Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 67.djvu/640

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circle of great stones, while within the area enclosed were two small circles formed with a double row of smaller stones.

Occasionally the interior surface of a support in some dolmen or covered passage is found to he engraved with curious figures. Generally, they seem to be circles or some form of curved lines, and at times there is a figure representing the stone celt, which was an object of veneration even after it ceased to be employed as a tool or weapon. Some of the best examples of these are in the famous dolmen on the island of Gavr'inis at Locmariaquer.

The meaning of these curious circles and curves has never been explained. They are probably symbolical or the characters used to denote some definite idea among the people who made them, or may be simply decorative, although this latter interpretation I believe to be far less probable. Certain linguists have at times claimed to see in some of them modifications of hieroglyphics or letters of ancient languages. A controversy has arisen as to the nature of the instrument