ies, he says, harnessed their oxen
to the mighty stones, selected a site, and dragged them thither to
form a dwelling, or perhaps a cradle for the infant fays they were so
fond of exchanging for human children. Thus the Roches aux Fees near
Saint-Didier, in Ille-et-Vilaine, were raised by fairy hands, the
elves collecting "all the big stones in the country" and carrying them
thither in their aprons. These architectural sprites then mounted on
each other's shoulders in order that they might reach high enough to
place the mighty monoliths securely in position. This practice they
also followed in building the dolmen near the wood of Rocher, on the
road from Dinan to Dol, say the people of that country-side.

But the actual purpose of the megaliths has not been neglected by
tradition, for a venerable farmer at Rouvray stated that the fairies
were wont to honour after their death those who had made good use of
their lives and built the dolmens to contain their ashes. The presence
of such a shrine in a country-side was a guarantee of abundance and
prosperity therein, as a subtle and indefinable charm spread from the
saintly remnants and communicated itself to everything in the
neighbourhood.[13] The fairy builders, says tradition, went about
their work in no haphazard manner. Those among them who possessed a
talent for design drew the plans of the proposed structure, the less
gifted acting as carriers, labourers, and masons. Apron-carrying was
not their only method of porterage, for some bore the stones on their
heads, or one under each arm, as when they raised the Roche aux Fees
in Retiers, or the dolmen in La Lande Marie.[14] The space of a night
was usually sufficient in which to raise a dolmen. But though 'run up'
with more than Transatlantic dispatch, in view of the time these
structures have endured for, any charge of jerry-building against
their elfin architects must fall to the ground. Daylight, too,
frequently surprised the fairy builders, so that they could not finish
their task, as many a 'roofless' dolmen shows.

There are many Celtic parallels to this belief. For example, it is
said that the Picts, or perhaps the fairies, built the original church
of Corstorphine, near Edinburgh, and stood in a row handing the stones
on, one to another, from Ravelston Quarry, on the adjacent hill of
Corstorphine. Such is the local folk-tale; and it has its congeners in
Celtic and even in Hindu myth. Thus in the Highland tale of