12 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



or amongst the earlier inhabitants of France. In the tumulus on the island called 

 Gavr'innis, in the Gulf of Morbihan, the local guide points out to visitors a sinuous 

 line which is believed to represent the serpent, but anyone who examines closely 

 the rich sculpturing about it will see at .once that the artist had no preconceived 

 plan, and that the sinuous line, being made last, is the unforeseen, haphaz^ard result. 



It is difficult to believe that the " alignements " were not connected with some 

 religious observances or creed. The extraordinary size of some of the menhirs form- 

 ing them, and particularly of the fallen and broken one near the Dol des Marchands, is 

 such as to force one to question whether any influence, save reiligious, could have 

 compelled the founders to undertake the gigantic toil of their erection. Undoubtedly 

 they must have been regarded as sacred objects, and this leads one to understand 

 why they were used in some cases for human burial. Their use, therefere, as burial 

 monuments may have been siecondary. We have an instance of such secondary use in 

 the case of cathedrals and chvirches of to-day. The existence of stone circles or 

 cromlechs, like the one which terminates the alignements at Menec, would further 

 seem to strengthen the view that all these monuments were in some way con- 

 nected with religious observances. 



The dolmens present less difficulty as to their significance. They are more or 

 less caverns formed in many cases of gigantic stones which are usually only 

 partially sunken in the earth, and covered by very much larger flat stones, often 

 weighing many tons. In these chambers have been found human bones, flint and 

 sometimes bronze implements, with some specimens of rude pottery. Wedge- 

 shaped specimens (celtcc) of jade, or green stone, have also been found in some 

 d.olmens. This bears on the " axe " cult which undoubtedly obtained amongst 

 the dolmen-builders. In the dolmen near Locmariaquer, called the Dol des Mar- 

 chands, a large figure of an axe is engraved on the under surface of -the covering 

 stone. On the large flagstone on the floor of another dolmen of that neighbour- 

 hood, the Manc'-Lud, there is a very large figure of an axe in relief. This is pointed 

 out by the local guide as the figure of a sword. On one of the flat stones taken 

 from the tumulus to the south of Locmariaquer, called Mane-er-H'roec, there are 

 many axes sculptured. In order to understand the significance of these figures, 

 one must compare them with what has been observed in several of the Marne caves. 

 In these are three instances of a female figure rudely sculptured, associated with 

 the outlines of hafted axes. In the dolmen of CoUorgues, in the Department of 

 Card, the slab forming the central part of the roof has a female figure rudely out- 

 lined, and under it is cut the figure of an axe. All these sculptures have been 

 found associated with burial. The axe, therefore, was the symbol of some cult, 

 believed to be that of a deity who is now termed the " Axe Goddess." This cult was 

 accepted by the Celtic and other contemporaries and successors of the dolmen- 

 builders in Gaul, and was continued even during the Roman occupation, for amongst 

 the Romanized Gauls the practice obtained of putting a figure of an axe on a 

 headstone, or in place of the figure the words, '' sub ascia," or " sub ascia dedicavit." 

 What the cult of the Axe Goddess signified it is impossible to do more than con- 

 jecture. Its association with death and burial possibly points to the belief in a 

 goddess of death. The cult has for students of the origin of religions this important 

 interest: it is the only one we know as belonging to the Neolithic age, and, 

 further, it was handed down from Palaeolithic times, or at least from the transition 

 period between the Palaeolithic and Neoilithic ages, when the caves were not 

 inhabited, bvit used as burial places. Borlase(i) attempts to show that the cult 

 obtained over the whole of Western Europe, and he claims that indications of it 

 are shown in the pottery of Hissarlik found there by Schliemann. That it had a 

 wide range may be granted, for in Palaeolithic times there was probably one race 



(i) The Dolmens of Ireland, vol. ii., page 578. 



