Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

CHAPTER II: THE RELIGION OF THE CELTS 49All these objects were ranged with evident intention en suite,forming a straight line which coincided exactly with one of thediagonals of the chamber, running from north-west to south-east.In one of the corners of the chamber were found 101 axe-headsin jade, jadite, and fibrolite. There were no traces of bones or [64]cinders, no funerary urn; the structure was a cenotaph. “Are wenot here,” asks Bertrand, “in presence of some ceremony relatingto the practices of magic?”Chiromancy at Gavr'inisIn connexion with the great sepulchral monument of Gavr'inisa very curious observation was made by M. Albert Maitre, aninspector of the Musée des Antiquités Nationales. There werefound here—as commonly in other megalithic monuments inIreland and Scotland—a number of stones sculptured with asingular and characteristic design in waving and concentric lines.Now if the curious lines traced upon the human hand at the rootsand tips of the fingers be examined under a lens, it will be foundthat they bear an exact resemblance to these designs of megalithicsculpture. One seems almost like a cast of the other. These lineson the human hand are so distinct and peculiar that, as is wellknown, they have been adopted as a method of identification ofcriminals. Can this resemblance be the result of chance? Nothing [65]like these peculiar assemblages of sculptured lines has ever beenfound except in connexion with these monuments. Have we nothere a reference to chiromancy—a magical art much practisedin ancient and even in modern times? The hand as a symbolof power was a well-known magical emblem, and has enteredlargely even into Christian symbolism—note, for instance, thegreat hand sculptured on the under side of one of the arms of theCross of Muiredach at Monasterboice.