10 J. H. Eivett-Carnac — Prehistoric Remains [No. 1, 



Plate IV, Nos. 9-14,were collected. The excavation had evidently been earned 

 down to the rocky basis of the hill, and earth filled up over the remains. 

 Though thickly encrusted with rust, some of which subsequently flaked off, 

 the iron was in good preservation owing to the dryness of the soil in which 

 it had been buried. The photographs shew the implements as they looked 

 some six months after they were found, after they had undergone some 

 rough handling. No traces of human remains were found. They had 

 perhaps long since disappeared. 



No. 9. Small pieces of rusty iron, possibly arrow-heads, &c. ( ?) 



No. 10. Spear heads ( ?) 



No. 11. Axes, small specimens of No. 5. In one specimen the bands 

 are perfect. They are wanting in the other. 



No. 12. A snaffle bit in excellent preservation. The form is quite that 

 of the present day. But, after all, this is hardly very remarkable and cannot 

 be held to militate against the antiquity of the remains. The dagger, the 

 sword and the spear have not undergone any great change during many 

 centuries, and the snaffle as the easiest bit for a horse's mouth would have 

 suggested itself at an early date to a race of horsemen. 



No. 13. A small brooch, or buckle, or ornament, resembling in shape a 

 bow and arrow. It will be noticed that both this and the axes are in miniature. 

 I cannot find the passage in Herodotus, but, if I am not mistaken, it is 

 mentioned either by him or one of the old writers, that a custom prevailed 

 among the Scythians or nomadic tribes of that class, of burying with their 

 dead their weapons and horse-trappings, or the miniatures of their weapons. 



No. 14. A pair of iron articles of exactly the same size and shape with 

 loops at either end. At first it was thought they might be horse bits. It 

 afterwards suggested itself that they must be stirrups. The sculpturings 

 on the remains found in England are supposed by some, to be rough repre- 

 sentation's of the articles buried in the tumuli. Without pausing to enquire 

 whether this view is correct, the somewhat singular resemblance between 

 the remains, f otmd in this barrow, and the sculptures on the wall of the 

 Deo Cave, Fife, may be noticed (see Plate XXXIV, Fig. 3, Sir J. Simpson's 

 Archaic Sculptures). The so-called " spectacle marks" may be the bit, and 

 the form of the stirrups and spear-heads may be traced in Sir J. Simpson's 

 sketch, without the exercise of any very great stretch of the imagination. 

 To the view, that these are indeed the stirrups of the rider, the bit of whose 

 horse and whose spear and other weapons were buried by his side, I still 

 adhere, believing that the foot of the horseman was placed on the piece of 

 iron, which formed the base of a triangle, the two sides being perhaps com- 

 posed of thongs j>assed through the loops at either end. This view receives 

 further confirmation from the extract of Professor Stephen's note to 

 Frithiof's Saga, extracted in a later paragraph. 



