162 Banish Cromlechs and Burial Customs, fyc. 



fixed by chronologists at about 600 years B.C. which will leave the 

 pretty wide margin of one thousand years as regards Britain, and 

 two or three hundred years more as regards other portions of 

 western Europe, for the period of their ruder and more uncultivated 

 existence. It is possible therefore that this longer period of twelve 

 hundred years may have comprehended the stone age, which was 

 succeeded by the bronze and iron periods of their commercial life ; 

 and it is a remarkable fact that cromlechs and megalithic structures 

 abound in those portions of western Europe which the Celts are 

 known to have occupied undisturbed for many centuries. Some 

 writers observe that it is "vain to speculate upon the age" of 

 these monuments j but it should seem as if their construction and 

 contents should be some guide to the era of their erection. While 

 the colossal dimensions of many would attest the physical power 

 and energy of the people, their rude construction, the absence of 

 metal, and the simplicity of their burial customs, would indicate a 

 primeval race, entirely excluded from commercial intercourse with 

 the then civilized nations of the world if any existed. If their 

 mechanical genius was great, it was limited in its exercise by their 

 ignorance of the use of metal tools. Had they possessed iron, e.g. 

 they would assuredly have applied it to fashion the natural rude 

 masses of stone, employed in their structures. This kind of 

 reasoning has been pronounced " whimsical " (Cyclops Christian, 

 p. 82), but to me it appears only reasonable. 



But the question remains unanswered, — on which side are we to 

 lay the change, if any, of ideas and customs, and to attribute a 

 priority of settlement, supposing the Celts to have been the people 

 who raised these monuments ? The question of altered habits is 

 difficult to solve, because we have to learn, first of all, which 

 country received the prior occupation, — Denmark or Gaul. No 

 doubt the simple and precarious mode of life of the Celtic tribes, 

 and the natural obstacles which they had to encounter in their 

 progress westward, would prevent a rapid and wide extension of 

 themselves. Yast forests, morasses and mountain ranges are 

 obstacles not quickly and easily overcome. They would probably 

 follow the course of rivers, and we may well suppose that after 



