244 YORKSHIRE. EAST RIDING. 



time, in the ordinary course of nature. It has been suggested that 

 r.embers of a family, chancing to die before its head, might be 

 burnt at the time of their decease, and their ashes preserved until 

 the period of his death, when they would be buried in company with 

 his body. This might have been the case in the instances now under 

 consideration, so far as the burnt bodies are concerned ; but it does 

 not account for the presence of the unburnt bones of the children. 

 Besides, in other instances, several bodies have been found, all un- 

 burnt, but certainly all buried at the same time ; and of course it 

 would not be possible to keep dead bodies for any length of time with- 

 out first burning them, or at least reducing them to the condition 

 of mummies or skeletons. Moreover, if we suppose that such bodies 

 might have been placed in some receptacle until the time arrived for 

 their final deposition in the grave, the bones could scarcely have been 

 found as in many cases we really do find them in the barrows — 

 namely, in such relative positions as to afford the most certain evidence 

 that they must still have been invested with their covering of flesh 

 and with the ligaments attached when finally laid to rest. It will 

 have been observed that in one of the Cowlam barrows [No. Ivii], 

 and in one of those on Willerby Wold [No. xxxiii], as well as in 

 others, bodies were discovered which, from the irregular way in 

 which the bones were disposed, showed that they had been re- 

 moved from a previous place of deposit ; and such facts might 

 appear to favour the view that in some instances persons were not 

 buried at the period of their death, but were kept until what was 

 considered a more suitable, or the proper, time had arrived for the 

 performance of the rite. Certainly such an interpretation may 

 be given of the facts as they are presented in some barrows ; but 

 there is another explanation to be given of the facts as presented 

 in others. It is probable that these improperly jointed and 

 sometimes incomplete skeletons are the remains of disturbed bodies, 

 which had been replaced with a certain amount of care, though 

 with little anatomical skill, this careful re-interment being pos- 

 sibly due to their being near of kin to the person the introduction 

 of whose body into the barrow had caused the disturbance. Taking 

 all the facts into consideration, I am inclined to think that in many 

 of the cases where we find several bodies, either burnt or unburnt, 

 or both, which have all been buried at the same time, some of them 

 are those of wives, children, or slaves who had been put to 

 death at the funeral of the chief or other person with whose body 

 they are associated in the grave. 



