338 EARLY MAN IN BRITAIN. [CHAP. ix. 



Superstitions handed down from the Stone Age. 



We have seen in the preceding chapter that in the 

 Neolithic age the tombs were the habitations of the 

 dead, 1 in which they were supposed to live. This 

 superstition has been current in Europe from that 

 remote age to the present time. The Scandinavian 

 warriors, who had entered the gates of Walhalla and 

 sat in Odin's Hall, made visits to their tombs on the 

 earth. Helge, one of the heroes of the Edda, in spite 

 of the magnificent welcome which he received from 

 Odin, returned on horseback into his tumulus, accom- 

 panied by many horsemen. There he received the visit 

 of his surviving wife, who lay down by him in the 

 sepulchre. The inhabitants of the tumuli the spirits 

 of the mountain, the Voettir, the Elves, and the Manes, 

 are traceable over the greater part of Europe, and 

 are supposed still to be able to avenge themselves 

 on mortals by whom they have been disturbed. The 

 tumuli in the Isle of Man are protected from destruction 

 by this superstition : and it is reported in the island 

 that the dread of their occupants is still so strong, that 

 about the year 1859 a farmer offered a heifer as a burnt- 

 sacrifice, that he might avert their anger, excited by 

 the exploration of a chambered tomb near the Tynwald 

 Mount by Messrs. Oliver and Oswald. This is probably 

 the last example of a burnt-sacrifice in civilised Europe. 



On some of the stones composing the tombs in 

 Britain and Ireland are to be seen small round holes, 

 seldom more than three-quarters of an inch to an inch 

 deep. These have evidently been made on purpose, 



1 C. F. Wiberg, MaUriaux, 1877, p. 408. 



