dying out.

G.H. ROSENFELD.

* * * * *

THE GREAT ROUND WORLD AND THE
PEOPLE WHO LIVED ON IT.

(Continued from page 1234.)

And so, next to the dwellings for life, they built dwellings for
death--built them larger and stronger, too, since so many graves are
left in excellent preservation, while no houses at all have survived to
satisfy our curiosity. A universally favorite form of grave is the
so-called "mound" (known in England as "barrow"). These mound-tombs, to
judge from what is found in them, were constructed to hold the remains
of the wealthy and powerful among the people, often of their kings.
They differ greatly in size and richness, but all are alike in this:
that the place for the body or bodies is dug more or less deep in the
ground, then closed tight with stones or slabs and hard-stamped soil,
above which is raised an earthen mound, on which the grass grows--hence
the name.

The "mound-builders" have been busy all over the world. There is no flat
country on any part of the earth where these strange monuments have not
been found, singly or in groups, and it taxes at times a sharp eye to
know them from the natural grass-grown knolls or hillocks on a so-called
rolling plain, for which, indeed, they were taken until some accident
made known what they really were.

Let us look at the interior of one of the most royal among these palaces
of death--or, rather, in the builders' minds, vestibules of a renewed
life.

In the middle--or toward one end--of a large, rather low chamber,
flagged and cased with stone masonry, lies the chieftain's skeleton,
with golden armlets and necklet, possibly a golden band encircling the
skull, and some choice weapons by his side, within reach of the hand.
Not infrequently tatters of some tissue show where the mantle was folded
around the form; but that falls to dust at the lightest touch, and,
indeed, at a longer contact with air, as do sometimes the bones
themselves. A smaller skeleton--a woman's--likewise adorned, shares the
honors of the gloomy abode. It is the wife, or perchance the favorite
wife, polygamy (the custom of having many wives) having long been
universal. In a circle around the two principal figures, but at a
respectful distance, indicating their subordinate station, are disposed
other skeletons, unclothed and unadorned, evidently slaves, probably
favorite attendants. N