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1891. | Among the Prehistoric Monuments of Brittany. 879 
age, after which they ceased to be formed. It is only to be said, 
with Cartailhac, that at-the present day Hindu women at the 
approach of maternity may be seen carrying water from the 
Ganges, with which they sprinkle these symbolic cups in rig 
temples with prayers to the divinity indwelling.’ 
Such superstitions still prevail, unless they aré of new awe 
independent growth, in France, and in the Pyrenees, in Sweden, as 
well as in Switzerland, where they are either regarded as the work 
of elves, or visited by young girls and widows in the hope of 
getting husbands. The great mound of St. Michel looms up’ as 
on our return we approach the little village of Carnac. It is the 
largest tumulus in France, overlooking the rather flat surrounding 
country and the Atlantic, with Belle Isle in the distance and to 
the right the peninsula of Quiberon. The tumulus is now 65 feet 
above the surrounding fields, though originally it must have been 
considerably higher, its summit having -been leveled by the 
Romans, who built a temple upon’ it, while the remains of a 
Gallo-Roman villa are still visible near its base. In place of the 
Roman temple stands.a humble and not at all interesting chapel, 
dedicated to St. Michael. We ascend the tumulus by the fifty-two 
steps made of the small granite blocks taken from the galgal 
which protected the dolmen, the great elliptical mound of earth 
covering both dolmen and cairn, being 400 by 200 feet in its 
greater and lesser diameters. Toward the north and northwest 
are plainly to be seen the famous alignments of Kerlescan, 
Kermario, and Ménec, which we were to visit on the morrow, 
when M. Gaillard was again our guide, philosopher, and friend. 
Without his intimate knowledge of these striking monuments we 
should not have half seen or understood them, and the kindly 
man, full of enthusiasm and enlightened interest, told us all he 
knew of the alignments and their probable object. His conclu- 
sions seem to us to be in advance of what has been published 
by the leading French archeologists, who have only made com- 
paratively brief visits to the region. Fortunately the government 
has for a number of years taken possession of the alignments and 
most of the dolmens, restoring them by setting the buried or fallen 

