Rocking Stones

These wonderful stones are found in several parts of Brittany, and are more difficult to account for than the menhirs and dolmens. A large mass of red granite 20 feet long, and weighing according to cubic measurements over a million pounds, is so finely balanced upon the rock beneath that it can be made to oscillate by a touch of the hand, and yet it is so firm in its position that it would require great force and mechanical skill to dislodge it. The purpose of such erections has given rise to much conjecture, and the legends connected with them are endless. Scientific men from all parts of the world have come to Brittany to see its wonderful rocking stones, but they can only advance theories concerning them, and no two of them agree. All admit that they show a wonderful amount of engineering skill among the unlettered race that poised them, but whether they were erected by the same men that placed the menhirs upright and built the dolmens cannnot be clearly proven. Some think they are Druidic monuments, and that the oscillations manifested the will of their gods. Others connect them with some test as to the guilt or innocence of any one accused, for it is said that even now the mass will not respond to all who try to rock it. Other authorities class them with stone monuments scattered throughout the world, and say that they were erected by a race of giants who lived when mastodons roamed over the earth. At one point on the coast near Tregastel, the country for a mile inland has the appearance of a sea of rocks of all sizes and shapes, from four and five feet to as many hundred. This immense quantity of rock resembles the Egyptian granite in color, but is coarser in grain. It seems hardly possible that the hands of man could have placed these rocks in position stretching in unbroken line for several hundred yards, piled one upon the other to a height of from 40 to 50 feet, leaving the top stone to oscillate. But there is an evident and ancient construction of man in the regularly built "Grotto of St. Anne." A stone image of St. Anne, the mother of Mary, has been set up here which can only be reached when the tide is out. But who built the grotto or who carved the image is almost as great a mystery as who balanced the Rocking Stones. Some conjecture that these rocks have been piled up to serve as watch towers, and the Chapel of St. Anne as a place of refuge for sailors and fishermen stranded among the rocks. But Brittany is full of marvels which can never be explained, and not the least of these are its Rocking Stones.

Sir Walter Scott alludes to them: