rearing cows and sheep and goats, and cultivating their crops of corn.
We can still trace on the hillsides some curious terraces fashioned by
them for the growing of their grain, and discover querns, or hand
millstones, and stones for bruising the corn. The bones of young
oxen a few days old, discovered in the mounds, show that they knew the
use of milk, and how to get a good supply. A rude spindle-whorl shows
that they knew how to weave stuffs for their clothing, and the numerous
buttons, fasteners, and belts prove that the clothes were fitted to the
wearer, and not mere shapeless sacks.

The barrows also bear evidence to the existence of some organised
condition of society. In the early savage state of human existence
the family is the only community; but as man progressed towards
civilisation, he learnt how to combine with his fellows for mutual
defence and support. We gather from our examination of the tombs of
these early races that they had attained to this degree of progress.
There were chiefs of tribes and families who were buried with more
honour than that bestowed upon the humbler folk. Many families were
buried in one mound, showing that the tribal state had been reached,
while the many humbler graves denote the condition of servitude and
dependence in which a large number of the race lived. All this, and
much more, may be learnt from a careful study of the tombs of these
prehistoric people.

CHAPTER IV

PIT AND PILE DWELLINGS

Pit dwelling earliest form of house-building--Discoveries at
Bright-hampton, Worlebury--British oppida--Hurstbourne--Contents of
pit dwelling--Pot-boilers--Condition of civilisation--Pile dwellings--
Switzerland--Glastonbury--Hedsor--Crannogs--Modern use of pile
dwellings--Description of a lake dwelling--Contents--Bronze Age--
Recent discoveries at Glastonbury.

We have examined in our last chapter the abodes of the dead; we will
now investigate the abodes of the living which the earth has preserved
for us for so many centuries. The age of the cave dwellers had long
passed; and the prehistoric folk, having attained to some degree of
civilisation, began to devise for themselves some secure retreats from
inclement rains and cold winds. Perhaps the burrowing rabbit gave them
an idea for providing some dwelling-place. At any rate the earliest and
simplest notion for constructing a habitation was that of digging holes
in the ground and roofing them over with a light thatch.