LUBBOCK ON THE ANCIENT LAKE HABITATIONS OF SWITZERLAND. 4fi 



ally burnt their dead ; considering fire as the means of purification, 

 while the Persians, shrank from such an act, regarding fire, according 

 to Herodotus, as a deity. Other nations, looldng upon the earth as 

 the universal mother, returned into her bosom the remains of their 

 dead, fortunately ignorant of the deduction that as we brought 

 nothing into the world so we can take nothing out of it, and re- 

 garding it therefore as a sacred duty to bury with the departed his 

 most useful weapons and most beautiful ornaments. Tliis belief 

 seems to have been almost as general as the hope of a resurrection, 

 and even among the Jews we find a trace of it in the words of Eze- 

 kiel (ch. xxxii. p. 27). "And they shall not lie with the mighty 

 " that are fallen of the uncircumcised, which are gone down to hell 

 " with their weapons of war." 



In tombs of the Stone age the corpse appears to have been almost 

 always, if not always, buried in a sitting position, with the knees 

 brought up imder the chin, and the hands crossed over the 

 breast.* This attitude occurs also in many Asiatic, African, and 

 American tombs. M. Troyon, quotes the following passage from 

 a work published by Andre Thevet, in 1575 ; " Quand done (speak- 

 ing of the Brazilian aborigines), leurs parents sont morts, ils les 

 courbent dans un bloc et monceau dans la lict oh. ils sont decedes, 

 tout ainsi que les enfants sont au ventre de la mere, puis ainsi enve- 

 loppes, lies et garrottes de cordes, ils les mettent dans une grande vase 

 de terre." M. Troyon adds, " Chez certains Indiens, les meres, apres 

 avoir donne a I'homme, avant de I'inhumer, I'attitude qu'il avait dans 

 le sein maternel, epanchent leur lait sur la tombe. Cet usage dea 

 meres, qui assimile I'homme apres sa mort au petit enfant qu'elles 

 nom*rissent de leur lait, s'est conserve, sauf I'attitude, il est ATai, 

 jusqu'au commencement de ce siecle, dans le centre de I'Europe, dans 

 la vallee alpestre des Ormonts ;" making this last statement on the 

 authority of M. Terrise, Avho was himself an eye-witness of this 

 extraordinary custom. 



Making allowance for the marine animals, such as the seals and 

 oysters, the cockles, whelks, &c., the fauna thus indicated by the 

 remains found in the Swiss lakes, agrees remarkably with that which 

 characterises the Danish Kjokkenmoddings, and belongs evidently to 

 a far later age than that of the celebrated stone hatchets, which were 

 first made known to us by the genius and perseverance of M. Boucher 

 de Perthes.f ^om qib n 



, 'Lii, .V . IL< 



* See for Denmark, Worsaae's Antiquities, Eng. Edit. p. 89. To jndge from 

 Mr. Bateman's excellent volmne just published, " Ten years diggings in Celtic and 

 Saxon Gravehills," the same position was, to say the least of it, very common iu 

 early British Tombs, in which also the corpse was generally deposited on its left 

 side. It woidd be very interesting if some Archajologist would tabulate all the ac- 

 counts of ancient graves, showing the ornaments and weapons which have been 

 found with ditferent methods of interment. 



t Whether the Drift race of men were really the aboriginal inhabitants of 

 Europe, still remains to be ascertained. M. Riitimeyer hints, that our geographical 

 distribution imlicates a still greater antiquity for the human race. 



