rance of the Morbihan. It must have been a place of some importance
in the time of the Roman occupation of Gaul, as there are the remains of a
circus, whose walls now enclose the cemetery, of a Gallo-Roman house, with
baths, frescoed walls, and marble pavement. We picked up some fragments of
Roman bricks which lie strewn upon the ground in great abundance. Midst
these Roman remains are gigantic menhirs, barrows, and dolmens, vestiges
of a still more ancient race. Locmariaker has two large tumuli, both vast
tombs.

[Illustration: 35. Sculptured Stone. Manne er Hroeck. Locmariaker.]

We first visited the Manne-er-Hroek, the Montagne de la Fee, or de la
Femme, which bears in the marine charts the name of "Butte de Cesar," for
it was the fashion with antiquaries to attribute to Caesar and the Romans
every Celtic monument, although bearing no resemblance whatever to any
work of these conquerors. The Montagne de la Fee is a galgal or tumulus of
elliptic form, about thirty feet high, formed of dry stones. It was
opened in 1863, and found to contain a sepulchral chamber or dolmen,
outside of which lay a granite stone above three feet long, inscribed with
various figures, and, in the middle, a cartouche, with hatchet-shaped
characters. There were also found a number of celts (stone hatchets or
knives), a green jasper necklace, and some glass beads, which have been
transferred to the museum at Vannes. The guide who furnished the light
and showed us the grotto is the widow of a Polish officer. She had a
Scotch terrier, which she wanted us to accept. The legend of the mound is
this:--A widow had the misfortune of losing her only solace, her son,
compelled by law to embark for foreign lands. Years rolled by; he did not
return. All said he was lost; but the heart of a mother hopes for ever,
and the sad Armorican went every day to the point of Kerpenhir, whence she
surveyed the ocean, and searched the depths of the horizon with tearful
eyes for the purple sail(16) which was to bring joy and peace to her
dwelling. One day, when she was returning sad as usual to her desolate
home, she was accosted by an old woman, who enquired the cause of her
troubles; and, on hearing them, advised her to heap a pile of stones, so
that, mounting on the summit, she might see to a greater distance, and
perhaps discern the long looked-for vessel. During the whole night the two
women worked, and carried in their aprons the stones they gathered on the
he