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Notes on the Rude Stone Antiquities of Brittany, in con- 

 nection with those of Scotland. By Miss Russell, of 

 Ashiesteel. 



During a six weeks tour in Lower Brittany, in July and 

 August 1886, with a companion who had been in the country 

 before, I saw a number of the especial sights of Brittany — the 

 rude stone structures. They are quite Egyptian in scale — in fact 

 one would suppose at first sight there must have been a certain 

 vanity in the use of such enormous slabs 



But we came to a conclusion about them which I think is new, 

 chiefly from Scotch analogies, namely that they are only the 

 framework of buildings which may have been ordinary-looking 

 enough when complete ; and that the small stones which filled up 

 the intervals have long ago been carried off for building purposes ; 

 turf coverings, or mounded earth, would be still more readily 

 scattered. The dolmens are, in fact, very much like what are 

 called in Scotland Picts' Houses, though, except in the case of 

 one we did not see, they are not entirely subterranean ; some 

 are covered by mounds ; some may always have stood above 

 ground ; some stand, partly sunk, on natural elevations. The 

 French belief that they are tombs seems to rest chiefly on the 

 general absence of any other theory — though a missionary priest 

 who had been in North America has pointed out their resem- 

 blance to the dwellings of the Esquimaux. The occasional cases 

 in which human bones and human ashes have been found in 

 them no more prove them to have been intended for tombs, 

 than the ship-burials discovered in recent years in Scandinavia 

 prove ships to be tombs — in a general way. 



The present is a very favourable time to examine them ; the 

 French government has been quietly buying up the rude stone 

 monuments, and putting them under official protection. They 

 have done as little in the way of restoration as could possibly be 

 expected, but some of the great stones have obviously been lifted 

 from the ground, one side being clear of lichen. 



It is the cleaning-out of the dolmens which developes their 

 house-like character. Dolmen, in the language of Brittany, 

 means a stone table ; and it has been adopted with that meaning 

 in archaeological iise. Captain Conder is very clear that the 

 stone tables, of which he found many in Heth and Moab, are not 

 tombs, but merely tables or altars ; small ones are still made to 

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