4 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



which the menhirs of the Khasias of India appear like exact copies. 

 Similar dolmens are standing in Palestine, Ireland, and Hindostan. 

 Megaliths can be found in Peru and among the aboriginal monu- 

 ments of North America, in Spain and Denmark, in the Orcades and 

 the islands of the Mediterranean, on the shores of the Black Sea and 

 of the Baltic, at the foot of Mount Sinai, and in Iceland at the edge 

 of the eternal glaciers. The dolmens raised upon the top of a tumu- 

 lus in Algeria may be compared with those standing in the depart- 

 ment of the Aveyron or with those in Kintyre, Scotland, and Roskilde 

 in Scandinavia ; the cromlech of Maytura, in Iceland, with that at 

 Ilalskov, in Denmark ; the circle at Peshawur, in Afghanistan, with 

 the circle of Stennis, in one of the Orcades ; the tombs of the Neil- 

 gherries with the chondets that are found in Africa ; the cromlechs 

 of Algeria with those of Aschenrade, on the Dwina ; the triliths of 

 Stonehenge with those of Tripoli, or those mentioned by Palgrave as 

 in Arabia. Even a superficial study will disclose the relations that 

 exist between the covered passages of Provence and the megaliths of 

 Brittany, and between these and analogous constructions in Spain 

 and Algeria. A common thought, and an identical funeral rite, are 

 revealed. 



M. Cartailhac, for many years editor of the " Materiaux pour servir 

 a, l'Histoire de l'Homme " (" Materials to be used for the History of 

 Man "), has, in a recent book on " Prehistoric Ages in Spain and Port- 

 ugal " (" Les Ages prehistoriques en Espagne et en Portugal "), de- 

 scribed some remarkable monuments in the Iberian Peninsula, most 

 of which have not been previously brought to the scientific attention 

 of students in other countries. The megaliths of Portugal consist in 

 a great part of dolmens, or antas, as they are called there. Three 

 hundred and fifteen of them were known in 1754. Some of them have 

 disappeared ; but though Pereira de Costa could report upon only 

 thirty-nine at a conference held in connection with the International 

 Exposition in Paris in 1867, Gabriel Pereira, a short time afterward, 

 enumerated one hundred and eighteen, and these were mostly situated 

 in the province of Beira and near Evora and Elvas, in Alemtejo. 



In every country the rocks are disintegrated by the effect of 

 weather - changes into large blocks. The megalith - builders chose 

 those blocks for their purpose which offered the fairest surface. The 

 inclosure was hollowed out. The stones chosen for the walls of the 

 burial - chamber were raised, planted in the soil, and covered with 

 large flat stones ; and then the interstices were filled up with pebbles. 

 A low, narrow entrance-gallery was made by a similar method, and, 

 after the funeral rites were performed, the crypt was covered with a 

 tumulus a protecting envelope which has in most cases been re- 

 moved long ago under the impulse of curiosity or with the hope of 

 finding hidden treasures. The few dolmens still buried are called 

 7nammoas or maminhas (mammce), from their peculiar form. 



