Morning journal and courier., 1893-01-21
wAKEMAN,s wANDERINGs.
[coNcLUDED FROM FIRST PAGE.

tCONCLUDED FhOM FlhSI fA01.I
most every square rood of these western
most European lands.
The plains of Carnac would be indie
scribsbly dreary were these thousands Of
stone monuments not standing upon them.
But underneath wintry skies, whipped and
beaten by storms of wind and sleet, and
ghostly as q vast graveyard with these
monumental stones, the belief that pagan
races sought the saddest and dreariest
| places nature provided for the burial of
their dead, is given startling emphasis
here.
A vast tumulus, or mound of stones,
once pagan burial place, about one hun
! dred feet in height and now surmounted
| by a chapel and Calvary dedicated to st.
Michael, to which pilgrimsges are made,
stands almost in the center of the desolste
expsnse. This is called Mont st. Michaal.
From its top the entire plains of Carnac
| may be seen, with their countless pillar
stones, peulvens or menhirs, and many
grimmer and vaster cromleohs or dolmens.
AS Is we'll known, the former are be-
| Heved to be stone monuments to pagan
dead. They vary from six to eighteen feet
| in height above the soil. Hundreds upon
hundreds have fallen and are partly COW
cred with furzs and brambles. Countless
| thousands were destroyed by the efforts of
Chsrlemangs and. later, under canon of
the council of Nantes, especially enacted
| to effect the destruction of pagan monu-
| ments. Old chroniclers assert that over
| twenty thousand stood on these fields be-
fore that time. IF, as come assert, each
menhir or stone served as memorial of
| the death of numbers by Dfuidic sacrifice,
| what an awful olden slaughter pen one
stands upon at Carnac!
Here and there within sight of Mont st.
| Michael are many huge and still more
al H.
| totypss of one hundred and eighty-one I
have personally inspected of the two hun
dred and twenty-six cromlechs known to
exist in Ireland. These consist of upright
stones held in their vertical position by
horizontal elabs of immense proportions.
At Csrnac some are from ten to fifteen
feet in height, with Gaping stones of from
twelve to twenty feet in length, and from
two to four feet in thickness. But two
miles from Carnao, near the village of
Plouharnel, are several immense dolmens,
one, covered by three tremendous stones,
| nearly fifty feet long. These dolmens are
thought to have been the raised places
| where Druidic sacrifices took place before
| assembled thousands, and the chambers
within, the burial places of The victims.
1t is certain they were pagan burial places,
for there have been recovered from every
one half burned bones of human beiDgs,
cinnerary urns, stone weapons, gold
torques and other rude ornaments.
The pillar-stones still standing upon
Carnac fields are see Il principally clustered
in three distinct ranges or avenues; and all
are to the north and northeast of the viii
lage The most eastern grouping is known
as Kerlescant, The central and smallest
grouping is called Kermario, and the west
ern and largest field is generically named
the Stones of Carnac. At first each of
these seems confused mass, but as the
eye becomes familiar, long and simmons
avenues are distinctly traced; and the Gu
rious fact will impress the keen observer
that in all three of these vast collections
of pillar-stones the lines and avenues,
from eight to eleven in each still bsing ca
silly followed, converge rapidly as their
eastern termini are approached; the theo
~, as held by some arcbss olozists, being
that the three great series still visibls, and
perhaps hundreds of others effaced within
the three or four thousand years since
they were, erected, all once led to the
most sacred and eastern point at Locmar.
iker, some fifteen miles distant, where
there is still to be seen fallen and bro
ken, but tremendous monolith, which, as
the loftiest member or 'long stone of the
sum-" stood above the grave of the great
est Celtic chieftain.
ALI this, however, is theory. But 1t il
not theory that you stand among the most
impressive monuments of prehistoric days
To the south are the brown roof peaks oil
Carnac. Beyond, the steely blue sea and
the far reaching land arm of Quibsron
From the northeast around by Array, fal
around the southern outlook to the north
west, is savage moor-fringed coast. Tc
, the north, as far as the eye can reach, IL
wind-whipped waste, studded with these
, gray relics of the past. The wind whis
ties and means among them grewsome
ly. 1t shakes the brsmbles about then
wildly. 1t beats the stunted frs unit
they toss along the horizon edge like the
names of chargers spurred to conflict o.
flight. And beyond low, jagged cloud
t sweep end drift as If tremendous host
of psgans old were re-entering their ten
antless plains to reoccupy their voiceless
| land. EDGAR L. WAKEMAN.