A Book of Dartmoor: Second EditionBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
A Book of Dartmoor: Second Edition
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Dartmoor (England)
Not only so, but just as the ancient Egyptian supposed that the _Ka_,
the soul, or one of the souls of the deceased, occupied the monument,
tablet, or obelisk set up in memorial of the dead, so does the Chinese
now hold that a soul, or emanation from the dead, enters into and
dwells in the memorial set up, apart from the tomb, to his honour.
Now if we desire to discover what was the distinguishing motive in life
of the long-headed Neolithic man, we shall find it in his respect for
the dead; and he has stamped his mark everywhere where he has been by
the stupendous tombs he has erected, at vast labour, out of unwrought
stones. He cannot be better described than as the dolmen-builder; that
is to say, the man who erected the family or tribal ossuaries that
remain in such numbers wherever he has planted his foot.
In China, it is true, there are no dolmens, but for this there is a
reason. Before the descendants of the Hundred Families who entered the
Celestial Empire had reached and obtained possession of mountains
whence stone could be quarried, many centuries elapsed, and forced the
Chinese to make shift with other material than stone, and so formed
their habit of entombment without stone; but the frame of mind which,
in a rocky land, would have prompted them to set up dolmens remained
unchanged, and so remains to the present day.
The exploration of dolmens in Europe reveals that they were family or
tribal burial-places, and were used for a long continuance of time.
The dead to be laid in them were occasionally brought from a distance,
as the bones show indication of having been cleaned of the flesh
with flint scrapers, and to have been rearranged in an irregular and
unscientific manner, a left leg being sometimes applied to a right
thigh; or it may be that on the anniversary of an interment the bones
of the deceased were taken out, scraped and cleaned, and then replaced.
In Algeria, and on the edge of the Sahara, are found great trilithons,
that is to say, two huge upright stones, with one laid across at the
top, forming doorways leading to nothing, but similar to those which
are found at Stonehenge.
What was this significance?
We turn to the Chinese for an explanation, and find that to this day
they erect triumphal gates--not now of stone, but of wood--in memory
of and in honour of such widows as commit suicide so as to join their
dear departed husbands in the world of spirits. On the other hand, our
widows forget us and remarry.
[Illustration: FLINT ARROW-HEADS.
(Actual size.)]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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