294 OGBURY BARROWS 



onco to the strani^e conclusion tliiit our new acquaintance, 

 the skeleton, had once been a living cannibal king of the 

 newer stone-a^^e in Britain. 



The only weapons or implements we could discover in the 

 barrow were two neatly chipped flint arrowheads, and a very 

 delicate ground greenstone hatchet, or tomahawk. Tliese 

 were the weapons of the dead chief, laid beside him in the 

 stone chamber where we found his skeleton, for his future 

 use in his underground existence. A piece or two of rude 

 liand-made pottery, no doubt containing food and drink for 

 the ghost, had also been placed close to his side : but they 

 had mouldered away with time and damp, till it was quite 

 impossible to recover more than a few broken and shape- 

 less fragments. There was no trace of metal in any way : 

 whereas if the tribesmen of our friend the skeleton had 

 known at all the art of smelting, we may be sure some 

 bronze axe or spearhead would have taken the place of the 

 flint arrows and the greenstone tomahawk : for savages 

 always bury a man's best property together with his corpse, 

 while civilised men take care to preserve it with pious care 

 in their own possession, and to fight over it strenuously in 

 the court of probate. 



The chief's own skeleton lay, or rather squatted, in the 

 most undignified attitude, in the central chamber. His 

 people when they put him there evidently considered that 

 he was to sit at his ease, as he had been accustomed to do 

 in his lifetime, in the ordinary savage squatting position, 

 with his knees tucked up till they reached his chin, and 

 his body resting entirely on the heels and haunches. 

 The skeleton was entire : but just outside and above the 

 stone vault we came upon a number of other bones, which 

 told another and very different story. Some of them were 

 the bones of the old prehistoric short-horned ox : others 

 belonged to wild boars, red deer, and sundry similar 



