620 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1891, 



111 more exposed situiitious we liiid tlie rocky structure quite bare, 

 as in the dolmen in PI. xlix. A measuring stick 5 feet in length stands 

 near the mouth. 



Higli above the village of Kokubu, near the summit of the hills 

 across the river, a great number of such dolmens are to be found. One 

 of these (PI. l) shows the structure of the chambers perfectly, except 

 that the tunnel-like entrance has been shortened. This chamber fronts 

 to the right hand of the picture. In some of the larger mounds the 

 tunnel reaches the leugth of 60 feet and the chambers are correspond- 

 ingly large. The tunnel sometimes opens into the chamber opposite 

 the middle, but it more frequently runs nearer to one side than the 

 other. The chamber itself is sometimes partly divided into two i)arts 

 by a limb or projection from the sides and top. Such a dolmen is the one 

 shown in PI. Li, the interior of which is r<q)resented in PI. lit. The 

 interior is distinctly divided into an inner and an outer chamber. 



Near the summit of the hill already mentioned there is one very 

 remarkable form of dolmen, PI. lux. It is unique among fifty or more 

 of the usual form. It occupies a commanding position on the crest of 

 the hill, the ground in front being so steep that it was very difticult to 

 set up a camera to make a photograph. Observe the excavation in the 

 back. This is better shown in PI. liv. Nothing like this is known any- 

 where else. It would seem that the rectangular recess at the back was 

 used as a coffin, in which the body was placed and probably cemented 

 in. A measuring stick 5 feet long lies on the ground, and affords some 

 idea of the size of the stones used in tlie constriu^tion. A very large 

 one forms the roof of the outer chamber. 



Once more we Avill refer to the Japanese account of these chambered 

 mounds. The same authority from which I have already quoted, says: 

 ''In all the sepulchers the first order of performing the burials was the 

 piling up of the earthen mound, leaving an underground tunnel which 

 leads frcmi the outside to the very center of the mound. This mound 

 done, the coffin, usually carved and made of stone, as re])resented in 

 the sketch,* (PI. lvi upper figure) in which the corpse was placed and 

 sealed, was then introduced through the tunnel and placed in the cen- 

 ter of the mound, and the tunnel was then filled up with stones." 



We have already seen that simple mounds without chambers w^ere 

 used for burial before chamliers were thought of, and probably before 

 coffins were devised. The coffins were certainly not always introduced 

 through the galleries, as above described. The tunnels were certainly 

 not filled up with stones, although their ends were prol)ably closed with 

 stones. Continuing our quotation, we read: 



It seems that several forms of stone ccjffins were in use by the ancients since about 

 the year 700 [40 a. d.] . The custom had no doubt been prevalent up to about the year 

 1600 [940 A. D.], when the use of clay coffins became predominant. The origin of the 



* The original sketches referred to in the text and some others are in the National 

 Museum. 



