found near Coughton in Warwickshire. 



125 



| ligament passed through the holes, carried about the warrior's 

 person, or suspended in his habitation. But my supposition that 

 the so-called incense cups served the purpose of vessels in which 

 to mingle body-paint does not rest solely on their adaptation for 

 that use, and their inapplicability for other uses suggested by 

 eminent archaeologists, and on the important discovery of stone pots 

 of similar capacity, and actually containing red pigment, or traces 

 of it, in Orkney ; but appears to receive further important corrob- 

 oration from the following piece of direct evidence. In a cist at 

 Liffs, in Derbyshire, three bits of red ochre were found associated 

 with an incense cup, as recorded in Bateman's vestiges of the 

 Antiquities of Derbyshire, transcribed in Sir John Lubbock's 

 Pre-historic times, page 94. On these grounds the writer of this 

 article presumes to hope that his readers will recognize a probability 

 in his supposition, that the Coughton cup and the so-called incense 

 cups represent in pottery the ruder stone vessels of Orkney. 

 In fact, we may conclude from our knowledge of the prevalence 

 of the custom of body-painting among the primitive inhabitants 

 of our island, that these vessels were used to contain pigment ; 

 that they would be discovered on the site of their habitations, 

 and would also be found associated with their interments. 



DESCRIPTION OF PLATE. 



Fig. 1. — Clay cup (actual size), found as described in this paper, near the 

 village of Coughton, Warwickshire. Depth of cavity, lfinch; diameter of 

 orifice, 2 inches ; has red stain inside. 



Fig. 2. — Stone vessel (half size). Depth of cavity, 1 inch ; diameter of 

 orifice, 2| inches ; found in a Pict's house at the bay of Skaill, Orkney ; contains 

 red pigment. 



Fig. 3. — Stone vessel (half size). Depth of cavity, 1 inch ; diameter of orifice, 

 If inch ; found with vessel fig. 2, in the same Pict's house ; exhibits traces of 

 having contained red pigment. 



Fig. 4. — Hollowed stone (half size). Depth of cavity, f inch ; diameter of 

 orifice, If inch; found at TJdny, Aberdeenshire. 



Fig. 5. — Clay cup (half size). Depth of cavity, 1 inch ; diameter of orifice, 

 If inch ; having a pair of perforations on one side ; found in a cairn at foot of the 

 hill of Benachie, Aberdeenshire. 



