rosette, with two loose ends. By the side was a shallow basket, about six inches in diameter, formed of bark, curiously stitched with the sinews of animals; at the bottom were decomposed remains, perhaps of food. There was also a quantity of vegetable substance, mixed with lanceolate foliage supposed to be that of the mistletoe. [Illustration: Fig. 34.] [Illustration: Fig. 35.] [Illustration: Fig. 36.] Another form--which may be called the “boat shape”--of tree-coffin is here shown for the purpose of comparison. CHAPTER IV. Ancient British or Celtic Period--Sepulchral Chambers of stone--Cromlechs--Chambered Tumuli--New Grange and Dowth--The Channel Islands--Wieland Smith’s Cave, and others--Stone Circles--For what purpose formed--Formation of Grave-mounds--Varieties of Stone Circles--Examples of different kinds--Arbor Low, etc. One of the most important classes of barrows is that which contains sepulchral chambers of stone; not the simple cists which have been spoken of in the preceding chapter, but of a larger, more complicated, or colossal character. Mounds of this description exist, to more or less extent, in different districts. In most instances the mound itself, _i.e._, the earth or loose stones of which the superincumbent mound was composed, has been removed, and the gigantic sepulchral chamber alone left standing. In many instances the mounds have been removed for the sake of the soil of which they were formed, or for the purpose of levelling the ground in the destructive march of agricultural progress. In many cases, however, they have doubtless been removed in the hope of finding treasure beneath; it being a common belief that immense stores of gold--in one instance the popular belief was that a “coach of gold” was buried beneath--were there for digging for. Where the mounds have been removed, and the colossal megalithic structures allowed to remain, they have an imposing and solemn appearance, and seem almost to excuse the play of imagination indulged in by our early antiquaries in naming them Cromlechs, and in giving to them a false interest by making them out to be “Druids’ altars”--altars on which the Druids made their sacrifices. These same authorities have, indeed, gone so far in their inventions as to affirm, that when the capstone was lower on one side than another, as must necessarily frequently be the case, it was so constructed that the blood of the victims might run off in that direction, and be caught by the priests; that some of the naturally formed hollows in the stones were scooped out by hand to receive the heart and hold its blood for the highest purposes; and that when the cromlech was a double one, the larger was used for the sacrifice, and the smaller for the Arch-Druid himself whilst sacrificing.