179^* account of antiquities in Scotland. 135 



stone chest, an earthen vase, containing some ashes. 

 From this, and other circumstances, there seems to 

 be no reason to doubt, that the practice of burning 

 the dead did once prevail among some of these nor- 

 thern nations. For it deserves to be particularly 

 remarked, that few or none of these urns are found 

 so far to the southward as the Grampian mountains, 

 which was the boundary of the Roman conquests in 

 Scotland. 



There may be many other particulars, relating to 

 the internal structure of these cairns, that have not 

 come to my knowledge ; the attending to which 

 might afford matter for curious speculation to the 

 antiquary. It deserves only to be farther remark- 

 ed here, with regard to this species of antiquities, 

 that as they seem to have been, for the most part, 

 erected by the army, in honour of some chieftau 

 slain in battle, upon the very spot on which he was 

 killed ; and as each nation would retain its own fu- 

 neral ceremonies, even v/hen in the heart of an ene- 

 my's country, it may naturally be expected, that one 

 of these cairns, on being opened, may be extremely 

 different, in its internal arrangement, from another in 

 its neighbourhood, although alike in their external 

 figure. One of them may contain the remains of a 

 Norse, or a Danifh hero, interred according to the 

 rites of their respective countries, while another con- 

 tains the remains of a Britifh chief, buried after the 

 manner practised in his own native district. By at- 

 tending to these particulars, facts in history, that are 

 now obscure, might, on some occasions, be ascertain- 

 ed with a greater degree of certainty. 



