Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-08-15
DRUIDICAL REMAINS.
A Visit to the Famous Dolmens and
Menhirs Of Brittany.
CARNAC AND ITS RELICS.

ton A. to Their Origin-On St. Michael's
Mount-A Stone Cross of the Eighth Cen.
tury-Carnac Museuna-A Breton Diligence.
Correspondence of The Evening Star.
PARIS, August 1, 1891.
IN MY LETTER TO THE STAR LAST
u week about our trip to view the Druidical
remains in tho ancient duchy Of Nantes en-
arged on the description OF Carnac and its people
to such an extent that had to postpone an &C
count of our expedition to the ruins for q week.
When We had finished our stroll about the old
town of Carnac it was tmo for our drive, but
on questioning the landlady of the inn We were
Mortified to learn that no carriages could be
found nearer than Plonharnel. A tramp back
along that dreary road was not to be thought
Of, and We were standing disconsolately in the
old kitchen without. am afraid, approaching
the effect Of mingled lights falling into the
somber interior from the rudy glow Of the
fire and the paler beams from the greenish
window when q peasant in a red cap thrust
his head in at the door. He had come prob
ably for his mail, but behind him We saw the
welcome sight Of q shabby wagon drawn by
white horse and unoccupied. To think was to
act
Our imperfect French was aided by eager
ness on both sides, and in a moment bargain
mad been made and the carriage, horse and
driver were ours for three hours in exchange
for a few francs. We climbed in at once and
drove Gathering off, while the landlady watched
US from her door reproachfully.
The white horse dashed through the town and
around corners at a reckless speed, nearly run
ming over several children, but once out in the
country no grew calmer. We had not logged
along the stone-walled road for more than q
short distance. however. when the driver pulled
up at q roadside cottage and informed us that
mere we must get out; We could not drive to
these particular stones, which we're part Of the
famous Lines, and the highest of them ALL
Out we got, accordingly, and were Immediately
taken In charge by small boy in a short blouse
and large hat, and q smaller girl with what
might have been her grandmother's cap. who
offered US bunch of peoples. We took this
at hrst for Breton courtesy, but soon found
out that she wanted a sou in exchange.
LED by the boy and his sister We walked by
rough path through several fields. where
scanty wheat crop was ripening, with blue and
yellow flowers Frightening the grain As we
went We were Joined by eight more children, all
armed with bouquets and demands for sous,
who, on being refused by us and sharply re-
proved In Breton by our guide. fell back and
followed at our heels with much clanking of
sabots. Guarded thus before and behind we
hnally reached green meadow, where rose,
gaunt and gray, in ma jestic and impenetrsble
mystery the long-looked for ''Stones OF Carnac."
THE STONES OF cARNAo.
They were irregularly placed, as SO often de-
scribed by travellers and psychologists, in nine
or ten rows or lines. leading from a considera-
BILE distance, several miles, believe, along the
coast toward subterranean burial chamber,
recently discovered in a grove of trees What
pIlrn nf III -
them sixteen feet high. can have been will
probably always be wrapped in mystery. The
Druids, it is thought found them already in
place when they introduced their horrd rites
into Brittany and England and used them as
sacrlhciai affairs and instruments in their
heather orgies simply because the people al
ready regarded them with superstitious
dread. They are evidently quite unhewn and
there are no signs of any sort of machinery
having been used upon them. They simply
stand mystery forever upon the green fields,
with innocent children playing at their feet and
the wild flowers blowing about them in the sea
breeze, stained brown and orange and green
with lichen, red in the sunset, as though wet
once moro with human blood, silvery in the
moonlight silent always. Some of them have
fallen down during the past ages and have re-
Gently been stood on end again, is shown by
the fresher coloring OF the granite which has
lain next the ground. Our boy guide pointed
out little depression on one which he called
other the barrow or grave where the bones of
some forgotten being had once lain.
RANKS OF GIANTS IN THE MEADOWS.
We bade the children goodbye after dis
tributing few coins, which were scrambled
for with an almost wolfsh eagerness, and
climbed into the wagon again. This time we
drove by cart track across open fields and
came presently to far more imposing view of
the lines Here we realized more fully the
nl.NIruv Of
toiled SO patiently ages ago to set those granite
blocks i'll place. They dotted the smooth
meadow land like giant sheep, or rather like
huge stone sentinels set guard to watch
through the ages for a brighter day than those
poor builders knew. Far the eye could
roach we saw the gray shapes rising in their
places $500 Of them, formed into nine or ten
rude ranks or avenues. Matthew ArnOlds
lines were recalled as We looked:
ION their grassy sweep
Ss sis Mt sonss cs1nas ns
''No priestly stern procession now
Streams through their rows of pillars old;
No victims beed, no Druids bow
Sheep make tie daisied ais!es their fold.
'.And DER the glistening lonely land
Rise up all round the Christian spires"
SPECULATION AS TO THEIR ORIGIN.
Strange to think that in Persia, in Spain, in
Brittany and in England these weird monu-
ments have been found giving rise to a theory
that their builders moved slowly northward to
Britain from the far south of Asia. One of our
party fancies that the stones may have been
intended as shelters for bowmen, who could
shoot their arrows from behind them, the
Breton coast being here quite withous trees or
natural projections of any kind. Many specu-
lations have been advanced as to their original
purpose by learned men Of every century, but
none have proved satisfactory, and the great
shnpeless pillars remain inscrutable.
We fingered as long Us we could, gazing at
the wide reaches of rock-strewn field, and
turned away with regret. But even the long