Their trinkets appear to have consisted partly of great round perforated knobs, or buttons, intended to hold their clothes together over the breast, and partly of beads. These last were chiefly made of amber, since this substance was found on the coasts, possibly in greater quantities than is the case at present. The beads were either shaped in the form of hammers and axes, or rounded off nearly like those now in use, or, more particularly the larger ones, were quite rough and unshaped, and merely perforated. The largest pieces of amber being doubtless the most valuable, their possessors were probably desirous not to diminish their value by rounding or polishing them. Several were occasionally slung together and worn round the neck, in such a manner as to reach down to the breast.
Beads and ornaments formed of the bones of animals were also worn in the same way.
We have seen how the aborigines lived and laboured: let us now briefly consider in what way they interred their dead. The bodies were not burned, but placed in chambers which were formed of large flat stones within elevated mounds or barrows, together with the implements, weapons, and ornaments which the deceased when alive had most frequently used. The bodies were also occasionally deposited in vessels of burnt clay. These were in general filled with fine loose earth, but in some cases they appear to have contained provisions placed there in order that the deceased might not feel hunger during their journey to the other world. The largest earthen vessels, it is supposed, were originally made for cooking; what may have been the purpose of the smaller and more finely wrought specimens, which are only found in the tombs appertaining to the stone-period, is uncertain. They are for the
