DRUID STONES" OF BRITTANY 



I3 1 



At Locmariaquer is also the largest of the dolmens, the " dolmen 

 des marchands." I regret that I took no measurements of its size, espe- 

 cially since none are given in the works at hand. I can only depend 

 upon my memory, aided by pictures, for my estimates. At its southern 

 end is a passage. about four feet wide and high enough for a tall man to 

 stand erect. This is walled by vertical slabs of stone and roofed in with 

 the same material. The passage leads to a larger chamber which is at 

 least seven feet wide and high by possibly ten or twelve in length. 

 The end opposite the entrance is formed of a single stone, shaped like 



Pig. 6. Dolmen des Marchands, Locmariaquer. 



the smaller end of an egg and remarkable from the fact that its surface 

 is covered with groups of parallel curved lines, a feature found but 

 rarely in this region. Smaller stones, about six feet high, make up the 

 sides of the chamber, while at the opening of the passage into the 

 chamber are a pair of seven-foot stones, like door posts. The roof is 

 supported on these three larger stones, like an enormous three-legged 

 table. The table top is an immense block of granite, about ten feet 

 wide, fifteen feet long and four feet in thickness. The problem of put- 

 ting this roof in position is not so difficult as that of the erection of the 

 giant menhir just described. "We may imagine the ancient workers fill- 

 ing all around the vertical stones of the dolmen with soil and then slid- 

 ing or rolling the covering stone into position. But even this calls for 

 an expenditure of an enormous amount of human strength. 



Near this " table of the merchants " is another dolmen, " mane 

 retual,'*' less perfect and less easily studied than its fellow, since it has 



