"THE OLD MEN " 165 



evils and sought imaginary treasures in these pre- 

 historic tombs. Their names in the local tongue still 

 indicate the renown in which they were once held. 

 They are called "money pits," "money boxes," 

 "crocks of gold"; and the fancy that they contained 

 secret hoards is ancient, for Edward II. gave special 

 grants for searching of Devonshire barrows. 



Some of these graves are very narrow in the kist, 

 and indicate cineration of the corpse that rested there ; 

 others probably contained contracted or doubled-up 

 skeletons, whose bones have been dust two thousand 

 years and more. Occasional un-urned fragments tell 

 of a higher civilisation, for hard by this spot above 

 Grimspound the things discovered within a tomb 

 indicated intercourse between the Danmonians and a 

 people nearer the light. Here were amber and bronze 

 given up from a tumulus that also held the cremated 

 remains of some hero who had achieved these posses- 

 sions in battle or by barter. The stone avenues that 

 spring up and wind away to the inner loneliness are 

 also probably connected with purposes of sepulture ; 

 and the hut-circles or hut-foundations, generally to be 

 met with nigh the rivers, stand for the homes and 

 haunts of that scattered people who formed a consider- 

 able population on the high Moor in times of old. 

 They endure, and charcoal still lies black on the hidden 

 hearthstones under the grass that covers their floors. 

 Shards of coarse pottery also appear, and the flint- 

 flake implements have not changed since their makers' 

 hands grew cold. 



