In cremation the old neolithic practice was changed with the newer conception of the relation between the soul and body. This belief was that the soul could not pass into the spirit world until the body had been destroyed by burning. Total separation was necessary, and the quickest and most effective method was through the medium of fire. The practice was probably an evolutionary one, as in France the process of the natural destruction of the flesh from the bones, before the latter were burned, seems in the first instance to have been adopted. Until the body was destroyed the spirit haunted its local habitation; and the Homeric idea, shared by the Celt and Norse, was that, when the earthly tabernacle was consumed, the soul departed for ever to the world of shades. Cremation was very probably confined to the chiefs, heroes, or other important persons, as from the very difficulties attending burning the ordinary practice of interment was doubtless adopted for the rank and file of the tribe. Inhumation was practically universal all over Europe until the close of the Stone Age; but all through the Bronze Age both customs were practised, and in the west of Europe interment remained the prevailing custom of disposing of the dead. In the north of Europe, however, cremation reached a far higher development than elsewhere. In remote districts of Spain, France, and in the British Isles the sepulchres of the Stone Age long lingered; and in the tombs and chambered cairns cremated remains have been found of the later Bronze Period.