194 RUDE STONE MONUMENTS OF COKNWALIi. 



resolves itself into the initial question whether there is of 

 original purpose such a thing as a free-standing cromlech in 

 Cornwall at all — whether, in short, our cromlechs were not either 

 covered by mounds originally or perchance so intended to be. 

 Herein is matter of great controversy, and indeed it lies at the 

 root of the whole question ; — for a buried cromlech cannot be 

 regarded as anything but sepulchral, a bigger form of the simple 

 kistvaen, more or less capacious. 



Oapt. Conder unhesitatingly holds that most of the Moabite 

 groups — probably all — could never have been covered by a 

 mound at all. But chen they differ very materially from the 

 Cornish cromlechs, if we are to interpret literally his statement 

 that "the main object of their erection seemed always to be the 

 construction of a flat table, arranged with a slight tilt in the 

 direction of its length." Cup hollows, sometimes connected by 

 channels, are frequent on and about the dolmens, and the 

 conclusion in his view was irresistible that there are evidences of 

 some sort of libation on the dolmen, which "in the modern 

 instances is simply a table or altar for offerings." 



But while a buried cromlech is beyond doubt sepulchral, it 

 by no means follows that a free-standing one is not. Certain 

 tribes in India continue to bury in free-standing cromlechs to 

 the present day, and surround them by circles of standing stones, 

 and in short, as Dr. Hooker says, habitually erect dolmens, 

 menhirs, cists and cromlechs, almost as gigantic in their 

 appearance and construction as the so-called druidical remains 

 of western Europe — the objects of their erection being sepulture, 

 marking spots where public events have occurred, and the like. 

 Thus the "unchanging East," supplied the key to the riddle of 

 the changeful West- 

 Mr. W. C. Borlase, in Ncenia Cornubim, adopted a distinction 

 between cromlechs that might be regarded, from the character of 

 the supporters, as columnar structures, and those in which the 

 enclosed character of the kist is preserved, while he treated a 

 third type as merely cenotaphs, erected over a grave to indicate 

 its position, and therefore a close analogue of the modern altar 

 tomb. As to which I would remark, that the original idea may 

 be as well preserved by the more slender as by the more massive 



