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DESOUIPTIONS OF CRANIA.
each, ai-e the ruins of a Pict's house *, a group of which appears to have been situated here.
Scattered irregularly about, in the immediate neighbourhood, lie several small sepulchral cairns.
It is on the opposite north-eastern side of a little marshy vaUey that the hill of Torgahost rises.
But, to return to the Cromlech, whose original appellation is unknown (that derived from the
Gaelic hero Fin, as well as the Norse designations of Nisibost, and Torgabost, belonging to subsequent
times t), this monument of the aboriginal Hebudeans is represented here from a careful
di-awing made by Mr. Sharbau, Commander Thomas's accomplished assistant.
Cromlech of Sornach-Coir-Fhinn, Harris.
The cromlech consists of seven stones, which originally stood around a space of a little
more than 8 feet in diameter, and supported a large cap-stone. The stones are of various sizes,
and about 4 feet in height above the ground. That lying in the foreground of the plan is 8
feet long, and the extreme diameter of the cap-stone in one direction is 9 ft. 1 in., in the other
8 ft. 4 in. The monument was made close to a sloping bank, and about half of the uprights are
now prostrate, as well as the roof-stone they originally upheld. A kist-vaen, or grave, formed of
flags, was met with in the centre under the cap-stone, about two feet below the sm-face, and
foimd to be one of the short cists for interment in the crouching position. It did not contain
any relic whatever, nor was such discovered within the proper precincts of the cromlech. But
in digging in the sand, near the base of one of the uprights by the edge of the fallen cap-stone,
and a few inches below the surface, the osseous remains of a human body were brought to light.
Commander Thomas, whose opinion is deserving of the greatest respect, concluded that some
previous explorer, in recent times, had broken into the kist-vaen, extracted the skeleton of its
aboriginal occupant, and, unable to return it, and, at the same time, unwilling to destroy it, had
reinterred it in the sand in the position in which it was found %. For the support of tliis view it
is apparent that we must assume the skeleton to have been taken out of the cist under the capstone,
piece-meal and completely, without leaving a bone behind—no easy matter. And we are
imder the necessity fiuther to suppose that this careful and diflicult disinterment was accomplished
for an inexplicable, if not ahnless, purpose, by hands which were equally exact in the reinterment,
* Commander Thomas laboriously excavated this structure,
consisting of three underground chambers, and gives a plan and
two good elevations from a line running through its longest
axis.—/i. p. 141, pi. x™.
f These are both compounds, including the Norse hustad,
48.
a dwelling-place—the latter distinguished by a reference to the
god Thor himself, the letter g, according to the euphonic
usage of the language, gliding in naturally between the two
syllables.
t Op. cit. p. 142.
f
ANCIENT NORSE—NISIBOST, ISLE OF HARRIS.
in another spot of easier access. The prima facie probability of this explication, we are constrained
to say, appears to us very doubtful. If the cist had been broken open by an explorer, in search
of treasure or of antiquities, he would not have taken the pains to extract the skeleton so
perfectly; if for the bones, which must have been taken out with considerable attention, the
prize, when procured, must have been at once abandoned, and abandoned in a very extraordinary
and unusual manner, viz. by reinterment. Therefore, whilst we allow that the kist-vaen very
probably has been broken open and plundered, at some period, we cannot admit that the interment
of this skeleton had any connexion with such event. We think it much more likely that
the early Norsemen were the plunderers of the primeval stone sepulchre, and the destroyers of the
bones or ashes of its inmate, for whom they had no respect; yet for the site they could not divest
themselves of some veneration, but were induced to occupy it as the burial-place of one of their
own race *. On the first exploration of the cromlech. Commander Tiiomas obtained the calvarium
only, which he presented to the Scottish National Museum of Antiquities. He was, however,
with his accustomed complaisance, prevailed upon to satisfy our inquiries, and, with the view of
promoting the objects of this publication, to revisit the spot in the summer of 1860, when he
foimd among the remaining bones the missing lower jaw.
An inspection of the skull when it fu-st came into the hands of the writer t , at once led to
a serious doubt of its being aboriginal. And om' readers, we are persuaded, wiU readily appreciate
the grounds of this doubt, from the careful figures now before them. These figures reveal
none of the marks which distinguish the crania of the primeval inhabitants of these islands.
"With the cranial characters of the ancient Britons, Caledonians, Hibernians, and Orcadians,
delineated in these pages, the form of this skull presents no particular agreement. StiU, as we
had never before seen any cranimn which could without question be referred to as an authentic
skull of an aboriginal Hebridean J, there was room for hesitation in coming to a conclusion upon
the point. By the generous and persevering endeavours of the Rev. J. N. M'Donald, of Harris,
we are happy and grateful to say, this defect in the chain of evidence has been' supplied, and we
now possess two indisputable examples of aboriginal Hebridean calvaria. In general character,
we find these closely to agree with the series of ancient British and Caledonian crania. They
plainly belong to that series, and do not present the peculiar features of the Sornach-Coir-Fhinn
skull. As this is an interesting point of craniological investigation, and an application of the
science to solve an antiquarian problem, otherwise inexplicable, we shall attempt to make it more
obvious by a brief description of the calvaria. One of these rare and valuable objects is derived
from a short stone cist in the Isle of Bernera §, and is the relic of a man of fully 70 years of age.
It is unusually thick and heavy, presents a regular ovoid outline, large frontal shmses and projecting
M
* " The notorious searches which have been made m these
repositories, by successive generations of Saxons, DaneSy and
Noimaus, may have interfered with the original disposition of
sepulchral mounds, cairns, and cromlechs."—Kemble's Anglo-
Saxons, vol. ii. p. 57. " A.D. 861. The cave of Acliadh-Aldai,
in Mughdhorna-Maighen; the cave of Cnoghbhai; the cave of
the grave of Bodan, i. e. the shepherd of Elcmar, over Dubhath
; and the cave of the wife of Gobhann, at Drochat-atha,
were broken and plundered by the same foreigners," viz.
Norsemen.—Ann. of the Kingd. of Ireland, 1856, vol. i. p. 497.
The learned commentator, the late Dr. Juo. O'Donovan, refers
these places respectively to New Grange, Knowth, Dowth, and
Drogheda ; aud with regard to that of Dnbhath, now Dowth
48.
informs us that, at the opening of this magnificent mound by a
Committee of the Royal Irish Academy in 1847, the statement
in the "Annals" was confirmed. See Wakeman's Handbook
of Irish Autiq. 1848, p. 33, where the discovery of two iron
knives in this gigantic cairn is related. A similar passage to
that above quoted occurs in the " Annals of Ulster." See
Petrie's Round Towers of Ireland, 2nd ed. 1845, p. 103.
t Through the attention of Mr. "W. T. M'Culloch, Keeper
of the National Museum of Antiquities, Edinburgh.
X We are not aware of the existence of such an object in
any Museum.
§ It occurs on a large plain of sand extending along the
western coast of the island, where there are scattered about