STONES. Sacred stones have been known from the earliest times, and they occur all over the world in different cultures and religions. Often they are used as objects of sacrifice, elements in various magical rites, or instruments of divination. They may also serve practical purposes as witness or boundary stones, or as memorials; in such cases they may also evoke religious veneration. The unseen powers that are represented by such monuments are of as many different kinds as the reasons why people turn to them.

The general term stone includes many different objects, some of them characterized by names of Celtic origin: menhirs (tall, upright monumental stones); cromlechs (circles of standing stones); dolmens (table stones or large, flat, unhewn stones resting horizontally on upright ones); and cairns (heaps of stones). These four types as well as other monuments shaped like pillars or columns are all raised up or...