November 28, 1907] 



NATURE 



83 



and then covering' it with earth which could not fall 

 upon them, and I look upon the stones of the cromlech 

 as the skeletons of the barrows which were thus built 

 to protect the people living in them. 



One of the first things that they wanted to be ^xo- 



Plwto. by Lady Locky 

 Fig. 8.— Druid's Altar at Fanton, near Eodmin, looking to May sunrise. 



tected from was damp. It was important to keep out 

 the rain, because thev had their fires to look after, not 

 merely for cooking purposes, but for sacred purposes, 

 and if they did not keep their sacred fires going, as 

 Mr. Baring-Gould believes they 

 did, they must have been, at 

 all events, sure of a supply of 

 drv wood. That is one reason 

 why they should try to keep out 

 the damp. Britain was then 

 much richer in wild animals 

 than it is now, and measures 

 hnd to be taken to protect 

 the priests, both in the day 

 and during the night, from the 

 incursions of animals by keep- 

 ing them out in some way or 

 other. I think this is a point 

 which archaeologists have not 

 sufficiently considered. There 

 were no carpenters in those 

 davs. They could not cut down 

 a tree. They could not make 

 a door. When we consider the 

 matter carefully, we find that 

 the only way to protect them- 

 selves was bv constructing, 

 however large the chamber, an 

 entrance to it which should be 

 very small, because it must 

 have been closed by a sniall 

 stone, capable of being handled 



bv one or two men, the only ^"^ 



wav they had of sealing it. 



Then these people had to drink, and it was only 

 natural that they should have a water supply in these 

 cromlechs. May that not be the real origin of all 

 the crockery, large or small, and the horn spoons, that 

 one finds in these places? 



NO. 1987, VOL. •]■]'] 



They must have required food as well as drink, and 

 they must have cooked their food, or have eaten it 

 raw ; the evidence of bones and ashes shows that they 

 cooked it. Considerations of this kind suggest that 

 many of the things, including structure and contents, 

 that archaeologists have associ- 

 ated with death may as reason- 

 ably and probablv have been 

 associated with the life con- 

 ditions possible to the early 

 inhabitants of our islands. 



The above-stated view that 

 men really lived in the crom- 

 lechs, which we know to have 

 been associated geographicallv 

 with the circles, would be 

 strengthened if we could show 

 that the construction of the 

 cromlechs was such that they 

 were associated with circles in 

 other ways, and in such ways 

 as would require the presence 

 of the same men in both. 



I have recently commenced 

 the studv of the cromlechs from 

 this point of view, using the 

 orientation theory as my guide. 

 The work at the circles has 

 shown conclusively — to my 

 mind at all events — that they 

 were used, among other things, 

 as calendars or almanacks, to 

 watch the sun's course through- 

 out the vear and so locate the 

 various festivals which are all 

 older than Christianity ; and as 

 night-dials to determine the lapse of time during the 

 night and the rising of the morning star, so that 

 the morning fire-sacrifice could be made at the 

 moment of sunrise. 



Photo, by Lady Lockycr. 

 J. — Druid's Altar, looking towards November sunset. 



Now all this would require a staff, and both the 

 staff and the fire would require some shelter. I have 

 assumed the cromlech to be this shelter, and this 

 assumption enables us to go a step further. A con- 

 venient arrangement would be that much or most of 



