ARCHITECTURE. 109 
metres broad, and 0.34 metres thick, whose supports are 2.27 metres high 
(fig. 5). Strabo mentions in his Egyptian journey, Triliths dedicated to 
Mercury. , 
The real Dolmen may be either simple or complicated. The simple 
Dolmen consists of four stones, three of which form a rectangular grotto of 
which the fourth side is open, and upon which the fourth stone forms the 
ceiling. Of this kind is the Dolmen of Trie (pl. 24, jig. 3), in which, in the 
rear stone, there is a circular hole of which we have no explanation. The 
top is usually 18—20 feet in length, 12—14 in breadth, and 1}—3 feet in 
thickness. 
Besides these there are Dolmen which consist of a greater number of stones, 
of which several stand upright and support the top, while others simply 
serve to fill up the intervening space. Sometimes the top itself consists 
of several stones. One of the finest of this kind is the Dolmen of Locmaria- 
quer in Bretagne (fig. 10), known by the names of Caxsar’s table, table of 
the merchants, and Dolvarchant. The top is more than 25 feet long, 13 
feet broad, and 3 feet thick, and rests upon only three of the numerous 
stones that formed the wall, and of which some are pushed aside. This 
Dolmen stands east and west. In England also there are many such Dolmen, 
especially in the southern counties, and there are some there which are 
closed up on all sides. 
If we return to the original intention of such Dolmen, we should find it, 
without doubt, to be religious, even if we did not find some of them men- 
tioned by old authors as “‘ Sanctuaries of Mercury.” ‘Tacitus says, speaking 
of Anglesea, the centre of Druidism in England, that in those forests there 
were altars upon which the blood of captives was burned or rather evaporated, 
and the Dolmen are such Celtic altars, for upon the majority of them there 
is a circular depression in which, probably, the blood of the victim was 
received and. thence flowed away through a groove. In Cornwall there is 
still such a slab 35 feet in length, 19 feet in breadth, and 15 feet in thickness, 
which is laid over two natural rocks, and in which there are several such 
depressions, the largest of which is more than 6 feet in diameter. Some 
have supposed these depressions to be the work of chance, but more than two 
hundred monuments of the kind remain, and it is not likely that the same 
chance would have affected all of them. 
3. CovErED Ways. Covered ways, witches’ grottoes, witches’ rocks, are 
properly nothing more than large Dolmen, and are classed by antiquarians 
with them. These passages are frequently not of the same breadth for the 
whole distance, but are broader at one end than at the other, and many seem 
like passages leading to a square or circular hall, in which is a kind of sub- 
division into three or four compartments. The most remarkable monument 
of this kind, as weli for its preservation as its size, and the immense blocks 
of which its walls consist, is the famous Witch’s Grotto in the neighbor- 
hood of Saumur, on the road to Bagneux. P1. 24, fig. 13, gives the exterior, 
and jig. 14 the interiur view. The monument is well preserved and sur- 
rounded with trees. The entrance of the grotto, which, however, is now 
closed by a door, lies toward the south-east, and is formed by two stones 
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