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for a few hours to cool and stiffen, when it wag silently- 
removed, and carefully deposited in a narrow and short 
grave. If a natural crevice in a rock, or a convenient 
receptacle under one or more large stones could be found 
near at hand, they always availed themselves of such a secure 
protection for the remains of their deceased relatives, against 
the depredations of the ferocious carnivorous animals which 
infested the surrounding forests. 
Now this description would apply to most of the human 
remains found in our rudest Cromleachs. I am told it would 
also apply to the condition of the human remains found in 
the most ancient Mexican graves. The bones are seldom or 
never found charred, and their position when undisturbed 
almost always coincides with that of the body of the dead 
Carib. This is in all probability the most primitive, as it 
was the most natural way of disposing of the human dead 
body, in man's savage state, all over the world. 
I think we ought therefore to infer that the rudest 
Cromleach, like the Carib grave, has been of natural or 
accidental formation. I have seen several which must have 
been thus formed. There is a remarkable one near the town 
of Dundalk, in Ireland. It appeared to me to be nothing 
more than a large granite boulder, which in falling happened 
to drop upon another, which it split vertically into four large 
fragments. Upon this accidental tripod, or rather tetrapod, 
it has reposed, in my opinion, undisturbed since the geological 
period of the glacial flood. It thus became a ready-made 
and secure tomb, and I have no doubt of its having been 
continually made use of for this purpose, from the remotest 
ages ; for it goes even at the present day by the name 
of " The Giant's Grave." The relics and remains of various 
and successive races which are occasionally found in such 
cromleachs may be easily accounted for on this supposition. 
It is not surprising that these vast masses of rock, so 
