1865.J Kett on Prehistoric, Records. 25-J 



kept up. Thus Zipporali and Joshua both used a stone for circum- 

 cision, pointing to a strong probability in favour of the use of stone in 

 the days of Abraham. Hannibal * used a stone wherewith to crush 

 the head of his sacrifice on a very solemn occasion — again a Semitic 

 race using this weapon. The priests of Montezuma, f when America 

 was first explored, employed the same material for sacrificing, though 

 metals were well known and in constant use for ordinary circum- 

 stances. In like manner we read that bronze implements and utensils 

 were used by some of the mountain tribes of Kurdistan in the time of 

 Xenophon,J as they still are by certain African nations. 



Of burials, there seems to have been various modes during the one 

 division of time which has been called the Stone Age. At first the 

 body was placed in a small cell in a crouched attitude, the knees sup- 

 porting the chin and the hands crossed on the breast or hanging at the 

 sides. After this, and probably by a different nation, the body was 

 burnt and the ashes enclosed in urns. A third period, which seems 

 to commence with the Bronze Age, is characterized by burying the 

 body at full length, a practice continued ever since its introduction in 

 this island. Coffins were frequently of oak. They are sometimes 

 made of a tree split and hollowed, the roughness of the splitting- 

 affording a means of fastening on the lid. The usual tomb during the 

 first of these periods was what was called a kist (kist-vaen, Gael, stone 

 chest), a small chamber of rough, unhewn flag-stones. Not unfre- 

 quently several kists were placed together, forming what has been 

 called the Chambered Barrow, of which some very fine specimens were 

 opened by Sir J. Colt Hoare, in Wiltshire, during the last century. 

 The cairn of stones piled around the body is a very early style of 

 monument, sometimes intended as a mark of honour, sometimes of 

 dishonour. A heap of earth would naturally be connected with this 

 monument, either in the form called the Long Barrow, like a gigantic 

 grave, or the Bowl Barrow, resembling an inverted bowl, or the Bell 

 Barrow ; in some places, especially in Scotland and the Orkneys, a 

 Conoid Barrow. At a later period stones were placed on the top and 

 around the barrows, thence named Crowned and Encircled Barrows. 

 These are common in Scandinavian and probably were introduced into 

 this country from thence. Of a similar date are the Twin Barrows, 

 where one vallum encloses two mounds, usually of different sizes. || 



* Livy, lib. xxi. c. 45. 



t The Mexicans used many instruments similar to those of our forefathers. 

 Their mode of fixing the heads of their hatchets to the handles shows this. 

 Clavigero says, " The Mexicans made use of an axe to cut trees, which was also 

 made of copper, and was of the same form with those of modern times, except we 

 put the handle in the eye of the axe, while they put the axe in the eye of the 

 handle." 



J Xenophon, Anab. lib. iv. 1, § 8. 



§ Numerous and remarkable instances of these forms are given in N. K. 

 Sjoborgs ' Samlinga for Nordens Fornalskare.' 



|| fetukeley gave the name of Druid Barrows to those which contained jet, 

 amber, and glass beads, cups, &c. ; but these seem to have belonged to females, and 

 not to deserve separate classification. 



T 2 



