212 VOICES FROM THE WOODLANDS. 



where it enters the vale country. No rites that breathed 

 of hope and peace to the survivor attended their interment. 

 Their chief was buried, according to the custom of his 

 country,, with all his ornaments and arms, his horse, and 

 even his wealth and plunder ; his men lay round him, each 

 with his sword and spear, and above them a huge mound 

 of earth was cast up, surmounted with a stone. Northward 

 of the village, and under the west side of a ridge of hills 

 which separated the vale from the hill country, and near 

 a small brook shaded with willow-trees, was seen also 

 another tumulus or barrow containing a stone sepulchre. 

 It was opened, in after years, by some labourers when 

 digging for stone, and found to contain a perfect skeleton. 

 The bones were fresh and firm, and the teeth white as 

 ivory ; over the head hung a helmet so corroded by rust as 

 to fall to pieces on exposure to the air. No other trace 

 remained, excepting some rude characters which designated 

 the year 1000 : the year, most probably, when the spirit 

 which inhabited that unsightly skeleton ceased from among 



