AND THE DWELLINGS OF SOME ARCTIC NATIONS. 89 



the earth. One of them, which I examined, was of an oval 

 form, about twenty feet long, and twelve or more high. 

 The framing was composed of wood, and the ribs of whales, 

 disposed in a judicious manner, and bound together with 

 smaller materials of the same sort. Over this framing is 

 laid a covering of strong coarse grass; and that, again, is 

 covered with earth : so that, on the outside, the house looks 

 like a little hillock, supported by a wall of stone, three or 

 four feet high, which is built round the two sides, and one 

 end." 



These dwellings appear, then, to agree very closely with 

 the " Ganggraben ;" indeed, it is possible that in some cases 

 ruined dwellings of this kind have been mistaken for sepul- 

 chral tumuli;* for some mounds have been examined which 

 contained broken implements, pottery, ashes, etc., but no 

 human bones ; in short, numerous indications of life, but no 

 trace of death. We know, also, that several savage tribes 

 have a superstitious reluctance to use anything which has 

 belonged to a dead person ; in some cases this applies to his 

 house, which is either deserted or used as a grave. The 

 Indians of the Amazons bury their dead under their houses, 

 which, however, are not therefore abandoned by the living. 



Under these circumstances, there seems much proba- 

 bility in the view advocated by Professor Nilsson, the 

 venerable archaeologist of Sweden, that these "Granggra- 

 ben" are a copy, a development, or an adaptation, of the 

 dwelling-house ; that the ancient inhabitants of Scandi- 

 navia, unable to imagine a future altogether different from 

 the present, or a world quite unlike our own, showed their 

 respect and affection for the dead, by burying with them 

 those things which in life they had valued most ; with ladies 

 their ornaments, with warriors their weapons. They buried 

 the house with its owner, and the grave was literally the 

 * The so-called " Pond-barrows" perhaps belong to this class. 



