The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1875-06-03
The Druids and Their Temples.

Near the town of Carnac, in Brittany,
France, there is an extensive plain sew
eral miles wide, with fiat and barren
surface. 1t is the last place in the world
tourist would care about visiting if he
were simply travelling in search of beau
tiful objects. In winter the coolest
winds blow over it with wild force, and
in summer it is unprotected by trees or
shrubbery from the scorching shafts of
the sun. But it is not wholly uninter-
esting, and Ipropose that we shall make
a short visit to it.
We will suppose, then, that you and /
are stopping at one of the quiet taverns
in Carnac, and have wandered toward the
plain for a walk. Just outside the town
bit of kill rises high enough TO show US
the surrounding country.
There are few houses or trees on the
plain; but it is divided into several ave-
nues by long rows of unhewn, upright
stones, which, as far as the eye can see,
are ranged In almost perfect order, like
an army prepared for battle. There are
over a thousand of them, and they stretch
across the country from east to west
for nearly seven miles. The largest are
twenty-five feet high and the smallest
ten feet. A few have fallen, and 9TH
ers have been carted away; but original
ly they were placed apart at regular dis
tances.
When you come nearer to them you
will see many signs of age upon them
They are scanned, messy and battered
How old do you guess they are? Nobody
is quite sure, not even the wisest of the
historians, but we may safely say that
they have held their present positions
for over 1,S00 years. For 1900 years
they have clung to the meager ground
and withstood the combined assaults OF
time and storm, while generation after
generation of the living has passed away
How did they come there? The simple
credulous people OF old, to whom all
fairy stories were the truest histories
believed that giants brought them and
planted them; but We know better than
that.
They were erected by ordinary men
| and you may imagine how much labor
| the work cost at time when there wert
no carts or wheelbarows, much less
| railroads or massive cranes. Years, per
| haps centuries, were occupied, and tc
| the builders the undertaking must have
seemed as stupendous as the erection oi
the East River bridge seems to US.
Slmliar stones are fod1nd at other places
| in Brittany; but the most famous collec
| ton is on plain near the town of Sails
bury, in England. This is called Stone
| henge, and consists of 140 stones, the
| smallest of which weighs ten tons ant
the largest seventy tons. The remains o1
! men and animals have been also founC
in the vicinity and these have given The
| antiquaries clew as TO the objects foI
which the stones were raised.
! Nothing positive is known about them
but it is supposed that they mark thu
| temples of the Druids, a religious ordel
| which possessed great power in France
| and England during the century before
| and the century after the coming oi
Christ. They obtained complete mas
terry over the ignorant and superstidous
people then occupying those countries
by the practice of mysterious arts which
often were extremely cruel They pro
! fessed 70 know the hidden nature OF