THE RUDE STONE MONtTMENTS OF COENWALL. 91 



It may be granted that the stone row is not very closely 

 represented, unless the not infrequent head and foot stone be 

 pressed into service ; but the vault is simply a modern form of the 

 chambered cairn. 



Moreover, if we do not find stone circles, we find what is, at 

 least, the representation of the chief idea which, to my mind, 

 they embodied, — in the boundary stones and rails by which 

 certain plots are enclosed. For, however the practice originated, 

 this at least seems to be clear, that the circle is intended to suggest a 

 ceremonial separation — a dedication — if you will, of the spot 

 enclosed to a special use, which, in connection with the respect 

 paid to the remains of the dead, and the development of animism, 

 would inevitably, in the course of time, come to have something 

 sacred about it — a belief which would no doubt grow. The 

 association of any spot with the rites of burial, and its separation 

 from the ordinary uses of land around, could not fail to mark a 

 stage in the development of primitive religion. 



This idea of separation and dedication is akin to the "taboo" 

 of the New Zealanders ; to the feeling which prompted Moses 

 to set up bounds at Mount Sinai ; and which we see in another 

 form in connection with the association of circles with the 

 magical acts of the Middle Ages. There is no genuine physical 

 separation in either case, only a ceremonial suggestion, which 

 itself is enough to indicate some advance in religious feeling or 

 superstition — some respect for, or dread of, the spirit world. The 

 barrier raised is mental or moral. The appeal is to the feelings, 

 not to physical obstruction, — to fear, it maybe, but not to force. 

 And here again we find precisely the same motives at work in 

 the present day, and in what is called civilised society. 



And a point which I regard as of the very highest import- 

 ance, and which I have never yet seen dwelt upon, is this. We 

 find these stone circles in constant association with hut circles — 

 the skeleton circle which suggests the abode of the dead with 

 the complete circle which formed the abode of the living. 



Here, too, we have the analogue, and the survival, in the 

 existence of the mausoleum, — carried to such an extent at Pere- 

 la-chaise, for example, that the main avenue is like a street of 

 diminutive dwellings ; — and so persistent in the East, that 

 hundreds of tombs, of the forgotten dead, form the very sufficient 



