RAU.i THEOlilES OE DESOK AND EIVETT CAENAC. 91 



Leverrier discovered the planet Neptune, is still an open one. It should 

 also be considered that, though the Mahadeo-worshiping Saivas are (as I 

 judge) more or less modified Aryans, the Khasias of Bengal, who are prom- 

 inently mentioned as the modern builders of megalithic structures, belong 

 to a totally different race. "It is at all events worthy of remark," says 

 Miss Buckland, "that those who now in India build cromlechs, erect pillars 

 and circles of stones, and construct miniature kistvaens, are not the dom- 

 inant Aryan race, but the dark-skinned aborigines, descendants of the pre- 

 Aryan occupiers of the soil, and that in every country westward, wherein 

 these monuments are found, they are traditionally associated with a long- 

 forgotten race. It is remarkable, too, that some are assigned to giants and 

 some to dwarfs."* Similar traditions, it will be remembered, are recorded 

 by Mr. Rivett-Carnac. 



After all that has been said concerning the significance of the cup and 

 ring-sculptures in the Old World, I hardly venture to offer an opinion of 

 my own. However, it appears lo me that the close connection between 

 cups and rings has not been sufficiently considered. It certainly appears 

 that both belong to one system of primitive sculpture, of which the former 

 seem to be the earlier expression ; and if, indeed, the combined cups and 

 rings are what Mr. Rivett-Carnac thinks them to be, a kindred purport 

 should be assigned to those cup-excavations which occur without circles 

 and radial grooves on rocks and stones in Europe and Asia. I cannot see 

 how these two kinds of sculpture can be separated from each other, unless 

 by supposing that the primary application of the cups was simply of a 

 practical nature, and that afterward, owing to the force of habit, they were 

 made to enter into the composition of more elaborate carvings of an entirely 

 different character. This, however, is rather doubtful. 



Turning to America, we find the difficulty of approaching anything 

 like a solution of the problem still greater, considering that here as yet the 

 number of discovered cup-stones is by far too small to permit the merest 

 attempt at generalization. As to the smaller North American cup-stones, I 

 have expressed, though in a guarded manner, my opinions concerning their 



• RncklaiHl (Miss A. W.) : Notes on somo Cornish and Irish Pro-historic Monuments in : Journal of 

 (he Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland; Novenahcr, 1879. 



