CROMLECH is a word applied by the British to widely different structures. It is derived from tho Keltic word Krom, crooked or curved, and Lech, a stone. In Brittany they are known as the Grottes aux f6es, also the Roches aux Nes. Its correct application is a circle of upright stones, like the Hurlers ' and Nine Maidens' in Corn wall. The cromlech of the British antiquarian is the same as the Welsh and English quoit,' such as Arthur's quoit or coetan (Coetne Arthor) near Criccieth, Lanyon quoit and Chun quoit and others in Cornwall, Stanton Drew quoit in Somer setshire, the Kitts koty or quoit near Maidstone, and the Coit-y-enroc in Guernsey, all of them circles of upright stones. Professor Sven Nilsson, however (on the Stone Age, p. 169), defines the English cromlech as synonymous to the French dolmen, the Scandinavian dos, and the dyss of Denmark, consisting of one large block of stone supported by some three to five stones arranged in a ring, and intended to contain one corpse only, several of these dorsar being sometimes enclosed in circles of raised stones. Following, however, the nomenclature given by the late Dr. Lukis, we cannot be far wrong in assigning the word crom lech to all elaborate megalithic structures of one or more chambers, in which category the passage graves rnay be included.
The dolmen (Dola, table, Moen, ft stone) is, as its name implies, of different structure. The cromlechs of Jersey and the adjacent islands partake of the character of the-French grottes aux Mes, the fairy's grottoos well as the Gangrifter, the gallery tombs of the Swedes, the Jette,stuer or chambered tumuli of the Danes, and the German Hunenbetten.
In China the chambered tumuli associated with megalithic avenues have attained their greatest development. The great tomb (the Ling or rest ing-place of Yung Lo of the Ming dynasty), thirty miles from Pekin, consists of an enormous mound or earth barrow covered with trees, and surrounded by a wall a mile in circumference. In the centre
of the mound is a stone chamber containing the sarcophagus, in which is the corpse. This chamber or vault is approached by an arched tunnel, the entrance to which is bricked up. This entrance is' approached by a paved causeway, passing through numerous arches, galleries, courts, and halls of sacrifice, and through a long avenue of colossal marble figures, sixteen pairs of wolves, kelins, lions, horses, camels, elephants, and twelve pairs of warriors, priests, and civil officers.
The tombs of the Hova race of Madagascar consist of stone vaults, ntade of immense slabs of stone, flat inside, forming a subterranean grotto. They also erect stone pillars similar to the menhir. The supposed aborigines of Madagascar were the Vasimba, whose tombs are small tumuli or cairns, surmounted by an upright stone pillar. The crorn lech or trilithic altar, in the centre of all Druidic monuments, is supposed by Tod to be a torun or triumphal arch, sacred to the sun-god Belenus.
In 1881, Lieut. Conder saw 400 cromlechs in E. Palestine, in seven central localities. In addi tion to the cromlechs, several menhirs or standing stones were found, and ancient stone circles in connection with 'both classes of monuments. Among the sites explored were Heslibon, Elealeh, Medeba, Baal-Meon, Nebo, and Pisgah, the hot springs of Callirrhob Rabbath Ammon ; he found the place of the worship of Baal-Peor and the site of .Bamoth-Baal ; he discovered the method by which the enormous stones used at Arak el Emir pwere brought up from the -quarries.—Lt. Oliver,