110 TUMULI OF MODERN SAVAGES. 



pieces (figs. 113, 114) were found apart fronf the rest, and 

 may, perhaps, be of later origin. 



Fio. 113. FIG. 114. 



Pottery from the Tumulus at West Kennet. 



Other similar cases might be mentioned,* in which tumuli 

 of large size, covering a sepulchral chamber, constructed 

 with great labor of huge blocks of stone, have contained 

 several skeletons, evidently those of persons of high rank, 

 and accompanied by many stone implements and fragments 

 of pottery, yet without a trace of metaL It appears reason- 

 able to conclude that these interments belong to the ante- 

 metallic period; especially when, as in the first-mentioned 

 case, we find several secondary interments, plainly belonging 

 to a later age, and although presenting no such indications 

 of high rank, still accompanied by objects of bronze. 



It may seem at first sight very improbable that works so 

 considerable should have been undertaken and carried out by 

 nations entirely ignorant of metal. The burial mound of 

 Oberea, in Otaheiti, was nevertheless two hundred and sixty- 

 seven feet long, eighty-seven wide, and forty-four in height. 

 And in treating of modern savages, I shall hereafter have 

 occasion to notice other instances quite as extraordinary. 



The practice of burying in old tumuli, which continued 



* See, for instance, Lukis, Archaeologia v. 35, p. 247. 



