round barrows--Interior of barrow--Position of bodies--Cremation--
Burial urns--Articles of dress and ornament--Artistic workmanship--
Pottery--Remains of agriculture--Organised condition of society
among prehistoric people.


Throughout the country we find many artificial mounds which are called
_tumuli_ or barrows, or in the neighbourhood of Wales, "tumps." These
are the ancient burial-places of the early inhabitants of our island,
the word "barrow" being derived from the Anglo-Saxon _beorh_, a hill or
grave-mound. It is not unusual to see a barrow in the centre, or near,
an old churchyard, as at Taplow, Bucks. The church was built, of course,
much later than the erection of the mound; but doubtless the early
preachers of the gospel took advantage of the reverence which was paid
to these ancient tombs, proclaimed there the story of the cross, and on
the spots so consecrated churches were ultimately built.

These mounds have much to tell us of the early inhabitants. To cover the
dead with a mound of earth was a custom common to all nations. All over
Europe, in Northern Asia, India, and in the new world of America, we
find burial-mounds. The pyramids of Egypt are only glorified mounds; and
our islands can boast of an endless variety, sometimes consisting of
cairns, or heaps of stones, sometimes of huge hills of earth, 130 feet
in height, as at Silbury, Wilts, and covering five acres; while others
are only small heaps of soil a few feet high.

The contents of the tumuli differ also. Sometimes the bodies were burnt
and the ashes preserved in rude urns; sometimes they were not cremated.
Sometimes they were buried in stone cists, or in the hollowed trunk of
trees; sometimes without any covering save that of the earth. In nearly