and Lewis, and,
like the Roman Penates, to have the gift of coming and going if
removed from their habitual site.

The megalithic monuments of Brittany are undoubtedly the most
remarkable relics of that epoch of prehistoric activity which is now
regarded as the immediate forerunner of civilization. Can it be that
they were miraculously preserved by isolation from the remote
beginnings of that epoch, or is it more probable that they were
constructed at a relatively late period? These are questions of
profound difficulty, and it is likely that both theories contain a
certain amount of truth. Whatever may have been the origin of her
megaliths, Brittany must ever be regarded as a great prehistoric
museum, a unique link with a past of hoary antiquity.

FOOTNOTES:

[6] That it was Neolithic seems undoubted, and in all probability
Alpine--_i.e._ the same race as presently inhabits Brittany.
See Dottin, _Anciens Peuples de l'Europe_ (Paris, 1916).

[7] But _tolmen_ in Cornish meant 'pole of stone.'

[8] Ostensibly, at least; but see the remarks upon modern pagan
survivals in Chapter IX, p. 246.

[9] Which might be rendered:

All here is symbol; these grey stones translate
A thought ineffable, but where the key?
Say, shall it be recovered soon or late,
To ope the temple of this mystery?

[10] Not to be confused, of course, with the well-known island mount
of the same name.

[11] A Scottish sixteenth-century magical verse was chanted over such
a stone:

"I knock this rag wpone this stone,
And ask the divell for rain thereon."

[12] The writer's experience is that unlettered British folk often
possess much better information concerning the antiquities of a
district than its 'educated' inhabitants. If this information
is not scientific it is full and displays deep personal
interest.

[13] _Collectionneur breton_, t. iii, p.55.

[14] See _Comptes rendus de la Societe des Antiquaries de France_, pp.
95 ff. (1836).

[15] J. G. Campbell, _Superstitions of the Scottish Highlands_.

[16] Small, _Antiquities of Fife_.

[17] _Traditions de la Haute-Bretagne_, t. i, p. 26.

[18] Henderson, _Survivals in Belief among the Celts_ (1911).

[19] _Cultes, Mythes, et Religiones_, t. iii, pp. 365-433.

CHAPTER III: THE FAIRIES OF BRITTANY

Whatever the orig