112 ARCHITECTURE. 
the universe so easily, or a symbol of the vitality that pervades the universe. 
Dulaur finds some affinity between these stones and those carried about by 
the Romish priests during drought to attract rain, holding that the stones 
were moved with a view to occasion favorable weather or to drive away 
magic. Baudoin makes of them the test of female virtue, because the 
stones in many parts of Bretagne, for instance near Jaudet, are called 
Roc’h-were’het (Roche aux vierges). Only the true and chaste could put 
the stone in motion. 
These rocking monoliths are found in all parts of France and England. 
The largest is that of Perros-Guyrech (Cote du Nord), being about 43 feet 
long and broad, and 21 feet high (pl. 24, jig. 8). The surface is flattened 
by nature and has a kind of hollowing, from which a channel is chiselied, 
so that it seems as if this enigmatical stone may have served as a Dolmen. 
The balance is so delicate that a single man can easily move this mass of 
rock, weighing not less than 1,000,000 pounds. In Bretagne there are 
several such stones; for instance, near Autun where a granite block, with 
an egg-shaped top, stands upon another granite block, in such a manner 
that it moves with the lightest touch. We cannot here mention all, but 
must not omit that near West Hoadley in the county of Sussex (jig. 7), 
which is about 22 feet high. It has a pyramidal base which rests upon a 
granite rock, and it is very easily moved. It is computed at 500 tons in 
weight. 
7. Mounps. We have before mentioned that the simplest sepulchral 
monument was the upright stone (Men-hir), but distinguished persons 
received more important monuments. In the most ancient times no other 
than material greatness was recognised; immense mounds were, therefore, 
erected as sepulchral remembrances to great men, and the largest pyramids 
are perhaps nothing but mounds in their highest perfection. This custom 
of erecting mounds is traced to the earliest times. Herodotus and Homer 
often mention them, and the Germans of the present day are familiar with the 
Giants’ graves, which popular tradition designates as the graves of a Titanic 
race of men who lived thousands of years ago. The Etrurian graves also, 
the grottoes of Corneto (p. 36, pl. 8, figs. 3 and 4, and Division IV. pl. 
11, fig. 1), are nothing but such mounds, as we shall presently describe, 
but walled with stone. Pallas found the mounds in the north of Asia 
among the Tschuwashi, Ostiaks, Baltyri, and Samoyedes. Baron Tott found 
them in Tartary ; Volney in the Pashalic of Aleppo as high as 90 feet; 
Bertram among the savages in Florida. In all parts of America, even 
among the Botocudi and in French Guyana, the dead are even now buried 
in an upright posture with their arms, and huge mounds erected over the 
graves. The Celts called the mounds, if they were constructed of heaped 
up stones, Galgals (from gal, a stone), and the Britons Cairns. 
The dimensions of the mounds are very various, for there are some of 
immense size, and again others scarcely three feet in height. The round 
mounds have an almost semi-spherical form, and of this kind are most of 
the mounds in England, generally surrounded with a little ditch. The 
broad mound is similar to the round, but with the horizontal diameter much 
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