108 ARCHITECTURE. 
there is nothing found, it was only a boundary stone. Very often there are 
popular interpretations of the intent of the monuments. Thus, the men-hir 
of Guenezan in France, is called men-cam (the stone of crime); that of 
Brenantes near Plouaret, bren-an-tec’h (princes’ flight). Often the whole 
region where it stands has a special name, as ker-brezel (place of victory), 
ker-laouenan (place of joy), &c. &e. 
The height of the men-hir varies between 9 and 30 feet, and sometimes 
the thinner part of the stone stands in the earth. One of the largest men- 
hir lies in ruins near the great dolmen which is known by the name of the 
Merchant’s Table, and of which we shall presently say something more. 
This men-hir was once 65 feet long, and there are few Egyptian obelisks 
of greater length. Men-hir are sometimes discovered with inscriptions 
upon them, as, for example, that near Joinville, which bears the Roman 
inscription, ““ VIROMARUS ISTATILI F” (Viromar, son of Istatilus), or 
with huge sculptures, as on the Maiden Stone near the town of Brecknock, 
in Wales, which represent the figures of a man and a woman. These 
ornaments, however, are unquestionably of a later date, as the original 
men-hir were wholly constructed of rough stones. When Christianity 
gradually supplanted Druidism these monuments were zealously destroyed, 
and there are yet extant old edicts of the kings Chilperich, Childebert (554), 
Edgar of England (967), whereby all who did not assist in the destruction of the 
idolatrous stones were threatened with slavery andthescourge. Afterwards, 
they were wiser, and instead of destroying these stones before which the 
people were accustomed to pray, they consecrated them to the true God. 
And they even erected new stones, upon which, as on the men-hir on the 
Judgment-hill of Carnac in Bretagne (pl. 24, jig. 1), they engraved the 
form of the cross, or they shaped the stones themselves into the cross, or 
wrought Christian sculptures upon the old men-hir that yet remained. 
Very probably the wayside shrines, so common in Southern Germany and 
all Catholic countries, arose from the men-hir. 
2. DormeNn or Totmen, Triziras. Dolmen (raised stone, devil’s table, 
witches’ table) are monuments which consist of several stones, and which 
support one or more flat ones like the top of a table. The word dolmen 
is Celtic, and consists of man (stone) and taol (table), which afterwards was 
corrupted into tol or doll. 
The Dolmen are of three forms. The simplest are those which we will 
distinguish by the name Half Dolmen, and which seem to be incomplete. 
They consist of a long stone with one end upon the ground while the other 
is supported by an upright stone. An example is the Half Dolmen of - 
Kerland near Carnac (jig. 2), upon which a cross was erected when it was 
changed into aChristian monument. Sometimes the Half Dolmen are only 
apparently so because the other supporting stone has fallen. Generally the 
flat top is 10—12 feet long, 5—7 feet high, and 2—3 feet thick. The 
supporting stones are seldom more than 3 feet high; if they are higher the 
monument is called Lichaven or Trilith. These monuments are rare. A 
very beautiful specimen is in the neighborhood of St. Nazaire (department 
of the lower Loire), consisting of a single stone, 3.26 metres long, 1.64 
108 
