160 YORKSHIRE. EAST RIDING, 



warrior was at last laid in the grave, the weapon with which he 

 had won renown and smitten the foes of his tribe should be there 

 deposited at his side ? 



They are always beautifully made, and with great symmetry; 

 sometimes with simple but tasteful ornamentation, which is 

 possibly another reason for accounting them weapons of war rather 

 than implements for every-day use. All races of men, in the 

 gradual progress from the untutored ways of savage life to the 

 greater refinements of civilisation, have not only bestowed 

 unusual pains on making beautiful their choicest possessions, or in 

 enhancing the natural beauty of their women by the further 

 adornment of various decorations, jewels and gold, but have 

 specially enriched their swords, their spears, all their warlike 

 equipment, with the choicest art at their command. On the other 

 hand, the simple hatchet, the so-called celt, of stone, without 

 perforation, but possessing a sharp-cutting edge, has been but 

 rarely found buried with its owner; although it may not 

 unfrequently have occurred amongst the materials of which the 

 burial mound is composed. We are almost constrained to regard 

 these hatchets, or celts, as being, in the main, implements for 

 ordinary use, such as cutting down trees and working wood in 

 other ways, or not improbably in the various processes of 

 agriculture ; although of course they may have served at times 

 quite other purposes : they may have often dealt a death-blow to 

 an ox or other animal, or even to an enemy in a hand-to-hand 

 struggle. Nay, even at the present day, with all our wealth of 

 mechanical contrivances, we are continually putting the selfsame 

 article to a variety of uses : and such must have been far more 

 frequently the case in a ruder and more imperfectly-supplied state of 

 society ; just as the African savage of to-day uses the head of his 

 spear not only as a knife, but makes it serve the purposes of a 

 variety of tools. 



The group of barrows next dealt with is also situated upon Potter 

 Brompton Wold, and about a mile east of the group lately under 

 notice. It consisted originally of five mounds, one having been 

 removed in the course of agricultural operations several years ago. 

 The remaining four were all examined by me. They had been 

 more or less ploughed down, and some secondary burials had most 

 probably been destroyed in consequence. 



