BURIAL AbTER CREMATION. 



21 



unburnt bodies were those of persons of high rank among 

 their people. Nor was it a question of sex ; for, apart from the 

 evidence of the bones themselves, burnt bodies have occurred which 

 had articles buried with them, such as arrow-points and axe- 

 hammers, indicating a male, whilst others have had such implements 

 or ornaments with them as have usually been found accompanying 

 the unburnt bodies of females ; and unburnt bodies of men and 

 women are abundant. Numerous interments of children by in- 

 humation have been met with, but they also have very often 

 undergone the process of burning. 



It is probable, indeed almost certain, that some rule guided the 

 practice, for it can scarcely have been a matter of accident, but we are 

 not at present in possession of evidence to show what the rule was. 



In some localities on the wolds it has been seen that cremation 

 prevailed, though inhumation was the general custom throughout 

 the whole district. In other parts of Yorkshire, however, crema- 

 tion was all but universal ; as for instance in Cleveland, where Mr. 

 Atkinson's very extensive investigations did not produce a single 

 instance of an unburnt body; and near Castle Howard, where a 

 large series of barrows contained nothing but burnt bodies \ 



It has been suggested, as a mode of accounting for the finding of 

 burnt bodies associated with unburnt, that, in some cases, the dead 

 were burnt and the bones preserved without being buried, until 

 the proper time for performing that rite arrived ^ This time has 

 been supposed to be that of the death of the head of the family, 

 when it became necessary to erect the sepulchral mound over him. 

 The suggestion, however, does not appear to me a probable one, and 

 the occurrence of such large numbers of burnt bodies in certain dis- 

 tricts seems fatal to it, even without taking into consideration the 



• The proportion of burnt to unburnt bodies differs very considerably in various 

 districts. The extensive series of interments, the examination of which is recorded in 

 the works of Bateman, Hoare, Warne, and Borlase, enables us to obtain an ap- 

 proximately true estimate of what has been the mode of burial in the several 

 localities to which their accounts refer. In Derbyshire the proportion is slightly in 

 favour of unburnt bodies ; in Wiltshire burnt bodies are as three to one unburnt ; in 

 Dorsetshire as four to one ; and in Cornwall cremation appears to have been by far the 

 most common usage. In the counties of Denbigh, Merioneth, and Caernarvon, crema- 

 tion seems to have been almost universal. In Northumberland I have disinterred 

 seventy-one bodies, and of these forty-five were after cremation, and twenty-six by 

 inhumation ; the proportion of burnt to unburnt bodies being, therefore, almost two 

 to one. 



^ The Chinese preserve the body without burying it, until a propitious time an-ives. 

 This is discovered by the priests, who perform from time to time certain incantations 

 (for which they are paid), with the view of ascertaining when the happy moment will 

 occur. As may be imagined, the burial of a rich man is often long deferred. 



