86 ON THE ORIGIN OF CREMATION, 



" Of these Russian and Siberian sepulchres, some (he says) 

 " are encompassed with a square wall of large quarry stones, 

 " placed in an erect position ; others are covered only with a 

 " small heap of stones, or they are tumuli adorned at top. In 

 *' many of these sepulchres the bones of men, and frequently 

 " of horses, are found, and in a condition that renders it pro- 

 " bable the bodies were not burnt before they were inhumed. 

 " Other bones shew clearly that they have been previously 

 " burnt ', because a part of them is unconsumed, and because 

 " they lie in a disordered manner, and some of them are want- 

 " ing. Urns, in which other nations of antiquity have deposi- 

 " ted the ashes of their dead, are never met with here. But 

 " sometimes what remained of the bodies after the combu- 

 " stion, and even whole carcases, are found wrapped up in thin 

 " plates of gold. — There is a very remarkable circumstance 

 " observable in some of the tombs on the upper part of the 

 " Yenisei, which forms an exception to the general rule of 

 " other sepulchres. Instead of ornaments and utensils of gold 

 " and silver found in other tombs, you meet here only with 

 " copper utensils. Even such instruments as would have been 

 " better wrought of iron are here found all of copper, as 

 " knives, darts and daggers. The nation, therefore, whose 

 " dead are here inhumed, seems to have been unacquainted 

 " with the use of iron ; and these tombs must accordingly be 

 " more ancient than the others *." 



This learned writer seems himself to admit, that some of 

 these monuments are far more ancient than others ; and gives 

 an indubitable proof of the high antiquity of some of them, 

 when he remarks, that all the instruments found in them were 



made 



* Account of the Burial-places of the ancient Tartars, by the Reverend Wjl- 

 mam Tooke, F. 11. S. Chaplain to the English Factory at St Petersburgh, Ar- 

 checologia, vol. vii. p. 223, 224. 



