102 STONE REMAINS OF BRITTANY. 
Kistvaens are a smaller kind of Dolmen, generally closed at one 
or both ends. The best example is on Goat Island, at the 
mouth of the archipelago of the Morbihan. 
Galgals are equivalent to what are known as cairns. They 
generally contain a sepulchral chamber, the stone walls of 
which are inscribed with hieroglyphics .which no one 
hitherto has been able to decipher. 
The country round Carnac is solemn and impressive, full of 
strange Druidical monuments. Menhirs and Dolmens of 
fabulous antiquity, ancient stone crosses, calvaires and carvings. 
One finds intimate traces of the Middle Ages. The land is still 
half cultivated and divided into small holdings: the fields are 
strewn with ancient stones. 
The lines of Carnac are impressive—lines of colossal 
stones planted point downward, some as high as 20 feet, and 
stretching away to the horizon on a space of several miles like a 
gigantic army of phantoms. Originally the lines were composed 
of 6000 stones, but to-day there remain only several hundreds. 
They have been destroyed bit by bit and used by the peasants. 
Historians and archeologists have sought in vain to find a 
solution to the problem of the formation of the lines: some say 
that the stones planted in the fields are temples dedicated to 
the worship of the serpent: others maintain that this is a kind of 
cemetery where the dead were interred after a terrible battle. 
They are variously taken to be sacred monuments, symbols of 
divinity, funeral piles, trophies of victory, testimonies to the 
passing of a race, the remains of a Roman encampment. In- 
numerable are the surmises. 
The country people have in their folk-lore their own versions 
of the origin of these stones. 
The stones at Carnac embrace three groups of Menhirs, 
those of Menec comprising 874 Menhirs in 11 rows or align- 
ments, Kermario 865 in 10 rows, and Kerlescant 262 in 10 rows. 
The stones at Kerlescant run from east to west in three 
chief rows, being smaller and fewer to the westward and larger 
and more defined to the east, where the number of rows increases 
to 10, forming the boundary to an enclosure called Le Bal. 
On leaving Le Bal in a south-westerly diretcion only scattered 
stones are seen, but near the windmill of Kermario the same 
order is repeated, the number of rows being again 10. This 
