112 



On a Piece of Perjorated Slate 



yet it would suit very conveniently as a brace or shield on the J 

 wrist of a youth or female. Another plate deposited in the same I 

 Museum, hollowed, and pierced with the same number of holes as ] 

 the Invernessshire and Worcestershire slates, 2J inches long, and .j 

 2 inches broad, taken from a grave under a tumulus at Broadford 

 Bay in the island of Skye, appears also to be well adapted to be 

 used with the same design on the wrist of a grown up person. 1 I 

 (vide pi. vii., fig. 1, a. b. c.) It will be apparent then to the 

 readers of this article, that the opinion formed by the writer con- I 

 cerning the probable use of such tablets both hollowed and flat I 

 ones is principally founded, first, on the adaptation of both kinds I 

 for the purpose suggested, and the utter improbability that the I 

 hollowed plates were worn on any other part of the body but the I 

 wrist ; secondly, on the position of the flat perforated slate in | 

 relation to the interred body discovered at Eoundway Hill. The i 

 force of the first argument derived from the evidence of design in 

 the instrument to serve the purpose supposed, will at once be recog- 

 nized, and the second process of reasoning founded on the position 

 of the flat tablet in the barrow at Roundway Hill, will doubtless I 

 also be allowed weight when its probable use is thus reconsidered by 

 the light of the discovery of the scooped slates in Worcestershire I 

 and Scotland. If the flat tablets had been pierced with holes only 

 at one end, it might be then a fair supposition that they served a 

 purpose distinct from that of the hollowed ones perforated at both 

 ends, and had been employed as appendages to the neck or breast, I 

 But when we observe them drilled through at either end, and in 

 one instance with the same number of holes as the hollowed plates, 

 it seems presumptive evidence that the uses of both kinds of tablets I 

 were the same, those with a concave surface being only more ex- I 

 pensively and elaborately wrought in order to fit easier the slight 

 rotundity of the inner side of the wrist. The interesting result I 

 of the process of reasoning conducted in this paper, shows the ! 

 utility of comparing specimens of antiquities from various and ! 



1 This specimen being slightly smaller at the lower end than at the upper end, j 

 seems still better suited for the purpose of a brace. The width of the lower 

 end is exactly the same as that of the plate from Aldington, viz. If inches. 



