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SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 6l 



origin, being found from Mongolia to the banks of the Danube. They 

 represent a connecting link between the statue menhirs or engraved 

 dolmens of Aveyron, south France, the " steinfiguren " of Germany 

 and the colossi of China, to all of which they are akin. They show 

 that monoliths and colossi are the same in intent, and that the basal 



Fig. 17. — Monolith, Aksum, Abyssinia, from Bent. 



principle of both is ancestor worship or the almost universal cult of 

 the dead. 



The latest historical and comparative study of these rude statues 

 has been published by Joseph Castagne, 1 who has figured not only 

 the babas or " grannies " of the steppes of Russia, but also a few 

 similar images from Mongolia. Some of the babas of Orenburg pre- 

 served in the museum of that place are of considerable size, one being 





1 Joseph Castagne, Bull, et Mem. de la Soc. d'Anthropologie, No. 45, 1910. 



