Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-05-01
What the ArcheOlogists Have
Learned From the Men
hirs and Nclmens
ON THE PLAIN OF CARNAC.
The Monuments Which Mark the
Graves of the Forgotten Celts.
RELICS OF THEIR CIVILIZATION.
Tablets Set on Pillars Which Served the
Purpose of Caves.
no ASTRONOMERS IN EARLY TRIBES
WRITTEN FOR THE p1srAroH. ,

WRITTEN FOR THE prsrArcH.l
One beautiful autumn evening in the
year 1875 found myself in remotest Nor
bihsn, in the midst of the immense plain
of Celtic pillars at Carnao It was the hour
of silence snd solitude; night completely
enveloped the country, and the pale moon
shed its white and melancholy light from
the distant sky. Even afar off could dis
tinguish the antique blocks of granite
standing in lines like the petriied soldiers
of an unknown army; on all sides they fol-
lowed each other, immovable, mute and
mysterious Those about me were of
gigantic statuF<, and the indistinct shadow
stretched at their feet by the light Of the
moon seemed to double their height
Further away, the ground being obscured
bv the gloom which covered it, the white
Druidical stones stood out like so many
phantoma reunited in death, and, at the
same time, isolated, each in its last place.
At nv left, to the west, toward which
the evening star was descending, square
field. surrounded by colorless wall, looked
like a cemetery in which rows of kneeling
monks r,arked the tombs, their white cowls
In line; and not far from them a giant
specter covered with a winding sheet,
seemed lifting his arms to give a midnight
benediction to the terminated shadows
A Setting frr specters of the Ages.
Nothing was heard but the mutied roar of
the ocean in the distance, where its billows
we're dashing against the reefs of Quiberon
OF where its surges died on the shorts of
Carnsc. Insects were humming in the
brushwood of the moor, and once in q while
B screech oil threw its wild cry upon the
night to be answered by another. Then
sepulchral silence reigned a moment, as if
to command greater attention from human
thought. From time to time clouds passed
over the moon, casting feeting shadows,
but the sky was generally clear, the cross of
the swan lowered in the zenith, Cassiopeia
was seated near Andromeda, the brilliant
Capella emitted her luminous ray which
spends y years in reaching us, the Polar
star remained immovable like the pivot of
the worlds axis, and the seven stars of the
Greater Bear assisted in this retrospective
contemplation, as they did formerly at the
nocturnal fetes of the Druids when assem-
bled under the new moon in the prophetic
circle of the Cromlech.
In the midst of this place sacred to men
HRS and dolmens, at this hour, in this MOON
AENI. III the DOSOH Vi euCu sl1tuCt duO eOll-
tude, before thousands of shadows covering
the whole country, but feeble effort of i'm
aCination was necessary to bring before me
vanished ages, of which these austere ruins
are the last witnesses. l easily forgot my
ephemeral personality and the age in which
We are now living, seeing nothing but the
reality of the past and taking part only in
the things that then happened.
Simple Religion of the Old Celts.
bebeld the old race of Celts coming from
Asia, where astronomy was already -four
fishing, and marching westward even to the
end of the earth, stopping through neces-
Bitv on the shores of Morbihan and Finis-
tere (tinis terra). 1 saw them establishing
divine worship, not under vaulted roofs that
concealed the sight of heaven, but worship
ing God in nature, in the sun, moon and
stars, and praying to Him under the open
sSv, in the open country, in the presence of
mountains. forests and streams. / saw the
old Druids, kith long hair and boards
whitened by time, directing actions and
Consciences, young virgin Druidesses
crowned with mistlesoe, and the simple GER
emonies of the first ages. l heard the sonor-
GUS music of the bards, and seemed to see
our ancestors silently passing between long
lines of menhirs carrying the ashes of their
beloved dead.
But other races, also from the East, came
to take possession of this last continental
land The Celts fought, defended their
hearths, shed human blood, and finally re-
PEELED every in yasion. The Gauls came and
were absorbed; the Romans came and were
conquered; the Francs came and then van
isheG; Jupiter and Venus descended and
had to return to Olympus; Christianity
was preached and its words were lost by
being blended with the primitive Celtic re-
lgion, which remained unchanged. The
BretOns of to-day are the Celts of the past,
al least in the district of which Carnac is
the principal city. Their physique is the
same; the men are strong, the women hand
some and of uniform and unmingled type;
nor have they changed spiritually; the
foundation of their religion is the worship
OF the dead
Their Religion Lived Right On.
The idea so universal that the Bretons are
Catholics and royalists will prevent many
OF my readers from admitting the preceding
affirmation; but an investigation of their
character will show its correctness We
must take as examples not men who have
studied and Travelled, but the country people
iust as they ordinarily are. Their religion
20 more resembles that of the Italians
'panish or French than it does the Bud
list religion, and perhaps not so much. The
after my contemplation of the number
IS stone pillars, which under the soft
)onlight looked like so many tombs, I
ppened to pass by the village cemetery
d, entering, saw several little graves on
which were placed small cofins of black
wood that could easily be carried under the
arm; and what did they contain?
The skull and bones of an ancestor, dis
inferred to make room for his dead descend
ants. But what struck me most was to see
an ossuary in the remotest part of the ceme-
terry and over its windows piles of little
cofins, each containing the skull of an an
cestor and bearing his name: H ere Pierre
Thomas, here Paul Martin. here Marie
Anne Donberg, etc, etc. The door of the
ossuary Is kept partly open; on entering l
saw hundreds of skeletons heaped up pell-
nell, some on top of others and all looking
toward me. At Sainte-Poi-de-Leon the
Bretons do still better; they put the skulls
into little boxes with glass tops, each one
labeled with its name and suspended in the
church IN public sight. Truly they are a
people who look death in the face, and are
indeed the same as those old Celts who as
tonIshed the Romans by having such abso-
lutte faith in Immortality that to them death
bore no mournful aspect, and who sur
'ounded themselves with their dead and
yoked forward to future life similar to
the present. Jean Renard even tells us
that in commercial transactions it was not
uncommon to borrow money to be repaid in
the next world.
They Cling to the Old.
One morning, looking from my window at
the fantastic door of the Church of Saint
Cornely, was very much surprised to see
three charming little children playing with