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crumble away on exposure to the air. The bronze pin or skewer 

 is often found in urns of this period, and was doubtless used to 

 secure the cloth or hide in which tlie bones, collected from the 

 pyi-e, were placed on their transfer to the urn. There is clear 

 evidence that this was often done. Pieces of woollen fabric have 

 at times been found. Homer says that the bones of Hector were 

 wrapped in a soft purple cloth. It is interesting to note that a 

 similar bronze skewer was found in the Port-a-Chee urn in the 

 Isle of Man. The Isle of Man urns are mostly found resting 

 on a smooth stone with the mouth downward, and this is 

 frequently the case in discoveries in England, the one at Black- 

 burn for instance. It often happens that the bones of women 

 and children are found in the same urn, and this has led some 

 to believe that children were often sacrificed at the pyre of the 

 mother. That human sacrifices were fi-equent in the early 

 burials there is no doubt. And in reference to tlie fact that one 

 of the bones is pronounced to be that of a small animal, it may 

 be mentioned that animals Avere often burnt on these occasions. 

 This was shewn by a reference to Homer, concerning the burial 

 rites over the body of Patroclus. In many countries at the 

 burials of great chiefs, sacrifices have been made, so that they 

 might appear with fitting pomp in the other world attended by a 

 suitable retinue of departed spirits. Cases have been known of 

 faithful servants sacrificing themselves in the desire to accompany 

 a faithful master. The Scandinavian was accompanied by his 

 horse, the American Indian by his dog, so that they might 

 together continue the chase in the "happy hunting grounds." 

 The property of the dead has often been deposited with them. 

 The Anglo-Saxon graves contain the swords and spears of the 

 departed, the Eoman graves contain coins, and the Indian graves 

 beads and tobacco pipes. These are incontestable evidences of 

 the almost universal belief in a future state, and convey various 

 ideas as to the conditions and occupations therein. The solid 

 mass of charcoal and bones found at the outer edge of the circle 

 doubtless represents the remains of some of these accompanying 

 saci-ifices. The discoveries within the other circle call for no 

 extended comment except that the quantities of burnt earth and 

 stones probably fix it as the site of a funeral pyre. The clayey 

 ground underneath and around these pyres is often found for some 

 depth in a hardened condition such as we here find. The pres- 

 ence of (if it is one) the flint-axe need not disturb our belief tliat 

 whatever was deposited within the circle was of the same period 

 as the one previously described. The ring stones are arranged 

 in the same way, there is the evidence of cremation and it would 

 be far more difiicult in the face of these facts to assign the burial 

 to the stone age than to accept the exi^lanation that the axe was a 

 survival of the older period. The evidences generally about this 



