone ring, is the entrance to the crypt. The threshold stone is 
 10 feet long by about 18 inches thick, and is richly ornamented 
 by double spirals of a most elaborate and elegant character; 1 and 
 at a short distance above it is seen a fragment of a string-course, 
 even more elaborately ornamented with a pattern more like 
 modern architecture than anything else on these mounds. The 
 passage into the central chamber is, for about 40 feet, 6 feet high, 
 by 3 feet in width, though both these dimensions have been con- 
 siderably diminished, the first by the accumulation of earth on 
 the floor, the second by the mass of the mound pressing in the 
 side walls of the passage, so that it is with difficulty that any one 
 can crawl through. Advancing inwards, the roof, which is formed 
 of very large slabs of stone, rapidly becomes higher ; and at a 
 distance of 70 feet from the entrance, rises into a conical dome 
 20 feet in height, formed of large masses of stone laid horizontally. 
 The crypt extends still 20 feet beyond the centre of the dome ; 
 and on the east and west sides are two other recesses, that in the 
 east being considerably deeper than the one opposite to it. 
 
 In each of these recesses stands a shallow stone basin of oval 
 form 3 feet by 3 feet 6 or 7 inches across, and 6 to 9 inches deep. 
 They seem to form an indispensable part of these Irish sepulchres, 
 though what their use was has not yet been ascertained. 
 
 On one stone in the passage, and on most of those in the inner 
 chamber, are sculptured ornaments, mostly of the same spiral 
 character as that on the stone at the threshold, but hardly so 
 elaborately or carefully executed. One stone on the right hand 
 angle of the inmost chamber has fallen forward (see plan), so that 
 
 1 This is well illustrated in Sir W. Wilde's Look, p. 192, by a woodcut by Wnkeroan. 
 
Chap. V. CEMETERIES. 205 
 
 by creeping behind it, it is possible to see the reverse of some of 
 the neighbouring stones, and it is found that several of these are 
 elaborately carved with the same spiral ornaments as their fronts, 
 though it is quite impossible that, situated as they are, they could 
 have been seen after the mound was raised. To account for this, 
 some have asserted that they belonged to an older building before 
 having been used in this ; but it hardly seems necessary to adopt 
 so violent an hypothesis. It may have been that the stones were 
 carved before being used, and at a time when no plans or drawings 
 existed, may have been found unsuited in size or form for the 
 places for which they were first intended, and consequently either 
 turned round or used elsewhere. Or it may be that as the crypt 
 must have been built and tolerably complete before the mound 
 was raised over it, the king may have had it ornamented externally 
 while in that state. Labour was of little value in those days, and 
 it is dangerous to attempt to account for the caprices of kings 
 in such a state of society as must then have existed. The identity 
 of the style and character of the ornaments both on the hidden 
 and the visible parts of these stones excludes the idea that they 
 were the work of different epochs. A removal from an older 
 building implies a desecration and neglect which must have been 
 the work of time; and, having regard to their identity, it is 
 improbable that a time considerable enough would have elapsed 
 to admit of a building being so desecrated and neglected as that 
 its stones should be carried away and used elsewhere. 
 
 The position of the entrance so much within the outline of the 
 Tumulus, is a peculiarity at first sight much more difficult to 
 account for. As it now stands, it is situated at a distance of 
 about 50 feet horizontally within what we have every reason 
 to believe was the original outline of the mound. Not only 
 is there no reason to believe that the passage ever extended 
 further, but the ornamented threshold, and the carved string- 
 course above, and other indications, seem to point out that the 
 tumulus had what may be called an architectural facade at this 
 depth. One mode of accounting for this would be to assume that 
 the original mound was only about 200 feet in diameter at the 
 floor level, and that the interior was then accessible, but that 
 after the death of the king who erected it, an envelope 50 feet 
 
206 
 
 IRELAND. 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 65. Ornament at New Grange. From a rubbing. 
 
 thick was added by bis successors, forming - the broad platform 
 at the top, and effectually closing and hiding the entrance to the 
 
 sepulchre. If this 
 were so, we may 
 easily fancy that 
 many of his family, 
 or of his followers, 
 were buried in this 
 envelope, and 
 formed the second- 
 ary but nearly con- 
 temporary inter- 
 ments which are so 
 frequently found in 
 English mounds. 
 The experience of 
 M i n n i n g Lowe 
 (woodcut No. 33), Rose Hill (woodcut No. 39), and other English 
 tumuli, goes far to countenance such an hypothesis; and there is 
 
 much besides to be said in its 
 favour, but it is one of those 
 questions which can only be 
 answered satisfactorily by a 
 careful examination of the 
 mound itself. Meanwhile, how- 
 ever, I am rather inclined to 
 adopt the hypothesis that the 
 mound had a funnel-shaped 
 entrance like Park Own tumu- 
 lus (woodcut No. 46), and that 
 at Plas Newydd (woodcut 
 No. 47), and shown in dotted 
 lines in the woodcut No. 64. 
 The reason for this will be 
 more apparent when we come 
 to examine the Lough Crew 
 tumuli, but the apparent ease with which Amlaff and his brother 
 Danes seem to have robbed these tombs in the ninth century. 
 
 06 Ornament at New Grange, b'icmi a rubbing. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 CEMETERIES. 
 
 207 
 
 seems to indicate that the entrances were not then difficult to 
 find. 
 
 The ornaments which cover the Avails of the chambers at New 
 Grange are very varied, both in their form and character. The 
 most prevalent design is that of spirals variously combined, and. 
 often of great beauty. They seem always to have been drawn by 
 the hand, never outlined with an instrument, and never quite 
 regular either in their form or combination. 
 The preceding woodcuts from rubbings 
 give a fair idea of their general appear- 
 ance, though many are much more com- 
 plex, and some more carefully cut. The | 
 most extensive, and perhaps also the most 
 
 beautiful, is that on the external doorstep 
 
 
 67. Branch at Xew Grang 
 From a rubbing. 
 
 These spirals are, however, seldom alone, but 
 more frequently are found combined with 
 zigzag ornaments, as in (woodcut No. 66), and 
 in lozenge-shaped patterns ; in fact, in every 
 conceivable variety that seemed to suit the 
 fancy of the artist, or the shape of the stone 
 he was employed upon. In one instance a 
 vegetable form certainly was intended. 
 There may be others, but this one most 
 
 undoubtedly represents either a palm branch or a fern; my 
 impression is that it is the former, though how a knowledge of 
 the Eastern plant reached New Grange is 
 by no means clear. One other example of 
 the sculptures is worth quoting, if not for 
 its beauty, at least for its interest (wood- 
 cut No. 68). It is drawn full size in the 
 second, volume of the ' Archaeologia,' p. 238, 
 and Governor Pownali, after a learned dis- 
 quisition, concludes that the characters are 
 Phoenician but only numerals (p. 25 ( J). 
 General Yallancey and others have not been so modest ; but one 
 thing seems quite clear, that it is not a character in any alphabet 
 
 68. Sculptured mark at New 
 Grange, of undecided cha- 
 racter. 
 
 Wakeman, 'Handbook of Irish Antiquties,' p. 25. 
 
208 
 
 IRELAND. 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 now known. Still it can hardly be a mere ornament. It must 
 be either a mason's mark, or a recognizable symbol of some sort, 
 something to mark the position of the stone on which it is 
 engraved, or its ownership by some person. Similar marks are 
 found in France, but seem there equally devoid of any recog- 
 nizable meaning. 
 
 The third of these great tumuli on the Boyne is known as 
 that of Dowth. Dubhad if Petrie is right in identifying it 
 with the third sepulchre plundered by the Danes in 862. It was 
 dug into by a Committee of the Royal Irish Academy in 1847, 
 
 but without any satisfac- 
 tory results. A great gash 
 was made in its side to its 
 centre, which has fearfully 
 disfigured its form, 1 but 
 without any central cham- 
 ber being reached ; but 
 on the western side a 
 small entrance was dis- 
 covered leading to a pas- 
 sage which extended 40 
 feet 6 inches (from A to D) 
 towards the interior. At the distance of 28 feet from the entrance 
 it formed a small domical chamber, with three branches, very 
 like that at New Grange, but on a smaller scale. In the centre 
 of this apartment was one large flat basin (L), similar in form, 
 and, no doubt, in purpose, to the three at New Grange, but 
 far larger, being 5 feet by 3 feet. The southern branch of the 
 chamber extends to K in a curvilinear form for about 28 feet, where 
 it is stopped for the present by a large stone, and another partially 
 obstructs the passage at 8 feet in front of the terminal stone. 
 
 The Academy have not yet published any account of their 
 diggings, nor does any plan of the mound exist, so far as I know, 
 anv where. Even its dimensions are unknown. Pendin2: these 
 
 09. Chambers in Mound at Dowth. From a MS. plan. 
 
 1 In extenuation of this disfigurement, 
 it must be explained that these Irish 
 cairns are extremely difficult to explore 
 without destroying them. Being wholly 
 composed of leotc stoius. it, is almost 
 
 impossible to tunnel into them, and 
 almost as difficult to sink shafts through 
 them. The only plan seems to be to cut 
 into them, and, when this is done, dis- 
 figurement is inevitable. 
 
Chap. V. BOYNE. 209 
 
 being ascertained, it does look as if this chamber was in an 
 envelope similar to that just suggested as having existed at New 
 Grange. In that case the original tumulus was probably 120 feet 
 in diameter, and with its envelope 200 feet. 
 
 The walls of the chambers of this tomb are even more richly 
 and elaborately ornamented than those of the chambers at New 
 Grange, and are in a more delicate style of workmanship. Alto- 
 gether I should be inclined to consider it as more modern than 
 its more imposing rival. 
 
 One other small tumulus of the cemetery is open. It is 
 situated in the grounds of Netterville House. It is, however, 
 only a miniature repetition of the central chambers of its larger 
 compeers, but without sculptures or any other marked peculiarity. 
 
 The mound called the Tomb of the Dagdha and the ten or 
 twelve others which still exist in this cemetery, are all, so far as is 
 known, untouched, and still remain to reward the industry of the 
 first explorer. If the three large mounds are those plundered 
 by the Danes, which seems probable, this is sufficient to account 
 for the absence of the usual sepulchral treasures, but it by no 
 means follows that the others would be equally barren of results. 
 On the contrary, there being no tradition of their having been 
 opened, and no trace of wounds in their sides, we are led to expect 
 that they may be intact, and that the bones and armour of the 
 great Dagdha may still be found in his honoured grave. 
 
 Nothing was found in the great mounds at New Grange and 
 Dowth which throws much additional light either on their age or 
 the persons to whom they should, be appropriated. Two skeletons 
 are said to have been discovered at New Grange, but under what 
 circumstances we are not told, and we do not consequently know 
 whether to consider them as original or secondary interments. 
 The finding of the coin of Valentinian is mentioned by Llwyd in 
 1699, but he merely says that they were found on the top, or rather, 
 as might be inferred, near the top, when it was uncovered by the 
 removal of the stones for road-making and such purposes. Had it 
 been found in the cell, as at Minning Low, it would have given us a 
 date, beyond which we could not ascend, but when and under what 
 circumstances the coin of Theodosius was found, does not appear, 
 nor what has become of either. A more important find was made 
 
 p 
 
210 IRELAND. Chap. V. 
 
 by Lord Albert Cunyngham in 1842. Some workmen who were 
 employed to dig on the mound near the entrance discovered two 
 splendid gold torques, a brooch, and a gold ring, and with them 
 a gold coin of Geta 1 (205-212 A.D.). A similar gold ring was 
 found about the same time in the cell, and is in the possession 
 of Mrs. Caldwell, the wife of the proprietor. Although we might 
 feel inclined to hesitate about the value of the conclusions to be 
 drawn from the first discovery of coins, this additional evidence 
 seems to be conclusive. Three Eoman coins found in different 
 parts, at different times, and with the torques and rings, are, it 
 seems, quite sufficient to prove that it cannot have been erected 
 before 380, while the probable date for its completion may be 
 about 400 a.d. It may, however, have been begun fifty or sixty 
 years earlier. It is most likely that such a tomb as this was 
 commenced by the king whose remains it was destined to 
 contain ; but the mound would not be heaped over the chamber 
 till the king himself, and probably his wives and sons, were laid 
 there, and a considerable period may consequently have elapsed 
 between the inception and the completion of such a monument. 
 
 At Dowth there was the usual miscellaneous assortment of 
 things. A great quantity of globular stone-shot, probably sling- 
 stones ; and in the chamber fragments of burned bones, many of 
 which proved to be human ; glass and amber beads of unique 
 shape, portions of jet bracelets, a curious stone button, a fibula, 
 bone bodkins, copper pins, and iron knives and rings. Some 
 years ago a gentleman residing in the neighbourhood cleared out 
 a portion of the passage, and found a few iron antiquities, some 
 bones of mammals, and a small stone urn, which he presented to 
 the Irish Academy. 2 In so far as negative evidence is of value, 
 it may be remarked that no flint implements and nothing of 
 bronze — unless the copper pins are so classed — was found in any 
 of these tumuli. 
 
 The ornaments found inside the chambers at Dowth are similar 
 in general character to those at Xew Grange, but, on the whole, 
 more delicate and refined. Assuming the progressive nature of 
 
 1 ' Archseologia,' xxx. pi. xii. p. 137. 
 
 : Sir W. Wilde, 'The Boyne and the Black water.' p. 209. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 BOYNE. 
 
 211 
 
 m m 
 
 a m 
 
 
 Irish art, which I see no reason for doubting, they would indicate a 
 more modern age, and this, from other circumstances, seems more 
 than probable. 
 
 Though spi- *X \ 1 1 
 
 rals are fre- 
 quent, the 
 Dowth orna- 
 ments assume 
 more of free- 
 traced vege- 
 table forms. 
 It is not so 
 easy to iden- 
 tify the figures 
 in the annexed 
 woodcut (No. 
 70), as in the 
 palm - branch 
 inNewG-range 
 (woodcut No. 
 
 67), but there can be little doubt that the intention was to 
 simulate vegetable nature. At other times forms are introduced 
 which a fanciful antiquary might suppose were intended for 
 serpents, or writing, or, at all events, as having some occult 
 meaning. The annexed from a rubbing is curious, as some- 
 
 Ornament iu Dowth. From a rubbing 
 
 Ornament in L'owth. From a rubbing. 
 
 thing very similar occurs on a stone at Coilsfield, in Ayrshire, 
 and may really be intended to suggest an idea, but of what nature 
 we are not yet in a position to guess. It is not so like an alpha- 
 
 p 2 
 
212 IRELAND. Chap. Y. 
 
 betical character as those at New Grange (woodcut No. 68), and 
 till that is shown to have a meaning, it is hardly worth while 
 speculating with regard to this one. We shall be in a better 
 position to judge of the value or importance of these ornaments, in 
 an artistic or chronometric point of view, when we have examined 
 those at Lough Crew and elsewhere ; but even irrespectively of 
 such considerations, no one can examine the monuments on the 
 banks of the Boyne without being struck with the elegance as well 
 as the endless variety of the ornaments which cover their walls. 
 
 If, however, the material proofs are deficient, the written evi- 
 dence is clearer and more satisfactory than with regard to any group 
 of tombs in the three kingdoms. In the passage above quoted, 
 it is said " that they " — the kings of Ireland — " were interred 
 at Brugh from the time of Crimthann (a,d. 76) to the time of 
 Leoghaire, the son of Niall (a.d. 458), except three persons, 
 namely, Art the son of Conn, and Cormac the son of Art, and 
 Niall of the nine hostages," — the father of Leoghaire. The reason 
 given why Art and Cormac were not buried here was that they 
 had embraced Christianity. Art was buried at a place called 
 Treoit; Cormac on the right bank of the Boyne at a place 
 called Eos-na-righ, opposite Brugh; and Niall at Ochaim. But 
 having disposed of these three, we have still some twenty-seven 
 kings to find graves for, and only seventeen mounds can now 
 be traced at Brugh ; and, besides these, we have to find the 
 tombs of the Dagdha, and his three sons, and Etan the poetess and 
 her son Corpre, and Boinn, the wife of Nechtan, " who took with 
 her to the tomb her small hound Dabilla," and a vast number of 
 nobles of Tuatha de Danann and others. It is impossible to find 
 places for all these persons in the graves now visible, if each was 
 buried separately. It may be, however, that the great mounds 
 contained several sepulchres. The form and position of the 
 chambers at Dowth (woodcut No. 69) perhaps countenances such a 
 supposition ; but many may have been buried under smaller cairns, 
 long since removed to make way for agricultural improvements, 
 and many may yet be discovered if the place be carefully and 
 systematically explored, which does not yet seem to have been 
 done. Before, however, anything like certainty could be arrived 
 at as to the distribution of these graves, it would be necessary 
 
Chap. V. LOUGH CREW. 213 
 
 that the great mounds should be thoroughly explored, and this, 
 from the nature of their material, will practically involve their 
 destruction, which would be very much to be regretted. Mean- 
 while, if I may be allowed to offer a conjecture, I would say that 
 New Grange might be the " Cumot or Commensurate grave of 
 Cairbre Lifeachair." He, according to the Four Masters, reigned 
 from 271 to 288 — but probably fifty or sixty years later — and 
 seems to have been a king deserving of a right royal sepulchre ; 
 and I feel great confidence that the unopened tumulus near the 
 river may be what tradition says it is — the grave of the Great 
 Dagdha, the hero of Moytura. With regard to the others, it 
 would not be safe to hazard any opinion in the present state of 
 our knowledge. For the present it is sufficient to feel sure that 
 we have a group of monuments all, or very nearly all of which 
 were erected in the first four centuries of the Christian era, and 
 from this basis we may reason with tolerable certainty regarding 
 the other groups which we may meet with in the course of this 
 enquiry. 
 
 Lough Crew. 
 
 At a distance of twenty-five miles nearly due west from Brugh 
 na Boinn, and two miles south-east from Oldcastle, is a range of 
 hills, called on the Ordnance map Slieve na Calliagh — the hags' or 
 witches' hill. It is upwards of 200 feet above the level of the sea, 
 and the most conspicuous elevation in that part of the country. 
 On the ridge of this range, which is about two miles in extent, are 
 situated from twenty-five to thirty cairns, some of considerable 
 size, being 120 to 180 feet in diameter; others are much smaller, 
 and some so nearly obliterated that their dimensions can hardly be 
 now ascertained. Till seven or eight years ago this cemetery was 
 entirely unknown to Irish antiquaries, and the positions of the cairns 
 were hardly even indicated in the Ordnance Survey ; but in 1863 
 they attracted the attention of Mr. Eugene Conwell, of Trim. In 
 the years 1867-8 he was enabled, with the assistance and co-opera- 
 tion of the late Mr. Naper, of Lough Crew, the proprietor of the 
 soil, to excavate and explore the whole of them. A brief account 
 of the results which he obtained was submitted to the Eoyal 
 Irish Academy in 1868, and afterwards printed by him for private 
 
214 IRELAND. Chap. V. 
 
 circulation in 1868 ; but the greater work, with plans and 
 drawings, in which he intends fully to illustrate the whole, is still 
 in abeyance, owing to want of encouragement. When completed 
 it will be one of the most valuable contributions to our archaeo- 
 logical knowledge that we have received of late years. Mean- 
 while the following meagre particulars are derived from Mr 
 Con well's pamphlet and the information I picked up during a 
 personal visit which I made to the spot in his company in the 
 Autumn of last year. The illustrations are all from his drawings. 
 One of the most perfect of these tumuli is that distinguished by 
 Mr. Conwell as Cairn T (woodcut No. 72). It stands on the highest 
 
 N. 
 
 HACS CHAIR 
 
 
 *V ' '.lifill'lil 1 .^^ 
 
 12- Cairn T, at Lough Crew.— From a plan by E. Conwell. 
 
 point of the hill, and is consequently the most conspicuous. It is 
 a truncated cone, 116 feet in diameter at base, and with a sloping 
 side, between 60 and 70 feet in length. Around its base are 
 thirty-seven stones, laid on edge, and varying from 6 to 12 feet in 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 LOUGH CREW. 
 
 215 
 
 length. They are not detached, as at New Grange, but form a 
 retaining wall to the mound. On the north, and set about 4 feet 
 luck from the circle, is a large stone, 10 feet long by 6 high, and 
 2 feet thick, weighing consequently above 10 tons. The upper 
 part is fashioned as a rude seat, from which it derives its name of 
 the Hag's Chair (woodcut No. 73), and there can be little doubt 
 but that it was intended as a seat or throne ; but whether by the 
 
 The Hag's Chair, Lough Crew. — From a drawing by E. Con well. 
 
 king who erected the sepulchre, or for what purpose, it is difficult 
 now to say. 
 
 On the eastern side of the mound the stones forming the peri- 
 phery of the cairn curve inwards for eight or nine yards on each 
 side of the spot where the entrance to the chamber commences. 
 It is of the usual cruciform plan, and 28 feet long from the entrance 
 to the fiat stone closing the innermost cell ; the dome, conse- 
 quently, is not nearly under the centre of the tumulus, as at New 
 Grange, and lends something like probability to the notion that the 
 cell at Dowth (woodcut No. 69), was really the principal sepulchre. 
 Twenty-eight of the stones in the chamber were ornamented with 
 devices of various sorts. Two of them are represented on the ac- 
 companying woodcut (No. 74), which, with the drawings on the 
 Hag's Chair give a fair idea of their general character. They are 
 certainly ruder and less artistic than those on the Boyne, and so far 
 would indicate an earlier age. Nothing was found in the chambers 
 
216 
 
 IRELAND. 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 of this tomb but a quantity of charred human bones, perfect human 
 teeth, mixed with the bones of animals, apparently stags, and one 
 bronze pin, 1\ inches long, with a head ornamented and stem 
 slightly so, and still preserving a beautiful green polish. 
 
 Two Stones in C.iirn T, Lough Crew. — E. Conwell. 
 
 Cairn L (woodcut No. 75), a little further west, is 135 feet in 
 diameter, and surrounded by forty-two stones, similar to those in 
 Cairn T. The same curve inwards of these stones marks the 
 entrance here, which is placed 18 feet from the outward line of 
 the circle. The chamber here is nearly of the same dimen- 
 sions as that last described, being 29 feet deep and 13 across 
 its greatest width. In one of the side chambers lies the 
 largest of the mysterious flat basins that have yet been dis- 
 covered, 5 feet 9 inches long by 3 feet 1 inch broad, the 
 whole being tooled and picked with as much care and skill 
 as if executed by a modern mason. This one has a curious nick 
 in its rim, but as it does not go through, it could hardly be 
 intended as a spout. Till some unrifled tomb is found, or 
 something analogous in other countries, it is extremely difficult 
 to say what the exact use of these great stone saucers may 
 have been. That the body or ashes were laid on them is more 
 than probable, and they may then have been covered over 
 with a lid like a dish-cover, such as are found on tombs in 
 Southern Babylonia. 1 Under this basin were found great quan- 
 
 1 ' Journal Royal Archaeological Society,' xv. p. 270. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 LOUGH CREW. 
 
 217 
 
 tities of charred human bones and forty-eight human teeth, 
 besides a perfectly rounded syenite ball, still preserving its 
 original polish, also some jet and other ornaments. In other parts 
 were found quantities of charred bones, some rude pottery and 
 bone implements, but no objects in metal. The woodcut repre- 
 senting the cell, with large basin, gives a fair idea of the general 
 style of sculpture in this and the neighbouring cairns. The parts 
 cross-hatched seem to have been engraved with a sharp metal 
 
 Cell in Cairn L, at Lough Crew. — E. Conwell. 
 
 tool. The ordinary forms, however, both here and on the Boyne 
 are picked ; but whether they were executed with a hammer, or 
 pick direct, or by a chisel driven by a hammer, is by no means 
 clear. My own impression is, that it would be very difficult 
 indeed to execute these patterns with a hammer of any sort, and 
 that a chisel must have been used, but whether of flint, bronze, 
 or iron, there is no evidence to show. 
 
 Cairn H, though only between 5 and 6 feet in height and 54 feet 
 
218 IRELAND. Chap. V. 
 
 in diameter, seems to have been the only one on the hill not pre- 
 viously rifled, and yielded a most astonishing collection of objects 
 to its explorer. The cell was of the usual cruciform plan, 24 feet 
 from the entrance to the rear, and 16 feet across the lateral 
 chambers. In the passage and crypts of this cairn Mr. Conwell 
 collected some 300 fragments of human bones, which must have 
 belonged to a considerable number of separate individuals ; 
 14 fragments of rude pottery, 10 pieces of flint, 155 sea-shells in 
 a perfect condition, besides pebbles and small polished stones, 
 in quantities. 
 
 The most remarkable part of the collection consisted of 4884 
 fragments, more or less perfect, of bone implements. These are 
 now in the Dublin Museum, and look like the remains of a 
 paper-knife-maker's stock-in-trade. Most of them are of a knife 
 shape, and almost all more or less polished, but without further 
 ornamentation ; but 27 fragments appear to have been stained, 
 11 perforated, 501 engraved with rows of fine lines ; 13 combs 
 were engraved on both sides, and 91 engraved by compass with 
 circles and curves of a high order of art. On one, in cross-hatch 
 lines, is the representation of an antlered stag, the only attempt to 
 depict a living thing in the collection. 
 
 Besides these, there were found in this cairn seven beads Of 
 amber, three small beads of glass of different colours, two frag- 
 ments, and a curious molten drop of glass, 1 incli long, trumpet- 
 shaped at one end, and tapering towards the other extremity; six 
 perfect and eight fragments of bronze rings, and seven specimens 
 of iron implements, but all, as might be expected, very much cor- 
 roded by rust. One of these presents all the appearance of being 
 the leg of a compass, with which the bone implements may have 
 been engraved, and one was an iron punch, 5 inches long, with 
 a chisel-shaped point, bearing evidence of the use of the mallet 
 at the opposite end. 
 
 Cairn D is the largest and most important monument of the 
 group, being 180 feet in diameter, and though it is very much 
 dilapidated, the circle of fifty-four stones which originally sur- 
 rounded it can still be traced. On its eastern side the stones curve 
 inwards for about twelve paces, in the form universal in these 
 cairns ; but though the explorers set to work industriously to follow 
 
Chap. V. LOUGH CREW. 219 
 
 out what they considered a sure " find," they could not pene- 
 trate the mound. The stones fell in upon them so fast, and the 
 risk they ran was so great, that they were forced to abandon 
 the idea of tunnelling, and though a large body of men worked 
 assiduously for a fortnight trying to work down from above, they 
 failed to penetrate to the central or any other chambers. It still, 
 therefore, remains a mystery if there is a blind tope, like many 
 in India, or whether its secret still remains to reward some more 
 fortunate set of explorers. If it has no central chamber, the 
 curving inwards of its outer circle of stones is a curious instance 
 of adherence to a sacred form. 
 
 The other monuments on the hill do not present any features 
 worth enumerating in a general summary like the present, though 
 they would be most interesting in a monograph. Though differing 
 greatly in size and in richness of ornamentation, they all belong- 
 to one class, and apparently to one age. For our present purpose 
 one of the most interesting peculiarities is that, like the group on 
 the banks of the Boyne, this is essentially a cemetery. There are 
 no circles, no alignments, no dolmens, no rude stone mouuments, 
 in fact. All are carefully built, and all more or less ornamented ; 
 and there is a gradation and progression throughout the whole 
 series widely different in this respect from the simplicity and 
 rudeness of the English monuments described in the last chapter. 
 
 It now only remains to try to ascertain who those were who 
 were buried in these tumuli, and when they were laid there to 
 their rest. So far as the evidence at present stands it hardly 
 seems to me to admit of doubt but that this is the cemetery of 
 Talten, so celebrated in Irish legend and poetry : — 
 
 " The host of Great Meath are buried 
 In the middle of the Lordly Brugh ; 
 The Great Ultonians used to bury 
 At Talten with pomp. 
 
 " The true Ultonians, before Conchobar. 
 Were ever buried at Talten, 
 Until the death of that triumphant man, 
 Through which they lost their glory." x 
 
 1 Petrie's ' Bound Towers,' p. 105. 
 
220 IRELAND. Chap. V. 
 
 The distance of the spot from Telltown, the modern representative 
 of Talten, is twelve miles, which to some might appear an 
 objection, but it must be remembered that Brugh is ten miles 
 from Tara, where all the kings resided, who were buried there ; 
 and as Dathi and others of them were buried at Eath Croghan, 
 sixty-five miles off, distance seems hardly to be an objection. 
 Indeed, among a people who, as evidenced by their monuments, 
 paid so much attention to funeral rites and ceremonious honours 
 to their dead, as the Pagan Irish evidently did, it must have 
 mattered little whether the last resting-place of one of their kings 
 was a few miles nearer or further from his residence. 
 
 It must not, however, be forgotten, that the proper residence of 
 the Ultonians, who are said to have been buried at Talten, was 
 Emania or Armagh, forty-five miles distant as the crow flies. 
 Why they should choose to be buried in Meath, so near the rival 
 capital of Tara, if that famed city then existed, is a mystery 
 which it is not easy to solve ; but that it was so, there seems no 
 doubt, if the traditions or Books of the Irish are at all to be 
 depended upon. If their real residence was so distant, it seems of 
 trifling consequence whether it was ten or twelve miles from the 
 place we now know as Telltown. There must have been some 
 very strong reason for inducing the Ultonians to bury so far from 
 their homes ; but as that reason has not been recorded, it is idle 
 to attempt to guess what form it took. What would appear a 
 most reasonable suggestion to a civilized Saxon in the nineteenth 
 century would in all probability be the direct antithesis of the 
 motive that would guide an uncivilized Celt in the first century 
 before Christ, and we may therefore as well give up the attempt. 
 Some other reason than that of mere proximity to the place of 
 residence governed the Irish in the choice of the situation of their 
 cemeteries ; what that Avas we may hereafter be able to find out, — 
 at present, so far as I know, the materials do not exist for forming 
 an opinion. If, however, this is not Talten, no graves have been 
 found nearer Telltown, which would at all answer to the descrip- 
 tions that remains to us of this celebrated cemetery ; and, till they 
 are found, these Lough Crew mounds seem certainly entitled to the 
 distinction. I cannot see that the matter is doubtful. 
 
 If this is so, there is little difficulty in determining who were 
 
Chap. V. LOUGH CREW. 221 
 
 buried here. Besides the testimony of the poem just quoted, it 
 is stated in the Book of the ' Cemeteries ' — " At Tailten the kings 
 of Ulster were used to bury vig? Ollanih Fodhla with his descen- 
 dants down to Conchobhar, who wished to be carried to a place 
 between Slea and the sea, with his face to the east, on account of 
 the faith which he had embraced." This conversion of Con- 
 chobhar is one of the most famous legends in Irish ancient 
 history. He was wounded in the head by a ball that remained 
 there, and was ordered by his physician to remain quiet and avoid 
 all excitement as his only chance of surviving. For seven years 
 he followed this advice ; but when he saw the eclipse of the sun, 
 and felt the great convulsion that came over nature, the day that 
 Christ was crucified, he turned to his Druid and asked, " What is 
 this ? " To which Bacrach, the Druid, replied : " It is true, 
 indeed, Christ, the Son of God, is this day crucified by the Jews." 
 "At the recital of this enormity, Conchobhar felt so indignant 
 that he went nearly mad : his excitement was so great that the 
 ball burst from his head, and he died on the very Friday on which 
 the crucifixion took place." * All this may be silly enough, as 
 the electric telegraph was not then in use, but it is worth quoting 
 here, as it seems that it was to establish this synchronism that the 
 chronology of the period was falsified to the extent of half a 
 century at least. Conchobhar and Crimthann were the two kings 
 of the two great dynasties then reigning in Ireland whom the 
 annalists strive to synchronize with Christ, and though they fail in 
 that, they establish beyond much doubt that those kings were 
 contemporaries. If to this we add the fact so often repeated by 
 the authorities quoted above, that Conchobhar was the last of 
 his race buried at Talten, and that Crimthann was the first of his 
 line buried at Brugh, we obtain a tolerably clear idea of the 
 history of these cemeteries. Brugh, in fact, succeeded to Talten 
 on the decline of the Ultonian dynasty and the rise of Tuatha 
 de Danann after the victories at Moytura had established their 
 supremacy and they had settled themselves at Tara. 
 
 The character of the sculptures in the two groups of monu- 
 
 1 O'Curry's 'Materials for Irish. History,' p. G36 et seqq. So, too, even Tighernach 
 adds, in the year 33 : — " Concobares films Nessae obiit hoc anno." — Aim. p. 18. 
 
222 
 
 IRELAND. 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 ments fully bears out this view. The carvings at Lough Crew 
 are ruder and less artistic than those at Brugh. They are more 
 disconnected, and oftener mere cup markings. The three stones 
 represented in the preceding and following woodcuts (Nos. 75 
 and 76), are selected from a great many in the Con well portfolios 
 as fair average specimens of the style of sculpture common at 
 Lough Crew, and with the woodcut No. 73, representing the 
 Hag's Chair, and No. 75, the chamber in cairn L, will convey 
 a fair notion of the whole. In no one iustance does it seem 
 
 possible to guess what 
 these figures were meant 
 to represent. No ani- 
 mal or vegetable form 
 can be recognized, even 
 after allowing the utmost 
 latitude to the imagina- 
 tion ; nor do the circles 
 or waving lines seem in- 
 tended to convey any 
 pictorial ideas. Beauty 
 of form, as a decora- 
 tion, seems to have been 
 all the old Celt aimed 
 at, and he may have 
 been thought successful 
 at the time, though it hardly conveys the same impression to 
 modern minds. The graceful scrolls and spirals and the foliage 
 of New Grange and Dowth do not occur there, nor anything in 
 the least approaching to them. Indeed, when Mr. Con well's book 
 is published, in which they will all be drawn in more or less 
 detail, I believe it will be easy to arrange the whole into a 
 progressive series illustrative of the artistic history of Ireland for 
 five centuries before the advent of St. Patrick. 
 
 It would be an extremely dangerous line of argument to 
 apply tbis law of progressive development to all countries. 
 In India, especially, it is very frequently reversed. The rudest 
 art is often much more modern than the most refined, but in 
 Ireland this apparently never was the case. From the earliest 
 
 76. Stone in Cairn T. Lough Crew. — E. Con well. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 CLOVER HILL. 
 
 223 
 
 scratching^ on pillar stones, clown to the English conquest, her 
 art seems to have been unfalteringly progressive ; and, beginning 
 with these two cemeteries, which are probably the oldest incu- 
 nabula of her art, its history might be written without a gap, or 
 halt, till it bloomed in those exquisite manuscripts and crosses and 
 works of gold and metal which still excite such unqualified 
 admiration. 
 
 There may be, and no doubt are, many other sculptured graves 
 in Ireland, but they have not yet been explored, or, at least, 
 published. One, however, deserves notice; not, certainly, on 
 account of its magnificence, but for several points of interest 
 which its peculiarities bring out. It is situated in a field 
 near Clover Hill, not far from Carrowmore, the battle-field of 
 northern Moytura. 1 It measures only 7 feet by 5, and is 4^ feet 
 deep. Its cap-stone was originally flush with the earth, and no 
 cairn or circle of stones marks it externally, nor is there any 
 tradition of any such ever having existed. The carvings on the 
 stones forming the chamber 
 are shallow, and now very 
 indistinct, from being over- 
 grown with lichens and moss, 
 but their general . character 
 will be understood from the 
 annexed woodcut. Its cha- 
 racter is something between 
 the sculptures of Talten and 
 Brugh, which would agree very 
 well with its date if we suppose it connected with the battle-field. 
 This, however, is very doubtful, for there are few things that come 
 out more prominently in the investigation than the fact that 
 all those monuments which are directly or indirectly connected 
 with battle-fields are literally rude and untouched by the chisel, 
 but that all, or nearly all those which are in cemeteries, or have 
 been erected leisurely by, or for, those who occupy them, are 
 more or less ornamented. It may, however, be that some one 
 
 11 
 
 nZl-<:^ .-Ji *"^ a _^^'t^ > - 
 
 Stones in Sculptured Graves, Clover Hill. 
 From a sketch by the Author. 
 
 1 ' Petrie's Life,' by Stokes, p. 25G. 
 
224 IRELAND. Chap. V. 
 
 connected with the battle wished to be buried near his com- 
 panions who fell there, and prepared this last resting-place for 
 himself, but we must know more before such speculations can 
 be of much value. 
 
 One other point is of interest regarding this tomb. If the 
 minor sepulchres at Brugh were like the one flush with the 
 surface, we cannot guess how many ma)* yet be there undiscovered, 
 and equally difficult to say how they are to be disinterred. 
 
 Dolmens. 
 
 It is extremely difficult to write anything that will be at all 
 satisfactory regarding the few standing solitary dolmens of 
 Ireland. Not that their history could not be, perhaps, easily 
 ascertained, but simply because every one has hitherto been 
 content to consider them as pre-historic, and no one has conse- 
 quently given himself the trouble to investigate the matter. The 
 first point would be to ascertain whether any of them exist on 
 any of the battle-fields mentioned in the Irish annals. My impres- 
 sion is that they do not : but this question can only be answered 
 satisfactorily by some one more intimately acquainted with the 
 ancient political geography of Ireland than I can pretend to be. 
 No connexion has, however, yet been shown to exist between 
 them and any known battle-fields, and till this is done, we must be 
 content to consider them as the graves of chiefs or distinguished 
 individuals whose ashes are contained in the urns which are 
 generally found under them. 
 
 A still more important question hinges on their geographical 
 distribution. Nothing can be more unsafe than to found any im- 
 portant deductions on what is known on this subject at present. 
 If all those which are described in books and in journals of 
 learned societies were marked on a map, the conclusion would 
 be that the most of them are found on the east coast of Ireland ; 
 a dozen or so in Waterford and Wexford ; as many in Dublin 
 and Meath, and an equal number in County Down. But this 
 knowledge may merely mean that the east coast, possessing 
 roads and towns, has consequently been more frequented by 
 tourists and antiquaries than the remote or inaccessible west. 
 
Chap. V. DOLMENS. 225 
 
 Among the records, however, of the Ordnance survey, and in 
 the Du Noyer drawings, there are probably sufficient materials for 
 the purpose. Both are deposited in the Library of the Eoyal Irish 
 Academy at Dublin; but any person who would attempt to use 
 these materials for the purpose of such an investigation, must be 
 not only an enthusiast, but have his whole time at his disposal. 
 The disarray in which they now exist renders them utterly 
 useless to any ordinary student of Irish antiquities. 
 
 The Irish themselves seem to have only one tradition regarding 
 their dolmens. They call them all " Beds of Diannid and Graine," 
 and that is the name applied to them in the sheets of the Ordnance 
 Survey. The elopement of Diannid with Graine, the daughter of 
 Cormac Mac Art, whose date, according to the Four Masters, was 
 a.d. 286, is one of the most celebrated of Irish legends. 1 The 
 story is, that being pursued all over Ireland by Finn, the disap- 
 pointed suitor, they erected these as places of shelter, or for hiding 
 in. This is, of course, absurd enough ; but it shows that, in the 
 opinion of the Irish themselves, they belong to the period which 
 elapsed between the birth of Christ and the conversion of the 
 people to Christianity. There is no hint in any Irish book that 
 any of them were erected before the Christian era, nor anything 
 that would lead us to suppose that any are more modern than the 
 time of St. Columba. 
 
 The most extensive group of free standing dolmens known to 
 exist in Ireland, is that in or near Glen Columbkille, at the 
 extreme western point of Donegal. No account of these has 
 been published — so far as I know — in any book or journal, and 
 I am indebted for all I know about them to my friend, Mr. 
 Norman Moore, who paid a visit to the spot this autumn to 
 obtain the information 1 wanted, and it is from his descriptions 
 that the following is abstracted. 2 
 
 The principal groups are situated in Glen Malin More, a small 
 valley running parallel to that of Columbkille, about two miles to 
 the southward of it. There are three groups on the north side of 
 this valley and two on the south, extending from about half a mile 
 
 1 Eugene O'Curry, 'Materials,' &c, 314, 597. 
 
 2 This most valuable contribution, with his permission, is printed in exlenso in 
 Appendix A. 
 
 Q 
 
226 IRELAND. Chap. V. 
 
 from the sea-shore to about three miles inward. The finest group 
 is that next the sea on the south side, and consists of six dolmens, 
 situated nearly in a row, about 50 or 100 feet apart, and is accom- 
 panied by some cairns, but so small as hardly to deserve the name of 
 Tumuli. The stones of the dolmens range from 6 to 12 feet in height, 
 and their cap-stones are still there, though some have been displaced. 
 
 The second group, a little way up the glen, consists of ten 
 dolmens arranged in two parallel rows, but they are neither so 
 large nor so perfect as those nearer to the sea. 
 
 Nearly opposite the first-named group on the shore, but on the 
 north side of the stream, are two dolmens so nearly contiguous 
 to each other that they may almost be considered as one structure. 
 About half a mile to the east of this is a fourth group, consisting of 
 four dolmens, accompanied by cairns, and two at least of the former 
 are of considerable maguificence. The group farthest up the glen 
 consists of five or six dolmens, but all except one in a ruinous state. 
 
 The number of dolmens in Glen Columbkille is not given by 
 Mr. Moore ; but, from the context, there must be five or six, 
 making up twenty to thirty for the whole group. So far as can be 
 judged from the description, the group in Glen Columbkille seems 
 to have better fitted and more complete chambers ; consequently, 
 I should infer it to be more modern than the others. It would, 
 however, require careful personal inspection to classify them ; 
 though I have no doubt it could be done, and that, with a little 
 care, these six groups could be arranged into a consecutive series, 
 whatever the initial or final date may turn out to be. 
 
 The general construction and appearance of these tombs is that 
 of the so-called Calliagh Birra's house in Meath, described further 
 on (woodcut No. 80). From its situation and appearance, there 
 seems little reason for doubt that the Meath example belongs 
 to the fifth or the sixth century ; and if this is so, as little for 
 doubting; that these dolmens in Donegal are of about the same 
 age, or, in other words, that this mode of interment continued to 
 be practised in certain parts of Ireland, especially near the coasts, 
 down to the entire conversion of the inhabitants to Christianity. 
 
 There are no other traditions, so far as I know, attached to any- 
 thing in this glen, except those that relate to St. Columba, who, 
 it is understood, long resided here, attempting to convert the 
 
Chap. V. DOLMENS. 227 
 
 inhabitants to Christianity. Whether he was successful or not 
 is not clear. He certainly left Ireland in disgust, and settled in 
 the first island whence the shores of his detested native land 
 could not be seen. The only other tradition that seems to bear 
 on the subject relates to St. Patrick, who, being unable to convert 
 the " Demons " about Croagh Patrick, in Mayo, drove them into 
 the sea ; but, instead of perishing, as they ought to have done, 
 when he threw his bell after them, they reappeared, and settled 
 on this promontory. 1 The meaning of this fable seems to be, that 
 some tribe — not Celtic, for the Celts accepted Christianity whenever 
 and wherever it was preached to them, but, it may be of Iberian 
 origin — refusing to accept the doctrine, was expelled by force 
 from their seats in Mayo, and sought refuge with kindred tribes 
 in this remote corner of the island, and here remained till 
 St. Columba took up his abode among them. If we might assume 
 that the Columbkille group belongs to a time immediately 
 preceding their conversion, and that the other five groups in 
 Malin More extended back to a date two, three, it may be four 
 centuries before St. Columba's time, and that they belonged to 
 an Iberian or Celtiberian race, we should have an hypothesis 
 which at least would account for all their peculiarities. Though 
 in sight of Carrowmore, on the southern side of Sligo Bay, it 
 is certain that these monuments have no affinity with them or 
 with the works of any of the Northern circle-building nations. 
 Spanish or French they must be ; and we can hardly hesitate 
 between the two. In Elizabeth's time, and as far back as 
 history reaches, we have Spaniards settled in Galway, and on the 
 western coast of Ireland. Such colonisation, if lasting, is not 
 the work of any sudden impulse or of a long past time ; and the 
 probability is that Iberians, before they learned to talk Latin, 
 
 ; Croagh Patrick, a mountain in i remained unmolested till our Tirconel- 
 Mayo, is famous in legendary records as ; lian saint (Columba) was directed by an 
 
 the scene of St. Patrick's final conflicts 
 with the demons of Ireland. From its 
 summit he drove them into the ocean, 
 and completed their discomfiture by 
 flinging his bell among their retreating 
 
 angel to rid the place of its foul inha- 
 bitants. After a violent struggle he 
 completely routed them. His name was 
 thenceforth associated with the tract, 
 and the wild parish of Glen Columbkille 
 
 ranks. Passing northward they emerged , preserves, in its topography and tradi- 
 from the deep, and took up their abode ! tions, a living commentary on the legend 
 in the savage wilds of Seang Cean, on of St. Columba/' &c. — Peeves, Vita 
 the south-west of Donegal. Here they St. Adam., p. 206. 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 IRELAND. Chap. V. 
 
 were settled here from a very early age. It is also probable from 
 what we know of them and their monuments in the Peninsula, 
 that they would refuse for a longer period than the Celts to be 
 converted, and that they should use dolmens for their sepulchres 
 in preference either to tumuli or circles. 
 
 Be this as it may, there are at least two points which we may 
 assume negatively with regard to these dolmens. The first is, 
 that they do not mark battle-fields : they have none of the 
 appearance of such monuments. The second is. that as there is 
 no capital or fertile country in their neighbourhood, they are 
 not a royal cemetery ; they are not, indeed, claimed, even in the 
 remotest manner, by any of the royal races of Ireland. They are, 
 so far as we can see, the sepulchres of a foreign colony settled on 
 this spot. Whether this is probable or not must, of course, depend 
 on a comparison of these monuments with those in the countries 
 from which they are supposed to have come. But, in the mean- 
 while, it may be assumed, as an hypothesis which at least accounts 
 for the phenomena as we find them in Ireland, even when judged 
 of by their own internal evidence alone. 
 
 One of the most interesting of the Irish dolmens is that known 
 as the Giant's Grave, near Drumbo, about four miles south from 
 Belfast. The interest attached to this monument does not, however, 
 arise so much from the grandeur of the structure itself, though it 
 may be considered a first-class example and very tolerably perfect, 
 but from its standing solitary in the centre of the largest circle 
 in these islands, Avebury only excepted. The circle is about 
 580 feet in diameter, and consequently more than six acres 
 in extent, and is formed, not as at Avebury or Arbor Low, by a 
 ditch dug inside, and the earth so gained being used to form 
 a rampart, but by the top of a hill being levelled and the earth 
 removed in so doing being thrown up so as to form a circular 
 amphitheatre. Although, consequently, the rampart is not so high 
 outside as at Avebury, the whole surface internally having been 
 lowered, the internal effect is very much grander. 1 
 
 1 I cannot help thinking that the gested above, but we are not yet in a 
 
 great rath at Dowth was formed by a position to speak positively on such 
 
 similar process. It may not, therefore. matters, 
 
 after all. be a residential rath, as sug- | 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 DOLMENS. 
 
 229 
 
 What, theD, was the object of this great earthwork with one soli- 
 tary dolmen in the centre ? Was it simply the converse of such 
 a mound as that at New Grange ? Was it that, instead of heaping 
 the earth over the sepulchral chamber, they cleared it away and 
 arranged it round it. so as to give it dignity ? Or was it that 
 funereal games or ceremonies were celebrated round the tomb, 
 and that the amphitheatre was prepared to give dignity to their 
 performance? These are questions that can only be answered 
 when more of these circles are known and compared with one 
 another, and the whole subject submitted to a more careful 
 examination than has yet been the case. My impression is 
 that it is the grave of a chief, and of him only, and that it is 
 among the most modern of its class. 
 
 At about the same distance west from Belfast is another dolmen, 
 which, in itself, is a much finer example than this Grave of the 
 Giant. Its cap-stone 
 is said to weigh 40 
 tons, and is supported 
 by five upright stones 
 of considerable di- 
 mensions. It has, 
 however, no circle 
 or accompaniments. 
 The Celtic name of 
 the district in which 
 it stands was ' Bailie 
 clough togal,' i. e. the 
 Town of the Stone of 
 the Strangers, which 
 would seem to indicate that it was not very old, nor its origin 
 quite forgotten. 
 
 At Knockeen, county Waterford, there is a remarkable dolmen 
 (woodcut No. 78), though it neither has any surroundings nor 
 any tradition attached to it. 1 It is interesting, however, as it 
 looks as if Ave were approaching the form out of which Stone- 
 henge grew, which, I have not a doubt, could be found in Ireland 
 if looked for. It is also interesting as showiDg in plan (woodcut 
 
 Dolmen at Knockeen. 
 
 1 'Journal Kilkenny Arehseo. Soc.' v. N. S. p. 479. 
 
230 
 
 IRELAND. 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 No. 79), an arrangement which is peculiar, I believe, to Irish 
 dolmens. The cell is well formed, but in front of it is a demi- 
 cell, or ante-chamber, which looks as if it might have been used 
 
 for making offer- 
 ings to the dead 
 after the cell 
 was closed. 
 
 One other dol- 
 men deserves 
 being illustrat- 
 ed before going 
 further, as it be- 
 longs to a class 
 of monuments 
 common in Brit- 
 tany, hitherto unknown in Great Britain. It consists of a cell 
 12 feet 8 inches long internally, with a width of 4 feet at the 
 
 12 3 4-5 
 
 Plan of Dolmen at Knockeen. 
 
 sii. Calllagh Birra's House, north end of Pariah of Monasterboice. 
 
 entrance, but diminishing to 3 feet at its inner end. It is 
 situated near Monasterboice, at the northern limit of the parish, 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 DOLMENS. 
 
 231 
 
 and not far, consequently, from New Grange, and close to 
 G-reenmount. Locally it is known as the house or tomb of 
 Calliagh Vera, or Birra, 1 the hag whose chair is illustrated in 
 woodcut ~No. 73, and whose name is indissolubly connected with 
 the Lough Crew tombs. According to the traditions collected by 
 Dr. O'Donovan and Mr. Con well, she broke her neck before com- 
 pleting the last tumulus, and was buried, close to where she died, 2 
 in the parish of Diarmor, where, however, nothing remains to 
 mark the spot. 
 
 From the mode in which it is constructed, it seems hardly 
 doubtful that the original intention was to cover it with a 
 tumulus ; but probably it never was occupied. If I am correct 
 in my surmise as to its age, its builder may have been con- 
 verted to Christianity before he had occasion for it. But, be 
 that as it may, its exposed position may serve to explain how a 
 king or chief who had erected such a structure for his burying- 
 place might very well have amused himself, if his life were 
 prolonged, in adorning both the interior and exterior with 
 carvings. I cannot believe that the internal ornaments were 
 ever executed by artificial light, and both, therefore, must have 
 been completed before the chamber was buried. 
 
 Last year, General Lefroy excavated a tumulus at Greenmount, 
 Castle Bellingham, about five miles north of Calliagh Birra' s 
 so-called house. 1 In it he found a chamber, 21 feet long by 
 about 4 feet wide and 5 feet high, enclosed by two parallel walls 
 built of small stones, and closed at each end by similar masonry. 
 
 1 If, instead of this silly legend, we 
 could connect this tomb with Brendanus 
 Eiorro, the founder of the monastery of 
 Birra, now Parsonstown, it would be a 
 step in the right direction. His date 
 would accord perfectly with the archi- 
 tectural inferences ; for, according to 
 Tighernach, he died 573* The difficulty 
 is to believe that a Christian " propheta," 
 as he is called, could have thought of so 
 pagan a form of supulchre. It is not 
 easy, however to eradicate long-esta- 
 blished habits, and his countrymen may 
 
 not, within a century of St. Patrick's 
 time, have invented and become recon- 
 ciled to a new mode of burial. The 
 Danes certainly buried in howes for cen- 
 turies after their conversion, and the 
 Irish may have been equally conserva- 
 tive. It is, however, hardly worth while 
 arguing the question here, as we have 
 nothing but a nominal similarity to go 
 upon, which is never much to be relied 
 upon. 
 
 2 Eugene Conwell's pamphlet descrip- 
 tive of the Lough Crew Tumuli, p. 2. 
 
 Reeves, ' Vita Adamnani,' p 210. 
 
232 IRELAND. Chap. V. 
 
 The roof Mas formed of slabs in two rows, the lower projecting 
 as brackets and the upper stretching across beyond the walls 
 
 on each side. 
 In plan, there- 
 fore, it was iden- 
 tical with the 
 Birra's house, 
 q s 10 is 2,0 2,5 feet though Ion ere r 
 
 81. Plan and Section of Chamber in Greenmonnt Tumulus. and lai'2'er Bllt 
 
 From a drawing by General Lefroy. 
 
 from the mode 
 in which it was constructed, it was evidently more modern, — the 
 most modern, in fact, of all the chambered sepulchral tumuli 
 yet discovered in Ireland. 
 
 Nothing was found in the chamber : it had been rifled before, 
 but by whom and at what period there was nothing to show. At 
 9 or 10 feet below the summit, but still 6 or 7 feet above the floor 
 of the chamber, a bronze monument was found with a Runic 
 inscription on it, which, with the assistance of the Danish anti- 
 quaries, the General decides to belong to the ninth century 
 (852 ?). The one question is, is it coeval with the building 
 of the tomb or its destruction? The name Domnal, or Domhnall, 
 being Irish, and the position in which it was found seem to 
 prove that it belongs to the period of the raising of the 
 mound, not to that of its being rifled ; and if so, this grave 
 approaches the age to which Maeshowe in the Orkneys may 
 belong. 
 
 The circumstance, however, which interests us most at present 
 is the similarity of the Greenmoimt Chamber to the Lady Birra's 
 tomb. Being locally so close to one another, and so like in plan, 
 they cannot be very distant in date, though the more southern is, 
 from its megalithic character, undoubtedly the more ancient of 
 the two. If we allow two or three centuries it is a long stretch, 
 though even that takes us far away from any connexion with the 
 monuments at Lough Crew, and barely allows of it following very 
 close on those at Brush na Boinne. 
 
 1 The following particulars are taken from a paper by General Lefroy, in the 
 Archaeological Journal,' No. 180, 1870, pp. 284 et seqq. 
 
Chap. V. DOLMENS. 233 
 
 The similarity of this tomb with those at Glen Cohmibkille 
 has already been pointed out, and no doubt others exist in 
 Ireland, and will be brought to light as soon as attention is 
 directed to the subject. But meanwhile they seem, so far as we 
 can at present judge, to make up an extensive group of pagan or 
 semi-pagan monuments, extending from the time of St. Patrick 
 to that of St. Columba, and, as such, are among the latest, and 
 certainly among the most interesting, monuments of the class in 
 Ireland. 
 
 Vague as all this may probably appear, there is one dolmen in 
 Ireland which seems to have a date. The great grandson of 
 Dathi, whose red pillar-stone at Rath Croghan, erected a.d. 428, 
 we have already pointed out, was named Ceallach. He was 
 murdered by his four foster-brothers through envy about the 
 sovereignty. They were hanged for their crime at a spot known as 
 Ard-na-Riagh, near Ballina, and were buried 
 on a hill on the opposite side of the river, / ~~\ 
 
 where a dolmen still stands, and is pointed / r~- ^j 
 out as the grave of the four Maols, the mur- V iji% tX 7 
 derers. These particulars are related in the y / I I i 
 Dinnsenchus, in the Book of Lecan, and in '— 1 ^mr 
 
 the Annals of the Hy Fiachrach, translated 82 - Dolmen of tl,e Four 
 
 J ' Maols, Ballina. 
 
 by Dr. O'Donovan (p. 35), who, in a note, adds 
 that " this evidence, coupled with the description of the situation 
 on the other side of the Moy, opposite Ard-na-Riagh, leaves no 
 doubt of its identity." 
 
 The dolmen in question has nothing very remarkable about it. 
 The cap-stone, which measures 9 feet by 7 feet, is hexagonal in 
 form, and is supported on three uprights, arranged similarly to 
 those of Kit's Cotty House. It is perfectly level, and stands about 
 4 feet above the level of the soil. The cap-stone may have been 
 fashioned into its present form by art; but there is no sign of 
 chiselling, and, altogether there is nothing that would attract 
 especial attention. 1 The interest rests with its date. If it can be 
 
 1 My attention was first directed to j sidered it then as the only cromlech in 
 this monument by Mr. Samuel Ferguson, j Ireland with an authenticated date; but, 
 Keeper of the Records, Dublin. He con- as he has not published this, I must not 
 
234 IRELAND. 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 established that it belongs to the beginuing of the sixth century, 
 which I see no more reason for doubting than Dr. O'Donovan does, 
 it is a point gained in our investigation, in so far at least as dates 
 are concerned. 
 
 It would be tedious to enumerate the other dolmens in Ireland 
 which hare neither dates nor peculiarities to distinguish them 
 from others of this class, but there is one monument of a me»-a- 
 lithic character in Ireland which must be described before leaving 
 the country, though it certainly is not a dolmen, and its date and 
 use are both mysterious at present. 
 
 It stands in the deer park of the Hazlewood domain, about four 
 miles east of Sligo. It is entered from the south, and consists 
 
 first of an en- 
 
 closure 54 feet 
 by 24 feet. To 
 the westward 
 of this is a 
 smaller apart- 
 ment, about 
 
 83. Sketch-Plan of Monument in the Deer Park, Sligo. 30 feet by 12 
 
 Scale 40 feet to 1 inch. . 
 
 feet, divided 
 into two by two projecting stones. At the east end are two 
 similar apartments side by side, but smaller, the whole length of 
 the structure measuring about 115 feet. 1 The three entrances 
 from the central to the side apartments are trilithons of squared 
 and partially dressed stones, and would remind us of Stonehenge, 
 were they not so small. They are only 3 feet under the lintel, 
 and you must bow low indeed to pass under them. Indeed, when 
 speaking of these enclosures as apartments, it must be borne 
 in mind that one can enter anywhere by passing between the 
 stones, and stepping over the walls, which are composed of stones 
 hardly ever touching each other, the highest being only 3 or 
 
 be considered as committing him to any- 
 thing except beyond the desire of putting 
 me on the scent of an interesting: investi- 
 
 structurein the Royal Academy Museum, 
 Dublin, but not a correct one ; and the 
 woodcut in their catalogue, taken from 
 
 *ation. the model, has still less pretensions to 
 
 1 There is a model of this curious accuracy. 
 
Chap. V. DOLMENS. 235 
 
 4 feet high. Many of them, though massive, have only half that 
 height. 
 
 What, then, is this curious edifice? It can hardly be a 
 tomb, it is so unlike any other tomb which we know of. In plan 
 it looks more like a temple ; indeed, it is not unlike the 
 arrangement of some Christian churches : but a church or 
 temple with walls pervious, as these are, and so low that the 
 congregation outside can see all that passes inside, is so 
 anomalous an arrangement, that it does not seem admissible. 
 At present it is unique; if some similar example could be 
 discovered, perhaps we might guess its riddle. 
 
 It is situated on the highest plateau of the hill. A little 
 lower down is a very fine stone Cathair, or circular fort, with an 
 L-shaped underground apartment of some extent in its centre ; 
 and on a neighbouring eminence are several round tumuli, which, 
 looking like the burying-places of the " Castellani," increase the 
 improbability of the upper building being a sepulchre. 
 
 Before leaving this branch of the subject, it may be as well 
 to allude to a point which, though not very distinct in itself, 
 may have some influence with those who are shocked at being 
 told that the rude stone monuments of Ireland are so modern as 
 from the preceding pages we should infer they were. It is that 
 every allusion to Ireland, in any classical author, and every 
 inference from its own annals, lead us to assume that Ireland, 
 during the centuries that elapsed between the Christian era and 
 St. Patrick, was in a state of utter and hopeless barbarism. The 
 testimony of Diodorus 1 and Strabo 2 that its inhabitants were 
 cannibals is too distinct to be disputed, and according to the last 
 named authority, they added to this an ugly habit of eating their 
 fathers and mothers. These accusations are repeated by St. 
 Jerome 3 in the fourth century with more than necessary emphasis. 
 All represent the Irish as having all their women in common, 
 and as more barbarous than the inhabitants of Britain, 4 indeed, 
 than any other people of Europe. Nor can it be pleaded that 
 
 1 Diodorus, v. p. 32. 2 ' Geo.' iv. p. 201. 3 Ed. Valersii, i. p. 413; ii. p. 335. 
 
 4 Tacitus, ' Agricola,' p. 24. 
 
IRELAND. Chap. V. 
 
 these authors wrote in ignorance of the state of the country, for 
 Ptolemy's description of the coasts and of the interior, of the 
 cities and tribes shows an intimate acquaintance with the island 
 which could only be derived from observation. 1 Their own annals 
 do not, it is true, repeat these scandals : but nothing we now 
 have can be sai 1 to have been reduced to writing in anything 
 like the form in which we now possess it before the time of 
 St Patrick ; and even that has passed through edition after edition 
 at the hands of patriotic Irishmen before it assume 1 the form in 
 which we now find it. Even these tell of nothing but fighting 
 and assassination, and of crimes of every sort and kind. Even 
 the highest title of one of their greatest kings. Conn " of a 
 hundred battles."' is sufficiently indicative of the life which he 
 led, and the state of the country he governed. As we have 
 every reason to believe that the progress of Ireland was steadily 
 and equably progressive., it is evident that if it was so. a very short 
 time prior to what we find in the early centuries of Christianity 
 would take us back to the present state of the nativ- 
 Australia, and we should find a condition of society when any 
 combined effort was impossible. So evident is this, not only from 
 history, but from every inference that can be gathered from the 
 state of Ireland in subsequent ages, that the wonder really is how 
 such a people could have erected such monuments as those we 
 find on the banks of the Boyne in the early centuries of our 
 epoch. The answer is. of course, that the idleness of sai _ - 
 ie pable of wonderful efforts. A nation of men who have no 
 higher ambition than to provide for their daily wants, and who 
 are willing to submit to any tyrant who will undertake to 
 supply these in order to gratify hi^ own pride or ambition, may 
 effect wonders. The pyramids of Egypt and the temples of 
 southern India are examples of what may be done by similar 
 means. But to effect such things, the people must be sufficiently 
 organised to combine, and sufficiently disciplined to submit : and 
 we have no reason to suppose that in Ireland they were either 
 I aristian era, and it is even very difficult to under- 
 I how thev came to be so far advanced even in the time 
 
 Mercal . G _ ' p. 31. 
 
Chap. V. DOLMENS. 237 
 
 of St. Patrick. That they were so their works attest ; but if 
 we had to trust to indications derived from history alone, the 
 inference certainly would be that the monuments are considerably 
 more modern than the dates above assigned to them; while it 
 seems barely possible they should be carried back to any earlier 
 period. 
 
 There may be other rude stone monuments in Ireland besides 
 those described or alluded to in the preceding pages, but they 
 can scarcely be very numerous or very important, or they could 
 hardly have escaped notice. They are not, consequently, likely 
 to disturb any conclusion that may be arrived at from the 
 examination of those which are known. From these, we may 
 safely conclude that all, with perhaps the exception of the Hazle- 
 wood monument, are certainly sepulchral ; and all, unless I am 
 very much mistaken, were erected subsequently to the building 
 of Emania by Eochaidh Ollainb Fodlha in the third century B.C. 
 There may be cairns, and even dolmens, belonging to the earlier 
 Hiberni before the Scoti were driven from the Continent, by the 
 Punic or Roman wars, to seek refuge and repose in the green 
 island of the West, but they must be insignificant, and probably 
 must remain for ever unrecognizable. 
 
 From the date, however, of the founding of Emania we seem 
 to have a perfectly consecutive and intelligible series commencing 
 with the smaller and ruder cairns of Lough Crew, and rising at 
 last to the lordly sepulchres of Brugh na Boinne. Between these 
 two stand the monuments on the battle-fields of Moytura, and 
 contemporary with the last are the Paths on the far-famed hill of 
 Tara. Beyond these we seem to have the tomb of the four Moels, 
 the so-called house of Calliagh Birra, and the dolmens of G-len- 
 columbkille, all apparently belonging to the sixth century. The 
 tumulus at G-reenmount is later than any of these, but hardly 
 belongs to our Irish series. 
 
 From these we pass by easy gradations to the beehive cells 
 and oratories of the early Christians. No such stone dwellings 
 probably existed before the time of St. Patrick, or we should 
 have found traces of them at Tara, or Armagh, or Telltown ; but 
 as none such existed in these royal seats of the Scots, we may 
 
238 IRELAND. Chap. V. 
 
 fairly assume that for domestic purposes wood and turf alone were 
 used. But as soon as the use of stone became prevalent for such 
 purposes, as was the case with the introduction of Christianity, 
 we soon find the round towers, with their accompanying churches, 
 springing up in every corner of the land, and Irish architecture 
 progressing steadily in a groove of its own, till its forms were 
 modified, but not obliterated, by the changes introduced by the 
 English conquerors. The history of their style from St. Patrick 
 to the English conquerers has been so well written by Petrie, 
 that little now remains to be said about that division. But the 
 history of the preceding seven centuries still remains for some 
 one with the leisure requisite to explore the country, and with 
 patience and judgment sufficient to read aright the many enigmas 
 which are still involved in it, although the main outlines of the 
 story seem sufficiently clear and intelligible. If it Avere written 
 out in detail and fully illustrated, it would prove a most valuable 
 commentary on the dark period of the history of Ireland before 
 the introduction of Christianity, and when the concomitant intro- 
 duction of alphabetic writing first rendered her annals intelligible 
 and trustworthy. 
 
 In one other respect the study of these early monuments of 
 Ireland seems to afford a subject of most engrossing interest. It 
 is in Ireland that we first begin to perceive the threefold division, 
 which, if it can be established, will lead to the most important 
 ethnographical determinations. It appears that in this island the 
 stone circles of the Scandinavians were introduced simultaneously 
 with the dolmens of the Iberians or Aquitanians, and we can 
 trace the rude barrows of the Celts growing up between them till 
 they expanded into the great mounds of the Boyne. That these 
 three forms ever were at any one time absolutely distinct is most 
 unlikely, and equally so that they should have long remained so 
 in the same country, even if it could be shown that at any one 
 time they belonged to three separate races. Generally, however, 
 it seems hardly doubtful that they do point to ethnographic 
 peculiarities, which may become most important. Combined 
 Avith their history and a knoAvledge of their uses, these monu- 
 ments promise to rescue from oblivion one of the most curious 
 chapters of Irish history, Avhich Avithout them might remain for 
 ever unwritten. 
 
Chap. VI. 
 
 SCOTLAND. 
 
 239 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 SCOTLAND. 
 
 Whatever may be the case as regards Ireland, it is probable that 
 the megalithic remains of Scotland are all known and have been 
 described more or less in detail. Such descriptions, however, as 
 exist are scattered through the pages of ponderous statistical com- 
 pilations, or in the transactions of learned societies in England and 
 Scotland, or in local journals, so that it is extremely difficult to 
 acquire a connected grasp of the whole subject, or to feel sure you 
 do know all that is required, and still more difficult to convey to 
 others a clear view of its outlines. Had any one done for the 
 unsculptured stones of Scotland what John Stuart has done for 
 those that have devices in them, the case would be widely different. 
 Except Daniel Wilson's ' Pre-historic Annals of Scotland' — what- 
 ever that may mean — no general account is available, and that work 
 is too brief and too sparsely illustrated to be of much use. The 
 introductory matter, however, in Mr. Stuart's two volumes, 1 with 
 Mr. Wilson's book, may suffice for most purposes ; but a complete 
 knowledge can only be obtained by wading through the volumes 
 of the Scotch and English Archseologias, and the transactions and 
 proceedings of the various antiquarian societies of both countries. 2 
 
 1 ' The Sculptured Stones of Scotland.' 
 Two vols, quarto. Published by the 
 Spalding Club. 1856 and 1867. 
 
 2 A few years ago the late Mr. Rhind, 
 of Sibster, left an estate worth more than 
 400L per annum, to endow a Professor- 
 ship of Archseology in Scotland, who was 
 also to act as curator of the monuments 
 themselves, but unfortunately left it en- 
 cumbered by a life interest to a relative. 
 Two years ago an attempt was made to 
 get the Government to anticipate the 
 falling in of the life interest, and ap- 
 pointing Mr. Stuart to the office at once. 
 It was, perhaps, too much to expect so 
 
 enlightened an act of liberality from a 
 Government like ours. But their deci- 
 sion is to be regretted ; not only because 
 we may thereby lose altogether the ser- 
 vices of the best qualified man in Scot- 
 land for the purpose, but more so because 
 the monuments are themselves fast dis- 
 appearing without any record of them 
 being preserved. Agriculture is very 
 merciless towards a big &tone or a howe 
 that stands in the way of the plough, 
 and in so improving a country as Scot- 
 land, very little may remain for the next 
 generation to record. 
 
240 SCOTLAND. Chap. VI. 
 
 Putting aside for the present the sculptured stones as hardly 
 belonging to our subject, and the " cat " or battle stones, 
 their predecessors, though they are numerous, as might be ex- 
 pected among the pugnacious Celtic races who inhabited the 
 country, the remaining rude stone monuments are not numerous. 
 The free-standing dolmens are few and far between, some half- 
 dozen for the Avhole country, and none of them with histories or 
 traditions attached to them. The circles, however, are numerous 
 and important, and to some extent are calculated to throw light on 
 our investigations. If we exclude the two battle-fields of Moytura, 
 they are infinitely more numerous than those found in all Ireland 
 and Wales put together, although there is only one group, that at 
 Stennis in the Orkneys, that can compare with the great English 
 examples. 
 
 Their distribution too is interesting. No stone circles exist in 
 the lowlands or south of the Frith of Forth and Clyde; and dolmens 
 are rare in these regions, though this may arise from the extent to 
 which cultivation is carried on there. Until, however, a statistical 
 account is compiled, accompanied with a map, it is difficult to 
 speak confidently on such a subject, but the general impression is 
 that the lowlands are not, and never were, a region of megalithic 
 remains; and if this is so, it is one of the many proofs that the 
 dolmens are neither pre-Roman nor Celtic. At least we have 
 no reason to believe that the Teutonic races who now occupy 
 that country were settled there in the time of Agricola. But if 
 the Celts or Picts who then inhabited that land had been in the 
 habit of raising megalithic structures, we would have been more 
 likely to find traces of them in that densely inhabited country 
 than in the bleak uplands of Aberdeenshire, or the bare pastures 
 of the Orkney Islands. 
 
 The district of Scotland where these circles and rude stone 
 monuments most abound is on either side of a straight line drawn 
 direct from Inverness to Aberdeen, which is a locality where 
 sculptured stones are also found in considerable numbers, but the 
 rude stone monumeuts are not found in Angus or Fife, where their 
 sculptured successors are most numerous. The district of the circles 
 par excellence in Scotland, however, is not on the mainland at all, but 
 in the northern and western isles. The principal group is in the 
 
Chap. VI. 
 
 ORKNEY STONE CIRCLES. 
 
 241 
 
 Orkneys ; next in importance are those in Lewes. They are found 
 in Skye and Kantyre. There are several in Arran, and thence the 
 transition is easy to the Isle of Man, where they meet the English 
 group in Cumberland. 
 
 The larger circles in the Orkneys are four in number ; three 
 of these stand on a long slip of land that divides the loch of 
 Harra from that of Stennis. The fourth is at some little distance 
 from the others, and separated from them by a narrow strait 
 connecting the two lochs. Besides these there are several smaller 
 earthen circles and numerous tumuli. The largest circle, known as 
 the King of Brogar, 1 is 340 feet (100 metres) in diameter between 
 the stones. These originally were sixty in number, ranging from 
 6 and 7 to 15 feet in height; outside the stones runs a ditch about 
 30 feet in width, and 6 in depth, but with no perceptible rampart 
 on either side. Two causeways cross the ditch as at Penrith or 
 Arbor Low (woodcuts No. 29 and 30) opposite to one another, but 
 neither square with the axis of the spit of land on which the circle 
 is situated, nor facing any of the four cardinal points of the 
 heavens. 
 
 Next in importance to this is the circle at Stennis, about three- 
 quarters of a mile distant. It consisted originally of twelve stones 
 15 to 18 feet in height. Only two are now erect, but a third was 
 so not many years ago ; and the fourth, of which now only a frag- 
 ment remains, is represented as standing when the drawing, which 
 forms the frontispiece to this work, was made. 2 The remains of a 
 dolmen still exist within the circle, not however in the centre, but 
 close to its side, one of the stones of the circle apparently acting as 
 head-stone to it. Beyond the stone circle which measures 104 feet 
 
 1 The account of these monuments is 
 abstracted from a paper by Lieutenant 
 Thomas, of H. M.'s surveying vessel 
 Woodlarh. It is the most detailed and 
 most correct survey we have of any 
 British group. It was published in the 
 ' Archfeologia,' xxxiv. p. 88 et seqq. 
 
 2 Four stones are represented as stand- 
 ing when Barry's view of the monument 
 was published in 1807, and four are 
 represented as standing in a series of 
 
 etchings made by the Duchess-Countess 
 of Sutherland from her own drawings, in 
 1805. If the elbow in the bridge shown 
 in the drawing in the frontispiece is not 
 a licence permitted to himself by the 
 artist, my drawing is earlier than either 
 of these. When I first purchased it I 
 believed it to be by Daniel. His tour, 
 however, took place in 1815. From the 
 internal evidence this drawing must be 
 anterior to 1805. 
 
 R 
 
242 
 
 SCOTLAND. 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 in diameter is a ditch 50 feet wide, making the whole diameter of 
 the monument to the outward edge of the surrounding mound about 
 
 240 feet. Not far 
 
 ~^- -^ — from this circle, and 
 
 close to the bridge of 
 Brogar, stands a single 
 monolith 18 feet in 
 height, which is the 
 finest and highest 
 stone of the group ; 
 and in another direc- 
 tion a lesser one, 
 with a hole through 
 it. Though only 8 
 feet high, 3 feet 
 broad, and 9 inches 
 thick, this stone has 
 become more famous 
 than the others, from 
 the use Sir Walter Scott makes of it in the 'Pirate,' and 
 because, till a very recent period, an oath taken with hands 
 joined through the hole in the Stone of Woden, was considered 
 even by the courts in Orkney as more than usually solemn and 
 binding. 1 
 
 Xo excavations, so far as I know, have been attempted in the 
 circle of Stennis, but its ruined dolmen is probably sufficient to 
 attest its sepulchral character. Some attempts at exploration were 
 made in the larger Eing at Brogar, but without success. This is 
 hardly to be wondered at, for a man must feel very sure where to 
 look, who expects to find a small deposit in an area of two acres. 
 The diggings are understood to have been made in the centre. 
 There, however, the ground looks very like the undisturbed surface 
 of the original moor, and as if it had never been levelled or used 
 either for interment or any other human purpose, and slopes 
 away irregularly some 6 feet towards the loch. My impression is 
 that the deposits, if any exist, will be found near the outer circum- 
 
 84. Circle at Stennis. From Lieutenant Thomas's plan. 
 
 1 Axchseologia,' xxxiv. p. 89. 
 
Chap. VI. ORKNEY BARROWS. 243 
 
 ference of the circle, either at the foot of the stones as at Crichie, 
 or outside the ditch as at Hakpen or Stonehenge. In the 
 smaller circles the diameter of which does not exceed 100 feet, 
 the deposit seems either to have been in the centre ; or, if at the 
 sides, the stones were so arranged as to mark its place. In the 
 larger, or 100-metre circles, we have not yet ascertained where to 
 look. Accident may some day reveal the proper spot, but till it 
 is ascertained either scientifically or fortuitously, no argument can 
 be based on the negative evidence which our ignorance affords. 
 
 In the neighbourhood of these stone circles are several bowl- 
 shaped barrows similar to those in the neighbourhood of Stone- 
 henge, not only externally but internally. When opened they 
 were almost all found to contain interments by cremation and 
 rude half-burnt pottery. It is not here, however, that these barrows 
 are found in the greatest numbers. In the neighbouring parish of 
 Sandwick they exist in hundreds, and scattered exactly as on the 
 Wiltshire downs, here and there, singly or in pairs, without any 
 apparent arrangement or grouping. It is said that there are at 
 least 2000 of these mole-hill barrows in the islands. 1 Here, as 
 there, it would seem, that where a man lived and died there he 
 was buried, without any reference to anything existing, or that 
 had existed. None of these barrows have stone circles of any 
 sort attached to them. Indeed, the only rude stone monuments 
 in Orkney of the class we are discussing are those just described, 
 and they are all confined to one remote inhospitable-looking 
 spot. Close to these, however, Lieutenant Thomas enumerates 
 six or seven conoid barrows, whose form and contents are of a 
 very different nature. The bodies in them had been buried entire 
 without cremation, and with their remains were found silver 
 torques and other ornaments, similar as far as can be made out — 
 none are engraved — to those found in Skail Bay, along with coins 
 of Athelstane, 925, and of the Caliphs of Bagdad, of dates from 
 887 to 945. 2 That these conoid graves here, as well as others 
 found in the islands, are of Scandinavian origin, can hardly be 
 doubted, and their juxta-position to the circles is at least sng- 
 
 1 ' Arehseologia,' xsxiv. p. 90. 
 
 2 The greater part of this find, -with 
 all the coins, is in the Museum of the 
 
 Society of Antiquaries, Edinburgh. The 
 dates on the coins were kindly copied for 
 me by Mr. Stuart. 
 
 E 2 
 
214 SCOTLAND. Chap. VI. 
 
 gestive. If the circles were monuments of the Celts, whom 
 they despised, and in fact had even then exterminated, they would 
 hardly choose a burying-place so close to them. 
 
 The most important, however, of all the tumuli, not only in this 
 neighbourhood, but in the islands, is known as the' Maes-Howe. 
 It was opened in 1861, in the presence of a select party of 
 antiquaries from Edinburgh, who had hoped from its external 
 appearance to find it intact : in this, however, they were dis- 
 appointed. It would seem that men of the same race as those 
 who erected it, but who in the meanwhile had been converted 
 to Christianity, had apparently in the middle of the twelfth 
 century broken into this sepulchre of their Pagan forefathers, 
 and despoiled it of its contents. As some compensation for 
 this, they have written their names in very legible Kunes on 
 the walls of the tomb, and recorded, in short sentences, what 
 they knew and believed of its origin. 1 
 
 From these Runes we learn, in the first place, that the robbers 
 were Christian pilgrims on their way to the Holy Land — Iorsala 
 Farer — from which Professor Munch infers that they must have 
 formed part of the expedition organized for that purpose by Jarl 
 Eagnvald, 1152. Beyond this it is not possible to lay much stress 
 on what these Runes tell us. In the first place, because the 
 learned men to whom they have been submitted differ consider- 
 ably in their interpretation, 2 and the record, even in the best of 
 them, is indistinct. In one or two respects the evidence of the 
 inscriptions may be considered satisfactory. Their writers all seem 
 to have known so perfectly what the tomb was, and to whom it 
 belonged, that no one cared to record, except in the most poetic 
 fashion, what every one on the spot probably knew perfectly well. 
 At all events, there is no allusion in these inscriptions to any other 
 or earlier race. Every expression, whether intelligible or not, bears 
 a northern stamp. Lothbrok, Ingeborg, and all the other names 
 introduced are Scandinavian, and all the allusions have a Northern 
 twang. Though this is merely negative evidence, it certainly goes 
 
 1 ' Notice on the Runic Inscriptions discovered during Recent Excavations in the 
 Orkneys.' By James Farrer, M.F. 1862. - ' Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot.' v. p. 70. 
 
Chap. VI. DRAGON AND SERPENT-KNOT, MAES-HOWE. 
 
 245 
 
 Dragon in Maes-Howe. 
 
 some way to show that the robbers were aware that the Howe 
 was originally erected by people of their own race. If, however, 
 the direct evidence of these in- 
 scriptions is inconclusive, there is 
 one engraving on a pillar facing 
 the entrance which looks as if 
 it were original, both from its 
 position and character. It re- 
 presents a dragon (woodcut No. 
 85) of a peculiar Scandinavian 
 type. A similar one is found on 
 a stone attached to the tumulus 
 under which King Gorm was 
 buried, at Jellinge, in Den- 
 mark, in the middle of the tenth 
 century. Making allowance for 
 the difference in drawing, they are so like that they cannot 
 be very distinct in date. A third animal of this species is found 
 at Hunestadt, in Scania, 1 and dating about the year 1150, but 
 very different, and very much more 
 modern-looking than this one. Had 
 the Jerusalem pilgrims drawn this 
 dragon, it would probably have been 
 much more like the Hunestadt ex- 
 ample. On the other hand, if the one 
 at Maes-Howe is original, the age of 
 the tomb can hardly be half a cen- 
 tury distant from that of King Gorm's 
 Howe, which in other respects it very 
 much resembles. It is, however, very 
 unlikely that Christian pilgrims would 
 draw a dragon like this, and still less 
 that they would accompany it with a 
 Wurm, or Serpent-knot, like that found on the same pillar ; both 
 look like Pagan emblems, and seem to belong to the original 
 decorations of the tomb. 
 
 86. Wunn-Knot, Maes-Howe. 
 
 1 Olaus Wormms, ' Monumenta Danica,' p. 188, fig. 6. 
 
246 
 
 SCOTLAND. 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 Among the inscriptions in Maes-Howe is one which, from its 
 apparent insignificance, none of the interpreters have condescended 
 to notice. It will be observed on one of the loose stones lying- 
 in the foreground on woodcut No. 88, it consists of only four letters, 
 and reads either HIAI or IKIH, according as it is turned one 
 way or another. As it is impossible to make a recognisable word, 
 much less sense out of such a combination, it is no wonder it was 
 thrown aside ; but it is just because it is unintelligible that it 
 may turn out to be valuable as an index to the age of the monu- 
 ment. Nothing is more unlikely than that a Iorsala Farer would 
 
 ■ ' 
 
 WSmm 
 
 - ><"' - 
 
 87. Plan and Section of Maes-Howe. From Mr. Farrer's work. 
 
 have idly engraved these Eunes on a loose stone, but nothing more 
 likely than that a mason who hewed the stone and fitted it to 
 close the "loculus" exactly, would have put a mark upon it 
 to show that it belonged to the right-hand chamber in which 
 A or B was to be buried. The inscription is on the inner edge 
 of the stone, where it would be hid when the stone was in situ, 
 and most probably was engraved on the stone before it was 
 originally used to close the opening. 
 
 This, at least, is an explanation of its meaning better than any 
 other which has yet been suggested, and if it is the correct one, 
 
Chap. VI. 
 
 MAES-HOWE. 
 
 247 
 
 this inscription with the Dragon and the Wurm-knot are among 
 the original sculptures of the tomb ; and, if so, it will be difficult 
 to assign it to an earlier age than the tenth century, which, from 
 the circumstances to be mentioned hereafter, seems on the whole 
 the most probable date. 
 
 The architecture of the tumulus, though offering some indica- 
 tions of great value, hardly possesses any features sufficiently 
 marked to fix its date with certainty. Externally it is a trun- 
 cated cone (woodcut No. 87), about 92 feet in diameter, by 36 feet 
 in height, and is __ 
 
 surrounded at a 
 distance of about 
 90 feet by a ditch 
 40 feet wide, and 
 6 feet deep, out 
 of which the earth 
 seems to have 
 been taken which 
 was required to 
 form the mound. 
 Internally it con- 
 tains a chamber 
 slightly cru- 
 ciform in plan, 
 measuring 15 feet 
 4 inches, by 14 
 feet 10 inches, 
 and, when com- 
 plete, probably 
 17 feet in height. 
 
 On each of three sides of the chamber is a sepulchral loculus, 
 entered by a small opening 3 feet from the ground. The 
 largest of these, that on the right as you enter, is 7 feet by 4 feet 
 6 inches, and the central one 5 feet 6 inches by 4 feet 6 inches. 
 Each of these was closed by a single stone carefully squared, 
 so as to fit the opening. The passage leading into the central 
 chamber was 3 feet wide by 4 feet 6 inches in height, and 
 originally closed, apparently by a doorway at 2 feet '6 inches from 
 
 88. View of Chamber in Maes-Howe. From a drawing by Mr. Farrer. 
 
248 SCOTLAND. Chap. VI. 
 
 the chamber. Beyond this it is lined by two slabs 18 feet long, 
 reaching nearly to a recess, which seems arranged as if to receive 
 the real door which closed the sepulchre, probably a large stone. 
 Beyond this the passage still extends some 20 feet to the present 
 entrance, but is of very inferior class of masonry, and how much of 
 it is modern is not clear. 
 
 The first thing that strikes any one on examining this mound 
 is that it certainly is the lineal descendant of the great cairns on 
 the banks of the Boyne, but separated from them by a very long 
 interval of time. It is not easy to determine what interval must 
 have elapsed before the side chambers of those tombs merged into 
 the "loculi" of this, or how long it must have been before their 
 rude unhewn masses were refined into the perfectly well-fitted 
 masonry of this one. Some allowance must, however, be made 
 for the difference of material. The old red sandstone of the 
 Orkneys splitting easily into self-faced slabs, offers wonderful 
 facilities for its use, but still the way in which the angle- 
 buttresses of the chamber were fitted, and the cells finished, and 
 the great slabs line the entrance, all show a progress in masonic 
 science that must have required centuries, assuming, of course, 
 that they were built by the same people. But was this so ? So 
 far as we at present know, these islands, when conquered by 
 Harold Harfagar in 875, were inhabited by two races called Pape 
 and Peti. The former were generally assumed to have been 
 colonies of Irish missionaries and their followers, who settled 
 here after the conversion of the Picts by St. Columba in the 
 middle of the sixth century. The Peti, it is also generally 
 assumed, were the Pechts, or Picts. 1 It will not be easy to 
 ascertain now whether they were so or not, as, according to Bishop 
 Tulloch, they were so entirely exterminated by the Northmen, 
 that of their " posteritie there remained nocht." But if the Pape, 
 or Papas were Irish missionaries, they were Christians, and what- 
 ever else Maes-Howe may be, it certainly is not a place of Christian 
 burial. Nor is it Pictish. If it were, we certainly should find 
 something like it in Pictland proper ; but nothing that can be 
 at all compared with it is found in Fife or Forfar, or in any of 
 
 1 Barry's ' History of Orkney,' p. 399. See also ' Archseologia,' xxxiv. p. 89. 
 
Chap. Vf. 
 
 MAES-HOWE. 
 
 249 
 
 those countries which were occupied by the Picts in the days 
 of their greatness ; and it is most improbable that a people who 
 could not, or at least did not, erect any such sepulchre in the 
 fertile and populous lands which they occupied on the mainland, 
 would erect such a one as this on a comparatively barren and 
 sparsely inhabited island. On the other hand, there seems every 
 reason for believing that the 2000 little barrows above alluded to 
 are the graves of the Picts, or original inhabitants of the island 
 before they were exterminated by the Northmen. These barrows, 
 however, have absolutely no affinity with Maes-Howe. None of 
 them have chambers, none have circles of stone round them ; all 
 are curvilinear, and none, indeed, show anything to induce the 
 belief that in any length of time they would be developed into 
 such a sepulchre as that which we have been describing. It is in 
 fact the story of Stonehenge and its barrows over again. A race of 
 Giants superseding a nation of Pigmies with which they certainly 
 had no blood affinities, and erecting among their puny sepulchres 
 monuments dedicated, it may be, to similar purposes, but as little 
 like them in reality as the great cathedrals of the middle ages 
 are to the timber churches of the early Saxons. 
 
 Only one hypothesis seems to remain, which is that it is a tomb 
 of the northern men who conquered these islands in the ninth 
 century. This may seem a very prosaic descent from the primaeval 
 antiquity some are inclined to ascribe to these monuments, but it 
 certainly is not improbable ; in the first place, because we have 
 what seems undoubted testimony that Thorfin, one of the Jarls 
 (940 to 970 a.d.) " was buried on Konaldshay under a tumulus, 
 which was then known by the name of Haugagerdium, and is 
 perhaps the same as that we now call the How of Hoogsay," or 
 Hoxay. 1 I have not been able to ascertain whether this is literally 
 true or not, but have reason to believe that it was not in the 
 How of Hoxay that Thorfin was buried, but in a mound close 
 by. 2 The fact of his being buried in a Howe is, however, all that 
 
 1 Barry, 'History of the Orkneys,' 
 p. 124. 
 
 2 Mr. George Petrie has recently at 
 my request made some excavations in 
 these mounds, but the results have not 
 
 been conclusive. He is of opinion that 
 one of the mounds he explored may be 
 the grave of Thorfin, but it is too much 
 ruined to afford any certain indication. 
 
250 SCOTLAND. Chap. VI 
 
 is at present demanded. Another important barrow is mentioned 
 by Professor Munch, 1 known as Halfdan's Barrow, in Sandy, and. 
 raised by Torf Einar (925 to 936). So that we know of at least 
 two important barrows belonging to the Norwegian Jarls in the 
 tenth century, though only one has been identified with absolute 
 certainty. As before mentioned, it is quite certain that King Gorin 
 (died 950) and Thyra of Denmark were buried in tumuli in outward 
 appearance very similar to Maes-Howe. That of Queen Thyra has 
 alone been opened. It is a chamber tomb, similar to Maes-Howe, 
 except in this, that the chamber in Denmark is formed with logs 
 of wood, in the Orkneys with slabs of stone, but the difference is 
 easily accounted for. At Jellinge stone is rare, and the country 
 was covered with forests. At Stennis self-faced slabs of stone 
 were to be had for the lifting, and trees were unknown. The 
 consequence was, that workmen employed the best material avail- 
 able to carry out their purpose. Be that as it may, the tact that 
 kings of Denmark and Jarls of Orkney were buried in Howes in 
 the tenth century, takes away all a priori improbability from the 
 hypothesis that Maes-Howe may be a sepulchre of one of those 
 Northmen. 
 
 If this is so, our choice of an occupant lies within very narrow 
 limits. We cannot well go back beyond the time of Harold 
 Harfagar (876 to 920), who first really took possession of these 
 islands, as a dependency of Norway, and created Sigurd the elder 
 first Jarl of Orkney in 920. Nor can we descend below the age of 
 the second Sigurd, who became Earl in 996, as we know he was 
 converted by Olaus to Christianity, and was killed at Clontarf in 
 1014. 2 Within these seventy-six years that elapsed between 920 
 and 996 there is only one name that seems to meet all the exi- 
 gencies of the case, and in a manner that can hardly be accidental. 
 Havard "the happy," one of the sons of Thorfin, who was buried 
 at Hoxay, was slain at Stennis in 970. Havard had married Bagu- 
 hilda, the daughter of Eric Blodoxe, prince of Norway, aud widow 
 of his brother Arfin, but she, tired of her second husband, stirred 
 up one of his nephews against him, and a battle was fought at 
 
 1 ■ Mernoires des Ant. du Nurd.' iii. p. 236. 
 
 "■ These dates are taken from Barry, p. 1 12 it seqq., bui tiny seem undisputed, and 
 are found in all histories. 
 
Chap. VI. MAES-HOWE. 251 
 
 Stennis, on a spot, says Barry, " which, afterwards bore the name 
 of Havardztugar, from the event or the slaughter." x The same 
 story is repeated by Professor Wilson as follows, " Olaf Tryguesson, 
 says Havard, was then at Steinsnes in Eossey. There was meeting 
 and battle about Havard, and it was not long before the Jarl 
 fell. The place is now called Havardsteiger. So it was called, 
 and so M. Petrie writes me, it is still called by the peasantry to 
 the present day." 2 Professor Munch, of Christiania, who visited 
 the place in 1849, arrived at the conclusion "that most of the 
 grave mounds grouped around the Brogar circle are, probably, 
 memorials of this battle, and perhaps one of the larger that of 
 Havard Earl." 3 In this I have no doubt he is right, but that 
 larger one I take to be Maes-Howe, which is in sight of the circle, 
 though not so close to it as those he was speaking of. 
 
 One circumstance which at first sight renders this view of the 
 case more than probable is, that Maes-Howe is, so far as we at 
 present know, unique. Thorfin's grave, when found, may be a 
 chambered tumulus, so may Halfdan's Barrow, when opened, but no 
 others are known in Orkney. If it had been the tomb of a king or 
 chief of any native dynasty, similar sepulchres must have been as 
 numerous as they were on the banks of the Boyne or Blackwater. 
 There must have been a succession of them, some of greater, some 
 of less magnificence. Nothing of the sort, however, occurs, and till 
 more are found, the Stennis group cannot be ascribed to a dynasty 
 that lasted longer than the seventy-six years just quoted. That 
 brief dynasty must also have been the most splendid and the most 
 powerful of all that reigned in these islands, as no tomb there 
 approaches Maes-Howe in magnificence. If such a description 
 suits any other race than that of the Norwegian Jarls, I do not 
 know wliere to look for an account of it. 
 
 Assuming for the present that this is so, we naturally turn to 
 the Bunic inscriptions on the walls of the tomb to see how far they 
 confirm or refute this view. Unfortunately there is nothing in 
 them very distinct either one way or the other. The only recog- 
 nizable names are those of Lothbrok and Ingiborg. The former, 
 
 1 ' History of Orkney.' p. 125. 
 
 2 ' Pre-Historic Annals of Scotland,' p. 112. ' Archseologia,' xxxiv. p. 89. 
 
 3 ' Me'moires rles Antiqnaires chi Nord,' iii. p. 250. 
 
252 SCOTLAND. Chap. VI. 
 
 if the Lotlibrok of Northumbrian notoriety, is too early ; the Ingi- 
 borg, if the wife of Sigurd the Second, is too late, though, as the 
 first Christian countess of Orkney, her name may have got mixed 
 up in some way with the tomb of the last Pagan Jarl. But should 
 we expect to find any sober record of the date and purposes of 
 the Howe in any of the scribblings on the walls ? The English 
 barbarians who write their names and rhymes on the walls of the 
 tombs around Delhi and Agra do not say this is the tomb of 
 Humayoou, or Akbar, or of Etimad Doulah, or Seyed Ahmed. 
 They write some doggerel about Titnour the Tartar, or the Great 
 Mogul, or some wretched jokes about their own people. The 
 same feeling seems to have guided the Christian Northmen in 
 their treatment of the tomb of their Pagan predecessor, and 
 though, consequently, we find nothing that can fairly be quoted 
 as confirming the view that it is the tomb of Havard, there is 
 nothing that can be assumed as contradicting it. 
 
 One inscription may, however, be considered as throwing some 
 light on the subject. In XIX. XX. it is related, though in words 
 so differently translated by the various experts to whom it was 
 submitted, that it is difficult to quote them, that "much fee was 
 found in the Orkhow, aDd that this treasure was buried to the 
 north west," adding, " happy is he who may discover this great 
 wealth." 1 A few years ago a great treasure was found to the 
 north-west of Maes-Howe, in Skail Bay, just in such a position as a 
 pirate on his way to the Holy Land would hide it, in the hope, on 
 his return, to dig it up and take it home ; but shipwreck or fever 
 may have prevented his doing this. With this treasure were 
 found, as mentioned above, coins of Athelstane of the date of 925, 
 and of the Caliphs of Bagdad, extending to 945, just such dates as 
 we should expect in a tomb of 970, recent, but not the most recent 
 coins. Connecting these with the silver torques found in the conoid 
 barrows around the Ring of Brogar, we seem to have exactly such 
 a group of monuments as the histories above quoted would lead 
 us to expect, and which with their contents belong almost cer- 
 tainly to the age above assigned to them. 
 
 Had Maes-Howe been an old sepulchre of an earlier race, when 
 
 1 Fairer. ' Inscriptions in the Orkneys,' \\ 37. 
 
Chap. VI. MAES-HOWE. 253 
 
 the Northmen ravaged the western islands in the early part of the 
 ninth century, it is most improbable that they would have 
 neglected to break into the "Orkhow." The treasures which 
 Amlaff and his Danes found in the mounds on the banks of the 
 Boyne would certainly have stimulated these explorers to see what 
 was contained in the Orcadian tumulus. Had they done this, the 
 Jerusalem pilgrims would not, three centuries later, have been able 
 to record that "much fee" was found in the tomb, and was buried 
 to the north-west, apparently in Skail Bay. The whole evidence of 
 the inscriptions, in so far as it goes, tends to prove that the tomb 
 was intact when broken into in the twelfth century. If this is so, 
 nothing is so unlikely as that it could have remained unrifled if 
 existing before the year 861, as a Celtic sepulchre. On the other 
 hand, nothing seems more probable than that Christian Northmen 
 would have plundered the grave of one of their Pagan ancestors, 
 whom they knew had been buried " with much fee " in this tumulus 
 two centuries before their time. Two hundred years, it must be 
 recollected, is a very long time among an illiterate people. Along 
 time, indeed, among ourselves, with all our literary aids ; and when 
 we add to this the change of religion that had taken place among 
 the Northmen in the interval, we need not be surprised at any 
 amount of ignorance of history or contempt for the customs of their 
 Pagan forefathers on the part of the Jerusalem pilgrims. The 
 time, at all events, was sufficiently long fully to justify Christian 
 robbers in helping themselves to the treasures of their Pagan 
 forefathers. 
 
 Even assuming, however, that Maes-Howe is the tomb of Havard, 
 or of some other of the Pagan Norwegian Jarls of Orkney, the 
 question still remains whether it has any, and, if any, what con- 
 nexion with the two circles in the immediate neighbourhood? 1 
 
 1 A few years ago such a question I long ceased to be a mere popular error, 
 
 would have been considered answered ! It is, moreover," he adds, " a cumulative 
 
 as soon as stated ; but, as Daniel "Wilson I error ; Pennant, Chambers, Barry, Mac 
 
 writes in a despairing passage^ in his In- Cullocb, Scott, Hibbert, and a host of 
 
 traduction,* "This theory of the Danish other writers might be quoted to show 
 
 origin of nearly all our native arts, ! that theory, like a snow-ball, gathers as 
 
 though adopted without investigation, it rolls, taking up indiscriminately wiiat- 
 
 and fostered in defiance of evidence, has I ever chances to be in its erratic course." 
 
 * ' Pre-Historic Annals of Scotland,' p. xv. 
 
254 
 
 SCOTLAND. 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 Loyally, the Howe and the circles certainly form one group. 
 No such tumuli, and no such circles exist in other parts of 
 the islands, and the spot is so inhospitable, so far from any 
 of the centres of population in the island, that it is difficult 
 to conceive why it should have been chosen, unless from the 
 accident of being the scene of some important events. If 
 Havard was slain here, which there seems no reason for doubting, 
 nothing seems more probable than that one of his surviving 
 brothers, Liotr or Laudver, should have erected a tumulus over 
 his grave, meaning it also to be a sepulchre for themselves. 
 On the other hand, it is extremely unlikely that the six or 
 seven other tumuli which are admitted to be of Scandinavian 
 origin should have gathered round the Eing of Brogar if it had 
 been a Pagan fane of the despised Celts, who preceded them in 
 the possession of the island. It cannot be necessary here to go 
 over the questions again, whether a few widely spaced stones stuck 
 up around a circle one hundred metres in diameter was or was not 
 a temple. It is just such a monument as 1000 victorious soldiers 
 could set up in a week. It is such as the inhabitants of the district 
 could not set up in years, and would not attempt, because, when 
 done, it would have been absolutely useless to them for any purpose 
 either civil or religious ; and if it is not, as before said, a ring in 
 which those who fell in battle were buried, I know not what it is. 
 The chiefs, in this case, would be buried in the conoid barrows 
 close around, the Jarl in the neighbouring howe. 
 
 As Stennis is mentioned in the Sagas that give an account of 
 Havard's death, it probably existed there, and was called by the 
 simple Scandinavian name which the Northmen gave to all this 
 class of stone monuments. None, so far as I know, have retained 
 a Celtic denomination. Assuming it to be earlier, it still can 
 hardly be carried back beyond the year 800. The earliest date of 
 
 In spite of his indignation, however, I 
 .suspect it will be found to have gathered 
 such force, that it will be found very 
 difficult to discredit it. Since, too, Alex- 
 ander Bertraud made his onslaught on 
 the theory, that the Celts had anything 
 to do with the megalithic monuments, 
 the ground is fast being cut away from 
 
 under their feet ; and though the proofs 
 are still far from complete, yet according 
 to present aprjearances the Celts must 
 resign their claims to any of the stone 
 circles certainly, and to most of the other 
 stone monuments we are acquainted with, 
 if not to all. 
 
Chap. VI. 
 
 HOLED STONE OF STENNIS. 
 
 255 
 
 the appearance of the Northmen in modern times is in the year 
 793 in the 'Irish Annals,' where mention is made of a "vastatio 
 omnium insularum a Grentibus. 1 In 802, and again in 818, they 
 harried Iona, 2 and from that time forward seem constantly to 
 have conducted piratical expeditions along these coasts, until 
 they ended by formally occupying the Orkneys under Harold 
 Harfagar. Though smaller in diameter, Stennis has a grander 
 and a more ancient look than Brogar, and may even be a century 
 or two older, and be a monument of some chief who fell here in 
 some earlier fight. That it is sepulchral can hardly be a matter 
 of doubt from the dolmen inside its ring. 
 
 Connected with the circle at Stennis is the holed stone 3 alluded 
 to above, which seems to be a most distinct and positive testimony 
 to the nationality of this group of monuments. 
 
 It is quite certain that the oath to Woden or Odin was sworn by 
 persons joining their hands through the hole in this ring stone, and 
 that an oath so taken, although by Christians, was deemed solemn 
 and binding. This ceremony was held so very sacred in those 
 times, that the person who dared to break the engagement made 
 there was accounted infamous and excluded from society. 4 
 Principal Gordon, in his 'Journey to the Orkney Islands' in 
 1781, relates the following anecdote: — "The young man was 
 called before the session, and the elders were particularly severe. 
 Being asked by the minister the cause of so much severity, they 
 answered, ' You do not know what a bad man this is ; he has 
 broken the promise of Odin,' and further explained that the con- 
 tracting parties had joined hands through the hole in the stone." 5 
 
 Such a dedication of a stone to Woden seems impossible after 
 their conversion of the Northmen to Christianity about the year 
 1000, and most improbable if the monument was of Celtic origin, 
 and existed before the conquest of the country 123 years earlier. 
 If the Northmen had not hated and despised their predecessors 
 they would never have exterminated them ; but while engaged 
 in this work is it likely they would have adopted one of their 
 
 1 'Amiales Iunisfal.' in O'Connor. 
 ' Rerum. Hib. Scrip.' ii. p. 24. ; An- 
 nates Ulton.' Ibid. iv. p. 117. 
 
 2 Duke of Argyll's ' Iona,' p. 100. 
 
 3 On the left of the view in the 
 Frontispiece. 
 
 4 ' Arehffiologia Scot.' iii. p. 119. 
 
 5 ' Arckasologia,' xxxiv, p. 113. 
 
256 SCOTLAND. Chap. VI. 
 
 monuments as especially sacred, and followed up one of their 
 customs, supposing this to have been one, though there is abso- 
 lutely no proof in a holed stone being used in any Celtic cemetery 
 for any such purpose? The only solution seems to be that the 
 monument, with this accompaniment, was erected between the 
 conquest of the country and the conversion of the conquerors, and, 
 like many ancient rites, remained unchanged through ages, not as 
 adopted from the conquered races, but because their forefathers 
 had practised it from time immemorial in their native land. On 
 any other hypothesis it seems impossible that so purely Pagan a 
 rite could have survived through eight centuries of Christianity, 
 and still be considered sacred by those whose ancestors had wor- 
 shipped Wodin in the old times many centuries before these stones 
 were erected in the islands. 
 
 All this seems so clear and consistent, that it may be assumed 
 that this group of monuments were erected between the year 800 
 and 1000 a.d., till, at least, some argument is brought forward 
 leading to a certain conclusion. At present I know of only one 
 which tends to make me pause : it is a curious one, and arises 
 from the wonderful similarity that exists between this and some 
 of the greater English groups. Take, for instance, Stanton 
 Drew (ante, p. 149). It consists of a great circle 340 feet in 
 diameter, the same as the Ring of Brogar, and of a smaller circle 
 within three feet of the dimensions of that of Stennis (101 against 
 104), both the latter possess a dolmen, not in the centre, but on its 
 edge, the only essential difference being that the great ring at 
 Stanton had twenty -four stones, and the smaller one eight, as 
 against sixty and twelve in the northern example ; this, however, 
 may arise from the one being in a locality so much more stony 
 than the other, and it must be confessed the Stanton stones look 
 older, but this also may arise from the different nature of the 
 rocks from which they were taken. 
 
 The Ring of Bookan answers to the circle in the orchard ; the 
 Watch or King Stone at Stennis to Hautville's Quoit. Even the 
 names are the same, "ton" and "ness" being merely descriptive 
 of the townland, and the long slip of land on which they are 
 respectively situated, and Maes-Knoll looks down on the one, and 
 Maes-How e into the other. The only thing wanted is a ring stone in 
 
Chap. VI. STENNIS. 257 
 
 the Somersetshire example, but that might easily have disappeared, 
 and there is one at Avebury. Some of these coincidences may, of 
 course, be accidental, but they are too numerous and too exact to 
 be wholly so. If at all admitted, they seem to force us to one of 
 two conclusions : either the time which elapsed between the ages 
 of the two monuments is less than the previous reasoning would 
 lead us to suppose, or the persistence in these forms, when once 
 adopted, was greater than, on other grounds, it seems reasonable 
 to expect. Three or four centuries seem a long time to have 
 elapsed between buildings, the style of which is so nearly identical. 
 If, however, their dates are to be brought nearer to one another, it 
 seems much more reasonable to bring Stanton Drew down, than 
 to carry Stennis back. It is much more consistent with what we 
 know, to believe that Stanton Drew was erected by Hubba and 
 his Danes, than that the Orkney circles and Maes-Howe could have 
 been the work of the wretched Pape and Peti, who inhabited the 
 island before the invasion of the Northmen. 
 
 As this is the last of the great groups containing first-class 
 circles, which we shall have to deal with in the following pages, it 
 may be well to try and sum up, in as few words as possible, the 
 points of the evidence from which we arrive at the conclusion that 
 it may be of the date above assigned to it : — 
 
 1. History is absolutely silent either for or against this theory. 
 In so far as the litem scripta is concerned, it may either have been 
 erected by the Phoenicians or in the time of the Stuarts. 
 
 2. The Danish theory is of no avail. No flint, bone, or bronze 
 or iron implements have been found in a position to throw any 
 light on its age. 
 
 3. There are in the islands some thousands of small mole-hill 
 barrows — insignificant, stoneless, unadorned. 
 
 4. All parts of the Stennis group show design and- power, and 
 produce an effect of magnificence. 
 
 5. It seems evident that the circles and the barrows belong to 
 two different peoples. 
 
 6. If so, the barrows belong to the Peti and Pape ; the large 
 howes and the stone monuments to the Northmen. 
 
 7. If this is so, the latter belong to the two centuries comprised 
 between 800 and 1000 a.d. 
 
 s 
 
258 SCOTLAND. Chap. VI. 
 
 8. Maes-Howe, being unique, must have belonged to the shortest, 
 but most magnificent dynasty in the Island. 
 
 9. With regard to Havard. He was killed on, or close to the 
 spot where Maes-Howe now stands. 
 
 10. His father, Thorfin, was buried in a howe in Eonaldshay. 
 His contemporary, Gorm, was buried in a howe at Jellinge. 
 
 11. A dragon and serpent were carved in Grorrn's tomb. Similar 
 representations were found in Maes-Howe. 
 
 12. The four Eunic letters on the closing stone of the right- 
 hand loculus, date probably from its first erection. 
 
 13. All the subsequent inscriptions on the tomb acknowledge 
 it as a Scandinavian monument. 
 
 14. The mention of treasure being found in it in 1152 goes far 
 to show that it did not exist in 861, or it would then have been 
 robbed by the Northmen, as the Irish tombs were. 
 
 15. It is extremely probable that the Skail Bay " find " is part 
 of this treasure, which is not earlier than 915, and may be twenty 
 or forty years later. 
 
 16. The torques found in the six large tumuli at Brogar belong 
 to the same age. 
 
 17. The Holed Stone at Stennis was certainly set up by North- 
 men and by them dedicated to Woden, and it certainly forms part 
 of the group. 
 
 18. The name Havard's Steigr, attaching to the place at the 
 present day, is important. 
 
 Against this, I know of only one argument : Omne ignotum pro 
 antiquo ; which, for reasons, given above, I reject. 
 
 If such a case were submitted to anyone, regarding a monument 
 of which we had never heard before, no one would probably hesitate 
 in considering the case as proved, till, at least, something more to 
 the point could be brought forward on the other side. Such, how- 
 ever, is the effect of education, and so strong the impression on the 
 minds of most Englishmen with regard to Phoenicians and Druids, 
 that nine people out of ten will probably reject it ; some alleging 
 that it must be an unfair, others that it is an inconclusive statement. 
 Let them try and state their view in as few words, and I do not 
 believe it will be difficult to judge between the two cases. 
 
Chap. VI. 
 
 CALLEENISH. 
 
 259 
 
 Callernish. 
 
 The next in importance after those of Stennis among the 
 Scottish group of circles is that at Callernish, in the Isle of Lewis. 
 They are situated at the inner end of Loch Roag, on the western 
 coast of the island, and consequently more remote from the routes 
 of traffic or the centres of Pictish or Celtic civilization than even 
 the Orcadian groups. The country, too, in their neighbourhood is 
 of the wildest and most barren description, and never could have 
 been more densely inhabited than now, which is by a sparse popu- 
 lation totally unequal to such monuments as these. 
 
 The group consists of three or four circles, situated near to 
 one another, at the head of the bay. They are of the ordinary 
 form, 60 to 100 feet in diameter, and consequently not remarkable 
 for their dimensions, nor are they for the size of the stones 
 of which they are composed. One of them, which had been 
 covered up with peat-moss, was excavated some years ago, and 
 a number of holes were found, filled, it is said, with charcoal 
 of wood; 1 but the account is by no means satisfactory. About 
 a mile to the westward of the three, on the northern shore of 
 Loch Roag, stands the principal monument. This consists of a 
 
 *» ^ 
 
 89. Monument at Callernish. From a plan by Sir Henry James. 
 
 circle 2 42 feet in diameter. In the centre of this is a tall stone, about 
 17 feet high, which forms the headstone of a grave of a somewhat 
 
 1 ' Proceedings Soc. Ant. of Scotland,' iii. p. 213. 
 
 2 These dimensions and the plan are taken from Sir Henry James's work on 
 ' Stonehenge, Tnruschan,' &c. 
 
 s 2 
 
260 SCOTLAND. Chap. VI. 
 
 cruciform plan ; but it is in fact only the tricameral arrangement 
 common in tumuli in Caithness and other parts of the north of 
 Scotland. 1 It apparently was covered originally by a little cairn 
 of its own ; but this had disappeared, and the tomb emptied of its 
 contents at some period anterior to the formation of the peat which 
 had accumulated round the stones, and which was removed a few 
 years ago by Sir James Matheson when this grave was first dis- 
 covered. From the central stone a double avenue extends 29-± feet, 
 and from the same point southward, a single row for 1]1 feet; 
 making the whole length of the avenues 408 feet ; while two 
 arms extend east and west, measuring 130 feet across the whole. 
 
 I believe it was John Stuart that first made the remark: — 
 " Remove the cairn from New Grange, and the pillars would form 
 another Callernish j" 2 and there seems little doubt but that this is 
 the true explanation of the peculiar form of the monument. Nor 
 is it difficult to see why this should be the case ; for it must be borne 
 in mind that the whole of the chambers and the access to them 
 must have been constructed, and probably stood, naked for some 
 time before they began to heap the cairn over them. Calliagh 
 Birra'stomb (woodcut No. 80), and the numerous " Grottes des fees " 
 we meet with in France and elsewhere I look on as chambers, some 
 of which it was intended should be buried in tumuli, which, how- 
 ever, never were erected : others, when men had become familiar 
 with the naked forms, were like many dolmens, never intended to 
 be hidden. It may be a mere fancy ; but I cannot escape from 
 an impression that, in many instances at least, the chambers 
 were constructed during their lifetime by kings or chiefs as their 
 own tombs, and that the cairn was not raised over them till the 
 bodies were deposited in their recesses. This, at least, is the case 
 in the East, where most of the great tombs were erected by those 
 who were to lie in them. During their lifetime they used them 
 as pleasure-houses, and only after their death were the entrances 
 walled up and the windows obscured, so as to produce the gloom 
 supposed to be appropriate to the residences of the dead. Another 
 point is worth observing. It seems most improbable that sculptures, 
 
 1 Anderson, on homed Tumuli in Caithness, ' Proc. Soc. Ant. of Scotland,' vi. p. 
 442 et seqq., and vii. p. 4S0 et seqq. 
 
 2 ; Sculptured Stones of Scotland,' ii. p. xxv. 
 
Chap. VI. CALLERNISH. 261 
 
 such as are found in the Irish and French chambered tumuli, could 
 have been executed by artificial light. Either the stones were 
 sculptured before being put into their places — which, to say the 
 least of it, is very unlikely ; or they were sculptured Avhile the light 
 could still penetrate through the interstices of the stones forming 
 the walls. In any case, however, the naked forms of these chambers 
 must have been perfectly familiar with those who used them ; and 
 there is no difficulty in understanding why, as at Carrowmore or 
 Callernish, they should have repeated the same forms which were 
 certainly never intended to be covered up. 
 
 From the occurrence of a similar form at Northern Moytura 
 (woodcut No. 59), used externally also, it may be argued that 
 this may be of the same age. The Irish example, as explained 
 above, is probably of the same age as the great chambered tumuli 
 of Meath ; but there seems to be a difference between the two, 
 which would indicate a very different state of affairs. 
 
 At Moytura, the covering stones, though thrown down, still exist, 
 and there is every appearance of direct imitation. At Callernish, 
 the size, the wide spacing, the pointed form of the stones, and the 
 whole structure exhibit so marked a difference from anything that 
 could be intended to be covered up, that it certainly appears as 
 if a long time had passed before the original use of the form could 
 have been so completely overlooked as it has been in this instance. 
 Everyone must determine for himself how many centuries he would 
 interpose between New G-range and Callernish. To me it appears 
 that an interval of very considerable duration must have elapsed 
 between them. 
 
 At Tormore, on the west coast of the Isle of Arran, there is a 
 third group of these monuments, more numerous, but not on so 
 large a scale as those of Stennis or Callernish. These were all 
 carefully examined by Dr. Bryce, of Glasgow, assisted by a party 
 of archaeologists, in 1864, and the results recorded in the ' Pro- 
 ceedings of the Scottish Antiquaries,' 1 and also in a small work on 
 the Geology of Arran. 2 All were found to contain sepulchral 
 remains, except one which had been rifled, but there the cist still 
 remained. The principal circle is now represented by only three 
 
 1 Vol. iv. p. 499. 2 Glasgow, 1865, p. 186 et seqq. 
 
262 SCOTLAND. Chap. VI. 
 
 upright stones, from 18 to 20 feet in height; but they originally 
 formed parts of a circle 60 feet in diameter. Two other circles 
 can be traced, and two kistvaens of considerable dimensions, and 
 two obelisks on the high ground, which apparently formed parts 
 either of circles or of some other groups of stones. 
 
 Though not so large as the other two groups named above, this 
 one at Tormore is interesting because it affords fair means of 
 testing whether these groups were cemeteries, or marked battle- 
 fields. Here the two principal circles are situated on a peat moss 
 which extends to some feet, at least, below the bottom of the 
 pillars, and the sepulchral deposits were found in the peat. Others 
 of these Tormore monuments are situated where the peat joins the 
 sandy soil, and others are situated on the summit of the sandy 
 hills, which here extend some way in from the shore. Now it seems 
 hardly probable that such a diversity of taste should have existed 
 in any line of princes. If the peat was chosen as a resting-place 
 for some, it probably would have been for all. If elevated sandy 
 hillocks were more eligible for that purpose, why should some 
 have chosen the bog ? and if a cemetery, why not all close together ? 
 They extend for about half a mile east and west at a distance of 
 about a mile from the shore, and on about as desolate a plain as 
 one could find anywhere. If a battle was fought here against some 
 enemy who had landed in the bay, and those who were killed in it 
 were interred where they fell, all the appearances would be easily 
 explained ; but it is difficult to guess who the chiefs or princes 
 could be who were buried here, if they had leisure to select their 
 last resting-place, or why they should have been buried in this 
 scrambling fashion. 
 
 There are the remains of two other circles and one obelisk in 
 Brodick Bay, on the other side of the island, but widely scattered, 
 and with nothing to indicate their purpose. There are also other 
 circles and detached standing stones in the Mull of Cantyre, up 
 to the Crinan Canal ; but the published maps of the Ordnance 
 Survey do not extend so far, and such accounts as have been pub- 
 lished are too vague to admit of any conclusions being drawn 
 from them either as to their age or uses. 
 
 The Aberdeenshire circles, above alluded to, differ in some 
 respects from those found in other parts of the country, and are 
 
Chap. VI. ABERDEENSHIRE CIRCLES. 263 
 
 thus described by Colonel Forbes Leslie, in a Paper read to trie 
 British Association this year : — " The principal group of stones in 
 these circles always contains one stone, larger than the rest, which 
 in different monuments varies from 11 to 16 feet in length, and 
 from 2 to 6 in breadth. It is never placed upright; but close 
 at each end of this recumbent monolith stand two columnar 
 stones ; these vary in height from 7 to 10 feet, and have generally 
 been selected of a pyramidal form. From the face, and near the 
 ends of the recumbent stone, two stones project about 4 feet into 
 the circle, and the recess thus formed is occupied by a stone laid 
 flat on the ground. 
 
 " In several of these circles a raised platform, 5 or 6 feet 
 broad, and 18 or 24 inches high, can be traced. This has been 
 supported on the outer side by a low wall connecting the columnar 
 stones, which are disposed at equal distances on the circumference. 
 The inner side of the platform has been supported by stones little 
 more than its height, placed near each other. 
 
 " Circles of this sort are found at Aquhorties, Tyrebagger, 
 Balquhain, Kothiemay, Parkhouse, near Deer, Daviot, New Craig, 
 Dunadeer, &c, in Aberdeenshire. There is also a circle on the 
 " Candle Hill of Old Eayne," 1 within sight of which, on the slope 
 of a ridge about a mile distant, stood the two sculptured stones 
 now at Newton, — on one of which is the unique alphabetical 
 inscription ; and on the other a serpent, with the broken sceptre, 
 surmounted by the double disk, usually called the Spectacle 
 Ornament." 
 
 Their general arrangement will be understood from the 
 woodcut overleaf, representing one at Fiddes Hill, figured in 
 the fifth volume of ' Archceologia,' which may be taken as a 
 type of the rest. The sepulchral deposit here, is no doubt, in the 
 raised part, in front of the great stone, and not in the centre, — 
 a peculiarity we have already had occasion to remark upon in 
 the smaller circles at Stanton Drew and Stennis. This, however, 
 does not seem to have been always the case. The circle, for 
 instance, at Eayne, above alluded to, was excavated under the 
 
 1 In the ' Archseologia,' vol. xxii. pp. 200 and 202, are plans and views of six 
 Aberdeenshire circles, and two more are given in the same volume further on. 
 
264 
 
 SCOTLAND. 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 superintendence of Mr. Stuart, 1 and found to contain in its centre 
 a pit, in which were "a quantity of black mould, incinerated 
 bones, and some bits of charcoal. Fragments of small urns were 
 
 also found, and 
 all the usual 
 accompani- 
 ments of a se- 
 pulchral depo- 
 sit." In con- 
 cluding his ac- 
 count of it, Mr. 
 Stuart says : — 
 " It is worthy 
 of remark, that 
 on the 2nd of 
 May, 1349, Wil- 
 liam, Bishop of 
 Aberdeen, held 
 a court at 
 the Standing 
 Stones of 
 
 Eayne, at which the King's Justiciar was present " (' Eegst. 
 Episc. Aberd.' vol. i. p. 79, Spald. Club). Thus clearly proving 
 not only the sepulchral nature of the circles, but the use that 
 was subsequently made of them. 
 
 If we may connect these stones at Eayne with the Newton 
 stones, as Colonel Forbes Leslie is inclined to do, we obtain a 
 proof of a post-Christian date for this sepulchral circle, as well as 
 a mediaeval use; and though I have no doubt that all this is 
 correct, the mere juxtaposition of the sculptured stones and the 
 circle hardly seems sufficient to rely upon. 
 
 In the Appendix to the Preface of the first volume of the 
 ' Sculptured Stones,' Mr. Stuart records excavations made in some 
 fourteen circles, similar, or nearly so, to this one at Eayne ; and 
 in all sepulchral deposits, more or less distinct, were found. In 
 some, as in that of Crichie, before alluded to, a sepulchral deposit 
 was found at the foot of each of the six stones which surrounded 
 
 Circle at Fiddes Hill, 46 feet in diameter. 
 
 1 • Sculptured Stones of Scotland,' vol. i. p. xxi. 
 
Chap. VI. 
 
 FIDDES HILL. 
 
 265 
 
 it. Like many of our English circles, this last was surrounded by 
 a moat, in this instance 20 feet wide and 6 feet deep, crossed 
 by two entrances, as is Arbor Low and the Penrith circle, and 
 within the moat stood the stones. As a general rule, it may 
 be asserted that all the Scotch circles, having a diameter not 
 exceeding 100 feet, when scientifically explored, haye yielded 
 evidences of sepulchral uses. Such, certainly, is the result of 
 Mr. Stuart's experience, as detailed above ; of Dr. Bryce's, in 
 Arran ; of Mr. Dyce Nicol 1 and others, in Kincardine; and 
 elsewhere. Colonel Forbes Leslie informs me that he has not 
 been so fortunate in some of those he mentioned in his lecture, 
 which he either opened himself or learnt the details of on the 
 spot. Some of these he admits, however, had been opened before, 
 others disturbed by cultivation ; and altogether his experiences 
 seem to be exceptional, and far from conclusive. The prepond- 
 erance of evidence is so overwhelming on the one side, that we 
 may be perfectly content to wait the explanation of such excep- 
 tional cases as these. 
 
 The Aberdeenshire circles are all found scattered singly, or 
 at most in pairs, in remote and generally in barren parts of the 
 country ; so that it is evident they neither marked battle-fields 
 nor even cemeteries, but can only be regarded as the graves 
 of chiefs, or sometimes, it may be, family sepulchres. There 
 is one group, however, at Clava, about five miles east from 
 Inverness, which is of more than usual interest, but regarding 
 which the published accounts are neither so full nor so satisfactory 
 as could be wished.? 
 
 According to Mr. Innes, the ruins of eight or nine cairns can 
 
 1 In September, 1858, Mr. Dyce Mcol, 
 with a party of experienced archaeolo- 
 gists, excavated four circles situated in 
 a row, and extending for nearly a mile, 
 on the road from Aberdeen to Stone- 
 haven, and about l| mile from the sea. 
 The first and last had been disturbed 
 before, but the second, at King Caussie, 
 and the third, at Aquhorties, yielded 
 undoubted evidences of their sepulchral 
 origin. The conclusion these gentlemen 
 arrived at was, that "whatever other 
 purposes these circles may have served, 
 
 one use of them was as a place of burial." 
 ■ — Proceedings Soo. Ant. Scot. v. p. 131. 
 
 2 I regret much that I have been 
 unable to visit this place myself. It 
 was, however, carefully surveyed by 
 Captain Charles Wilson, when he was 
 attached to the Ordnance Survey at 
 Inverness. He also made detailed plans 
 and sketches of all the monuments, but, 
 unfortunately, sent them to the Ord- 
 nance Office at Southampton, and they 
 consequently are not accessible nor avail- 
 able for our present purposes. 
 
266 
 
 SCOTLAND. 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 
 
 m 
 
 still be distinguished, though the whole of the little valley or 
 depression in which they are situated seems strewn with blocks 
 which may have belonged to others, but which the advancing 
 tide of cultivation has swept away. The most perfect of those 
 now remaining are three at the western end of the valley, the 
 
 two outer and larger 
 cairns stand about 
 100 yards apart. They 
 are of stone, about 70 
 feet in diameter, sur- 
 rounded by a circle of 
 upright stones mea- 
 suring 100 feet across. 
 The intermediate one is smaller, being only 50 feet, with a circle 
 80 feet in diameter. 1 The two extreme ones have been opened, and 
 found to contain circular chambers about 12 feet in diameter, 
 and 9 in height, with passages leading to them about 15 feet 
 long and 2 feet wide ; and in two or three instances the stones in 
 them were adorned with cup-marking, though it does not appear 
 
 Plan of Clava Mounds. From Ordnance Survey. 
 25 inch scale. 
 
 92. View of Clava Mounds. From a drawing by Mr. lnnes. 
 
 that they were otherwise sculptured. 2 In that to the west two 
 sepulchral urns were found, just below the level of the original 
 soil. They were broken, however, in extracting them ; and they 
 do not appear to have been put together again or drawn, so that 
 no conclusions can be deduced from them as to the age of the 
 cairns. 
 
 Meagre as this information is, it is sufficient to show that Clava 
 
 1 These dimensions are taken partly 
 from the Ordnance Survey Sheet, 25-inch 
 scale, and partly from Mr. Innes's paper 
 
 in ' Proceedings Soc. Ant.' iii. p. 49 
 et seqq. 
 
 2 Ibid. Appendix, vi. pi. x. 
 
Chap. VI. 
 
 CLAVA MOUNDS. 
 
 267 
 
 does not mark a battle-field. Carefully-constructed chambers with 
 horizontally-vaulted roofs are not such monuments as soldiers 
 erect in haste over the graves of their fallen chiefs. It evidently 
 is a cemetery; and, with the knowledge we have acquired from 
 the examination of those in Ireland, there cannot be much hesi- 
 tation in ascribing it to that dynasty which was represented by 
 King Brude, when St. Columba, in the sixth century, visited him 
 in his " Munitio," on the banks of the Ness. 1 If King Brude were 
 really converted to Christianity by Columba, it is by no means 
 improbable that the small square enclosure at the west end of 
 the " heugh," which is still used as the burying-place of Pagan, 
 or at least unbaptized babies, marked the spot where he and 
 his successors were laid after the race had been weaned from 
 the more noble burial-rites of their forefathers. 
 
 It would be extremely interesting to follow out this inquiry 
 further, if the materials existed for so doing ; as few problems 
 are more perplexed, and at the same time, of their kind, more 
 important, than the origin of the Picts, and their relations with 
 the Irish and the Gaels. Language will not help us here: we 
 know too little of that spoken by the Picts ; but these monuments 
 certainly would, if any one would take the trouble to investigate 
 the question by 
 a careful com- 
 parison of all 
 those existing 
 in Scotland and 
 Ireland. 
 
 In the south 
 of Scotland, for 
 instance, we find 
 such a stone as 
 this at Coils- 
 field, on the 
 
 Ayr, 2 which, taking the difference of drawing into account, is 
 identical with that represented in woodcut No. 71. There is the 
 
 Stone at Coilsfield. 
 
 1 Eeeves, ' Adamnan. Vita St. Colurub.' p. 150. 
 
 2 Wilsons 'Prehistoric Annals,' p. 332. 
 
268 
 
 SCOTLAND. 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 same circle, the same uncertain, wavy line, and generally the same 
 character. Another was found at Annan-street, in Roxburghshire, 
 and is so similar in pattern and drawing that if placed in the 
 
 •'■ Front of Stone at Aberlemmo, with Cross. 
 
 chamber in the tumuli of New Grange, or Dowth, no one would 
 suspect that it was not in the place it was originally designed 
 
Chap. VI. 
 
 STONE AT ABERLEMMO. 
 
 ' 269 
 
 for. 1 But no sculptures of that class have yet, at least, been brought 
 to light in Pictland, or, in other words, north of the Forth, on the 
 east side of Scotland. 
 
 .JMSi 
 
 Back of Stone at Aberlemmo. 
 
 1 An amusing controversy regarding 
 the existence of this stone will be found 
 in the ' Proceedings Scot. Ant.' iv. p. 524 
 et seqq. It seems absolutely impossible 
 that any man, even under the inspiration 
 
 of some primordial whisky, to have drawn 
 by accident a sculpture so like what his 
 ancestors did fifteen centuries before his 
 time. 
 
270 SCOTLAND. Chap. VI. 
 
 The sculptured stones of the Picts are, however, quite sufficient 
 to prove a close affinity of race between the two peoples, but 
 always with a difference, which is evident on even a cursory 
 examination. To take one instance. There is a very beautiful 
 stone at Aberlemmo, near Brechin, which is said to have been put 
 up to record the victory gained over the Danes at Loncarty, in 
 the last years of the tenth century. 1 Be this as it may, there seems 
 no reason for doubting that it is a battle-stone, and does belong 
 to the century in which popular tradition places it. On the front 
 is a cross, but, like all in Scotland, without breaking the outline of 
 the stone, Avhich still retains a reminiscence of its Rude form. 
 In Ireland, the arms of the cross as invariably extend beyond the 
 line of the stone, like those at Iona, which are Irish, and these 
 are generally joined by a circular Glory. The ornaments on the 
 cross are the same in both countries, and generally consist of 
 that curious interlacing basket-work pattern so common also in 
 the MSS. of that age in both countries, but which exist nowhere 
 else, that I am aware of, except in Armenia. 2 The so-called 
 " key " ornament on the horizontal arms of the cross at Aber- 
 lemmo seems also of Eastern origin, as it is found in the Sarnath 
 Tope, near Benares, and elsewhere, but is common to both 
 countries ; as is also the dragon ornament on the side of the 
 cross, though this looks more like a Scandinavian ornament than 
 anything that can claim an origin further east. 
 
 Among the differences it may be remarked that the figure- 
 subjects on Irish crosses almost invariably refer to the scenes of 
 the Passion, or are taken from the Bible. On the Scotch stones, 
 they as constantly refer to battle or hunting incidents, or to what 
 may be considered as events in civil life. The essential difference, 
 however, is, that, with scarcely an exception, the Pictish stones 
 bear some of those emblems which have proved such a puzzle to 
 antiquaries. The so-called broken sceptre, the brooch, and the 
 altar, are seen in the Aberlemmo stone ; but in earlier examples 
 
 1 Gordon, ' Iter Septemtrionale,' p. 151. seen a series of photographs of Armenian 
 
 2 In my ' History of Architecture,' I churches, which leave no doubt in my 
 ii. p. 345, I ventured timidly to hint j mind that this similarity is not acci- 
 that this Armenian ornament would be j dental, but that the one country bor- 
 found identical with that in the Irish I rowed it from the other. 
 
 and Pictish crosses. Since then I have 
 
Chap. VI. SCULPTURED STONES. 271 
 
 they are far more important and infinitely various. 1 It may also 
 be worthy of remark that the only two real round towers out of 
 Ireland adorn the two Pictish capitals of Brechin and Abernethy. 
 All this points to a difference that can well make us understand 
 why St. Columba should have required an interpreter in speaking 
 to the Picts ; 2 but also to a resemblance that would lead us to 
 understand that the cemetery at Clava was the counterpart of 
 that on the banks of the Boyne, with the same relative degree 
 of magnificence as the Kings of Inverness bore to those of Tara ; 
 and if we do not find similar tumuli at Brechin or Abernethy, it 
 must be that the kings of these provinces — if there were any — 
 were converted to Christianity before they adopted this mode of 
 burial. It may be suggested that, as Maes-Howe is certainly the 
 lineal descendant of the monuments on the Boyne, it too must 
 be a Celtic or Pictish tomb. For the reasons, however, given 
 above, such a theory seems wholly untenable ; but thus much 
 may be granted, that such a tomb would probably not have been 
 erected, even by a Northman, in a country where there was not 
 an underlying Celtic or Pictish population. 
 
 Before leaving these sculptured stones, it may be as well to 
 point out one of those anomalies which meet us so frequently 
 in these enquiries, and show how little ordinary probabilities 
 suffice to guide to the true conclusion. Among the sculptured 
 stones of Scotland, one of the oldest is probably the Newton 
 stone. It has at least an Oghan inscription on its edge ; and 
 most antiquaries will admit that Oghan engravings on stone were 
 discontinued when alphabetic writing was introduced and gene- 
 rally understood. It also has an alphabetic inscription on its 
 face, but the letters are not Boman. They may be bad Greek, but 
 certainly they appear to be pre-Boman, and therefore probably the 
 earliest Scotch inscription known. There is another stone at Kirk- 
 liston, near Edinburgh, which has a Latin inscription on it. It is 
 a " cat " or battle-stone, and records the name of Yetta, the son of 
 Victis, in good Latin. Whether this Yetta is, or is not, the 
 grandfather of Hengist and Horsa, as Sir James Simpson con? 
 
 1 See Stuart's ' Sculptured Stones,' and Colonel Forbes Leslie's ' Early Eaces of 
 Scotland,' passim. 2 Reeves, ' Adamnan. Vita St. Columb.' pp. '65 and 145. 
 
272 
 
 SCOTLAND. 
 
 Chap. YI. 
 
 Cat Stone, Kirkliston. 
 
 tended, 1 is of no great consequence to our present argument. 
 It is of about their age, and therefore as old. as any of the other 
 
 stones in Scotland ; and there is 
 also a third at Yarrow, 2 with a later 
 inscription, which seems about the 
 same age as the Lothian example. 
 Now the curious part of this matter 
 is, that having begun with alpha- 
 betic writing, they entirely discon- 
 tinued it, and during the six or 
 seven centuries through which these 
 sculptured stones certainly extend, 
 it is the rarest possible thing to 
 find one with an alphabetic inscrip- 
 tion ; and why this should be so 
 is by no means clear. Take, for 
 instance, the Aberlemmo stone just 
 quoted. The people who erected it were Christians, — witness the 
 cross : the ornaments on it are almost identical with those found 
 in Irish MSS. of the seventh and eighth centuries. 3 It is thus 
 evident that the persons who drew these ornaments could write, 
 and being able to write and carve with such exquisite precision, 
 it seems strange they never thought of even putting the name 
 of the persons who erected the stone or some word expressive of 
 its purpose. The Irish probably would have done so ; and the 
 Scandinavians would have covered them with Runes, as they did 
 those they erected in the Isle of Man, though probably at a some- 
 what later date. In the instance of the two crosses illustrated in 
 the woodcuts, Nos. 97 and 98, the first bears an inscription to 
 the effect that " Sandulf the Swarthy erected this cross to his wife, 
 Arnbjorg." From their names, both evidently of Scandinavian 
 origin. The inscription on the side of the second runs thus : " Mai 
 Lumkun erected this cross to " his foster-father Malmor, or 
 Mai Muru." 4 Both names of undoubted Gaelic derivation, thus 
 
 1 ' Proceedings Soc. Ant. Scot.' iv. p. 
 119 et seqq. 
 
 2 Ibid. iv. p. 524. 
 
 3 Westwood, ' Facsimiles of Irish MSS.' 
 
 plates 4-2S. 
 
 4 These two woodcuts are borrowod 
 from Worsaae, ' The Danes and North- 
 men.' London, 1852. 
 
Chap. VI. 
 
 CROSSES IN ISLE OF MAN. 
 
 273 
 
 Cross in Isle of Man, bearing 
 Runic Inscription. 
 
 showing that at that age at least any ethnographic theory that 
 would give these stones exclusively to either race can hardly 
 be maintained. The two races seem 
 then to have followed the fashion 
 of the flay as they did in ruder 
 times. Except in the instance of the 
 St. Vigean's stone on which Sir James 
 Simpson read the name of Drosten, 1 
 ascribing it with very fair certainty 
 to the year 729 a.d., none of the 101 
 stones illustrated in the splendid 
 volumes of the Spalding Club con- 
 tains hardly a scrap of alphabetic 
 writing. Throughout they preferred 
 a strange sort of Heraldic symbolism, 
 which still defies the ingenuity of 
 our best antiquaries to interpret. It 
 was a very perverse course to pursue, but while men did so, 
 probably as late as Sueno's time, a.d. 1008, 1 it is needless to ask 
 why men set up rude stones to commemorate events or persons 
 when they could have carved or inscribed 
 them ; or why, in fact, as we would insist 
 on doing, they did not avail themselves 
 of all the resources of the art or the 
 learning which they possessed ? 
 
 The other rude-stone monuments of 
 Scotland are neither numerous nor im- 
 portant. Daniel Wilson enumerates some 
 half-dozen of dolmens as still existing in 
 the lowlands and in parts of Argyllshire, 
 but none of them are important from their 
 size, nor do they present any peculiarities 
 to distinguish them from those of Wales 
 or Ireland ; while no tradition has attached 
 itself to any of them in such a manner as to give a hint of their 
 age or purpose. Besides these, there are a number of single stones 
 
 Cross in Isle of Man, bearing 
 Runic Inscription. 
 
 ' Sculptured Stones of Scotland,' ii. p. 70. 
 
 2 Camden, ' Brit.' 12SS. 
 T 
 
274 SCOTLAND. Chap. VI. 
 
 scattered here and there over the country, but there is nothing 
 to indicate whether they are cat stones or mark boundaries, or 
 merely graves, so that to enumerate them would be as tedious as 
 it would be uninstructive. What little interest may attach to 
 them will be better appreciated when we have examined those 
 of Scandinavia and France, which are more numerous, as well as 
 more easily understood. When, too, we have mastered them in 
 so far as the materials available enable us to do, we shall be 
 able to appreciate the significance of much that has just been 
 enunciated. Meanwhile it may be as well to remark that what 
 we already seem to have gained is a knowledge that a circle- 
 building race came from the north, touching first at the Orkneys, 
 and, passing down through the Hebrides, divided themselves on 
 the north of Ireland — one branch settling on the west coast of 
 that island, the other landing in Cumberland, and penetrating 
 into England in a south-easterly direction. 
 
 In like manner we seem to have a dolmen-building race who 
 from the south first touched in Cornwall, and thence spread 
 northwards, settling on both sides of St. George's Channel, and 
 leaving traces of their existence on the south and both coasts of 
 Ireland, as well as in Wales and the west of England generally. 
 Whether these two opposite currents were or were not syn- 
 chronous is a question that must be determined hereafter. We 
 shall also be in a better position to ascertain what the races 
 were who thus spread themselves along our coasts, when we have 
 examined the only countries from which it is probable they 
 could have issued. 
 
Chap. VII. SCANDINAVIA AND NORTH GERMANY. 275 
 
 CHAPTEB VII. 
 
 SCANDINAVIA AND NORTH GERMANY. 
 
 Introductory. 
 
 So much has been said by the Danes and their admirers of the 
 services that they have rendered to the study of prehistoric 
 archaeology that it is rather disappointing to find that, when 
 looked into, almost less is known regarding their megalithic 
 monuments than regarding those of any other country in Europe. 
 No work has yet been published giving anything like a statistical 
 account of them, and no map exists showing their distribution. 
 What little information can be obtained regarding the Danish 
 dolmens, and other similar monuments, is scattered through so 
 many volumes of transactions and detached essays that it is 
 extremely difficult to arrive at any connected view of them — 
 almost, indeed, impossible for any one who is not locally familiar 
 with the provinces in which they are found. The truth seems 
 to be that the Danish antiquaries have been so busy in arranging 
 their microlithic treasures in glass cases that they have totally 
 neglected their larger monuments outside. They have thus 
 collected riches which no other nation possesses, and have con- 
 structed a very perfect grammar and vocabulary of the science. 
 But a grammar and a dictionary are neither a history nor a 
 philosophy ; and though their labours may eventually be most 
 useful to future enquirers, they are of very little use for our 
 present purposes. They have indeed up to this time been rather 
 prejudicial than otherwise, by leading people to believe that 
 when they can distinguish between a flint or bronze or iron 
 implement they know the alpha and omega of the science, and 
 that nothing further is required to determine the relative date 
 of any given monument. It is as if we were to adopt the simple 
 chemistry of the ancients, and divide all known substances into 
 
 t 2 
 
276 SCANDINAVIA AND NORTH GERMANY. Chap. VII. 
 
 earth, water, fire, and air : a division not only convenient but prac- 
 tically so true that there is very little to be said against it. It 
 is not, however, up to the mark of the knowledge of the day, and 
 omits to take notice of the fact that earths can occasionally be 
 converted into gases, and airs converted into liquids or solidified. 
 Instead of their simple system, what is now wanted is something 
 that will take into account the different races of mankind — some 
 progressive, some the reverse — and the different accidents of 
 success and prosperity, or disaster and poverty : the one leading 
 to the aggregation of detached communities into great centres, 
 and consequent progress ; the other leading to dispersion and 
 stagnation, if not retrocession, in the arts of life which tend 
 towards what we call civilization. At the International Congress 
 of Prehistoric Archaeology, held at Copenhagen in the autumn of 
 1869, it was understood that many of the best Northern anti- 
 quaries were inclined to abandon, to a very considerable extent, 
 the hard and fast lines of their first system, and to admit not 
 only that there may be considerable overlapping, but even, in some 
 instances, that its indications were not in accordance with the facts. 
 More than two years have elapsed since the Congress was held, 
 but the volume containing the account of its proceedings is not 
 yet published ; when it is, we may probably be in a position to 
 speak much more favourably not only of their views but of the 
 extent of their knowledge of the antiquities in question. 
 
 Under these circumstances, we may congratulate ourselves in 
 possessing such a work as that of Sjoborg. 1 He wrote, fortu- 
 nately, before the Danish system was invented, but, unfortunately, 
 before drawing and engraving had reached the precision and 
 clearness which now characterize them. In consequence of the 
 last defect, we cannot always feel sure of our ground in basing 
 an argument on his drawings ; but, generally speaking, he is so 
 honest, so free from system, that there is very little danger in 
 this respect. The work has also the merit of being as free from 
 the speculations about Druids and Serpents which disfigure the 
 contemporary works of English antiquaries, as it is from the three 
 ages of the Danes; though, on the other hand, he relegates all 
 
 1 ' F-'amlingar for Norders Fornalskare,' Stockholm, 1822-1830. 
 
Chap. VI L INTBODUCTOKY. 277 
 
 the dolmens and such like monuments to a prehistoric " Joter," 
 or giant race, who preceded, according to his views, Odin and his 
 true Scandinavians, to whom he ascribes all the truly historic 
 monuments. 
 
 In addition to the difficulties arising from the paucity of 
 information regarding the monuments, the Scandinavians have 
 not yet made up their minds with regard to their early chrono- 
 logy. Even the vast collections contained in the ponderous tomes 
 of Langebeck and Suhin x are far from sufficing for the purpose ; 
 and such authors as Saxo G-rammaticus 2 write with an easy 
 fluency too characteristic of our own Jeffrey of Monmouth, and 
 others who bury true history under such a mass of fables as 
 makes it extremely difficult to recover what we are really seeking 
 for. Patient industry, combined with judicious criticism, would, 
 no doubt, clear away most of the obscurities which now disfigure 
 this page of mediaeval history ; but, meanwhile, the Scandinavian 
 annals are as obscure as the Irish, and more uncertain than the 
 contemporary annals of England. 
 
 Of the history of Scandinavia anterior to the Christian era, 
 absolutely nothing is known. It is now no longer admissible to 
 believe in a historic Odin, whom all the mediaeval historians 
 represent as living in the first century B.C., and as the founder of 
 those families who play so important a part in the subsequent 
 histories of our own as well as of the whole group of Northern 
 nations. The modern school of Germans has discovered that 
 Odin was a god who lived in the sky in pre-Adamite times, and 
 never condescended to visit our sublunary sphere. It is now rank 
 heresy to assume that during the thousand years which elapsed 
 between his pretended date and that of our earliest MSS. the 
 wild imaginings of barbarous tribes may not have gathered round 
 the indistinct form of a national hero, transferred him back to a 
 mythic age, and endowed him with the attributes and surroundings 
 of a god. As the Germans have decreed this, it is in vain to 
 dispute it, and not worth while to attempt it here, as for our 
 present purposes it is of the least possible consequence. 
 
 Scriptores rerum Danicorum medii sevi,' 9 vols, folio, Hafnise, 1722 et seqq. 
 2 ' Historic Danicse,' lib. xvi. Sorse, 1644, in fol. 
 
278 SCANDINAVIA AND NORTH GERMANY. Chap. VII. 
 
 About the Christian era there is said to have been a king, 
 called Frode I., who, as he never was deified, may have had 
 a tomb on earth, and might, if that could be identified, be allowed 
 to head our list. Between him and Harald Harfagar, who, in 
 880, conquered Norway and came into distinct contact with British 
 history in the Orkneys, we have several lists of kings, more or 
 less complete, and with dates more or less certain. 1 That there 
 were kings in those days, no one will probably dispute, nor perhaps 
 is the succession of the names doubtful ; and if the dates err to 
 the extent of even fifty years or so, it is of little consequence 
 to our argument. The monuments extend so far down, and to 
 kings whose dates are so perfectly ascertained, that it is of no 
 importance whether the earlier ones are assigned to dates forty 
 or fifty years too early or too late. Their fixation may be left to 
 future research, as it has no direct beariug on the theory we are 
 now trying to investigate. 
 
 Battle-fields. 
 
 The chief of the Scandinavanian monuments, and the most 
 interesting for our present object, comprise those groups of stones 
 which mark battle-fields. Not only are their dates generally 
 known with sufficient precision to throw considerable light on the 
 
 1 The following list of the kings of Denmark, copied from Dunham's, and giving 
 the dates from Snhm, and Snorro's ' Heimskringla,' will probably suffice for our 
 present purposes : — 
 
 
 Subm. 
 
 Snorro. 
 
 
 Suhm. 
 
 Snovvo 
 
 
 A.D. 
 
 IIC. 
 
 
 A.D. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 Frode I 
 
 35 
 
 17 
 
 
 522 
 
 479 
 
 Fridlief . . 
 
 .. 47 
 
 — 
 
 Frode VII 
 
 548 
 
 
 
 .. 59 
 
 — 
 
 HalfdanUI 
 
 580 
 
 554 
 
 Frode II 
 
 .. 87 
 
 — 
 
 
 588 
 
 
 
 .. 140 
 
 — 
 
 
 647 
 
 587 
 
 Olaf 
 
 .. 190 
 
 — 
 
 Harald Hildetand 
 
 735 
 
 
 
 
 A.D. 
 
 Sigurd Ring 
 
 750 
 
 
 Dan Mykillate . . 
 
 .. 270 
 
 170 
 
 Rajnar Lothbrog 
 
 794 
 
 
 
 Frode III 
 
 .. 310 
 
 235? 
 
 Sigurd Snogoge 
 
 803 
 
 
 
 HalfdanI 
 
 .. 324 
 
 290 
 
 Herda Canute 
 
 850 
 
 
 
 Fridlieflll. 
 
 .. 348 
 
 300 
 
 Eric I 
 
 854 
 
 
 
 FroilelV 
 
 .. 407 
 
 370 
 
 Eric II 
 
 883 
 
 
 
 
 .. 136 
 
 386 
 
 Harald Harfagar 
 
 
 
 863 
 
 Hnlfdanll. 
 
 .. 447 
 
 >> 
 
 Gorm the Old (died ?) 
 
 941 
 
 — 
 
 Fode V 
 
 . . 4(30 
 
 , , 
 
 Harald Blatand 
 
 991 
 
 
 
 Helge and Roe . . 
 
 .. 494 
 
 43S 
 
 
 1014 
 
 
 
 Frode VI 
 
 .. 510 
 
 , , 
 
 
 
 
Chap. VII. 
 
 BATTLE-FIELDS. 
 
 279 
 
 question of the antiquity of such monuments in general, but they 
 also illustrate, if they do not determine, the use of many of the 
 groups of stones we meet with in other countries. Sjoborg devotes 
 ten plates in his first volume to these battle-fields, illustrating- 
 twice that number of battles which occurred between the fifth 
 and the twelfth centuries after Christ. 
 
 The first of these, at Kongsbacka, near the coast in Halland, 
 though of somewhat uncertain date, is worth quoting from its 
 similarity to the alignments on Dartmoor, Ashdown, Karnac, and 
 elsewhere, though, unfortunately, no plan or dimensions are given. 
 
 View of Battle-field at Kongsbacka. From Sjoborg. 
 
 On the hills beyond is a tumulus called the grave of Frocle, and 
 on the plain a conspicuous stone bears his name ; but whether 
 this was Frode Y. (460) or some other Frode is not clear. 
 Sjoborg assigns it to a date about 500, and there seems very 
 little reason to doubt he is at least approximatively correct. 1 
 
 The second battle-field illustrated is similar to the last, 
 except in the form of the stones, which seem to belong to a 
 different mineralogical formation. 2 They are plainly, however, seen 
 to be arranged in circles and lines, and are even more like forms 
 with which we are familiar elsewhere. It is said to represent 
 a battle-field in which the Swedish king Adil fought the Danish 
 Snio, and in which the latter with the chiefs Eskil and Alkil were 
 slain. As all these names are familiarly known in the mediaeval 
 history of these countries there can be no great difficulty in 
 ascribing this battle also to about the same age as that at 
 Kongsbacka. 
 
 ' Samlingar,' &c. i. plate 11, fig. 38, p. 101. 2 Loc. silp. cit., fig. 39. 
 
2S0 SCANDINAVIA AND NORTH GERMANY. Chap VII. 
 
 AVith the third we tread on surer ground. Xo event in the 
 history of these lands is better known than the fight on the Braa- 
 valla Heath, in Ostergothland, where the blind old king, Harakl 
 Hildetand, met his fate in the year 736, or 750 according to 
 others. As the Saga tells us, Odin had, when the king was young, 
 taught him a form of tactics which gave him a superiority in 
 battle over all his enemies : but the god having withdrawn his 
 favour from him, he fell before the prowess of his nephew, Sigurd 
 Eiug, to whom the god had communicated the secret of the 
 battle array. It does not appear to admit of donbt that the 
 circles shown in the cut in the opposite page were erected to com- 
 memorate this event, and that they contain the bodies of those 
 who were slain in this action ; and if this is so, it throws con- 
 siderable light on the battle-fields of Moytura, illustrated woodcuts 
 Noa 54 to 61. The circles on Braa valla are generally from 20 to 
 •10 feet in diameter, and consequently are, on the average, smaller 
 than those at Moytura ; they are also more numerous, unless we 
 adopt Petrie's suggestion, 1 that there must originally have been at 
 least two hundred in the Irish field ; and if so, it is the smaller 
 ones that would certainly be the first to be cleared away, so that 
 the similarity may originally have been greater than it now is — 
 so great, indeed, as to render it difficult to account for the fact 
 that two battle-fields should have been marked out in a manner so 
 similar when so long a time as seven centuries had elapsed between 
 them. As it does not appear possible that the date of the Braavalla 
 fight can be shifted to the extent of fifty years either way, are 
 we deceiving ourselves about Moytura ? Is it possible that it 
 represents some later descent of Scandinavian Yikings on the west 
 coast of Ireland, and that the cairn on Knocknarea — 
 
 " High and broad, 
 By the sailors over the waves 
 To be seen afar, 
 The beacon of the war renowned"- — 
 
 which they built up during ten days — is really the grave of some 
 Northern hero who fell in some subsequent fight at Carrow- 
 niore ? That all these are monuments of the same class, 
 and belong, if not to the same people, at least to peoples in close 
 
 1 Stokes. • Life of Petrie." p. 2 : Beowulf, loc. sup. eit. 
 
Chap. VII. 
 
 BATTLE-FIELDS. 
 
 281 
 
 ^■ii^ 
 
 i ! i Wl I I •■ 
 
 # 
 
 I 
 
 ~a-'4- 
 
 
 a ijfl 
 
 
 
 J 
 
282 
 
 SCANDINAVIA AND NORTH GERMANY. 
 
 Chap. VII. 
 
 contact with one another, and having similar faiths and feelings, 
 does not appear to admit of doubt. When, however, we come to 
 look more closely at them, there are peculiarities about them which 
 may account for even so great a lapse of time. The Braavalla 
 circles are smaller, and on the whole perhaps, we may assume, 
 degenerate. There are square and triangular graves, and other 
 forms, which, so far as we know, are comparatively modern in- 
 ventions, and, altogether, there are changes which may account 
 for that lapse of time ; but that more than seven centuries elapsed 
 between the two seems to be most improbable. 
 
 To return, however, to King Hildetand. According to the saga, 
 " After the battle the conqueror, Sigurd King, caused a search to 
 be made for the body of his uncle. The body when found was 
 washed and placed in the chariot in which Harald had fought, 
 and transported into the interior of a tumulus Avhich Sigurd 
 had caused to be raised. Harald's horse was then killed and 
 buried in the mound with the saddle of Ring, so that the king- 
 might at pleasure proceed to Walhalla either in his chariot or on 
 horseback. Ring then gave a great funeral feast, and invited all 
 the nobles and warriors present to throw into the mound great 
 rings and noble armour, in honour of the king Harald. They 
 then closed up the mound with care." 1 This mound still exists 
 
 Harald Hildetand's Tomb at Lethra. 2 
 
 at Lethra's Harald, capital in Seeland. It was mentioned by 
 Saxo Grammaticus in 1236, 3 and described and drawn by Olaus 
 Wormius in 1643 ; 4 and no one ever doubted its identity, till 
 recently the Museum authorities caused excavations to be 
 
 1 Engelhardt, ' Guide illustre du Muse'e 
 a Co}:>enhague,' p. 33. 
 
 • The woodcut is copied from a drawing 
 in Sjoborg, ii. fig. 214. It is repeated by 
 Worsaae, loc. sup. cit., both copying from 
 
 some original I have not cared to trace. 
 
 3 ' Historia Danica,' viii. p. 133. 
 
 4 ' Danicorum Monument.' libri sex, 
 i. p. 12. 
 
Chap. VII. 
 
 HAEALD HILDETAND'S TOMB. 
 
 283 
 
 made. Unfortunately some "wedges of flint" have been found 
 in the earth which was extracted from the chamber, from 
 which Worsaae and his brother antiquaries at once concluded 
 that " it is beyond all doubt merely a common cromlech of the 
 stone period" 1 — a conclusion that seems to me the reverse of 
 logical. No one, I presume, doubts that King Hilcletand was 
 buried in a tumulus with rings and arms; and if this tumulus 
 was regarded historically as his, for the last 600 years, and tradi- 
 tionally so from the time of his death, it is incumbent upon the 
 antiquaries to show how worthless these traditions and histories 
 are, and to point out where he really rests. To form an empirical 
 system and to assert— which they cannot prove — that no flint imple- 
 ments were used after a certain prehistoric date, and that conse- 
 quently all mounds in which flint implements are found are pre- 
 historic, seems most unreasonable, to say the least of it. It would 
 be surely far more philosophical to admit that flint may have been 
 used down to any time till we can find some reason for fixing a 
 date for its discontinuance. In this instance an " instantia crucis " 
 would be to dig into some of the circles at Braavalla, and see if 
 any flints are to be found there. No metal was found at Moytura, 
 though metal was, if history is to be depended upon, then com- 
 monly used, and flint implements were probably not found because 
 those who opened the tombs were not aware of its importance. 
 Pending this test, the form of the grave may give us some indica- 
 tion of its age. It is an oblong barrow, with an external dolmen 
 at one end, and with a row of ten stones on each side, the two end 
 ones being taller than the rest. A similar mound, known as the 
 Kennet long barrow, exists at Avebury, 2 so similar indeed that 
 if this tomb at Lethra is historical so certainly is the English 
 example. If, on the other hand, either can be proved to belong 
 
 1 ' Primaeval Antiquities of Denmark,' 
 p. 113. 
 
 2 At one time I was, on the authority 
 of a Saxon charter, inclined to believe 
 that this tumulus was the grave of Cissa, 
 Saxon king of Winchester, who was 
 contemporary with Arthur. I am now 
 informed by the Rev. Mr. Jones, who 
 has carefully gone into the matter, that 
 the Charter No. 1094, which is taken 
 
 from the ' Codex Winton.' fol. 54, refers 
 to Overton in Hants, and not to Overton 
 in Wilts, because Tadanliage (Tadley) is 
 mentioned as part of it. As I cannot 
 dispute the competency of so eminent an 
 authority on such a question, its identi- 
 fication with the tomb of King Cissa must 
 for the present be withdrawn, but it by 
 no means follows in consequence that it 
 may not be of his age. 
 
284 
 
 SCANDINAVIA AND NOETH GERMANY. 
 
 Chap. VII. 
 
 to the long forgotten past, the other must also be consigned to the 
 same unsatisfactory limbo. 
 
 The barrow at West Kennet was carefully explored in 1859 by 
 Dr. Thurnam, and the results of his investigation fully detailed 
 in a paper in the ' Archaeologia,' vol. xxxviii., from which the 
 following particulars are abstracted, together with some others 
 from a second paper, " On Long Barrows," by the same author, in 
 vol. xlii. of the same publication. 
 
 Externally it is a mound measuring 336 feet in length by 75 
 feet at its broadest part. Originally it was surrounded by what 
 is called a peristalith of tall stones, between which, it is said, a 
 walling of smaller stones can still be detected. On its summit, as 
 at Lethra, was an external dolmen over the principal chamber of 
 the tomb. The chamber was nearly square in form, measuring 
 8 feet by 9, and approached by a passage measuring 15 feet by 
 
 Long Barrow, Kennet, restored by Dr. Thurnam. ' Archajologia,' xlii. 
 
 3 feet 6 inches in width ; and its arrangement is in fact the same 
 as that of the Jersey tumulus (woodcut No. 11), and, as Sir John 
 Lubbock remarks, " very closely resembles that of a tumulus " 
 he had just been describing, of the Stone age, in the island of 
 Moen, " and, in fact, the plan of passage graves generally." 1 
 
 When opened, six original interments were found in the cham- 
 ber, under a stratum of black, sooty, greasy matter, 3 to 9 inches 
 in thickness, and which, Dr. Thurnam remarks, "could never have 
 been disturbed since the original formation of the deposit" (p. 
 413). Two of these had their skulls fractured during lifetime ; 
 the others were entire. To account for this, Dr. Thurnam takes 
 considerable pains to prove that slaves were sometimes sacri- 
 ficed at the funeral of their masters, but he fails to find any 
 instance in wdiich they were killed by breaking their heads ; and 
 
 ; Prehistoric Times,' p. 153. 
 
Chap. VII. LONG BARROWS. 285 
 
 if they were to serve their master in the next world, even a savage 
 would be shrewd enough to know that cracking his skull was not 
 the way to render him useful for service either in this world or 
 the next. No such mode of sacrifice was ever adopted, so far as I 
 know. 1 But supposing it was so, all the six burials in this tomb 
 seem to have been nearly equal, and equally honourable, and why, 
 therefore, all their skulls were not broken is not clear. If on the 
 other hand we assume that it is the grave of six persons who were 
 slain in battle, two by blows on the head, and four by wounds in the 
 body, this surely would be a simpler way of accounting for ,the facts 
 observed. Even, however, if we were to admit that these men 
 with the broken heads were sacrificed, this would by no means 
 prove the grave to be prehistoric. Quite the contrary, for we 
 know from the indisputable authority of a decree of Charlemagne 
 that human sacrifices were practised by the pagan Saxons as late, 
 certainly, as 789, 2 and were sufficiently frequent to constitute 
 one of the first crimes against which he fulminated his edicts. 
 The fact is that neither historians nor antiquaries seem quite to 
 realise the state of utter barbarism into which the greater part 
 of Europe was plunged between the collapse of the Eoman Empire 
 and the revival of order under Charlemagne. Christianity no 
 doubt had taken root in some favoured spots, and some bright 
 lights shone out of the general darkness, but over the greater part 
 of Europe pagan rites were still practised to such an extent as 
 easily to account for any heathen practice or any ancient form of 
 sepulture which may be found anywhere existing. 
 
 To return, however, to our long barrow. Under a piece 
 of Sarsen stone, but on the skull of one of the principal per- 
 sons interred here (No. 4), were found two pieces of black 
 pottery (fig. 8, page 415), which Dr. Thurnam admits may be 
 of the Koman age. Other fragments of the same vessel were 
 found in other parts of the tomb, and also fragments of pottery 
 (figs. 14 to 17), not British, but to which he hesitates to assign an 
 age. So far as I can judge, it seems just such pottery as the less 
 experienced British potters would form, on Eoman models, after 
 
 1 The slaves of the Scythian kings were I caverit et in hostiam more paganorum 
 strangled (Herodotus, iv. 71 and 72). dsenionibus obtnlerit, morte moriatur." — 
 
 2 " Si quis, hominem diabolo sacrifi- | Balusius, Capt. Beg. Franc, i. 253. 
 
286 
 
 SCANDINAVIA AND NORTH GERMANY. 
 
 Chap. VII. 
 
 the departure of that people. But this is immaterial ; for beyond 
 the chamber, and deeper consequently into the tumulus, were 
 found fragments of undoubted Roman pottery. So far, therefore, 
 everything favours the view that it was the sepulchre of persons 
 slain in battle, after the departure of the Romans; for we can 
 hardly believe that a battle would be fought, and such a tomb 
 raised over the slain, during their occupation ; and if so, as the 
 pottery proves it could not be before, a choice of a date is fixed 
 within very narrow limits. It may either have been in 450, 
 immediately after the departure of the Romans, or in 520, the 
 date of the battle of Badon Hill, which is the time at which, I 
 believe, it was reared. So far as the general argument is con- 
 cerned, it is of no consequence which date is chosen. Against 
 this conclusion we have to place the following facts. First, no 
 trace of iron or bronze, or of metal of any sort, was found in the 
 tomb. Secondly, at least 300 flint fragments were found in it. 
 Some of these were mere chippings, some cones, but many were 
 fairly formed flint implements (figs. 10 to 13), 1 not belonging to 
 the oldest type, but such as antiquaries are in the habit of 
 ascribing to the pre-metal Stone age. In addition to these, the 
 quantity of coarse native pottery was very remarkable. No whole 
 vessels were found, but broken fragments that would form fifty 
 vessels were heaped in a corner; and there were corresponding 
 fragments in another corner. Dr. Thurnam tries to explain this 
 by referring to the passage in the grave scene in ' Hamlet,' where 
 our great dramatist speaks of " shards, flints, and pebbles," which 
 should be thrown into the graves of suicides ; the use of which, he 
 adds, " in mediaeval times may be a relic of paganism." It does 
 not, however, seem to occur to him that, if such a custom was 
 known in the sixteenth century, it would be likely to have been 
 in full force in the sixth. It is strange enough that such a custom, 
 even if only referred to suicides, should have survived a thou- 
 sand years of such revolutions and changes of religion as England 
 was subjected to in those days; but that it should be known to 
 Christians, after 3000 or 4000 years' disuse, seems hardly possible. 
 
 1 The wood-blocks of these and other 
 illustrations of Dr. Thnrnam's paper were 
 lent to Sir John Lubbock, and used bv 
 
 him in his 'Prehistoric Times,' Nos. 146- 
 156, where they will be more accessible 
 to many than in the ' Archreologia.' 
 
Chap. VII. ' LONG BARROWS. 287 
 
 No argument, it appears to me, can be drawn from the different 
 kinds of pottery foimd in the tomb. If any one will take the 
 trouble of digging up the kitchen midden of a villa built within 
 the last ten years, in a previously uninhabited spot, he will pro- 
 bably find fragments of an exquisite porcelain vase which the 
 housemaid broke in dusting the drawing-room chimney-piece. 
 He will certainly find many fragments of the stoneware used in 
 the dining-room, and with them, probably, some of the coarser 
 ware used in the dairy, and mixed with these innumerable 
 "shards" of the flower-pots used in the conservatory. According 
 to the reasoning customary among antiquaries, this midden must 
 have been accumulating during 2000 or 3000 years at least, because 
 it would have taken all that time, or more, before the rude pottery 
 of the flower-pots could have been developed into the exquisite 
 porcelain of the drawing-room vase. The argument is, in fact, the 
 same as that with respect to the flints. It may be taken for granted 
 that men used implements of bone and stone before they were 
 acquainted with the use of metal ; but what is disputed is that 
 they ceased to use them immediately after becoming familiar 
 with either bronze or iron. So with earthenware : men no doubt 
 used coarse, badly formed, and badly burnt pottery before they 
 could manufacture better; but, even when they could do so, it is 
 certain that they did not cease the employment of pottery of a 
 very inferior class ; and we have not done so to the present day. 
 To take one instance among many. There are in the Museum 
 of the Society of Antiquaries at Edinburgh a series of vessels, 
 hand-made and badly burnt, and which might easily be mistaken 
 — and often are — for those found in prehistoric tombs. Yet they 
 were made and used in the Shetland Islands in the last and even 
 in the present century. 
 
 The truth of the matter seems to be that, as in the case of a find 
 of coins, it is the date of the last piece that fixes the time of the 
 deposit. There may be coins in it a hundred or a thousand years 
 older, but this hoard cannot have been buried before the last piece 
 which it contains was coined. So it is with this barrow. The 
 presence of Roman or post-Roman pottery in an avowedly undis- 
 turbed sepulchre fixes, beyond doubt, the age before which the 
 skeletons could not have been deposited where they were found 
 
288 SCANDINAVIA AND NORTH GERMANY. Chap. VII. 
 
 by Dr. Thurnam. The presence of flints and coarse pottery only 
 shows, but it does so most convincingly, how utterly groundless 
 the data are on which antiquaries have hitherto fixed the age of 
 these monuments. It proves certainly that flints and shards were 
 deposited in tombs in Eoman or post-Roman times ; and if there 
 is no mistake in Dr. Thurnam's data, this one excavation is, 
 by itself, sufficient to prove that the Danish theory of the 
 three ages is little better than the " baseless fabric " of — if not 
 " a vision " — at least of an illusion, which, unless Dr. Thurnam's 
 facts can be explained away, has no solid foundation to rest upon. 
 If any systematic excavations had been undertaken in the 
 Scandinavian long barrows, it would not, perhaps, be necessary to 
 
 adduce English ex- 
 amples to illustrate 
 their age or pecu- 
 liarities. Several are 
 adduced by Sjoborg, 
 but none are reported 
 as opened. This one, 
 for instance, is exter- 
 nally like the long 
 barrow at West Kennet, and, if Sjoborg's information is to be 
 depended upon, is one of several which mark the spot where 
 Frode V. (460-494) landed in Sweden, where a battle was 
 fought, and those who fell in it were buried in these mounds, 
 or where the Bauta stones mark their graves. If this is so, 
 the form of the long barrow with its peristalith was certainly 
 not unknown in the fifth century ; and there is no impro- 
 bability of its being employed in England also in that age. 
 In settling these questions, however, the Scandinavians have 
 an immense advantage over us. All their mounds have names 
 and dates ; they may be true or they may be false, but they 
 give a starting-point and an interest to the enquiry which are 
 wanting in this country, but which, it is hoped, will one day 
 enable the Northmen to reconstruct their monumental history on 
 a satisfactory basis. 
 
 In most cases antiquaries in this country have been content to 
 appeal to the convenient fiction of secondary interments to account 
 
 Long Barrow at Wiskeharad, in Halland. 
 From a drawing by Sjoborg. 
 
Chap. VII. LONG BARROWS. 289 
 
 for the perplexing contradictions in which their system every- 
 where involves them. In the instance of the Kennet long barrow 
 there is no excuse for such a suggestion. All the interments 
 were of one age, and that undoubtedly the age of the chamber 
 in which they were found, and the pottery and flints could not 
 have been there before nor introduced afterwards. Indeed, I do 
 not know a single instance of an undoubtedly secondary inter- 
 ment, unless it is in the age of Canon Greenwell's really pre- 
 historic tumuli. When he publishes his researches, we shall be 
 in a condition to ascertain how far they bear on the theory. 1 
 In the chambered tumuli secondary interments seem never to 
 occur ; and nothing is more unlikely than that they should. As 
 Dr. Thurnam himself states: "In three instances at least Mr. 
 Cunnington and Sir R. C. Hoare found in long barrows skeletons 
 which, from their extended position and the character of the iron 
 weapons accompanying them, were evidently Anglo-Saxon." 2 A 
 simple-minded man would consequently fancy that they were 
 Anglo-Saxon graves, for what can be more improbable than that 
 the 23roud conquering Saxons would be content to bury their dead 
 in the graves of the hated and despised Celts whom they were 
 busy in exterminating. 3 
 
 If the above reasoning is satisfactory and sufficient to prove 
 that the long barrow at West Kennet is of post-Roman times, it 
 applies also to Eodmarton, Uley, Stoney Littleton, and all the 
 Gloucestershire long barrows which, for reasons above given (ante, 
 page 164), we ventured to assign to a post-Roman period ; and 
 
 1 An argument for secondary inter- 
 ments has been attempted to be founded 
 (Lubbock, 'Prehistoric Times,' p. 156) 
 on an edict of Charlemagne, in which he 
 says : — " Jubemus ut corpora Christi- 
 anorum Saxonuni ad ccemeteria ecclesise 
 deferantur et non ad tumulos pagano- 
 rura (Balusius, ' Cap. Reg. Franc' i. 
 p. 154). If the expression had been " in 
 tumulos," there might have been some- 
 thing in it ; but a fair inference from the 
 edict seems to me to be that even in 
 Charlemagne"s time converted Saxons 
 insisted on being buried— probably in 
 tumuli — near where the tombs of their 
 
 fathers were, and probably with pagan 
 rites, in spite of their nominal conver- 
 sion. 
 
 2 ' Archseologia,' xlii. p. 195. 
 
 3 Nothing would surprise me less than 
 the discovery of an interment in the upper 
 part of the barrow at West Kennet, be- 
 tween the roof of the chamber and the 
 dolmen, Many indications in the West 
 Country long barrows lead us to expect 
 that such might be the case, but it 
 by no means follows that it would be 
 secondary. On the contrary, it would 
 probably be, if not the first, at ler.st the 
 chief burial in the mound. 
 
 U 
 
290 SCANDINAVIA AND NORTH GERMANY. Chap. VII. 
 
 a fortiori it carries with it King Hildetand's tomb at Lethra. It 
 is true we have not the same direct means of judging of its date 
 as we have of our own monuments. The Danes treat with such 
 supreme contempt any monument that does not at once fall 
 in with their system, that they will not even condescend to 
 explore it. So soon as Worsaae found some "flint wedges" in 
 the tomb, he at once decreed that it was prehistoric, and that it 
 was no use searching farther; and we are consequently left to 
 this fact and its external similarities for our identification. Here, 
 again, is a difficulty. The two drawings above given (woodcuts 
 Nos. 101 and 102) may show them too much alike or exaggerate 
 differences. The one is an old drawing from nature, the other a 
 modern restoration ; still the essential facts are undoubted. Both 
 are chambered long barrows, ornamented by rows of tall stones, 
 either partially or wholly surrounding their base, and both have 
 external dolmens on their summit, and both contain flint imple- 
 ments. If this is so, the difficulty is rather to account for so little 
 change having taken place in 230 years than to feel any surprise 
 at their not being identical. The point upon which we wish to 
 insist here is that they are both post-Roman, and may conse- 
 quently belong to any age between Arthur and Charlemagne. 
 
 The remaining battle-fields of which representations are given 
 in Sjoborg are scarcely so interesting as that at Braavalla, which 
 with the tomb of the king slain there are landmarks in our 
 enquiry. If those circles on Braavalla Heath do mark the battle- 
 field, and that tomb at Lethra is the one in which the blind 
 old king was laid— neither of which facts I see any reason for 
 doubting — all difficulties based on the assumed improbability of 
 the monuments being so modern as I am inclined to make them 
 are removed, and each case must stand or fall according to the 
 evidence that can be adduced for or against its age. To return, 
 however, to the battle-fields given by Sjoborg. Figures 43 and 44 
 represent two groups of circles and Bauta stones near Hwitaby, 
 in Malmo. These are said to mark two battle-fields, in which 
 Ragnar Lothbrok gained victories over his rebellious subjects in 
 Scania : Sjoborg says in 750 and 762, as he adopts a chronology 
 fifty years earlier than Suhm. But be this as it may, there does 
 
Chap. VII. LONG BAKKOWS. ■ 291 
 
 not seem any reason for doubting but that these stones do mark 
 fields where battles were fought in the eighth century, and that 
 Eagnar Lothbrok took part in them. These groups are much 
 less extensive than those at Braavalla, but are so similar that they 
 cannot be distant from them in age. 
 
 At Stiklastad, in Norway, in the province of Drontheim, a 
 battle was fought, in 1030, between Knut the Great and Olof the 
 Holy; and close to this is a group of forty-four circles of stones, 
 which Sjoborg seems, but somewhat doubtfully, to connect with 
 this battle. But about the next one (fig. 49) there seems no 
 doubt. The Danish prince Magnus Henricksson killed Erik the 
 Holy, and was slain by Carl Sverkersson, in the year 1161, at 
 Uppland, in Denmark ; and the place is marked by twenty stone 
 circles and ovals, most of them enclosing mounds and two square 
 enclosures, 30 to 40 feet in diameter. They are not, consequently, 
 in themselves very important, but are interesting, if the adscrip- 
 tion is correct, as showing how this heathenish custom lasted 
 even after Christianity must have been fairly established in the 
 country. Another group (fig. 51) is said to mark the spot where, 
 in 1150, a Swedish heroine, Blenda, overcame the Danish king 
 Swen Grate, and the spot is marked by circles and Bauta stones ; 
 one, in front of a tumulus, bears a Runic inscription, though it 
 merely says that Dedrik and Tunne raised the stone to Kumar 
 the Good. 
 
 Only one other group need be mentioned here. On a spot of 
 land, in the island of Freyrso, off the entrance of the Drontheim 
 Fiord, in the year 958, Hakon, the son of Harald Harfagar, 
 overthrew his nephews, the sons of Erik Blodoxe, in three 
 battles. The first and second of these, as shown in the plan 
 (woodcut No. 104), are marked by cairns and mounds ; and the 
 third by eight large barrows, three of which are of that shape 
 known in Scandinavia as ship barrows, and measure from 100 to 
 140 feet in length. There are also three tumuli at 4 in the 
 woodcut, in one of which one of Erik Blodoxe's sons is said to 
 be buried. It is not clear whether the five large mounds that 
 stud the plain do not cover the remains of those also who fell 
 in this fight. It does not appear that any excavations have been 
 made in them. The interest of this battle-field to us is not so 
 
 , u 2" 
 
292 
 
 SCANDINAVIA AND NORTH GERMANY. 
 
 Chap. YII. 
 
 much because it shows the persistence of this plan of marking 
 battle-fields at so late a date — later ones have just been quoted 
 — but because all the actors in the scene are familiar to us from 
 the part they took in the transactions in the Orkneys in the 
 tenth century. If they, in their own country, adhered to these 
 old-world practices, we should not be astonished at their having 
 erected circles or buried in mounds in their new possessions. It 
 
 104. Battle-fkid at Freyrso. From Sjijborg, vol. i. pi. 16. 
 
 is true that none of these Scandinavian circles can compare in 
 extent with the Standing Stones of Stennis or the Eing of 
 Brogar, but this would not be the first time that such a thing 
 has happened. The Greeks erected larger and, in proportion to 
 the population, more numerous Doric temples in Sicily than they 
 possessed in their own country; and the Northmen may have 
 done the same thing in Orcadia, where they possessed a conquered, 
 probably an enslaved, race to execute these works. 
 
Chap. VII. TUMULI. 293 
 
 Tumuli. 
 
 The number of sepulchral mounds in Scandinavia is very great, 
 and some of them are very important ; but, so far as I can ascer- 
 tain, very few have been explored, and, until interrogated by the 
 spade, nothing can well be less communicative than a simple 
 mound of earth. A map of their distribution might, no doubt, 
 throw considerable light on the ethnography of the country, and 
 tell us whether the Finns or Lapps were their original authors, 
 or whether the Slaves or Wends were their introducers; and, 
 lastly, whether the true Scandinavians brought them with them 
 from other lands, or merely adopted them from the original 
 inhabitants, in which case they can only be treated as survivals. 
 Funereal pomp, or tomb-building of any sort, is so antagonistic 
 to the habits of any people so essentially Teutonic as the Scandi- 
 navians were and are, that we cannot understand their adopting 
 these forms, or indeed stone circles or monuments of any class, 
 in a country where they had not previously existed. If we 
 assume that the modern Scandinavians were German tribes who 
 conquered the country from the Cimbri or the earlier Lapps 
 and Finns, and did so as warriors, bringing no women with them, 
 the case is intelligible enough. Under these circumstances, they 
 must have intermarried with the natives of the country, and 
 would eventually, after a few generations, lose much of their 
 individual nationality, and adopt many of the customs of the 
 people among whom they settled, using them only in a more 
 vigorous manner and on a larger scale than their more puny 
 predecessors had been able to adopt. 1 It is most improbable that 
 the " Northmen," if Germans — as indeed their language proves 
 them to be — should ever have invented such things as tumuli, 
 dolmens, circles, or any other such un- Aryan forms, in any 
 
 1 I have tried hard to follow Worsaae's maps nor illustrations to this part of the 
 
 argument in respect to this point (' Zm* j work, it is almost impossible for a stran ger 
 
 AlterthurnskundedesNordens,'lS47),but to judge; and as, lite all Danes, he is a 
 
 without success. As he is personally devout believer in the three-age system, 
 
 familiar with the country and its monu- J it is difficult to know how far this may 
 
 ments, he may be perfectly correct in or may not influence his view, 
 what he states, but as there are neither 
 
294 SCANDINAVIA AND NORTH GERMANY. Chap. VII. 
 
 country where they had not existed previously to their occupy- 
 ing it ; but that as immigrants they should .adopt the customs 
 of the previous occupants of the land is only what we find 
 happening everywhere. The settlement of these points will be 
 extremely interesting for the ethnography of Northern Europe, 
 and ought not to be difficult whenever the problem is fairly 
 grappled with. In the meanwhile, all that the information at 
 present available will enable us to do here is to refer to some 
 tumuli whose contents bear more or less directly on the argu- 
 ment which is the principal object of this work. 
 
 The first of these is the triple group at Upsala, now popu- 
 larly known as the graves of Thor, Wodin, and Freya. It may 
 illustrate the difficulty of obtaining correct information regarding 
 these monuments to state that, even so late as 1869, Sir John 
 Lubbock, who is generally so well informed, and had such 
 means of obtaining information, did not know that they had been 
 opened. 1 I was aware of a passage in Marryatt's travels in Sweden 
 in which, writing on the spot, he asserts that one of them had 
 been opened, and that "in its 'giant's chamber' were found the 
 bones of a woman, and, among other things, a piece of a gold 
 filagree bracelet, richly ornamented in spiral decoration, some 
 dice, and a chessman, either the king or a knight." 2 Wishing, 
 however, for further information, I obtained an introduction to 
 Mr. Hans Hildebrand, who gave me the following information. 
 Subsequently I received a letter from Professor Carl Save, of 
 Upsala, who kindly abstracted for me the only published accounts 
 of the excavations as they appeared in a local paper at the time. 
 These were forwarded to me by Professor Geo. Stephens, of 
 Copenhagen, who also was so obliging as to translate them. 
 They are so interesting that I have printed tliem, as they stand, 
 as Appendix B. From these two documents the following account 
 is compiled, and may be thoroughly depended upon. 
 
 One of the mounds, known as that of Wodin, was opened, in 
 1846, under the superintendence of Herr Hildebrand, the royal 
 antiquary of Sweden. It was soon found that the mounds were 
 situated on a ridge of gravel, so that the tunnel had to take 
 
 1 ' Prehistoric Times,' p. 107. '-' 'One Year in Sweden,' ii. p. 183. 
 
Chap. VII. TUMULI. 295 
 
 an upward direction. At the junction of the natural with the 
 artificial soil, a cairn was found of closely compacted stones, 
 each about as large as a man could lift. In the centre of the 
 cairn the burial urn was found in the grave-chamber, containing 
 calcined bones, ashes, fragments of bronze ornaments destroyed 
 by fire, and a fragment of a gold ornament delicately wrought. 
 Within the cairn, but a little away from the urn, were found a 
 heap of dogs' bones, equally calcined by fire, and fragments 
 of two golden bracteates. " The workmanship of the gold orna- 
 ments," Herr Hildebrand adds, " closely resembles that of the gold 
 bracteates of the fifth or sixth centuries, and, with the fragments 
 of these peculiar ornaments themselves, settles a date before 
 which these mounds could not have been raised." How much later 
 they may be, it is not easy to conjecture, without at least seeing 
 the bracteates, which do not seem to have been published. With 
 a little local industry, I have very little doubt, not only that 
 the date of these tombs could be ascertained, but the names of 
 the royal personages who were therein buried, probably in the 
 sixth or seventh century of our era. 
 
 " The tombs of Central Sweden," Herr Hildebrand adds, " are 
 generally constructed in the same way, the urn containing the 
 bones being placed on the surface of the soil, at the place of 
 cremation or elsewhere, as the case may be. Generally, nothing- 
 is found with them but an iron nail, or some such trifling 
 object" — a curious and economical reminiscence of the extra- 
 vagant customs of their predecessors. According to him, " almost 
 every village in Sweden, with the exception of those in some 
 mountain-districts and the most northern provinces, has a tomb- 
 field quite close to the side of the houses. The antiquities found 
 in the mounds of these tomb-fields all belong to the Iron age. 
 The tombs of the earlier ages have no connection with the home- 
 steads of the present people." 
 
 How far these tombs extend downwards in date cannot be 
 ascertained without a much more careful examination than they 
 have yet been subjected to. It may safely, however, be assumed 
 that they continued to be used till the conversion of the inha- 
 bitants to Christianity, and probably even for some considerable 
 time afterwards, for such a custom is not easily eradicated. 
 
296 
 
 SCANDINAVIA AND NORTH GERMANY. 
 
 Chap. VII. 
 
 It would be as tedious as unprofitable to attempt to enume- 
 rate the various mounds which have been opened, for their 
 contents throw little or no light on our enquiry ; and being 
 distributed in cases in the museum, not according to their 
 localities or traditions, but according to their systematic classes, 
 it is almost impossible to restore them now to their places in 
 history. 
 
 At Jellinge, however, on the east coast of Jutland, there are 
 two mounds, always known traditionally as those of Gorm the 
 Old and his queen Thyra Danebod — the Beloved. The date of 
 
 Gorni's death seems now to be 
 accepted as 950 a.d. ; l but it is 
 not clear whether he erected the 
 tomb himself, or whether it is 
 due to the filial piety of his son 
 Harald Blaatand, or Blue-Tooth, 
 and in which case its date would 
 be 968. 2 Saxo Grammaticus at 
 least tells us that he buried his 
 mother in the tumulus, and then 
 set a whole army of men and oxen 
 at work to remove from the Jut- 
 land shore an immense stone — 
 
 105. Dragon on King Gorm's Stone, Jellinge. 1'j.j.i i 1 1 : *j. 
 
 From -An. Noni. oidkund/ xii. 1852. a llttle rock— and bring it to 
 
 the place where his mother lay 
 inhumed. 3 That stone still exists, and has sculptured on one 
 side a dragon, which calls forcibly to our mind that found on 
 Maes-Howe (woodcut No. So), and on the other side a figure, 
 which is, no doubt, intended to represent Christ on the cross. 
 On the two sides are Runic inscriptions, in which he records 
 his affection for his father and mother and his conversion to the 
 Christian faith. 
 
 So far as I can ascertain, the tomb of King Gorm has not 
 yet been opened. That of Thyra was explored many years ago 
 — in 1820 apparently ; but no sections or details have been 
 
 1 Engelknrdt, ' Catalogue ilhis.' p. 33. 
 Suhm makes it 991, but this seems more 
 probably to have been the date of the 
 
 death of his son Harald Blaatand. 
 
 - ' Annalen for Nordk. Oldk.' xii. p. 13. 
 3 'Hist, danica,' x. p. 1G7. 
 
Chap. VII. TUMULI. 297 
 
 published, so that it is extremely difficult to ascertain even the 
 dimensions. Engelhardt reports the height as 43 feet, and 
 the diameter as 240 feet ; x Worsaae gives the height as 75 feet, 
 and the diameter as ISO feet, and he is probably correct. 2 But 
 in Denmark anything that cannot be put into a glass case in a 
 museum is so completely rejected as valueless that no one cares 
 to record it. When entered, it was found that it had been 
 plundered probably in the middle ages, and all that remained 
 were the following articles : — A small silver goblet, lined with 
 gold on the inside, and ornamented with interlaced dragons on 
 the exterior ; some fibulaB, tortoise-shaped, and ornamented with 
 fantastic heads of animals ; some buckle-heads, and other objects 
 of no great value. The chamber in which these objects were 
 found measured 23 feet in length by 8 feet 3 inches in width, 
 and was 5 feet high ; 3 the walls and roof, formed of massive slabs 
 of oak, were originally, it appears, hung with tapestries, but these 
 had nearly all perished. 
 
 Not only are these monuments of Gorm and Thyra interesting 
 in themselves, and deserving of much more attention than the Danes 
 have hitherto bestowed upon them, but they are most important 
 in their bearing on the general history of monuments of this class. 
 In the first place, their date and destination are fixed beyond 
 dispute, and this being so, the only ground is taken away on 
 which any a priori argument could be based with regard to the 
 age of any mound anterior to the tenth century. As soon as it is 
 realised that sepulchral mounds have been erected in the tenth 
 century, it is impossible to argue that it is unlikely or improbable 
 that Silbury Hill or any other mound in England may not belong 
 to the sixth or any subsequent century down to that time. The 
 argument is, however, even more pertinent with reference to 
 Maes-Howe and other tumuli in the Orkneys. If the Scandi- 
 navian kings were buried in " howes" down to the year 1000 — I 
 believe they extend much beyond that date — it is almost certain 
 that the Orcadian Jarls were interred in similar mounds down 
 at least to their conversion to Christianity (a.d. 986). Whether 
 
 1 ' Guide ill.' p. 33. 2 'Primeval Ant. Denmark,' p. 104. 
 
 3 Engelhardt, 'Cat. ill. du Muse'e,' p. 33. 
 
298 
 
 SCANDINAVIA AND NORTH GERMANY. 
 
 Chap. VII. 
 
 Maeshowe was erected as a sepulchre for the sons of Ragnar 
 Lothbrok, as John Stuart seems to infer from the inscriptions, 1 or 
 of Havard Earl, as I have above attempted to show, is of little conse- 
 quence to the general argument. That it was the grave of a Scandi- 
 navian Jarl, erected between 800 and 1000 a.d., seems quite certain, 
 and my own impression is that it is almost as certainly the tomb 
 of the individual Jarl to whom I have ventured to ascribe it. 
 
 As before mentioned, no argument against these views can be 
 drawn from the fact that Thyra's tomb is lined with slabs of oak, 
 while the chamber at Maes-Howe is formed with stone. The dif- 
 ference of the two localities is sufficient to account for this. 
 Denmark has always been famous for its forests, and especially on 
 the shores of the Baltic, at Jellinge, wood of the noblest dimen- 
 sions was always available, whereas the stone of the country was 
 hard and intractable. In the Orkneys, on the other hand, there 
 is absolutely no timber of natural growth big enough to afford 
 a good-sized walking-stick, and stone is not only everywhere 
 abundant, but splits easily into slabs, self-faced, and most easily 
 worked, so that stone, and stone only, would be the material 
 employed in the Orkneys for that purpose, as wood would also be 
 the best and most available material in Denmark. 
 
 If, before leaving this branch of the subject, we turn back for 
 a few minutes to the Irish monuments, we are now in a position 
 to judge more correctly of the probabilities of the case than we 
 were. Assuming the three-chambered tumulus at New Grange to 
 have been erected between the years 200 and 400, and Maes-Howe 
 and Jellinge between 800 and 1000 a.d., we have a period of from 
 five to six, it may possibly be seven, centuries between these monu- 
 ments. Is this more than is sufficient to account for the difference 
 between them, or is it too little ? It is not easy to give a cate- 
 gorical answer to such a question, but judging from the experience 
 gained from other styles, in different parts of the world, the con- 
 clusion generally would be that the time is in excess of what is 
 required. That there was progress, considerable progress indeed, 
 made in the interval between the Irish and Scandinavian monu- 
 
 1 'Proceedings Sue. Ant. Soot.' v. 
 p. 265. If Ragnar was taken prisoner 
 by Ella of Northumberland, it must 
 
 have been in the latter half of the ninth 
 century. Suhm places his death nearly 
 a century earlier, 794. 
 
Chap. VII. TUMULT. 293 
 
 merits, cannot be denied, but that it should have required five 
 centuries to achieve this advance is hardly what would be 
 expected, and it would be difficult to quote another example of 
 a progress so slow. Yet it is hardly possible to bring down New 
 Grange to the age of St. Patrick (a.d. 436), and as difficult to 
 carry back Maes-Howe beyond Ragnar Lothbrok (794 at the 
 extreme), and between these dates there are only 358 years ; but 
 we must certainly add something at either one end or the other ; 
 and if we do this, we obtain an amount of progress so slow that it 
 would be almost unaccountable, but upon the assumption that they 
 are the works of two different peoples. At the time the sepulchre 
 on the Boyne was erected, Ireland was energetically and rapidly 
 progressive, and her arts were more flourishing than might have 
 been expected from her then state of civilization. When Maes- 
 howe was erected, the native population was poor and perishing, 
 and as the lordly Vikings would hardly condescend to act as masons 
 themselves, they did the best they could with the means at their 
 disposal. Explain it, however, as we may, it seems impossible to 
 allow a longer time between the mounds at Jellinge and Stennis and 
 those on the Boyne than has been accorded above ; and as it seems 
 equally difficult to bring them nearer to one another, the proba- 
 bility seems to be in favour of the dates already assigned to them. 
 To return, however, from this digression ; besides those just men- 
 tioned, Denmark possesses a nearly complete series of royal tombs 
 such as are not to be found in any other country of Europe. Even 
 Worsaae acknowledges the existence of that of Erode Frodegode, 
 who lived about the Christian era, of Amlech, near Wexio — 
 Shakespeare's Hamlet, of Humble, and Hjarne, 1 besides those of 
 Hildetand, and Gorm and Thyra, already mentioned. If the 
 Danes would only undertake a systematic examination of these 
 royal sepulchres, it might settle many of the disputed points of 
 mediaeval archaeology. To explore tombs to which no tradition 
 attaches may add to the treasures of their museums, but can only 
 by accident elucidate either the history of the country or the 
 progress of its arts. If ten or twelve tombs with known names 
 attached to them were opened, one of two things must happen : 
 
 Primaeval Ant. of Denmark,' p. 112. 
 
300 SCANDINAVIA AND NORTH GERMANY. Chap. VII. 
 
 either they will show a succession and a progress relative to the 
 age of their reputed occupants, or no such sequence will be 
 traceable. In the first case the gain to history and archaeology 
 would be enormous, and it is an opportunity of settling disputed 
 questions such as no other country affords. If, on the other hand, 
 no such connection can be traced, there is an end of much of the 
 foundations on which the reasoning of the previous pages is based, 
 but in either case such an enquiry could not fail to throw a flood of 
 light on the subject which we were trying to elucidate. The fear 
 is that all have been rifled. The Northmen certainly spared none 
 of the tombs in the countries they conquered, and our experience 
 of Maes-Howe and Thyra's tomb would lead us to fear that after 
 their conversion to Christianity they were as little inclined to 
 spare those of their own ancestors. All they however cared for 
 were the objects composed of precious metals ; so enough may still 
 be left for the less avaricious wants of the antiquary. 
 
 Dolmens. 
 
 So far as is at present known, there are not any tumuli of 
 importance or any battle-fields marked with great stones in the 
 north of Germany; but the dolmens there are both numerous and 
 interesting, and belong to all the classes found in Scandinavia, and, 
 so far as can be ascertained, are nearly identical in form. Nothing, 
 however, would surprise me less than if it should turn out that 
 both barrows and Bauta stones were common there, especially in 
 the island of Riigen and along the shores of the Baltic as far east 
 as Livonia. The Germans have not yet turned their attention to 
 this class of their antiquities. They have been too busy subli- 
 mating their national heroes into gods to think of stones that 
 tell no tales. Whenever they do set to work upon them, they 
 will, no doubt, do it with that thoroughness which is characteristic 
 of all they attempt. But as the investigation will probably have 
 to pass through the solar myth stage of philosophy, it may yet 
 be a long time before their history reaches the regions of practical 
 common sense. 
 
 No detailed maps having been published, it is extremely diffi- 
 cult to feel sure of the distribution of these monuments in any 
 
Chap. VII. DOLMENS. 301 
 
 part of the northern dolmen region ; bnt the following, which is 
 abstracted from Bonstetten's ' Essai sur les Dolmens,' may convey 
 some general information on the subject, especially when com- 
 bined with the map (p. 275), which is taken, with very slight 
 modifications, from that which accompanied his work. 
 
 According to Bonstetten there are no dolmens in Poland, nor in 
 Posen. They first appear on the Pregel, near Konigsberg; but 
 are very rare in Prussia, only two others being known, one at Marien- 
 werder, the other at Konitz. In Silesia there is one at Klein- 
 Baden, near Oppeln ; another is found in the district of Liegnitz, 
 and they are very numerous in the Uckermark, Altmark, in Anhalt, 
 and Prussian Saxony, as well as in Pomerania and the island of 
 Biigen. They are still more numerous in Mecklenburg, which is 
 described as peculiarly rich in monuments of this class. Hanover 
 possesses numerous dolmens, except in the south-eastern districts, 
 such as Gottingen, Oberharz, and Hildesheim. To make up for 
 this, however, in the northern districts, Liineburg, Osnabriick, 
 and Stade, at least two hundred are found. The grand-duchy of 
 Oldenburg contains some of the largest dolmens in Germany ; one 
 of these, near Wildesheim, is 23 feet long ; another, near Engel- 
 manns-Becke, is surrounded by an enclosure of stones measuring 
 37 feet by 23, each stone being 10 feet in height, while the cap 
 stone of a third is 20 feet by 10. In Brunswick there were several 
 near Helmstadt, but they are now destroyed. In Saxony some rare 
 examples are found as far south as the Erzgebirge, and two were 
 recently destroyed in the environs of Dresden. Keeping along the 
 northern line, we find them in the three northern provinces of 
 Holland, Groningen, Ober-Yssel, and especially in Drenthe, where 
 they exist in great numbers, but none to the southward of these 
 provinces, and nowhere do they seem to touch the Bhine or its 
 bordering lands; but a few are found in the grand-duchy of 
 Luxembourg as in a sort of oasis, halfway between the southern 
 or French dolmen region and that of northern Germany. 
 
 From the North German districts they extend through Holstein 
 and Schleswig into Jutland and the Danish isles, but are most 
 numerous on the eastern or Baltic side of the Cimbrian peninsula, 
 and they are also very frequent in the south of Sweden and the 
 adjacent islands. Dolmens properly so called are not known in 
 
302 SCANDINAVIA AND NORTH GERMANY. Chap. VII. 
 
 Norway, but, as above mentioned, cairns and monuments of that 
 class, are not wanting there. 
 
 The value of this distribution will be more easily appreciated 
 when we have ascertained the limits of the French field, but 
 meanwhile it may be convenient to remark that, unless the dolmens 
 can be traced very much further eastward, there is a tremendous 
 gulf before we reach the nearest outlyers of the eastern dolmen 
 field. There is a smaller, but very distinct, gap in the country 
 occupied by the Belgae, between it and the French field, and 
 another, but practically very much smaller one, between it and 
 the British isles. This is a gap because the intervening space is 
 occupied by the sea ; but as it is evident from the distribution of 
 all the northern dolmens in the proximity to the shores and in the 
 islands that the people who erected them were a seafaring people, 
 and as we know that they possessed vessels capable of navigating 
 these seas, it is practically no gap at all. We know historically 
 how many Jutes, Angles, Frisians, and people of similar origin, 
 under the generic name of Saxons, flocked to our shores in the 
 early centuries of the Christian era, and afterwards what an 
 important part the Danes and Northmen played in our history, 
 and what numbers of them landed and settled in Great Britain, 
 either as colonists or conquerors, at different epochs, down to at 
 least the eleventh century. If, therefore, we admit the dolmens 
 to be historic, or, in other words, that the erection of megalithic 
 monuments was practised during the first ten centuries after the 
 Christian era, we have no difficulty in understanding where our 
 examples came from, or to whom they are due. If, on the other 
 hand, we assume that they are prehistoric, we are entirely at sea 
 regarding them or their connection with those on the continent. 
 The only continental people we know of who settled in Britain 
 before the Roman times were the Belga?, and they are the only 
 people between the Pillars of Hercules and the Gulf of Riga who, 
 having a sea-board, have also no dolmens or megalithic remains 
 of any sort. All the others have them more or less, but the 
 Northern nations did not, so far as we know, colonise this 
 country before the Christian era. 
 
 As all the Northern antiquaries have made up their minds 
 
Chap. VII. 
 
 DOLMENS. 
 
 30; 
 
 that these dolmens generally belong to the mythic period of 
 the Stone age, and that only a few of them extend down to the 
 semi-historic age of bronze, it is in vain to expect that they 
 would gather any traditions or record any names that might 
 connect them with persons known in history. We are, therefore, 
 wholly without assistance from history or tradition to guide us 
 either in classifying them or in any attempt to ascertain their 
 age, while the indications which enable us to connect them with 
 our own, or with one another, are few and far between. 
 
 Among the few that give any sure indications of their age, 
 one of the most interesting is at Herrestrup, in Zeeland, which 
 Jias recently been disinterred from the tumulus that once covered 
 
 If 6. Dolmen at Herrestrup. 
 
 it. 1 On it are engraved some half-dozen representations of 
 ships, such as the Yikings were in the habit of drawing, and 
 which are found in great quantities on the west coast of Gotten- 
 burg. 2 According to the best authorities, these representations 
 range from about a.d. 500 to 900, 3 and some may perhaps be more 
 modern. Those in this dolmen do not appear to be either 
 among the most ancient or the most modern, and if we fix on the 
 eighth century as their date, we shall not be very far wrong. 
 That they are also coeval with the monument seems perfectly 
 
 1 ' Annalen for Nord. Aldk.' vi. pi. x. 
 
 2 Holmberg, ' Scandinavian Hallristingar,' p. 3. 
 
 3 Ibid. p. 21. 'Soc. des Ant. du Nord,' ii. pp. 140 et seqq. 
 
304 SCANDINAVIA AND NORTH GERMANY. Chap. VII. 
 
 certain. We cannot fancy any Viking engraving these on a 
 deserted dolmen, say even 100 years old, and then covering it up 
 with a tumulus, as this one was till recently. Had it never been 
 covered up, any hypothesis might be proposed, but the mound 
 settles that point. Besides the ships, however, there are an almost 
 equal number of small circles with crosses in them, on the cap 
 stone. Whether these are intended to represent chariot-wheels, 
 or some other object, is not clear, but if we turn back to woodcut 
 No. 41, representing the side-stone of the dolmen at Aspatria, we 
 find the identical object represented there, and in such a manner 
 that, making allowance for the difference of style in the century 
 that has elapsed between the execution of the two engravings, 
 they must be assumed to be identical. No engravings— so far as I 
 know — have been published of the objects found in this Danish 
 dolmen, but in the English one, as already mentioned, the objects 
 found belonged to the most modern Iron age ; such things, in fact, 
 as will perfectly agree with the date of the eighth century. 
 Among them, as will be recollected, was the snaffle-bit, so like, 
 though certainly more modern than, Stukeley's bit found in 
 Silbury Hill. We have thus three tumuli which from their 
 enoravino-s or their contents confirm one another to a most satis- 
 factory extent, and render the dates above assigned to them, to 
 say the least of it, very probable. If the date thus obtained for 
 the Aspatria monument is accepted, it is further interesting as 
 giving that of those mysterious concentric circles, with a line 
 passing through them from the centre, which have been found 
 in such numbers on the rocks in the north of England and in 
 Scotland. 1 These are, so far as I know, the only examples of 
 these circles which were buried, and were consequently associated 
 with other objects which assist in fixing their age. 
 
 As before hinted, many of the monuments engraved by Madsen 2 
 are so extremely like those in the field of Northern Moytura that 
 it is almost impossible to believe that they were erected by a 
 different race of people, or at any great distance of time. The 
 one, for instance, at Halskov is so like the dolmen and circle 
 
 1 Sir James Simpson, appendix, vol. vi. ' Proc. Soc. Ant. of Scotland,' passim. 
 '-' Madsen, ' Antiqinte's pre'lrstoriqnes du Danemark,' 18U9. 
 
Chap. VII. 
 
 DOLMENS. 
 
 305 
 
 represented in woodcut No. 61 that the one might almost pass for 
 the other, were it not that the photograph is taken from the wrong 
 side, to bring out the resemblance, as it is seen on the spot, while 
 in others the resemblance is as great, or even greater. It is very- 
 unsatisfactory, however, picking these points of similarity from 
 books, some of the engravings in which are from imperfect 
 drawings. In others, artistic effect has been more aimed at than 
 truth, and some are taken from photographs, which, though they 
 give a truthful, generally give an unintelligent representation of 
 the object. It is only by personal familiarity that all the facts 
 
 107. Dolmen at Halakov. i'roui a drawing by JViadsen. 
 
 can be verified and pitfalls avoided. But it is always useful 
 to turn attention to any forms that may seem novel, and explain 
 peculiarities in others which but for such means of comparison 
 would remain unnoticed. Here, for instance, is one from Sjoborg, 
 which resembles the Countless Stones at Aylesford, as drawn by 
 Dr. Stukeley (woodcut No. 27). It is found at a place called 
 Oroust, in Bohuslan, 1 and stands on a low mound encircled by 
 twenty large stones at its base. The chamber is low, and semi- 
 circular in form, and in front of it stands what the G-ermaris call 
 a sentinel stone. No date is given to this monument by Sjoborg, 
 for he was so far indoctrinated in modern theories that he 
 
 1 ' Samlingar,' i. pi. iii. fig. 6. 
 
300 
 
 SCANDINAVIA AND NORTH GERMANY. 
 
 Chap. VII. 
 
 believed all dolmens to be prehistoric, though all the circles and 
 Bauta stones marking battle-fields were to him as essentially 
 historic as any monuments in his country. From its appearance, 
 the dolmen at Oroust may be of the same age as the Countless 
 
 ins. Dolmen at Oroust. From Sjiiborg. 
 
 Stones at Aylesford, and if other monuments in the two countries 
 could be compared with anything like precision, their forms and 
 traditions might mutually throw great light on their real histories. 
 It is not only, however, from the analogies with similar monu- 
 ments in this country, or from their bearing on their history, that 
 the Scandinavian dolmens are interesting to us. They have forms 
 and peculiarities of their own which are well worth studying. 
 If materials existed for mastering these differences, their aggre- 
 gate would make up a sum which would enable us to separate 
 the Scandinavian group from the British, as we can our own from 
 the French, and the French from that of Northern Germany. A 
 great deal more must, however, be published, and in a more accu- 
 rate form, before this can be done; but, whenever it is possible, 
 it promises to afford most satisfactory results to ethnographical 
 science. The problem is similar to that which was known to 
 exist in reference to pointed Gothic architecture. That is now 
 admitted to be a Celtic-French invention, but it was adopted by 
 the Spaniards and Italians on the one hand, and by the Germans 
 and ourselves on the other ; although always with a difference. 
 No antiquary would now for an instant hesitate in discriminating 
 between an Italian and a German or between a Spanish and an 
 English example, though the difference is so small that it can 
 hardly be expressed in words, and must be carefully represented 
 in order to be perceived. In like maimer, the rude-stone style 
 
Chap. VII. DOLMENS. 307 
 
 of art seems to have been invented by some pre-Celtic people, 
 but to have been adopted by Celts, by Scandinavian, by British, 
 and Iberian races — perhaps not always pure in their own countries, 
 but always with considerable differences, which, when perceived 
 and classified, will enable us to distinguish between the works of 
 the several races as clearly as we can between the mediaeval styles 
 that superseded them. 
 
 Among these peculiarities, the most easily recognised are the 
 square or oblong enclosures which surround tumuli, and, some- 
 times, one, at others two, or even three free-standing dolmens. 
 In order to make the point clear, I have quoted a diagram from 
 Sjoborg, though it is almost the only instance in this work in 
 
 1C9. Din gram from Sjobovg, pi. i. fig. A. 
 
 which a woodcut does not represent a really existing object. I 
 have no doubt, however, that it is correct, as old Olaus Wormius 
 represents one of two similar ones which in his day existed near 
 Eoeskilde. Both had enclosures 50 paces square, enclosing one 
 tumulus with a circle of stones round its base, another halfway up, 
 and, the text says, an altar-dolmen on the top, though the woodcut 
 does not show it. The other, on the road to Birck, in Zeeland, 
 enclosed three tumuli in juxtaposition, the one in the centre similar 
 to that just described, and with a dolmen on its summit; two 
 smaller mounds are represented in juxtaposition on either side 
 but with only a circle of stones round their base. 1 Other varieties 
 
 1 Olaus Wormius, 'Dank a Monmneuta,' pp. 8 and 2?5. 
 
 x 2 
 
308 SCANDINAVIA AND NORTH GERMANY. Chap. VII. 
 
 no doubt exist, but modern antiquaries have not favoured us with 
 any drawings of them. From the diagram and description it will 
 be perceived that in so far as the mound itself is concerned 1 these 
 Danish tumuli are identical with those already quoted as existing 
 in Auvergue (woodcut No. 8), but so far as I know, the square enclo- 
 sure does not exist in France, nor does it in this country. These 
 square enclosures seem, however, to belong to a very modern date, 
 and the stones, consequently, are small, and may therefore have 
 been removed, which could easily be done ; but still there seems 
 little doubt that many of them may still remain, and could be 
 found if looked for. 
 
 One of the most striking examples I know of, an oblong- 
 rectangular enclosure, enclosing a single free-standing dolmen, is 
 that near Luneburg, figured by Bonstetten l (woodcut No. 110) ; he 
 
 Dolmen near Luneburg. From Bonstetten. 
 
 seldom, however, indulges in dimensions, and being perfectly 
 convinced that all are prehistoric, he never speculates as to dates, 
 nor condescends to notice traditions. What we know of it is 
 therefore confined to the representation, which after all may be 
 taken from some other work, as he rarely favours us with refer- 
 ences. Two others are represented by von Estorff as existing near 
 Uelzen, in Hanover. 2 
 
 A good example of two dolmens in a rectangular enclosure is 
 that at Yaldbygaards, near Soroe, in Zeeland. Here the enclo- 
 sure is about 70 feet in one direction by 20 feet in the other 
 — outside measurement. In this instance, the enclosing stones 
 are smaller in proportion to the dolmens than is usually the case. 
 On the same plate, Maclsen represents a single dolmen in a much 
 squarer enclosure. 3 It, like that at Halskov (woodcut No. 107), 
 is represented as standing on a knoll, but whether dolmens stand so 
 
 1 ' Essai sur les Dolmens,' p. 9. 
 
 2 ' Heidenische Alterthumer von Uelzen,' Hanover, 184U. 
 
 3 Madsen, ' Antiquite's pre'kifct.' pi. 8. 
 
Chap. VII. 
 
 DOLMENS. 
 
 309 
 
 or on the flat, like that at Valdbygaards, it is quite certain they 
 never were enclosed in tumuli, but always stood free, as they now do. 
 
 Double Dolmen at Valdbygaards. From Madsen. 
 
 
 112. rian of Double Dolmen at Valdbygaards. 
 
 For three dolmens in one square enclosure we are obliged to 
 go back to old 
 Keysler, though, 
 in this case, the L 
 engraving is so 
 good that there 
 can be very little 
 doubt of its cor- 
 rectness. 1 It is ^T ~- r -~ 
 situated near Ho- 
 bisch, in Mark 
 Brandenburg, ~«=-«-^: 
 consists of an 
 outer enclosure 
 of forty-four stones, and is 118 paces in circuit, and in the 
 
 Triple Dolmen, HGbisch. From Keys'.er. 
 
 1 ' Antiquitates Septentrionales,' pp. 320 and 519, pi. xvii. 
 
310 SCANDINAVIA AND NORTH GERMANY. Chap. VII. 
 
 middle are twelve stones, of which six bear three large stones, 
 placed transversely upon them. It is very much to be regretted 
 that no better illustration of this curious monument exists, as 
 it probably very closely resembles those in Drenthe, with which, 
 indeed, he compares it ; and as these form one of the most remark- 
 able groups of this class of monuments on the continent, it would 
 be most desirable to trace their connection with others farther 
 east. 
 
 A similar monument to that at Hobisch is figured by Sjoborg 
 (vol. i. pi. 6), but without the enclosure ; and a third, Oroust, in 
 Bohuslan (pi. 3) ; but in this instance the three long stones are 
 surrounded by a circular enclosure with two sentinel stones out- 
 side ; and there are several others which show similar peculiarities 
 in a greater or less degree. 
 
 The buried dolmens in Scandinavia are, in some respects, even 
 more interesting than those which are, and were always intended 
 to be, exposed, but our knowledge of them is necessarily more 
 limited than of the other class. Sjoborg deserts us almost 
 entirely here, and Madsen illustrates only two, while the modern 
 antiquaries have been more anxious to secure and classify their 
 contents than to illustrate the chambers from which they were 
 obtained. As a rule, they may be older than the free-standing 
 examples, but they do not look old, though, as metal has not 
 generally been found in them, it is assumed they all belong to 
 the Stone age. One example will suffice to display the general 
 features of the older group of this class of monuments. The 
 next two woodcuts present an internal view and plan of one near 
 Uby, in the district of Holbak, in Zeeland. It was opened in 1845, 
 and measured then 13 feet in height, and had a circumference 
 of upwards of 300 feet. The chamber measures 13 feet by 
 8 feet, and is walled in by nine great stones, which have been 
 split or hewn, so as to obtain a flat surface towards the interior, 
 and the interstices are filled in with smaller stones very neatly 
 fitted. The entrance gallery is 20 feet in length, and is closed, or 
 capable of being so, by two doors. From the disposition of the 
 entrance it certainly does not appear that it was intended to be 
 hid. The whole appearance is that of a dignified approach to the 
 tomb. Had it been meant to be closed, the chamber would, no 
 
Chap. VII. 
 
 DOLMENS. 
 
 311 
 
 doubt, have been in the centre of the tumulus, instead of being 
 near one side, as it is. The other monument of the same class, 
 
 l 14 - View of Interior of Chamber at Uby. From Madsen. 
 
 illustrated by Madsen, 1 is near Smidstrup, in the district of 
 Fredericksborg. 
 It is very simi- 
 lar in dimen- 
 sions and de- 
 tails, but has 
 the peculiarity 
 of having two 
 chambers placed 
 side by side, with 
 two separate en- 
 trances, and the 
 chambers affect 
 
 115. Plan of Chamber at Uby. From Madsen. 
 
 a curve more 
 
 perfectly elliptical than is attained in that at Uby. 
 
 1 Madsen, plates 13 and 14. 
 
312 SCANDINAVIA AND NOETH GERMANY. Ceiai>. VII. 
 
 These last examples from Madsen's work are further interesting 
 to us as illustrating the difference between dolmens or chambers 
 always intended to be buried in tumuli and those which were 
 always meant to be exposed. In the chambers at Uby and 
 Smidstrup the stones are placed so closely together that very little 
 packing between them was sufficient to keep out the earth, and 
 the passages to them and other arrangements all indicate their 
 original destination. The case, however, is widely different with 
 the dolmens at Halskov and Valdbygaards, or those at Liineburg 
 or Hobisch, which evidently are now on their mounds as originally 
 designed. With a very little study it seems easy to detect the 
 original intentions in all these monuments ; but there is this 
 further difference. None of those intended to be exposed were 
 ever buried, while many which were meant to have been covered 
 up never received their intended envelope. 
 
 A monument having a considerable affinity to the two last 
 quoted exists, or perhaps rather existed, at Axevalla, in Wester- 
 gothland. It was opened apparently in 1805, and the repre- 
 sentations are taken from drawings then made by a Captain 
 Lindgren, who superintended the excavation by the king's com- 
 mand. It consists of one apartment 24 feet long by 8 feet wide 
 and 9 feet high. The sides and roof are composed of slabs of red 
 granite, which, if the plates are to be depended upon, were hewn 
 or at least shaped in some mechanical fashion. Instead of the 
 bodies being laid on the floor of the chamber as was usually the 
 case, and being found mixed up with debris and utensils of various 
 kinds, each of the nineteen who occupied this chamber had a little 
 cist to itself, so small and irregular-shaped, like those at Eose Hill 
 (woodcut No. 39), that the body had to be doubled up, in a most 
 uncomfortable position, to be placed in the cist. This was by no 
 means an uncommon mode of interment in those early ages, but if 
 the skeletons were really found in the attitudes here represented, 
 their interment must date from very recent times indeed. I know 
 there is nothing more common in archaeological books than to 
 represent skeletons sitting in most free and easy attitudes in their 
 boxes. 1 But if all the flesh had disappeared as completely as these 
 
 1 Bateman, ' Ten Years' Diggings,' p. 23. Lewellyn Jowett, ' Grave Mounds,' pp. 
 14 and 15. &c. 
 
Chap. VII. 
 
 DOLMENS. 
 
 313 
 
 drawings represent, trie integuments must have gone also, and if 
 they were either rotted or reduced to dust, the skeleton must have 
 collapsed and been found in a heap on the floor. It would be 
 interesting to know how long, either in very dry or in moist places, 
 the integuments would last so as to prevent this collapse before 
 they were disturbed. No qualified person has yet given an opinion 
 on such a subject, but the time could hardly extend to many 
 
 Dolmen at Axevalla. From Sjuborg. 
 
 centuries. But does the case really exist ? are not all these queer 
 skeletons merely the imaginings of enthusiastic antiquaries ? 
 
 Be this as it may, these elliptical and long rectangular dolmens, 
 with their arrangement of cists and entrances in the centre of the 
 longer side, seem so distinguished from those generally found in 
 other countries as to mark another province. It seems scarcely 
 open to doubt that the oval forms are the older, though what their 
 age may be is not so clear, nor have any descriptions of their 
 contents been published which would enable us to form distinct 
 
314 
 
 SCANDINAVIA AND NORTH GERMANY. 
 
 Chat. VII. 
 
 opinion on the subject. Flint implements have b°en found in 
 them, but, so far as I can gather, no bronze. According to the 
 Danish system, therefore, they are all before the time of Solomon 
 or the siege of Troy. It may be so, but I doubt it exceedingly. 
 Those who excavated the Axevalla tomb reported that something 
 like an inscription was found on one of the walls (woodcut No. 116, 
 tig. A); but whether it was an inscription or a natural formation is 
 by no means clear — at all events, as we have no copy of it, it 
 hardly helps us in arriving at a date. 
 
 In some respects, the Axevalla tomb resembles the grave near 
 Kivik, in the district of Cimbrishara, near the southern extremity 
 
 of Sweden. This is the most 
 celebrated of Swedish graves. 
 It is mentioned as perfect 
 by Linnasus in 1749, but was 
 shortly afterwards opened, 
 and drawings and illustra- 
 tions of it have from time to 
 time been published since, 
 and given rise to the usual 
 diversity of opinion. Suhm 
 and Sjoborg seem to agree 
 in connecting it with a battle 
 fought in that neighbour- 
 hood by Ragnar Lothbrok, 
 about the year 750, in which 
 the son of the then kin^ was 
 slain. 1 This date appears probable ; had it been later, there 
 would almost certainly have been found Runes on some of its 
 stones ; if earlier, the representations of the human figure would 
 hardly have been so perfect. One stone found elsewhere 
 (woodcut No. 117), 2 which seems to have been its head-stone, 
 has a curious resemblance to the head-stone of the Dol ar 
 Marchant, at Locmariaker, illustrated farther on. The likeness 
 may be accidental, but, as in all these cases, it is difficult to 
 believe that five or six centuries can have elapsed between 
 
 117. Head-stone of Kivik Grave. From Sjoborg. 
 
 1 Sjoborg. loc. sup. cit. 
 
 Now destroyed. Sjoborg, iii. pi. 10, p. 143. 
 
Chap. VII. DOLMENS. 315 
 
 two monuments which show so little progress; for whether this 
 stone belonged to the Kivik grave or not, it certainly is of 
 the same age and design, some of the figures on it being 
 identical with those found in the tomb, and that can hardly 
 be older than the date above quoted. Another of the stones of 
 this tomb has two of those circles enclosing crosses which are 
 seen on the Herrestrup dolmen and the Aspatria stone, all of 
 which probably belong to the eighth century. The tomb itself is 
 not remarkable for its dimensions, being only 14 feet long by 
 3 feet wide, and almost 4 feet in height. It is much too large, 
 however, for any single warrior's grave, but we are not told 
 whether it was occupied by a number of small cists like that at 
 Axevalla. The probability, however, is that this was the case, but 
 120 years ago men were not accurate observers of antiquarian 
 phenomena. 
 
 Besides these, there are two other forms of tombs which, so far 
 as is yet known, are quite peculiar to the Scandinavian province. 
 The first of these are the so-called ship graves, from their form. 
 They consist of two segments of a circle joined together at the 
 ends, so as to represent the deck of a vessel, and are of all sizes, 
 from 20 or 30 feet to 200 or 300 feet. They are generally found 
 on the sea-shore, and it seems hardly to be doubted that they 
 mark the graves of Vikings. 
 
 The other form is quite as peculiar, but more difficult to explain. 
 It is marked by a range of stones forming an equilateral triangle, 
 sometimes straight-lined, but as frequently the lines curve in- 
 wards so as to restrict the internal space considerably. It is by 
 no means clear what suggested this form, or what it was intended 
 to represent. It is, however, found on battle-fields (woodcut No. 
 118), and solitary examples are frequent in Sjoborg's plates, 
 sometimes with a Bauta stone in the centre. The one hypothesis 
 that seems to account for this form, is that it is the " Cuneatus 
 ordo" of Olaus Magnus, and that it marked a spot where a 
 combined phalanx of horse and foot fought and conquered. 1 The 
 probability is that where single it marks the grave of a particular 
 rank either in the army or in civil life. 
 
 All these forms are shown in the next woodcut, from a group 
 
 1 Vide ante, foot-note, p. 15. 
 
31G 
 
 SCANDINAVIA AND NORTH GERMANY. 
 
 Chap. VII. 
 
 found in the peninsula of Hjortehanmier, in Bleking, in the south 
 of Sweden, but others are found in the island at Ainrom, and in 
 many other places. 1 It has been, disputed whether these repre- 
 sent battle-fields or are the ordinary graves of the inhabitants of 
 the district in which they are found. That those found on the 
 shore at Freyrso (woodcut No. 104) mark the graves of those who 
 
 ' 
 
 Graves at Hjortehammcr. From Worsaae. 
 
 fell in Blodoxe's battle there in the tenth century seems quite 
 certain, but whether this was always the case may be open to 
 doubt ; but certainly a sandy peninsula, like that of Hjortehammer, 
 seems a most unlikely place for peaceful men to bury their dead, 
 especially at a time when not one-tenth part of the land around 
 could have been under cultivation. 
 
 For our present purposes it is of no great consequence which 
 opinion prevails, as these forms have no bearing on those of other 
 countries, especially as their date does not seem to be doubted. 
 Worsaae places them all between the years 700 and 1000, 2 or in 
 
 1 The woodcut is reduced from a plate 
 in "Worsaae's ' Alterthumskunde Scandi- 
 navians,' but both it and the Amrora 
 
 group are found in the ' English Archaeo- 
 logical Journal,' xxiii. p. 187. 
 
 - ' Archseol. Journal,' loc. sit. p. 185. 
 
Chap. VII. . DOLMENS. 317 
 
 the second and latest Iron age, and as no one seems to dispute 
 this, it may be accepted as an established fact. Their pecu- 
 liarities of form, and the smallness of the stones of which most 
 of them are composed, are such that the date here ascribed to 
 them does not necessarily bring down that of the true megalithic 
 remains to anything like the same age. It takes away, however, 
 all improbability from the assertion that these may be much more 
 modern than was supposed, and this much is certain that there was 
 no break between the great English and Irish circles and the Viking 
 graves ; or, in other words, men did not cease to mark their 
 sepulchres with circles and cairns, and then after a lapse of 
 centuries revive the custom, and begin it again on a smaller scale. 
 There may be a descent, but there was no solution of continuity, 
 and any one can consequently form an idea how long a time must 
 have elapsed before the great Wiltshire circles could have de- 
 generated into those of Hjortehammer. 
 
 There is one other group of monuments it seems worth while to 
 illustrate before leaving this branch of the subject. They are 
 found in the 
 
 CAUCUIO C CIO Li 3 a -~ a Q g O oooao'»<io<icpofl oooooo tfOoooexJe »°=><=»oooo«o 00 
 
 banks of the °l *tf$L8tfSS.. W#^MF *% U ■<&**% &&%* 
 
 vonia. At a pVV|V^iW^ 
 place called n ^ ^5g. if -^ ^,% ; j , */„ o « ? 
 
 about fly ;, , ~~ p* !^f#-^«%^% 
 
 miles as the «| ;;f A- <■•% jjti .; .is ;««■ S, 
 
 crow flies £V*£\s/ ° % ' s »^ ^V°;r-Ssr;» °°S»^" 
 
 from Kiga, is Q SS o*°° 0ooa *'* o> ° 6 ; 
 
 a group shown ,,„_„.., 
 
 ° -■■ 119. Circles at Ascnenrade. From Bahr. 
 
 in the accom- 
 panying woodcut. 1 The arrangement is unusual in Europe, but 
 is met with in Algeria, and seems to be only such a combination 
 
 extreme east *?s> a %%§£ g a Z SS*% ltil§?^"<?sSBSsa 
 of the pro- Kt\f\%:f\£ 
 vmce, on the S'A_ ZLJ &?>k..£Ulf 
 
 1 B'ahr, 'Die Graber tier Liven,' Dresden, 1850, pi. i. Unfortunately, as is too 
 often the case, no scale is engraved on the plate, and no dimensions are mentioned 
 in the text. 
 
318 SCANDINAVIA AND NORTH GERMANY. Chap. VII. 
 
 of the square enclosures of Scandinavia as we would expect to find 
 in a cemetery, as contradistinguished from a battle-field. 
 
 In these graves was found enormous wealth of bronze and other 
 metal and personal ornaments, many of which are engraved in Pro- 
 fessor Biihr's book. They resemble in many respects the celebrated 
 i- find " at Hallstadt, in the Salzkammergut ; 1 but mixed with these 
 Livonian treasures were great numbers of coins and implements 
 of iron of very modern form. The coins are classified as follows: — 
 
 German coins, dating from a.d. 936 to 1040. 
 
 Anglo-Saxon coins, dating from .. .. „ 991 „ 1036. 
 
 Byzantine coins, dating from „ 911 „ 1025. 
 
 Arabic or Kufic coins, dating from . . .. „ 906 „ 999. 
 
 It is curious that the Eastern coins should be so much earlier than 
 the others, but they are only five in number, and may have been 
 preserved as curiosities. The dates of the others prove, at all 
 events, that some of these tombs are not of earlier date than 1010. 
 and all. probably, are included in the century which preceded 
 that epoch. 
 
 Besides these, however, there are tumuli at a place called 
 Segewolde, and circles, sometimes with a stone in the centre, at 
 Bajard. and no doubt other remains of the same class in the dis- 
 trict. The purpose, however, of the only book I know on the subject 
 was not to illustrate the forms of tombs, but that of the objects 
 found in them, and to trace the ethnographic relations of the people 
 who possessed them with the other tribes who at various times 
 inhabited that district. The dates of the whole, according to their 
 describer, may safely be included between the eighth and the 
 twelfth century .- 
 
 Dp.exthe. 
 
 The most southern group of these monuments belonging to the 
 northern division is one of the most extensive, though unfor- 
 tunatelv one of the least known. It is situated almost exclusively 
 in the province of Drenthe, in North Holland, where the Hune- 
 beds — giants' beds or graves, as they are locally called — are 
 spread over an area extending some twenty miles north and south. 
 
 1 Not yet published, bo far as I know. * ' Die Giiber der Liven,' p. 51. 
 
Chap. VII. DEENTHE— HUNEBEDS. 319 
 
 and probably ten or twelve miles in the opposite direction. This 
 tract of country is a bare open heath, which even now is only 
 partially cultivated, or indeed capable of cultivation, and at 
 no time could have supported a population at all in proportion 
 to so extensive a group of monuments. 
 
 As long ago as 1720, Keysler drew attention to them, and gave 
 a representation of one in order to show its similarity to Stone- 
 henge. 1 The engraving, however, is so defective that it is im- 
 possible to make out what it represents, and as no dimensions 
 or statistics are given, it adds very little to our knowledge. A 
 short paper on the subject appeared in the ' Journal of the Archaeo- 
 logical Association ' in 1870, but unfortunately without any illus- 
 trations, 2 and we are consequently dependent for our knowledge of 
 them almost entirely to a work published at Utrecht in 1848, by 
 the late Dr. Janssen, keeper of the antiquities in the museum at 
 Leyden. This work is in many respects most painstaking and 
 satisfactory ; but, though it is hardly correct to say it, is without 
 illustrations, the Hunebeds are represented by conventional sym- 
 bols, which no one would guess were intended for buildings of any 
 sort without a most careful study of the book. I have ventured to 
 try to translate one of these into ordinary forms, in woodcut No. 120, 
 but without at all guaranteeing its correctness. It is, however, suf- 
 ficiently accurate to explain the general nature of the monuments. 
 
 Within the area above described, Janssen measured and de- 
 scribed fifty-one Hunebeds still existing, and they were probably 
 at one time much more numerous, as he regrets the loss of four 
 which he remembers in his youth ; and several others have been 
 very much ruined in very recent times. This, fortunately, is not 
 likely to happen again, as, with a liberality and intelligence not 
 shown by any other government in Europe, the Dutch have 
 purchased the Hunebeds and the ground on which they stand, 
 with a right of way to the nearest road, so that, so far as possible, 
 they will be protected from future depredations. 
 
 1 ' Ant. Septeat.' p. 5, pi. ii. , which, however, he never mentions. Be 
 
 2 It is by no nieaus clear "whether j this as it may, it is the best paper I 
 Mr. Sadler, who is the author of this I know of on the subject, and well "worthy 
 paper, ever visited the spot, or compiled ! of perusal. 
 
 his information from Janssen*s book. 
 
320 SCANDINAVIA AND NORTH GERMANY. Chap. VII. 
 
 Of these fifty-one monuments only one is a dolmen, in the sense 
 in which we usually understand it, meaning thereby a single cap 
 stone, supported by three, or, as in this instance, by four uprights. 
 This one is near Exlo, and is one of the few that formed a chamber 
 in a tumulus. A few have three cap stones, and from that 
 number they range up to ten or twelve, with at least double that 
 number of supports. They are all, in fact, of the class which the 
 French call " allees couvertes," or " grottes cles fees ; " Calliagh 
 Birra's house (woodcut No. 80) and the dolmens at Glen Columb- 
 kill are of the same class. But the Drenthe dolmens have one 
 peculiarity not found either in France or Ireland : that they are 
 all closed at both ends, and the entrance, where there is one, is 
 always on the longer side. In this respect they more resemble the 
 Scandinavian examples, such as the tomb at Axevalla (woodcut 
 No. 116), or that at Uby (woodcut No. 114). 
 
 The annexed attempted restoration of one near Emmen will give 
 a fair idea of their general arrangements. It is 49 feet long over 
 
 all, and inter- 
 ^ nally from 4 to 
 6 feet in width. 
 It is roofed 
 with nine or ten 
 stones, some 
 '"' "' of considerable 
 
 120. Plan of Hunebed near Emmen. dimensions. 
 
 Some of these 
 Hunebeds have a range of stones round them, not arranged in a 
 circle or oval form, but, as in this instance, following the lines of 
 the central chamber. This is the case with another near the 
 same place, which is 125 feet in length over all. When closely 
 examined, however, it does not seem to be one Hunebed, but 
 three ranging in a straight line, with a small space between 
 each. Two have five and one six cap stones. As a rule, each 
 cap stone stands on two uprights, and though frequently they 
 touch one another, as often they form really independent 
 trilithons. It was no doubt this fact that induced Keysler 
 to compare these monuments with Stonehenge, though in fact 
 no two sets of rude-stone monuments could well be more dis- 
 
Chap. VII. 
 
 DRENTHE— HUNEBEDS. 
 
 321 
 
 similar either in arrangement or construction. As will be seen 
 from the annexed view of one near Ballo 1 (woodcut No. 121), 
 they are formed of unshaped granite boulders. Sometimes, it 
 may be, artificially split, but certainly untouched by the chisel. 
 
 ^:- ■'' '■'■'" 
 121. Dolmen at Ballo. From a Photograph. 
 
 All that has apparently been done has been to select those most 
 appropriate in form for the purposes to which they were to be 
 applied, and then rudely to heap them one upon the other, but 
 in such a maimer as to leave wide gaps everywhere between the 
 stones composing the structure. 
 
 The first question that arises with regard to these Hunebeds 
 is, were they originally covered with earth or not ? That some 
 of the smaller ones were and are is clear enough, and some of 
 medium size are still partially so; but the largest, and many 
 of the smaller, do not show a vestige of any such covering; 
 and it seems impossible to believe that on a tract of wretched 
 barren heath, where the fee-simple of the land is not now worth 
 ten shillings an acre, any one could, at any time, have taken 
 the trouble to dig down and cart away such enormous mounds 
 as would have been required to cover these monuments. It seems 
 here clearer than almost anywhere else that, even if it had been 
 intended to cover them, that intention, in more than half the 
 cases, was never carried into effect. 
 
 1 The woodcut is from a photograph 
 kindly lent me by Mr. Franks. It is 
 sufficient to show the nature of the con- 
 
 struction, but the camera is a singu- 
 larly unintelligent interpreter of plan 
 or arrangements. 
 
322 SCANDINAVIA AND NORTH GERMANY. Chap. VII. 
 
 It may be taken for granted that these Hunebeds were at 
 one time much more numerous in Drenthe than they now are, 
 but it is a much more difficult point to ascertain whether they 
 extended into the neighbouring- provinces or not. One is found 
 in Groningen, and one in Friesland, and none elsewhere. It may, 
 of course, be that in these more fertile and thickly inhabited 
 districts they have been utilised, or removed as incumbrances 
 from the soil, while in Drenthe their component parts were of 
 no value, and they are useful as sheep-pens and pigstyes; and 
 to these uses they seem to have been freely applied. It may 
 be, also, that there are no granite boulders in the neighbouring 
 provinces, and that they are common in Drenthe. There cer- 
 tainly seem to be none in Guelderland, a country in which we 
 would expect to find monuments of this class, as it is the natural 
 line of connection with the German dolmen region; and unless 
 it is that there were no materials handy for their construction, it 
 is difficult to understand their absence. 
 
 As these Hunebeds have been open and exposed for centuries 
 at least — if they were not so originally — and have been used by 
 the peasantry for every kind of purpose, it is in vain to expect 
 that anything will now be found in them which can throw 
 much light on their age or use. We can only hope that an 
 untouched or only partially plundered example may be found 
 in some of the numerous tumuli which still exist all over the 
 country. I confess I do not feel sanguine that this will be 
 the case. I would hope more from the digging up of the floor 
 of those which are known, and a careful collection of any frag- 
 ments of pottery and other objects which may be found in them. 
 Nothing of any intrinsic value will be found, of course ; but what 
 is perfectly worthless for any other purpose may be most im- 
 portant in an antiquarian sense. Judging them from a general 
 abstract point of view, they do not seem of high antiquity, 
 and may range from the Christian era down to the time when 
 the people of this country were converted to Christianity, when- 
 ever that may have been. This, however, is only inferred from 
 their similarity to other monuments mentioned in the preceding 
 pages, not from any special evidence gathered from themselves 
 or from any local tradition bearing on their antiquity. 
 
Chap. VII. DRENTHE— HTLNEBEDS. 323 
 
 When we have examined the megalithic remains of Brittany 
 and of the north of France, we shall be in a better position than 
 we now are to appreciate the importance of the gap that exists 
 between the French and Scandinavian provinces ; but in the 
 meanwhile it may be convenient to remark even here that it 
 hardly seems doubtful that the Hunebeds of Drenthe and the 
 Grottes des fees of Brittany are expressions of the same feeling, 
 and, generally, that the megalithic remains of the southern and 
 northern divisions of the western parts of the European continent 
 are the works of similar if not identical races, applied to the 
 same uses, and probably are of about the same age. 
 
 These two provinces are now separated by the Rhine valley. 
 It is probably not too broad an assertion to say, there are no 
 true Rude-Stone Monuments in the valleys of the Rhine or 
 Scheldt, 1 or of any of their tributaries, or, in fact, in any of the 
 countries inhabited by the Germans and Belga3. The dolmen- 
 building races were, in fact, cut in two by the last-named race 
 on their way to colonise Britain. When that took place, we have 
 no exact means of knowing. According to Caesar, shortly before 
 his time, Divitiacus ruled over the Belgas of Gaul and Britain as 
 one province ; 2 and the inference from all we know — it is very 
 little — is that the Belgian immigration to this island was of 
 recent date at that time. Whether it was one thousand or ten 
 thousand years, the fact that interests us here is that it took 
 place before the age of the rude-stone monuments. If we admit 
 that the peoples who, from Cadiz to the Cimbric Chersonese, 
 erected these dolmens were one race — or, at least, had one religion 
 — and were actuated by one set of motives in their respect for the 
 dead, it seems impossible to escape from the conclusion that, 
 whether they came direct from the east, or migrated from the 
 south northward, or in the opposite direction, they at one time 
 formed a continuous community of nations all along the western 
 shores of Europe. They were cut across only in one place — 
 between Drenthe and Normandy — and that by a comparatively 
 modern people, the Belgse. If this is so, the separation took 
 
 1 There are several dolmens, as before 
 stated, in rugged mountainous parts of 
 Luxemburg, but they seem to belong to 
 
 the old races that in those corners were 
 not swept away by the Belgian current. 
 2 Caesar, ' Bell. Gall.' ii. p. 4. 
 
 Y 2 
 
324 SCANDINAVIA AND NOETH GERMANY. Chap. VII. 
 
 place in the pre-dolraen period, whenever that may have been. If 
 the original races in Belgium had been in the habit of erecting 
 dolmens before they were dispossessed by the intruders, we should 
 find remains at least of them there now, as we do both north 
 and south of that district. As the case now stands, the conclusion 
 seems inevitable that it was after their separation that the northern 
 and southern families, though no longer in contact, adopted, each 
 in its own peculiar fashion, those more permanent and megalithic 
 forms which contact with a higher civilization taught them to 
 aspire to, without abandoning the distinctions which separated 
 them from the more progressive Celts and the thoroughly civilized 
 Komaus. 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 The map opposite is compiled partly from the two by M. 
 Bertrand, mentioned p. 326, and partly from one which accom- 
 panies Baron de Bonstetten's ' Essai sur les Dolmens,' 1864. It 
 has been corrected, in so far as the scale would allow, from the 
 information since accumulated ; and may be considered as repre- 
 senting fairly our knowledge of the distribution of dolmens at 
 the present day. Till, however, the Governments of this country 
 and of Denmark condescend to take up the subject, such a map 
 must necessarily remain imperfect in its most vital parts. 
 
Chap. VIII. FKANCE— INTRODUCTORY. 325 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 FRANCE. 
 
 It is only in very recent times that the French have turned their 
 attention to the study of their Rude-Stone Monuments ; but since 
 they have done so, it has been in so systematic and. scientific 
 a manner that, had it been continued a few years longer, little 
 would have been left to be desired by the students of that class 
 of antiquities in France. War and revolution, however, inter- 
 vened just as the results of these labours were about to be 
 given to the world, and how long we may now have to wait for 
 them, no one can tell. The Musee de St.-Germain was far from 
 being complete in July last, and only the first parts of the great 
 ' Dictionnaire des Antiquites celtiques' had been published at that 
 time. We can now hardly hope that the necessary expenditure 
 will be continued which is indispensable to complete the former, 
 and it is difficult to foresee in what manner the materials collected 
 for the dictionary can now be utilised. 
 
 Even when much further advanced towards completion, it is 
 hardly to be expected that the museums of St.-Germain and 
 Vannes can rival the royal collections at Copenhagen ; and if the 
 French had confined themselves only to collecting, they would 
 not have advanced our knowledge very much ; but, while doing 
 this, they have also gathered statistical information, and have 
 been mapping and describing, so that our knowledge of their 
 monuments is much more complete than of those of the Danes. 
 To borrow a simile from kindred sciences, it is as if the Danes had 
 attended exclusively to the mineralogy of the subject : collecting 
 specimens from all parts, and arranging them according to their 
 similarities or affinities, wholly irrespective of the localities from 
 which they came. The French, on the other hand, have founded 
 a science similar to that of geology on their knowledge of the 
 minerals ; they have carefully noted the distribution of the various 
 classes of monuments, and, so far as possible, ascertained their 
 
326 FRANCE. Chap. VIII. 
 
 relative superposition. The first is, no doubt, a most useful 
 process, and one that must to a certain extent precede the other ; 
 but unless we map the various rocks on the surface and ascertain 
 their stratification, it hardly helps us in studying the formation or 
 history of our globe. 
 
 In 1864 M. Bertrand published in the ' Kevue archeologique ' a 
 small map of France, showing the distribution of dolmens as then 
 known ; and three years afterwards another, on a much larger scale, 
 intended to accompany the ' Dictionnaire des Antiquites celtiques,' 
 and containing all that was then known. Were a second edition of 
 this map published now, it would, no doubt, be much more full and 
 complete ; but the main outlines must still be the same, and are 
 sufficient for our present purposes. From these maps and the text 
 which accompanies them we learn that the greater number of the 
 rude-stone monuments in France are arranged at no great distance 
 on either side of a straight line drawn from the shores of the Medi- 
 terranean, somewhere about Montpellier, to Morlaix, in Brittany. 
 There are none east of the Rhone, none south of the Garonne, 
 till we come to the Pyrenees, and so few north of the basin or 
 valley of the Seine that they may be considered as wanderers. 
 
 Referring to the table at the end of this chapter, which is 
 compiled from that of 1864, we find that thirty departments 
 contain more than ten monuments. Thirty others, according to 
 M. Bertrand, contain from one to eight or nine ; and the remaining 
 twenty-nine either contain none at all or these so insignificant as 
 hardly to deserve attention. 
 
 From this table we learn, at least approximately, several facts 
 of considerable interest to our investigation. The first is that, of 
 the three divisions into which Caesar divides Gau], the northern 
 in his day belonged to a race who who had no stone monuments. 
 There are none in Belgium proper, and so few in French Flanders, 
 or indeed in any part of Gallia Belgica, that we may safely assert 
 that the Belgse were not dolmen-builders. In the next place, I 
 cannot help agreeing with M. Bertrand in his conclusion that the 
 Celts properly so called have as little claim to the monuments as 
 the Belga?. 1 We know something of the provinces occupied by 
 
 ' Revue archeologique,' August, 1864, 148 el seqq. 
 
Chap. VIII. DISTRIBUTION OF DOLMENS. 327 
 
 the Celts six hundred years before Christ from Livy's * description 
 of the tribes who, under Bellevesus, invaded Italy. Their capital 
 was Bruges, and they occupied the departments immediately 
 around that city ; but they had not then penetrated into Brittany, 
 nor north of the Seine, nor into any part of Aquitauia. 2 But 
 they occupied the whole of the east of Gaul up, apparently, to the 
 Rhine and the country on the east bank of the Rhone. According 
 to the French statistics, there are 140,000 barrows or tumuli in the 
 departments of the Cote-d'Or, Yosges, Haut-Rhin, Bas-Rhin, Doubs, 
 Jura, and Ain, but not one single dolmen ; 3 and there are none 
 to the east of the Rhine. As we proceed westward, the tumuli 
 become rarer, and the dolmens are gradually met with. The 
 Averni, for instance, were one of the Celtic tribes that accom- 
 panied Bellovesus, and in. their country dolmens are found ; but 
 perhaps we need only infer from this that in a hilly country 
 like Auvergne the older people still remained, and followed their 
 old customs in spite of its partial occupation by the conquering 
 Celts. We do not know at what period the Celts first invaded 
 Gaul, but there seems no reason for supposing that it could not 
 be very long before they first came in contact with the Romans ; 
 and if we may judge from the rate of progress which they made 
 in subduing the rest of the country in historic times, their first 
 invasion could hardly have been a thousand years B.C. All the 
 tumuli in the east of France which have been dug into have 
 yielded implements of bronze and metal, 4 and if they belonged 
 to the Celts, this would fairly accord with the conclusions at 
 which archaeologists have arrived from other sources with regard 
 to the Bronze age. It is not, however, worth while following 
 up the question here ; for unless it could be proved that the 
 dolmens either succeeded or preceded the tumuli, it has no 
 bearing on our argument. The fact of their occupying different 
 and distinct districts prevents any conclusion of the sort being- 
 arrived at from geographical or external considerations. Their 
 contents, if compared, might afford some information, but up to 
 the present time this has not been done, and all we can at present 
 
 1 Livy, v. chap. 34. a < R evue archeologique,' new series, 
 
 2 Walcknaer, ' Geographic ties Gaules.' vii. 228. 
 The earlier chapters and Map V. 4 Ibid. 
 
328 FRANCE. Chap. VIII. 
 
 assume is that there were two contemporary civilizations, or 
 barbarisms, co-existing simultaneously on the soil of France. My 
 impression is, however, that the Celtic barrow-builders were earlier 
 converts to Christianity, and left off their heathenish mode of 
 burial long before the less easily converted dolmen-builders of the 
 west ceased to erect their Rude-Stone Monuments. 
 
 We are thus reduced to the third of the great provinces into 
 which Gaul was divided in Caesar's time, to try and find the people 
 who could have erected the stone monuments of France, and at 
 first sight it seems extremely probable that they were erected by 
 the Aquitanians. Both Caesar 1 and Strabo 2 distinctly assert that 
 the people of the southern province differed from the Celts in 
 language and institutions as well as in features, and add that 
 they resembled more the Iberians of Spain than their northern 
 neighbours. When, however, we come to look more closely into 
 the matter, we find that the Aquitania of Caesar was confined 
 to the country betweeu the Garonne and the Pyrenees, and where, 
 however, few, if any, dolmens now exist. They are rather frequent 
 in the Pyrenees 3 aud the Asturias, where remnants of the dolmen- 
 building races may have found shelter and continued to exist after 
 their congeners were swept from the plains ; and there are one or 
 two on the left bank of the Garonne, but except these there 
 are none in Aquitania proper. If, however, we apply the term 
 Aquitania to the province as extended by Augustus up to the 
 left bank of the Loire, we include the greater part of the pro- 
 vinces where dolmens are found ; but here again, when we look 
 more closely into it, we find that the northern districts of this 
 great province were, in Augustus' time, inhabited by Celts, or, at 
 all events, that Celts formed the governiug and influential bodies 
 in the states. Indeed, the fact seems to be that, during the six 
 centuries which elapsed between the invasions of Italy by the 
 Gauls and the return invasion of Gaul by the Romans, the Celts 
 had gradually extended themselves over the whole of central 
 France from the Garonne to the Seine, and had obliterated the 
 political status of the people who had previously occupied the 
 
 1 ' Do Bello Gall.' i. 1. 2 Strabo, vi. 176, 189. 
 
 3 'Archaeological Journal,' 1870, cviii. p. '225 el seqq. 
 
Chap. VIII. DISTRIBUTION OF DOLMENS. 329 
 
 country, though there is no reason to suppose they had then at 
 least attempted to exterminate them. It must thus be either that 
 the Celts were the builders of the dolmens, which appears most 
 improbable, or that there existed in these provinces a prehistoric 
 people to whom they must be ascribed. 
 
 Without at all wishing, at present at least, to insist upon it, I 
 may here state that the impression on my mind is every day 
 growing stronger that the dolmen-builders in France are the 
 lineal descendants of the Cave men whose remains have recently 
 been detected in such quantities on the banks of the Dordogne 
 and other rivers in the south of France. 1 These remains are 
 found in quantities in the Ardeche 2 and in Poitou. 3 If they 
 have not been found in Brittany, it may be that they have not 
 been looked for, or that the soil is unfavourable to their pre- 
 servation ; but they have been found in Pi card y, though possibly 
 not exactly of the same class. It is, of course, dangerous to found 
 any argument on such local coincidence, as new discoveries may 
 be made in the east of France or elsewhere ; but in the present 
 state of our knowledge the Cave men and the dolmens seem 
 not only conterminous but thsir frequency seems generally to be 
 coincident. 
 
 As we know next to nothing of the languages spoken in the 
 south-west of France before the introduction of the Romance 
 forms of speech, philology will hardly assist us in our enquiry. 
 There is, however, one particle, ac, which I cannot help think- 
 ing may prove of importance, when its origin is ascertained. In 
 the table at the end of this chapter, I have placed the number 
 of the names of the cities having this termination in each depart- 
 ment 4 next to M. Bertrand's number of dolmens. The coin- 
 cidence is certainly remarkable, more especially as it is easy to 
 
 1 Lartet, Cliristy, and 'Reliquiae Aqui- 
 tanicse.' London, 1865 et seqq. 
 
 2 ' Monuments me'galithiques du Viva- 
 rais,' p. Oil. de Marchand ; Montpellier, 
 1870. 
 
 3 ' Epoques ante'historiques du Poi- 
 tou,' P. A. Brouillet ; Poitiers, 1865. 
 
 of names as well as I could. I feel far 
 from confident that I have counted all >' 
 and, besides, tlie scale of the maps is too 
 small to feel sure that all, or nearly all, 
 are there. It is, however, sufficient for 
 present purposes of comparison. If it 
 is thought worth while to pursue the 
 
 4 This li&t must be taken as only investigation farther, it must be done on 
 tentative. All I have done was to take j the 80,000 scale map of France, which 
 the Afcla3 Joanne, and count the number '■ would be work of great labour. 
 
330 FRANCE. Chap. VIII. 
 
 account for the comparative paucity of names with this termi- 
 nation in Brittany by taking into account the enormous reflex 
 wave of Celtic population from England that overwhelmed that 
 country in the fourth and fifth centuries, and changed the nomen- 
 clature of half the places in the district : still, Carnac and Tumiac, 
 Missilac, and others, as names of monuments, and Yffignac, as 
 the name attached to the port which I believe was the place 
 of embarkation for England, with many others that remain, are 
 sufficient to attest that more previously may have existed. 
 
 The question remains, what is this particle ? The first impulse 
 is to assume that it is the Basque definite article. The 
 Basques, for instance, say Guizon, " a man," Guizonac, " the 
 man," and Guizonac, " the men," besides using it in other cases, 
 while their local proximity to the dolmen country would render 
 such a connection far from improbable. Against this, however, 
 it may be urged, that ac, as a terminal syllable, hardly ever 
 occurs in the Basque provinces, and the names to which it is 
 attached in France hardly seem to belong to that language. 
 Another suggestion has been made, 1 that it is equivalent to the 
 Greek word iroka, which would be exactly the signification for 
 which we are looking, though in what language this occurs is 
 by no means clear. For our present purpose, however, it is of 
 little consequence what it may or may not be. It is sufficient 
 to know that its occurrence is, as nearly as may be, coincident 
 with the existence of dolmens. It does not occur to the eastward 
 of the Bhone, nor do dolmens, though both are frequent on the 
 right bank of that river ; and it is not to be found in the east of 
 France, in those countries which we have reason to believe were 
 at the dawn of history essentially Celtic, and where the tumuli of 
 the Bronze period exist in such numbers. It does, however, occur 
 in that part of Cornwall south of Redruth and west of Falmouth, 2 
 where all the rude-stone monuments of that province are found, 
 but it is not found anywhere else in Great Britain or Ireland. 
 
 1 Delpon, ' Statistique du De'partement J maps always spelt with an addition;;! I; 
 
 du Lot,' i. p. 383. 
 
 2 In the Ordnance Maps, 1-inch scale, 
 the termination ac occurs at least 38 
 times in this corner, though in these 
 
 as Botallac/i, CarnidjacA- ; although this is 
 hy no means the usual or ancient spelling 
 of the district. 
 
Chap. VIII. DISTRIBUTION OF DOLMENS. 331 
 
 Nor is it found in the Channel Islands, though dolmens abound 
 there ; but this may be accounted for by the subsequent colonisa- 
 tion of these islands, as of Brittany in more modern times, by 
 races of a different origin, who have to a great extent obliterated 
 the original nomenclature of the country. 
 
 Equally interesting, however, for our purposes is the fact that, 
 though the ae -termination occurs frequently in the depart- 
 ments between the Garonne and the Pyrenees, no dolmens exist 
 in that region except, as before mentioned, a few at the roots 
 of the mountains. This, at first sight, might seem to militate 
 against the universality of the theory ; but I, on the other hand, 
 only take it to express that the ae-people were driven from 
 that country by Ibero-Aquitanians before they had adopted the 
 fashion of stone monuments. If we knew when Aquitania was 
 first occupied by the people whom Caesar and Strabo found there, 
 it would give us a date before which dolmens could hardly have 
 existed ; but as we have no materials for the purpose, all that can 
 be said is that, just as the dolmen races were cut in two by the 
 Belgae before the use of stone for funereal monuments had been 
 introduced, so here the same phenomenon occurred, and the people 
 we have to deal with were driven north of the Garonne, west of 
 the Rhone, and south of the Seine, before they took to building- 
 dolmens — assuming, of course, that they once had extended 
 beyond those limits ; but this, except in the case of Aquitania 
 proper, does not at present seem capable of being proved. 
 
 Before the Romans came in contact with them, and our first 
 written accounts describe them, they had ceased to be a nation 
 politically, and their language also was lost, or, at least, except in 
 the one syllable ae, we now know nothing of it. If, therefore, 
 it may be argued, the nationality of this people was lost before 
 the Christian era, and their language had become extinct, these 
 monuments must belong to a long anterior period. There are, 
 however, certain considerations which would make us pause before 
 jumping too hastily to this conclusion. There are, throughout 
 the whole dolmen region of the south of France, a series of 
 churches whose style is quite distinct from that of central and 
 northern France. The typical example of this style is the 
 well-known church of St.-Front, Perigueux. But the churches at 
 
332 
 
 FRANCE. 
 
 Chap. VIII. 
 
 Cahors, at Souillac, at Moissac, Peaussac, Treniolac. St.-Avit- 
 Senieur, and many others are equally characteristic. The 
 cathedral at Angouleme. the abbey church at Fontevrault, and 
 St.-Maurice at Angers, 1 and the church at Loches — all these 
 churches are characterized by possessing domes, and the earlier 
 ones by having pointed arches which look very much more as if 
 they were derived from the horizontal arches of the tumuli than 
 from the radiating arches of the Romans, which the Celts every- 
 where adopted ; and, altogether, the style is so peculiar that no 
 one the least familiar with it can ever mistake it for a Celtic 
 style. All belong to the same group, and as distinctly as, or even 
 more so than, the ae-temiination, mark out the country as inhabited 
 in the eleventh and twelfth centuries by a people differing from 
 the Celts. Though, therefore, both their nationality and their 
 language may have been superseded by those of the more enter- 
 prising and active Celts before the time of Caesar, it is evident 
 they retained their old feeling and a separate internal existence 
 to a period at least a thousand years later. 
 
 There is still another trait that marks this country as a non- 
 Celtic country in historical times — it is in the south-west, and 
 there only, in France that Protestantism ever flourished or took 
 root. To the Celt, the transition was everywhere easy from the 
 government of the hierarchy of the Druids to that of the similarly 
 organized priesthood of Rome. But it required all the cruel 
 power of the Inquisition — the crusades of Simon de Montfort — 
 the exterminating wars against the Camisards of the Cevennes — ■ 
 and, in fact, centuries of the most cruel and unrelenting perse- 
 cution down to the revocation of the Edict of Xantes, and, 
 indeed, to the French Revolution — to exterminate this people 
 and extirpate the faith and feelings to which they clung. If 
 they have in their veins, as I fancy they must have, any of the 
 blood of the Cave people, they belong to one of the least 
 progressive people of the earth, and we should not therefore be 
 surprised if it required two thousand years of Celtic aggressive- 
 
 1 The whole of these churches are de- 
 scribed in more or less detail by Fe'rLx de 
 VerneUh in his 'Architecture )>vzantinc 
 
 en France,' 4to. Paris, 1S51. Several of 
 them are also illustrated in my ' History 
 of Architecture,' i. 418-441. 
 
Chap. VIII. DISTRIBUTION OF DOLMENS. 333 
 
 ness, coupled with Celtic ferocity, entirely to obliterate this race, 
 if, indeed, that is done even now, which I very much doubt. 
 
 Before leaving this part of the subject, there is one other 
 question which it may be as well to allude to here, as these 
 investigations into the distribution of the rude-stone monu- 
 ments seem destined to throw a new and important light 
 upon it. Few questions have been more keenly debated among 
 the learned than the relationship stated to have existed 
 between the Cimbri and the Gauls. A great deal has been, 
 and can be, said on both sides, 1 but the difficulty appears to 
 me to have arisen principally from the erroneous assumption that 
 no other people except the Celts existed in France. 
 
 There is no trace of Celts or of a Celtic language in the 
 Cimbric Chersonese or the north-west corner of Europe, which 
 is generally assumed to be the country occupied by the Cimbri, 
 and no such people as the Cimbri are found settled in any part 
 of France in historical times. If, however, we assume that the 
 relationship may have been between the Cimbri and the Aqui- 
 tanians, the case assumes a totally different aspect. As we do 
 not know what the language of the Aquitanians really was, 
 no assistance can be obtained from it, but our very ignorance of 
 it leaves the field open for any other evidence that may be 
 adduced, and that of the monuments seems clear and distinct. 
 It seems almost impossible that there should be so much 
 similarity between the monuments of the two countries without 
 some community of race, and the great likeness that exists 
 between those on the southern frontier of the northern dolmen 
 province and those on the northern edge of the southern 
 dolmen field seems almost to settle the question. 
 
 From history we only know of the existence of this relation- 
 ship by the mode in which they fought together against Marius in 
 the late Roman wars. If they were then geographically separated 
 by the Belgse and the Celts having thrust themselves between 
 
 1 The argument, which it is not necessary to enter on here, has been well summed 
 up by Dr. Sclunitz, in Smith's ' Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography,' sub 
 voce Cimbri. 
 
334 FRANCE. Chap. VIII. 
 
 them, the separation must have been recent, for a barbarian 
 people could hardly be brought to acknowledge the ties and 
 duties of relationship after a long interval of time. 1 
 
 As may be gathered from the table, page 376, or the map 
 opposite page 324, the rude-stone monuments are pretty evenly 
 distributed over the whole of the area extending from the English 
 Channel to the Mediterranean Sea. Our knowledge of them is, 
 however, practically confined to the northern portion of this zone, 
 known as Brittany. The information which is available regarding 
 those of Langnedoc and Guienne is of the most meagre description. 
 Hundreds of English tourists have visited Brittany, and many of 
 them have drawn tlie monuments there and at least described 
 them intelligibly; but I do not know one English book that 
 mentions those in the departments of Lot or Dordogne, and almost 
 the only information regarding them is to be picked up from the 
 local " Statistiques ; " but as these are very rarely illustrated, they 
 do not suffice. No form of words will convey a correct idea of any 
 unknown architectural monument except by comparing it with one 
 that is known; and unless both have some well-defined features 
 of style, it is even then very difficult, and with rude unshaped 
 stones, almost impossible, by words to convey what is intended. 
 
 It is to be regretted that we do not know more of the southern 
 examples, 2 as they are different in several essential features from 
 
 1 The existence of this line of dolmens then through CVltica, but round the 
 
 and of a separate people, all the way from Aquitania of Augustus, and reaching 
 
 Brittany to Narbonne, may serve, perhaps, Britain through the country of the 
 
 to explain the mode in which the tin of Morini, which was the route Caesar 
 Britain found its way across France to the : followed. This does not, however, appear 
 
 Mediterranean Sea. That the Veneti to have been the line which was taken 
 traded from the Cotes-du-Nord and the | by the trade in tin. It followed, so far 
 
 Morbihan to Corn wall and the Cassiterides, as we know, [_the central line of the 
 
 no one, probably, will dispute. Their dolmen country; and the fact of one 
 
 vessels, according to Cassar's account, people and one language prevailing 
 
 were fully equal to carrying to France throughout the whole of that region 
 
 all the metal this country could produce, takes away any improbability, and re- 
 
 The road by which it reached Marseilles moves all the difficulties that have 
 
 across France was always the difficulty, hitherto impeded the adoption of that 
 
 In later times, the Celtic trade-route hypothesis. 
 
 across Fiance was apparently up the 2 My intention was to have spent 
 
 Rhone, but on its left bank, and down last autumn in travelling through the 
 
 the Seine, or on its right bank ; jrassing southern departments of France with 
 
Chap. VIIL 
 
 AGE OF DOLMENS. 
 
 335 
 
 those of the north ; and it is probable that any one who was familiar 
 with all could point out a gradation of style which would aid 
 materially in determining their age. Whatever that may turn 
 out eventually to be, no one will, I presume, contend that all are 
 of one age or even of one century. It is far more probable that 
 they extend over a considerable lapse of time, probably a thousand 
 years, and if this is so, there must have been changes of fashion 
 even among Cave races as their blood got more and more mixed ; 
 and it would be interesting to know where and — relatively at least 
 — when this took place. My present impression is that the southern 
 are the most modern, for this among other reasons. — I look on 
 the sequence of a cist in a barrow to a dolmen or chamber in a 
 tumulus as very nearly certain, and from that the sequence to the 
 exposed free-standing dolmen, and from that to the dolmen on 
 the tumulus, as nearly, if not quite as, probable. The latter form, 
 so far as I know, never occurs in Brittany, while on the other hand 
 it is common in the south of France. 1 If they are of the same 
 
 Dolmen at Sauclieres. 
 
 age as similar monuments in Scandinavia and Ireland, they must 
 be of comparatively modern date. There are also some monu- 
 
 tkis intent; but the war rendered the 
 position of an exploring and sketching 
 foreigner so undesirable that I was forced 
 to desist. Had this book been a "sta- 
 tisque" of the subject, as it was origin- 
 ally intended, I should have been 
 obliged to defer its publication tdl I had 
 accomplished this journey, or till the 
 monuments had been illustrated. As, 
 however, it has now assumed more the 
 
 form of an " argument," this is of com- 
 paratively little consequence. 
 
 1 In a paper on the ' Monuments me'ga- 
 lithiques de lAuvergne,' byM.Cartheilliac, 
 in the Norwich volume of the Prehistoric 
 Congress, he gives drawings of ten as 
 types. Five of these, or one-half, are dol- 
 mens on tumuli, which is, however, pro- 
 bably more than a fair proportion. One 
 has already been given, woodcut No. 8. 
 
336 FRANCE. Chap. VHI. 
 
 raents, trilithons of hewn or partially hewn stone, as this one at 
 Sauclieres (woodcut No. 122), which at least look more modern 
 than their northern congeners. 
 
 The monument, however, that seems capable of throwing the 
 greatest amount of light on their age is the dolmen of St.-Germain- 
 sur-Vienne, near Confolens, in Poitou. As will be seen from the 
 woodcuts opposite, its cap-stone, measures 12 feet by 15 feet, and is 
 of proportionate thickness. The mass was originally supported by 
 five columns of Gothic design, but one having fallen away, it now 
 rests only on four ; but their interest arises from the fact that 
 the style of their ornamentation belongs undoubtedly to the 
 twelfth century or thereabouts — certainly not earlier than the 
 eleventh. In order to explain away so unwelcome an anomaly, it 
 has been suggested, that some persons in the twelfth century cut 
 away all the rest of the original rude stones which supported the 
 cap-stone, and left only the frail shafts which we now see. If this 
 were so, it would in no way alter the argument to be derived 
 from it. If men could be found in the twelfth century to take 
 the trouble and run the enormous risk of such an operation, their 
 respect for the monument must have been quite equal to that im- 
 plied in its erection ; but the fact is that each of the five columns 
 is composed of three separate pieces — a base, a shaft, and a capital, 1 
 an we see them now as they were originally erected. 2 
 
 There may be doubts about the tomb of the Moals at Ballina 
 (page 233), but doubt seems impossible with regard to this : it 
 is a dolmen pure and simple, and it was erected in the twelfth 
 century. In itself the fact may not be of any very great im- 
 portance, but it cuts away the ground from any a priori argument 
 as to the age of these monuments. It does not, of course, prove 
 that they are all modern, but it does show that some of them at 
 
 1 ' Statistique nionurnentale de la Cha- I to the destruction of these " venerated 
 rente,' 141. Richard, 'France monu- stones." He (p. 141) gives the date of 
 men tale,' p. 677. 'Mem. de la Socie'te this council as a.i>. 1262, which would 
 
 royale des Antiquairea de France,' 
 vii. 26. 
 
 2 The woodcuts are copied from 
 
 almost make it appear that this was one 
 of the stones against which the decree 
 was fulminated. This date, however, 
 
 Michon, ' Statistique de la Charente.' j appears to he a mistake. The true date 
 In describing it, he quotes the Edict I believe to be 658, as given above, 
 of the Council at Nantes with regard p. 24. 
 
Chap. VflT. 
 
 AGE OF DOLMENS. 
 
 337 
 
 least were erected after the time of the Bomans, and at an era 
 extending even far into the middle ages. 
 
 Dolmen at Confolens. 
 
 It is amusing, however, to see how the French antiquaries 
 resist such a conclusion. Dr. de Closmadeuc, for instance, one of 
 the most distinguished antiquaries of 
 Brittany, opened a perfectly virgin 
 iumulus at Crubelz. After pene- 
 trating through three distinct but 
 undisturbed strata, he reached the 
 roof of the enclosed dolmen or cham- 
 ber. In this he found the usual pro- 
 ducts of cremation and the inevitable 
 flint arrow-heads, but he refers in 
 triumph to the " absence de toute 
 trace des rnetaux." " Aucun doute," 
 he adds, " n'est done possible. Ce 
 dolmen appartient bien a cette classe 
 de monuments primitifs de l'age de pierre. 
 
 z 
 
 Plan of Dolmen at Confolens. 
 
 So far all is clear 
 
338 FRANCE. Chap. VIII. 
 
 but there are still difficulties, for he goes on to say : " Nous 
 tenons peu de compte des debris de tuiles antiques rencontrees 
 a la superficie du tumulus, et meme sous les tables du dolmen. II 
 est raisonnable d'admettre que ces fragments de tuiles qui de- 
 noncent 1'industrie gallo-romaine, ont accidentellement penetre 
 dans 1'interieur." 1 
 
 Let us pause a moment to consider what is involved in such 
 a supposition. These tiles, which it is admitted are scattered in 
 quantities over the surrounding plain, must have climbed, to the 
 top of the mound, penetrated through three undisturbed strata of 
 earth, and finally penetrated " accidentally " between the close- 
 fitting slabs forming the roof of the chamber. The hypothesis will 
 not bear a moment's examination, but anything, however absurd, 
 is to some minds preferable to admitting that any dolmen or 
 tumulus can be subsequent to Roman times. It is astonishing, 
 however, what effect that shibboleth, '-no trace of metal," has 
 on the mind of most antiquaries. It is, of course, true that before 
 the metals were introduced no trace of them could be found in 
 the prehistoric barrows of the rude savages that occupied Europe 
 in the earliest times. We do not, at the present day, bury 
 metal objects in our graves, and but for the coffin nails it would 
 be as fair to argue that the graves in Kensal Green are pre- 
 historic because the interments show no trace of metal imple- 
 ments. At all events, there are many burying races now existing 
 who do not use coffins, nor bury metal objects in their graves ; and 
 all these this argument would make prehistoric. To me it seems 
 much more logical to assume that, in those countries which had 
 been occupied by the Romans, the natives, though reverting after 
 their departure to their original modes of sepulture, had at least 
 been so far civilized as to know that bronze daggers and spear- 
 heads were not likely to be of much use in the next world, and 
 had come to the conclusion that the personal ornaments of the 
 dead might as well remain with their living friends. This hypo- 
 thesis would at least account for the absence of metal in the 
 long barrows of Gloucestershire, and at West Kennet, as well 
 as at Crubelz, though Roman pottery was found in all these 
 
 1 ' Rev. arcMologique,' ix. 400. 
 
Chap. VJII. AGE OF DOLMENS. 339 
 
 instances. In fact, it is the merest negative presumption to 
 assume that, because no metal is found in a grave, it must be 
 prehistoric. It may be of any age, down to yesterday's, in so far 
 as such proof is concerned. 
 
 Even the presence of metal, however, does not disturb the faith 
 of some antiquaries. The Baron de Bonstetten, for instance, 
 opened a tumulus not far from Crubelz. At one foot (30 centi- 
 metres) below the undisturbed surface the usual deposit of flint 
 implements Avas found ; and two feet (60 centimetres) ' below 
 them two statuettes of Latona in terra-cotta and a coin of Con- 
 stantine II. were found, but without this in the least degree shaking 
 his undoubting faith in the prehistoric antiquity of the tomb I 1 
 
 Numerous other Boman coins have been found in these French 
 monuments, but their testimony is disregarded. In the Mamie 
 er H'roek, commonly called the Butte de Cesar, about half a mile 
 south from Locruariaker, near the surface, eleven medals of the 
 Boman emperors, from Tiberius to Trajan, were found, together 
 with fragments of bronze, glass, and pottery, but there were no 
 signs of a secondary interment. 2 In like manner, in another monu- 
 ment at Beaumont-sur-Oise, Boman moneys were found, but, as M. 
 Bertrand is careful to explain, in a stratum above the stone and 
 flint implements, which, of course, he believed to mark the true date 
 of the monument. 3 It seems impossible, however, that all these 
 Boman coins can have been accidentally placed there. Those of 
 Yalentinian and Theodosius in the mound at New Grange were 
 precisely in the same position as those of Titus, Domitian, and 
 Trajan in the Butte de Cesar or those of Beaumont, and so were 
 those of Constantine found at Uley, in Gloucestershire (ante, p. 165). 
 Those of Yalentinian at Minning Lowe were in the tomb itself; 
 so probably might others have been found in the other tombs had 
 they not previously been rifled. It is not easy to assign a motive 
 for placing these coins in the upper part of the mound externally. 
 Their being found in that position at New Grange, Uley, Locma- 
 riaker, and Beaumont, is, however, sufficient to prove it was not 
 
 1 ' Essai sur les Dolmens,' p. 38. 1863), describing the exploration. 
 
 2 Paper read by S. Ferguson, Q.C., 
 before the E. I. A. 14th Dec. 1863. See 
 also pamphlet by Bene Galles (Vannes, 
 
 3 ' Congres prehistorique,' vol. de 
 Paris, 1868, 42. 
 
 z 2 
 
340 FKANCE. Chap. VIII. 
 
 accidental, and their value is so small that they could not have 
 been buried there for concealment. They must have had something 
 to do with some funereal rite or superstition, the memory of which 
 has passed away. No ancient British or Gaulish coins have ever 
 been found in similar positions, and no Christian coins, which, 
 had their presence been purely accidental, would probably have 
 been the case. The inference seems to me inevitable that they 
 were looked on as valued relies or curiosities, and placed there 
 intentionally by those who raised the mounds it may be very 
 lono- after the dates which the coins bear. 
 
 Dolmens. 
 
 There is nothing specific in the Rude Stone Monuments of 
 France sufficient to distinguish them from those of the other 
 countries Ave have been describing. They are larger, finer, and 
 more numerous there than in either Scandinavia or the British 
 Isles, but except in the negative peculiarity of there being no 
 circles in France there is little to distinguish the two groups. 
 It can hardly even be absolutely asserted that there are no circles 
 in France. There are some semicircles, which may possibly have 
 been parts of circles never completed ; there are some rows of 
 small stones around or on tumuli ; but certainly nothing that can 
 for one moment be classed with the great circles of Cumberland 
 and Wiltshire, or those of Moytura and Stennis, and certainly 
 nothing like the innumerable Scandinavian examples. 
 
 We are hardly yet in a position to speculate why this should 
 be so; but, so far as I can at present see, I would infer from this 
 that the French examples are, as a rule, of earlier date than the 
 British and Scandinavian. The circle I take to be one of the 
 latest forms of rude stone architecture — the skeleton of a tumulus, 
 after the flesh of the sepulchral mound, which gave meaning to 
 the group, had be.'ii thrown on one side as no longer indispensable. 
 But of this we shall be better able to judge as we proceed. 
 
 Another characteristic, although not a distinction, is the fondness 
 of the French for the " Allee couverte " or " Grotte des lees." 
 No examples of this form have yet been brought to light in 
 England, but one is engraved (woodcut No. SO) as the Hag 
 
Chap. VIII. GEOTTES DES FEES. 341 
 
 Birra's grave near Monasterboice, a second from the same neigh- 
 bourhood, at Greenmount (woodcut No. 81), and they exist in 
 Scandinavia, but their home is Drenthe and the neighbouring 
 corner of Germany. As already mentioned, upwards of fifty 
 examples exist in that province. They are much ruder, it must 
 be confessed, than those of France ; but this may arise from the 
 nature of the only material available ; they have also the peculi- 
 arity of having the entrance always at the side instead of -at the 
 end. 
 
 So far as their distribution in France has yet been ascertained, 
 the Grottes des fees exist only on the Loire, and to the north of 
 it, in fact in the most northern- division of the French dolmen 
 region ; while, on the other hand, as they are principally found in 
 Drenthe, or at the southern extremity of the German dolmen field, 
 we may assume that there is some connection between the two, 
 or that there would have been if it had not been severed by the 
 Belgians before those in either region were erected. 
 
 One of the finest of the French examples of this class of 
 monuments is that near Saumur, at Bagneux. The walls are 
 composed of only four stones on one side and three on the 
 other, yet it measures 57 feet 6 inches by 14 feet 4 inches across. 
 Another, near Esse, is even larger, though not so regular in plan, 
 nor so grand in the character of the stones. It measures, how- 
 ever, 61 feet by 12 feet at the entrance, increasing to 14 feet over 
 all at the inner end. There is a third at Mettray, near Tours, 
 which, though very much smaller, is curiously characteristic of 
 the form. The immense mass in the centre (woodcut No. 125) 
 and the two smaller which form the roof almost take from it the 
 character of rude-stone architecture. There is a fourth, of a less 
 megalithic character, at Locmariaker, 1 and several others are dis- 
 persed over Brittany. It is not possible to know whether the 
 intention may not have been that these, like all smaller chambers, 
 should have been buried in tumuli. These just quoted, however, 
 certainly never were so, but this may have arisen from their 
 having been left unfinished. That at Bagneux, however, could 
 hardly have supported a heavy mass without falling in, and that 
 
 1 All these are represented in Gailkabaud's ' Architecture ancienne et mod erne,' 
 ii. plates 7 and 8, 
 
342 
 
 FRANCE. 
 
 Chap. VIII. 
 
 at Mettray looks too like a finished monument for any one to 
 fancy its builders wished it hid. 
 
 CZJ i 
 
 24 ft. 
 125. Dolmen near Mettray. From Guilhabaud. 
 
 The more usual form of French dolmens is either square or 
 slightly in excess of that form, seldom reaching two squares in 
 
 Dolmen of Krukenho. 
 
 plan, and with a height equal to its breadth. One of the finest 
 specimens x of a monument of this class is in the middle of the 
 
 1 The woodcut is from a publication privately printed by Dr. Blair and Mr. Ronalds. 
 
Chap. VIII. GEOTTES DES FEES. 343 
 
 village of Krukenho, halfway between Carnac and Erdeven, 
 and is now used as a cart-shed or barn. It certainly never was 
 covered up, though its entrance may have been closed ; indeed, 
 the stones used for that purpose still lie in front of it. From 
 this, which may be styled a first-class dolmen of the ordinary type, 
 down to the simple dolmen of four stones, like Kit's Cotty house, 
 every possible variety and gradation are to be found in France ; but, 
 so far as I know, no classification has been hit upon which would 
 enable us to say which are the oldest or which the more modern. 
 
 On the whole, however, I am inclined to look on the Grottes 
 des fees as the more modern form. The stones of which they are 
 composed are generally hewn, or at least shaped, by metal tools 
 to the extent to which those of Stonehenge can be said to be so 
 treated. They also look more like ordinary structures than other 
 megalithic monuments, and seem rather sepulchral chapels than 
 sepulchres. Even, however, if we were to determine to regard 
 them as relatively the most modern of the northern dolmens, this 
 would not settle the question of the southern external dolmens 
 on tumuli, which may be even more modern. These questions, 
 however, must, I fear, remain unanswered till our knowledge of 
 the form of the Avhole group and of the materials of which the 
 monuments are composed is more extensive and more accurate 
 than it is at present. 
 
 The holed-stone variety occurs frequently in France, either in 
 the form of simple four-stone dolmens, like that of Trie, Oise 1 
 (woodcut No. 127), or in a still more characteristic example at 
 Grandmont, in Bas-Languedoc 2 (woodcut No. 128). Certainly 
 neither of these was intended to be covered up, at least in 
 the first instance, or, at all events, only partially ; or the use 
 of the hole, which was, no doubt, to get access to the chamber, 
 would have been destroyed. The umbrella form of the southern 
 example is hardly such as would ever be used for a chamber in 
 a tumulus, but as a pent-roof is singularly suitable for an open-air 
 monument. The so-called Coves at Avebury were, I believe, in 
 this form, and it prevails also in India 3 and elsewhere, and the 
 
 1 Gailhabaud, ' Arch. anc. et mod.' i. 
 
 2 Kenouvier, ' Monuments de Bas-Languedoc' No numbers to plates. 
 
 3 See one published by Sir B . Colt Hoare, ' Modern Wiltshire,' iv. p. 57. 
 
344 
 
 FRANCE. 
 
 Chap. VIII. 
 
 likeness between the two is so remarkable that it may well have 
 given rise to speculations as to their common origin. 
 
 Holed Dolmen, at Trie. From Gailhabaud, 
 
 There is still a form of dolm 
 
 en very common in France, but 
 
 Dolmen of Graniimont. 
 
Chap. VIII. 
 
 DEMI-DOLMENS. 
 
 345 
 
 found also frequently in these islands, though I do not know if 
 it occurs in Scandinavia. Mr. Du Noyer proposed to call them 
 " earth-fast dolmens," 1 from one end of the cap-stones always 
 resting on the ground, the other only being supported by a pillar 
 or block. At first sight it might appear that they were only 
 unfinished or imperfect dolmens, as it is more than probable that 
 the mode of erection, in all instances, was to raise first one end of 
 the cap-stone and then the other, as by this means the weight is 
 
 Demi-dolmen. From Mal£, ' Antiquites du Morbihan.' 
 
 practically halved. If, however, any faith is to be placed in this 
 representation of a monument by Male, 2 it is clear that it was 
 a deliberate mode of getting rid of half the expense and half 
 the trouble of erecting a dolmen sepulchre. Generally speaking, 
 however, they are more like the one near Poitiers (woodcut 
 No. 130), where the stone either rests at one end on a bank or on 
 a flat sjDace sloping upwards. Those in Ireland and Wales seem 
 all really to be only clemi-dolmens, and as economy would hardly 
 be a motive in the good old times, I look upon them as probably 
 a very modern form of this class of monument. There is, indeed, 
 
 1 ' Kilkenny Journal,' third series, 
 vol. i. p. 40 et seqq. 
 
 - I have not seen the monument my- 
 self, nor do I know any one who has, but 
 
 I cannot believe it to be a pure inven- 
 tion. Too much stress must not, how- 
 ever, be laid upon it. 
 
316 
 
 FRANCE. 
 
 Chap. VIII. 
 
 one at Kerland, in Brittany (woodcut No. 131), which, in spite of 
 the shock such an idea will give to most people, I cannot help 
 
 Demi-dolmen, near Poitiers. 
 
 thinking is and always was a Christian monument. At least it 
 is inconceivable to me from what motive any Christian could have 
 
 Demi-dolmen at Kerland. 
 
 erected a cross on a pagan monument of this class, if it really 
 were one. It seems, on the other hand, perfectly intelligible 
 
Chap. VIII. 
 
 ROCKING STONES. 
 
 347 
 
 that long after their nominal conversion to Christianity the 
 people wo aid adhere to the forms so long practised by their 
 ancestors, and there appears to be no great reason why even the 
 most bigoted priest should object to it, provided the symbol of 
 the cross made it quite clear that the " poor inhabitant below " 
 died in the true faith. 
 
 I have purposely refrained from speaking of rocking stones, 
 which play so important a part in the forms of Druidical worship 
 invented by Stukeley, Borlase, and the antiquaries of the last 
 century, because I believe that nine-tenths of those found in this 
 country — if not all — are merely natural phenomena. So far from 
 being surprised that this should be the case, the wonder is that 
 they are not more frequent where loose boulders abound, either 
 ice-borne or freed by the washing away of the underlying strata. 
 That some of these should rest in an unstable equilibrium easily 
 disturbed is only what might be expected, and that they would 
 also be matters of marvel to the country people around is also 
 natural ; but it does not follow from this that any priests purposely 
 and designedly placed, or could place, rude stones in such positions, 
 or that they used them for religious purposes. 
 
 In France, however, there is one called the Pierre Martine, near 
 
 Pierre ilartine. 
 
 Livernon, in the department of the Lot, which was designedly 
 balanced, if any one was. Its general appearance will be under- 
 
348 
 
 FKANCE. 
 
 Chap. VIII. 
 
 stood from the preceding woodcut, taken from ' La France monu- 
 mentale et pittoresque,' which correctly represents its form and 
 appearance. 1 The cap-stone measures 22 feet by 11 feet, and is 
 16 inches in thickness, and is so balanced on its two points of 
 support that a slight pressure of the hand is sufficient to set it 
 oscillating with a motion which it retains for some time. 2 
 
 Another and more celebrated one, in Brittany, which is known 
 as the Pierre branlante de Huelgoat, seems rather due to accident. 
 
 131. Pierre Branlante, in Brittany. 
 
 It looks as if it formed, or was intended to form, part of a demi- 
 dolmen, but happening to rest on one of its supports so as to 
 oscillate, it has been allowed to remain so. Even assuming, 
 however, that this was done designedly, what would it prove 
 beyond the desire which pervades all these monuments, of ex- 
 citing astonishment by tours de force. I believe it is correct 
 to say that no passage exists in any book ancient or medieval 
 which mentions rocking stones or their uses; nor has anyone 
 
 Pierre Martine. From Bunstetlen. 
 
 1 There is a woodcut iu Boii- 
 stetten's work (p. 25) which, 
 being taken endways, explains 
 more clearly how, the cap-stone 
 resting on two points only, it 
 can be understood to oscillate. 
 It is, however, much less cor- 
 rect as a representation. 
 
 - Delpon, 'Statistique dn 
 l'e'p. du Lot,' i. p. 3SS. 
 
Chap. VI 1 1. CARNAC. 349 
 
 been able to explain how they delivered their oracles. A certain 
 push produced an oscillation, not fitful or irregular, but always 
 in proportion to the force applied ; so the answer must always 
 have been the same and alike to all people. A still more impor- 
 tant fact is that nowhere do the people appeal to them now. 
 Neither at the Beltane nor at Halloween, nor at any of those 
 festivals where country people revive every extinct superstition 
 to aid them in prying into futurity, are these rocking stones 
 appealed to ; and it seems almost impossible that, when so many 
 other superstitions have survived, this one should be lost, and lost 
 in presence of the rocks themselves, which still remain. Wonders 
 they certainly are, but I question much if they ever were appealed 
 to for any higher purpose than that of extracting sixpences from 
 the pockets of gaping tourists. 
 
 Caknac. 
 
 In a zone about twenty miles in extent, stretching from Erdeven 
 on the north-west to Tumiac in a south-easterly direction, and 
 nowhere more than five miles in width, there is to be found the 
 most remarkable group of megalithic remains, not only in France, 
 but perhaps in the whole world. Not only are examples of every 
 class of monument we have been describing, except circles, to be 
 found here, but they are larger and finer examples than are 
 generally to be met with elsewhere. Another point of interest 
 also is that within the zone are found — if I am not mistaken — 
 both a cemetery and a battle-field. At least in the neighbourhood 
 of Locmariaker, which there seems no reason for doubting was 
 the Dariorigum of the Romans, the capital of the Venetes in 
 Caesar's times, 1 all the monuments are more or less sculptured, and 
 all the stones fashioned, not to say hewn. On the other hand, no 
 stone in the neighbourhood of Carnac is hewn, or even fashioned, 
 beyond splitting, and no sculptures of any class have been traced. 
 The distinction is too marked to be accidental, and unless it can 
 be made out that they belong to different ages, which appears to 
 me most improbable, goes far to establish the conclusion at which 
 we have arrived in previous chapters. 
 
 Ptoleuisei Geo.' Amstel. 1605, p. 47. 
 
350 FRANCE. Chap. VIIT. 
 
 To begin with the Carnac monument, 1 which is the best known 
 and the most important. As will be seen by the woodcut on 
 p. 3o2, it consists of two separate alignments, or great stone rows 
 — one, that of Carnac, extending for nearly two miles in a direc- 
 tion nearly east and west ; the other, that of Erdeven, at a dis- 
 tance of two miles and a half from that at Carnac, being little more 
 than one mile in length. There is a third, but smaller, group at St.- 
 Barbe, about a mile and a half due south of Erdeven ; and numerous 
 dolmens and tumuli are spread at intervals all over the plain. 
 
 In order to be understood, the Carnac monument must again 
 be subdivided into three portions. Beginning at Le Maenec (the 
 Stones), we have eleven rows of very fine stones, measuring from 
 11 feet to 13 feet in height from the ground, and still nearly 
 perfect. Gradually, however, they become smaller and more 
 sparse, till, when they reach the road from Auray to Carnac, there 
 are few of them that measure 3 feet in any direction, and 
 some are still smaller. Shortly after passing- that road the 
 avenues cease altogether, for a distance of more than 300 yards, 
 there being nothing but a few natural boulders in the interval 
 between. AVhen, however, we reach the knoll on which the 
 farm of Kermario stands, the avenues reappear, this time only 
 ten in number, but perfectly regular, and with stones as large 
 and as regularly spaced as those at Maenec. They diminish more 
 and more in size, however, and almost die out altogether before 
 they reach the mound (tumulus ?) on which the windmill stands, 
 
 1 The only survey of this monument 
 which has heen published, and can be 
 depended upon, is that made by Mr. 
 Vicars, a surveyor of Exeter, for the 
 Eev. Dr. Bathurst Deane. It was pub- 
 lished by him on a reduced scale in 
 vol. xxv. of the ' Archseologia,' and re- 
 engraved, with the principal parts on the 
 original scale, by Dr. Blair and Mr. 
 Konalds, in the work before alluded to, 
 but unfortunately never published. The 
 
 the Rev. Mr. Lukis have been employed for 
 some years past exploring and surveying 
 in that neighbourhood, and have brought 
 back perfect plans, on a large scale, of all 
 the principal monuments; and if these 
 were published, they would leave little 
 to be desired in that respect. Mean- 
 while nothing can exceed Sir Henry's 
 kindness and liberality in allowing access 
 to his treasures, and the use of them by 
 any one who desires it; and I am in- 
 
 original map, on a scale of 440 feet to \ debted to him for a great deal of the 
 
 1 inch, is still in Dr. Deane's possession, at [ information in this chapter. The general 
 
 Bath, and is so valuable a record of what ' plans here published are from Messrs. 
 
 the monument was thirty-two years ago , Blair and Ronalds' work, which is quite 
 
 that it is hoped it may be preserved by sufficiently correct for my scale or my 
 
 some public body. Sir Henry Dryden and ! present purpose. 
 
Chap. VITT. CAEN AC. 351 
 
 and after tliat become so small and sparse that a stranger 
 riding across the line could hardly remark that they were arti- 
 ficially disposed, but would merely regard it as a stony piece of 
 land. They again cease entirely before we reach the brook, to 
 recommence at Kerlescant, where thirteen rows are found; but 
 these are composed of stones of less dimensions and more irregu- 
 larly spaced than those at Maenec, and die out much more rapidly. 
 At a distance of less than 500 yards from the head of the column 
 they disappear entirely. It may be suggested that these gaps 
 arise from the stones having been removed for agricultural and 
 other purposes. I think, however, that any one who carefully 
 examines the spot will be convinced that we really now possess 
 all, or nearly all, that were ever placed here. They are thickest 
 and best preserved in the village of Maenec, and at Kermario, 
 where buildings are most frequent, and they disappear exactly in 
 those places where there are no buildings or walls, but where the 
 ground is an open, barren heath, without roads, and whence it would 
 be very difficult to transport them; and in so stony a country it is 
 very improbable that the attempt would be made. Besides this, 
 the gradual way in which they diminish in size before disappearing 
 shows a regularity of design, regarding which there can be no mis- 
 take. In addition to this, the heads of the three divisions are all 
 marked by monuments of different kinds, but which are easily 
 recognizable. At the head of the Maenec division there is a 
 curvilinear enclosure of smaller stones, none of them being more 
 than 6 feet in height, but set much closer together than the 
 rows (woodcut No. 136). It probably was once complete, and, 
 if so, joined the centre stone row. At Kermario, a dolmen 
 stands in front of the alignment, not remarkable for its size, 
 but conspicuous from its position; and at- Kerlescant there is a 
 quadrangular 1 enclosure, three sides of which are composed of 
 stones of smaller size and set closely together, like those at 
 Maenec. The fourth side is formed by a tumulus or long 
 
 1 The form of this enclosure, as will be it curvilinear. Messrs. Blair and Konalds 
 
 seen from the plan, is not an exact square, ; make the east side quite straight ; the 
 
 and some of the anyle-stones being j south and west were slightly curvilinear, 
 
 removed, it is difficult now to ascertain but the whole figure is quadrangular ; 
 
 its exact form. Sir Henry Dryden makes j which is my own impression of its form. 
 
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KERLESCANT 
 
 
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 =»-trf s 
 
 LE MAEN EC 
 
 KERMARIO 
 
 ST BARBE 
 
 ERD EVE N 
 (west end) 
 
 '.RUINS OF A TUMULUS 
 
 TUMULUS 
 
 ER D EVEN 
 (east end) 
 
 SCALE 
 
 £0 100 200 BOO . 400 500 600 700 800 
 
 2 A 
 
354 FRANCE. Chap. VIII. 
 
 barrow. This was dug into in 1851, by some persons with or without 
 authority ; but who they were, or what they found, is not recorded. 
 
 The monument at Erdeven is very inferior in scale to that at 
 Carnac, and planned on a different principle. Instead of the heads of 
 the division following one another, as at Carnac, they face outwards; 
 and, like the fabled Amphisbena, this group has two heads, one at 
 each end. The principal one is the western, where there is a group of 
 very large stories close to the road, but rather confusedly arranged. 
 There seem to be nine or ten rows, and a row of large stones branches 
 oft* at right angles to the north. After extending about 100 yards 
 the main column dies out, and is resumed again at a distance of 200 
 yards, in smaller stones much more widely spaced. It is again and 
 again so interrupted, that it is sometimes difficult to trace it till we 
 come near the eastern end, where it resumes its regularity, possessing 
 eight well-defined rows of stones similar to those at the west end. 1 
 
 At the west end there can still be traced the remains of what 
 was once a tumulus, and, beyond that, a single standing menhir. 
 At the east end there is a tumulus of a somewhat oval form, and 
 in the centre, a hill, or rising ground, apparently natural, on which 
 are placed two dolmens ; and, south of the east end, a second hill 
 or mound with two more similar monuments. 
 
 It is not easy to guess whether the lines of St.-Barbe were ever 
 more complete than we now find them. My own impression is 
 that we have them now very nearly as originally completed. The 
 head facing the west seems to have been intended for a curvilinear 
 enclosure similar to that at Maenec, but is now, at least, very 
 incomplete. Its most remarkable feature is the group of stones at 
 its head (woodcut No. 137), two of which are the largest and 
 finest blocks in the neighbourhood. The farthest away in the 
 view is 19 feet long by 12 feet broad, and 8 feet thick; the other, 
 seen in the foreground, even exceeds it in dimensions. Whether 
 these are like the Coffin stones at Aylesford, or the two stones 
 found among the stone rows at Dartmoor, or have, indeed, any- 
 separate meaning, must be left to be determined when we know more 
 of the general scheme on which these monuments were planned. 
 
 1 Sir Henry Dryden counts ten rows. Mr. Vicars' survey, from which the woodcut 
 is copied, makes only eight. Their irregularity makes it difficult to feel certain on 
 such a point. 
 
Chap. VII L 
 
 CARNAC. 
 
 355 
 
 There is nothing at present but juxtaposition to justify us in 
 connecting these great stone rows with the smaller groups of 
 stones and the dolmens or tumuli which stud the plain where 
 they are found. In respect to these, what we find at Carnac seems 
 the exact converse of what exists at Stonehenge and Stennis. 
 There the great stone monuments stand among the pigmy barrows 
 of another race and age. Here all are megalithic and all seem to 
 have been erected nearly at the same time, and to belong to one 
 people, whoever they may eventually be proved to have been. In 
 
 137. Head of Column at St.-Barbe. From Messrs. Blair and Ronalds' work. 
 
 so far as any argument as to their age is concerned, it is at present 
 of little importance whether this is so or not, for they are all 
 equally uncommunicative on this subject. 
 
 One of the tumuli known as Mont St.-Michel, is so situated 
 with respect to the Maenec row that it seems impossible to 
 dissociate the two. It was opened by M. Bene Galles in 1862, 
 and an account of his researches, in the form of a report to the 
 Prefet, was published shortly afterwards. The mound itself, at 
 its base, is nearly 400 feet in length by half that dimension in 
 width. In modern times its summit has been levelled, to form 
 a platform for the church which now occupies its eastern 
 summit. In front of the church, M. Galles sunk a shaft near 
 
 2 a 2 
 
356 FRANCE. Chap. VIII. 
 
 the centre of the mound, and came upon a sepulchral chamber 
 of irregular form, the side walls of which were formed of very 
 irregular and bad masonry of small stones, similar to that of the 
 dolmens at Crubelz. Its mean dimensions were about 6 feet by 
 5 feet, and 3 feet 6 inches in height. In it were found some magni- 
 ficent celts of jade and tribolite, nine pendents in jasper, and 101 
 beads in jasper, with some in turquoise, all polished and pierced so as 
 to form a necklace. The human remains in the principal cell seem 
 utterly to have perished, owing probably to the continued penetra- 
 tion of water since, at least, the levelling of the summit, though 
 some bones were subsequently found in a small chamber adjoining. 
 
 On the north side of the avenue at Kerlescant, at a distance of 
 about 100 paces from it, is a second long barrow, consequently 
 occupying the same relative position to it that Mont St.-Michel 
 does to that at Maenec. It is so similar in external appearance 
 and general arrangement to that forming the north side of the 
 enclosure, which terminates the avenue, that there can be little 
 doubt of their being of the same age and forming part of the same 
 general arrangement. It had been opened some twenty years ago 
 by a gentleman residing at Carnac, but was re-examined in 1867 by 
 the Kev. W. C. Lukis. 1 
 
 In the centre he found a long rectangular chamber, measuring 
 52 feet in length by 5 feet in width internally, and divided into two 
 
 Long Barrow at Kerlescant. 
 
 equal compartments by two stones cut away in the centre, so as to 
 leave a hole 1 foot 6 inches wide by 3 feet high. A similar but 
 smaller hole exists on the side, and is identical with those found in 
 
 1 ' Journal of Archaeological Association,' vol. xxiv. pp. 40 et seqq. 
 
Chap. VIII. 
 
 CARNAC. 
 
 357 
 
 the long barrows at Eodmarton and Avening in Gloucestershire. 1 
 Mr. Lukis,amongother 
 things, found an im- 
 mense quantity of 
 broken pottery, some 
 of very fine quality. 
 Two vases which he 
 was enabled to restore 
 are interesting from 
 their general resem- 
 blance to the two 
 which Mr. Bateman 
 found in Arbor Low (woodcut No. 31). Though not exactly the 
 same in form, there 
 can be little doubt 
 that they belong 
 to the same age. 
 About a mile 
 from this example, 
 Mr. Lukis men- 
 tions a still larger 
 one. It measures 
 
 01 P -. , ■■ 141. Vases found at Keriescant. 
 
 ol ieet m length 
 
 by 6 feet in width, is divided into two compartments like the one just 
 
 -5'. 0'^- 
 
 Hule between Two Stones at Keriescant. 2 
 
 -4ilN -> 
 
 1 Ante, pp. 163 et seq. 
 
 2 It is so difficult to realise these 
 similarities, except by representa- 
 tion, that I give here a woodcut of 
 that at Eodmarton. Allowing for 
 the difference of drawing and en- 
 graving, the openings are identical, 
 and it is so peculiar in form that 
 the likeness cannot be accidental. 
 If it does not occur anywhere else, 
 or at any other time, it proves, as 
 far as anything can prove, that the 
 French and English long barrows 
 were erected under the same inspi- 
 ration. If one is post-Roman, so, 
 certainly, is the other ; or if one can 
 be proved to be prehistoric, the other 
 must follow. 
 
 140. Entrance to Cell, Kodmarton. 
 
358 
 
 FRANCE. 
 
 Chap. VIII. 
 
 described, and has also a holed entrance. He also measured two in 
 Finistere, one 76 feet, the other 66 feet, in length, and both 6 feet 
 wide. Both, however, had been rifled long ago, and are now mere 
 ruins. More, no doubt, would be found if looked for. Indeed, these 
 straight-lined " allees couvertes, " or " Grottes des fees," without 
 cells, as the French call them, as before mentioned, are the most 
 characteristic, if not the most common, form of French rude-stone 
 monuments. The only other place where they are equally common 
 is Dienthe, and it may be that this side hole at Kerlescant is an 
 approach to the side entrance so usual in that province. 
 
 At Plouharnel, about a mile and a half westward from Mont 
 St.-Michel, a double dolmen was opened a good, many years ago. 
 In it were found some beautiful gold ornaments, others in bronze, 
 and some celts or stone axes in jade 1 — all these, like those of 
 Mont St.-Michel, belonging evidently to what antiquaries call 
 the latest period of the Polished Stone age; but until it is 
 determined what that age is, it does not help us much to a date. 
 
 To the north of Kerlescant, at about the distance of half a mile, 
 is another long barrow, called Moustoir or Moustoir-Carnac, which 
 
 I xv ; i* 
 
 <§; 
 
 
 ![bo 
 
 Plan (if Moustoir-Carnac. 
 
 H3. Section of Moustoir-Uarnac. From '^!emoire' by Rene Galles. 
 
 was opened in 1865, also by M. Eene Galles. It was found to 
 
 1 These were exhibited in the inn in the village when I was there. Where they 
 are now, T do not know. 
 
Chap. VIII. CABNAC. 359 
 
 contain four separate interments, dispersed along its length, which 
 exceeds 2S0 feet, the height varying from 15 to 20 feet. The 
 western chamber is a regular dolmen, of the class called " Grottes 
 des fees," and is apparently the oldest of the group. The centre 
 one (h) is a very irregular chamber, the plan of which it is 
 difficult to make out; the third (c) is a dolmen, irregular in 
 plan, but roofed with three large stones ; but the fourth (d) is a 
 circular chamber, the walls of which 
 are formed of tolerably large stones, 
 the roof being built up into the 
 form of a horizontal dome (woodcut 
 No. 144), by stones projecting and — L /i / Flo < 
 overlapping, instead of the simpler 144 - section of chamb?r a of 
 
 # Moustier-Carnac. 
 
 ceiling of single blocks as on all the 
 
 earlier monuments. This, as well as the walls, being built with small 
 stones, I take to be a certain indication of a more modern ao-e. 
 A considerable number of flint implements were found in the 
 western chamber, with some beads and a partially pierced cylinder 
 in serpentine, but no coins, nor any object of an age which can be 
 positively dated. Here, however, these troublesome Roman tiles 
 make their appearance as at Crubelz. " Ici, com me a Mane er 
 H'roek, nous trouvons les traces caracteristiques clu conquerant 
 (les Romai'ns) : des tuiles a rebord out croule, au pied de notre 
 butte funeraire, et plusieurs meme se sont glissees a t ravers les 
 couches superieures des pierres, qui forment une partie de la 
 masse." x 
 
 If these monuments are really prehistoric, it is to me incom- 
 prehensible that these traces of the Romans should be so generally 
 prevalent in their structure. If it is objected that these are not 
 found in the chambers of the tombs themselves, the answer seems 
 only too evident that hardly one of them is virgin : all, or nearly 
 all, have been entered before the time of recent explorers, and all 
 their more valuable contents removed. Celts and beads and stone 
 implements were not likely to attract the attention of early 
 pilferers, and these they left ; but except in the instance of the 
 sepulchre at Plouharnel, metal is very rarely found in any. But 
 
 ' Revue archeologique,' xii. p. 17. 
 
360 FRANCE. Chap. VIII. 
 
 the presence of Roman pottery, or other evidence of that people, 
 in the long barrows in Gloucestershire, at Kennet, and at Carnac, 
 are too frequent to be accidental. In so far as proving that the 
 monument is not prehistoric, the presence of a single fragment 
 of Roman pottery is as conclusive as a hoard of coins would be, 
 provided it is found so placed that it could not have been inserted 
 there after the mound was complete ; and this I fancy is the case 
 in all the instances mentioned above. 
 
 LOCMAEIAKEE. 
 
 It is rather to be regretted that no good survey exists of this 
 cemetery. Not that much depends on the juxtaposition of the 
 monuments, but that, as the French are continually changing 
 their names, and most of them have two, it is not always easy to 
 feel sure which monument is being spoken of at any particular 
 time. Those on the mainland are situated in a zone about a mile 
 in length, running north and south, between Mane Lud, the 
 most northern, and Mane er H'roek, the most southern. The 
 first-named is a long barrow, 200 feet by about 165, but not, as in 
 England, of one age or containing only one, but, like Moustoir- 
 Carnac, several sepulchres, which may either be of the same age 
 or erected at different though hardly distant periods, and joined 
 together by being buried under one great mound. Of the three 
 which Mane Lud contains, the most interesting is the partially 
 covered dolmen at the west end. It consists of a chamber of 
 somewhat irregular form, but measuring 12 feet by 10 feet, and 
 covered by one enormous block of stone, measuring 29 feet by 
 15 feet, and with a passage leading to it, making the whole length 
 from the entrance to the central block of the chamber 20 feet. 
 According to Mr. Ferguson, 1 live of the blocks of this dolmen are 
 sculptured; according to M. Rene Clalles, 2 nine are so ornamented. 
 The stone, however, is so rough and the place so dark that it is 
 difficult at times to distinguish them and always so to draw them. 
 The principal objects represented seem to be intended for boats 
 
 1 ' Proceedings of Royal Irish Academy,' vol. viii. 1S0'4, p. 298 et seQq. 
 " 'Revue arcke'ologique,' vol. x. 18G4, pi. iv. 
 
Chap. VIII. 
 
 LOCMAEIAKEE. 
 
 561 
 
 15. Sculpture at Mane Lud. 
 
 and hatchets, but there are other figures which cannot be so 
 classed, and, though it may be rash to 
 call them writing, they may mean num- 
 bers or cyphers of some sort. Their great 
 interest is, however, their similarity to 
 the engravings on Irish monuments. If 
 any one will, for instance, compare this 
 woodcut (No. 145) and woodcut No. 68 
 from New Grange, he can hardly fail 
 to see a likeness which cannot well be 
 
 accidental; and in like manner the curvilinear forms of woodcut 
 No. 146, in a manner hardly to be 
 mistaken, resemble those from Clover 
 Hill (woodcut No. 77). 
 
 Close by Mane Lud, but a little 
 nearer to Locmariaker, stands what 
 may be considered as the most inte- 
 resting, if not the finest, free-standing- 
 dolmen in France. Its roof consists 
 of two stones : one of these measures 
 18 feet by 9 feet, 2 and more than 3 feet in thickness. The second 
 stone is very much smaller, and seems to form a sort of porch 
 
 146. Sculpture at Mane Lud. 1 
 
 View of Do! ar Marcbant. From Blair and Ronald. 
 
 to it. The great stone rests, like that of most free-standing 
 
 1 Woodcuts No. 145 and 146 are I • These dimensions are from Richard ; 
 copied from Mr. Ferguson's paper in the other authorities make it 18 feet by 12 
 
 ' Proceedings of Royal Irish Academy,' | feet, 
 viii. 39S et seqq. 
 
362 
 
 FRANCE. 
 
 Chap. VIII. 
 
 dolmens, on three points, their architects having early learned 
 how difficult it was to make sure of their resting on more ; so that 
 unless they wanted a wall to keep out the stuff out of which the 
 tumulus was to be composed, they generally poised them on three 
 points like that at Castle Wellan (woodcut Xo. 7). 
 
 The great interest in this dolmen, however, lies in its sculp- 
 tures. The stone which closes the east end is shaped into the form 
 of two sides of an equilateral spherical triangle and covered with 
 sculptures, which this time are neither characters nor repre- 
 
 End Stone, Dol ar Marchant. 
 
 1<9. Hatchet in roof of 
 Dol ar Mai chant 
 
 sentations of living things, but purely decorative. At one time I 
 thought the form of a cross could be traced on the stone. The 
 central stem and the upper arm are shown clearly enough in the 
 drawing by A[r. Ferguson ; but all the drawings show a lower 
 cross-arm — though I confess I did not see it — which quite destroys 
 this idea. On the roof a well-sculptured plumed ' hatchet can 
 be traced very distinctly, as shown in the woodcut copied from 
 3Ir. Ferguson. He fancies he can also trace the form of a plough 
 in the sculptures of the roof, but this seems doubtful. 
 
 1 The existence of the plume is doubted by Sir Henry Pryden. and he is bo 
 accurate that he probably is right ; but as others say they have seen it, and nothing 
 depends upon it. I hare allowed it to remain. 
 
Chap. VIII. LOCMARIAKER. 363 
 
 It is to this dolmen that the great fallen obelisk belongs. If it 
 was one stone, it measured 64 feet in length and 13 feet across 
 its greatest diameter ; but I confess I cannot, from the mode in 
 which it has fallen, rid myself of the idea that it was in reality two 
 obelisks, and not one. Whether this was the case or not, it is a 
 remarkable work of art for a rude people, for it certainly has been 
 shaped with care, and with the same amount of labour might have 
 been made square or round or any other shape that might have 
 been desired. This, however, is one of the peculiarities of the 
 style. No one will dispute that this obelisk and the stones of 
 the Dol ar Marchant are hewn ; but instead of adopting the geo- 
 metrical forms, of which we are so fond, they preferred those that 
 reminded them of their old rude monuments, and which to their 
 eyes were more beautiful than the straight lines of the Eomans. 
 I do not feel quite sure that artistically they were not right. 
 
 If we compare this dolmen with that at Krukenho (woodcut 
 No. 126), the difference between them appears very striking. The 
 Dol ar Marchant is a regular tripod dolmen, carefully built of 
 shaped stones and engraved. The other is a magnificent cist, 
 walled with rude stones, and such as would form a chamber in a 
 tumulus if buried in one, though whether this particular example 
 was ever intended to be so treated or not is by no means clear. 
 Be this as it may, there are two modes of accounting for the 
 difference between two monuments so nearly alike in dimensions 
 and situated so near to one another. The first would be to assume 
 that the Krukenho example is the oldest, it being the rudest and 
 approaching more nearly to the primitive form of the monuments : 
 the second would be to assume that the one was the memorial 
 of some warrior, erected in haste on the battle-field where he fell, 
 by his companions in arms ; and that the other was a royal sepulchre, 
 prepared at leisure either by the king himself or by those who 
 succeeded him in times of peace, and consequently who had 
 leisure for such works. We must know more of these monuments 
 before a satisfactory choice can be made between these two 
 hypotheses. At present I rather incline to the belief that the 
 circumstances under which they were erected may have more to 
 do with their differences than their relative ages. 
 
 To return to Locmariaker. Close to the town there is, or was, 
 
362 
 
 FEANCE. 
 
 Chap. VIII. 
 
 dolmens, on three points, their architects having early learned 
 how difficult it was to make sure of their resting on more ; so that 
 unless they wanted a wall to keep out the stuff out of which the 
 tumulus was to be composed, they generally poised them on three 
 points like that at Castle Wellan (woodcut No. 7). 
 
 The great interest in this dolmen, however, lies in its sculp- 
 tures. The stone which closes the east end is shaped into the form 
 of two sides of an equilateral spherical triangle and covered with 
 sculptures, which this time are neither characters nor repre- 
 
 End Stone, Dol ar Marcbant. 
 
 149. Hatchet in roof of 
 Dol ar Marchant 
 
 sentations of living things, but purely decorative. At one time I 
 thought the form of a cross could be traced on the stone. The 
 central stem and the upper arm are shown clearly enough in the 
 drawing by Mr. Ferguson ; but all the drawings show a lower 
 cross-arm — though I confess I did not see it — which quite destroys 
 this idea. On the roof a well-sculptured plumed x hatchet can 
 be traced very distinctly, as shown in the woodcut copied from 
 Mr. Ferguson. He fancies he can also trace the form of a plough 
 in the sculptures of the roof, but this seems doubtful. 
 
 1 The existence of the plume is doubted by Sir Henry Dryden, and he is so 
 accurate that he probably is right ; but as others say they have seen it, and nothing 
 depends upon it, I have allowed it to remain. 
 
Chap. VIII. LOCMAPJAKER. 363 
 
 It is to this dolmen that the great fallen obelisk belongs. If it 
 was one stone, it measured 64 feet in length and 13 feet across 
 its greatest diameter ; but I confess I cannot, from the mode in 
 which it has fallen, rid myself of the idea that it was in reality two 
 obelisks, and not one. "Whether this was the case or not, it is a 
 remarkable work of art for a rude people, for it certainly has been 
 shaped with care, and with the same amount of labour might have 
 been made square or round or any other shape that might have 
 been desired. This, however, is one of the peculiarities of the 
 style. No one will dispute that this obelisk and the stones of 
 the Dol ar Marchant are hewn ; but instead of adopting the geo- 
 metrical forms, of which we are so fond, they preferred those that 
 reminded them of their old rude monuments, and which to their 
 eyes were more beautiful than the straight lines of the Romans. 
 I do not feel quite sure that artistically they were not right. 
 
 If we compare this dolmen with that at Krukenho (woodcut 
 No. 126), the difference between them appears very striking. The 
 Dol ar Marchant is a regular tripod dolmen, carefully built of 
 shaped stones and engraved. The other is a magnificent cist, 
 walled with rude stones, and such as would form a chamber in a 
 tumulus if buried in one, though whether this particular example 
 was ever intended to be so treated or not is by no means clear. 
 Be this as it may, there are two modes of accounting for the 
 difference between two monuments so nearly alike in dimensions 
 and situated so near to one another. The first would be to assume 
 that the Krukenho example is the oldest, it being the rudest and 
 approaching more nearly to the primitive form of the monuments : 
 the second would be to assume that the one was the memorial 
 of some warrior, erected in haste on the battle-field where he fell, 
 by his companions in arms ; and that the other was a royal sepulchre, 
 prepared at leisure either by the king himself or by those who 
 succeeded him in times of peace, and consequently who had 
 leisure for such works. We must know more of these monuments 
 before a satisfactory choice can be made between these two 
 hypotheses. At present I rather incline to the belief that the 
 circumstances under which they were erected may have more to 
 do with their differences than their relative ages. 
 
 To return to Locmariaker. Close to the town there is, or was, 
 
364 
 
 FRANCE. 
 
 Chap. VITI. 
 
 a long allee couverte. 1 It is 70 feet long, and divided towards its 
 inner end into a square chamber, to which a long slightly curved 
 gallery led, composed of fourteen stones on each side. Five of 
 
 these are covered with ornaments, and 
 characters engraved on them. One 
 might be considered as representing the 
 leaf of a fern, or possibly a palm ; the 
 rest are ovals, circles, and similar 
 ornaments, which may or may not 
 have more meaning than those at 
 New Grange or other monuments in 
 the locality. 
 
 On the other side of the village 
 is the tumulus already mentioned as 
 Mane er H'roek, where tbe twelve 
 Roman coins were found, and inside it 
 an immense collection of polished celts, 
 but all broken, and one slab, which 
 apparently originally closed the door, 
 and is covered with sculptured hatchets, 
 similar in character to that on the roof 
 of the Dol ar Marchant, but not so 
 carefully drawn nor so well engraved. 
 Besides these there are several — pro- 
 bably as many as a dozen — monuments of the same class, within 
 what may fairly be considered the limits of this cemetery; but of 
 these the most interesting, as well as the most perfect, is that on 
 
 the island of Gavr 
 V Innis, about 2 miles 
 
 eastward from Loc- 
 mariaker. 
 
 The plan of the 
 5 -° r - T chamber of this mo- 
 
 nument will be un- 
 derstood from the 
 
 Stone found inside Chamber at 
 Mane er H'roSk. 
 
 Plan of Gavr Innis. 
 
 1 It was in a very ruinous state when I 
 saw it five years ago ; and there is an 
 ominous silence regarding it among sub- 
 
 sequent tourists. The measurements 
 here quoted are from Richard, ' France 
 monumentale.' 
 
Chap. VIII. 
 
 LOCMAKIAKER. 
 
 365 
 
 annexed plan. 1 The gallery of entrance measures 44 feet from 
 where the lining stones begin to the chamber, which is quad- 
 rangular in form, and measures 9 feet by 8 feet. All the six stones 
 forming the three sides of the chamber, and most of those 
 which line the entrance on either hand, are most elaborately 
 sculptured with patterns, the character of which will be under- 
 stood from the annexed woodcuts. The pattern, it will be observed, 
 is not so flowing or graceful as those found at New Grange or 
 Dowth, and nowhere, I believe, can it be said to imitate vegetable 
 
 Jlfeto,,, 
 
 \\\\\\ 7/ ■ J ¥4-1 /A 
 
 152. Sculptures at Gavr Innis. From a drawing by- 
 Sir Henry Dryden. 2 
 
 153. Holed Stone, Gavr Innis. From 
 a drawing by Sir Henry Dryden. 
 
 forms ; and in the woodcut on the left-hand stone are some 
 seventeen or eighteen figures, which are generally supposed to 
 represent celts, and probably do so ; but if they do, from their 
 position they must mean something more, either numbers or 
 names, but, whatever it may be, its meaning has not yet been 
 guessed. On other stones there are waving lines, which are very 
 generally assumed to represent serpents, and, I believe, correctly 
 so ; but as that is somewhat doubtful, it is as well to refrain from 
 citing them. Besides these, the general pattern is circles within 
 
 1 The plan here given is reduced from 
 one by Sir Henry Dryden, and may be 
 perfectly depended upon as far as the 
 smallness of the scale will allow. 
 
 2 Sir Henry drew all these sculptures 
 
 first on the spot, and afterwards cor- 
 rected his drawings from the casts at 
 St.-Germain. They are the only draw- 
 ings existing which can thoroughly be 
 depended upon. 
 
366 FRANCE. Chap. VIII. 
 
 circles, and flowing lines nearly equidistant, but, except on one 
 stone, never of spirals, and then less graceful than the Irish. The 
 sculpture, however, on some of the stones at Lougli Crew, and 
 that in the centre especially of woodcut No. 75, is absolutely 
 identical with the patterns found here ; and altogether there is 
 more similarity between these sculptures and those at Lough 
 Crew than between almost any other monuments of the class that 
 I know of. 
 
 In the chamber on the left-hand side is a stone (woodcut 
 No. 153), with three holes in it, which have given rise to an 
 unlimited amount of speculation. Generally it is assumed that 
 it was here that the Druids tied up the human victims whom they 
 were about to sacrifice. But, without going back to the question as 
 to whether there ever were any Druids in the Morbihan, would any 
 priest choose a small dungeon 8 feet square and absolutely dark for 
 the performance of one of their greatest and most solemn rites ? 
 So far as we know anything of human sacrifices, they were always 
 performed in the open day and in the presence of multitudes. 
 Assuming for the moment, however, that these holes were intended 
 for some such purpose, two would have sufficed, and these of a 
 form much simpler and more easily cut. As will be seen from 
 the woodcut, not only are the three holes joined, but a ledge 
 or trough is sunk below them which might hold oil or holy water? 
 and must, it appears to me, have been intended for some such 
 purpose. 
 
 The existence of these holes seems to set at rest another ques- 
 tion of some interest. Generally it has been assumed that the 
 tattooing on the stones of the chambers, &c, may have been done 
 with stone implements. This cannot be denied, though it seems 
 improbable ; but the undercutting of the passages between these 
 holes and the formation of the trough could only be effected by 
 a tool which would bear a blow on its head, and a heavy one too, 
 or, in other words, by some well-tempered metal tool. 
 
 At Tumiac, opposite Gavr Innis, existed a very large tumulus, 
 which was opened in 1853 by Messrs. Fouquet and L. Galles. It 
 was found to contain a small chamber, partly formed of large slabs, 
 partly of small stones. Some of the former had rude carvings 
 upon them, but without any meaning that can now be made out. 
 
Chap. VIII. 
 
 ALIGNMENTS AT CROZON. 
 
 367 
 
 The whole has the appearance of being considerably more modern 
 than Gavr Innis. 
 
 Besides these, in the neighbourhood of Carnac and Loc- 
 mariaker, there are at least three other groups of stones in France 
 which deserve much more attention than has hitherto been bestowed 
 upon them. The first is in the peninsula of Crozon, forming the 
 southern side of the roadstead of Brest. It consists, among others, 
 of three alignments of stones. The principal one is at a place 
 called Kerdouadec, and consists of a single line of stones 1600 
 feet in length, arranged on a slightly curved plan, and terminating 
 in a curious " Swastica "-like cross. The second, at Carmaret, is a 
 
 Alignments at Crozon. 
 
 single line, 900 feet long, and with two branches at right angles 
 to it, near its centre. The third, at Leure, is likewise a single 
 line with a slight elbow in the centre, from which starts a short 
 branch at right angles. 1 
 
 I am not able to offer a conjecture what these alignments repre- 
 sent, nor why or when they were placed here. Whether an 
 inspection on the spot might suggest some clue is not clear, but 
 they are so unlike anything found anywhere else, either in France 
 or any other country, that they must for the present, I fear, 
 remain a mystery. 
 
 The second group, known as the Gre de Cojou, is situated about 
 halfway between Rennes and Eedon. The remains here consist of 
 
 1 A plan of the first-named alignment 
 was published by Freminville, ' Finistere,' 
 part ii. pi. i., but the above particulars 
 and the woodcut are taken from a dia- 
 
 gram by Sir Henry Dryden in the last 
 number of the ' Journal of the Anthrop. 
 Inst.' He has perfect plans of the 
 whole. 
 
370 FRANCE. Chap. VIII. 
 
 and Dowth ; and as I look upon it as quite certain that the 
 monuments on the Boyne were all erected in the first four cen- 
 turies after the birth of Christ, it seems impossible that the age 
 of those at Locmariaker can be very distant from that date. 
 
 To many it will no doubt seem improbable that these monu- 
 ments should have been erected during the occupation of the 
 country by the Eomans. If, however, they would take the trouble 
 of studying what is now going on in India, their incredulity 
 would, I fancy, soon disappear. The natives there at the present 
 day are in many parts of the country building temples which it 
 requires a practised eye to distinguish from those erected before 
 any European settled in the land ; and they follow their own 
 customs, and worship their own gods, utterly irrespective of, and 
 uninfluenced by, the strangers who have held the chief sway in 
 the country for more than a hundred years. It must also be 
 borne in mind that the Romans never really settled in Brittany. 
 The country was poor then as now, and it led to nowhere. So 
 long as the Bretons remained quiet, the Romans seem to have 
 left them to themselves, and certainly have left no traces of any 
 establishment of importance in their country — nothing that would 
 lead us to suspect such intimate relations with the natives as 
 would induce them to change their faith or fashions and copy the 
 institutions of the foreigners. 
 
 On the other hand, it seems not only possible, but probable, 
 that intercourse with the Romans may first have inspired the 
 inhabitants of Brittany with a desire to attain greater durability 
 and more magnificence, by the employment of stone, instead of 
 earth or wood, for their monuments. This they might do, without 
 its creating in their minds the smallest desire to copy either 
 Roman forms or Roman institutions. On the contrary, we have 
 every reason to believe that in these remote districts the Romans 
 would be hated as conquerors, and that their religion and their 
 customs would be held in abhorrence as strange and unsuited to 
 the land they occupied. 
 
 Be this as it may, a comparison with the Irish examples 
 reduces the questions at issue with regard to dates within very 
 narrow limits. Either these monuments were erected imme- 
 diately before or during the time of the Roman occupation or 
 
Chap. VIII. AGE OF THE MONUMENTS. 371 
 
 immediately after their departure, but prior to the conversion 
 of the natives to Christianity. We are not yet in a position to 
 decide positively between these two hypotheses, but the presence 
 of Roman coins and Eoman tiles in some of the mounds and the 
 whole aspect of the argument seem to me to incline the balance 
 in favour of their belonging to Roman times. Some may be 
 anterior to the Christian era, but I am very much mistaken if 
 it be not eventually admitted that the greater number of them 
 are subsequent to that epoch. 
 
 Even, however, if the age of the monuments of the cemetery of 
 Locmariaker could be ascertained, it would by no means neces- 
 sarily carry with it that of the stone rows at Carnac. They 
 belong to a different category altogether, and may be of a 
 different age. 
 
 No one now, I presume, after what has been said above, espe- 
 cially with regard to the Scandinavian examples, will think it 
 necessary that I should go over the ground to prove that they are 
 not temples. Every argument that could be adduced to prove that 
 Avebury or Stonehenge are not temples tells with tenfold force 
 here. A temple extending over six or seven miles of country is 
 more improbable than one covering only 28 acres. This one, too, 
 is open everywhere, and has no enclosure or " temenos " of any 
 sort, and there being an uneven number of equally spaced rows 
 of stones in the principal monument is sufficient to show it was 
 not intended and could not be used for processions. In fact I 
 hardly know of any proposition that appears to me so manifestly 
 absurd as that these stone rows were temples, and I feel sure 
 that no one who thinks twice of the matter will venture again 
 to affirm it. 
 
 It seems equally clear that they were not erected for any civic 
 or civil purpose. No meetings could be held, and no adminis- 
 trative functions could be carried on in or around them. Nor are 
 they sepulchral in any ordinary sense of the term. In the first 
 place because, though men were buried in tumuli or under dolmens, 
 or had single head-stones, nowhere were men buried in rows 
 like this, extending over miles of heath and barren country. But 
 the great fact is that the French savants have dug repeatedly 
 about these stones and found no trace of burials. . The most 
 
 2 b 2 
 
372 FBANCE. Chap. VIII. 
 
 conclusive experiment of the sort was made by a road surveyor 
 some six or seven years ago. Wishing to raise the road from 
 Auray to Carnac, he dug out the sand and gravel on the east side 
 of the road, over a considerable area, to a depth of from three to 
 four feet ; but being of a conservative turn of mind, he left the 
 eleven rows of stones each standing on a little pillar of sand. It 
 was then easy to trace the undisturbed strata of differently coloured 
 earth round and almost under the stones, and to feel perfectly 
 certain that it had never been disturbed by any inhumation. It, 
 no doubt, is true that the long barrow at Kerlescant, the dolmen 
 at Kermario, and the enclosure at Maenec, may have been, indeed 
 most probably were, all of them, burying-plaees, but they can no 
 more be considered the monument than the drums and fifes can be 
 considered the regiment. They are only the adjuncts ; the great 
 rows must be considered as essentially the monuments. 
 
 If, therefore, they are neither temples, nor town-halls, nor even 
 sepulchres, we are driven back on the only remaining group of 
 motives which, so far as I know, ever induced mankind to expend 
 time and labour on the erection of perfectly unutilitarian erections. 
 They must be trophies — the memorials of some great battle or 
 battles that at some time or other were fought out on this plain. 
 The fact of the head of each division being a tomb is in favour of 
 this hypothesis ; but if it is considered as the principal part, it is 
 like drawing a jackdaw with a peacock's tail — an absurdity into 
 which these men of the olden time would hardly fall. 
 
 It is more difficult to answer the questions, Are Carnac and 
 Erdeven parts of one great design, or two separate monuments ? 
 Is Carnac the march, St.-Barbe the position before the battle, 
 Erdeven the scene of the final struggle for the heights that gave 
 the victory, and the tombs scattered over the plain between 
 these alignments the graves of those who fell in that fight ? Such 
 appears to me the only feasible explanation of what we here find ; 
 but the great question still remains, What fight ? 
 
 There is, probably, no single instance in which the negative 
 argument derived from the silence of the classical authors applies 
 with such force as to this. If these stones existed when Csesar 
 waged war against the Yeneti in this quarter, he must have seen 
 them, and as it may be presumed that the monument was then more 
 
Chai\ VIII. AGE OF THE MONUMENTS. 373 
 
 complete than it is now, he could hardly have failed to be struck 
 with it, and, if so, to have mentioned it in his ' Commentaries.' 
 Even, however, if he neglected them, the officers of his army must 
 have seen these stones. They must have been talked about in 
 Rome, and some gossip like Plhr^, when writing about stones, must 
 have heard of this wonderful group, and have alluded to it in 
 some way. The silence, however, is absolute. No mediaeval 
 rhapsodist even attempts to give them a pre-Roman origin. Such 
 traditions as that of St. Comely, or Cornelius the Centurion, 
 though absurd enough, point, as such traditions generally do, to 
 the transition time between paganism and Christianity, when, 
 apparently, all mediaeval chroniclers seem to have believed that 
 all these rude-stone monuments were erected. Till, therefore, 
 some stronger argument than has yet been adduced, or some new 
 analogy be suggested, the pre-Roman theory must be set aside ; 
 and if this is so, we are tolerably safe in assuming that no battle 
 of sufficient importance was fought which these stones could be 
 erected to commemorate during the time when the Romans held 
 supreme sway in the country. 
 
 If this is so, our choice of an event to be represented by these 
 great stone rows is limited to the period which elapsed between 
 the overthrow of the Roman power by Maximus, a.d. 383, and the 
 time when the people of the country were completely converted 
 to Christianity — whicli happened in the early part of the sixth 
 century. 1 But if the history of England is confused and uncertain 
 during that century and a half, that of Brittany is even more so, 
 and has not yet been elucidated by the French authorities to the 
 same extent as ours has been. 
 
 No one, I believe, doubts that Maximus, coming with an army 
 from Britain, landed somewhere in Brittany, where he fought a 
 great battle with the forces of Gratian, whom he defeated, and that 
 
 1 " C'est en 465 que Vannes recut pom- 
 premier eveque rArmoricain St. Patern, 
 qui moui'ut peu d'annees apres chez les 
 Francs, oil les Goths l'avoient force de 
 
 de trente ans apres la mort de Patern les 
 habitans de la Ve'netie etoient encore 
 presque tous pa'iens. ' Erant enim tunc 
 temporis Venetenses pene omnes Gen- 
 
 se re'fugier. Modestus en 511 mit tout tiles.' — Ap. Boll. ' Yita St. Melan.' vi. 
 
 en ceuvre pour repandre le Christianisme Jan. p. 311." — Courzon, ' Chartulaire de 
 
 parmi les Pagani de son diocese, mais l'Abbaye de Kedon,' cxliii. 
 soa zele ne fut pas recompense, car plus 
 
374 
 
 FRANCE. 
 
 Chap. VIII. 
 
 afterwards, in a second battle near Lyons, he expelled the legitimate 
 government of the Romans from Gaul. 1 I also see no reason for 
 doubting that he was accompanied by a British prince Conan 
 Meriaclec, who afterwards settled in the country with thousands of 
 his emigrant countrymen, over whom he was enabled to establish 
 his chieftainship on the ruins of the Roman power. 
 
 If this is so, the battle which destroyed the Roman power, and 
 gave rise to the native dynasty, would be worthy of such a 
 monument as that at Carnac ; but so far as local traditions go, the 
 place where Maximus and his British allies landed was near St. 
 Afalo, and the battle was fought at a place called Alleth, near 
 St. Servan. 2 If this is so, it was too far off to have any connection 
 with the Carnac stones. Two other wars seem to have been 
 carried on by Conan, one in 410 against a people who are merely 
 called barbarians, 3 a second against the Romans under Exupe- 
 rantius in 416 ; 4 but we have no local particulars which would 
 enable us to connect these wars with our stones. A war of libe- 
 ration against Rome would be worthy of a national monument, 
 and it may be that this is such a one, but I know of nothing to 
 connect the two together, though local enquiries on the spot 
 might remove this difficulty. 
 
 On the whole, however, I am more inclined to look among 
 the events of the next reign for a key to the riddle. Grallon 
 was engaged in two wars at least : one against the Roman 
 consul Liberius in 439, 5 in which he succeeded in frustrating the 
 attempts of that peojitle to recover their lost power ; the other 
 against the "Norman pirates;" 6 audit is to this, as connecting 
 the stone monuments with a Northern people, that I should be 
 inclined to ascribe the erection of the Carnac alignments. From 
 Grallon being the reputed founder of Landevenec, it might seem 
 
 
 1 The authority for these events -will 
 be found at length in Gibbon, chap, xviii., 
 and are too familiar to need quoting here. 
 
 2 Daru's 'Histoire de la Bretagne,' 
 vol. i. p. 58. 3 Und. p. 112. 
 
 4 Dom. Bouquet, ' Recueil des Hist, des 
 Gaules,' i. p. 629. " Exuperantius anno 
 circa 416 Armoricos qui a Romanis defe- 
 cervmt ad officium reducere tentavit." 
 
 5 Darn, i. p. 1 12. 
 
 6 " Gradlonus gratia dei rex Britonuni 
 necnon ex parte Francorum." — Chart/a- 
 laire de Landevenec, quoted by P. Lo- 
 bineau, ii. 17. And further : " ' Pervenit 
 Sancti (Wingaboei) fama ad Grallonum 
 regem Occiduorum Cornubiensium, glori- 
 osum ultorem Normannorura qui post de- 
 victas gentes iuimicas sibi duces subdux- 
 erat.' — Gurdestan, Moine de Landevenec, 
 1 Vie de St.-Wingabois.' " — Darn, i. p. 69. 
 
Chap. VIII. AGE OF THE MONUMENTS. 375 
 
 more probable that the alignments at Crozon marked the position 
 of this battle, and I am not prepared to dispute that it may be so. 
 The question is not of importance ; if either group marked a battle- 
 field of this period, the other certainly did so also, and I would 
 prefer to refrain from offering any opinion as to what particular 
 battle these stones commemorate. That must be determined by 
 some local antiquary with much more intimate knowledge of the 
 history and traditions of the province than I possess. All I wish 
 to show here is that there was a period of a century and a half 
 between the departure of the Romans and the time when the 
 Bretons were so completely converted to Christianity as to abandon 
 their old habits and customs, and that during that period there 
 were wars with the Eomans and the Northern barbarians of suffi- 
 cient importance to justify the erection of any monuments within 
 the competence of the people. If this is so, and we are limited to 
 this period, enough is established in so far as the argument of this 
 work is concerned, and the rest may fairly be left to be discussed 
 and determined by the local antiquaries. All that it is necessary 
 to contend for here is, that the alignments at Carnac are neither 
 temples, nor tombs, nor town-halls, and that they were not erected 
 before the time of the Romans. If these negative propositions 
 are answered, there will not, probably, be much difficulty in 
 admitting that they must be trophies, and that the battle or cam- 
 paign which they commemorate was fought between the years 
 380 and 550 a.d. — in fact in the Arthurian age, to which we have 
 ascribed most of those in this country. 
 
 The monuments in the cemetery at Locmariaker are probably 
 older, but some of them extend down to the time when Carnac 
 " closed the line in glory." 
 
376 
 
 FKANCE. 
 
 Chap. VIII. 
 
 Number of Dolmens in Thirty-one Departments of France, 
 according to M. Bertrand, 1864. 1 
 
 Lot 
 
 Finistere 
 
 Morbihan 
 
 Ardeche 
 
 Aveyron 
 
 Dordogne 
 
 Vienne (Haute et Basse) 
 
 Cotes du Nord 
 
 Maine-et-Loire 
 
 Eure-et-Loir 
 
 Gard 
 
 Aube 
 
 Indre-et-Loire 
 
 Charente 
 
 Creuse 
 
 Charente-Infe'rieure 
 
 Lozere 
 
 Correze 
 
 Vendee 
 
 Loire-Inferieure 
 
 Sartbe 
 
 Ille-et-Vilaine 
 
 Deux-Sevres 
 
 Orne 
 
 Indre 
 
 Manche , 
 
 Pyrene'es-Orientales 
 
 Puy-de-D6me 
 
 Oise 
 
 Cantal 
 
 Tarn-et-Garonne 
 
 )lmens. 
 
 Terminations in ac 
 
 5C0 
 
 71 
 
 500 
 
 3 
 
 250 
 
 26 
 
 155 
 
 16 
 
 125 
 
 35 
 
 100 
 
 75 
 
 82 
 
 41 
 
 56 
 
 8 
 
 53 
 
 . .. — 
 
 40 
 
 . .. — 
 
 32 
 
 16 
 
 28 
 
 1 
 
 28 
 
 .- .. — 
 
 26 
 
 50 
 
 26 
 
 6 
 
 24 
 
 21 
 
 19 
 
 16 
 
 17 
 
 42 
 
 17 
 
 — 
 
 16 
 
 11 
 
 15 
 
 — 
 
 15 
 
 18 
 
 15 
 
 . .. — 
 
 14 
 
 — 
 
 13 
 
 3 
 
 13 
 
 . .. — 
 
 12 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 . .. — 
 
 8 
 
 37 
 
 7 . 
 
 16 
 
 1 The information in this table must 
 be received -with great limitation. In 
 the first place, What is a dolmen? Do 
 the alignments at Carnac count as two, 
 as seven, or as 700 ? Many also are mere 
 estimates of local antiquaries. It is, for 
 instance, very doubtful if Finistere con- 
 tains more monuments than the Mor- 
 bihan; and subsequent information may 
 introduce great modifications into many 
 of the numbers. 
 
 The value of the ac distinction does 
 not come out clearly : first, because of the 
 imperfect mode in ■which it has been ob- 
 tained, but more because it does not 
 make it clear that there are in France 
 twenty-nine departments in which there 
 are no dolmens, and no ac-terminations ; 
 in fact, the negative evidence which does 
 not appear here is stronger than tie 
 positive. 
 
Chap. IX. SPAIN, PORTUGAL, AND ITALY. 377 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SPAIN, PORTUGAL, AND ITALY. 
 
 It would not be easy to find a more apt illustration of the difficulty 
 and danger of writing such a book as this than the history of 
 how we acquired our knowledge of Spanish dolmens. When Ford 
 published his interesting and exhaustive ' Handbook of Spain,' in 
 1845, he had travelled over the length and breadth of the land, and 
 knew its literature intimately, but he did not know that there was 
 a single "Druidical remain" in the country. The first intimation 
 of their existence was in a pamphlet by Don Rafael Mitjana, 1 
 containing the description of one at ' Antequera ; and since then 
 Don Gongora y Martinez 2 has published a work containing views 
 and descriptions of thirteen or fourteen important monuments of 
 this class in Andalusia and the south of Spain; and from other 
 sources I know the names of at least an equal number in the 
 Asturias and the north of Spain. 3 Had this work consequently 
 been written only a very few years ago, a description of the dolmen 
 at Antequera must have begun and ended the chapter. As it now 
 is, we not only know that dolmens are numerous in Spain, but we 
 have a distinct idea of their distribution, which may lead to most 
 important historical results. 
 
 With regard to Portugal, the case is even more striking. 
 Kinsey, in his 'Portugal Illustrated,' in 1829, gave a drawing 
 of a " Druid's altar " at Arroyolos, and it was mentioned also by 
 Borrow, 4 but there our information stopped, till the meeting of 
 the International Prehistoric Congress at Paris in 1867, when 
 S. Pereira da Costa described by name thirty-nine dolmens as still 
 existing in Portugal. He also mentioned that as long ago as 1734 
 a memoir had been presented to the Portuguese Academy enume- 
 rating 314 as then to be met with ; and though this is doubtful, it 
 
 1 ' Memoria sobre el Tenipio Druida de I 3 For a great part of the information 
 Antequera,' Malaga, 1847. regarding them, I am indebted to my 
 
 2 ' Antegiiedades prehitstoricos de An- friend Don J. F. Riaiio, of Madrid. 
 dalucia,' Madrid, 18(58. 4 ' Bible in Spain,' ii.,p. 35. 
 
PA11 , P0W DO. I ITALY. Chap. IX. 
 
 ' ' "' that III'/ were ,ii one time very numerous and many, no 
 doubt, till i i i which have escaped 8. da Costa's enquiries. 
 Veither he nor any one else appears to have raited Cape Cimeus, 
 the ii"» I louthem point, of Portugal, where, if we read Strabo 
 aright, dolmeni certainly existed in his day; 1 and if they do so 
 now. i! would I-" a point, gained in our investigation. 
 
 Al. present, according to S. da Costa, there are twenty-one 
 dolmens in Alentejo, two in J\Mramadura, nine in Beira, four in 
 Traa oh Bfontes, and three inMinho. According to my information, 
 they are numerous in Gallicia, but liave never been described. 
 Three at least are known by name in Santander, and as many in 
 the Astnriaa One at least is known in Biscay, and two in Vitoria; 
 one in Navarre, and one in Catalonia. But I am assured that all 
 along the roots of the mountains they are frequent, though no 
 one has yet described or drawn them. 2 So far as is known, there 
 are none in the Castiles, in the centre of Spain, and only that 
 group above alluded to in Andalusia, where probably, instead of a 
 dozen, it may turn out that there are twice or thrice that number. 
 
 Assuming this distribution of the Spanish dolmens to be correct 
 — and I see no reason for doubting that it is so, in the main features 
 at least — it is so remarkable that it affords a good opportunity for 
 testing one of the principal theories put forward with regard to 
 the migrations of the dolmen-building people. According to the 
 theory of M. Bertrand, the dolmen people, after passing down 
 the Baltic and leaving their monuments there, migrated to the 
 British islands, and after a sojourn of some time again took to 
 their ships and landed in France and Spain, to pass thence into 
 Africa and disappear. 3 This seems so strange, that it is fortunate 
 we have another hypothesis which assumes the probability of an 
 indigenous population driven first to the hills and then into the 
 ocean by the advancing tide of modern civilization. 
 
 The tii si hypothesis involves the assumption that the dolmen 
 people possessed a navy capable of transplanting them and their 
 families from shore to shore, and that they had a sufficient know- 
 
 ' Strabo 111 p L38. 1870, illustrated by drawings of hitherto 
 
 Thori la i foresting paper b) unknown dolmens, by Sir Vincent Eyre. 
 
 i. .11,., 1. 1. MaUhlde on this lubjeot • 'Revue orchcologigue,' new series, 
 
 ". Hi- a i- 1... ■,!■, ■■!. ,l Journal,' 108, viii. p. 580, 
 
Chap. IX. INTRODUCTORY. 379 
 
 ■ _ r F g _ _ : iphy to know exactly whither to go, but at the same 
 time " JSsesBed with such a spirit of wandering that so soon as they 
 1 for a certain time in a given place, and buried a certain 
 number of their chiefs, thev immediately set out again on their 
 travel. According to this view, they were so weak that they fie 
 the moment when the original [ ssesaors :: the land rose against 
 them, though, strange to say, they had in the first instance been 
 able to di^-r issess :acm. What is still more unlikely is that they 
 should htiT the organization to keep together, and to 
 
 introduce everywhere their own arts and their own customs, but 
 that, when they departed, they should have left nothing but their 
 tombs behind. This hypothesis involves in fact so many diffi- 
 culties and so many improbabilities that I do not think that either 
 31. Bertrand or the Baron de Bonstetten would now, that our 
 know^ Ige is so much increased, adhere to it. I at least cannot 
 : _ rounds it can be maintained. It is so diametrically 
 opposed to all we know of ancient migrations. They seem always 
 — in so far as Europe is concerned — to have followed the course 
 of the sun from east to west : and the idea that a people, after 
 having peopled Britain, should have started ag^in to land on the 
 — of the Asturias or in Portugal, and not have been 
 able to penetrate into the in: is sc very unlikely that it 
 
 would require very strong and direct testimony to make it credible, 
 while it need hardly be said no snch evidence is forthcoming. 
 
 The hypothesis which seems to account much more satisfactorily 
 for the facts as we know them assumes that an ancestral wor- 
 shipping people inhabited the Spanish peninsula from remote pre- 
 historic times. If so, they certainly xea ied the pastoral plains 
 of Castile and the fertile regions of Valencia and Andalusia, as 
 well as the bleak hills of G-allicia and the Asturias. Whether 
 we call them Iberians, or Celtiberians, or, to use a more general 
 term, Turanians, they were a dead-reverencing, ancestral wor- 
 shipping people, but had not in prehistoric times learnt to use 
 stone for the adornment of their tombs. 
 
 The first people, so far as we know, who disturbed the Iberians in 
 their possessions were the Carthaginians. They occupied tLr - 
 joast at least of Murcia and Valencia, and if, according to their 
 custom, they sought to reduce the natives to slavery, thev 
 
380 
 
 SPAIN, PORTUGAL, AND ITALY. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 probably frightened multitudes from the coast into the interior, but 
 there is no proof that they ever made any extensive settlements 
 in the centre of the country, nor on its west or north coast. It 
 was different with the Eomans : with them the genius of conquest 
 was strong ; they longed to annex all Spain to their dominions, 
 and no doubt drove all those who were impatient of their yoke 
 into the remote districts of Portugal and the rugged fastnesses of 
 the Asturias and the northern mountains. It is also probable that 
 many, to avoid their oppressions, sought refuge beyond the sea ; 
 but the great migrations are probably due to the intolerance of the 
 early Christian missionaries. It thus seems that it was to avoid 
 Carthaginian rapacity, Eoman tyranny, and Christian intolerance, 
 that the unfortunate aborigines were forced first into the fastnesses 
 of the hills, and thence driven literally into the sea, to seek refuge 
 from their oppressors in the islands of the ocean. 1 
 
 Such an hypothesis seems perfectly consonant with all the facts 
 as we now know them, and it also accounts for the absence of 
 dolmens in the centre of Spain ; for if this is correct, these migra- 
 tions took place in the pre-dolmen period, and just as we find the 
 Bryts beginning to use stones after having been driven from the 
 fertile plains of the east into the fastnesses of Cumberland and 
 Wales, so we find the Spaniards first adopting rude-stone monu- 
 ments after having been driven into Portugal and the Asturias. 
 
 The one point which this theory does not seem to account for 
 is the presence of dolmens in Andalusia. They however are, if I 
 am not mistaken, an outlying branch of the great African dolmen 
 field, and belong to the same age as these do, of which we shall be 
 better able to judge presently. That there was a close or intimate 
 
 1 " In the year b.c. 218, the second 
 and fiercest struggle between the rival 
 republics of Carthage and Rome was 
 commenced by Hannibal taking Se- 
 guntum. The Peniusula thereafter be- 
 came the theatre of a war afterwards 
 carried by Hannibal into Italy, which 
 was not concluded till 202 B.C., when 
 Spain was added to the growing Italian 
 Republic. But the nation of Spain did 
 not willingly bow to the yoke. One of 
 the bloodiest of all the Roman wars 
 commenced in Spain 153, and did not 
 
 finally terminate for twenty years, 
 during which cities were razed to the 
 ground, multitudes massacred and made 
 slaves, and the triumphant arms of Rome 
 borne to the Atlantic shores. Here, 
 therefore, is an epoch in the history of 
 the Spanish peninsula which seems 
 completely to coincide with the ancient 
 traditions of the Scoti, and the know- 
 ledge we possess of the period of their 
 arrival in Ireland." — Dan Wilson, ' Pre- 
 historic Annals of Scotland,' p. 475. 
 
Chap. IX. INTRODUCTORY. 381 
 
 connection from very early times between the south coast of Spain 
 and the north of Africa hardly admits of a doubt. The facility 
 with which the Moors occupied it in the seventh century, and the 
 permanence of their dominion for so many centuries, is in itself 
 sufficient to prove that a people of the same race had been esta- 
 blished there before them, and that they were not a foreign race 
 holding the natives in subjection, but dwelling among their own 
 kith and kin. 
 
 It seems in vain to look among the written annals, either of 
 Spain or Ireland, for a rational account of these events. Both 
 countries acknowledge to the fullest extent that the migration did 
 take place ; and the Spanish race of Heremon is one of the most 
 illustrious of those of Ireland, and fills a large page in its history. 
 So, too, the Spanish annalists fill volumes Avith the successful ex- 
 peditions of their countrymen to the Green Island. 1 The mania, 
 however, of the annalists of both countries for carrying every- 
 thing back to the Flood, and the sons and daughters of Noah, so 
 vitiates everything they say, that beyond the fact, which seems 
 undoubted that such migration did occur no reliance can be placed 
 on their accounts of these transactions. 
 
 One only paragraph that I know of seems to have escaped per- 
 version. In his second chapter of his fourth book, D. O'Campo 
 states : — " Certain natives of Spain called Siloros (the Siluri), a 
 Biscayan tribe, joined with another, named Brigantes, migrated to 
 Britain about 261 years before our era, and obtained possession of 
 a territory there on which they settled." 2 This is so consonant 
 with what we know of the settlement of the Silures on the banks 
 of the Severn that there seems no good reason for doubting its 
 correctness. It is more doubtful, however, whether any Spanish 
 colonies reached Ireland at so early an age. Even allowing for 
 the existence in the north-east of Ireland of the realm of Emania, 
 the only kingdom in Ireland of which we have any authentic 
 annals before the Christian era, there was plenty of room for the 
 contemporary existence of the race of Heremon in the south and 
 west. Tara did not then exist, and, in fact, according to the 
 
 1 See a paper on the migration from Spain to Ireland, by Dr. Madden, 'Pro- 
 ceedings of Eoyal Irish Academy,' viii. pp. 372 et seqq. 2 Madden, I. s, c. p. 377. 
 
382 SPAIN, PORTUGAL, AND ITALY. Chap. IX. 
 
 annals of the Tour Masters,' was founded byHereraon himself, 
 and took its first name, Teamair, from Tea, his wife, who selected 
 this spot. All this is perfectly consistent with what we know of the 
 history of the place. The earliest monument at Tara is the Eath 
 of Cormac 1 (218 a.d., or probably fifty years later). Though there- 
 fore chosen by Heremon as a sacred or desirable spot for resi- 
 dence, there is no proof that his race ever occupied it ; and in the 
 two centuries that elapsed from his advent to the time of Cormac 
 his race had passed away from Meath at least, and was only to 
 be found in the south and west of Ireland. The one reminiscence 
 of the Milesian race that remained at Tara, in historical times, is 
 the Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny, which these "veneratores lapi- 
 dum " are said to have brought with them from Spain, but which, 
 with all due deference to Petrie, is not the obelisk still standing 
 there, 2 but may be the stone now in Westminster Abbey. The 
 Spanish colonists seem principally to have occupied the country 
 about Wexford and Galway, 3 and to these places, especially the 
 latter, a continual stream of immigration appears to have flowed 
 from the first century of our era down to the time of Elizabeth. 
 No one can travel in these counties without remarking the pre- 
 sence of a dark-haired, dark-eyed race that prevails everywhere; 
 but, strange to say, the darkest-complexioned people in the west 
 are those who still linger among the long-neglected dolmens of 
 Glen Malim More. 
 
 According to the annals of the ' Four Masters,' Heremon landed 
 in Ireland fifty years after the death of the great Dagdha. The 
 Irish historians say that the country was then ruled by three 
 princesses, wives of the grandsons of the Dagdha, and add that 
 the event took place 1002 years after Forann (Pharaoh) had been 
 drowned in the Bed Sea. 4 If that event took place in 1312, as I 
 believe it did, 5 this would fix their advent in 310 B.C., which, 
 though less extravagant than the chronology of the ' Four 
 Masters, is still, I believe, at least three centuries too early. 
 
 1 Ante, p. 193. j province of Olnemacht (i.e. Cormaught)." 
 
 2 Petrie, " Essay on Tara," ' Trans, i — Petrie, ' Round Towers,' p. 100. 
 
 R. S. A.' xviii. * Reeves, translation of Nennius, p. 55- 
 
 3 "The two provinces which the race ! 5 'True Principles of Beauty in Art,' 
 of Heremon possessed were the pro- by the Author, appendix, 52G. 
 
 viuce of Gailian (i.e. Leinster) and the 
 
Chap. IX. 
 
 DOLMENS.— CUEVA DE MENGA. 
 
 383 
 
 All this may not be — is not in fact — capable of absolute proof; 
 but it has at least the merit that it pieces together satisfactorily- 
 all we know of the history and ethnography of these races, and ex- 
 plains in a reasonable manner all the architectural forms which we 
 meet with. It is hardly fair to expect more from the annals of a 
 rude people who could not write, and whose history has never been 
 carefully investigated in modern times. It is too early yet to say 
 so, but the fact is, that it is these rude-stone monuments which 
 alone can reveal the secrets of their long forgotten past. As they 
 have hitherto been treated, they have only added mystery to 
 obscurity. But the time is not far off when this will be altered, 
 and we may learn from a comparison of the Irish with Spanish 
 dolmens, not only what truth there is in the migrations of Here- 
 mon, but also at what time these Spanish tribes first settled as 
 colonists in the Irish isle. 
 
 Dolmens. 
 
 The finest dolmen known to exist in Spain is that of Antequera, 
 above alluded to ; it will, indeed, bear comparison with the best 
 in France or any other country in Europe. The chamber is of 
 a somewhat oval shape, and measures internally about 80 feet 
 
 View of the Interior of Dolmen at Antequera. From Mitjana. 
 
SPAIN, POBTUGAL, AND ITALY. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 Aylesfovd. Its cap-stone is 12 feet by 8 feet, and the side-stones 
 foil away to a point in front. It evidently never was intended to 
 be further roofed, nor to be buried in a mound, and, so far as can 
 be judged from its appearance, is of comparatively modern date. 
 
 The most interesting of Don Gongora's plates is one repre- 
 senting a dolmen near Dilar. This, if the drawing is to be 
 depended upon, consists of a monolithic chamber, hollowed out of 
 a stone of considerable dimensions, and hewn so as almost to look 
 like an Egyptian cell. It is surrounded by twelve or fourteen 
 rude-stone pillars, apparently 3 feet in height, and like those of 
 
 15S. .-'epultura Grande. From Gnnenra. 
 
 Callernish in shape. In the distance are seen two other circles 
 of rude stones, but with nothing in their centre. If I understand 
 Don Gongora rightly, these monuments are now very much ruined, 
 if not entirely destroyed, and it is not clear how far the drawings 
 are actual sketches or restorations. They may be correct, but 
 without further confirmation it would hardly be safe to found any 
 argument upon them. 
 
 So little is known — or at least so little has been published — 
 regarding the dolmens of the north of Spain that it is very difficult 
 and very unsafe to attempt any generalisation regarding them. 
 There are three, however, which do seem to throw some light 
 on our enquiries. The first is at Eguilar, in the district of 
 Yitoria, on the road between that city and Pampeluna. It is 
 
Chap. IX. 
 
 DOLMENS. 
 
 38^ 
 
 of a horse-shoe form, like the Countless Stones at Aylesford, and 
 
 measures 13 feet by 10 feet internally. Originally it was roofed 
 
 by a single stone, measuring 19 feet by 15 feet, but which is 
 
 now, unfortunately, broken. The side-stones 
 
 and roof are closely fitted to one another, / s*~— S^, 
 
 showing that it was always intended to be, Mk IIP 
 
 and, in fact, is now, partially covered by mi 
 
 a mound of earth. jjf<- — -xJ^t ,^|j 
 
 At Cangas de Onis, in the Asturias, |j| 
 
 IPl 
 about forty miles east from Oviedo, there ||| /_ 
 
 is a small church built on a mound which llp^_^ * __j||jF 
 contains in it a dolmen of rather unusual ^-^H; ^Hl!r 
 shape. Its inner end is circular in plan, 159. Plan of Dolmen at 
 from which proceeds a funnel-shaped nave, 
 
 formed of three stones on each side, and with a doorway formed 
 by two large stones at right angles to its direction. On the top 
 of the mound a church was built, pro- 
 bably in the tenth or eleventh century, 1 
 to which this dolmen served as a crypt. / ' 
 
 From this it seems to be a fair inference / 
 
 that, when the church was built on the ' 
 
 mound, the dolmen was still a sacred 
 edifice of the aborigines. Had the 
 Christians merely wanted a foundation 
 for then' building, they would have 
 filled up or destroyed the pagan edifice, 
 but it seems to have remained open to 
 the present day ; and though it has long 
 ceased to be used for any sacred pur- 
 pose, it still is, and always was, an 
 essential part of the church which it 160. Ran of noimen at 
 
 . Cangas de Onis. 
 
 supported. 
 
 A still more remarkable instance of the same kind is to be 
 found at a place called Arrichinaga, about twenty-five miles from 
 Bilboa, in the province of Biscay. In the hermitage of St. Michael, 
 
 1 There is a view of the mound and church in Parcerisa, ' Kecuerdos y Bellezas de 
 Espafia, Asturias y Leon,' p. 30, but too small to enable us to be able to form any 
 idea of its age from the lithograph. 
 
 2 c 2 
 
386 
 
 SPAIN, PORTUGAL, AND ITALY. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 Aylesfovd. Its cap-stone is 12 feet by 8 feet, and the side-stones 
 fall away to a point in front. It evidently never was intended to 
 be further roofed, nor to be buried in a mound, and, so far as can 
 be judged from its appearance, is of comparatively modern date. 
 
 The most interesting of Don Gongora's plates is one repre- 
 senting a dolmen near Dilar. This, if the drawing is to be 
 depended upon, consists of a monolithic chamber, hollowed out of 
 a stone of considerable dimensions, and hewn so as almost to look 
 like an Egyptian cell. It is surrounded by twelve or fourteen 
 rude-stone pillars, apparently 3 feet in height, and like those of 
 
 158. . c 'epultura Grande. From Gnnsrora. 
 
 Callernish in shape. In the distance are seen two other circles 
 of rude stones, but with nothing in their centre. If I understand 
 Don Gongora rightly, these monuments are now very much ruined, 
 if not entirely destroyed, and it is not clear how far the drawings 
 are actual sketches or restorations. They may be correct, but 
 without further confirmation it would hardly be safe to found any 
 argument upon them. 
 
 So little is known — or at least so little has been published — 
 regarding the dolmens of the north of Spain that it is very difficult 
 and very unsafe to attempt any generalisation regarding them. 
 There are three, however, which do seem to throw some light 
 on our enquiries. The first is at Eguilar, in the district of 
 Yitoria, on the road between that city and Pampeluna. It is 
 
Chap. IX. 
 
 DOLMENS. 
 
 387 
 
 Plan of Dolmen at 
 Eguilar. 
 
 of a horse-shoe form, like the Countless Stones at Aylesford, and 
 measures 13 feet by 10 feet internally. Originally it was roofed 
 by a single stone, measuring 19 feet by 15 feet, but which is 
 now, unfortunately, broken. The side-stones 
 and roof are closely fitted to one another, 
 showing that it was always intended to be, 
 and, in fact, is now, partially covered by 
 a mound of earth. 
 
 At Cangas de Onis, in the Asturias, 
 about forty miles east from Ovieclo, there 
 is a small church built on a mound which 
 contains in it a dolmen of rather unusual 
 shape. Its inner end is circular in plan, 
 from Avhich proceeds a funnel-shaped nave, 
 formed of three stones on each side, and with a doorway formed 
 by two large stones at right angles to its direction. On the top 
 of the mound a church was built, pro- 
 bably in the tenth or eleventh century, 1 
 to which this dolmen served as a crypt. 
 From this it seems to be a fair inference 
 that, when the church was built on the 
 mound, the dolmen was still a sacred 
 edifice of the aborigines. Had the 
 Christians merely wanted a foundation 
 for their building, they would have 
 filled up or destroyed the pagan edifice, 
 but it seems to have remained open to 
 the present day ; and though it has long 
 ceased to be used for any sacred pur- 
 pose, it still is, and always was, an 
 essential part of the church which it 
 supported. 
 
 A still more remarkable instance of the same kind is to be 
 found at a place called Arrichinaga, about twenty-five miles from 
 Bilboa, in the province of Biscay. In the hermitage of St. Michael, 
 
 160. Plan of Dolmen at 
 Cangas de Onis. 
 
 1 There is a view of the mound and church in Parcerisa, ' Eecuerdos y Bellezas de 
 Espafla, Asturias y Leon,' p. 30, but too small to enable us to be able to form any 
 idea of its age from the lithograph. 
 
 2 c 2 
 
388 
 
 SPAIN, PORTUGAL, AND ITALY. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 at this place, a dolmen of very considerable dimensions is enclosed 
 within the walls of what seems to be a new modern church. It 
 may, however, be the successor of one more ancient ; but the fact 
 of these great stones being adopted by the Christians at all 
 shows that they must have been considered sacred and objects of 
 worship by the natives at the time when the Christians enclosed 
 
 161. Dolmen of San Miguel, at Arriehiuaga. 
 
 them in their edifice. If the facts are as represented in the 
 woodcut, 1 we can now easily understand why the councils of 
 Toledo, in 681 and 692, fulminated their decrees against the 
 " veneratores lapidum ;" 2 and why also the more astute pro- 
 vincial priesthood followed the advice that Pope Gregory gave 
 to Abbot Millitus, and by means of a little holy water and an 
 
 1 The woodcut is copied from one 
 in Frank Leslie's ' Illustrated News ;' 
 which is itself, taken from a French illus- 
 trated journal. I do not doubt that the 
 American copy is a correct reproduction 
 of the French original ; but there may 
 be exaggerations in the first. I see no 
 
 reason, however, for doubting that the 
 great stones do exist in the hermitage, 
 and that they are parts, at least, of a 
 dolmen — and this is all that concerns the 
 argument. I wish, however, we had 
 some more reliable information on the 
 subject. - Vide ante, p. 24. 
 
Chap. IX. 
 
 PORTUGAL. 
 
 389 
 
 image of San Miguel turned the sacred stones of the pagans into 
 a temple of the true God. It is difficult to say when Christianity 
 penetrated into the AstUrias— not, probably, before the time of 
 Pelayo (a.d. 720) ; but even' this would be too early for such 
 churches as those of Cangas de Onis and Arrichinaga. They, in 
 fact, seem to carry down the veneration for big stones to almost 
 as late a date as the age indicated by the dolmen at Confolens 
 (woodcut No. 123), and bring the probable erection of some of 
 them at least, if not of all, within the historic era. 
 
 Portugal. 
 
 Only one drawing of a dolmen in Portugal has as yet, so far as 
 I know, been published. It is situated on a bleak heath-land at 
 Arroyolos, not far from Evora. Mr. Borrow describes it as one of 
 
 162. Dolmen at Arroyolos. From Kinsey. 
 
 the most perfect and beautiful of its kind he had ever seen. " It 
 was circular, and consisted of stones immensely large and heavy 
 at the bottom, which towards the top became thinner, having 
 been fashioned by the hand of art to something like the shape of 
 scallop-shells. These were surmounted by a very large flat stone 
 
390 SPAIN, PORTUGAL, AND ITALY. Chap. IX. 
 
 wliich slanted down towards tbe south, where was a door. Three 
 or four individuals might have taken shelter within the interior, 
 in which was growing a small thorn-tree." x Neither he nor Kinsey 
 condescend to dimensions, and S. da Costa merely remarks that 
 the dolmens which he has seen at Castello da Vide are of a similar 
 construction to this one at Arroyolos. 2 
 
 This, it must be confessed, is but a meagre and imperfect 
 outline of one of the most important dolmen-fields in Europe, but 
 it is probably sufficient to indicate its importance and its bearing 
 on the history of megalithic remains in general. When filled up, 
 it promises to throw a flood of light on the subject in general, not 
 only from being one of the connecting links serving to join the 
 African dolmen-field to that of Europe, but more especially from 
 the assistance it seems to afford us in understanding the hitherto 
 mysterious connection of the Irish Milesians with Spain. If the 
 dolmens on the north and west coasts of the Spanish peninsula 
 were carefully examined and compared with those in Ireland, 
 their similarity would probably suffice to prove their affinity, 
 and to establish on a broad basis of fact what has hitherto been 
 left to the wild imaginings of patriotic annalists, more anxious 
 for the fabled antiquity of their race than for the prosaic results 
 of truthful investigations. 
 
 From such knowledge as we at present possess, I see no reason 
 for supposing that any of the Spanish dolmens are as old as the 
 Christian era ; and the facts connected with the two at Cangas de 
 Onis and Arrichinaga seem to prove that they were " venerated " 
 as late at least as the eighth, it may be the tenth, century, and, if 
 venerated, there is no reason why they should not also have been 
 erected at that late age. 
 
 Italy. 
 
 Although the experience we have just acquired with reference 
 to dolmens in Spain ought to make any one cautious as to making 
 assertions regarding those in Italy, still it probably is safe to 
 
 
 1 Borrow, ' Bible in Spain,' ii. p. 35. 
 
 2 ' Congres international prehistorique' Paris volume, p. 182. 
 
Chap. IX. ITALY. 391 
 
 assert that, with the exception of one group at Saturnia, there 
 are no dolmens in that country. In many respects Italy is very 
 differently situated from Spain. Her own learned societies and 
 antiquaries have for centuries been occupied with her antiquities, 
 and foreign tourists have traversed the length and breadth of the 
 land, and could hardly have failed to remark anything that called 
 to their recollection the Druids or Dragons of their own native 
 lands. As nothing, however, of the sort has been recorded, we 
 may feel tolerable confidence that no important specimens , exist ; 
 though at the roots of the hills and in remote corners there can 
 be little doubt that waifs and strays of wandering races will 
 reward the careful searcher for such objects. One, for instance, 
 is known to exist near Sesto Calende, in Lombard y. It is a circle 
 of small stones, some 30 feet in diameter, with an avenue 50 feet in 
 length touching it tangentially on one side, and with a small semi- 
 circle of stones 20 feet wide a few yards farther off. 1 The whole 
 looks like the small alignments on Dartmoor, and if several were 
 found and the traditions of the country were carefully sifted, this 
 might lead to some light being thrown on the subject. At present 
 it is hardly much bigger or more interesting than a sheep-fold. 
 
 The Saturnia group is thus described by Mr. Dennis : — " They 
 are very numerous, consisting generally of a quadrangular chamber 
 sunk a few feet below the surface, lined with rough slabs of rock 
 set upright, one on each side, and roofed over with two large slabs 
 resting against each, other, so as to form a penthouse, or else a 
 single one of enormous size, covering the whole, and laid with 
 a slight slope, apparently for the purpose of carrying off the rain. 
 Not a chisel has touched these rugged masses, about 16 feet 
 square to half that size; some divided, like that shown in the 
 annexed woodcut, into two chambers over 18 feet across. To most 
 of them a passage leads, 10 or 12 feet long and 3 feet wide. All 
 are sunk a little below the surface, because each had a tumulus of 
 earth piled around it, so as to cover all but the cap stone." 
 
 One tumulus was observed with a circle of small stones set 
 round it, and Mr. Dennis suggests " that all may have been so 
 encircled, but that the small stones would be easily removed by 
 
 ' Congres international prehistorique,' Paris volume, p. 197. 
 
392 
 
 SPAIN, PORTUGAL, AND ITALY. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 the peasantry." " Nothing," lie adds, " at all like them is seen in 
 any other part of Etruria." * Saturnia is situated twenty miles from 
 the sea, and if it is true that nothing of the sort is found elsewhere 
 in Italy, these dolmens must be looked upon as exceptional — the 
 remains of some stray colony of dolmen-builders, the memory 
 of which has passed away, and may probably now be lost for 
 ever. 
 
 If this is a correct representation of what took place in Italy, 
 the conclusion seems inevitable that the chambered tumuli of 
 that country — all of which are erected with hewn stones — did not 
 
 Dulmen at Saturnia. From Dennis' ' Etruria.' 
 
 grow out of rude-stone monuments. In no country in Europe are 
 the tumuli so numerous or so important as in Etruria, and, as before 
 mentioned, they certainly extend back to an era twelve or thirteen 
 centuries before Christ. But if the dolmens of France or Scandi- 
 navia are prehistoric, or, in other words, extend back to anything 
 like a thousand or fifteen hundred years before Christ, there is no 
 reason whatever why dolmens should not be found also in Italy, 
 if they ever existed there. Either it must be that Italy never 
 
 1 ' Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria,' ii. p. 314. 
 
Chap. IX. ITALY. 393 
 
 possessed any or that those in the rest of Europe are very much 
 more modern. If the northern dolmens are only one thousand to 
 two thousand years old, the matter is easily explained. If they 
 are three thousand or four thousand years old, they ought also to 
 be found in Italy. 
 
 The fact seems to be that both the Pelasgi of Greece and the 
 Tyrrheni of Italy came in contact either with Egypt or some 
 early stone-hewing people before they left their homes in the East 
 to m'grate into Europe, and that they never passed through the 
 rude-stone stage of architecture at any period, or at any place with 
 which we are acquainted ; and as they were, so far as we know, the 
 earliest colonists of the countries they afterwards occupied, it 
 seems in, vain to look for dolmens where they settled. If Attila 
 had lived five centuries before instead of after the Christian era, 
 he and his Huns might have produced a rude-stone age in Italy. 
 The inhabitants of Etruria were essentially a burying, dead- 
 reverencing people, and if they had only been thrown back to that 
 stage of barbarism which the rude monuments of our forefathers 
 represent, we might have found dolmens there in thousands. 
 The fate of Italy was different. Pressed by the Celts of Gallia 
 Cisalpina in the north and by the Romans in the south, Etruria 
 was squeezed out of existence, but by two races more civilized 
 and progressive than herself. So far from throwing her back 
 towards barbarism, Rome in adopting many of her forms advanced 
 and improved upon them, and imparted to her architecture a 
 higher and more intellectual form than she had been herself able to 
 impress upon it. So, too, in Greece. The Dorian superseded and 
 extinguished the Pelasgic forms, but after a longer interval of time. 
 Four or five centuries elapsed between the last tomb we know of, 
 at Mycense, and the earliest Doric temple at Corinth, and the 
 consequence is that we see far fewer traces of the earlier people in 
 the architecture of Greece than we do in that of Rome. But 
 in neither instance was there any tendency to retrogade to a 
 dolmen stage of civilization. 
 
 The case was widely different with such countries as Spain or 
 France. There an aboriginal population had existed for thou- 
 sands and tens of thousands of years, unprogressive and incapable, 
 so far as we know, of progress within themselves, and only at last 
 
394 SPAIN, PORTUGAL, AND ITALY. Chap. IX. 
 
 slowly and reluctantly forced by Eoman example to adopt a more 
 ambitious mode of sepulture than a mere mound of earth. No 
 semi-civilized race ever settled in their lands, and the Cartha- 
 ginians at Carthagena or Marseilles hardly penetrated into the 
 interior, and were besides neither a building nor burying race, 
 and had, consequently, very little influence on their modes of 
 sepulture. 
 
 With Borne the case was different. She conquered and ad- 
 ministered for centuries all those countries in which we find the 
 earliest traces of rude-stone monuments, and she could hardly 
 fail to leave some impress of her magnificence in lands which 
 she had so long occupied. But when she withdrew her pro- 
 tecting care, France, Spain, and Britain relapsed into, and for 
 centuries remained sunk in, a state of anarchy and barbarism as 
 bad, if not worse than, that in which Rome had found them three 
 or four centuries before. It was in vain to expect that the hapless 
 natives could maintain either the arts or the institutions with 
 which Rome had endowed them. But it is natural to suppose 
 that they would remember the evidences of her greatness and her 
 power, and would hardly go back for their sepulchres to the 
 unchambered mole-hill barrows of their forefathers, but attempt 
 something in stone, though only in such rude fashion as the state 
 of the arts among them enabled them to execute. 
 
Chap. X. ALGERIA.— INTRODUCTORY. 395 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 ALGERIA. 
 
 It would be difficult to find a more curious illustration of the 
 fable of " Eyes and no Eyes" than in the history of the discovery 
 of dolmens in northern Africa. Though hundreds of travellers 
 had passed through the country since the time of Bruce and 
 Shaw, and though the French had possessed Algiers since 1830, 
 an author writing on the subject ten years ago would have been 
 fully justified in making the assertion that there were no dolmens 
 there. Yet now we know that they exist literally in thousands. 
 Perhaps it would not be an exaggeration to say that ten thousand 
 are known, and their existence recorded. 
 
 The first to announce the fact to the literary world in Europe 
 was the late Mr. Rhincl. He read a paper on what he called 
 ' ; Ortholithic remains in North Africa," to the Society of Anti- 
 quaries in 1859, which was afterwards published in volume 
 xxxviii. of the ' Archseologia.' It attracted, however, very little 
 attention, perhaps in consequence of its name, but more from its 
 not being illustrated. It was not really till 1863, when the late 
 Henry Christy visited Algeria, that anything really became known. 
 At Constantine he formed the acquaintance of a M. Feraud, 
 interpreter to the army of Algeria, who took him to a place called 
 Bou Moursug, about twenty-five miles south of Constantine, where, 
 during a short stay of three days, they saw and noted down 
 upwards of one thousand dolmens. 1 M. Feraud afterwards pub- 
 lished an account of these in the ' Me'moires de la Socie'te archeo- 
 logique de Constantine ' for 1863, and the subject having attracted 
 some attention in Europe, a second memoir appeared in the 
 following year, which contained a good deal of additional infor- 
 mation collected from different district officers. Since then various 
 memoirs have been published in Algeria and France. One by 
 
 International Congress,' Norwich volume, 1869, p. 19G. 
 
396 ALGERIA. Chap. X. 
 
 the now celebrated General Faidherbe " speaks of three thousand 
 tombs in the single necropolis at Roknia, and of another equally 
 extensive within a few leagues of Constantine." l An excellent 
 resume of the whole subject will be found in the Norwich volume 
 of the International Prehistoric Congress, by Mr. Flower. From 
 all these we gather a fair general idea of the subject, but, 
 unfortunately, none of the memoirs are written by persons com- 
 bining extensive local experience with real archaeological know- 
 ledge, except, perhaps, Mr. Flower. No plan of any one group 
 has yet been given to the world, nor are any of the monuments 
 illustrated with such details and measurements as would enable 
 one to speak with certainty regarding them. This is espe- 
 cially the case with those represented in the ' Exploration 
 scientifique de 1'Algerie,' published by the French Government. 
 There are in this work numerous representations of dolmens 
 carefully and beautifully drawn, but very seldom with scales 
 attached to them ; and as no text has yet been published, they are 
 of comparatively little value for the purposes of research. Had 
 Mr. Christy lived a little longer, these deficiencies would doubt- 
 less have been supplied ; but, unfortunately, his mantle has not 
 fallen on any worthy successor, and we must wait till some one 
 appears who combines leisure and means with the knowledge 
 and enthusiasm which characterized that noble-minded man. 
 
 It need hardly be added that no detailed map exists showing 
 the distribution of the dolmens in Algeria, 2 and as many of the 
 names by which they are known to French archaeologists are 
 those of villages not marked on any maps obtainable in this 
 country, it is very difficult to trace their precise position, and 
 almost always impossible to draw with certainty any inferences from 
 their distribution. In so far as we at present know, the principal 
 dolmen region is situated along and on either side of a line drawn 
 from Bona on the coast to Batna, sixty miles south of Constantine. 
 But around Setif, and in localities nearly due south from Boujie, 
 they are said to be in enormous numbers. The Commandant 
 Payen reports the number of menhirs there as not less than ten 
 
 1 Norwich volume of ' Prehistoric vol. xi. pi. v. It contained most of the 
 Congress,' p. 196. names of places where dolmens were then 
 
 2 A very imperfect one appeared in known to exist, but our knowledge lias 
 the ' Revue arehe'ologique,' in 1S65, ; been immensely extended since then. 
 
Chap. X. INTRODUCTORY. 397 
 
 thousand^ averaging from 4 to 5 feet in height. One colossal 
 monolith he describes as 26 feet in diameter at its base and 
 52 feet high. 1 This, however, is surpassed by a dolmen situated 
 near Tiaret, described by the Commandant Bernard. According 
 to his account the cap-stone is 65 feet long by 26 feet broad, 
 and 9 feet 6 inches thick ; and this enormous mass is placed 
 on other rocks which rise between 30 and 40 feet above the 
 surface. 2 If this is true, it is the most enormous dolmen known, 
 and it is strange that it should have escaped observation so 
 long. Even the most apathetic traveller might have been asto- 
 nished at such a wonder. Whether less gigantic specimens of the 
 class exist in that neighbourhood, we are not told, but they do in 
 detached patches everywhere eastward throughout the province. 
 Those described by Mr. Rhincl are only twelve miles from Algiers, 
 and others are said to exist in great numbers in the regency of 
 Tripoli. 3 So far as is at present known, they are not found in 
 Morocco, but are found everywhere between Mount Atlas and 
 the Syrtes, and apparently not near the sites of any great cities, 
 or known centres of population, but in valleys and remote corners, 
 as if belonging to a nomadic or agricultural population. 
 
 When we speak of the ten thousand or, it may be, twenty 
 thousand stone sepulchral monuments 
 that are now known to exist in northern 
 Africa, it must not be understood that 
 they are all dolmens or circles of the 
 class of which we have hitherto been 
 speaking. Two other classes certainly 
 exist, in some places, apparently, in 
 considerable numbers, though it is 
 difficult to make out in what pro- 
 portion, and how far their forms are 
 
 „ . -I it 161> Bazina. From Flower's Paper. 
 
 local. One of these classes, called 
 
 Bazina by the Arabs, is thus described by Mr. Flower : — " Their 
 
 general character is that of three concentric enclosures of stones 
 
 1 ' Meraoires cle la Soc. arch, de Constantine,' 1864, p. 127. 
 
 2 Flower, in Norwich volume, p. 204. 
 
 3 ' Memoires, etc., de Constantine,' 1864, p. 124. 
 
398 
 
 ALGERIA. 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 of greater or less dimensions, so arranged as to form a series of 
 steps. Sometimes, indeed, tliere are only two outer circles, and 
 occasionally only one. The diameter of the larger axis of that 
 here represented is about 30 feet. In the centre are usually 
 found three long and slender upright stones, forming three sides 
 of a long rectangle, and the interior is paved with, pebbles and 
 broken stones. 
 
 " The Chouchas are found in the neighbourhood of the Bazinas, 
 
 and are closely allied to them. They 
 
 consist of courses of stones regularly 
 
 built up like a wall, and not in steps 
 
 like the Bazinas. Their diameter 
 
 varies from 7 to as much as 40 feet ; 
 
 but the height of the highest above 
 
 the soil does not exceed 5 to 10 feet. 
 
 They are usually capped and covered 
 
 by a large flag-stone, about 4 inches 
 
 thick, under which is a regular trough 
 
 or pit formed of stones from a foot and 
 
 a half to 3 feet in thickness. The interior of these little towers is 
 
 paved like the Bazinas ; and indeed M. Payen considers that they 
 
 are the equivalents in the mountains of the Bazinas in the plains." 1 
 
 In many instances the chouchas and bazinas are found combined 
 
 Cfaouclia. From a drawing hy 
 Mr. Flower. 
 
 166. Dolmen on Steps. From 'Exploration scientifique de l'Algerie.' 
 
 in one monument, and sometimes a regular dolmen is mounted on 
 steps similar to those of a bazina, as shown in the annexed 
 woodcut, representing one existing halfway between Constantine 
 
 1 Flower, in Norwich volume, pp. 201 ef zeqq. 
 
Chap. X. BAZINA3 AND CHOUCHAS. 399 
 
 and Bona. But, in fact, there is no conceivable combination which 
 does not seem to be found in these African cemeteries ; and did we 
 know them all, they might throw considerable light on some 
 questions that are now very perplexing. 
 
 The chouchas are found sometimes isolated, and occasionally 10 to 
 12 feet apart from one another in groups. In certain localities the 
 summits and ridges of the hills are covered with them, while on the 
 edges of steep cliffs they form fringes overhanging the ravines. 
 
 In both these classes of monuments the bodies are almost always 
 found in a doubled-up posture, the knees being brought up to 
 the chin, and the arms crossed over the breast, 1 like those in the 
 Axevalla tomb described above (page 312). 
 
 oocooooo 
 
 167. Tumuli, with Intermediate Lines of Stones. 
 
 The most remarkable peculiarity of the tumuli and circles in 
 Algeria is the mode in which they are connected together by 
 
 pa «-, 
 
 l V°=^> Lit', 1 go,) % *,zi~* 
 
 
 «•>. 
 
 
 „., .„ , -- s »-.'o v g in l'i u Ss» r, 'J Ve=y a ~ ("""-rife" ujsss' u<i<.'u:"><» 
 
 168. Group of Sepulchral Monuments, Algeria. 
 
 double lines of stones — as Mr. Flowers expresses it, like beads on a 
 string — in the manner shown in woodcut No. 167. What the 
 object of this was has not been explained, nor will it be easy to 
 guess, till we have more, and more detailed, drawings than we now 
 possess. Mr. Feraud's plate xxviii. 1 shows such a line zigzagging 
 
 Memoires, etc., de Constantine,' 1864, pp. 109, 114. 
 
400 
 
 ALGERIA. 
 
 Chai>. X. 
 
 across the plain between two heights, like a line of field fortifica- 
 tions, and with dolmens and tumuli sometimes behind or in front 
 of the lines, and at others strung upon it. At first sight it looks 
 like the representation of a battle-field, but, again, what are we to 
 
 
 '%, 
 
 ^^ 
 
 169. Plan and Elevation of African Tumulus. From Feraud. 
 
 make of such a group as that represented in woodcut 168 on 
 the previous page ? It is the most extensive plan of any one of 
 these groups which has yet been published, but it must be received 
 with caution. 2 There is no scale attached to it. The triple circles 
 with dolmens I take to be tumuli, like those of the Aveyron 
 (woodcuts Nos. 8 and 122), but the whole must be regarded as a 
 diagram, not as a plan, and as such very unsafe to reason upon. 
 Still, as it certainly is not invented, it shows the curious manner 
 in which these monuments are joined together, as well as the 
 various forms which they take. 
 
 One of these (?) is represented in plan and elevation in the an- 
 nexed woodcut 169. 3 It is, as will be observed, almost identical — 
 
 1 ' Memoires, etc., de Constantine.' 
 
 2 Another is published by M. Bour- 
 guignal, in his ' Monuments symboliques 
 de l'Algerie,' pi. i., but it is still more 
 suspicious. 
 
 3 I have been obliged to take some 
 liberties with M. Feraud's cuts ; the plan 
 and elevation are so entirely discrepant, 
 that one or both must be wrong. I have 
 brought them a little more into harmony. 
 
Chap. X. 
 
 ALGERIA.— FREE-STANDING DOLMENS. 
 
 401 
 
 making allowance for bad drawing — with those of Aveyron just 
 referred to, or with the Scandinavian examples as exemplified in 
 the diagram (woodcut jSTo. 109). As this class with the external 
 dolmen on the summit seems to be very extensive in Algeria, 
 indeed almost typical, an examination of their interior would at 
 once solve the mystery of their arrangements, and tell us whether 
 there was a second cist on the ground level, or where the body was 
 deposited. Where the dolmen stands free, but on the flat ground, 
 as is the case with that shown in this cut (No. 170), with two rows 
 of stones surrounding it, the body was deposited in a cist formed 
 
 Dolmen with Two Circles of Stones. From Ferauil 
 
 between the two uprights that support the cap-stone, which are 
 carried down some 5 or 6 feet into the ground for that purpose. 
 My impression is that the same arrangement is met with in those 
 which are raised, and that either the supports of the cap-stone 
 are carried down to the ground for that purpose or that an 
 independent cist is formed directly under the visible one. 
 
 The dolmen in this last instance is of the usual Kit's Cotty 
 House style, consisting of three upright stones supporting the 
 cap-stone. Sometimes the outer row of stones is replaced by a 
 circular pavement of flat stones, 1 forming what may be supposed 
 to be a procession path round the monument ; but in fact hardly 
 any two .are exactly alike, and when we come to deal with 
 
 1 ' Prehistoric Congress,' Norwich volume, p. 199. 
 
 •J D 
 
402 
 
 ALGERIA AND TRIPOLI. 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 thousands, it requires Tery complete knowledge of the whole 
 before any classification can be attempted. Suffice it to say here 
 that there is hardly any variety met with elsewhere of which a 
 counterpart cannot be found in Algeria. 
 
 Of their general appearance as objects in the landscape, the 
 annexed woodcut will convey a tolerable idea. They seem to 
 
 
 171. Dolmens on the Road from Bona to Constantine. From 'Exploration scientiBque de l'Algerie.' 
 
 affect the ridges of the hills, but they also stretch across the plain, 
 and in fact are found everywhere and in every possible position; 
 
 Except apparently on 
 the sea-coast, nothing 
 like the Viking graves, 
 so far as is known, 
 is found in Algeria; 
 whether this indicates 
 that they were a sea- 
 faring people or not is 
 not quite clear, but it is 
 a distinction worth bear- 
 ing in mind. 
 
 One curious group is 
 perhaps worth quoting 
 as a means of compa- 
 rison with the graves 
 of Aschenrade (woodcut No. 119). It consists of four tumuli 
 enclosed in four squares joined together like the squares of a 
 chess-board. Single squares enclosing cairns are common enough 
 
 00 
 oo 
 
 oo 
 
 170 
 ^_. 
 
 <3oq<=>oc>c>c>oc0oc3C2 c> £ 3C:> '- >c> 
 
 172. Four Cairns enclosed in Squares. 
 
 (From 'Soe. arch, de Constantine,' 1864.) 
 
Chap. X. ALGERIA.— AGE OF DOLMENS. 403 
 
 in Scandinavia, but this conjoined arrangement is rare and 
 remarkable, and its similarity to the Livonian example is so 
 great that it can hardly be accidental. The Aschenrade graves, 
 it will be recollected, contained coins of the Caliphs extending 
 down to a.d. 999, and German coins down to 1040. There 
 would, therefore, be no a priori improbability in these graves 
 in Algeria being as late, if the similarity of two monuments so 
 far apart can be considered as proving identity of age. Without 
 unduly pressing the argument, the points of resemblance which 
 exist everywhere between the Northern Europe and North African 
 monuments appear to prove that the latter may be of any age 
 down to the tenth or eleventh century, but any decision as to 
 their real date must depend on the local circumstances attending 
 each individual example. 
 
 The preceding woodcuts are perhaps sufficient to explain the 
 more general and more typical forms of Algerian dolmens, but 
 they are so numerous and so varied that ten times that number of 
 illustrations would hardly suffice to exhibit all their peculiarities. 
 Their study, however, is comparatively uninteresting, till we 
 know more of their contents, and till something definite is accepted 
 as to their age. When, however, we turn to examine that, we 
 find the data from which our conclusions must be drawn both 
 meagre and unsatisfactory. Such as they are, however, they cer- 
 tainly all tend one way. In the first place, the negative evidence is 
 as complete here as elsewhere. The Greeks, the Eomans, and the 
 early Christians were all familiar with northern Africa, and there is 
 not one whisper as to any such monuments having been seen by 
 any of them. When we consider our own ignorance of their exis- 
 tence till some ten years ago, it may be said that such evidence 
 does not go for much ; but it is worth alluding to, as a hint in the 
 opposite direction would be considered final, and as its absence, at 
 all events, leaves the question open. On the other hand, all the 
 traditions of the country as reported by M. Feraud, and others, and 
 repeated by M. Bertrand and Mr. Flower, ascribe these monuments 
 to the pagan inhabitants who occupied the country at the time of 
 the Mahommedan conquest. Thus (page 127) : " At the epoch 
 the Mussulman invasion these countries were inhabited- by a 
 
 2 d 2 
 
404 
 
 ALGERIA AND TRIPOLT. 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 pagan population, who elevated these vast ranges of stone to arrest 
 the invading host." Or. again, they even name the prince who 
 opposed the conquerors. Thus (page 117) : " Formerly at Machira 
 lived a pagan prince called Abd en Nar — fire worshipper. He 
 married Zana, queen of a city now in ruins bearing that name. 
 When the Arabs conquered Africa, Abd en Nar abjured his 
 crown, beeame a Mussulman, and from that time called himself 
 Abd en Nour — worshipper of the light." l 
 
 This, too, must be taken for what it is worth ; but in a cemetery 
 near Djidjeli, on the north coast, there is a curious tomb formed of 
 a circle of stones like those of the pagan cists, with a headstone 
 which, if it is not the turban-stone that is usually found in Turkish 
 
 173. Tombs near Djidjeli. From ' Exploration scientifique tie 1'Algerie.' 
 
 tombs of modern date, is most singularly like it. That the 
 cemetery belongs to the Mahommedans seems clear, but the circles 
 of stones, though small, indicate a very imperfect conversion — just 
 such as the tradition indicates. 
 
 These arguments, however, acquire something like consistency 
 when we come to examine the contents of the tombs themselves. 
 One of them (No. 4) is described by Mr. Fe'raud as surrounded by 
 a circular enceinte, 12 metres, nearly 40 feet, in diameter. The 
 chamber of the dolmen measured 7 feet by 3 feet 6 inches. At 
 the feet of the skeleton were the bones and teeth of a horse, and 
 an iron bridle-bit. In the same grave were found a ring of iron, 
 another ring with various other objects in copper (bronze ?), some 
 fragments of pottery of a superior quality, and fragments of 
 
 1 ' Memoires, &c, de Constantine/ 1864. 
 
Chap. X. 
 
 ALGERIA.— CIRCLE NEAR BONA. 
 
 405 
 
 worked flint implements, and lastly a medal of the Empress 
 Faustina. 1 All the three ages were consequently represented in 
 the one tomb, and yet it certainly belongs to the second century. 
 None of the others give such distinct evidence of their age, but 
 M. Bertrand, who is a strong advocate for the prehistoric age of 
 French dolmens, sums up his impressions ofM. Feraud's discoveries 
 in the following words : " Ceux de la province de Constantine ne 
 pouvaient, a en juger par les objets qui y ont ete trouves, etre de 
 beaucoup anterieur a l'ere chretienne ; quelques-uns meme seraient 
 posterieurs." 2 
 
 In addition to what he found inside the tombs, M. Feraud dis- 
 covered a Latin inscription in the cap-stone of a dolmen near Sidi 
 Kacem. The letters are too much worn to enable the sense of the 
 inscription to be made out, but quite sufficient remains to prove 
 that it is in Latin, and, from the form of the letters, of a late type. 3 
 
 Monsieur Leteruoux found hewn stones and even columnar 
 shafts of Roman workmanship among the materials out of which 
 the bazinas at the foot of the Aures 
 chain had been constructed, and he 
 gives a drawing of a cippus of late 
 Roman workmanship, bearing an 
 inscription in Berber character, 
 which he identifies with those on 
 two upright stones of rude form, 
 one of which forms parts of a circle 
 near Bona. 4 
 
 In addition to these there are 
 numerous instances among the 
 plates which form the volume of 
 the ' Exploration scientifique de 
 1'Algerie' where the rude-stone 
 
 monuments are so mixed up with those of late Roman and 
 early Christian character that it seems impossible to doubt 
 that they are contemporary. As no text, however, has yet 
 been published to accompany these plates, it is most unsafe 
 
 jSH^HK -» 
 
 Circle near Bona. 
 
 1 ' Revue arckeologique,' viii. p. 527. 
 
 2 Ibid. I. s. c. 
 
 ! ' Mcmoires, &c, rle Constantine,' 
 
 1864, p. 122, pi. xxx. 
 
 4 Flower, in Norwich volume, pp. 202- 
 20«. 
 
40 i ALGERIA AND TRIPOLI. Chai>. X. 
 
 to rely on any individual example, which from some fault of 
 the draughtsman or engraver may be misleading. The general 
 impression, however, which these plates convey is decidedly in 
 favour of a post-Roman date, and of their being comparatively 
 modern. It requires, however, some one on the spot, whose 
 attention is specially directed to the subject, to determine 
 whether the rude-stone monuments are earlier than those which 
 are hewn, or whether the contrary is not sometimes, perhaps 
 always, the case. It' M. Bertrand is right, and the Faustina 
 tomb is of any value as an indication of age, certainly some- 
 times at least, the rude monuments are the more modern. 
 Carthage fell B.C. 146, and the Jugurthau war ended B.C. 106, 
 and it is impossible to conceive that a people like the Romans, 
 would possess as they did the sovereignty of northern Africa, after 
 that date, and not leave their mark on it, in the shape of buildings 
 of various sorts. If we adopt the usual progressive theory, all 
 must be anterior to B.C. 100 ; for on that hypothesis it would be 
 considered most improbable that after long contact with Cartha- 
 ginian civilization and under the direct influence of that of Roine 
 anyone could prefer rude uncommunicative masses to structures 
 composed of polished and engraved stones. It certainly was so, 
 however, to a very great extent, and my impression is, for the 
 reasons above given, that the bulk of these North African dolmens 
 are subsequent to the Christian era, and that they extend well into 
 the period of the ILahornniedan domination, for it could not, for a 
 long time at least, have been so complete as entirely to obliterate 
 the feelings and usages so long indulged in by the aboriginal 
 inhabitants of the country. Nothing, indeed, would surprise me 
 less than if it were eventually shown that some of these rude-stone 
 monuments extended down to the times of the Crusades. As. 
 however, we are not yet in a position to prove this, it is only put 
 forward here as a suggestion, in order that those who may here- 
 after have the task of opening these tombs may not reject any 
 evidence of their being so late, as they probably would do if 
 imbued with prehistoric prejudices. 
 
 It is to be feared that the question who the people were that set 
 up these African dolmens must wait for an answer till we know more 
 of the ethnography of northern Africa in aucient times than we do 
 
Chap. X. ALGERIA.— THE NASAMONES. 407 
 
 at present. The only people who, so far as we now see, seem to 
 be able to claim them, are the Nasamones. From Herodotus we 
 learn that this people buried their dead sitting, with their knees 
 doubled up to their chins, and were so particular about this that, 
 when a man was dying, they propped him up that he might die 
 in that attitude (iv. 190). We also learn from him that they had 
 such reverence for the tombs of their ancestors that it was their 
 practice in their solemn form of oath to lay their hands on these 
 tombs, and so invoke their sanction ; and in their mode of divina- 
 tion they used, to sleep in or on these sepulchres (iv. 172). All 
 this would agree perfectly with what we find, but Herodotus unfor- 
 tunately never visited the country nor saw these tombs, and con- 
 sequently does not describe them, and we do not know whether they 
 were mere mounds of earth, or cairns of stone, or dolmens such as are 
 found in Africa. It is also unfortunate for their claim that, in his 
 day, the Nasamones lived near the Syrtes and to the eastward of 
 them (ii. 32), and it seems hardly possible that they could have 
 increased and multiplied to such an extent in the four following 
 centuries as to occupy northern Africa as far as Mount Atlas, 
 without either the Greeks or the Eomans having known it. They 
 are mentioned again by Curtius (iv. 7), by Lucan (ix. v. 439), 
 and by Silius Italicus (ii. v. 116 and xi. v. 180), but always as 
 a plundering Libyan tribe, never as a great people occupying the 
 northern country. Their claim, therefore, to be considered the 
 authors of the thousands of dolmens which are even now found in 
 the province of Algeria, seems for the present wholly inadmissible. 
 Still less can we admit M. Bertrand's theory alluded to above, 
 that the dolmen-builders migrated from the Baltic to Britain, and 
 thence through France and Spain to Africa. Such a migration, 
 requiring long land journeys and sea voyages, if it took place at 
 all, is much more likely to have been accomplished when com- 
 mercial intercourse was established, and the North Sea and the 
 Mediterranean were covered with sailing vessels of all sorts ; but 
 then it is unlikely that a rude people, as the dolmen-builders 
 are assumed to be, could have availed themselves of these trade 
 routes. 
 
 Still no one can look at such monuments as this of Aveyron 
 (woodcuts Nos. 8 and 122) and compare them with those of Algeria, 
 
408 ALGERIA AND TRIPOLI. Chap. X. 
 
 of which woodcut No. 169 is a type, without feeling that there was 
 a connection, and an intimate one, at the dolmen period, between 
 the people on the northern with those on the southern shores 
 of the Mediterranean, which can only be accounted for in one of 
 three ways. 
 
 Either it was that history was only repeating itself when 
 Marshal Bougeaud landed in Algeria in 1830, and proceeded to 
 conquer and colonise Algeria for the French. Or we must assume, 
 as has often been done, that some people wandering from the east 
 to colonise western Europe left these traces of their passage in 
 Africa on their way westward. The third hypothesis is that 
 already insisted upon at the end of the Scandinavian chapter, 
 which regards these rude-stone monuments as merely the result 
 of a fashion which sprung up at a particular period, and was 
 adopted by all those people who, like the Nasamones, reverenced 
 their dead and practised ancestral worship rather than that of an 
 external divinity. 
 
 Of all these three hypotheses, the second seems the least 
 tenable, though it is the one most generally adopted. The 
 Pyramids were built, on the most moderate computation, at least 
 3000 B.C. 1 Egypt was then a highly civilized and populous 
 country, and the art of cutting and polishing stones of the hardest 
 nature had reached a degree of perfection in that country in those 
 days which has never since been surpassed, and must have been 
 practised for thousands of years before that time in order to reach 
 the stage of perfection in which we there find it. Is it possible 
 to conceive any savage Eastern race rushing across the Nile on 
 its way westward, and carrying their rude arts with them, and con- 
 tinuing to practise them for four or five thousand years afterwards 
 without change ? Either it seems more probable to assume that 
 the Egyptians would have turned them back, or if they had 
 sojourned in their land like the Israelites, and then departed 
 because the\ T found the bondage intolerable, it is almost certain 
 that they would have carried with them some of the arts and 
 civilization of the people among whom they had dwelt. If such a 
 migration did take place, it must have been in prehistoric times 
 
 ' History of Architecture.' i. p. 81. 
 
Chap. X. ORIGIN OF AFRICAN DOLMEN-BUILDERS. 409 
 
 so remote that its occurrence can have but little bearing on the 
 argument as to who built these Algerian monuments. But di 1 
 they come by sea ? Did the dolmen-building races embark from 
 the ports of Palestine or those of Asia Minor? Were they in 
 fact the far-famed Phoenicians, to whom antiquaries have been so 
 fond of ascribing these structure*. The first answer to this is that 
 there are no dolmens in Phoenicia, and that they have not yet 
 been found near Carthage, nor Utica, nor in Sicily,, nor indeed 
 anywhere where the Phoenicians had colonies. They are not even 
 found at Marseilles, where they settled, though on the western bank 
 of the Khone, where they had no establishments, they are found in 
 numbers. They may have traded with Cornwall, and discovered 
 lands even farther north, but to assume that so small a people 
 could have erected all the megalithic remains found in Scan- 
 dinavia and the continent of France, and other countries where 
 they never settled, perhaps never visited, is to ascribe great 
 effects to causes so insignificant as to be wholly incommensurable. 
 So wholly inadequate does the Phoenician power seem to have 
 been to produce such effects, that the proposition would probably 
 never have been brought forward had the extent of the dolmen 
 region been known at the time it was suggested. Even putting 
 the element of time aside, it is now clearly untenable, and if there 
 is any truth in the date above assigned to this class of monu- 
 ments, it is mere idleness to argue it. 
 
 The idea of a migration from France to Algeria is by no means 
 so illogical. The French dolmens, so far as is now known, seem 
 certainly older than the African — a fact which, if capable of proof, 
 is fatal to the last suggestion — and if we assume that this class of 
 monument was invented in western Europe, it only requires that 
 the element of time should be suitable to establish this hypothesis. 
 When the Celts of central Gaul, six centuries before the Christian 
 era, began to extend their limits and to press upon those of the 
 Aquitanians, did the latter flee from their oppressors to seek 
 refuge in Africa, as at a latter period the dolmen-builders of Spain 
 sought repose in the green island of the west ? There certainly 
 appears to be no great improbability that they may have done so 
 to such an extent as to cause the adoption of this form of archi- 
 tecture after it had become prevalent elsewhere ; and as the 
 
410 ALGERIA AND TRIPOLI. Chap. X. 
 
 encroaching Celts, down to the prosecution of the middle ages, 
 may have driven continual streams of colonists in the same 
 direction, this would account for all the phenomena we find, 
 provided we may ascribe that modern date to the Algerian 
 examples which to me appears undoubted. 
 
 It is hardly probable, however, that the Aquitanians would 
 have sought refuge in Africa unless some kindred tribe existed 
 there to afford them shelter and a welcome. If such a race 
 did exist, that would go far to get rid of most of the difficulties 
 of the pi-oblem. We are, however, far too ignorant of North 
 African ethnography to be able to say whether any such people 
 were there, or if so, who their representatives may now be, and 
 till our ignorance is dispelled, it is idle to speculate on mere 
 probabilities. 
 
 We know something of the migrations of the peoples settled 
 around the shores of the Mediterranean for at least ten centuries 
 before the birth of Christ, but neither in Greek or Roman or 
 Cathaginian history, nor in any of the traditions of their litera- 
 ture, do we find a hint of any migration of a rude people, either 
 across Egypt or by sea from Asia, and, what is perhaps more to 
 the point, we have no trace of it in any of the intermediate 
 islands. The Nurhags of Sardinia, the Talayots of the Balearic 
 Islands, are monuments of quite a different class from anything 
 found in France or Algeria. So too are the tombs of Malta, and, 
 as just mentioned, there are no such remains in Sicily. 
 
 We seem thus forced back on the third hypothesis, which 
 contemplates the rise of a dolmen style of architecture at some 
 not very remote period of the world's history, and its general 
 diffusion among all those kindred races of mankind with whom 
 respect for the spirits of deceased ancestors was a leading- 
 characteristic. 
 
 Tripoli. 
 
 Dr. Barth seems to be the only traveller who has in recent times 
 explored the regions about Tripoli to a sufficient extent and with 
 the requisite knowledge to enable him to observe whether or not 
 there were any rude-stone monuments in that district. About 
 
Chap. X. 
 
 TRIPOLI.— TRILITHOXS. 
 
 411 
 
 halfway between Moursuk and Ghat, he observed " a circle laid 
 out very regularly with large slabs, like the opening of a well ; 
 and, on the plain above the cliffs, another circle regularly laid out, 
 " and," he adds, " like the many circles seen in Cyreuaica and in 
 other parts of Northern Africa, evidently connected with the 
 religious rites of the ancient inhabitants of these regions." 1 This 
 is meagre enough ; but fortunately, in addition to this, he observed 
 and drew two monuments which are of equal and perhaps even of 
 more importance to our present purposes. 
 
 One of these, situated at a place called Ksaea, about forty-five 
 miles east by south from Tripoli, con- 
 sists of sis pairs of trilithons, similar to 
 that represented in the annexed wood- 
 cut. No plan is given of their arrange- 
 ment, nor does Dr. Barth speculate as to 
 their use ; he only remarks that " they 
 could never have been intended as doors, 
 for the space between the upright stones 
 is so narrow that a man of ordinary size 
 could hardly squeeze his way between 
 them." 2 
 
 The other, situated at Elkeb, about 
 the same distance from Tripoli, but south 
 by east, is even more curious. It, too, 
 is a trilithon, but the supports, which 
 
 are placed on a masonry platform two steps in height, slope 
 inwards, with all the appearance of being copied from a car- 
 pentry form, and the cap-stone likewise projects beyond the 
 uprights in a manner very unusual in masonry. Another curious 
 indication of its wooden origin is that the western pillar has three 
 quadrangular boles on its inner side, 6 inches square, while the 
 corresponding holes in the eastern pillar go quite through. 
 These pillars are 2 feet square and 10 feet high, while the 
 impost measures 6 feet 6 inches. 
 
 In front of these pillars lies a stone with a square sinking in it 
 
 175. Trilithon at Ksaea. 
 
 1 ' Travels and Discoveries in Northern Africa,' i. p. 204. 2 Ibid. p. 74. 
 
 3 Ibid. p. 59. The holes are not shown in the cut. 
 
412 
 
 ALGERIA AND TRIPOLI. 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 and a spout at one side. Whatever this may have been intended 
 for, it is — if the woodcut and description are to be depended upon 
 — the exact counterpart of a Hindu Yoni, and as such would not 
 excite remark as having anything unusual in its appearance if 
 found in a modern temple at Benares. Beyond these in the 
 woodcut are seen several other stones, evidently belonging to 
 the same monument, one of which seems to have been formed 
 into a throne. 
 
 These monuments are not, of course, alone. There must be 
 others — probably many others — in the country, a knowledge of 
 which might throw considerable light on our enquiries. In the 
 meanwhile the first thing that strikes one is that Jeffrey of Mon- 
 
 176. 
 
 Triiitlion at Elkeb. From a Drawing by Dr. Rarib 
 
 mouth's assertion, that " G-iants in old days brought from Africa 
 the stones which the magic arts of Merlin afterwards removed 
 from Kildare and set up at Stonehenge," 1 is not so entirely 
 devoid of foundation as might at first sight appear. The removal 
 of the stones is, of course, absurd, but the suggestion and design 
 may possibly have travelled west by this route. 
 
 If we now turn back to page 100, it seems impossible not to 
 
 1 ' British History,' viii. chap. ii. 
 
Chap. X. BUDDHIST MONUMENT AT BANGKOK. 
 
 413 
 
 Buddhist Monument at Bangkok. 
 From Mouhot's 'Travels in Indo-China, Cambodia. &c.' vol. i. p. 21 S. 
 
414 ALGERIA AND TRIPOLI. Chap. X. 
 
 be struck with the likeness that exists between woodcut No. 25 
 and woodcuts 175 and 17b', especially the first. Such similarity is 
 more than sufficient to take away all improbability from Dr. Barth's 
 suggestion that "the traces of art which they display may be 
 ascribed to Boman influence." It also renders it nearly certain 
 that these African trilithons were sepulchral, and adds another 
 to the many proofs adduced above that Stonehenge was both 
 sepulchral and post-Boman. 
 
 The most curious point, however, connected with these monu- 
 ments is the suggestion of Indian influence which they — especially 
 that at Elkeb — give rise to. The introduction of sloping jambs, 
 derived from carpentry forms, can be traced back in India, in the 
 caves of Behar 1 and the Western Ghats, to the second century 
 before Christ, but certainly to no earlier date. The carpentry 
 forms, but without the sloping jambs, continued at Sanchi and 
 the Ajunta caves till some time after the Christian era, and where 
 wood is used has, in fact, continued to the present day. " Mutatis 
 mutandis," no two monuments can well be more alike to one 
 another than that at Elkeb and the Buddhist tomb at Bangkok, 
 represented in woodcut 177. The Siamese tomb may be a hundred 
 years old; and if we allow the African trilithon to be late Boman, 
 we have some fourteen or fifteen centuries between them, which, 
 certainly, is as long as can reasonably be demanded. In reality 
 it was probably less, but if the one was prehistoric, we lose alto- 
 gether the thread of association and tradition that ought to 
 connect the two. 
 
 To all this we shall have occasion to return, and then to discuss 
 it more at length, when speaking of the Indian monuments and 
 their connection with those of the West. In the meanwhile these 
 two form a stepping-stone of sufficient importance to make us 
 feel how desirable it is that the country where they are found 
 should be more carefully examined. My impression is that the 
 key to most of our mysteries is hidden in these African deserts. 
 
 1 ; History of Architecture," by the Author, ii. p. 483. 
 
Chap. XL MEDITERRANEAN ISLANDS.— MALTA. 415 
 
 CHAPTEE XL 
 
 MEDITERRANEAN ISLANDS. 
 
 Befoee leaving the Mediterranean Sea and the countries bordering 
 upon it, it seems desirable to say a few words regarding certain 
 "non-historic" monuments which exist in its islands. Strictly 
 speaking, they hardly come within the limits assigned to this book, 
 for they are not truly megalithic in the sense in which the term has 
 been used in the previous pages ; for though stones 15 feet and 
 20 feet high are used in the Maltese monuments, they are shaped 
 and, it may be said, hewn with metal tools, and they are used con- 
 structively with smaller stones, so as to form walls and roofs, and 
 cannot therefore be considered as Eucle Stone Monuments. Still 
 they have so much affinity with these, and are so mixed up in all 
 works treating of the subject with Druidical remains and pre- 
 historic mysteries, that it certainly seems expedient to explain as 
 far as possible their forms and uses. 
 
 The monuments are of three classes. The first, found in Malta, 
 are there called giants' towers — "Torre dei giganti" — a name having 
 no meaning, but which, as also involving no hypothesis, it may be 
 convenient to adhere to. The second class, called Nurhags, are 
 peculiar to Sardinia. The third, or Talyots, are found only in 
 the Balearic islands. There may be some connection between the 
 two last groups, but even then with certain local peculiarities 
 sufficient to distinguish them. The Maltese monuments however 
 stand alone, and have certainly no connection with the other two, 
 and, as it will appear in the sequel, none of the three have any 
 very clear affinity with any known monuments on the continent of 
 either Europe or Africa. 
 
 Malta. 
 
 The best known monuments of the Maltese groups are situated 
 near the centre of the Isle of Gozo, in the commune of Barbato. 
 
410 MEDITERRANEAN ISLANDS. Chap. XI. 
 
 When Houel wrote in 1787, 1 only the outside wall with the apse 
 of one of the inner chambers and the entrance of another 
 were known. He mistook the right-hand apse of the second pair 
 of chambers for part of a circle, and so represented it with a 
 dolmen in the centre, led to this apparently by the existence of 
 a real circle which then was found at a distance of 350 yards from 
 the main group. This circle was 140 feet in diameter, composed 
 of stones ranged close together and alternately broad and tall, 
 as shown in the next w r oodcut, which represents the rear of the 
 principal monument. The entrance was marked by two very tall 
 stones, apparently 20 feet high. The interior was apparently 
 rugged, but there is nothing in the plates to show from what 
 cause. When Houel made his plan, 2 it had all the appearance of 
 being what was styled a regular " Druidical circle," and might have 
 been used as such to support any Druidical theory. It is now 
 however evident that it really was only the commencement of the 
 envelope of a pair of chambers, such as we find in all the monu- 
 ments of this class on these islands. If the plan is correct, it was 
 the most regular of any, which, besides its having every appearance 
 of never having been completed, would lead us to suppose that 
 it was the last of the series. This monument has now entirely 
 disappeared, as has also another of even more megalithic 
 appearance which stood within a few yards of the principal 
 group, but of which unfortunately we have neither plan nor 
 details. It is shown with tolerable distinctness in a view in 
 Mr. Frere's possession, and in the plates which are engraved from 
 drawings by a native artist, which Admiral Smyth brought home 
 in 1S27, 3 and which are engraved in volume xxii. of the ' Archae- 
 ologia.' Unfortunately the text that accompanies these plates 
 is of the most unsatisfactory character. This he partially explains 
 by saying that he had left his measurements with Colonel Otto 
 Beyer, who had just caused the principal pair of chambers to 
 be excavated. 
 
 The second pair of chambers was excavated by Sir Henry 
 
 1 ' Voyage pittoresque en Sicile et , nine, a duplicate of which has kindly 
 Malte,' 4 vols, folio, Paris, 1787. ! been lent to me by Mr. Frere, of Roydon 
 
 - Ibid. pi. ccxli. Hall, Norfolk. Unfortunately there is no 
 
 3 The three formed \ art of a set of artist's name, and no date, upon them. 
 
Chap. XT. 
 
 MALTA. — GOZO, HAGIAR KHEM. 
 
 417 
 
 Bouverie when he was governor, some time before or about 1836, 
 when a careful plan and drawings of the whole were published by 
 Count de la Marmora. 1 It has been re-engraved by Gailhabaud 
 and others, and is well known to archaeologists. 
 
 The monuments thus brought to light consisted of two pairs of 
 elliptical chambers very similar in dimensions and plan to those 
 at Mnaidra (woodcut No. 179). The greatest depth internally 
 from the entrance to the apse of the principal pair is 90 feet; 
 the greatest width across both 130 feet. The right-hand pair as 
 you enter is comparatively plain. The outer chamber of the 
 left-hand pair still retained, when excavated, fittings that looked 
 like an altar in the right-hand apse, which was separated from the 
 rest by what may be called the choir-screen or altar-rail ; and this 
 was ornamented with spirals and geometric figures neatly and 
 sharply cut. In the inner chamber was a stone, near the entrance, 
 
 View of the exterior of the Giants' Tower at Gozo. From a drawing in the 
 possession of Sir Bartle Frere, K.C.B. 
 
 on which was a bas-relief of a serpent, but no other representation 
 of any thing living was found elsewhere. 
 
 The external appearance of the monument may be gathered 
 
 1 ' Nouvelles Annates de l'Institut arche*ologique,' i. ; Paris, 1836. 
 
 2 E 
 
418 MEDITERRANEAN ISLANDS. Chap. XT. 
 
 from the woodcut No. 178. The lower part of the wall is com- 
 posed alternately — as in the circle just alluded to — of large stones 
 laid on their sides and smaller ones standing perpendicularly 
 between them. Above this the courses of stones are of regular 
 masonry, and probably there was some kind of cornice or string- 
 course before the beginning of the roof, but of this no trace now 
 remains in any of these monuments. 
 
 The second group, known as Hagiar Khern, is situated near 
 Krendi, on the south side of the island of Malta, and is the most 
 extensive one known. The principal monument contains, besides 
 the usual pair of chambers, four or five lateral chambers ; and a 
 short way to the north is a second monument, containing at least 
 one pair ; and to the south a third group, but so ruined it is 
 difficult to make out the plan. Only the tops of the walls and 
 the tall stones which still rise above the walls were known to 
 exist of the monument, till in 1839 Sir Henry Bouverie authorized 
 the expenditure of some public money to excavate it. An account 
 of these excavations, with a plan and drawings, was published in 
 Malta at the time by Lieutenant Foulis. The plan was repeated, 
 in less detail however, in the ' Archseologia,' x and afterwards in 
 the Norwich volume of the International Prehistoric Congress, 
 by Mr. Furze, from a survey recently made by the Royal 
 Engineers. 
 
 The third group, known as that at Mnaidra, is situated not 
 far from the last, between it and the sea; and as.it never has 
 been published, a plan of it is given here 2 from a survey made 
 by Corporal Mortimer, of the Royal Engineers. Like the Gozo 
 monument, it consists of two pairs of oval chambers in juxta- 
 position. The right-hand pair, in this instance, is larger and 
 simpler in design than that on the left, but it is so nearly 
 identical, both in plan and dimensions, with the right-hand pair 
 at Gozo that they are probably of the same age and served the 
 same purpose. They are also, as nearly as may be, of the same 
 
 1 With a paper by Mr. Vance, 'Archseo- j them by a very full description and 
 logia,' vol. xxix. p. 227. j notes on their history and uses, from 
 
 2 For this plan and the photographs i which much of the following information 
 of it I am indebted to the kindness of is derived. 
 
 Col. Collinson, E.E., who accompanied 
 
Chap. XL 
 
 MALTA. — PLAN OF MNAIDRA. 
 
 419 
 
 dimensions : both would be enclosed, with, their side walls, by a 
 circle 75 feet in diameter. The left-hand cone at Mnaidra would 
 be nearly of the same diameter ; but at G-ozo the corresponding 
 
 :."- 
 
 179. Plan of Monument of Mnaidra. From one by Corporal Mortimer. 
 
 enclosure would require to be, and in fact was, 100 feet in diameter, 
 and the inner room, measuring 80 feet by 50 feet, including the 
 apse, was the largest and finest apartment of the class in the 
 islands. 
 
 180. Section, on the line A B, through Lower Pair of Chambers, Mnaidra. 
 
 The section through the lower chambers (woodcut No. 180) will 
 suffice to explain the general appearance of these buildings in-' 
 
 2 e 2 
 
420 
 
 MEDITERRANEAN ISLANDS. 
 
 Chap. XL 
 
 ternally, as they now stand. A is the entrance into a small square 
 apartment in which the altar or table stands, shown more com- 
 pletely in the next woodcut (No. 181), from a photograph, which 
 also renders much mere clear the peculiar style of ornamenting 
 
 Entrance to Chamber B, Mnaidra, showing Table inside. 
 (The Rod is divided into English feet.) 
 
 with innumerable " pit markings," peculiar to these Maltese 
 monuments, d is the entrance into the other chamber, which 
 but for the interference of that last described, would have been 
 of the usual elliptical form. My impression is that the left- 
 hand apse was removed at some time subsequent to the erection of 
 the monument, to admit of its insertion. On each side of the 
 doorway are seats, c and e, which are always found in similar 
 situations. Beyond, at f, is one of those mysterious openings 
 which are so frequent ; it is also seen with another in woodcut 
 No. 182. Between this apartment and the upper apartment h 
 are two tiers of shelves or loculi, which are also found at Gozo, 
 and for which it is difficult to suggest a meaning if they were not 
 used as columbaria for sepulchral purposes. 
 
Chap. XL 
 
 MALTA. — MNAIDR A. 
 
 421 
 
 A difficult question here arises as to which of these two pairs of 
 apartments is the older— the upper, with the simpler style and 
 the smaller stones, or the apartments with the larger stones and 
 more ornate arrangements. On the whole, I am inclined to think 
 the simpler the older : among other reasons because the floor of 
 the right-hand pair at Mnaidra is 10 feet above the level of the 
 left-hand apartments. As the edifices are all placed on heights, 
 it seems improbable that the first comer would have chosen a 
 site commanded by a knoll 10 feet above him, and. touching his 
 half-buried building. But, besides this local indication, it seems 
 probable that the style was progressive, and that this right-hand 
 chamber at Mnaidra may be the oldest, and the great one at Gozo 
 the last completed of all which we know. 
 
 North Eud of Left-hand Outer Chamber at M 
 
 From a photograph. 
 
 The excavations at Mnaidra as well as those at Hagiar Khem 
 have sufficed to settle the question of how these buildings were 
 roofed. The above woodcut, from a photograph, shows the 
 springing of the roof of the north end of the outer left-hand 
 chamber, but, like photographs in general, does so imintelligentlv. 
 
422 MEDITERRANEAN ISLANDS. Chap. XI. 
 
 Colonel Collinson, however, informs me that they bracket out- 
 wards, at the rate of 1 foot in 10, and he calculates that they 
 would meet at a height of 30 feet so nearly that they could be 
 closed by a single stone. He, however, overlooks the fact that 
 all these horizontally-constructed domes, whether in Greece, or 
 Italy, or Sardinia, are curvilinear, their section being that of a 
 Gothic pointed arch, and consequently, if corbelling forward at 
 the rate of 1 in 10 near the springing, they would certainly meet 
 in this chamber at 15 or 20 feet from their base. When we 
 recollect that before the Trojan war the Pelasgic architects of 
 Greece roofed chambers 50 and 60 feet in diameter (vide ante, 
 page 33), we should not be surprised at the Maltese architects 
 grappling with apses of 20 feet span. This has generally been 
 admitted as easy, but several authors have been puzzled to think 
 how the flat spaces joining the two apses could have been so roofed. 
 A careful examination of the plans of the Maltese building seems 
 to make this easy. Looking, for instance, at the plan of Mnaidra, 
 a retaining wall will be observed on the extreme right, which is a 
 segment of a circle 75 feet in diameter, and continuing it all 
 round, it encloses both chambers. If a similar circle is drawn round 
 the left-hand chambers, it equally encloses them, and the circles 
 osculate, or have one party wall at a point where there is the 
 group of cells. This granted, it is easy to see that the external 
 form of the roof was a stepped cone, covering the inner roofs, and 
 so avoiding the ridges and hollows which would have rendered 
 independent roofing impracticable. The external appearance of 
 the building would thus have been that of two equal cones joined 
 together, and rising probably to a height of 50 feet above their 
 springing. To erect such a cone on an enclosing wall only 8 or 
 10 feet thick may appear at first sight a little difficult for such 
 rude builders as the Maltese were when they erected these domes, 
 but when we recollect that the cone was divided into two by a 
 cross party wall, which may have been carried the whole height, 
 all difficulty vanishes. 
 
 When we apply these principles to the ruins at Hagiar Khem, 
 their history becomes plain at once. Originally the monument 
 seems to have consisted of a single pair of chambers of the usual 
 form, A and B of the accompanying plan ; but extension becoming 
 
Chap. XL 
 
 MALTA. — PLAN OF HAGIAR KHEM. 
 
 423 
 
 necessary, the central apse of the inner apartment was removed 
 and converted into a doorway, and the left-hand lateral apse was 
 also removed so as to make an entrance into four other ovoid 
 apartments, which were arranged radially so as to be covered 
 by a cone 90 feet in diameter. Here again the difficulty, if any, 
 of constructing a cone of these dimensions is got over by the 
 
 1 S3. Plan of Hagiar Khem, partially restored. 
 
 numerous points of support from perpendicular walls which 
 honeycomb the building. The external appearance of this 
 building would be that of one great cone 90 feet in diameter 
 covering the cells, and anastomosing with one 60 feet, or one-third 
 less, in diameter covering the entrance chambers. 
 
 Restored in this manner, the external appearance of these monu- 
 ments would have been very similar to that of the Kubber 
 Roumeia near Algiers and the Madracen near Blidah. The 
 former was 200 feet in diameter, with a cone rising in steps to the 
 height of 130 feet, which was lower in proportion than suggested 
 
424 
 
 MEDITERRANEAN ISLANDS. 
 
 Chap. XI. 
 
 above, but its interior was nearly solid, and admitted therefore of 
 any angle that might appear most beautiful. The Madracen looks 
 even lower, but no correct section of it has been published. The 
 Rubber Roumeia has now been ascertained to have been the tomb 
 of the Mauritanian kings down to the time of Juba II., or about 
 the Christian era. 1 Judging from its style, the Madracen may be a 
 century earlier. Be this as it may, it hardly seems to me doubtful 
 but that these tombs are late Roman translations of a type to 
 
 ISt. View of Madracen. From a plate in Blakesley's 'Four Months in Algeria.' 
 
 which the Maltese examples belonged ; but the intermediate links 
 in the long chain which connects them have yet to be recovered. 
 
 Internally, these Maltese monuments are rude, and exhibit very 
 little attempt at decoration. The inner apartments, being dark, 
 are quite plain, but the outer, admitting a certain quantity of light 
 by the door, have a proportionate amount of ornament. At Grozo, 
 in the outer apartment, there are, as mentioned above, scrolls and 
 spirals of a style very much more refined than is found in Ireland 
 or in rude monuments generally, but more resembling that of those 
 found at Mycenae and other parts of Greece. At Hagiar Rhem 
 and Mnaidra the favourite ornament are pit markings. "Whether 
 
 1 Bcrbrugger, 'Tombeau de la Chre'tienne — Mausole'c des derniers Iiois de Mauri - 
 tanie ; ' Alger, 1S67. 
 
Chap. XI. MALTA. —TEMPLES OR TOMBS ? 425 
 
 these have any affinity with those which Sir J. Simpson so copiously 
 illustrated, 1 is by no means clear. In Malta they are spread evenly 
 over the stone, and are such a decoration as might be used at the 
 present clay (woodcut jNo. 181). An altar was found in one of the 
 outer chambers at Hagiar Khem, and in both the Maltese monu- 
 ments, stone tables from 4 to 5 feet high (one is shown in the 
 woodcut No. 181), the use of which is not clearly made out. They 
 are too tall for altars, and, unless in the Balearic Islands, nothing- 
 like them is known elsewhere. 
 
 After what has been said above, it is hardly worth while to enter 
 into the argument whether these buildings are temples or tombs. 
 Their situation alone, in this instance, is sufficient to prove that 
 they do not belong to the former class. Men do not drop three or 
 four temples irregularly, as at Gozo, within a stone's throw of one 
 another, on a bare piece of ground, far away from any centres of 
 population. The same is the case at Hagiar Khem, where certainly 
 three, probably four, sets of chambers exist ; and Mnaidra may 
 almost be considered a part of the same group or cemetery. 
 
 Malta, it is said, was colonised by the Phoenicians, at least was 
 so in Diodorus' time, 2 though how much earlier they occupied it, 
 we are not told, nor to what extent they superseded the original 
 inhabitants. We also learn incidentally that they possessed 
 temples dedicated to Melkart and Astarte. This is very pro- 
 bable, and if so, their remains will be found near their harbours, 
 and where they established themselves ; and Colonel Oollinson 
 informs me that remains of columnar buildings have been found 
 both at Marsa Sirocco and near the dockyard creek at Valetta. 
 These, most probably, are the remains of the temples in question, 
 though possibly rebuilt in Roman times. The little images found 
 in the apartments at Hagiar Khem may be representations of 
 the Cabeiri, though I doubt it; but little headless deformities, 
 20 inches high, some of stone and some of clay, are not the 
 divinities that would be worshipped in such temples, though they 
 might be offerings at a tomb. 
 
 If these buildings were tombs, they were the burying-places of 
 a people who burnt their dead and carefully preserved their ashes, 
 
 1 'Proceedings Soc. Ant. Scot.,' vi., Supplement. - Hist., v. 12,3. 
 
426 MEDITERRANEAN ISLANDS. Chap. XI. 
 
 and who paid the utmost respect to their buried dead long after 
 their decease. The inner apartments have shelves and cupboards 
 in stone, and numerous little arrangements which it seems im- 
 possible to understand except on the supposition that they were 
 places for the deposit of these sacred remains. Some of the re- 
 cesses have doors cut out of a single slab 2 and 3 feet square at 
 the opening, some are so small that a man could hardly squeeze 
 himself through, and some are holes into which only an arm could 
 be thrust, 1 but from the rebate outside of all, the intention seems 
 to have been for them all to be closed. 
 
 Although from all these arrangements it may broadly be asserted 
 that they are not temples in the ordinary sense of the term ; the outer 
 apartments may be considered as halls in which religious ceremonies 
 were performed in honour of the dead, and, so far, as places of worship ; 
 but essentially they were sepulchres, and their uses sepulchral. 
 
 We know so little of the ancient history of Malta that it is 
 extremely difficult even to guess who the people were who erected 
 and used these sepulchres. Most people would at once answer, the 
 Phoenicians ; but, in order to establish their claim, one of two 
 things is necessary — either we must have some direct testimony 
 that they erected these monuments, or we must be able to 
 show that they erected similar tombs either near their own 
 homes or elsewhere. Neither kind of proof is forthcoming. No 
 such tombs are found near Tyre or Sidon, or near Carthage, and 
 classical authorities are absolutely silent on the subject. The 
 monuments most like them are the tombs at Mycenas, but the dif- 
 ferences are so great that I would hesitate to lay much stress on any 
 slight similarities that exist. The Greek monuments were always 
 intended to be buried in tumuli. Those at Malta have so strongly 
 marked and so ornamental a podium outside that it is evident they 
 never were so covered up. It may be difficult to prove it, but I 
 fancy if we are ever to find their originals, it is to Africa we must 
 look for them. They are too unlike anything else in Europe. 
 
 It seems even more difficult to define their age than to ascertain 
 their origin. Looking at the nature of the stone, their state of 
 
 1 One at Mnaidra will be Been at f, in woodcut No. 180, and also in the view, 
 woodcut No. 182. 
 
Chap. XI. SARDINIA. — NURHAGS. 427 
 
 preservation, and other circumstances, I cannot believe they are 
 very old. If they were in Greece, or in Europe, or anywhere 
 where they could be compared with other monuments, some 
 useful inferences might be drawn ; but they are so unique that this 
 mode is unavailable. We have nothing we can confidently com- 
 pare them with, and we are so entirely ignorant of the ancient 
 history of Malta that we cannot tell in the least at what age 
 she reached that stage of civilization which the workmanship of 
 these monuments represents. We are probably safe, however, in 
 assuming that they are pre-Roman, and as safe in believing that 
 they are not earlier than the monuments of Mycenae and Thyrns ; 
 in short, that they belong to some period between the Trojan and 
 the Punic wars, but are most probably much nearer to the former 
 than to the latter epoch in the world's history. 
 
 Sardinia. 
 
 It is a curious illustration of the fragmentary nature of society 
 in the ancient world that Sardinia should possess a class of monu- 
 ments absolutely peculiar to itself. It is not this time ten or a 
 dozen monuments, like those of Malta, but they are numbered by 
 thousands, and so like one another that it is impossible to mistake 
 them, and, what is still more singular, as difficult to trace any 
 progress or change among them. The Talyots of the Balearic 
 Islands may resemble them, but, excepting these, the Nurhags of 
 Sardinia stand quite alone. Nothing the least like them is found 
 in Italy, or in Sicily, or, indeed, anywhere else, so far as is at 
 present known. 
 
 A Nurhag is easily recognized and easily described. It is 
 always a round tower, with sides sloping at an angle of about 
 10 degrees to the horizon, its dimensions varying from 20 to 
 60 feet in diameter, and its height being generally equal to the 
 width of the base. Sometimes they are one, frequently two 
 and even three storeys in height, the centre being always occupied 
 by circular chambers, constructed by projecting stones forming a 
 dome with the section of a pointed arch. The chamber generally 
 occupies one-third of the diameter, the thickness of the walls 
 forming the remaining two-thirds. There is invariably a ramp or 
 
428 
 
 MEDITERRANEAN ISLANDS. 
 
 Chap. XL 
 
 staircase leading to the platform at the top of the tower. These 
 
 peculiarities will be understood 
 irom the annexed section and 
 plan of one from De la Marmora's 
 work. 1 
 
 When the Nurhags are of more 
 than one storey in height, they are 
 generally surrounded by others 
 which are attached to them by 
 platforms, often of considerable 
 extent. That at Santa Bar- 
 bara has, or had, four small Nur- 
 hags encased in the four corners 
 of the platform, to which access 
 was obtained by a doorway in 
 the central tower ; but frequently 
 there are also separate ramps 
 when the platforms are extensive. 
 
 185. Nurhag. From De la Marmora. 
 
 The masonry of these monuments 
 is generally neat, though sometimes the stones are unhewn, but 
 
 Nurhag of Santa Barbara. 
 
 nowhere does there appear any attempt at megalithic magnificence. 
 
 1 ' Voyage en Sardaigne,' par lo Cte. 
 Albert de hi Marmora; Paris, 1840. As 
 this is not onlv the best but really the 
 
 only reliable work on the subject, all. or 
 nearly all. the information in this chapter 
 is based upon it. 
 
Chap. XL SARDINIA. — NURHAG OF SANTA BARBARA. 
 
 429 
 
 They are, at the same time, absolutely without any architec- 
 tural ornament which could give us any hint of their affinities ; 
 and no inscriptions, no images, no sculptures of any kind, have 
 been found in them. 
 They are in this re- 
 spect as uncommuni- 
 cative as our own rude- 
 stone monuments. 
 
 Written history is 
 almost equally silent. 
 Only one passage has 
 been disinterred which 
 seems to refer to them. 
 It is a Greek work, 
 generally known as 
 ' De Mirabilibus Aus- 
 cultationibus,' l and 
 ascribed doubtfully to 
 Aristotle. It is to the 
 following effect : — '' It 
 is said that in the island 
 of Sardinia there exist, 
 among other beautiful 
 and numerous edifices, 
 built after the manner 
 of the ancient Greeks, 
 certain domes (<d6\ot,) of exquisite proportions. It is further 
 said that they were built by Iolas, son of Iphicles, who, having 
 taken with him the Thespiadae, went to colonise this island." 
 This certainly looks as if the Nurhags existed when this book 
 was written, though the description is by a person who evidently 
 never saw them. Diodorus so far confirms this that he says : 
 " Iolaus, having founded the colony, fetched Dedalus from Sicily, 
 and built numerous and grand edifices, which subsist to the 
 present day, and are called Dedalean, from the name of their 
 builder ; " 2 and in another paragraph he recurs to the veneration 
 
 187. Nurhag of Sania Barbara. From De la Marmora. 
 
 1 Bekker, iii. p. G04, para. 100. 
 
 2 Diodorus*, iv. 30 ; v. 15. 
 
430 
 
 MEDITERRANEAN ISLANDS. 
 
 Chap. XI. 
 
 " in which the name of Iolaus is held." This, too, is unsatisfactory, 
 as written by a person who never visited the island, and had not 
 seen the monuments of which he was speaking. 
 
 It is little to be wondered at if buildings so mysterious and so 
 unlike any known to exist elsewhere should have given rise to 
 speculations almost as wild as those that hang around our own 
 rude-stone monuments. The various theories which have been 
 advanced are enumerated and described by De la Marmora 1 so 
 fully that it will not be necessary to recapitulate them here, nor 
 to notice any but three, Avhich seem really to have some plausible 
 foundation. 
 
 The first of these assumes the Nurhags to have been watch- 
 towers or fortifications. 
 
 The second, that they were temples. 
 The third, that they were tombs. 
 
 Looking at the positions iu which they are found, the first of 
 
 these theories is not so 
 devoid of foundation as 
 might at first sight ap- 
 pear. As a rule, they 
 are all placed on heights, 
 and at such distances as 
 to be seen from one an- 
 other, and consequently 
 be able to communicate 
 by signal at least. Take 
 such an example, for in- 
 stance, as that of Giara, 
 near Isili (woodcut No. 
 188). Any engineer 
 officer would be delighted with the manner in which the position 
 is taken up. Every point of vantage in the circumference is 
 occupied, and two points in the interior fortified, so as to act as 
 supports. The designer of the entrenched camp at Linz might 
 rub his eyes in astonishment to find his inventions forestalled by 
 
 Vvj^'iiV Xurcci 
 
 Ajar r ^C -v—sii&i 
 
 - V i' a tr L a r a 
 
 ■~A 
 
 J\-,r„,,,„ 
 
 T "i l; )>\) 
 
 188. Map of La Giara. From De la Marmora. 
 
 1 "Voyage en Sardaigne.' chap. iv. pp. 117 to 159. 
 
Chap. XL SARDINIA. — NURHAGS NOT FORTIFICATIONS. 431 
 
 three thousand years, and by towers externally so like his own as 
 hardly to be distinguishable to an unpractised eye. The form 
 of the towers themselves lends considerable plausibility to the 
 defensive theory. Such a Nurhag, for instance, as that of Santa 
 Barbara (woodcuts Nos. 186, 187), surrounded by four lesser ones, 
 connected by a platform, and dominated by the central tower, is a 
 means of defence we might now adopt, provided we may assume the 
 existence of a parapet, which has fallen through age. 
 
 When we come to look a little more closely at this military 
 question, we perceive that we are attempting to apply to a people 
 who certainly had no projectiles that would carry farther than 
 arrows, principles adapted to artillery or musketry lire. The 
 Nurhags are placed at such distances as to afford no support to one 
 another before the invention of gunpowder, and though in them- 
 selves not indefensible, they possess the radical defect of having 
 no accommodation for their garrisons. It is impossible that men 
 could live, cook, and sleep in the little circular apartments in 
 their interior, and the platforms added very little to their accom- 
 modation. Had the four detached Nurhags at Santa Barbara been 
 connected with walls only, so as to surround the central tower with 
 a court, the case would have been very different; but as in all 
 instances this is filled up, so as to form a platform, it is evident 
 that it was exposure, not shelter, that was sought in their con- 
 struction. 1 
 
 Another, and even stronger, argument is derived from their 
 number. De la Marinora asserts that the remains of at least three 
 thousand Nurhags can now be traced in Sardinia, 2 and there seems 
 no reason to doubt the truth of his calculation, nor his assertion that 
 they were once much more numerous, and that they are dispersed 
 pretty evenly over the whole island. Can any one fancy a state of 
 society in such an island which would require that there should be 
 three thousand castles and yet no fortified cities as places of refuge ? 
 They were not erected to protect the island against a foreign 
 
 1 The Scotch brochs, which are in : veniently, and they only needed to 
 
 their construction the erections most like I creep into the chambers in the wall 
 
 these, have all courtyards in their centre, : to sleep. 
 
 in which all the domestic operations of 2 'Voyage en Sardaigne,' pp. 4G and 
 
 the garrison could be carrier! on con- ! 11G. 
 
432 MEDITERRANEAN ISLANDS. Chap. XI. 
 
 enemy, because most of them are inland. They could not be 
 made to serve for the protection of the rich during insurrections 
 or civil wars, nor to enable robbers to plunder in security the 
 peaceful inhabitants of the plain. In short, unless the ancient 
 ►Sardinians lived in a state of society of which we have no know- 
 ledge elsewhere, these Nurhags were certainly not military works. 
 
 When we turn to the second hypothesis and try to consider 
 them as temples, we are met by very much the same difficulties 
 as beset the fortification theory. If temples, they are unlike the 
 temples of any other people. Generally it is assumed that they 
 were fire temples, from their name Nur — in the Semitic languages 
 signifying fire — but more from their construction. The little 
 circular chambers in their interiors are admirably suited for pre- 
 serving the sacred fire, and the external platforms as well adapted 
 for that Sabean worship of the planets which is generally under- 
 stood to be associated with fire-worship. But assuming this to 
 be the case, why so numerous? We can count on our fingers all 
 the fire-temples that exist, or were ever known to exist, in fire- 
 worshipping Persia ; and if a dozen satisfied her spiritual wants, 
 what necessity was there for three thousand, or probably twice 
 that number, in the small and sparsely inhabited island of Sar- 
 dinia? Had every family, or little village community its own 
 separate temple on the nearest high place ? and did each perform 
 its own worship separately from the rest? So far as we know, 
 there is no subordination among them, nothing corresponding to 
 cathedrals, or parish churches or chapels. Some are smaller, or 
 some form more extensive groups than others, but a singularly 
 republican equality reigns throughout, very unlike the hierarchical 
 feeling we find in most religions. In one other respect, too, they are 
 unlike the temples of other nations. None of them are situated in 
 towns or villages, or near the centres of population in the island. 
 
 Must we then adopt the third hypothesis, that they were tombs ? 
 Here again tho same difficulties meet us. If they were tombs, they 
 are unlike those of any other people with whom we are acquainted. 
 Their numbers in this instance is, however, no difficulty. It is in 
 the nature of the case that sepulchres should accumulate, and 
 their number is consequently one of the strongest arguments in 
 favour of this destination. Nor does their situation militate 
 
Chap. XI. SARDINIA.— NURHAGS WERE SEPULCHRES. 433 
 
 against this view. Nothing is more likely than that a people 
 should like to bury their dead, on high places, where their tombs can 
 be seen from afar. In fact, there does not seem much to be said 
 against this theory, except that no sepulchral remains have been 
 found in them. It is true that De la Marmora found a skeleton 
 buried in one at Iselle, 1 and apparently so placed that the interment 
 must have taken place before the tower was built, or at all events 
 finished ; but the presence of only one corpse in two thousand 
 nurhags tells strongly against the theory, as where one was placed 
 more would have been found had this form of interment been usual, 
 and amidst the hundreds of ruined and half-ruined nurhags some 
 evidence must have been found had any of the usual sepulchral 
 i sages prevailed. To my mind the conclusion seems inevitable 
 that, if they were tombs, they were those of a people who, like the 
 Parsees of the present day, exposed their dead to be devoured by 
 the birds of the air. If there is one feature in. the nurhags more 
 consistent or more essential than another, it is that of the stairs or 
 ramps that give access to their platforms. It shows, without doubt, 
 that, whether for defence, or worship, or burial, the platform was the 
 feature for which the edifice was erected, and there it must have 
 been that its purposes were fulfilled. But is it possible that such 
 a practice ever prevailed in Sardinia ? It is, of course, precipitate 
 to answer that it did. But the custom is old. Anything so excep- 
 tional among modern usages is not the invention of yesterday, and 
 it may have been far more prevalent than it now is, and it may in 
 very ancient times have been brought by some Eastern colonists 
 to this Western isle. I dare hardly suggest that it was so; but this 
 is certain, that such towers would answer in every respect perfectly 
 to the " Towers of Silence " of the modern Persians, and the little 
 side chambers in the towers would suit perfectly as receptacles of 
 the denuded bones when the time arrived for collecting them. 
 
 One argument against their being sepulchres has been drawn 
 from the fact that frequently a different class of graves, called 
 giants' tombs, is found in their immediate proximity. The con- 
 clusion I would draw from this is in a contrary sense. These 
 giants' tombs are generally long graves of neatly fitted stones, 
 
 1 ' Voyage,' p. 152. 
 
 2 F 
 
434 MEDITERRANEAN ISLANDS. Chap. XI. 
 
 with a tall frontispiece, which is formed of one stone, always 
 carefully hewn and sometimes carved. On each side of the 
 entrance two arms extend so as to form a semicircle in front, and 
 when the circle is completed by detached menhirs, these are 
 generally shaped into cones and carved. The whole, in fact, has 
 a more advanced and more modern appearance than the nnrhags, 
 and, as I read the riddle, the inhabitants adopted this form, and 
 that found in the nurhag at Iselle, after they had ceased to use the 
 nurhag itself as a means of disposing of their dead, but were still 
 clinging to the spots made sacred by the ashes of their forefathers. 
 That the nurhags are old scarcely seems to admit of a doubt, 
 though I know of only one material point of evidence on the 
 subject. It is that the pier of a Roman aqueduct has been founded 
 on the stump of a ruined and consequently desecrated nurhag. 1 
 Some time must have elapsed before the primitive and sacred use 
 of the nurhag had been so completely forgotten that it should 
 be so used. But the passages above quoted from the ' Mirabilibns ' 
 and Diodorus show that in the first and fifth centuries B.C. 
 nothing was known of their origin by these authors, and no other 
 has ventured to hint at their age. In classical times they seem to 
 have been as mysterious as they are now : — 
 
 " In the glimmer of the dawn 
 They stand the solemn silent witnesses 
 Of ancient days, — altars — or graves." 
 
 Balearic Islands. 
 
 The third group of monuments indicated above are the Talyots 
 of Minorca and Majorca. Unfortunately our guide, De la Marmora, 
 deserts us here. He went to explore them, but ill health and 
 other adverse circumstances prevented his carrying his intent 
 fully into effect, and we are left consequently very much to the 
 work of Don Juan Rami's, 2 which is the reverse of satisfactory. 
 
 Externally they generally resemble the nurhags in appearance, 
 and apparently have always chambers in their interior, but De la 
 
 1 De la Marmora, pi. v. p. 149. 
 
 2 ' Antigiiedades Celticas de la Isla de Menorca, &c. ;' Mahon, 1818. 
 
Chap. XI. 
 
 BALEARIC ISLANDS.— TALYOTS. 
 
 435 
 
 Marmora was unable to determine whether any of them had the 
 internal staircase 1 leading to the summit which is the invariable and 
 essential characteristic of the nurhag. If they had not this, they must 
 
 ] « H - Talyot at Trepuco, Minorca. From De la Marmora. 
 
 be considered as more nearly approaching to our chambered cairns 
 than to nurhags; and till this point is settled, and we know more 
 about them, we must refrain 
 from speculations on the 
 subject. One characteristic 
 feature they have, however, 
 which it is useful to note. 
 It is a bilithon, if such a 
 term is admissible — an up- 
 right flat stone, with one 
 across it forming a sort of 
 table. In appearance it very 
 much resembles those stone 
 tables which are found in- 
 side the chambers of the Maltese sepulchres, but these are always 
 larger, and placed, so far as is known, externally. What their 
 use may have been, it is difficult to conjecture, but they were 
 evidently considered important here, as in woodcut No. 190 one 
 
 190. Talyot at Alajor, Minorca. 
 From De la Marmora. 
 
 1 Voyage,' pp. 547 et seqq. 
 
 2 p 2 
 
436 MEDITERRANEAN ISLANDS. Chap. XT. 
 
 is shown surrounded by a sacred enclosure, as if being- itself the 
 " Nunien " to be honoured. At Malta, as before remarked, they 
 certainly were not altars, because pedestals, which were unmis- 
 takably altars, are found in the same apartments, and they are 
 very unlike them. They seem more like the great saucers in 
 the Irish tombs, and may have served the same purposes; but 
 altogether these Balearic outside tables are unlike anything we 
 know of elsewhere. 
 
 Rude-stone circles seem to be not uncommon in combination with 
 the talyots and tall altars, and on the whole they seem to bear as 
 much affinity to the monumeuts of Spain as to those of Sardinia, 
 but again till we know more it is idle to speculate on either their 
 age or uses beyond the conclusion drawn from all similar monu- 
 ments — that their destination was to honour departed greatness. 
 
 It would be not only interesting but instructive to pursue the 
 subject further, for the monuments of these islands deserve a 
 more complete investigation than they have yet received; but 
 this is not the place to pursue it. Indeed, it is only indirectly 
 that they have any connection with the subject of this work. 
 They are not megalithic in the sense in which the word is 
 generally used. Nor are they rude, for all the stones are more 
 or less shaped by art, and all are used constructively. In none 
 of them is the stone itself the object and end of the erection. 
 In all it is only a means to an end. 
 
 It is their locality and their age that import them into our 
 argument if there is anything in the connection between the 
 monuments of France and Algeria, as attempted to be shown 
 above. Whether the African ones came from Europe, or vice versa, 
 it must have been in consequence of long-continued intercourse 
 between the two countries, and of an influence of the dolmen 
 builders in the Western Mediterranean which could hardly have 
 failed to leave traces in the intermediate islands, unless they had 
 been previously civilized and had fixed and long-established modes 
 of dealing with their own dead. 
 
 Assuming that the nurhags and giants' towers extend back to the 
 mythic times of Grecian history, say the war of Troy — and some 
 of them can hardly be more modern — it will hardly be contended 
 
Chap. XT. BALEARIC ISLANDS.— TALYOTS. 437 
 
 now that the dolmens are earlier. If they were so, it must 
 be by centuries or by thousands of years, if we are to assume that 
 the one had any influence on the other, for it must have taken 
 long before a truly rude-stone monument could have grown into 
 a constructive style like that of Sardinia or Malta ; and I do not 
 think, after what has been said above, any one would now con- 
 tend for so remote an antiquity. If neither anterior nor coeval, 
 the conclusion, if we admit any influence at all, seems inevitable 
 that the dolmens must be subsequent. But this is just the point 
 at issue. The nurhags did not grow out of dolmens, nor dolmens 
 out of nurhags. They are separate and distinct creations, so far 
 as we know, belonging to different races, and practically unin- 
 fluenced by one another. Here, as elsewhere, each group must be 
 judged by itself, and stand on its own merits. If any direct 
 influence can be shown to exist between any two groups, there is 
 generally very little difficulty in arranging them in a sequence and 
 seeing which is the oldest, but till such connection is established, 
 all such attempts are futile. 
 
 In so far as any argument can now be got out of these insular 
 monuments, it seems to take this form. If the dolmen people 
 were earlier than the nurhag-builders, they certainly would have 
 occupied the islands that lay in their path between France or 
 Spain and Africa, and we should find traces of them there. If, 
 on the contrary, the nurhag-builders were the earlier race, and 
 colonised these islands so completely as to fill them before the 
 age of the dolmen-builders, the latter, in passing from north to 
 south, or vice versa, could only have touched at the islands as 
 emigrants or traders, and not as colonists, and consequently could 
 have neither altered nor influenced to any great extent the more 
 practically civilized people who had already occupied them. 
 
 So far as we can see, this is the view that most nearly meets the 
 facts of the case at present known, and in this respect their 
 negative evidence is both interesting and instructive, though, 
 except when viewed in tins light, the monuments of the Mediter- 
 ranean islands have no real place in a work treating on rude- 
 stone monuments. 
 
'138 WESTERN ASIA. Chap. XII. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 WESTERN ASIA. 
 
 Palestine. 
 
 Palestine is one of those countries in which dolmens exist, not in 
 thousands and tens of thousands, as in Algeria, but certainly in 
 hundreds — perhaps tens of hundreds ; but travellers have not yet 
 condescended to open their eyes to observe them, and the Palestine 
 Exploration Fund is too busy making maps to pay attention to a 
 subject which would probably throw as much light on the ethno- 
 graphy of the Holy Land as anything we know of. Before, how- 
 ever, retailing what little we know about the monuments actually 
 existing, it is necessary in this instance to say a few words about, 
 those which we know of only by hearsay. All writers on megalithic 
 remains in the last century, and some of those of the present, have 
 made so much of the stones set up by Abraham and Joshua that 
 it is indispensable to try to ascertain what they were, and what 
 bearing they really have on the subject of which we are treating. 
 
 The earliest mention of a stone being set up anywhere as a monu- 
 ment or memorial is that of the one which Jacob used as a pillow 
 in the night when he had that dream which became the title of 
 the Israelites to the land of Canaan. " And Jacob rose up early 
 in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, 
 and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it." x The 
 question is, What was the size of this stone ? In the East, where 
 hard pillows are not objected to, natives generally use a brick for 
 this purpose. Europeans, who are more stiffnecked as well as more 
 luxurious, insist on two bricks, and these laid one on the other, 
 with a cloth thrown over them, form by no means an uncomfortable 
 headpiece. The fact of Jacob being alone, and moving the stone to 
 and from the place where it was used, proves that it was not larger 
 
 1 Genesis xxviii. 18; xxxv. 1-L 
 
Chap. XII PALESTINE. 439 
 
 than, probably not so large as, the head that was laid upon it. It 
 certainly, therefore, was neither the Lia Fail which still adorns the 
 hill of Tara nor even the Scone stone that forms the king's seat in 
 Westminster Abbey, and, what is more to our present purpose, it 
 may safely be discharged from the category of megalithic monu- 
 ments of which we are now treating. 
 
 The next case in which stones are mentioned is in Genesis xxxi. 
 45 and 46 : " And Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar. 
 And Jacob said unto his brethren, Gather stones ; and they took 
 stones, and made an heap : and they did eat there upon the heap." 
 This is not quite so clear ; but the fair inference seems to be that 
 what they erected was a stone altar, on which they partook of an 
 offering, which, under the circumstances, took the form of a sacra- 
 mental oath — one party standing on either side of it. The altar 
 in the temple of Jerusalem, we know, down even to the time of 
 Herod, was formed of stones, which no iron tool had ever touched, 1 
 and the tradition derived from this altar of Jacob seems to liave 
 lasted during the whole Jewish period. So there is nothing in this 
 instance to lead us to suppose that " the heap " had any connection 
 with the megalithic monuments of other countries. 
 
 The third instance, though more frequently quoted, seems even 
 less relevant. When Joshua passed the Jordan, twelve men, 
 according to the number of the tribes, were appointed, each "to 
 take up a stone on his shoulder out of the Jordan, in the place 
 where the priests' feet had stood, and to carry them and set them 
 down at the place where they lodged that night, as a memorial to 
 the children of Israel for ever." 2 Here, again, stones that men can 
 carry on their shoulders are not much, bigger than their heads, and 
 are not such as in any ordinary sense would be used as memorials, 
 inasmuch as they could be as easily removed by any one, as placed 
 where they were. If ranged on an altar, in a building, this pur- 
 pose would liave been answered ; but as an open-air testimonial 
 such stones seem singularly inappropriate. 
 
 The only instance in which, it seems that the Bible is speaking 
 of the same class of monuments as those we are concerned with 
 
 1 Josephus, ' Bell. Jud.' v. 6. I mistranslation or the verse is an inter- 
 
 • Joshua iv. 2 to 8. There is some I polation. It is to be hoped that the 
 mistake in the 9th verse ; either it is a Kevi&ers will look to it. 
 
440 
 
 WESTERN ASIA. 
 
 Chap. XII. 
 
 is ill the last chapter of Joshua, where it is said (verse 26), he 
 '' took a great stone, and set it up there under an oak, that was by 
 the sanctuary of the Lord," and said, " Behold, this stone shall be 
 a witness unto us." It is the more probable that this was really a 
 great monolith, as it seems to be the stone mentioned in Judges 
 ix. 6 as " the pillar of the plain," ... or "by the oak of the 
 pillar which was in Shechem;" and if this is so, it must have 
 been of considerable dimensions. It therefore alone, of all the 
 stones mentioned in the Bible, seems to belong to the class of 
 stones we are treating of; but even then its direct bearing on 
 the subject is not clear. It by no means follows that because the 
 Israelites in Joshua's time set up such a stone for such a purpose 
 that either then or a thousand years afterwards the French or 
 Scandinavians did the same thing with the same intention. It 
 may be so, but both the time and locality seem too remote for 
 us to rely on any supposed analogy. 
 
 As bearing indirectly on this subject, it is curious to observe 
 that the rite of circumcision in these early days of Jewish history 
 was performed with flint knives, 1 which, considering that bronze 
 and iron were both familiarly known to the Israelites at that period, 
 is a remarkable example of the persistence in an old fashion long 
 after it might have been supposed it would have become obsolete. 
 It is equally curious, if the iSeptuagint is to be depended upon, that 
 they should have buried with Joshua in his grave those very flint 
 implements (ra9 fia-^aipas ras Trerpiva^) with which the operation 
 was performed. This cannot of course be quoted as the latest or 
 even a late example of flint being buried in tombs, but it is inte- 
 resting as explaining one reason for the practice. It is at least one 
 instance in which flint was used long after metal was known, and 
 one tomb in which stone implements were buried for other reasons 
 than the people's ignorance of the use of metal. 2 If the Jews used 
 flints lor that purpose in Joshua's time, and so disposed of them after 
 the death of their chief, the only wonder is that they do not do so 
 at the present day. 
 
 1 Exodus iv. 25 ; Joshua v. 3,, 
 
 2 Herodotus (ii. 80) mentions that, in 
 his day, the Egyptians, after extracting 
 the brain with an iron instrument, cut 
 open the body they intended to embalm 
 
 willi an Ethiopic stone, and Sir Gardner 
 Wilkinson ('Ancient Egyptians,' iii. 262) 
 found two flint knives in a tomb which 
 might have been used for such a pur- 
 pos '. 
 
Chap. XII. PALESTINE. 441 
 
 To turn from these speculations, based on words, to the real facts 
 of the case. We find that the first persons who observed dolmens 
 in Syria were Captains Irby and Mangles. In their hurried journey 
 from Es Salt, in 1817, to the fords of the Jordan, apparently in a 
 straight line from Es Salt to Nablous, they observed a group of 
 twenty-seven dolmens, very irregularly situated at the foot of the 
 mountain. All those they observed were composed of two side- 
 stones, from 8 to 10 feet long, supporting a cap-stone projecting 
 considerably beyond the sides and ends. The chambers, however, 
 were only 5 feet long internally — too short, consequently, for a 
 body to be stretched out at full length. The contraction arose 
 from the two transverse stones being placed considerably within 
 the ends of the side-stones. One of these appears to have been 
 
 191. Dolmens at Eafr er Wal. From a sketch by Mrs. Roberton Blaine. 
 
 solid, the other to have been pierced with what is called a door ; 
 but whether this was a hole in one stone, or a door formed by two 
 jambs, is not clear. 1 No drawing or plan accompanies their 
 description ; but the arrangement will be easily understood when 
 we come to examine those of Eajunkoloor, in India, 2 described 
 farther on (woodcut No. 206). 
 
 The only other reliable information I have is extracted for me 
 from his note-books by my friend, Mr. D. R. Blaine. In travelling 
 from Om Keis — Gadara — towards Gerash, at a place called Kafr er 
 Wal, not far from Tibne, they met with one considerable group, a 
 portion of which is represented in the above woodcut (No. 191). 
 The size of the stones varies considerably ; generally, however, thejr 
 are about 12 feet by 6 feet, and from 1 to 2 feet in thickness. One 
 
 1 Irby and Mangles, ' Travels in Egypt, Nubia, &c.' 1823, p. 325. 
 
 2 Colonel Meadows Taylor, in ' Trans. Royal Irish Academy,' 18u';3. 
 
442 WESTERN ASIA. Chap, XII. 
 
 cap-stone was nearly 12 feet square, and the side-stones vary from 
 5 to 6 feet in height. On approaching Suf, a great number of 
 dolmens were observed on either side of the road for a distance 
 of from three to four miles. Some of these seemed quite perfect, 
 others were broken down ; but the travellers had unfortunately 
 no time to count or examine them with care. 
 
 This is a very meagre account of a great subject — so meagre, 
 indeed, that it is impossible to found any argument upon it that 
 will be worth anything ; but it is interesting to observe that all the 
 dolmens as yet noticed in Syria are situated in Gilead, the country 
 of the Amorites, and of Og, king of Bashan. If it should prove 
 eventually that there are none except in this district, it would 
 give rise to several interesting ethnographical determinations. At 
 present all we can feel confident about is that there are no dolmens 
 west of the Jordan ; but the Amorites were originally settled in 
 Hebron, 1 and there are certainly no dolmens there. So unless they 
 migrated eastward before the dolmen period, they can scarcely lay 
 claim to them. Then these dolmens may belong to the Bephairn, 
 the Emim, the Anakim, the Zuzim, and' all those giant tribes that 
 dwelt beyond Jordan at the time of Chedorlaomer, the dreaded king 
 of Elani, who smote the kings of this district at the dawn of the 
 Bible history of these regions. 2 The speculation is a tempting one, 
 and if it should eventually be proved that they are confined to this 
 one district, it will no doubt find favour in some quarters. There 
 seems, however, nothing to support it beyond the fact that the 
 people in the region beyond the Jordan seem all and always to have 
 been of Hamite or Turanian blood, and therefore likely to adopt 
 this mode of burial whenever it may have been introduced, in 
 spite of the colonization of two tribes and a half of Israelites, who 
 could do but little to leaven the mass. I am afraid that, like the 
 theory which identified the Boman cities of the Hauran with 
 the giant cities of Og, king of Bashan, and his tall contemporaries, 
 this hypothesis will not bear examination. Every stone of these 
 cities, it is now known, was placed where we now find it, after the 
 time when Pompey extended Boman influence to these regions; 
 and nothing would surprise me less than to find that these dolmens 
 
 1 (jicnesib, xiii. IS ; xiv. VS. '-' Gen. xiii. 0. 
 
Chap. XII. PALESTINE.— SINAI. 443 
 
 are even more modern. Before, however, we venture to speculate 
 on such a subject, we must feel surer than we now do of their extent 
 and their distribution, and know something of their contents. On 
 both these subjects we are at present practically entirely ignorant. 
 
 Gilead is almost the last safe resting-place at which we can 
 pause in our explorations eastward in our attempts to connect the 
 Eastern and the Western dolmen regions together. But Gilead 
 is two thousand miles from Peshawur, where we meet the first 
 example of the Indian dolmens ; and in the vast regions that lie 
 between, only one or two doubtful examples are known to exist. 
 We can creep on doubtfully a couple of hundred miles nearer, 
 in Arabia and Circassia ; but that hardly helps us much, and 
 unless some discoveries are made in the intermediate countries, 
 the migration theory will become wholly untenable. 
 
 In the course of the recent ordnance survey of the peninsula of 
 Sinai in 1868-9, great numbers of circular buildings were discovered, 
 many of which were certainly tombs; and plans and drawings of 
 some of them have been engraved, and will be published by the 
 authorities at Southampton. But as great bodies move slowly, it 
 may yet be a long time before they are accessible to the public. 
 Meanwhile the following particulars, gleaned from a paper by the 
 Rev. Mr. Holland, 1 will suffice to explain what they are. The 
 buildings are of two classes : the first, which were probably store- 
 houses, were built in the shape of a dome, about 5 feet high and 
 5 or 6 feet in diameter in the interior. The walls were often as 
 much as 4 feet thick, and a large flat stone formed the highest 
 portion of the roof, which appeared to have been covered with 
 loose shingle. They had no windows, and one door, about 3 feet 
 high and \\ foot broad. The stones used in their construction 
 were often large, but never dressed, and no mortar was used. 
 
 The other kind of ruins, which is generally found in close 
 proximity to the former, often in separate groups, consists of 
 massively built circles of stones, of about 14 to 15 feet in 
 diameter, and 3 feet high, but without any roof. " These," Mr. 
 Holland says, " were evidently tombs ; for I found human bones 
 
 1 ' Journal Koyal Geographical Society,' 1868, pp. 243 et seq. 
 
444 WESTERN ASIA. Chai>. XII. 
 
 in all that I opened," which were never met with in the buildings 
 of the first class ; " and in one two skeletons lying side by side, one of 
 them on a bed of flat stones. The rings of stones were apparently 
 first half filled with earth ; the bodies were then laid in them, and 
 they were then quite filled up with earth, and heavy stones placed 
 on the top to prevent the wild beasts disturbing the bodies. Some 
 of these rings are of much larger size : some 45, others 90, feet in 
 diameter, and some contained a smaller ring in the centre. Near 
 the mound of Nukb Hawy is one no less than 375 feet in dia- 
 meter." From the above description it is evident that, except 
 from the dimensions of the last-mentioned, these circles have 
 much more affinity with the Chouchas and Bazinas of Algeria 
 than with anything farther north or west, and there is probably 
 some connection between them. But a wall of coursed masonry 
 of small stones can hardly be compared with our megalithic 
 structures, and, so far as is known, no dolmens, nor any examples 
 of the great rude-stone monuments we are discussing, have been 
 found in the peninsula. When the results of the survey are pub- 
 lished, we may see reason to alter this opinion ; but at present these 
 Sinaitic tombs seem to belong to a class altogether different from 
 the European examples, except in two points — that they are circular 
 and sepulchral. These characteristics are, however, so important 
 that eventually other points of comparison may be established. 
 
 The rude-stone monuments which Mr. Giffard Palgrave acci- 
 dentally stumbled upon in the centre of Arabia are of a very 
 different class from these. According to his account, what he saw 
 was apparently one-half of what had once been a complete circle 
 of trilithons ; but whether continuous, like the outer circle of 
 iStonehenge, or in pairs, like the inner circle there, is not quite 
 clear. As he could just touch the impost with his whip when 
 on his camel, the height was, as he says, about 15 feet — the same 
 as Stonehenge ; and the expression he uses would lead us to suppose 
 that the whole structure was essentially similar. Allowance, how- 
 ever, must be made for his being in disguise, which prevented his 
 making notes or writing down his observations ; and writing after- 
 wards from memory, his description may not be minutely correct. 
 He is, however, so clear and acute an observer that he could 
 hardly be deceiving himself; and we may take it for granted that 
 
Chap. XIT. 
 
 ARABIA.— ASIA MINOR. 
 
 445 
 
 exactly halfway between the Persian Gulf and the Bed Sea, near 
 Eyoon, in latitude 26° 20', there exist three rude-stone monuments 
 — he saw only one, but heard of two others — of a class similar to 
 those found in England and in the continent of Europe, 1 and what 
 is more important to our present purpose, similar to those found in 
 Tripoli, and illustrated above in woodcuts 175 and 176. 
 
 De Vogue's plates of late Roman tombs in the Hauran, especi- 
 ally those represented in his plates 93 and 94, 2 take away all im- 
 probability from the idea that trilithons should have been erected 
 for sepulchral purposes in this part of the world. That the one 
 form is copied from the other may be assumed as certain ; but 
 whether the rude stones are anterior to or contemporary with or 
 subsequent to those of the Eoman order, every one must decide 
 for himself. I believe them to be either coeval or more modern, 
 but there is nothing in these particular monuments to guide us to 
 a decision either way. If we could fancy that the savages who 
 now occupy that country would ever allow it to be explored, it 
 would be extremely interesting to know more of the Arabian 
 examples, even if they should only prove to be an extension of 
 Syrian or North African forms into Central Arabia. If, on the 
 other hand, a migration theory is ever to be established, this 
 probably would be the southern route, or at least one of the 
 southern routes ; though the imagination staggers when we come 
 to consider how long it must have been ago since any wandering 
 tribes passed through Central Arabia on their way westward. 
 
 Are there any dolmens in Asia Minor ? It is no answer to this 
 question to say that none have been seen by any of the numerous 
 travellers who have traversed that country. Ten years ago, by a 
 parity of reasoning, their existence in Algeria or in Syria might 
 have been denied. My impression is that they will not be found 
 in that region. I expect that Asia Minor was too completely 
 
 1 S. Palgrave, ' Central and Eastern 
 Arabia,' i. p. 251. These appear to 
 be the same as those mentioned by 
 Bonstetten. " Dernierement encore tin 
 missionaire je'suite, le Pere Kohen, a 
 decouvert en Arabie dans le district de 
 Kasim, pres de Khabb, trois vastes cercles 
 
 de pierres pareils a celui de Stonehenge, 
 et composes chacun de groupes de tri- 
 lithes d'une grande elevation." — Essai 
 sur les Dolmens, p. 27. 
 
 2 One of them has already been given, 
 woodcnt No. 25, p. 100. 
 
446 WESTERN ASIA. Chap. XII. 
 
 civilized in a pre-dolmen period to have adopted this form after- 
 wards ; but it is dangerous to sj^eculate about a country of whose 
 early history, as well as of whose modern geography, we really 
 know so little. 
 
 It would be extremely interesting, however, if some traveller 
 would open his eyes, and tell us what really is to be found there, 
 as it would throw considerable light on some interesting problems 
 connected with this subject. It would, for instance, be interesting 
 to know whether there are or are not dolmens in Galatia. If 
 there are, it would go far to assist the Celtic claim to their 
 invention. If they do not exist, either the Celts must be asked 
 to waive their claim or we must find out some other mode of 
 accounting for their absence. 
 
 In like manner, it would be interesting to know if there are 
 dolmens in Lydia. As mentioned before, there are numberless 
 chambered tumuli in that country, and it would be curious to 
 trace the existence or absence of any connection between these 
 two forms of sepulchres. My impression is that the case of Lydia 
 is very similar to that of Etruria. It was civilized before the 
 dolmen era, and it will consequently be in vain to look there for 
 any megalithic remains. The chambers in all the tombs yet 
 opened are, so far as we at present know, constructed of small 
 stones, and show no reminiscence of a rude-stone stage of art. 1 
 
 When we cross the Black Sea to Kertch, we find a state of 
 affairs very similar to that in Lydia — great numbers of cham- 
 bered tumuli, but all of microlithic or masonic forms. The tombs 
 seem to be the lineal descendants of those at Mycense, and to 
 belong to a totally different class from those we are treating of, 
 and, notwithstanding their similarity of purpose, have apparently 
 sprung from a different source. Yet it is curious to observe that 
 even here the inevitable flints reappear. In one tomb, known as 
 Kouloba, or Hill of Cinders, were found the remains of a chief, 
 with his wife, their servants, and a horse. He wore a cap orna- 
 mented with gold, a gold enamelled necklace, and gold bracelets, 
 and his sword was of iron. An electrum plate, which had formed 
 part of a quiver, was ornamented with figures of animals and 
 
 1 Ante, p. 32. 
 
Chap. XII. 
 
 CIRCASSIA. 
 
 447 
 
 inscribed with the Greek word IIopm%o. The queen's ornaments 
 were richer in metal and more elaborate in workmanship than her 
 husband's, yet among all this magnificence were found a quantity 
 of flakes and other implements of flint : x a tolerably convincing 
 proof that flint implements were not buried in this tomb, any 
 more than in Joshua's, because men did not know the use of 
 metals, but for some symbolical reason we do not now understand. 
 There is little doubt that other examples as striking as these will 
 be found when looked for, 
 and, at all events, these do 
 away with all a priori argu- 
 ments based on the proba- 
 bility or otherwise of their 
 being modern. 
 
 Combined with these are 
 found, very sparsely on the 
 shore of the Crimea, but 
 frequently on the eastern 
 shore of the Baltic and in Circassia, the forms of dolmens we are 
 familiar with in other parts of the world. Nothing like a regular 
 survey of them has yet been attempted, nor have we any detailed 
 accounts of them ; 
 but from such in- 
 formation as is 
 published, 2 the 
 general type 
 seems to be that 
 of the holed dol- 
 men, such as 
 those represented in the annexed woodcuts. 
 
 As far as can be judged from such illustrations as have been 
 published, all the Caucasian or Circassian dolmens are composed 
 of stones more or less hewn and shaped and carefully fitted 
 together, giving them a more modern appearance than their 
 
 192. Holed Dolmen. From Dubois de Montpereux. 
 
 193. Holed Dolmen, Circassia. From a drawing by Simpson. 
 
 1 Dubois de Montpereux, v. pp. 194 
 et seqq. pis. xx. to xxv. See also ' Jour- 
 nal Arch. Ass.' xiii. pp. 303 et seqq. 
 
 2 Dubois de Montpereux, ' Voyage 
 
 autour du Caucase,' i. p. 43. See also 
 two dolmens from drawings by W. Simp- 
 son, in Waring's 'Stone Monuments,' 
 pi. lx. 
 
448 WESTERN ASIA. Chap. XII. 
 
 Western congeners. That, however, may be owing to other cir- 
 cumstances than age, and cannot be used as an argument either 
 way till we know more about them. It would be extremely 
 interesting if some one would make a special study of this group, 
 as Circassia lies exactly halfway between India and Scandinavia, 
 and if we adopt a migration theory, this is exactly the central 
 resting-place where we would expect to find traces of the passage 
 of the dolmen-builders. Their route probably would be through 
 Bactria, down the Oxus to the Caspian, across Circassia, and 
 round the head of the Sea of Azof to the Dnieper, and up that 
 river and down the banks of the Niemen or Vistula to the Baltic. 
 
 If, on the other hand, we adopt a missionary theory, and are 
 content to believe in an Eastern influence only, without insisting 
 on a great displacement of peoples, this would equally be the trade 
 route along which such influence might be supposed to extend, 
 and so connect the north with the east, just as we may suppose 
 a southern route to have extended through Arabia and Syria to 
 the southern shores of the Mediterranean. 
 
 Even more important for our present purpose, however, than 
 an examination of these Caucasian regions would be an exploration 
 of the Steppes to the northward of the route just indicated. If 
 there is any foundation for the theory that the dolmens are of 
 Turanian origin, it is here that we should expect to find the 
 germs of the system. It is one of the best-established facts of 
 ethnology that the original seat of the Aryans was somewhere 
 in Upper and Central Asia, whence they migrated eastward into 
 India, southward into Persia, and westward into Europe. In like 
 manner, the original seat of the Turanians is assumed to be some- 
 what farther north, and thence at an earlier period it is believed 
 that they spread themselves at some very early prehistoric time 
 over the whole face of the Old World. When we turn to the 
 Steppes, whence this great family of mankind are supposed to 
 have migrated, we find it covered with tumuli. As Haxthausen 1 
 expresses it, the Kurgans, as they are there called, are counted 
 ''non par des milliers, c'est centaines de milliers qu'il faudrait 
 dire ; " and Pallas equally gives an account of their astonishing 
 
 1 Haxthausen, 'Memoires sur la Russie,' ii. p. 291. 
 
Chap. XII. 
 
 THE STEPPES. 
 
 449 
 
 y £ ipTV, *v\w/k*>*W 
 
 194. B;Vba. 
 
 From Dubois de Montpereux. 
 
 numbers. 1 These tumuli resemble exactly our barrows, such as 
 are seen on Salisbury plain, except that they are generally of very 
 much larger dimensions, and they have one peculiarity not known 
 elsewhere. On the top of each is an upright stone, rudely carved, 
 but always unmistakably represent- 
 ing a human' figure, and understood 
 to be intended for a representation 
 of the person buried beneath. Pallas, 
 Haxthausen, and Dubois, all give re- 
 presentations of these figures, but in 
 some instances at least they are re- 
 petitions of the same original. They 
 are perfectly described by the monk 
 Kuberquis, who visited these countries 
 in 1253. " The Comanians," he says, 
 " build a great tomb over their dead, 
 and erect an image of the dead party thereon, with his face 
 towards the east, holding a drinking-cup in his hand before 
 his navel. They also erect on the monuments of rich men 
 pyramids, that is to say, little pointed houses or pinnacles. In 
 some places I saw mighty towers, made of brick, and in other places 
 pyramids made of stones, though no stones are found there- 
 abouts. I saw one newly buried in whose behalf they hanged 
 up sixteen horse-hides, and they set beside his grave Cosmos 
 (Kumiss) to drink and flesh to eat, and yet they say he was 
 baptized. And I beheld other kinds of sepulchres, also towards 
 the east, namely, large floors or pavements made of stone, some 
 round and some square; and then four 
 long stones, pitched upright above the 
 said pavement, towards the four regions 
 of the world." 2 The general correct- 
 ness of this account is so fully confirmed 
 by more modern travellers that there 
 seems no reason for doubting it; but, 
 
 as no one has described these "pavements," we dare not rely 
 too much on their manifest similarity to the Scandinavian square 
 
 Four-cornered Grave. 
 From Sjoborg. 
 
 : Voyage,' i. p. 495. 
 
 2 ' Purchas his Pilgrims/ iii. p. 
 2 G 
 
450 
 
 WESTERN ASIA. 
 
 Chap. XII. 
 
 and round graves, with four angle-stones, like the preceding one 
 (woodcut No. 195). 
 
 It may not be satisfactory to be obliged to go back to a 
 traveller of the thirteenth century, however much he may be 
 confirmed by subsequent writers, for an account of monuments 
 which we would like to see measured and drawn with modern 
 accuracy. It is, on the other hand, however, a gain to find a 
 trustworthy witness who lived among a people who buried their 
 dead in tumuli and sacrificed horses in their honour, and provided 
 them with meat and drink for their journey to the Shades ; who, 
 in fact, in the thirteenth century were enacting those things as 
 living men which we find only in a fossil state in more Western 
 lands. 
 
 liiB. Tumulus at Alcxauclropol. 
 
 The general appearance of these tumuli may be judged of by 
 one of the most magnificent recently excavated by the Russians 
 near Alexandropol, between the Dnieper and the Bazaolouk. It 
 is about 1000 feet in circumference and 70 feet high, and was 
 originally surmounted by a " Baba," which, however, is not there 
 now. Around its base was a sort of retaining wall of small stones^ 
 and outside these a ditch and low r mound, but no attempt what- 
 ever at lithic magnificence. Within it were several sepulchres. 
 The principal one in the centre had apparently been already 
 rifled, but in the subsidiary ones great quantities of gold orna- 
 ments were found, especially on the trappings of the horses which 
 
Chap. XII. 
 
 THE STEPPES. 
 
 451 
 
 seem to have been buried here almost with more honour than 
 their masters. Judging from the form of the ornaments and the 
 style of the workmanship, the tomb belonged to the third or fourth 
 century B.C. 1 
 
 In Haxthausen's work 2 there is a woodcut which may give us 
 a hint as to the genesis of circles. A kurgan, or tumulus, at 
 
 Uncovered Bass of a Tumulus at Nikolajew. 
 
 Nikolajew, in the government of Cherson, was cleared away, and 
 though nothing was found in it to indicate its age and purpose, 
 its base was composed of three or four concentric circles of upright 
 stones, surrounding what appears to be a tomb composed of five 
 stones in the centre. Similar arrangements have been found in 
 Algerian tumuli, and it looks as if the first hint of a sepulchral 
 circle may have arisen from such an arrangement having become 
 familiar before being covered up, just as I believe the free- 
 standing dolmen arose from the uncovered cist having excited such 
 admiration as to make its framers unwilling to hide it. 
 
 It does not appear to me to admit of doubt that there is 
 a connexion, and an intimate one, between these Scythian or 
 Tartar tombs and those of Europe ; but the steps by which the 
 one grew out of the other, and the time when it took place, can 
 only be determined when we have more certain information 
 
 1 These particulars are taken from a Eussian work, ' Eecueil d'Antiquite's de la 
 Scythie,' 1866. Only one number, apparently, was ever published. 
 
 2 ' Memoires sur la Eussie,' ii. p. 308. 
 
 2 o 2 
 
452 
 
 WESTERN ASIA. 
 
 Chat-. XII. 
 
 regarding them than Ave now possess. It is important, however, 
 to observe that, if they are the original models or congeners of the 
 tumuli of the Western world, they are not of the dolmens or 
 circles, except in such an indirect way as in the last example 
 quoted from Haxthausen; nor are they of our menhirs, for all 
 the stones we know of are carved as completely as the babas 
 (woodcut No. 194); and we know literally of no rude stones 
 connected with them, nor do we find any attempt in Scythia to 
 produce effect by masses in unhewn stone, which is the funda- 
 mental idea that governed their use in Europe. 
 
 We tread on surer ground when we reach the Caubul valley, 
 not that many proofs of it have yet been published, but the 
 quantity of tumuli, topes, and similar monuments, 1 render it cer- 
 tain that circles and dolmens will be found there when looked for. 
 
 19°. Circle near Peshawur. From a photograph. 
 
 Only one typical example has been published, but Sir Arthur 
 Phayre, to whom we owe it, heard of other similar monuments 
 existing in the neighbourhood. Fourteen of the stones composing 
 this circle are still standing, and the tallest are about 11 feet in 
 height, but others are lying on the ground more or less broken. 
 The circle is about 50 feet in diameter, and there are appearances 
 of an outer circle of smaller stones at a distance of about 50 to 60 
 
 1 Introduction to Wilson's ' Ariana Antiqua,' passim. 
 
Chap. XII. 
 
 CAUBUL. 
 
 453 
 
 feet from the inner one. The natives have no tradition about its 
 erection, except the same myth which we find in Somersetshire, 
 that a wedding party, passing over the plain, were turned into 
 stone by some powerful magician. 1 . . 
 
 At present, these Eusufzaie circles, and those described by 
 Sir William Ouseley at Deh Ayeh, 2 are almost the only 
 examples we have to bridge over the immense gulf that exists 
 between the Eastern and Western dolmen regions. Even the 
 last, however, is 
 only a frail prop 
 for a theory, inas- 
 much as we have 
 only a drawing 
 of it by Sir W. 
 Ouseley, who, in 
 his description, 
 says : " I can 
 scarcely think 
 the arrangement nQQ _. , . _ . . , _ .. , 
 
 ° 199. Circle at Deh Ayeh, near Darabgerd. 
 
 of these stones 
 
 wholly, though it may be partly, natural or accidental." Coupled 
 with the stone represented as figure 13 on the same plate, in 
 Sir William Ouseley's work, I feel no doubt about these belonging 
 to the class of rude-stone monuments, but we must know of more 
 examples and more about them before we can reason with confi- 
 dence regarding them. Another example, which certainly appears 
 to be artificial, is recorded by Chardin. In travelling between 
 Tabriz and Miana, he observed on his left hand several circles 
 of hewn stones, which his companions informed him had been 
 placed there by the Caous — the giants of the Kaianian dynasty. 
 " The stones," he remarks, " are so large, that eight men could 
 hardly move one of them, yet they must have been brought from 
 . quarries in the hills, the nearest of which is twenty miles distant." 3 
 Numerous travellers must have passed that way since, but no one 
 
 1 'Journal Asiatic Soc. Bengal,' p. i. No. 1, 1870. 
 
 2 ' Travels in Persia,' ii. p. 124, pi. lv. fig. 14. 
 
 3 ' Voyages en Perse, &c.,' i. p. 267. 
 
454 WESTERN ASIA. Chap. XII. 
 
 has observed these stones. It does not, however, follow that they 
 are not still there, and hundreds of others besides ; but while all 
 this uncertainty prevails, it is obviously most unsafe to speculate 
 on the manner in which any connexion may have taken place. 
 It may turn out that the intervening country is full of dolmens, or 
 it may be that practically we know all that is to be learned on the 
 subject, but till this is ascertained, any theory that may be broached 
 must be open to correction, perhaps even to refutation. It is not, 
 however, either useless or out of place to make such suggestions 
 as those contained in the last few pages. They turn attention to 
 subjects too liable to be overlooked, but which are capable of easy 
 solution when fairly examined, while their truth or falsehood does 
 not practically in any essential degree affect the main argument. 
 The age and uses of the Indian dolmens, as of the European 
 examples, must be determined from the internal evidence they 
 themselves afford. Each must stand or fall from its own strength 
 or weakness. It would of course be interesting if a connexion 
 between the two can be established, and we could trace the mode 
 and time when it took place, but it is not necessarily important. 
 If anyone cares to insist that there was no connexion between the 
 two, he deprives himself of one of the principal points of interest 
 in the whole enquiry, but does not otherwise affect the argument 
 either as to their age or use. But of all this we shall be in 
 a better position to judge when we have gone through the 
 evidence detailed in the next chapter. 
 
Chap. XIII. INDIA. — INTRODUCTORY. 455 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 INDIA. 
 
 The number of rude-stone monuments in India is probably as 
 great or even greater than that of those to be found in Europe, 
 and they are so similar that, even if they should not turn out to 
 be identical, they form a most important branch of this enquiry. 
 Even irrespective, however, of these, the study of the history of 
 architecture in India is calculated to throw so much light on the 
 problems connected with the study of megalithic monuments 
 in the West that, for that cause alone it deserves much more 
 attention than it has hitherto received. 
 
 No one, it is presumed, will now be prepared to dispute the 
 early civilization at least of the northern parts of India. Whether 
 the Aryans crossed the Indus three thousand years B.C., as I believe, 
 or two thousand B.C., as others contend, is of little consequence to our 
 present purposes. It is generally understood that the Vedas were 
 compiled or reduced to writing thirteen centuries before Christ, and 
 the Laws of Menu seven or eight hundred years before our era, 
 and these works betoken a civilization of some standing. Ayoclia 
 was a great prosperous city at the time of the incidents described 
 in the Eamayana, and Hastinapura when the tragedy of the 
 Mahabharata was being enacted; and these great events took 
 place probably one or two thousand years before Christ, or between 
 these two elates. Or to come a little nearer to our time, all the cir- 
 cumstances depicted in all the thousand and one legends connected 
 with the life and teaching of Sakya Muni (623 to 513 B.C.), describe 
 a country with cities and palaces, and possessing a very high state of 
 civilzation ; and these legends are so numerous and so consenta- 
 neous that they may fairly be considered, for this purpose at least, 
 as rising to the dignity of history. Yet with all this we now 
 know it for a fact that no stone building or monument of stone 
 now exists in India that was erected before the time of xisoka, B.C. 
 
456 
 
 INDIA. 
 
 Chap. XIII. 
 
 250. But, besides negative proof, we have iu the early caves, 150 
 to 200 B.C., such manifest proofs of the stone architecture being 
 then a mere transcript of wooden forms that we know certainly 
 that we have here reached the very incunabula of a style. Of 
 course it does not follow from this that the cities before this 
 time may not have been splendid or the palaces magnificent. In 
 Burmah and Siam the palaces and monasteries are either wholly 
 or mostly in wood, and these timber erections are certainly more 
 gorgeous and quite as expensive as the stone buildings of the 
 West, and the Indians seem to have been content with this less 
 durable style of architecture till the influence of the Bactrian 
 Greeks induced them to adopt the clumsier but more durable 
 material of stone for their buildings. 
 
 With such an example before us, ought we to be surprised if the 
 rude inhabitants of Europe were content with earth and the forms 
 into which it could be shaped, till the examjjle of the Bomans 
 taught them the use of the more durable and more strongly 
 accentuated material? Nor will it do to contend that, if our 
 forefathers got this hint from the Romans, they would have 
 adopted the Boman style of architecture with it. The Indians 
 certainly did not do so. Their early attempts at stone archi- 
 tecture are wooden, in the strictest sense, and retained their 
 wooden forms for two or three centuries almost unchanged, and 
 when gradually they became more and more appropriate to the 
 newly adopted material, it was not Greek or foreign forms that 
 they adopted, but forms of their own native invention. In Asoka's 
 reign we have Greek or rather Assyrian ornaments in one of his 
 lats, 1 and something like a Bersepolitan capital in some of the 
 earlier caves, 2 but these died out, and it is not till after five 
 centuries that we really find anything like the arts of Bactria at 
 Amravati. 3 As the civilized race copied their own wooden forms 
 with all the elaborateness of which wood carving is capable, so the 
 rude race seems to have used the forms which were appropriate to 
 their status, and which were the only forms they could appreciate. 
 
 1 ' History of Architecture,' by the 
 Author, ii. p. 459, fig. 968. 
 
 2 ' Caves of Baja and Bedsa in Western 
 Ghats ; ' unpublished. 
 
 3 ' Tree and Serpent Worship,' quota- 
 tion from Hiouen Thsang, p. 135, and 
 plates, passim. 
 
Chap. XIII. INTRODUCTORY. 457 
 
 Another peculiarity of Indian architecture is worth pointing- 
 out here as tending to modify one of the most generally received 
 dogmas of Western criticism. In speaking of such monuments as 
 New Grange or the tombs at Locmariaker, which are roofed by 
 overlapping stones forming what is technically called a horizontal 
 arch, it is usual to assume that this must have been done before 
 the invention of the Roman or radiating arch form. So far as 
 Indian experience goes, this assumption is by no means borne out. 
 When Kutb u deen wished to signalise his triumph over the 
 idolaters, he, in 1206 a.d v employed the Hindus to erect a mosque 
 for him in his recently acquired capital of Delhi. In the centre of 
 the screen forming the mosque, he designed a great archway 
 22 feet span, 53 feet in height, and formed as a pointed arch of two 
 sides of an equilateral spherical triangle. This was the usual form 
 of Saracenic openings at G-hazni or Balkh in the beginning of 
 the thirteenth century, but it was almost beyond the power of the 
 Hindus to construct it. They did so, however, and it still stands, 
 though crippled ; but all the courses are horizontal, like their own 
 domes, except two long stones which form the apex of the arch. 1 
 In a very few years after this time the Mahommedan conquerors had 
 taught the subject Hindus to build radiating arches, and every 
 mosque or Mahommedan building from that time forward is built 
 with arches formed as we form them ; but, except a very few in 
 the reign of the cosmopolite Akbar, no single Hindu building or 
 temple, even down to the present time, has an arch in the sense in 
 which we understand the word. 
 
 One of the most striking instances of this peculiarity is found 
 in the province of Guzerat. There are still to be seen the 
 splendid ruins of the city of Ahmedabad built by the Mahommedan 
 kings of the province between the years 1411 and 1583. 2 There 
 every mosque and every building is arched or vaulted according 
 to one system. In the same province stands the sacred city of 
 Palitana, with its hundreds of temples, some of a date as early 
 as the eleventh, many built within the limits of the present 
 century, and some now in the course of construction ; yet, so far as 
 
 1 ' History of Architecture,' by the Author, ii. p. 649. 
 
 2 ' Architecture of Ahmedabad.' 120 photographs, with text. Murray, 1868. 
 
458 INDIA. Chap. XIII. 
 
 is known, there is not a single arch within the walls of the city. 
 So it is throughout India : side by side stand the buildings of 
 the two great sects — those belonging to the Mahommedans 
 universally arched, those belonging to the Hindus as certainly 
 avoiding this form of construction. This is the more remark- 
 able as the moment we cross the frontier of India we find 
 the arch universally prevalent in Burmah, as early certainly 
 as the tenth or eleventh century, and in all the forms, round, 
 pointed, and flat, which we use in the present day. 1 But if we 
 extend our researches a little farther east, we again come to a 
 country full of the most wonderful buildings known to exist 
 anywhere, with bridges and viaducts and vaults; but not one 
 single arch has yet been discovered in the length and breadth 
 of the kingdom of Cambodia. 
 
 All this is no doubt very anomalous and strange, though, if it 
 were worth while, some of it might be accounted for and explained. 
 This, however, is not the place for doing so : all that is here 
 required is to point out the existence of the apparent anomaly, in 
 order that we may not too hurriedly jump to chronological conclu- 
 sions from the existence or absence of arches in any given building. 
 
 Another most instructive lesson bearing on our present subject 
 that is to be derived from the study of Indian antiquities will be 
 found in that curious but persistent juxtaposition that every- 
 where prevails of the highest form of progressive civilization 
 beside the lowest types of changeless barbarism. Everywhere in 
 India the past is the present, and the present is the past ; not, 
 as is usually assumed, that the Hindu is immutable — quite the 
 contrary. When contemporary history first dawned on us, India 
 was Buddhist, and for eight or nine centuries that was the preva- 
 lent religion of the state. There is not now a single Buddhist 
 establishment in the length and breadth of the land. The religions 
 which superseded Buddhism were then new, and have ever since 
 been changing, so that India now contains more religions and more 
 numerous sects than any portion of the world of the same extent. 
 Even within the last six centuries one-fifth of the population have 
 adopted the Mahoinmeclan religion, and are quite prepared to follow 
 
 1 Yule, 'Mission to the Court of Ava,' p. 43, pi. ix. 
 
Chap. XIII. INTRODUCTORY. 459 
 
 any new form of faith that may be the fashion of the day. But 
 beside all this never ceasing change, there are tribes and races 
 which remain immutable. 
 
 To take one instance anions a hundred that might be adduced. 
 Ougein was a' great commercial capital in the days of the Greek. 
 It was the residence of Asoka, 260 B.C. 1 It was the Ozene of the 
 Periplus, the capital of the great Vicramaditya in the middle of 
 the fifth century, 2 and it was the city chosen by Jey Sing for the 
 erection of one of his great observatories in the reign of Akbar. 
 Yet almost within sight of this city are to be found tribes of 
 Bhils, living now as they lived long before the Christian era. 
 They are not agricultural, hardly pastoral, but live chiefly by the 
 chase. With their bows and arrows they hunt the wild game as 
 their forefathers did from time immemorial. They never cared 
 to learn to read or write, and have no literature of any sort, 
 hardly any tradition. Yet the Bhil was there before the Brahmin ; 
 and the proudest sovereign of Rajpootana acknowledges the Bhil 
 as lord of the soil, and no new successor to the throne considers 
 his title as complete till he has received the tika at the hands of 
 the nomad. 3 If India were a country divided by high moun- 
 tain-ranges, or impenetrable forests, or did impassable deserts 
 anywhere exist, this co-existence of two forms of society might be 
 accounted for. But the contrary is the case. From the Himalayas 
 to Cape Comorin, no obstacle exists, nor, so far as we know, ever did 
 exist, to the freest intercourse between the various races inhabiting 
 the country. If we may believe the traditions on which the epic 
 of the Bamayana was founded, armies traversed the length and the 
 breadth of the land one thousand, it may be two thousand, years 
 before Christ. The Brahmins carried their arms and their litera- 
 ture to the south at a very early age. The Buddhists spread 
 everywhere. The Jains succeeded them. The Mahommedans 
 conquered and settled in Mysore and the Carnatic, but in vain. 
 The Bhil, the Cole, the Grond, the Toda, and other tribes, remain 
 as they were, and practise their own rites and follow the customs of 
 their forefathers as if the stranger had never come among them. 
 
 1 ' J. A. S. B.' vii. p. 930. 2 ' J. R. A. S.,' new series, iv. p. 
 
 3 ' Tods Rajastan,' i. p. 224. 
 
460 
 
 INDIA. 
 
 Chap. XIII. 
 
 Eastern India. 
 
 To turn from these generalities to two instances more directly illus- 
 trative of our European experience. The first is that of the Khonds, 
 the Druids of the East, worshipping in groves, prised formidine 
 sacris, and indulging in human sacrifices and other unamiable 
 practices of our forefathers. 1 These tribes exist partly on a range 
 of hills bounding the province of Cuttack on the western side and 
 partly extend into the plains themselves. Almost within their 
 boundaries there exists a low range of rocky hills known as the 
 Udyagiri, in which are found a series of Buddhist caves, many 
 of them excavated before the Christian era, and as beautiful and 
 as interesting as any caves in India. 2 A little beyond this are 
 seen the great tower of the Bobaneswar temple and of the hundred 
 and one smaller fanes dedicated to the worship of Siva, which was 
 established here in all its splendour in the seventh century ; 3 and 
 a little farther on, rises on the verge of the ocean the great tower 
 of the temple of Juggernaut, at Puri, established in the twelfth 
 century for the worship of that form of Vishnu. 4 Yet in defiance 
 of all this, in close proximity to the shrines of the gentle ascetic 
 who devoted his life to the prevention of the shedding of the 
 blood of the meanest of created beings, in si^ht of Bobaneswar 
 and Puri, Macpherson tells us, unconsciously almost repeating 
 the words of Tacitus 5 : " The Khonds use neither temples nor 
 
 1 The information regarding the 
 Khonds is principally derived from a 
 work entitled ' Memorials of Service,' by 
 Major Charteris-Macpherson (Murray, 
 1865), and his papers in ' J. E. A. S.' 
 xiii. pp. 216 et seqq. I quote by prefer- 
 ence from the latter, as the more gene- 
 rally accessible. 
 
 2 For several years past I have offi- 
 cially and privately been exerting all the 
 influence I possess to try and get two 
 bassi relievi that exist in these caves 
 cast or photographed, or at least care- 
 fully copied in some form, but hitherto 
 in vain. In 1869 the Government sent an 
 expedition to Cuttack with draftsmen, 
 photographers, &c, but they knew so 
 
 little what was wanted that they wasted 
 their time and money in casting minarets 
 and sculptures of no beauty or interest, 
 and, having earned their pay, returned re 
 infecta. I am not without hopes that some- 
 thing may be done during the present 
 cold season. When representations are 
 obtained, they will throw more light on 
 the history of the Yavanas or Greeks in 
 that remote part of India than anything 
 else that could be done, and would clear 
 up some points in the history of Indian 
 art that are now very obscure. 
 
 3 Sterling's account of Cuttack, 
 ' Asiatic Eesearches,' xv. p. 306. 
 
 4 hoc. s. c. p. 315. 
 
 5 Tacitus' ' Germania,' 9. 
 
Chap. XIII. EASTERN INDIA — KHASSTA. 461 
 
 images in their worship. They cannot comprehend and regard 
 as absurd the idea of building a house in honour of a deity, or in 
 the expectation that he will be peculiarly present in any place 
 resembling a human habitation. Groves kept sacred from the axe, 
 hoar rocks, the tops of hills, fountains, and the banks of streams, 
 are in their eyes the fittest places for worship." It was in these 
 sacred and venerable groves, that annually human victims were 
 offered up to appease the wrath of the dreaded Tari, and to 
 procure fertility for the fields. In 1836 we first interfered to put 
 a stop to this, and before the Mutiny believed we had been 
 successful. Perhaps we may have been so, but if our strong 
 repressive hand were once removed, it cannot be doubted but the 
 sacrifices would be instantly resumed. What the Buddhists and the 
 Brahmins, working during at least two thousand years, have failed 
 to accomplish, we strangers cannot expect to succeed in, in a few 
 years, unless indeed we adopt the system followed by our fore- 
 fathers, and are determined on extirpating those who obstinately 
 adhere to such practices. Had it not been that first the Eoman, 
 and then the Celt, by sword and cord set vigorously to improve 
 the older race, we might now have human sacrifices celebrated 
 on the plains of Bauce in the neighbourhood of Chartres, and find 
 people quietly erecting dolmens in the valley of the Dordogne. 
 
 The practices, however, of a Claudius or a Simon de Montfort 
 are repugnant to the feelings of the Indians, and so long as no 
 political issue is at stake, they rarely interfere with the religious 
 proclivities of their neighbours. 
 
 When from the hills inhabited by the Khonds we cross the 
 delta of the Ganges in a northerly direction, and come to the 
 Khassia hills, we find a very different state of things, but equally 
 interesting as an illustration of our present studies. These hills are 
 situated between the valley of Assam and the plains of Sylhet, and, 
 rising to a height of some 5000 to 6000 feet, catch the rains during 
 the south-west monsoon, and but for this would be one of the most 
 delightful sanitaria of the Bengal province. A country, however, 
 where 300 inches of rain fall in three months is, for at least a 
 quarter of the year, an undesirable abode, and it is difficult also to 
 keep any soil on the rocks. Throughout the whole of the western 
 portion of the hilly region, inhabited by tribes bearing the generic 
 
462 
 
 INDIA. 
 
 Chap. XIII. 
 
 name of Khassias, rude-stone monuments exist in greater numbers 
 than perhaps in any other portion of the globe of the same extent 
 (woodcut No. 200). All travellers who have visited the country 
 have been struck with the fact and with the curious similarity of 
 their forms to those existing in Europe. 1 So like, indeed, are they 
 that it has long been the fashion to assume their identity, and it 
 has consequently been often hoped that, if we could only find out 
 why the Indian examples were erected, we might discover the 
 
 200. View in Khassia Hills. By H. Walters. 
 
 motive which guided those in Europe who constructed similar 
 monuments, while at the same time there seemed every reason for 
 believing that it would not be difficult to discover the motives 
 which led to the erection of the Indian examples. The natives 
 make no mystery about them, and many were erected within the 
 last few years, or are being erected now, and they are identical in 
 form with those which are grey with years, and must have been 
 set up in the long forgotten past. Here, therefore, there seemed a 
 chance of at last solving the mystery of the great stones. Greater 
 
 1 H. Walters, 182S, 'Asiatic lie- 
 searches,' xvii. pp. 499 et seqq. Colonel 
 Yule, ' Proceedings, Soc. of Antiq. Scot.' 
 
 i. p. 92. Hooker's 'Himalayan Journals,' ii. 
 p. 276. Major Godwin Austen, ' Journal 
 Anthropological Institute,' vol. i. Part II. 
 
Chap. XIII. 
 
 KHASSIA. 
 
 463 
 
 Khassia Fnnereal Seats. From Yule. 
 
 familiarity with thein has, however, rather tended to dispel these 
 illusions. 
 
 The Khassias burn their dead, which is a practice that hardly 
 could have had its origin in their present abodes, inasmuch as, 
 during three months in 
 the year, it is impossible, 
 from the rain, to light 
 a fire out of doors, and 
 consequently, if any one 
 dies during that period, 
 the body is placed in a 
 coffin, formed from the 
 hollowed trunk of a tree, 
 
 and pickled in honey, till a fair day admits of his obsequies 
 being properly performed. 1 According to Mr. Walters, the urns 
 containing the ashes are placed in little circular cells, with flat 
 tops like stools, which exist in the immediate proximity of all 
 the villages, and are used as seats by the villagers on all state 
 occasions of assembly ; but whether one stool is used for a whole 
 family, or till it is filled with urns, or whether a new stool is pre- 
 pared when a great man dies, has not yet been ascertained. 2 
 
 The origin of the menhirs is somewhat different. If any of the 
 Khassia tribe falls ill or gets into difficulties, he prays to some one 
 of his deceased ancestors, whose spirit he fancies may be able and 
 Avilling to assist him. Father or mother, uncle or aunt, or some 
 more distant relative, may do equally well, and to enforce his prayer, 
 he vows that, if it is granted, he will erect a stone in honour of the 
 deceased. 3 This he never fails to perform, and if the cure has been 
 rapid, or the change in the luck so sudden as to be striking, others 
 address their prayers to the same person, and more stones are 
 vowed. It thus sometimes happens that a person, man or woman, 
 who was by no means remarkable in life, may have five, or seven, 
 or ten — two fives, for the number must always be unequal — 
 erected in their honour. The centre stone generally is crowned by 
 a capital, or turban-like ornament, and sometimes two are joined 
 
 1 Schlagintweit, in ' Ausland,' No. 23, 1870, pp. 530 et seqq. 
 
 - ' Asiatic Kesearckes,' xvii. p. 502. 
 
 3 Major Godwin Ansten, ' Journal Anthrop. Institute,' i. p. 127. 
 
464 
 
 INDIA. 
 
 Chap. XIII. 
 
 together, forming a trilithon, but then they apparently count as 
 one. Major Austen mentions a set of five being erected in 1869 
 on the opposite side of the road to an original set of the same 
 
 Menhirs and Tables. From Schlacintwcit. 
 
 number with which an old lady had previously been honoured, in 
 consequence of the services which after her death she had rendered 
 to her tribe. 1 
 
 The origin of the stone tables or dolmens is not so clearly made 
 
 203. Turban Stone, with Stone Table. 
 
 Trilithon. 
 
 out. Like the tomb stools, they frequently at least seem to be 
 places of assembly. One, described by Major Austen, measured 
 30 feet 4 inches by 10 feet in breadth, and had an average thickness 
 
 1 'Journal Anthrop. Inst.' i. p. 12G. 
 
Chap. XIII. KHASSIA HILLS. 465 
 
 of 1 foot ; it had steps to ascend to it ; and certainly it looks 
 like a place from which it would be convenient to address an 
 audience. The great stone of this monument weighed 23 tons 
 18 cwt., and another is described as measuring 30 feet by 13 feet, 
 and 1 foot 4 inches in thickness, and others seem nearly of the 
 same dimensions; and they are frequently raised some height from 
 the ground, and supported on massive monoliths or pillars. 
 
 While this is so, we need not wonder at the masses employed in 
 the erection of Stonehenge or Avebury, or any of our European 
 monuments. Physically the Khassias are a very inferior race to 
 what we can conceive our forefathers ever to have been. Their 
 stage of civilization is barely removed from that of mere savages, 
 and their knowledge of the mechanical arts is of the most primitive 
 description. Add to all this that their country is mountainous and 
 rugged in the highest degree. Yet with all these disadvantages they 
 move these great stones and erect them with perfect facility, while 
 we are lost in wonder because our forefathers did something nearly 
 equal to it some fourteen centuries ago. 
 
 There are apparently no circles and no alignments on the hills, 
 nor any of the forms which in the previous pages we have ascribed 
 to battle-fields, and no tumuli nor any of their derivatives, and no 
 sculptured stones of any sort. The real likeness, therefore, between 
 the two forms of art is not so striking as it appears at first sight, 
 but still presents coincidences that it is impossible to overlook. 
 
 One of the most curious points which an examination of these 
 two Indian tribes brings to light with reference to the European 
 congeners is that in Cuttaek we have sacred groves, human sacri- 
 fices, an all-powerful priesthood indulging in divination, and various 
 other peculiarities, all savouring of Druidism, but not one upright 
 stone or stone monument of any sort. In the Khassia hills, on the 
 other hand, we have dolmens, menhirs, trilithons, and most of the 
 forms of rude-stone architecture, but no dominant priesthood, no 
 human sacrifices, no groves, nor anything savouring of the Druidical 
 religion. 
 
 To the European student the most interesting fact connected 
 with the monuments on the Khassia hills is probably their date. 
 We do not know how far back they extend, but we do know that 
 many were erected within the limits of the present century, and 
 
 2 H 
 
446 INDIA. Chap. XIII. 
 
 some within the last few years. Yet this has taken place in 
 presence of, and in immediate contact with, two far higher forms 
 of civilization. 
 
 At the foot of the Khassia hills, to the north, lies the famous 
 Hindu kingdom of Kamarupa. How far it extends back to, we do 
 not know, but its foundation was certainly anterior to the Christian 
 era ; and when Hiouen Thsang visited it in the beginning of the 
 seventh century, he found it rich and prosperous, and containing 
 "temples by hundreds." 1 And now, in the jungles, ruins are con- 
 tinually being discovered of temples not so old perhaps as this 
 date, but showing continued prosperity down to a far later period. 
 All these temples are richly and elaborately carved and orna- 
 mented with that exuberance of detail characteristic of Hindu 
 architecture. 
 
 At the foot of the southern slope of the hills lies Sylket. When 
 it became great, we do not know, but it certainly was occupied by 
 the Mahommedans some centuries ago, and adorned with mosques 
 and palaces and all that magnificence in which the Moslems 
 indulged in the East. Yet the Khassia looks down on these new 
 forms of civilization unmoved. As a servant or a trader he must 
 have been for centuries familiar with both : but he clings to his 
 old faith, and erects his rude-stoue monuments, as his forefathers 
 had done from time immemorial, and it is doubtful whether either 
 our soldiers or our missionaries will soon wean him from this 
 strange form of adoration. 
 
 Surely all this is sufficient to make us pause before arguing 
 from our own European experiences, or deciding questions when 
 so few facts have hitherto been available on which to base any 
 sound conclusions. 
 
 Western India. 
 
 On the other side of India there are some groups of rude-stone 
 monuments similar to those found in the Khassia hills, and appa- 
 rently erected for similar purposes. They are, however, much less 
 perfectly known, and are described or at least drawn by only one 
 
 Meraoires sur les Contrees oecidentales,' iii. p. 76. 
 
Chap. XIII. WESTERN INDIA. 467 
 
 traveller. 1 The most conspicuous of these is one near Belgaum. 
 It consists of two rows of thirteen stones each, and one in front of 
 them of three stones — the numbers being always uneven, as in 
 Bengal — and on the opposite side four of those small altars, or 
 tables, which always accompany these groups of stones on the 
 Khassia hills. These, however, are very much smaller, the central 
 stone being only about 4 feet high, and falling off to about a foot 
 in height at the end of each row. 2 Whether they were or were not 
 dedicated to the same purpose, Colonel Leslie does not inform us ; 
 but their resemblance is so marked that there seems very little 
 doubt that they were dedicated or vowed to the spirits of deceased 
 ancestors. 
 
 Another class of circular fanes looks at first sight more j)romising 
 as a means of comparison with ours. Generally they seem to con- 
 sist of one or three stones, in front of which, a circular space — in 
 the largest instance 40 feet in diameter, but more generally 20 to 
 30 feet only — is marked out by a number of small stones, from 8 
 to 20 inches in height, while the great central stones are only 
 3 feet high. To compare these, therefore, with, our great megalithic 
 monuments seems rather absurd. So far as can be made out, the 
 central stone seems to represent a local village deity, called Vetal 
 or Betal, who, like Nadzu Pennu, the village god, one of the inferior 
 deities of the Khonds, is familiarly represented merely by a rude 
 stone, placed under a tree. 3 In the instance of Vetal, it seems when 
 a sacrifice — generally of a cock — is to be made, all those who are 
 interested bring their own stones, and arrange them, in a circular 
 fashion, round the place where the ceremony is to be performed ; 
 hence the superficial likeness. None, so far as is known, are ancient, 
 nor indeed has it at all been made out when and how the worship 
 of this deity arose. It is evidently a local superstition of some of 
 the indigenous tribes, which latterly under our tolerant rule has 
 become more prominent, for the sect is hated and despised by the 
 Brahmins ; and so far as facts are concerned, it would be difficult 
 
 1 Colonel Forbes Leslie, ' Early Kaces ethnographic point of view, if some 
 of Scotland,' vol. ii. pis. lviii. lix. lx. They further information could be obtained 
 
 have also been described by Dr. Steven- j regarding these stone rows, 
 son, ' J. R. A. S.' v. pp. 192 et seqq. It ' 2 ' Early Eaces of Scotland,' ii. 459. 
 
 would be extremely interesting, in an j 3 ' J. R. A. S.' xiii. p. 268. 
 
 2 h 2 
 
468 
 
 INDIA. 
 
 Chap. XIII. 
 
 to carry back the history of this form of architecture for a hundred 
 years from this time. It may be older, but there is nothing to 
 show that it is so. 
 
 So far as the monuments above mentioned are concerned, there 
 seems nothing in them that affords a real analogy or establishes any 
 direct connexion between the European and Indian examples. The 
 sacrifice of a cock to Vetal, when in sickness, looks like a similar 
 sacrifice to Esculapius, and the human sacrifices and sacred groves 
 of the Khonds are very Druidical in appearance ; but no one pro- 
 bably will be found to contend that Yetal and Esculapius are the 
 same god, or that the Khonds are Celts ; and without this being 
 established, the argument halts. The case, however, seems different 
 when we turn to the sepulchral arrangements of the aboriginal tribes 
 of India. Here the analogies are so striking that it is hard to 
 believe that they are accidental, though equally hard to under- 
 stand how and when the intercourse could have taken place which 
 led to their similarity. 
 
 As in Europe, the sepulchral monuments of India may be divided 
 into two great classes — the dolmens and the tumuli. In the present 
 
 205. Dolmen at Rajunkoloor. From a drawing by Colonel Meadows Taylor. 
 
 state of our knowledge it is difficult to say which are the more 
 numerous. According to Colonel Meadows Taylor, 1 who is our best 
 
 1 I quote from a paper by him, pub- 
 lished in the ' Trans. E. Irish Academy,' 
 xxiv. pp. 329 et seqq. There is an earlier 
 
 paper by him in the 'J. B. B. R. A. S.' 
 vol. iii. 179, but it is superseded by the 
 later publication. 
 
Chap. XIII. 
 
 WESTERN INDIA. 
 
 469 
 
 authority on the subject, the dolmens are of two kinds — those con- 
 sisting of four stones, that is to say, three supporting stones and one 
 cap-stone — thus leaving one side open — and. those in which the 
 chamber is closed by a fourth stone; in the latter case this fourth 
 stone has invariably a circular opening in it, like the Circassian 
 examples (woodcuts Nos. 192, 193), and the dolmen at Trie (No. 
 127). These forms are both shown in woodcut No. 205, repre- 
 senting two at Eajunkoloor, in the province of Sholapore, between 
 the Bheema and Kistnah, near their junction. The side-stones of 
 the larger monument measure 15 feet 3 inches by 9 feet in height, 
 and more than 1 foot in thickness. The cap-stone is 15 feet 
 9 inches by 10 feet 9 inches, and the internal space 8 feet by 6 feet, 
 
 206. Plan of Open Dolmen at 
 Rajunkoloor. 
 
 207. Closed Dolmen at 
 Ra unkoloor. 
 
 208. View of Closed Dolmen at 
 Rajunkoloor. 
 
 the third slab being placed at some distance from the rear, and 
 between the two side-stones. The same arrangement is followed 
 in the closed dolmen, the cross slabs being inside, as shown in 
 the view (woodcut No. 208), and plan (woodcut No. 207). The 
 interior of the closed dolmen contained a little black mould on the 
 surface. Below this a greyish white earth, brought from a distance, 
 with which were found human ashes and portions of bones and 
 charcoal mixed, and pieces of broken pottery, red and black. 
 These rested on the solid rock on which the dolmen was erected. 
 Nothing whatever was found in any of the open dolmens ; but 
 whether this arose from their being plundered, or from being 
 exposed, is not clear. It could hardly have been that they were 
 not sepulchral. They seem at least to be mixed up indiscrimi- 
 nately with the others, and except their being open, there is nothing 
 to distinguish them. The arrangement of these dolmens in plan 
 is peculiar. As will be seen from the next woodcut (No. 209), 
 
470 INDIA. Chap. XKT. 
 
 they are as regular as in our cemeteries, and apparently in certain 
 directions would have gone on extending ad infinitum; but in 
 another direction are cairns irregularly spaced, and showing a dis- 
 tinction in the mode of burying which at present it is difficult to 
 account for. 
 
 At a place in the Raichore Doab, called Yemmee Gooda, four of 
 the dolmens of the first class were surrounded by double circles 
 of stones ; but this does not seem to be a usual arrangement. 
 
 
 . « O 
 
 - ° « * ° " * ° « « ° ° 
 
 -•/.«« 
 
 t* 
 
 tt » « *■ w * w 1 o 
 
 C o " I a * I " n O O ° o ° ° 
 * ° * ° o O * ° * . O O 
 
 O 
 
 
 
 
 \\ 
 
 209. Arrangement of Dolmens at Rajunkoloor. By Colonel Meadows Taylor. 
 
 Almost more interesting than the dolmens are the cairns. The 
 following plan of the group at Jewurgi, a place fifty miles, as the 
 crow flies, north-east from Rajunkoloor, will explain their arrange- 
 ment and juxtaposition. They, too, seem to divide themselves into 
 two classes, as shown in the two sections — those with a summit-cist, 
 like those in Auvergne, and those without ; all, however, apparently 
 have single and double circles of stones surrounding them. Two 
 stones are generally found protruding slightly through the surface of 
 the tumulus, and when an excavation is made between them, the cist 
 is found laid in their direction at a depth of 9 to 10 feet below the 
 surface. This seems to be generally double, and contains skeletons 
 laid on their faces. At one end, but outside the cist, are quantities 
 of pottery, and above the cist a number of skeletons, thrown in 
 
Chap. XIII, 
 
 WESTEBN INDIA. 
 
 471 
 
 pellinell, and over these a thick layer of earth and gravel. De- 
 tached heads are found sometimes in the cists, sometimes outside 
 
 
 
 •-" *'••' '•' '■•'• . ;; 
 
 
 %&<., ® 
 
 
 o '••!"." 
 
 ' 0' 
 
 
 & & J 
 
 Cairns at Jewurgi. By Colonel Meadows Taylor. 
 
 among the pottery, which led Colonel Taylor to the conclusion 
 that human sacrifices had been practised at the time these cairns 
 
 Section of Cairn at Jewurgi. 
 
 were raised, and that these are the remains of the wives or slaves of 
 the defunct. It may be so, but it may also be that, as in Europe, 
 
 Section of Cairn at Jewurgi. 
 
472 INDIA. Chap. XIII. 
 
 we must make a distinction between battle-fields and cemeteries ; 
 and I confess the idea that the cairns at Jewurgi mark a battle- 
 field, and the dolmens at Rajunkoloor a cemetery, appears to 
 account for the phenomena better than the other hypothesis. If 
 this is not so, as the distance between Rajunkoloor and Jewurgi is 
 only fifty miles, we must assume either that the district was inha- 
 bited by two different races of men at the same time, practising 
 different modes of sepulture, or we must concede that the one is 
 older than the other, and that the one race had been dispossessed 
 and was succeeded by the other. The difficulties attending either 
 of these suppositions appear to me infinitely greater than those 
 involved in assuming that the one is a battle-field, the other a 
 cemetery. The only thing that would make me hesitate about 
 this is the presence of several cairns at Rajunkoloor. These, 
 however, do not appear to have been opened, and we do not 
 consequently know whether the same instances of decapitation 
 were to be found, or whether the bodies were arranged in the 
 same manner as at Jewurgi. 
 
 Be this as it may, if these sections are to be depended on, it 
 appears to be tolerably certain that these tombs cannot be old. 
 It seems impossible that human bones could remain so entire and 
 perfect as these are represented to be, so near the surface and in a 
 recently disturbed soil, where rain and moisture must easily have 
 penetrated at all times. A medical man on the spot might deter- 
 mine whether two or three or five centuries have elapsed since 
 these bodies were laid where they are found ; but I should be very 
 much surprised if lie raised their date beyond the last named figure. 
 It is hazardous, however, to pronounce on such questions from the 
 scanty data we have before us. 
 
 There is still another class of dolmens, or rather kistvaens, 
 common on the Nilgiri hills and throughout the hill region of 
 Malabar. In it the chamber is formed like those described above, 
 but always buried in the earth, only showing the cap-stone flush, 
 with the surface of the soil. One of these, in the Coorg country, 
 is worth quoting, from its possessing two circular apertures, like 
 those of the Plas Newydd tumulus (woodcut No. 48). This one, 
 however, has a diaphragm dividing it into two chambers. If the 
 Welsh one was so partitioned, the wall has disappeared. 
 
Chap. XIII. 
 
 WESTERN INDIA. 
 
 473 
 
 One other class of monument must be quoted, not as illustrating 
 any of our examples, but because it is so nearly identical with the 
 
 Double Dolmen, Coorg.i 
 
 chouchas 2 of Northern Africa (woodcut No. 165), and when we try 
 to find out whether there was any real connexion between the East 
 
 Tomb, Zsilgiri Hills. From a drawing by Sir Walter Elliot. 
 
 1 ' Proceedings, Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 1868,' p. 152. 
 
 2 ' International Prehistoric Congress,' Norwich volume, p. 200. 
 
474 
 
 INDIA. 
 
 Chap. XIII. 
 
 and the West, such examples may afford valuable hints. According 
 to Sir Walter Elliot, 1 they are the commonest, or rather, perhaps, 
 the most conspicuous, being perched on the tops of hills or ridges. 
 Their form is a circular wall of uncemented rough stones, 4 to 
 5 feet high, 3 feet thick, and 6 to 8 feet in diameter. 
 
 One other variety is interesting, not only from its similarity 
 to those in Europe, especially in Scandinavia, but also from its 
 bearing on the question of the age of those in India. The 
 
 sepulchres of this 
 class are all very 
 L_b like one another, and 
 consist of small circles 
 of rude stones, gene- 
 rally of two dimen- 
 sions only, 24 and 
 32 feet in diameter, 
 and have something 
 i like an opening on 
 one side, and oppo- 
 site this two or three 
 stones within the 
 circle, apparently 
 marking the position 
 of the sepulchral de- 
 posit. 2 Monuments 
 very similar to these exist in the Nilgiri hills, and elsewhere 
 in India, 3 but they are principally found at the roots of the 
 hills round Amravati, where they exist literally in hundreds. No 
 one, probably, who studies Colonel Mackenzie's map of that 
 district 4 will doubt that they form the cemetery of the city 
 of Dharani Kotta, to which the Amravati Tope is attached. As 
 in China, burying in the fertile land was not allowed, and con- 
 sequently the place selected for the graves of the inhabitants was 
 the nearest uncultivated spot, which was the foot of the hills. So 
 
 Sepulchral Circles at Amravati. 
 
 1 ' International Prehistoric Congress,' 
 Norwich volume, p. 245. 
 
 - 'J. R. A. S.' new scries, iii. p. 143. 
 3 ' International Prehistoric Congress,' 
 
 Norwich volume, p. 257. 
 
 4 Published on a reduced scale, ' Tree 
 and Serpent Worship,' p. xlvi. 
 
Chap. XIII. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 475 
 
 far as is at present known, these circular graves exist nowhere in 
 such numbers as here, and it can hardly be doubted but that they 
 have some connexion with the great circular rail of the Amravati 
 Tope. That rail is unique in India, whether we consider its extent, 
 the beauty of its sculptures, or the elaborateness of its finish. 
 Other rails exist elsewhere surrounding dagobas or sacred spots, 
 but none where the circle itself is relatively so much greater 
 and more magnificent than the surrounding objects. The question 
 thus arises, did the Amravati circle grow out of the rude-stone 
 graves that cluster round the hills in its neighbourhood, or are the 
 rude circles humble copies of that pride of the city? I have 
 myself no doubt that the latter is the true explanation of the 
 phenomena ; but the grounds for this conclusion will be clearer as 
 we proceed. Meanwhile it is hardly worth while enumerating all 
 the smaller varieties of form which the rude-stone sepulchres of 
 the Indians took in former days. Their numbers in many classes 
 are few, and have no direct bearing on the subject of our enquiries. 
 
 Geogeaphical Distribution. 
 
 Nothing would tend more to convey clear ideas on the subject 
 of Indian dolmens than a map of their distribution, were it possible 
 to construct one. As, however, no nation even in Europe, except 
 France, is in a position to attempt such a thing, it is in vain 
 to expect that sufficient information for the purpose should exist 
 in India, where the subject has been taken up only so recently in 
 so sporadic a manner. 1 The following sketch, however, is perhaps 
 not very far from the truth regarding them. They do not exist in 
 the valley of the Ganges, or of any of its tributaries, nor in the 
 valleys of the Nerbudda or Taptee; not, in fact, in that part 
 of India which is generally described as north of the Vindhya range 
 of hills. They exist, though somewhat sparsely, over the whole of 
 
 1 The principal sources of information information on the subject. His private 
 
 on the subject are the papers of Sir I letters to me are replete •with details 
 
 Walter Elliot and Col. Meadows Taylor, -which if he would only consent to 
 
 so often referred to above. But I am arrange and publish -would throw a 
 
 also indebted to Mr. M. J. Walhouse, flood of light on the subject. 
 M.C.S., for a great amount of valuable 
 
476 INDIA. Chap. XIII. 
 
 the country drained by the Godavery and its affluents. They are 
 very common, perhaps more frequent than in any other part of 
 India, in the valleys of the Kistnah and its tributaries. They are 
 also found on both sides of the Ghats, through Coimbatore, all the 
 way down to Cape Comorin ; and they are also found in groups all 
 over the Madras presidency, but especially in the neighbourhood 
 of Conjeveran. 
 
 The first inference one is inclined to draw from this is that they 
 must be Dravidian, as contradistinguished from Aryan ; and it may 
 be so. But against this view we have the fact that all the races 
 at present dominant in the south repudiate them : none use similar 
 modes of burial now, nor do any object to our digging them up 
 and destroying them. 
 
 If we look a little deeper, we come to a race of Karumbers, 
 to whom Sir Walter Elliot is inclined to ascribe the bulk of the 
 rude-stone monuments. 1 From his own researches, and the various 
 documents contained in the Mackenzie MSS., 2 they seem to have 
 been a powerful race in the south of India, from the earliest times 
 to which our knowledge extends, and to have continued powerful 
 about Conjeveran and Madras till say the tenth or eleventh 
 centuries, when they were overpowered by the Cholas, and finally 
 disappear from the political horizon before the rising supremacy 
 of that triumvirate of powers, the Chola, Chera, Pandya, who 
 governed the south till the balance of power was disturbed by 
 the Mahommedan and Maharatta invasions. 
 
 A wretched remnant of these Karumbers still exists on the 
 Nilgiri hills, and about the roots of the western Ghats, but with- 
 out a literature or a history, or even traditions that would enable 
 us to identify or distinguish them from any of the other races of 
 the south. The only test that seems capable of application is that 
 of language, and this philologers have determined to be a dialect 
 
 1 Norwich volume, ' International Pre- 
 historic Congress,' pp. 252 et seqq. He 
 places the destruction of the Karumbers as 
 early as the seventh century, but the dates 
 are, to say the least, often very doubtful. 
 
 and no signs apparent of the storm, 
 which did not, I fancy, break out till at 
 least a century after that time. See also 
 ' The Seven Pagodas,' by Capt. Carr, 
 Madras, 1869, p. 127. 
 
 When, for instance, HiouenThsaug visited ! - Second Report by the Rev. W. 
 Conjeveran in 040— the Buddhist esta- ' Taylor, ' Madras Lit. Jour.' vii. p. oil 
 blishment — they were still flourishing, | et passim. 
 
Chap. XIII. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 477 
 
 of the Dravidian tongues. 1 But, in such a case as this, language 
 is a most unsafe guide. Within recent times the Cornish have 
 changed their language without any alteration of race, and if 
 intercommunication goes on at its present rate, English, in a 
 century or two, may be the only language spoken in these islands. 
 From the names of places we would know that Celtic races had 
 inhabited many localities, but from the tongue of the people we 
 should not know now that the Cornish, or then that the Welsh, 
 were more Celtic than the inhabitants of Yorkshire or the Lothians. 
 So in India nothing seems more likely than that, during the last 
 eight or ten centuries, the Tamulian or Dravidian influenc e 
 should have spread northward to the Vindhya, and that the Gonds, 
 the Karumbers, and other subject half-civilized races, should have 
 adopted the language of their conquerors and masters. It may 
 be otherwise, but we know certainly that the southern Dravidians 
 brought their style of architecture — as difficult a thing to change 
 almost as language — as far north as Ellora, and carved the 
 imperishable rocks there, in the eighth or ninth century, in 
 the style that was indigenous at Tanjore; 2 and this, too, for the 
 purpose of marking their triumph over the religion of Buddha, 
 which they had just succeeded in abolishing in the south. 
 
 If this is so, there are still two distinguishing features which 
 may help us to discriminate between the candidates for the 
 rude-stone monuments. The true Dravidians — the Chola, 
 Chera, Pandya — never were Buddhists, and never put forward 
 a claim to have erected any monuments of this class. The 
 Karumbers were Buddhists, and claim these monuments ; aud 
 Buddhism and such structures must, I fancy, for reasons to be 
 given hereafter, always have gone together. 
 
 Further researches may enable us to speak with precision on the 
 subject, but all we can at present do is to except, first, the Aryans 
 of the north, and all the people incorporated with them, from the 
 charge of being builders of rude-stone monuments. We must 
 
 Caldwell's ' Dravidian Grammar,' I one now living. Mr. "Walhouse's letters 
 
 pp. 9 et seqq. ' The Tribes of the Nilgiri 
 Hills,' by a German missionary (Madras, 
 1856)— the Rev. F. Metz, who probably 
 knows more of their language than any 
 
 are also strong on this point. 
 
 2 See 'Rock-cut Temples,' by the 
 Author, p. 50. 
 
478 INDIA. Chap. XI1T. 
 
 also except the Tamulians or pure Dra vidians of the south. But 
 between these two there mast have been some race, whom, for the 
 present at least, we may call Karumbers. One of their centres of 
 power was Conjeveran, but from that they were driven, as far as 
 I can make out, about the year 750. But it does not appear that 
 they might not have existed as a power on the banks of the Upper 
 Eistnah and Tongabudra to a much later period. 
 
 The limits of the Chalukya kingdom, which arose at Kalyan 
 early in the seventh century, 1 and of that of Vijianagara, which 
 was established in the Tongabudra in the fourteenth, are so nearly 
 coincident with the limits of the dolmen region — except where 
 the latter was compressed on the north by the Mahommedan king- 
 dom of Beejapore — that it seems most probable that there must 
 have been a homogeneity among the people of that central pro- 
 vince of which we have now lost the trace. 
 
 This, however, like many other questions of the sort, must be 
 postponed till we know something of the Nizam's country. In so far 
 as the history or ethnography of the central plateau of India is 
 concerned, or its arts or architecture, the Nizam's dominions are 
 absolutely a terra incognita. No one has visited the country who 
 had any knowledge of these subjects, and the Indian Government 
 has done nothing to enquire, or to stimulate enquiry, into these 
 questions in that country. Yet, if I am not very much mistaken, 
 the solution of half the difficulties, ethnological or archaeological, 
 that are now perplexing us lies on the surface of that region, for 
 anyone who will take the trouble to read them. Till this is done, 
 we must, it is feared, be content with the vaguest generalities ; but 
 even now I fancy we are approaching a better state of knowledge 
 in these matters, and I almost believe I can trace a connexion 
 between our so-called Karumbers and the Singalese, which, if it 
 can be sustained, will throw a flood of light on some of the most 
 puzzling questions of Indian ethnography. 
 
 1 Sir Walter Elliot. 'J. R. A. S.' iv. pp. 7 et seqq. ; and new series, i. 250. 
 
Chap. XIII. AGE OF THE STONE MONUMENTS. 479 
 
 Age of the Stone Monuments. 
 
 A glimmering of light seemed to be thrown on this subject by 
 a passage quoted by Sir Walter Elliot from a missionary report 
 from Travancore, in which it was stated that an Indian tribe still 
 continued to bury in " cromlechs," like those of Coimbatore, " con- 
 structed with four stones and a covering one." 1 If this were so, 
 we might have got hold of one end of a thread which would lead 
 us backwards through the labyrinth. It looked so like a crucial 
 instance that Mr. Walhouse kindly wrote to Mr. Baker, the author 
 of the report in question, and sent me an extract from his reply, 
 which is curious. " The Mala Arryians are a race of men dwelling 
 in dense jungles and hills. Cromlechs are common among them, 
 and they worship the spirits of their ancestors, to whom they 
 make annual offerings. At the present day they are accustomed 
 to take corpses into the sacred groves, and place small slabs of 
 stones, in the form of a box, and, after making offerings of arrack, 
 sweetmeats, &c, to the departed spirit, supposed to be hovering 
 near, a small stone is placed in the model box or vault, and it 
 is covered over with great ceremony. The spirit is supposed to 
 dwell in the stone, which in many cases is changed at the 
 annual feast into a rough silver or brass figure." As Mr. Walhouse 
 remarks, this looks like an echo from megalithic times. The 
 people, having lost the power of erecting such huge structures as 
 abound in their hills and on the plains around, from which they 
 may have been driven at some early period, are content still to 
 keep up the traditions of a primaeval usage by these miniature 
 shams. There seems little doubt that this is the case, and it 
 is especially interesting to have observed it here, as it accounts 
 for what has often puzzled Indian antiquaries. In Coorg and 
 elsewhere, miniature urns and miniature utensils, such as one 
 sees used as toys in European nurseries, are often found in these 
 tombs, and have given rise to a tradition among the natives that 
 they belong to a race of pigmies : whereas it is evident that it is 
 only a dying out of an ancient faith, when, as is so generally the 
 case, the symbol supersedes the reality. 
 
 1 Sir W. Elliot, 'Journal Ethnological Soc.,' new series, 1869,' p. J 10. 
 
480 INDIA. Chap. XIII. 
 
 The articles found in the cairns and dolmens in India unfor- 
 tunately afford us very little assistance in determining their age. 
 The pottery that is found in quantities in them everywhere, is to 
 all appearances, identical in form, in texture, and in glaze with 
 the pottery of the present day. No archaic forms have, so far as 
 I know, been found anywhere, nor anything that would indicate a 
 progression. This might be used as an argument to prove how 
 modern they were. In India, however, it would be most unsafe 
 to do so. We have no knowledge as to how long ago these forms 
 were introduced into or invented in that country, and no reason to 
 suppose that they would change and progress as ours do. So far 
 as our present knowledge extends, the pottery found in these tombs 
 may have been made within the last few centuries, but it may also 
 be a thousand or two thousand years old for anything we know to 
 the contrary. 
 
 The same remarks apply to the gold and silver ornaments and 
 generally to the trinkets found in the tombs. Similar objects 
 may be picked up in the bazaars in remote districts at the present 
 day, but they may also have been in use in the time of Alexander 
 the Great. Iron spear-heads and iron utensils of the most modern 
 shape and pattern are among the commonest objects found in 
 these tombs ; and if anyone were arguing for victory, and not 
 for the truth, these might be adduced to prove that the tombs 
 belonged to what the Germans call "the youngest Iron age." 
 This reasoning has no application whatever to India. Flint im- 
 plements are found there, and very similar to those of Europe, 
 but never in the tombs. Bronze was probably known to the 
 Indians at a remote age, but no bronze implements have been 
 buried with the dead so far as we yet know, though iron has 
 been, and that frequently ; but its presence tells us nothing as 
 to age. So far we know, the Indians were as familiar with the 
 use of iron in the fourth century B.C. as the Greeks themselves 
 were, and, for anything we know to the contrary, may have under- 
 stood the art of extracting it from the ore and using it for arms 
 and cutting-tools before these arts were practised in Europe. 
 
 One of the most curious and interesting illustrations of this 
 is found in the existence of the celebrated iron pillar of Dhava, 
 in the courtyard of the mosque at the Kutub, near Delhi. This 
 
Chap. XIII. 
 
 AGE OF STONE MONUMENTS. 
 
 481 
 
 consists of a solid shaft of wrought iron, standing 22 feet 6 inches 
 out of the ground and is 5 feet 6 inches in circumference at about 
 5 feet from its base. When I visited it, the report was that Colonel 
 
 216. Iron Pillar at the Kutub, Delhi. From a photograph. 
 
 Baird Smith had dug down and found its base 16 feet below the 
 surface. Lieutenant Cole r now brings home a report that it is 
 26 feet deep in the ground. Taking, however, the more moderate 
 
 ' Lieut. Cole, E.E., has brought home a cast of the upper part of this pillar, 
 which is now at the South Kensington Museum. 
 
482 INDIA. Chap. XIII. 
 
 dimension, a single forging nearly 40 feet long and 5 feet circum- 
 ference was not made, and could not have been made, in any 
 country of Europe before the introduction of steam-machinery, 
 nor, indeed, before the invention of the Nasmyth hammer. 
 
 There is an inscription on the pillar which, unfortunately, bears 
 no date ; but from the form of the characters, the nature of the 
 event it describes, 1 coupled with the architecture of the capital of 
 the pillar, it leaves no doubt that it was erected in the third or 
 fourth century of our era. 
 
 It must be left to those practically skilled in the working of 
 metals to explain how any human being could work in close 
 proximity to such a mass heated to a welding heat, or how it was 
 possible without steam-machinery to manipulate so enormous a 
 bar of iron. The question that interests us here is, how long 
 must the Hindus have been familiar with the use of iron and the 
 mode of working it before they could conceive the idea of such a 
 monument and carry it into execution ? It could hardly have 
 been centuries, it must have been nearer thousands of years, and 
 yet they erect rude-stone monuments in India at the present 
 day! 2 
 
 One other instance, at the lower end of the scale, may be 
 quoted as also bearing directly on this subject. Of all the people 
 of India the Khassias are probably the most expert in extracting 
 iron from its ores and manufacturing it when made ; and their 
 mode of doing this is so original, and, though rude, so effective, 
 that there can be no doubt that it is the result of long ex- 
 perience among themselves. 3 They have, in fact, practised the 
 art from time immemorial ; yet though possessing iron tools for, 
 it may be, thousands of years, they at the present day adhere to 
 the practice of using rude unhewn-stone monuments, like the 
 Jews, in preference to those "which any iron tool had touched at 
 
 1 ' Journal Asiatic Soc. Bengal,' vii. | not know who else would, or could, have 
 
 p. 029. ' done it. 
 
 ■ The crack and bend in the upper 3 Hooker's ' Himalayan Journals,' ii. 
 
 part of tbe pillar are caused by a cannon I p. 310. Percy's 'Metallurgy : Iron ami 
 
 shot, the dent of which is distinctly Steel,' p. 254 et seqq. All tlie original 
 
 visible on the opposite side. I hope it authorities will be found referred to in 
 
 was not hied by the English, but 1 do the last-named work. 
 
Chap. XIII. 
 
 AGE OF STONE MONUMENTS. 
 
 483 
 
 any time." 1 jSTor can it be argued that they do this because they 
 do not know better. As just mentioned, at any time, certainly 
 within the last thousaud years, they might have seen the Buddhist 
 or Hindu stonemasons of Kamarupa erecting the most elaborately 
 carved stone temples, and can now see the domes of the mosques 
 which the Mahommedans erected in the cities of Sylhet three or 
 four centuries ago. 
 
 Although it thus happens that all these a priori reasonings 
 and mistaken analogies, drawn from our own progressive state, 
 which are so familiar to European antiquaries, break down at once 
 when applied to India, still there are a few indications from which 
 approximate dates may be obtained, and many more could, no 
 doubt, be found if looked for. One of these is, that the greater 
 number of the dolmens of the Nilgiri hills are sculptured; but 
 only one of the drawings on them, so far as I know, has been 
 published, 2 and though it is ungracious to say so.yI fear that it is 
 not a very faithful representation. It is, however, sufficiently so to 
 enable us to recognise at once a similarity to a class of monuments 
 very common in 
 the plains. These 
 are called Vira- 
 cull, if destined 
 to commemorate 
 men or heroes, 
 and Masteecull 
 if erected in ho- 
 nour of women 
 who sacrifice 
 themselves on 
 their husband's 
 funereal pile. 
 Colonel Mac- 
 kenzie collected 
 drawings of more 
 than one hundred of these, which are now in the India Office, and 
 photographs of many others have been made but not published. 
 
 217. Sculpture on under side of Cap-stone of a Nilgiri Dolmen. 
 
 1 Josephus, ' Bell. Jud.,' v. p. 6. 
 
 2 ' Journal Madras Lit. Soc' xiv. pi. 8. 
 
 2 i 2 
 
484 
 
 INDIA. 
 
 Chap XIII. 
 
 The similarity in the costume and style of art displayed in the 
 preceding- woodcut with that of the memorial stones leaves little 
 or no doubt of their being approximately of the same age. As 
 most of the memorial stones are inscribed and their dates at least 
 approximately known, if the identity can be established the date of 
 the dolmens can also be determined. Till, however, some one 
 will take the trouble of photographing the cairns, so as to enable 
 us to compare them with the standing stones, no certainty can be 
 obtained ; but as none of the sculptured stones go back a thousand 
 years, and those most like the woodcut cannot claim five centuries 
 of antiquity, these sculptured cairns in the Nilgiris cannot be so 
 very old as is sometimes assumed. 
 
 The second instance is curious and instructive. In the centre of 
 
 Dolmen at Iwullee. From a photograph. 
 
 the courtyard of a now ruined Sivite temple at Iwullee, in Dharwar, 
 in the very centre of the dolmen countiy, now stands a regular 
 tripod dolmen of the usual shape (woodcut No. 218). The question 
 is, how got it there ? No one who knows anything of India will, 
 I presume, argue that the Brahminical followers of Siva would 
 erect the sanctuary of their god in front of the tomb of one of the 
 despised aboriginal tribes, if still reverenced bv them, or would 
 
to SHORAPOOR 
 
 Chap. xtti. age op stone monuments. 485 
 
 have neglected to utilize it if neglected. One of two things there- 
 fore only seems possible. Either a Korumber, or native chief of 
 some denomination, stipulated that on his conversion to the faith 
 of the Brahmins, if he erected a temple in honour of his newly- 
 adopted god, he should be allowed to be buried, " more majorum," 
 in the courtyard. This is possible, but hardly probable. It seems 
 more likely that, after the temple was desecrated and neglected, 
 some native thought the spot fit and appropriate for his last 
 resting-place, and was buried there accordingly. From its archi- 
 tecture, there is no doubt that the age of the temple may be 
 carried back as far as the thirteenth century, but it more probably 
 belongs to the fourteenth. According to the first hypothesis, the 
 age of the dolmen would be that of the temple ; according to 
 the second, one, two, or three centuries more modern. 
 
 A third indirect piece of evidence is derived from Colonel 
 Meadows Taylor's paper in the ' Irish Transactions.' He represents 
 a tolerably extensive 
 group of these monu- 
 ments as placed im- 
 mediately outside the 
 city gate at Shahpoor, 
 and from what he says 
 of them they are evi- 
 dently of the same age 
 as the other examples 
 he quotes. From their 
 position and arrange- 
 ment, it does not seem 
 doubtful that they are the usual extramural cemetery so generally 
 attached to Indian cities, and they are, in fact, subsequent in date 
 to the erection of the gate in front of which they are placed. The 
 gateway, I learn from a letter from Colonel Meadows Taylor, 
 undoubtedly belongs to the Mahommedan period. It is a regular 
 arch, of the usual pointed form, and consequently subsequent to 
 1347 A.D., when the Bahmany dynasty first established them- 
 selves in this quarter. This being so, the masons who built the 
 gate would certainly have utilized the tombs of the pagans had 
 they existed previously. They must, therefore, be subsequent to 
 
 CRTE OF SHAHPOOR 
 
 Stone Monuments at Shahpoor. 
 
486 
 
 INDIA. 
 
 Chap. XIII. 
 
 the gate ; and as it cannot be five centuries old, we have a limit 
 to their age beyond which we cannot go. 
 
 Our next example is still more curious and interesting. In 
 the cold weather of 1867-8, Mr. Mulheran, when attached to the 
 Trigonometrical Survey of India, came accidentally across a great 
 group of "cromlechs," situated on the banks of the Godavery, 
 near Nirmul, about half-way between Hyderabad and Nagpore, 
 in Central India. Some of these he photographed, and sent an 
 account of them to the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1 from which the 
 
 220. Cross at Katapur. From a photograph. 
 
 following particulars are gleaned. " The majority of the crom- 
 lechs consist of a number of upright stones, sunk in the ground in 
 the form of a square, and covered with one or two large slabs of 
 sandstone. In some two bodies appear to have been interred, and 
 in others only one. The crosses are found in the neighbourhood 
 of Maliir and Katapur, two villages on the Nizam's side of the 
 river. The crosses at Katapur (woodcut No. 220) are, with one 
 exception, uninjured. All are situated to the right of the cromlechs 
 near which they have been erected. Judging from the one lying- 
 exposed at Maliir, they are all above 10 feet in length, although 
 
 1 'J. A. S. B.'xxxvii. p. 116 et 
 
Chap. XII I. 
 
 AGE OF STONE MONUMENTS. 
 
 487 
 
 only 6 to 7 feet appear above ground. They all consist of one 
 stone, and are all of the latest form. No information of any kind 
 could be obtained regarding the people by whom the crosses or 
 cromlechs were erected. There can be no doubt, however, that 
 the crosses are memorials of the faith of Christians buried in their 
 vicinity." Close by is a cave, before which a cross was erected, 
 which Mr. Mulheran assumes was thrown down by the Brahmins 
 when they took possession of it ; and he adds, " I enclose a note 
 from Captain Glasfurd, who sent a packet of implements, rings, 
 and utensils, found in two of the cromlechs he opened, to the 
 
 221. Dolmen at Katapur. From a photograph. 
 
 Asiatic Society." No such packet, however, ever arrived, and we 
 are, therefore, left to his photographs and descriptions from which 
 to draw our conclusions. 
 
 In the first place, I think it can hardly be doubted that the 
 crosses are Christian emblems ; and secondly, that the crom- 
 lechs and crosses are of the same date. Their juxtaposition and 
 whole appearance render escape from this conclusion apparently 
 inevitable. The question, therefore, is, when could any com- 
 munity of native Christians have existed in India who would bury 
 in dolmens and use the cross as their emblems ? Their distance 
 from the coast and the form of the cross seem at once to cut 
 
488 
 
 INDIA. 
 
 Chap. XIII. 
 
 them off from all connexion with St. Thomas's mission or that 
 of the early apostles, even assuming that the records of these are 
 authentic. My impression is that this form of cross was not intro- 
 duced as an out-of-doors self-standing sign till, say, the sixth or 
 seventh century. 1 On the other hand, it is extremely improbable 
 that any such community could have existed after the Mahommedan 
 invasion at the end of the thirteenth century. Between these 
 limits we know that the Nestorians had establishments as far 
 
 Dolmen with Cross in Nirranl Jur 
 
 east as China, and extending in a continuous chain westward as 
 far at least as the Caspian; 2 and there seems to be no difficulty 
 
 1 An elaborate paper by the Eev. Mr. 
 Joyce, in the ' Archaeological Journal,' 
 108, 1870, shows, I think clearly, that 
 these crosses could not be earlier than 470 
 a.d. — all the crosses he quotes being of 
 the usual Greek form, though possessing 
 one longer limb. Indeed, I do not myself 
 know of any crosses like those at Nir- 
 mul earlier than the 10th or 11th cen- 
 tury ; but, as my knowledge of the sub- 
 ject is not profound, I have allowed the 
 widest possible margin in the text. I 
 cannot prove it, but my impression is, 
 
 that they belong to the 11th or 12th 
 century. 
 
 2 As it is wholly beside the object of 
 this work I have not attempted to go 
 into the history of the Siganfu Tables, 
 nor the records of the early churches in 
 the East. If the reader cares to know 
 more, he will find the subject fully and 
 clearly discussed in Col. Yule's ' Cathay, 
 and the Way Thither,' published by the 
 Hakluyt Society, 1866. It is the last 
 work on the subject, and contains refer- 
 ences to all the earlier ones. 
 
Citap. XIII. AGE OF STONE MONUMENTS. 489 
 
 in assuming that, between the seventh and the thirteenth centuries 
 a form of Taiping Christianity may have been introduced from the 
 north and established itself extensively in the western and central 
 parts of India, but, owing allegiance only to the potentate we 
 know of asPrester John, may have entirely escaped the knowledge 
 of the Western world. Besides helping to fix the date of the 
 dolmens in India, this discovery opens out a wide field for those 
 who would investigate the early history of the Christian Church 
 in India. There can be little doubt that this group is not 
 solitary. Many more will be found, when people open their eyes 
 and look for them. Meanwhile it is a curious illustration of the 
 policy of Pope Gregory in his advice to Abbot Mellitus, alluded 
 to in the Introduction (page 21). It is the same thing as the 
 dolmen at Kerland (woodcut No. 131), and that at Arrickinaga 
 (woodcut No. 161), repeated in the centre of India, though pro- 
 bably at a somewhat later date. 
 
 There is still another point of view from which these Indian 
 monuments may be regarded, so as to throw considerable light on 
 the history of their analogues in Europe, and perhaps to modify 
 to some extent our preconceived views regarding their history. 
 In Ceylon there is a class of dagoba, which, in some respects, is 
 peculiar to the island. Two of these will suffice for our present 
 purposes, both in the city of Anuradhapura, which was the capital 
 of the country from about B.C. 400 till the eleventh century. 
 The first of these, the Thupa Ramayana, was erected B.C. 161 ; 
 the second, the Lanka Ramayana, a.d. 231. x For the sake of the 
 argument it would be best to select the first for illustration ; but 
 it was, unfortunately, so completely restored about forty years ago 
 that, as in the case of our unfortunate cathedrals, it requires 
 considerable knowledge of the style to discriminate between what 
 is old and what new. Notwithstanding the four centuries that 
 elapsed between their dates, however, they are so like one 
 another in all essentials that it is of little consequence which 
 we select. Neither is large, and both consist of nearly hemi- 
 spherical domes, surmounted by a square box-like appendage 
 
 1 ' J. E. A. S. ' xiii. 164 el 
 
490 
 
 INDIA. 
 
 Chap. XIII. 
 
 called a Tee, and both are surrounded by three rows of tall stone 
 pillars, as shown in the accompanying woodcut. 
 
 That the domical part of the dagoba is the lineal and direct 
 descendant of the sepulchral tumuli or cairns, which are found 
 everywhere in Northern Asia and probably existed in India in 
 primaeval times, is hardly open to doubt. This the Buddhists 
 early refined into a relic shrine, probably immediately after the 
 
 Lanka Ramayana Dagoba, a.d. 231. From a photograph. 
 
 death of the founder of the religion, B.C. 543 ; and we know from 
 numerous excavations * that the relic was placed in a cist in the 
 centre of the mound, nearly on the level of the soil, exactly 
 where, and in the same manner as, the body-containing kistvaens 
 of our sepulchral tumuli. To this, however, the Buddhists added 
 a square box on the top, which either was invented by them or 
 copied from some earlier form ; but no dagoba was complete 
 without it, and all the rock-cut examples and sculptured represen- 
 tations of topes, with many structural ones, still possess it. That 
 it represented a wooden relic-casket may be assumed as certain, 
 but whether it was ever used as such is not quite clear. The 
 
 1 Wilson's ' Ariana Antiqua, ' Introduction passim. Cunningham, ' Bhilsa Topes,' 
 See., past/ in. 
 
Chap. XIII. AGE OF STOXE MONUMENTS. 491 
 
 relics were sometimes accessible, and shown to the public on 
 festal occasions, 1 and unless they were contained in some external 
 case like this it is not easy to see how they could be got at. A 
 third indispensable part of a perfect dagoba was an enclosing 
 rail. All the early dagobas and all the sculptured representations 
 possess this adjunct. In the rock-cut examples and in the later 
 structural ones the rail becomes attached to the building as a 
 mere ornament, but is never omitted. 
 
 If we compare such a sepulchral mound as this at Pullicondah, 
 near Madras, 2 or that represented in section, woodcut No. 211, 
 
 Dolmen at Pullicondah. 1 
 
 with the Lanka or Thupa Eamayana dagobas, we cannot fail to 
 be struck with their similarity. Both possess the mound, the rail, 
 and the tee ; and in this last instance it is a simulated tomb, such 
 as many in Europe are suspected of haying been. That a people 
 might both bury in barrows and erect domical cairns to contain 
 relics would not necessarily involve a proof of the one form being 
 copied from the other ; but that both should be surmounted by a 
 simulated sarcophagus or shrine, and both surrounded by one, 
 t\vo, or three rows of useless stones, points to a direct imitation of 
 the one from the other which can hardly be accidental. 
 
 1 Hiouen Thsang, ' Vie et Voyages,' p. 77. 
 
 2 ' Madras Journal of Lit. and Science,' xiii. pi. 14. 
 
492 
 
 INDIA. 
 
 Chap. XIIT. 
 
 Assuming for the nonce that the one is copied from the other, 
 the ordinary mode of reasoning with which we are familiar in 
 Europe would be then something like this. If the Thupa 
 Ramayana were erected B.C. 161, this cairn at Pullicondah must 
 probably be as old as B.C. 1000, for it would take many centuries 
 before so rude a style of architecture could be reformed into so 
 polished an example as the Thupa Ramayana, which, as before 
 stated, we may assume as identical with the Lanka Ramayana 
 (woodcut No. 223). 
 
 The conclusions I have arrived at are diametrically opposed to 
 this view. As stated at the beginning of this chapter, the archi- 
 tectural material of India was wood, down to B.C. 250 or 300. It 
 then became timidly lithic, but retained all its woodeu forms and 
 simulated carpentry fastenings down, at all events, to the Christian 
 
 era. The rail at Sanchi, which 
 was erected in the course of 
 the two centuries preceding 
 our era, is still essentially 
 wooden in all its parts, so 
 much so that it is difficult 
 to see how it could be con- 
 structed in stone, 1 and these 
 pillars round the Ceylonese 
 dagobas are copies of wooden 
 posts, and not such forms as 
 in any number of centuries 
 would have grown out of 
 rude-stone forms. Had they been derived from the latter 
 original they would have been thick, strong and massive, and 
 never have assumed forms so curiously attenuated as we find here. 
 It is difficult to see what these stone pillars or posts were origin- 
 ally intended for. It may have been either that garlands might 
 be hung upon them on festal occasions, as we see represented in 
 the sculptures, or that pictures might be suspended from them, as 
 Fa Hian, who visited this place in the year 400, tells us was 
 done all the way from Anuradhapura to Mehentele on the 
 
 Rail at Sanchi. near Bhilsa, 
 
 1 ' Tree and Serpent Worship,' p. 82, woodcut 8. 
 
Chai\ Xlir. AGE OF STONE MONUMENTS. 493 
 
 occasion of a great procession in honour of the Tooth relic which 
 was there exposed to public view. 1 
 
 Be all this as it mav, the question which this comparison raises 
 is simply this : If we admit the similarity between the Pullicondah 
 cairn and the Lanka Ramayana Tope, and that the one grew out 
 of the other, it seems to me perfectly evident that the adjunct of 
 the Tope grew out of a wooden and not out of a rude-stone 
 original. If this is so, and if the Tope did not grow out of the cairn, 
 the conclusion seems to me inevitable that the cairn is only a rude 
 copy of a polished original. 
 
 The same conclusion hinted at above was forced on me by the 
 examination of the rude-stone circles which crowd round the 
 elaborate tope at Amravati. Generally, I know of no hypothesis 
 by which the phenomenon of polished - stone buildings, with 
 known dates, existing in India for the last 2000 years side by 
 side with rude-stone monuments which are being erected at this 
 day, can be accounted for, unless we give up our favourite sy r stem 
 of sequence and are content to take facts as we find them. 
 
 It is quite certain there were no hewn-stone buildings in India 
 before the year 250 B.C., and my impression is that none of the 
 rude-stone monuments now existing there were erected till five, it 
 may be ten centuries from that time, and when they once began 
 that there is no break in the sequence to the present day. 
 
 I know nothing that can be fairly urged against this reasoning, 
 except our own ignorance, and that of the natives themselves, 
 with regard to the origin and date of these monuments. Neither 
 is much to be wondered at, as it is only so lately that Europeans 
 have turned their attention to the subject, and the natives know 
 so little about their own monuments that it would be strange 
 indeed if they knew anything at all about those of the hated and 
 despised Dasyus. Any one who has travelled in India knows 
 what sort of information he gets even from the best and most 
 intelligent Brahmins with regard to the dates of the temples they 
 and their forefathers have administered in ever since their 
 erection. One thousand or two or three thousand vears is a 
 
 1 ' Foe Kouc Ki,' p. 335. 
 
494 INDIA. Chap. XIII. 
 
 moderate age for temples which we know were certainly erected 
 within the last two or three centuries. Or ask any native about 
 the date of the rock-cut temples at Ellora or Elephanta, he at 
 once glibly answers, they were erected by the Pandus, 3101 B.C. ; 
 and if he breaks loose from that landmark, ten or twenty thousand 
 years is the least you can expect. Yet we know now, from 
 inscriptions and other data, that no rock-cut temple can be carried 
 further back than the second century B.C. 
 
 In this infantile state of the native mind it costs them nothing 
 to hide their ignorance in the mists of thousands of years when 
 questioned about these rude stones, but their testimony is 
 absolutely worthless, and it is only by processes like those just 
 described that we can hope to arrive at the truth. Among races 
 so unchangeable as some of those existing in India they may carry 
 us back to a time prior to the Christian era with some classes of 
 monuments ; but, unless I am very much mistaken, it will be 
 found that all those mentioned in the preceding pages are of com- 
 paratively recent date and are members of an unbroken series 
 which continues to the present day. 
 
 COMPAKISON OF EASTERN WITH WESTERN DOLMENS. 
 
 We are now in a position to approach one of the most inte- 
 resting, but at the same time most difficult, branches of the 
 inquiry we are engaged upon, which is the connexion, if any, that 
 exists between these Indian rude-stone monuments and those we 
 find in Europe. The difficulties, however, do not appear to be so 
 much inherent in the essence of the subject as in its novelty. It 
 has never fairly been approached by any modern writer, and 
 would consequently require an amount of illustration incompatible 
 with such a work as this to make it clear, or, on the other hand, 
 it is necessary to assume an amount of information on the part 
 of the public which it is feared hardly anywhere exists. 
 
 The architectural evidence, as detailed in the preceding pages, 
 seems of a nature difficult to resist. It is easy and generally 
 correct to assume that men in certain stages of civilization will 
 do the same thing or things, in a manner so similar that it 
 
Chap. XIII. COMPARISON OF DOLMENS. 495 
 
 is difficult to discriminate between them. There would thus be 
 no improbability in assuming that all men would raise a mound 
 of earth over the dead bodies of their buried ancestors, or that 
 they Avould protect their bodies from being crushed by the super- 
 incumbent weight, by a cist or coffin more or less artificially 
 formed of stone or wood. It may even further be granted that 
 when having got so far they would naturally improve and enlarge 
 this cist into a dolmen or chamber and provide it with an external 
 entrance. All these thiugs being found together would by no 
 means prove a necessary connexion between two races using them, 
 further than that the races using or inventing these forms must 
 have belonged to the same family of tomb-building ancestral- 
 worshipping people. But when we find two distinct people putting 
 this cist outside, on the tumulus in the open air, and piercing 
 one of the slabs in it with a circular hole 6 or 8 inches in 
 diameter, we come to a coincidence that can hardly be considered 
 accidental. As there was no writing and no post, either some 
 tribe must have migrated from the east to the west and intro- 
 duced the form, or vice versa, some European must have taught the 
 Indians the advantages of this hole, whatever they were; and 
 having been once taught to adopt, they afterwards continued to 
 employ it. 
 
 A still more striking instance is that already pointed out, of the 
 combination of a central cistvaen containing a body inside a mound 
 with a simulated cist on the top outside, and several circles of 
 stones on or around the mound externally. All this is so com- 
 plicated and shows so much design that it cannot possibly be the 
 result of accident, if it is found in two distinct lands. The 
 examples quoted above are perhaps sufficient to establish this 
 similarity, but they are only a fraction of those which might be 
 adduced if the subject were carefully followed out. It evidently 
 was much more common in the East than we have hitherto had 
 reason to suspect — for this reason alone, if for no other — that it 
 continued to last so long. In this example from Burmah (wood- 
 cut No. 226) we have first an external mound encircling the tope, 
 then the circles of rude stones replaced by a complicated rail, and 
 above all, in the centre, a simulated dagoba replacing the simu- 
 lated cist. These are great changes, it must be confessed, but 
 
496 INDIA. Chap. XIII. 
 
 hardly so great as we might expect when Ave consider that the 
 Senbya dagoba was only erected fifty-five years ago, and that 
 the interval between it and the rude-stone monuments is conse- 
 quently considerable. Another striking instance of the modern 
 form this primaeval sepulchre assumes is found in the celebrated 
 tomb of Akbar the Great at Agra. There the king is buried in a 
 vault below the level of the ground, but his simulated tomb is on 
 the top of the pyramid, exposed to the air outside ; and on each 
 stage, externally, little pavilions replace the stones which his 
 progenitors had previously employed for a like purpose. 
 
 These two — the holed stone and the simulated cist — are perhaps 
 the most direct evidences of similarity between the East and the 
 West, but the whole system affords innumerable points of contact, 
 not sufficiently distinct perhaps to quote as evidence individually, 
 but collectively making up such a case that it seems very difficult 
 to refuse to believe that both styles were the product of one kin- 
 dred race of men, and who at the time they erected them must have 
 been more or less directly in communication with one another. 
 
 The literary evidence is much less complete or satisfactory. 
 So far as I know, no paragraph has been detected in any classical 
 authors which would lead us to suspect any connexion at any 
 time between India and any country so remote from it, as France 
 for instance, and still less with Denmark, unless it be the Woden 
 myth belonging to the latter country. That, however, was either 
 so indistinct originally, or has been so obscured by later additions, 
 that it is now almost impossible to say what it is. Though so 
 frequently insisted upon, it seems almost impossible that by any 
 process, the gentle ascetic iSakya Muni could ever have become 
 the fierce warlike Woden, and except some nominal similarities 
 there seems nothing to connect the two. It may be that at some 
 time about the Christian era, a chief of that name migrated from 
 the Crimean Bosphorus to the Baltic, and may have brought 
 with him some Asiatic practices, but the connecting link between 
 him and India seems wholly wanting, and not likely to be now 
 supplied. 
 
 The one passage that seems to bear directly on the subject, 
 strange to say, comes this time from India itself. Among the 
 edicts that Asoka engraved on the rocks in various parts of India, 
 
Cu.vp. XIIT, 
 
 COMPARISON "OF DOLMENS. 
 
 4.97 
 
 
 ||i||! 1 
 
 
498 TNDIA. Chap. XIII. 
 
 the last or thirteenth is to the following effect, so far as it can 
 be made out. It is unfortunately the nearest to the ground, and 
 consequently in all the published copies appears more or less 
 injured. Two more copies of the edicts are known to exist, — one 
 in the Dehra Doon, the other in Orissa : when they are copied and 
 published, perhaps a more perfect translation may be possible. 
 Meanwhile, Mr. Prinsep's translation runs thus : — " There is not 
 in either class of the heretics of men a procedure marked by such 
 grace . . . nor so glorious nor friendly, nor even so extremely 
 liberal, as Devanampiyo's (Asoka's) injunction for the non-injury 
 and content of living creatures . . . And the Greek king besides 
 by whom the kings of Egypt, Ptolemaios, Antigonus and Magas 
 . . . Both here and in foreign countries wherever they go, the 
 religious ordinances of Devanampiyo effect conversion. Conquest is 
 of every description, but the conquest that bringeth joy, springing 
 from pleasant emotion, becometh joy itself. The victory of virtue 
 is happiness. Such victory is desired in things of this world 
 and things of the next world." * In other copies of this edict the 
 names of Antiochus and Alexander are found, making five well 
 known names, and curiously enough all five are mentioned by 
 Justin within a few lines of one another in the last chapter of his 
 twenty-sixth book and the first chapter of his twenty-seventh 
 book. There is thus no doubt who the kings were, nor of more 
 than a year as to the date of this edict, which must have been 
 within a year or so of 257 B.C. 
 
 The great interest, however, for our present purpose is that an 
 Indian emperor, in the middle of the third century before Christ, 
 should be in a condition to form an alliance with Magas of 
 Cyrene so near the African dolmen-field. As before mentioned 
 (ante, p. 410), we are still very deficient in our knowledge of the 
 Megalithic remains of this country ; but we do know that they 
 exist, and that those which have been illustrated are of a singularly 
 Indian type. It is also nearly certaiu that many of the rock-cut 
 chambers about his capital are monasteries or temples, not tombs, 
 as has always been too hastily assumed. Whether, on further 
 investigation, these will prove to be so essentially Indian as they at 
 present appear to be, remains to be seen, but meanwhile the possi- 
 
 
 1 ' J. R. A. S.' xii. p. 233. ' J. B. A. S.' vii. p. 2G1 et seqq. 
 
Chap. XIIL BUDDHISM IN THE WEST. 499 
 
 bility of an alliance of this sort two or three centuries before Christ, 
 takes away much of the improbability that would otherwise exist 
 in assuming that Indian influence might have extended further 
 westward at some subsequent period, and that the African dolmens 
 might be proved to be allied to, and possibly contemporary with, 
 those of India. 
 
 Buddhism in the West. 
 
 The great basis, however, on which any proof of the existence 
 of a connexion between the East and West must eventually rest, 
 will probably be found in the amount of pure Buddhism which 
 crept into Christianity in the early age of the Church. The subject 
 has not yet been fairly grappled with by any one capable of doing 
 it justice. It has been frequently alluded to by travellers, who 
 have been struck with resemblances which could hardly be acci- 
 dental, and used sometimes by scoffers in order to depreciate 
 Christianity; but no serious historian of the Latin Church has 
 had sufficient knowledge of Buddhism or of its forms to be able to 
 appreciate correctly either the extent or the cause of its introduc- 
 tion ; and till some one does this, it will be treated by the general 
 reader as an idle speculation. Yet it probably is not too much to 
 assert, that at least nine-tenths of the institutions and forms which 
 were engrafted on pure evangelical Christianity in the middle 
 ages, are certainly derived from Buddhist sources. 
 
 Of these, one of the most striking is the introduction of monastic 
 institutions, which exercised so important an influence on the forms 
 of Christianity during the whole period of the middle ages. It is 
 in vain to look for their origin in anything that existed in Europe 
 before the Christian era. Nothing can be more forced than the 
 analogies it has been attempted to establish between the Vestal vir- 
 gins and the nuns of the middle ages, and no trace of conventual life 
 can be found among the semi-secular priesthood of classical times. 
 According to the usually received opinion, Antony (a.d. 305 x ) was 
 the first monk, and from him and about his time a prolific progeny 
 are traced to the Thebais, which is usually assumed to be the cradle 
 of the institution. Monastic life was, however, absolutely anti- 
 
 1 Gibbon, ' Decline and Fall,' iv. p. 392, where the original authorities are found. 
 
 2 k 2 
 
500 INDIA. Chap. XIII. 
 
 thetieal to the religious institutions of the ancient Egyptians, 
 amongst whom the king was high priest and god, and where civil 
 could hardly be distinguished from religious rank. It was equally 
 opposed to the feelings of the Arabic or at least Semitic races,, that 
 superseded the Coptic in that country, and could consequently 
 hardly have existed at all, unless introduced from some foreign 
 source and maintained by some extraneous influence. The Essenes 
 are the only sect to whom in the ancient world in the West any- 
 thing like the peculiar institutions of monasticism can be traced ; 
 but unfortunately we do not know how or when they adopted them. 
 Josephus represents them as only one of the three principal sects 
 into which the Jews in his time were divided ; but the silence not 
 only of the Bible but of the Rabbis weakens the force of his state- 
 ment, while his unfortunate omission of the name of their Law- 
 giver 1 leaves us in the dark on the most essential point. That it 
 was not Moses, whose name is usually interpolated, is quite certain. 
 He never inculcated any such doctrines, and one hardly dares to 
 suggest the Indian name, which would clear up the whole mystery 
 at once. Be this as it may, the sect only arose apparently in 
 the time of the Maccabees, and practically disappeared with the 
 destruction of Jerusalem by Titus ; all which would accord per- 
 fectly with the hypothesis of their Indian origin, but would hardly 
 suffice to support the idea that they were the sect from whom, 
 in the fourth century, the Christian Church adopted the princi- 
 ples and practices of Asceticism. 
 
 When from these sparse indications we turn to the East, we are 
 met by the difficulty that none of the books we possess were reduced 
 to writing in their present form till the time of Buddhaghosa, 
 a.d. 412, 2 or even later ; and any one who knows what wild 
 
 1 Josephus, 'B. J.,' II. viii. p. 0. I Max Mailer was perfectly justified in 
 
 2 "The prestige of such a witness as j making tins statement, while his iguo- 
 Buddhaghosa soon dwindles away, and ranee of everything connected with the 
 his statements as to kings and councils j archaeology or art of India, prevented 
 
 S00 years before his time are, in truth, 
 worth no more than the stories told of 
 Arthur, by Geoffrey of jMonmouth, or 
 the accounts we read in Livy of the 
 early history of Rome" — Chips from a 
 a. rman Workshop, i. p. 1D8. As a mere 
 linguist, and dependent wholly on books, 
 
 his perceiving how these wild statements 
 could be verified or controlled. Till he 
 learns that there are other means of 
 investigation than mere words his state- 
 ments on these subjects are untrust- 
 worthy, and, in many cases, absolutely 
 worthless. 
 
Chap. XIII. BUDDHISM IN THE WEST. 501 
 
 imaginings can in the fertile East creep into works during the 
 remodellings of a thousand years, will easily understand with what 
 caution they must be used. Fortunately in this instance the 
 monuments and inscriptions come to our assistance, and we are 
 enabled to form a fair idea of the progress of monasticism in 
 India from what they tell us. 
 
 Before the first monuments, the boohs tell us of three great con- 
 vocations : the first held immediately on the death of the founder 
 of the religion, B.C. 543, at Rajagriha ; the second 100 years after- 
 wards, at Yaisali; and the third by Asoka, 250 B.C., at Pataliputta, 
 or Patna. These we are told were attended by thousand and tens 
 of thousands of monks. 1 But Asoka's edicts give no countenance 
 to any such extension of the system in his day. Shortly after this, 
 however, the earlier caves show cells appropriated to hermits, or 
 even for the reunion of a limited number of monks under one roof. 
 These Yiharas or monasteries are small at first, and insignificant as 
 compared with the Chaityas or church caves to which they are 
 attached, as at Karlee, Baja, Bedsa and elsewhere ; but shortly 
 afterwards, at Nassick and Jooneer, in the first or second centuries 
 they become more important ; and when we reach such a series as 
 that at Ajunta or Baug, for instance, we find the Yihara becoming- 
 all important, the Chaitya sinking into comparative insignificance. 
 This great change took place apparently about the end of the third 
 or beginning of the fourth century of our era, and continued till 
 Buddhism actually perished, smothered under the weight of its 
 enormously developed hierarchy some three centuries later. 
 
 The sculptures tell the same story. There are no representations 
 of priests in the form we afterwards find them in at >Sanchi, in 
 the first century of our era. Ascetics there are, dwelling in woods 
 and lonely places, but not congregated in monasteries, nor jointly 
 performing ceremonies. But at Amravati, three centuries later, we 
 have shaven priests in their distinctive robes, and every symptom 
 of a well devoloped system. 
 
 If this is so, it could hardly have been before the era of the 
 Roman Empire that these peculiar institutions penetrated to the 
 West ; nor could they have done so during its supremacy without 
 
 1 Tumour's ' Malaawauso,' 12 et seyq. ' J. A S. B./ vli. -passim. 
 
502 INDIA. Chap. 'XIII 
 
 attracting attention. But. in the great " debacle " which followed 
 the change of the seat of government and the destruction of the 
 old faith, it is easy to see how these forms may have crept in, 
 together with the new Eastern faith, which an illiterate people 
 were adopting, without much knowing whence it came, and without 
 being able to discriminate what was Christian and what Buddhist 
 in the forms or doctrines that were being presented to them.. 
 
 Among the peculiarities then introduced, one of the most re- 
 markable was the segregation of the clergy from the laity, and the 
 devotion of the former wholly to the performance of religious 
 duties. Still more so was their seclusion in monasteries, living a 
 life of the most self-denying asceticism, subsisting almost wholly on 
 alms, and bound by vows of poverty, chastity and temperance, to 
 a negation of all the ordinary enjoyments of life. That the two 
 systems are identical no one has doubted, and no one, indeed, can 
 enter now a Buddhist monastery in the East and watch the shaven 
 priests in the yellow robes at matins, or at vespers, issue from their 
 cells and range themselves on either side of a choir, on whose altar 
 stands an image of the Queen of Heaven, or of the three precious 
 Buddhas, and listen to their litanies, chanted in what to them is a 
 dead or foreign tongue, without feeling that he is looking in the 
 East on what is externally the same as he had long been familiar 
 with in the West. 1 If he follows these monks back to their cells 
 and finds them governed by a mitred abbot, and subordinated as 
 deacons, priests, and neophytes, learns that they are bound by vows 
 of celibacy, live by alms, and spend their lives in a dull routine of 
 contemplation and formal worship, he might almost fancy he was 
 transported back into some Burgundian convent in the middle 
 ages, unless he is prepared, like Hue and Gabet, to believe that it 
 is a phantasm conjured up by the author of all evil for the confusion 
 
 1 Hue and Gabet, in their ' Travels in s'ouvrir et se fermer a, volonte'; les 
 
 T liibet,' give a most amusing account of benedictions donnees par les Lamas, en 
 
 iheir bewilderment on observing there e'tendant la main droite sur la tete des 
 
 these things: — "La crosse, la mitre, la rideles; le ehapelet, le celibat ecck- 
 
 dalmatique, la chape ou pluvial, que les siastique, les retraites spirituelles, le 
 
 grands Lamas portent en voyage, ou culte des saints, les jeunes, les processions, 
 
 lorsqu'ils font quelque ce're'monie hors du les litanies, l'eau benite : voila autant 
 
 temple; l'office des deux choeurs, la des rapports que les Bouddhistes ont 
 
 psalmodie, les exorcismes, l'encensoir avec nous." — Vol. ii. p. 110. 
 soutenu par cinque chaines, et pouvant 
 
Chap. XIII. BUDDHISM IN THE WEST. 503 
 
 of mankind. We know from the form and arrangement of the 
 great Chaitya caves, that these forms prevailed as early at least as 
 the first century B.C., and, as they are practised without change in 
 the East to the present day, it seems clear that it is thence that 
 they were introduced into Europe. 
 
 Canonization is another remarkable institution common to the 
 Buddhist and Christian Churches, and to them only. It has fre- 
 quently been attempted to draw a parallel between the demigods 
 of Greece and Borne and the institution of Saints in the mediaeval 
 Church ; but this argument has always failed, because in fact no 
 two institutions could in their origin be more essentially different. 
 The minor gods of the heathen pantheon, though sometimes 
 remarkable for their prowess or virtues, were all more or less 
 connected by ties of blood or marriage with the great Olympic 
 family, and owed their rank rather to their descent than to their 
 merits. It is true that in later times the deification of Roman 
 emperors and others of that class, which the abject flattery of a 
 corrupt age had introduced, was a nearer approach to the practice 
 of Buddhism, which was then flourishing in the East, than anything 
 before known in the pagan world. But canonization in its purity, 
 as practised both in the East and West, is not to be attained 
 through either birth or office, but by the practice of ascetic 
 virtues on the part of the clergy, and by piety coupled with 
 benefactions to the Church by those outside its pale. In these 
 casteless institutions any man, however obscure his origin, by 
 devotion to the interests of his adopted order, -and the practice of 
 the asceticism, heightened if possible by the endurance of self- 
 inflicted tortures, might attain to Budclhahood or saintship. But 
 such a path to adoration in this world, or to worship hereafter, 
 was utterly unknown in Europe until it was introduced from the 
 East, after the Christian era. 
 
 Relic-worship is another peculiarity which the mediaeval Church 
 certainly borrowed from the East. No tradition is more constant 
 than that which relates that the relics of Buddha were, after 
 cremation, divided into eight parts, and distributed to eight 
 different kingdoms, and the history of some portions of these can 
 be traced to comparatively modern times. Perhaps too much 
 reliance should not be placed on these very early traditions, as 
 
504 INDIA. Chap. XIII. 
 
 no material evidence of them exists, nor in the often-repeated 
 assertion that Asoka built 8-4,000 dagobas, 1 to receive relics. 
 That he built several is quite certain. The fact of the relics of 
 two of the favourite disciples of Buddha — Mogalana and Sari- 
 pntra — and of ten of the principal dignitaries of the Buddhist 
 Church in the time of Asoka having been found at Sanchi in 
 topes certainly anterior to the Christian era, 2 is quite sufficient 
 for our present purpose. As is well known, the Tooth relic, 
 whose history can be traced back with certainty for more than 
 fifteen centuries, is now worshipped under British protection in 
 Ceylon. 
 
 No such form of worship existed in classical antiquity, nor is 
 it quite clear how it came to be adopted by the Christian Church. 
 Buddhism was a reform of a material, ancestral-worshipping, body- 
 respecting form of religion. The sepulchral tumulus with them 
 became in consequence a dagoba, or relic shrine, containing a 
 bone, or a vessel, or rag, or something that belonged to Buddha 
 or some of his followers ; and all the grosser superstitions of the 
 Turanian natives, whose faith he was trying to elevate and refine, 
 were sublimated into something immaterial and more pure. But 
 Christianity never could have wanted this, and its adoption 
 of relic worship was either a piece of blind imitation adopted 
 without thinking, among other things, for which there was more 
 excuse, or it was one of the many instances of the toleration of 
 foreign elements which characterized the Christian priesthood in 
 the early age of the Church. 
 
 It is as little clear when this worship was introduced as why 
 it was done, for Christian legends in regard to relics are not more 
 to be depended upon than those of the Buddhists. It could not 
 have been common in the days of Clemens of Alexandria, or he 
 would not have mentioned as a wonder that the Indians worshipped 
 a bone enclosed in a pyramid ; 3 but shortly after Constantine's 
 time the fashion became prevalent, and the miracles performed by 
 the touch of relics became one of the favourite delusions of the 
 middle ages. If this is correct, and we are justified in assuming 
 
 'Mahavanso,' p. 26. 2 Cunningham, ' Bhilsa Topes,' p. 2S9 et seqq. 
 
 mens, i. 194. Oxford, 1715. 
 
Chap. XII F. BUDDHISM IN THE WEST. 505 
 
 that the Buddhism which we find in mediaeval Christianity was 
 introduced after Const.mtine's time, we may take it for granted 
 that any influence which the East exercised on the Western rude- 
 stone monuments was also subsequent to that monarch's reign. If 
 this is so, a considerable portion, at least, of those found in botli 
 countries must also belong to the dark ages that closed with the 
 Ciusades. 
 
 It would be easy to go on multiplying instances of Eastern 
 customs introduced into the Western Church were this the place 
 to do it. All that is required here, however, is to adduce suffi- 
 cient evidence to accentuate an assertion which no one, probably, 
 who knows anything of the subject would be found to dispute. 
 It is, that the mediaeval Church borrowed many of its forms from 
 pre-existing Buddhism, and that these were introduced not before 
 but after the time of Constantine. If, after having reached con- 
 viction on this point, we turn to our books to ascertain what light 
 they throw on the subject, we find them absolutely silent. You 
 may wade through all the writings of the Fathers, all the pon- 
 derous tomes of the Bollandists, without finding a trace, or even 
 a hinted suspicion, that such a transference of doctrine took place. 
 Except from one or two passages in Clemens of Alexandria, we 
 should not be able to show that before the time of Constantine 
 the nations of the West knew even the name of Buddha, 1 much 
 less anything of his doctrines. While this is so it is obviously 
 idle to ask for written evidence with regard to the influence 
 of either country on the architectural style of the other. Men 
 write volumes on volumes with regard to doctrines and faiths, but 
 rarely allude to anything that concerns mere buildings; and 
 while written history is so absolutely silent respecting the intro- 
 duction of Buddhist forms into the West, it is in vain to hope that 
 any allusion will be found to the influence Eastern forms may have 
 had on the sepulchral monuments of Northern Africa or Europe. 
 In this case, the " litera scripta " is not to be depended upon, but 
 the monuments and their inscriptions are, and it is from them 
 and them only, that either correct dates or reliable materials for 
 such an investigation can be obtained. So far as I am capable of 
 
 1 Clemens, i. lo2. Translation by Potter, ut sup. p. 50-i. 
 
506 INDIA. Chap. XIII. 
 
 forming an opinion, their evidence is amply sufficient, in the first 
 place, to take away all a priori improbability from the assumption 
 that there may have been a direct influence exercised by the East 
 on the Western rude-stone monuments. But it seems to me at 
 the same time sufficient to render it extremely probable that while 
 influencing to so great an extent the religious institutions of the 
 country, they should also have modified their sepulchral forms so 
 as fully to account for all the similarities which we find existing 
 betAveen them. 
 
 It may not be possible, in the present state of our knowledge, 
 to explain exactly how this influence was exercised, and we must, 
 consequently, rest content with the fact that as Buddhism did 
 so influence the religion of the West in those early ages, the 
 same agency may equally have acted upon the architectural or 
 sepulchral forms of the same class in our population. 
 
 To explain this it is necessary to revert for a moment to a 
 proposition I have often had occasion to advance, and have not 
 yet seen refuted — that Buddhism is the religion of a Turanian 
 race, using that word, as used by its inventors, in the broadest 
 possible sense. The Persians say Iran and Turan, and Iran and 
 Aniran, terms equivalent to our Aryan and non-Aryan ; and 
 Buddhism is not and never was, but exceptionally, the religion of 
 the Aryan race, and is not now professed by any Aryan people in 
 any quarter of the globe. It is essentially the faith of a quiescent, 
 contemplative race, with no distinct idea of a god external to this 
 world, or of a future state other than through transmigrations 
 accomplished in this world, leading only to eternal repose here- 
 after ; its followers, however, still believing in the direct influence 
 of the temporarily-released spirits of their forefathers in guiding 
 and controlling the destiny of their offspring, thus leading directly 
 to ancestral worship. In India this primitive faith was refined 
 and elevated into one of the most remarkable and beneficent of 
 human institutions by the Aryan Sakya Muni and his Brahmin 
 coadjutors, and did at one time nearly obliterate the Aryan faith 
 which it superseded. After, however, a thousand years of apparent 
 supremacy, the old faith came again to the surface and Buddhism 
 disappeared from India, but still remains the only faith of all the 
 
Chap. XIII. BUDDHISM IN THE WEST. 507 
 
 Turanian nations around it and wherever the Aryan races never 
 seem to have settled. 
 
 If any Turanian blood remained in the veins of any of the 
 various races who inhabited Europe in the middle ages, it is easy 
 to understand how the preaching or doctrines of any Buddhist 
 missionaries or Turanian tribes must have struck a responsive 
 chord in their hearts, and how easily they would have adopted 
 any new fashion these Easterns may have taught. As we have 
 had occasion to point out above, the dolmen-builders of Europe 
 certainly were not Aryan. Nor, if we may trust M. Bertrand and 
 the best French antiquaries, were they Celts; but that an old 
 pre-Celtic people did exist in those parts of France in which the 
 dolmens are generally found appears to me indisputable. Though 
 the more active and progressive Celts had commenced their 
 obliteration of this undemonstrative people at the time when 
 written history first began in their country, there is no reason to 
 suppose that their blood or their race was entirely exterminated 
 till a very recent period, and it may still have been numerically 
 the prevalent ingredient in the population between the fourth 
 and the tenth centuries of our era. 
 
 Of course, it is not intended to assert or even to suggest that 
 the Western nations first adopted from the East the practice of 
 using stone to accentuate and adorn their sepulchral monuments. 
 The whole evidence of the preceding pages contradicts such an 
 assumption. But what they do seem to have borrowed is the 
 use or abuse of holed stones, and the arrangement of external 
 dolmens on the summit of tumuli combined with two or three 
 circles of rude stones. -These I fancy to have been among the 
 latest of the forms which rude-stone architecture adopted, and 
 may very well have been introduced in post-Constantinian times ; 
 and when we become more familiar with the peculiarities of these 
 monuments, both in the East and the West, there may be other 
 forms which we may recognize as modern and interchangeable, 
 while many others, such as the great chambered tumuli and 
 the tall solitary menhirs, seem as original and as peculiar to the 
 West, 
 
 Having now made the tour of the Old World, it will be 
 
508 INDIA. Chap. XIII. 
 
 convenient to try to resume, in as few words as possible, the 
 principal results we have arrived at from the preceding investi- 
 gation. 
 
 First, with regard to their age. It seems that the uncivilized, 
 ancestral-worshipping races of Europe first borrowed from the 
 Romans — or, if any one likes, from the Phoenicians or Greeks of 
 Marseilles — the idea of using stone to accentuate and adorn the 
 monuments of their dead. In like manner, it certainly was from 
 the Bactriau Greeks that the Indians first learned the use of stone 
 as a building material. How early the Eastern natious adopted 
 it in its rude form we do not know. In its polished form it 
 was used as early as the middle of the third century B.C., but 
 we have no authentic instance of the rude form till at least a 
 century or two after Christ ; but, once introduced, its use con- 
 tinued to the present day. Its history in the West seems some- 
 what different. The great chambered tumuli at Gavr Innis, and 
 others in France, as well as those at Lough Crew, in Ireland, 
 seem to belong to a time before the Romans occupied the states 
 of Western Europe ; but no stone monument of this class has yet 
 made out its claim to an antiquity of more than two centuries, 
 if so much, before the Christian era. Some of those in Greece 
 about Mycena3, and those at Saturnia, may be earlier, but they 
 are as yet undescribed scientifically, and we cannot tell. From 
 shortly before the Christian era, till the countries in which they 
 are found became entirely and essentially Christian, the use of 
 these monuments seems to have been continual, whenever a 
 dolmen-building race — or, in other words, a race with any taint 
 of Turanian blood in their veins — continued to prevail. This, in 
 remote corners of the world, seems to have extended in France 
 and Britain down to the eighth or ninth century. In Scandi- 
 navia it lasted down to the eleventh or twelfth, and sporadically, 
 in out-of-the-way and neglected districts, as late both in France 
 and Great Britain. 
 
 These results do not, of course, touch the age of the earthen 
 tumuli or barrows, for the determination of whose age no scale has 
 yet been invented ; still less do they approach the question of the 
 antiquity of the Cave men or the palaeolithic stone implements, 
 
Chap. XIII. BUDDHISM IN THE WEST. 509 
 
 the age of which we must, for the present at least, leave wrapped 
 in the mists of the long prehistoric past. 
 
 Their uses seem more easily determined than their dates ; 
 with only a few rare and easily-recognizable exceptions, all seem 
 originally to have been intended for sepulchral or cenotaphic 
 purposes. Either, like the great chambered tumuli and the 
 dolmens, they were actually the burying-places of the illustrious 
 dead ; or, like the greater circles and the alignments, they marked 
 battle-fields, and were erected in honour of those slain there, 
 whether their bodies were actually laid within their precincts or 
 not; or, like the rude stone pillars of the Khassia hills, they 
 were offerings to the spirits of the departed. 
 
 With the fewest possible exceptions * and these of the most 
 insignificant character, their connexion with the relics of the 
 dead can be proved from all having become places for ancestral 
 worship and having under various forms been used for comme- 
 morating or honouring departed spirits. No single instance has 
 been authenticated of either circles or dolmens in any other form, 
 except perhaps single stones, having ever been used for the worship 
 of Odin, or of the gods called Mercury, Mars, Venus, or the other 
 gods of the Druids, still less is there any trace of the worship 
 of the son or moon or any of the heavenly host ; nor, I am sorry 
 to think, can the serpent lay claim to any temple of this class. 
 Honour to the dead and propitiation of the spirits of the departed 
 seem to have been the two leading ideas that both in the East and 
 West gave rise to the erection of these hitherto mysterious struc- 
 tures which are found numerously scattered over the face of the 
 Old World. 
 
 1 The accidental resemblance of the do absent persons, and the sacrifice, after 
 
 microlithic temples of the Deccan men- all, is offered up to their departed spirits ; 
 
 tioned above (p. 467) cun hardly be | it being a form of the present day we do 
 
 quoted as an exception. They are said not know how much its spirit may not 
 
 to be dedicated to Vetal, but it is not be changed from the ancient rite which 
 
 clear that the stones of the circle do it was originally intended to typify, 
 not represent dead, as they certainly 
 
510 AMERICA. Chap. XIV. 
 
 CHAPTEK XIV. 
 
 AMERICA. 
 
 If this work had any pretension to being a complete history or 
 statistical account of the Rude Monuments of the world, it might 
 be necessary to describe somewhat in detail, and to illustrate 
 those of the New World as well as those of the Old. In the form 
 that it has now taken, however, nothing more is required than to 
 point out as briefly as possible what the American monuments 
 really are, with sufficient detail to show whether they have or 
 have not auy connexion with those we have been describing, and 
 to point out what bearing — if any — their peculiarities may have 
 on the main argument of this work. 
 
 In so far as the rude monuments of North America are con- 
 cerned, there is fortunately no difficulty in speaking with confi- 
 dence. In the first volume of the ' Smithsonian Contributions to 
 Knowledge,' 1 the Americans possess a detailed description of their 
 antiquities of this class such as no nation in Europe can boast of. 
 The survey was carefully and scientifically carried out by Messrs. 
 Squier and Davis, to whom it was entrusted. The text is tersely 
 and clearly written, mere theories or speculations are avoided, 
 and the plates are clearly and carefully engraved. If we had 
 such a work on our own antiquities we should long ago have 
 known all about them ; but unfortunately there are no Smithsons 
 in this country, and among our thousand and one millionaires, 
 to whom the expense would be a flea-bite, there is not one who 
 has the knowledge requisite to enable him to appreciate the 
 value of such a survey, nor consequently the liberality sufficient 
 to induce him to incur the expense necessary for its execution. 
 
 1 Ancient Monuments in the Missisippi Valley ; ' Philadelphia, 184' 
 
Chap. XIV. 
 
 NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 511 
 
 North America. 
 
 With this work before us, we feel justified in making the 
 assertion that there are no rude-stone monuments on the continent 
 of North America. There are extensive earth works of nearly all 
 the classes found in the Old World, and some — especially the 
 animal forms — which are peculiar to the New. 
 
 These earthworks Messrs. Squier and Davis classify as follows 
 (page 7) :— 
 
 1. Enclosures for defence. 
 
 2. Sacred and miscellaneous enclosures. 
 
 3. Mounds of sacrifice. 
 
 4. Mounds of sepulture. 
 
 5. Temple mounds. 
 
 6. Animal mounds. 
 
 With the first we have nothing to do : they are similar to those 
 erected everywhere and in all ages of the world. They consist of 
 a ditch, the earth taken in forming which is thrown up on its 
 inner side, so as to form an obstacle to the advance of an enemy, 
 and to become a shelter to the de- 
 fenders. Some of these in America are 
 of great extent, and show not only con- 
 siderable proficiency in the art of de- 
 fence, but indicate the presence of an 
 extensive and settled population. 
 
 The so-called " sacred enclosures " are 
 not only numerous and extensive, but 
 are unlike anything met with elsewhere. 
 In Ross county alone our authors state 
 that there are 100 at least of various 
 sizes, and in the State of Ohio 1000 to 
 1500, some of them enclosing areas from 
 100 to 200 acres in extent. 
 
 Their typical form will be understood 
 from the annexed woodcut. - All seem 
 to have a forecourt either square or 
 
 octagonal in form, with 4 or 8 entrances to it, and beyond this is 
 a circle generally quite complete, and entered only by a passage 
 
 SCALE 
 .500 1000 
 
 T-l ■ . I . l-r 
 
 227. Enclosure in Newark Works. 
 
«">12 AMERICA. Ciiai\ XIV. 
 
 or opening from the forecourt, These are enclosed by earthen 
 mounds varying from 5 to 30 feet in height, with the ditch 
 almost invariably on the inside. 
 
 The last peculiarity is in itself, as in the case of the English 
 circles, quite sufficient to preclude the idea of their being fortifica- 
 tions or meant for defence, and they certainly are not sepulchral in 
 any sense in which we understand the term. In the first place, 
 because we know perfectly what the sepulchres of these people were, 
 from the thousands and tens of thousands of tumuli which dot the 
 plains everywhere ; but also because, unlike the English circles, 
 which are as a rule found in the most remote and barren spots, 
 these American enclosures as generally occupy the flattest and 
 richest spots in the country. They are most frequently situated 
 near the rivers, and on the natural lines of communication ; so 
 much so indeed that many of the cities of the present occupants 
 of the country stand on the same spots and within the enclosures of 
 the earlier races who raised these mounds. 
 
 We are thus left to the choice between two hypotheses. Either 
 they are sacred enclosures, as suggested by our authors, or they 
 are royal residences — temples or palaces. 
 
 All the arguments, derived from its excessive size, that were 
 urged against Avebury being a temple, apply with redoubled force 
 to these American enclosures. Temples occupying 50 to 100 
 acres are certainly singular anomalies when we try to realise what 
 these admeasurements imply. Our largest square, Lincoln's Inn 
 Fields, occupies only 12 acres; the Green Park is 53; and all our 
 parks together do not occupy the same space as the Newark 
 enclosures, which, according to Messrs. Squier and Davis, cover 
 more than four square miles. 1 Yet all these are circles and 
 squares with connecting lines, and all with inside ditches. Temples 
 of these dimensions, without divisions, or enclosures, or mounds, or 
 permanent works of any kind, are anomalies difficult to under- 
 stand, and must belong to some religion of which I, at least, 
 have no knowledge ; and no one, so far as I know 7 , has yet 
 suggested what that religion was, nor how these vast spaces could 
 be utilized for any religious purpose. 
 
 1 ^Ancient Monuments,' &c, p. U>. Hyde Pari, including Kensington Garden . 
 occupies about one square mile. 
 
Chap. XIV. NORTH AMERICA. 513 
 
 If we adopt the idea that they were the residences of the chiefs 
 of the people, the mystery does not seem so great. If the circular 
 wigwam of the chief was erected in the centre of the circles, and 
 the wigwams of his subordinates and retainers in concentric circles 
 around him, it would account for their dimensions, and also for the 
 disappearance of all traces of habitation. The forecourt would 
 thus be the place of assembly of the tribe, the exercise ground or 
 gymnasium, and for such purposes it is admirably adapted, and both 
 the size and the situation of these enclosures seem easily explicable. 
 
 One curious circumstance tends to render this view more tenable. 
 On plate xxi. of Messrs. Squier and Davis's work four groups of 
 squares with circles are delineated, situated in different parts 
 of the country; but all the four squares are almost identical in 
 size, each side measuring 1080 feet. Why four temples should be- 
 exactly alike is a mystery, but that a tetrarchy of chiefs should 
 be bound down to equal dimensions for their rival residences 
 seems reasonable from a civil point of view. 
 
 It does not seem difficult to explain the meaning of the inside 
 ditch when fortification was not intended, as it must have been 
 almost a necessity with a people who had not arrived at the 
 elevation of using brick drains or drain-pipes. Without some such 
 arrangement all the rain that fell within these solid enclosures 
 would have remained on the surface, or in the squares could only 
 have escaped through the openings, but a deep and broad ditch 
 all round would drain the whole surface without inconvenience, 
 and secure the only mode which would prevent the enclosure, be 
 it a temple or palace, from becoming a" swamp. 
 
 Messrs. Squier and Davis divide the conical mounds which they 
 excavated into two classes. The first they call " Mounds of sacri- 
 fice," because on digging into them they found on the level of the 
 soil what appeared to be altars — raised floors which exhibited evi- 
 dence of intense heat, and what they considered a long-continued 
 practice of burning. It is evident, however, that such results 
 might be produced in a week as well as in years, and it is very 
 difficult to understand why at any time that which had been an 
 altar should be buried in a tumulus. If it had been used for 
 years, why, and on what occasion, was it agreed to bury it ? If 
 
 2 L 
 
514 AMERICA. Chap. XIV 
 
 it was the funereal pyre of some chief, and used for burning- 
 sacrifices for the time the funeral services lasted, and was then 
 buried, the case is intelligible enough, but the other hypothesis 
 is certainly not easy of explanation. 
 
 The true " Sepulchral mounds " are, as before mentioned, im- 
 mensely numerous, and of all sizes, from a few feet up to such 
 as the Grave Creek mound, 70 feet high and 1000 feet in cir- 
 cumference, or that at Miamisburgh, 68 feet high, and 852 feet 
 in circumference at its base. The dead were buried in them 
 apparently without coffins or cists, unless of wood, and generally 
 in the contracted doubled-up position found so frequently in 
 Scandinavia and in Algeria. 
 
 The " Temple mounds " are generally square or oblong trun- 
 cated pyramids, with inclined planes leading up to them on three 
 and frequently on all four sides. They are in fact in earth the same 
 form as the Teocallis of the Mexicans, though the latter seem 
 always to have been in stone. Whether in the one material or 
 the other, they are of a perfectly intelligible templar form. If a 
 human sacrifice or any great ceremonial is to take place before 
 all the people, the first requisite is an elevated platform where the 
 ministrants can stand above the heads of the crowd, and be seen 
 by all ; and the absence of this in the Ohio and in our English 
 circles is one of the most fatal objections to the temple theory. In 
 one or two instances a single earthen Teocalli is found within the 
 circles, but this no further militates against the supposition that 
 they were residences than the presence of a chapel or place of 
 worship in any of our palaces would prove them to be temples 
 also. It must, however, be borne in mind that it is always 
 difficult to draw a hard and fast line between the House of God 
 and the Palace of the King. In Egypt it is never possible, and 
 in the middle ages royal monasteries and royal residences were 
 frequently interchangeable terms. We should not therefore feel 
 surprised if, in America, we found the one fading into the other. 
 But, on the whole, the enormous number of these circular enclo- 
 sures — 1000 and 1500 in one State — their immense size, 100 and 
 200 acres being not uniiequent, and the general absence of all 
 signs of preparations for worship, seem sufficient to prove that they 
 must be classed among civil and not among sacred erections. 
 
Chap. XIV. NORTH AMERICA. 515 
 
 This seems to be the case even though sometimes three or four 
 temple mounds are found together surrounded by a rampart just 
 sufficient to enclose them with the necessary space for circulation 
 all round ; in which case, however, it is evident that they have passed 
 the line separating the two divisions, and may, probably must, be 
 classified as really sacred enclosures. These are generally found 
 in the South, in Texas, and in the States most nearly bordering on 
 Mexico, which looks as if they belonged to another race more 
 nearly allied to the Toltecs or Aztecs than to the northern tribes. 
 
 The only remaining class of mounds are those representing 
 "Animals," to which plates xxxv. to xliv. of Messrs. Squier and 
 Davis's book are devoted. One of these, our authors have no 
 doubt, represents a serpent 700 feet long as he lies with his tail 
 curled up into a spiral form, and his mouth gaping to swallow an 
 egg (?) 160 feet long by 60 feet across. This at first sight looks so 
 like one of Stukeley's monstrous inventions that the first impulse 
 is to reject it as an illusion on the part of the surveyors. When, 
 however, we bear in mind that the American mound-builders did 
 represent not only men, but animals, quadrupeds, and lizards, 
 in the same manner, and on the same relative scale, all impro- 
 bability vanishes. At the same time the simple fact that the form 
 is so easily recognisable here is in itself sufficient to prove that 
 our straight-lined stone rows were not erected with any such 
 intention, and could only be converted into Dracontia by the 
 most perverted imagination. 
 
 Though therefore we may assume that this mound really 
 represents a serpent, it by no means follows that it was an idol 
 or was worshipped. It seems to represent an action — the swallow- 
 ing of something, but whether a globe or a grave is by no means 
 clear, and must be left for further investigation. It is, however, 
 only by taking it in connection with the other animal mounds 
 in America that we can hope to arrive at a solution. They were 
 not apparently objects of worship, and seem to have no connexion 
 with anything found in the Old World. 
 
 The other mounds representing quadrupeds are quite un- 
 mistakable : they are a freak of this people whoever they were. 
 But it seems difficult to explain why they should take this 
 Brobdignagian way of representing the animals they , possessed, 
 
 2 l 2 
 
516 AMERICA. Chap. XIV. 
 
 or were surrounded by. If we knew more of the people, or of 
 their affinities, perhaps the solution would be easy ; at present 
 it hardly interests us, as we have no analogue in Europe. 1 
 
 It only now remains to try and ascertain if any connexion 
 exists or existed between these American monuments and those 
 of the Old World ; and what light, if any, their examination may 
 be expected to throw on the problems discussed in the preceding 
 chapters. If it is wished to establish anything like a direct con- 
 nexion between the two continents, we must go back to the far 
 distant prehistoric times when the conformations of land and water 
 were different from what they now are. No one, I presume, will be 
 found to contend that, since the continents took their present shape, 
 any migration across the Atlantic took place in such numbers as 
 to populate the land, or to influence the manners or customs of the 
 people previously existing there. It may be that the Scandina- 
 vians did penetrate in the tenth or eleventh centuries to Vinland, 
 by the way of Greenland, and so anticipated the discovery of 
 Columbus by some centuries ; 2 but this is only a part of that 
 world-pervading energy of the Aryan races, and has nothing what- 
 ever to do with the people of the tumuli. If any connexion 
 really existed between the Old and the New World, in anything 
 like historic times, everything would lead us to believe that it 
 took place via Itehring Strait or the Aleutian Islands. It seems 
 reasonable to suppose that the people who covered the Siberian 
 Steppes with tumuli may have migrated across the calm waters 
 of the Upper Pacific, and gradually extended themselves down 
 to Wisconsin and Ohio, and there left these memorials we now 
 find. It may also be admitted that the same Asiatic people may 
 have spread westward from the original hive, and been the pro- 
 genitors of those who covered our plains with barrows, but 
 beyond this no connexion seems to be traceable which would account 
 
 1 I cannot help fancying that .the j regard to the Chinese or Siberian ex- 
 great animals in stone that line the j amples sufficiently reliable to found any 
 avenues leading to the tombs of the em- argument upon. 
 
 perors in China may have some affinity 2 ' Annal. for Nordk. Oldkyndighed,' 
 
 with the American animal sculptures, ii. p. 3 et seqq. See also C. C. Eafn, 
 
 which occur principally in Wisconsin | ' Antiquitates Americanse,' &c, Hafnise, 
 
 and the farther West. I am unable, j 1837. 
 
 however, to obtain any information with I 
 
Chap. XIV. CENTRAL AMERICA. 517 
 
 for anything we find. Nowhere, however, in America do these 
 people ever seem to have risen to the elevation of using even 
 rude stones to adorn their tombs or temples. Nor do they 
 appear to have been acquainted with the use of iron or of bronze ; 
 all the tools found in their tombs being of pure unalloyed native 
 copper — both of which circumstances seem to separate these 
 American mound-builders entirely from our rude-stone people in 
 anything like historic times. 
 
 Unfortunately, also, the study of the manners and customs 
 of the Eed-men, who occupied North America when we first 
 came in contact with them, is not at all likely to throw any light 
 on the subject. They have never risen beyond the condition of 
 hunters, and have no settled places of abode, and possess no works 
 of art. The mound-builders, on the contrary, were a settled 
 people, certainly pastoral, probably to some extent even agri- 
 cultural ; they had fixed well chosen unfortified abodes, alto- 
 gether exhibiting a higher state of civilization than we have any 
 reason to suppose the present race of Eed-men ever reached or 
 are capable of reaching. 
 
 Although, therefore, it seems in vain to look on the Red Indians 
 who in modern times occupied the territories of Ohio and Wis- 
 consin as the descendants of the mound-builders, there are tribes 
 on the west coast of America that probably are, or rather were, 
 very closely allied to them. The Hydahs and the natives 
 inhabiting Vancouver's Island and Queen Charlotte's Sound seem 
 both from their physical condition, and more so from their works 
 of art, to be just such a people as one would expect the mound- 
 builders to have been. If this is so, it again points to Northern 
 Asia, and not to Europe, as the country where we must look for 
 the origin of this mysterious people ; and it is there, I am con- 
 vinced, if anywhere, that the solution of our difficulties with 
 regard to this phase of North American civilization is to be 
 found. 
 
 Central America. 
 
 When we advance a little farther south, we meet in Mexico and 
 Yucatan with phenomena which are the exact converse of those 
 in Ohio and Wisconsin. There everything is in stone ; earth either 
 
518 AMERICA. Chap. XIV 
 
 never being - used, or, if employed at all, it was only as a core to what 
 was faced or intended to be faced with the more durable material. 
 There is one fact, however, which takes the Mexican monuments 
 entirely out of the category of the works contemplated in this 
 book. All the stones in Central America are carved. So far 
 as is known, no rude stones were ever set up there, even the 
 obelisks which stand alone, and look most like our menhirs in 
 outline, are, like the Babas of the Steppes, all carved, most of 
 them elaborately ; and though it may be true that they may, 
 at some remote period, have been derived from some such rude 
 originals as are found in Europe, still till we find some traces 
 of these in Central America they cannot be said to belong to 
 the class of monuments of which we are now treating; nor can 
 they be used as affording any analogies or illustrations which it 
 would be worth while citing in this place. 
 
 Peru. 
 
 The same remarks apply to what we find in Peru with equal 
 force, but not with equal distinctness. No one will, I presume, 
 contend that there was any direct communication between Europe 
 and the west coast of South America before the time of 
 Columbus. Yet there are similarities between the masonry 
 of the Peruvian monuments and those of the Pelasgi in Greece 
 and Tyrrheni in Italy which are most striking, and can only be 
 accounted for, at present, on the assumption that nations in the 
 same stage of civilization, and using similar materials, arrive 
 nearly at the same results. Perhaps we ought to add to this, 
 provided they have some taint of the same blood in their veins; 
 and that, in this case, does not seem absolutely improbable. 
 
 13e this as it may, there are, so far as I know, no rude-stone 
 monuments in Southern America. The ruins, for instance, of 
 Tia Huanaco, which have often been quoted for their similarity 
 to " Druidical remains," are as far removed as possible from that 
 category. It is true that there are rows of squared stones that 
 now stand apart, and in imperfect drawings look like our menhirs 
 enclosing a square or circular space. In reality, however, as we 
 learn from photographs, they are carefully squared stones, which 
 
Chap. XIV. PERU. 519 
 
 formed pilasters in walls constructed with Adobes, or imperfectly 
 burned bricks, or smaller stones which have been removed. 1 The 
 doorways which led into this enclosure are hewn out of a single 
 block of stone, and are more carefully cut and polished than any- 
 thing else to be found anywhere out of Egypt, and there only in 
 the best days of her great Pharaohs. 
 
 The same remarks may apply to the circles and squares illus- 
 trated by Mr. Squier. 2 I may be mistaken, but my impression 
 is that like Houel's Druidical circles in Gozo, above alluded to, they 
 are only the foundation courses of square and circular buildings, 
 the upper parts of which have perished. At all events, till they 
 are excavated, or some traditional or real use is found for them, 
 I should be very unwilling to base any argument on their acci- 
 dental similarity with our stone circles. 
 
 There can be no doubt that these earthen mounds and 
 primitive carved stones of the American continent form in them- 
 selves a most interesting group of monuments, well deserving 
 more attention than has yet been bestowed upon them, and that, 
 when properly investigated, they will throw more light on the 
 origin and migrations of the various aboriginal races of that 
 country than can be expected from any other source. They are 
 not, however, of the class we are treating of, nor do they seem 
 to have any direct connexion with those of the Old World. As, 
 besides this, their examination does not promise to solve any of 
 our difficulties, they do not necessarily occupy an extended space 
 in a work devoted to the elucidation of the Use and Age of Eude- 
 Stone Monuments. 
 
 1 ' History of Architecture,' by the Author, vol. ii. pp. 774 et seqq. 
 
 2 ' The American Naturalist,' iv., March, 1870, figures 1, 8, and 9. 
 
 •Appendix. 
 
( 520 ) 
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 {Re/erred to, 'page 225.) 
 
 DUNMINNING, GLARRYFORD, Co. ANTRIM, 
 
 August 18, 1871. 
 My dear Sir, — I was unable to get to Glen Colurnbkille till this week, 
 and I am afraid that I shall be too late to be of use to you. As, how- 
 ever, I did not forget to examine the monuments, I send the notes I 
 made on them. All were written down at the stones themselves. 
 Glen Columbkille is about 4 miles long and 3 broad. Its eastern 
 boundary is a steep rocky mountain, from which the floor of the glen 
 slopes down to the sea, and ends westward in Glen Bay. Glen Bay 
 is of considerable width from its southern point, Bossan, to its northern, 
 Glen Head, but it has only a short beach. There is also a dangerous 
 bar, so that it is an almost impossible landing-place except for curraghs, 
 and in smooth weather for boats. The north side of Glen Columb- 
 kille is rocky and steep, and is chiefly formed by the mountain 
 Ballard. The south side, though in parts precipitous, and nowhere 
 a very gradual slope, is not so steep as its opposite. The coast south 
 and north of Glen Bay for miles is a range of cliffs, of from 1900 to 
 100 feet, with here and there a small beach, but no safe landing-places. 
 South of Glen Columbkille is a smaller and shallower valley, Glen 
 Malin. The sides of Glen Malin are all gradual ; its coast is preci- 
 pitous ; on the south it is bounded by a mountain of large base, Leathan. 
 Both Glen Columbkille and Glen Malin are in the parish of Glen 
 Columbkille and barony of Banagh. Most of the great stone struc- 
 tures are in Glen Malin. 
 
 The monuments are of three kinds : (1) cromlechs ; 1 (2) stone 
 chambers ; (3) solitary stones. They are in groups of various size 
 and compactness. There are five distinct groups, a considerable dis- 
 tance apart, and with no apparent connexion of arrangement. Three 
 groups are on the north and two on the south side of the glen. The 
 istones in each have been more or less disturbed, and have been made 
 to serve in lime-kilns and byres and as malt stores. While examining 
 one set, I felt my foot sink, and, lifting the edge of a piece of heather, 
 found an excavation filled with barle}*, soaking. On getting into 
 another cavity, I found two black lambs inside, and in another some 
 pigs, in another calves. The most remarkable general feature of the 
 architecture that I noticed was that the stones in each group were 
 much of a size, but that in some groups they were a good deal larger 
 
 1 Throughout this paper Mr. Moore uses the term " Cromlech," as is usually done 
 by English antiquaries, in the sense in which "Dolmen" is employed in the body 
 
 of the work. 
 
A pp. A. 
 
 GLEN COLUMBKILLE. 
 
 521 
 
 than in others. I shall speak of the groups as they are marked by 
 letters in a plan I made for my own use on the spot. 
 
 D. This group, which is that nearest the sea on the south side 
 of the river, consists of six cromlechs, arranged in line, with con- 
 siderable intervals. A few yards west of this group are several 
 mounds of stones with some large blocks amongst them, but no blocks 
 more than 4 feet long. These extend for some 50 yards in line from 
 west to east. A few yards above them is a large pile of stones, in 
 the midst of which is a stone 6 feet high and 3 feet wide. These 
 heaps have been augmented by stones collected from the fields, but 
 I think there are indications that they were originally of the nature 
 of the cromlechs. 
 
 There are six cromlechs, and from the first the other five are in 
 sight. The line in which they are placed along the glen side is not 
 quite straight. The westernmost cromlech is some yards south of 
 the others, and the west to east line is not exact with regard to the 
 others, but is nowhere so much departed from as with the first pile. 
 The first is about half a mile from the sea. I shall describe them 
 from west to east. 
 
 I. This was a cromlech of five huge stones and a top. The top 
 stone has fallen to westward, and the uprights are all somewhat dis- 
 placed. Three of the upright stones are still erect ; two are fallen, 
 but not quite' to the ground. At the west end are some smaller blocks 
 and another slab. These are hidden by small stones and earth ; I 
 think there were two support stones and a slab. After examining 
 all the monuments of the two glens, I came to the conclusion that 
 this (D I.) was a cromlech with a stone chamber beside it. There 
 is a space 2 feet 6 inches wide be- 
 tween the two tallest uprights. The 
 annexed plan shows the arrange- 
 ment of the uprights. The top slab 
 has fallen over e ; d and e are fallen ; 
 a, b, and c are upright, but slant more 
 or less. The dimensions are : — 
 
 v-EB-e) 
 
 228. Plan of the Uprights of Cromlech D I. 
 
 Ft. In. 
 
 (a) Height 12 9 
 
 Breadth 9 4 
 
 Thickness .. (about) 3 
 
 Widest girth . . . . 23 
 
 (b) Height 7 5 
 
 Brealth 4 3 
 
 Thickness 2 
 
 (c) Height .. ' 7 
 
 Breadth 2 10 
 
 Thickness 10 
 
 (d) Length 10 
 
 Breadth 5 
 
 Thickness 2 
 
 (e) Length . . 7 
 
 (a) slants somewhat to westward ; the 
 height from its tip to the ground is 10 feet 
 2 inches. 
 
 (&) from tip perpendicular the height 
 is 6 feet 6 inches. 
 
 (e) is hard to measure* as it lies under 
 earth, stones, and the top slab. 
 
522 GLEN COLUMBKILLE. Arp. A. 
 
 All these are of a gritty stone, veined with quai tz, a rock plentiful 
 in Sliabh Liag, Sliabh Leathan, and the cliffs of the coast. Their 
 shape is rugged. 
 
 The top slab is of pure quartz. It is about a foot thick, and is 
 smooth on both sides. This sort of stone splits with a smooth 
 surface, as may be seen on Sliabh Liag and in some of the cliffs. 
 The slab is a tolerably regular oblong, 9 feet 8 inches by 6 feet 
 6 inches. The smaller slab alluded to above, and which was, I think, 
 the top of the chamber, is about 6 feet by 3 feet. 
 
 D II. lies about 40 feet east of D I. It, too, is a cromlech, but 
 the stones of which it is built are of smaller size than those of D I. 
 There are no traces of a chamber, but otherwise it is constructed as 
 D I. The highest standing stone is 4 feet high. There seem to have 
 been five uprights. The top slab has fallen to the west side. It 
 measures 6 feet 3 inches by 5 feet. 
 
 D III. is situate 55 feet east of D II. It is a cromlech of five 
 .. uprights and one slab. One upright only is erect now. 
 
 ~ \> Its height is 5 feet, its width 3 feet. The slab which was 
 
 <yv-^j <^ atop is 8 feet by 7 feet, and averages 2 feet in thickness. 
 
 D IV. is 31 feet east of D III. It is a small-sized 
 
 229. Plan show- 
 ing the actual cromlech. The uprights are all fallen. The slab mea- 
 
 stones of d sures 6 feet 8 inches by 6 feet. A series of low mounds 
 
 with large stones sticking out here and there forms a sort 
 
 of connexion with the next cromlech, which stands 48 feet farther east. 
 
 D V. Its slab has fallen to eastward, and the uprights in several 
 directions. The tallest upright is 6 feet high. The slab is of quartz, 
 and measures 10 feet by 7 feet, and is about 13 inches thick. Around 
 this cromlech are numbers of loose stones. They are from 1 foot to 
 2 feet long, and are of mica-schist and quartz. They are not such as 
 would be picked off the meadow, and seem to have been in some way 
 connected with the cromlech. 
 
 D VI. stands 96 feet farther east. It is a very large cromlech. 
 
 It is a good deal fallen ; all the stones of which it is built have more 
 
 CSaven stones in an.) or l ess the character of slabs. It is used as one side 
 
 « of a respectable byre. One great smooth piece of 
 
 *-t-*0 ^ \\ quartz seems to have been the roof. It measures 
 
 0c2<0 > 18 *" eet 7 ^ ncnes hy 11 feet. The biggest of the 
 
 •»3o Plan rexci Top fc t° nes seems to have formed the east wall of the 
 
 Slab). chamber. Its dimensions are 12 feet by 14 feet, and 
 
 it is 4 feet thick. I took the dimensions of three others : — 1. Length 
 
 5 feet 6 inches, width 4 feet; 2. Length 11 feet, width 8 feet; 3. 
 
 Length 9 feet, width 3 feet, thickness 3 feet. 
 
 From the flat nature of the component stones, the chamber inside 
 would have had few gaps in its walls. Near this cromlech is a low 
 stony mound. 
 
 From a few yards east of D VI. a ridge runs slantwise up the side 
 
App. a. glen malin. 523 
 
 of Leathan. Many stones stick up out of it, but I could make out 
 no arrangement. The highest projecting stone is not 4 feet high. 
 This ridge is about a quarter of a mile long. It might be natural, 
 but it has very much the look of a human work. Some 150 yards up 
 the ridge I noticed a slab projecting from the heather. It might 
 possibly be the top of a chamber, of which the walls are beneath the 
 earth. This seeming road does not lead to another group of stones, 
 but disappears a short way up the mountain side. Near the moun- 
 tain top there is a small bare cliff, the only bare bit of rock on the 
 otherwise smooth slopes of Leathan. The rock exposed is quartz, and 
 the position of the little cliff leads one at a glance to imagine that 
 it may have been the quarry whence the slabs were brought. In 
 this case the ridge may have been the road down the mountain. 
 When one goes up to the crag, it looks less like a quarry than from 
 below, but at the same time I could perceive no geological reason 
 for the exposure of so small a surface of rock. 
 
 Some distance up Glen Malin, and on the same side of the river as 
 D, but not in sight from it, is another group, E, of stone monuments. 
 
 The large stones of this group are surrounded by numbers of 
 rough, weather-worn stone blocks, averaging 2 feet in length. The 
 monuments seem to be all cromlechs or chambers, and, as far as I 
 could tell, are about a dozen in number. One cromlech stands a good 
 deal higher than the rest. West of it are two stony mounds ; these 
 seem to have been chambers. They are built of long flat slabs, with 
 similar slabs at the ends and top. 
 
 E DO C3 CD °" Eastmost one. 
 
 □ CH □ a a C=T? 6 - Highest. 
 
 d c 6 c, d. Mounds. 
 
 231. Plan of the Arrangement of the Cromlechs of Group E. 
 
 The ground bevond the cromlechs is moorland, and without loose 
 stones. The stony area is oval, and measures east to west 130 feet, 
 north to south 50 to 60 feet. 
 
 All the cromlechs are about the same size. In the construction of 
 all, the aim seems to have been a well shut-in chamber. The eastern- 
 most one is a chamber 9 feet 10 inches long. At each end it has a 
 flat stone 3 feet high. The side stones are 7* feet long and 3 feet 
 high. The width of the chamber is 4 feet 6 inches. At each side, 
 and at each end, are heaps of loose small stones. The top slab is about 
 1 foot thick, and is almost a square of 9 feet. 
 
 On the north side of Glen Malin, there are three groups : — 
 
 A. This, which is the group furthest from the sea, is- of five or six 
 cromlechs, but only one is in good preservation. It consists of a slab 
 resting on four flat blocks, and encloses a chamber. The side stones 
 are each 5 feet 8 inches long. This group stands on ,a small flat 
 
524 GLEN MALIN. App. A. 
 
 piece of ground below a crag and above a stream. Loading from the 
 chamber there seems to have been a passage, the sides of which were 
 formed of slabs of stone, of which a few remain. 
 
 Some distance lower down the glen, on the north side, is a solitary- 
 pointed stone. It is 6 feet 1 inch high, and its girth is 5 feet 5 inches. 
 Higher on the slope by 110 feet, and 18 feet farther west, group B 
 begins. 
 
 B. The first of this group is a chamber cromlech. It is much 
 buried in the heather. Some loose stones lie around the cromlech. 
 What seems to have been the top slab is 10 feet across and nearly 
 square, and 2 feet thick. One of the side slabs of the chamber is 
 10 feet 8 inches by 4 feet. The tallest stone is at the east end, and 
 is in height 6 feet 8 inches. Lower down the slope, below this 
 cromlech, are several low mounds, from which there are no pro- 
 jecting stones ; 200 yards west in a straight line is a huge cromlech. 
 It seems to have consisted of a gigantic slab, supported on three 
 upright stones, not forming a closed chamber. The top slab is still 
 on its supports; it is 3 feet thick, and measures 13 feet by 10 feet 
 9 inches. The tallest of the uprights is 9 feet high, and is rather 
 pointed at top. The third upright seems to have been broken into 
 several pieces. Some 10 yards from this is another cromlech of equal 
 dimensions, and a little south of these several large loose stones are 
 lying on the ground. Forty yards west is a chamber cromlech of small 
 dimensions, and near it are many mounds with stones projecting, 
 possibly artificial. 
 
 C. This group is some distance farther down on the same side of 
 the glen ; it consists of two cromlechs, separated by a short ridge, 
 so that I think they are really parts of one structure. The eastern 
 part is fallen ; it consists of three uprights and a top slab. The 
 western part consists of two stones leaning gablewise against one 
 another. Between the two there is a short ridge, from which several 
 stones stick out. Each of the western pair of stones is about 7 feet 
 high by 6 feet broad. The dimensions of the eastern part of the 
 monument are : — Top slab, 11 feet by 7 feet ; thickness, lj foot. Up- 
 rights : (a) 8 feet (and I think 2 feet below ground) by 7 feet 7 
 inches broad ; 2 feet 3 inches thick, (b) 9 feet 6 inches by 2 feet 
 8 inches ; thickness 2 feet 5 inches, (c) 9 feet 6 inches by 3 feet 
 5 inches ; thickness, 1 foot 9 inches. 
 
 The other groups do not command remarkablo prospects, but from this 
 last group there is a fine view of the sea, with the island of Eathlin 
 O'Beirne close below, and beyond the mountainous coast line of Mayo 
 as far as Belmullet. 
 
 So far the stone monuments of Glen Malin. 
 
 In Glen Columbkille is but one group. It stands in the townland of 
 Farn MacBride, on the north side of the glen, and at the foot of the 
 mountain Ballard. Its monuments are all of the chamber kind. The 
 
App. A. CALLIAGH BIRRA'S tomb. 525 
 
 chambers are made of huge slabs, one at each, side, one atop, one at each 
 end. I measured one, and found the sides each 12 feet long and 4 feet 
 broad. Most of the monuments project but little above the ground. One 
 is used to keep calves in, one for pigs, and one for lambs. A native of 
 the townland told me that his brother bad dug up a skull and a piece 
 of earthenware near one of the cromlechs. The skull was buried in 
 the churchyard, and its grave is forgotten. The same man also told 
 me that, digging to clear a cromlech for a malt-store, they found that 
 the side slabs rested on a basement slab. The ground is very rugged 
 about these monuments, and some are quite beneath ground, but I 
 think there are altogether six. 
 
 I hope that, if these notes are too late to be of use for your book, 
 they may yet be of some interest to you, and 
 
 I remain, my dear Sir, yours sincerely, 
 
 Norman Moore. 
 James Fergusson, Esq. 
 
 On receiving the above communication, I forwarded to Mr. 
 Moore an impression of the woodcut No. 80, representing Calliagh 
 Birra's Tomb or House, and received the following reply : — 
 
 DuNMINNING, GlAEETFOBD, Co. ANTRIM, 
 
 August 28, 1871. 
 My dear Sir, — The cromlechs of Farn MacBride, as they stand 
 apparently undisturbed, exactly resemble in plan that depicted in 
 the woodcut. With one or two exceptions the cromlechs of Glen 
 Malin, as far as one can tell in their fallen condition, are built on 
 the same plan. The shape of the stones at the sides and of the 
 top slabs of the cromlech in the engraving is exactly the shape of 
 the stones of the cromlechs in both Glen Malin and Earn MacBride. 
 In one or two of the cromlechs I noticed stones which might corre- 
 spond to the buttress-like outside stones of the ground-plan in the cut. 
 
 The number of slabs in the side walls of the Glen cromlechs is 
 smaller than the number in the woodcut. 
 
 The very large cromlech, easternmost of the group the first described 
 in my letter, is in every particular, except the number of its com- 
 ponent blocks, the counterpart of your engraving. 
 
 In fine, the plan of all the cromlechs of Glen Columbkille, except 
 one or two, the variety of which may be owing to disarrangement, is 
 that of the Meath cromlech. 
 
 Norman Moore. 
 
526 THE DIGGINGS IN ODEN'S HOWE. App. B. 
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 The Diggings in Oden's Howe, &c. Gamla, Upsala, 1846-7. 
 
 These diggings were conducted by TJiks Antiquary B. E. Hildebrand 
 
 and Lieut.-Colonel Stat, chiefly in the clays of August-September, 1846, 
 and June 7-22, 1847. The only printed notices thereon appeared 
 at the time, chiefly from the pen of B. E. Hildebrand, in the Upsala 
 paper ' Correspondenten,' Nob. 75,77, 79— September 12, 19, 26, 1846, 
 and Nos. 50, 53— June 23 and July 3, 1847. 
 
 1. 'Correspondenten,' September 12, 1846. — Diggings going on, 
 but prove more laborious than had been expected. 
 
 2. 'Correspondenten,' September 19, 1846. — A boarded gallery 7 
 Swedish feet 5 inches high and 5 feet broad has been constructed from 
 the east side of the ho we (Oden's Howe, the largest of the three so- 
 called King-howes), towards the centre. After penetrating 68 feet 
 (20 met.), a mighty wall of granite blocks was struck, probably a 
 grave-chamber. The gently rising gallery abuts on the lowest stones 
 of the chamber. During the diggings have been found unburnt animal 
 bones, bits of dark wood, charcoal, burnt bones, &c. Thus this was 
 evidently a sepulchral mound. The name King-howes is evidently 
 correct. Diggings have also been made in the smaller cairns near by, 
 and although they have been opened before, burial-urns have been 
 found, burnt human bones, bones of animals and birds, bits of iron 
 and bronze, &c. 
 
 3. 'Correspondenten,' September 26, 1846. — The great wall has 
 proved to be the edge of a mighty chamber. Between 200 and 300 
 large granite blocks have been taken out. Some of them have traces 
 of tooling. The gallery has been carried 16 Swedish feet through 
 the stone mass, which lies on hard packed clay, over a layer of fine 
 sand, resting on large stones above the natural soil. At the middle 
 of the howe the grave-chamber is 9 feet above the level of the soil, 
 18 feet under the top of the howe. On the bed of clay under the 
 great stones have been found an iron clinker 3 inches long, remains 
 of pine poles partly burnt, a lock of hair chestnut coloured, &c. The 
 numerous clusters of charcoal show that the dead had been burned 
 on the layer of clay, and the bones have been collected in an urn 
 not jet found. In one of the nearest small hovves have been found a 
 quantity of burnt animal and human bones, two little-injured bronze 
 biooches, a fragment of a golden ornament, &c. 
 
App. C. ANTIQUITIES OF CAITHNESS. 527 
 
 4. ' Correspondenten,' June 23, 1847. — The burial-urn has been 
 found in the grave-chainber. Also have turned up bones of men, 
 horses, dogs, a golden ornament delicately worked, a bone comb, 
 bone buttons, &c. 
 
 5. ' Correspondenten,' July 3, 1847. — The gallery has been driven 
 4 feet farther, thereafter has been made a side galleiy, 8g feet wide 
 and 8 feet long, up to the burial-urn. This was found 3 inches under 
 the soil, and was covered with a thin slab. It was 7 inches high, 9 
 inches in diameter, filled with burnt bones, human and animal (horse, 
 dog, &c), ashes, charcoal (of needle and leaf trees), nails, copper 
 ornaments, bone articles, a bird of bone, &c. In the mass of charcoal 
 about were found bones, broken ornaments, bits of two golden brac- 
 teates, &c. Coins of King Oscar were then placed in the urn, and 
 everything restored as before. 
 
 Frey's Howe was opened, and showed the same results. 
 
 The gallery remained for some years, and was visited by thousands 
 of persons, but afterwards fell in, and the howe is now inaccessible. 
 
 Carl Save. 
 Upsala, March 1, 1871. 
 
 APPENDIX C. 
 
 Since the sheets containing the account of the Scottish monuments 
 were printed off, I have received from Sir Henry Dryden slips of 
 two letters which he addressed to the editor of the John o Groat's 
 Journal, giving an account of some explorations he had made in 
 Caithness during this autumn. One of these contains an account 
 of certain chapels, brochs, and circles he had examined. The first 
 two classes do not concern us here, and are therefore omitted ; 
 but the circles are of interest as probably belonging to the same 
 category as those in the Orkneys, and the description of them is 
 consequently printed with the other letter, which gives an account 
 of four alignments which are so germane to our subject that Sir 
 Henry's description is printed in extenso. The name of the first, 
 " The Battle Moss, Yarhouse," is of itself singularly suggestive, 
 and I have little doubt that, if properly inquired into, the peasantry 
 could tell what battle was fought there, and what, consequently, 
 
528 
 
 ANTIQUITIES OF CAITHNESS. 
 
 App. C. 
 
 these Hues were erected to commemorate. Taken in conjunction 
 with the horned cairns described l>y Mr. Anderson, 1 and the circles, 
 
 it does not seem to me doubt- 
 ful that the whole of this 
 Caithness group belongs to 
 the tenth century. The 
 circles, and especially the 
 horned cairns, are the exact 
 counterparts of the fanciful 
 forms of the Viking graves 
 found at Hjortehammer 
 (woodcut No. 118) and else- 
 where in Scandinavia, which 
 resemble them in more re- 
 spects than one, and the align- 
 ments are such as those at 
 Ashdown (woodcut No. 28). 
 Nor need we go far for the 
 events they commemorate. 
 Between the years 970 and 
 996, a.d., two great battles, at least, are recorded to have taken 
 place in Caithness, between the sons of Thorfin, and between Liotr, 
 the victor of the first fight, and the Scots, who in vain attempted 
 to avenge the death of Skiuli ; and besides these there may have 
 been many subordinate frays. It is probable that both brothers 
 were buried in Caithness, and we are distinctly told that Laudver, 
 the last surviving son of Thorfin, was certainly buried there. 2 
 
 The fact of these alignments and horned cairns and semicircles 
 being unlike what is found elsewhere in Scotland, separates this 
 group from anything existing further south. Their similarity to 
 the Viking graves of Scandinavia, avowedly of the tenth century, 
 points to an age from which they cannot be distant ; and when it 
 is recollected that Caithness in the tenth century formed part of 
 the Orcadian Jarlclom, it does not seem that we have far to seek 
 for an authentic explanation of all we find in that remote corner 
 of the isle. j p 
 
 Hurried Cairn, Caithness. 
 
 1 ' Proceedings Soc. Ant. Scot.,' vii. 480 et seqq. 
 
 2 ' Barry's History of Orkney,' pp. 125-129. 
 
App. C. ANTIQUITIES OF CAITHNESS. 529 
 
 LETTEE FKOM SIE H. DEYDEN, Bart., 
 
 TO THE 
 
 Editor of the ' John o' Groat's Journal.' 
 
 Lines, Battle Moss, Yakhouse. Lines and Cist, Garry Whin. Lines, 
 " Many Stones," Cltth. Lines, Camster. Circle (?) Achanloch. Circle, 
 Ghidebest, Latheeonwheel. 
 
 Groups of Lines. 
 
 I am not aware of any similar groups in Great Britain, though no 
 doubt there are some, and have no books at hand to refer to any in 
 Denmark, Norway, or Sweden. The groups of lines in France (of far 
 larger stones and greater length than those in Caithness) have the 
 largest stones and widest intervals and the highest ground (the heads) 
 to the west or thereabouts, and the smallest stones and narrowest inter- 
 vals and lowest ground (the tails) to the east or thereabouts. The 
 Caithness groups differ entirely in principle. The one at Yarhouse 
 Loch runs north and south, does not radiate, and is on nearly level 
 ground ; but the three others have the narrower intervals and higher 
 ground to the north (which end we may call the head), and radiate 
 towards the south and lower ground. The group at Battlemoss, near 
 Yarhouse, is on ground falling slightly to north-west. It consists of 
 eight lines placed north and south. The width at the south end is 
 forty -four feet. The lines are somewhat irregular, and appear to 
 radiate slightly towards the north, but this is uncertain. One line 
 extends 384 feet, and another one 170 feet, but the remaining six now 
 only extend 133 feet. The ground is covered with peat and heather, 
 and other stones may be hidden below the surface. There is no cairn 
 or other grave now visible in proximity to the lines. The largest 
 stones are about 2 feet 6 inches high, 2 feet 6 inches wide, and 1 foot 
 3 inches thick. 
 
 The group at Garrywhin consists of six lines. The whole width at 
 the head (north-east end) is 50 feet, and at the bottom 107 feet. The 
 central line bears N.N.E. or S.S.W. The length of this line is 200 
 feet. The fall is 20 feet to the S.S.W. At the head is a cist of slabs 
 3 feet 6 inches by 2 feet 6 inches, and 2 feet 4 inches deep, placed 
 east and west. As this grave is on the highest point of the knoll, and 
 as the lines commence at it, it is fair to presume that they are con- 
 nected. In the cist were found ashes, pieces of pottery, and flint chips, 
 but no bones. As the cist is between the third and fourth lines, it is 
 fair to presume that there never were more than six lines. 
 
 The group called " Many Stones" has the head on the top of a knoll, 
 from which the ground falls on all sides. The lines are on the south 
 
 2 M 
 
530 ANTIQUITIES OF CAITHNESS. App. C. 
 
 slope, and are 22 in number. The width at the head or north end is 
 118 feet, and at the bottom is 188 feet. The length in the centre 
 is 145 feet, but there is no proof that this was the original length, 
 and the presumption is the reverse. The average bearing is north and 
 south, and the fall 10 feet 3 inches. The largest stones now remaining 
 are about 3 feet high, 3 feet wide, and 1 foot 6 inches thick. There are 
 numerous blocks of stone lying about the head, where, however, the 
 rock is exposed, but the example of Garrywhin makes it probable that 
 a cairn once existed on this knoll. There are no traces of any sunk 
 grave, but the cairn may have contained a chamber above ground, like 
 inairy in the vicinity. 
 
 The group at Canister is on the moor, on ground falling slightly to 
 the south-west. A considerable depth of peat overlies the rock here, 
 and many stones are below the surface. There are now six lines ascer- 
 tained. The length is 105 feet, width at the head or north end 30 feet, 
 and at the tail or lower end 53 feet. The average bearing is north and 
 south. The stones are smaller than at the last mentioned group. 
 There is no cairn or other grave apparent close to these lines, but in a 
 direction due north, at 346 feet, is a chambered cairn. No stones are 
 now traceable between ; but as there are gaps in the lines themselves, 
 this blank interval may once have had lines on it to connect the cairn 
 with the existing group. No habitation now exists near the spot, but 
 there were many in this strath, which may account for destruction of 
 stones in former times. A few hundred feet farther north is the huge 
 horned cairn described by Mr. Anderson, and at 436 feet N.N.E. from 
 the small cairn is the round chambered cairn described in the same 
 paper. 
 
 Cjrcle at Achanloch, Estate of Forse, in Parish of Latheron. 
 
 The name is spelt Achinloch and Auchinleck. These no doubt are 
 wrong, and probably the name is derived from Gaelic words signifying 
 " The Field at the Loch," or " The Field of the Stones," from these 
 standing stones. The place is close to the new road from Lybster to 
 Thurso. This series of standing-stones, entitled " circle," as a class- 
 name, is in the form of a donkey's shoe, the length being N.N.W, 
 and S.S.E., the open end to the latter. The sides are nearly parallel. 
 The area is covered with heather and peat, on a substratum of rock 
 of the slaty character common to the district. The ground falls 
 from the area to the west, north, and east. In the latter direction, 
 the ground falls only for a short distance, and then rises to much 
 higher ground. On the north-east, at 700 feet or 800 feet, is the loch 
 of Stemster. 
 
 There is no evidence that the two south ends were ever joined by a 
 straight or curved line of stones ; and as the sides are of equal length, 
 we may infer that they never were joined, though possibly intended 
 
App. C. ANTIQUITIES OF CAITHNESS. 531 
 
 to be so. The highest point of the area is about 13 feet above the 
 hollow on the east. This donkey-shoe-shaped series of stones is 226 
 feet long, and 110 feet wide in the middle, inside measure. The two 
 extremities are 85 feet 3 inches apart. 
 
 There are now 36 stones existing, of which only one is down ; but 
 by filling up intervals at usual distances, it appears there were 54 
 stones, supposing the lower end vacant as now. The average interval 
 seems to have been 8 feet. The highest stone is 5 feet 7 inches high 
 above ground ; the widest 5 feet 4 inches ; and the thickest 1 f jot 
 7 inches. 
 
 All these stones are of a slaty character, and have their sides 
 parallel, so that in width (long sides) they are generally three or four 
 times their thickness (short sides). But the singular characteristic of 
 this series is that the stones are set with their long sides at right 
 angles to the curve, projecting like cogs of a wheel. 
 
 In many circles some or all of the stones have no decided difference 
 in the measures of width and thickness ; but in all cases, when I have 
 found a difference, the long sides are in the line of the curve. 
 
 Any notice of an arrangement similar to that at Achanloch would be 
 a favour. 
 
 There is no appearance of any part of the area having been disturbed 
 for burial or other purposes. There is a ruin of a chambered cairn 
 south-east of the circle; and in the loch of Eangag, about a mile west, 
 is the remain of a brough. 
 
 Circle at Guidebest, Latheronavheel, Parish of Latheron - . 
 
 The place is on the north bank of the burn, one mile and a half up 
 the strath. The circle is nearly true in form, and though now imper- 
 fect, doubtless was once complete. It is 170 feet in diameter. The 
 area is flat, covered with heather and peat, on a substratum of rock in 
 some places, and of alluvial gravel in others. It is 15 feet above the 
 brook, which has washed away the cliff very close up to the south- 
 west stone, and appears likely, unless prevented, to dislocate the stones 
 on that side. 
 
 There are now only seven stones existing — all erect — and by filling 
 up the gaps at usual distances there were thirteen stones. The average 
 interval seems to have been 45 feet. The highest stone is 5 feet 
 3 inches above ground ; the widest 3 feet 2 inches ; and the thickest 
 1 foot 10 inches. The stone is of the common argillaceous slate of the 
 district. 
 
 The stones are nearer square or circular in plan than those at 
 Achanloch, but (so far as they can be) are all set with the long sides 
 to the curve. The south stone is a little beyond the line of the circle, 
 but is evidently a moved and erected stone. 
 
 2 m 2 
 
532 
 
 ANTIQUITIES OF CAITHNESS. 
 
 Apr. C. 
 
 There are numbers of stones lying about the area ; but no evidence 
 of a cairn or other burial-place in or near the circle. From its soil, and 
 the absence of remains, it was probably not sepulchral, though some 
 antiquaries hold that all circles are sepulchral. 
 
 Lower down the strath on the same side of the brook were many- 
 circles which were destroyed in "improving" the land some years 
 ago. These are stated to have been 20 or 30 yards across, of stones 
 2 feet to 4 feet high. No remains are known to have been found in 
 them ; but no observations or measures were made. It is probable 
 that these circles were sepulchral — the absence of stones in the centres 
 notwithstanding. Nearer the road and shore are other remains of 
 broughs, cairns, cists, &c. 
 
 I remain your obedient servant, 
 
 H. Dkydek, 
 
 Hon. Mem. of the Soc. of Antiquaries of Scotland. 
 
 Caithness, September 21, 1871. 
 
 ii near Bona, Algeria. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 ABBEVILLE. 
 
 AMERICA. 
 
 Abbeville, museum at, 16. 
 
 Abbot Millitus, Pope Gregory's letter to, 
 21. 
 
 Abd en Nar and Abd en Nour, 404. 
 
 Aberdeenshire circles, 202 et seq. 
 
 Aberleromo, stone at, with cross, 268; 
 date, 270 ; memorial of what, 270. 
 
 Abraham, stone set up by, 438. 
 
 Ac, import of termination, 329, 330 ; its 
 prevalence in West of France, 329 ; 
 its coincidence with dolmens, 329 ; its 
 occurrence in West of England, 330 ; 
 names of cities with this termination 
 in France, 328, 376. 
 
 Achemloek circle, 530. 
 
 Addington, groups at, 118; circles at, 
 119. See Aylesford. 
 
 Adil, Swedish king, defeats Snio, 279. 
 
 Africa. See Algeria, Tripoli. Its monu- 
 ments may furnish key to solution of 
 mysterious questions. 414. 
 
 African prince mentioned by Asoka, 498. 
 
 Age between exodus of Romans and 
 Alfred, darkness of, 113-4 ; stones more 
 eloquent than books then, 114. 
 
 Agra, tomb of Akbar at, 496. 
 
 Agricola, 20. 
 
 Ahmedabad, city of, 457. 
 
 Aix la (Jhapelle, decree of, 25. 
 
 Ajimta, importance of Vihara at. 501. 
 
 Akbar, sovereign of India, 459 ; tomb of, 
 47, 496. 
 
 Alajor, Talyot at, 435. 
 
 Aleutian Islands, route of peoplers of 
 America, 516. 
 
 Alexander mentioned in edict of Indian 
 prince, 49S. 
 
 Alfred, 23-4 ; his victory at Ashdown, 
 123 ; how commemorated, 123. 
 
 Alaska, Hydahs in, 18. 
 
 Alentejo, dolmen in, 378. 
 
 Algeria, no Druids in, 6 ; long ignorance 
 as to its numerous dolmens, 395 ; re- 
 searches of Messrs. Ehind, Christy, and 
 M. Fe'raud, 395; Bou Moursug, 395; 
 Setif, 396 ; Tiaret, 397 ; Tripoli, 397 ; 
 their ordinary position, 397; Bazinas, 
 397 ; Chouchas, 398 ; dolmen on steps, 
 39S; tumuli with lines between, 399; 
 sepulchral stones, 399 ; plan and ele- 
 vation of African tumulus, 400; dolmen 
 with two circles, 400, 471 ; others on 
 road from Bona to Constantine, four 
 
 cairns enclosed in squares, 402; ana- 
 logy to examples in Sc mdihavia, 403 ; 
 age of Algerian examples, 403; of 
 what race, 403 ; Djidjeli, tombs near, 
 with circle, 404 ; find there, ib. ; 
 their age, ib. ; Sidi Kacem, dolmeu 
 near, and inscription, 405 ; circle near 
 Bona, 405 ; Algerian monuments con- 
 temporary with early Christians, 405- 
 6 ; their general age, 406 ; who erected 
 them, 406 et seq. ; date of, 403 ; com- 
 pared to Aveyron, 407. 
 
 Alignment, at Shap, 130 ; Carnac, Er- 
 deven, St. - Barbe, 354 et seq. ; two 
 heads, 354 ; singular head of column, 
 355 ; Crozon, Kerdouadec, Carmaret, 
 Leure, Gre de Cojou, 368 ; Preissac, 
 368; Stonehenge, why made, 1 10-1; 
 Sesto Calende, 391. See Avebury, 
 Avenues, Beckhampton, Caithness. 
 
 Alkil, Danish chief, 279. 
 
 Alle'es couvertes ou grottes des Fees in 
 France, 340 et seq., 358-9 ; at Loch- 
 mariaker, 365. 
 
 Alleth, battle at, 374. 
 
 Alphabetical writing, date of its intro- 
 duction into Ireland, 189, 196, 271; 
 interruption of use for ceuturies, 272. 
 
 Altars, 425. 
 
 Altmark, dolmen at, 301. 
 
 Alyattes, tomb of, 31. 
 
 Ambrius, convent of, 109. 
 
 Ambrosius Aurelius s.dd to have erected 
 Stonehenge, and why, 106; forces a 
 peace upon Saxons, 107. 
 
 America, North, Smithsonian Contribu- 
 tions to Knowledge ; survey of Messrs. 
 Squiers and Davis, 510 ; absence of 
 rude-stone monuments, ib. ; earth- 
 works, American peculiarity, 511 ; 
 enclosures for defence, extent of, ib. ; 
 inference from, ib. ; sacred enclosures, 
 peculiarity and number of, size and 
 form of enclosures, ib. ; Newark Works, 
 ib. ; whether residences of chiefs, 513 ; 
 conical mounds, mounds of sacrifice, 
 finds, ib. ; Grave Creek mound, 
 Miamisburgh mound, 514; temple 
 mounds compared to Teocallis of Mexi- 
 cans, ib. ; difficulty of distinguishing 
 between temple and palace, ib. ; were 
 the mounds not civil ? ib. ; animal 
 mounds, gigantic serpent form, doubt 
 
534 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 ARGYLLSHIRE. 
 
 whether animal ohject of worship, 515 ; 
 whether European emigrants account 
 for population of America, 517 ; way 
 of communication, 51b' ; material of 
 tools found in America, 517; Bedmen 
 and mound - builders distinguished, 
 these correspond with the " Hydahs,'' 
 517. 
 
 America, Central, and Pern, carved stone 
 monuments, 517-8 ; Peruvian compared 
 to those of Pelasgi and Tyrrlieni, 518 ; 
 no rude-stone monuments observed in 
 South America, ib. ; Tia Huanaco not 
 like so-called Druidical remains, ib. ; 
 circles and squares, 519. 
 
 American Indians non-progressive, 18. 
 
 Amesburv, Hengist's meeting with British 
 chiefs at, 107. 
 
 Anilaff, King, 253. 
 
 Amlech, or Hamlet, tomb of, 299. 
 
 Ainorites, dolmens in country of, and 
 perhaps nowhere else in Palestine, 412. 
 
 Amravati, arts of Bactria at, 156 ; sepul- 
 chral circles at, 474 ; tope and rail, 
 475, 493 ; representations of priests at, 
 501. 
 
 ' Ancient and Modern Wiltshire,' 5. 
 
 • Ancient English Castles,' Mr. Clark's, 84. 
 
 Andalusia, dolmens in, 378. 
 
 Anderson, Mr., horned cairns described 
 by, 52S. 
 
 Angles, see Saxons. 
 
 Anglesea, Druids in, 5; circles in, 162. 
 
 Anhalt dolmen, 301. 
 
 Animal mounds in America, 515 ; whether 
 of Chinese origin, 517 note. 
 
 ' Annals of the Four Musters,' 176, 187-8. 
 
 Anntmdale, 129; circle, see Woodeastle. 
 
 Antequera dolmen, 383. 
 
 Antigonus \ mentioned in edict of Asoka, 
 
 Antiochus J 498. 
 
 Antiquity, why caution necessary in 
 assigning, 144; of rude and polished 
 stone monuments, 508. 
 
 Antony, whether founder of Monasticism, 
 499. 
 
 Aquhorties circle, 263. 
 
 Aquitania in time of Ca3sar, 328 ; of 
 Augustus, 328 ; language of, unknown, 
 333 ; pressed upon by Celts, 409 ; 
 whether they migrated to Afri a, 410. 
 
 Aquitanians perhaps in Britain, 163, 
 238 ; and perhaps dolmen builders, 
 328 ; but few dolmens between Garonne 
 and Pyrenees, 328. 
 
 Arabia, rude-stone monuments in, 144 et 
 seq. 
 
 Arabs, their conquest of North Africa, 
 404; their feeling as to monasticism, 
 500. 
 
 Arboilowe. vallum and ditch of, 62. See 
 Derbyshire. 
 
 Archaeological Congress at Copenhagen, 
 10. 
 
 Arches not iu use amongst Hindus, but 
 Burmese, 45S. 
 
 Architecture, meagreness of historical 
 accounts of buildings between erection 
 of Parthenon and Henry VII.'s Chapel, 
 114; Irish, 221 et seq.; law of pro- 
 gressive development, 222 ; when in- 
 applicable, 222-3 ; sequence in monu- 
 ments of Ireland, 237-8; three styles 
 of three races perhaps simultaneous 
 there, 23S ; of monuments at Stennis, 
 255-6 ; differences of style of similar 
 monuments iu different countiies, 306 ; 
 sequence of style in dolmens, 335 ; 
 without drawings no words can describe 
 style, 334 ; peculiarity of church archi- 
 tecture in south dolmen region in 
 France, 332 ; Celtic, ib. ; similarity of 
 style no proof of synchronism, 369; 
 different examples compared, 369 ; in- 
 fluences of Eouian, 414 ; of Indian Art, 
 ib. ; of dolmens or nurhags and giants' 
 towers, which the older, 437; sequence 
 of style aud material in India, 456 et 
 seq. ; wood, stone imitation of wood 
 architecture, 456 ; Mahommedan 
 mosque built by Hindus, 457 ; arches 
 not used by Hindus, ib. ; ruins of 
 Ahmedabad, 457 ; Palitana, ib. ; 
 Burmah, Cambodia, 458; Hindu not 
 immutable, 459 ; Indian unprogressive 
 tribes, ib. ; rude and refined architec- 
 ture, co-existence of, in India, 482 ; 
 early crosses in India, of what date ? 
 486 et seq. ; appropriation by Roman- 
 ists of pugan forms, 489 ; connexion 
 of Singalee dagobas and sepulchral 
 tumuli, 491 ; Tee, what it repre- 
 sented, 490 ; wood and then stone 
 forms — rails, 492-3 ; styles of Eastern 
 and European dolmens compared, 
 494 ; points of similarity and dis- 
 similarity, 495 ; cists outside tu- 
 muli, holed slabs, simulated summit 
 cists, concentric enclosing circles, 496 
 et seq. ; use of stone imitated by rude 
 nations in Europe, from what na- 
 tions, 508 ; and in India from what 
 race, ib. ; when introduced in the 
 East in its rude form, and in its 
 polished form, ib. ; ditto in the West, 
 ib. ; age of introduction of tiunuli or 
 barrows unascertained, ib. ; as also of 
 Cave men and stone implements, ib. ; 
 uses sepulchral or cenotaphic, 51)9 ; or 
 for battlefield, or offerings to spirits of 
 the departed, ib. ; connexion with relics 
 of the dead, ib. ; whether dedicated to 
 God, sun or moon, &c, or serpents, ib. ; 
 twofold principle of erection of such 
 structures, ib. ; North America, 511 ; 
 civil and sacred, roy T al and monastic, 
 514; animal, gigantic earthen forms, 
 515. 
 
 Ard-na-Eaigh, place of execution, 233. 
 
 Ardeche, remains of Cave men in, 321. 
 
 Arfin, Prince of Norway, 250. 
 
 Argyllshire dolmens, 273. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 535 
 
 Aries council, 24, 25. 
 
 Arnbjorg, wife of Sandulf, 272. 
 
 Art, King, where buried, 212. 
 
 Arthur, King, his existence doubted by 
 some, 114, 132; round table, 62; con- 
 temporary history null, 114 ; his round 
 table, 128 (see Penrith) ; probable his- 
 tory of Arthur, 133 ; his defensive war 
 against invaders, 134 ; his supposed 
 Scottish career, 134 ; ill-founded, 135 ; 
 localities of his twelve battles, 135 
 et seq. ; of his last battle, 86-7 ; views 
 of the author, 152 ; fables respecting, 
 likened to those about Alexander, 133 ; 
 Arthur's pike at Snap, 130 ; Arthur's 
 Quoit, 170. See Baden Mound, Bas 
 Lowe, Caeileon, Caledonian Forest, 
 Gain, Salkeld, Stanton Drew, Wood- 
 castle Lyn. 
 
 Arrichinaga dolmen, 388. 
 
 Arroyolos dolmen, 377; described by 
 Borrow, 389. 
 
 Aryans a progressive race, 18, 19 ; occu- 
 pation of Greece, 39 ; when they 
 crossed Indus, 445; penetrate into 
 North America, by what route, 516 ; 
 Aryan, non-Aryan, equivalents of what, 
 506. 
 
 Aschenrade, singular arrangement of cir- 
 cles, 317. 
 
 Ashdown, Sarsen stones at, 121-3 : draw- 
 ing of, 122; contrasted with Carnac, 
 ib. ; Druidical, 123 ■; or monument of 
 battle between Saxons and Danes, ib. 
 
 Asia Minor, dolmens not yet found in, 
 445. 
 
 Asoka, King, monument of, 47 ; intro- 
 duction of stone monuments in India, 
 48, 455 ; his rock-engraved edict, 498 ; 
 convocation, 501. 
 
 Aspatria, 155 ; compared to Herrestrup, 
 304. See Circles. 
 
 Asser cited as to battle between Saxons 
 and Danes, 123. 
 
 Astarte, see Melkart. 
 
 Asturias, dolmens in, 378. 
 
 Atridse, tombs of, 32 ; Atreus, 33. 
 
 Aubrey, 3 ; his accouut of Hakpen Hill, 
 76 ; cited, 104. 
 
 Auisle, King, 201. 
 
 Augustine, St., cession of temple at 
 Canterbury to, 22-3. 
 
 Augustus, tomb of, 40 ; no coins of, found 
 in Britain, 144. 
 
 Aurelius, see Ambrosius. 
 
 Axevalla, singular dolmen . at, 312-3 ; 
 find there, 312. 
 
 Aztecs, buildings of, 515. 
 
 Avebury, 1, 3, 6, 7, 61 ; age of, 17; pre- 
 tended serpent worship, 4 ; repre- 
 sented, 62; vallum, ditch and circle, 
 62, 63 ; Sarsens, 62 ; Kennet avenue, 
 63 ; no curved avenues, 64 ; double 
 circle or oval, 64; who interred 
 there, 86 ; author's opinion, 86, 89 ; 
 holes, 343 ; Buckhampton avenue, 64, 
 
 98; Silbury hill, 62; Waden hill. 
 62 ; object of structure, 65 ; theory of 
 Druidical temples, 66 ; disputed, 66 
 et seq. ; Avebury a burying-place, 72 ; 
 charter of Athelstan as to, 73; stone 
 row, 73 ; plan of, 81 ; sepulchral or 
 battle-field, 116 ; attached to circles, 
 29, 51 ; with or without circles or dol- 
 mens, 29, 53 ; example at St. Helier, 
 Jersey, 51 ; chamber there found 
 buried, 54; at Merivale Bridge, on 
 Dartmoor, ib. ; why erected, ib. ; what 
 they represent, 56. 
 
 Avening, holes in chamber at, 357. 
 
 Avenue. See Alignments, Avebury, 
 Aylesford. 
 
 Averni Celts mentioned by Livy, 327. 
 
 Aylesford, 110 et seq. Kit's Cotty House, 
 what, 116 ; description of, 110 ; why 
 erected, 119; erroneous view of Mr. 
 Wright as to Belgian burials there, 
 119 ; Tollington, stones at, purpose of, 
 119 ; obelisks or coffin stones, 117; in 
 memory of what, 119 : circles of 
 Addington abbey, ib. ; Horstead, tumu- 
 lus at, 120 ; explored by Colonel 
 Fisher, ib. ; absence of valuables or 
 other articles in tombs there, accounted 
 for, ib. ; "Countless stones," 117; re- 
 sembles Oroust, 305 ; drawing of, 117; 
 a supposed avi nue near, 117-8 ; other 
 groups at Addington and near Kit's 
 Cotty House, 118; Aylesford the stage 
 of a battle between Vortigern and 
 Saxons, 119; Bede's statement of lo- 
 cality of battle not conclusive, 121. 
 
 Baba, images of, bm-ied, 449. 
 
 Babylon, age of its palaces, 1. 
 
 Bactnan Greeks, influence of, upon Indian 
 architecture, 456, 50S. 
 
 Badon Hill, Arthur's battle there, 138. 
 See Battle. 
 
 Bahr, Professor, his book of Graves, 318. 
 
 Bakmany dynasty in India, 4S5. 
 
 Baker, Mr., his account of Aryan inter- 
 ments, 479. 
 
 Bailie clough togal dolmen, 229. 
 
 Balk, Saracenic arches, 457. 
 
 Ballina, see Maols. 
 
 B;dlo dolmen, 321. 
 
 Ballysadare, cairn at. 179. 
 
 Balor of the Evil Eye, 187. 
 
 Balquhain circle, 263. 
 
 Bang, importance of monastery at, 50. 
 
 Bangkok, Buddhist monument at, 413. 
 
 Banesdown battle, 87. 
 
 Barbarism of early Irish, 235. 
 
 Barbato, monuments in, 415. 
 
 Barbury Castle, siege of, 88. 
 
 Bards, 19 ; testify to Druids, 6. 
 
 Barrows, 11 ; of Roman period, 36 
 (see Bartlow Hills); British, 65 ; Sil- 
 bury, ib. ; conical, 83 ; their number 
 and position, 102; age of, 104; Der- 
 byshire, 138 ; Yorkshire, ib. ; on Boyne, 
 
536 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 200 ; in Orkneys at Stennis ; bowl- 
 shaped, 243 ; find, 243 ; Sandwich, 
 ib. ; conoid barrows, ib. ; find, ib. ; of 
 what race the barrows, 243-4 ; see 
 Maes-Howe; little barrows by thou- 
 sands in Orkneys, of what race, 249 ; 
 Halfdan's barrow, 250 ; Danish Royal 
 barrow, ib. ; Long barrow at Lethra, 
 282 ; and at Weot Kennet, 284 ; whose 
 grave, 283 ; date, 285 ; explored by 
 Thurnam, 2S3; find there, 285; in- 
 ference from, 2S6-9 ; post-Romau, 286 ; 
 long barrow at Wiskeharad in Halland, 
 288 ; what it marks, ib. ; long barrows 
 post-Roman, 289 ; ship barrows, 291-2 ; 
 numerous in East France, 327 ; holed 
 chambers in long barrows at Kerles- 
 cant and Rodmarton, 357. 
 
 Barry's ' Views in Orkneys,' 241. 
 
 Bartlow Hills barrow, 36 ; elevation, 14, 
 83. 
 
 Bas Lowe, Arthur's table, 137. 
 
 Basin, fiat-bottomed, mysterious, 216-7. 
 
 Basses. Arthur's battle on, 136. 
 
 Bateman, Messrs., diggings by, 13S, 
 140-4 ; finds at Benty Grange, 145 ; 
 and at Keuslow barrow, ib. ; overlook 
 monuments at Stanton Drew, 146. 
 
 Bateman, Mr., explores Arbor Lowe, 357 ; 
 his and author's remarks on finds by, 
 13-4. 
 
 Bath, see Battles. 
 
 Battles. — Arthur's, 12, 135 et seq; Ash- 
 down, 122; Aylesford, 119 ; Badbury, 
 87 ; Badon Hill, 86 ; place of Arthur's 
 last battle disputed, 86-7 ; Banbury 
 Hill, date of, 109; Banesdon, 87; 
 Bath, 87; Battlemoss, Yarhouse, 526; 
 Braavalia, 188, 280-2 ; Deorham, 88 ; 
 Kongsbacka, 279; Moytura, South and 
 North, 176 et seq.; Rollright. 126. 
 
 Battlefields marked by megalithic re- 
 mains, 14. 
 
 Battlestones in Scotland, 240, 272 ; Kirk- 
 liston, 272. 
 
 Bauta stones, 60, 272. 
 
 Bazinas in North Africa, 397-8. 
 
 Beaumout-sur-Oise, find at, 339. 
 
 Beckhamptou avenue, 64 ; position of 
 stone, 98. 
 
 Bade, his division of Kent explained, 121. 
 
 " Beds" of Diarmid and Graine, 225. 
 
 Behriug's Straits route of peoplers of 
 America, 516. 
 
 Beira dolmens, 378. 
 
 Belgae, absence of dolmens amongst, 302 ; 
 their pie-dolmen immigration into 
 Britain, 323-4 ; Belga? or Firbolgs in 
 Ireland, 176. 
 
 Belgaum, altars and tables at, 467. 
 
 Belgians, erroneous statement of inter- 
 ments at Kit's Cotty House, 119. 
 
 Bellove.sus, his invasion of Italy, 327. 
 
 Benares, style of architecture at, 412. 
 
 Benty Grange harrow, 144. See Derby- 
 shire. 
 
 Beowulfs poem contains incidents of 
 Saxon burials, 120; Beowulf's victory 
 over Wurm, ib. ; his interment, ib. ; his 
 helmet, 145 ; his verses on Knock na 
 Rea, 185. 
 
 Bernard, Commandant, his description of 
 enormous dolmen at Tiaret, 397. 
 
 Bertrand, Alexander, attacks Celtic 
 origin of megalithic monuments, 254. 
 
 Bertrand, M., 6 ; his essay upon dolmens, 
 324 ; his theory as to migration of dol- 
 men race, 378-9, 407 ; as to builders in 
 North Africa, 403. 
 
 Betal or Vetal, worship of, 467. 
 
 Bhils, Coles, Gonds and Toda, non-pro- 
 gressive tribes in India, 459 ; their 
 tenacity to usages, ib. 
 
 Bilithons, 435. 
 
 Birck, dolmen enclosed in square. 307. 
 
 Birra the hag, 231 ; monastery, 231 note. 
 
 Biscay dolmens, 378. 
 
 Bits of Bridle, SI, 304. See Stukeley. 
 
 Blaine, Mr. D. R., his notes and sketch 
 of dolmen at Kafr er Wal, 441. 
 
 Blair, Dr., engraves Carnac, 350. 
 
 Blenda, Swedish heroine, her victory, 
 291. 
 
 Bluestones, if part of Stonehenge, 97 ; 
 whence the stones, 108 ; story ex- 
 plained, 108-9. See Salens. 
 
 " Bluetooth," 296. 
 
 Boece and Fordun, their fables, 134. 
 
 Boinn, wife of Ncclitan, 212 ; "her small 
 hound" buried with her, ib. 
 
 Bollandists' work silent as to Buddhism, 
 505. 
 
 Bona, circle near. 405 ; dolmen, 532. 
 
 Bonstetten, cited, 308, 379; map, 324; 
 according to, no dolmen in Poland, 
 301. 
 
 Borlase cited as to Boscawen circles, 160. 
 
 Borrow mentions monument at Arroyolos, 
 377. 
 
 Borther Lowe, find at, 12. 
 
 Boscawen, 160. See Circles. 
 
 Boucher de Perthes, collection by, 16. 
 
 Bouie's survey of New Grange, 204. 
 
 Bouscmet, dolmen of, 46, 49. 
 
 Boyne, monuments on, 200, 290 ; burials, 
 212. 
 
 Braavalia Heath battle, 280-2. See 
 Battle-fields. 
 
 Brachenbyr dolmen, 46, 49. 
 
 Brahmins, their domination in India, 
 459. 
 
 Breas' invasion of Ireland and defeat, 
 187. 
 
 Brest Menhir, 58. 
 
 Brigantes join Silures, 381. 
 
 British chiefs massacred by Hengist, 
 where, 106. 
 
 British isles described by Diodorus, 8; 
 not more prosperous hefore Roman in- 
 vasion than in 5th century, 114-5; 
 Spaniards, Silures, settle in, 3S3. 
 
 British Rude Stone Monuments, how 
 
INDEX. 
 
 CATALONIA. 
 
 537 
 
 affected by conquest by and withdrawal 
 of Romans, 394. 
 
 Britons, 20, 21. 37 ; peace with Saxons, 
 when, 89. 
 
 Brittany, monuments in, 6. See Carnac. 
 
 Broad-pated race, 306. 
 
 Brochs, Scotch, resemble Nurhags, 431 
 note. 
 
 Brodick Bay circles, 262. 
 
 Brogar, King of, in Orkneys, 241 ; failure 
 of search there, 243 ; how to proceed, 
 ib. ; tumuli. 252-3 ; compared to Stanton 
 Drew circles, 256. 
 
 Bronze age, Stonehenge belongs to, 102 ; 
 as also tumuli in South of France, 
 327. 
 
 Brouillet, M., his work on Poitou, 329. 
 
 Brown, Mr., his account of Hydahs, 
 18. 
 
 Bruges, capital of Celts, temp. Bellovesi, 
 327. 
 
 Brugli, burial-place of Kings of Tara, 
 190, 199, 212. 
 
 Brugh na Boinne, burials at, 191 et seq. 
 
 Brunswick dolmens, 301. 
 
 Bryce, Dr., his observations in Arran, 
 265. 
 
 Buckingham, Duke of, directs diggings at 
 Stonehenge, 104. 
 
 Buddha, Dugobas or Stupas of, 41. 
 
 Budilhagosa, no written books before, 
 500. 
 
 Buddhism, 458 ; in India, 45S et seq. ; in 
 the West, 499 et seq. ; in Christianity, 
 499 ; monastic institutions, ib. ; mo- 
 nasticism opposed to Egyptian institu- 
 tions and Arab or Semitic feeling, 500; 
 relation of Essenes to Buddhism, ib. ; 
 monasticism in India apparent from 
 monuments and inscriptions, 501 ; three 
 convocations: cells: "Viharas, Chai- 
 tyas, 50 1 ; sculptures : Sanchi : Ascetics : 
 Amravati shaven priests : da'e of simi- 
 lar institutions in West, ib. ; pecu- 
 liarities of, separation of clergy from 
 laity, 501 ; canonization, relic worship, 
 503 ; date, silence of the Fathers, elo- 
 quence of architecture, 5U6 ; Buddhism 
 Turanian, ib.; nature of the faith, ib; ; 
 Turanians in Europe in Middle Ages, 
 507 ; what with respect to stone monu- 
 ments the West borrowed from the 
 East, 507 ; of what Buddhism was the 
 reform, 504. 
 
 Buddhist architecture, 40-2. 
 
 Buddhist Topes. 46; rails, 48, 492 ; Lats 
 or Stambas, 57; convocations, 501. 
 
 Burials, usages of, in the (Steppes, 449. 
 
 Bumiah, date of temples at, 1 ; dagobas, 
 41. 
 
 Burmah and Siam, architecture of wood, 
 456. 
 
 Burn Moor, 159. See Circles. 
 
 Burton, Right Hon. W., describes cairn 
 Knock na Rea, 184. 
 
 Butte dc Caesar, find there, 339. 
 
 Buxton, rude monuments near. See 
 Derbyshire. 
 
 Cabetei, images of, 425. 
 
 Caboul valley, 452. 
 
 Ctesar mentions Druids, but not their 
 temples, 20; stood, perhaps, at Carnac, 
 ib. ; inference from his and Pliny's 
 silence, 373. 
 
 Caerhon, or Chester, Arthur's ninth 
 battle at, 137. 
 
 Cairns at Rath Cruachan, 200 ; Lough 
 Crew, 213; Glen Columbkille, 226; 
 Freyrso, 292; Norway, 302; the dis- 
 tribution of dolmens in Europe, 301-2 ; 
 dolmens belong to a sea-faring race, 
 302 ; four cairns enclosed in squares, 
 402 ; compared to Aschenrade, 403 ; 
 Jewurgi, 471-2; probably battle-field, 
 472 ; huge horned cairn Caithness, 528, 
 5?>0 ; of " one Man," find there, 178-9. 
 
 Caldwell, Mrs . find in possession of, 210. 
 
 Caledonians like Germans, 162 ; Cale- 
 donian Forest, place of Arthur's battle, 
 137. 
 
 Callernish, age of, 52. 
 
 Calliagh Biria's House, 230. 
 
 Calvaries in Brittany, 59. 
 
 Cambodia, monuments of, not ancient, 1 ; 
 style of buildings, 458. 
 
 Camden, his remark as to place of inter- 
 ments at Stonehenge, 105; as to Roll- 
 right and Rollo in England, 126 ; as 
 to Long Meg, 127 ; as to ruins at Snap, 
 129; and Penrith, 132. 
 
 Camster alignment, 529. 
 
 Cangas de Onis, 3S7. 
 
 Cannibalism of early Irish, 235. 
 
 Canonization in the East, 503. 
 
 Canterbury, Roman Cathedral at, 22. 
 
 Canute forbids adoration of stones, 25. 
 
 Caons, or Giants' circles, 453. 
 
 Cape St. Matthieu, 59. 
 
 Carder Lowe, barrow opened at, 1. 
 
 Carl Sverkeisson slays Danish prince, 291. 
 
 Carmaret, alignment at, 367. 
 
 Carnac, 1 ; Rev. Bathurst Deane's plan 
 of, 6 ; Caesar perhaps saw from it 
 battle with Veneti, 20 ; described, 349 ; 
 plan, 352. 
 
 Carnutes, Druids' chief seat amongst, 5. 
 
 Carrowmore, 1S1 ; field of battle, 187, 
 198, 223. 
 
 Carte, Mr., as to field of battle at 
 Baydon hill, 87. 
 
 Carthaginians in Spain, 379; not building 
 or burying race, 394. 
 
 Cartkeilhac, M., his paper on megalithic 
 monuments, 335. 
 
 Cas Tor avenue, 56. 
 
 Ca stern, find at, 13. 
 
 Castille, if dolmens in, 378. 
 
 Castle Wellan dolmen, 45. 
 
 Cat stones, 57, 146. See Derbyshire battle 
 stones. 
 
 Catalonia, dolmens in, 378. 
 
538 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 CIRCLES. 
 
 Cathair, or round fort, 235 ; of Tuatha do 
 Danann, 193 ; of Cormac at Tara, 194. 
 
 Catkregomion, Cabregonnon, Catbregon- 
 nion, or Cathbregion, Arthur's 11th. 
 battle there, 13S. See Stanton Drew. 
 
 Catigren. -where buried, 144. See Kitt's 
 Cotty House. 
 
 Cattle spoil of Cooley, 196. 
 
 Cave men, 17, 18,329; like Ked Indians, 
 17 ; or Esquimaux, ib. ; under what 
 circumstances found in France, 16 ; 
 and England, 16, 17. 
 
 Cave races, gradations of style of monu- 
 ments among, 335. 
 
 Caves, early, in India, 456; Buddhist, 
 460. 
 
 Ceallach, murder of, 233. 
 
 Ceilric, Saxon chief, 88-9. 
 
 Celtiberians, see Iberians. 
 
 Celtic race, priests of, 3, 4 ; whether 
 French megalithic monuments belong 
 to, 6 ; tkeir influence upon Etruria, 
 393. 
 
 Celts, ready converts to Christianity, 
 227 ; date of the first invasion of Gaul, 
 ib. ; were earlier converts than dol- 
 men builders, 328 ; spread themselves 
 through centre of Fiance, ib. ; either 
 Celts or a prehistoric race built the 
 dolmens, 329 ; the Cave men, ib. ; who 
 these were, ib. ; dolmens and Cave men 
 perhaps conterminous, ib. ; Cirnbri, 
 Celts, and Gauls, 333; Cimbri and 
 Aquitanians, relation of, ib. ; their 
 capital temp. Bellevesi, 327 ; described 
 by Livy, ib. ; Averni, ib. ; if dolmens 
 in Galatia, important bearing upon 
 Celtic theory, 446; their invasions of 
 other countries, 409. 
 
 Cemeteries of Ireland, 199; Cruachan, 
 or Batlicrogen, ib. ; circular mounds 
 there, ib. ; monument of Dathi, ib. ; 
 Belig na Biogli, 200 ; Bed stone pillar, 
 ib. ; circle, ib. ; cairns, ib. ; burials, 
 Queen Meave and Dathi, ib. ; com- 
 pared with Arbor Low and Salkeld, 
 ib. ; Knowtli, ib. ; New Grange, 201 ; 
 plundered by Danes, ib. ; first men- 
 tioned by Mr. Lloyd, ib. ; Sir T. Moly- 
 neux's statement, ib. ; Governor Pow- 
 nall's, 202 ; engravings of by Bouie, 
 203 ; if uncovered, resemblance to Sal- 
 keld and Stanton Drew, ib. ; sculpture, 
 204 ; reverses of stones elaborately 
 carved, 205; how such came to be 
 covered, ib. ; entrance, position of, ib. ; 
 ornaments, 200-7; sculptured mark, 
 207; whether characters, ib. ; Dowth, 
 or perhaps Dubhad, plundered by 
 Danes, 208 ; diggings, ib. ; find there, 
 210; Netherville House, 209; tomb 
 of the Dagdha, ib. ; perhaps intact, 
 ib. ; find there, 209, 210 ; ornaments at 
 Dowth, 211-2; written evidence re- 
 specting these three cemeteries, 212; 
 and persons buried, ib. ; author's con- 
 
 jecture as to New Grange, 213 ; Lough 
 Crew, 213 el seq. ; if cemetery of Talteu, 
 219 ; choice of plan of cemetery 
 amongst Irish, 220 ; ' Book of the 
 Cemeteries ' cited, 221 ; stone in cairn 
 T, Lough Crew, 222 ; stones in sculp- 
 tured graves, 223 ; Clover Hill, ib. ; 
 Shahpoor, 485. 
 
 Cetti, stone of, 173. 
 
 Ceylon dagobar, 41 ; Thupa Bamayana, 
 and Lanka Bamayana, 489, 490. 
 
 Chaityas, see Church Caves. 
 
 Champollion's discoveries, 1. 
 
 Chardin cited as to circles at Tabriz and 
 Miana, 453. 
 
 Chariot wheels sculptured on dolmens, 
 304. 
 
 Charlemagne condemns stone worship, 
 25. 
 
 Charleton, Dr., 15 ; Inigo Jones's theory 
 attacked by, 3. 
 
 Chartham Downs, find at, 13. 
 
 Chartres Carnutes, 5. 
 
 Chester, see Caerleon. 
 
 China, monuments of, not ancient, 1. 
 
 Chinese not progressive, 19. 
 
 Chisel, early use of, in Ireland, 217. 
 
 Chorcea Gigantum, see Giants' Dance. 
 
 Chouchas in North Africa, 398-9 ; posi- 
 tion of bodies in, ib. 
 
 Christian era, rude-stone monuments sub- 
 sequent to, 27 ; according to Danes, iron 
 introduced about commencement of, 9. 
 
 Christianity, according to Welsh and 
 Irish writers, their Druids prior to, 6 ; 
 date of introduction into Denmark, 10 ; 
 into India, 489 ; in what respect in- 
 fluenced by Buddhism, 499 et seq. 
 
 Christians in India, see Crosses. 
 
 Christy, Mr., his researches in Algeria, 
 395-6. 
 
 Church caves at first more important 
 than Viharas, 501. 
 
 Cimboeth marks date in Irish history, 
 189 ; founds Armagh, ib. 
 
 Cimbri, their cognate races, 333. 
 
 Cimbrian Chersonese visited by Pytheas, 
 38. 
 
 Circassia, dolmens in, of shaped stone, 
 447 ; importance of, to migration or 
 missionary theory, 447-8. 
 
 Circles, 154 ; Englewood Wood, or Bose- 
 hill tumulus, ib.', platform, ib.; bili- 
 thons, 155; find, ib. ; Aspatria, 156; 
 barrow, ib. ; find, 156-7 ; circle of 
 cists in Isle of Man, ib. ; Mule Hill, 
 ib. ; view and plan of, 158 ; openings 
 to circle, 159; Burn Moor, Cumber- 
 land, ib. ; find there, ib. ; square en- 
 closure there, 160; plan, 160; Bos- 
 cawen not Temples nor " Things," ib. ; 
 plan of, 161 ; at Moytura, 183 ; triple, 
 ib. ; sculptured, enclosing crosses, 304, 
 315; mysterious concentric circles, 
 with lines traversing them, 304 ; the 
 use of circles and Viking graves con- 
 
INDEX. 
 
 539 
 
 tenuous in Ireland and England, 317 ; 
 singular arrangement at Aschenrade 
 and in Algeria, 317-8 ; circles with 
 stone in centre at Bajard, 318 ; circular 
 groups in India, 467 (see Bazina, 
 Chouca) ; Alexandropol circles, 450 ; 
 Nikolajen concentric circles, base of 
 tumulus, 451 ; Western circles not 
 imitation of Tartar, 452 ; Peshawur, 
 453; Deh Ayeli, near Darabgerd, ib. ; 
 circles attributed to Caons or Giants, 
 ib. ; enclosed circles in America, 511-3; 
 at Caithness (see Scotland) ; Ainravati, 
 474. 
 
 Circles, great English, peculiar, 153 ; and 
 belong probably to Arthurian age, ib. ; 
 post-Roman, 154 ; of what race, ib. ; 
 in Wales and Anglesea no circles, 163; 
 Giant's giave, Drurnbo, 228; circle 
 there object of, 224 ; in Scotland, 240 ; 
 district of circles par excellence not on 
 mainland, ib. ; Orkneys, 241 ; King 
 of Brogar and Stennis, 241-2 ; part of 
 entire group, 254 ; date, 256 ; Callem- 
 ish,259; circle-building race, 274; oppo- 
 site currents of migration, ib. ; Braavalla 
 Heath, 280 ; in France, 340 ; circle the 
 skeleton of tumulus, 340; circle at Se»to 
 Calende, 391 ; semicircle, ib. ; circles, 
 397-9 ; triple and quadruple, 399 ; en- 
 closed in squares, 402 ; at Djideli, 404 ; 
 Bona, 405; Malta, 416; Sinai, 443-4; 
 Arabia, 444. 
 
 Circles surrounding tumuli or dolmens, 
 circles wiLhout tumuli or dolmens, 29, 
 47, 50; at Addmgton, 118-9; at Roll- 
 right, 124; Dartmoor, ib. ; at Penrith, 
 126; concentric, 127 note; at Harden, 
 65, 85; at Shap, 130; Merivale 
 Bridge, ib. ; at Arbor Low, 139 ; 
 Stanton Drew, 150. 
 
 Circular temple mentioned by Diodorus 
 among Hyperboreans, 8. 
 
 Cissa, King, his tomb where, 2S3. 
 
 Cists, see Kistvaens. 
 
 Civil and sacred structures, wdiere indis- 
 tinguishable, 515. 
 
 Clark, Mr. George, his paper on Ancient 
 English Castles, 84. 
 
 Clatford Bottom, 44 ; Sarsen stones at, 
 63 ; circles at, 161. 
 
 Claudian, verses of, as to disasters of 
 Saxons, Picts, and Scots, in the North, 
 18S. 
 
 Claudius Gothicus, coins of, 12, 36, 52 ; 
 Ciaudius, 461. 
 
 Clava, 265 ; circles and mounds, ib. ; 
 perhaps burial-place of King Brude, 
 267. 
 
 Clemens of Alexandria, his surprise at 
 relic-worship, 504; as to Buddhism, 
 505. 
 
 Clergy and laity, separation of, in the 
 East, 502. 
 
 Closmadeuc, Dr., antiquary, 337. 
 
 Clover Hill, 223. 
 
 Cnodhba, cave of, identified with Knowth, 
 201. 
 
 Cock sacrificed to Betal, 467. 
 
 Cocumella, tomb at, 33. 
 
 Coelus, God, Stonehenge ascribed to, 3. 
 
 Cceie, tomb at, 33-4. 
 
 Cogolleros, dolmen del Tio, 385. 
 
 Coibi, his conversion, 23. 
 
 Coilstield, rubbing on stone at, 211 ; 
 stone, 267. 
 
 Coins, Roman, of what Emperors gene- 
 rally found, 144; in Ireland, 16 J ; in- 
 ference from, see Finds. 
 
 Cojou, Gre de, alignment at, 367. 
 
 Cole, see Bhil. 
 
 Cole, Lieutenant, his report as to Kutub 
 pillar, 181. 
 
 Collas barrow mentioned in Charter of 
 AtheLtan, 73. 
 
 Collinson, Colonel, finds columnar build- 
 ings in Malta, 425. 
 
 Columba, St., 59. 
 
 Columbus, America peopled by Euro- 
 peans prior to, 516. 
 
 Columns, see Alignment. 
 
 Come Lowe, find at, 13. 
 
 Commerce of early Britons, with what 
 races, 133-4. 
 
 Conaing, 201. 
 
 Conan, see Meriadec. 
 
 Concentric circles, see Circles. 
 
 Conchobhar McNessa, 197; husband of 
 Queen Meave, 197, 221; his conver- 
 sion, 221 ; where buried, ib. 
 
 Confolens, dolmen at, 337. 
 
 Cong, at Moytm-a, 177 ; place of battle, 
 198. 
 
 Conical form, Roman and Post-Roman, 
 84. 
 
 Conjeveran, city of Kurumbers, 478. 
 
 Conn of a Hundred Battles, 193-7, 212, 
 236. See Cormac Mac Art. 
 
 Conor MacNessa, 193. 
 
 Constantine, Saxons defeated by, 109 ; 
 his supposed interment at Stonehenge, 
 and when, 109 ; coins, 11, 12, 13. 
 
 Constantine Junior, coins of, 12. 
 
 Constantinople, coins of, 11. 
 
 Constans, coins of, 11. 
 
 Constantius, coins of, 11. 
 
 Conwell, Mr., exploration of Lough Crew, 
 199, 213, 222. 
 
 Copenhagen, congress at, 10; museum, 
 16, 325. 
 
 Cormack, son of Conn, 190 ; where buried, 
 212. 
 
 Cormack MacArt, 193 ; convert to 
 Christianity, 196 ; orders tracts to be 
 written, ib. ; could he write ? ib. 
 
 Cornelius, tradition as to, 373. 
 
 Cornwall, circles, 162 ; circle-building 
 race in, 274. 
 
 Corpre, Etan's son, 191. 
 
 Costa, S. Pereira da, his account of Por- 
 tuguese dolmens, 377. 
 
 Cotty or Coity House, see Aylesford. 
 
540 
 
 COUNCILS. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 DERBYSHIRE. 
 
 Councils of Aries, Nantes. Rouen, To- 
 ledo. Tours, 24 ; their decrees as to 
 stoneworsliip, 23-4. 
 
 Countless Stones, see Aylesford. 
 
 Court held at standing stones of Rayne 
 by Bishop of Aberdeen, 264. 
 
 Cove, Long stone, 4. 
 
 Cremation amongst Saxons, 120. 
 
 Crew, Lough, 199. 
 
 Crichie, find at, 75. 
 
 Crimthann, when he lived, 190, 221; 
 where buried, 192 ; seat of his dynasty, 
 194. 
 
 Croker, Mr., his survey of Stanton Drew, 
 150. 
 
 Crom, meaning of word, 44 note. 
 
 Cromlech, near Merivale, 55 ; among 
 Mala Aryans, 479. See Dolmen. 
 
 Cross Flats, 11. 
 
 Crosses, 270, 272 ; Irish, how distin- 
 guished from Scottish, 270; Isle of 
 Man, with Runic inscriptions, 273; 
 crosses in circles, 304 ; " Swastica "-like 
 cross, 367 ; in India, and their date, 
 486 et seq. 
 
 Crozon, alignment at, 367 ; what battle 
 there, 375. 
 
 Cruachan, ancient burial-place of Kings 
 of Tara, find, 190-9. 
 
 Crubelz, 359. 
 
 Crusades, rude-stone monuments in time 
 of, 406. 
 
 Cuchulliu, 193-7. 
 
 Cumberland, no mention of Druids in, 5 ; 
 rude monuments, 127, 128; circles in, 
 probably of same age, 147 ; circle- 
 building race in, 274. 
 
 Cumbhail (Fingal), 197. 
 
 Cumot, or Commensurate grave of Cairbre 
 Lifeaehaire, 213. 
 
 Cumrew, Salkeld and Mayborough, 
 circles at, similar, 147. 
 
 Cunens, Cape, unvisited by Portuguese 
 writers, 378. 
 
 Cunningham, Lord Albert, finds by, at 
 Dowth, 210. 
 
 Cunnington, Mr., his opinion as to 
 Maiden, 86 ; excavation by, at Stone- 
 henge, 105-6 ; finds in long barrows, 
 289. 
 
 Curtius cited as to Nasomenes, 407. 
 
 Cuthbert, 22. 
 
 Cuttack, sacred groves at, 465. 
 
 Cyviagnon, pile of, mentioned in Welsh 
 Triads, what, 173. 
 
 Dabii/la, the hound, interment of, 212. 
 
 Daghda, the general, 187 ; and king, ib. ; 
 where buried, 191; when,190; real name 
 Eochy, 192; cairn of, ib.; residence, 
 195; his spit, ib. ; family, 197, 212; 
 his tomb where, according to author, 
 213; written evidence as to. 212. 
 
 Dagoba, Buddhist, 41, 79, 490 et seq. ; 
 relic, cists, Tee, rail, 490-1 ; compared 
 to dolmen at Pullicondah, 491. 
 
 Dananns, Tuatha de, 177 et seq. ; arrival 
 in Ireland, 193 ; when, ib. ; burial of, 
 212. See Ireland, Movtura. 
 
 Danes, cemeteries plundered by, 209. 
 
 Danish antiquaries, their opinion as to 
 epoch of introduction of bronze and 
 iron into Denmark, 9, 37 ; their system 
 respecting, 9, 10, 28; too hastily 
 adopted in France and England, 10, 
 388 ; their mistaken proceedings. 10- 
 14, 16, 146, 257, 275 ; International 
 Congress of Prehistoric Arehseologv, 
 276 ; merits of Sjoborg, 276. 
 
 Danish isles, dolmens in, 301. 
 
 Danish settlers in Greenland, 18; in 
 Britain and Scotland before Roman 
 invasion, 133-4; commerce, &c, 133. 
 
 Daoulas, menhir and cross at, 59. 
 
 Darabgerd, circle near, 453. 
 
 Dariorigum, standing stones of, 20. 
 
 Dartmoor parallel stones at Merivale 
 Bridge, 54 ; circles and cromlechs, 55 ; 
 avenues at Cas Tor, 56 ; circles com- 
 pared with those at Rollright, 124. 
 
 Dasyus the despised, 493. 
 
 Date, priority of, in dolmens external or 
 covered, 144. 
 
 Dates, found and corrected by architects, 
 113; comparative antiquity of certain 
 classes of monuments, 261 : rude-stone 
 sometimes more modern, 407. 
 
 Dathi, monument of, 199. 
 
 Daviot circle, 263. 
 
 Dead, images of, 449. 
 
 Deane, Rev. Batliurst, adopts Stukeley's 
 views, 6, 151 ; visits Carnac, 351. 
 
 Decrees of Councils respecting veneration 
 of stone monuments, 24, 25. 
 
 Dedalean buildings in Sardinia, why so 
 called, 429. 
 
 Deer Park, Sligo, monument in, 234-5. 
 
 Defence, see Mounds. 
 
 Deh Ayeh, circle at, 453. 
 
 Delhi, iron pillar near, 35 ; mosque of 
 Kutb u deem, 457. 
 
 Demi-dolmens, H45. 
 
 Demons, see St. Patrick. 
 
 Denmark, megalithic remains in, 9 ; mu- 
 seums, ib. ; bronze and iron, date of 
 their introduction into, ib. ; tombs of 
 kings described by Olaus Magnus, 15 ; 
 ignorance of Romans respecting, 38; 
 tumuli in, 39 ; circles in, 47 ; Bauta or 
 battle-stone*, 60. 
 
 Dennis' ' Etiuria' cited, 391. 
 
 Derbyshire dolmens, date of, 36; rude- 
 btone monunn-nts in, 138. 
 
 Derbyshire Rude-Stone Monuments, 138; 
 Arbor Low, 139; description of, 139; 
 similarity to Arthur's Round Table. 
 139 ; plan of, 140 ; circle, 140; dolmen, 
 ib. ; tumulus, ib. ; excavations and rind 
 there, 140-1 ; Gib Hill tumulus, 141 ; 
 excavation and find, 141-2; Minning 
 Low, 142 ; plans of, 142-3 ; find there, 
 143 ; similarity to New Grange, ib. ; 
 
INDEX. 
 
 541 
 
 and Kit's Cutty House, 144; first 
 Koiuan, ib. ; Benly Grange barrow, ib. ; 
 find there, 144-5 ; Kentlow barrow, 
 145-6 ; Stanton Moor, 146 ; monuments 
 of earth and stone, ib. ; Nine Ladies, 
 ib. ; King Stone, ib. ; other groups near 
 Arbor Low, ib. ; cat stones, ib. ; Der- 
 byshire monuments not temples nor 
 tombs of inhabitants, 147; monuments 
 of what race? ib. ; similar in purpose 
 and age to those in Cumberland, ib. ; 
 find in former, 148 ; Stanton Drew, ib. 
 
 Devil's Quoits, 64. 
 
 Devonshire, circles in, 161. 
 
 Diaimid and Graine, see Beds. 
 
 Diunsenchus, 233. 
 
 Diodorus, cited as to circular temple, 8 ; 
 text expla ned, ib. ; as to barbarism of 
 Irish, 235 ; Phoenicians in Malta in his 
 time, 425 ; Dedalean buildings, 429. 
 
 Divitiacus, 323. 
 
 Djideli, tombs near, 404 ; whose, ib. ; 
 find there, ib. 
 
 Dodwell, tombs of Atridse discovered by, 
 33 ; that of Minyas explored, ib. 
 
 Dolichocephalic race, 35. 
 
 Dolmens, 29 ; freestanding, 29 ; on out- 
 side of tumuli, 29 ; progress of tomb- 
 building, 40-43; kistvaens, 43; cham- 
 bers, ib. ; with gallery, ib. ; dolmens 
 covered, 44 ; uncovered, ib. ; opinion 
 that all once covered with tumuli re- 
 futed, ib. ; dolmen at "Wellan, 45 ; de 
 Bousquet, 46 ; excavation suggested of 
 dolmen-crowned tumuli, ib. ; at Kifs 
 Cotty House, 116; at Bollright, 124; 
 in Cumberland (see Penrith) ; at Arbor 
 Low, 140 ; France native country of, 
 161 ; few in England, ib. ; and most of 
 English in Cornwall, 162 ; in Wales 
 more numerous, ib. ; and Anglesea, 
 ib. ; and Isle of Man, ib. ; by whom 
 erected, ib. ; where, 163; all not 
 originally buried, 163, 169; some 
 always intended to be covered, 164, 
 168 ; dolmen in Park Cwn tumulus, 
 164; find there, 165; Uley, ib. ; find 
 there, ib. ; judicious conclusions of Dr. 
 Thuinam from, ib. ; Pi as Newydd, 
 166-9 ; stone avenue leading to, 167 ; 
 holes in slab, 168 ; Pentie Ifan, ib. ; 
 Arthur's Quoit, 170 ; whether origin- 
 ally in tumulus, 171-2 ; alleged avenue, 
 1 72 ; group of cairns there, 171 ; pur- 
 pose, 172 ; not a cemetery, ib. ; but 
 battlefield ? %b. ; Arthur's 8th battle 
 there ? 173 ; the stone of " Cetti," ib. ; 
 Hob Hurst's House, 172-3; dates of 
 dolmens, 173 ; at Moytura, 183 ; in 
 Ireland, how situated, 224 ; not on 
 battlefields, ib. ; perhaps most on east 
 coast, ib. ; beds of Diarniid, 225 ; elope- 
 ment of, with Graine, ib. ; legend as to 
 dolmens, ib. ; legitimate inference from 
 legend, ib.; Glen Columbkill and Gleu 
 Malin More, ib. ; cairns there, 226 ; 
 
 age of, ib. ; tradition as to St. Columba, 
 227 ; of what race the group, 227-8 ; 
 Spaniards or Iberians in Ireland, 228 ; 
 giant's grave, 228; circle there, 229; 
 object of, ib. ; Town of the Stone of the 
 Strangers, ib, ; dolmen at Knockeen, ib. ; 
 Knockeen, plans of, 230 ; Calliagh Vera 
 or Birra, ib. ; Greeumount tumulus, 231 ; 
 the " four Maols,'' Ballina, 232 ; dolmens 
 in Ireland do not mark battle-fields, 
 228 ; dolmens in Scotland, 240 ; many 
 dolmens erected by kings, &c, as their 
 burial-places, and covered after their 
 inteiment, 260 et seq.; comparative an- 
 tiquity of Callernish and New Grange, 
 261 ; dolmens in North Germany, 300 ; 
 silence of German arch ecology, ib ; no 
 dolmens in Poland, 301 ; Pruss a, ib. ; 
 Silesia, ib. ; Prussian Silesia, Pome- 
 rauia, Riigen, ib. ; Mecklenburg, Han- 
 over, Oldenburg, ib. ; Wildesheini 
 and Engelmanns Becke, ib. ; Helm- 
 stadt, ib.; Holland, ib. ; Saxony, Grand 
 Duchy of Luxemburg, ib. ; Holstein 
 Schleswig, Jutland, Danish ishs, ib. ; 
 Sweden, ib. ; none in Norway, 302 ; 
 Herrestrup, 303; dolmen with repre- 
 sentations of ships, and circh s with 
 crosses, 304; analogous to dolmen at 
 Aspatria. ib. ; Halskov, 305 ; Oroust, 
 306; dolmens in the different countries 
 have distinguishing features, ib. ; ob- 
 long enclosures, 307; diagram from 
 Sjoborg, ib. ; Boeskilde and Birck 
 dolmens with oblong enclosures, ib. ; 
 Liineburg, 308 ; Hanover, ib. ; Vald- 
 bygaards, near Soroe, double dolmen, 
 308-9 ; triple dolmens, Hobisch, 309 ; 
 sentinel stones, 310 ; buried dolmens, 
 ib. ; Uby, 311 ; Smidstrup, ib.; Axe- 
 valla, and find there, 312-3 ; dolmens, 
 elliptical and oblong, 313; age of, ib. ; 
 find, 314 ; inscription at Axevalla, ib. ; 
 headstone with drawings on it, of Kivik 
 Grave, ib. ; its resemblance to one at 
 Locmariaker, ib. ; dolmen at Exlo, 
 320; peculiarity of Drenthe dolmens, 
 ib. ; Ballo, 321 ; distribution of dol- 
 mens map, 324 ; pre-dolmen immi- 
 gration of Belgse into Britain, 323; 
 Luxemburg, ib. ; Belgians and pure 
 Celts not dolmen builders, 326; se- 
 quences of dolmens, 335 ; Sauclieres, 
 ib. ; St. Germain-sur-Vienne or Con- 
 folens, 336; date of, ib. ; demi-dolmens, 
 345 ; others in Ireland and Wales, 
 ib. ; Poitiers and Kerland, 346; rocking 
 stones, Pierre Martine, 347 ; whether 
 accidental, 347-9 ; Pierre branlante de 
 Huelgoat, 348 ; double dolmen at 
 Plouharnel, and find, 358 ; dolmens, 
 &c, if built with small stones, more 
 modern, 359 ; Mane' Lud, dolmen with 
 sculptured stones, similar to Irish, 
 360-3 ; Dol ar March ant, sculpture 
 decorations, 361-2 ; Bertrand's list of 
 
542 
 
 DOLMENS. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 dolmens in France, 37G ; termination 
 of names in ac, ib. ; dolmens in Spain, 
 Portugal, 377 et seq. ; dolmen race, mi- 
 gration of, 378-9 ; Spain, Anteqnera, 
 383 ; its stone town once wholly 
 buried, circle, 384 ; contrasted with 
 Stonehenge, ib. ; Tio Cogolleios, 385; 
 Sepulture Grande, 380; compared to 
 what, ib. ; dolmen near Dilar, ib. ; 
 Eguilar, Cangas de Onis, 387 ; dolmen 
 of San Miguel, Arrichinaga, 38S ; Por- 
 tugal. Arroyolos. 389; Cangas de Onis, 
 Anichinaga, 390 ; why not so nu- 
 merous in Italy, 392 ; influence of 
 conquest and withdrawal of Romans 
 upon, 394 ; distribution in Algeria, 
 396; principal dolmen region, ib. ; 
 Tiaret, enormous dolmen there, 397; 
 Tripoli, ib. ; Morocco, ib. ; but not near 
 populous centres, ib. ; inference thence 
 as to nomadic origin, 397 ; dolmen on 
 steps, 398 ; on a circled tumulus, 400 ; 
 with two circles of stones, 401 ; re- 
 semblance to Kit's Cotty House, ib. ; 
 dolmens on road from Bona to Con- 
 stantine, 402 ; no dolmens in Phoenicia 
 nor in their colonies, 409; Nurhags 
 and giants' towers earlier than dol- 
 mens, 437; in Palestine, 441 ; in 
 Gilead, whether of the giant tribe, 
 443 ; long interval from the first 
 Indian dolmen at Peshawur, ib. ; 
 query as to dolmens in Asia Minor, 
 445 ; holed dolmen in Circassia, 447 ; 
 migration theory of dolmens, 448 ; 
 missionary theory, ib. ; important bear- 
 ing of searches in the Steppes upon 
 thri iries, 448 ; Tartar tumuli not models 
 of Western dolmens, 452 ; space unex- 
 plored for dolmens in East, 454; Ra- 
 junkoloor, 408, 470; dolmens with 
 holes, find, 46S ; double circles round 
 dolmens at Yemmee Gooda; arrange- 
 ment of dolmens at Rajunkoloor, 470 ; 
 Nilgiri hills : Courg double dolmens 
 with circular openings, 473; tomb, ib. ; 
 sepulchral circles at Amravati, 474 ; 
 rail there, 475 ; geographical distri- 
 bution, 475 et seq. ; of what race, 
 47G et seq.; age of, 479 et seq.; finds 
 in Indian dolmens, 480 ; Nilgiri sculp- 
 tured dolmen, 4S3 ; singular position 
 of one at Iwallee, 484 ; stone monu- 
 ments at Shahpoor, 485 ; Katapur, 
 487 ; find, ib. ; dolmen with cross in 
 Nit mid jungle, 489; illustration of 
 Romish policy, ib. ; dolmen at Pul- 
 licondah compared with Cingalese 
 Dagoba, 49 L ; Eastern and European 
 dolmen compared, 494 et seq. ; whether 
 connexion between them to be in- 
 ferred from similarity, 495 ; or from 
 literature, or from rock - engraved 
 edict of Asoka, 490. See Glen Co- 
 lumbkille ; dolmen near Bona, Algeria, 
 532. 
 
 Dordogne, monuments in, insufficient 
 knowledge of, 335. 
 
 Doric supersedes Pelasgic style, 393 ; 
 earliest Doric temple, interval between 
 and last Pelasgic tomb, 393. 
 
 Dowe Lowe, " find " in, 13. 
 
 Down, English tumuli on, 48. 
 
 Dowtli Hill, 192, 200; the Dagdha's 
 Rath at, 195 ; his son born there, ib. 
 
 Dracontia, 515. See Serpent, Stukeley. 
 
 Dragon in Maes-Howe, 245. 
 
 Drenthe, dolmens in, 301, 320 ; Hune- 
 beds at, their extent, 319 ; compared 
 by Keysler to Stonehenge, 319; de- 
 scribed by Dr. Jaussen, 319; Hune- 
 beds, grottes des fees, 341. 
 
 Dresden, dolmens destroyed near, 301. 
 
 Drew, Stanton, circles at, 7, 161. 
 
 Drosten, name inscribed on stone, 273. 
 
 Druids, human sacrifices by, at Stone- 
 henge, no longer believed, 1 ; Dr. 
 Stukeley's fancy respecting their tem- 
 ples, 3 ; Caesar's account of them, 4, 5 ; 
 serpent worship supposed, 4 ; by Stuke- 
 ley and Sir R. C. Hoare, 5 ; Druids in 
 Mona met by Suetonius, ib. ; none ever 
 seen in regions of principal rude monu- 
 ments, 6 ; nor in Algeria nor India, ib. ; 
 in Wales, according to Welsh writers, 
 before Christianity introduce! 1, ib. ; 
 controversy in France respecting so- 
 called Druidical monuments, ib. ; dif- 
 ficulty of connecting them with Druids, 
 ib. ; Stukeley's idea adopted by Deane, 
 ib. ; Stonehenge pretended to be their 
 observatory, 7 ; remarks of author, 7, 
 20, 61 ; gods worshipped by Druids, 
 according to Csesar, 06 ; Druidical 
 institutions in India, 465 ; Druids and 
 serpents, freedom of Sjiiborg from errors 
 as to, 274. 
 
 Dryden, Sir Henry, explores Carnac, 
 350 ; nearEmmen. 320; and Caithness, 
 530 ; letter from, to author, ib. ; cited, 
 362 ; his drawings of Gavr Innis, 365 ; 
 describes Gre de Cqjou, 368. 
 
 Duald Mac Firbis, antiquary, 199. 
 
 Dubois, cited, 449. 
 
 Duglas or Dubglas River, Arthur's battle 
 on, 136 ; meaning of word, ib. 
 
 Dunadeer Circle, 203. 
 
 Du Noyer, M., cited, 345; drawings, 
 225. 
 
 Dutthagamini, see Ellala. 
 
 Eadwaed, contemporary of Rollo, 126. 
 
 Ea^t, see Palestine. 
 
 Easter Island, images in, 53. 
 
 Eguilar dolmen, 3S7. 
 
 Egypt, iron when introduced into, 37. 
 
 Egyptians, tomb building race, 31 ; pyra- 
 mids contained true and false t imbs, 
 46 ; their feelings as to monasticism, 
 500 ; royal monasteries and residences 
 indistinguishable, 514. 
 
 Eithlenn, daughter of Balor, 187. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 543 
 
 Ellala, his defeat by King Dutthaganimri 
 conmieniorated by Dagoba, 80. 
 
 Elliot, Sir Walter, cited on Indian inter- 
 ments, 479. 
 
 Elliptical dolmens, see Dolmens. 
 
 Ellis, Mr., his opinion that Stonehenge 
 •was an Observatory, 7. 
 
 Elopement of Diarmid with Graine, 225. 
 
 Ellora and Elephanta, dates of, 494. 
 
 Emmen, 320. See Hunebed. 
 
 Em airy s, work of, in Welsh Triads, 
 what, 173. 
 
 Enclosures, dolmens with, 307 et seq., 
 354 ; in America, for defence, 511 ; 
 sacred and miscellaneous, 311. 
 
 End Low mound, 139. See Derby- 
 shire. 
 
 England, circle-building race in, 274; 
 dolmen-building race, ib. ; old race 
 in, improved by Celts and Kumans, 
 461. 
 
 Englemanns Becke, dolmen near, 301. 
 
 English idolatry, letter of Gregory the 
 Great concerning, 21. 
 
 Eochy, King, tradition as to his bath, 
 179 ; his death, ib. 
 
 Eochy the Daghda, 192 note. 
 
 Erdeven, 350. 
 
 Eric Blodoxe, 250 ; sons of, 291. 
 
 Eric the Holy, 291. 
 
 Eskil, 279. 
 
 Esquimaux, Cave men similar to, in 
 what respects, 17. 
 
 Es Salt, dolmens near, 441 . 
 
 Essenes, their connexion with Buddhism, 
 500. 
 
 Estremadura, dolmens in, 378. 
 
 Etan, poetess, 197 ; where buried, 212. 
 
 Ethelbert, cedes temple at Canterbury to 
 Augustine, 22. 
 
 Ethnography, see Races. 
 
 Etrurians, tomb-building race, 31, 393 ; 
 dead reverencing, 393 ; tomb of Colu- 
 mella, 33 ; of Regulini Galeassi, 34 ; 
 contents of, 34 ; belong to age of 
 bronze, 34 ; imitated at Borne, 40. 
 
 Europe, Northern, limited knowledge of, 
 before Koman ep> li, 38. 
 
 Eusufzaie circles, 4. .3. 
 
 Fa Hian, his visit to Tanchi, 492. 
 
 Faidherbe, Gencal his remarks on 
 tombs in Roknia, 396. 
 
 Family sepulchics u.arked by megalithic 
 monuments, 15. 
 
 Faussett, Mr. Godfrey, his happy refer- 
 ence to Beowulf, 120. 
 
 Fe'raud, M., his researches in Algeria, 
 395 ; his opinion as to building-race, 
 403 ; respecting find at Djideli, 404. 
 
 Ferguson, Mr., drawings by, of sepulchres 
 at Dol ar Marohant, 362. 
 
 Fiddes Hill circle, 263-5. 
 
 Fin, his conflict with Hengist, 120. 
 
 Finds : altar stone, 104 ; armour, 79, 
 104; amber beads, 218; amulet of 
 
 iron, 14 ; arrow-head, flint, 11, 12 ; ditto, 
 iron, 104-6,337; awl, 13; axe-stone, 
 165; ball syenite, 217; batter dishes, 
 104; battle-axe, 156; basaltic celt, 
 11 ; and hammer head, 12 ; beads of 
 glass, 13, 218, 359 ; and of amber, 218 ; 
 bird of bone, 527 ; bluestone, clippings 
 of, 103; bones, 74, 526; burnt, 13, 142, 
 159, 210, 526; charred, 217; cal- 
 cined, 11 ; human bones, 155, 179, 
 182, 199, 216, 219, 446; bones of 
 animals, 143-5, 182, 216; bones of 
 mammalia, 210 ; of horse, 404, 446 ; 
 dogs, 527 ; rats, 13 ; stags, 104 ; oxen, 
 ib. ; of men, ib. ; bones incinerated, 
 264 ; bone bodkin, 210 ; comb, 527 ; 
 box of bronze, 13; brass, 165; brass 
 or copper pin, 12; spear-head, 103; 
 bracelet, gold, 447, 527; bridle bit, 
 12, SO, 81, 148, 157, 404; bronze, 
 11, 13, 120, 141, 145, 184, 216, 318, 
 339, 358, 526 ; buckle, 43 ; and heads, 
 297; of gold, 156; burial urn, 527; 
 cap ornamented with gold, 446 ; carv- 
 ings, rude, 366; celt, basaltic, 11 ; stone, 
 
 11, 142 ; of bronze, 127 ; of jade, 358 ; 
 chamber, rude, 159; charcoal, 103, 
 265, 469, 526; chief, and wife and 
 children, remains of, 446; drippings 
 of stones, 1 03 ; circular instrument, 13 ; 
 circumcision, instruments of, 440 ; c : sts, 
 
 12, 140-1, 155-6; coal, Kimmeridge, 
 13; coins (see Roman Coins); coins, 
 German, 31 8 ; Anglo-Saxon, ib. ; Byzan- 
 tine, ib. ; Arabic or Kufic, ib. ; coins, 
 Roman, 74 ; brass coins, 11 ; Claudius, 
 Gothicus, 12, 33, 143; Constantine, 
 
 11, 12, 143, 165; family of, 11 ; Con- 
 stans, 11 ; Constantine II., 11, 339 ; 
 Constantinopolis, 11 ; Constantine 
 Junior, 12, 143; Gratian, 11 ; Ha- 
 drian, 84 ; from Tiberius to Trojan, 
 339; Theodosius, 209; Urbs Roma, 
 11; Valens, 11; Valentinian, 11, 12, 
 36, 143, 144, 209; combs, engravings 
 on, 218 ; compass, leg of, 218 ; comb, 
 527 ; copper, 120 ; cromlechs, 143 ; 
 cylinder partially pierced, 359 ; dagger, 
 bronze, 145 ; brass or bronze, 12, 13, 
 14; dart or javelin point, 142; clog's 
 bones, 527 ; drinking cup (fragments , 
 
 12, 115, 297; earthenware, 525; elec- 
 trum plate, part of quiver ornamented 
 with figures of animals and Greek in- 
 scription, 446-7 ; enamels, 14 5 ; en- 
 graved dagger and Wurm knot, 245 ; 
 fibula, 11, 13, 142, 210, 297; fibula, 
 gold, 156 ; flat basin, large, 217 ; flint, 
 11, 12, 14, 146, 165, 182, 218; frag- 
 ments of, 286 ; flakes, and instruments 
 of, 447; flowers, silver, 156, 339; 
 Faustina, medal of, 405 ; garnets, 11 ; 
 giant, remains of, 130, 156 ; glass, 13, 
 339 ; glass beads, ib. ; glass, molten 
 drop of, 218 ; gold-enamelled necklace 
 and bracelets, 440 ; gold cross, 11 ; 
 
544 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 necklace, 12 ; brooch, 212 ; ornaments, 
 13, 358, 451 ; goblet, silver, 297; gold, 
 traces of, 155 ; hair, human, chesnut- 
 coloured, 526 ; hammer - head, 12 ; 
 handle of knife, 13 ; helmets orna- 
 mented with bronze and silver, 114 ; 
 hone of sandstone, 12 ; horns, 74 ; 
 stags', 13, 105 ; of other animals, 105. 
 150; horse, 446; bones and teeth of, 
 404 ; teeth, 12 ; bones, 183, 527 ; 
 human remains, 165, 209, 217, 356, 
 444 ; ashes and bones, 469 ; hair, 526 ; 
 human interments, 185, 359 ; original 
 or secondary, 209, 284 ; inscriptions, 
 246, 314 ; implements of flint and bone, 
 145, 184, 185, 217. 21S, 359; of iron, 
 218 ; of modern form. 318 ; of flint, 
 286; inscriptions, 246, 314; instru- 
 ments, 13 ; ironstone, 12 ; ivory tweezers, 
 103 ; jade, axes in, 358 ; jet bracelet, 
 210; ornaments, 217; knife, 11, 146; 
 knife with iron sheath, 12 ; iron, 212 ; 
 knife-sbaped articles. 218 ; lacry- 
 matory, Roman, 165 ; medal, 404 ; 
 metal, lump, 155 ; nails, 527 ; orna- 
 ments, Anglo-Saxon, 11; rude, 185; 
 more refined, 211 ; of goblet, 297 ; 
 dragons, tortoise, fantastic heads of 
 animals, 297 ; in gold and bronze, 358, 
 526 ; and copper, 527 ; oyster shells, 
 74 ; pebbles, 218 ; pin, iron, 13 ; bronze 
 ditto, 141, 216 ; copj>er, 210 ; pine poles 
 partly burnt, 526 ; point, fliut, of 
 dart or javelin. 142 ; pottery, fine, 
 broken, 357 ; pottery, rude, 12, 217, 
 218, 285, 339; Eoman, 105, 106; 
 black, 285 ; fine, 404 ; red and black, 
 rude British, 105, 285 ; Roman British, 
 or Mediaeval, 165 ; precious stones, 
 traces of, 142 ; punch, iron, 218 ; rat's 
 bones, 13 ; riny:, gold, 210 ; iron, ib. ; 
 bronze, 218, 4S7 ; Runes, 244 ; repre- 
 sentations of stag and camels, 218; 
 shield, fragments of, 156; silver-flower 
 sword-ornaments, 156 ; slate, 525 ; 
 spear heads, flint or stone, 182 ; skulls, 
 human, 155, 525 ; snaffle bridle, 156 ; 
 sword, iron, 148, 156, 184 446 ; syenite, 
 217; sea shells, 218; silver, 13, 243; 
 skeletons, human, 11, 14, 17, 76, 145, 
 148, 165, 209, 289. 313; sling-stones, 
 210; spear-bead, 11,12; of brass, 103 ; 
 sculptured slab, 365 ; stained fragments, 
 218 ; stag's bones, 216 ; statuettes, 339 ; 
 stone, 11, 165 ; polished stones, 218 ; 
 stone button, 210; stone shot, ib. ; 
 studs of coal, 13 ; tiles, Romano-Gallic, 
 338 ; others, 359 ; teeth of animals. 
 12; human, 155, 216; of horse, 404 ; 
 tweezers, ivory, 103; terra cotta. 339 ; 
 torques, gold, 210; silver, 243; urns, 
 11-13, 143, 179, 264; with ashes, 
 184, 210 ; of stone, 210 ; for burial, 527 ; 
 yases, 140-1, 357 ; whetstone, 13 ; 
 wood; coals, 74; wood, burnt, 182; 
 wood, dark, 526. 
 
 Finds in Denmark, 10; Derbyshire, 11 ; 
 Winster Moor, ib. ; Pegges Barrow, 
 ib. ; Long Rood, ib. ; Hadclon Field 
 Harrow, ib. ; Gib Hill, ib. ; Cross Flats, 
 ib. ; Galley Lowe, 12 ; Mitming Lowe, 
 ib. ; Borther Lowe, ib. ; Rolley Lowe, 
 ib. ; Ashford Moor, ib. ; Carder Lowe, 
 ib. ; New Inns, ib. ; Net Lowe, 13 ; 
 Castern, ib. ; Chartham Downs, ib. ; 
 Stand Lowe, ib. ; Wetton and Ham, 
 ib. ; Middleton Moor. ib. ; Come Lowe, 
 ib. ; Dowe Lowe. ib. ; valley of Somme, 
 16 ; Abbeville, ib. ; (Cray's Inn Lane, 
 ib. ; Nineveh, 34 ; at Avebury, 74 ; at 
 Crichie, 75 ; at Hakpen, 76 ; contents 
 of, 250 ; tumuli, analysis of contents of, 
 11 ; finds at Stonehenge, 103-5 ; at West 
 Kennet, 285 et seq. ; inferences from, 
 288 ; infereuce from nature of, 106 ; 
 from coins, 338 ; from absence of British, 
 Gallic, and Christian coins, 340 ; from 
 Roman pottery, 360 ; few inferences of 
 a^e possible from finds in India, and 
 why, 480 ; no iron or bronze, but 
 copper, in North America, 517 ; and 
 tools only of copper, 517. 
 
 Finn, suitor of Graine, 225. 
 
 Firbolgs, or Belgae, in Ireland. 176 ; 
 when, 193; defeat at Moytura, 179; 
 how long in Ireland, 193 ; whence they 
 came thither, 193. 
 
 Fire, worship of, forbidden by Councils, 
 25. 
 
 Flann, son of Conaing, 201. 
 
 Flint remains found at Abbeville, 16 
 note ; inference from. 166 ; symbolic 
 of what, 447. See Finds. 
 
 Flower, Mr., account of African monu- 
 ments, 396 ; and their builders, 403. 
 
 Ford, Mr., his ' Handbook of Spain.' 
 
 Fordum, see Boece. 
 
 Formorians, from Africa, settled in Ire- 
 land. 176 ; dispossessed by Belga?, 176 ; 
 of same race as Dananns, 187. 
 
 Forres, Sweno's stone at, 59. 
 
 Fountains, worship of, 24-5. 
 
 Fouquet, M, see Galles, M. 
 
 Four-cornered grave, 449. 
 
 " Four Masters " cited, 213, 225, 382. 
 
 France, climate of, at epoch of " Cave 
 men," 17 ; finds in, 16 ; menhirs, 59 ; a 
 single sculptured stone there, 59 note ; 
 French study of rude-stone monuments, 
 recent, but scientific, 325; ' Dictionnaire 
 des Antiquite's Celtiqucs,' ib. ; Bertraud, 
 M., bis map of France, 326 ; general 
 distribution of French monuments, 
 ib. ; no dolmens in East of Fiance, 
 327; date of Celtic first invasion of 
 Gaul, 327, 334 ; two early contemporary 
 races in, 328; the ' ac ' termination, 
 329; church architecture in dolmen 
 region of the South of France, 331 ; 
 form of dolmen distinguishes dolmens 
 in Brittany from those in South of 
 France, 335 ; Confolens, 337 ; plan of, 
 
FRANCE. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 545 
 
 ib. ; error of French antiquaries, ib. ; 
 find, 337-9 ; dolmens, 340 ; size, num- 
 ber, and beauty of, ib. ; few and im- 
 perfect circles, ib. ; " Allee couverte " 
 or " Grotte des Fees," ib. ; examples of, 
 elsewhere than in France, ib. ; their 
 distribution here, 340 ; Saumur, Esse', 
 Locmariaker, Bagneux, Mettray, 341 ; 
 form of French dolmens, 342 ; Kru- 
 kenho, ib. ; comparative age of, 343 ; 
 demi-dolmens, rocking stones, &c, 345 
 et seq ; Carnac, cemetery and battle- 
 field, 349 ; alignments, Carnac and 
 Erdeven, St. Barbe, 350 ; Maenec and 
 Kermario, 351; map, 352-3; stone 
 rows, 354 ; differ how, from Stoue- 
 henge and Stennis, 355 ; head of 
 column of St. Barbe, Mont St. Michel, 
 ib. ; find, 356 ; Kerlescant, find, 
 357 ; Plouharnel, double dolmen and 
 find, 358 ; long barrow, Moustoir- 
 Carnac, ib. ; find, 359 ; Locmariaker, 
 cemetery, dolmen, 360 ; sculptured 
 stones at Mane Lud, 361 ; dolmen, 
 Dol ar Marchant, ib. ; end stone and 
 roof, sculptured, 362 ; fallen obelisk, 
 363 ; compared to dolmen at Krukenho, 
 
 ' ib. ; allee couverte, 364 ; ornamented 
 stones, ib. ; Mane er H'roek, and find, 
 ib. ; Gavr Innis, sculptured stones, 
 365 ; resemble sculptures at Lough 
 Crew, 366 ; three-holed stone, tools 
 used, ib. ; Tumiac, tumulus and find, 
 ■ib. ; Crozon alignments, their origin 
 and purpose obscure, 367 ; Gre de 
 Cojou, double alignment, circle, en- 
 closures, dolmen, 367-8 ; Preissac, ib. ; 
 date and object of monuments at 
 Carnac, 370 et seq. ; Carnac, Erdeven, 
 and St. Barbe, are they parts of one 
 whole ? 372 ; argument against their 
 existence in Csesar's time, 373 ; not 
 pre-Koman, ib. ; early history not satis- 
 factory, ib. ; battle between Maximus 
 and Gratian, ib. ; Conan Meriadec, 
 374 ; author's view as to origin of 
 Carnac monuments, 374-5 ; Grallon s 
 war with Liberius and Northern pirates, 
 374 ; Eomans never settled in Brittany, 
 370 ; effect there, of Eomau building- 
 style, ib ; and of withdrawal of Eomans, 
 394. 
 
 Franks, M., his photograph of Ballo 
 dolmen, 321. 
 
 French antiquaries, errors of, 337. 
 
 Frere, Mr., his find at Abbeville, 16 
 note. 
 
 Freyrso, battle at, 276. 
 
 Frey's Howe, opened, 527. 
 
 Friar's Heel stone at Stonehenge, 7. 
 
 Frode Frodegode, tomb of, 299. 
 
 Frode V., 278, 288. 
 
 Galatia, importance of dolmens there, 
 
 if any, to Celtic theory, 446. 
 Gullet, M. Eene. explores Mont St. Michel, 
 
 354; with M. Fouquet explores Tu- 
 miac, find, 366. 
 
 Galley Low, find at, 12. 
 
 Gallicia, dolmens in, 378. 
 
 Ganora, see Guinevere. 
 
 Gariock, Newton stone at, 57. 
 
 Garrywhin alignment, 529. 
 
 Gaul, Pliny's tale of snakes in, 4; no 
 stone temples in, mentioned by Csesar 
 or Tacitus, 20. 
 
 Gavr Innis, in Morbihan, 43, 364 ; sculp- 
 tures, holed stone, 365 ; compared to 
 Lough Crew, 366 ; holes and trough 
 below, ib. ; object of it. 
 
 Geraldus Cambrensis, his statement as 
 to removal of stones to Stonehenge, 
 107 ; how fable originated, 108. 
 
 Germans, worship of, in groves only, 
 20. 
 
 Germany, North (see Scandinavia); dol- 
 mens in, 301. 
 
 Gervaise mentions cemetery at Canter- 
 bury, 22. 
 
 Ghazni, Saracenic arches at, 457. 
 
 Giant tribes in Palestine, builders of 
 dolmens ? 442 ; circles, 453. 
 
 " Giant's dance," Geraldus and Ware 
 cited as to, 107 note. 
 
 Giant's grave, 229 ; circle there, ib. 
 
 Giants' towers, 415. 
 
 Giara, plan of, Nurhag of, 430. See 
 Mediterranean Islands. 
 
 Gib Hill, find at, 11, see Derbyshire; 
 analogue of Silbury Hill, 147. 
 
 Gildas cited, 87 ; as to interments at 
 Stonehenge, 110. 
 
 Gilead, dolmens in, 442 ; last safe place for 
 dolmens before India, 443. 
 
 Gizeh, date of pyramid of, 31. 
 
 Glasfurd, Capt., find by, 487. 
 
 Glem, or Glein, river, Arthur's battle 
 near, 135. 
 
 Glen Columbkille, 225. 
 
 Glen Columbkille and Glen Malin, survey 
 of Mr. Norman Moore, 520; crom- 
 lechs or dolmens, stone chambers, soli- 
 tary stones, 320 ; plan of one, 521 ; 
 groups of, 523-4 ; find, 525 ; resem- 
 blance of one to Calliagh Birra's tomb, 
 525. 
 
 Glen Malin More, 225. 
 
 Godmundingham, destruction of church 
 at, 23. 
 
 Gond, see Bhil. 
 
 Gongora y Martinez, Don, his work cited, 
 377. 
 
 Gordon, Principal, anecdotes of, respect- 
 ing holed stones at Stennis, 255. 
 
 Gorm, monument of, 27; date of, 126, 
 296 et seq. ; dragon on, 245. 
 
 Gothland perhaps mentioned by Dio- 
 dorus, 8. 
 
 Gottenburg, drawings of ships on stones 
 at, 303. 
 
 Gottingen, no dolmens in, 301. 
 
 Gower caves. 16. 
 
 2 N 
 
546 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Gozo, spirals and scrolls at, compared to 
 
 those at Mycenie, 424. 
 Graine, daughter of Corniac Mac Art, 
 
 see Beds. 
 Grallon, king of Briton, his wars, 374. 
 Grandmont, holed dolmen at, 343. 
 Grange, New, cairns at, 52. 
 Gratian, defeat of, in Brittany, 374. 
 Grave, four cornered, 449. 
 Greece, Aryan occupation of, 39 ; early 
 tombs in Greece, ib. ; succession of 
 architectural styles, 393. <See Bactrian. 
 Greeks of Bactria introduce usage of 
 stone monuments in India, 48 ; Greek 
 kings mentioned by Asoka, 498. 
 Greenland, route of early peoplers of 
 
 America, 516. 
 Greenmouut, tumulus at, 231 ; diggings 
 
 at, ib. ; date, 232. 
 Greenwell, Canon, his researches as to 
 
 prehistoric tumidi, 289. 
 Gregory the Great, letter of, respecting 
 
 English idols, 21. 
 Groningen, dolmens in 301. 
 Grottes des Fees, see Allee's couvertes. 
 Groups of stones in England, 56. 
 Groves, sacred, 465. 
 
 Guest, Dr., accuracy of his dates, 86; 
 opinions as to place of Arthur's last 
 battle, 87. 
 Guidebert circle, 531. 
 Guin, Arthur's 8th battle there, 137, 
 
 172. 
 Guinevere, where born and buried? 134. 
 Guzerat, ruins in, of Mahommedan city, 
 457. 
 
 Hacas Pen, see Hakpen Hill. 
 
 Hadrian, mausoleum of, 40 ; coins of, 84. 
 
 Hagiar Khem, plan of cone, 423 ; pitmark- 
 ings, 424 ; altar, 425 ; headless image, 
 ib. 
 
 Hag's Hill, 213. See Slieve na Calliage. 
 
 Haken, Iris victory, 291. 
 
 Hakpen Hill, circle and avenue, 4 ; double 
 circles, 64 ; Dr. Stukeley's theory as 
 to, 4 ; dimensions, 65 ; mentioned in 
 Charter of Athelstane, 73; dimensions 
 of ovals, 75 ; stones, 76 ; find, 76 ; date 
 of interments, 77 ; Camden's account, 
 78; Saxon and Danish burials, ib. ; 
 Roman road at, 83. 
 
 Hale Farm, 117. 
 
 Halkor, 305 ; dolmen, with drawing of 
 ships, circles with crosses or chariot- 
 wheels, 304. 
 
 Hamlet, citation from, 286. 
 
 Hannibal in Spain, 380. 
 
 Hanover dolmen, 301 ; with enclosure, 
 308. 
 
 Harald Blaatand, 296. 
 
 Harald Hildetand, his defeat, 280 ; grave, 
 282. 
 
 Harold Harfagar, 248; when took the 
 Orkneys, 250. 
 
 Haugagerdium, 249. 
 
 Havard the Happy, 250. 
 
 Havard, Earl, where interred, 298. 
 Hainan, Roman tombs in the, 445. 
 
 Haxthausen, cited as to Steppes, 448-9. 
 Headstone, see Kivik. 
 
 Heca trans cited, 8. 
 
 Height of mound an indication of its a^e, 
 142 note. 
 
 Helmstadt, once dolmens were near, 301. 
 
 Hengist and Horsa, 119 ; Hengist's grand- 
 son, 57 ; his treachery, 107. 
 
 Henry of Huntingdon cited as to triliths 
 at Stonehenge, 94. 
 
 Heracleidse, return of, what figured by, 
 39. 
 
 Heraldic symbolism, 273. 
 
 Heremon, Spanish race of, in Ireland, 381 
 et seq. ; kings of this race in Ireland, 
 where buried, 200. 
 
 Herodotus, his descriptions of tomb of 
 Alyattes, 31 ; his account of the Naso- 
 menes, 407. 
 
 Herrestrup, dolmen at, 303; ships, and 
 oirclfs with crosses engraved upon, 303. 
 
 Hesioil, his statement as to respective 
 antiquity of brass or iron, 35. 
 
 Hiero's temple at mouth of Loire, 21. 
 
 Hildebrand, his account of diggings and 
 find at Oden's Howe, 526. 
 
 Hildesheim, no dolmen at, 301. 
 
 Hindu Goni, 412. 
 
 Hindus as builders, 457 ; did not employ 
 the arch, 457 ; not immutable, 458. 
 
 Historic, monuments not, 416. 
 
 Hjarna3, tomb of, 299. 
 
 Hjortehammer, singular form of graves 
 at, 316 ; date of, according to Woisae, 
 316 ; Viking graves at, 528. 
 
 Hotre, Sir R. G, 5 ; his work on Wilt- 
 shire, ib. ; his authority, in what ques- 
 tionable, 10; his account of Hakpen, 
 77 ; etymology of Marlborough, 84 ; sur- 
 veyed Marden, 85 ; his opinion of, 86 ; 
 plan of Stonehenge, 91 ; cited as to 
 Stonehenge, 101-5, 110; Stanton Drew, 
 150 ; find by long barrows, 289. 
 
 Hob Hurst's house, 172. 
 
 Hobisch, double dolmen at, 309. 
 
 Hock Norton, defeat of English at, 126. 
 
 Holback, clO. 
 
 Holes in dolmens, 161 ; Plas Newydd 
 monolith at Stennis, 255; ceremony 
 connected with, ib. ; date of, 256 ; cer- 
 tainly Scandinavian, 25S ; in France, 
 Trie, Grandmont, Bas Languedoc, 
 343-4; umbrella form has analogues in 
 India, &c , 343 ; holes as entrances to 
 chambers at Kerlescant aud Rodmar- 
 ton, 357; others at Finistere, 358; 
 Gavr Innis, 365 ; objects of holes there, 
 trough below, 366 ; in trilithon, 411 ; 
 in dolmen in Circassia, 447 ; at Rajun- 
 koloor, 469 ; inference of connexion of 
 race from, 495. See Tumulus. 
 
 Holland, dolmens in, 301. See Drenthe, 
 Hunebeds. 
 
HOLLAND. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 INTERMENTS. 
 
 547 
 
 Holland, Kev. Mr., cited as to Sinai, 443 ; 
 find by, 444. 
 
 Holstein, dolmens in, 301. 
 
 Holy Land, see Palestine. 
 
 Horsa, his burial-place, 119-21 ; battle be- 
 tween and Vortigern, 119. 
 
 Horses, sacrifices of, iii the Steppes, 449- 
 52. 
 
 Horstead, Horsa perhaps there buried, 
 121. 
 
 Houel's monuments in Malta, 416. 
 
 Howes, Danish and Saxon burials in, 104 ; 
 British ditto, to what date, ib. ; Danish 
 kings buried, 250; to what date, argu- 
 ment from, 297. 
 
 Hoxay, 249-50. 
 
 Hubba the Dane, his era, 104. 
 
 Hue and Gabet cited as to monasticism 
 in the Bast, 502. 
 
 Human remains, see Finds. 
 
 Human sacrifices amongst Anglo-Saxons, 
 284-5; and Khouds in India, 460; in 
 Cuttack, 465. 
 
 Humble, tomb of, 299. 
 
 Hunebeds, 318, et seq. ; Emmen, 320-1 ; 
 Ballo, 321 ; were they originally covered, 
 321 ; Groningen and Friesland, 322 ; 
 use and date, ib. 
 
 Hunestadt, dragon at, 245. 
 
 Hwitaby circles and Bacta stones, 290. 
 
 Hydahs in Alaska, 18 ; compared to 
 Cave men, ib. ; accounts of, 18 note ; 
 ■whether of race of mound builders, 
 517. 
 
 Hy Fiachrach cited, 233. 
 
 Hyperboreans, mentioned by Diodorus, 8 ; 
 circular temples amongst, ib. ; fidsely 
 supposed to be inhabitants of Britain, 
 ib. 
 
 Iberians, or Celtiberians, 227 ; in Britain, 
 162 ; in Donegal, 227 ; dolmens, 228 ; 
 Irish dolmens, 238 ; not very ready 
 converts to Christianity, 228. 
 
 Idols, worship of, Councils forbidding, 
 24, 25. 
 
 Ham, find at, 13. 
 
 Images, headless, 425 ; of dead on tombs, 
 449. 
 
 India, temples of, 1 ; no Druids in, 6 ; 
 observations on, 7; when iron first 
 known in, 35 ; tombs in, 41 ; holed 
 stones, 343 ; westernmost dolmen, 
 443 ; rude -stone monuments, 455 ; 
 dates of Aryans crossing Indus, of 
 Vedas and laws of Menou, 455 ; no 
 existing stone building prior to Asoka, 
 ib. ; progress of Indian architecture 
 contrasted with that of other countries, 
 457 ; Hindu not immutable, 459 ; but 
 other races are so, 459-461 ; Khassia 
 Hills, 462 ; rude monuments there 
 similar to European examples, ib. ; 
 cremation amongst Khassias, 463 ; 
 funereal seats, ib. ; origin of menhirs 
 there, stone turbans, 464 ; menhirs and 
 
 tables, ib. ; turban-stone, stone-table, 
 trilithon, ib. ; no circles and align- 
 ments, tumuli, nor sculptures, but 
 coincidences with Western nations, 465 ; 
 points of similarity and of dissimilarity 
 to Druidical institutions, ib. ; date of 
 monuments, ib. ; Kamarupa, 466 ; 
 Sylhet, ib. ; Western India, ib. ; Bel- 
 gaum altars or tables, 467 ; small cir- 
 cles, central stones, worship of Betal, 
 ib. ; dolmen at Bajunkoloor, 468 ; closed 
 dolmen, 469 ; find, 470 ; cairns, ib. ; 
 Baichore Doab dolmens surrounded 
 by double circles, 470 ; arrangement of 
 dolmens at Bajunkoloor, ib. ; cairns at 
 Jewurgi, find, 471 ; purpose of each 
 set of dolmens, 472 ; their ages, ib. ; 
 double dolmen, Coorg, 473 ; tomb, 
 Nilgiri Hills, ib. ; sepulchral circles at 
 Amravati, 474 ; circular rail, 475 ; dis- 
 tribution of dolmens in India, ib. ; 
 Karumbers Buddhists, 477 ; Dra- 
 vichans or Tumulians, 478 ; Karumbers 
 and Singalese, connexion of, ib. ; im- 
 portance of the unexplored territory of 
 Nizam, ib. ; Travancore cromlechs, 
 479 ; mode of interment, offerings to de- 
 parted spirits, explanation of miniature 
 utensils, 479 ; finds, 4S0 ; age of monu- 
 ments, iron how long known in India, 
 iron pillar at Kutub, Delhi, 48 1 ; sculp- 
 tured Indian dolmen, 4S3 ; Iwallee, 
 484 ; group at Shahpoor, 485 ; cross and 
 dolmen at Katapur, 486-7 ; dolmen 
 with cross at Nirmul Jungle, 488 ; 
 dagobas in Ceylon, 489, 490 ; dolmen 
 at Pullicondah, 491; Sanchi, rail near, 
 422 ; author's view as to dates of hewn 
 and rude-stone buildings, ignorance of 
 natives, 493-4 ; Eastern and Western 
 dolmens, similarities between, how far 
 proof of connexion, 495 ; tomb of Akbar 
 at Agra, 496; proof from literature 
 inconclusive, 496 ; from Asoka's rock- 
 engraved edict, 498. 
 
 Indian Buddhists, rails of, 48 ; art in- 
 fluences elsewhere, 414. 
 
 Indian origin of Essenes, 500. 
 
 Inhumation, different kinds and history 
 of, 30. 
 
 Inigo Jones, his treatise on Stonehenge, 
 23. 
 
 Inquisition, 332. 
 
 Inscriptions in Maes-Howe, 246 ; Newton 
 Stone, perhaps earliest Scotch inscrip- 
 tion, 271 ; Kirkliston, 271 ; Ogham 
 inscription, 271, 
 
 Interments, place of, in case of circles, 
 132, 151 ; at Snap, Hakpen, and 
 Crichie, 131-2; Saxon (see Beowulf); 
 articles deposited by Saxons, 145-6 ; 
 theory of successive interments, 146 ; 
 secondary interments, 165-6; fallacy 
 as to, 288-9 ; Sir John Lubbock's argu- 
 ment respecting summit interments, 
 166. 
 
 2 n 2 
 
548 
 
 INTERNATIONAL. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 KKRMARIO. 
 
 International Prehistoric Congress at 
 Paris, 337. 
 
 Iolaus with ThespiadoB colonizers of Sar- 
 dinia, 429. 
 
 Iorsala Farer or pilgrims, 244. 
 
 Iran and Turau or Aniran, of what these 
 words the equivalents, 50J. 
 
 Irhy and Mangles, Captains, observe dol- 
 mens in Syria, 441. 
 
 Ireland, tomb-building in, 43; dolmens 
 in, 45 ; external ditto, 46 ; menhirs in, 
 5S ; no symbolage in, 59; Milestones 
 from, transported to England, 108 ; 
 rude-stone monuments in, 175; best 
 illustration of megalithic remains, ib. ; 
 obstruction of the study of Irish monu- 
 ments, ib. ; services of Dr. Petrie, ib. ; 
 materials for history of, ib. ; copious 
 literature, 176 (see Moytura) ; King 
 Eochy, 178 ; Firbolgs or Belgians, 179 ; 
 tradition of the" One Man,' ib. ; Queen 
 Misgan Meave, 184-6; Dananns who? 
 188 ; King Nuada of the Silver Hand, 
 186; Fomorians, 186-7; Breas, 186; 
 Balor of the Evil Eye, 187; the great 
 Daghda, ib. ; Fomorians and Dananns 
 alleged to bo of same Scandinavian 
 race, ib. ; their very early intercourse 
 with Irish, 188 ; Dananns were Danes, 
 ib. ; chronology of early events, 188 et 
 seq.; places of royal interment, 190; 
 race of Crimthann, 132; introduction of 
 alphabet, 189, 196; division into king- 
 doms, 1S9 ; early accounts of its 
 peopling, ib. ; Irish history doubtful 
 until Cimboeth, ib. ; burial-places of 
 ancient kings, 190 ; first influx of civil- 
 ization, when, according to Dr. Todd, 
 193 note ; Oghams, 196 ; authentic 
 history of Ireland, when commences, 
 according to Petrie, ib. ; legend of the 
 Beds of Diarmid, 225 ; tradition as to 
 (see Cemeteries; ; St. Colomba, 227 ; 
 Iberians in Ireland, monuments of, 227 ; 
 murder of Uatlii by foster-brothers, 
 233 ; barbarism of Irish before St. 
 Patrick, 235-6; their civilization pro- 
 gressive, 236 ; stages of architecture, 
 237-8 ; marks of triple system of monu- 
 ments, 238 ; importance of them to 
 history, 238 ; age and sequence of its 
 monuments, 237-8 ; eircle-building race 
 in, 274 ; dolmen-building ditto, 274, 
 381; Spanish migration to, Heremon, 
 381 ; where Spaniards settled, 382 ; 
 date, ib. See Glen Columbkille. 
 
 Iron, when known to Greeks, Israelites, 
 Etruscans, 35 ; argument from absence 
 of iron in tombs considered, 37 ; when 
 introduced into Denmark, England, 
 Egypt, ib. ; iron, early manufacture of, 
 in India, 482 ; and now by Khassias 
 especially, ib. 
 
 Iron pillar at Kutub, 4S1 ; date of, 482. 
 
 Italy, tomb-building in, 40: dolmen at 
 Saturuia, 391-2 ; chambered tumuli, 
 
 392; hewn stones, ib. ; Etruria, ib.; 
 why dolmens not so uniform in Italy 
 as in France and Scandinavia, 393: 
 earliest colonists, the Pelasgi and Tyr- 
 rheni, in contact with merely stone- 
 hewing peoples, ib. ; reverence of 
 Etrurians for dead, ib. ; their efface- 
 ment by more progressive races, ib. ; 
 Koine adopts and improves Etruscan 
 architecture, ib. ; and forces Spain and 
 France to a more ambitious sepulture, 
 394 ; their relapse into rude-stone 
 monuments, ib. 
 Iwallee, singular place of dolmen, 484. 
 
 Jacob, stone set up by, 43S-9. 
 
 Jains succeeded Buddhists iu India, 459. 
 
 James I. directs researches respecting 
 
 Stonehenge, 3, 104. 
 Janssen, Dr., his work on Hunebeds, 319. 
 Jail Rapmvnld, his expedition, 244. 
 Jarls, Orcadian, how buried, 297. 
 Jeffrey of Monmouth cited, 88 ; account 
 
 by, of Stonehenge, 106 and of Merlin, 
 
 are justified, 412 ; his character as 
 
 writer, 106. 
 Jellinge, King Gorm's tomb at, 245, 296 
 
 et seq. 
 Jersey, tumulus in, 5 1 ; circle, 52. 
 Jewurgi, cairns at, 471-2. 
 Jey Sing, observatories of, 7, 459. 
 John, St., Baptistery of, at Canterbury, 
 
 erected, 22. 
 Jones, see Inigo. 
 Joshua, stone set up by, 438-40; flint 
 
 instruments of circumcision interred 
 
 with him, 440. 
 Joyce, Rev. Mr., on crosses, 488. 
 Juggernaut, temple of, 460. 
 Junies, remains there, 368. 
 Jutes, settle in and trade with Britain 
 
 before Cassar's time, 133. 
 Jutland, dolmens in, 301. 
 
 Kafr er Wal, dolmen at, 441. 
 Kamarupa, Hindu kingdom, 466. 
 Karl Lofts, if circle there, 130. 
 Karumbers, 476 et seq. ; originators of 
 
 rude monuments in India, 478. 
 Katapur, cross and dolmen at, 486-7. 
 Kemble cited, 64, 73 ; as to historical 
 
 value of poem of Beowulf, 120. 
 Kemp How, 130. 
 Kennet Avenue at Avebury, 63-4; 
 
 called " stone row " in charter of Athel- 
 
 stan, 74 ; river, station of Saxons upon, 
 
 88 ; long barrow similar to Lethra, 
 
 283. See River Kennet. 
 Kens Low, 139 ; barrow, find at, 145. 
 Kent, division of, by Bede, 120. 
 Kent's Hole, 16. 
 Kerdouadec alignment, 367. 
 Kerland demi-dolmen, 336. 
 Kerlescant, 351,356; long barrow opened, 
 
 find, 356. 
 Kermario avenues, 350. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 MAES-HOWE. 
 
 549 
 
 Keyna, traditions respecting, 151. 
 
 Keysler, citations from, 24, 25 ; compares 
 Drenthe to Stonelienge, 319. 
 
 Khassia Hills, rude-stone monuments, 
 462 et seq. ; tribes practise cremation, 
 463 ; funereal usages, 463 ; iron manu- 
 facture, 482. 
 
 Khatoura, tomb of Isidorus at, 100. 
 
 Khonds (see Gonds), usages of, resem- 
 blance to Druids, 460 ; Major Mac- 
 pherson's remarks respecting their 
 worship, 461 ; difficulty of putting an 
 end to their human sacrifices, ib. 
 
 King Stone, 146. See Stanton Drew. 
 
 Kings of Denmark, tombs of, 15. 
 
 Kinsey, his ' Portugal Illustrated,' 377. 
 
 Kistvaens, or cists, how composed, 43 ; 
 contents of, ib. ; when covered, 43-4 ; 
 passages into, 43 ; sculpture in, ib. ; 
 New Grange, ib. ; Gavr Innis, ib. ; 
 Macs-Howe, ib. ; Arbor Low, 140; Gib 
 ^ Hill, 141 ; Plas Newydd, 166. 
 
 Kit's Cotty House, 116; whether ever 
 covered, 44. 
 
 Kivik grave, headstone of, 314 ; figures 
 upon, ib. ; date assigned to, ib. ; re- 
 sembles one in France, ib. 
 
 Klein-Eaden, 301. See Cotty House. 
 
 Knock na Eea, 184 ; cairn at, 280. See 
 Queen Misgan Meave. 
 
 Knockeeu, dolmen at, 229. 
 
 Knowth, cairn of, 192, 200; identified by 
 Petrio with cave of Cuodhba, 201 ; 
 searched by Danes, ib. 
 
 Knut, the great battle between and Olof, 
 291. 
 
 Kongsbacka battle-field, 279. 
 
 Konigsberg, dolmens near, 301. 
 
 Konitz, dolmen at, 301. 
 
 Krukcnho, allec couverte at, 342 ; dolmen 
 coinpaied with Dol ar Marchant, 36 . 
 
 Kubber Eoumeia, tomb of Mauiitanian 
 kings, 423-4. 
 
 Kurgans or mounds in the Steppes, 448. 
 
 Kutb u Deen, his mosque at Delhi, 457. 
 
 Kutub iron pillar, 35, 481. 
 
 Laity, see Clergy and Laity. 
 
 Landevenec founded by Grallon, 374. 
 
 Landver, son of Thufin, where buried, 
 528. 
 
 Largs, battle of, 58 ; stone to mark, 58. 
 
 Larking, Eev. Mr., his visit to Aylesford, 
 118. 
 
 Latheronwheel, 530 et seq. 
 
 Lean Low mound, 139. See Derbyshire. 
 
 Lecan, bqok of, cited, 233. 
 
 Lech, meaning of word, 44. 
 
 Ledwich, Dr., his description of New 
 Grange, 143. 
 
 Lefroy, General, his diggings at Green- 
 mount, 231. 
 
 Lcoghaine, 212-3. 
 
 Leslie, Col. Forbes, 264 ; his paper upon 
 Aberdeenshire circles, 263; Belgian 
 group described by, 467. 
 
 Lethra, tomb at, of Harold, 282, 289. 
 
 Leure, alignment at, 367. 
 
 Lia Fail, 382, 439. See Stone of Destiny. 
 
 Liberius, Consul, deft at of, 374. 
 
 Lit-gnitz, dolmen at, 301. 
 
 Lifeacl air Cairbre, his grave, 213. 
 
 Linn \ see Linnis ; meaning of word, 136 ; 
 
 Lyn / perhaps Lake country, 136. 
 
 Linuis, where, 136 ; locality of a battle 
 of Arthur, different opinions respecting 
 locality, 136. 
 
 Liotr, or Landver, sepulchre, 254. 
 
 Listoghil cairn, 181; mentioned by Pe trie, 
 ib. ; find there, 182. 
 
 Llwyd, Mr., 201., 
 
 Lockmagen, 129. See Wood Castle, 
 
 Locmariaker, alle'e couverte at, 341 ; 
 Dariorigum, capital of Venetes, 349; 
 long barrow, Mane Lud 360 ; Mane' er 
 H'roek, 360 ; dolmen and sculpture, 
 360-1 ; Dol ar Marchant, 361 ; alle'e 
 couverte near, 364 ; date, 370. 
 
 Loire, groltes des fees along, 341. 
 
 Loncarty, defeat of Danes at, 270. 
 
 Long Stow Cove, 64. 
 
 Long-headed race, superior antiquity of, 
 36. 
 
 Longroads, barrow at, 11. 
 
 Lot, department of, 334. 
 
 Lothbrok Kagnar, victories of, 290; 
 sepulchre of, 29S; battle fought by, 
 314. 
 
 Lough Crew, 199, 213; excavations, 213; 
 cairn T, 214; Hag's Chair, 215; two 
 stones, 216; cairn L, 217; cairn H, 
 ib.; find there, 2JS; cairn D, 219; 
 other monuments at, ib. 
 
 Lubbock, Sir John, analysis by, of con- 
 tents of numerous tumuli, 11 ; Park 
 Cwn tumulus described by, 164. 
 
 Lucan cited as to Nasomenes, 407. 
 
 Lug, grandson of Balor, 187. 
 
 Lukis, Rev. Mr., explores Carnac, 350, 
 356-7. 
 
 Lumberdale House, cist at Gib Hill 
 removed to, 141. 
 
 Liineburg, dolmen near, with enclosures, 
 308. 
 
 Luxembourg, Grand Duchy, dolmens in, 
 301, 323 ; to whom referred, 323. 
 
 Lyons, battle near, 374. 
 
 Mackenzie, Col., his map cited, 474 ; his 
 
 drawings of Viraculls and Masteeculls, 
 
 483. 
 Macpherson, Major Charteris, his work, 
 
 memorials of service in India cited, 
 
 460. 
 Madracen, 423 ; of same type as Maltese 
 
 examples, 4-4. 
 Madsen, his 'Antiquite's prehistoriques 
 
 du Danemark,' 188; gives examples of 
 
 buried dolmen, 310. 
 Maenec, Le, 350 et seq. 
 Maes-Howe tumulus, 244; opened, ib.; 
 
 early spoliation of, ib. ; runes descriptive 
 
550 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 of origin, ib. ; the spoilers, who, ib. ; 
 inference from runes, ib. ; engraving 
 of dragon, similar to Danish, 245, 24b' 
 et seq. ; Wurm knot, 245 ; inscription, 
 246; age of, ib.; architecture of kowe, 
 247; chamber and loculi, ib. ; resem- 
 blance of mound to those on Boyne, 
 248; of what race and age, 249-256; 
 unique monument must have belonged 
 to most magnificent race, 258. 
 
 Magas mentioned by Asoka, 498. 
 
 Magh Mor, King of Spain, his connexion 
 with Ireland, 187. 
 
 Magnus Henricksson, Danish Prince, 291. 
 
 Magnus Ulaus, description by, of ruega- 
 1 it hie remains in Sweden, 15, 101. 
 
 Mahabharata, date of the, 455. 
 
 Mahommedans could not influence the 
 nonprogressive tribes of India, 459. 
 
 Mahommedanism, aversion to, in India, 
 459. 
 
 Majorca and Minorca, see Mediterranean 
 Islands, 434. 
 
 Mai Lumkun, cross erected by, 272. 
 
 Male, M., his example of demi-dolmen, 
 345. 
 
 Malmor, or Malmurn, 272. 
 
 Malta, tombs of, 410; giants' towers, 415; 
 
 Maltese monuments, see Mediterranean 
 Islands. 
 
 Man, Isle of, circles iu, 162 ; crosses in, 
 273. 
 
 Mane erH'roek, hud there, 339, 360, 364; 
 singular sculptured slab, 364. 
 
 Mane Lud, 360. 
 
 Mangles, Captain, see Irby. 
 
 " Many Stones," group, 529. 
 
 Maols, or Murderers, graves of four, at 
 Ballina, 233, 336; certain date of, 
 233. 
 
 Marden, 63; circle, plan, 85. 
 
 Marienburg, dolmen at, 30. 
 
 Marlborough, etymology of word, 84. 
 
 Marmora, Count de la, his work on Sar- 
 dinia, 428 et seq. 
 
 Marsa Sirocco, remains at, 425. 
 
 Masses, immense, moved by rude peoples, 
 465. 
 
 Masteeculls, what, 483. 
 
 Mauritanian kings, tombs of, 424. 
 
 Maximus, overthrow of Koman power by, 
 373; his battle, 374. 
 
 Mayborough {see Penrith and Cumrew) ; 
 circle at, compared to Little Salkeld, 
 127. 
 
 Meave Misgan, Queen, see Misgan. 
 
 Mecklenburg, dolmens in, 301. 
 
 Mediterranean islands, non-historic monu- 
 ments of, shaped stoues, 415, 436 
 Malta, giants' towers, circles, 416 
 Gozo, 417; Hagiar Khem, 419, 423 
 Mnaidra, 418-22; roofing of Maltese 
 monuments, 422 ; these compared to 
 Kubber Roumeia and Madracen, 424 ; 
 Gozo scrolls and spirals compared to 
 those of Mycenre and Greece, ib.; 
 
 pit-markings, ib. ; altars and stone 
 tables, 225 ; monuments not temples 
 but sepulchres, 425-6; Phoenicians in 
 Malta, 425; the monuments, of what 
 race and age, 426, 437 ; prior to dol- 
 mens, 437 ; Sardinic Nurhags, 427 ; 
 storeys of Nurhags and groups, plan of, 
 ib. ; Santa Barbara, 428, 431 ; silence 
 of history as to them, 429; Deda- 
 lean buildings according to Diodorus, 
 ib.; La Giara, 430; .what Nurhags 
 were, 431 ; derivation of, 432 ; view of 
 author as to purpose of Nurhags, 433 ; 
 Balearic islands, Talaiots at Trepuco, 
 Minorca bilithon, 435 ; Alajor, ib. ; 
 stone tables, 435-6 ; rude-stone circles, 
 432. 
 
 Megalithic monuments at Moytura, 180 
 et seq. ; every kind of, except avenues, 
 180-1 ; monument iu Deer Park, Sligo, 
 234 ; its anomalous nature, 235 ; Celts 
 had nothing to do with, according to 
 Bertrand, 254 ; gap of, between France 
 and Scandinavia, 323; none in valleys 
 of Bhine or Scheldt, ib. ; distribution 
 of, 334; map, 324; table, 376; demi- 
 dolmens, rucking stones, 345 et seq. ; 
 Carnac, 350 ; Tiaret, 397. 
 
 Megalithic remains, how to study, 19 ; 
 rarely in this country contain flint, 
 bronze, or iron, 19 ; style uniform, 36 ; age. 
 of, 37 ; resemblance to Buddhist struc- 
 ture, 42 (see Kistvaens); mark battle- 
 fields, family sepulchres, or graves of 
 distinguished men, 15 ; great light as 
 to, derivable from Irish remains, 175. 
 
 Mclkart and Astarte, temple in Malta 
 dedicated to, 425. 
 
 'Memorials of Service,' work of Major 
 Charteris-Macpherson, 460. 
 
 Menhirs, 29 ; derivation of word, 57 ; 
 where, ib. ; purpose, ib. ; single stones 
 in Scripture, Greece, Etruria, ib. ; rarely 
 inscribed, ib. ; in Ireland, Wales, Scot- 
 land, 59; France, ib. ; at Lochrist, ib.; 
 Denmark, 60 (see Monoliths); purpose 
 of menhir in Khassia, 463 ; Western not 
 after Tartar models, 452. 
 
 Menou, laws of, date of, 455. 
 
 Meriadec Conan, British Prince in France, 
 374 ; wars of, ib. 
 
 Merivale, bridge at, 55-6 ; parallel lines 
 of stones at, 54 ; their purpose, ib. ; 
 avenue, circles, and cromlech at, 55-6. 
 
 Merlin, his bury, 84 ; his connexion with 
 Stonehenge, 107 ; fable about, 133 ; 
 explained, 412. 
 
 Mettray, alle'e couverte at, 341. 
 
 Mexican temples, 514; race non-pro- 
 gressive beyond a certain point, 19. 
 
 Mexico, carved stone monuments iu, 517. 
 
 Miamisburgh, sepulchral mound at, 514. 
 
 Miana, circle at, 453. 
 
 Microlithic remains, 40, 41, 47. 
 
 Miegle, alleged burial-place of Guinevere, 
 134. 
 
MIGRATION. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 OBELISK. 
 
 551 
 
 Migration from France to Algeria, 409 ; 
 of people settled around Mediterranean, 
 410. 
 
 Migration theory, how proved or dis- 
 proved, 443, 445. 
 
 Minho, dolmens in, 378. 
 
 Miniature urns and utensils in Indian 
 tomb, use of, explained, 479. 
 
 Minjana, Don Rafael, pamphlet by, 377. 
 
 Minning Low, 130, 142-3. See Derby- 
 shire. 
 
 Minorca, see Mediterranean. 
 
 Minyas, tomb of, 33. 
 
 ' Mirabilibus Auscultationibus, De,' work 
 ascribed to Aristotle, 429, 434. 
 
 Miscellaneous, see Mounds. 
 
 Misgan Meave, Queen, cairn of, 183; 
 killed by whom, 184 (see Moytura) ; 
 poem of her life and adventures, 196 ; 
 her husband, 197. 
 
 Mnaidra, elliptical chambers, 417; plans 
 of monuments at, 418-22 ; cones, 419 ; 
 pit-markings, 420 ; openings in walls, 
 shelves or loculi or columbaria ? 420 ; 
 roofs, 421. 
 
 Modestus, his zeal of proselytism un- 
 successful in Brittany, 373. 
 
 Mogalana and Sariputra, disciples of 
 Buddha, 504. 
 
 Mogols, domes of, 40. 
 
 Moiyneux, Sir Thomas, 202. 
 
 Monasticism in the West, 499; Vestal 
 Virgins, Antony, ib. ; Essenes, 500; 
 history silent as to monasticism in the 
 East, not so architecture, 501 ; imitated 
 by the West from the East, ib. ; pecu- 
 liarities introduced, 502. 
 
 Monoliths at Stennis, 242; holed, 242, 
 255 ; Setif, 397. 
 
 Mont St. Michel, possibly occupied by 
 Caesar, 20 ; find, 356. 
 
 Montfort, Simon de, 481. 
 
 ' Monumenta Britannica ' cited, 87. 
 
 Monuments, see Rude-Stone. 
 
 Moon worship forbidden, 25. 
 
 Moore, Norman, Mr., his visit to Glen 
 Columbkille, 225 ; letters from, re- 
 specting, Appendix, 520-3. 
 
 Moors in Spain, 381. 
 
 Motes, or places of judgment, stones to 
 mark, 26. 
 
 Mounds of sacrifice in North America, 
 513; of sepulture, 514; temple, 
 ib. ; animal mounds, 515 ; conical 
 mounds, 513. 
 
 Moustoir Carnac, long barrow and find, 
 358-9. 
 
 Moytura, 176; two battles at, 175; nar- 
 rative of, <by O'Donovan, 176; first 
 battle at North Moytura, 176-7 ; second 
 battle at South Moytura, 177-9 ; circles, 
 177; cairns, ib. ; cairn of " One Man," 
 178 ; importance and varieties of monu- 
 ments at Northern Moytura, 180 ; map, 
 181 ; plan of circles, 182-3 ; dolmen, 
 183; tomb of Misgan Meave, 184; 
 
 locality of it doubted, 1S5 ; account of 
 battle of Northern Moytura, 186 ; 
 dates of battles, 1S8, 197; when ac- 
 counts first written, 197 ; localities of 
 battles, 198; monuments at, contrasted 
 with English and Scandinavian ex- 
 amples, 198 ; resemblance of, to Braa- 
 valla, 280, 304. 
 
 Muir Divock, 130 ; circles at, 130. 
 
 Mule Hill, 157-8. See Circles, Small. 
 
 Mulhevan, Mr., account of Katapur, 
 4S7. 
 
 Mull of Cantyre circles, 262. 
 
 Munch, Professor, his observations as to 
 spoilers of Maes-Howe, 244 ; mentions 
 Halfdan's barrow, 250. 
 
 Mycense, tombs of Atrida? at, 32, 36 ; 
 analogous to Jersey circles, 52, 53; 
 scrolls and spirals there resemble those 
 of Gozo, 424. 
 
 Nablons, dolmens on road to, 441. 
 
 Naper, Mr., excavations by, 213. 
 
 Nasamones, who, 407; Herodotus men- 
 tions their veneration of dead, ib. ; a 
 plundering tribe, ib. 
 
 Navarre, dolmens in, 378. 
 
 Nemedh, three sons of, 179. 
 
 Nennius, his account of origin of Stone- 
 henge, 107 ; of Arthur's battles, 135. 
 
 Nestorians, how far to the east, 488. 
 
 Net Lowe, find, 13. 
 
 Netterville House, tumulus, 209. 
 
 New Craig circle, 263. 
 
 New Grange, 43, 52; Royal cemetery, 
 192, 201. 
 
 New Inn, 12. 
 
 Newark Works in America, 511. 
 
 Newton, 263; sculptured stone, 263, 271. 
 
 Niall, father of Leoghaire, 212. 
 
 Nicol, Dr., his observations in Kincar- 
 dine, 265. 
 
 Nikolajew, uncovered base of tumulus, 
 451. 
 
 Nilgiri Hills tombs and dolmens, 472-3 ; 
 sculptured dolmens, 4S3. 
 
 Nine Ladies, circle of, at Stanton Moor, 
 48-9, 140. 
 
 Nineveh, dates of buildings at, how as- 
 certained, ], 34. 
 
 Nirmul Jungle dolmen with cross, 488. 
 
 Nizam's unexplored territory important 
 to art and history, 478. 
 
 Nonhistone monuments, 415. 
 
 Norman pirates, Grallon's war with, 374. 
 
 North Germany', see Scandinavia. 
 
 Norway, no dolmens in, but cairns and 
 such like monuments, 302. 
 
 Nuada, king, " of the silver hand," battle 
 and death, 187. 
 
 Nur, meaning of, 432. 
 
 Nurhags of Sardinia, 410, 415, 427 et 
 seq. ; derivation of word, see Sardinia. 
 
 Oak used in Thyra's tomb, 298. 
 Obelisk, development of, 59 ; at Ayles- 
 
552 
 
 OBERHAKTZ. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 ford, 117, 119; at Rollright, 124; at 
 Dol ar Marchaut, 363. 
 
 Oberhartz, no dolmens in, 301. 
 
 Oberyssel, dolmen in, 301. 
 
 O'Brian, wild speculations of, 175. 
 
 Observatories in India, 459. 
 
 Ocbaim, Mali's burying-place, 212. 
 
 O'Curry, bis account of battle cited, 188 ; 
 bis view as to date of Ogbam writing, 
 196. 
 
 Oden's Howe, exploration of, 526 ; find, ib. 
 
 O'Douovan, bis account of Moytura, 176 ; 
 bis confession of uncertainty of Irisb 
 cbronology, 190 ; remarks as to dolmen 
 of four Maols, 233. 
 
 Og, king of Basban, 442. 
 
 Ogbams, 29 ; on menbirs, 58 ; date of in- 
 troduction, 196 ; little used, and for 
 wbat, ib. ; on Newton Stone, 271. 
 
 Obio, sacred enclosures in, 511; district 
 of, bow first peopled, 516. 
 
 Oise, holed dolmen at, 343. 
 
 Olaus, see Worniius, Magnus. 
 
 Old Testament, stones mentioned in, 57. 
 
 Oldenburg, dolmens in, 301. 
 
 Olfers, Dr., tomb of Alyattes examined 
 by, 32. 
 
 Olof tbe Holy, 241. 
 
 Opiate Ibeory, 4, 7. 
 
 Oppeln, dolmen near, 301. 
 
 Orchomenos sepulcbre explored by Dod- 
 well, 33 ; lined witb bronze, 34 ; infer- 
 ence from, as to civilization, 39. 
 
 Orkneys [see Maes-Howe, Scotland, S ten- 
 nis) ; no timber in, 298. 
 
 Orkbow, treasure tbere, 252. 
 
 Oroust, dolmen at, 305-6 ; resembles 
 Countless Stones, 305 ; in enclosure, 
 310. 
 
 Osnabriick, dolmen in, 301. 
 
 Ougein, observatories in, 7 ; commercial 
 capital of Asoka, 459. 
 
 Ousely, Sir W., cited as to Eastern circles, 
 453. 
 
 Oval dolmens, see Dolmens. 
 
 Ozene, or Ougein, wbicb see. 
 
 Pagan temples, similarity of, to Chris- 
 tian, 22-3. 
 
 Palestine and tbe East, dolmens, 438 ; of 
 stones mentioned in Scripture but one 
 of megalitbic class, 438-40 ; monolith, 
 440 ; dolmens between Es Salt and 
 Nablous, 441 ; and Kafr-er-Wal, ib. ; 
 whether dolmens outside of Gilead, 442 ; 
 of what tribe known examples are, ib. ; 
 age of, 443 ; Peshawur, ib. ; circular- 
 domed tombs at Sinai, and stone 
 circles, ib. ; find, 444 ; Nukb Hawy 
 ring, ib. ; resemblance to Baziuas and 
 Chouchas, ib. ; Arabia, near Eyoor, 
 rude-stone monuments mentioned by 
 Palgrave, resembling those of the 
 West and at Tripoli, 445 ; interest 
 attaching to Arabian examples, ib. ; 
 Asia Minor, unsolved problems respect- 
 
 ing, 446 ; Kertch, chambered tumuli, 
 and finds, 447 ; dolmens of shape> I 
 stones, holed in Circassia, Crimea, and 
 on shore of Baltic, 447. 
 
 Palgrave, Mr. Giffard, rude-stone monu- 
 ments seen by him in Arabia, 444. 
 
 Pallas cited, 449. 
 
 Pancras, St., temple at Canterbury dedi- 
 cated to, 22. 
 
 Pandus, temples popularly assigned to, 
 494. 
 
 Pape and Peti, early inhabitants of 
 Orkneys, 218. 
 
 Parallel lines or avenues, 50. See 
 Avenues. 
 
 Park Cwn tumulus, 164; meant to be 
 visible, 164 ; find at, ib. 
 
 Parkkouse circle, 263. 
 
 Pataliputta, see Patna. 
 
 Patau, Emperors, domes of, 40. 
 
 Patna, convocation at, 501. 
 
 Pausanias, tomb of Atridse described by, 
 32, 33. 
 
 Pegges Barrow, 11. 
 
 Pelasgi and Tyrrheni, in contact with 
 only stone-hewing races, 393. 
 
 'Pelasgic Remains,' work by Dadwell, 
 33 ; stvle superseded by Doric in 
 Greece, 393. 
 
 Pembroke, Philip, Earl of, his testimony 
 as to Stonehenge, 104. 
 
 Pen, prefix, meaning of, 64. 
 
 Pennant cited as to Mayborougb, 128-9. 
 
 Penrith, Arthur's Round Table at, 82 ; 
 Long Meg and her Daughters, 126 et 
 seq. ; mentioned by Camden, 127 ; 
 Mayborougb, ib. ; monolith, 128 ; 
 King Arthur's Round Table, ib. ; plan 
 of, ib. ; history of monuments, 131 ; 
 Sbap alignment not Druidical, ib. ; 
 nor sepulchral, ib. ; at least not the 
 cemetery of Snap, ib. ; marks battle- 
 field, 132 ; victory over Saxons, 
 perhaps, ib. ; objections, 132-3 ; monu- 
 ments near, mark victories of Arthur, 
 132. 
 
 Pentre Ifan dolmen, 168. 
 
 ' Periplus,' the, cited, 459. 
 
 Perthes, M. Bouche de, "find" by, on 
 tbe Somme, 16. 
 
 Peru, carved stone monuments in, 518; 
 resemble Pelasgic and Tyrrhenian, ib. 
 
 Peshawur dolmen, 443 ; circle, 452 ; and 
 at Deb Ayeb, 453 ; hewn-stone circles 
 ascribed to Caons or giants, 453 ; 
 if other dolmens in the East? 454. 
 
 Peti or Picts, 248-9. See Pape. 
 
 Petrie, Dr., bis useful but interrupted 
 services in Ireland, 175 ; observations 
 of, as to cairn Listogbil, 181 ; Moytura, 
 181 et seq. ; Tara, 193 ; introduction 
 of writing into Ireland, 196 ; Oghams, 
 ib. ; Knowth, 201 ; cited as to Talten, 
 219 ; style of Irish monuments, 238 ; 
 bis excavations in the Orkneys, 249 ; 
 his suggestion as to Moytura, 280. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 553 
 
 Pkayre, Sir Arthur, on circle at Peshawur, 
 452. 
 
 Phoenicians, Romans, and Greeks of 
 Marseilles, their influence upon archi- 
 tecture of rude nations, 508. 
 
 Phoenicians, voyages of, to Cornwall, 
 38 ; written characters at New Grange, 
 207 ; not builders of rude-stone monu- 
 ments, 409. 
 
 Picardy, remains of Cave men in, 329. 
 
 Pictlund, features of, 58. 
 
 Picts, origin and relations with Irish 
 and Gauls, 267; their capitals, 271; 
 language, ib. 
 
 Pierre braulante, Brittany, 348. 
 
 Pierre Martine, roc-king stone, 347-8. 
 
 Pilgrim Scandinavian pirates, 244. 
 
 Pit-markings, 424. 
 
 Plas Newydd dolmen, 167-9. 
 
 Pliny, see Caesar. 
 
 Plouharnel, double dolmen at, 358. 
 
 Poitiers, demi-dolmen, 346. 
 
 Poitou, Cave men's remains in, 329. 
 
 Poland and Posen, no dolmens in, 301. 
 
 Pomerania, dolmens in, 301. 
 
 Portugal, writers on its rude -stone 
 monuments, 377 ; dolmens, ib. ; Strabo, 
 an authority for its dolmens, ib. ; 
 Cuneus, 378 ; distribution of dolmens, 
 ib. ; throws light upon theories, ib. ; 
 course taken by dolmen race, 378 et 
 seq. ; Arroyolos, dolmen at, 389. 
 
 Posen, see Poland. 
 
 Pownall, Governor, bis disquisition upon 
 marks at New Grange, 202, 207. 
 
 Pregel, dolmens on, 301. 
 
 Prehistoric prejudices, 406. See Inter- ' 
 national. 
 
 Preissac, alignment at, 368. 
 
 Pre-Roman theory, 373. 
 
 Progressive theory, 406. 
 
 Prussia, dolmens rare in, 301. 
 
 Prussian Saxony, see Saxony. 
 
 Priam's bouse of brass, 35. 
 
 Prinsep, Mr., his translation of an edict 
 of Asoka, 498. 
 
 Priority of dates, see Dates. 
 
 Ptolemy, mentioned in edict of Indian 
 Prince, 498. 
 
 Pullicondah, cairn or dolmen, 491. 
 
 Puri, temple of Juggernaut at, 460. 
 
 Pyramids, inference as to climate from 
 pictures in, 17 ; date of that at Gizeh, 
 31 ; antecedent structures supposed, 
 ib. ; contain tombs true and false, 46 ; 
 probable date of, 408. 
 
 Pytheas, visit of, to Cirnbrian Chersonese, 
 38. 
 
 Queen Charlotte's Sound, whether natives 
 a race of mound-builders, 517. 
 
 Race, inference as to, from use of circles, 
 163 ; of dolmens, ib. ; of circles and dol- 
 mens, ib. ; divisions of, in Britain by 
 Tacitus, 162 ; inference from simulta- 
 
 neous monuments of three kinds in 
 Ireland as to races, 238 ; relations of 
 Picts with Irish and Gaels, shown by 
 comparison of monuments, 267, 271 ; 
 circle-building and dolmen-building 
 races, 274 ; whence each came, and 
 course which each took, ib. ; dolmens, 
 historic, 302 ; distribution of, ib. ; pre- 
 historic theory leaves subject of races 
 obscure, ib. ; dolmen-building race not 
 so ready converts to Christianity as the 
 Celts, 328; inference from church archi- 
 tecture in South of France, 332 ; and 
 Proti slant feeling in South of France, 
 ib. ; non-progressive, ib. ; Cimbri, Celts, 
 and Gauls, 333 ; Cimbri and Aquituni 
 related, ib. ; race traced by dolmens 
 from Brittany to Narbonne, 334 ; Ibe- 
 rians, Celtiberians, Turanians, 379 ; dis- 
 turbed by Carth tginians, 379 ; Romans, 
 380 ; Moors, their easy conquest of 
 Spain, how accounted for, 381 ; Spanish 
 settlers in Ireland and Britain, ib. ; 
 Tara, 382 ; Lia Fail, ib. ; Heremon, 
 381-3 ; ethnography of North Africa, 
 406, et seq. ; different theories as to, ib. ; 
 connexion between races on the north- 
 ern and southern sides of Mediterra- 
 nean, 408 ;. chief race in India, 458 ; 
 Bbil, Cole, Gond, and Toda, non-pro- 
 gressive, 459 ; Hindus not immutable, 
 ib. ; inference from style of architec- 
 ture, 495 ; peopling of America, 516 ; 
 by what way, 516 ; Mound -builders, 
 Redmen, Hydahs, 517; Aztecs and 
 Toltecs, 515; Pastoral or Agricultural 
 races, ditto Himters in Nortli America, 
 ib. 
 
 Race-course, notion that alignments at 
 Stonehenge were, 111. 
 
 Raguhilda, wife of Eric, 250. 
 
 Rail, Sanchi, 492. 
 
 Eajagriha, convocation at, 501. 
 
 Eajpootana, pertinacity of Bhil usages, 
 459. 
 
 Eajunkoloor, 468 et seq. 
 
 Eamayana, the date of, 455. 
 
 Eame', M., describes alignment at Gre' de 
 Cojou, 377. 
 
 Eath at Dowth, residence of the Dagdha, 
 195. 
 
 Eath of Leoghaire, 195 ; singular direc- 
 tion by him as to his burial, ib. 
 
 Eath of Queen Meave, 193. 
 
 Eath na Eiogh, 194; resembles Avebury, 
 ib. 
 
 Eathcrogan, supposed burial-place of 
 Queen Meave, 183. 
 
 Eayne, old circle at, 263. 
 
 Eectangular dolmens, 313. See Dolmens. 
 
 Eedmen of North America, 517; not 
 muund-builders, ib. 
 
 Bedstone pillar, 200. 
 
 Eelic worship in the East, 503. 
 
 Eelig na Eiogh, Dati's burial-place, 200. 
 
 Ehind, Mr., his bequest for Professorship 
 
554 
 
 RIBROIT. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 of Archaeology in Scotland, 239 ; jmper 
 on ortholithio remains in Africa, 395-7. 
 
 Ribroit, Arthur's tenth battle there, 137. 
 
 Rick man, his perception of progress and 
 sequence in monuments, 113 ; value of 
 his process in fixing dates, 114. 
 
 Ring Sigurd, 280 ; saga as to, 282. 
 
 Ringham Low, group, 139. See Derby- 
 shire. 
 
 Rocking stones, 347. 
 
 Rodmarton, chambered tumulus, 166; 
 post-Roman, 289 ; holes in entrance, 
 resembles Kerlescant, 357. 
 
 Roeskilde, dolmen in square, 307. 
 
 Rolley Lowe, 12. 
 
 Rollo in England, 126. 
 
 Kolhigl it, circle at, 124; obeliscal stone, 
 ib. ; dolmen, ib. ; examine 1 by R. Shel- 
 don, 125; unimportance of monuments 
 there, ib. ; whether sepulchral, ib. ; as- 
 signed by Camden to Rollo, 126. 
 
 Roman coins, find of, in Ireland, 166. 
 See Coins, Finds. 
 
 Roman pottery found at Stonehenge, 105 ; 
 inference from, 106. S?e Finds. 
 
 Roman road, at Silbury Hill, 81 ; argu- 
 ment from its state, 82 ; and of that at 
 Hakpen Hill, 83. 
 
 Romans, Stonehenge assigned to, by Inigo 
 Jones, 3; in England, 96; effect of 
 Roman art upon B-iitish civilization, 
 ib. ; and architecture, 394 ; in Africa, 
 414 ; pressure of, upon Eturia, 393. 
 
 Ronalds, Mr., his engraving of Carnac, 
 350. 
 
 Rooke, Mr., his account of Stanton Moor, 
 146 ; snaffle-bit found by, 156. 
 
 Rose Hill tumulus, 155. See Circles, 
 Small, 155. 
 
 Ros-na-righ, who buried there, 212. 
 
 Ross County, North America, sacred en- 
 closures in, 811. 
 
 Rothiemay circle, 263. 
 
 Round tower, see Tower. 
 
 Roy's, General, 'Military Antiquities of 
 Romans' cited as to circle at Wood 
 Castle, 129. 
 
 Rude-stone monuments erected even 
 where letter inscriptions and carving 
 practised, 273 ; none in the valleys of 
 Scheldt and Rhine, 323 ; sometimes 
 comparatively modern, 406 ; result 
 sometimes of fashion, 408 ; Aryans and 
 pure Dravidians or Tamulians not 
 braiders of, in India, 447-8. 
 
 Rudeness of monument, what it proves, 
 100. 
 
 Rugen, island of, dolmens in, 301. 
 
 Runes on menhirs, 29 ; Maes-Howe, 246- 
 8, 251 ; Isle of Man, 273. 
 
 Sab^an worship of planets, 432. 
 
 " Sabrinum ostium," meaning of words, 
 
 87; Arthur's last battle fought near, 
 
 ib. 
 Sacrifices, see Human. 
 
 Sagas, 254 ; as to Harald Hildetand, 280. 
 
 Sakva Muni, date of, 455 ; influences 
 Buddhism, 506 ; is not Woden, 496. 
 
 Salkeld, Arthur's seventh battle, 137. See 
 Cumrew. 
 
 Sanchi rail, 492 ; gate, 94 ; no images of 
 priests, 501 ; relics of saints, 504 ; da- 
 gobas and stupas, 41. 
 
 Sandulf the Swarthy, 272. 
 
 Sauta Barbara, Nurhags at, 42S et seq. 
 See Mediterranean Islands. 
 
 Santander dolmens, 378. 
 
 Sardis, tombs at, 32 ; age of, 32. 
 
 Sariputra, see Mogalana. 
 
 Sarsen stones, at Ashdown, 122 ; what 
 they represent, ib. ; at Avebury, 73, 
 86 ; whence they came, 95 ; at Stone- 
 henge, 94. 
 
 Saturnia, dolmen at, 391-2. 
 
 Saucliiires dolmen, 335. 
 
 Saumur, grotte des fee's near, 341. 
 
 Save, Karl, letter from, respecting dig- 
 gings at Oden's Howe, 526-7. 
 
 Savernake Forest, 87. 
 
 Saxo-Grammaticus as to Gorm's son, 
 296. 
 
 Saxons, defeat of, by Vortimer, 106 ; 
 battle with Vortigern, 119. 
 
 Saxons, march of, in the West, S8 ; en- 
 counter Arthur, 88-9, 132 ; their defeat 
 near Penrith, 132 ; traded with and 
 settled in Britain before Ca?sar's time, 
 133-4 ; grave mounds in England, 36 ; 
 articles supposed Saxon at Stand 
 Lowe, 13. 
 
 Saxons, Prussian, 301. 
 
 Saxony, dolmens in, 301. 
 
 Scandinavia and North Germany, 275; 
 Danes, their uiegalithic remains little 
 known,/?).; false route of their anti- 
 quaries, 276; except Sjoborg, 277; 
 their early historians little reliable, ib. ; 
 Scandinavian history prior to Christ, 
 ib. ; Odin, fable as to, ib. ; Frode I., 
 date of, 278 ; and of Harald Harfagar, 
 ib. ; list of kings, ib. ; battle-fields, ib. ; 
 Kongsbacka, 279 ; its analogy to Dart- 
 moor, Ashdown, and Karnac align- 
 ments, ib. ; view of, ib. ; grave of 
 Frode, but which Frode ? ib. ; battle- 
 field of Swedes and Danes, ib. ; Braa- 
 valla Heath, 280; resemblance to 
 Moytura, ib. ; circles, ib. ; doubt as 
 to date of, ib. ; square and triangular 
 graves, 282 ; King Harald Hildetand, 
 saga of, and Sigurd Ring, 283 ; tomb 
 of former, 2S2 ; find of flints, 283; 
 erroneous inference, ib. ; form of grave, 
 ib. ; Hwitaby circles and Bauta stones 
 at, 290 ; battle-fields, whose, ib. ; 
 Lothbrok, 291 ; Stiklastad, and cir- 
 cles there, ib. ; circles and ovals, 
 mounds and square enclosures, ib.; 
 victory of Blenda, ib. ; Freyrso cairns, 
 mounds, and ship barrows, ib. ■ tumuli, 
 to what race due, aboriginal or invad- 
 
SCANDINAVIAN. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 555 
 
 ing, 293 ; Scandinavians, of what race, 
 ib. ; Worsae's argument, ib. ; triple 
 group at Upsala, 294 ; find, ib. ; mound 
 of Wodin, ib. ; Jellinge, tombs of 
 Gorm and Thyra, 296 ; importance of, 
 297 ; diggings' in the latter, 296 ; find, 
 297 ; date, ib. ; compared to Maes- 
 Howe, 299 ; comparative dates of 
 Danish, Irish, and Stennis monuments, 
 ib. ; series of Royal Danish tombs, ib. ; 
 might furnish dates of styles, 300. See 
 Scotland, Caithness. 
 
 Scandinavian antiquaries commended, 
 15. 
 
 Scandinavians in Ireland, 187 ; different 
 tribes of, 187 ; Vikings, ib. ; in Scot- 
 land, Orkneys, 244 ; pilgrims, Christian, 
 and pirates, ib. ; conoid graves, 243 ; 
 ship graves, 315 ; equilateral triangles, 
 ib. ; meaning of the latter form, 315-6 ; 
 singular arrangement of circles at 
 Aschenrade, 317 ; resembles Algerian 
 example, 318 ; finds, ib. ; no Druids 
 amongst. 6 ; ignorant of iron, 37. 
 
 Schleswig dolmens, 301. 
 
 Scone stone, 439. 
 
 Scotland, menhirs in, 57 ; megalithic 
 remains in, 239 ; Wilson's ' Prehistoric 
 Annals ' of, ib. ; scanty means of study- 
 ing monuments in, ib. ; cat or battle- 
 stones, dolmens, circles, 240 ; distribu- 
 tion of, ib. ; Orkneys, 241; circles, 
 tumuli, ib. ; Stennis, ib. ; dolmens, 241, 
 355 ; monoliths, 242 ; holed monu- 
 ment, 242, 255 ; bowl-shaped barrows, 
 243 ; find, ib. ; conoid barrows, ib. ; 
 find there, ib. ; Maes-Howe, ib. ; spoli- 
 ation of, ib. ; runes, ib. ; dragon and 
 Wurm knot, 245 ; inscription at Maes- 
 Howe, 246 ; chamter there, 247 ; and 
 loculi, 248 ; resemblance to Boyne 
 monuments, ib.; red sandstone material, 
 ib. ; conquest of Island by Harold 
 Harfagar, ib. ; Pape and Peti, who 
 these races were, ib. ; what is Maes- 
 Howe, 248-9 ; and what the barrows, 
 ib. ; Haugagerdiurn, perhaps How of 
 Hoogsay, who buried there, ib. ; 
 Halfdan's Barrow, 250 ; similarity to 
 Danish royal tumuli, ib. ; account of 
 conquest of Orkneys by the Nor- 
 wegians, ib. ; Stennis, scene of what 
 battle, 250-1 ; runic inscriptions, 251 ; 
 scantiness of, accounted for, 252 ; an 
 inscription confirmed by a find, ib. ; 
 Maes-Howe, whether it has connexion 
 with circles, 253-4 ; dates of early in- 
 vasions of Northmen, 255 ; Brogar, 
 254; less ancient than Stennis, 255; 
 conversion of Northmen to Christian- 
 ity, ib. ; date of group of monuments at 
 Stennis, 256 ; analogy of to Stanton 
 Drew, ib. ; author's reasons justifying 
 date assigned to group at Stennis, 
 257-8 ; Callernish circles, ib. ; cruci- 
 form grave, 259 ; avenue, 260 ; Tormore, 
 
 Isle of Arran, cist circles, 261-2 ; 
 Brodick Bay circle, and obelisk, 262 ; 
 Mull of Cantyre, ib. ; Aberdeenshire 
 circles, 263; Fiddes Hill, 264; circle 
 at Bayne and find, 263 ; post Christian 
 date of, 264 ; moat and entrances, 265 ; 
 uses merely sepulchral, ib. ; Clava 
 mounds and circular chambers, 266; 
 find, ib. ; their use, 267 ; stone at 
 Coilsfield, ib. ; stone at Aberlemmo, 
 268-9 ; its purpose, 270 ; Caithness 
 alignments differ from British and 
 French, 529 ; horned cairn, 530 ; circles 
 inferred by Sir H. Dryden not always 
 to be sepulchral, 532 ; date, 528 ; simi- 
 larity to Viking graves, 528. 
 
 Scott, Sir Walter, his description of holed 
 monolith in Orkney, 242. 
 
 Scrolls and spirals in Irish sculp ture, 
 222. 
 
 Sculpture, 29 ; difficulty of reasoning 
 from gradation of style as to Irish or 
 Scottish, 59; chiselled, engraved, 
 pricked, 217,* what tools employed, 
 ib. ; at Mane Lud, imitations of 
 boats, hatchets, writing, 361 ; at Dol 
 ar Marchant, hatchet, plume, 362. 
 
 Secondary, see Interment. 
 
 Semitic race, their feeling to monasticism, 
 500. 
 
 Senbya dagoba, 496-7. 
 
 Sentinel stones, 310. 
 
 Sepultura Grande dolmen, 386. 
 
 Sepulture, see Cairns, Circles, Cists, Dol- 
 mens, Mounds, Tombs, Tumuli. 
 
 Seringham, monoliths of, 96 ; monstrous 
 size of, ib. ; work there, how inter- 
 rupted, ib. 
 
 Serpent temples, false theory as to, 4, 21, 
 64 ; gigantic serpent-forms in earth in 
 America, 515 ; serpent knot, see Wurm. 
 
 Sesto Calende, rude-stone monuments at, 
 391. 
 
 Setil, dolmen near, 396. 
 
 Shahpoor stone monuments, 485. 
 
 Shap avenue, counterpart of Kennet, 147. 
 See Penrith. 
 
 Ship graves, 316. 
 
 Ships sculptured in dolmens, 303. 
 
 Siam, 456 ; dagobas and stupas in, 41. 
 
 Siberian Steppes, America peopled from, 
 516. 
 
 Side-stone, Aspatria cist, 157. 
 
 Siganfu tables, 488 note. 
 
 Sigurd, converted by Olaus, 250. 
 
 Silbury Hill, Eoman writers silent as to 
 monuments, 20 ; their purpose and age, 
 65, 84 ; description of, 78 ; dimen- 
 sions, 79 ; researches there, ib. ; nega- 
 tive results, ib. ; accounted for, ib. ; 
 find in, 81; mound, who raised, 86; 
 near Wansdyke, 88 ; Arthur's last 
 battle, 89 ; mound, why created, ib. ; 
 analogue of Gib Hill, 447. 
 
 Silesia, dolmens in, 301. 
 
 Silius Italicus cited, 407. 
 
556 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 STONEHENGE. 
 
 Silures in Britain, 162-3.; in Wales and 
 Anglesea, 163 ; Cornwall, ib. ; join 
 with Brigantes, 381. 
 
 Simpson, Sir J., cited as to Vetta, 271 ; 
 as to pit-markings, 425. 
 
 Sinai, monuments at, 443-4. 
 
 Sing, Jey, observatory, 7. 
 
 Sivite temple, ruined, at Iwullee, 484. 
 
 Sjoberg, 276 ; his merits, 276-9 ; treats 
 dolmens all as pre-historic, 306. 
 
 Skailbay, 252. 
 
 Skaili, (hath of, 528. 
 
 Skene, see Stuart, Glennie. 
 
 Slieve na Calliagh, 213 (see Hengist and 
 Horsa) ; when first remarked, 213; 
 illustrations of, 214 et seq.; style of 
 sculpture, 215; find at, 215-6; mys- 
 terious great stone saucer, 216 ; find, 
 217-8; absence of circles, alignments, 
 and rude-stone monuments, 219. 
 
 Sligo trilithon, 108 ; cairn of Bally- 
 sadare, King Eochy's tomb, 179. 
 
 Smidstrup, buried dolmen at, 311. 
 
 Smith, Colonel Baird, his excavation 
 at Kutab pillar. 4S1. 
 
 Smith, Dr., his astronomical theory, 7. 
 
 ' Smithsonian Contributions to Know- 
 ledge ' cited, 510 et seq. 
 
 Smyrna, date of tombs at, 32. 
 
 Smythe, Piazzi, his theories, 31, 91. 
 
 Snake theory, see Stukeley, Dr. 
 
 Snio, king, where slain, 279. 
 
 Spain, writers on its rude-stone monu- 
 ments, 377 ; dolmens there, ib. ; dol- 
 men race, 378; its navigation, in which 
 direction, 378 et seq. ; prehistoric iace 
 in Spain, 379; its characteristics, ib. • 
 and non-use of stone in prehistoric 
 times, ib. ; Iberians, Celtiberians, Tu- 
 ranians, ib. ; Carthaginians, Eomans, 
 3S1 ; Moors' tasy conquest proves 
 earlier settlements in Spain, (7). ; 
 Spanish race of Heremon in Ireland, 
 ib. ; Spaniards, Siloros, migrate to 
 Britain, ib. ; part occupied by them in 
 Ireland, 382 ; date of Heremon, 383 ; 
 light thrown by rude-stone monu- 
 ments on connexion of Spain and Ire- 
 land, ib. ; Roman architecture, its 
 influence upon rude-stone monuments, 
 394. 
 
 Spaniards in Ireland, 227. 
 
 Spring Farm, 117. 
 
 Square enclosures in North America, 
 511-12. 
 
 Squares in Algeria, 399 ; four cairns en- 
 closed in squares, 402. 
 
 Squier and Davis, Messrs., their survey 
 of America, 510 et seq. 
 
 St. Augustine's monastery, 23. 
 
 St. Barbe, 354; head of column at, 
 355. 
 
 St. Columba, 227; converts Picts, 248; 
 visits King Brude, 267; language of 
 Picts unknown to, 271. 
 
 St. Front, Pe'rigueux, church, 330. 
 
 St. Germain-sur-A T ienne, 336. See Con- 
 folans. 
 
 St. Helier, cells nt, 52. 
 
 St. Jerome cited as to barbarism of Irish, 
 235. 
 
 St. Malo, Maximus and British landed 
 there, 374. 
 
 St. Pancras, heathen fane consecrated to, 
 22. 
 
 St. Patern, a Breton, his death, 373. 
 
 St. Patrick fails to convert Leoghaire, 
 195 ; legend of him and demons, 227. 
 
 St. Servan, battle near, 374. 
 
 St. Vigear.'s stone, 273. 
 
 Stand Low find, 13. 
 
 Stanton Drew circles, 64 ; not observa- 
 tories, 7 ; circles at, 148 ; similar to 
 those in Derbyshire and Cumberland 
 in purpose and date, ib. ; plan of, 149 ; 
 oval, ib. ; avenues, 150; King-tone, 
 ib. ; Stukeley's interpolation of ser- 
 pentine avenues, ib ; ruins of dolmens, 
 151; tradition as to Keyna, ib. ; date 
 of, 151-2; belongs to Arthurian age, 
 152 ; scene of Arthur's 9th battle, ib. ; 
 meaning of " Stanton," ib. ; Maes 
 Knoll, 153 ; meaning of word Maes, 
 ib. ; similarity to Stennis, 256-7. 
 
 Stanton Moor circle, 48, 49. 
 
 Stanley, Hon. W. C, circles enumerated 
 bv, 162 ; cist found by, at Plus Newvdd, 
 166. 
 
 Stawell, Lord, excavation directed by, at 
 Avebury, 74-5. 
 
 Stennis, 241 ; dolmen, ib. ; great circle 
 like English ones, 161 ; like Stanton 
 Drew, 257; date,ift. ; countless barrows. 
 ib. ; magnificent effect of group, ib. ; 
 circles and barrows belong to different 
 and what races, ib. ; dates tl ertof, ib. 
 
 Steppes, importance of exploring with 
 reference to Turanian origu of dol- 
 mens, 447 etseq.; tumuli, 448-9; images 
 of dead on tombs, 449 ; usages as to 
 interments and sepulchres, ib ; four- 
 cornered grave, ib. ; tumulus at Alex- 
 andropol, 450; find, 451; uncovered 
 base of tumulus, ib. ; genesis of circles, 
 ib. ; Tartar and European tombs cog- 
 nate, but not of same origin as Western 
 dolmen or circles, or menhirs, 452 ; 
 Haxthausen s example an exception, 
 ib. ; examples in the Steppes carved, 
 ib. 
 
 Stiklas'ad in Norway, battle at, 291. 
 
 " Stone of Destiny," where now, 382. 
 
 Stone tables, 425. 
 
 Stone temples, no classical writer con- 
 nects Druids with, 20. 
 
 Stonehenge, theories respecting, 3, 4 ; 
 not an observatory, 7 ; not alluded to 
 by Diodorus, 8 ; ill-judged proceedings 
 as to, 15 ; age of, 17 ; not mentioned 
 by Roman writers, 20; plans, 89, 90, 
 91, 92, 93 : circles, 100-3 ; Sarsen or 
 Milestones, 92-7; trilithons, 95, 98, 
 
STONES. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 557 
 
 100 ; means of transport, 95-6 ; who 
 erected, 97 ; intermediate circle, ib. ; 
 mere stories more numerous, 98 ; 'was 
 Stonehenoje a tenure, 99 ; why hewn 
 stones there, ib. ; erected leisurely, ib. ; 
 trilithons called gates by Olaus, 101; 
 question as to priority in time of the 
 barrows or stone monuments, ib. ; con- 
 nexion between circles and British 
 villages, 102 ; diggings there, 10-4 ; 
 map of country around, 102 ; its 
 builders not Christians, 104; whether 
 sepulchral, 112, 116 ; why erected and 
 by whom, 106, 116. See Alignments, 
 Avenues, Barrows, Bluestones, Finds, 
 Sarsens. 
 
 Stones, worship of, forbidden, 21-6. 
 
 Stoney Littleton, chambered tumulus, 
 166 ; grave intended to be covered, 
 164 ; post-Eoman, 2S9. 
 
 Strabo, account of Druids by, 5 ; of tem- 
 ple by, 21 ; barbarism of early Irish, 
 235. 
 
 Stuart, Glennie, and Kendal, W., assign 
 Scottit-h birthplace and campaign lo 
 Arthur, 131. 
 
 Stuart, J., cited, 52, 239 ; as to diggings 
 at Eayne, 264-5. 
 
 Stukeley, Dr., wild theory of, 3, 4, 15, 
 21, 64 ; adopted by Sir B. 0. Hoare, 5 ; 
 misunderstands text of Diodorus, 8 ; 
 drawings by, 44 ; his visit to Shap, 
 129 ; compared in one respect to Boece, 
 135 ; bis serpent interpolation at Stan- 
 ton Drew, 150 ; his snake bit, 151. 
 
 Stupas in India, 41. 
 
 Suetonius, Druids met by, 5. 
 
 Suf, dolmens near, 442. 
 
 Suhm, cited as to date of Lothbrok vic- 
 tories, 290. 
 
 Summit interments, 166. See Inter- 
 ments. 
 
 Sun worship forbidden, 25. 
 
 Sutherland, Duchess of, her etchings of 
 ruins in Orkneys, 241. 
 
 Swansea, Arthur s Quoit at, 170. 
 
 Sweden, South, megalithic remains in, 
 15; circles, 47 ; dolmens in, 301. 
 
 Swen Grate, King, 291. 
 
 Sylhet, Mohammedan kingdom, 466. 
 
 Symbol stage, none in Ireland, 59. 
 
 Syria, trilithons in, 100. 
 
 Table-stones, 435-6. 
 
 Tabris circle, 453. 
 
 Tacitus cited as to three races in Britain, 
 162. 
 
 Tailton, Talton, or Telltown, burial of 
 Irish kings there, 199; of Lough Crew, 
 219 et seq. ; fair in honour of Magh 
 Mor, King of Spain, 186. 
 
 Tain Bo Chuailgne, 196. 
 
 Talyots, or talayots, 434 et seq. ; in Ba- 
 learic isles, 410, 415. 
 
 Tamulians not builders of rude-stone 
 monuments in India, 477. 
 
 Tantalais tumulus, 32. 
 
 Tara, Hill of, remains at, 193 ; early cele- 
 brity of, ib. ; capital of Firbolgs and 
 Dananns, 190, whence the name, 3S2. 
 
 Tartar tombs, 451. 
 
 Taylor, Col. Meadows, cited as to Indian 
 dolmens. 469 ; and Shahpoor monu- 
 ments, 485. 
 
 Teamair, wife of Herimon, 382. 
 
 Tee in Tope, 46 ; in rock at Ajunta, 47, 
 491 ; as connecting links between 
 Eastern and Western dolmens, 489-90. 
 
 Temples, what structures nut, 512 ; me- 
 galithic remains not, 20 et seq. See 
 mounds. 
 
 Teocallis, Mexican, what, 514. 
 
 " Things," meaning of word, 26. 
 
 Thomas, Lieut., his account of monu- 
 ments in the Orkneys, 241, 248. 
 
 Tkorhn, 250 ; sons of, 528 ; where buried, 
 249; battle between them and Liotr, 
 528. 
 
 Three Ages, Danish doctrine of, 9 ; illu- 
 sive application of, 10. 
 
 Thunderstone at Shap, 129, 130. 
 
 Thurnam, his work on British Skulls, 
 35, 35, 72; his inference from finds, 
 165, 286; as to West Kennet, 287. 
 
 Thyra, monument of Queen, 27, 250 ; 
 finds, 297. 
 
 Tia Huanaco, ruins at, not like those 
 attributed to Druids, 518 ; what they 
 were, 519. 
 
 Tigernacb, his date of Queen Meave's 
 death, 184; of Crimthann's, 190. 
 
 Tika received by Bajahs from Bhils, 
 459. 
 
 Tin, route of ancient British commerce 
 in, 334. 
 
 Toda tribe in India, 459. See Bhil. 
 
 Toltecs, buildings of, 515. 
 
 Tollington, supposed avenue at, 117-9 ; 
 obelisks at, 117. 
 
 Tombs— of Alyattes, 3; Atridse, 32, 33; 
 Cocumella, 33 ; Coere, 33 ; Begulini 
 Galeassi, 34 ; of great men marked by 
 megalithic monuments, 15 ; of Isidorus, 
 100 ; Tartar, 451 ; Nilgiri hills, 473. 
 
 Toope, Dr., his letter to Aubrey respect- 
 ing Hakpen Hill, 76, 77. 
 
 Tooth-relic, worship of, 504. 
 
 Topes in India found blind, 80. See Da- 
 
 Tormore, 261. 
 
 Towers, round, at Brechin and Aber- 
 
 nethy, 271. 
 Town of the Stone of the Strangers, 229. 
 Tras os Montes dolmens, 378. 
 Tree-worship forbidden, 24, 25. 
 Trepuco talyot, 435. 
 Triads, Welsh authority for interments at 
 
 Stonehenge, 110 ; as to stone of Cetti, 
 
 173 ; value of, as authority, ib. 
 Triangular monuments, -315 ; perhaps 
 
 cuneatus ordo of Olaus Magnus, ib. 
 Trie, holed dolmens, 343. 
 
558 
 
 TRILITHONS. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 WODEN. 
 
 Trilithons at Stonehenge, 99 ; connexion 
 with dolmens, 100; in Sligo, 108; at 
 Ksaea at Elkeb, 412 ; Human, 445. 
 
 Tripoli, trilithons at Ksaea, 411 ; El- 
 kel with holes. 411-2; compared to 
 Hindu Yoni, 412 ; Buddhist monu- 
 ment at Bangkok, 43. 
 
 Tuatha de Dananns, see Dananns. 
 
 Tuathal, authentic history begins -with, 
 196 ; " the accepted," 197. 
 
 Tumiac tumulus and find, 366. 
 
 Tumuli, 29 ; different kinds of, ib. (see 
 Barrows, Pyramids/Tombs) ; history of 
 inhumation, 30 ; Troy, 32 ; Roman, 84 ; 
 truncated cones, ib. ; spoliation of their 
 own ancestors' tombs by Northmen, 
 300; Kemp How at Shap, 130; find 
 at, ib. ; chambered tumuli, 166, 16S; 
 Freyrso, 291 ; certain Danish, identical 
 with some in Auvergne. 323 ; tumuli 
 by thousands in the east of France, 
 327 ; finds, ib. ; numerous in Etruria, 
 392; peculiarity of tumuli in North 
 Africa, 399 ; plan and elevatiou of 
 two sepulchral monuments, ib. ; not 
 battle-field, 400 ; quadruple circles, 
 ib.; turnuli chambered in Lydia and 
 Kertch, 446 ; kouloba on hill of cinders, 
 ib. ; find there, 446-7 ; tumuli iu the 
 Steppes, 448 ; at Alexandropol, 450 ; 
 finds there, ib. ; uncovered base of, at 
 Nikolajew, 451 ; Tartar tumuli per- 
 haps models of Western, 452., 
 
 Turanian origin of dolmens, theory of, 
 how to be proved or disproved, 448 ; 
 Turanian race in Europe, 507. 
 
 Twining's strange map theory, 76. 
 
 Tynebagger, circle at, 263. 
 
 Tynwald Mount, 71. 
 
 Tyrrheni, see Pelasgi. 
 
 Uby, buried dolmen at, 310 ; chamber, 
 
 311. 
 Udyagiri Hills, Buddhist caves in, 460. 
 Uekermark, dolmen at, 301. 
 Uelzen, dolmen with enclosures near, 
 
 308. 
 Uffmgton Castle, monuments near, 121; 
 
 why constructed, 123. 
 Uley, 163; chambered grave, 163, 166; 
 
 post-Koman, 289. 
 Ultonians, tombs of, 219, 220. 
 Upland, Danish prince killed at, 291. 
 Urn found in cairn of One Man, 179. 
 
 Vaisali, convocation at, 501. 
 
 Valdbygaards, two dolmens in enclosure, 
 308. 
 
 Valiancy, wild speculations of, 175, 207. 
 
 Vancouver's Island, natives of, whether 
 mound-builders, 517. 
 
 Vannes, Museum of, 326. 
 
 Vedas, date of, 455. 
 
 Veneti, Csesar's naval battle with, 20, 37 ; 
 hence what inference of age of monu- 
 ments, 372 ; iron nails used by, 37. 
 
 Verneilh, Felix de, his ' Byzantine Archi- 
 tecture in France,' 332. 
 
 Vestal Virgins, no just analogy of Nuns 
 to, 499. 
 
 Vetta, his name on Cat stone, 57 ; sup- 
 posed grandfather of Hengist and 
 Horsa, 271. 
 
 Via Badonica, under Silbury Hill, 20. 
 
 Vicars, Mr., surveys Carnac, 350. 
 
 Vicramaditya, his capital, 459. 
 
 Viharas, early date and growth of, in 
 India, 501. 
 
 Vikings, 303-4 ; grave, 31 5, 317. 
 
 Vinland, America peopled through, 516. 
 
 Viraculls, what, 483. 
 
 Vitoria, dolmens in, 378. 
 
 Vogue's, De, plates of Boman tombs in 
 the Hauran. 445. 
 
 Vortigern, victory of, at Aylresford, 119. 
 
 Vulci, tomb at, 33. 
 
 Waden Hill, where and what it is, site of 
 
 what battle, 8S-9. 
 Wales. Druids in, when 6 ; dolmen- 
 building race, 274. 
 Walhouse, Mr.* cited, 479. 
 Walker, Mr., his find at Knock na Kea, 
 
 185. 
 Wansdyke, barrier against Welsh, 87, S8, 
 
 89. 
 Ware, statement of, as to Giant stones in 
 
 Kihlare, 108 ; circles in, 162. 
 Waterloo, mound at, 56. 
 Waylaud Smith's Cave in Berkshire, 
 
 used by Scott in ' Kennil worth,' 122; 
 
 what it was, 123-4 ; great circle there, 
 
 161. 
 Webb's reply to Dr. Charleton respecting 
 
 Stonehenge, 3. 
 Welsh Gate, what and where it was, 87- 
 
 89. 
 Welsh Triads, see Triads. 
 West Kennet, 4 ; its similarity to barrow 
 
 in Denmark, 283 et seq. See Barrow. 
 Western Islands, no Druids in, 6. 
 White Horse, near Uffmgton, described 
 
 by Mr. T. Hughes, 121. 
 Wilde, Sir W., his residence at Moytura, 
 
 176 ; his work, 177, 202 et seq. 
 Wildesheim, dolmen at, 301. 
 Wilkinson, Sir Gardner, observations on 
 
 Long Meg, 127 ; on Arbor Low, 139, 
 
 and Gib Hill, 141 ; his corrections to 
 
 Croker's survey of Stanton Drew, 150 ; 
 
 dolmen at Gower opened by, 171. 
 Wilson, Captain, his survey of Clava, 
 
 265. 
 Wilson, Daniel, dohnen mentioned by, in 
 
 Argyllshire, 273. 
 Wilson's ' Prehistoric Annals,' 239 ; his 
 
 remarks upon Daw's theory as to origin, 
 
 253. 
 Wiltshire, Sir R. C. Hoare's work on, 5. 
 Wisconsin and Ohio, how first peopled, 
 
 516. 
 Woden myth, its allusion to Indian 
 
INDEX. 
 
 ZEALAND. 
 
 559 
 
 origin, 496; Woden not Sakya Muni, 
 496. 
 
 "Woking, principle of selection of, as 
 cemetery, 131 ; not applied by ancients, 
 131. 
 
 Wood worship forbidden, 25 ; early 
 employment of, in Indian architecture, 
 492. 
 
 Wood Castle, circle at, 129 note ; Arthur's 
 battle there, 135. 
 
 Wormius Olaus, correspondence with 
 Dr. Charleton respecting Stonehenge, 
 3 ; mentions dolmens with square en- 
 closures, 307. 
 
 Worsae cited as to Scandinavian monu- 
 ments, 297 et seq. 
 
 Wright, Mr., account of monuments at 
 Aylesford, 118. See Aylesford. 
 
 Written history, errors of, 113; deficiency 
 of, supplied by monuments, 113 ; and 
 by architectural study, 113 ; uncertain 
 accounts of King Arthur, 114. 
 
 Wurm Knot in Maes-Howe, 245. 
 
 Yaehouse, battle at, 529. 
 
 Yarrow, inscription in stone at, 272. 
 
 Yucatan, 516 ; carved stone monuments, 
 
 517. 
 Yule, Col., his ' Cathay,' 48S note. 
 
 Zasta, Queen, 404. 
 
 Zealand, see Birk Valdbygaards. 
 
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 jVli 
 
 builders. 
 
Map , designed to illustrate the distribution of Dolmens, 
 and probable lines of the migrations of the Dolmen builders.