together, form the neck of a jar (fig. 18).
 |
| fig. 18 |
From all this it will be seen that the cairn of Châteleys was not an ordinary tomb. I do not hesitate to assert that it was more than a tomb. This forgehammer; these implements for working in iron; these horses and pigs, emblems of Gaulish nationality, lying pêle-mêle on the sacrificial hearth, beside an altar built by nature—all this composed a page of antique symbolism curious to decipher. The Druidical traditions of Ireland tell us that each of the great regions of the Gallo-Cimbric race had a centre, a sacred rallying-place, to which all parts of the confederate territory resorted.[1] In this centre burned, on an altar of rough stones, a perpetual fire, which was designated the parent flame. The guarding of this sanctuary, and the maintenance of the sacred fire, were entrusted to a school or college of pontiff-artists, commanded or directed by a smith. This Druidical college combined with the exercise of the pontificate, the teaching of mysteries and the industrial arts. 'It forged two kinds of swords and lances:—religious arms—the glaive of honour and death-dealing weapons—the sword and lance for fight.' In this way is the mystery which shrouded the promontory of Alesia cleared up. Instead of being a hill devoted to graves, we have discovered the sanctuary of Alesia, the oppidum which Diodorus termed the primitive metropolis of the Celts. Nothing is wanting to complete
- ↑ Henri Martin. Histoire de France, vol. i. p. 71.
