Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 5.djvu/389

BERKSHIRE ANTIQUITIES. 291 lie procures, however, the least heap who takes that which is nearest the town ; and then every one rides away with his slifire, and keeps the whole of it. When the wealth of the deceased has been thus exhausted, then they carry out his corpse from the house, and burn it, togetlier with his weapons and clothes ; and generally they spend the whole substance by the long continuance of the body within the house, together with what they lay in heaps along the road, which the strangers run for, and take away. " It is also an established custom with the Estonians, that the dead bodies of every tribe or family shall be burned ; and if any man findeth a single bone imconsumed, they shall be fined to a considerable amount." The coincident testimony of Tacitus, which I now proceed to give, is most remarkable ; and wliether we consider the pe- culiar habit of gathering amber, or, what is more important, the affinity of language, goes far towards shewing that the iEstii were not strangers to our ancestors. " Ergo jam dextro Suevici maris littore TEstiorum gentes alluuntur, qiiibus ritus habitusque Suevorum, lingua Britannicse proprior. Matrem deum ve- nerantur : insigne superstitioiiis, formas aprorum gestant. Id pro armis omnique tutela, securum dese cultorem etiam inter liostes prsestat. Rams ferri, frequens fustlum usus. Frumenta, ca^terosque fructus patientius quam pro solita Germanorum inertia laborant. Sed et mare scrutantur, ac soli omniian succinum, quod ipsi Glesum vocant, inter vada atque in ipso lit- tore legunt," &c. &.C. — Taciti Germania, cap. xlv. I. W. DISCOVERY OF A SAXON INTERMENT AT LONG WITTENHAM. Communicated by the Rev. James C. Clutterbuck. An interesting discovery has recently been made at Long Wittejiham, in Berkshire, where remains have been brought to light, of a later age than the period to which the foregoing memoir relates. The following account, which has been kindly supplied by the Rev. J. C. Clutterbuck, vicar of the parish, may most appropriately be connected with the memorials of Berkshire antiquities. " The ancient arms and remains, (of which representations are here given,) were lately dug up in this parish ; I was