SANTIAGO.
The Evolution of a Patron Saint.
In a recent work Professor Fleure has suggested that there may have been some connection between Santiago da Compostella and the great stone monuments that abound in the north-west of Spain.[1] The connection may at first sight appear remote, but a careful inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the growth of the cult of St. James in that region leads me to think that his suggestion is not devoid of foundation. The materials for the investigation are scanty, and there are inevitable blanks which must needs be filled by conjecture, but in the following pages I have endeavoured to set in array such scattered items of evidence as I have been able to collect.
In many parts of the world there are to be found monuments consisting of large unhewn stones, usually set on end, either standing alone or composing circles or alignments, or else forming parts of such structures as tombs or temples; these, known to archaeologists as megalithic monuments, are especially plentiful in Western Europe from Scotland to Spain. For some centuries they have excited the interest of antiquaries and archaeologists, and recently fresh theories have been promulgated, seeking to show that they were first erected some four thousand years ago by a trading people, who wandered over the world in search of precious metals and other valuable
- ↑ Fleure (H. J.), Human Geography in Western Europe, p. 91.
