10 J. H. Rivett-Carnac—Prehistoric Remains [No. 1, 
Plate IV, Nos. 9-14,were collected. The excavation had evidently been carried 
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. 18, A small brooch, or buckle, or ornament, resembling in shape a 
bow andarrow. 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- 
sentations of the articles buried in the tumuli, Without pausing to enquire 
whether this view is correct, the somewhat singular resemblance between 
the remains, found 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 passed 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. 
