Mcmdiester Memoirs, Vol. lix. (19 15), No. 10. 43 



up. But the idea that such a pillar, whether carved or 

 not, was the dwelling of some deceased person, seized 

 the imagination and spread far and wide. It is seen in 

 the Pygmalion and Galatea story, and its converse in the 

 tragic history of Lot's wife. It is found throughout the 

 Mediterranean area, the whole littoral of Southern Asia, 

 Indonesia, the Pacific Islands and America, and can be 

 regarded as definite evidence of the influence of the cult 

 that developed in association with the practice of mummi- 

 fication. 



It is necessary to emphasise that the making of 

 portrait-statues was an outcome of the practice of mummi- 

 fication and an integral part of the cult associated with 

 that burial custom. Hartland falls into grave error 

 when he writes " where other peoples set up images of 

 the deceased, those who practised desiccation or embalm- 

 ment were enabled to keep the bodies themselves " (32, 

 p. 418). It was precisely the people who embalmed or 

 preserved the bodies of their dead who also made statues 

 of them. 



As these stones, according to such beliefs, could be 

 made to hear and speak (23), they naturally became 

 oracles. People were able to commune with and get 

 advice and instruction from the kings and wise men who 

 dwelt within these stone pillars. Thus it became the 

 custom in many lands for meetings of special solemnity, 

 such as those where important decisions had to be made, 

 to be held at stone circles, where the members of the 

 convention sat on the stones and communed with their 

 ancestors, former rulers or wise men, who dwelt in the 

 stones (or the grave) in the centre of the circle. 



"Chardin, in his account of the stone circles he saw 

 in Persia, mentions a tradition that they were used as 

 places of assembly, each member of the council being 



