of the Forest. . . . . . The use of these indents we can only guess at; but as they follow the fracture of the stone (granite), the early method of breaking stones would be explained." The Bonnington Mains Cromlech is of large size. The capstone, which now rests on only two of its supporters, measures 11 feet in length, and 10 feet in greatest breadth. It bears the name of THE WITCH'S STONE, in accordance with the rustic legend which ascribes its origin to an emissary of the famed old Scottish wizard, Michael Scot. I had an opportunity of

The natural

partially exploring this cromlech in 1850. rock was laid bare at a little depth without meeting with any traces of sepulchral remains; but it was found impossible to get directly under the great stone, without the risk of overthrowing the whole. The term cromlech is probably derived from cromadh (Gaelic) or cromen (Welsh), signifying a roof or vault, and clach or lech, a stone. But the compound word is of ancient use in Scotland. An extensive district in the neighbourhood of Dunblane, Perthshire, which still bears the name of the Cromlix, is remarkable for numerous large transported

Journal of Brit. Archeol. Association, vol. iii. p. 342.

blocks scattered over its surface. One of these, which has been supposed to have formed the capstone of a large cromlech, measures 15 by 10 feet; but it is very doubtful if it owes either its form or position to human hands. According to the proposed derivation the name may be rendered the suspended, or vaulted stone; and its application to a district covered with transported rocks from the neighbouring Ochills, of a date long prior to the historic era, is in no way inconsistent with its more usual application to the primitive megalithic structures. We have no evidence that these are Celtic monuments. The tendency of present researches rather leads to the conclusion that they are not, but that they are the work of an elder race, of whose language we have little reason to believe any relic has survived to our day. On this supposition the old name of Cromlech is of recent origin compared with the structures to which it is applied; and of this its derivation affords the strongest confirmation. It is just such a term as strangers would adopt; being simply descriptive of the actual appearance of the monument, but indicating no knowledge of its true character as a sepulchral memorial.

Such are the monumental structures belonging to primitive periods; but examples of the cist and cinerary urn, deposited without any superincumbent mound, are of frequent occurrence. They are commonly grouped in considerable numbers, indicating the ordinary rites of sepulture contemporary with the monumental tumulus or cairn. In the first of those, as in cists found underneath ancient cairns and tumuli, the body appears to have been generally interred in a contracted posture, with the knees drawn up to the breast; and some examples would even seem to indicate that the limb bones were broken when the body could not otherwise

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G

be disposed within the straitened dimensions which custom prescribed for the primitive tomb. The practice may perhaps be traced to the idea prevalent long after the Christian era, that it was unworthy of a warrior to die in his bed. The rude Briton was accordingly interred seated, or lying on his side with his knees drawn up to his breast, and with his weapons of stone or bronze at his side, ready to spring up when the sound of the warcry should summon him to renew the strife. Some few cists of full proportions belong to a period so remote that it is possible such were in use prior to the adoption of this custom; but it undoubtedly prevailed for ages, and probably did not disappear till after the introduction of Christianity. The short stone cist has been discovered of late years in the immediate vicinity of some of the most ancient Christian churches in the Orkneys; while examples of a full-sized cist, with the enclosed skeleton extended at length, are met with under circumstances, and with accompanying relics, which leave no doubt that they belong to both of the earlier pagan periods.

A very general impression long prevailed that the primitive cists are invariably found lying north and south. But this is a hasty conclusion, which has been the more readily adopted, from the distinction it seems to furnish in contrast to the medieval custom of laying the head towards the west, that the Christian might look to the point from whence he expected his Saviour at his second coming. Abundant evidence exists to disprove the universal use of any particular direction in laying the cists or interring the dead in the primitive period. A few examples will suffice to show this. In 1824 a number of cists were discovered in making a new approach to Blair-Drummond House, near the river Teith, Stirling

shire.

They were of the usual character, varying in

size, but none of them large enough to hold a full-grown body laid at length. Some contained urns of various dimensions, with burnt bones and ashes, while in others the bones had no appearance of having been exposed to fire. The urns were extremely rude and simple in form, and no metallic relics were discovered among them. Here, therefore, we have a primitive place of sepulture, in a locality already noted for some remarkable evidences of very remote population. But the cists lay irregularly in various directions, giving no indication of any chosen mode or prevailing custom.1 In 1814 several cists were discovered in the parish of Borthwick, Mid-Lothian, of the ordinary character and proportions, and in some cases containing urns, one of which is now in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Others have since been discovered in the same neighbourhood at various times, but like those on the banks of the Teith, they were placed without any regard to order.' In constructing the new road to Leith, leading from the centre of Bellevue Crescent, Edinburgh, in 1823, several stone cists were found, of the usual circumscribed dimensions and rude construction of the primitive period, but being disposed nearly due east and west, were assumed without further evidence to be "of course since the introduction of Christianity." Another similar relic of the aboriginal occupants of the site of the modern Scottish capital was found in 1822, in digging the foundation of a house on the west side of the Royal Circus. In this case the cist lay north and south, but the head was laid at the south end. The whole skeleton, with the exception of a few of the teeth, crumbled to dust on being touched. In a cist discovered in 1790, under a large cairn in the parish of Kilbride, the skeleton lay

1 Archæol. Scot. vol. iii. p. 42. 3 Archæol. Scot. vol. iii. p. 49.

2 Archæol. Scot. vol. ii. pp. 77, 100. 4 Archæol. Scot, vol. iii. p. 48.

with its head to the east. Such was its great age, that it also speedily crumbled to dust. Within the district of Argyleshire now occupied by the villages of Dunoon and Kilmun, many primitive cists have been exposed, rudely constructed of unhewn slabs of the native schistose slate, and some of them containing lance and arrowheads of flint, and other equally characteristic relics, but the irregularity of their disposition proved that convenience alone dictated the direction in which the bodies were laid. Other examples of irregular though methodic arrangement of the cists found in cairns have already been noted, and it would be easy to multiply similar instances.

It is obvious that the mere direction in which either the body or its enclosing cist is disposed, is not in itself conclusive proof either of Pagan or Christian sepulture. But there does also occur a class of instances, which seem to indicate that at some early period importance was attached to the direction in which the body was laid, and then the cist was placed north and south, or rather north-east and south-west, with the head towards the north, and designed, it may be, to look towards the meridian sun. So many instances of this are familiar to archæologists, that it seems hardly necessary to produce examples: but two of a peculiar character may be deserving of special notice. In March 1826, a farmer on the estate of Wormeston, near Fifeness, in levelling a piece of ground, discovered, at a depth of ten feet from the surface, thirty cists, disposed in two regular rows, at equal distances apart, and with the heads towards the north-east. Their arrangement was peculiar, and obviously the result of some special design. A line drawn along their ends was nearly due east and west, and from this they declined obliquely, in the direction of north

1 Ure's Kilbride, p. 213.