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at pK° ns ’ ant ^ similar lithoi were to be seen at Megara,tvitb’ r ° naSa ’ ' n Thessaly, Ionia, and Mauritania , one alsoera m ^ le wa ^ s °f Athens. Cyrus erected obelisks over theari( j Ve Abradates, king of Susa , and over those of his wifeSw ] cers - Further north we find such stones in Denmark ,^ ei b Scotland, Ireland , and in our own country.
We these stones are of necessity much alike in all cases,idea8' ve a description of one, to afford a generalthe' V * dle w hole of them; we select that of Rudstone, inf r 1 aat Riding of Yorkshire . It stands about four yardsabo north-east corner of Rudstone Church, and risesSl >re 6 ? l ° S rou nd twenty-four feet; if, as is stated, it mea-e ' <> ht f same helow ground, its total length will he forty-all’ f tee _t > its breadth is six feet, and thickness two feet;q Ua ]. r s 'des are slightly convex. The stone is of a very hard> an d its weight is calculated at above forty tons.
Some 6 US6S t ' ie naonolithoi seem to have been various. Thatand Were used as sepulchral monuments, is allowed by all;pil| a * 0nie a How them to have had no other use; such was theby q ® et U P by Jacob over Rachel’s grave, also those erectedtovieg rUS ’ as ' 3e ^' ore mentioned. Some were trophies of vic-li S tj n ’ as that erected by Samuel after his defeat of the Phi-J acob ’ s °me were witnesses to covenants, as that set up bymere] a , nd Taban, and that of Joshua ; whilst others aregi^. boundary stones.
Val ent '. ar * n ^ escr 'Ption are the curious round towers so pre-ofaQl"? Ireland , which are generally found in the localitySu PPosi'' St ' an °hurch, a situation which is accounted for by theto r ear ' on . that the Christian missionaries were accustomedhad st l 11 e< hhces near the spot where the pagan templesthev It is certain that these towers are very old, as
they y ere cons idered ancient even in the twelfth century;app eai , ar -f both in height and construction, but their generaltowards C ;, 18 th a t of a circular obelisk tapering graduallye su mmit, and finishing in a conical roof. See
Tlm s i0WERS -
a 8 tone 6 P^elisks are also termed Cromlelis, a word signifyingas the IT a ^ ora tion ; also Bothal, which doubtless is the same(*od. ®hrew, Bethel, both terms signifying the House of°f t\v 0 naer these names are also included monumentsPillar three stones, the former comprising an upright
upright \ 1 ° cross * piece on the top, and the latter two'he oth° neS ’ w ’th a third at the top, stretching from oneNext * er ’ ^ le i°tter are named likewise trilithons.
^ ^ le lithoi, or cromlehs, stand the kist-vaens, or/-r stones, consisting of three uprights, and°tUid in Z ° nta l stone covering the whole; they are often] )ai ’ 01 near circles, and are frequently accompanieda,1( l ^gnifl" 8 var i°us kinds. Kist-vaen is a Welsh term,applied to th stone ' c hest, but the term quoit is frequentlyaiR l th er . e sa me structures, more especially in Cornwall ,f l ' c h i g ; S one near Cloyne, in Ireland , named Carig-Croith,
in , ntei "P re ted Sun’s House. Such monuments are8 ele ct , a hundi
- on e n 1Qance > and in every quarter of the globe; weo j : 'is mo 3 8 s P ec i men ) Kit’s Coty House, Kent.
j s „ *°«ument st.nmto near flta villnrva rtf
E°? es '
'nclogj
; °tl),fr e< lge s of the first, and the fourth laid flat upon
the
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, o ne escr ibed by Stowe :—“ It consists of four flat■°sing t i,„° them standing upright, between two others,
'" ;r sidp '!i ee ’ an< l is of such height that men may stand onroth w . the millrtlo _
an <l
middle stone in time of storm or tempest, safer ain, being defended with the breadth of the
p 3 firt i — — - • t • —
101 0v fe u “ e at their backs, one on either side, and
thft Utll ent u e !i t ^ e ‘ r heads.” “ About a coit’s cast from thise ? Alet u another _
Thi® r ° u ad 4' another great stone, a great part thereof in8 r ' es crip t j !R en down where the same had been affixed.”
°n answers very well to its appearance at the2 E
present day, with the exception that the separate stone lastmentioned, is now entirely buried in the ground. Thedimensions are given as follows in Grose’s Antiquities:—“ Upright stone on the north or north-west side, eight feethigh, eight feet broad, two feet thick; estimated weight, eighttons and a half. Upright stone on the south or south-eastside, eight feet high, seven and a half feet broad, two feetthick; estimated weight, eight tons. Upright stone betweenthese, very irregular; medium dimensions, five feet high,five feet broad, fourteen inches thick; estimated weightabout two tons. Upper stone very irregular; eleven feetlong, eight feet broad, two feet thick; estimated weightabout ten tons seven hundred-weight.”
Monuments of the same description are to be seen inPalestine, the following account of some of which is givenby Captains Irby and Mangles:—“ On the banks of theJordan, at the foot of the mountain, we observed some verysingular, interesting, and certainly very ancient tombs, com-posed of great rough stones, resembling what is called Kit’sCoty House, in Kent. They are built of two long side-stones, with one at each end, and a small door in front,mostly facing the north; this door was of stone. All wereof rough stones, apparently not hewn, but found in flat frag-ments, many of which are seen about the spot in huge flakes.Over the whole was laid an immense flat piece, projectingboth at the sides and ends. What rendered these tombs moreremarkable was, that the interior was not long enough fora body, being only five feet. This is occasioned by both thefront and back stones being considerably within the ends ofthe side ones. There are about twmnty-seven of these tombs,very irregularly situated.” This description would answervery well for our own erections of the kind, were it not forthe second stone and doorway, no traces of which are to befound in these islands. Sir Richard Colt Hoare gives tworepresentations of similar stones in Malabar, but he doesnot accompany them with any description.
Numerous monuments of this kind are to be found through-out the British Isles, but they occur most frequently in Corn-wall and Wales , also in the Isle of Anglesea, the last resortof the Druids, and in Ireland .
What the use of these caves were is not agreed upon,some claiming them as sacrificial altars, others as tombs, andothers, again as simply sacred constructions answering to theark or sacred chest of the Jews . The former position ismaintained by King, who, after referring to the account givenby the Romans of the human sacrifices of the Druids , con-tends for the peculiar applicability of such erections tothat purpose; but his opinions do not seem to be borne outby facts. As a decisive argument in the matter, he cites aninstance of a structure of the kind existing in the county ofLouth, Ireland , which is called the killing-stone; but if thishold good as a proof, a similar one may be advanced.for thesecond class of opinions, in*the case of the Trevetliy Stonein Cornwall, the word Trevedi signifying, in the British language, it is said, the Place of Graves ; and besides this,Kit’s Coty House is transferred into Catigern’s house of coits,the term coit being translated large flat stone. This place isso named, it is averred, from the fact of Catigern beingburied there, after the battle with Hengist and Ilorsa, whichoccurred at Aylesford , and in which he was slain.
We have now arrived at the largest and most interestingclass of monuments, the Druidical circles ; they consistof one or more circles of upright stones placed at shortintervals from each other ; the circles are usually concentric,but we have not unfrequently tw r o smaller circles placed sideby side within a larger one, and the whole surrounded witha circular ditch and vallum. The stones composing the cir-