o, Shewalton Sands, and in
the Milton of Colquhoun district, where the famous 'cup-and-ring
altar' was discovered. At Shewalton Sands in particular, in 1904, a
number of stones were found bearing crosses like those discovered in
Portugal by Father Jose Brenha and Father Rodriguez. These symbols
have a strong resemblance to certain markings on the Breton rocks, and
are thought to possess an alphabetic or magical significance. In
Scotland spirals are commonly found on stones marked with ogham
inscriptions, and it is remarkable that they should occur in New
Caledonia in connexion with a dot 'alphabet.' The New Caledonian
crosses, however, approximate more to the later crosses of Celtic art,
while the spirals resemble those met with in the earlier examples of
Celtic work. But the closest parallel to the New Caledonian
stone-markings to be found in Scotland is supplied by the examples at
Cockno, in Dumbartonshire, where the wheel symbol is associated with
the cup-and-ring markings.

The cup-and-ring stones used to be considered the peculiar product of
a race of 'Brythonic' or British origin, and it is likely that the
stones so carved were utilized in the ritual of rain-worship or
rain-making by sympathetic magic. The grooves in the stone were
probably filled with water to typify a country partially covered with
rain-water.[11]

From these analogies, then, we can glean the purpose of the
cup-and-ring markings upon the dolmens of Brittany, and may conclude,
if our considerations are well founded, that they were magical in
purpose and origin. Do the cup-shaped depressions represent water, or
are they receptacles for rain, and do the spiral symbols typify the
whirling winds?

_The Gallery of Gavr'inis_

Nowhere are these mysterious markings so well exemplified as in the
wonderful tumulus of Gavr'inis. This ancient place of sepulture, the
name of which means 'Goat Island,' lies in the Morbihan, or 'Little
Sea,' an inland sea which gives its name to a department in the south
of Brittany. The tumulus is 25 feet high, and covers a fine gallery 40
feet long, the stones of which bear the markings alluded to. Whorls
and circles abound in the ornamentation, serpent-like figures, and the
representation of an axe, similar to those to be seen in some of the
Grottes aux Fees, or on the Dol des Marchands. The sculptures appear
to have been executed with metal tools. The passage ends in a square
sepulchral chamber, the supports of whi