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                             11.

time, I have never been able to reach the centre of any tumulus at the ground level, for it is my conviction that, had I been able to do so, I should have encountered some traces of the people by whom they were constructed, and I also feel satisfied that the interments on the tops of the mounds, which I am about to describe, were those of a people who lived much nearer our own time than the original builders. 

     For may we not conjecture that the more modern inhabitants found these tumuli, ready at hand and convenient places of sepulture; and, in accordance with traditions descended through innumerable generations, - that this was the original purpose of their erection, - that they too may have looked upon them as sacred mausolea dedicated to, and making the site where were deposited the ashes of their remote ancestors?