Page:Shetland Folk-Lore - Spence - 1899.pdf/87

 composed of black-coloured mould mixed with small stones that show the action of fire. Some of these contain in the centre a stone cist. An example of this kind was opened near the burn of Catfirth while cutting for a road. The enclosed cist was formed of four rough flagstones, apparently from a quarry in Bressay. It is very noticeable that they are all found near water, the bank of a burn or the margin of a loch being the common site. The small stones thrown upon the burning heap as offerings for the dead, and copious libations of water from the brook at hand, sometimes formed the rude obsequies at these primitive graves.

There are other ancient mounds of considerable size, perhaps tombs of the great and the wealthy, for—

So it may be that, under such a great