BRETON TUMULI. 169 



H'roek contained a hundred and three stone axes, three flint 

 flakes, and fifty beads of callais, jasper, quartz, and agate, but 

 neither of these great tumuli contained a trace of metal.* 



FIG. 155. FIG. 156. 



Pottery from the Tumulus at West Kennet, 



Other similar cases might be mentioned, f in which tumuli 

 of large size, covering a sepulchral chamber, constructed with 

 great labour, and evidently intended for a person or persons 

 of high rank, have contained numerous objects of stone and 

 pottery, without a trace of metal. 



It appears reasonable to conclude that these interments 

 belong to the ante-metallic period ; especially when, as in the 

 first -mentioned case, we find several secondaiy interments, 

 plainly belonging to a later age, and although presenting no 

 such indications of high rank, still accompanied by objects of 

 bronze. 



It may seem at first sight very improbable that works so 

 considerable should have been undertaken and carried out 

 by nations entirely ignorant of metal. The burial mound of 

 Oberea, in Otaheiti, was nevertheless two hundred and sixty- 

 seven feet long, eighty-seven wide, and forty-four in height. 



* Manne-er-H'roeck. Rapport a t See, for instance, Lukis, Archie - 

 la Societe Polymathique. Par M. ologia, vol. xxxv. p. 247. 

 Lefebvre et M. Rene Galles. 1863. 



