implements associated with the human skeletons were sold to the British Museum, where they now are.

The narrow eastern gallery is well exhibited in this example, as also the remains of a double circular stone wall not dissimilar to that at L'Ancresse, but if anything of a larger diameter. Four upright stones now standing between these stone walls may have formed a portion of a peristalith, but unhappily there is a want of trustworthy evidence as to their really being in situ, as the walls and remains generally have been meddled with to such an extent that it is well-nigh impossible to separate the modern restoration from the original design.

The Couperon Cromlech in the same parish as above (St. Martin's) was formerly a gem in its way, being a small stone (Jersey conglomerate) structure of two parallel walls covered with capstones, with an oval peristalith surrounding it. Sad to relate, only two capstones were actually in situ, and the other stones scattered; still worse, however, these stones have been rearranged, and the remains cooked up to form a modern restoration of a prehistoric sepulchre. One of the present capstones (the fifth) is manifestly part of an upright which formed half of a partition, as exactly similar hand-worked stones are found forming partitions (to allow of entrance) in the covered allées of Brittany, and have been specially noticed by Mr. Lukis.

The cromlech of Mont Ubé, although devoid of its capstones, is still most instructive, being remarkable for the regularity of its form, which exhibits the original plan of the (Celtic ?) architects, perhaps more perfectly than any other cromlech in the Channel Islands. This cromlech is more fully imbedded in the soil than the denuded remains of the Pocquelaye and Le Couperon, which may tend to its ultimate preservation. It consists of a large western chamber elongated towards the orientated narrowed passage, and is divided into several chambers. Two of the upright stone pillars which separate the cists have been worked into somewhat obelisklike forms, perhaps to adapt them for the reception of an imposed capstone. It is much to be regretted that several important stones have been removed from this cromlech.

The fourth cromlech in Jersey, only explored last year, appears to have the form of a covered avenue, but no large western chamber has yet been excavated. Several cinerary urns were discovered more or less perfect, besides a small stone amulet drilled with two holes, a few flint flakes, &c., with traces of charred ash and indications of osseous interments. This is the only case on record in the Channel Islands where no layer of limpet shells (although within a hundred yards of the sea) has been found. From this fact Mr. Lukis infers that the interments were not of the primary dolmenbuilders. Some years before, some bronze celts were found in this

neighbourhood. The best Menhir in Jersey is a fine monolith called Le Quesnel; another, named La Pierre Blanche, is to be found not far from the Mont Ubé Cromlech. Under a flat Dolmen near Corbière Point, named Table des Marthes, some bronze weapons were found by M. Ahier many years since; but there is great doubt as to this stone being connected with the other megalithic monuments. Lines of Menhirs have been found in Greenland, where they appear to have been mainly erected to serve as landmarks during snowstorms, and some at least lead from the remains of huts to the nearest water. Capt. Parry notices, after remarking upon the remains of some stone-built Esquimaux huts, "We also passed a singular assemblage of flat stones set up edgeways, each about three yards apart, and extending at least five hundred yards down to a small lake situated in a grassy valley.*

The study of pre-historic archæology has now become a recognized scientific movement, but it may be remarked that, whilst the stone implements, ornaments, pottery, human and animal remains and interior "finds" generally have been assiduously collected in national and private museums, the cromlechs, sepulchres, and barrows containing these articles have not yet received their due amount of public attention. In all collections of pre-historic relics, which ought always to be local in order to be really instructive, there should be models (to scale) of the structures and localities in which the relics were found. No remains should be suffered to be taken away from the neighbourhood of the "find;" casts and facsimiles would answer the purpose in the national collections. The Rev. W. Lukis says "that the principal if not sole object of some investigators appears to be the possession of the articles which have been deposited with human remains. The object of the archæologist should not be the mere gratification of curiosity nor the accumulation of ancient works of art. A museum of antiquities is comparatively worthless if the history of the discovery of each particular specimen is not accurately known and recorded; these examinations should be made with the sole view of throwing light upon a dark period in the history of those who have previously occupied the soil."

This same gentleman has been so convinced of the necessity of examining and comparing the megalithic structures in Europe that he has spent four summers in Brittany, and (sometimes with the assistance of Sir H. Dryden) made accurate plans of the circles and avenues of Menhirs at Carnac, and throughout the Morbihan district. In his lectures on these structures Mr. Lukis draws attention to the fact that these lines or Paralleliths are universally orientated, and that they all terminate in circles at their western extremity; whilst the bulk and height of the Menhirs diminish * Parry's 'Second Voyage,' p. 62.

says,

gradually, and the widths of the avenues also diminish towards the east. He "There is a feature that is common both to groups of rows and to the sepulchres which may help to throw some light on the subject, viz. their orientation. By far the larger number of the sepulchral monuments, those I mean which are usually termed Dolmens, have their openings or entrances between the east and south points of the compass, i. e. nearly 90 per cent. are so turned, which it must be admitted cannot be an accidental circumstance. So too all the avenues are similarly orientated. If therefore the builders of the tombs had a religious reason for this arrangement, that same reason must have been dominant in the minds of the constructors of the avenues, and the inference is not without force that the same people erected both. There are few circles of stone not attached to avenues in the Morbihan."

It is in China, however, that chambered tumuli associated with megalithic avenues have attained, if not their hugest, their most elaborate development, in consequence of an ancient acquaintance with iron and steel tools. Thus we read that the great tomb (the "Ling" or resting-place of Yung-Lo, of the Ming dynasty), thirty miles from Pekin, consists of an enormous mound or earth barrow, covered with trees; its height is not mentioned, but is evidently considerable, from the fact that the circular wall which surrounds it is a mile in circumference. In the centre of this mound is a stone chamber containing the sarcophagus, in which is the corpse. This chamber or vault is approached by an arched tunnel, the entrance to which is bricked up. This entrance is approached by a paved causeway, passing through numerous arches, gateways, courts, and halls of sacrifice, and through a long avenue of colossal marble figures, sixteen pairs of wolves, kelins, lions, horses, camels, elephants, and twelve pairs of warriors, priests, and civil officers. Whether this avenue is orientated or not is not mentioned. idea may be formed of the size of these marble figures from the following:-" During the building of the late Emperor Heen-fung's tomb a road 100 miles long was made from the quarries at Fangshan to the Tung-ling, and a block of marble 15 feet long, 12 feet high and 12 feet broad, weighing 60 tons, was seen by several of us then resident at Pekin being dragged along this road, on a strong truck or car drawn by 600 mules and horses." (6 This block was to be cut into the figure of an elephant, to be placed as one of the guardians of the tomb."*

An

In order more fully to appreciate these pre-historic catacombs, and to comprehend the modes of their construction and the usages connected with them, we must follow Sir John Lubbock's example in comparing them with somewhat similar remains in use by modern savages; and we take this occasion to bring forward as * W. Lockhart, Proc. R. G. S.,' 1866.

suggestive and parallel examples the methods of sepulture as practised up to this day by the tribe of Hovas, the inhabitants of the mountainous plateaux in the interior of Madagascar. The Hovas begin to erect their tombs in early life, and make their completion through a series of years one of the most important objects of their existence, as an effectual means of being held in honourable remembrance by posterity. These tombs are family vaults or catacombs, and in their construction an immensity of money, time, and labour is expended, limited solely by the wealth of the builder. In erecting a tomb the first consideration is the selection of an eligible site, publicity and elevation being the two principal requisites. Sometimes a tomb is placed immediately in front of the house of the person by whom it is built, so the tombs of the kings are within the precincts of the palace at Anantananarivo, the tomb of the first Radama being a conspicuous object in the palace yard. The site having been chosen, an excavation is made in the earth, and a stone vault made, the sides and roof of which are made of immense slabs of stone, unhewn granite, flat at least on the inner side. Each side of this kist, sometimes seven feet high and twelve feet in length, is often formed of a single stone. A sort of subterranean grotto is thus made, the entrance to which, always to the north or east, is closed by a large upright block of stone,* which is removed when a corpse is taken in, and fixed again at the termination of the funeral. In reading this, does it not remind one of our European kistvaens and cromlechs of the Stone age? This stone sepulchre is covered over with earth, and by means of stone copings gradually diminishing, presents from the exterior a pyramidal form. These structures, which we may call pyramidal tumuli, containing stone chambers, bear at all events a certain analogy to the chambered tumuli of western and northern Europe. Some of these structures measure 50 feet in length by 20 in breadth.

The large slabs used in forming these megalithic structures are usually of granite and syenite. The Hovas mark out the required dimensions of the slab by odies or charms (the idol-keepers being well acquainted with the cleavage of the rock, and taking advantage of this circumstance); large fires of cow-dung are made along the line thus indicated, and when the rock has become heated, water is dashed upon it, by which means, and with the help of long levers, large masses are detached from the mountain side. When the slab is to be removed, ropes of native hemp (rofia fibre, or the bark of the hibiscus, and a long tough grass are all used in the manufacture

6

* Compare Nilsson, The Sunny Side,' p. 127; also Ellis relates that one of the Hovas requested his sons, shortly before his death, that after his interment they would occasionally remove the large stone slab that would form the door of his sepulchre, and let the sun shine in upon him.

of cordage) are fastened around it, and amidst the vociferations of the slaves it is dragged away. In ascending In ascending a hill they place wooden rollers under the stone, and move them forward as it advances. Sometimes five or six hundred men are employed in dragging a single stone. A man usually stands on the stone acting as director. He holds a cloth in his hands, and waves it, with loud and incessant shouts, to animate those who are dragging the ponderous block. At his shout they pull in concert, and so far his shouting is of real service. Holy water is also sprinkled on the stone as a means of facilitating its progress, till at length, after immense shouting, sprinkling, and pulling, it reaches its destination. When the tomb is erected for a person deceased, but not buried, no noise is made in dragging the stones for its construction; profound silence is regarded as indicating respect. Sometimes a corpse is buried in a dwelling-house till the new tomb is finished, when it is removed to its final resting-place.

The dead body wrapped in a red lamba is placed on a bier, and a grave is dug for its reception within the vault, which is not paved: the corpse is placed in the grave without delay, and covered with earth, so that it is a grave within a stone tomb: a quantity of fresh charcoal is placed on the body to resist rapid decomposition: the wooden bier is left within the tomb by the side of the grave. It is customary at the interment of any man of note to deposit large quantities of property in the tomb with the corpse, especially of articles to which the deceased was known to be attached; thus, at the funeral of the first Radama, six of his favourite horses were killed and buried with him, a brass cannon was burst and, with a cask of wine, also buried with him, besides 10,309 silver dollars and upwards of 1000 articles of personal property, jewellery, &c.

The tombs are sometimes enclosed with stone walls, and within the enclosure are often two or three large upright stones.

The Hovas also erect stone pillars not dissimilar to our Menhirs, some of which are of a considerable size: they have no marks on them, and are called "fahatsiarovana," i. e. causing to remember. A name is also given them, derived from their position, "mitsangambato," an elevated stone.

Mr. Lukis, in examining some of the cromlechs and kists in the island of Herm, near Guernsey, suspects that some were merely ossuaries; that the bodies had been subjected to maceration elsewhere, and their bones deposited where found; so, also, Sven Nilsson* tells us that the Rev. M. Bruzelius found in the Asagrafven gallery-tomb in Scania, a vast quantity of human bones, from which he was of opinion that the flesh had been stripped off before being deposited in the vault, as he found in one place only the bones of the extremities and no vertebræ and in another a quantity

* P. 161.