i2 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



THE "DRUID STONES" OF BRITTANY 



By Professor J. S. KINGSLBY 



TUFTS COLLEGE 



THE writer makes no pretense of being an archeologist, but finding 

 few accounts of the wonderful megalithic monuments of Brittany 

 in English, he has written this account of his visit to them as thread on 

 which to string a few pictures. Those huge stones erected by human 

 hands — no one knows by whom or why or when — which are called mega- 

 lithic monuments, occur throughout western Europe, from the " Huns' 

 beds " east of the Zuider Zee, through Britain, France and Spain and 

 into northern Africa, across the Strait of Gibraltar, but nowhere are 

 they as numerous or striking as in Brittany. The tourist is familiar 

 with that strange circle of standing stones at Stonehenge and, to a less 

 extent with " Kit's Coty House " in Kent and the circle at Avebury, 

 but Morbihan is far out of the usual track and hence is seen by compar- 

 atively few of our people. 



The department of Morbihan lies on the southern shore of Brittany, 

 three hundred miles in a straight line west of Paris, and considerably 

 farther as the trains run. The part of it where these megaliths abound 

 is, perhaps, twenty miles, east and west, and ten north and south. It 

 contains no large cities — Vannes, the capital, has not twenty-five thou- 

 sand inhabitants — it has no churches or art galleries starred in Bade- 

 ker; its sole attractions are its delightful inhabitants who still adhere 

 to their ancient costumes, and the monuments. 



Archeologists divide these standing stones into different categories, 

 according to the way they are arranged, and each kind has its name 

 derived from either the Keltic or the French. There are menhirs 

 (Keltic, long stones) which stand upright in the soil, usually upon the 

 smaller end. Menhirs may be isolated, scattered here and there through 

 the region, or they may be arranged in lines or rows (alignments) 

 stretching across the fields. In certain places the menhirs form square 

 or semicircular enclosures called cromlechs (Keltic, curved stones). 



Again, the megaliths. have been built into chambers, the walls com- 

 posed of upright stones placed close together, and roofed in by one or 

 more large blocks of stone. These are the dolmens 1 (table stones), the 

 enlarged chamber being usually reached by a narrower passage, though 

 occasionally the entrance is in one side of the chamber. In some cases 



1 In England the dolmens are frequently called cromlechs. 



