ox BRITISH KISTVAENS. 107

in Latin it is cista, and in our own language has been softened into chest, by a process similar to that of modern Italian, and observable in many other of om- words ; as in kirch, or kirh, which has become church. In the lowlands of Scotland it is still pronounced kist, and retains in connnon use its original meaning of a binial chest. Among old-fashioned families in the lowlands of Scotland, that part of a funeral which precedes the removal of the body from the house is a religious service, and is still called in rcm,ote districts the kisteninr/, or ki sting, and in other places the chesting, or the cojfining. But of old, the kisting took place in the grave-yard, and not in the house, for coffins, in our sense of them, were not used. The body, wrapped in the shroud or grave-clothes, but not enclosed in any coffin, was carried forth upon ^feretruni or bier, as is descril)cd in the history of the son of the widow of Nain (Luke vii. 11 — 15) ; and when it had arrived at the cave or place of sepulture, it was there kisted, or kistined, that is, placed in a recess or receptacle hewn from the rock, or in a con- structed kistvaen : and after the interment Avas completed, and " the dead ^vas buried out of sight," then some monument which icas meant to be seen, might be raised at will. Urn- burial, which presupposes burning the dead, probably only prevailed in Britain w hile the Romans ruled : it does not seem to have been customary here before their arrival, nor after the population had become Christian : instances have, it is said, been discovered where Saxon Christians in England must have been interred by burning ; yet as a general rule, when a nation has become Christian, burning the dead has ceased. The kistvaens in Pytchley Avere therefore probably either prior to Roman dates, or subsequent to the prevailing of Christianity. Kistvaen simply means stone coffin .• vaen being, as it appears, merely the softened pronunciation of maen (stone), a AVelch word Avhich does not exist, in that form at least, in Irish or Gaelic : although the Avord kistvaen is in common use through Scotland to signify the rude receptacles made of several rough stones, Avhich are there commonly found under cairns or heaps of loose stones. Those Avhich (like Kits Cotty House in Kent) are above ground and in the natm'e of monuments, are in Scotland called clach or clachan, and not kistvaens. The Gaelic Avord used for ordinary coffins is cobhain (pronounced coffain), and it is usually restricted to a wooden chest or ark ;