256 
it is the transition between the megalithic monuments and archi- 
tecture properly so called. In an inscription preserved in the 
museum of Boulacj, it is spoken of as an edifice of which the origin 
was lost in the night of time, and which had been found by chance, 
buried in the sand of the desert, under which it had been forgotten 
for long generations.'” * 
49. I copy from FergussoiFs Rude Stone Monuments a drawing, 
by Dr. Barth, of a trilithon at Elkeb, S.E. of Tripoli, in 
reference to which the learned author remarks, “ The first thing 
that strikes one is that Jeffrey of Monmouth's assertion that 
giants in old days brought from Africa the stones which the 
magic arts of Merlin afterwards removed from Kildare and 
set up at Stonehenge, is not so entirely devoid of founda- 
tion as might at first sight appear/' The removal of the stones 
is, of course, absurd, but the suggestion and design may pos- 
sibly have travelled West by this route. I would add that the 
inner and smaller circle of “ blue stones,” cut from igneous rocks, 
such as are not to be found nearer than Cornwall or even Ireland, 
may have been transported even in the vessels of the Phoenicians, 
for some of them are not large. One of the finest is 7 feet 6 inches 
high, 2 feet 3 inches wide at base. — (See page 93, same work.)f 
* Chabas, Stat. preh., p. 557. 
f Mr. Fergusson says that, “ without at all wishing, at present at least, 
