Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 75.djvu/139

Rh of the dolmens has any significance or not, the tumuli were mortuary in character. Sometimes the body was buried while still in the flesh; in other instances cremation had occurred. At times there were isolated interments; at others the bones are found in large numbers, as if there were collective burials. Along with the human bones occur those of the horse and cow, while burnt clay vases, necklaces of pierced stones and stone implements—celts, arrow and spear points, etc.—accompany the remains. Some of the vessels were apparently new, while others show signs of culinary use. Many of the stone implements have a perfection of surface and edge that would imply that they were never used but were merely votive offerings, ceremonial in character. It is interesting to note that even to this day the peasants of Morbihan prize the arrow and spear points as talismans and call them "men-garun"—thunder stones.

But what are the alignments? Here we are in the region of speculation—pure guessing. One may pass by with mere mention the view that they, with the cromlech at the end, are gigantic phallic symbols. Le Bouzic thinks them funereal without being sepulchral in character. He thinks that they might have been connected with the religious rites. The spaces between the rows would afford passages for the faithful assembled for the celebration of the ceremonies, possibly in connection with the collective burials in the tumuli, while the cromlech was the place set apart for the priests.

Whether we can ever arrive at an exact interpretation of these monuments or not, whether we ever know when or by whom they were erected, whether we solve the problems involved in the handling of these immense stones; these thousands of rocks—originally 15,000 or 20,000 in number—scattered over the plains of Morbihan will form one of the most striking of the monuments of antiquity. Possibly we shall get nothing better or more definite, certainly nothing more poetical, than the medieval legend of Saint Cornély which I paraphrase from the version given by Le Rouzic.

Saint Cornély was Pope of Rome, from which place he was driven by the pagan soldiers, who pursued him as he fled before them, accompanied by two cows which bore his baggage and belongings when he was tired. One evening he arrived at the village of Moustoir (two miles north of Carnac). Here he fain would have stopped, but hearing a young girl there abusing her mother, he could not stay. So he went on until he came to a little hill (Mont St. Michel) where he had a view in all directions. In front was was the sea, behind the soldiers in martial array. Further flight was impossible. What could he do? He stretched forth his hand and immediately the soldiers, rank and file as they stood, were changed to stone. Hence it is that one sees the long lines of standing stones to the north of the village of Carnac, and