NO. 6 GREAT STONE MONUMENTS FEWKES 3 



in certain climates and at a certain stage of civilization to do the same thing in 



the same way. or nearly so, even without teaching or previous communication 

 with those who have done so before. 



Mr. John Evans apparently had a similar idea and remarks: 



The curious similarity observed in different parts of the world may possibly 

 be due to some analogous development of thought and feeling rather than to 

 any intimate connection between the races who erected them. 



In much the same way Professor Westropp thus expresses himself 

 in his work " Prehistoric Phases " (p. 122) : 



The weapons and instruments of stone which are found in the north of 

 Europe, in Japan, in America, the South Sea Islands, and elsewhere, have, for 

 the most part, such an extraordinary resemblance to one another in point of 

 form, that one might almost suppose the whole of them to have been the pro- 

 duction of the same maker. The reason for this is very obvious, namely, that 

 their form is that which first and most naturally suggests itself to the human 

 mind. 



Mr. Dennis in a suggestive work. 1 speaking' of those megalithic 

 monuments called cromlechs, writes : 



This form of sepulchre can hardly be indicative of any race in particular. 

 The structure is so rude and simple that it might have suggested itself to any 

 people and be naturally adopted in an early state of civilization. It is the very 

 arrangement the child makes use of in building his house of cards. This sim- 

 plicity accounts for the wide diffusion of such monuments over the Old World 

 .... there is no necessity to seek for one particular race as the constructors of 

 these monuments or even as the originators of the type. 



The significance of megalithic monuments is correctly pointed out 

 by Mr. Fergusson who writes: 2 



Honour to the dead and propitiation of the spirits of the departed seem to 

 have been the two leading ideas that, both in the East and West gave rise to the 

 erection of these hitherto mysterious structures which are found numerously 

 scattered over the face of the Old World. 



In somewhat the same vein are the words of Mr. John Stuart : 

 The remains of most ancient people attest that greater and more enduring 



labor and art have been expended on the construction of tombs for the dead 



than in abodes for the living. 



Sir James Stimpson held somewhat the same belief : 

 There is no longer reason to doubt that the Egyptian pyramids are mega- 

 lithic tombs of the dead. 



1 Groge Dennis, The cities and cemeteries of Etruria. London, 1848, 3 ed., 

 1883. 



2 Fergusson, Rude Stone Monuments, p. 509. 



