THE EUDE STONE MONUMENTS OF CORNWALL. 89 



or judging-places of poetry. The whole value of such statements 

 or legends lies in the fact, that they prove the first intention 

 of the thing to which they relate, to have been forgotten. 



Nor should we hesitate, if need be, to draw the same 

 conclusion with regard to customs. It may very well have been 

 that it was a Scandinavian practice to hold courts and assemblies 

 at or near some of the larger circles, but it does not follow they were 

 built for the purpose. Because a structure is used in a certain 

 way it would be most unwise to contend such purpose to have 

 been original. It is almost inevitable that places to which 

 importance has once attached, or which are distinguished by 

 special peculiarities, or which have a halo of mystery, should 

 retain a prominence or use of some sort. When, however, we 

 enquire what uses circles may be put to, in the present day, the 

 answers are far too divergent to be conclusive of original intention. 

 Thus the Kurds in Eastern India are said to "use circles in 

 connection with the worship of the rising sun, the tallest member of 

 the circle beixij^- towards the east. The worshipper perambulates 

 the circle, with the sun, and sprinkles the stones with the blood of 

 a cock." So, in Western India, circles occur with a central stone 

 to which a cock is sacrificed. Again we are rightly told it is a 

 common thing, where there is an external menhir or group, that 

 " the external pointer bears generally a male name, while the 

 circle is female," as in the "Merry Maidens" and the "Pipers" at 

 BoUeit. This would, however, direct us to Phallicism. So 

 with the custom of the modern Arab, who surrounds the 

 grave of a man of noted sanctity with a circle of stones, and places 

 on one side (almost invariably on the west) a little dolmen altar 

 about three feet high, consisting of two stones supporting a third 

 laid flat on the top. Whenever he visits the spot he kisses the 

 stone and invokes the dead man's aid, placing his forehead on 

 the altar, and then depositing a gift.* Traditions and customs like 

 these, so wholly inconsistent, prove original intention to be lost. 

 And what is most remarkable, with regard to the last mentioned, 

 is this : — Oapt. Oonder figures one of these Arab circles near 



*Vide Conder's Heth and Moab, pp. 218, 219, 327. Capt. Conder suggests 

 that the circles with adjacent meuhirs served the purpose of rude calendars, 

 marking the changes of the seasons by indicating the course of the sun. But 

 surely there was no need of such device as this. The idea is pure hypothesis and 

 moreover inconsistent with the general conditions. 



