s
occur on the slabs of some of the _allees couvertes_ of Seine et Oise,
and on certain blocks found in and near megalithic burials in the South
of France. Moreover, in the departments of Aveyron, Tarn, and Herault
have been found what are known as menhir-statues, upright pillars of
stone roughly shaped into human semblance at the top; they are of two
types, the one clearly female and the other with no breasts, but always
with a collar or baldric.

It has been argued that these figures represent a deity or deities of
the megalithic people. Dechelette, comparing what are apparently tattoo
marks on a menhir-statue at Saint Sermin (Aveyron) with similar marks on
a figure cut on a schist plaque at Idanha a Nova (Portugal) and on a
marble idol from the island of Seriphos in the AEgean, seems inclined to
argue that in France and Portugal we have the same deity as in the
AEgean. This seems rather a hazardous conjecture, for we know that many
primitive peoples practised tattooing, and, moreover, it is not certain
that the French figures represent deities at all. It is quite as likely,
if not more so, that they represent the deceased, and take the place of
a grave-stone: this would account for the occurrence of both male and
female types. This was almost certainly the purpose of six stones that
remain of a line that ran parallel to a now destroyed tomb at Tamuli
(Sardinia). Three have breasts as if to distinguish the sex of three of
those buried in the tomb. We must not therefore assume that any of the
French figures represents a 'dolmen-deity.'

The method of burial observed in the megalithic tombs is almost
universally inhumation. Cremation seems to occur only in France, but
there it is beyond all doubt. The known examples are found in the
departments of Finistere, Marne, and Aisne, and in the neighbourhood of
Paris. In Finistere out of 92 megalithic burials examined 61 were
cremations, 26 were inhumations, and 5 were uncertain. It is extremely
curious that this small portion of France should be the only part of the
megalithic area where cremation was practised. It is generally held that
cremation was brought into Europe by the broad-headed 'Alpine' people,
who seem to have invaded the centre of the continent at some period in
the neolithic age. It is possible that in parts of France a mixture took
place between the megalithic builders and the Alpine race. Intermarriage
would no doubt lead to confusion in many cases between t