The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-09-21
G A r N A G.
Something About n wonderful Monument.

Something About N Wonderful Monument.
On the coast, near the little town of Car
nae, three leagues from the town of Auray.
IN the department of Morbihan, in North
western France, is found a monument of
rude stones, more wonderful than the Pyra-
mids of Egypt, and probably the most stu
pendous work of man on the eRrth The
road from Auray to Carnac is extremely diff
cut; 1T is traversed by hills and crossroads.
which are almost impossible. There cannot
be moro wild or deserted district. or scenes
less calculated to remind one of civilization
and the enioyments of an enlightened peo-
pie. The airy steeple of Carnac is discovered
long before you come near it. Some long
stones, placed on the hills and on hillocks of
sand, precede the great theatre of which YOU
are in quest. On the left, and afar off, we
saw in the horizon heaps of stones, which we
avoided, taking them for parts of walls OF
some ruined fortress; we reached, at length,
one of the tombs of the monument towards
the west. Says Nj. de Cambry:-'I will not
attempt to describe to you my surprise at the
sight of these wonderful masses stretching
towards the horizon in the midst of the
desert which surrounds them; of this monu-
ment, so simple and majestic, so prodigious
from its extent, and the labor it must have
cost"
1t is there without anything but the sand
on which it rests and the arch of heaven
which covers it,: no inscription to explain it,
no analogy to guide one in the research. The
person whom you call to your aid, or the ira
weller of whom you inquire, looks at it and
turns aside, or tells you some ridiculous
story as, that it was an old camp of Caesars,
an army turned into stone, or that it is the
work of the CriOns, little men or demons,
two OF three feet in height more powerful
than giants, who are supposed to have car
ried these huge blocks in their hands. These
crions, or gories, are supposed to dance dur
ing the night about the Druidical monu-
ment. Woe to the traveller who passes that
way within their reach He is forced into
the rapid dance; he falls down amid the
bursts of laughter of these durji, or wanton
hobgoblins, who disappear at break of day.
= can old sailor, says M. de Cambry, ''told
me in answer, two striking circumstances;
first that one of these stones still covers an
immense treasure; and, the better to hide it,
the many thousand others had been raised;
and that calculation, of which the key was
only to be found in the Tower of London,
could alone indicate the position of the trea-
sure. This reminds one of the sacred shields,
the dnciGd of the Romans. My readers will
remember that the ancilia was small bronze
shield preserved at Rome in the Temple of
Mars, and regarded as a kind of palladium, to
which was attached the power of the empire.
Tradition has established that the anclia was
sent from Heaven to Numa Pompilius; the
named Salians. To render more difficult the
carrying off of this shield, Numa had eleven
others, exactly like it, made Second, that in
the month OF June, each year, the ancients
added a stone to those already set up, and
that they were illuminated at great expense
the night preceding this ceremony
These stones are placed in eleven straight
lines, which are from thirty to thirty three
feet distant. The space between the stones
in the lines varies from twelve to fifteen feet
The largest of the stones rise twenty-one or
twenty-five feet above the ground. Their
breadth and thickness vary as well as their
height but some of them are enormous,
especially in the part near Kervario, near the
mill of Kerner. One of them is twenty-five
feet high twelve feet broad, and six feet thick,
exclusive of what is concealed by the sand; it
must weigh two hundred and fifty-six thou
sand eight hundred pounds, supposing the
cubic foot of granite two hundred pounds.
From Kervario, the sea and low lands are
discovered at distance. The view is most
interesting, and the more SO as one cannot
avoid being struck with astonishment at the
surrounding objects
M. de Caylus supposes them tombs; Oget
and Dulandes, curious antiquaries, will have
it that the stones of Carnac were a camp OF
Caesar, and placed there by the Romans.
M. Boulay, an enlightened inhabitant OF
Auray, states that they extended formerly
nearly unfee leagues dlOHS tHe codoV Iue0
are estimated to be about ten thousand stones
in number, and to extend at present nearly
nine miles.
These stones have the most extraordinar,
appearance. They are isolated in grea
plain, without trees OF bushes-not flint O.
fragment of stone is to be seen on the sane
which supports them. They are poised with
out foundations. They bring to our minds
period not to be reached by history or calcu
lation.
II will be noticed that this monument ha
the same name as the Temple of Carnac il
Egypt and the Carnatic in India, and wa
probably built by the same people, the Jain
or Buddhists from Upper India, that bull
Stonehedge and Abury in England. Thes
are all the work of the same era with tn
caves and cromlechs of india the cairns an
cromlechs of Europe, and the Pyramids c
Egypt.-Applet0n's Journal.
Father Prout and ''The Bells of SIIandon.''
The author of the very beautiful poem 9Th
Bells of Shandon," who was better known
''Father Prout' than by his real name, Franc
Mahony was a most remarkable character.