Lit. ‘long stone,’ a megalithic monument. See [Chapter II, “Menhirs and Dolmens.”] Students of folk-lore will recognize the symbolic significance of the offering. We seem to have here some connexion with pillar-worship, as found in ancient Crete, and the adoration of the Irminsul among the ancient Saxons.
Charles the Bald.
For the Breton original and the French translation from which the above is adapted see Villemarqué, Barzaz-Breiz, p. 112.
‘Sons of the Chief.’ MacTier is a fairly common name in Scotland to-day.
That it was Neolithic seems undoubted, and in all probability Alpine—i.e. the same race as presently inhabits Brittany. See Dottin, Anciens Peuples de l’Europe (Paris, 1916).