Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-01-04


Their eyes will glow, their forms straighten,
their breasts heave and swell, at the slight.
est kindling of the memory-fres that for.
ever burn before the altars of theil
mythic and mystic heroes and legendary
gods The race of warriors from whom
they sprang. the glorious deeds Of
their NEUROLOGICAL knights, the mar
velous mysticisms of those vanished
Druidic workers of weird and awful
spells, thread the warp and woof of ballad,
tale and song, in such wondrous richness Of
texture, that one stands dismayed before it
in the effort to discern where paganism was
ended and Christianity begun. That other
one thing supreme to Breton folk, whatever
may be FIRST to you and me, is their religion.
They are not bigots, for they know but one.
Whether its influence overmastered them,
or whether their stolid independence of
spirit shaped its final fitting to them, is no
matter. 1t is the food and breath of their
lives, and defy any, list that lives to come
among them and know the simple, stead
fast, unquestioning loyalty to their faith,
and not love them the more for what it is to
them, and they to it. Sociologicaliy, this is
Brittany.
DON'T HAVE TO DIG FOR THEM.
But here am at wraith-environed Car
nacl Savans dig and peck away for rem
nants OF the cast-off shells of lost races and
ages in all the lands fr1nging the Mediterra-
mean. Yet mere at Carnac, in the very Brit
tany of Brittany and at the very threshold
of Europe, are imperishable remains of the
activities of people and a time so remote that
arch@ologists are dumb in the presence of
what no learning has yet been able to inter-
pret and reveal. I think the study of rude
cfn ~ I'll
spring reminders OF the past grows on one
with strange and increasing fascination. I
wandered among the splendid antiquities of
Ireland for year. The last days wander
ing and wondering was infinitely more I'M
pressive than the first. So, on entering Brit
tany, l was all impatience to see the vast
fields of pillar stones the ancient Celts had
here raised in the same inexplicable way.
evidently for the same inexplicabie purpose,
and have consciousness, for myself of the
klnship of those prehistoric races who have
left such mighty monuments to pagan mys-
ticisms upon almost every square rood of
these westernmost European lands. The
plains of Carnac would be indescribably
dreary were these thousands of stone monu-
ments not standing upon them. But under
meath wintry skies, whipped and beaten by
storms of wind and sleet, and ghostly as a
vast graveyard with these monumental
stones. the belief that pagan races sought
the saddest and dreariest places nature pro-
vided for the burial of their dead, is given
startling emphasis here.
A vast tumulus, or mound of stones, once
q pagan burial place, about 100 feet in
height and now surmounted by a chapel
and Calvary dedicated to st. Michael, to
which pilgrimages are made. stands almost
in the center of the desolate expanse. This
is called Mont st. Michael. From its top
the entire plains of Carnac may be seen,
with their countless pillar stones, peulvens.
or menhirs, and many grimmer and vaster
cromlechs or dolmens.
N MEMORY OF DEAD PAGANs.
As is well known, the former are believed
to be simply stone monuments to pagan
dead. They vary from to IS feet in height
above the soil. Hundreds upon hundreds
have fallen and are partly covered with
furze and brambles. Countless thousands
were destroyed by the efforts of Charlemagne
and later under canon Of the Council
of Nantes, especially enacted to effect the
destruction of pagan monuments. Old
chroniclers assert that over 10000 stood
on these fields before that time. If, as some
assert, each menhir or stone served as memo
rial of the death of numbers by Druidic
sacrifice, what an awful oldeR slaughter-pen
one stands upon at Carnac Here and there
within sight of Mont st. Michael are many
huge and still more weirdIy suggestive dol
mems, the exact prototypes of 181 person.
ally inspected of the 226 cromlechs known
to exist in ireland. These consist of up
right stones, held in their vertical position
by horizontal slabs of immense proportions.
At Carnac some are from 10 to Is feet in
height, with Gaping stones from 12 to 20
in LAM cfh nd fror,, o 20 CoaE = Al
ness. But two miles from Carnac. near the
village of Plouharnel, are several immense
one, covered by three tremend- |
Gus stones, being nearly 30 feet long.
These dolmens are thought to have |
been the raised places where Druidic sacri- |
fees took place before assembled thousands, |
and the chambers within the burial places |
Of the victims. 1t is certain that they were
pagan burial places, Tor there have been re-
covered from every one halfburned bones of |
human beings, cinnerarv urns, stone weap- |
0ns, gold torques and other rude ornaments. |
The pillar stones still standing upon Car
nae fields are seen principally clustered in |
three distinct ranges or avenues; and all are |
TO the north and northeast of the village. |
The most eastern grouping is known as Ker-
escant. The central and smallest grouping
IS called Kermario, and the western and |
argest field is generically named the Stones
,fCarp.
AVENUES 5000 YEARS OLD.
At first each of these seems confused |
mass, but as the eye becomes familiar, long
Ind sinuous avenues are distinctly traced; |
md the curious fact will impress the keen |
observer that in all three of these vast col |
ection of pillar-stones the lines and ave-
lues, from eight to eleven in each still be- |
ng easily followed, converge rapidly as
heir eastern termini are approached; the
heory, as held by some archaologists, being
hat the three great series still visible and,
perhaps, hundreds of others efaced within
he 5000 or 1000 years since they were
erected, all once led to the most sacred and
EASTERN point at Locmariker, some fifteen
niles distant where there is still to be seen
! fallen and broken, but tremendous, mono
18th, which, as the loitiest member or '1ong
tone of the sum-, stood above the grave of
he greatest Celtic chieftain. All this,
however, is theory. But it is not
heory that you stand among the
most impressive monuments of pre-
historic days. To the south are the
brown roofpeaks of Carnac. Beyond
he steely blue sea and the far-reaching
andarm Of Quiberon. From the northeast
round by Auray far around the southern
utlook to the northwest, is savage moor
ringed coast. To the north, as far as the
ye can reach is wind-whipped waste,
tudded with these gray relics of the past:
he wind whistles and means among them
rewsomely. 1t shakes the brambles about
hem wildly. 1t beats the stunted frs until
hey toss along the horizon edge like the
lanes of chargers spurred to conflict or
light. And beyond, low, jagged clouds
weep and DRIFT as il tremendous hosts of
agans old were re-entering their tenantIess
lains to reoccupy their voiceless land.
Descending from Mont ST. Michael and
liking ones way among Breton olk of fau- !
ourg and field, this tremendous perspective
lust be kept behind them, if you would en- !
eavor to walk beside them in fact and
fought. That Christianity might prevail !
Brittany countless Druidic priests and
riestesses were ruthlessly slain. Before
lose unsearchable altars set secure in
nman hearts, their white robes still CLEAN
I'd sway, and the spell of the mystic rites
upon the Breton folk of to-day.
EDGAR L. WAKEMAN.
SOUTHERN PROTECTIONISTS Z