By Br. Phene, F.S.A., F.R.G.S. 237 



remarkable, a vast and heavy cap-stone, frequently 12ft. long by 

 3ft. wide and 2ft. thick, carefully fashioned, and always in the same 

 form, is poised on a vertical oblong, about 9ft. wide, and only 1ft. 

 thick, standing out of the ground 9ft., presenting a square superficies 

 of a thin slab to the sight ; there is no cement, nor any mortise, 

 and yet I ascended, with other persons, on to the cap-stone without 

 causing the least oscillation. In one case, however, at what was 

 evidently the grand temple, the horizontal stone of the chief table has 

 a mortise, into which the upright is inserted as a tenon, and this is 

 so adroitly done, although, evidently, not wrought with iron tools, 

 but merely battered with stone implements, that a slight touch of 

 the hand causes vibration, though the stone is perfectly safe, and 

 the natives assert that it vibrates constantly in a high wind. Here 

 we have an approach to the mortise and tenon system of Stonehenge, 

 the only example I am aware of. In several cases, at remote dis- 

 tances, in the islands, are found the upright columns, with rude 

 caps, arranged in the form of the trilithons of Stonehenge, though 

 with the cap-stones, and a rude transverse block or lintel above, 

 forming a construction of five stones, in lieu of three. Locally 

 these are called dolmens, and, in several instances, there are pure 

 trilithons, or one block resting on two uprights. The great enceintes 

 generally contain three vast conical erections, apparently intended 

 for different purposes ; some are solid with an external ascent, clearly 

 watch-towers, or serving also, it may be, as places whence the cere- 

 monies in the sacred enclosure might be observed ; some are hollow, 

 with doorways high up above the ground, indicating places of refuge 

 or depositories for valued articles; there are others again the purposes 

 of which are less apparent. The grand temple, surrounded on all sides, 

 and at distances of some miles, by these lofty cones, is in the form 

 of a pyramid, with the angles rounded off, an immensely strong 

 structure, and not dissimilar in the size of its enormous blocks and 

 the thickness of its walls, to the well-known Cyclopean works at 

 Tiryns, in Greece ; many of the stones are 9ft. long by 3ft. to 5ft. 

 thick. Within the walls is a semi-circular chamber, with its base 

 to the south, arranged in tiers of stones, in form of a Greek theatre; 

 ^schylos, who wrote before Greek theatres were built of stone (see 



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