The Washington times., 1920-06-06

NToNEHENGE. that mysterious circle
of colossal stones which we're set in
place thousands of years ago on
Salisbury Plain. England, by the painful
efforts of prehistoric man. is being re-
stored by modern machinery. For ages
the great gray monoliths had resisted
time, falling slowly and stubbornly one by
one. Beneath a terrific storm awhile ago
aagtwo of the largest fell. and then it was
C realized that unless immed ate steps were
oNtakRn for Stonehenge's preservation this
sumonument of antiquity, perhaps the most
extraordinary in all the world, would soon
be little more than shspeless heap.
So that is why today donkey engine
and immense cranes seen at the side
OF this ancient temple of earliest man
Workmen swarm about the huge stones
where the Druid priests carried on their
rites before hundreds of worshippers, and
the monoliths that we're raised with such
prodigious oil by the hands Of men Of the
stone age are lifted with ease by the
winches and cables, or swing through the
air into place by truer magic than that
which by popular superstition explains
their original placing.
The real antiquity Of Stonehenge is un.
known. 1t is asserted that the Druids. the
priests of the early Britons, used 1t as an
astronomical observatory and temple
..x2s0eO years before Christ But even then
fysmust have been very old, and various
sxe scientists have placed its building as from
- 1dpO0 to $4,000 years ago It is even prob
atde that another race than the Britons =
erected It. There are records of power
full Neolthic, or Stone Age. maritime power
which before history began established
colonies throughout the then known world
This power was African, but not Egyptian
DR.. Cope Whitehouse. of New York, the
distinguished Egyptologist, has called at
tention to the evidence in Egyptian rec
ords OF a great maritime nation, estab-
lshed to the west Of the Nile. that threat
Hened Egypts supremacy at the height OF
her greatness.
IL - According to Mr. Whitehouse's theory,
''0 these people, as a great sea power, must
have left traces of themselves all over the
accessible world to which their ships
= traded. He holds the remarkable rock
structure known as Fingall's Cave. in
Scotland to be clearly of human origin,
~, aud thinks it reasonable to believe that it
-, was the work of the forgotten African
.,v race.
- 1t is also reasonable to believe that
4Stonehenge is the creation OF the same
OIL, -, people, since both works belong to an ad
,to vanced period OF the Stone Age, with SINH
Io,, lar characteristics Of rough grandeur. 1t
o., need hardly be added thaS the discovery by
oy Professor Norton OF temple west OF the
mile of similar workmanship to Stone
,-7henge strengthens the theory that great
:, maritime power, whose existence has been
lc forgotten. covered Europe with their stone
ieIn monuments.
AZ .o' SS.TThe blocks Of Stonehenge we're orig.
oh inally arranged to form two ovals. There
olasre, now 140 Of them, weighing from
~ ten to seventy tons each. In the
centre OF the ovals Ia a huge fat
oslcsreous stone which the Druids used
+ as an altar Upon the tops Of the mono.
a7tl hths other enormous squared blocks were
,oplsced like lintels. Thu accomplishment
="0bf such a task by hands alone must ever
b remain a triumph OF human determination
q. and ingenuity. While the reconstruction
d, s. going on the huge stone mauls and axes
:. that the builders used TO rough.hew the