34 
with mud dredged from the lake. In dredging this mud num- 
bers of piles, stags' horns, implements, and other objects were 
found. A reference to Plan i, in Case K 4, will show the 
places at which these excavations were made. M. Aeppli of 
Meilen was the first person to draw attention to these objects. 
Subsequently Dr. Keller conducted further researches at Meilen, 
which he followed up by similar investigations in other lakes. 
The result has established the fact that the early inhabitants of 
Switzerland constructed some, at least, of their dwellings above 
the surface of the water, in which they probably lived in a similar 
manner to those Paeonians whose habits have been described by 
Herodotus. 
Ancient and Modern Notices of Pile-Dwellings. 
Some of the Paeonians, a Thracian tribe, lived in huts sup- 
ported upon piles driven into the bed Of the lake Prasias in 
Pseonia (part of modern Roumelia). The following passage 
from Herodotus describes these dwellings and the habits of the 
people : — 
"The)% on the other hand, who dwelt about Mount Pangaeus 
and in the country of the Doberes^ the Agrianians, and the Odo- 
mantians, and they likewise who inhabited lake Prasias, were 
not conquered by Megabazus. He sought indeed to subdue the 
dwellers upon the lake, but could not effect his purpose. Their 
manner of living is the following : platforms supported upon 
tall piles stand in the middle of the lake, which are approached 
from the land by a single narrow bridge. At the first the piles 
which bear up the platforms were fixed in their places by the 
whole body of the citizens ; but since that time the custom 
which has prevailed about fixing them is this : they are brought 
from a hill called Orbelus, and every man drives in three for each 
wife that he marries. Now the men have all many wives apiece, 
and this is the way in which they live. Each has his own hut, 
wherein he dwells, upon one of the platforms ; and each has also 
a trap-door, giving access to the lake beneath ; and their wont is 
to tie their baby children by the foot with a string to save them 
from rolling into the water. They feed their horses and their 
other beasts upon fish, which abound in the lake to such a degree 
that a man has only to open his trap-door and to let down a 
basket by a rope into the water, and then to wait a very short 
time, when up he draws it quite full of them." 
Many savage and semi-savage tribes live in pile-dwellings at 
the present day. The fishermen of Lake Prasias still inhabit 
