INTRODUCTION 



Reinach has written a remarkable essay on this 

 question, and the following examples are mainly 

 drawn from the collection he has there made. 

 The names given to the monuments often show 

 clearly the ideas with which they are associated in 

 the minds of the peasants. Thus the Penrith circle 

 is locally known as " Meg and her Daughters," 

 a dolmen in Berkshire is called " Wayland the 

 Smith's Cave," while in one of the Orkney Isles 

 is a menhir named " Odin's Stone." In France 

 many are connected with Gargantua, whose name, 

 the origin of which is doubtful, stands clearly for 

 a giant. Thus we find a rock called the " Chair of 

 Gargantua," a menhir called " Gargantua's Little 

 Finger," and an allee couverte called " Gargantua's 

 Tomb." Names indicating connections with fairies, 

 virgins, witches, dwarfs, devils, saints, druids, 

 and even historical persons are frequent. Dolmens 

 are often " houses of dwarfs," a name perhaps 

 suggested or at least helped by the small holes 

 cut in some of them ; they are " huts " or " caves 

 of fairies," they are " kitchens " or " forges of the 

 devil," while menhirs are called his arrows, and 

 cromlechs his cauldrons. In France we have 

 stones of various saints, while in England many 

 monuments are connected with King Arthur. 

 A dolmen in Wales is his quoit ; the circle at 

 Penrith is his round table, and that of Caermarthen 

 is his park. Both in England and France we 

 find stones and altars " of the druids " ; in the 



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