mysterious monuments of an ancient race which the Saxons
found in various parts of their conquered country. Unable to account for
the existence of these vast mounds and fortresses, they attributed them
to satanic agency.

There is much work still to be done in exploring these relics of the
prehistoric races; and if there should be any such in your own
neighbourhood, some careful digging might produce valuable results.
Perhaps something which you may find may throw light upon some disputed
or unexplained question, which has perplexed the minds of antiquaries
for some time. I do not imagine that the following legend will deter you
from your search. It is gravely stated that years ago an avaricious
person dug into a tumulus for some treasure which it was supposed to
contain. At length after much labour he came to an immense chest, but
the lid was no sooner uncovered than it lifted itself up a little and
out sprang an enormous black cat, which seated itself upon the chest,
and glowed with eyes of passion upon the intruder. Nothing daunted, the
man proceeded to try to move the chest, but without avail; so he fixed a
strong chain to it and attached a powerful team of horses. But when the
horses began to pull, the chain broke in a hundred places, and the chest
of treasure disappeared for ever.

Some rustics assert that if you run nine times round a tumulus, and then
put your ear against it, you will hear the fairies dancing and singing
in the interior. Indeed it is a common superstition that good fairies
lived in these old mounds, and a story is told of a ploughman who
unfortunately broke his ploughshare. However he left it at the foot of a
tumulus, and the next day, to his surprise, he found it perfectly whole.
Evidently the good fairies had mended it during the night. But these
bright little beings, who used to be much respected by our ancestors,
have quite deserted our shores. They found that English people did not
believe in them; so they left us in disgust, and have never been heard
of since.

If you have no other Celtic remains in your neighbourhood, at least you
have the enduring possession of the words which they have bequeathed to
us, such as _coat, basket, crook, cart, kiln, pitcher, comb, ridge_, and
many others, which have all been handed down to us from our British
ancestors. Their language also lives in Wales and Brittany, in parts of
Ireland and Scotland, and in the Isle of Man, where dwell the modern
repres