d of a tree-trunk split down
the centre, and hollowed out. The earliest specimen of this type is in
the Copenhagen museum, the implements found in it proving that it
belonged to the Bronze Age. This type of coffin, more or less modified
by planing, was used in medieval Britain by those of the better classes
who could not afford stone, but the poor were buried without coffins,
wrapped simply in cloth or even covered only with hay and flowers.
Towards the end of the 17th century, coffins became usual for all
classes. It is worth noting that in the Burial Service in the Book of
Common Prayer the word "coffin" is not used.

Among the American Indians some tribes, e.g. the Sacs, Foxes and Sioux,
used rough hewn wooden coffins; others, such as the Seris, sometimes
enclosed the corpse between the carapace and plastron of a turtle. The
Seminoles of Florida used no coffins, while at Santa Barbara,
California, canoes containing corpses have been found buried though they
may have been intended for the dead warrior's use in the next world.
Rough stone cists, too, have been found, especially in Illinois and
Kentucky. In their tree and scaffold burial the Indians sometimes used
wooden coffins, but oftener the bodies were simply wrapped in blankets.
Canoes mounted on a scaffold near a river were used as coffins by some
tribes, while others placed the corpse in a canoe or wicker basket and
floated them out into the stream or lake (see FUNERAL RITES). The
aborigines of Australia generally used coffins of bark, but some tribes
employed baskets of wicker-work.

Lead coffins were used in Europe in the middle ages, shaped like the
mummy chests of ancient Egypt. Iron coffins were more rare, but they
were certainly used in England and Scotland as late as the 17th century,
when an order was made that upon bodies so buried a heavier burial fee
should be levied. The coffins used in England to-day are generally of
elm or oak lined with lead, or with a leaden shell so as to delay as far
as possible the process of disintegration and decomposition. In America
glass is sometimes used for the lids, and the inside is lined with
copper or zinc. The coffins of France and Germany and the continent
generally, usually differ from those of England in not being of the
ordinary hexagonal shape but having sides and ends parallel. Coffins
used in cremation throughout the civilized world are of some light
material easily consumed and yielding little ash. Ordinar