The comparison of the sepulchral remains found in Denmark, and spread in great abundance through some parts of Holland, and over Sweden and Norway, with those of our own country, would open a field of most interesting research. It is evident, from the preceding observations, that the "Jettehoie," or oldest sepulchral mounds of Denmark, are very similar in construction, and contain relics of a similar kind, with the greater part of our long barrows, and perhaps with most of the old sepulchral mounds spread through the south of England, and in various parts of Wales and Ireland. In most of the mounds examined by the late Sir R. C. Hoare, the remains of ancient art were similar to those above described: they belonged to a people in a corresponding state of society, probably to the same people. Implements and weapons of stone belong to each only amber is not found, as far as I know, in British barrows, that material having been abundant only near the Baltic; ornaments of bone seem to have held the place of amber. Only in a few barrows, according to Sir R. C. Hoare, are ornaments of gold foundweapons of brass and golden rings have been more frequently seen in Ireland. These relics of copper or brazen ornaments are evidently of a later date than that long series of ages which raised the great majority of the numerous mounds and barrows which are spread both in the British isles and in the northern regions of Europe, but all the barrows, where implements of iron are still entirely wanting, probably belonged to a period anterior to the entrance of the German nations. It is on the whole probable that they were raised by Celtic tribes, of which the Cimbri were the last remains on the northern continent. For the Celts were long ignorant of the use of iron, if we may draw an inference from the British barrows. It is true that the Britons used iron in Cæsar's time for some purposes, namely, iron rings for money, and probably the scythes of chariots were of iron, for what else could be used, unless it were brass? But the use of iron may have been confined to the Belgæ in South Britain, who introduced it from Gaul. It must have been unknown during many ages to the Britons, as we have inferred from the contents of the barrows, which were the old British sepulchres. It is much to be regretted that there is no national collection of the sepulchral remains of our ancestors. Ample resources yet exist for enriching such a collection, were it but commenced; but these resources are diminishing every day. Great numbers of skeletons have been found, and the bones scattered, within my knowledge, during the last few years. In Ireland the Royal Academy have set a laudable example in the care directed to such pursuits, and much may be expected from the enlightened zeal and activity of Dr. Wilde and other members. How much might the Society of Antiquaries have effected, if their attention had been directed to these researches ! ETHNOGRAPHY OF EUROPE AND ASIA. CHAPTER I. PRELIMINARY SURVEY OF THE WHOLE SUBJECT.-DIFFERENT POINTS OF VIEW.-SUBDIVISIONS. SECTION 1.-General Observations. be WHEN the geographical circumstances of Europe and Asia are compared with those of the two other great regions of the earth, namely Africa and America, they appear to be in many respects very different. Each of the latter continents is not only cut off in a great measure by seas from the rest of the world, but is likewise intersected by chains of mountains, or separated by vast wildernesses or other barriers into insulated tracts, the inhabitants of which may said to have been shut up from immemorial ages within the limits of countries, where they appear to have been first collected into nations. Hence may have resulted, in part, those strongly marked varieties which are observed in the physical characters of particular races, secluded during thousands of years within narrow limits and subjected to the influence of the same external agencies. Europe and Asia, on the other hand, form one vast region, separated by no boundaries which are difficult to surmount. Races of wandering shepherds of such consisted in early times a great part of VOL. III. B |