When these stones form an ellipse, and have no head-covering, one must say: There is a "cromlech"; when one perceives a stone laid horizontally upon two upright stones, one is confronted by a "lichaven" or a "trilithe." Often two enormous rocks are put one on top of the other, and touch only at one point, and we read that "they are balanced in such a way that the wind alone is sufficient to make the upper rock sway perceptibly," an assertion which I do not dispute, although I am rather suspicious of the Celtic wind, and although these swaying rocks have always remained unshaken in spite of the fierce kicks I was artless enough to give them; they are called "rolling or rolled stones," "turned or transported stones," "stones that dance or dancing stones," "stones that twist or twisting stones." You must still learn what a _pierre fichade_, a _pierre fiche_, a _pierre fixee_ are, and what is meant by a _haute borne_, a _pierre latte_ and a _pierre lait_; in what a _pierre fonte_ differs from a _pierre fiette_, and what connection there is between a _chaire a diable_ and a _pierre droite_; then you will be as wise as ever were Pelloutier, Deric, Latour d'Auvergne, Penhoet and others, not forgetting Mahe and Freminville.
Now, all this means a _pulvan_, also called a _men-hir_, and designates nothing more than a stone of greater or lesser size, placed by itself in an open field.
I was about to forget the tumuli! Those that are composed of silica and soil are called "barrows" in high-flown language, while the simple heaps of stones are "gals-gals." People have pretended that when they were not tombs the "dolmens" and "trilithes" were altars, that the "fairy rocks" were assembling places or sepultures, and that the business meetings at the time of the Druids were held in the "cromlechs." M.de Cambry saw in the "swaying rocks" the emblems of the suspended world.

The "barrows" and "gals-gals" have undoubtedly been tombs; and as for the "men-hirs," people went so far as to pretend that they had a form which led to the deduction that a certain cult reigned throughout lower Brittany.

O chaste immodesty of science, you respect nothing, not even a peulven! A reverie, no matter how undefined, may lead up to splendid creations, when it starts from a fixed point.

Then the imagination, like a soaring hippogriff, stamps the earth with all its might and journeys straightway towards infinite regions.

But when it applies itself to a subject devoid of plastic art and history, and tries to extract a science from it, and to reconstruct a world, it remains even poorer and more barren than the rough stone to which the vanity of some praters has lent a shape and dignified with a history.
To return to the stones of Carnac (or rather, to leave them), if anyone should, after all these opinions, ask me mine, I would emit an irresistible, irrefutable, incontestable one, which would make the tents of M.de la Sauvagere stagger, blanch the face of the Egyptian Penhoet, break up the zodiac of Cambry and smash the python into a thousand bits.
This is my opinion: the stones of Carnac are simply large stones! * * * * * So we returned to the inn and dined heartily, for our five hours' tramp had sharpened our appetites.