There is another in Fetlar, (one of the most remote of the Shetland Isles,) in the form of a Roman Camp, having in the middle a rectangular area surrounded by a wall, and that by an earthen rampart of the same figure. Vid. Plate, Pen. Arct. Zool. vol. i. p. 33.
Druidical circles of stones are also common here.
There have also been found swords made of the bones of large fish, flint heads of arrows, flint hatchets, &c.
In the Island of Unst are two curious sepulchral circles. The largest consist of three concentric circles, its greatest being fifty feet in diameter. The outermost circle is formed of small stones, the other two of earth. Through all these is a single narrow entrance to a tumulus which stands in the centre.
The other circle is considerably less, and has only two rings made of earth.
An extensive burying-place has also been discovered in the Isle of Westra, by the violence of the winds blowing away the sands which covered the bodies twenty feet below the surface of the earth. Near this are a great many graves, discovered only by a few short upright stones set in the level sand.
Among the human bones have been found those of oxen, horses, dogs, and sheep; as also battle-axes, different kinds of swords, brazen daggers, knives, spoons, cups, curious stones, beads, &c. At one time there was found a thigh bone closely encircled by a ring of gold. Pen. Arct. Zool. vol. i. p. 36.
In the more early stages of society, this custom of burying weapons, and the rude symbols of worship along with the dead, was perhaps every where practised. The Catacombs of Egypt, and the Tumuli of Peru, abound with relics of this description. The following verses of Virgil allude to the same ceremony:
“Some in the flames,[3] the wheels and bridles throw,