By William, Long, Esq. 115 



were used by the workmen. . . . When moving the winged 

 bulls and lions, now in the British Museum, from the ruins to the 

 banks of the Tigris, I used almost the same means as the ancient 

 Assyrians, employing, however, a cart instead of a sledge." 



Of the power of numbers unaided by artificial contrivance, Dr. 

 Charleton well observes : " Allowing them to have been as unskilful 

 as you please in such instraments, yet consider how numerous they 

 were, and how strenuously great swarms of them used to join hands 

 together in such attempts; and you have not forgot the old verse, 

 multorum manibus grande levatur onus, many hands make light work. 

 What prodigious matters may be effected by mere strength and 

 hand-force of great multitudes without rules of art, may be discerned 

 from the savage Indians ; who, being destitute of other mathematicks 

 but what nature dictated to them, and wanting the advantage of 

 engines, did yet by their simple toil and indefatigable diligence, re- 

 move stones of incredible greatness : for Acosta {' Histor. Indie, lib. 

 3, cap. 14), relates, that he measured one stone brought to Tiagu- 

 anaco, which was 38 foot long, 18 bmad, and 6 thick : and that in 

 their stateliest edifices were many other of much vaster magnitude."^ 

 (" Stoneheng restored to the Danes," p. 46.) 



' " In his interesting * Himalayan Journal,' (vol. ii., p- 276,) Dr. Hooker states 

 that he found the Khasias, a wildish hill-tribe, on the mountain confines of 

 Upper India, still erecting megalithic structures. He remarks that among the 

 Khasias, ' funeral ceremonies are the only ones of any importance, and they 

 are often conducted with barbarian pomp and expense ; and rude stones, of 

 gigantic proportiots, are erected as monuments, singly or in rows, or supporting 

 one another, like those of Stonehenge, which they rival in dimensions and 

 appearance.' 



" In reply to personal enquiries by Sir James Simpson, Dr. Hooker informed 

 him — 



' In answer to your query, Do you remember any recent erection, any 

 arrangement the same as the cromlechs — viz., two, four, or six upright stones 

 supporting a large mass ? — this is a common erection now in vogue, such as are 

 put up annually during the cold season. The whole country for many square 

 miles was dotted with them and they are annually put up. Some I saw were 

 quite fresh, and others half finished, and had I been there during the dry 

 season, I was told I could have seen the operation. A chief or big man wants 

 to put up such a cromlech, to commemorate an event or for any other purpose ; 

 he summons all the country-side, and feeds them for the time. They pass half the 

 time in revelry, the other half in pulling, hauling, pushing and prizing ; it is 



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