438 The Amorpholithic Monuments of Brittany. (October, 
whilst a modern Danish poet, M. A. G. Ochlenslaeger, 
writes— 
‘Rush to arms with ready tread ; 
Raise a Rune-stone o’er mine head ; 
Rune-stone rist as Ettin strong, 
Ringing my fame time’s waves along!” 
Now, we have no historical accounts of the circles, avenues, 
and alignments being erected. In like manner, the dolmens 
are still more remarkable for the admirable smoothness, 
flatness, and clever adaptation of the huge slabs com- 
posing them, whilst they, too, are found in many instances 
elaborately ornamented. 
Under the general head, therefore, of megalithic monu- 
ments, which includes all the menhirs, avenues of pulvens, 
and dolmens, &c., we may not be wrong in applying the 
distinguishing term Amorpholithic to the lines and circles 
in Brittany, or to any other assemblages of stones of a 
similar shapeless character. 
On this characteristic difference we venture to suppose 
that the stone avenues are attributable to an age considerably 
anterior to that of the dolmen-mound builders. 
Mr. Fergusson infers, as far as speculation is possible, 
that the French examples of rude stone monuments are, as 
a rule, of earlier date than the British or Scandinavian, 
and he denies that the semicircular or quadrangular en- 
closures can be classed with stone circles proper, such as 
those of Wiltshire and Cumberland, Moytura and Stennis, 
so far as almost to deny the existence of circles in France. 
We are almost inclined to agree with him. 
If the isolated menhirs were erected by the same peoples 
or their ancestors, it is not likely that they would be placed 
so as to interfere with the evident design of the alignments ; 
an example of which interference we find at Kermario, where 
a single intruding menhir rises abruptly amidst the smaller 
stones of the avenues, of which it is wholly independent, 
and therefore is probably a subsequent erection. 
In spite of their propinquity (for we find many instances 
of menhirs and dolmens on either side of the lines, likened 
by some French writers to the outposts of the main army; 
but which M. de Freminville calls ‘‘pierres d’avertissement,” 
which were placed to warn the approaching intruder lest he 
should profane the neighbouring Druidical sanétuary), it 
seems not unlikely that there was no conneétion between 
the lines and assemblages of amorpholiths and the other 
megalithic structures, or between the races of men who 
constructed them: on the other hand, it is not improbable 
