287 



feet high, a few of which only are now upright. When first disco- 

 vered it was topped by a tall pillar stone, conformably with the 

 Danish usage, as recorded by Wormius.* Within the centre of this 

 cairn, is a cave built just like those described by Wormius,*f- consist- 

 ing of a long gallery gradually rising in height, and terminating in a 

 dark hollow cave, of an irregular figure, opening opposite the entrance 

 of the gallery and on either side of it into cells, each about ten feet 

 in length, and nearly of similar appearance, so that the whole subter- 

 ranean part presents such a marked cruciform figure as might origi- 

 nate in the semi-christian notions of the Danes, about the period to 

 which we would assign it. In the whole work appears no sign of 

 mortar or cement. A pyramidal quarry stone, that probably once 

 stood uptight, now lies prostrate in the middle of the centre cave, and 

 in two of the cells there yet remain rude freestone cisterns. The 

 tracing of certain spiral lines is still discoverable on the face of some 

 of the stones, characters which are also identified with those sketched 

 by Wormius. When first opened, two entire skeletons, not burned, 

 •were found on the floor, while the cells and cisterns, being three in 

 number, shew they were dedicated to the superior gods of the Danish 

 idolatry. J In clearing the cave two Roman coins were discovered, 

 one of the Emperor Valentinian, and the other of Theodosius; whence 

 it has been concluded, that the cave was constructed before the inva- 

 sion of the Danes. The deduction, however, is not consequential, but 

 while it shews, from the depth and place where these coins were dis- 

 covered, that the monument could not have been erected before the 

 days of these emperors, i. e. the close of the fourth century, and there- 

 fore could not well have been for the purposes of fire-worship, as ima- 



* See Ledwich's Antiquities, second edition, p. 48. 



t Monum. Danic. lib. 1. c. 7. J See ante, p. 276, and Wormius, lib. ]. c. 3. 



