NO. 6 GREAT STONE MONUMENTS FEWKES 41 



tory of the present United States never developed a megalithic stage, 

 although sporadic instances of natural rocks which have a religious 

 role might be mentioned. 1 



Unworked monoliths or giant natural stones set upright singly or 

 in numbers are found in both Central and South America, one of 

 which from Argentina is as high as the head of a man on horseback. 2 



With few exceptions where we find monoliths and colossi, cyclopean 

 walls likewise occur, evidently intended to express the same con- 

 sciousness of power. This is particularly true of the Incas and pre- 

 Incan races who handled the largest blocks of heavy stone and fitted 

 them together with an accuracy that has astonished everyone from 

 the time of their Spanish conquerors to the present. 



We find in various parts of tropical America circles and alignments 

 of monoliths recalling menhirs or cromlechs of the Old World, and 

 called Indian corrals and ball courts. One of the largest and best 

 known of these described by Schomburgk/ near San Juan de 

 Maguana in Hayti, was formed of granite stones each from 30 to 50 

 pounds in weight and arranged in a ring measuring 2,776 feet in cir- 

 cumference. In the center of this dolmen was a rock over 5 feet 

 high supposed to be an idol. Similar enclosures also with central idol 

 found in Porto Rico were described bv Dr. A. Stahl and others. 4 



1 Such natural monuments as the Snake Rock at Walpi or the Twin pinnacles 

 at Tayallone, near Zuhi, or innumerable others which are mentioned in the 

 folk-lore tales of Indians are not here considered, although like all monoliths 

 they have a religious significance. 



The stone " mountain lions " of Cochiti are sometimes rightly called colossi. 



Mr. J. N. B. Hewitt has called my attention to the following from the 

 " Histoire du Canada." by Sagard Teodot, which explains itself : 



lis m'ont monstre plusieurs puissans rochers sur le chemin de Kebec, 

 ausquels ils croyent presider quelque esprit. & entr'autres ils me monstrerent 

 un a quelque cent cinquante lieues de la, qui auoit comme une teste & les deux 

 bras esleuez en haut, & au ventre au milieu de ce grand rocher il y auoit une 

 profonde cauerne de tres-difficile acces. Ils me vouloient persuader & faire 

 croire a toute force auec eux, que ce rocher auiot este autrefois homme morte 

 comme nous. & que esleuant les bras & les mains en haut, il s'estoit meta- 

 morphose en cette pierre, etc. 



2 See charts ; Las Viejas Razas Argentinas. Felix Fuertes and Carlos Brusch. 

 In the explanatory text occurs the following quotation that reminds one of 

 bateys and similar structures in the West Indies : " Enciertos localidades se 

 han encontrado piedras disquestas en circolo y paredas quisa in fin religiose" 



3 Sir Robert Schomburgk, Ethnological Researches in Santo Domingo. 

 Report British Association, 1851. 



4 A. Stahl, Los Indios Borinquenos, Puerto Rico, 1889. J. Walter Fewkes, 

 Aborigines of Porto Rico and Neighboring Islands, 25th Rept. Bur. Amer. 

 Ethnology. 1907. 



