ot infrequently a horse is found in a corner--the
chief's own charger; and even sometimes a dog at the master's feet.
Every skull, of man, woman, or animal, shows the heavy single blow which
severed life. Not without due state and seemly retinue shall the hero
enter on the new life which awaits him; his own best-loved companion
shall minister to him; his own tried servants shall follow him as of
yore; the steed which bore him safely out of many a battle, the hound
which shared with him the joys of many a glorious chase, shall bear him
into the fray with new and unknown foes, shall hunt down with him the
game that roams the forests of the Unknown Land. As the way thither may
be very long, the travellers shall not go unprovided. So around the wall
are ranged dishes, platters, bowls--each containing dried-up food,
various kinds of grains; also jars and tall vessels with handles, which
evidently had held liquids. It is easy to see that the choicest pieces
of fine and artistically ornamented pottery have been selected from the
household stores. In mounds of the later periods some of the dishes and
bowls are of bronze, even of gold and silver, and show considerable
beauty of form and workmanship; but the jars are invariably of
earthenware, as water and wine keep better in such than in metal.

We must not forget that, among the countless mounds which have been
opened, only a very few are like that we just looked into. The general
run are much plainer, and the majority contain only one silent inmate.
It was not every one could afford the luxury of a wholesale slaughter
in his household. The chambers, too, are very different in size and
construction, and the furnishings vary quite as much in richness and
beauty.

Putting away the dead in mound-graves, besides being a universal custom,
was one which endured through a long series of centuries, since their
contents illustrate for us the Age of Bronze through all its gradations
and a goodly portion of the Age of Iron--_i.e._, the beginnings of the
age in which we live ourselves.

To decide which mound belongs to a later and which to an earlier period
is easy, from the variety and quality of the articles, which bear
witness to the degree of culture of the builders, though it is of course
difficult even to give a guess in figures at just _how_ long ago, at
least, the earlier mounds were built.

These are all times which knew not of writing. Therefore we have no
history of them; fo