DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.786#0333
316 SATURNIA. [chap. xlix.
the earth has been removed or washed away, so as to leave
the structure standing above the surface. Here the eye
is startled by the striking resemblance to the cromlechs of
our own country. Not that one such monument is actually
standing above ground in an entire state ; but remove the
earth from any one of those with a single cover-stone,
and in the three upright slabs, with their shelving, over-
lapping lid, you have the exact counterpart of Kit's
Cotty House, and other like familiar antiquities of Britain;
and the resemblance is not only in the form, and in the
unhewn masses, but even in the dimensions of the structures.
We know also that many of the cromlechs or kistvaens
of the British Isles have been found inclosed in barrows,
sometimes with a circle of small upright slabs around
them; and from analogy we may infer that aU were
originally so buried. Here is a further point of resem-
blance to these tombs of Saturnia.6 In some of the crom-
lechs, moreover, which are inclosed in tumuli, long passages,
lined with upright slabs, and roofed in with others laid
horizontally, have been found; whether the similar pas-
sages in these tombs of Saturnia were also covered in,
cannot now be determined.
The shelving or dip of the cover-stone in the cairns or
cromlechs has induced antiquaries to regard them as
Druidical altars, formed with this inclination in order that
the blood of the victims might more easily run off. But
it is now generally agreed, from the remains found within
them, that they are sepulchral monuments; and there can
this Chapter, which represents one of to have been quadrangular,
these tombs with a single cover-stone, 6 I observed only one instance of a
16 or 18 feet each way, and about 1 tumulus encircled by small slabs ; but
foot in thickness. The tumuli, as far it is probable that the custom was
as it is possible to ascertain, were general; the small size of these slabs
about 25 or 30 feet in diameter. Mr. offering a temptation to the peasantry
Ainsley remarked one which appeared to remove them.
the earth has been removed or washed away, so as to leave
the structure standing above the surface. Here the eye
is startled by the striking resemblance to the cromlechs of
our own country. Not that one such monument is actually
standing above ground in an entire state ; but remove the
earth from any one of those with a single cover-stone,
and in the three upright slabs, with their shelving, over-
lapping lid, you have the exact counterpart of Kit's
Cotty House, and other like familiar antiquities of Britain;
and the resemblance is not only in the form, and in the
unhewn masses, but even in the dimensions of the structures.
We know also that many of the cromlechs or kistvaens
of the British Isles have been found inclosed in barrows,
sometimes with a circle of small upright slabs around
them; and from analogy we may infer that aU were
originally so buried. Here is a further point of resem-
blance to these tombs of Saturnia.6 In some of the crom-
lechs, moreover, which are inclosed in tumuli, long passages,
lined with upright slabs, and roofed in with others laid
horizontally, have been found; whether the similar pas-
sages in these tombs of Saturnia were also covered in,
cannot now be determined.
The shelving or dip of the cover-stone in the cairns or
cromlechs has induced antiquaries to regard them as
Druidical altars, formed with this inclination in order that
the blood of the victims might more easily run off. But
it is now generally agreed, from the remains found within
them, that they are sepulchral monuments; and there can
this Chapter, which represents one of to have been quadrangular,
these tombs with a single cover-stone, 6 I observed only one instance of a
16 or 18 feet each way, and about 1 tumulus encircled by small slabs ; but
foot in thickness. The tumuli, as far it is probable that the custom was
as it is possible to ascertain, were general; the small size of these slabs
about 25 or 30 feet in diameter. Mr. offering a temptation to the peasantry
Ainsley remarked one which appeared to remove them.