1872.) The Amorpholithic Monuments of Brittany. 451 
an observer to view it through the celebrated cross stones of 
Stonehenge ; his theory being that those cross stones were 
purposely so placed to fix the point of observation per- 
manently, so that astronomers in after ages might be able to 
compare notes in their observations. Still later, Dr. Thurnam 
watched the rising of the sun from the altar stone where he 
stood, when it was seen to rise precisely over the top of the 
isolated stone, which is Io feet high and about 200 feet 
distant from the entrance tothe temple, apparently intended 
to direct the observation at the summer solstice to the point 
of the rising sun. 
Latour d’Auvergne (le Premier Grenadier de France), in his 
‘‘Origines Gauloises,” was one of the first to refer these 
stones to a Celtic origin, in which supposition he is supported 
by Le Comte de Caylus, as well as by MM. Pelloutier, Mahé, 
and Déric. M.de Freminville, in company with Messrs. de 
Robien Borlase and Pallas, is inclined to the belief that 
these amorpholiths are the tombs of warriors slain in some 
memorable victory of exceptional consequence, perhaps 
erected by the Veneti (whose capital, Dariorig, is identical 
with Locmariaquer across the Crach river), and the isolated 
menhirs are supposed to indicate the graves of those slain 
at the outposts. M.L. Galles, in a memoir of the Depart- 
mental Archzological Society, quotes old Alaus Magnus 
(Archbishop of Upsal in 1546), who gives examples of the five 
different arrangements of these stone alignments; the 
translation of the passage is as follows :—“ As to the obelisks 
or huge stones erected by the hands of giants and athletes, 
nowhere are they to be found more frequently than among 
the Ostrogoths, Westrogoths, and northern Suconi, where 
two or three roads meet, and as well in vast solitudes, which 
have long since been depopulated by plague, famine, and 
war, and which have not yet been restored to their former 
state of cultivation through the negligence or apathy of 
the inhabitants. These stones, erected in many places, 
have a length of 10, 20, or 30 feet, and a breadth of 4 or 6 
feet. Their position is wonderful, their order still more 
wondrous, and their character most prodigious. In lines 
straight and long, they represent the contests of athletes ; 
arranged in square, the mélée of battle; in circle, the 
sepulchre of families; whilst if the lines form an angle, 
they represent an army of horse and foot, which either there 
or close by has triumphed over its enemies.” So also there are 
other inadmissible opinions, which would make these stones 
to be memorials of the defeat of the Veneti* by Cesar, or a 
* Mr. Fergusson’s latest theory will be discussed in Part III. 
