POTTERY OF THE BARROWS. 61 



dead for an after use in another state of existence 1 ; though of 

 course that does not prevent other causes, such as those mentioned, 

 from having- also had their influence on certain occasions. 



A more frequent accompaniment of the body, whether burnt or 

 unburnt, than either weapon, implement, or ornament, is a vessel 

 of earthenware. This is found, in the greater number of cases of 

 unburnt bodies, to be placed in front or at the back of the head ; 

 but occasionally behind the back, in front of the chest or knees, 

 and sometimes, though rarely, at the feet. In a few instances a 

 sepulchral vase has occurred in a barrow not in close proximity 

 with any interment. It is usually placed upright, but is found not 

 unfrequently on the side, a position which appears to have been 

 caused by its having been overthrown by the pressure of the sur- 

 rounding earth. 



Vessels of pottery are associated with burnt bodies in two different 

 ways : they occur containing the bones, and are also met with 

 accompanying them, much after the fashion in which they are 

 found with unburnt bodies. They are in this case placed on 

 the top or at the side of deposits of burnt bones, and frequently 

 amongst them, even where the bones themselves are enclosed in 

 an urn. 



The vessels vary almost indefinitely in size, shape, and orna- 

 mentation, as they do in the composition of the clay and the rude- 

 ness or skill of their manufacture. 



They have been divided into cinerary urns, ' incense cups,' * food 

 vessels,' and ' drinking cups/ This nomenclature is to some ex- 

 tent, and as regards some of them, misleading ; but it has become 

 so commonly used as to render it difficult, and perhaps unadvisable, 

 to alter it. If the intention of these vessels or the object with 

 which they have been buried with the dead could be distinctly 

 ascertained, then it would become imperative to make such an 

 alteration in the names given to them as would bring the names 

 into harmony with their actual purpose. But as it is impossible to 

 say, with absolute certainty, what they were originally intended for, 

 if indeed they ever had any purpose beyond the sepulchral one ; or 

 to explain, in every case, the use they fulfilled when deposited with 

 the body; it is perhaps better to adhere to the existing nomen- 

 clature. It must however be premised that it is merely a con- 

 ventional one, and the reader must be guarded against forming any 



1 The whole question connected with this and kindred practices is very fully 

 illustrated and discussed in Tyler's Primitive Culture, in the chapters on Animism. 



