ANCIENT REMAINS IN AERAN. 213 



the earth was cleared off, and a large slab reached, the ex- 

 citement of our party was wound to a high pitch. There 

 could be no doubt we were upon a place of ancient sepulture, 

 and curiosity was highly excited to discover the contents. 

 The slab being 13 inches thick, was of great weight, 

 and no slight effort, even of our large party, was required to 

 raise it. As it slowly rose, a small, neat chamber was dis- 

 closed, but neither skeleton nor bone nothing but an urn, 

 with a handful of black earth at the bottom; and these 

 " ashes of the urn " we regarded as all that remained of some 

 great chief, in whose honour and for whose last resting-place 

 these huge monuments had been reared around the central 

 cist. The urn was in excellent preservation, but of rude 

 construction. The cist was 3 feet long, 26 inches deep, and 

 22 inches broad, formed of four flat sandstone slabs, set on 

 edge, the bottom being of the natural hard till soil. In the 

 bottom, lying loosely about in black earth, four flint arrow- 

 heads of rude construction were found. The lid was 2 feet 2 

 inches from the surface, and fitted nicely on to the sides all 

 round. The length of the cist was nearly N. and S. 



The circle No. 3 was next tried at the centre, and a similar 

 cist and urn found at a depth of 4 feet 6 inches from the sur- 

 face ; in the cist and soil over the lid several flint arrow-heads 

 were met with, of rude construction, and the urn was even more 

 rude than the other. The opening was now continued south- 

 wards from the centre, and another cist found at a higher 

 level, the surface of the lid being only 20 inches from the 

 surface, the cist itself 2 feet 9 inches; the slab was 4 feet 

 square, and 13 inches thick. No sooner was the northern 

 edge of this ponderous lid slightly raised, so as to give a 

 glimpse of the interior, than the interest of the party was 

 again raised to the highest pitch. A white object, like a 

 blanched human skull, loomed out from the deep obscurity of 

 the cist. We had come at last to a veritable human grave. 

 The skull proved to be tolerably perfect, with most of the 

 teeth entire, the upper jaw partly decayed, the lower only 



