THE BUILDERS 



race, though there is a certain possibility in favour 

 of such a hypothesis. 



That the megalithic people possessed a religion 

 of some kind will hardly be doubted. Their 

 careful observance of the rites due to the dead, 

 and their construction of buildings which can 

 hardly have been anything but places of worship, 

 is a strong testimony to this. We have seen that 

 in the Maltese temples the worship of baetyls or 

 pillars of stone seems to have been carried on. 

 Several stone objects which can scarcely have 

 been anything but baetyls were found in the 

 megalithic structures of Los Millares in Spain, 

 but none are known elsewhere in the megalithic 

 area. 



There is some reason for thinking that among 

 the megalithic race there existed a cult of the axe. 

 In France, for instance, the sculptured rock- 

 tombs of the valley of the Petit Morin show, some 

 a human figure, some an axe, and some a com- 

 bination of the two. This same juxtaposition of 

 the two also occurs on a slab which closed the 

 top of a corbelled chamber at Collorgues in Gard. 

 A simple allee couverte at Gohlitzsch in Saxony 

 has on one of its blocks an axe and handle engraved 

 and coloured red. There are further examples 

 in the allee couverte of Gavr'inis and the 

 dolmen called La Table des Marchands at Loc- 

 mariaquer. 



137 



