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bowl, and is ornamented with six garnets set in gold foil on a projecting
socket of silver of a crescent form, which ends at each point in a rude
head of a bird or serpent. The bowl is of silver, washed with gold, and is
riveted to the handle with a small round-headed stud, close to which is a
hole, apparently for another. The centre of the bowl is pierced with nine
little circular holes, arranged in the form of a cross: the small number
of these seems to preclude the use of the spoon as a strainer, although it
might well be employed for the aspersion of water, or other fluid required
in sacrificial rites.
The Crystal Ball (Plate I., fig. 7.)—This most
interesting relic is, I believe, the largest crystal ever found in a
grave. Its diameter is nearly two inches and a half, and its weight within
fifteen grains of ten ounces avoirdupois. It is girt with two flat bands
of silver-gilt, about a third of an inch in width, embossed in parallel
lines, three towards each edge, and a broader one in the centre. The bands
cross each other underneath
it, and
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meet again at the top in a sort of circular turret, through
which runs a large ring of silver-wire, eight inches and a quarter in
circumference, by which the ball was suspended. To this ring, as in the
example given by Douglas1 of a smaller ball, thus mounted,
found on Chatham Lines in 1782, another similar ring has probably been
attached, the fragments of which were found beside it.2
These crystal balls are not uncommonly found in our
1. ‘Nenia Britannica,’ p. 14. Etc.
2. [ Two other mounted crystals, in all respects resembling this, were
taken by Mr. Hillier from Saxon graves on Chessell Down, in the Isle of
Wight, and with one of them was found a perforated spoon, as with this
grave. Douglas is not very convincing in his arguments to prove that the
crystal and spoon, as well as the shears and glass vessel, with which,
as in this grave, they are sometimes accompanied, were connected with
magical rites; and the better opinion seems to be that of Mr. Roach
Smith, who assigns them to ordinary uses. The ring which suspends this
ball of ours – and its broken companion, if we may judge by the
fragments – are, as |