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some very practical utilitarian object. After careful study Dr. 

 Evans believes that " the galleried chambers of the interior of 

 the oldest barrows present phenomena, as regards the bones con- 

 tained in them, only reconeileable with the hypothesis that they 

 had lost then- fleshy covering and had become partially detached 

 from their ligaments pre\dons to interment. In other words that 

 these galleried chambers of the dead are to be regarded as 

 ossuai'ies, and it is necessary to suppose that the body was fii'st 

 temporarily disposed of in such a way as to allow of the prelim- 

 inary decay of the flesh before the final interment of the bones." 

 The practice of temporarily disposing of the dead is continued 

 in many parts of the globe to this day. This pai-t of the subject 

 is capable of great expansion, but it will be sufficient to allude 

 to the customs in parts of Australia and the South Sea Islands 

 and amongst the American Indians and Patagonians of placing 

 the bodies in trees, upon wooden platforms, or in surface graves 

 of wood and bark, imtil the fleshy parts should have become 

 detached, when the bones are solemnly collected and buried or 

 taken to the homes of the living. This process is expedited by 

 exposing the bodies in a net to the fishes or on a platform to the 

 vultures, as in the case of Guiana and the Parsees of India 

 respectively. We are also reminded of the present burial customs 

 of the Capucini to be seen in Eome and Palermo. Many other 

 illustrations could be given to shew that the actual burial of the 

 body is delayed for long periods. Some of the American Indians 

 have annual "Festivals of the Dead" when the second actual 

 interments take place. Canon Greenway says in China the body 

 is preserved unburied until a propitious time anives, the time of 

 which is discovered by the pi'iests, who perform certain incanta- 

 tions. As may be imagined, the burial of a rich person is often 

 long delayed. Probably the ghastly ceremony of great men 

 "lying in state " is a survival of these customs — as the family 

 mausoleum is the lineal descendant of the Neolithic baiTows. 

 But to return to the Surface Dolmen. There seems to be little 

 doubt that it was in the literal sense a sarcophagus, the Greek word 

 meaning " the flesh eater." Leaving this special feature in 

 relation to the chambered barrows, there is no doubt that the 

 long barrows supply the earhest sepulchral evidence of man's 

 existence in these islands. No metal is found in the long bar- 

 rows, but flint and stone implements are common. The pro- 

 cesses of inhumation or cremation were both carried on during 

 this period side by side, the latter process being siipposed to 

 mark a later epoch. The most valuable evidence gathered fi'om 

 these bari'ows is that of the existence of a long-headed people, 

 supposed to be of the Iberic race. Speaking of the two sets of 

 crania fi-om the long banow and the round barrow which followed, 

 Professor KoUeston says they are as ' ' distinct and sharply con- 



