BEAUTIES OF BRITTANY 



tive men as they are today among the 

 most civilized. France possesses many 

 menhirs (long stones) and dolmens 

 (stone tables), and the very finest are in 

 this locality. The standing columns, or 

 menhirs, are in the nature of simple mon- 

 uments. One, the Men-er-Hroeck, or 

 Stone of the Fairies, the largest in the 

 world, at Locmariaquer, was nearly 70 

 feet in height and weighed about 342 

 tons. It was overthrown by the elements. 

 and there is something very sad about 

 this huge stone monolith, now shattered 

 and prostrate upon the ground of what 

 was once a hallowed spot (pp. 413-415). 



Carnac is perhaps the most remarkable 

 place in the world for these prehistoric 

 monuments. In even rows, the stones — 

 from 4 to 16 feet in height — stretch 

 across the desolate gray moor literally by 

 the thousand. What story do they tell? 

 Was this the burial ground of a nation? 

 Do these unresponsive monuments hide 

 the untold tale of a terrible field of blood 

 and the wiping out of an army of thou- 

 sands ? 



The dolmens are simply long, rough 

 slabs of stone, supported by a row of 

 vertically placed slabs at each side and 

 the rear. Under this huge table a pas- 



419 



