Matheson Collection > Popular tales of the west Highlands > Volume 4

WEST HIGHLAND STORIES. 361
unexplained, but it is not unreasonable to suppose that
they once had a similar meaning in India and in Scot-
land, when there are so many hands pointing towards
Central Asia as the common starting place of so many
human races.
It would be going too far to call the ram on'the St.
Andrews stone " Aries," and the lion " Leo ; " but till
something has been found out concerning the stone-
falconer of the long locks, and the naked legs, and the
flowing dress, he may perhaps pass for a relative of the
Eastern bronze falconer who is fighting a lion, between
"Cancer" and "Leo," amongst twisted snakes, and
branches and buds-, under tbe sway of the sun and
moon, and of diverse many-armed graven images, whose
meaning is not so clear.
Perhaps the oldest bit of Celtic ornamental art known
is to be found in Gavr Innis, in Brittany. A large
sepulchral mound was opened some years ago, and was
found to cover a passage formed of large boulders, one
of which is figured above, p. 319. The cut is taken
from a very hasty sketch, made in August, 1855, in a
very bad light. The design appears to be a rude
attempt to represent the inside of a house, like the
tomb itself, or such as a Lapp hut, or an Icelandic
house, or a Highland cottage, now is. A sketch of part
of the interior of a Lapp hut will be found in vol. iii.,
frontispiece. Such dwellings are thus made — a number
of rough sticks or trunks of small trees, or big stones,
are set in the ground about the plan or floor of the
house, which in Gaelic is called "làrach," and in Scotch
" stance." If the house is to be of sticks and round, the
sticks slope over towards the centre, and form a cone.
If it is to have a passage, like Icelandic houses, stakes
or large stones are set in two rows, and planted nearly