242 YORKSHIRE. EAST RIDING. 



though not in actual contact with them, was a water-rolled pebble 

 of whinstone, similar in shape to those found on the lid of the 

 second cist, but which had not, like them, been chipped at the 

 narrowest part ; it weighs 6 Ib. 8 oz. It is difficult to believe that 

 these rude and cumbrous implements can have served more than 

 a mere temporary purpose ; nor is there any appearance about 

 them, beyond a slight abrasion at the end of one, of their having 

 been used. They were probably the instruments by aid of which 

 the slabs were split to fit them for their places in the construction 

 of the cists, and when they had answered that end, they had been 

 deposited with the bodies at the burial of which they had thus 

 been made serviceable. A somewhat similar instance, where the 

 implement apparently used in making the grave had been placed 

 in it, has been mentioned in the account of the last preceding 

 barrow. The sandstone slabs, some of which showed by their 

 peculiarly weathered surface that they had been taken from the 

 sea-beach, could not have been obtained nearer than Filey Brigg, 

 which is about twelve miles distant from the barrow. The trans- 

 portation of them thence must have been a work of time and 

 labour, especially to people who could have possessed nothing but 

 the simplest appliances for effecting the carriage of weighty objects. 

 Still there would be no unsurmountable difficulty in the way of 

 bringing them over the wolds from Filey, and their size and number 

 are as nothing compared to what we see in other places as con- 

 stituting parts of erections which must be attributed to the early 

 inhabitants of Britain. For instance, the moving of the great 

 monolith in Rudstone churchyard, even supposing it had been 

 brought to its present site from the distance of only a mile or two, 

 must have been a much more difficult operation than the bringing 

 of the slabs in question over a space of twelve miles. 



This is the only instance throughout my examination of the 

 wold barrows in which I have met with anything like a cist : in 

 fact, the absence of suitable stone is in itself sufficient to account 

 for such a mode of burial not having been adopted, common as it 

 is found to be in all districts where a supply of stone adapted to 

 such a purpose is met with. And indeed it seems strange in this 

 case, where a deep grave had been sunk into the chalk, that it 

 should have been considered necessary to undertake all the addi- 

 tional toil of constructing cists within the grave, when such con- 

 structions seemed in no way necessary for the protection of the 

 interred bodies. I have seen in limestone districts something 



