178 



Silbury. 



the Peruvians over their dead, whoso dried bodies or mummies 

 havo been found in considerable numbers, sometimes erect, but 

 more often in the sitting posture common to the Indian tribes of 

 both continents. 1 



Lastly, even in Now South "Wales, we find tumuli of earth and 

 of very considerable dimensions, though these are of comparatively 

 recent construction : 2 and in the island of Otaheite large sepul- 

 chral cairns of stone are to be seen, called " Morai," the largest 

 of which is a huge pile, said to measure 50 feet in height, 270 in 

 length, and 94 in width. 3 



And now to sum up the evidence of all these witnesses of 

 various nations and languages before us, what is the verdict to 

 which they seem to lead us ? We have seen that barrows of a very 

 large size, as well as of inferior proportions, exist in almost every 

 country, from North and South America to the Steppes of Tartary, 

 in the country of the Hottentots, and in the interior of New South 

 Wales : and that while the intention of the smaller ones was un- 

 doubtedly to commemorate the dead interred beneath, many of 

 the larger ones which have been thoroughly explored have been 

 proved to have had the same object. We have seen that the simple 

 earthwork, (such as Silbury) was the most primitive method of 

 commemorating their deceased chieftains among the earliest races 

 in most countries, but as they advanced in civilization they some- 

 times supported their earthworks with brick (as in the case of the 

 tombs, etc. of Babylon and Nineveh, the teocattis of Central 

 America, and the Bagohahs of Ceylon), or they substituted stone, 

 as in the Pyramids of Egypt. We have seen moreover that these hk 

 earthworks (whose object, as monuments of the dead interred 

 beneath, has been proved beyond dispute by excavation) have in 

 many cases assumed proportions, not only as large as, but very much 

 more gigantic than those of Silbury. And we have seen that the 

 method of interment, and the position of the remains within the mound 



1 Prescott's Conquest of Peru, vol. i., chap. 3., p. 86. 

 2 British Critic, vol. xvii., New Series, p. 493, A.D., 1818. See Oxley'i 

 Journal of two expeditions into the interior of New South Wales, in 1817, 1818 

 (Murray) 1820. 



3 Lost Solar System of the Ancients discovered, ii., 233. 



