were conducted as follows: the victim was placed on the roof of the stone chamber, and when slain, the blood, from which the sacrificing priest derived his auguries, flowed into the chamber or opening under the cap-stone.
A cursory glance at the exterior arrangement of the cromlech will, it is conceived, suffice to shew that it is as utterly unfit for a place of judgment, (since the surrounding blocks of stone could never have afforded suitable seats,) as it is for an altar. If we adopt the latter supposition, the cap-stones must be sufficiently flat to admit of the animals intended to be sacrificed resting upon them. It is however a rule, without exception, that the flat side, instead of being uppermost, is invariably turned towards the chamber; beside which, we have also seen, that, with the view of guarding the chamber and its contents, the supporting stones were placed close to each other, while the interstices were filled with fragments which rendered it perfectly impossible for the blood of the sacrifice to flow from the cap-stone into the chamber. Again, the situation in which the cromlechs are met with plainly shews that they were neither altars nor seats of justice. They are found chiefly on the coast and in distinct districts; for instance in the parish of Rachlov near Kallundborg there are more than a hundred of these long and round cromlechs, while in Jellinga and other well-known parishes of very remote antiquity we do not meet with a single monument of this kind, a fact which is quite inconsistent with the idea of such monuments being altars or places of judgment. Moreover, it would be extremely singular if the first Christians, who sought with so much zeal to destroy every trace of heathenism, should have allowed these offensive altars of sacrifice to have been preserved. Let us add, that these altars, as they are termed, never occur either in Norway or in the northern part of Sweden, where paganism prevailed until the latest period; and finally, that, in general, human bones and funereal objects are exhumed from them, so that we can safely maintain that they are merely graves appertaining to the
