ets for the arms, or rings
for the fingers, were but twisted strands of gold.

The simplest form of finger-ring worn by these Gaelic ancestors
consisted of a band of metal, merely twisted round to embrace the
finger, and open at either end. Fig. 108 shows one of these rings, found
in excavating at Harnham Hill, near Salisbury, a locality celebrated
from the very earliest recorded time as the true centre of ancient
Britain. This ring was found on the middle finger of the right hand of a
person of advanced age. Sometimes several rings were found on one hand.
"Among the bones of the fingers of the left hand of an adult skeleton
was found a silver ring of solid form, another of spiral form, and a
plain gold ring."[96-*] Mr. Akerman, who superintended these researches,
says, "Similar rings have been found at Little Wilbraham, at Linton
Heath, at Fairford, and other localities. They are for the most part of
an uniform construction, being so contrived that they could be expanded
or contracted, and adapted to the size of the finger of the
wearer."[96-[+]]

[Illustration: Fig. 108.]

[Illustration: Fig. 109.]

The prevailing form of the old Celtic finger-ring is shown in Fig. 109.
It is formed of thick twisted wires of pure gold. This fashion seems to
have been in most favour with all the early Celtic tribes, such rings
being found in the grave-mounds of Gaul, Germany, Belgium, Denmark,
Ireland, and Scotland. A discovery of many similar rings was made in one
of the Western Islands of Scotland; they were formed of from three to
eight wires each, elaborately and beautifully enwreathed.

[Illustration: Fig. 110.]

[Illustration: Fig. 111.]

The south Saxons retained to the last the simple form of wire-ring,
which originated, as we have already shown, with the most ancient
people. Its comparative cheapness and ease of construction were no doubt
its great recommendations. Similar rings are still made for the poorer
classes in the East: the author has seen such worn in modern Egypt.
Specimens have been obtained in Anglo-Saxon grave-mounds in England, and
others, identical in form, in the old Saxon cemeteries of Germany.[97-*]
Fig. 110 represents one of the plainest of these wire-rings; it was
exhumed from a tumulus on Chartham Downs, a few miles from Canterbury,
Kent, in 1773, by the Rev. Bryan Faussett, who says, "the bones were
those of a very young person." Upon the neck was a cross of silver, a
few coloured earthen beads,