CARNAC
The country round Carnac is solemn and mysterious, full of strange
Druidical monuments, menhirs and dolmens of fabulous antiquity,
ancient stone crosses, _calvaires_, and carvings. Everything is grand,
solemn, and gigantic. One finds intimate traces of the Middle Ages.
The land is still half-cultivated and divided into small holdings; the
fields are strewn with ancient stones.
The Lines of Carnac are impressive. You visit them in the first place
purely as a duty, as something which has to be seen; but you are amply
repaid. On a flat plain of heather or gorse they lie, small and gray
and ghost-like in the distance, but looming larger as you draw near.
You come across several in a farmyard; but on scaling a small
loosely-built stone wall you find yourself in the midst of them--lines
of colossal stones planted point-downwards, some as high as twenty
feet, and stretching away to the horizon, on a space of several
miles, like a gigantic army of phantoms. Originally the Lines of
Carnac were composed of six thousand stones; but to-day there remain
only several hundreds. They have been destroyed bit by bit, and used
by the peasants as fences along the fields and in the construction of
houses.
We sat on a rock and gazed at these strange things, longing to know
their origin. What enigmas they were, wrapped in mournful silence,
solemn and still, sphinx-like! I endeavoured to become an amateur
Sherlock Holmes. I examined the stones all over. I noticed that at the
extremity of one line they were placed in a semicircle. This did not
seem to lead me on the road to discovery. Of what avail is it to
attempt to read the mystery of these silent Celtic giants? Historians
and archæologists have sought in vain to find a solution to the
problem. Some say that the stones planted in the fields are temples
dedicated to the cult of the serpent; others maintain that this is a
sort of cemetery, where the dead of Carnac and of Erderen were
interred after a terrible battle. They are variously taken to be
sacred monuments, symbols of divinity, funeral piles, trophies of
victory, testimonies to the passing of a race, the remains of a
Roman encampment. Innumerable are the surmises.
[Illustration: A BLIND BEGGAR]
The country people have their own versions of the origin of these
stones. The peasants round about Carnac firmly believe that these
menhirs are inhabited by a terrible race of little black men who, if
they can but catch you alone at midnight, will make you dance, leaping
round you in circles by the light of the moon with great shouts of
laughter and piercing cries, until you die of fatigue, making the
neighbouring villagers shiver in their beds. Some say that these
stones have been brought here by the Virgin Mary in her apron; others
that they are Roman soldiers, petrified as was the wife of Lot, and
changed into rocks by some good apostle; others, again, that they were
thrown from the moon by Beelzebub to kill some amiable fairy.
A boy was sitting on a stone near us. He had followed us, and had sat
leaning his head on his hand and gazing backwards and forwards from us
to the stones. Out of curiosity to hear what his ideas might be, I
asked the child what he imagined the menhirs were. Without a moment's
hesitation he said, 'Soldats de St. Cornely!'
Afterwards I discovered that St. Cornely is in this country one of
the most honoured saints. It is he that protects the beasts of the
field. His _pardon_ used to be much attended by peasants, who took
with them their flocks of sheep and cows. St. Cornely had occasion to
fly before a regiment of soldiers sent in pursuit by an idolatrous
king. In the moment of his fear--for even saints experience fear--he
went towards the sea, and soon saw that all retreat was cut off
thereby. The oxen fell on their knees, their eyes full of dread. The
situation was terrible. The saint appealed to Heaven, where lay his
only hope, and, stretching his arm towards the soldiers, changed them
suddenly into stone. Here, it is said, the soldiers of St. Cornely
have remained ever since, fixed and rigid.
[Illustration: LA PETITE MARIE]