RUDE STONE MONUMENTS OF CORNWALL. 197 



It is impossible to dissociate the kist-vaens and the 

 cromlechs from the chambered barrows, as at Brann in Sancreed 

 and Pennanee in Zennor. All belong to one class of monuments. 

 All are different expressions of the same purpose. As to 

 whether the kist-vaen is to be regarded as having grown into 

 the cromlech — tlie coffin into the vault, the death-bed into the 

 death-house ; or whether the process was not otherwise, and the 

 house of the dead dwindled of intention or inability into the 

 chest — it is hard to say. What seems certain is that a time came 

 whea all these forms were in vogue, and when the choice 

 between them was rather one of dignity, or strength, or skill, — 

 just as in funeral ceremonies now — than for any other reason. 

 Hence such combined interments as are found in the tumuli at 

 Chapel Carn Brea and Ballowal. It does not seem probable 

 that the cromlech formed the link between the kist and the 

 chambered cairn ; the latter was an independent development of 

 whatever was the original type. 



Here again the name does not help us. The word cromlech 

 seems to mean really a crooked or a curved stone, as most of the 

 cap stones were. The kist-vaen is simply a "little chest." So 

 the alternative dolmen is the "table stone." As with the 

 menhir and the men-an-tol the nomenclature is purely descrip- 

 tive ; and the ascriptive element is wholly wanting. There is no 

 trace whatever that the authors of these names had any 

 knowledge of the original purpose of the monuments, or that 

 they put them to current use. It is just the same as with 

 Dawns Men, or the Merry Maidens, or the Hurlers, or the 

 circles. In Stonehenge we have, in like manner, simply the 

 "hanging stones;" and so Hingston Down, like the Hingston 

 which formerly existed at Oattedown, near Plymouth — in name 

 Stonehenge reversed — is far more likely to refer to a long 

 vanished cromlech than to any imaginary connection with Hengist 

 and Horsa, or to conflicts between Saxons and Danes. In 

 considering all those monuments we must also bear in mind that 

 they are merely a remnant host, though in some localities the 

 losses need not have been many or great, Cornwall being one 

 pf the most prominent instances. 



