400 Sir William Turner [March 26, 



cist or coffin, formed of undressed flattened stones, was built for its 

 reception. As a rule the sides and ends of the cist were formed each 

 of a single slab of sandstone, schist, gneiss, granite or other stones 

 ju'ovided by the rock in the neighbourhood ; but in some instances of 

 a stone of a different character from the adjoining rocks, and 

 obviously brought from a distance. The stones were set on edge and 

 supported a great slab, which being laid horizontally formed the lid 

 or cover of the cist, and which was much thicker and heavier than 

 the side and end stones ; sometimes, as if for additional protection, a 

 second massive slab was placed on the top of the proper cover. The 

 floor of the cist was formed, when the earth was shallow, of the native 

 rock, and at other times of compacted earth, or a layer of pebbles, or 

 of flat stones. Usually the stone walls and the cover of the cist were 

 simply in apposition, but sometimes they were cemented together with 

 clay. In some cists exposed a few years ago on the farm of Cousland, 

 near Dalkeith, the peculiarity was observed of the cist being divided 

 in its long direction into two by a stone slab down the middle. 



The cists were oblong, the length exceeding the breadth, and 

 although they varied in size, those for adults being larger than for 

 children, they were always shorter than would have been required for 

 a body to be extended at full length. As the end stones were usually 

 set within the extremities of the side stones, the internal measurement 

 of length was some inches less than the external. The average dimen- 

 sions may be given for the interior about 4 feet in length, 2 feet in 

 breadth and 2 feet in depth. The cover slab was much larger both 

 in length and breadth, as it overlapped both the sides and ends. 



Tliese cists remind one in their general form and plan, but on a 

 much smaller scale, both as regards the size of the enclosed space and 

 the magnitude of the stones, of the dolmens so frequent in Brittany. 

 As survivals in modern times we may point to the empty stone boxes, 

 on the cover stone of which an inscription is incised, to be seen in so 

 many country churchyards, built on the ground superficial to the pit 

 in which the body in its wooden coffin has been inhumed. 



Owing to the shortness of the cist the body could not be extended 

 at full length, but was laid upon its side, with the elbows bent, so that 

 the hands were close to the face ; the hips and knee joints were also 

 bent so that the knees were in front of the body. 



Usually only a single skeleton has been found in a cist, either a 

 man or a woman as the case may be. Sometimes two skeletons have 

 been seen, at times a man's and a woman's, doubtless husband and wife ; 

 in others the second skeleton has been that of a child. Sometimes the 

 cist was below the average in size, and contained only the skeleton of 

 a child or young person. Such examples throw light upon the 

 family I'elations of the people of this period. They show that they 

 desired to preserve tlie associations of kinsfolk even after death ; and 

 when the cist contained the remains only of a child it was constructed 

 with the same care as if it had been the tomb of a chief. 



When cremated bodies are found associated with stone cists in the 



