attired, extended upon a sheet of
pure gold and similarly covered with a sheet of the same metal. A golden
chain adorned her neck and her arms were encircled with bracelets of pure
gold. In a third chamber, at the chief's feet, lay the skeleton of his
favourite horse with saddle, bridle and stirrups.

So curiously alike in their general features were the sepulchral usages
connected with barrow-burial over the whole of Europe, that we find the
Anglo-Saxon Saga of Beowulf describing the chambered tumulus with its
gigantic masonry "held fast on props, with vaults of stone," and the
passage under the mound haunted by a dragon, the guardian of the treasures
of heathen gold which it contained. Beowulf's own burial is minutely
described in terms which have a strong resemblance to the parallel passages
in the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_. There is first the preparation of the pile,
which is hung round with helmets, shields and coats of mail. Then the
corpse is brought and laid in the midst; the pile is kindled and the
roaring flame rises, mingled with weeping, till all is consumed. Then, for
ten long days, the warriors labour at the rearing of his mighty mound on
the headland, high and broad, to be seen afar by the passers-by on land and
sea.

The pyramids of Egypt, the mausolea of the Lydian kings, the circular,
chambered sepulchres of Mycenae, and the Etruscan tombs at Caere and Volci,
are lineally descended from the chambered barrows of prehistoric times,
modified in construction according to the advancement of architectural art
at the period of their erection. There is no country in Europe destitute of
more or less abundant proofs of the almost universal prevalence of
barrow-burial in early times. It can also be traced on both sides of the
basin of the Mediterranean, and from Asia Minor across the continent to
India, China and Japan.

In the new world as well as in the old, similar customs prevailed from a
very remote period. In the great plains of North America the dead were
buried in barrows of enormous magnitude, which occasionally present a
remarkable similarity to the barrows of Great Britain. In these mounds
cremation appears more frequently than inhumation; and both are accompanied
by implements, weapons and ornaments of stone and bone. The pottery
accompanying the remains is often elaborately ornamented, and the mound
builders were evidently possessed of a higher development of taste and
skill than is evinced by any of