Arcliceologia. 457 



remote period. Curiously enough, we have evidence of the existence 

 of cannibalism among the tribes in Scotland at a well- known histori- 

 cal period. In the latter half of the fourth century, the province of 

 Britain, thrown by misgovernment or imperial neglect into frightful 

 confusion, was overrun by predatory invaders, chiefly from Scotland, 

 who ravaged the country in the most ruthless manner. Among those 

 Scottish depredators was a people called the Attacotti, who appear 

 to have been unknown to the Romans before that date, but who are 

 described as the most savage and barbarous tribe with whom they 

 had hitherto come in contact. The well-known ecclesiastical writer, 

 St. Jerome, who flourished at the close of the fourth century (he 

 died in 420), tells us that, in his youth, he had seen some of these 

 Attacotti in Graul — no doubt, prisoners taken in Britain, and shown, 

 perhaps, as curiosities. He describes them as savages of the lowest 

 character, who were so accustomed to eating human flesh that, when 

 they made raids into districts which abounded in cattle, they pre- 

 ferred the men as diet to the animals ; and he informs us particularly 

 of the parts of either sex which they considered as the most delicate 

 for eating — pastorum nates et fceminarum, et papillas solere abscindere, 

 et has solas ciborum delicias arbitrari. A writer, of doubtful authen- 

 ticity, Richard of Cirencester, though the book which has been pub- 

 lished under his name seems to have been made up from some 

 materials with which we are not well" acquainted, places the Atta- 

 cotti on the banks of the Clyde {Clot a), that is, in the maritime 

 districts of Argyll ; but the Romans, until a late period of their rule, 

 occupied the Clyde in force, and these Attacotti could hardly have 

 been known there before the fourth century. It is probable, there- 

 fore, that the Attacotti were people from the extreme north, who 

 had been gradually drawn southward by the prospect of plunder ; 

 and we need go no farther back for cannibalism and any amount of 

 savage barbarism in the county of Caithness. 



At the meeting of the Anthropological Society, on the 6th of 

 December, Mr. George S. Roberts laid before the Society the 

 remains found in an early cist, or grave, in the Muckle Heog, on the 

 Island of Unst, one of the Shetland group. The most remarkable 

 of the objects found in this burial-place were seven vessels scooped 

 out of chloritic schist, the largest about seven inches, and the 

 smallest three, in height, which were spoken of rather facetiously as 

 a " prehistoric dinner-service." Vessels of stone are rather of a late 

 than of an early date. We know of no instance of the discovery of 

 such vessels in early interments. The Romans, as we well know, 

 sculptured stone into vessels of the most elaborate forms ; but 

 ruder vessels in stone belong especially to the Middle Ages, and are 

 found, not very unfrequently, among monastic ruins. They were 

 developed, in a more finished style of art, into the holy water stoupe 

 and font. Nothing but the form of the interment found by 

 Mr. Roberts in the Isle of Unst, would lead us to consider them as 

 not Christian ; while, as Christianity was hardly established in the 

 Shetland Islands before the seventh century, we have no reason for 

 giving any earlier date to this interment ; and we know that among 

 the tribes of Western Europe the Pagan forms of burial were kept 

 up long after their conversion to Christianity. At the same time, 



