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
all cases we find numerous articles buried with the dead, such as
personal ornaments, weapons, pottery, and food.

The presence of food in the tumuli testifies to the natural instinct
implanted by the Creator in the human heart with regard to a future
existence. The idea that the soul of the departed is about to take a
long journey is constant and deeply rooted; the rainbow and the milky
way have often been supposed to be the paths trod by the departed, who
require sustenance for so long a journey. The Aztecs laid a water-bottle
beside the bodies to be used on the way to Mictlan, the land of the
dead. Bow and arrows, a pair of mocassins with a spare piece of deerskin
to patch them if they wear out, and sinews of deer to sew on the patches
with, together with a kettle and provisions, are still placed in the
graves by the North American Indians. The Laplanders lay beside the
corpse flint, steel, and tinder, to supply light for the dark journey. A
coin was placed in the mouth of the dead by the Greeks to pay Charon,
the ferryman of the Styx, and for a similar purpose in the hand of a
deceased Irishman. The Greenlanders bury with a child a dog, for they
say a dog will find his way anywhere. In the grave of the Viking warrior
were buried his horn and armour in order that he might enter the halls
of Valhalla fully equipped.

These and many other examples might be quoted showing the universality
of the belief in a future life, a belief that was evidently shared with
other nations by the primeval races who inhabited our islands in
prehistoric times.

The presence of food and drinking vessels in the tumuli clearly shows
this, and also the store of weapons and implements, adzes, hammers,
scrapers, and other tools which the barrows have preserved through so
many ages.

These barrows are not confined to one period or one race, as their shape
denotes. Some are long, measuring 200 to 400 feet in length by 60 or 80
feet wide; others are circular. The former were made by the long-headed
(dolichocephalic) race of whom we have already spoken; the latter by the
round-headed (brachycephalic), conquerors of their feebler long-skulled
forerunners. When we consider the poor tools used by these pr