MODES OF BURIAL IN TUMULI. 135 



Tumuli or barrows are much more numerous and more 

 widely distributed than stone circles. No doubt the great 

 majority of them are burial mounds, but some also were 

 erected as memorials, like the "heap of witness" erected 

 by Laban and Jacob, or the mound heaped up by the Ten 

 Thousand in their celebrated retreat, when they obtained 

 their first view of the sea. 



The tumuli were generally constructed of materials found 

 on the spot, the cists, however, and chambers, when present, 

 being often built of slabs brought from a distance. Generally 

 the earth, etc., is heaped up without any order, having been, 

 at any rate in many cases, dug with deer's-horn picks, and 

 carried to the mound perhaps in baskets. In other cases the 

 materials are arranged in more or less regular layers. 



The size of the tumulus may be taken as a rough indication 

 of the estimation in which the deceased was held, as James* 

 also tells us was the case among the North American Indians. 

 The Scotch Highlanders ( have a complimentary proverb, 

 " Curri mi clach er du cuirn," i.e. " I will add a stone to your 

 cairn ;" and I am informed by Mr. E. Gray that the custom 

 still exists in the Hebrides, as it does among various savage 

 and semi-savage races. 



The remark made by Schoolcraft as regards the American 

 Indians is applicable to many savage tribes. " Nothing that 

 the dead possessed was deemed too valuable to be interred 

 with the body. The most costly dress, arms, ornaments, and 

 implements, are deposited in the grave;" which is "placed 

 in the choicest scenic situations on some crowning hill or 

 gentle eminence in a secluded valley." And the North 

 American Indians are said, even until within the last few 

 years, to have cherished a friendly feeling for the French, 

 because, in the time of their supremacy, they had at least 



* Expedition to the Rocky Moun- t Wilson, Pre-historic Annals of 

 tains, vol. ii. p. 2. Scotland, vol. i. p. 86, 2nd ed. 



