182 



Silbury. 



by Cucsar 1 of the Gauls, and by Tacitus of tho Germanic races : but 

 Mr. Kcmble, with his usual accurate research, has collected abun- 

 dant evidence that tho same custom prevailed in different ages 

 among the Tschudi of the Altai 2 ; the Tartars of the Grim ; 3 

 the Celtic tribes in Gaul and Britain ; the Franks, as evidenced in 

 Childeric's grave ; the Saxons, as proved by constant excavation ; 

 and the Northmen, as we read in all the Norse Sagas, and find in 

 innumerable Norse graves. It was common also to the Sclavonic 

 tribes- of the Russ in the 10th century ; 4 to the Lithuanians ; 

 Letts ; Wands ; and the Ugrian population of the Finn3. 5 Nor is 

 it a practice in vogue amongst uncivilized nations only in days 

 gone by, for we are told that the people of Assam in India beyond 

 the Ganges are still accustomed to bury horses, elephants, camels 

 and hounds with their Kings ; and the Abipones of South America, 

 when a chief or warrior dies, kill his horses on the grave : 6 and 

 Washington Irving mentions the burial of a child, among the 

 American Indians, with whom were buried all her playthings, and 

 a favourite little horse that she might ride it in the land of spirits. 

 So that after all, if Silbury was reared over the ashes of some 

 mighty chieftain, it is most probable that his horse was buried 

 there too. 7 



I come now to the most perplexing part of my subject, the 

 probable date of the erection of Silbury ; and here, (I fear) we are 

 and for the present must be contented to remain very much in the 

 dark : still we have (I think) certain threads of more or less consist- 



1 Comment., lib. vi., c. 19. " Funera sunt, pro cultu Gallorum magnifica et 

 sumptuosa ; omniaque, quae vivis cordi fuisse arbitrantur, in ignem inferunt, 

 etiam animalia." 



2 Ledebour Reise, i., 231. 3 Lindner, p. 92. 

 4 See Frahn's edition of Ibn Foylan's Travels, p. 104. 

 5 Mac Pherson's Kertch, p. 77. 

 6 Lost Solar System of the Ancients discovered, ii., 252. 

 7 An interesting discovery of horse shoes near the foot of Silbury, apparently 

 Roman, and recorded in the Archseological Journal, (vol. xi., 65), has misled 

 some with the false report of these relics having been disinterred from the 

 interior of the mound : whereas one was found on Beckhampton Down, two 

 miles from Silbury ; another at the foot of the hill ; and another a short distance 

 to the N.W. of it : their obvious connexion with the locality being only with 

 the Roman road which ran at the base of the hill. 



