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circle (Fig. 28) on Penmeanmawr was composed of several uprights connected by smaller masonry.

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Here the interments were apparently made beside the pillars. Against the inner side of the tallest

Fig. 29.

pillar A, on the eastern part, were the remains of a small kistvaen; while against the pillar B, facing

it on the opposite side, was heaped up a small cairn. The whole is surrounded by a ditch, within which, at C, is another small cairn.

The "cromlechs," so called, are, it seems tolerably certain, stone cists denuded of their outer covering. Many exist in different parts of the country. I engrave one well-known example (Fig. 29), the Lanyon cromlech, to show their usual form.

CHAPTER III.

AMONG IMPLEMENTS OF FLINT AND STONE.

IMPLEMENTS of stone may for the most part be arranged under the general heads of celts, hammers, and mauls, axes and picks, and grinding and whetstones; and these may again be subdivided according to form and use. Those of flint consist of what may be called flakes, cores, scrapers, borers or drills, spear and arrow heads, sling-stones, etc. To an examination of these various forms half an hour may be very profitably and pleasantly devoted.

Celts are the most common of all the various implements of stone, and they vary considerably both in size, in form, and in material. They are found occasionally in the grave-mounds of the Britons, and are also turned up in the course of agricultural operations.

The name of "celt" has become so usual as the designation of these particular varieties of stone implements, and seems so appropriate, that, despite some attempts which have been of late made to

alter it, I unhesitatingly retain its use. With regard to the derivation of the word many opinions have been expressed. These have been so ably summed up by my friend Mr. John Evans, F.S.A., that I give his own words in preference to any of

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my own. "It has been fancied," he says, " by some that the name bore reference to the Celtic people, by whom the implements were supposed to have been made, and among those who have thought fit to adopt the modern fashion of calling the Celts 'Kelts,' there have been not a few who have given the instruments the novel name of 'kelts' also. the same manner, many French antiquaries have given the plural, from the word celta. Notwithstanding this misapprehension, there can be no doubt as to the derivation of the word, it being no other than the form of the Latin celtis or celtes, a chisel. This word, however, is, curiously enough, an ἄπαξ λέγομενον—in this sense being only found in the Vulgate translation of Job, though it is repeated in a forged inscription recorded by Gruter and Aldus. The usual derivation given is à cælando, and it is regarded as the equivalent of cælum. The first use of the term that I have met with as applied to antiquities is in Beyer's 'Thesaurus Brandenburgicus,' 1696, where a bronze celt adapted for insertion in its haft is described under the name of celtes. It has been suggested that there may originally have been some connection between the Latin celtis and the British or Welsh cellt, a flint; but this

seems rather an instance of fortuitous resemblance than of affinity. A Welsh triad says there are three hard things in the world-maen cellt (a flintstone), steel, and a miser's heart."

There are many curious beliefs connected with celts, one of the most usual being that they are thunderbolts, and another that, if placed in a well or cistern, they have the power of purifying the water and of acting as a preventive against disease in man and beast. Another belief is that if a "thunderbolt" be boiled in water, and the water used for bathing a rheumatic limb, it will effect a speedy cure. But this digression need not be further pursued.

The general form of celts is usually that of a more or less flat blade, approaching an oviform shape, and not unlike that of a mussel shell. The sides are more or less straight, and one end is, as will be understood from what I have written, broader than the other. The lower, or broad, or cutting end is slightly convex, and rubbed down to a sharp cutting edge. As this cutting edge has become dulled or chipped by use, it has been again rubbed down and sharpened. Thus it not unfrequently happens that a celt, when found, is not more than half or two-thirds of its original length, and has thus lost its proper proportion. In length celts vary from about two to sixteen or eighteen inches; a very usual size being from about four to six or seven inches.

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