rock, split it into two pieces, and left these unsculptured outlines upon the faces of the fracture. Be the tradition as it may, there are certain curious coincidences in connexion with it which may be worthy of notice. The custom, by no means an unmeaning one, of throwing a weapon (commonly a spear) into the air on the conclusion of treaties, is still preserved by savage nations; as for instance, amongst the Caffres at the Cape.
"Mr. Selwyn, who was engaged on the Government Geological Survey in this part of the country, and visited the spot with me, expressed his opinion that the two pieces of rock had formed one block, and that the semblance of the swords occurs on the inner faces of the fracture. Regarding them as a monument of a peace then ratified, it may deserve observation that the sculptures seem to represent two sword blades, without handles.
"In the absence of any clue, it is useless to venture upon any conjecture respecting them. The inquirer into Welsh history must content himself with the interest which such singular relics cannot fail to excite."
Mr. Westwood observed that on one of the walls of the church of Corwen, Merionethshire, there is a stone with a sword carved upon it; and that, according to tradition, it was caused by a sword, which, being thrown from a neighbouring mountain, struck the stone. It was, however, of much smaller dimensions than those at Cae Cleddau, and of a more modern form.
A rubbing was shown exhibiting some linear indentations on the top of one of the supporting-stones on the south side of the most western of the two Cromlechs at Coed-ystym-gwern, Llanddwywe, near the road between Barmouth and Harlech. They are thought by some to be rude sculptures of a similar character to those discovered by Mr. Lukis in Guernsey. Mr. Ffoulkes stated that they are grooves traversing the top of the stone; he thought it would be difficult to decide whether they are natural or artificial without actual examination, but he felt inclined to regard them in the former character, inasmuch as the angle formed by the intersection of the sides at the bottom of the several grooves or lines, was jagged and uneven, which would not be the case if they had been produced by art. Mr. Lukis, however, forming his opinion from a rubbing, had expressed his opinion that they were artificial.
This rubbing, as well as that of the sword, had been taken by Mr. Wynne, and were exhibited by his kind permission. Mr. Ffoulkes produced also some stone flakes or chips found in the cist of a Carnedd, on Fridd Eithynog, near Cors-y-gedol, to the east of the road between Barmouth and Harlech. The cist was filled with very fine brown soil, with which burnt bones were mixed; and in it were deposited, but without any regularity or care, these stone flakes or chippings. They were of a hard kind of stone, different from that of which the Carnedd was formed; the fractures appeared fresh and not to have been acted upon by attrition. It was therefore suggested that they had possibly been purposely deposited in the cist, with the idea of supplying the dead with weapons in their passage to another world. Dr. Wilson, in his Prehistoric Annals, (pp. 120, 122), mentions the discovery of fragments of flint, "known by the name of flint flakes," in cists in Scotland; and he quotes from the Scots Mag., Feb. 7, 1790, a suggestion that they were placed there with the purpose to which allusion has been made. This notion, perhaps, may be regarded as merely conjecture, but the present discovery is not devoid of interest, as
