H 11/ ■ I i: ■ ■ ■ |Sn«w§ iiiiif ■ ■ fytmll Stafrmtig ptag BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF Hour it W, Sage 1891 ' jU. 3? k.^'Mll Printed at the By Ponsonby & Weldrick *-Hi !W Eo tfje JHemorg of JHg Jlotfter FOREWORD. A sarcastic writer lately advised authors treating on Irish subjects not to omit commencing their essays from the starting point of the Biblical Deluge, so that no fact, direct or collateral, in the matter under consideration, might escape notice. Critics do not, as a rule, confine themselves between too narrow limits, but the above recommendation, though good in its way, does not give a wide enough field to work on, at least when Ancient Erin itself is in question. The liberty, therefore, is taken of ignoring the well-meant advice, of exceeding the prescribed limit, and the subject is opened somewhere in the early Glacial, or perhaps in the Tertiary period. The writer has, in fact, placed himself in the unenviable position of the advocate who, opening his speech with the sentence, " Before the birth of the world," was cut short by the Judge who exclaimed, " Do you not think that we might pass on to the Deluge? " Many Continental writers throw back the origin of man to even geologically distant ages, but evidences of this early existence of our race rest on such fragile proofs that they ar«, for the present, regarded with scientific scepticism by most English authorities. On this subject the late Professor Huxley observes, that " evidence has been adduced in favour of man's existence in the Pliocene or even in the Miocene epoch. It does not satisfy me ; but I have no reason to doubt that the fact may be so, nevertheless." Speculations on the Great Ice Age would also, at first sight, viii FOREWORD. seem to have little connection with primitive religion. The con- sideration of the subject has, nevertheless, an important bearing upon the antiquity of man in the British Isles ; for as almost all parts of the world, save these Islands, have been suggested as the cradle of the human race, man must necessarily have been some time in existence, and must have acquired some faint religious ideas, before he found a home on these, at that time, icebound shores. Thus it is sought to conduct the reader through ages so vast that, if they were represented in figures, it would probably only confuse the imagination. All we can say is that it is a tale of progress, slow but sure, which began at the first appearance of life, and will probably continue until time shall be no more. To work one's way behind the scenes of the prehistoric past is, undoubtedly, most interesting. Not only are the results obtained of great importance, but the mere process of searching for facts, and then putting them together into a consistent whole, is a continual source of pleasure and excitement ; so that an attempt to pierce the mist which envelops the past, and to review, to the best of our present knowledge, the primitive faiths of the Eld, needs no excuse, nor preface, for a preface is but a more or less lengthened excuse. Christianity is generally supposed to have annihilated heathenism in Ireland. In reality it merely smoothed over and swallowed its victim, and the contour of its prey, as in the case of the boa-constrictor, can be distinctly traced under the glistening colours of its beautiful skin. Paganism still exists, it is merely inside instead of outside. In a previous work entitled " Pagan Ireland," the writer attempted to draw a picture of the early civilization of the country, from an archaeological standpoint, by analysis of existing material evidence of long-past life ; in the present work the same subject is approached from a folklore point of view, by the aid of legend and tradition. These two aspects of the question, viz., those of archreology and folklore, blend the one into the other, so that it is almost unnecessary to FOREWORD. ix explain that, in many places, the same ground has to be traversed. To avoid repetition, when this occurs, the text has been con- densed, re-arranged, and re-written, so that it will doubtless be regarded by readers of "Pagan Ireland," even at these points of junction, as an almost new work. Like a dissolving view, traditional folklore is passing away before the eyes of the present generation. It was clear and strong in the days of our fathers, and there is hardly a legend or superstition narrated in the following pages for the currency of which, amongst the peasantry, our grandfathers would not have vouched. The interest taken in Irish folklore is a comparatively new phase of modern inquiry, but so much information has been already garnered, that it is almost an impossible task to compress an outline of the subject within the limits of a book of moderate size. The study of folklore, greeted at first with contempt, has, by the inevitable reaction which its acceptance into the ranks of science occasioned, given birth to numerous extravagant and ill- considered theories, for its study gives great scope to the imagin- ation. But the latitude granted to the imagination should not be based on mere guess-work, but on ascertained facts. ' ' Im Auslegen seyd f risch und munter ! Legt ihr's nicht aus, so legt was unter." A writer should carefully follow Goethe's advice as given in the first line, and as carefully shun adopting that given in the second line. A few of our folklore theories are at present merely tentative, for no very definite assertion can yet be made with regard to some points in the analysis of Irish traditional lore. It has been remarked that, in this branch of investigation, a theory to stand unchallenged must be more than clear ; it must be not only in harmony with and explain facts known at the time it is enunciated, but it must also be in harmony with and explain new facts as they are brought, one by one, to the x FOREWORD. light of day, or else it must give place to a new theory which fulfils these requirements. Every new investigation clears some point from obscurity ; it is hoped that this attempt may clear up many. The opinions expressed in the text are the individual views of the writer; should the reader not agree with them he can form views of his own, and he may, perhaps, in some instances, arrive at more accurate conclusions than those set forth in the following pages. But though minor theories may be subject to modification, it is hoped that the main deductions are sufficiently well founded to make them incontrovertible. The idea of giving authorities in foot-notes was abandoned for two reasons : it seemed too pedantic, and the work would have expanded into inconvenient bulk ; but a compromise is made, and books and papers consulted are enumerated, in a Bibliography, at the end of the second volume. Many changes in the arrangements of the subjects treated of, suggested by literary friends who kindly looked over the proofs, have been carried out ; but if every recommendation had been adopted the writer would have found himself in the position of the man in the fable, who listening to and adopting all the advice tendered by onlookers, finally destroyed his property, for, "he labours in vain who tries to please everybody." The writer's object has been simply to discharge the useful but humble r6U of presenting to the general reading public, in condensed form and in popular shape, the many sides of a great subject. Such a treatment should interest those who have neither time nor oppor- tunity to study, in more complete archseological and folklore treatises and papers, each special branch of the great whole ; for the fields of Irish archaeological research are now so many, of such vast extent, the workers therein are so numerous, and have left behind them such voluminous records of their labours, that a specialist has but little time to afford himself a general view of what is going on around him. And yet all branches of archreo- FOREWORD. xi logical research are so interdependent, that it is impossible to understand even one branch thoroughly without a sound know- ledge of the entire series. The present work has been also undertaken with the object of showing that a great literary opening lies ready at hand for a writer capable of rising to the occasion, and of doing for Irish archaeology what a Prescott and a Motley have done for History at large. The author wishes he could make the story as fasci- nating to his readers as it is to himself, but he thought it was better to have it told roughly than not told at all. Should therefore the following pages be considered dull reading, the failure must be attributed to want of skill rather than lack of interesting material in the subject under review, which may be designated the Eomance of Religion in Ireland. An outline of its development, together with a description of its stereotyped customs and ceremonies — relics of the ancient world, still holding their position amid the din and bustle of modern civilization — is here presented. The writer cannot conclude without returning thanks to the public in general for the manner in which his previous work — "Pagan Ireland"— was received, as well as to his numerous critics, in particular, for their favourable and friendly criticism. In the general purport of these notices there is indeed but one statement to which he must take exception. Several reviewers appear to consider that archseological remains throw a mere side- light on the history of Ancient Erin. Now the study of Irish Archffiology is no mere side-light, and folk-lore is a most impor- tant branch of Archaeology. Archreology is the light, and the only light, in which so-called "ancient history" must be judged by dispassionate modern criticism. If the archaeological theories of the present day are based on well established facts, it follows that the reputed records of Ireland, prior to the date of the intro- duction of Christianity, must, of necessity, be adjudged to be mere emanations from the inner consciousness of comparatively modern writers. xii FOREWORD. It should be stated that the greater portion of Chapters I. and II., Volume II., appeared in the pages of the " Ulster Journal of Archaeology," and are reprinted by kind permission of the Editor, Mr. F. J. Bigger, m.e.i.a. Cleveragh, Sligo, September, 1901. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE Speculative Geological Archeology, .... 1 CHAPTER II. Ancient Fauna and their Exteeminatoe, . . .31 CHAPTER III. Early Man, 78 CHAPTER IV. Man as Author, Artist, Sculptor, . . . .126 CHAPTER V. Some Archs:ological Problems, , . . . .171 CHAPTER VI. The Borderland of History, . 200 xiv CONTENTS. CHAPTER VII. PAGE Advent of St. Patrick — Side-lights on Paganism, . 244 CHAPTER VIII. Ideas Regarding the Dead, ...... 285 CHAPTER IX. Gods, Goddesses, Ghosts and Goblins, . . . 341 Additional Notes 384 Index, 389 LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS. Figure Page ideal landscape off the north coast of ireland in the teutiary period, ..... Frontispiece. 1 MAP SHOWING AREA OF VOLCANIC ACTION IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND DURING PART OF THE TERTIARY PERIOD, . . 5 2 SKETCH MAP SHOWING LAND AHOUT 400 FEET AROVE THE SEA, . 3 IDEAL IRI8H LANDSCAPE IN THE RUDE STONE AGE, ... 11 4 IDEAL SKETCH MAP, SHOWING APPROXIMATE OLD QUATERNARY CONTINENT AT ITS MAXIMUM EXTENT 20 5 LIGHTING THE FAMILY FIRE. A SCENE IN THE STONE AGE, . 34 6 LIGHTING THE " NEED-FIRE." A SCENE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, 35 7,8,9 BONE ARROW-HEADS, 40 10 A MODERN MAKER OF FLINT ARROW-HEADS, IN THE ACT OF FABRICATING HIS GOODS 44 11 RECENT REPRODUCTIONS OF ANCIENT FORMS OF FLINT ARROW- HEADS AND AXES, . • 45 12 GENERAL VIEW OF THE ENTRANCE TO THE CAVE OF BALLYNAMINTRA, FROM NEAR THE CAPPAGH RAILWAY STATION, . . .52 13 GENERAL VIEW OF THE COUNTRY AROUND THE BALLYNAMINTRA CAVE, SHOWING FLAT GROUND MARGINED WITH SCARrS, REPRESENTING AN ANCIENT RIVER BED OR ESTUARY, . - 53 14 THE PREHISTORIC CAVES OF KNOCKMORE, 54 15 THE POOKA AND ITS INVOLUNTARY RIDER, 56 16 " FOSSILIZED IRISH GIANT," 58 17 THE MAMMOTH. AN INHABITANT OF IRELAND DURING THE GREAT ICE AGE, 60 18 MAMMOTH WITH CURVED TUSKS, 61 19 THE GIGANTIC IRISH DEER, OR CERVUS MEGACEROS, ... 63 xvi LIST OF ILL USTRA TIONS, Figure 20 THE REINDEER. AN INHABITANT OF IRELAND DURING THE GREAT ICE AGE, .....••••• 21 THE DEATH OF THE GRIZZLY BEAR, A SCENE IN THE STONE AGE, . 22 RED DEER, 23 SUPPOSED PITFALL FOR CATCHING DEER OR OTHER WILD ANIMALS, . 24 HEAD OF LONG-FACED IRISH PIG 25 ANCIENT BREED OF LONG-FACED IRISH PIG, 26 CHALK CLIFFS, ANTRIM COAST ROAD, NEAR GLEXARM, SHOWING BASALT COVERING THE FLINT-BEARING CHALK, 27 HAMMER-STONES AND RUDE FLINT IMPLEMENTS OF THE PALEO- LITHIC TYPE, ......... 28 TYPICAL FLINT FLAKE, ........ 29 HAMMER-STONE, FOUND WITH ITS SURFACE BATTERED ALL OYER, EVIDENTLY BY CONSTANT USE AS A POUNDER, 30 STONE AXE, RETAINING ITS WOODEN HANDLE, FOUND IN PEAT, WHICH HAD FORMED THE BED OF A SMALL LAKE IN CUMBER- LAND, ........ 31 SHELL-MOUND, ISLAND OF ACHILL, ..... 32 ANCIENT SHELL-MOUND, BROWN ISLAND, CORK HARBOUR, 33 ANCIENT SHELL-MOUND, BRICK ISLAND, CORK HARBOUR, 34 IDEAL SCENE IN AN UNDERGROUND DWELLING, 35 GRAIN-RUBBER, ........ 36 GRAIN-GRINDER STILL USED IN THE ARAN ISLANDS, 37 A GIFT FROM THE OCEAN. A SCENE IX THE STONE AGE, 38 CAPTURE OF A BASKING SHARK, ISLAND OF ACHILL. A SCENE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, ..... 39 WHITEPARK BAY, LOOKING WEST. A TYPICAL SITE OF AN ANCIENT SEA-SIDE SETTLEMENT, ...... 40 IDEAL SCENE. INLAND SETTLEMENT OF THE STONE AGE, 41 IMAGINARY SCENE OF OLD SEA-SIDE LIFE IN THE STONE AGE 42 SKELETON FRAMEWORK OF KAFFIR HUT, SOUTH AFRICA, SHOWING ROOF AND SIDE-WALLS COMPOSED OF BEXT BOl'GHS 13 SKETCH-PLAN OF UNCEMENTED STONE WALL IX AX IKISH PRE HISTORIC' SEA-SIDE SETTLEMENT : THE SAPLINGS THUS SECURED IN POSITION FORMING THE FRAMEWORK OF SIDE-WALLS AND ROOF, .... Page 66 67 68 69 70 71 83 87 90 90 94 94 95 96 99 99 100 101 103 105 106 107 10 s LIST OF ILL USTRA TIONS. xvii Ficure Page 44 SKETCH SHOWING MANNER IN WHICH THE CAPE WAS PROBABLY WORN, 110 45 SEVEN FIGURES ON THE CROSS OF KILKLISPEEN, SHOWING HOODS TO CLOAKS, Ill 40 THREE FIGURES ON THE CROSS AT TUAM, SHOWING HOODS TO CLOAKS, 111 47 "THE IUISH MUMMY," 112 48 GLIBB FASHION OF WEARING THE HAIR, 112 49 TWO HUNTERS ON THE NORTH CROSS OF CLONMACNOISE, WITH CONICAL CAPS, 113 50 ANCIENT COSTUME, 114 51 " WILD IRISHMAN," 114 52 "WILD IRISHWOMAN," 114 53 IRISH AND HIGHLAND COSTUMES, FROM MSS. AND EARLY PRINTED BOOKS, 115 54 HEAD OF MAORI CHIEF, SHOWING TATOOBD PATTERNS, . . .158 55 " SCRIBBLES," OR " WILD RUNES," IN THE LETTERED CAVE AT KNOCKMORE, COUNTY FERMANAGH, 159 56 INSCRIPTION AS GIVEN BY TIGHE IN " STATISTICAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE CO. KILKENNY," 160 57 INSCRIPTION AS ORIGINALLY CUT BY E. CONIC IN A.D. 1731, . 160 58 SAME INSCRIPTION REVERSED, 160 59 REVERSED INSCRIPTION ON THE TORY HILL STONE, . . . 161 60 IDEAL LANDSCAPE OFF THE WEST COAST OF IRELAND IN THE GLACIAL PERIOD, .......... 173 61 A RELIC OF THE GLACIAL PERIOD : AN ERRATIC. CLOGHVORRA OR THE GIANT'S STONE, ........ 175 62 THE INITIATORY STAGE IN THFj INVENTION OF THE COMB, . . 1H2 63 COMBS FROM THE SITES OF LAKE DWELLINGS IN THE WEST OF IRELAND, 183 64 AMBER BEAD, WITH OGHAM INSCRIPTION, 1H5 65 PINE GOLDEN-COLOURED BRONZE BELL OF THE CLASS STYLED " CROTALS," POUND AT DOWELS, NEAR BIKR, IN A LARGE BRONZE CALDRON, TOGETHER WITH OTHER ANTIQUES, . . 196 66 ECCLESIASTICAL BELL, MADE OF IRON, 196 67 CHART FROM " LA NAVIGATION L'iNDE ORIENTAL," 1609, ON WHICH THE TWO ISLANDS OF BRASIL AND BRANDON ABE MARKED > • -I* vol. i, b xvm LI SI OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Figure Page 68 chart by the french geographer royal, 1634, on which the island op erasil is marked, . . . . . . 215 69 sketch map, showing the approximate position of the por- cupine and rockhall banks with regard to ireland, . 216 70 present appearance presented by lough eyes and its arti- ficial islets, 222 71 former appearance presented by lough eyes and its arti- ficial islets. an attempted restoration of the ancient settlement, . . . 223 72 the burning of a cluster of lake-dwellings. restoration of the ancient single-piece war canoe in the science and art museum, dublin, ....... 224 73 hibeunia surrounded with the principal products of the kingdom. title-page of sir james ware's " de hibernia et antiquitatibus ejus disquisitiones," .... 227 74 MAP OF IVERNIA AND THE BRITTANIC ISLES, . . [To fate] 229 75 IRELAND ACCORDING TO PTOLEMAIC GEOGRAPHY, . . 230 76 ROMAN MEDICINE STAMP FOUND NEAR THE TILLAGE OF GOLDEN HILL, CO. TIFPERARY ; LETTERS IN INTAGLIO AND INVERTED, 237 77 IMPRESSION PRODUCED BY ROMAN MEDICINE STAMP, . . . 237 78 ROMAN ANTIQUES FOUND NEAR COLERAINE, .... 23S 79 ALLEGED ROMAN ANTIQUES FOUND NEAR DONAGHADEE, CO. DOWN. ABOUT THE YEAR 1850, ..... 241 80 BILINGUAL INSCRIBED STONE AT KILLEEN CORMAC, . . . 249 81 THE TRADITIONAL GRAVE OF ST. PATRICK AT DOWNPATRICK, . 265 82 INTERIOR OF " THE CHURCH OF THE FIRE " (teACH-NA- TEINEDh), SHOWING IN THE FOREGROUND THE POSITION OF " THE FLAG- STONE OF THE FIRE, " .... o-v; 83 " THE FLAGSTONE OF THE FIRE" (lEAC-XA-TETNEDh). . . 279 84 SCENE AT AN IRISH WAKE, 85 TOBACCO PIPBS ON A GRAVE IN A CHUHCHYARI) IN THE WEST OF IRELAND, . Sfi SYSTEMATIC ARRANGEMENT OF CISTS IN A TUMULUS IN THE COUNTY DOWN, 87 THE KEENER, 300 301 308 309 MARim RANN OSCAR — THE DEATH -SONG OF OSCAR, . gjg LIS I OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xix Figure Page 89 bied's-ete tibw op the cashel of dos conok, . . 317 90 rathkeltain, a large earthen fort near downp atrick , . 319 91 ideal restoration of a rath, 320 92 the challenge to the ordeal, 324 93 THE KEEN, 326 94 THE REMAINS OF A PREHISTORIC BRITON'S DINNER. HUMAN SKULL AND BONES ARTIFICIALLY FRACTURED FOR THE PURPOSE OF EXTRACTING THE BRAINS AND THE MARROW, . . . 339 95 THE YOUNG AND WHITE-ROHED PAGAN SPIRIT, .... 354 96 THE OLD AND HLAOK-ROBED CHRISTIAN SPIRIT, .... 355 97 THE WAIL OF THE BANSHEE. ARCHETYPE OF THE KEEN, . 367 EEEATA. Page 12, line 7, for "of the bulls and of the stags" read"oi bulls and of stags". 81, ,, 36, for '' embued" read "imbued''. 107, ,, 5, for "World Afagazine" read "Wide World Magazine". 132, ,, 31, for "have "read "had". 164, ,, 2, for " gether " read "together". 322, ,, 5,/oc"itis" read"are". TRACES OF THE ELDER FAITHS OF IRELAND. CHAPTEE I. SPECULATIVE GEOLOGICAL ARCHiEOLOGY. The unknown impressive and imposing — The Glacial Period — Earliest move- ment of the Ice Sheet a subject of controversy — The Ice Age divided by- some geologists into three distinct epochs, each of prolonged duration : First ice Age, Inter- Glacial Epoch, Last Ice Age — Quaternary animals — Cave-men, Flint Implements of the gravel —Immense duration of time covered by the Old Stone Age— Quaternary Continent — Its gradual curtail- ment — Its Forests, Flora, and Fauna — Primeval Race — No recognizable Crania found in Ireland — Later Period — Two distinct Races of Immigrants — One race fair, the other dark — Extreme types of Crania — Abrasion of the Teeth — The entire enigma of the past still invites solution. The unknown is always both impressive and imposing. With regard to the past of ancient Erin, no skilful writer yet has arisen to lift the veil and show us the far-off days, and to depict the many hordes of immigrants fighting for and appropriating the country. Whatever they were, let it be hoped that under the influence of patient study they may be made, at least in imagination, to live again, but at present, at the very best, the process represents only a groping after truth. Although civilized man is, in some respects, different from, and an improvement on, the Eude Stone Age, and even on the Polished Stone Age savage, yet that difference arises, not only from inheritance, but also from the continual impress of his every- day surroundings. Place a present-day infant back in the Tiude Stone Age, and his offspring would doubtless grow up little, if 2 SPECULATIVE GEOLOGICAL ARCHAEOLOGY. anything, better than their fellows. Merged in their environment, the intellectual enlargement of their descendants would keep pace with, but would not outstrip, at any rate to any appreciable degree, the improvement of the masses which appear ever to attain, slowly but surely, a higher level. Although general appearance and features may, in many instances, bear strong evidence as to parentage, yet constitution of mind and bent of thought are determined and directed by environment. The Khalif Ali, the son-in-law of Mohammed, is credited with the profoundly philo- sophical remark that " Men are more like the times they live in than they are like their fathers." One school of modern evolutionists attributes the existence and continuance of the Universe to some unknowable mystery of which it is impossible to assert that it takes any special heed of the existence of man. According to the other school, the evidence producible almost compels belief in a supreme and intelligent Being, who has created all things with a definite purpose. Some of the Eoman poets formed a rough working sketch of evo- lution ; but this classic philosophy was a mere speculative idea, a fancy picture of development, not based upon observation of facts, but wholly evolved out of their author's own inner consciousness. It was a happy guess at the truth, but nothing more. It is not thus that discoveries of the truth are made which revolutionise the train of human thought. He who would build his theory for all time must first make sure of his foundation. Nevertheless we find " the same ideas, the same speculations, the same plays of fancy, reproduced generation after generation, with modifica- tions peculiar to the time, as though they were living descendants of original ideas which were brought into being before the dawn of history." Unless it be unreservedly accepted that the first human being was created an adult with mature intellect and possessing an innate knowledge of multitudinous subjects, and that his partner originated in an even more remarkable manner, a supposition to which archeology, or indeed any other science lends no con- firmation, the inquirer can but begin at the beginning, and draw inferences only from such realistic data as are at present forth- coming. There is much to be learned, even from what are apparently the simplest things, in the study of archeology ; and when an outside inquirer asks questions, 'it is astonishing how little is known on the subject, even by otherwise well informed persons. An account of the correction "of mistakes would furnish much amusing matter. Few archaeologists, to say nothing of the general public, have any idea of the extent to which opinions within the last few years, have become almost imperceptibly modified in many important departments of archivoWical GREA T GEOLO GICA L CHA NGES. 3 science ; whilst there have been many recantations of opinions occasioned and enforced by the deductions drawn from great discoveries. The valet of Beau Brummel threw down a bundle of his master's cravats, exclaiming: "These are our failures." An archaeological writer may say the same of his fellow -workers' discredited theories. We are astonished at the magnitude of the results of geological changes in the older epochs of the history of the Earth's crust, and imagine that they were the product of a time when natural causes were far more powerful than they are at present, but in so doing we ignore the fact that those now operating, atmospheric influences, and the wear and tear of rivers and oceans of the present day, are producing, little by little, changes on the Earth's surface, the total sum of which will one day be as great as any which occurred in the past. Although there is irresistible evi- dence of distinct ages there is, in truth, no real distinction, no line of fixed demarcation, for one period glides into the next as imperceptibly as an old year is followed by the new — " There rolls the deep where grew the tree, Earth, what changes thou hast seen ? There where the long street roars hath been The silence of the central sea ! " It is a curious fact that along various parts of the shores of Lough Neagh fragments of fossil wood are frequently found. From its appearance the peasants arrived at the conclusion that the wood was originally holly, and further that the process of petrifaction took exactly seven years. Not long ago fragments of this fossil-timber were fabricated into whetstones, and vended about with the cry : — " Lough Neagh hones, Lough Neagh hones ! You put them in sticks, you take them out stones ! " However, the conversion of these articles from wood into stone must be transferred from modern to far distant geological times, as they are found in Post-Pliocene Clay, to which they have been transferred after silicification, probably by the action of ice, from their original position in older beds. The cypress of which the fossilized remains are found was a tall and stately tree, towering to a great height, conical in outline, and the quantity of these petrified fragments show how largely the Tertiary forests of Antrim were composed of this class of timber. Ireland in those days enjoyed a climate almost tropical in character. Conifera, resembling the immense trees of California, covered the slopes of the Antrim highlands ; as to age, geological 4 SPECULATIVE GEOLOGICAL ARCHAEOLOGY. experts differ as to the precise era to which they should be assigned : they go back, at any rate, to days when gigantic and unshapely monsters crashed through the weird forests of the Tertiary Age. ' ' Yes, where the huntsman winds his matin horn, And the crouched hare beneath the covert trembles ; Where shepherds tend their flocks, and grow their corn ; Where fashion in our gay Parade assembles — Wild horses, deer, and elephants have strayed, Treading beneath their feet old Ocean's races." In the present day it is difficult to imagine, when surveying a quiet fertile valley or a green undulating ridge, that in the past, when Ireland was above water, its surface was, in places, scarred with volcanoes, or to picture volcanic activity throughout the vast period of geological time down to the middle of the Tertiary Period, when the fissure-like eruptions of the basalt dis- tricts of the North poured out intrusive lavas which now form part of the surface of our land, and furnish soil to stimulate vegetation. A glance at the accompanying map (fig. 1) shows how the North-western Highlands of Scotland, together with an area extending southwards and embracing a portion of Ulster, were a centre from which radiated movements, which, in many instances, appear to have totally changed the south-king region. When once formed, these highlands have, as a whole, ever after held a relatively elevated position, and in the subsequent sinking of the area, some peaks were never completely submerged. It requires a great fund of reconstructive imagination to conjure up to the mind's eye, this immense region of volcanic activity, this mass of lofty and probably snow-capped cones towering into the clouds, every cone pouring forth floods of liquid lava, like so many Vesuviuses, over the then land-united Great Britain and Ireland. We speak of the Eternal hills, when many of these ancient mountains have been planed down to mere table-lands, and it is quite within the bounds of possibility that some remote ancestor of man witnessed the transformation scene, saw fire reigning apparently supreme, to be in turn conquered by water. The succeeding Glacial Period, in the European area, has been divided by some geologists into three distinct epochs each of prolonged duration. The transition from one set of conditions to another was gradual and slow, and at the culminating points of each period climatic conditions and the relative proportions of land and ocean were very dissimilar. The earliest movements of the ice-sheet are a subject of controversy ; the later movements THE TER 77 A R 1 ' PER70D. 5 are more or less distinctly marked, but there is still much obscurity over the entire subject. The difficulty is further complicated by observers arriving at different conclusions after a careful study of the same phenomena. A writer on the Ice 5 sK* £ Q .£ cCrf a F o/Mt £ ^^^ Q-J <>WR < * 155"''* Js ^ V - -S5* I'D J)? ff o >=^C \ u -T1 / \ ~ °/w £ 1 z \^ 101 u 1 - z v-s « Jj?^* \ / w (•> )) 2-r vl^BL \ r ( ^s"^» ' p *- ,fw ^^r -^ r w A =^>3- * / ^ } » J ^ O C2^ * ^5 y t £^?\ y^^ 3 f ■* * * *V Fig. 1. Map showing area of volcanic action in Gre;it Britain and Ireland during part of the Tertiary Period. (From Professor Edward Hull's "Physical History of the British Isles.") -*o ^ '^^^Z'\ Age is, therefore, on very debatable ground ; probably no two men would treat the subject from the same standpoint: and a geologist, who good-naturedly looked over the proofs of this 6 SPECULATIVE GEOLOGICAL ARCHAEOLOGY. chapter, enigmatically observed : " I think your way is as good as anybody else's, which is all one can aim at ! " "I think so " is the whole residuum which can be found after evaporating the " prodigious pretensions" of the present-day school of " the great Ice Age" geology. In the first epoch, during which the climate was Arctic, the European continent stood at the greatest elevation it ever attained. The land in general, and all the mountain ranges, were much higher than at present, whilst Great Britain and Ireland formed part of the Continent ; they were also connected with northern Africa, by low lying land or desert tracts, of which the Sahara now alone remains ; the straits of Gibraltar were closed, and an isthmus, of which Sicily and Malta are vestiges, divided the Mediterranean into two lakes or inland seas ; further eastward the European area was severed, by water, of which the Caspian is a remnant, from the major portion of Asia, with which it is at present connected. According to the best evidence now procurable man did not appear in Ireland before this great Glacial Age; but it is highly probable that, as the outcome of steady research, man's antiquity will be dated much further back. In this Period, from its normal home at the North Pole, a great sheet of ice spread southward — hundreds, and in places thousands, of feet in thickness — advancing from the highlands of Scandinavia, covering Central Europe, the entire basin of the present German Ocean, the larger portion of Great Britain and Ireland, and shooting its ice-masses into the ocean; for once the edge of the ice-sheet, which fronted the sea, became water-borne, fragments of greater or less dimensions would break away, just as they do from the ice-cliffs of the Arctic and Antarctic regions at the present day, and float off in the form of bergs, drifting with the currents of the ocean into warmer spheres, where they gradually return to their original condition. A thousand feet is a moderate estimate for the thickness of this ice-cap. Greenland is covered to a far greater depth, and the Antarctic sheet exceeds even that of Greenland. Standing on the summit of Knocknarea, near the town of Sligo, one can observe on it boulders carried from the metamorphic ridge some miles inland; this ridge again is covered with limestone blocks from the interior of the country, so that the ice which once desolated Ireland must have had a thickness much in excess of a thousand feet. "Even with this moderate thickness," remarks Sir Bobert Ball, " an ice-sheet would form a terrible engine. Every square inch of the floor over which this frozen ocean ploughed its way, would have to sustain a pressure of 400 lbs. ; every square foot of the country would, on an average sustain a load of about thirty tons." This period of intense cold THE FIRST ICE A GE. 7 was partly or wholly brought about by regularly recurring cosmical phenomena, which it would be out of place here to attempt to describe : let it suffice that the alternation of climate at periods of almost incalculable length is a theory held by many distinguished geologists, and which has, it is alleged, been strengthened by recent astronomical discoveries. A slight lowering of the temperature of the northern hemi- sphere would cause a sufficient accumulation of snow to create an Arctic condition, as this does not require intense cold to accom- plish. In the central parts of Siberia there are frequently regis- tered 100 degrees of frost, yet it possesses but few glaciers ; and although the Earth is permanently frozen at a short distance below the surface, the winter snow vanishes quickly every spring. A dry atmosphere will not allow the accumulation of snow or of glaciers, whilst a moderate fall of temperature below freezing- point, joined with a precipitation of moisture, will occasion an enormous accumulation of snow. It will help us to understand this if we remember how uncomfortable a boat is on a rainy day ; every drop of water that falls over the area of the skiff is retained, the occupant is surrounded with moisture that possesses no means of escape. Matters are even worse if it snows when the tempera- ture is below freezing-point ; for whilst heat dissipates water by carrying it away in vapour, with frost nothing escapes — the greater the cold, the greater the precipitation. Thus with a lower temperature, with mountains to cause precipitation, and with moisture-laden oceanic winds, immense fields of snow and of ice would certainly accumulate in the British Isles. The slowly forward-creeping northern ice-cap created in its passage a vast amount of stiff, stony mud or clay, called "boulder clay," owing to its characteristic feature being the prevalence of large stones or boulders ; but these do not, as a rule, appear to have been transported from any great distance. The question may thus be raised, was there a universal glaciation or merely local glaciers? Can the Ice Age be regarded as but a period when the European area was greatly elevated and greatly extended, when the higher valleys and plateaux bore immense local, as well as some more or less coalescent glaciers : a period when there existed, side by side, a dual flora and a dual fauna ; that of the snowfields and glaciers, and that of the warm valleys and plains beneath. The work accomplished in past ages by ice, or by glaciers, has been of the greatest importance to the present day farmer ; but for their action many districts now covered with rich soil, derived from pulverised rock-surfaces, would otherwise be repre- sented by a barren, stony desert. There is scarcely a valley throughout Ireland whose rounded, undulating, encircling hills 8 SPECULATIVE GEOLOGICAL ARCHAEOLOGY. do not tell of the plough-like work of the glacier. Our rivers flow through broad valleys, smoothed by ice, and by atmospheric wear and tear. The low lands have been covered with sedi- ment, the transported grindings of the rocks, whilst lakes formed during the Ice Age, are again slowly silting up, and instead of unstable, watery expanses, often present firm and broad meadow-lands. Bound the coast line the older geological formations rise in a broken ring of high ground, attaining, in places, the altitude of mountains, as if to protect the great central plain from any further encroachment of the Ocean. This central area consists of a gently undulating sheet of Carboniferous limestone, dotted here and there with isolated hills or hill-groups. In the inter- Glacial Epoch the greater portion of the present area of Great Britain and Ireland was submerged : the highlands and the summits of the mountains formed an archipelago of islets (see fig. 2). In this time of deep submergence the climate became more temperate, like that of the present day; the middle sands and gravels then deposited contain many shells identical with existing species. Sometimes these deposits rest directly on the Lower Boulder Clay, as at Howth and Killiney, whilst in other places they rest directly on the older rocks, and cover also large tracts in the central plain of Ireland, and are present on the Dublin and Ulster mountains at an elevation of about 1200 feet. After a prolonged interval the land began again gradually to rise and the climate became severe ; this stage is marked by layers of what are termed " Upper Boulder Clay." In the movement of elevation there appear to have been occasion- ally pauses of very lengthened duration. These pauses can be recognised by lines of old ocean-side caverns, whilst the best known and last line of elevation can be traced around the sea shores at a height of about twenty-five feet above the present sea-level. The cold was not, however, so intense as during the first Arctic Period, and the snow-fields and glaciers were on a very much smaller scale ; the distinguishing mark of this period— the Upper Boulder Clay resting on the marine gravels— has been noticed in many places throughout Ireland. The idea commonly prevalent that land within Arctic influence is always dvearv and devoid of lifeis erroneous ; for, in the polar circle', life in 'the present day is, in the summer season, almost exuberant ; birds appear every- where ; flowers, identical with our own in genera, and often in species, flourish as in an Irish meadow in summer time. Even in the period of greatest glaciation oases may have remained in some of the highlands of Ireland, above, and therefore uncovered by, the polar ice-stream. In those oases were probably to be THE INTER-GLACIAL PERIOD. 9 found an Arctic vegetation supporting the Arctic hare and the reindeer, together with other hardy animals. Climatic conditions gradually ameliorated ; the land slowly rose ; the snow dwindled on the mountain tops ; the glaciers vanished ; Continental plants and animals invaded Great Britain ; but Ireland appears to have remained semi-isolated. Standing on the cliffs of Antrim, the probability of the former continuity of Fig. 1!. Sketch Map showing land about 400 feet above the sea, in black, present area shaded, the 50 and 100 fathom lines by dotted lines. Ireland with North Britain is very apparent. On a clear day the Paps of Jura float like distant clouds on the horizon; Cantyre stands out clear and prominent ; the Isle of Arran, with Goat Fell, appears as lofty, but less distinct, and the outline of Ailsa leads the eye onward along the sweep of the Scottish coast which shows distinct or faint as the sun lights it up or the cloud-shadows rest upon it. If one might speculate on the 10 SPECULATIVE GEOLOGICAL ARCHAEOLOGY. past history of this scene, one could imagine theseeminences far more lofty than at present, each crowned with its ice-cap and its glaciers lording it over the plains, on which roamed strange animals (see fig. 3), the prey of very primitive men, until the level country was again invaded by the resistless ocean surge. Egypt has been styled " The gift of the Nile" ; Ireland may be described as the residuum which the joint effort of water and ice was unable to remove. This was a time when men eked out their scant vocabulary with gestures, and talked together as animals now do, when an estuary, or a broad and sluggish river, expand- ing at intervals into large marsh-surrounded lakes, flowed through a wide and gently undulating country now covered by the waters of the Irish Channel, when, in southern Britain, cave-bears, lions, sabre-toothed tigers, and wolves lurked in dens in the rocks, when grizzly bears, hyenas and apes frequented the forest, when the mammoth and wild-horse scoured the plain, when beavers erected dams on the lakes and rivers, and shiny black hippopotami sported in their waters. It was probably this land-connexion between Scotland and Ireland which permitted Quaternary mammals, such as the mammoth, Irish big horn, reindeer, and wolf, to migrate into the country, as all living and extinct mammals of Ireland, with the exception of the grizzly bear, have been found also in Scotland, but a considerable number of English extinct animals are absent from Ireland as well as from Scotland. In this theory — that of the late Professor Leith Adams — Professor E. F. Scharff appears to agree, for he says that the results obtained from inquiries instituted into a portion of the Irish fauna are as follows : — " Ireland was in later Tertiary times connected with Wales in the south, and Scotland in the north, whilst a freshwater lake occupied the present central area of the Irish Sea. The southern connexion broke down at the beginning of the Pleistocene Period, the northern connexion following soon after. There is no evidence of any subsequent land-connexion between Great Britain and Ireland." The Irish Sea and St. George's Channel were represented by a series of lagoons and a large broad connecting channel which joined the ocean some hundreds of miles from Land's End. The eastern streams of England formed tributaries of a gigantic river which, joining others from the Continent, discharged its waters into the North Sea. This was the time of the great fauna of England. The greater number of the largest mammals are now either extinct, or no longer found on English soil, but their osseous remains have occurred in association with objects of human manufacture. The principal mammalia are as follows — (animals whose remains are most commonly found are denoted by an asterisk): — The brown-, cave-,- and grizzly bear* ; cave hyunia,* cave lion,* sabre-toothed 12 SPECULATIVE GEOLOGICAL ARCHEOLOGY. tiger ; the Great Irish Deer, or Megaceros, reindeer, urus, bison, woolly-haired rhinoceros,* mammoth, wild-horse, wolf ,_ glutton, large fox, and beaver. Comparatively few of the foregoing have been identified as present in Ireland ; yet even with a restricted number the nocturnal sounds would, in comparison with those now heard, be strange and startling. We should have the bellowing of the bulls and of the stags, the growling of bears, the neighing of wild horses, and the howling of wolves. There is a vast difference between the Mammalian fauna of the Palaeolithic or Older Stone Age and that of the Neo- lithic or Polished-stone Period ; the gap between the two eras represents an immense period of time during which the fauna of the country were undergoing transformation by the migration of some forms and the extinction of others, for the continued existence of all animal and vegetable life is an individual struggle. All are exposed to the attacks of enemies, and, except under special conditions none but the strong and healthy arrive at maturity and continue to propagate their species. Examination of deposits filling deep basins of ancient lakes affords a most reliable record of climatic changes from the close of the first great Ice Age to the comparatively modern period when these silted-up hollows were clothed with dense forests, buried in their turn under a vast accumulation of peat. The Bog of Ballybetagh, Co. Dublin, which covers the site of two ancient lake-beds, may be taken as a typical example. Its historian, Mr. W. Williams, is a good authority on the subject, as he spent ten weeks in making scientific excavations in the locality. Ballybetagh Bog, nine miles from Dublin, lies in a small valley 800 feet above sea level. Its elevation precluded the basin from receiving the drainage of any extensive sweep of country ; hence the clays with which this* hollow is filled could not have been transported from a distance, but were swept into it from the surrounding hills. The underlying stratum of Boulder Clay, of unknown thick- ness, deposited in the great Ice Age, rests on the granite. Next to it is a fine reconstructed Boulder Clay without stones. The next deposit, yellowish-grey in colour, almost entirely composed of vegetable matter, has been subjected to great pressure. The succeeding layer has all the appearance of lake sediment, and bears witness to a time during which the gigantic deer, the Irish Big-horn or Megaceros, appeared, leaving its skeletons in this deposit. These animals may have been" drowned after having mired and stuck fast in the thick tenacious re-arranged Boulder Clay. The next deposit consists of ttthrU from the hills brought down by frost and rain, filling the lake beds, and prepar- ing the surface for the growth of peat of no great thickness, its THE LA ST ICE A GE. 13 accumulation retarded by the elevation of the district. It contains trunks of oak and alder, but the Fir-forest Age is not represented. According to the evidence afforded by these successive deposits, the Gigantic Deer lived in Ireland during the period of the great English fauna, wandering over immense grass-covered prairies, through which it was free to roam safely, as the largest predatory animal was the wolf. It might be thought that such a huge animal would require a greater expanse of pasturage than would be afforded by the present land area, but Ireland was then of far greater extent, protruding northward, westward, and south- ward into the present ocean. Observe the circling ripples made by a stone thrown into tranquil water; close at hand they seem to crowd and jostle each other, but as they expand, and spread further and further from their origin, they become less defined and more feeble until they finally die away. Osseous remains of animals are, in the same way, always discovered in greatest abundance in the immediate vicinity of their former habitat, and, as the distance from it increases, signs of their former presence constantly diminish until all traces disappear. Thus, the great number of the skeletons and immense horns of this gigantic deer that are found, points to Ireland having formed at one period its chosen home. In the rock-shelters and caves of the Continent, especially in France, the deposits encrusted in stalagmite, covered to a greater or less depth with accumulated ililiris, are almost exclusively refuse heaps, containing fractured and unfractured bones of animals which served for the food of their former inhabitants, mixed with human osseous remains, lost or injured tools, utensils, and weapons, generally lying near or around the cooking-hearth. The object in resorting to rock-shelters and caves was doubtless to gain protection from the weather. Who these people were, at what date they existed, or whether they have any descendants now on Earth, is at present impossible to decide. If the objects shown as specimens of their skill be really the product of their hands, with them indeed the artistic faculty was abnormally developed. Artistic taste appears to be entirely wanting among men of the succeeding Polished Stone Period. There was, as far as archaeological research at present extends, no earlier race from which these cave-dwellers were derived, and they left no successors. When the glaciers retreated, this picture-making race disappeared, probably following north- ward the reindeer and other animals on which it subsisted. Centuries upon centuries glided by; upon the same soil, tribe succeeded tribe, but there was no re-appearance or even approxi- mation to the skill and artistic feeling displayed by these 14 SPECULATIVE GEOLOGICAL ARCHEOLOGY. mysterious cave-dwellers, who, ignorant of the use of bronze, of pottery, of agriculture, and having domesticated neither the rein- deer nor the dog, were yet endowed with a faculty of depicting animal life, with a few skilful strokes, that would do credit to a nineteenth-century artist in a Parisian atelier. The question may naturally be asked, at what period were the rude flint implements, found in Ireland, deposited in the gravels in which they are discovered embedded, often in great quantities ? Accustomed to reckon terrestrial affairs by brief historical periods, we may well hesitate in fixing a very definite date ; suffice _ it that the era of deposit goes back to a time when Great Britain, and probably also Ireland, formed part of the European continent. The Glacial Period had been succeeded by one comparatively genial ; the face of the continent was at a great altitude ; the beds of rivers were at a higher level than formerly, and the extended land- surface made them subject to floods which graduahy excavated the wide hoUows of the valleys. Take one example : a salient feature in the geology of Sligo is the enormous denudation of the Carboniferous beds in the north-east of the county. It may assist in conveying an idea of this general denudation if we try to estimate the quantity of material that would be requisite to fill up even one of the excavated valleys — say Glencar. A mass adequate for that purpose would need to be nine miles long, a breadth of two miles at each end, and one in the centre, with a vertical thickness ranging from 400 to 1100 feet; yet the gap, large as it is, forms but a small part of the total excavation that has left the adjacent mountains standing out in conspicuous relief. What a lengthened period this, and other similar exca- vations have been estimated to occupy, has been calculated from observations made in the valleys of well-known rivers. The weak part of the argument is, that it is taken for granted that the rate of erosion was always the same, and no account appears to be taken of a probably much accelerated denuding action, aided by ice or other powerful agents. It may therefore be suggested that the transformation in the Irish, as well as in the European landscape, might have taken place in a much shorter, or in a much greater space of time than has been calcu- lated by eminent geologists. G. H. Kinahan, in his Oeoloi/ii of Ireland, draws attention to the fact that " when ice first invades a country it effects great denudation, rapidly wearing away and removing, except in protected places, all loose and soft portions of the surface ; but when the solid rocks are reached the work goes on more slowly, till eventually the surface becomes so rearranged, oven, and polished, that the ice has very little power of denudation." "With regard also to the slowness of erosion, it has been estimated that the Thames lowers its basin at the THE LAST ICE AGE. 15 rate of about one foot in 12,000 years ! Another calculation estimates the average erosion of English valleys at about one foot in 1200 years. Sir John Lubbock has accepted 200,000 years as an approxi- mation in regard to the time when the European rivers, fed by a much greater expanse of land, and a heavier rainfall than at present, first began to hollow out the valleys of our existing streams, now but tiny rills when compared to their splendid prede- cessors. Again, it is often asserted that palaeolithic implements were in use as far back as the Tertiary Period, which it is calcu- lated extended to some 300,000 years. Between this age — which was thousands of years before the great Ice Age— and that of neolithic man, there was a gap of some quarter of a million years. Then we have the age during which man was contemporary, in Ireland, with the gigantic big-horn and with the reindeer, only some 50,000 odd years ago. It requires an effort to grasp calculations so stupendous. The subject should be treated broadly, by means of comparison and analogy, without reference to dates. Let it be modeBtly suggested that modern geologists are, in these matters, making sweeping assertions upon little certain foun- dation, and are, probably quite unintentionally, copying the example of those ecclesiastics who placed a chronology of the Old Testament, drawn up by themselves, in the margin, and expected every one to interpret the text by their calculations. In the same way geologists are placing their chronology on the book of nature, and attempting to mark out the period of time in which the all- ruling power accomplished the work. Let us be content, while we have only the information at present at our disposal, to believe that the periods under review took an immeasurable time, and that geologists have in this matter probably made a mistake in proportion even greater than the discrepancy between Archbishop Ussher's chronology and known geological data. It must, however, be acknowledged that, as a rule, geologists are very reticent with regard to dates ; but in the matter of the glacial epoch, geologically a comparatively late, and indeed almost historical event, they have broken through their reserve and have given an almost stereotyped numerical determination : accordingly, when even distinguished geologists give dates for things geological, it behoves the uninitiated to receive (with caution) whatever these specialists decree. Some writers state that it is not fifteen thousand years since the last ice melted off the Highlands of Ireland, and one of the many objections marshalled against the ingenious theory of the Ice Age is that the lingering effects of the last great eccentricity of the Earth's orbit continued down to forty thousand years ago, which period is insufficient to account for the recentness 16 SPECULATIVE GEOLOGICAL ARCHAEOLOGY. of the close of the Glacial Period. In fact " the unknown elements of the problem are so numerous," remarks Professor G. F. "Wright, " and so far-reaching is their possible scope, that a cautious attitude of agnosticism, with respect to the cause of the Glacial Period, is most scientific and becoming." Archbishop Ussher was diffident when compared with the early prelates of the Church who posed as philosophers as well as bishops. " The first congress of ecclesiastical savants that ever dealt with and fixed the beginning of all things to their own entire satisfaction, met at Jerusalem in the beginning of the third century." Their avowed object was to settle the exact day on which the Earth sprang from Chaos, in order that something salutary might be ordained respecting the observation of Easter. The process by which they arrived at the desired conclusion is told at considerable length by Bede, which Dr. Doran thus amusingly summarizes : — " The world was made on Sunday, in the spring time, at the equinox, on the eighth of the Kalends of April, when the moon was at the full ! The course of the argument which sustained this very definite conclusion was this : — God rested on the seventh day, which was the Sabbath, or Saturday, after making the world in six days. He must, there- fore, have begun on the first, which was Sunday; then, as theEarth brought forth grass and herb-yielding seed, and trees yielding fruit, the not very logical conclusion was, that the world started on its career in fair spring time. As God divided the light and the darkness, the day and night which He had created, into equal parts, there scarcely required further proof to show that this must have been the equinox — in other words and for greater accuracy, the eighth of the Kalends of April ; and finally, the moon must have been full at the time, seeing that God made the two great luminaries, that ' they might give light upon the earth, the greater luminary in the beginning of the day, the lesser one in the beginning of the night. It could not have been thus,' said the bishops, [ unless the moon wore at full.' By this sort of reasoning the prelates established nn error that was long accepted for truth ; and probably no vulgar fallacy was ever con- ceived, fashioned, forged, and beat into shape with such circum- stance and ceremony as this which dated the Creation on a spring Sunday in March when the moon was at the full ! " Does it not afford food for profound reflection that, a few hundred years ago. if anyone had been so independent as to doubt this absurd teach- ing, and had openly expressed dissent, he would have run a good chance of being burnt, as an example to others, to believe, with- out demur, what was ecclesiastically decreed. No wonder that science is continually engaged in a grim warfare of aggression against the forces of obscurantism. CLERICAL SCIENCE. 17 To the credit of theologians, it must be admitted that they have now generally recognised that the Scriptures were not intended to serve the purpose of a scientific hand-book ; though, while religious writers generally have given up the attempt to fix the date of the beginning of the world, some few, with more zeal than discretion, and in spite of a warning they at any rate might be expected to respect, still busy themselves in fixing an exact date for the end of the world. A late writer gives the very day and hour for the end. One might imagine that the innumerable recorded failures of such predictions ought to have suggested caution. But it is not after all upon any supposed system of natural science that such persons found their calculations, but un the method of giving mystical value to numbers. The "seventy weeks" and the "little horn," whicli occupy so im- portant a place in their works, can, by a little scientific manipu- lation, be made suit almost any date and any name that may be desired. As a rule, however, theologians rush in where laymen fear to tread ; it has been the same from the early centuries of Christianity to the present day ; from the first Council of the Church to the nineteenth-century curate, who (from the pulpit) lays down the law to his own satisfaction on subjects that his master, the parson, would probably decline to discuss. Clerical attempts to explain away traces of the former presence of the mammoth and other great beasts, its contemporaries, in the British Isles, do not call for refutation, but maybe mentioned on account of their unintentionally amusing character. According to one of these theories, the mammoth and its congeners were brought over to the British Isles by the Phoenicians, who sailed the seas with a kind of travelling circus in order to amuse and astonish the natives with whom they traded. In an address to the British Association in 18K3, a speaker quoted from a re- ligious journal an amusing instance of the promulgation of this theory. Writing on the subject of British bone caves and the discoveries made in them, the author of the article in question states, that he desires to present to the public his own views with regard to these caves and the phenomena connected with them. According to this authority, " a great many of the old mines in Europe were opened by Phoenician colonists and metal workers a thousand years before the Romans had set foot in Britain, which accounts for the various floors of stalagmite found in most caves, and also for the variety of groups of bones embedded in them. The animals represented by them when living were not running wild about the hills devouring each other, as science men suppose, but were the useful auxiliaries and trained drudges of the miners in their work. Some of them, as the bear, had simply been c 18 SPECULATIVE GEOLOGICAL ARCHEOLOGY. hunted and used for food, and others of a fierce character, as the hyena, to frighten and keep in awe the native Britons. The larger species of Mammalia, as the elephant, the rhinoceros, and hippopotamus, and beasts foreign to the country, the Eomans, no less than the Phoenicians, had every facility in bringing with them in their ships of commerce from Carthage or other of the African ports. These, with the native horse, ox, and stag, which are always found in larger numbers in the caves than the remains of foreign animals, all worked peacefully together in the various occupations of the mines. . . . The hippopotamus, although amphibious, is a grand beast for heavy work, such as mining, quarrying, and road-making, and his keeper would take care that he was comfortably lodged in a tank of water during the night." The discoveries of geology, archaeology, and of folk-lore have so completely swept away the old dogmatic chronology, and so extended the known period of man's presence on the Earth, that it becomes necessary to construct, at any rate provisionally, some scheme to account for his origin and history more in accordance with the facts of science, than the present existing and deeply engrained quasi-historical and religious traditions and beliefs on the subject. This is what is here attempted — as regards Ireland — as a small contribution to the literature on the origin of civili- zation throughout the world. The endeavour to find a theory, and to keep on the right track, is beset with difficulties ; the path is not only intricate and ill-defined, but is crowned with obstacles, and beset, on either side, with gins and pitfalls. It is hard to decide whether the exploration of an unknown region, or a proper description of the discoveries so made, is the more difficult task to accomplish in a satisfactory manner. We see that there were great changes, but they were very gradual, both in their incomings and their outgoings: — " Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small ; Though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness grinds He all." Nowhere in the history of the Earth's crust, not even in Ireland —whose historians appear to imagine that the Green Isle was created an exception to the general laws as well of nature as of history — do we find evidence of an abrupt termination of one order of things, and an equally abrupt introduction of another. Few, scanty, and disconnected as are the records of the Ice Age, they all appear to point to the continuous action and reaction of natural forces, not to capricious changes, or to widely rano-ed catastrophes. After all the apparently immense geological periods are in reality but a mere fraction of the time required to account for the A QUATERNARY CONTINENT. 19 beginning of life and the development of vegetables and animals from a common ancestor. The geological estimate rests mainly on the gross deposit in the stratified rocks, and, allowing for the possible action of more rapid causes of change in former times, it suggests a period of approximately one hundred million years since the cooling of the Earth's surface permitted the earliest "life form" or " organised life " to appear. Physicists basing their calculations on the origin and age of the Sun's heat, the rate of the Earth's cooling, and other data, arrive at about the same conclusion. " The seasons run their round — the Sun fulfils His annual course — and heaven and Earth remain Still changing, yet unchanged — Btill doomed to feel Endless mutation in perpetual rest. Oh! who can strive To comprehend the vast, the awful truth Of the eternity that hath gone hy, And not recoil from the dismaying sense Of human impotence ? " As the British Islands stand nearly upon the edge of the great European plateau, which a little over 200 miles to the west plunges down into the abysses of the Atlantic, it is certain that although the continental area was prolonged westward beyond its present limits, it yet could never have exceeded the 100 fathom line, but on the other extremity of the British area, even at the present day, an elevation of 600 feet would convert the entire of the North Sea into dry land, and bones of the extinct fauna of other days have been dredged up by fishermen from the surface of the Dogger bank ; off Dunkirk the sea-bottom is so covered with Mammalian remains, that the sailors call it " tlie Burying-ground." It therefore seems probable that these animals must have roved in herds across the plains over which the waters of the North Sea now roll. The outline of the old Quaternary Continental coast-line (fig. 4) can still, it is thought, be roughly traced from Scandinavia, the Shetland and Hebrides, to Roekall and the vanished isle of Hy JSrasil, and from that on southward of Ireland and Land's End. In strange corroboration of the former existence of Hy Brasil, it is laid down on a chart by the French Geographer Royal, in the year 1634, very much in the position of the Porcupine Bank, situated near the edge of the great plateau, which stretches into the Atlantic, and of greater width off Guhvav Bay than anywhere else on the Irish coast. The bank is only sixty fathoms below sea-level ; from this landward the water gradually v 2 20 SPECULATIVE GEOLOGICAL ARCHEOLOGY. deepens ; then again gradually becomes shallower as the Bay of Galway is approached. It is alleged that discovery has also been made, by dredging on this bank, of the common periwinkle, a shell that is inhabited by a mollusk requiring exposure, at re- gular intervals, to air as well as to water ; in fact only living where the sea rises and falls on rocks. The wear of the Atlantic billows during late centuries can be vaguely traced. On the map of 1634 before mentioned, Eockall is shown as consisting of two adjacent islands, one considerably Fiu. 4. Ideal Sketch Map, showing approximate old Quaternary Continent at its maximum extent. Present land area represented black. larger than the other ; at the present day these are represented by two banks or shoals, one of considerable extent, the other a small rock, still above the waters, and surrounded by an extensive bank, as forty miles from this last pinnacle of a sunken land there are but 150 fathoms over it. This extremely dangerous speck in mid-ocean is probably the remains of the " lost " or " sunken land" passed by one of Frobisher's ships, and described as a long, low-lying, wooded island. DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS. 21 In numerous localities, especially around the western and southern coasts, there are often to be seen, at unusually low tides, extensive tracts of submerged bogs, full of stumps and roots of former forest timber, which point to the time when the now sunken forests must have been considerably above the ocean level . In no other way save in the assumed existence of a vastly increased continental area can the presence of submerged forests and immense tracts of peat with the roots of trees be accounted for, more especially " in such isolated islands as those of Orkney and Shetland, now swept by ocean blasts, and where no vestige of a tree has grown for at least 2000 years, when a Roman author described them as ' Carentes Sylva.' " This last sub- sidence is most likely synchronous with the final separation of Great Britain from the European continent, for, after attaining a considerable elevation, the land of the European area appears to have slightly subsided, and from this period we enter into times comparatively modern. The isolation of Ireland took place long before Britain had been separated from the European area. This may be inferred from a comparison of the distribution of present-day plants and animals. The interval which has elapsed since the submergences and the ice-caps of the Glacial Period must, if measured by ordinary human standards, have been of enormous duration ; yet even this prodigious period was too short to enable the plants and animals of Central Europe com- pletely to possess themselves of the British area. Professor A. Geikie, F.R.S.L, remarks that — "Generation after generation they were moving westward ; but long before they could all reach the north-western seaboard, Ireland had become an island, so that their further march in that direction was arrested ; and before the subsequent advancing bands had come as far as Britain, it too had been separated by a sea channel which finally barred their progress. Comparing the total land Mammals of the west of Europe, we find that, while Germany has ninety species. Britain has forty, and Ireland only twenty-two. The Reptiles and Amphibia of Germany number twenty-two, those of Britain thirteen, and those of Ireland four. Again, even among the winged tribes, where the capacity for dispersal is so much greater, Britain possesses twelve species of bats, while Ireland has no more than seven, and 130 landbirds to 110 in Ireland. The same discrepancy is traceable in the flora, for while the total number of species of flowering plants and ferns found in Britain amounts to 1 125, those of Ireland number 970 — about two-thirds of the British flora. Such facts as these are not explicable by any difference of climate rendering Ireland less fit for the recep- tion of more varied vegetation and animal life ; for the climate of Ireland is really more equable and genial than that of the 22 SPECULATIVE GEOLOGICAL ARCHAEOLOGY. regions lying to the east of it. They receive a natural and consistent interpretation on the assumption of the gradual sepa- ration of the British Islands during a continuous north-western migration of the present flora and fauna from Central Europe." Eegarded merely as a physical event, apart from other con- siderations, the first appearance and development of man must have, slowly but surely, effected a change in the fauna. It is an advent the date of which we may ultimately become cognizant of, and marks the boundary or dividing line between two great periods, the present and the Tertiary. A primeval race appeared in Europe at a remote period, Interglacial at latest, and filled with a scanty population a vast extent of territory. As regards the British Isles and Ireland, it may be safely stated that, though Palaeolithic or rude-flint-using man arrived on foot, Neolithic or polished-flint-using man probably arrived by water ; only in the Later Stone Age do the sheep, goat, long-faced ox, and dog make their appearance on the scene as domesticated animals. As on the ocean of time successive waves of types and specie3 have risen and fallen, have come and gone, so primitive man has here appeared, lived, and disappeared. Even without being able to describe him from his osseous frame-work, a good idea of what he was like can be formed. He was short in stature, with large belly and small calves to the legs, the females considerably shorter than the males. Both sexes went almost naked, or only partially protected from the inclemency of the weather by the skins of animals killed in the chase. They were covered with hair like wild animals ; their heads were long and flat with receding foreheads ; the features animal-like and repulsive, for the lower jaws with projecting teeth were massive. Not a pleasing description, but primitive man was not handsome. Even then, however, he was not degraded, for he had never risen higher ; and although we may now-a-days regard him as bestial, he nevertheless represented in his day the highest stage of development in the animal kingdom ; yet, in this age, which is perpetually occupied in proclaiming itself the age of enlighten- ment and of progress, the majority of people still prefer to look upon themselves as inferior to their original ancestors. The idea that man has risen is considered not only to be degrading, but positively irreligious ; whilst the idea that he has fallen from a higher estate is regarded as ennobling, as strictly religious, and therefore orthodox. The idea of the gradual advance of man from a state but little removed from the mere animal was, like the vast reons of geology, dimly perceived by the ancients ; for both Greek and Roman philosophers and poets depict, in vague but nevertheless striking periods, the lowly origin of the human race. Thus Horace states A PRIMEVAL RACE. 23 that ' : when animals first crept forth from this new-formed Earth, a dumb and filthy herd, they fought for acorns and lurking- places with their nails and fists, then with clubs, and at last with arms, which, taught by experience,- they had forged. They then invented names for things, and words to express their thoughts." Races in a state of barbarism either die out at once in pre- sence of a stronger and more civilized people, or their lower characteristics are effaced by assimilating intermixture with the intruding community. Man cannot be considered as an iso- lated being, he is but one link in the great chain of animal creation. It has been remarked that the brains of most savages, and the skulls of most primitive races are larger than — in theory — they ought to be ; often rather larger than the brains and skulls of the average of the masses inhabiting the great cities of the present day. " But this need not cause surprise if the life of intelligent interest passed by the savage child be taken into consideration. From the tenderest age he was observant of all the devices practised by his parents for procuring clothing, food, means of defence, in short, all the essentials of existence ; the natural result of his wild life was health and strength " ; indeed on the principle of the survival of the fittest, it could only be the robust who lived through the hardships and climatic exposure incidental to a savage life.* The greatest incentives to exertion, on the part of primitive man, are hunger and thirst, heat and cold ; without such spurs to original sloth we should still probably be eating acorns, chipping Mints, and " making ourselves as comfortable as might be in the company of other species." Climate undoubtedly stamps well-marked characteristics on the human frame in regard to both physical and mental develop- ment. Extremes of cold or of heat deteriorate body and mind alike, whilst a temperate climate stimulates both. The theory has arisen that man came into existence in a warm climate, whilst * On this subject S. Baring Gould, m.a., remarks that " intellectual de- velopment necessarily leads to a. deterioration of tho p/n/^iijue of the species ; high civilization introduces a multitude of disorders unknown to savage life ; and such deterioration must end in the extinction of the race. In a simple and barbarous state of society, the weak and deformed die as children. Civilization tends to accumulate and propagate disease and malformation; for science and the attention which in a cultivated race can be bestowed on its infirm, keep the diseased and deformed alive, and suffer them to breed and spread their disorder an.l malformation through generations of children. In savage life the process of natural selection tends to raise the type of man, the inferior types dying out : but civilized life prevents the operation of the natural law, and therefore tem.s to tho deterioration of the race." 24 SPECULATIVE GEOLOGICAL ARCHAEOLOGY. civilization commenced in a temperate climate. The discovery of a semi-tropical fauna and flora having formerly flourished within the Arctic Circle has given birth to the idea that man's origin was at the North Pole. But unless distinct traces of primitive man's presence in these latitudes are brought to light of more ancient date than those which have been discovered in other and more likely parts of the globe, the theory can only be regarded as a fantastic speculation. Almost everywhere, throughout Europe, there are traces of a later and numerous people, also unknown to history, who have left very material traces of their occupancy of the land, and tradition points to an early race of diminutive folk who inhabited Ire- land. No recognizable crania have been found, and but scanty osseous remains. They probably hunted the reindeer and the Gigantic Deer, and were exterminated — driven out of the country, or perhaps partly absorbed by succeeding tribes of immigrants. The engineer and the agriculturist are, from time to time, bring- ing to light unlooked for ancient interments, and though some have been carefully noted by competent observers, yet, in several instances, through ignorance of their value, many crania — which of course are to be met with whole only in carnal interments — have either been destroyed or lost. Sir John Browne, when discoursing on urn-burial some two centuries ago, quaintly observes that "the dimensions of the head measure the whole body, and the figure thereof gives conjecture of the principal faculties ; physiognomy outlives ourselves, and ends not in the grave." That the cranium constitutes an element of paramount importance in studying the natural history of man, is now universally admitted, but it is a science in itself, and one who has not been trained as a surgeon ought to make confession in the words of Cicero : " Nor am I ashamed, like those men, to acknowledge that I do not know the things which I do not know." Anthropologists assure us that at least two distinct races of immigrants— each of very marked characteristic type — landed on our shores. These can now (it is alleged) be classed and identified by the configuration of their crania ; for as the brain is the seat of the intellectual capacities, the structure of the skull is of primordial importance. The relation of the length of the cranium to its breadth is regarded as one of the most charac- teristic marks of distinction between different races. If the extreme breadth of the skull, when compared with its extreme length from front to back, does not exceed 75 per cent, of the length, the skull is said to be dolichocephalic or long-headed ; if it equals or exceeds 83 per cent, it is called braehvcephalie] i.e. short or broad-headed. Intermediate indices are called sub- TWO RACES OF IMMIGRANTS. 25 dolichocephalic or sub-brachycephalic, according as they approach one or the other of these extremes, but are of less importance, as they probably are the result of inter-crossing. There is a charming simplicity in the study of ethnology as taught by some Anglican divines. One learned canon gravely alleges that all the European dolichocephalic, or long-headed races, are, nowaday, Protestant ; all the brachycephalic, or round- headed races, Catholic, or Greek Church, with, however, certain exceptions which but prove the rule. Unless a learned divine had led the way, an ignorant layman would not have ventured to follow on this curious recently discovered bypath of ethnology ; but, in future, when one inquires of oneself why one is a Catholic or a Protestant, the reason will obviously be afforded by referring to a careful measurement of the cephalic index. The form of skull attributed to the first known inhabitants of Ireland is distinguished by great length from the front to the back of the head, and comparative narrowness of the skull ; it is alleged that the specimens presented are too numerous and have been found over too wide an area to permit of their being considered mere varieties, especially as a similar form of skull is to be met with amongst the aboriginal remains found in England, and over a large proportion of the continent of Europe. Explorers who have not made the physical conformation of the human frame their study possess, however, no standpoint from which to test their own ideas. Often, when opening a " Giiint's Grave," workmen have drawn attention to the great size of the human bones which they disinterred, when in reality the bones had formed the framework of a man of but medium stature. The minds of the searchers were imbued with the idea that the bones must of necessity be of superhuman size, for were they not found in a " Giant's Grave " ? In the same way the judgment of an antiquary may, insensibly to himself, be biassed by his own imagination regarding some preconceived theory. A distinguished writer on archeology has observed : " There is no failing to which antiquarian observers seem more liable than seeing too much." There are also slight varieties in the form of the crania of the long-headed or primitive race, for the progenitors of the early inhabitants of Ireland probably arrived in detached groups and at considerable intervals of time, doubtless representing successive immigrations. The second type of Irish crania is, by some, also divided into two classes — both, however, belonging to what scientists have named a brachycephalic or round-headed race. The skull is of medium size, well-shaped, but with projecting upper jaw ; the chin not massive ; the nose short and wide. 26 SPECULATIVE GEOLOGICAL ARCHAEOLOGY. The second subdivision of the crania of the round-headed race is regular, the nose long and aquiline, the face narrow, the fore- head straight and of medium height ; a long oval outline in the vertical aspect of the skull, whilst the lower jaw is distinguished by its square outline and massive structure — giving a distinctive character to the face. Variety of shape in crania, within certain limits, appears to be the law of nature — not the exception — and each race exhibits countless variations of mental combinations. This is suggestive and calculated to impress the necessity of great caution and extensive observation of facts, before venturing to draw general conclusions. Classification of crania into distinct types, and then making that type the badge of a race, is a system of doubtful value. At any public meeting how many varying types of crania may be observed. Open an old pagan " Caltragh," and the same result becomes apparent ; skulls of every size and form may be unearthed, though all the remains are referable to about the same period of time, and probably all may have belonged to one sept ; yet had these skulls been found disassociated, they might have been viewed as representatives of totally different races. Professor T. H. Huxley is of opinion that the greatest and most strongly-marked differences in skulls is not a proof that they are of different races. In his examination of the two celebrated crania found in the caves of Engis and Neanderthal, pre- sumed to be amongst the oldest remains of man, he says : — " It would be difficult to find any two which differ from each other more strongly, but I am not willing to draw any definite conclusion as to their specific variety from that fact. . . . Are not the variations amongst the skulls of a pure race to the full as extensive ? " The Neanderthal skull was found, in the year 1857, in the Valley of Diissel, near Diisseldorf, in a cave about sixty feet above the stream, in the face of the precipitous winding ravine through which the river runs. The thickness of the bones of the skull is extraordinary, and the ridges and depressions, correspond- ing to the attachment of the muscles, are very strongly marked. The forehead is very low, very ape-like, indicating small cerebral development, and great strength of corporeal frame. Professor Huxley further remarks : — "Let it be supposed that the human remains from the caves of the Neanderthal and of Spy, represent the race, or one of the races, of men who inhabited Europe in the Quaternary Epoch, can any connexion be traced between it and existing race's ? That is to say, do any of them exhibit characters approximating those of the Spy men, or other examples of the Neanderthaloid race ? Put in the latter form, I think that the question may be safely EXTREME TYPES OE CRANIA. 27 answered in the affirmative. Skulls do occasionally approach the Neanderthaloid type, among both the brunette and the blonde long-headed races. For the former I pointed out the resemblance long ago in some of the Irish river-bed skulls. For the latter evidence of various kinds may be adduced." Professor T. H. Huxley formulated certain propositions, which appeared to him to rest on a secure foundation, relative to the physical characters of the inhabitants of Britain and their neighbours, together with other propositions concerning the languages spoken by them. Physical Characters of the People. i. " Eighteen hundred years ago the population of Britain comprised people of two types of complexion — the one fair, the other dark. The dark people resemhled the Aquitain and the Iberians ; the fair people were like the Belgic Gauls." II. "The people termed Gauls, and those called Germans, by the Romans, did not differ in any important physical character." in. " In none of the invasions of Britain which have taken place since the Roman dominion, has any other type of man been introduced than one or other of the two which existed during that dominion." iv. "The Xanthochroi (fair whites) and the Melanochroi (dark whites) of Britain are, speaking broadly, distributed, at present, as they were in the time of Tacitus ; and their representatives on the Continent of Europe have the same general distribution as at the earliest period of which we have any record." Languages Spoken. i. " At the time of the Roman Conquest one language, the Celtic, under two principal dialectical divisions, the Cymric and the Gaelie, was spoken throughout the British Islands. Cymric was spoken in Britain, Gaelie in Ireland." (Professor Huxley subsequently considered the terms Cymric and Gaelic as antiquated and improper, and substituted fur them " Celtic dialect a" and " Celtic dialect B.") II. " The Belgaj and the Celtic, with the offshoots of the latter in Asia Minor, spoke dialects of the Cymric division of Celtic. " in. " There is no record of Gaelic being spoken anywhere save in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man." iv. "When the Teutonic languages first became known, they were spoken only (since modified to something like "principally") by Xanthochroi (fair whiles), that is to say, by the Germans, and Scandinavians, and Goths; and they wero imported by Xanthochroi (fair whites) into Gaul and Britain." v. " The Celtic and the Teutonic dialects are members of the same great Aryan family of languages ; but thoro is evidence to show that a non-Aryan language was at one time spoken over a large extent of the area occupied by Melanochroi (dark whiles) in Europe." 28 SPECULATIVE GEOLOGICAL ARCHsEOLOGT. Thus Ireland was inhabited, at the earliest period of which we have any knowledge, by "fair-white" and ''dark-white" races, which there is every reason to believe were identical with the white and dark people of Britain. It is worthy of observation that extreme types of crania, are represented in two specimens discovered in the well-known "find," within the tumulus in the Phoenix Park, Dublin, demonstrating that the commonly received theory of cranial forms being more and more stereotyped the further hack we penetrate into the obscurity of the past, is not always corroborated by accurate ob- servation. The occupancy of a common tomb would imply that they were contemporaneously interred, and that they belonged, to members of the same family or tribe, and as only bone and flint implements— together with a shell necklace — were found, it may be considered that the period of interment was that of a barbarous state of society. The continuous damp of thousands of years reduces even the densest crania to fragile ruins, unless its effects be counteracted by other influences, among which a more than ordinary density of bone is a phenomenon usually observable in prehistoric skulls, certainly in such as were disinterred, in mere fragments, by the writer, from the Carrowmore series of Eude Stone Monuments, near Sligo. In old persons increased density of bone appears to occur ; the more perfectly it becomes consolidated, the less per- meable does it become to moisture, and the more tenaciously does it retain animal matter essential to its integrity. For example, in the sepulchral mound at Mount 'Wilson, which contained about fifty skeletons, the greatest diversity of appearance was exhibited among the crania, some being scarcely touched by decay, whilst others were reduced to pulp, which rendered it impossible to remove them, even in moderate-sized fragments, vet none of them had apparently ever had any other covering, or protection, than the soil in which they were embedded. The chances are therefore that any really ancient crania which may be found, will be referable — except under special circumstances — to individuals who had passed their fortieth year. A large brain generally indicates intellectual power ; this is borne out by many facts, but there does not appear to be any absolute law yet defined connecting great brain with great in- tellect. A madman, for example, may have a great brain, but has not great intellect. All that can at present be advanced is that a man with a weighty brain is likely to be more intelligent than a man with a small one. There is also another point beyond which we cannot at present penetrate. The late Professor Huxley was of opinion that, as the evidence stands, it would appear that "the sort of brain which characterises the highest Mammals, THE ENIGM. I OF THE PA ST UJVSOL VED. 29 and which, so far as we know, is the indispensable condition of the highest sensibility did not come into existence before the Ter- tiary Period" ; and further, that it is a conclusion " fully justified by analogy, that, sooner or later, we shall discover the remains of our less specialised primitive ancestors in the strata which have yielded the less specialised equine and canine quadrupeds. At present fossil remains of men do not take us back further than the later part of the Quaternary Epoch ; and, as was to be ex- pected, they do not differ more from existing men than Quaternary horses differ from existing horses." In most instances of the discovery of perfect crania — even those of children — the teeth appear to be much worn, as if by attrition of some very hard kind of food, the process of degra- dation keeping pace with the age of the individual ; the teeth, nevertheless, although they may be much worn, are, with few exceptions, found to be in a sound and healthy condition. The gradual abrasion of the teeth is materially influenced by the nature of the food used. This is proved by the fact that the teeth of sailors, who, during the greater part of their lives, live upon hard biscuits, are often found to be much worn down by the constant friction produced by this diet. Among the wild tribes of Patagonia, it is by no means rare to see the upper teeth worn to the gums, though they are almost never decayed. This characteristic is common to nearly all races of indigenous Americans, and the like trait has been observed in collections of prehistoric crania from the same continent. All that can with any certainty be said about primitive man in Ireland is that he was present in the country in times very remote, and that he hunted the big horn and reindeer, as well as other animals still present with us. It has been suggested that the gigantic Irish deer, or big horn, and reindeer migrated, at stated seasons, from Britain to Ireland, across the frozen sea, during the Glacial Period, and the primitive flint-using folk advanced and retired with the icy mantle, either following the animals on which they subsisted, or driven backward by a superior race or races. Enough has been said to show that man's existence on Earth is to be reckoned by a lapse of time marked by geological epochs instead of by years or even by centuries. How long these various stages lasted, or by what steps man passed from the infancy of intelligence through the various gradations of culture of which we find traces, to his present condition, which may, in comparison with the preceding, be described as a condition of uniform pro- gress — these are questions which, as yet, we possess no means of determining. This brief review of long past ages hovers on the border-line of many sciences; and if it belongs to any one in particular, 30 SPECULATIVE GEOLOGICAL ARCHEOLOGY. it pertains rather to the domain of the geologist than to that of the archaeologist. Good results, however, often follow from what appear to be small beginnings, and science may receive a fresh im- petus from workers whose first efforts are looked upon by scientists as useless. It is difficult to confine research on any great subject to very strict lines : the picture requires a background ; the large- ness and complexity of the problem, its manifold ramifications, are very apparent, and insensibly lift the inquirer out of a narrow groove. Out of the alphabet of stone that lies around, one may form words, arrange them into sentences, and make them yield up the secrets of countless centuries ; confusion may be changed into order, and a new page of primitive history deciphered. The succession of races in Ireland and their kinship with the tribes that traversed the shores of the Mediterranean, the great Conti- nental waterways, and the Baltic littoral, are subjects that should excite interest, whilst the most interesting possibility is the insight which attentive research may give as to the real nature of things in the past. The basis of all science is the gathering of facts, and in this inquiry they have accumulated at a rate, in numbers, and in an importance quite unprecedented, so that we may soon see some far-reaching generalization appearing, which will extend our knowledge in a way we now hardly dare hope for. From modern exhaustive research we have learned much, yet problems arise on every side which give constant exercise to the speculative faculties, for up to the present a haze has shrouded the past history of the world, which, though now gradually but surely dispersing, still permits us to see but very indistinctly. CHAPTER II. ANCIENT FAUNA AND THEIR EXTERMINATOR. Description of remains of ancient times should bo written in a simple manner — The first discovery of the art of producing fire — Climate of Ireland formerly more severe than at present — Wooded nature of the country — Great pro- gress of Archaeological Research — Early Settlers — Their l'rimitive Weapons — The Cave-Dwellers — The Caves of Ireland, not explored — Extinct Mam- malia : The Mammoth, the Gigantic Irish Deer, the Reindeer, the Grizzly Bear, the Common Bear, the Wild Horse, the Wild Boar, the Wolf, the Wolf- Dog— Extinct Birds. It is a rule of all writing that the author should express himself to the understanding of his readers, presupposing, however, in them a certain degree of familiarity with the subject under con- sideration, but not the possession of encyclopedic knowledge. " Forgotten generations live again, assume the bodily shapes they wore of old " — so sings the poet, but neither with this senti- ment, nor with the foregoing rule, does the Irish archreologist agree ; on the contrary, descriptions of ancient remains, whether those of weapons and implements, of stone or earthen forts, of graves and cemeteries, are clothed in a dialect of archteological jargon, only to be comprehended by the initiated, and certainly not to be understood by the average class of readers. An axe of stone, or of bronze, is styled a celt or a palstave ; brooches are de- signated fibulte or rnammillary fibulie ; rings, armillaj ; bells, crotals ; gold ornaments are called lunulre, minds, and bulhe ; a rude stone monument is known as a megalith ; a earn is a microlith, and an alignment of stones is a parallelitha ; dwellers in caves are called troglodytes — in fact, a spade is never called a spade, its being even styled an agricultural implement would be simplicity itself, in comparison with the existing use. The Irish aborigines lived a simple life, to use the mildest expression ; and to describe this, little, if any, technical phraseology is needed. Their requirements were few ; in fact, food may be said to have been their only necessity, with, per- haps, something in the way of skins for clothing, in addition to the hematite (an ore of iron of a red colour) or other pigment, 32 ANCIENT FA UNA— THEIR EXTERMINA TOR. with which they daubed themselves ; for man, for his mere existence, needs no more, civilization being a superfluity of un- necessary surroundings. It requires no very exalted or learned language to attempt a description of the countless generations which have lived, and passed away, without having had awakened in them any practical aspirations toward bettering their condition ; they must, however, have possessed, to a great degree, two important characteristics, the cunning necessary to acquire, and the courage necessary to hold what had been acquired, for in those days it was neither the reign of the classes, nor of the masses, but that of the individual, the days of the initiation of " . . . . the good old plan, That he should take who has the power, And he should keep who can." In a rude state of society in Ireland every man thought for himself and acted on his own judgment, but modern society de- stroys individuality. It is a common dogma of the age that all men are equal : we are taught it six days in the press, the seventh day from the pulpit ; but it is an inaccurate statement, for men are intellectually unequal, and will remain so until time shall be no more. These times in which liberty of thought is most loudly proclaimed, are precisely the times when least origi- nality is manifested. The thoughts of the majority become the law for all, arid an infringement of the customary ideal is resented by the majority who consider themselves insulted by anyone differing from them. The great difference between the English- man and the native Irishman is that the former is an individua- list, the latter a socialist. The Englishman manages his own business in his own way — and there is no better training than a state of society which obliges every unit to rely on himself alone -the Englishman works: the Irishman trusts to chance and eventualities. Life, even in the earliest days, was lived much as it is now ; there were its cares, its pleasures, its solemn and its ludicrous aspects, its rivalries and its friendships, and it is apparent that the aborigines, with no requirements beyond mere food and shelter, passed, to their ideas, quite as enjoyable an existence as we do. However, to appreciate antiquity is one thing, to wish to have lived in those days is quite another, for no one who has led a luxurious life desires to descend to what, for him, would be severe hardship, squalor, and appalling wretched- ness. It is thought by many archaeologists that the use of skins, as clothing, preceded the knowledge of fire, either as a means of THE FIRST DISCO VER Y OF FIRE. 33 comfort, or for the cooking of food. Burke defined man as " an animal that cooks his victuals," but in the first ages of the world's history this definition would have been inaccurate. The mystery of fire seems to have held a firm hold on the wonder of the infant-like mind of early man, and no matter how far we go back we generally find him in possession of fire, for very early in human life man, by means of a drill or of a flint, became the Prometheus to his own small heap of collected dried leaves and twigs. The fable of Prometheus is, it is alleged, but an adaptation of the Vedic myth, which depicts the god as a celestial flame, hid in a casket, from which he is compelled, by a superior power, to come forth. Even the name, Prometheus, is stated to be of Vedic origin, and recalls the process employed by early man to obtain fire. The kindling stick or paramantlut — hence, it is alleged, Prometheus — supplied with a twisted cord rolled round the superior portion, imparts a rotary motion to the stick alter- natively from left to right, and contrariwise. The stick revolves in a little hollow, formed at the point of intersection of two pieces of wood placed one above the other so as to form a cross, of which the extremities, bent at right angles, are firmly fixed. The entire apparatus was styled Smt.it kit. The Egyptians wor- shipped Ptah, a tire-god who twisted the polar axes, as the savage twists his fire-stick (tig. 5). Captain Cook thus describes the Australian way of producing fire : — "Their method of producing fire is curious; they work one end of a stick into an obtuse point, and placing this upon a piece of dry wood, they turn the upright stick backwards and forwards very rapidly between their hands, till the fire is produced." The Irish peasantry even still regard fire as the great pre- servative against witchcraft, for evil spirits have no power except in the dark, so the careful housewife places a live coal under the churn if the butter does not rise: she waves fire over an animal's head if the .beast seems sickly: when she lights a candle after dark, she crosses herself to ward off the evil spirits who are jost- ling against each other, and struggling to get out of the house in dread of the fire. The land steward of a country gentleman would not return home on a dark night without having a lighted sod of turf stuck on the end of his walking-stick for the purpose of warding off the "good people." In similar manner, Keppel states that a native of North Australia will not willingly go near the graves of the dead at night by himself ; when obliged to pass them, he carries a "fire stick" to keep off the spirits of darkness. 6 >. 'I - 36 ANCIENT FA UNA— THEIR EXTERMINA TOR. The practice of producing kindling by friction was in exis- tence quite recently amongst the peasantry in the form of a charm or preventive against disease in cattle. When a swelling of the head or disease amongst cattle, called " big-head," ap- peared, every fire was extinguished in the townland on which it had broken out. The inhabitants then assembled at the affected farm to kindle what was called a " need-fire," which was done as follows : — Two men commenced to rub two sticks together till the friction produced a flame. It was hard work, each man rubbing in turn (fig. 6). When the sticks had ignited, they collected dry " scraws " (sods) covered with soot from the roofs of the dwelling-houses, to produce a great smoke. The affected cattle then had pieces of wood inserted in their mouths to keep them open, and the head was held over the smoke till water ran plentifully from mouth and nostrils, when the cure was com- pleted. Every fire that had been extinguished was then re- kindled from the "need-fire." This plan of producing fire was more effective than the hand-twisting process. The entire pro- ceedings were described by Mr. Bernard Bannon, of Cavan- carragh, near Enniskillen. When he died, about the year 1892, he was, it is stated, 100 years old. A piece of iron pyrites, in form a perfect cube, about the size of the ordinary die used in games of chance, was found, amongst calcined bones, and other remains, in a sepulchral cist, at Broughderg, county Tyrone, and proved, on trial, to be well adapted for the production of sparks from a flint. Objects of pyrites have sometimes been discovered in prehistoric sepulchres in Great Britain, in juxtaposition to pieces of flint, and are supposed, by some antiquarians, to have been employed by their former owners, as fire-producers. Primitive culinary utensils, in the form of rude stone griddles for baking purposes, were used, lately, in some mountainous parts of Kerry. They were fiat, circular-shaped stones, about one foot in diameter and an inch in thickness, with a projection to serve as a handle; the shape seems to have been dependent on the natural form of the stone selected, which was then moulded by a little dressing. This is one small link in the existing evidence of how long many of the most interesting usages of antiquity lingered on unnoticed amongst us. If reliance can be placed on the accounts of some ancient writers, it would appear that, so late as about 2000 years ago, an excessive degree of cold prevailed in the climate of Europe. The great number and extent of forests, lakes, and morasses, which, according to these authors, existed in those times, must have rendered the climate cold and moist. The forests have nearly all been felled and the stagnant water drained, thus WOODED NATURE OF THE COUNTRY. 37 producing a very considerable difference between the tempera- ture described as existing in these latitudes 2000 years ago, and that of the present day. What occurred on the Continent occurred also in Ireland, which, shaded with forests and abounding in marshes, must have had an atmosphere more frigid than if its soil were then, as now, freely exposed to solar influence. Owing to the disappearance of Erin's former leafy mantle, and the absence of pestilential exhalations from stagnant fens, its summers have become colder and its winters warmer than in those remote times. Although Ireland, in the Polished Stone Age, and in much later and even in Elizabethan times, was well wooded, there must have always been districts naturally bleak and bare, such as the barony of Burren, described by Ludlow, in 1652, as a country "where there is not water enough to drown a man, wood enough to hang one, nor earth enough to bury him ; which last is so scarce that the inhabitants steal it from one another." What a world of change we live in. Is it not an astonishing transformation to find that a tree is a strange and rare object in the landscape where formerly impenetrable brakes and woods existed? So rare, in fact, in some localities, that an anecdote, told in 177G, by Young, in his travels through Ireland, of parts of the county Mayo, is still applicable to many districts, and to many islands off the western coast. A countryman living in Erris, in which district not a single tree grew, left the place with his young son to go to Killala. On approaching the village, the youth saw a tree for the first time, and exclaimed : — " Oh, Lord! Father, what is that ! " At the commencement of the century the inhabitants of Tory Island had a superstitious objection to visit Ireland. Even when they approached its coasts while fishing, or when returning from piloting vessels, which, before the erection of the lighthouse, was a frequent occurrence, they never landed if it were possible to avoid doing so. The liev. Osar Otway gives some interesting particulars of the behaviour of a boat's crew which were driven ashore near Ards, where "they were seen putting some leaves and small branches of trees in their pockets to show on their return." If the population and cattle were withdrawn from the country, and only sufficient numbers left to represent those of early days, the land would be, in a generation, covered with a sylvan mantle. No one whose opportunities have allowed him to make the neces- sary observations can doubt that this would be the case : given the above conditions and the entire kingdom would be again covered with woods down to the water edge. There might be 38 ANCIEN1 FAUNA— THEIR EXTERMINATOR. exceptions, with respect to particular or unfavourable localities, for it is a curious fact, that in the American forests vacant spaces are occasionally found, upon which, to all appearance, no trees have ever grown. Ireland remained well wooded until Elizabethan times, when large quantities of timber were felled for military exigencies, and the remainder was consumed in iron works, erected by enterprising English settlers. On the subject of this denudation of timber there is an ancient Irish saw : — " Ireland was thrice beneath the ploughshare, Thrice it was wood, and thrice it was bare." It would be of little utility to give even a synopsis of the various legends related of the peopling of Ireland before the flood. In later and more authentic authorities the boundaries of the territories occupied by the elder arrivals in the country are, as a rule, apparently undefined in the inland regions ; from this it may be inferred that, for a lengthened period, the central portion of Ireland was but sparsely inhabited owing to its dense forests. The Irish Annals being the favourite authority with Irish antiquarians, readers ought to have the benefit of the startling information that Caesar — not Julius Cfesar, but an alleged grand- daughter of Noah — landed in Ireland forty days before the Deluge with a colony of antediluvian Mormons, namely fifty girls and three men, who appear to have escaped the fate which overtook the rest of mankind; thus was Erin peopled. An old Bishop of Ferns is reputed to have shut up "Gulliver's Travels " with the sage remark, " Amusing, but I can't believe half the fellow says." A puzzled antiquarian might fairly arrive at a similar conclusion after perusing the narrative of the Irish chroniclers. The early depredators on the Irish coasts are, in Bardic tales, described as swarming throughout the German Ocean, their head- ■ quarters being the Shetland Isles and the Hebrides. This extern force represented many tribes of Northern Europe, and appears to have made itself felt from a very remote period. To these rovers Erin presented many of the advantages that America, on its first discovery, displayed to European eyes — a sparse popula- tion, a good climate, a fertile soil, a seemingly boundless range of pasture lands, separated from each other, and sheltered by dense forests. There is an ancient genealogical table, or tree, preserved in an old Irish MS. in the Bodleian Library, in which the descent of some of the leaders of these early invaders is most minutely traced back to Noah. 0' Curry gravely designates this MS. a unique genealogical table. Most people will doubtless concur with his opinion. The remains of man, of his arts and industries, enable us to trace out, to some degree, the general nature of his everyday EA RL Y SETTLERS. 39 life by showing, not in a theoretical, but in a practical manner, the state of the people who occupied Erin before the beginning of authentic history ; they enable us to lift the veil that hitherto has concealed the Eld, and to realize, to a great extent, the physical past of the inhabitants. By a comparison of waifs of antiquity with kindred objects from other countries throughout the globe, conjectures can be formed as to the social state of Ireland during the pre-Christian period. Thus it be- comes possible to realize to ourselves the conditions of society through which the previous inhabitants of the land passed in long gone by ages, a condition of society more primitive than any of which we have at present an actual example in any portion of the globe ; in fact, in these relics and in archaic folk- lore we possess, to a great extent, a reliable record of the infancy of mankind. In the earliest ages of man's existence on the earth, weapons and implements were formed of the rudest materials, for only such were accessible ; wood, bone, horn, stone, and flint were employed before man was able to use metal for these purposes. The discovery of the principle of projecting a missile by the bow was one of the greatest advances made by primitive man, for cunning then supplied a weapon by which he made himself the undisputed master of animal life. We cannot even guess at the period of time during which the successive steps of this inven- tion were accomplished, yet the art of shooting with the bow became at length almost universal ; though the use of the bow is unknown to some present-day savage tribes ; for instance, to the aborigines of Australia (who, however, possess the boome- rang), and to the Maories of New Zealand. Although the use of the "bow throughout Europe seems to date back to a very remote period, yet nothing that can be identified positively as an arrow- head has, it is believed, been found in the gravels. As a rule, the older a flint implement, the larger it is, i.e., rude stone weapons of the Drift are of greater size than those of the Polished Stone Age. Reasoning on these lines we conclude that some Irish arrow-heads are probably older than those of Great Britain, for the former are, as a general rule, of larger size than the latter ; they are also found in greater abundance, particularly in the northern province ; yet how far this is owing to the use of the older and larger heads having come down to later times, and how far to the character of the flints produced in the country, it is difficult to decide. There is also greater relative abundance of some particular forms in Ireland, more especially of the barbed triangular arrow-heads without central stem; of the elongated form with stem and barbs, as well as of the lozenge-shaped arrow- heads which present rare varieties. Owing to the fragility of 40 ANCIENT FA UNA-THEIR EXTERMINA TOR. the material, barbed arrow-beads of bone are rare. Figs. 7, 8, 9 were found by the writer. Such articles ought to be common enough, as, in olden days, there were probably quite as many arrow-tips made of bone as of flint. Fig. 7, formed of the split bone of a large mammal, was discovered in a rude stone monu- ment, near Sligo ; the convex and concave sides of its medullary canal' were very observable, and it is evident that the head was fastened to the shaft by a rivet, as the rivet-hole remains. Fig. 8 was found on the site of one of the crannogs or lake-dwellings in Lough Talt, and fig. 9 on the site of a lake-dwelling in Lough Gill in the same county ; all three were originally barbed. A considerable number of objects of the class designated " bur- nishers " by Sir William Wilde, "wrist-guards" by Canon Greenwell, and " bracers" by Sir John Evans, have been found in Ireland. One example, five inches long, has a hole in each Fig. 7. Fin. S. Bone Arrow-beads. (Real size.; Kill. 9. end, and a raised edge round the ends on the upper surface ; others have two holes at each extremity. Though these articles belong to the later period of the Stone Age, or even to a time late in the Bronze Age, and are often found in prehistoric interments in England, their use is by no means certain. The most likely theory, that which at present holds the field, is, that they were used as " bracers," or " guards," to protect the left arm of the archer from the blow of the string, and they cer- tainly bear a strong family resemblance to those worn by archers of the present day for a similar purpose. The art of projecting stones from a sling appears to be of early origin, and continued in Ireland to a very late period ; for instance, in the year 1848, the Claddagh fishermen of Galway routed a considerable force of dragoons with showers of stones B ONE ARROU '-HEA DS. 41 from slings. Casting pebbles from the sling was an amusement, and a mode of mob warfare almost peculiar at that time to the Claddagh men ; but since the famine the use of the sling has with them fallen into desuetude. They had long been celebrated for their skill in this ancient exercise, and were accustomed to hold regular competitions or slinging matches, and when a slinger was certain of hitting a shilling as far as it could be distinguished, he was held to be a " marksman." The missile, which, when launched by the hand, is not of necessity expected to be recovered by its owner, is made of less valuable material than that which the owner looks upon as con- nected with his person ; thus the arrow-head of flint is often contemporaneous with the period of iron ; the slight value of the material made it especially applicable for the manufacture of articles, which, when used, were not likely to be recovered. In collecting implements of flint an unlooked-for difficulty often occurs, owing to a superstition prevalent amongst the peasantry. Many of them believe that, when the flints have been boiled in water, the liquid is a certain cure of, and is a preservative against, sickness in human beings as well as in cattle, and that it restores to health those that are ailing, or, as they term it, " elf-shot." Mr. W. J. Knowles, m.r.i.a., secretary for county Antrim to the Council of the present Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, states that he knew instances where the possessor of a few flint imple- ments refused to part with them, as he found it more profitable to hire them out to neighbours, for the purpose of curing cattle, than it would be to sell them. This writer also remarks that, in reference to the employment of flint arrow-heads and spear-heads in curing cattle, he received recently an account from an aged man, who lives not far from Ballymena, of how the ceremony of cattle-curing was carried on in his young days : — " He had a neighbour, a very respectable farmer, who was a cow-doctor, and who had a considerable number of beautiful flint arrow-heads, by means of which he effected cures in the case of cattle which were ill. This cow-doctor invariably found that the animal was either ' elf-shot ' or ' dinted,' or it might be suffering from both troubles. When ' elf-shot,' I suspect the arrow had pierced the hide ; and when ' dinted,' I imagine there was only an indentation, which the doctor could feel as easily as the holes. When he was called in to see a cow which was ill, he would feel the hide all over, and find, or pretend to find, holes or indentations, and would call on anyone present to feel them. He would then assure the owner that he would very soon cure the cow. My informant told me that the man's usual expression when he found the holes was, in his own local language, ' Begor, 42 A NC1ENT FA UNA —THEIR EXTERMINA TOR. we hae found the boy noo,' meaning that he had found the cause of the beast's ailment. Some gruel would now have to be pre- pared, into which he would put a few of his arrow-heads, a piece of silver, usually a sixpence, and he would also add some sooty matter which he had previously scraped from the bottom of the pot. When all had been boiled well together, and was ready for use, he would take a mouthful and blow it into the animal's ears, another mouthful and blow it over her back, and then he would give the remainder to the cow to drink, and would go away, assuring the owner that she would soon be better. I understand he was generally successful in effecting cures, and was held in high estimation as a cow-doctor. My informant said he was often sent for by Lord Mountcashel's agent, when he lived in Galgorm Castle, to prescribe for cattle which were ill. There must, however, have been sceptics in those days, as I am told that the poor cow-doctor was often jocularly asked to examine a cow that was in perfectly good health, and that there was con- siderable merriment when he pronounced her to be both ' elf-shot' and ' dinted.' " The number and wealth of English collectors have caused the trade of forging antiquities to flourish. It is a time-worn adage, very applicable to the case of collectors of antiquities and objects of virtu, that " demand creates supply." As soon as any class of objects is inquired for, in a short time they are forth- coming in almost any quantity. It is even said, by some ill- natured antiquarians, that when excavations are going on in London, and collectors are standing by on the watch for dis- coveries, that coins, encaustic tiles, and bronzes are exhumed under their very eyes, which, purchased from a neighbouring old-curiosity shop, had actually been so placed for the purpose of being thus found. Counterfeit flint " antiques " are by no means uncommon; it is stated that the Benn collection in Belfast is full of them. The most celebrated forger was, undoubtedly, the well-known character, " Flint- Jack." Born in the year 1816, of humble parentage, he, in after-life, went by a hundred alum's. The skill he displayed was such that, it is said, he included on his list of dupes the then curator of the British Museum. Jack, however, never succeeded in discovering the art of surface-chipping, which he declared was a " barbarous art" that had died with the flint- using folk. This well-known worked-flint forger conceived the idea of visiting Ireland, thinking that his English beats required a rest. He, accordingly, started heavily laden with antiquities for " the sons of Erin." He says he did well, but the sons of Erin were not his only victims, for on being asked if he had sold flints and other antiquities to the officials of museums, Jack FORGED ANTIQUITIES. 43 indignantly replied, " Why, of course I did; they have lots of my things, and good things they are, too." in the year 1886 Mr. Knowles reported that a large number of counterfeit flint arrow-heads and other similar antiquities were for sale. ^Vithin three months several small collections were offered to him. In order to extract information from the person who exhibited them, Mr. Knowles looked over his wares, and, after a careful examination, pronounced them to be forgeries. This the dealer admitted, but excused himself by saying that he was not asking for them the market price of genuine arrow-heads, and spoke hopefully of being able to dispose of all he had. He stated that a dealer in Ballymena had sent to England within twelve months upwards of twenty pounds worth, and that another had been able to purchase a set of harness for his horse with the money received for forged flint implements. A dealer being remonstrated with for buying forged objects, replied that they "passed" — that is, they were purchased without question when they went to England, and as long as they sold, that was all he cared for. At that time almost every guide to the Giant's Cause- way had for sale a small quantity of these forged objects, some- times cleverly executed. Other forgeries consist of spurious oval tool-stones. Rolled boulders from the sea-shore, about three or four pounds in weight, are abraded at the ends, in imitation of genuine hammer stones, and are then pierced with a carpenter's " boring bit," so as to make them figure as hammers. A few small flint chisel-like objects, ground at the edge only, are also on the market, as well as a few very handsome and beautifully polished flint spear-heads, so cleverly worked that it is to be feared that, if the forger continues to receive support from England, he will make startling progress in his deceitful art. In fact, not long ago there occurred a keen debate over a forged spear-head, purchased by the secretary of an antiquarian society, as to whether the object was genuine or spurious. On many occasions of late years the attention of the public has been drawn to forgeries offered for sale, but till recently purchasers have not had much reason to complain, for though the cases in which spurious articles were exposed for sale were quite as plentiful as at present, everything was so unskilfully executed that the forgery was easily detected, even by the uninitiated, but now greater skill is being gradually brought to the work, though even now a forged object is rarely met with that would escape detection from a skilled observer. Fig. 10 is from a photograph of a modern maker of flint arrow-heads in the very act of fabricating his goods. "Very much depends upon the character of the flint selected for man- ipulation. As the finished article must have an aged look, a 44 ANCIENT FA UNA— THEIR EXTERMINA TOR. fresh unaltered flint would not answer the maker's purpose; therefore he carefully selects some of the indurated flints that occur where the chalk is in contact with the trap ; such flints are discoloured, and may be found of every shade from white to red, and objects made from them have the looked-for ' patina ' of 'age. If an ancient flint implement is broken, the ' patina ' will be found to coat the implement in lines parallel with the surface, but if a reproduction is broken, the colour of the material Fig. 10. A modern maker of Flint Arrow-heads, in the act of fabricating his goods. From a photograph by William Gray, m.r.i.a. is the same all through. The modern maker of arrow-heads selects a suitable flake of indurated flint, and holds it in a fold of cloth, his coat-collar or any other cloth, and with a sharp rough splinter of hard trap he presses against the edge of the flint and skilfully removes the material chip by chip, first from one side, then the other, until he forms his outline, and thus with marvellous rapidity he can turn out a scraper or arrow-head of any form or size." Pig. 1 1 is a collection of recent reproductions of the ancient GENUINE ANTIQUITIES. 45 forms of arrow-heads and flint axes made to meet the demand for Irish Antiquities. " This trade may be justified so long as the manufactured article is sold as a reproduction, and not as a genuine ancient Irish weapon ; but, unfortunately, the ignorance of collectors is such that they are left too often under the impression that the reproduction they have secured by purchase is really a genuine ancient weapon." Our public and private collections represent numerous and well-authenticated exhibits of antiquities ; here we have the rude flint implements used by the earliest arrivals on our shores ; next evidence of the metallurgic skill developed at a later period in the fabrication of copper or bronze axes, swords, and various weapons ; finally, personal ornaments formed of precious or other Fig. 11. Recent reproductions of ancient forms of Flint Arrow-heads and Axes. About one-quarter real size. From a photograph by William Gray, m.r.i.a. metal, which attest the increased skill of the inhabitants. All these represent an unerring exposition of the manners and arts of an early race. The interest manifested during recent years in the prosecu- tion of antiquarian research is very remarkable. Towards the closo of the last and the commencement of the present century, studies of this nature were confined to a very limited circle. The records, however, which have been handed down to us are in- creasing in scientific estimation, and we begin to value the importance of these labours. Every attempt to depict the social and mental condition of early man must necessarily be largely 46 ANCIENT FA UNA— THEIR EXTERMINA TOR. conjectural, but great benefits have been conferred by the investi- gations of the old school of antiquarians ; for although their deductions may have been in many instances fallacious, yet the facts which they have recorded are of the greatest importance. The traces left by the former inhabitants of the country resemble the pages of an old manuscript : some are easily decipherable, whilst others are very indistinct ; however, when read as a whole, enough remains to enable us to form an outline of ancient manners, customs, and superstitions. Archaeological writers have left behind them ineffaceable monuments in their works, in which they will always, in one sense, survive; it is good, there- fore, to follow their example, and carry on their labours, gather- ing in, no matter in what diminutive quantities, stores of fresh knowledge ; for, if truth be eternal, we shall, so long as archaeo- logical truth is recorded, have the very remote chance of being reckoned amongst these immortals also ! Many readers may have read works treating of some one or more epochs included in the past, of which Ireland has been the scene, but up to the present this lengthened period has not been treated of as a whole. During a portion of the early periods passed by man on Earth, caves or rock-shelters formed his dwell- ing-places, and from excavations in them we can draw some inferences as to his condition. In Ireland, as elsewhere, there is, it is thought by some, a link missing in the gradual develop- ment of man. The gap is between the Old and the New Stone Age, between the rough coarse implements from the gravel-drift, and those of the smaller, finer chipped, and subsequently polished newer Stone Age. This missing link may, in Ireland, be revealed by a systematic exploration of eaves and of the traces left in them by their former inhabitants. Many Continental archaeo- logists, however, deny that there is, in a general wav, anv great gap between the Eude Stone Age and the Polished Stone Age period. At the commencement of a new science, eager votaries build up work which has to be undone as soon as systematic effort is commenced ; not only has the student to undo the futile work that obstructs scientific inquiry, but, after pulling down the edifice, he has to attempt its rebuilding. 'Withiii the last few years local antiquarian societies, placed upon a practical working basis, have arisen, it may almost be said, all over the kingdom" their members embracing men of all classes, professions, and creeds. In Cork, Waterford, Kilkenny, Kildare, Dublin, and Belfast, as well as other places of less importance, wherever, in fact, the thoughtful reading public are in numbers, explorations, the outcome of individual and collective efforts, have been insti- tuted, and archreological literature has been enriched by many PROGRESS OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH. 47 interesting and instructive papers. The trend of all modern scientific effort is to discover from the drift, from caves, and middens, and other sites frequented by primitive man, more precise acquaintance with the manners and customs of long past ages, and on every side investigation has proved fruitful. There are many secrets of the past belonging to our land, which are yet unravelled, because traces of them are so faint as to be scarcely perceptible ; it is to the examination of these we should direct our attention. Day by day our feet unconsciously tread the silent relics of time, and from the very dust we ought to be able to conjure up visions of the past, and so commune with the in- habitants of bygone ages. Careful study begets knowledge, and knowledge increases knowledge. Much, which to the uninitiated appears unaccountable, gradually assumes its right place in archaeological sequence, new trains of reasoning are created, connecting links are discovered where all before was in apparent disorder, and a sound basis of facts is obtained upon which a new and exact science can be built. It has been established, on incontrovertible evidence, that worked Hints have been discovered under a considerable depth of undisturbed alluvial gravel in France, Britain, and the north of Ireland ; also that implements of flint and stone have been found in the earthen or stalagmitic floors of caverns, in conjunc- tion with the bones of animals long extinct in those latitudes — such as the lion, tiger, bear, hyena, rhinoceros, elephant, hippo- potamus, mammoth, reindeer, and the megaceros, which may be better described as the big-horn, or gigantic Irish deer. Now, if the handiwork of man is found associated with the remains of these extinct Mammalia, it follows, as a simple inference, that he existed contemporaneously with them, and most probably mi- grated, as they did, over land which then formed a portion of the European continent, but which has since been eroded by the sea. This tends to suggest the theory that a very primitive race had overspread the continent of Europe long before the advent of the tribes and mixed peoples that now inhabit it, a race which must have at last reached Ireland, where they may have carved those rude devices on the face of natural rocks, that still form an enigma to the antiquary, who may also have reared, at a later date, the earliest of our rude stone monuments, and the most primitive of our lake-dwellings. While admitting that imple- ments found in the drift are the rude hatchets and knives of men who inhabited Europe towards the end of the Glacial Period, many writers of the old school argue that it would be as unsafe to draw from these weapons inferences as to the condition of man in the different countries of the Continent, at the time of their deposition, as it would be nowadays to draw conclusions 48 ANCIENT FA UNA— THEIR EXTERMINA TOR. from the habits and arts of savage tribes, as to the present civilization of the United Kingdom. But at the time under review there existed a dead level of savagery ; for it may be said, that there is not a district of the Earth that can be pointed to, which does not show, by rude flint implements buried in its soil, the savage status of its first inhabitants. If, as is asserted by some, these savages were the degenerated descendants of civilized tribes or nations, the burden of proof lies on those making the assertion. Almost all the countries famed in ancient history as seats of civilization, show, like other and less celebrated regions, traces of an archaic Stone Age ; even Egypt has, at last, been brought into line with the rest, and furnishes evidences demon- strating the former prevalence of a condition of primitive society analogous to the state of modern savage tribes. Some races have indeed retrograded, and have returned to a comparatively, degraded and degenerate state, but scarcely to a state of savagery. It has been aUeged by many writers that, on attaining the culminating point of culture, the destiny of all races is to decline and decay ; that, like individuals, races in their old age return to the early condition of childhood. But the simile is not apposite. The catastrophe which alters or terminates the upward career of nations, generally comes from without, not from within, from a stronger race, or from contact with a superior civilization, as, for example, was the case with the Greeks, the Bomans, the Fellaheen of Egypt in the Old World, the Mexicans and Peruvians in the New World, and, the latest example, the Chinese in the East. In all these nations, although their culture, at the time of their overthrow, is alleged by modern writers to have been corrupt, the shock under which they sank came not from within, but from without. The absence of very primitive human remains in Ireland furnishes a problem capable of an easy solution. In early times savage man had probably no more idea of the sanctity which nowadays surrounds the dead, than had the wild beasts by which he was environed. We can only expect to meet with his osseous remains under exceptional circumstances at least, until the period is reached when his body was placed in a sepulchre protected overhead (as in the dolmen or cromleac, I.e., a rude stone monu- ment) from the effects of weather, and by the side stones from the ravages of beasts of prey. No discoveries of osseous human remains have as yet been recorded, as made in the gravel-drift in Ireland ; and it is extremely unlikely that, if found, they will be met with except in some very exceptional case, for relic-bearing gravel beds do not contain traces of any animal so diminutive as man, since the smaller the animal is the more likely it is that the skeleton will be obliterated. With the exception of rude flint drift CA VES AND CA VE D WELLERS. 49 implements, it may be said that pre-historic remains in Ireland, as at present known, commence with the later Stone Period, when man hunted the great Irish big-horn and the reindeer. Although many people, from actual observation or reading, are well acquainted with the caves of America, the Continent, and England, few are well informed as to the existence of large and picturesque caves in Ireland. In the southern and central counties, there are the extensive caverns of Mitchelstown, county Cork; those in the county Waterford, remarkable for the dis- coveries of bones of extinct Irish animals, and of stone imple- ments, and the cave of Dunmore, in Kilkenny, which demands attention, both from its size and from its mention in Irish history. In the North of Ireland, there are caverns which have yielded traces of pre-historic man, as have also the limestone caves of Fermanagh ; these latter, however, contain implements showing a merging of the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages. All these caves occur in limestone rock — either in the newer, or in the older Car- boniferous limestone, usually known as mountain limestone — more especially in the uppermost beds. It might therefore be con- fidently expected that we should meet with many caves in the West of Ireland, whore the Upper limestone is a considerable and important geological formation. In the Sligo district, the majestic Benbulbin, the rugged valley of Gleniff, and the beautiful vales of Glencar and Glonade are carved out of this material, while stretching southward, on both sides of the northern continuation of the Ox Mountains, is a low undulating plain of the lower beds of limestone, rarely rising to any considerable elevation except at Kesh and Knocknashee, where the uppermost beds again are found. Limestone, being easily dissolved by rain water, contains numerous cavities and fissures, which, enlarging in the course of time, develop into caves ; and the explorer often meets with a nature-carving of rare beauty, a shelter-cave, or a gigantic cleft, once roofed in, but now- broken down, and hollowed out by the constant dropping that will wear away even stone. Hardly a valley can be explored, hardly a cliff can be climbed, where such cavities are not met; along the coasts they frequently occur, but are there generally devoid of antiquarian interest. Many of the inland caves have been explored by archasologists, but the greater number still invite inspection. The most important caves of this limestone district are those of Kesh; Killasnet, at the head of the valley of Glencar; and Gleniff, on the north side of Benbulbin, near Ballin- trellick. The caves of Kesh, half way up the mountain of that name, lie to the south-east of Ballymote. A steep ascent of about 500 E 50 A NCIENT FA UNA —THEIR EXTERMINA TOR. feet leads to a perpendicular face of rock which presents no bad resemblance to the side of some ancient fortification, time-worn and encrusted with ivy. This precipice rises some sixty feet, and in it, a little above the junction of the Middle and the Upper lime- stone, are numerous openings. Explorations, up to the present, have been devoid of archaeological interest; still some of the cavities may, on closer examination, yield important results. None of them are particularly large ; the most important cave, at least twenty feet high, has a small chamber to the left ; and to the right one can penetrate for a considerable distance along a low corridor; there are also many small low lateral passages very difficult to explore to their termination. These caves will well repay a visit, but fine dry weather should be chosen, as the clayey deposit forming the floor, when saturated by the dripping from the roof, is not a pleasant substance to crawl over. A cavern, be it ever so smaU, is, in Ireland, fabled to extend an immense distance into the bowels of the Earth, and the caves of Kesh are no exception to the rule. A guide recently recounted the legend attached to the locality, in almost the identical words of Beranger, written more than a century ago, namely, that the cavern communicated with another, some twenty-five miles distant, called "the Hell-Mouth Door of Ireland." The wife of a farmer, near this entrance to the nether regions, possessed an unruly calf, which she could never drive home unless by holding it by the tail. One day it tried to escape, and dragged the woman into " the Hell-Mouth Door." Unable to hold back the calf, she ran after it without relaxing her grasp, until she emerged again, in the light of day, at the entrance of the caves of Kesh. The caves of Gleniff, the finest in the Sligo district, occur near the summit of the northern edge of the Benbulbin range, overshadowing the deep valley of Gleniff, and are only reached after a toilsome climb of some 1200 feet, up a steep grassy slope, followed by a talus of loose stones; then comes a precipitous face of rock, some forty feet high; overcoming this, and a highly inclined steep above the entrance, an immense natural arch, about forty feet high and sixty wide, is reached. On the Ordnance Map the cavity is marked as " Dermod and Grama's Bed," and it is one of the few examples in which the legend of the runaway couple is connected with any object save a rude stone monument. The guide recounted the story, which differs from that usually current amongst the peasantry in representing the cavern as the permanent residence of Finn MacCool and his faithless wife, and not the mere shelter for the night utilised by Dermod and Grania whilst the fugitive couple were flying from the pursuit of the justly enraged Finn. Grania, according to this legend, possessed CA VES AND CA VE DWELLERS. 51 not only the witchery of beauty, but the practical gift of witch- craft, and at such times as she desired to enjoy the society of Dermod, she could lay a spell upon her husband, compelling him, at one time, to gather seaweed, and burn kelp on the seashore, at another to cut rushes in the valley to make mats; and again often sending him to distant pasturages after supposititious strayed cattle. The guide expressed himself uncertain as to the final result of this intrigue; he only knew that it ended in there being "a terrible row entirely " in the mountain cavern. The candles and lamps, of which a good supply should be taken, being lighted, the exploration may be commenced. An opening to the left leads from the outsr cavern, which is large, but of no great beauty, into a chamber of immense proportions; sometimes a light flashed through the gloom on a piece of jutting rock fully fifty feet above, and still higher were patches of blacker darkness indicating further heights; whilst underfoot, as the lights flitted round, great depths and abysses were re- vealed, demonstrating the need of a good supply of ropes for their exploration. Stalactites hung like huge petrified bunches of grapes from the roof, and the walls and overhanging ledges ex- hibited stone icicles and massive coatings of stalagmite in every fantastic form that nature can devise. The accumulation of immense blocks of rock fallen from the roof renders a thorough archieological exploration out of the question. To the right is a narrow but lofty chamber. Entering this presently the walls contract and lower, and a gallery is formed ; close to the entrance is a curious mass of stalagmite, some- what resembling a colossal-shaped female figure, from this point the gallery contracts still more, becoming in places very pre- cipitous and difficult of passage, and leading again into the entrance-cave. To the left of the entrance arch, a gallery, some eight feet wide and 100 feet long, with a winding and well -gravelled pathway of natural formation, opens out on the face of the cliff, and affords a magnificent panorama of the country. Far away on the horizon, the amphitheatre of the great cliffs of the Donegal coast is, on a clear day, distinctly visible. Close to the opening a steeple-shaped pinnacle rears itself in solitary grandeur over a precipice of about 200 feet. These caves of Gleniff were certainly inhabited in former times. Some rude flint flakes and a bronze axe, now in the Science and Art Museum, Dublin, were found here under a mass of stalagmite, and, under the present floor of the cavern, bones of recent animals were dug up. It may, however, be said that in Ireland no startling discovery of cave-remains has as yet been made ; but the most important inferences drawn by Ussher, Adams, E 2 52 ANCIENT FA UNA— THEIR EXTERMINA TOR. and Kinahan, from the facts discovered by them in the explora- tions of the cavern of Ballynamintra (figs. 12 and 13), near Dungarvan, are as follows:- „-,.,.. ■ -, The history of the cave is divided into five distinct periods. During the first, the cavern was excavated by aqueous agency. In the second, the flow of water ceased, the cave became com- paratively dry, was inhabited by bears, and a stalagmite floor was deposited— by infiltration from above— over the gravel which had been washed in by the stream. During the third period, the stalagmite floor was, from some cause, partially broken up, and in places a pale sandy earth was intruded, enveloping the broken stalagmite, and the animal remains. In the fourth period there was an accumulation of earth, and other deposits, and the cave was inhabited by men who were contemporaneous with the Great Fig. 12. General View of the Entrance to the Cave of Ballynamintra. from near the Cappagh Railway Station. After a sketch Iry G. H. Kinahan, -M.R.1.A-, in the Trans actions, Royal Dublin Society. Irish Deer. In the fifth period of the history of the cave, its in- habitants used carved bone implements and polished stone hatchets, traces of the Great Deer and Bear disappear, giving place to those of domesticated animals. That the deposition of the two upper earthen strata was gradual and successive is clearly shown by the layers, formed one above the other. This is corroborated by the sequence of the animal remains, as well as by the dissimilar colouring of the bones — the great Irish deer being the characteristic animal of the former stratum, whilst domesticated animals were most plentiful in the latter. These facts show that the human remains, implements, and charcoal-bed, found with the remains of the extinct deer, were deposited there contemporaneously with them. The charcoal and calcareous seams mark successive CA VES AND CA VE DWELLERS. 53 floors during the slow accumulation of a refuse-heap, when man was the chief occupant of the cave. The condition of the larger bones, especially those of the great deer, is an additional proof of the human occupation of the cave at the time when those animals lived ; and the chipped hammer-stones found in the same stratum were, in all probability, the very implements with which the bones were broken and split along their length. How the fragments of human bones were mixed with the stone imple- ments and animal remains, the explorers did not venture to explain. The caves of Knockmore, county Fermanagh (fig 14), were explored by Mr. T. Plunkett, who has given a long enumeration of the Mammalia and other relics found in them; some authorities, however, believe that the remains are quite recent. With regard T>7^^^^^ I'm. 13. Ucneral View of the Country around the Ballynamiutra lave, showing Hat ground margined with scarps, representing, an ancient river bed or estuary. Houses, fences, and plantings omitted. to these deposits, Mr. Plunkett is, however, of opinion that there is strong geological and other evidence, bearing witness to the presence and operation of ice in the surrounding district since the cave-remains were deposited. If this opinion be correct, it would appear that the ancient cave-dwellers of Fermanagh were a race passing an every-day existence somewhat similar to that of the inhabitants of the Arctic regions of the present day, and that they lived in the summer season in places which, in the winter months, were enveloped in a thick mantle of ice. Dr. Joyce states that all our recent native animals have been commemorated in names of places, and that by a study of these local names we can tell what animals formerly abounded, and that we are able thus to identify the very spots resorted to by each particular kind. We now, however, live in a zoologically THE POOKA, OR MAMMOTH. 55 impoverished age, from which many of the largest and finest animals, such as the mammoth and gigantic deer, have but recently disappeared. In a much smaller sphere of animal life a slight difference in size has had an effect quite beyond any- thing that might have been anticipated in the disparity in physical powers. The extinction of the indigenous black rat in Ireland has usually been ascribed to the superior strength and aggressive character of the invading and foreign rat, but it can with more probability be accounted for by the inferior intelligence possessed by the extirpated animal. The dominance of man over the Animal Kingdom may mark the beginning of a new geological period, but there is no gap in time, only a slight change in life to announce the mastery of man, and to earmark his reign from earlier epochs in the world's life-history. The present era is also characterised by the disappearance or removal of those animals least ministering to the necessities and uses of man, as well as by the progressive melioration and sporadic increase of animals specially adapted to his service and support. The law of nature extends even to the occasional displacement of indigenous flora by introduced plants. Im- provement and exaltation of type seem essential conditions of continuity, for wherever improvement is arrested or undeveloped then extinction looms in the distance. A huge, formless, and chameleon-like monster is believed by the peasantry of Ireland, and of the Highlands of Scotland, to frequent the lonely glens and morasses of wild and mountainous districts. May not this strange superstition be a lingering remi- niscence of the former presence of the mammoth in these lati- tudes ? This indistinctness of form is very well exemplified in the legend recounted of the Pooka that dwells in a natural cave at the base of a hill on which stands the Dun of Clochanpooka. This eccentric Kilkenny spirit frequently assumes the strange shape of an enormous fleece of wool, and issuing from the cavern rolls over the ground with astonishing speed, uttering a mysteri- ous buzzing sound which inspires terror in all who hear it. A venerable peasant of the district declared that he had witnessed this apparition, and noticed the terror, in both man and beast, which its approach excited. Indistinctness, like that of an imperfectly remembered dream, seems to constitute the chief characteristic of the Pooka, it being variously described as a gigantic bull with very long horns, a horse, a goat, a bird, and it is sometimes styled the O'runi/tirh, or hairy spirit. Spenser cautions his readers not to allow "... tho Pouke, nor other evill sprights Fray us with things th;it be not." 56 ANCIENJ FA UNA— THEIR EXTERMINATOR. The Pooka is also described as a frisky mischievous being, a sturdy pony, and in places he even passes as a donkey having a great turn for humour and practical joking. He lies in wait for the belated traveller, returning home, by wild unfrequented mountain paths, or across bogs, for the Pooka is especially connected with bogs, marshes, and water, and is in general represented as shaking the dripping ooze from his hairy hide. The Pooka crouches in the path of his victim, and rising suddenly between his legs he hoists the unlucky pedestrian on his back, and carries him away at railway speed (fig 15). The first crow- ing of the cock frees the involuntary rider who is flung from the Pooka's back into some deep muddy pond. The Pooka is often considered as identical with the modern devil, and the expr e s si on " playing old ralent to " playing the Devil," or doing something very wild. On the other hand, the Pooka exhibits occasionally an amiable side of his character. He is re- ported to sometimes commiserate the lot of a benighted wayfarer, to hoist him on his back, and safely convey him many a mile to his cabin. An odd notion amongst the peasantry, connected with the Pooka, causes ' them to tell their children, after Michaelmas Day, not to eat blackberries, as they attribute the decay in them, which commences about that time, to the spleen of the Pooka. The disappearance of all recollections of a Stone Age is paralleled_ by the oblivion of the origin of the remains of the great extinct animals which were contemporary with man. Everywhere fossil bones of elephants and rhinoceros are both in the ancient and modem worlds attributed to monsters and giants. The fossil bones strewn over some of the lower ranges of the Himalayas are believed by the natives to have belonged to the gigantic Eakshasas of Indian mythology killed by Incha. Just in the same way, North American Indians regard the great bones of Tertiary mammals, occasionally disclosed to view Fig. 15. The Pooka and its involuntary rider. From Mr. and Mrs. Hall's "Ireland." FOSSILIZED BONES. 57 on the precipitous sides of gullies, as those of their ancestors. Augustine, in his chapter on " The Lives and Sizes of the Antediluvians" (De Civitate Dei, xv. 9), says: — " Concerning the magnitude of their bodies, the graves laid bare by age or the force of rivers and various accidents, especially convict the incredulous where they have come to light, or where the bones of the dead of incredible magnitude have fallen. I have seen, and not I alone, on the shore of Utica, so huge a molar tooth of a man, that were it cut up into small models of teeth like ours, it would seem enough to make a hundred of them. But this I should think had belonged to some giant, for beside that the bodies of all men were then much larger than ours, the giants again far exceeding the rest." Kirby, in his Wonderful mid Kn-ontriv Museum, published in 1820, devotes a chapter to a description of " Gigantic Remains," and states that " all the public prints make mention of an extra- ordinary monument of gigantic human stature, found by two labourers in Leixlip Churchyard, on the 10th July, 1812. It appeared to have belonged to a man of not less than ten feet in height, and is believed to be the same mentioned by Keating — Phelim OTool, buried in Leixlip Churchyard, near the Salmon Leap, one thousand two hundred and fifty years ago. In the place was found a large finger-ring of pure gold. There was no inscriptions or characters of any kind upon it. One of the teeth is said to have been as large as an ordinary forefinger." This was probably another discovery of mammoth bones. The following is an extract from the Stnmd Mat/a-.ine for December, 1895 : let the reader judge as to the genuineness of the fossilized Irish giant, which is thus described : — "Pre-eminent among the most extraordinary articles ever held by a railway company is the fossilized Irish giant, which is at this moment lying at the London and North-Western Railway Company's Broad-street goods depot, and a photograph of which is reproduced here (fig. 10). This monstrous figure is reputed to have been dug up by a Mr. Dyer whilst prospecting for iron ore in Co. Antrim. The principal measurements are : — Entire length, 12ft. 2in. ; girth of chest, 6ft. oV.in. ; and length of arms, 4ft. Gin. There are six toes on the right foot. The gross weight is 2 tons 15 cwt. ; so that it took half a dozen men and a powerful crane to place this article of lost property in position for the Straml Mui/n-Jiie artist. Dyer, after showing the giant in Dublin, came to England with his queer find and exhibited it in Liverpool and Manchester at sixpence ahead, attracting scientific men as well as gaping sightseers. Business increased and the showman induced a man named Kershaw to purchase a share in the concern. In 187G, Dyer sent this giant from Manchester to 58 ANCIENT FA UNA-THEIR EXTERMINA TOR. London by rail ; the sum of £i 2s. U. being charged for carriage by the company, but never paid. Evidently Kershaw knew nothing of the removal of the ' show,' for when he discovered it he followed in hot haste, and, through a firm of London solicitors, moved the Court of Chancery to issue an order restraining the i'io. li>. ' Fossilized Irish Giant." Photograph from Strand Magazine. company from parting with the giant, until the action between Dyer and himself to determine the ownership was disposed of. The action was never brought to an issue." Proofs of the existence of the mammoth in Ireland, possibly in both Pre- and Post-Glacial times, while most complete, point, as far as they go, to the presumption that it did not occur in great THE MAMMOTH. 59 numbers, not for instance in such quantities as in a clay deposit near the sea of Azof, 50 feet in thickness, which is full of mam- moth bones, nor in the alluvial deposits of clay and mud, spread largely over the northern portions of Siberia. Mammoth remains occur in greatest quantity along the banks of the great rivers which drain this area, and the bones become more numerous the further the rivers are followed towards their mouth, until com- pletely frozen carcases are found. The well-known preservative properties of ice were strikingly illustrated by the discovery, on the shores of Lake Oncoul, in Siberia, of a carcase of the mam- moth in a perfect state, and so well refrigerated that, when thawed, the dogs of the neighbourhood devoured its flesh. Again, in 184G, the summer in Siberia had been unusually hot. the frozen marshes which extend along each side of the river Indigirka were thawed, and a perfectly preserved carcase of a mammoth floated down the stream. This monster had most probably met his death during a blizzard some thousands of years ago, by sinking into the deep snow and mud of the morasses ; the body was then frozen over, and thus remained until the exceptional summer's heat melted its icy prison (fig. 17). This discovery solved the question as to how this huge creature existed in such an inhospitable country, for the presence in its stomach of young shoots of fir and pine and fir cones, all in a chewed state, proved that it fed on vegetation such as is yet found in the woods of northern Siberia. From the effects of the climate, the mammoth was protected by his thick woolly coat. The structure of its teeth resembles those of the reindeer and musk ox. The specimen, represented by fig. 1H, from an old engraving, is stated to be an animal that probably attained an immense age, as its tusks are so curved as to be of little use. " The hair that still remains on the skin of the St. Petersburg specimen is of the colour of the camel, very thick set, and curled in locks. Bristles of a dark colour are interspersed, some reddish and some nearly black. The colour of the skin is a dull black, as in living ele- phants." With regard to this interesting and important discovery, the Eev. H. N. Hutchinson remarks that " truly there is nothing new under the sun, and the present highly useful method of freezing meat, and bringing it over from America or New Zea- land, to add to our insufficient home supplies, is but a resort to a process employed by nature long before the age of steamships, and perhaps even before the appearance of man on Earth." To students of folklore, legends regarding the mammoth are of great interest, and to some extent this interest must extend to men of science, for, as pointed out by the writer already quoted, one of the many points of interest in the study of this animal is that paheontology may be said to have been founded on the THE MAMMOTH. 61 mammoth. " Cuvier, the illustrious founder of the science of organic remains, was enabled by his accurate and minute know- ledge of the structure of living animals, to prove to his astonished contemporaries that the mammoth bones and teeth, so plentifully discovered in Europe, were not such as could have belonged to any living elephant, and consequently that there must have existed, at some previous period of the world's history, an elephant of a different kind and quite unknown to naturalists." The most important discovery of mammoth remains in Ireland was made in a limestone breccia, in the Shandon Cave, near Dungarvan, county Waterford, associated with bones of the grizzly bear, wolf, reindeer, wild horse, and other animals ; from Fin. IS. Mammoth with curved tusks. l'Voin an old engraving. the completeness of one of the mammoth skeletons, the finimal must have made its way into the cave to die. Besides these remains, others have been found in the counties of Cavan, (lal- way, and Antrim. The discovery in Cavan is recorded in the Philtixn/thiriil Transactions for the year 1715, and is one of the first well-authenticated discoveries of mammoth remains in the British Isles; the teeth were figured and described by Dr. Thomas Molyneux. The Galway specimen consists of a nearly perfect humerus dredged up in Gahvay Bay. The Antrim specimens consist of teeth obtained at Ballyrudder, and also at Corncastle, iu a stratum of gravel, containing marine shells of Post-Tertiary species. 62 ANCIENT FA UNA— THEIR EXTERMINA TOR. The great Irish deer (fig. 19) is, after the mammoth, one of the noblest representatives of the extinct Mammalia of Ireland. The largest stags were about seven feet in height, whilst the expanse of their antlers, in some cases, attained to upwards of twelve feet. The Eev. H. N. Hutchinson is of opinion that, " like all existing deer, the animal shed its antlers periodically, and such shed antlers have been found. When it is recollected that .all the osseous matter of which they are composed must have been drawn from the blood carried along certain arteries to the head in the course of a few months, our wonder may well be excited at the vigorous circulation that took place in these parts. In the red deer, the antlers, weighing about 24 lbs., are developed in the course of about ten weeks ; but what is that compared to the growth of over 80 lbs. weight in some three or four months ? " Although the bones of this gigantic deer are found in recent deposits, both in England and on the Continent ; yet, judging by the number of specimens discovered, Ireland would appear to have been its favourite habitat. Their plentifulness in Ireland may, perhaps, be attributable to the comparative scarcity of its natural enemies, the larger carnivora. Its remains are also found in the Isle of Man. The fact that the huge creature was formerly a member of the fauna of this small island, and the most patriotic Manxman will hardly deny that it is small, is very interesting, for large animals need a wide expanse of country to roam over. We can only conclude that, at the period the deer existed, the Isle of Man formed part of the continent of Europe, was connected with both Great Britain and Ireland, and that the Channel and the Irish Sea were either partly or wholly dry land ; but on the other hand, if this be so, how are we to account for the absence in Ireland of the larger carnivora ? One of the evidences that this animal was contemporary with man rests on the discovery of its bones in a very broken state, in the cave of Ballynamintra, 2nd in company with stone implements and human remains. The bones of this deer and other mammals, when recovered from subturbary deposits and exposed to the air, are apt to crack in the direction of the long axis, but the " sun cracks " as they are termed, rarely penetrate the entire thickness, nor is there a splintering into fragments which cave-bones generally exhibit. B. J. Ussher, the explorer of the Ballynamintra cavern, states that the most remarkable feature was the number of long bones, " split longitudinallv, with evidence of violent blows of percussion, as evidenced by longitudinal fractures, such as the femur, tibia, and humerus, for there is not a long bone of the Irish elk which has not been split lengthways, or reduced to angular splinters. To have — u c - -Z Em -- " - 64 A NCIENT FA UNA —THEIR EXTERMINA TOR. accomplished this, great force was required, and that force must have been exerted along the long axis of the shaft. The absence of the lion and hyena, leaving the bear and wolf as the only large members of the order hitherto identified from Irish deposits, renders it unlikely that they could have split the long bones so regularly. The few small cuspidated premolars of the bear, coupled with the succeeding broad crowns of the molars, are not suited for that continuous penetration and pressure along a surface for which the narrow crowns of the teeth of the felidfe and hyena are so eminently adapted. As regards the wolf, it may be fairly doubted if that animal possessed the requisite strength of jaw for the accomplishment of such a feat, at all events as regards the femur, humerus, and tibia. Taking, therefore, into consideration the oblong and rounded stones, battered and chipped at their ends by blows, also other stone tools bearing traces of man's handiwork, and strewn about among the Irish elk's remains, one can scarcely doubt but that the regularity in the mode of fracture was the result of his ingenuity for the extraction of the marrow, and possibly also for other objects." In the lake-dwelling of Cloonfinlough, the bones of the gigantic Irish deer were also discovered in a fractured condition. Among the abundant Mammalian Aibris, raised from the kitchen-midden or refuse-heap of one of the lake- dwellings in Lough Eea, was the head of a gigantic Irish deer, measuring about thirteen feet from tip to tip of the antlers ; and a writer states that stone hatchets and fragments of pottery have been found with the bones of this creature under circumstances that leave no doubt of a contemporaneous deposition. In the refuse-heap of the lake-dwelling of Breagho, portion of an antler was discovered, sawn and perforated with holes. It does not, however, necessarily follow that this relic had belonged to an animal killed and utilized by the lake-dwellers ; the horn may have been found by them on some spot where it had rested for ages. The same explanation may be applied to the discovery of portion of the gigantic Irish deer (one of its teeth) in a prehistoric cist. We need not feel surprised at the disappearance of the gigantic deer, when we see that the American buffalo has, within about two hundred years, been almost exterminated through the greed of hunters ; and were it not that a few herds are kept in " reservations," under conditions which it is hoped will lead to their increase, it would, in a short time, be as extinct as the Irish big-horn. Both the Irish deer and the mammoth were probably exterminated by man, for we know that primitive man was a mighty hunter, and as the human race increased, its wants developed proportionally, and more animals were of THE GIGANTIC IRISH DEER. 65 necessity destroyed. If this be the truth, it is an easy solution of the problem of the extinction of the mammoth and great deer, and does not necessitate an Ice Age, or any great change in climatic conditions. Of the fact that the reindeer (fig. 20) was contemporary with man in Ireland, the evidence is more meagre than is the case with the great deer, although both roamed together amidst the plains of ancient Erin. Of the several existing varieties of reindeer, the one to which the Irish examples may be referred is the Arctic cariboo, in which the antlers are slender and rounded, as contrasted with the more massive and flattened beam of the horns of the woodland cariboo found in Eastern Canada and the Rocky Mountains. Bones of the reindeer were found in the cave of Ballynamintra in conjunction with traces of its occupation by man. That the bear existed contemporaneously with man in Ireland rests — strange to relate — upon more deficient evidence than that with regard to the reindeer, although in Scotland the bear survived until the middle of the eleventh century. The Celtic name for bear frequently occurs in old Irish MSS., and legends amongst the peasantry still recount its pursuit and capture by the heroes of antiquity. The skulls of this bear that have been discovered demonstrate that the animal was of rather small size, but, in the cave of Ballynamintra, remains of the ui-xus /mix, which some writers have identified with the grizzly bear of the Rocky Mountains (fig. 21), have been found in the same strata as the remains of man , together with other of the huge Mammalia which existed in this epoch. There can be no doubt that the wild horse lived in Ireland as a contemporary of several animals which are now extinct. In the Shandon cave at Dungarvan, the remains of several horses occurred with those of reindeer, red-deer, bear, and wolf. In the Ballynamintra cave, horses' teeth were found with the bones of great deer, bear, and wolf. It is possible that these horses had been used as food by the men of the period, but the character of the associated remains, and the circumstances of their position, afford the principal evidence as to whether the bones should be referred to wild or domesticated varieties of the horse. There are several well-authenticated instances of horses' skulls having been found in caves at Ballintoy, county Antrim, and near the shores of Lough Erne. It is not improbable that the wild horse may have survived up to a time considerably later than the disappearance of the animals mentioned above. The eating of horseflesh is characteristic of many prehistoric and of many savage races. Numerous traces of the bones of horses, the largest having been fractured, evidently for extraction F THE BEAR. 67 of the marrow, occur among the remains of funeral feasts which appear to have taken place during the erection of certain cams. On the introduction of Christianity into Northern Europe, the earliest ordinances of the Church were directed against the use of horseflesh, as the horse was, by the heathen, considered emblematic of their gods, particularly of the god Odin. Fig. 21. The Death of the Grizzly Bear. A scene in the Stone Age. The " historian" Keating waxes very wrathful on the subject of Giraldus Cambrensis having stated that one of the ceremonies at the inauguration of the chief of the O'Donnells consisted in the tribe assembling on a high hill where they killed a white marc, whose flesh was then boiled in a large caldron from which the chief had to drink some of the broth, and eat some of the meat, animal-like, without the assistance of any implement, 68 ANCIENT FA UNA— THEIR EXTERMINA TOR. after which he bathed himself in the liquid. This ceremony, according to Keating, "was inconsistent with the _ religion they professed, and savoured strongly of Pagan superstition." The red-deer (fig. 22), although now restricted to a small area in Kerry, appears, judging from the widespread abundance of its remains, to have been formerly plentifully distributed all over the kingdom. Discoveries in the cave of Shandon prove that it co-existed with the mammoth, and its bones abound in the marl underlying the peat formation, where those of the great deer have been found. When O'Flaherty wrote, they were very i\a. 22. — Red Deer. numerous. Dr. Thomas Moljneux, his friend and contemporary, states that in his day the red-deer were much more rare in Ireland than formerly. So late as 1752, they abounded in the barony of Erris, county Mayo ; and the celebrated Irish scholar, O'Donovan, about the year 1848, heard from an old native that in his youth red deer were common, and that he had frequently seen them grazing among the black cattle on the mountains. Rudely-formed enclosures, surrounded by staked fences, have often been found under a considerable depth of bog. They are, by some, considered to be traps into which the deer were driven. This class of structure consists of a long lane, formed of staked lines of pallisading, gradually narrowing, but at the end expanding into a circle, where the deer could be killed at leisure. This cul-de-sac is supposed sometimes to have terminated in a THE RED DEER. 69 quagmire, for many of the skulls of the deer appear to have been broken in the forehead, which could be easily effected when the animal was embedded in mud or in a pitfall. Among circum- stances corroborative of the large numbers of red deer that existed in former times may be mentioned the discovery of quantities of tips of stags' horns in the refuse-heaps of lake- dwellings, and in many other localities. These pieces of bone, from three to five inches in length, were apparently cut off from the remainder of the horn, which was probably manufactured into various implements ; whilst pins, brooches, weapons, tools, and ornaments formed of those tips of horn abound in collections of antiquities. Fig. 23. Supposed Pitfall for catching Deer or other wild animals. A. Present surface. H, F. Former surface and forest. C. Rock. D. Heap of clay. E. Pitfall. In the neighbourhood of Blessington lies a turf bog some twelve feet deep, in which, about the middle of the century, a circular wooden structure was discovered, some six feet deep, five feet in diameter, and lined with upright posts of birch (fig. 28). At the time of its construction, the then surface of the bog was only slightly above the tops of the birch posts. The interior was empty, though the entrance was covered with branches, heath, and sods ; since its abandonment the bog had grown over it to the height of upwards of six feet. Even the rudest tribes visited by modern travellers have been found acquainted with the art of digging pitfalls on the customary tracks of wild beasts, for the capture of animals which they are unable otherwise to kill, or which they do not care to openly face. A pitfall, or deep excavation lightly covered with branches, and then made to simulate, in outward appearance, the surround- ing solid ground, gives way beneath the animal, which is thus rendered powerless to escape, and is at the mercy of its captors. 70 A NCIENT FA UNA —THEIR EXTERMINA TOR. Despite numerous legends, and folklore, relative to the hunts of giants of ancient days after magical boars, prosaic investigation suggests that the herds of wild pigs, -which infested the forests, were all derived from an introduced breed. Skulls of the pig are very commonly found in the refuse-heaps of lake-dwellings. The discovery of remains of the pig in Ballynamintra cave, however, renders it, at least, not improbable that there may have been a wild pig, despite the fact that all recorded skulls belong to the long-faced Irish pig, which, even as a domesti- cated breed, is now nearly, if not altogether, extinct, its place having been taken by others more suitable for fattening purposes, for, except in a very few remote and isolated districts in Con- naught, the old Irish pig is now extinct (figs. 24, 25). It is described by Mr. and Mrs. Hall, in their Tour through Ireland, as a long, tall, and unusually lean animal, with singularly sharp physiog- nomy, and remarkably keen eyes. The breed was formerly much preferred by the peasantry to introduced kinds, as it would " feed upon anything." The writers continue thus : — " Ugly and un- serviceable as are the Connaught pigs, they are the most intelligent of their Fir. :>4. species. An acquaintance of ours Head of long-faced Irish pisj. taught one to ' point,' and the animal " i°r?iand> and Mrs ' Ha "' s found game as correctly as a pointer. He 'gave tongue,' too, after his own fashion, by grunting in a sonorous tone ; and understood when he was to take the field as well as any dog. The Connaught pigs used to prefer their food (potatoes) raw to boiled, and would live well and comfortably where other pigs would starve. They per- forate hedges, scramble over walls, and run up mountains like goats, performing these feats with a flourish of their tails, and a grunt of exultation that are highly amusing to those whose obser- vations have been previously confined to the ' swinish multitude ' of clean, white, deliberate, unwieldy hogs that are to be seen in English farmyards." The refuse heaps of lake-dwellings afford evidence of the pre- sence of sheep and goats ; but though the latter appear to have been first introduced, there is evidence that sheep were in Ireland before the Christian era. Some of the best authorities are of opinion that both races were brought into the country, and domesticated by man. Several crania of sheep, found on the site of the lake-dwelling at Dunshaughlin, indicate the existence of four-horned varieties, and one of them has five distinct horn cores. LONG-FACED PIG— WILD CATTLE— WOLF. 71 The mention of wild cattle by early Irish writers, though not infrequent, does not tend to materially modify the conclusion arrived at from a full consideration of the evidence, which is, that the original stock from whence they were derived was first intro- duced from the continent of Europe to the British Isles by pre- historic man. The skulls obtained in ancient Irish lake-dwellings, as well as in caves, bogs, and river deposits, indicate the existence of well-marked races — the broad-faced ox, the shorthorn, with small, drooping horns, and its ally, the crumpled horn, and another altogether unprovided with horns, like modern "polled breeds." The wolf existed in Ireland up to the commencement of the eighteenth century, when the last of these animals is recorded to have been killed in county Kerry. Dr. Dive Downes, Bishop of Cork and Boss, when visiting his united diocese in the year 1C!)9, kept a journal of his tour (preserved in the library of Trinity College, Dublin), and the Bishop, a keen observer and chronicler of everything of interest, states that wolves were at the time very numerous in the vicinity of Bantry. An order made by James I. for the destruction of wolves is curious, as showing the probable cause of the end of wolf-life in Ireland. It recites that the king being informed of the great loss and hindrance to agriculture occasioned by the ravages of 72 ANCIENT FA UNA— THEIR EXTERMINA TOR. wolves, directed a grant to be made in 1614, to Henry Tutteshain, who had offered to exterminate the wolves, providing traps, engines, and four men and twelve couple of hounds in every county in Ireland, and requiring only four nobles sterling for the head of every wolf or wolf cub. The bones of the wolf are not easily distinguishable from those of the dog. Bones believed to belong to the wolf have been found in association with those of the fox, horse, reindeer, red-deer, bear, hare, and mammoth in Shandon cave, county Waterford, and together with the remains of the great deer, in the cave of Ballynamintra, but, after all, traces of wolf bones are very rare, and this is most singular when historical references to the animal are considered. Other wild animals which then existed, and are yet present, are the Alpine hare, otter, marten, badger, and fox; whilst the following, known to have existed in Britain, appear not to have been present in Ireland in pre-historic times, namely, the beaver, roebuck, moose, and the urus or wild ox. The Irish hare is considered to differ from that of Great Britain, and exhibits, in several respects, characteristics inter- mediate between the two descriptions of British hare. The difference in the fur of the British and Irish species is very observable, the colour of the latter being much lighter ; the most obvious divergence is in the tail, the upper surface of which is black in the English, and white tinged, with grey towards the base in the Irish hare. Professor R. F. Scharff, when treating of the origin of the European fauna, points out that : — " Sportsmen have for many years tried to permanently establish the English hare, Lepits europau.i, in Ireland. Lord Powerscourt tells me that he imported a number of them thirty years ago, and that they at first increased, but that latterly they have decreased considerably. They have never spread during all this time, but remained in close proximity to the house, where they were ori- ginally turned out. From Southern Sweden we hear of similar experiences. Now it cannot be said that a species which thrives so well in England from north to south could not stand the Irish climate, or that of Southern Sweden which is not unlike that of Northern Germany, where this hare is common. It is therefore manifest that the difficulty of establishing the English hare permanently in these countries is altogether unconnected with climate or food." The Li-pitx variabilis!, or Arctic hare, is the only one inhabiting Ireland. In Great Britain it is confined to the mountains of Scotland, whilst the plain is inhabited by the European hare. During the Glacial Period, the Arctic hare is supposed to have been driven south ; "and its occurrence," again remarks Professor THE ARCTIC HARE—STOAT— GREA T A UK. 73 Scliarff, "in the Caucasus, the Alps, and the Pyrenees is looked upon as a standing testimony to the extreme refrigeration of the climate, for, when the cold passed away, the plain is believed not to have suited the hare any more, and it returned to the more congenial atmosphere of the mountain tops. This view, first promulgated, I think, by Edward Forbes, has been almost universally adopted. Certainly, as Darwin has remarked, it explains the presence of Arctic forms on the Alps and other mountains in a most satisfactory manner. Still, I venture to think the Glacial Period did not play so important a role in the present distribution of the Arctic hare." The smaller or Arctic hare is undoubtedly the more ancient species and must have arrived in Europe before the larger animal, for, had they arrived simultaneously from the East, there is no reason why both should not now be present in Ireland. The curious fact that in Ireland the Arctic hare and stoat generally change their fur to white in winter, although there may be no snow on the ground, is very suggestive of a Northern origin, for instance, in the winter of 1896-7, when the fields were almost as green as in summer time, some of these animals were observed with almost snow-white coats. The Irish stoat differs essentially from the ordinary English and Continental form, so much so that some writers have raised it to the rank of a distinct species. The stoat is certainly of Northern origin, and it is one of the few mammals which still inhabit the Arctic regions, so that, provided a land passage existed, it could easily have entered Europe direct from the North. The fauna and flora of Ireland both include an Arctic element, generally confined, however, to the northern and western parts of Ireland, "as if some barrier had prevented their migration along the east coast, or to the central plain, or as if they had been exter- minated there in more recent times." Mr. Ussher has been so fortunate, in his researches among the kitchen -middens of the Waterford sand-hills, as to have collected, on that part of the coast, no fewer than seventeen bones of the celebrated extinct Auk ; while in Antrim, around the shores of Whitepark Bay, Mr. Knowles has found as many as twenty-four, associated with flint implements, and with re- mains of sundry animals characteristic of an early period in the story of human civilization. " That more than forty great Auks' bones should, within a short period, thus have fallen into the hands of two explorers in the north and south of Ireland, respectively, is a fact of considerable scientific value, as cannot but be recognised. .. . It is at least highly curious that two Irish counties should have contributed so large a proportion of the 74 ANCIENT FA UNA— THEIR EXTERMINA TOR. known relics of a bird which, plentiful as it was a century ago on other north Atlantic isles, has been practically unrecognised as Irish during historic times. All that had, until recently, been ascertained of the great Auk, as a member of our fauna, was the fact of a solitary specimen having been captured alive near Waterford Harbour in 1834 — a casual straggler, as was then supposed, although in the light of recent discovery it is now naturally suggested by Professor Newton that the lonely bird was impelled by some spark of a long latent instinct to revisit the home of its forefathers. . . . That its Irish remains have hitherto been detected only in the kitchen-middens of our Neolithic ances- tors is a circumstance but too well in keeping with the tragical tenour of the bird's story in all parts of its ascertained range. In fact, the great Auk's remarkable helplessness on land, combined with its edible qualities, unfitted it to coexist with man for more than a brief period, and perhaps the real wonder is that it survived so late. On the Icelandic coast, where it last lingered, its extermination was not complete until nearly the middle of the present century. Less sensational than the tale of the Garefowl, yet full of interest both by reason of the facts which it reveals and of the problems which they suggest, is the account given by Mr. G. E. H. Barrett-Hamilton of the 'Bird-bones from Irish caves ' which he has lately examined. These prove, beyond doubt, that both black grouse and Ptarmigan formerly inhabited county Waterford, although, with the exception of a generally discredited statement as to the Black Grouse in Smith's ' Antient and Pre- sent state of Cork,' no historical evidence exists of either bird having ever been found in our island." We have thus three instances of birds of northerly range in Europe, all unexpectedly shown to have inhabited the south of Ireland in olden times ; a fact of high importance for the light it throws on former climatic conditions. The pre-historic mammals domesticated by man were, if judged by the traces they have left, not numerous. Foremost stands the Irish wolf-dog, generally considered to have resembled, but to have been considerably larger than, the present rough- haired deer-hound of Scotland ; the formidable character of this dog is the subject both of history and tradition; and these accounts, it is now fairly ascertained, do not much exaggerate the power and strength of the faithful companion, not only of the hunter, but also of the warrior, in far remote pre-historic, as well as in recent times. There is also very positive evidence that there were in Ireland, formerly, two races of wolf-dogs, one approaching the greyhound, the other the mastiff type. The discovery of several specimens of the crania of this kind of dog in the refuse-heaps of lake-dwellings has afforded a good oppor- BLA CR~ GROUSE— PTARMIGAN— WOLF DOG. 75 tunity of making comparative examinations. The measurement of one of these crania, found on the site of a lake-dwelling, was compared with that of an average modern German boar-hound, and the Irish skull was in every way the more capacious. In the Ballynamintra cave, besides the bones belonging to the wolf, other specimens belong to a dog even taller than the wolf. This animal may have been domesticated by the hunters, who are believed to have split the bones of the gigantic Irish deer for extraction of the marrow, and who manufactured the stone imple- ments found in the cave. The dog is the greatest conquest ever made by man, for the taming of the dog is the first element in human progress. " Without the dog, man would have been condemned to vegetate eternally in the swaddling clothes of savagery. It was the dog which effected the passage of human society from the savage to the patriarchal state, in making possible the guardianship of the flock. Without the dog, there could be no flock and herds ; without the flock there is no assured livelihood, no leg of mutton, no roast beef, no wool, no blanket, no time to spare ; and, conse- quently, no astronomical observations, no science, no industry." It is to the dog man owes his hours of leisure. " The poor dog is in life tiro firmest friend, The first to welcome, foremost to defend, Wliosn honest heart is still his master's own, Who labours, tights, lives, breathes for him alone," and as a French writer sarcastically observes, " Plus je vois les hommes, plus j 'admire les chiens." However, as far as arclneo- logical research at present extends, it appears that the dog was not domesticated by man in Ireland until well on in the Bronze Age. Apart from the comparatively few supposed canine remains found in company with traces of man, prior to that epoch, the canine-like bones do not appear to be those of the domesticated dog, in our acceptance of the term, for they have been found split, evidently for extraction of the marrow, in the same way as are those of other animals, showing that, to whatever animal they belonged, whether to the wolf or to the dog, they had been eaten by the hunters, which would scarcely have been the case wens they those of their own domesticated clogs. The earliest mention of the Irish wolf-dog appears to be that quoted by the Rev. Edmund Hogan, S. J., and occurs in a letter from Quintus Aure.lius Symmachus, Roman consul in the year 891, to his brother Flavins to the following effect :— " In order to win the favour of the Roman people for our quaestor, you have been a generous and diligent provider of novel contributions to our solemn shows and games, as is proved by your gift of seven 76 ANCIENT FAUNA— THEIR EXTERMINATOR. Irish dogs. All Borne viewed them with wonder, and fancied they must have been brought hither in iron cages. For such a gift I tender you the greatest possible thanks." In the Saga of Burnt Xjal, Olaf, a Norwegian, son of an Irish princess, says to his friend Gunnar : — " I will give thee a hound that was given me in Ireland ; he is big, and no worse than a stout man. Besides, it is part of his nature that he has man's wit, and that he will bay at every man whom be knows to be thy foe, but never at thy friends. He can see, too, in any man's face whether he means thee well or ill ; and he will lay down his life to be true to thee. This hound's name is Sam." He ordered the hound to "follow Gunnar, and do him all the service thou canst." The dog then walked up to Gunnar, and lay down at his feet ; subsequently his enemies, when plotting against his life, were obliged to first kill his Irish canine protector. At the comparatively late period of the Scandinavian inroads, many of the Irish possessed a well-known breed of shepherd and watch dog. In Olaf Tryggvason's Saga, it is related that when Olaf was in Ireland he ran short of provisions, went ashore on a " coast raid," and collected a large number of cattle, which he drove towards his ships. A poor peasant came up to Olaf, and implored him to give him back his cows. Olaf replied that he might have them if he could recognise them, and not delay him. The peasant had a large sheep dog with him, to whom he pointed out the herd of cattle, which numbered many hundreds. " The dog ran through all the herds, and took away as many cows as the Bondi (peasant) said belonged to him ; and they were all marked with the same mark. Then they acknowledged that the dog had found out the right cattle." The Norsemen thought it " a wonderfully wise dog," and have even recorded its name, which was Vigi. In the year 1652, a proclamation was issued against the exportation of wolf-dogs. At the conclusion of the war, many of the Irish who "had liberty to go beyond sea," attempted "to carry away several great dogs as are commonly called wolf-dogs, whereby the breed of them, which is useful for destroying wolves, would, if not prevented, speedily decay. These are, therefore, to prohibit all persons from exporting any of the said dogs out of the kingdom." In a letter preserved in the Evidence Chamber, Kilkenny Castle, the secretary of the Earl of Ossory reminds the secretary of the Duke of Ormond, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, of the promise made by the Duke of " two wolf-dogs, and a bitch which his Lordship wrote to you about the King of Spain, . . . and that two dogs and a bitch be also gotten for the King of Sweden." It is thus seen to what a recent period these wolf- THE WOLF DOG. 77 hounds were in requisition, and that they can only have become extinct in the latter part of the eighteenth century, at earliest, for it is extremely doubtful whether the present race of so-called Irish wolf-hounds, bred of late years, principally for purposes of exhibition, are true representatives of this ancient stock. It must be sorrowfully admitted that, as remarked by the Rev. Edmund Hogan, S. J., the subject seems to have a greater attraction for Englishmen than for Irishmen, "as is evidenced by the establishment in Britain of the Irish Wolfhound Club, and by the space devoted to Irish wolfhounds in the works on dogs which are continually issuing from the press." In maintaining her vital balance, it oftens happens that nature appears to allow animals that have ceased to be obviously useful in taking part in the general economy to die out ; thus, " whilst wolves and elks roamed over Ireland, the magnificent Irish wolf-dog was common. With the disappearance of wolves, this breed of wolf-dogs languished, and has ultimately become extinct. As a matter of zoological curiosity, many an Irish gentleman would have desired to perpetuate this gigantic and interesting race of dogs ; but the operation — the tendency to vital equilibrium — has been over-strong to be contravened ; this race of Irish wolf-dogs has fleeted away." CHAPTER III. EARLY MAN. Superstitions regarding Flint Implements — These superstitions sometimes trans- ferred to those of Bronze and of Iron — Traffic in Flint the most ancient trade in the world — Gravels and Raised Beaches full of artificially-formed Flint Implements — Their manufacture carried on all along the littoral — Weapons of the Old and New Stone Age — Introduction of the use of Copper — Ancient Settlements on the sea-shore — Their first occupiers probably cannibals — Their habit of roving from place to place — -Their food — Their manner of life — Their clothing — Their existence compared with that of present-day tribes of savages living on the littoral — Refuse-heaps and Kitchen-middens .—Cooking-places — Bones used as fuel for roasting meat. It has been already stated, in the previous Chapter, that in collecting implements of flint, the antiquary often meets with great difficulty, owing to a superstition prevalent, not only in Ireland, but throughout Great Britain and the European Con- tinent. It may be observed parenthetically that the people who thus buy for a hobby are the forger's best customers. A sound archaeologist is a scant source of profit, for, in the first place, he can generally detect the real from the false article ; and, in the second place, he will not pay exorbitant prices. Cattle that commence to fail are looked upon by the country people as "elf-shot" or " fairy -struck," i. o. have been subjected to the projectiles of the " good people." Collins, in his ode on the superstitions of the Highlands of Scotland, thus describes this fanciful idea : — " There every herd by sad experience knows How winged with fate their elf-shot arrows fly ; Where the sick ewe her summer food foregoes. Or, stretched on earth, the heart-sinit heifers lie." Bulls and bullocks, however, possess immunity from fairy assaults. If a beast is " elf -shot," the first proceeding of a fairy doctor, if called in, is to measure the animal, when if one leg, or one side of the body, or one side of the head is shorter than the ■other — or rather if the " fairy doctor " states this to be the case — FLINT IMPLEMENTS— SUPERSTITIONS. 79 the beast is pronounced to have been overlooked by the "good people," or wounded by an elf-dart. For a headache in human beings, the first act of " the doctor " is also to measure the patient's skull, as the origin of the pain is believed to be the opening of the head of the sufferer, by the fairies, by separating the bones. The cure is simplicity itself. The doctor passes a cord round the patient's head, and marks the length ; then several charms are used ; the head is re-measured ; the circum- ference of the skull is now demonstrated to have returned to its normal condition. A bandage is kept tightly around the brows, for some time, to prevent a re-occurrence of the pain through the re-opening of the cranium. On this subject attention may be drawn to the fact that a tight bandage round the head is often used at the present day for the relief of headache ; either it may be connected with the old superstition, or both the ancient and the modern customs may be accounted for by natural causes. Persons suffering from severe headache often obtain temporary relief by pressing the head tightly with the hands. What medical science may have to say about this, the writer does not know, but that there is some benefit seems undeniable. This would naturally be observed, and then the fairy theory adopted to account for it. Another curious instance of the superstition regarding " elf- shot " cattle may be also noticed. A gentleman, some short time away from home, had, on his return, inquired after his cattle, and was informed by his steward that they were then all well, but that during his absence one had been " elf-shot," and would have died had he not called in a " doctor," who prescribed remedies of the usual kind, and also gave a drink to the sick beast from a bucket in which lay a stone axe. W. H. Maxwell, in his "Wild Sports of the ^\ , est of Ireland," thus described a "cow charmer" whom he met at the commence- ment of the century while staying at a gentleman's house : — ' ' I heard, when passing the porter's lodge, that the gate-keeper's cow was ill. As she was a fine animal, the loss would have been a serious one to the family, and hence I became interested in her recovery. For several days, however, the report to my inquiry was more unfavourable, and at last the ease was considered hopeless. " The following morning as 1 rode past, 1 found the family in deep distress ; and the gate-keeper had gone off to fetch ' the charmer,' who lived some ten miles distant. I really sympa- thised with the good woman. The loss of eight or nine guineas to one in humble life is a serious calamity ; and from the appearance of the cow I concluded, though not particularly skilful, that the animal would not survive. That evening 1 80 EARLY MAN. strolled out after dinner. It was sweet moonlight, and I bent my steps to the gate-house to inquire if the cow still lived. " The family were in great tribulation. The charmer had arrived — had seen the cow — had prepared herbs and nostrums, and was performing some solitary ceremony at an adjacent spring-well from which he had excluded every member of the family in assisting. I was most curious to observe the incan- tation, but was dissuaded by the gate-keeper, who implored me ' to give the conjurer fair play.' "In five minutes the charmer joined us — he said the case was a bad one, but that he thought he could bring round the cow. He then administered the 'unhallowed potion,' and I left the lodge, expecting to hear next morning that the animal was defunct. Next day the bulletin was favourable ; and the charmer was in the act of receiving his reward. I looked at him : he was as squalid and heart-broken a wretch in appearance as ever trod the Earth. The cow still seemed weak, but the charmer spoke confidently of her recovery. When he left the lodge, and turned his steps homewards, I pulled up my horse and waited for him. He would rather have avoided an interview, but could not. ' Well, fellow, you have humbugged that poor family, and persuaded them that the cow will recover ? ' 'I have told the truth,' said the charmer, coldly. ' And will your prophecy prove true ? ' I asked, in a tone of scornful incredulity. ' It will,' said he ; ' but, God help me ! this night I '11 pay dearly for it ! ' I looked at him — his face was agonised, and, terror-stricken, he crossed the fence and disappeared. " When I passed the gate-house on my return, the cow was evidently convalescent, and in a few days she was perfectly well. ' ' I leave the solution of the mystery to the learned ; for in such matters, as they say in Connaught — Neil an skeil a gau maun." The Eev. P. Moore, when presenting a stone amulet to the Kilkenny Museum, in the year 1851, stated the curious fact that the peasantry, when obliged to sleep in the open air, believe that they are safe from fairy influence if they carry a small flint arrow-head about them, for mortals are very liable to invisible fairy assaults. O'Donovan relates how, in company with a namesake, he examined the impressions made by St. Patrick's knees in the solid rock. They were always filled with water, and considered to possess remarkable curative properties. His companion was afflicted with a sore knee, the supposed result of " a shot " received from the fairies, whose road, or pass, was believed to extend across his father's farm-yard. The boy washed his knee in the water of Glun Padraig, and though it did him no good, he firmly believed that it was entirely owing to his own unworthiness, and not to any want of efficacy in the FLINT IMPLEMENTS— SUPERSTITIOA'S. 81 holy water. He had recourse afterwards to many sacred fountains, but the effects produced by the elfin bolt remained. In an Irish MS. St. Patrick is represented as inquiring the history of the burying-mound upon which he was standing at the time. His companion replied that a son of a king of Jlunster was interred within it, that he had been slain " by elfin shots or arrows, and his thirty hounds and thirty followers, who attended him, were also killed there by the fairies," and that the green mound on which they then stood was raised over them. Sir John Evans, in his Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain, states that the superstitious beliefs held with regard to stone implements are much the same amongst the Germans as amongst the Irish. They " are held to preserve from lightning the houses in which they are kept ; they perspire when a storm is approaching ; they are good for diseases of man and beast ; they increase the milk of cows ; they assist the birth of children ; and powder scraped from them may be taken, with advantage, for various childish diseases." Worked flints, when used as amulets, are further accredited with the power of preserving the wearers from danger, and from the influence of malign spirits. In Italy they are still in common use as preservatives against evil ; and even within our own land, it is only within the present century that they have ceased to be commonly carried as charms. A flint arrow-head mounted in silver is engraved by Douglas. He states that the Irish peasantry wore them on their necks as amulets against the Aiihadh, or attacks of the fairies. There is a strange story of an Irish bishop who was wounded with an "elf-shot" by an evil spirit. Several " elf-darts " are engraved in 1'hili.nsophu-al Trmi.t- artiunx and in Gough's Caimleii'x llritunniu. It is strange that, as soon as bronze and iron had superseded flint, implements formed of the latter substance came to be regarded as sacred and supernatural objects, und that such com- mon and utilitarian implements of savage life should be looked on as preserving virtues " as wonderful as they are incredible." Even the Jews are embued with this superstition, and still perform the rite of circumcision with flint knives. In Joshua xxiv. 30 (LXX) we read that, when Joshua was buried, "They put with him into the tomb in which they buried him, the knives of stone with which he circumcised the children of Israel inGalgala." Flint knives were employed by the Egyptians in embalming their dead ; flint knives were also used by the Romans, in the early period of their history, for sacrificial purposes, especially in religious ceremonies attending the ratification of a solemn covenant with a neighbouring people. The use of the stone knife gave a title to Jupiter, who, in this relation, was appealed 82 EARLY MAN. to by the name of Jupiter Lapis, as the guardian of treaties and avenger of their infraction ; and to the close of the second Punic war, the use of the stone knife was considered so essential to the ceremony, that " the Fetiales, who went to Carthage to conclude the peace, each took with him, from the temple, a sacred flint, in order that the religious rites might be duly performed. Sacred flints appear to have been known also to the Greeks, and though no longer employed for directly religious purposes, to have retained something of their original character, in being used as charms, amulets and talismans." In some countries the sacred character of stone implements continues on, and is finally transferred to those formed of bronze. In Japan and other parts of the East, a wide-spread belief exists that antique bronze objects are of celestial origin, and like the flint elfin bolts of European superstition, fell from heaven. The natural inference to be drawn from this weird notion is, that the use of bronze in Japan, and other parts of the East, dates back to remote times, and to a past so dim as to be totally unknown to the present population, even in vaguest legend. Again, iron is considered to act as a charm against malign influence. Can it be that the conquered race held in awe the metal by means of which they were overcome ? The Irish peasantry generally considered iron as a sacred metal, but could not assign any reason for so doing ; thieves were even averse to steal it ; on the other hand, Arthur Young, in his Tour in Ireland, in 1776, states that the larceny of iron shoes from off the hoofs of horses, turned out to graze, was of common occurrence. Of all the metals, the Irish name for iron most closely resembles that of their own country, Erin ; the similarity probably gave origin to a story which recounts that long ago the Emerald Isle was covered by the ocean, except when it emerged for a brief period once in every seven years. Many had attempted to land on it, but failed ; at last one adventurer, seeing the shore recede as he rowed towards it, was so enraged that he hurled his iron sword towards the land, on which it alighted. This broke the spell, and the island has since remained above water ; for iron or fire appears to be able to make phantom lands assume solid proportions. Even now-a-days, to make a present of an iron knife, a pair of scissors, or any such-like cutting implement is ominous of ill to the recipient. To counteract the malign effects, the person receiving the gift should tender the donor a penny, or in fact any piece of money. Belief in the ill-luck attendant on the present of a knife is thus alluded to by Gay : — " But woe is me ! sneli presents luckless prove. For knives, they tell me, nlvrars sever love." TRAFFIC IN FLINT. 83 In Ireland, flint is found in great quantity in the northern parts, more especially in the counties of Antrim, Down, and Derry, and from this quarter the vast majority of the specimens exhibited in our museums have been procured. The geological features of the district in which worked flints are found in greatest abundance are very remarkable. The white cliffs of Antrim (fig. 20), like the white cliffs of Albion, were doubtless objects of great interest to the early colonists, who, after establishing themselves on the littoral, discovered the abundance of its flints, and guided by local advantages, selected the sites of those Hint- factories lately discovered by Irish archaeologists, and thence carried on a trade in worked flints with other parts of the island ; indeed it has been surmised that the raw material itself was carried long distances by the "commercial travellers" of the day, for the purpose of manufacture, hoards of flint objects being occasionally found in districts to which natural flint is foreign. ■X_ Fig. 20. Chalk Cliffs, Antrim Coast Road, near Glenarro, showing basalt covering the Hint-bearing chalk. Fromadrawi.it; by Willim Gray, m.k.i.a. l'rora the Journal of the present Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. It is startling, but yet true, that a large trade in flint im- plements is carried on, even in the present day, so that this branch of commerce may be safely designated the oldest exist- ing trade in the world. The flint beds, a short distance from the village of Brandon, about ninety miles north oi London, have been worked from the very earliest times, and are still the chief seat of flint-knapping in England. It is almost certain that, both in the Old and New Stone Ages, they supplied materia for the chief implements then in use, and were, therefore, worked G 2 84 EA RL Y MAN. before the formation of the German Ocean, and when, as yet, Great Britain was a portion of the European continent. Appearances have, in many places, been observed suggestive of different ages being represented by the primitive folk who worked flint on the Irish coasts. The flint-flakes are in general small, and it is evident that larger and older flakes or cores had been, at a later date, utilized by workmen, and their former surface considerably changed. The interval, between the original and the newer manufacture, must have lasted for a period sufficient to allow a weathered crust to coat over the markings of the early work, of which traces were perceptible where the old surface had not been removed. These flints, it is alleged, belong originally to the Palaeolithic, or Ancient Stone Period ; and the men who hunted the mammoth and the gigantic Irish deer may have used similar implements as spear-heads, when, with knives of flint, they skinned and cut up their quarry, converted its sinews into thread, its skin into coverings for the body, and its bones into tools, weapons, and ornaments. A thorough and exhaustive examination of the gravels or raised beach at Larne was made by a Committee of the Belfast Naturalists Field Club in the year 1886. This careful investi- gation demonstrated the fact that the gravels are of marine origin, and contain numerous shells which, by their character, indicate that the temperature of the sea during the deposition of the material in which they were embedded, was much as it is now. The gravels were found to contain worked flints all through their depth ; the flints are not numerous in the lower beds, yet they are in sufficient numbers to demonstrate that man lived in the locality during the period when the gravels were in process of being deposited. Examples of river-gravel Palaeo- lithic implements from England closely resemble those from the Larne gravels ; and the Irish Palaeolithic flints, like the English, are very rough. They present probably the oldest traces of rudely worked flints which primitive man has left in Ireland. Many cores are so weathered and rounded that only an expert can detect them, yet the greater number are so well and clearly marked as to satisfy an ordinary observer. They are of all sizes, some very large, some very small. The original core usually shows the rough outside crust of the flint nodule on one side, but many specimens witness to the manipulator having struck off flakes from every side. These rude, imperfectly worked flints prove the existence of man in Ireland in times so remote as, at first glance, to appear incredible, as assuredly as would the ruins of Christ Church or St. Patrick's Cathedral prove, to some future antiquary, that, before his day, generations upon generations trod the land ; for as yet, so far as relic-bearing FLINT WEAPONS. 85 strata have been archoeologically examined, traces of man's presence in the far-off past are to be seen in his handiwork, not in traces of his skeleton. It is impossible for any person, with the most rudimentary knowledge of archaeology, to deny that, since his first appearance, man has steadily progressed, for deposits of the Old Stone Age show everywhere an improvement, which, although extremely slow, is uniformly upward. In the countless instances in which Old Stone Age implements have been found, the rudest implements are ever in the under-deposits, and the improvements in their manufacture, slight indeed, but still improvements, can be followed, in an ascending scale, with the ascending otrata. Weapons of flint must have been amongst the daily necessities of ancient savage life. Their abundance in the gravels is by no means surprising, especially as the material of which they are formed is practically indestructible ; and rough and rude as appear to be some of them, they constituted the germs of more finished forms. Some were cast aside as failures ; others were mere waste flakes and splinters. It is therefore not to be wondered at that these relics of ancient times are met with in astonishing quantities. They are the earliest relics at present known to us of prehistoric times. Possibly we may yet recog- nise relics of still greater antiquity, for, as in star-land, the astronomer is ever piercing further and further forward into the realms o£ space, so in terrestrial matters the archaeologist in burrowing downward, is ever unearthing traces of earlier races. Every new discovery, throwing further backward the proved antiquity of man in Ireland, is at first combated by a host of writers, anxious to uphold the old school of archaeology and of orthodoxy— and of Archbishop Ussher's chronology. The dis- cussion is carried on with great earnestness, but, on the whole, it must be admitted that the disputants are actuated by the same spirit as that expressed by " truthful James" : — " Now I hold it is not decent for a scientific gent To say another is an ass — at least to all intent : Nor should the individual, who happens to be meant, Reply by heaving rocks at him— to any great eNtcnt." An important discovery is generally preceded by partial discoveries which foreshadow its approach. As the poet says, " Coining events cast their shadows before," as heralds and har- bingers of truths. " Some fact attracts the attention of an observant mind," observes M. Joly; "another similar fact appears, perhaps simultaneously, perhaps after an interval of greater or less duration ; other phenomena, of like nature, group them- selves around the first ; and this assemblage of scattered gleams 86 EARLY MAN. produce a ray of light which at length strikes the eyes of all beholders. But the new idea which shines out brilliantly from the surrounding obscurity is nearly always opposed to the reigning opinion which has become, so to speak, an article of scientific, often even of religious faith. Hence arises a strenuous opposition, a more or less passionate strife, until at last the human mind can enjoy its new conquest in peace." Over and over again the presence of worked flints had been recorded by numerous explorers. G. V. Du Noyer stated that worked flints were found in the raised beach at Ballyholme, six to eight feet from the surface ; G. H. Kinahan, m.r.i.a., stated that he found a flake at a depth of over twelve feet at Larne ; J. H. Staples, in 1869, said that worked flints were found in the gravels of the raised beach at Hollywood ; whilst Mr. F. Archer and other writers could be quoted. Yet, against this mass of positive evidence, mere assertion and contradiction were advanced, until the subject was finally put to rest by an impartial and searching inquiry. Not only are flakes and cores, or the remains of the original body from which they have been struck, found embedded at all depths in the gravel, but there are good grounds for sup- posing them to be foreign to the gravels, for there is evidence that the flakes had become weathered and covered with a thick, whitish, porcellaneous, glazed crust, before being entombed in the gravels. Specimens found at various depths showed that, before being so embedded, the exposed edges of the glaze had been worn off, just as, at the present day, glaze is worn off pieces of crockery rolled about by the waves on the sea- shore. All along the coast from the north as far as Dublin, Neolithic or Late Stone Age flint-workers, manufacturers of scrapers and arrow-heads, had little other material than these old, thickly- crusted cores to utilize (fig. 27) , and many specimens, so rewrought, have been found along the littoral. It appears probable that the older flakes and cores from the direction of Larne and Belfast were drifted by currents along the coast, and that the flint-workers of a later date rewrought the old material. The flakes and cores of the older series, as they were rolled along, appear to have become reduced in bulk the farther they travelled away from their source: consequently the implements made from them become smaller than those of the same class in the north in proportion as the locality of their discovery is distant from the north. Though, at first sight, some of these chips might be taken for fragments detached by natural causes, yet, if closely examined, it will be perceived that the fractures have been effected by human agency. They possess distinct characteristics ; one side displays a smooth surface, on which, however, there is a protuberance, or "bulb" FLIN1 IMPLEMENTS. 87 (styled by archaeologists the bulb of percussion), while the reverse surface exhibits corresponding depression. Fig. 27. Hammer Stones and Rude Flint Implements of the Paleolithic t)pe. One-third full size. By William Gray, M.R.I. A. From the Jiitrual of the present Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, As the bulb of percussion (sec fig. 2H) is a principal test for determining the artificial workmanship of flint flakes, it may be well to state that experiments in fracturing flint demonstrate that the bulb can only be produced by a blow ; for when a blow is struck on the surface of an homogenous substance, such as flint, 88 EARLY MAN. a series of waves, all radiating from the point of impact, are pro- duced through the body of the object struck, the fracture being determined by the course of these waves, and an imparted down- ward force. The cone, or bulb, which is sometimes steplike in character, is caused by these waves proceeding in concentric circles and the downward force. The bulb of percussion is not an accompaniment of natural fracture, for if flint splits through atmospheric influences, it breaks, like any other stone, into bulb- less pieces of irregular form, whilst any smooth-grained stone, as well as flint, will, if fractured by a blow, show a bulb. Typical Flint Flake. Half real size. A. Flat end. B. Bulb of percussion, i.r. the point on which the blow is delivered. C. Conchoidal face, the result of the blow. 1). Ridges. E. The surfaces or facets. By William Gray, M.R.I. A. From the Journal of the present Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. To overturn this theory it has been argued that man — leaving anthropoid apes out of the question — is not the only agent which can produce a blow. For instance, a stone dropping from a pre- cipice might fall upon another stone and fracture it, thus pro- ducing a bulb ; or the ocean billows might hurl one stone against another and create a flake with a bulb. The theory of stones falling from a height would not, under the most favourable circumstances, produce a supply sufficient to permeate the entire of the gravels, and if the littoral, where flint is most abundant, were carefully examined, very few fresh flakes, knocked off by the agency of the waves, would be discovered. Even after a storm it is extremely improbable that a single newly-formed flake would be observed, though undoubtedly some, generally of very FLJXJ- IMPLEMENTS. 89 diminutive size, are occasionally knocked off, for the tendency of the action of the waves is not to scale off large but minute flakes, and by rolling the stones one against the other, to round them into the form of ordinary seaside shingle. It has been urged that the rudeness of flints from the gravels militates against their artificial character ; but it must be remem- bered that a true Rude Stone or Paleolithic implement is really, of its kind, an object of very perfect workmanship. It is also self-evidently not the most primitive implement produced by man, for, if we are ever able to identify the embryos of which rude flint weapons arc the developed products, we shall have penetrated very far back into the records of the dim past. The difference between the implements of the older and newer Stone Periods is very marked, for the weapons of attack used by the earliest race of men at present known to us were necessarily heavier and more formidable when they had to over- come the mammoth and other like animals, than when the hunters had to strike down the deer and wild ox. The general use of light spear-heads and arrow-heads indicates conclusively change in the mode of attack, and also a difference in the kind of quarry to be attacked ; it proclaims unmistakably that the old food supply was extinct, and that the new food supply was of lesser size than when ponderous spear-heads were an absolute necessity. Even in the apparently simple subdivision of flint imple- ments, archasologists are likely to be deceived, for unground implements with sharp points and thick, truncated butt have been found, together with polished implements, on the shores of Lough Neagh. Although analogous in form they differ in the character of workmanship and also in their proportions from flints found in the gravel. The difference, though slight, is such that whilst a solitary specimen might be taken as belonging to the Old Stone Age, yet if several were placed together they would at once impress an experienced observer as presenting later characteristics. The uses to which some of these rude implements were put is almost self-apparent (fig. 2!)), but as regards the majority it is at present almost useless to speculate on the purpose to which they were applied. "Almost as well might we ask to what they would not bo applied," remarks Sir John Lubbock. "Infinite as are our instruments, who would attempt, even at present, to say what was the use of a knife ? But the primitive savage had no such choice of tools ; we see before us, perhaps, the whole contents of his workshop, and with these weapons, rude as they seem to us, he may have cut down trees, scooped them out into canoes, grubbed up roots, killed animals and enemies, cut up his food, 90 EARL Y MAN. made holes in winter through the ice, prepared firewood, built huts, and in some cases, at least, they may have served as sling- 1-'|G. Tj. Hammer Stone, found with its surface battered all over, evidently by constant use as a pounder. Half-size. From Sir John Evans' " Rude Stone Implements. stones. In fact they served all the uses which it nowadays takes a carpenter's kit to accomplish."* (Fig. 30.) 1<'ig. 30. Stone Axe, retaining its wooden handle, found in peat, which had formed the bed of a small lake in Cumberland. Quarter real size. From Sir John Evans' " Rude Stone Implements." * A envious discovery was made in the year 18S0, of a small whinstone hatchet embedded in the heart of a trunk of ash. The girth of the tree at the place where the nxe was cut out was ten feet ; and its age, as calculated by the concentric rings, upwards of one hundred and twenty years: thus, though the discovery is curious, the deposition of the implement was far t«o recent to he of any practical archaeological value. In case of the future discoverv of a stone WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE. 91 The archaeologist is asked to fix a date to this period, which modern discovery has unrolled before our eyes ; all he can say is that it is impossible not to sympathise with the yearning after knowledge, but so far as present data go it is impossible to' frame a satisfactory answer ; we are unable to see clearly so far back into the dim past, or to, as yet, describe the genesis of the human race. In the Eude Stone Age, agriculture must have been almost unknown, the forest remained unfelled, hunting and fishing were the sole, or at any rate the principal, means of human livelihood ; it was the discovery of copper that first enabled man to make clearings in the woods on any large scale, and to sow the land thus prepared with grain. If copper ore occurred anywhere in great abundance, it could not well have escaped attracting the attention of the early inhabitants of the country ; tluv might, at first, have regarded it merely as a stone of peculiarly heavy material, and on commencing to chip and work it into shape would immediately notice that it yielded to the blow instead of splitting. It would not take a lengthened period before the savage would avail himself of the malleable nature of the stone, and would soon hammer out implements from the ore. A piece of copper falling into the fire would at once indicate its fusible characteristics, so that from hammering to casting implements there is not such a hiatus as a mere casual observer might imagine, for the whole history of human civilization has been one of slow but constantly accelerated progress. The Older Stone Age, when men knew only how to rudely chip flint implements, was, a,s we have seen, one of immense and incalculable duration, to be reckoned, bold chronologists aver, by hundreds of thousands of years. There was improvement during all this long epoch, but the improvement was almost im- perceptible ; the rude chipped weapons of the drift gave way, at last, to the more shapely lance and arrow-heads of skin-clad cave men ; even then vast epochs elapsed before the discovery of some prehistoric inventor of the art of grinding his weapons to an edge, instead of chipping them, and so the Neolithic or Polished (Stone Period was entered on. Jade has been described as " an old world mineral," and objects found in Europe formed of this material are ascribed to an oriental source. The presence, in hntchel retaining its original handle it may be well to point out that the process of preserving vnoil, when in the sodden and brittle condition in which it is found alter long burial in bogsy matter is extremely simple. The danger to be guarded against, is that the objects becoming dry will split and coi.tiact, and so lose their original form. They must therefore be kept moist until they have been steeped, or boiled, in a strong solution of alum, after which process, if allowed to dry gradually, they retain their original shape. 92 EARLY MAN. small numbers, in Ireland, of axes formed of jade is unquestion- able, but the manner and period of their transport thither, and their connexion with the place of their discovery, are questions yet to be determined. If the Continental, British, and Irish jadite axes be of Eastern origin, it undubitably points to a well- defined prehistoric trade existing between Asia and Europe. If commercial intercourse gives the true explanation of the presence of jade in Western Europe, how are we to account for the fact that bronze was not introduced to the West at the same time and by the same means ? At first a great many hard, tenaceous, and dense rocks, whose mineralogieal natures were not well established, were classed together under the name of nephrite, and it is quite possible that some of the supposed oriental jade or nephrite axes may fall under the above catagory. Amongst so many conflicting and completely contradictory opinions it is impossible, with the knowledge at present at our disposal, to arrive at any final decision. It is alleged by some, denied by others, that veins of jade, which might have served to make these axes, have been found in certain localities, but satisfactory proofs of the identity of oriental jade, with that of the axes found in the European area, and of the absence of this stone therein, can alone definitely settle the question. The Neolithic or Late Stone Age, although immeasurably long, as compared with the Bronze Age which follows, was very short when compared with the Older Stone Period that preceded it. With the entry of copper on the scene, came enormous changes faster and faster, until the use of iron still further accelerated the rate of progress, yet the discovery of copper and the invention of bronze formed, in reality, the greatest epoch in civilization, the distinct turning point in the history of the human race. Of a pure Copper Age, in Ireland, or indeed in Europe in general, there are little certain traces, and many archaeologists hold theories involving the Asiatic origin of bronze, and aver that when the use of copper was introduced into Europe it was also known that it was rendered harder and more serviceable when alloyed with tin. The revolution effected by the introduction of metal in the early world has been compared with the revolution effected by railways and electricity in our own times, only the world of the Stone Age was so simply constructed that the change in it was, though much less sudden, probably even more marvellous in its comprehensiveness. The term " Stone Age," with its sub-titles, are correct descriptions, for during the entire period comprised in the Age of Stone, primitive man possessed no knowledge of metals ; but the term "Bronze Age " is a misnomer, for it did not ANCIENT SEA-SHORE SETTLEMENTS, 93 succeed the Stone Age, it ran concomitantly, and even .struggled on until finally extinguished by the introduction of iron. Although the Bronze Age covered the shortest period of time, when compared either to that of stone or even to that of iron, it was, nevertheless, far the most important period, as it embraced the transition epoch, formed the connecting link, and furnished the transformation scene between savagery and civilization. It was the period when "The old order changes, giving place to new." The North of Ireland has, for many years past, yielded a rich archaeological harvest in the exploration of the sites of primitive villages, huts, and refuse-heaps in their vicinity. The question has been discussed at some length as to whether the people who lived in these huts and raised these shell mounds along the beaches, lived permanently on the sea-shore, or only visited it at certain seasons of the year. In primitive times families were purely nomadic, and, though in the Late Neolithic Period each tribe probably claimed and held a certain extent of territory, they were nomadic within its limit. Their chief means of livelihood must have been hunting, but at certain seasons of the year they gravitated towards the sea-shore for change to a fish diet, and as long as the fishing localities remained productive they would return, year after year, to the same place, leaving traces of their sojourn in the shell mounds, which in time will yet yield to us the complete story of this period of the past. The Irish peasant of the present day still delights in spending a few weeks of the summer at the sea- side, and his prehistoric ancestors were evidently inspired by the same feeling. Of this, undoubted evidence has been left in the artificial hillocks which dot the littoral. Many of those that have been inspected lie only just above high-water mark, and are composed principally of the shells of Crustacea and fractured bones, both of animals and fish ; they may, in fact, be described us the remains of primitive man's summer picnic at the seaside. Scattered amongst them are hammer-stones abraided at the extremities, evidently used for breaking bones and shells ; frag- ments of coarse earthenware and masses of charcoal are inter- mingled in the debris of past festivities. In the townland of Keele West, in the island of Achill, were three ancient shell- mounds, just above high-water mark, and in close proximity to each other (fig. 31). When examined it was found that the remains left by these primitive toilers of the sea had been almost entirely removed by the peasantry, who burned the shells for the purpose of reducing them to lime for whitening their homesteads ; this process has been going on for years, so that the original size of the refuse-heaps must have been very great. Two of them, 94 EARLY MAN. however, had not been quite so much exploited as the first one noticed. Here were found hammer-stones and bones of wild pig, traces of charcoal, and shells of various marine crustaceEe. Fig. 31. Shell-Mound, Island of Achill. There are a number of kitchen-middens on some small islands in the estuary forming Cork harbour. Two of the largest heaps, about 300 feet long, and from three to five feet in thickness, consisted principally of oyster-shells, with thin g Fig. 32. Ancient Shell-Mound, Brown Island, Cork Harbour. From a drawing by G. M. Atkinson, reproduced from the Journal of the present Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. layers of charcoal ; sections, exposed through denudation by the sea, or by farmers carting away the deposit for agricultural pur- poses, afforded evidence of different periods of occupation of these sites (figs. 32, 33). With the exception of charcoal and some hammer-stones, no other evidence of artificial formation was noticed. Thus we see that primitive man, living on the littoral ANCIENT SEA-SHORE SETTLEMENTS. 95 had, at any rate, one very marked advantage over his nineteenth- century descendant, in that he had abundance of oysters and swallowed them freely without the qualifying dread that he was likewise swallowing the germs of typhoid fever. Kit;. 33. Ancient Shell-Mound, Brick Island, Cork Harbour. From a drawing by G. II. Atkinson, reproduced from the Journal of the present Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. As the season changed so did the home of these seaside folk. In summer they aired themselves in tents and wattled huts, in winter they returned inland and burrowed like the rabbits. These winter dens were entered by a hole in the roof, whilst to many of the larger retreats there was a subterranean passage, along which they crawled on hands and knees. Several families must have inhabited the larger class of dwellings, where fumes of oil lamps, stores of raw meat, and naked bodies smeared with grease and unguents combined to make an atmosphere which to our modern ideas would have been difficult to tolerate (fig. 31). From the following passage in an Icelandic legend in the Lawlminm it appears that these underground retreats were used in Ireland in the ninth century :— " Leif went on warfare m the West. He made war in Ireland, and there found a large under- ground house ; he went down into it, and it was dark until light shone from a sword in the hands of a man. Leif killed the man, and took the sword and much property. Therefore he was called Hjorleif (Sword-Leif). He made war widely in Ireland, and got much property." , The following tenth-century story, a Saga of lnorgils , quoted by Macllitchie in Undetymuml Lih; describes another raid on one of these souterraius. Thorgils and Gyrd, joint leaders of a band of Northern freebooters, " harried during summer with much gain, and exterminated many robbers and 96 EARLY MAN. evil-doers, but leaving genuine farmers and traders in peace. Towards summer they came to Ireland (to a place) where in front of them they discovered a forest. Just after entering the forest they came to a spot where they saw a tree whose leaves had fallen off. They pulled up the tree (evidently a sapling) and beneath it they found an underground chamber, wherein they saw men with weapons. Thorgils proposed to his people that whoever should be the first to go into the earth-house should become entitled to the three objects of booty which he desired, to which all agreed, except Gyrd. Then Thorgils sprang down Fig. 34. Ideal scene in an underground dwelling. From a sketch bv W. F. AVakenian. into the chamber, and encountered no opposition ; and there were two women there, one of whom was young and beautiful, and the other old, yet not without good looks. Thorgils went about the chamber, whose roof rested upon upward-bent beams ; he had a mace in his hand, wherewith he smote about him on either side, so that all fled before him. Thorstein went with him, and then they came out of the earth-house, and took the women, the young one as well as the elder, with them to the A NCIENT SKA -SHORE SETTLEMENTS. !I7 ships. The people of the place now set out in pursuit of them and Thorgils getting on board, they steered out from the shore.' Now a man of the host which was pursuing them, stepped forward and harangued them, but they understood not his speech. Then the captured woman interpreted his story to them in Norse," and said : ' He will resign his claim to the goods you have taken, if only you will let us go. This man is an earl, and my son ; but my mother's kindred are from Vik, in Norway. Follow my counsel, then will you best derive benefit from this rich booty, for trouble comes with the sword. My son is named Hugh, and he has preferred to thee, Thorgils, other goods, rather than that you should carry me away, which could not be of any profit to you.' Thorgils agrees to their request, and brings them to land. The earl went joyfully towards Thorgils, and presented him with a gold ring; his mother gave him another, and the maiden gave him a third. Thereafter they bade each other a friendly farewell." The habit of roving from place to place for the purpose of hunting, or for fresh pastures for cattle, continued in Ireland so late as the time of Queen Elizabeth, Spenser relates that the Irish in his time "kept their cattle and lived themselves, the most part of the year, in boolies (cow-houses), pasturing upon the mountain and waste wild plains, removing still to fresh land as they have depastured the former." Many laws were passed to prevent indiscriminate grazings but without avail. The late Sir William Wilde, in the year 1835, described this custom as in full force on the island of Achill, that during the spring the entire population of several of the villages on the island " close their winter dwellings, tie their infant-children on their backs, carry them with their loys (spades) and some corn and potatoes, with a few pots and cooking utensils, drive their cattle before them, and migrate into the hills, where they find fresh pasture for the flocks ; and where they could build rude huts, or summer- houses of rods and wattles, called boolies, and then cultivate and sow with corn a few fertile spots in the neighbouring valleys. They thus remain for about two months of the spring and early summer, till the corn is sown. Their stock of provisions being exhausted, and the pasture consumed by the cattle, they return to the shore, and eke out a miserable and precarious existence by fishing. In the autumn they again return to the mountains, where they remain while the corn is being reaped." Probably the most primitive dwellings in Ireland are the huts or hoolies on the Island of Inishgloria. Eudely built, without mortar, roofed with sods, they are still inhabited, for about three months during the lobster fishing season. The height inside, from ground to rafters, dot's not permit of the occupants it 98 EARLY MAN. assuming an upright position. The furniture consists of a rude bunk filled with straw, for sleeping in ; large stones do duty for chairs: the cooking is done out of doors. Fynes Moryson and Spenser describe the Irish of their day as sleeping in rude wattled shelters roofed with sods of turf or under the canopy of heaven, men and women together, in a circle round the camp fire, their feet towards it, their heads and the upward parts of their bodies wrapped in woollen mantles steeped in water, as experience had shown them that wetted woollen cloth retained heat, when the temperature of the bodies had warmed the cloth. The herds of cattle which these wanderers possessed were described as "multitudinous"; the aggregate of families that, in one body followed a herd, was called a " creaght,"and so late as Elizabethan times almost the entire population of Ulster lived this wild and nomadic life. The cattle are described as very diminutive ; even when almost starving the men would not kill a cow, they would open a vein and drink the blood. A Fellow of Cambridge, who travelled in Ireland in 1670, notes the extremely meagre diet of the Irish of his time ; he says : — " The Irish feed much upon herbs, watercresses, sham- rocks, mushrooms, and roots. They also take beef broth, and flesh, sometimes raw, from which they have pressed out the blood. They do not care much for bread ; but they give the corn to their horses, of whom they are very careful. They also bleed their kine, and as the blood stiffens to a jelly, they stew it with butter and eat it with great relish, washing it down with huge draughts of usquebaugh." Unwholesome diet fosters disease. Dr. Boat in his Natural History of Ireland attributes the miserable state of leprosy, that in his day prevailed throughout Ireland to " the foul gluttony of the inhabitants in tbe devouring of unwholesome salmon." Other writers ascribed this affection to the raw state in which the natives were accustomed to devour animal food — " "lVas blood-raw meat Which they for constant food did eat, Affirming that all meat was spoil' J, Thai either roasted was, or boil'd." W. J. Knowles seems to have been one of the most active and painstaking investigators of the sites of the move ancient settle- ments along the littoral. From the remains found, it is probable that their first occupiers were cannibals, for human and animal bones are strangely commingled. They appear to have been in an extremely rude state ; no metal of anv kind was found • there is scarcely a trace of polishing on their Hint implements • and the pottery was coarse and sun dried. The print of his naked foot FOOD OF ANCIENT SETTLERS. 99 or those of wild animals in the soft earth, a clod hardened in the sunshine, or baked clay occurring in the ashes on the hearth, may have first suggested to primitive man the idea of forming vessels to hold liquids, wild seeds, fruits, or roots. Fragments of pottery have been rightly styled the cornucopia of archaeological science, for generally abundant, pottery possesses two excellent Grain-rubber. From Sir Jolm Evans' " Rude Stone Implements." qualities, being easy to break and yet difficult to destroy, rendering it very valuable in an archaeological point of view, and investi- gation bus shown that in some early settlements these primitive inhabitants of Erin had in use a distinctly characteristic style of rude pottery. Grain rubbers, or mealing stones, found on sea-side sites do not liy any means presuppose an even rudimentary process of agriculture (fig. /!•")). drain is but one of the many products which may be ground into a kind of flour ; for most grasses produce very small edible kernels, as do also many trees and bushes, whilst nuts, acorns, dried roots of plants, and fruit, can all be reduced to a rough species of flour. Amongst some of the tribes of North America the roots of the common fern, or bracken, are, in everyday use, either simply boiled, or crushed with a stone muller, and then rousted (fig. 30). H ? % Fig. ."(!. Grain Grinder still used in the Aran Islands. From a sketch by \V. 1''. Wakcman. wmamv 102 EARLY MAN. The oldest Irish sea-side population at present known to us do not seem to have possessed domesticated animals ; they, in fact, belonged to the Neolithic or Late Stone Age in Ireland, and to its earliest period. There was, however, in one locality evi- dence of a still older Stone Age. Along the shore, a short distance from some hut-sites, heavy and massive flint-flakes, covered with a thick crust, and glazed on the outside, were noticed. This crust is observable only on flints exposed to atmospheric influences ; for flints buried in the ground, protected from air and moisture, do not weather. Several blocks of flint which had been used by the hut-building folk, thus crusted, when carefully examined, afforded evidence that they had been previously wrought in long distant times. This is a good example of an older and a newer Stone Age : a people dwelling in huts along the northern littoral, found rude and large cores, flakes and implements, which would arjpear to have been of a more archaic type than those they were in the habit of manufacturing, weathered, and deeply-crusted, when they picked them up. These they brought to their dwellings, and rewrought and finished them after their manner. A similar instance was noticed by the writer in some flint implements dis- covered in sepulchral cists of apparently the Late Neolithic Age at Carrowmore, near Sligo. On the sites of prehistoric settlements, at Portnafeadog on the Connemara littoral, F. J. Bigger, ji.k.i.a., the energetic editor of The lister Journal of Arcliccoloijij, found a large heap of methodi- cally fractured shells of the dog-whelk (iiui-puni lapillus). Any- one who broke a sufficient number of these shells, merely to satisfy his hunger, would have an arduous task, and the dis- coverer suggests that they were crushed to obtain the rich purple dye they afford. The colouring matter is of easy extraction if the shell be broken in a similar manner to the specimens found in the shell-mound of Portnafeadog. The settlement was of the Neolithic Age, at earliest, as broken bones of the horse, cow, sheep, pig and dog or wolf were found ; no flint, metallic imple- ment, or fragment of pottery was observed, but it is quite possible an Atlantic storm may, some day, by sweeping away the over- lying sand, do good archaeological service. In some sepulchral cists on the littoral the flat scales or plates of the sturgeon occur ; weapons made of cetaceous bone are also not infrequent, and the sea-side population may have often received the gift from the ocean of a dead whale, a dead basking shark, or other great marine monster, on which they could gorge, and could afterwards utilize its skeleton in the forma- tion of weapons (fig. 87 ). On the western coast the whale and the basking shark, or sunfish, are even yet a not uncommon capture, particularly off the island of Achill (fig. 38). PREHISTORIC OBJECTS- WHITE PA RK BAY. 103 Whitepark Bay (fig. 89), on the north coast of Antrim, bor- dered by a broad sweep of white sand, backed by low chalk cliffs, shut in on one side by Bengore Head and on the other by the rocks which fringe the shore near Ballintoy, is well known for the abundant prehistoric objects which it yields, and which show that it was an important settlement of earlier races. Bude flint implements, bones, fragments of pottery and charcoal, occur in certain definite layers, which represent the ancient land surface. This is now buried below many feet of blown-sand ; yet the sand constantly shifts, under the influence of the wind, exposing the old surface, and thus traces of the former inhabitants are again exposed to the light of day. j-i. 30. Wliitepark Hay, looking West. A typical site nf an Ancient Sea-side Settlement. From a sketch I.y William Gray, m.h.i.a., reproduced from the Journal of the present Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. A site examined and described by \Y. J. Knowles, at Bally- ned, county Donegal, may be tali en as a good illustration of these seaside remains. The beach, where the various objects usee by these primitive folk had been found, was, not many years ago, covered with sand hills, thirty feet in height. It has now been swept bare through the action of the wind, and is in places studded with old hut-sites, and their hearths with black matter underneath, full of shells ; a few hammered stones and rounded and broken quartzite pebbles, some cracked from heat, others evidently split into sharp-edged pieces by hammering. Those quartzite flakes and spalls must have been intentionally wade, though there was no evidence of dressing, such as is found on flint implements. 101 EARLY MAN. Articles of bronze and iron, glass and porcelain beads, and even coins have been found in several of these sandhills ; for instance, a coin of Queen Elizabeth at Dundrum, and a halfpenny of Queen Victoria at Portstewart. " Such finds," writes W. G. Knowles, " have caused some of my archaeological friends to look on flint implements as belonging to a comparatively late period, so late as to be at least contemporary with iron objects. But as yet there is no evidence that metal of any kind was used conjointly with the flint tools (i.e. in the ancient seaside settle- ments). The old surface is the test for contemporaneousness. Whatever is dug out of it must have been in use at the same time, and any implements lying loose on the surface, similar to those contained in the old surface, must be classed with them. But there have also been found, lying on the present surface among the worked flints, grains of shot, cartridge cases, scraps of iron, such as nails, broken bottles, portions of old shoes, and stray coins of late date." It is not surprising that modern articles have been trampled into the old surface where it is exposed, and thus become stumbling blocks to archaeologists. Although some of these sea-side settlements belong exclusively to a flint-using folk, many apparently lingered on to the time when bronze was in use, and possibly to the period of the introduction of iron, and even to comparatively recent times. The Neolithic Age in Ireland may, in some places, reach back to the same period as in England ; but, on the other hand, it may in other places be advanced to times comparatively modern. Blown sand is an excellent preserver of prehistoric remains. This is best exemplified in places where the sand is not over deep or too much exposed to strong winds, for in exposed places the old surface has been broken up and obliterated, and in such cases it is only in parts some distance inland that undisturbed remains are found. Some portion of the old surfaces after having been denuded of their sandy covering, become covered with a grassy sward, and acquire another sandy covering, which leads to the belief that these may be cases of an old surface having had its covering blown away, and another formed repeatedly since the sandhills were occupied by a prehistoric folk. If the Neolithic inhabitants came hero on foot with the other recent fauna of the country, many of the earliest remains near the coast have probably been destroyed by denudations, but those now remaining show the old culture of some of our earliest settlers. Apparently they first occupied the littoral, and spread inland along the various water- ways (lig. 40). On the shores of the Bairn, implements are found similar to those from the sandhills, -which favours the opinion that these people knew little, if anything, of agriculture. They appear to have been hunters, living on the great Irish deer (one INLAND SETTLEMENT OF THE STONE AGE. 105 bone only has been found), ox, pig, sheep or goat, and red deer ; there are also remains of horse, and dog or wolf, but ^whether these three latter were domesticated or were hunted and used for food, like the other animals, remains to be proved. Among the birds are traces of goose, gull, duck, and great auk ; from the number of bones of the latter bird, it must have been very abundant in the North of Ireland at the time the people of the Stone Age occupied tbe rna«t line Ideal J-'i.i -10. Inland hrttlemi-nt of the Slonc .\^ Among present-day savages the men undertake no physical exertion, save such as is incurred in the chase, in the supply of meat or fish for the family ; beyond this, the males decline all manual labour, and relegate it to the women folk, who gather wood, light and keep up the fires, cook, fabricate culinary utensils and pottery, scrape, fashion and sew skins for clothing, and like beasts of burden carry about the household goods, from camp to camp, as the locality is changed, for the purpose of seeking a better area for food-supply. This must also have been the manner of life of a family in Ireland in the olden times. Tbe accompanying illustration (fig. 41) represents an imagi- nary scene of old sea-side life. To the left are a couple of natives engaged in the erection of a hut; traces of such frail " boolies" are still observable on many points on the coast. In plan they were usually circular, or more or less oval. There can be little or no doubt that tbe roof was composed of bent boughs I & it Hr* A KAIF1R HUT. 107 or saplings, forming a kind of basket-work (fig. 42), covered with zero, ira, or thin strips of the surface of grassy land. The ends of the saplings would appear to have been inserted in the sand or soil of Fig. J ■>. Skeleton framework of Kaffir Hut, South Afrka, showing roof and side-walls composed flf bent bough. Photo, ll'i*/-/,/ AAnaii'/.c. the sea-shore, at a little distance above high-water mark, and to have been secured in their position by an unceineiited stone wall of slight elevation (fig. -IS). In the foreground is present a party of the natives seated round a cooking- place. Quantities of broken pottery, of rude description, are found round many of these hearths. Judging by the remains, some of the larger cooking pots were furnished with ears by which they might be suspended uver a fire. In the middle distance is a group of the small aboriginal cattle which formed the herds of Ireland in remote ages. On the margin of the sea are shown boats, formed out of a single piece of timber, such as were used by these people, and, probably, for centuries later, by their descendants. 108 EARL Y MAN. Fig. 43. Sketch-plan of uncemented Stone "Wall in an Irish prehistoric sea-side settlement : the saplings thus secured in position, forming the framework of side-walls and roof. From a sketch by W. J. Knowles, in the Journal of the present Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. Although probably very diminutive folk, popular tradition depicts some of these primitive fishermen as beings of gigantic stature. Great Man's Bay, in Iar Connaught, took its name from one of these supposed giants, and the country people show a large hollow rock, which they call his churn, and three other rocks, which supported the caldron wherein he boiled the whales which he caught with : ' Mis angle-rod, made of a sturdy oik ; His line a cable, which in storms ne'er broke.' 1 The inhabitants of these sea-side settlements probably daubed themselves with pigments, but in this fashion they were not a whit more barbarous than the primitive inhabitants of Great Britain ; for there can be little doubt that the Palaeolithic and Neolithic inhabitants of Britain used a red pigment as a substi- tute for clothing, and its use was continued for personal deco- ration to a comparatively late period. The use of pigments of various descriptions dates back to a very early period ; pieces of hematite, with the surfaces scraped, apparently by means of flint-flakes, have been found in the Continental caves of the lteindeer Period, so that this red pigment appears to have been in early favour with savage man. Irish cave-dwellers have also left behind them flints, bearing unmistakable marks of attrition; from remains found THE USE OF PIGMENTS. 10!) near them, one of the uses to which they were put is believed to have been the production of a red pigment by scraping pieces of hard hematite iron ore. In cold countries the use of pigments may have arisen as a protection against the inclemency of the weather; in warm countries as a protection against heat and stinging insects. From these beginnings the custom might easily become crystallized into habit. In many localities, in the present day, fishermen and sportsmen frequenting marshy places, smear their faces and hands with certain kinds of thick ointment, to make themselves proof against the stings of insects with which the air is filled. Among many wild tribes of Patagonia both men and women paint their faces and their arms with ochre, and other coloured daub ; this process is said to protect the skin from the solar rays and from the dryness of the atmosphere. Lumps of colouring matter, of various hues, but principally red, have been found on the sites of Irish lake dwellings. The red pigment may, however, have been employed for the purpose of coating the exterior of earthenware crocks. The practice of placing paint beside the dead is yet observed among the North- American Indians : — " The paints that warriors love to iw Place here within his hand, That lie may shine with ruddy hues Amidst the Spirit Band." "We are not left to conjecture, or forced to draw analogies from the habits of present day savages as to the manner in which late flint or bronze-using man, in Ireland, clothed himself. The uniform pressure, together with the soft and yielding nature of peat, as a general rule, preserves fragile objects embedded in it from injury, whilst the peculiar antiseptic property of bog water — impregnated with the tannin of the innumerable roots and fibres which constitute peaty matter — preserves objects formed of animal material, of wood, iron, and other destructible substances deposited in it. During the last century several human bodies, still retaining their clothing, are recorded as having been discovered in bogs, but they were so archivologically neglected as to afford little infor- mation on the subject of ancient costumes. In a bog, in the parish of Derryreighan, county Antrim, a skin cape was found in the year lSIll at a considerable depth below the surface. It measures 24 inches in length ; its width at one edge is 36, and at the other ,">0 inches. The material used in the sewing consists of two strands twisted together to form one thread, and judging by their length, they are probably the sinews 110 EARLY MAN. of some large animal. The holes made by the needle are small, the sewing regular, the top and bottom of the cloak bordered by a double thong stitched in a most elaborate manner. From the small size of all the pieces of skin employed in the formation of the cape, it is highly probable that the animals which furnished the fur were diminutive ; the joining is executed so skilfully as to present, externally, a uniform appearance. The skins have been completely tanned, either intentionally, or by the long continued action of bog water (fig. 44). Fig. \ i. Sketch showing manner in which the cape was probably worn. Reproduced from the Ulster Journal of Archaeology. So late as quasi-historical times, the charioteer of the hero Guchullin is described as clothed in a mantle of deer-skin ; leather cloaks are mentioned as worn by the followers of the Ulster Chief,. Murtoch MacNeill, when, in the year 942, he marched around Ireland (figs. 45, 46). In the year 1821 a human body completely clad in a deer- skin garment was found, ten feet below the then surface of a bog, at Gallagh, near Castle Blakeney, county Galway. The head, legs, and feet were bare ; the body was clad in a tunic of deer- skin which reached to the knees and elbows, and was laced in front with leather thongs. The seams present good specimens of early needlework, each stitch of fine gut, knotted, so that it was almost impossible for it to rip. When first dug up, dress and CLOAKS AXD CAPES. Ill body were quite perfect ; the corpse wa3 that of a man, at least six feet m height, of middle age, with long dark hair and partially grown beard. The body was at once re-interred, but it was due rf 1' 1 " Am it !> !Wl Pl&^ IV '' -* U2 . I.JJJJUJ^iJJJJJjLLUJjJLlj U*I//fffiJTU Fia. 45. Seven figures on the Cross of Kilklispeen, sliowing hoods to cloaks. From a drawing by O'Xcil. up, on various occasions, for inspection by the curious ; conse- quently, body and clothing were much injured; had they been preserved in their state as first discovered, no museum could have boasted of a more valuable example of early man and of his s£l (Pi i HShgfc ^rnk Fin. 46. Three figures on the Cross at Tiiam, showine; hoods to cloaks. l'"ro]n a drawingby (J'Neil. clothing. This "Irish Mammy," though covered with a glass case, 1ms, since its removal from the damp crypt of the Koyul Irish Academy to the dry, but equally dark and gloomy room in the 112 EARLY MAN. Science and Art Museum, been rapidly drying and shrivelling, and is now little more than tattered ligaments and bones. The gloom surrounding it renders a sketch most difficult, in fact, the want of light and want of methodical arrangement in the National Collection of Antiquities would disgrace a mere provincial Museum. (Fig. 47.) " The Irish Mun Fid. 47. In the Collection of Antiquities of the K.I. A. Captain Cuellar's graphic description of the Irish, with whom he spent seven months after his escape from the wreck of one of the vessels of the Spanish Armada, cast away on the Irish coast, is as follows: — " They live in huts made of straw. The men have big bodies, their features and limbs are well made, and they are as agile as deer. They eat but one meal a day, and their ordinary food is oaten bread and butter. They drink sour milk, as they have no other beverage, but no water, although it is the best in the world. They dress in tight breeches and goatskin jackets, cut short, but very big, and wear their hair down to their e )' es -" In a sessions of Parliament, held in Dublin in the year 1295, an Act was passed minutely describing this •■ Coulhi " or " Glibbe " for its more effectual prohibition. A few of the Irish chieftains, who lived near the Pale, cut off their " Glibbes " — a memorial of the event was made in writing, but it may be observed that, until the commencement of the present century, these glibbes, or long locks of hair, and the old Irish mantle were to be seen in some of the most western parts of Ireland. This mode of wearing the hair may be studied by reference to fig. 48, drawn by a native artist about the year 1400. It represents the uncovered head and flowing locks of an archer of the period, in the Knockmoy fresco, and accords with the description of O'Neill's Gallowglasses, who accompanied their chief to the Court of Elizabeth. tilibu fiisl litii we:n ing the hi itr. R> nru.l.in el fro in tl C:il:ili. s ue K. I. A. A A r ( -/EXT COSTUMES. 113 A curious entry in a MS. Survey of the County Sligo (Strafford's Inquisition) of 1683-0, calls for notice. When making mention of the townland of " Carowtampull," in the Parish of Emlaghfad, Barony of Corran, that denomination of land is described as having " a great scope of bogge and drown- ing places," which latter term is supposed to designate the holes and quagmires left when cutting away the peat for fuel. Several bodies have, from time to time, been dug up from considerably below the surface, the persons having evidently met their death through inability to extricate themselves from the treacherous depths. Tire corpse of " a lady," clad in antique costume, is stated to have been discovered, many years ago, on the summit of Benbulbin ; and so late as the year 1H24, the body of a man, completely clad in woollen garments of antique fashion, was found, six feet beneath the surface of a bog, in the parish of Fig. 49. Two hunters on the North Cross of Clonmacnuise, with conical caps. From a drawing by O'Xeil. Killory. No weapon was discovered near the corpse, but a long staff lay under it. The head dress, which soon fell into pieces, is said to have been a conical cap of sheepskin (fig. i'.t). So perfect was the body, when first discovered, that a magistrate was called to hold an inquiry about it. Fig. 50, drawn from a person clad in this antique suit (except the shoes, which are very small), found on the body of a man discovered in a bog inKillery, Co. Sligo, furnishes a representation of the costume of the native Irish about the fifteenth or sixteenth century. The cloak or mantle was of soft closely-woven brown cloth, the coat was also of a coarse brown woollen cloth. The trousers, or trews, of coarser material than the coat, consisted of two distinct parts differing both in colour i 1M EARLY MAN. Fig. 50. Ancient costume. Repro- duced from the Catalogue R.I.A. I-'iU. 51. 'AVild Irishman.'' From Speed's Map o£ the Year, 1610. and texture. The legs must have fitted the limbs tightly, and these close fitting trousers are evidently the ancient Irish chequered or many coloured lower garments, explaining, by the way they were attached to the sacculated portion above, and the shoes below, an obscure expres- sion in Giraldus Cambrensis, when he says "The Irish wear breeches ending in shoes, or shoes ending in breeches." This suit, one of the most ancient spe- cimens of native manufacture which has come down to modern times, is woven with a twill, and, when carefully examined the warp is found to be composed of three plies, twisted together, while the weft consists of the untwisted woollen staple. This pecu- liarity of the twill resembles that figured in the cloak of the " Wild Irishman," engraved in Speed's map of 1610 (figure 51 and figure 5'2 that of a " Wild Irishwoman"). The male figure also shows the "glibbe" fashion of wear- ing the hair, as well as the kind of leggings, or long boots, used by the peasantry at that time. In fig. 53, No. 1, taken from a rare engraving, purporting to be " drawn after the Quiche," preserved in the Bodleian library, although of a com- paratively modern date, exhibits an Irish warrior grasping an iron sword of the peculiar form of the ancient leaf-shaped blade of bronze, and clad in garments of probably a pattern quite as antique. In No. 2 we see the Irish " skene"; No. 3 represents the Irish Chief, O'More, in - ■_>».: Fig. 52. ' Wild Irishwoman." From Speed's Map of the Year, 1610. A NCIENT COSTUMES. 115 the year 1600; No. 4 is an Irish agent employed hy the (rovernment to treat with the insurgent chiefs; *No 5 is a "kern" of the period, with mantle, and armed 'with an Irish axe ; No. 6 is a Scottish Highlander wearing the plaid. Fig. .33. Irish and Highland costumes, from MSS. and early printed books. Reproduced from the Ulster Journal of Arcli.uoiogy. Spenser's description of the Irish cloak has been often quoted "ii lit house for an outlaw, a meet bed for a rebel, and an apt cloak for a thief." He further observed that the cloak, being the simplest costume, constitutes the early dress of most uncivilized nations. Le Gouz, a Frenchman — and therefore considered to be an impartial witness — who traversed a great portion of Ireland in I 2 116 EARLY MAN. the year 1644, gives a minute description of the costume of the Irish, not omitting the mantle, so characteristic of the national costume: " The Irish, whom the English call 'wild,' have for their head-dress a little blue cap, raised two fingers breadth in front and behind, covering their head and ears. Their doublet has a long body and four skirts, and their breeches are a panta- loon of white frize, which they call trowsers. Their shoes, which are pointed, with a single sole, they call brogues. For cloaks they have five or six yards of frize, drawn round the neck, the body, and over the head, and they never quit this mantle, either sleeping, working, or eating. . . . The girls of Ireland, even those living in towns, have for their head-dress only a ribbon, and if married they have a napkin on the head, in the manner of the Egyptians. The body of their gowns comes only to their breasts, and when they are engaged in work they gird then- petti- coat, with their sash above the abdomen. They wear a hat and mantle, very large, of brown colour, of which the cape is of coarse woollen frize, in the fashion of the women of Lower Normandy." Octavian de Palatio, a Florentine, Primate of Ireland hi 1480, is reputed to be the author of this curious Latin satire on the inhabitants of Armagh : — " Civitas Armachana Civitas Yana, Absque bonis moribus : Mulieres nudae Carnes crude Paupertas, in Aedebus." Which Harris thus translates : — " Armagh is notorious, For being vain-glorious, The men void of manners ; their spouses Go naked ; they cat Haw flesh for their meat, And poverty dwells in their houses." An even more startling picture is drawn by a Bohemian nobleman of the nakedness of the Ulster population. He was met at the door of the residence of the Irish Chief, O'Kane, bv sixteen women, all naked, except their loose mantles. Even the chief had nothing on except the same kind of cloak and shoes ; these he took off as soon as he entered the house, turned to his guest, and "desired him to put off his apparel, which he thought to be a burden to him." Maories wear blankets, Esquimaux skin dresses ; but directly they enter their huts every article of clothing is cast aside. This ANCIENT COSTUMES. 117 is essential to health, for the skin does not perspire freely in a confined space, especially when garments of hide are worn, and the human system imperatively demands periods of whole or partial nudity. As is usual with purblind enthusiasts, Christian missionaries, not content with essaying to change an old religion for a new one, have laboured to induce the natives to abandon their ancient and wholesome custom, the outcome of long cen- turies of experience, and in the ratio in which missionaries suc- ceed they kill off their converts by pulmonary consumption. It is the same all the world over, where civilization and the mis- sionaries come in contact with savage races. A writer describing South Africa says, that "On this subject the bulk of authority is to the effect that civilization at present harms the negro by exposing him to diseases he never knew before. In his savage state the black man goes naked, and becomes strong by a constant contact with the fresh air. The first thing done for the happy black heathen is to make bim wear uncomfortable clothing, in which he sweats and breeds poisonous microbes with horrible fluency. He never changes his clothing, and when he gets wet he knows no better than to dry them by sitting close to the fire. In this way he contracts fever, and undermines an otherwise robust constitution." One can thus readily understand how travellers in the Middle Ages, and even in Elizabethan times, were startled by the apparent nakedness of the Irish, who, on entering their low, heated and stifling habitations conformed to ancient custom and threw off their clothing. At the same time, it must be admitted that habit is everything, for Pillontier describes how little some savages regard exposure to cold. A savage lying down naked was asked if he was not cold. " Is your face cold ? " answered the man. The inquirer, of course, replied in the negative. " Neither do I feel cold," retorted the savage, " for 1 am all face." In a recent work on ancient Kgypt, there is a representation of a statuette from Gizah, of a woman crushing corn on a saddle- quern, and in the same state of nature in which Fynes Moryson describes Irish " young maidens stark naked, grinding corn with certain stones, to make cakes thereof." Captain Cuellar, before qunted, an officer belonging to the Spanish Armada, states that women, when at work indoors, were in a state of nature. On an island off the coast of Ireland a monastery was founded by St. Fechin in the seventh century, for the conversion of the inhabitants, who were then pagau. Cambrensis afterwards describes them as " homines nudi, qui non sciverunt nisi carnes et pisces ; qui non fuerant Christiaui, nee audiverunt nunquam remains of fuel so employed in the cooking of primitive times. Fires made of bones are still used by savage tribes. Even Darwin expresses surprise at the skill with which his guide in the Falkland Islands substituted the skeleton of a bullock recently killed, for ordinary brushwood, of which there was a scarcity, and mentions the hot fire made by the bones. He was also informed that, in winter, beasts killed by the natives were often roasted by means of burning the bones belonging to them. The following passage from Herodotus describes this custom as being practised in most remote times : — " As Scythia is very barren of wood, they (i.e. the Bcythians) have the following con- trivance to dress the flesh of the victim. Having flayed the animal, they strip the flesh from the bones, and, if they have them at hand, they throw it into certain pots made in Scythia, and resembling the Lesbian caldrons, though somewhat larger ; under these a fire is made with the bones. If these pots cannot be procured, they enclose the flesh with a certain quantity of water in the paunch of the victim, and make fire with the bones as before. The bones being very inflammable, and the paunch without difficulty being made to contain the flesh separated from the bone, the ox is thus made to dress itself, which is also the case with other victims. When the whole is ready, he who sacri- fices, throws before him with some solemnity the entrails, and the more choice pieces. They sacrifice different animals, but horses in particular." Resources equally extraordinary are employed in eastern and other countries where there is great scarcity of fuel. In Arabia, in parts of Persia, India, and the west of Ireland, dried cowdung is utilized. The prophet Ezekiel was, according to his _ own account, ordered to cook his food in a most extraordinary manner (chap, iv., r. 12 and 15) ; and from chap, xxiv., v. 5, the inference may be fairly drawn that the burning of bones, in lieu of better fuel, was not a very unusual circumstance in Judsea, as the prophet is directed to take the choice of the flock, and burn the bones under it, and to boil it well. Of a truth " that which hath been is that which shall be ; and that which hath been done is that which shall be done ; and there is no new thing under the sun." CHAPTER IV. MAN AS AUTHOR, ARTIST, SCULPTOR. Period during which Christianity has reigned — insignificant when compared with that occupied by pre-Christian religion— Invention of writing. Is the Irish Ogham alphabet ancient or modern ? — Irish literature a mere literary protoplasm — Bears undoubted marks of Christian Adaptors, Redactors and Tamperers— Legend of Lough Xeagh— St. Fahan — the Tadn B6 Cualnge — Ossian and St. Patrick — Value of stories best judged by the Archaeologist — Myths and Tales invented to point a moral — The Baker and artificial rain — The Children of Lir — Borrowed Tales — The Hare and the Oyster — The Irish Chief and King Midas — Thersites and Conan — Balor and Perseus — Hercules and Coolin — Enumeration of "Wild Legends — All divide into two periods, one early, one late, and were clerically pruned — Art of Early Man confined to linear decorative patterns — Exception, the extra- ordinary life-like pictures of the Cavemen of Gaul — Otherwise Irish and Continental Ornamentation the same — Mistakes and Forgeries — Descrip- tion of various Rock-Scribings — The most curious being Cup-and-Ring Markings — Their probable significance. The Irish reading, as well as the non-reading, public are moved by impulse rather than by reason, and in nothing is this more strikingly exemplified than when the genuineness of so-called ancient Irish history is, for a moment, called in question. In this trait they do not stand alone, for have we not the episode of the hot-headed Welshman, who nearly killed a well-known archaeologist because he had the temerity to doubt, and even to dispute, the allegation, that Adam and Eve spoke Welsh in the Garden of Eden. Every savage race (and, as a matter of fact, every civilized race) considers itself the highest and the best, just as, in religion, each sect regards itself as the elect of man- kind and of Heaven ; even the most amiably disposed individuals are not above this weakness. Some few might even feel inclined to sing, with approval, the following verse, which has, however, not yet found its way into a Christian hymnal : — " "We arc the Sweet Elected few, May all the rest bo damned, There's room enough in Hell for yon ; We won't have Heaven crammed." CHRISTIAN PERK)/). 127 From this it is certain that — " Hell were too small if man were judged by man." Thus, to attempt to stem the strong current of Irish popular opinion, even in matters so academical as archaeological theories, is by no means a pleasant task, for although, in general, every- one is most anxious to assert, and often succeeds in convincing himself, that he is only anxious to learn the truth ; yet, when the truth is disclosed, if it he contrary to his preconceived impressions, a Spirit, not of receptivity, but of impatience and intolerance is displayed. Although the object may be simply to put forward the correct aspect of the matter, the views of other writers are thereby necessarily controverted ; for it is impossible to demonstrate the fallacy of certain popular ideas without, at the same time, demonstrating that their professors were deluded, and no one, thus situated, likes to be told, much less to be convinced, that he is in error. We have been given very sound advice as to the kind of foundation we ought to select, when we desire to erect a building able to resist both the ravages of time, and the violent assaults of floods and of storms. In a material building we seek to lay the foundations upon a rock, so in constructing a theory we ought to seek a firm foundation of ascertained fact. Further, the best evidence that our theory is true is, that new facts, as they arise, easily find their place in it, and are at home in it. If the theory is false, new facts are with difficulty forced into relation with it, and in time, as they become more numerous, they disintegrate, and finally completely overthrow the theory. If, on the other hand, the original theory is true, it expands and grows naturally and easily by the assimilation of new facts. For instance, Petrie's theory of the origin of the Round Towers still flourishes, but it has adapted itself, in several minor particulars, to more recent observations. Since the publication of Petrie's Essay, the progress of arclneological investigation has been almost at a standstill; and until the huge mass of undigested matter, now accumulated in the pages of the Proceedings of learned societies, has been assimilated, the mere recording of discoveries has perhaps, for the time, gone far enough. Archaeology is suffering from a plethora of •'finds," the relative importance and age of which, with regard to the date of the earliest of the round towers, have not vet been determined. The proper standpoint and method of investigation have been lost sight of; one part of the puzzle should first be arranged in proper ortler, and the remainder must in due time drop into the ri'dit position. Practical experience in actual exploration is necessary to form a good archaeologist ; no amount of head 128 MAN AS AUTHOR, ARTIST, SCULPTOR. knowledge can make up for deficiency of spade knowledge, for as in the quarry the pick of the workman brings to light remains of animals and plants long since passed away, so on prehistoric sites the spade of the archaeologist turns up traces of the works of early man and of his primitive surroundings. Examination of articles is preferable to mere book knowledge, and careful study of any large collection of antiquities will impart more insight into the manufacturing skill of the ancient inhabitants of the land than can be otherwise obtained. As the writer has elsewhere observed, the period during which Christianity has reigned in Ireland is comparatively insignificant when compared with that occupied by pre-Christian religion or religions. It is strange that of this aspect of the prehistoric past we know so little. Our knowledge of it may be compared to a rivulet, our ignorance to the ocean. How long the pre- historic period may have lasted, or how long it may have taken to develop the state of things apparent when Erin first comes under authentic historical notice is matter for conjec- ture ; all that can be inferred is that it must have covered a long period of time, immeasurably longer than from the introduction of Christianity to the present day. Archaeologists may wrangle as to whether iron was introduced before or after the commencement of the Christian era ; the exact century of its introduction is, for practical purposes, unimportant ; let it suffice tbat its appearance belongs to historic times as regards the British Isles. There can be no more conclusive test of the exact state of prehistoric civilization than that which is afforded by the general knowledge and use of metals. Pride in ourselves and pride in our ancestors are common foibles of human nature ; occurrences which redound- to the glory either of the individual or of the community are am- plified and dwelt upon, whilst incidents derogatory to our prestige are glossed over or ignored. O'Donovan relates how some of his former most intimate friends became his most bitter enemies on his expressing grave doubts regarding the authen- ticity of ancient Irish history. Many ideas, of which we can just trace the existence now- a-days, were prevalent in times more ancient, and especially on that border-line where the old creeds of Paganism had not ceased to be the superstitions of the newer Christianity. The bards and chroniclers of Erin doubtless possessed accounts of some of the comparatively later settlements, probably more or less founded on tradition, and having more or less a substratum of truth ; but on the arrival of the Christian missionaries, and their acquisition of the literary (if any) and traditional sources of information, the ancient heathen vernacular histories, tales, and THE INVENTION OF WRITING. 129 poems became embedded in a mosaic of miracle-stories and classic legends, so that it is now extremely difficult to separate the chaff from the gram. This amalgam of Pagan and Christian thought, amongst other absurdities, traces the pedigree of the first settlers in Ireland up to Adam. The assertion that Adam was the first man is open to question ; there must also, to put it in the mildest form, be grave doubts regarding the authenticity ot the numerous connecting-links in the alleged chain of un- broken descent from our putative parent ; besides the question as to whether the whole race is to be traced to a single pair, or whether several examples appeared contemporaneously, remains still open to scientific investigation. At present the weight of opinion undoubtedly favours a monogenetic theory, and many of the best scientists are as strongly monogenists, as are the most ardent upholders of a literal interpretation of Biblical phrase- ology. There is no credible tradition, no authentic history, to tell when man first inhabited the land. Like the mature man, who retains no recollection of his earliest infantine days, so the aggregate of men, which now constitutes the nation, has retained no remembrances of its earliest years, and but little of the successive stages through which it has passed before " easting off the swaddling clothes of ignorance and barbarism," if it has even yet done so. How could it lie otherwise, when late dis- coveries have proved that man inhabited Europe before the occurrence of many of those great physical changes which have given the Continent its present aspect? And as the same evidence demonstrates that man was the contemporary of animals which are now extinct, it is not too much to assume that his existence dates back at least as far as, or even before, the epoch of the Drift. The invention of writing gave durability to the record of impressions ; that which was hitherto the sole possession of the brain of a single individual, could not only be imparted to the whole human race, but could be stereotyped for ever ; or, as Carlyle tersely puts it, " in books lies the soul of the whole past time : the articulate audible voice of the past, when the body and material substance of it has altogether vanished like a dream. . . . All that mankind has done, thought, gained, or been, is lying, as in magic preservation, in the pages of books." The first attempts at writing, amongst all nations, and in all ages, are of the ideographic or pictorial type ; this primitive system became phonetic, then syllabic, and finally alphabetical. Even tho characters which we use now-a-days when writing are easily discerned to be of pictorial origin ; and the designation by which we describe the complete collection of characters is composed by K 130 MAN AS A UTHOR, ARTIST, SCULPTOR. the words Aleph and Beth, the former had originally the form of an ox's head, the latter that of a tent. In early days, all arts, and in later times that of writing, were surrounded with mystery by their professors, were pro- secuted amid conjurations and supposed magic, and looked on with awe by the superstitious mass of the people, even as, in the present day, information reduced to writing is regarded by uncultured savages, who cannot comprehend that what has been spoken may be transmitted, retained, and repeated, again and again, for an indefinite period. Ogham, the earliest written character known to have been used in Ireland, is certainly not pictorial. It must candidly be admitted that the Ogham alphabet strikes the unbiassed observer as a rearrangement and adaption of an older type of alphabet divided into groups of vowels and consonants, each letter consist- ing of a line, or lines, variously placed, with regard to a single stem line, or the edge of the substance on which it is cut. Ogham inscriptions generally begin at the bottom of the stone on which they are incised, and read from left to right Looking at an upright Ogham inscribed monument, one will, in general, observe groups of incised strokes, which naturally divide them- selves into four different groups : — 1. Groups of lines to the left of the edge or stern line. 2. Groups of lines to the right of the edge or stem line. 3. Groups of lines of longer strokes than in groups (i) and (ii) crossing the edge or stem line obliquely. 4. Groups of short strokes or notches upon the edge or stem line. The characters comprised in — 1. Stand for the letters B, L, F, S, X, according as they number. 1, 2, 3, 4 or 6 strokes. 2. Stand for E, J), T, C, Q or CU, according as they number 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 strokes. 3. Stand for $f, G, XG, ST, ZR, according as they number 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 strokes. 4. Stand for the vowels A, 0, V, E, I, according as they number 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 notches. Besides these twenty characters, there are a few used .to denote diphthongs, and rarely employed, as also signs for the letters P, X, and 1'. Whether before the introduction of Christianity the Irish possessed an alphabet, differing thus from that in use in Europe, is a question which has been debated with acrimony by students of Irish Archaeology, for with this early knowledge, or want of knowledge, of letters, is involved, to a great degree, the genuine- OGHAM WRITING. 131 ness or untrustworthiness of ancient Irish history. Those who maintain that the Irish were in ante-Christian times really in possession of such a unique alphabet appeal to the authority of Irish MSS. which state that this alphabet was introduced into the kingdom some thirteen centuries before the birth of Christ. They also refer to the MS. Irish Romances, which contain allusions to Ogham, described in them as employed either for the purpose of conveying intelligence, or for sepulchral inscriptions ;* they point to existing monuments presenting Ogham characters, and assert that they belong to a very remote and Pagan period. On the other hand those Irish archaeologists who dissent from all this, allege that the accounts of the invention and introduction of Ogham into Ireland bear the most transparent marks of badly invented fiction, and contend that its very systematic arrangement demonstrates that its inventors possessed advanced grammatical knowledge, and were evidently acquainted with alphabets of the ordinary kind from which they drew the idea of the Ogham alphabet. With regard to the testimony of the Irish romances, they deny their antiquity, and assert that a very considerable number of still existing Ogham monuments indubi- tably belong — judging by internal evidences and the emblems and inscriptions which they bear — to Christian times. In late Irish MSS., accounts of the erection of Ogham- inscribed stones over the bodies of the dead are by no means uncommon. In one of the MSS. it is recounted that on the arrival of St. Mochaomhog in Ireland, the children of Lir, who, centuries before, had been metamorphosed into swans, were disenchanted, and when dying, were baptised by the Saint. "Their tombstone was raised over their tomb, and their Ogham names were written, their lamentation rites were performed, and Heaven was obtained for their souls through the prayers of Si. Mochaomhog." The Saint was, however, not always so 'prayerfully inclined. He " cursed fervently " the King, who had tried to take possession of " The Sons of Lir," and " he bestowed *■ For instance, on one decision, the mythical hero < 'iirhullin ;('oolin;, when traversing a forest, saw an inscribed pillar-stone, and hung round it a verse in Ogham character carved by him upon a withe. The same hero is elsewhere rcpresented as sending information to Maeve, Queen of Cunuaught, by means of cutting or scribing on wands. The son of a Scottish chief is described as cutting Ogham characters on the handle of a spear. In a.u. -1 OS, Core, son of the King of Minister, was driven by his father into exile. He- fled to the court of a Scottish chief, hut before appearing in the king's presence, an Ogham inscription on his shield was discovered, and deciphered by a friend, who thus saved the prince's life ; the inscription being to the effect that, should lie arrive at the Scottish court by iiay. his head was to be cut oil' before evening; and if by night, it was to he cut off before morning. 132 MAN AS AUTHOR, ARTIST, SCULPTOR. reproaches and maledictions" on him, whilst "shortness of life and Hell " were the portion he allotted to the King's wife. Needless to say both the excommunicated died shortly after. Ogham-writing has been found principally in the form of .tomb-inscriptions, and does not seem capable of being adapted to chronicle elaborate and detailed histories, or long flowing poetic compositions. Despite the tract in the Book of Ballymote, well- known to antiquaries, elucidatory of the Ogham alphabet, early essayists, in attempting to read these inscriptions could make no progress. The ordinary modern method of deciphering, which assumes that the letters to be unravelled, are divided into words, is inapplicable to the Ogham character, which is written continu- ously, like uncial characters, beginning, as already stated, in general from the bottom, and is read upwards from left to right. Yet a key was discovered, for, in course of investigation, the strokes of a group which occurred in almost every inscription were identi- fied as reading Maqi, the ancient genitive form of Mac, a son. This conclusion was afterwards corroborated from a source not then known to be in existence, the monumental stones of Wales, inscribed in Eoman characters, with corresponding Oghams. In Irish Ogham inscriptions there is, in general, only the dry formula, " the son of " ; the first name being usually in the genitive, the word "stone" understood. The brevity of these mortuary notices is well illustrated by the account of the death and burial of a celebrated warrior alleged to have been slain about a.d. 300, which concludes thus : — "There is a pillar-stone on the earn and an Ogham is inscribed on the end of the pillar-stone which is in the earth, and what is on it is, F.ochaid Airgtlwch. here" Though more or less distributed over the kingdom, the greater number of inscriptions, as yet discovered, have been found in the south, principally in the counties of Kerry and Cork ; the stones appear to be, for the most part, sepulchral, or commemorative ; yet, though several proper names occurring on Ogham monuments are to be met in the Irish Annals, it is doubtful whether many have been so identified as to give the exact date of the period in which the individual lived whose memory it was intended thus to perpetuate. The absorbing interest which Ogham inscriptions at one time excited is now on the decline. At first it was thought that the method of writing which they displayed was of great antiquity. Indeed some believed there were present in these inscriptions traces of a very primitive form of Celtic, but the tendency of recent research has been to bring their date down to more recent years, whilst the growing belief that they are often designedly obscure, or cryptic, has latterly discouraged inquiry. It is obvious that or; //a.u w'R/T/Ni;. \m if purposes of secrecy were desired, this cipher might be made more abstruse by varying the number of strokes, as by commencing with two or more at the commencement of each series or groups (see p. 130). A great number of cryptic specimens of this class are given in the tract on Ogham, in the lUml; ,,f Hulhimnte, but they are all resolvable into the original key cipher, in which each set of five commences with a single stroke. At the end of the tract on Ogham before mentioned, then' are about eighty different forms of the alphabet, exhibiting thus the various modifications to which it had been subjected. It is useless to assert that Irish grammarians, who used and wrote about Ogham, were unacquainted with Scandinavian or Anglo-Saxon runes; for amongst these Ogam alphabets are two Runic alphabets, one styled " The Ogham of the men of Lochan," the other " The Ogham of the foreigners." Thus Ogham was framed by persons acquainted with the later and developed Runic alphabet. A few antiquaries were embued with a violent prejudice against the genuineness of Ogham texts, engendered by the fanciful and absurd speculations which passed muster as antiquarian learning. Petric would probably have been glad to have recalled his challenge to the M mister archaeologists to prove that the Ardmore inscription was alphabetic writing of any kind, whilst O'Donovan bore candid testimony to the authenticity of some inscriptions which he had previously impugned. Many Ogham-inscribed monumental stones are, in general, of a material foreign to the district in which they have been discovered, and are usually formed of sandstone ; this occurring so frequently would tend to show that a block of sandstone was sought elsewhere and brought to the required place, as being deemed more convenient for working upon. The old sculptors and architects appear to have possessed some knowledge of the chemical constituents of the materials with which they worked, for cashels and the sustaining walls of passages and chambers — whether in tumuli, cams, or soutcrrains — may be formed of limestone, or of the nearest description of stone available, hut when the wish was to decorate a flagstone, careful selection was made not only of a durable, but also of an easily-worked material. The stones upon which Ogham inscriptions have been found embedded in the walls of churches demonstrate that they were merely utilised as building material, for some of them were placed in positions which prevented their inscriptions being read, and other stones were hammer-dressed on the angles, portions of the inscriptions having been knocked off in order to produce an angle suitable for the new purpose to which it was devoted. Thus it is alleged that at a period when knowledge of Ogham had been lost, or when the memorials had ceased to command 134 MAN AS AUTHOR, ARTIST, SCULPTOR. the veneration of succeeding generations, these monuments were sometimes appropriated by Christians. A cross is reputed to have been carved on the uninscribed end of one stone, which had been originally fastened in the earth, and the stone was then turned upside down, the original top with its Ogham inscription being buried in the ground. A writer holding other views, alleges that he found a cross-inscribed monument, and into the sacred symbol some of the Ogham scores had been sunk, thus demonstrating that the latter had been cut subsequent to the sculpturing of the cross. If the question be asked why these monuments do not all bear the sign of the cross, supposing that they all belong to Christian times, the suggestion may be hazarded that, in early times, such may not have been the custom, whilst it is. quite possible, even very probable, that some of them may be the monu- ments of Pagans, as Paganism survived in Ireland for centuries after the advent of St. Patrick. Of the many Ogham-inscribed stones which have been dis- covered in the souterrains of raths, few bear the sacred symbol of the Christian faith. These stones were merely used as materials by the rath-builders, as were their companions by church-builders, perhaps so late as the tenth or eleventh century — and were drawn from more ancient monuments, probably from old disused graves or graveyards, and utilised by architects who felt no reverence for such memorials. There is also a class of irregular rock-scorings, some of which, as at Loughcrew, Dowth, Carrowmore, and New Grange, may be genuine Ogham, although roughly and irregularly executed, whilst others are of a character which precludes their classification under this heading. Oghamic scribings have been found on bone-pins and other ornaments from the lake-dwellings of Ballinderrv and Strokes- town ; the scorings seem to resemble runic characters, but it could not be authoritatively decided that they were actually runes ; and no archaeologist has been able, as yet, to interpret the seemingly well-marked scorings. A stone axe, on which is incised an Ogham inscription, was also discovered in another locality. Vallancey makes mention of a silver brooch, bearing on it an inscription in Ogham character, discovered in the year 1806, by a peasant turning up the ground on the hill of Ballyspellan, in the barony of Galmoy, county Kilkenny. The front of the brooch is ornamented by a device of entwined serpents; the back presents four lines in Ogham character ; all the words, with one exception, are proper names ; the brooch is identified as belonging to the latter part of the eleventh or commencement of the twelfth century. In the present state of knowledge on the subject, it is rash to WRITING OX HOOD. l»r, hazard an opinion as to the age in which Irish Ogham mortuary inscriptions were incised ; it may, however, be suggested that the period of their employment extends from probably the fifth century a.d., to the eighth century, and likely much later; for Romano-British Ogham bilingual inscriptions appear, judging by the Latin lettering, to date certainly not earlier than from a.d. 400 to 500. Even in modern days, we find that savage peoples use a character which conveys the meaning intended, although it can- not be called writing. A friend of the writer's, when on the Geological Survey of Western Australia, about the year 1880, had a message conveyed several hundred miles, from the interior to the coast, by means of various shaped notches and other devices cut on a stick by a native. These Australian message or "talking sticks" are very curious, for they belong to a people devoid of what we look upon as alphabetical knowledge, and yet the notches, lines, and devices are interpreted by the recipient in the sense intended by the sender. In any ease, even to the initi- ated, it must have been a task of no small difficulty to read them ; to commence with, the deciphering was probably accompanied with an oral explanation as to what special fact or record was referred to, and what the different symbols represented, and, unless thus explained, could not be read by the uninitiated. This given, the rest must have been comparatively easy. One rudimentary Australian letter, described in the Siilnrilin/ llcricir, consisted of a piece of wood, five inches long by one broad, painted red with blood and ochre, with a neck round which a string was fastened. At the very head is incised what resembles a capital T ; beneath this is a symbol like a large figure seven, with a crescent moon on each side, and below there is a broad arrow. On the left-hand side beneath is a row of figures of seven. On the back are many slanting notches, two straight lines, and the field below is filled with a herring-bone pattern. This piece of wood is a message-stick of the AYootka tribe, who live in the northern territory of South Australia, and was carried by one of the tribe on a commercial mission to a distant tribe called Nootkas. The meaning of the hieroglyphics is as follows :— The markings on the back are the messenger's cre- dentials, /./'. the tribal totems ; for if he bore a stick whose meaning he could not interpret, he would lie speared by the tribe to whom he went. Beside the heraldic marks on the back are two straight lines which denote that the messenger is carrying two long and heavy spears as objects of barter. The figure seven stands for a fighting weapon, a kind of wooden axe. The crescents denote war boomerangs ; the T and the broad 136 MAN A S A UTHOR, ARTIST, SCULPTOR. arrow mean that the messenger is to stop at the station of a squatter who uses this mark as a brand for his stock, where he is to leave the heavy boomerangs and spears. The crowd of sevens means that he is to get as many wooden axes from the other tribe as he can. Triangular marks represent the number of days during which he may be absent. Thus, the whole message on the stick reads : — " The Woofcka tribe to the Nootka tribe. The bearer carries boomerangs and spears. These he is to barter with the Nootkas for wooden axes. His leave of absence is for a week. He is to find the Nootkas near Thomp- son's station." The following elucidatory anecdote was forwarded by a cor- respondent interested in the subject. He states that, so late as the year 1860, a gentleman living near Canterbury had an illiterate bailiff, who kept the general as well as the harvest accounts of a farm, consisting of about 250 acres, by means of squared hazel wands, about four feet in length, on which he cut notches and other devices. At the end of harvest he gave an account to his master of the number and size of the loads on carts which left the fields, the money which was drawn and paid from time to time, together with the balance remaining due. An incident during the hop-picking season in the south of England, in the middle of the century, shows to what a late date tallies were employed. A farmer is described as " girdled with long bits of narrow wood, like so many skewers : he was stop- ping before one group after another, and cutting notches on these tallies, and corresponding ones on that each hop-picker presented to him." The notches on the tallies were by way of a memorandum of the number of baskets filled by each individual. Among the Fijians, men sent with messages used certain mnemonic aids; and the New Zealanders conveyed information to distant tribes, during times of war, by marks on gourds. Amongst savages, twigs bent or broken on trees, or bushes beside the path, or broken off and left in certain conventional positions on or beside the track, convey messages and warnings easily interpreted by others following those who left these symbols, placed so as to impart information, as to the direction to be followed, contin- gencies to be expected, dangers to be guarded against, the numbers of friends or of enemies, or other incidents and intelli- gence. Is not this the genesis of writing ? In the present day we can hardly realize the condition of the many past generations who obtained any information or educa- tion they possessed without the aid of books, by mere oral instruction and traditional stories, through the medium of a tongue, if not now extinct, yet in a moribund condition, and TJIJi GAELIC LANGUAGE. 137 which possesses very little, either ancient or modern, published literature in the ordinary acceptance of the term — " 'Tis fading, oh, 'tis fading, like the leaves upon tlie trees, In murmuring tone 'tis dying, like the wail upon the breeze, 'Tis swiftly disappearing, as footprints on the shore, Where the Harrow, and the Erne, and Loch Swilly's waters roar - , Whore the parting sunheam kisses Loch Corrib in'the 'West, And Oi-ean, like a mother, clasps the Shannon to her breast." Spasmodic efforts have been made to arrest its decline, and its study has been introduced by the Intermediate Education Commissioners into their examinations, a mere waste of time for ordinary schoolboys, for it maybe asked whether Irish is exten- sively used, or whether its literature has any real value in the current of every-day life. The most ardent enthusiast for the study of the Irish language can hardly maintain that it is spoken by a large or important section of the population, but the question of its literature stands on a different footing. The language of Athens or of Rome may be well worth attention long alter it has ceased to be spoken ; but in the ease of Irish literature a distinction must be drawn between the Latin MSS. produced in the Irish monasteries which spread the fame of their scribes over Europe, and Gaelic MSS. of a later date. There are, no doubt, old writings, i.e. occasional meagre insertions of the Gaelic language, short treatises introduced into Latin MSS., as well as inscriptions in Ogham character. These however, cannot be classed under the head of literature. Putting on one side early Latin MSS., religious treatises and Ogham inscriptions, it is difficult to discover an Irish MS. (those at present translated are, it is to be presumed, done into English as being samples) that, to the ordinary nineteenth-century render, does not appear extremely childish. Irish literature is mere protoplasm. If it had a history, its record would show an arrested development. Under favourable circumstances it might have become vertebrate, or at any rate more life-like, but various causes appear to have worked in unison in opposition to its growth ; and in regard to Irish poetry, it is related to literature, properly so called, as a nebula is to a star. The most that can be said in its praise is that it is a rudimentary effort towards a maturity never attained. Far the most valuable part of Irish literature is that portion that throws light upon the earlier history of the country, and to extract the true from the false is a complicated and difficult task ; but the race of Irish scholars, who alone can deal with these questions, is not likely to become extinct, even should the language cease to be spoken. With respect to this study of early Irish history, as extracted 138 MAN AS AUTHOR, A RUST, SCULPTOR. from the annalists and biographers, what is most required is, an increased application of the critical spirit. Dr. J. K. Ingfam remarks that :— " We have often in the past too readily assumed the truth of any statement found (as the phrase is) in one of our old books "without examining the trustworthiness and the- sources of knowledge of each authority. To take an example, in O'Curry 's Manners ami Customs of the Ancient Irish, there is abundant learn- ing, a wealth of quotation from the Chronicles, but in criticism it falls, I think, far short of the works of the recent Scottish historians. Criticism, I am aware, is not popular." Yet old books, sacred books, even the Bible itself, have had to submit to the searching analysis of modern criticism, with the result that, with regard to the latter, advanced and liberal-minded German theologians have, in the New Testament, resigned belief in miracles ; whilst in the Old Testament, they have given up the authenticity and authority of most of the Pentateuch. With the yielding of all this, there is little for modern criticism to attack. Even the more " orthodox " English school do not hold that the destruction of the swine was " a miracle," look on Genesis as a composite work, and do not treat the earlier part as strict history. When their characters are subjected to analysis, the heroes and heroines of . the earliest Irish traditions are certainly not Christian, whilst in the prevalent narratives, the varnish of Christianity is but thinly applied. Most of the tales, at least those that have been at present translated, are but clumsily patched together, so that the junction of the Pagan and Christian portions is quite apparent. Take, for example, the legend of the formation of the present Lough Neagh. The scene is laid in the first century of the Christian era : consequently before the intro- duction of Christianity into Ireland. In the King's palace, which stood in the centre of the plain now occupied by the lake, was an enchanted well (its origin was, to say the least, very peculiar) ; when not in use it was kept covered, as, owing to its magical properties, it would otherwise burst forth in a raging flood. Through neglect of the "person in charge," it was left one morning uncovered; it overflowed, and all the members of the King's household, with the exception of three, were drowned, and the present sheet of water was formed. One of the persons thus preserved was a woman styled Liban, who, together with her lap-dog, was, by magic, permitted to live in safety beneath the waters. Liban soon became tired of her inactive life, and beholding with envy the lively tenants of the lake dart- ing about and around her, expressed the wish of being changed into a salmon. Instantly, with the exception of her head, she was thus transformed, whilst her lap-dog became an otter, and IRISH MYTHS. \m in this manner she continued to roam for the space of three hundred years, until — and here the Christianising of the old story visibly appears — she is caught in the net of an Irish saint, is brought ashore, resumes her human form, sings her story in melancholy verse, receives the rites of the Church, dies immedi- ately, and is buried in all the odour of sanctity. A result similar to the overflowing of Lough Neagh, from neglecting or disobeying the forms prescribed when procuring a supernatural supply of water, occurs when what may be termed the "rush enchantment" is practised. It is as follows: — In certain localities (needless to say, on low-lying ground) there grow magical tufts of rushes. If the postulant finds one of these tufts, and pulls up a rush, a most refreshing supply of water will exude from the cavity thus occasioned in the soil. He may now allay his thirst, but the rush must be replanted when he has finished, or otherwise subterranean waters will pour with ungovernable fury from the orifice whence the water has been drawn, and overwhelm, not only the delinquent, but also the entire neigbourhood. This incident occurs in numerous Irish tales, the scenes of which are laid in various parts of the king- dom. There appears to be very little originality in Irish myths. Some legends of the saints were moulded on the Old Testament model. For instance, St. Fallen, pursued by Pagan enemies, arrived at the edge of a lake which barred bis further progress. He struck the water with his crozier, when it divided, ottering him a means of escape. On arriving at the further side of the lake, he turned and struck the dried ground, when it instantly became covered with water as before, drowning his pursuers who were half way across. Robert Atkinson, LL.D., remarks that there are not wanting hints that the early clerics pruned, with no sparing hand, the tales that formed the amusement of the people, and which must have been handed down from ancient times. Nothing can be more significant than the circumstances of the early history of the once famous tale of the Tain Bo Cualnge. " About the year 600, the poet Senchan assembled the poets of Ireland to ascertain if any of these remembered the whole of the story, but received as answer that they only knew fragments of it. He then asked his pupils which of them would take his blessing and go into the country of Letha, to learn the Tain, which a certain S,Kti had taken to the east after the (book called) ( 'iiilmeini had been carried away. Now Letha was the ancient name for that part of Italy in which Rome is situated ; so that there can be- little doubt what had become of the tale. But a yet more si'mificant element is introduced ; for according to one account. 140 MAN AS AUTHOR, ARTIST, SCULPTOR. the story was recovered by the intervention of St. Ciaran and the Saints of Ireland, who fasted and prayed at the grave of the famous legendary chief Fergus mac Eoig, in order that God might send them that chieftain to relate to them the history of the Tain. The relation of the poets to the clergy is here set forth in hardly mistakable terms ; the latter were willing that the poets should again resume their functions as narrators of the old stories, after these had been sufficiently purged of offence by their journey to Kome, and the long forgetfulness that had so overtaken them." The Christianising of Pagan legend is almost everywhere apparent. For instance, on the alleged landing of the Milesians only some 1300 years B.C., they were met by Bamba, one of the numerous queens of Ireland, accompanied by her female attend- ants and by Druids. She appears to have been "interviewed" by an invader, who questioned her regarding her family and relations, somewhat in the style of a modern newspaper reporter seeking for " copy." " I am come," said she, in reply to his inquiry, " of the sons of Adam." " Which, of the sons of Noah are you descended from ? " inquired the invader, who although a Gentile, must have been well acquainted with Jewish genea- logies. " I am older than Noah," replied Bamba, " and I have resided on this mountain since the Deluge." The idea of Rider Haggard's Queen She was thus .forestalled by the monastic historian. St. Patrick is dragged into the legend of Cuchullin (Coolin), Ossian into that of St. Patrick. The latter tale is a good specimen of a connecting link between Pagan and Christian thought. It is recounted that Ossian survived the famous battle of Gabhra,* in which all his comrades perished, and was conveyed to the Elysium of the Pagan Irish, whence, after a long lapse of years, and many urgent entreaties to the then ruling powers, he was permitted to visit once again the scenes of his youth and manhood. lie was given a magnificent white steed on which to return, but was warned that if he allowed his own feet to touch the earth, he would never re-enter Tirnanoge. On arrival in Erin, Ossian found that Finn MacCool and his warriors were but dimly remembered ; his fortress was a mere mound overgrown with weeds and bushwood ; moss and lichens * Moore, in his History of Ireland, remarks with great candour that — "The fame of this fatal battle of Gahhra, and the bravo warriors who fell in it, continued long to be a favourite tlierae of the Irish bards and romancers, and upon no other foundation than the old songs respeeting the heroes of this combat, mixed up with others relating to chieftains of a still more ancient date, has been raised that splendid fabric of imposture, which under the assumed name of Ossian, has, for so long a period, dazzled and deceived the world." THE CHRISTIAN JSJNG OF PAG AX LEGEND. 141 covered the huge casting stones of the Fern ; prayers ami hymns were sung where, in his days, bards recited the prowess of warriors, and the sickle was in men's hands instead of spear and buckler. As with sorrowful heart he rode up his native valley, a crowd of men striving to raise a huge stone, asked his assistance. Stooping from the horse he, unaided, heaved the mass into position, but the exertion caused him to overbalance himself, the magic steed rlew neighing away, and the last of the race of heroes lay on the hillside, a white-haired blind old man, weighed down by the infirmities of upwards of two centuries. Shortly after this as he was reciting a poem, in which he extolled the greatness and strength of his contemporaries and forefathers, the profuse feasts of their hunting days, when they cut up their quarry and baked it with heated stones in the huge cooking places on the wild moors or mountain sides, and ■ described _ the tall gigantic deer hunted by them, his listeners laughed incredulously. The old man rose in anger, and going to a neighbouring heap, where were piled the reiics of bygone hunts, he selected therefrom a Shank-bone, and returning to the banquet took from the table one of the shank-bones of the deer on which the guests were then feasting and dropped it through the hollow of the deer bone he had brought in. This happened at the period of St. Patrick's arrival in Ireland, and meeting Ossian in his missionary tour, the saint, actuated bv feelings of compassion, took him under his protection. St. Patrick made many attempts to convert him to Christianity, the conferences generally ending with Ossian's lament for his lost comrades. The saint, pitying the misery of the brave old man, would introduce some remark on past events which drew from the bard a narrative of a battle, a hunt, or some enchantment worked on the Feni by magicians, which as usual terminated in a fresh lament over his desolate state and the half forgotten deeds of his companions. The old warrior did not also relish the fasting fare, the rigorous austerity of the saint and of his household ; he was angry at being aroused at night by the clanging of the bells and at daylight by the chanting of matins, preferring the melody of the birds and the music of the hounds to these innovations. Men, animals, plants and fruit were of larger proportions in the days when Ossian was in his prime, than were the degenerated specimens which existed on his return to Erin. A free translation of the Irish proverbial saying on this subject, formerly often quoted by the country people, is as follows:-- •' Smaller each scucucding race and more to falsehood prone, And wetic eaeli season, while later its fruits are ^rown." 142 MAN AS AUTHOR, ARTIST, SCULPTOR. It is therefore not surprising that the meal of an ordinary man should appear a mere trifle to the old warrior-bard, and St. Patrick's kitchen resounded daily with the angry quarrels of Ossian and the saint's housekeeper, who being of a niggardly disposition, doled out for each meal no more than whetted the appetite of the blind man. One day the fight terminated by the scolding housekeeper declaring that what she had given ought to be more than enough even for Ossian's enormous appetite. Her voice was drowned in the wrathful roar of the enraged old warrior, as he vociferated : "I often saw a berry of the mountain ash as large as your miserable pat (misyaun) of butter ; an ivy leaf as large as your barley cake ; and a quarter of a black-bird as large as your quarter of mutton." The retort of the virulently tongued housekeeper " you lie," sank deeply into Ossian's proud heart, but though he bore her affront in recollection, and had planned the vindication of his veracity, he henceforth, to the astonishment of the shrew, received his meals without a murmur, for adherence to truth was one of the most pleasing characteristics of the Feni. In another part of the legend, Ossian is represented as again very indignant with St. Patrick, for implying that he had coloured his narratives of other days with fiction. The old warrior-bard exclaims : — ' ' We, the Fians, would tell no lie, falsehood's cup is sour ; Truth and strength e'er brought us safe, In peril's darkest hour." The Feni are in Ireland " what the race who fought at Thebes and Troy were in Greece ; Sigurd and his companions in Scandinavia; Dietrich and his warriors in Germany ; Arthur and his Knights in Britain ; and Charlemagne and the Paladins in France ; that is, mythic heroes, conceived to have far exceeded in strength and prowess the puny beings who now occupy their place." Ossian possessed a favourite bitch with young at the time, and the blind bard instructed the intelligent boy selected by St. Patrick to be his guide and attendant — who was devotedly attached to his charge, and always listened with ecstasy to the tales of the prowess of the warriors of other days — to acquaint him as soon as the puppies were born. When informed, that there were ten, he told the boy to procure a freshly-skinned horse hide, nail it with the fleshy side out to a board on the side of the house, and then, facing the puppies towards it, throw them against the hide, one by one, and inform him of the result. A laugh from the lad attracted Ossian's attention, who inquired 'Jllli CHRJS1IAX1SJXG <)/< 1 J AGAX L/iGEXD. 143 the cause. The boy explained that the puppies had all fallen to the ground, except one, who clung tenaciously to the hide. Ossian told him to rear that one, and drown the other nine. One summer morning Ossian announced to the boy his inten- tion of going a journey, bringing with him the dog, which he had in the meantime carefully reared and trained. Arriving at the foot of Slievenamon, they turned eastward into the long winding valley of Glanasmole, and Ossian asked the lad whether he observed anything remarkable. The boy replied that he only saw a large tree bearing fruit, which, but for its enormous size, he thought might be berries of the quickbeam or mountain ash ; Ossian told him to pluck one of the berries. Turning towards the rocky side of the glen, the boy's attention was attracted by ivy growing on the cliff, the leaves of which were so large that their shadow overspread and darkened the glen ; one of these immense leaves was also gathered. They retraced their steps towards the mountain which they ascended, and proceeding to the rude stone monument which crowns its summit, Ossian told his young guide to lift the covering slab of the tomb. The boy essayed the task, but soon convinced of its impracticability declared that nothing less than the strength of a giant could raise so ponderous a stone. The old blind warrior lifting it with ease, exposed to view in the cavity beneath three instruments of war and of the chase, which had been in use in the days of his youth ; a great trumpet, a bronze ball employed as a missile, and a keen edged sword. These, by his direction, his guide took out and proceeded to clean. Ossian then told the lad to blow the trumpet, and asked whether anything strange was to be seen. The boy answered in the negative. Ossian ordered him to blow again and again, as loud as lie could, but nothing was observed. Ossian then seized the trumpet, and placing it to his lips blew a blast, the reverberations of which were heard far and wide ; he blew a blast still louder, and again a third even more loud and far-echoing. Soon a dense cloud overspread the horizon, and the sky was darkened by nights of birds which alighted in the valley. They came in three distinct flocks, the size of the birds increasing in each succeeding flight, the last consisting of enormous birds of the blackest plumage. Ossian then ordered the lad to unslip the dog, and send him down into the valley amongst the birds, where he was soon fiercely engaged in slaughtering them. At length, they were all killed except one jet black bird, larger than all the rest, which sat perched on a rock overhanging the valley. Ossian informed the youth that this bird was the object of their search, and the hound was soon engaged in a furious contest with it ; after a long and fearful stni^'le, the dog killed it and drank its blood. But the bird 144 MAN AS AUTHOR, ARTIST, SCULPTOR. before it died had infused a quantity of virus into the dog which rendered him suddenly mad, and he rushed back towards his master, with wide-opened mouth, exposing its bloody fangs, as it" he would devour him. The boy in hurried accents described the situation. " Courage," exclaimed Ossian, " the dog has tasted blood for the first time, cast the bronze ball into his gaping mouth ; be firm, for if you miss, he will destroy us." The youth lost courage and trembled, but Ossian snatched the imple- ment from his shaking hand and said, " direct my hand." Ossian, under this supervision, hurled the ball into the hound's gaping jaws, so that he was at once choked. After surveying with wonder the vale filled with the slaughtered birds, the lad was directed by Ossian to cut off one of the quarters of the enormous black bird with the sword, and they returned, in triumph, carrying with them also the mountain-ash berry and the ivy-leaf. Laying the three trophies on the kitchen table, Ossian called for St. Patrick and his housekeeper, narrated the whole affair, concluding with emphasis, " now do I lie ? " and forthwith proceeded to cuff the woman. The national saint interposed, soothed the acerbity of the old warrior's temper, expressed astonishment at his adventures, which afforded such unequivocal evidence of the strictness of his veracity, and gave orders that he was never, on any pretence, to be stinted in his .meals. In their more ancient MS. form these old tales and poems, so called, are so bald and disjointed, that the style, parodied in the inimitable scene between the irate Highlander, Hector M'Intire, and Oldbuck, the Antiquary, is not in the least over- drawn. A very much toned down, and very free translation of the commencement of the poem, which opens with a dialogue between Ossian and St. Patrick, ridiculed by Sir Walter Scott in his novel of The Antiquary, is as follows : — < IssIAN. "I care not for thee, senseless clerk, Nor all thy psalining throng ; Whose stupid souls, unwisely dark, Keject the light of song. " Unheeding while it pours the strain With Fenian glory swell'd ; Sueh as thy thought can scarce contain, Thine eye has ne'er beheld. " 1'atkick. " Son of Finn, the Fenii's lame, Thou gloriest to prolong ; While I my heav'nly King proclaim In psalm's diviner song." THE CHRISTIANISING OF PAGAN LEGEND. 145 OsslAN. " Dost thou insult me to my face? Does thy presumption dare With the bright glories of my race, Thy wretched psalms compare?" In another of these unedii'ying discussions between the Holy man and the Poet, St. Patrick, to try and demonstrate the all-prevailing power of the Almighty, declared that a fly could not buzz in Heaven without God's knowledge. The old heathen, whom he was trying to convert, made a good point, when he retorted that at Finn's Camp, a thousand men might enter, eat, drink, and depart, without the Chief's knowledge. In popular, as well as in written tales, St. Patrick is also dragged into the legend of Cuchullin [Coolin] . Sometimes, though in rare instances, Druids appear on the scene, but how art: they depicted ? Not as dignified priests, the guardians of then existing religion and science, but such as they are afterwards described by their opponents, the Christian mission- aries, as mere jugglers. It seems to be now admitted that the Iron Age did not really commence in Ireland much before the introduction of Christianity, and yet these heroes of romance are represented as hewing at each other with swords of iron like the Vikings of later date. Another way, in which the more ancient texts have been tampered with, has been pointed out by the late J. O'Beirne Crow : — " There is nothing more painful to the Irish student, than to see the way in which our transcribers of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth century have corrupted our ancient tracts. When they met a difficult form or phrase their invari- able habit was to put it into another form somewhat resembling the original in sound, or to substitute what they thought a synonym, or to omit it altogether." The same Irish scholar was even of opinion that the idea of a military force, or Militia, having existed in ancient Erin, arose from a verbal change in the text, simply because the title, " Royal Champion of Erin," like " Royal poet of Erin," was, in later transcriptions of the older text, turned into " King of the Keni of Erin," and he adds, "that such a body, however, has never had a being in Erin, I hope to be able to show." The original and tense expressions of early Irish prose were no longer appreciated by the more modern school of writers. An elaborate description of the most trifling incidents, a piling together of superfluous adjectives, a constant repetition of stand- ing phrases became the fashion, in addition to which the copyist was often tempted by his own ideas as to the correctness L 146 MAN AS AUTHOR, ARTIST, SCULPTOR. of style, to venture on an even further expansion of the already unnecessarily loaded text. The real value of the tales and romances is best judged by the archaeologist, for the writers usually depicted the state of things as they existed in their own time, and not in the remoter period which they are supposed to describe. Such compositions shed tolerably true side-lights on ancient manners and customs, but to do this, the date of their last redaction must be approximately settled. When this has been done, it will be found that, although ancient, they are, for the true elucidation of pre-Christian times, of comparatively little importance. However poor the survivals as a whole, may appear to us, . we must nevertheless assume that what has been preserved belongs to the best productions of these early ages, that they were works on which the literary critics of the period, as well as subsequent generations, placed a high value. Taken as a whole, this class of literature may be compared to a stream, the. character of which varies in all the different stages of its progress, clear at the source, foul at the mouth ; to ascertain its real value, we must trace it back, through all its channels and feeders, to its birth. That a great number of Irish MSS. must have perished at an early period is evident from the frequent destruction by fire of the most celebrated monasteries. The very titles of the books so lost are often enumerated. In later times, in the dedication of his translation of the Annals of Clonmacnoise, Connell Mageoghegan describes the destruction of MSS. as then going on, and states that tailors were in the habit of cutting up, with their scissors, the leaves of books once held in great repute, and that they sliced them into long strips for measures. Myths, and tales invented to teach a moral, remain at the base of all thought and of all creeds, for legends endowed with apparent ever-enduring vitality, shadowy traditions of old- world life, echoes which vibrate in the folk-lore of every people, are embedded in scattered fragments in present-day faiths. In former times the peasantry, imbued with many apparently Eastern ideas, were confirmed fatalists ; what the gods or saints decreed could not, or should not, be altered. It was, to use an Eastern expression, " kismat," and ought not to be averted. Thus rain is sent down by permission of God, or of the saints, in proportion to the deserts of men ; therefore, it is sinful in the extreme to irrigate fields or water gardens, for if the powers above wished them to flourish they would send rain to moisten them. In illustration of this', a traditional story, which passed as gospel among the sages of national lore, is found with slight variations, in many districts of Ireland. MYTHS A.VD TALES. 147 A rich master baker, possessed of new-fangled ideas about insuring the growth of vegetables, contrary to the will of heaven, was engaged, on a hot summer's day, in watering them, when he was accosted by a stranger, who inquired what he was doing. The baker answered that he was watering plants suffering from long drought. The stranger replied that he should have left that work to God, who knew the time for water- ing better than man, and that if God had wished them to flourish He would have poured down rain upon them. The stranger then .suddenly vanished. The baker, who noticed something super- human in his visitor, felt the force of his observations, abandoned the watering, and, full of anxiety, returned to where he had left «i batch of bread baking under the charge of his men whom he found fast asleep. Opening the strongly-heated oven, he saw all the loaves shot out into luxuriant ears of green wheat. From this the baker inferred that the stranger was a heavenly messenger sent to reprove him for his impious act in producing artificial rain. This story was quoted by the peasantry as proof that man has no right to attempt to supply, by labour or any artificial means, what God, in His bounty, is wont to send in His good time. O'Donovan was of opinion that the story was not invented by any knave for the purpose of encouraging idleness, but that it originated in the idiosyncrasy of the people. There is considerable similarity between folk-lore current in the East and that still existing amongst a large portion of the population of Ireland, more especially in remote localities. The Celtic mind is essentially Eastern in character, and legends still current illustrate this. A few present a beautiful fancy ; for instance, we have the ancient Irish romance of " the Children of Lir " metamorphosed into swans ; and anyone acquainted with many of the large lakes of Ireland, more especially Lough Erne, cannot have failed to note the swans which at almost every season of the year are seen upon the bays and inlets. They <'ome and go scathless, for, in the minds of the Celtic peasantry, they represent the souls of holy women, victims of the fire and .sword of the Northmen who swept over Lough Erne again and again. This is a good example of a pagan legend being Christian- ised, not in oral tradition alone, but also in manuscript form, for the Irish delight to give a local colour and habitation to mythic and traditional characters as well as to incidents that take hold of the fancy, whether with regard to the exploits of the comparatively modern but ubiquitous Northmen, or to the actions of the far older mythological Druid-gods of theDedanann. "The Children of Lir " are, as a matter of course, freed from their enchantment by the intervention of a Christian bishop, are converted from paganism to Christianity, and, on their departure i.2 148 MAN AS AUTHOR, ARTIST, SCULPTOR. to realms above, sing their death-song, thus paraphrased by P. W. Joyce in Celtic Romances : — " Come, holy priest, with book and prayer ; Baptise and shrive us here : Haste, cleric, haste, for the hour has come, And death at last is near. " Dig our grave — a deep deep grave, Near the church we loved so well ; The little church where first we heard The voice of the Christian hell." In the armorial bearings of the Borough of Sligo, a hare is depicted as being held fast by an oyster. According to local tradition the hare trod accidentally on an open oyster, and the bivalve resenting this intrusion at once closed on the foot of poor puss. A Cork boatman recounted a similar anecdote of a rat going to feed on an oyster, whose shell lay invitingly open, at low water ; but the oyster, closing its shell, held him fast until he was drowned by the returning tide ; this tale agrees with one of La Fontaine's fables. The same incident, but in connexion with a fox, was narrated, some centuries ago, to one of the earliest western travellers, as being then current in India. Thus, a story may be traced from land to land, and from age to age ; and this agreement is very interesting, as tending to point out the common sources from which our traditions were derived. There is great similarity between the Persian story of Eustam and the Bardic tale of Conloch. An Irish chief with an un- pronounceable name, " A terrible man, with a terrible name, A name which you all know by sight very well, But which no one can spenk and no one can spell," and King Midas were both afflicted with animals' ears. The resemblance of the Irish to the classic story is too close to admit of being accidental. The Irish chief, desirous of concealing his deformity, caused every barber who dressed his hair to be put to death. It happened that once the lot fell on a young man, the only son of a poor widow, and the importunities* of the mother prevailed on the king to spare his life, on condition that he kept the Boyal secret. The necessity of secrecy so preyed upon the youth's mind that he sickened, and an eminent Druid told him that if he did not divulge the secret, he would never recover his health. The youth, thinking he could effect this without anyone being the wiser, dug a hole into the ground, into which he whispered the awful secret. The King's harper having broken MYTHS AND TALES. 149 his instrument, went in search of wood to mend it, and selected a willow which grew close to where the hairdresser had imparted liis secret to mother earth. The harp was repaired, but when strung could sound but one refrain, " The King has two horse's ears." A King of Macedon and a King of Erin effected the destruc- tion of their enemies by apparelling a number of young men to represent women. According to the Bardic tale, Turgesius, the great Norwegian conqueror of Ireland, had established himself on Lough Ree where he commanded the water-ways of Ireland. Here he fell in love with the beautiful daughter of Melaghlin, King of Westmeath, and demanded her from her father. Fearing to re- fuse, Melaghlin pretended to consent, but sent in his daughter's stead twelve beardless youths, dressed up as maidens, to personate his daughter and her attendants. After Tergesius and his boon companions had laid aside their arms and armour and had drank to excess, they were assassinated by the disguised young warriors. The Greek Thersites and Conan the Irish warrior were both bald, were great boasters, and great cowards. The following is the Homeric description of the scene between Ulysses and Thersites : — '* IVaeo, factious monster, born to vex the state, With wrangling talents form'd for foul debate ; Curb that impetuous tongue, nor rashly vain, And singly mad, asperse the sovereign reign. Have we not known thee, slave of all our host, The man that aets the least, upbraids the most." Compare the above with the poem of " The Chase," where Oscar thus addresses Conan : — " Cease thy vain babbling, senseless fool, Bald boaster, stain to arms, Still forward to promote misrule, But shrinks at war's alarms. " My son high raised his threatening blade, To give his fury sway, But the pale Conan shrunk dismayed, And sprang with fear away." According to P. W. Joyce, Conan is " the best-marked and best-sustained character of the Ossianic romances ; large-bodied, a great boaster, a great coward and a great glutton. He had a venomous tongue, and hardly ever spoke a good word of anyone, lie was the butt for the gibes and mockery of the Feni, but 150 MAN AS AUTHOR, ARTIST, SCULPTOR. they dreaded his foul tongue. The story-tellers never lose an opportunity of having a fling at Conan, and of turning him into- ridicule, for his cowardice, his big talk, and his gluttony." The Formorian giant Balor and Perseus, in some respects, resemble each other ; in both stories the precautions taken are almost identical, precautions that were defeated by supernatural means, and in both instances the decree of destiny is fulfilled by the murder of the grandfather, whilst the peculiar property of Balor's eye, has its parallel in classic myth. Probably the oldest written account of the superstition regarding the Evil Eye in Ireland, is that related of Balor. He became possessed of the power as a child, when one day, he happened to pass a sacred building in which Druids were busy brewing a magic decoction. Overcome with curiosity, he peeped in through a crevice to- observe what was going on. At that moment the "medicine men" lifted the lid of the caldron, and the vapour, which escaped, passed into one of Balor's eyes, carrying with it all the deadly venom of the brew. Balor thus could strike whole armies dead with the terrible power of his gaze. After the Pagan giant Balor, one of the few ancient instances of the fatal effects of the malific eye is narrated of a St. Silan, probably a " 'verted " Pagan who possessed the unenviable property of a poisonous hair in his eyebrow that killed whoever in the morning first looked on him. The sequel is thus told by Lady Wilde. " All persons, therefore, who, from long sickness, or sorrow, or the weariness that comes with years, were tired of life, used to try and come in the saint's way, that so their sufferings might be ended by a quick and easy death. But another saint, the holy Molaise, hearing that St. Silan was coming to visit his church, resolved that no more deaths should happen by means of the poisoned hair. So he arose early in the morning, before anyone was up, and went forth alone to meet St. Silan, and when he saw him coming along the path, he went boldly up, and plucked out the fatal hair from his eyebrow, but in doing so, he himself was struck by the venom, and immediately fell down dead.'' The infant Hercules when yet in his cradle strnngles a serpent ; the great Irish hero Cuchullin (Coolin) when a child strangles a huge watch-dog, the terror of the country side. The Greek Adonis and the brave and gay Dermod, are each killed by a boar. This last-mentioned legend was certainly the most popular and wide-spread tale current amongst the Irish-speaking population, and it is, of all the legends which have descended to our days, the one which has been least Christianised. The tale as recounted in the count}' Sligo, is given in chapter xiii. ENUMERATION OF WILD LEGENDS. 151 In the oldest bardic legends which have descended to our time, there are, here and there, glimpses of past phases of thought and character calculated to arrest attention. This literature comprises a number of prose tales of warlike adventures. Amongst them there is a class known by the designation of "Caves"; these are stories respecting various occurrences in souterrains or underground dwellings, such as the capture of a " cave " used as a place of refuge or habitation, or the narrative of some adventure in, or plunder of one of these artificial underground dwellings. There is the tale of the hiding of Dermod and Grania in a cave on the Hill of Howth ; the tale of the Cave of Croghan ; and the adventure of a chief named Cuglass who disappeared in the cave at Baltinglass since called after him. A list of these wild legends is given by O'Curry in his M.S'. Materials of Ancient Irisli Hixtnry, There are also accounts of maritime voyages and adventures, tragic occurrences, visions and dreams ; of these some have been translated in a most literal manner, whilst others have been paraphrased, so that an English reader can form an approximate idea of their merit. But, as a rule, the translations we at present possess are about the dreariest reading that can well be chosen ; as one turns page after page of slavishly literal rendering, absurdities and inanities jostle one another, so that we ought to feel a deep debt of gratitude to the few translators who have attempted the task of producing some kind of more polished version. The best essay, as yet, is probably Dr. Joyce's Celtic Romance* in which the original expressions are paraphrased, and no strictly literal rendering is placed before the reader. The paraphrase enables the modern reader to trace the ancient ideas and train of thought, better than he could with a more literal translation before him. " Even seven hundred and fifty years ago," writes the Rev. E. Hogan, s.j., in his translation of Cath Iiuis na B'uj for limnu, " such things were looked on as ' l'histoire veritable des temps fabuleux,' as the scribe of the Tain B6 Cuailnge in the ISnak of Leinster writes at fol. 104 b : ' A blessing on everyone who shall faithfully memorize the Tain in this form and shall not put it into any other form. But I, who have transcribed this history, or rather fable, do not believe some things in this history or fable. For some things in it are delusions of demons, some are poetic figments, some seem true (similia), and some not ; some are written to amuse fools.' " As to the merit of these stories, the most opposite opinions havo been expressed. " Some have represented them as devoid of all value or interest," remarks Dr. J. K. Ingram," others have spoken of them as a literature of the first order, and have almost implied that the Irish intellect of the present day would find its 152 MAN AS AUTHOR, ARTIST, SCULPTOR. best possible culture in their study. The truth, as usual, lies between these extreme views. We possess, in Irish, no work of genius comparable to the Nibelungen Lied, or the Song of Eoland. To speak of the Tain-Bo-Cuailnge as a Gaelic Iliad seems, to say the least, an imprudent comparison. But without any great continuous composition there are in the remains which have come down to us, passages of much beauty and tenderness ; some of the tales are impressively and touchingly told, and there is one singular relic ' the Vision of MaeConglinne ' which is instinct with genuine humour of the Babelaisian type," but this tract is apparently of comparatively late date. There is also the humorous story of "The pursuit of the Gilla Dacker and his Horse," a narration of a practical joke played by an enchanter on sixteen of the most renowned of the Feni, whom he carried off on the back of an enormous horse, to " the Land of Promise." The story, in modern version, is shortly as follows : Finn MacCool was one day in camp at Knockainy in Limerick, most of his companions being away hunting, when a look-out apprised him of the advent of a huge unwieldy man, leading or rather dragging an immense skeleton-like horse after him. On emerging from his tent Finn beheld this extraordinary being approaching in a most lazy fashion, each step achieved as if by a painful effort. Finn demanded his name, his birthplace, and what he wanted. " Gilla Dacker (Slothful Fellow) is the name I am called. The spot I come from is not worthy of a place in your memory. No one will employ me, I am so lazy, and so I seek service with the hospitable chief of the Feni of Erin." Finn laughed, and told him that he might stay with his grooms. The giant thanked him, saying, " May the King of the North live in fear of you. Go my poor horse, and graze with the noble beasts on the meadow, the great Finn gives you permission." Finn had, however, scarcely entered his tent, when he heard such a squeal- ing and galloping from the pasture that he rushed out and beheld the bony steed of the lazy fellow, biting and kicking the other horses, and scattering them in all directions. " Dog of a slug- gard," shouted the irate Finn, " run to the pasture, "secure your cursed beast, and let me not set eyes on either of you again." "Chief of the warriors of Erin," replied the Sluggard, "the slowest of your men would be in Dublin before your servant could reach the meadow. But let Conau catch him by the mane and I will be warrant for his quietness." Conan seized the brute's mane, and the weird steed at once stood still as if changed into stone ; in vain did stick and leathern thong resound on his ribs; lie remained with set feet as if planted in the ground. At the suggestion of its owner Conan then jumped on its back and ENUMKRATIOX OF WILD LEGEXDS. 153 plied stick and thong afresh, but without avail. " Ah, where is my memory fled," said the Slothful One, "he will not move without feeling the weight of sixteen men such as Conan." Fifteen of Conan's companions clambered, one by one, on to the back of the ill-conditioned steed, who thereupon, at a touch of his master's magical rod, galloped away followed by his owner, but at such a pace as made pursuit vain. The men tried to throw themselves off, but failed, as they found that they were firmly fastened to the back of the magical horse. For the adventures of Finn and of his companions in the pursuit and recovery of their captive comrades there is not space. For the most part these tales bear internal evidence of their origin and composition belonging to no very remote period, and they have, in many instances, been interpolated or amended by modern transcribers. Whilst illustrating a very rude state of society, they often present interesting evidences of inventive power, and many of these humorous and lengthened composi- tions were recited from memory, and thus transmitted through many successive generations in the mountainous districts of Minister, in the plains of Leinster, in the glens of Ulster, or throughout the wilds of Connaught. According to modern criticism, these stories naturally divide themselves into two epochs, one comparatively ancient, the other modern. The older series is that of which Cuchullin is the centre, and is supposed, by some, to have first been reduced to writing in the ninth century, when monastic chroniclers converted mythical tradition into pseudo-history, and the after-descent of these stories belongs to written literature rather than to oral tradition. In fact, as already stated, each fresh transcriber adapted them to the times in which he wrote. The reader who is not acquainted with Irish may be warned parenthetically that Cuchullin is pronounced somewhat like Coolin, according to the orthographic fancy of Celtic ideas, which invariably supplies a superabundance of consonants. We should, however, remember that one of the greatest defects in the English language is its extraordinary spelling, but neverthe- less in this it is completely outdone by the Irish Gaelic, which, as pointed out by William Larminie in West Irish Folk Tales, " is troubled in an aggravated form with every evil that afflicts English. Different sounds are written in the same way. Identical sounds are written in different ways. Silent letters attain to a tropical forestine luxuriance, through which the tongue of the learner despairs of hewing a way. There are, moreover, cases in which there is no indication in writing of single sounds, and even syllables which are actually pro- nounced ; and there is at least one case of a word being written 154 MAN AS AUTHOR, ARTIST, SCULPTOR. as if it began with a vowel while it really begins with a consonant." Cuchullin combined in his person the bravery of Achilles with the beauty of Paris. Tighernach (Teernah) calls him " the bravest hero of all the Scots "; and Irish writers delight to dwell on his exploits. According to these chroniclers he had, however, three faults — he was too young, too bold, and too handsome. Eegarded from another standpoint Cuchullin is, to a certain extent, a mythical and mythological being, as the account of his life given in written records has apparently been remodelled on that of Christ. Cuchullin's age at death is thirty- three. He has an immortal father and a mortal mother of the royal line ; he is born in a district remote from Emania, the Irish Jerusalem ; when a child of ten he steals away from his mother with his little wooden shield and sword of lath to contend with the hero-youths of Emania, as the boy Jesus went into the Temple to argue with the Jewish Doctors ; in fact, his deeds, as a youth, are a mere adaptation of the recorded early life of Christ in the Apocryphal Gospels. He is brought up by Culand the artificer, as Christ is brought up by Joseph the carpenter ; he is employed defending the weak against aggression ; the last three years of his life are full of trouble and misery ; he dies, after being pierced by a dart, after taking a drink, exclaiming, " The Gods of Erin have deserted us," standing erect with his back to a pillar-stone to which he had tied himself : other coincidences might be given. The legends of the second epoch cluster around Finn Mac Cool, who is placed in the third century of the Christian era. It would appear as if most writers on the subject have accepted the date ; but there is nevertheless a pleasing divergence of opinion. Some hold that Finn was really a very ancient semi-mythical personage, dragged down, so to speak, by the monks to almost Christian times ; while some of the German school turn Finn into a ninth-century leader of the Irish against the Danes of Dublin, by whom he was slain. Even by the most pronounced champions of Irish legendary lore, popular stories, still recounted in the vernacular, are allowed to be provokingly incomplete. They are, in general, incoherent ; more like remembered fragments of ancient stories than a complete composition. In the written semi-historical tales and legends it is singular how comparatively rare are the references to the ancient gods of Erin, and although the early Fathers tell us less of heathendom than thoy knew, still it is difficult to understand how the clerical pruning knife was able, so scientifically, to cut off the principal characters from the scene, and leave it even readable ; yet. A RT OF EA RL Y MA X. 155 " however interesting to scholars in their original form," remarks Dr. Ingram, " I do not think these tales will ever win their way to general esteem among cultivated readers, except as trans- muted into shapes better adapted to our ideas, and with a certain breadth of modern thought and feelings subtly mingled with their substance." As a rule, the attempts at art of early man, especially in Ireland, were confined to rude linear decorative patterns, an exception being the extraordinary and lifelike representation of the cavemen of Gaul, who incised on bone delineations of men, animals, and fishes. A suspicion may be entertained that these articles are possibly modern forgeries. Why should such astonishing and faithful animal-designers be confined to one relatively small district? Nowhere else have traces of such skilled artists been unearthed. If these sketches be authentic, we are indebted to them for the oldest pictures in the world. What up to the present have been regarded, by us, as " old masters," are, indeed, superseded. The study of the nude, of " the altogether," is of primeval antiquity, for in these primitive studies in nature the human form is depicted perfectly naked, in company with the mastodon, a huge-winged reptile resembling the pterosaurian, the mylodon, reindeer, cave-bear, fox (or, per- haps, but very unlikely, dog), together with reptiles and fishes. The remaining period of the Stone Age shows no trace of pictorial designs. If further proof were required of the paucity of ancient figure drawing, it may be pointed out that in collect- ing specimens for exhibition illustrative of the immense period covered by the Stone Age, not more than sixty articles could be procured showing any germ of pictorial design. This is empha- sized by the fact that up to the middle, or even latter end of the Bronze Age, ornamentation was still linear in character. Perhaps, in the dim future, some Irish cave-explorer may bring to light an etching on bone, or stone, similar to those dis- covered on the Continent, but until that day arrives we must rest content with the singular fact that the sculptor's art, as applied to representations of the human or animal form, appears to have been rarely, if, indeed, ever, practised in Ireland prior to the introduction of Christianity. Even then the devices consisted almost entirely in ornamentation of an arabesque character, sometimes combined with gi'otesque animals and serpents ; if human figures were introduced, they were subsidiary to the scroll work in which they were entwined. From the tenacity with which the Pagan-Christian school of artists adhered to an almost stereotyped form of decoration, it is difficult to assign even an approximate date to many of the best specimens of 156 MAN A S A UTHOR, ARTIST, SCULPTOR. elaborately decorated remains. It maybe, however, fairly sur* mised that any object of Irish art upon which interlacing tracery is displayed should not be referred to a period antecedent to Christianity. Strange to say, interlaced serpents are among the principal subjects treated in this stage of Irish ornamentation, Ireland being itself serpen tless. As the writer has elsewhere observed, the style of ornamenta- tion of which traces have been left by the Pagan Irish on gold, bronze, stone, and earthenware has survived to our day. It is thought that it will eventually be proved that this, style is of such a nature as will establish the fact that the decoration was executed by one race and one school of craftsmen, and that it is identical with Continental prehistoric work. It eventuates that Irish Pagan art was of an exotic style, which, though developed in a more or less characteristic manner, was not an original or national style, any more than the interlaced ornamentation, which, introduced by the intrusion of Christianity from the Continent, was idealised and beautified, so that it is with diffi- culty many people can be persuaded that it is but an improvement ■on classic ideas of decoration. Give to a skilful modern sculptor the flint chisel and hammer stone of a prehistoric workman, and he would probably declare that it was impossible to do anything with such tools, and yet with similar implements the primitive workman wrought orna- mental and sometimes elaborate designs. In no field of investigation are there a greater number of enigmas than in the study of the origin of prehistoric designs, and to their solution the Irish antiquary has brought every literary quality to bear, in addition to a credulity capable of believing anything. When he shall have finally discarded fanciful theories, and brought to light all that can be discovered of the story of the human past, a clearer idea may be obtained of the purport of the designs found sculptured in comparative profusion on the interior of earns and on the face of natural rocks ; they represent the infancy of art, and present many attributes which form some of the most interesting traits of man's childhood, simplicity being their chief characteristic. We may readily expect a high degree of attention to be paid by savage man to the manufacture of his weapons, so as to render them the best that could be produced. To him they were the most valuable thing he possessed, as they not only afforded him security, but provided him with food. When superfluous labour, in the form of ornamentation, has been bestowed upon implements, which did not, in any way, increase their efficiency, a new and higher standard, the genesis of art, is reached, for ornamentation is not mere utilitarian labour, providing for an ART OJ< EARL Y MAN. \'>1 absolute requirement, but tbe origination of a new standard of value. To the savage, time was of no account. Sir John Evans describes how some members of Indian tribes on the Rio Negro spend years in perforating cylinders of rock-crystal by twirling a flexible leaf-shoot of wild plantain between' the hands, and thus grinding out the hole with the aid of sand and water. A pendant, formed of a natural quartz prism, clear as glass, through the amorphous end of which a hol6 had been pierced for suspension, was found by the writer in a primitive interment in a rude stone monument near the town of Sligo. Tbe hole in the pendant was, on both sides, considerably wider externally than in the centre, showing that it had been bored with rude appliances ; and as the remains with which the ornament was associated apparently belonged to the Neolithic Period, the time taken to pierce the quartz must have been immense. In estimating the antiquity of an object, or in dealing with the style of decoration, the past history of the country in which it is found, or with which it is connected, has to be taken into account. In Ireland powder-horns may be seen with designs which look as if they ought to belong to the eighth or ninth century. In Iceland many of the native art-products are in appearance of the twelfth century, yet date only from the seven- teenth or eighteenth century ; so we should be quite prepared to find primitive ornamentation lingering in Ireland long after it had been discarded elsewhere. Tbe patterns presented in Moko or Maori tattooing — a clever combination of scrolls, spirals, line-groupings, and curves — are similar to those displayed on walls of early Irish sepnlehral chambers, on natural rock surfaces, and on fictile ware. Thus, at the Antipodes, we have anthropophagous savages evolving a native form of art, resembling Irish pre-Christian effort, which has only to be recognised to be fully appreciated. The study of Maori art raises the problem by which we are confronted when studying early and medieval Irish Christian art— namely, how was it that both these peoples, each equally endowed with an exquisite taste for linear patterns and designs, could perpetrate the ghastly hideosities they produced when they attempted to picture the human form. By the designs in the tattooing on a Maori chief the initiated could tell his tribe and pedigree; yet there is, in a certain sense, no more resemblance between Maori ornamentation or Irish rock-scribings and the ancient inscrip- tions of Egypt and Assyria, than there is between the unintelli- gible scrawl" made by a child and the printed pages of a closely reasoned out book, except that in each instance there is a meaning intended to be conveyed. 158 MAN AS A Ul'HOR, ARTIST, SCULPTOR. Fig. 51. Head of a Maori Chief, showing tattooed patterns. Reproduced from Polynesian Researches, by William Ellis. Each great Maori chief had formerly imprinted on his face marks peculiar to his family and to his tribe. Those tattooed on the faces of his dependents, although simpler and fewer in number, were the same in form as those by which the chief was distinguished ; in fact, tattooing may be regarded as the armorial bearings of the ancient New Zealand aristocracy. Fig. 54 is a representation of the head of Houghli, a celebrated New Zealand warrior, who lived about the year 1830, and conveys an idea of the effect of this singular practice. The tattooing on the face of a New Zea- lander answered the purpose of the particular stripe or colour of the Highlander's plaid (some allege that the coloured plaid is but a modern innovation), and marked the class or tribe to which he belonged. It was considered highly ornamental, as well as useful, as the patterns thus permanently marked on the face were a means by which they were enabled, to distinguish their friends from then* enemies in battle. In Ireland many of the irregular scorings on the faces of cliffs or on detached boulders should be regarded with archaso- logical suspicion. For example, those on the pillar-stone at Kilnasaggart, county Armagh, though long held to be Oghamic, are now generally considered to have been worn by persons using the pillar-stone for the very prosaic purpose of sharpening knives, hatchets, or such-like implements. Scorings and scratches which appear on another large pillar-stone standing close to the railway station of Kesh, county Fermanagh, were caused in like manner, as well as very similar markings observable in numerous locali- ties. Killowen, county Cork, may be instanced, where they occur on a block significantly designated in Irish, " the (sharp- ening) Stone of the Weapons." There is an " inscribed cromlech," or sepulchral monument, in the townland of Scrahanard, on a hillside about three miles west of Macroom, county Cork. On the underside of the table- stone are a series of artificial marks, which must have been incised before the stone was placed in its present position, con- sisting of straight and oblique lines, numerous crosses (or, rather, lines intersecting at right angles), and other curious forms. But ROCK SCRIBIXGS. 159 they do not appear to have been designed to convey a meaning to be arrived at through the medium of phonetic exponents. There are incised scorings on the walls of a natural cavern known as " the Lettered Cave," on Knockmore Mountain, near the village of Derrygonnelly, county Fermanagh (see fig. 55), some of which resemble runes ; others seem to he cognate with the incised ornamentation on the stones of the great chambers at New Grange ; but mixed with the ancient are many modern markings, known to be the work of recent visitors to the cave, so that much caution is required to distinguish the genuine ancient carvings. These latter scribings were, as a whole, pronounced to be runes, evidently intended as writing, and could be read even now did we but know one or more of the then well-known formula. But until this key is discovered we shall be unable to decipher them, more especially as later hands have, as already noticed, added to the original designs knots and intertwined ornaments of very late Irish types, not to mention the very modern scribings. Fig. bo. " Scribbles, " or "Wild Runes," in the Lettered Cave at Knockmore, County Fermanagh. From the Journal of the present Society ot Antiquaries of Ireland. We can all call to mind Mr. Pickwick's great antiquarian discovery, as also the scene between Oldbuck the Antiquary and Edie Ot-hiltree the Bluegown, in Scott's novel, V'/ie Anti<[uary, in which a dispute arises relative to the Antiquary's discovery of a Roman entrenchment and a stone with the letters A.D.L.L. This the Antiquary interpreted, Agiucola Decavit Libens Ltjbens, and the Bluegown, Aiken Drum's Lang Ladle. The English and Scottish stories are, however, quite paral- leled by the controversy which arose relative to the discovery and meaning of an inscription carved on a slab of rock formerly situated on the summit of Tory Hill, near Mullinavat, and which Ti"he, in Statistical Obmrratiunx on the < 'i milt if Kilkenny, regards 160 MAN AS AUTHOR, ARTIST, SCULPTOR. as Phoenician, and reads it Beli Dinosb (see fig. 56). The archaeologists Vallency and Wood relied on this inscription as the sole basis of their theory respecting the Phoenician origin of the early colonisation of Ireland. Even Lanigan gravely cites this monument as one among many ancient remains in Ireland which serve to show that the god Bel was identical with the sun. fCU CIUO03 Fig. 56. Inscription as given by Tighe in " Statistical Observations on the Co. Kilkenny." The true origin of this monument and its inscription is as follows : — A millstone cutter went one morning to work at a millstone he was fashioning on the top of Tory Hill, but his fellow-labourers, without whose assistance he could not com- mence operations, did not join him. So, to wile away time, he amused himself by cutting his name (E. Conic) and the date (1731) on a stone on the summit of the hill (see fig. 57). Fig. 57. Inscription as originally cut by E. Conic in A.D. 1731. He was a very indifferent scholar, and reversed, as children constantly do, one of the letters, the last c of his surname. The stone was at this time lying flat on the surface of the ground, and remained so for many years after his death, until one day. when a number of young men repaired to the hill, and to amuse themselves competed as to who amongst them could jump the furthest. Finding this inscribed stone ready at hand to answer Fig. 5S. Same Inscription revr their purpose, they raised it on others to the height required for a " running leap," but placed it in such a position that the letters of the inscription appeared reversed (figs. 58. 59). After the contest ., ' ffifM V*-- ■'••'■3* '- v s bo "S2 1 < O 2 „ a 2 J •' s 5 3 162 MAN AS AUTHOR, ARTIST, SCULPTOR. they departed to their respective homes, leaving it in this position, little imagining that anyone would dream that they had erected an altar to a god. Shortly after this, however, some gentlemen happened to ascend the hill, and, observing the stone, were struck with the strange appearance of the letters. One of them, thinking that he had discovered an ancient inscription, made a sketch of the stone and the letters in their inverted position, and, having exhibited it to some Waterford archaeologists, created a celebrity for the locality which induced many to try and decipher the wonderful inscription. Mistakes like this are laughed at, but attempts at imposition cannot be too severely reprobated. Towards the close of last century a writer described a remarkable rude stone monument, situated on Callan Mountain, in Clare, bearing an Ogham inscrip- tion. The translation purported to set forth that the celebrated Conan was there buried. To sujjport this reading it is alleged that an Irish quatrain was forged and cited as part of an ancient poem, to the effect that the above-mentioned warrior had, before engaging in battle, prayed to the sun on this spot, that he was slain, and there interred under a flagstone, which bore his name carved in Ogham characters. The rock-markings in the passages and chambers of New Grange and Dowth, on the Eiver Boyne, present characteristics distinguishing them from the rock-markings of the north of England and Scotland, one of the chief of which is, that whilst the circular incised figures which form the bulk of the latter are concentric, with a central cup-like hollow, and a channel passing through the concentric circles, the carvings at New Grange and Dowth are, as a rule, spirals, without the central hollow or inter- secting channel, and are associated with fern-leaf patterns — this fern-leaf pattern is now thought to be doubtful, as there is no median line — and also with lozenge, zigzag, and chevron-like markings, which are analogous to the ornamentation of Irish fictile sepulchral vessels. Many of the markings of New Grange and Dowth were evidently carved before the stones were used for their present purpose. If we find carvings on a boulder — evi- dently placed in position by the hand of nature, and not by the hand of man — not in any way connected with Christian use, even should these carvings not be strictly analogous to those at New Grange and Dowth, still we have grounds to conclude that it is an example of an ancient custom which placed to the hand of the builders of these tumuli ready carved material. There are many such natural boulders, thus decorated by primitive man, scattered throughout the country. Several stud the surface of the green hills surrounding the Seven Churches of Clonmacnoise. Close to one boulder is a cam, called iu Irish, " the Monument of ROCK SCIifBIXGS. 16 the Dead." When a funeral approaches the famed burial ground of Clonmacnoise the coffin is laid down and stones thrown on the earn. It is stated that no Christian rite was ever performed at the boulder. On the contrary, the name by which it is known, " The Fairy's Stone," points to its Pagan origin. The most singular markings on this rock are representations apparently of the ancient Irish ring-brooch; some with a knob on top of the acus, as frequently occurs in extant specimens, others being flat at top, and seeming to represent the looping of the acus over the flat bar of a half-moon ring. The carvings appear to have been formed by a rude-pointed tool or pick, and are, on an average, about an inch deep. Other boulders occurring on the hill are studded over with cup-like hollows, evidently caused by the solvent property of rain-water, retained in certain natural irregularities, which were thereby deepened, and assumed the artificial aspect which they now present. There is an incised stone, near Cranna, county (ialway, called in Irish by the very peculiar designation, " The Stone of the Fruitful Fairy." It is a boulder of very irregular form, measuring forty-six inches by thirty-two inches, and presents, with other ornamentation, the water-worn hollows already described. About a quarter of a mile from Parsonstown, on the road to Dublin, there stood, many years ago, a globular-shaped limestone boulder, five or six feet in diameter, and inscribed with V-shaped marks, like the stone at Cranna, county Galway, and other places ; also various depressions or cavities, traditionally said to be tin 1 marks of Finn MaeCool's thumb and fingers. It was called in Irish, Finn's Seat. This stone has been removed from its ancient site. The giants, as noticed, left marks of their person, their lingers, and of their feet on rocks. The saints did the same. Two examples will suffice. In the townland of Bellanascaddan, in the county Donegal, there is a monolith on which are two cup-marks. To account for these the country people narrate that a giant, who lived in a neighbouring fort, used it as his " finger-stone," and that the cups on the stone are the marks of his fingers. Within the demesne of Sheestown, in Ossory, there exists a rock marked with peculiar indentations, which were believed by the people to have been traces or marks of St. Patrick's footsteps. The rock was called in Irish, " St. Patrick's Footprints." A good example of carvings occurs on an inclined bed of rock near the summit of Itveneld Hill, in the townland of Bally- dorragh, county Cavan. The markings are described as produced apparently by simple scraping with a saw-like motion. The figures most commonly represented are detached straight-armed M 2 164 MAN AS AUTHOR, ARTIST, SCULPTOR. crosses, but not unfrequently these are so grouped or clustered gether as to form a network of lines crossing in every direction ; in two instances these crosses are enclosed in an oblong rect- angular figure. About a quarter of a mile north-west of " Calliagh Dirra's House," in the parish of Monasterboice, county Louth, are rock-markings on a natural rock-surface, produced by a combined method of scraping and punching. Some of the devices differ from those at Eyefield, for many are of quite a Eunic character. This may, however, be accidental, just as some of the carving on rocks in Sweden closely resembles a pair of spectacles ; yet, no one could imagine that they had such a significance. When forming the new line of road leading from Ballydehob to Bantry in the county Cork, the workmen cleared away a con- siderable depth of earth from the face of a rock of red sandstone of the district, and so exposed its sculptured surface. The designs consist of circles, cup-shaped cavities, penannular rings, and V-shaped markings ; there are two perfectly-formed circles, and three imperfect or penannular circles, together with other curious markings. What Irish rock scribings represent is a question still awaiting solution, though numerous conjectures have been hazarded. Cup-markings, incomplete rings, a series of circles round a central cup, sometimes with a radial groove through the circles ; these are the commonest types. These emblems are stated to be almost identical in Hittite, Cypriote, Cuneiform, and Egyptian ; thus, to solve the enigma of these scribings we must go afield. For instance, what does this style of ornamentation represent to present-day primitive peoples, to the aborigines of Australia, or to the natives of the islands of the Pacific ? It_ should also be pointed out that, in many instances, dot- and-circle patterns occur in triplets. Can they have reference to three deities, or to a triune God ? No doubt, these conjoined figures, when placed on the tomb of the deceased, as found occasionally in Ireland, had some symbolical meaning, as has the Christian Cross when used as an ornament, or when placed over a grave. It may be repugnant to the feelings of many people to be informed that their notion that the symbolic use of the Cross is of purely Christian origin is a mistaken one. It was common, perhaps more common, in Pagan than in present times. They may, however, console themselves with the fact that its real beginning was further back still in the world's history ; that with Paganism it was, as it is with Christianity, simply an adopted and favourite symbol, brought in from an even lower form of worship. In like manner, many things formerly supposed to be of comparatively modern origin, "can nowadays be ROCK SCKJBIXGS. 165 traced back to the remotest prehistoric ages ; hence, as a mere matter of induction, it follows that the modern meaning, or application given to many things, is often one developed in recent times, and not that which was originally intended. The original meaning may have been very different to what it sub- sequently became, so that the interpretation belonging to the epoch in which we are first enabled to trace a definite meaning, is not necessarily to be regarded as that which cave birth to the symbol, but is, probably, only an intermediate link in the chain of symbolic development. The religious systems of many heathen nations contained the germ, in a more or less developed state, of the idea of three equally powerful deities, or of a triune God ; suffice it to instance the modern Hindoos and the old Norsemen. The for- mulary of one of the oaths of the latter demonstrates this. It was as follows : — " So help me Frey, N.jord, and the Almighty As." It may be well to state that the assinine-like name is but an alius of Odin, the great Northern God. All the cup-like excavations met with on rock surfaces, pillar stones, cromlechs, and other monuments in Ireland and in Great Britain are not by any means the work of man. Many are the result of weathering and disintegration of the stone from long exposure to atmospheric influences. Cuplike excavations may be noticed on the surface of primary sandstone and other softer rocks, as well as on the surface of far denser stone. Occasionally they are the result of the mineralogical constitution of the rock, or of softer portions, weathering out, or of the enucleation of fossilized organic remains, or of embedded stone nodules. Asa proof of the caution requisite before attaching importance to such objects, an incident, observed when the discussion amongst British archaeologists about cup-markings was at its height, deserves to be recorded. An Irish antiquary chanced to walk towards the Mumbles, near Ovstermouth, South Wales, where quarrying operations were being carried on. The stone that was being worked lay in vertical strata, and as each layer was removed the face of the next exhibited cupped depressions in considerable numbers, irregularly distributed over the surface, and the antiquary immediately recognised as a fact that which he had previously surmised — namely, that three-fourths of the cup-markings that had been occupying the attention of learned societies, and filling the pages of their publications had no areha'ological significance whatever, and were merely due to natural causes. Various excavations on stones, especially on the covering stones, and on the flagging in cists, in chambered tumuli and on cromlechs, 16(5 MAN AS AUTHOR, ARTIST, SCULPTOR. are frequently noticed ; but an examination of their smooth sur- faces and expanding interiors demonstrates that the excavations are unmistakably the work of marine life at a time when the stones formed a part of a sea-beach. This refers, of course, not to cup-and-ring markings, which are clearly due to man's industry, but to mere depressions resembling cups, or segments of eggs, which are sometimes two and a half inches across. It is extremely probable that the formation of some- of these hollows is due to the Echinus lividus, or purple sea-urchin, which hollowed out the depressions for residence where exposed to the ocean surf. Many good examples may be observed on rocks along the littoral. " The investigation of this subject raises an inter- esting point," remarks E. Lloyd Praeger, " one which has been frequently discussed, and can by no means be settled offhand. In the Irish Naturalist for 1892 the cause of the cuplike indentations in limestone is gone into. Dr. Scharff disposes pretty conclu- sively of the suggestion that these were made by marine organisms, and points out the strong evidence of their having been made by snails, notably the large Helix aspersa. These perforations were in limestone, which the acid secretions of the snail is capable of eroding. Some perforations, stated to be made in sandstone, the snail could not dissolve, and they are larger and shallower than the snail-holes. They are certainly in size and shape similar to those which the purple urchin makes, as may be seen at Bundoran and elsewhere. This subject should be handled with caution, some habitat of the purple urchin visited, its burrows carefully examined, measured, and compared with cup-marked stones, and they would probably throw light on the subject." In Polynesian Researches Ellis attempts to interpret the mean- ing of the " dot-and-circle " designs of the Pacific Islanders, the exact pattern of those carved by the ancient inhabitants of Ire- land. He recounts that in the course of a tour round one of the islands he met with a few specimens of what may be termed the first efforts of an uncivilized people towards the construction of a language of symbols. "Along the southern coast, both on the east and west sides, we frequently saw a number of straight lines, semi-circles, or concentric rings, with some rude imitation of the human figure, cut or carved in the compact rocks of lava. They did not appear to have been cut with an iron instrument, but with a stone hatchet or a stone less frangible than the rock on which they were portrayed." It has often been advanced that similar incisions in hard rock in Ireland could only have been produced without metallic implements ; but an antiquary, experimenting with only the assistance of a flint chisel and a wooden mallet, cut in the space of two hours nearly an entire circle on a block of granite which bore archaic devices. CUP-ANn-RING MARKINGS. 167 On inquiry Ellis was informed that the Pacific cup-marking had been made from a motive similar to that which induces a person to carve his initials on a rock or tree, or to record his name in an album. Their significations were interpreted to him by the natives, as follows: — "When there were a number of concentric circles with a dot or mark in the centre, the dot signi- fied a man, and the number of rings denoted the number in the party who had circumambulated the island. When there was a ring and a number of marks it denoted the same, the number of marks showing of how many the party consisted, and the ring that they had travelled completely round the island ; but when there was a semi-circle it denoted that they had returned after reaching the place where it was made. In some of the islands we have seen the outline of a fish portrayed in the same manner, to denote that one of that species or size had been taken near the spot ; sometimes the dimensions of an exceedingly large fruit, &c, are marked in the same way. With this slight excep- tion, if such it can be called, the natives of the Sandwich and other islands had no signs for sounds or ideas, nor any pictorial representation of events." It is to be feared that the missionary was, in this instance, the recipient of erroneous information from his converts, who were, doubtless, unwilling to impart to their new spiritual adviser the true meaning of the symbols. W. F. Wakeman thus depicts the general aspect in which these rock carvings may be regarded: — "Many men of ancient and modern times, confined by necessity to a listless existence in an inhospitable region, might very naturally have beguiled their hours by carving with a stone or metallic instrument such figures as their fancy prompted upon the nearest object which happened to present a surface more or less smooth. Scorings or designs made under such circumstances would be in character as various as the skill or humours of their authors. Now, when in many districts of the country, and some of them widely apart, we find upon the sides of caves and rocks, and within the enclosure of Pagan sepulchral tumuli, a certain well-defined class of engrav- ings, often arranged in groups, and, with few exceptions, present- ing what may be styled a family type, we can hardly imagine them to be the result of caprice." It is evident that there is at present no archaeological expla- nation offered relative to the origin of Irish rock-sculpturings authoritative enough to carry conviction to the mind that the real solution of the problem has been ascertained. The follow- ing conclusions can, however, be safely drawn, viz. : that all these designs were not made without some meaning being attached to them at the time they were in use, that they were 168 MAN AS AUTHOR, ARTIST, SCULPTOR. carved by a race which occupied Ireland, and also Great Britain, many centuries before the introduction of Christianity, and that the figures are in many cases symbolical, for, otherwise, what could have induced tribes hundreds of miles apart, and in many instances separated by the ocean, to use precisely the same designs, unless it were to express some idea, or to aid in the elucidation of some superstitious rite common to all, whilst the position and circumstances in which the markings are generally placed render it extremely probable that they were, in some way, connected with the thoughts, religious or otherwise, of those who carved them. Cup-and-ring markings being probably the most primitive of all prehistoric designs, as well as those most widely spread, deserve more special notice than they appear to have as yet attracted. They are found, as already stated, in the most widely separated localities, and in the most unlooked-for places : on natural rock surfaces, on isolated boulders, on standing stones, near, and in the chambers of, earns, on rude stone monuments, on the covering and other slabs of cists, and on early gravestones in Christian churchyards. From cup-markings being directly associated in many in- stances with sepulchral remains, both Pagan and early Christian, it may fairly be inferred that they are connected, in some way, with funeral rites as sacred emblems ; however, the fact of their being found on natural rock-surfaces militates somewhat against the theory. When of any size, the formation of cup-markings has often been attributed to their employment as mortars for pounding roots, seeds, nuts, or grain, but as accounting for the marks in general, an objection may be pointed out which is fatal to the theory. To serve these purposes, the rocks on which they occur should be in a horizontal position, but in the majority of cases, all the world over, these cups are on shelving rocks, or on the faces of perpendicular crags. These round cuplike marks are also, it is alleged, suggestive of the sun, moon, and stars ; but, as against this, it is to be observed that in them the moon is always represented at the full, never in phases. If even an occasional figure were found repre- senting what, by any ingenuity, could be regarded as a constella- tion, some colour might be held to be given to the idea, for there can be but little doubt that, in ancient Ireland, some tribes wor- shipped the moon. The custom of paying reverence to, and in some cases of praying to, the new moon, the first time thai luminary" was seen after its changes, survived in folk-lore and folk history into the present century, and is mentioned by several Irish writers, as well as by a French author, who says of the Cf'P-A XD-RTNG MA RKJXGS. 169 inhabitants of Ireland that they, " se inettant a genoux en voyant la lune nouvelle, et disant, en parlant a la hine ; ' laisse nous aussi sains qui tu nous a trouve.' " Nor does the suggestion that these ubiquitous cup-markings were used as dials, for marking time by the light of the sun, find any favour, as they occur in places which neither sun nor shadow could reach, as, for example, in the interior of stone sepulchres in earns. They can hardly be regarded as altogether the outcome of the leisure time of idle warriors, nor as the exercises of incipient engineers, for their wide distribution and their family resem- blance, notwithstanding small differences in detail, prove that they possess a common origin, and indicate a symbolical mean- ing, representing popular thought at the time they were inscribed. A Swiss archaeologist believed that he had recognised in the sculpturings which came under his observation maps of the surrounding district, the cups and dots, in his idea, indicating the mountain peaks. This theory is very similar to that held by some Irish antiquarians, of which the late Right Reverend Charles Graves, Bishop of Limerick, was the exponent, viz. : — " That these markings were maps, or rude plans, pointing out the locality and characteristics of the old circular forts in the neighbourhood of the sculpturings." The conjecture that these Irish carvings were primitive maps appeared to be a fanciful one ; however, the Bishop having examined and re-examined the subject, came to the conclusion that his theory was correct, that the centre of the circles and the neighbouring cups and dots arranged themselves, generally three by three, in straight lines, or approximately so, and that the ancient raths marked on the Ordnance Survey maps appear, to some extent, to lie also arranged, three by three, in straight lines. It has also been suggested that these circles were intended to represent shields. This seems inconsistent with the fact that the same rock surface presents so many circular symbols of different sizes, varying from the small shallow cup of .".n inch or two in diameter to the group of concentric circles two feet across. It has also been advanced that these circles were intended to serve as moulds in which metal rings might be cast, or for the purpose of playing some game, but the first theory is decisively negatived by the fact that circles occur on rock surfaces which are not, and never have been, horizontal, and in the second place, the objection to the first theory holds good as to the second theory, and combined with the great dissimilarity which exists between the figures on the same and on different stones renders the explanation untenable. 170 MAN AS A U'lHOR, ARTIST, SCULPTOR. Some Lave hazarded the opinion that these markings indi- cated places for Druidical sacrifices, or for the practice of inagie or necromancy, or that they were emblems of the philosophical views of the Druids, or symbolic enumeration of tribes or families, or a species of archaic writing. Against all these theories, there is the objection that the markings have never been found in connexion with characters that we, nowadays, could, by any possibility, construe as any form of writing, alphabetical, pictorial, or otherwise. It is impossible to view these markings, so strangely similar and so mysterious, spread over almost the entire globe, without again and again repeating the questions, by whom were they made, and what is their significance? If they were merely ornamental, and some of them, no doubt, may be fairly so described, they are interesting on account of their catholicity and of their family likeness, but there is probably a meaning attached to them which is not so easily deciphered. Whoever their carvers were, and wherever they lived, it is beyond question that for considerable periods they must have inhabited almost every known country in the world. The absence of any definite arrangement in the position of the cups, and the recurrence of the same monotonous figures, cups, dots, rings, and grooves, repeated again and again, with hardly any variation in detail, or tendency to develop into more ornamental forms, have been accounted for by the supposition that they were executed one by one, at different times, most probably by different individuals. With regard to no advance being made beyond the cup, dot, ring, and groove, it may be further suggested that they were well recognised and stereotyped symbols, frequently repeated, and specially adapted to some ceremonial rite. The idea that circles were connected with nature-worship has been dismissed by some on account of the apparent absence of much well- marked resemblance, but conventional figurings still employed in the east, especially in India, for nature-worship, bear, in many cases, but the faintest traces of what they are intended to represent. CHAPTER V. SOME AKCHiEOLOGICAL PROBLEMS. The problems of the Ice Age— The Eude Stone Monuments— Of an ancient Pagan Literature — Was Early Man a Musician r — Whence came Amber Ornaments ? — Whence came Jet Ornaments ? — Whence came Glass Orna- ments ? — The ancient Pearl Fisheries— The origin of Gold Ornaments — The date of the Introduction of Iron — The true Origin of certain Antiques — The date of the first Foundation of a Central Authority in Ireland. Ah we have already seen, the surface of Ireland has been again and again subjected to the grinding action of land ice, as well as to the destructive agency of sea ice and of the sea. It is possible, therefore, that the great southern fauna of Britain and rude flint- using man may have been contemporaries in Ireland", but if so, glaciers, sea ice, and the waves and currents of the ocean have, as far as we know, obliterated the evidence of their presence. If at a later date the climate again became Glacial, the great Irish Big Horn and the reindeer could, at certain periods, migrate from North Britain to Ireland across the land connexion or the frozen sea. Terminal glaciers and floating ice were depositing, on the bed of the shallow sea, rocks and boulders, many of which were utilized long ages afterwards by flint-using man in the construc- tion of rude stone receptacles for the dead, and rivers of ice were scooping out the valleys and moulding those features in the land- scape with which we are so familiar. ^Ye seem to view the fall and hear the loud resounding crash of avalanches from the mountain heights ; we gaze on a landscape enveloped in an icy shroud; we behold enormous glaciers with unseen, but neverthe- less irresistible motion, creeping down the mountain flanks beneath a dimmed sunlight flickering on the surface of the pallid snow, and we perceive that we are in the presence of a frozen death enthroned triumphant on the frost-bound land. The majority of persons who are whirled through the little valley or gap in the range of the Ox mountains at Carricknagat, six miles from the town of Sligo, comfortably seated in a railway carriage, would receive, with a smile of incredulity, the informa- tion that the heights on either hand owe their present appearance 172 SOME ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROBLEMS. to the action of ice. The valley is covered with verdure, two considerable villages nestle in its embrace, cows and sheep graze on the fertile soil, yet there is not a square foot of the area but was formerly buried beneath an incalculable depth of ice. Look at the metamorphic rock-masses which form the flank of the mountains. Their ridges are not sharp and covered with asperities, but, on the contrary, they are rounded and smoothed in an extraordinary manner, so that the polished surfaces they present resemble the appearance presented by the backs of a closely packed flock of sheep. This planing has been carried out by an immense glacier or ice sheet which filled the valley, took possession of the entire country between Ballysodare and Sligo, and pushed its enormous ice masses westward into the Atlantic (fig. 60). This was the huge engine which rounded the rocks; this was the mighty ploughshare which cut the deep furrows in the solid rock of the mountain side, for this powerful tool could not act continuously, during the incalculable period occupied by the Great Ice Age, without profoundly modifying the structure of the prominences against which it pressed. We must picture to ourselves Ireland in general, and the west coast in particular, as another Greenland, its sea-loughs filled with icebergs, derived from the glaciers that occupied the adjacent valleys, those in turn supplied, from the great ice sheet that covered the island — ice not at rest, but slowly and surely grinding its way onwards towards the sea through the pressure of its ever moving mass. In this manner the metamorphic rocks, found scattered over the Carrowniore district near Sligo, have been carried several miles towards the north-west, for such is the direction in which the ice-markings trend in this part of the country. These rocks had fallen at intervals from the cliffs of the Ox mountains, on to the then existing glaciers, which bore them onward, depositing them where they are now found resting on the Carboniferous Limestone, erratic specimens of this "metamorphic ridge," as the Ox range of mountains is termed by geologists. The huge " travelled blocks " of limestone found at Movtirra, an elevated, district also in the county Shgo, did not journey far from the parent rock, and since reaching their present position have weathered into masses more or less irregular, fewer in num- ber, but, in general, of vastly greater size than the more travelled and harder, yet rounder boulders of Carrowmore. Few places in the British Isles exhibit the extreme effects of glaciation better than parts of the county Sligo. The stratum of stiff clay in which polished or striated boulders lie embedded, beds of stratified sands and gravels associated with this stiff clay, smoothed, rounded and polished old rock surfaces like those at Cavricknagat just noticed, ancient 174 SOME ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROBLEMS. excavated lake basins, as at Lough Gill, near Sligo, banks of boulders and debris blocking up the ends of valleys, erratic boulders perched on mountain sides or scattered over plains (fig. 61), all bear corroborative and cumulative evidence to the intensity and vast duration of a Great Ice Age, be it of Polar ice or of enormously extended local glaciers. The Glacial Age, how- ever, did not, as we have seen, comprise only one period of con- tinuous and intense cold, but a prolonged time, during which there were several alterations in temperature, the ice at one period increasing and advancing over the surface of the land, at another retiring as the climate ameliorated ; yet, after each advance, contracting beyond its original base, and retreating at length to the highest mountains ; then finally disappearing. Thus a, change, considerably for the better, came over the scene of desolation, and the flora and fauna of more temperate climes overspread the country. With tbis change of climate polished flint-using man makes his entry. Very gradually, but surely, we are bringing to light evidence which will ultimately form the basis of the true history of the land. At present the work is but at its inception, but in a few years we shall be able to realise and recall this hoary past almost in its entirety. The fragmentary facts which we at present possess have been slowly and painfully accumulated. They supply us, however, with a foundation upon which future scholars may build a theory, possibly one of greater accuracy and detail than we now dare hope for. More clear and undisputed facts must be collected, the evidence of geology and archeology given each its due weight, the opinions of individual scholars and investigators examined and tested, and finally a theory elaborated such as will account for the facts, framing from all a consistent whole. For a long time there must doubtless bemany competing theories, but one and another will succumb to the attacks of objectors, and finally, by a kind of " survival of the fittest," we may hope to gain a fair approximation of the truth. Of the history of the far -back past, few pages have been so little read, and yet not one is as full of important and deeply interesting lore as that which describes the sepulchres of the dead. The tombs have been rudely torn open by the hands of the spoiler or of the idly curious ; but how seldom have they been scientifically examined ? It reflects but little credit on archaeol- ogists that no systematic attempt has ever yet been made to read this page of Ireland's prehistoric annals. " Why have we not a society established with such an object for its aim ? Win not have a club of delvers, an exploration society, with its corps of engineers, draughtsmen, and scientific observers, whose busi- ness it should be to examine the primeval sepulchres of the yje o« 5^ rt*o ,2 o 176 SOME ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROBLEMS. country, not idly, not irreverently, not as desultory diggers, but, with due care, circumspection, and caution, noting down every peculiarity, making accurate measured drawings, and depositing in a central museum the crania, the arms, the implements, and ornaments sure to be discovered in abundance ? Here is work for energetic men to do, ay, good work, too ! " Half a century has passed since this was penned by the late Key. James Graves. How little has been done ! The anatomist endeavours to extract from death the secret of life ; the archaeologist essays to extract from the long entombed the secret of the past. If many relics of antiquity are silent, others are eloquent of the history of bygone times, and recount, in unmistakeable language, the customs and ideas of the race to which they belonged. For instance, the erection of rude-stone monuments demonstrates that, at the time of their formation, the aborigines had, in certain localities, if not throughout the entire country, acquired the habit of working in concert, and that they were under strict discipline, which is the basis of all regulated society. Massive rude-stone monuments erected — not over every member of the tribe or family, but — to preserve the memory of noted persons, demonstrate that their architects had an established standard of pre-eminence. A clue to the dignity of- the deceased, as well as to the numerical strength of the assembly by which the table-stone was raised, is, to some extent, but qualified by geological surrounding conditions, afforded by the magnitude of the blocks forming the monument. What Ireland was it will never be again. Once it was the scene of cannibalism, of fetish worship, and of slavery; for, how- ever humiliating the avowal may be to our national pride, it must be admitted that in the earliest period of his existence man in Ireland (as elsewhere) was scarcely distinguishable from the brute creation ; and from the evidence producible it is almost impossible not to accuse large portions of the aboriginal popula- tion of habitual cannibalism. The Augean stable has been cleansed, the relics of the barbarous past are being gradually removed, not suddenly, as by the pent-up waters of the Alpheus, not by the teachings of Christianity alone, but by the spread of knowledge, and by the order of ever-increasing civilization. While it is true that the designs on cinerary urns and gold ornaments which have been brought to light, and which are classified as belonging to the Pre-historic Age, prove the existence of a genuine, though somewhat elementary, sense of beauty, yet there is nothing, either in material or literary remains, to support the assertion of the monastic chroniclers as to the glories of the Green Isle of the West at the time when the first missionaries began their attempt to convert the people to Christianity. But RUDE STONE MONUMENTS 177 the recognition of the true state of things in ancient Ireland is very far from detracting anything from the solid worth of St. Patrick's (or the three St. Patricks') achievements, or from the honour due to those Irishmen who developed a special school of sacred sculpture, furnished missionaries for the evangelization of Britain, and for the propagation of the faith on the Continent. The description of the ancient glories of Erin, as given by the school of enthusiastic historians, may be compared to the mirage of the desert, the mere reflection of distant scenes, and the phantasmagoria of Eoman and Eastern civilization, which the writers, imagining it ought to have existed, finally depicted as if actually existing, but now, "... like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples shall dissolve, And like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind." Historical and archEeological sentiment is a fairy-like lichen, which grows so luxuriously in the works of Irish writers as to completely veil the real structure on which it flourishes. Admitting even that these rhapsodies were true, they would only be descriptive of a small and polished portion of the population, not of the vast bulk of the inhabitants. It is, indeed, of little use to argue regarding the probability or improbability of the former existence of a state of high civiliza- tion in Ireland such as is presupposed by these amiably disposed writers. At present there is not a scintilla of evidence in favour of such a high and ancient civilization. As there is no evidence for it, or at best it is most absurdly insufficient, we should reject the theory. If evidence be at any future time produced, it is easy to again advance the theory on its merits. As the writer has elsewhere observed, we should strive to be honest and unbiassed. Supposing that we did not possess the fanciful Irish Annals, how would the story of Irish archseology, history, religion, and folk- lore have been written ? Where are the inscriptions engraven in bronze, marble, or the solid rock, setting forth the acts of kings and their conquests with all the pomposity of barbaric pride, such as have been left by the rulers of the Eastern and Western Umpires ? Where are there traces of the temples of the gods ? The civilization of a nation may, to a certain extent, be gauged by the architectural outcome of its religion ; up to the present time no authenticated remains of any temples or religious edifices of the ancient Irish can be pointed to. A fierce and warlike race, who raised huge rude stone monuments to the 178 SOME ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROBLEMS. honour of their chiefs, appear to have erected these memorials to commemorate their dead, and the worship of a deity or deities in nowise entered the imagination of their builders, though in after times, the dead became, to a certain extent, deified. Although the ancient inhabitants, at this stage of human existence in Erin, were doubtless somewhat removed from what we would regard as mere savagery ; yet, the architectural remains which they have left do not exhibit traces of the high culture and civilization claimed for them by many enthusiastic writers. Where are their remains of ancient cities ? Where are their relics of a highly refined domestic life ? We possess many asser- tions as to the past glories of the land, but these assertions are not supported by discoveries of material remains. It is clear that when the East was at the height of its civilization our ancestors were mere savages, and were but little better in later times when Borne was at the zenith of her glory. Why make ourselves ridiculous to present-day culture by seeking to place the past of ancient Erin on an eminence which existed merely in the imagination of early Monkish chroniclers. The late Professor T. H. Huxley, who certainly cannot be accused of partiality on such a subject, i.e., that of " Monkish chroniclers," observes that : — "We follow the evil example set us, not only by Bacon, but by almost all the men of the Renaissance, in pouring scorn upon the work of our immediate spiritual fore- fathers, the school-men of the Middle Ages. It is accepted as a truth which is indisputable that for seven or eight centuries a long succession of able men — some of them of transcendent acuteness and encyclopaedic knowledge — devoted lives to the grave discussion of mere frivolities, and to the arduous pursuit of intellectual will-o'-the-wisps. ' ' The term ''Monkish chroniclers" is therefore to be under- stood as used in no invidious sense ; it is merely employed to describe a special school of writers, and it is not intended that any odium theologieum should be implied. At the same time it must be acknowledged that, if the Pagans possessed a literature, it would have been better, for present-day students, had that literature come down to our days intact. A general assertion, continually made by ecclesiastical, and indeed by many lay writers, is that, but for the monks, there would not have been any history of ancient times handed down to our day. If, how- ever, it be granted, according to the standpoint of these writers, that the country possessed a literature prior to the arrival of the Christain missionaries, surely the Pagan priesthood were quite capable of continuing its custody and attending to its accretions ; but they were disestablished and disendowed, and the pen was A XCIENT PA O A X LITER. 1 JURE. 1 79 torn from their grasp by the propagators of the new faith. If, on the other hand, literature and writing were only introduced into the kingdom along with Christianity, it must be at once admitted that the monks were the true and only custodians of literature. The admission, however, dissolves the basis on which rests the alleged glories of ancient Erin. Let us bring simple common sense into play, and not acquiesce in statements solely because they appear in Irish mss. of a by no means ancient date — records such as that of the peopling of Ireland before the Flood, of the total extinction of this race who yet left behind them a record of the event, and the thousand and one other absurdities which it is considered unpatriotic not to believe. In treating of the past of ancient Erin a writer must neither care for nor be influenced by public opinion, and must be a thoroughgoing " hunter after truth." . He must follow the advice given by Cicero to the historian : — " Let him not dare to say anything that is false, nor fear to say what is true." And again : — " The day will come when time and the diligence of later ages will bring to light things which now lie concealed ; the day will come when our posterity will wonder that we were ignorant of tilings so evident." Many writers seem to have perceived, at any rate in part, the origin of civilization in Ireland, but although vague allusions to the real facts are, here and there, dropped by them, they appear to have been restrained from plainly expressing their opinions by the dread of incurring the odium of a supposed national historical heterodoxy. Some problems it is impossible to investigate too minutely ; and among these, few are of more general interest than those which relate to the origin and development of civilization. Could we catch a glimpse of the remote past, we should probably find that many primitive progressive advancements were the out- come of accident. Primitive man stumbled upon a discovery and had wisdom enough to profit by it ; modern man, on the other hand, starts with a definite idea in view, and carefully experiments for its realisation. This is the secret of the slow advances of culture in ancient days, and of its cumulative pro- gress when resulting, not from mere accident, but from well- directed brain-work. The rate of progress increasing thus at ever accelerating speed, the day when all attainable knowledge shall have been acquired by man may not be so very remote, unless the present unsolved problems of science are practically infinite. The unceasing toil of life is a perpetual grim struggle, in which, with each success, something is being continually gained for future generations. Whether we will or not, we must, for our own sakes, improve the world for succeeding generations; the 180 SOME A R CHsE OL O GICA L. PR OB L EMS. difference is that the ancients did this unwittingly, we do it wittingly. When we look back upon the millions of years that have elapsed since life began on this globe, we Can faintly realise that, as time rolls by and the rate of human development increases, the future will assuredly reveal untold wonders that will make our present life appear as rude to those who follow after us, as does the existence passed by our prehistoric ancestors appear to us. Yet it is but a very superficial observer who regards the past with contempt. It filled its sphere ; in its way it did its appointed work quite as effectively as does the present. The initiation of any operation is most difficult, and instead of blam- ing the slow but steady workers of the past, we should, on the contrary, thank the men of the Eld who laid the foundation of all that has since been built ; for the man who first chipped a flint must be regarded as the first of all sculptors ; the man who first scratched the rude picture of a mammoth on the bones of his quarry was the first of all artists ; the man who first piled stones together to form a rude earn over the corpse of one of his family was the first of all builders ; and the man who first bored a hole in a reindeer's bone to make a whistle, or twanged the stretched sinews of his bow-string, was the first of all musicians. We know that primitive man chipped flints, carved designs on bone, and erected earns, but whether or not he was acquainted with music is a question to which the reply might be thought to rest only on surmise, for no relics of stone have as yet come to light that could by any ingenuity be construed as forming either part or the whole of a musical instrument. Not only, however, has there been one Orpheus, but many Orpheuses in the world's history ; musical mythology teems with legends of musical geniuses, so that their multiplicity may be said to pre- sent an effectual bar to a successful attempt at scientific explana- tion. Whistles formed of the phalanges of reindeer have been found in the caves of the Dordogne in France, in company with bones of the rhinoceros and elephant, and other relics of times in which only rude flint implements were used ; yet of musical instruments, made of either stone or of bone, none of any antiquity have, as yet, been found in Ireland. It should be mentioned that the origin of the harp, as given in an old Irish ms., differs from that forming the subject of Moore's song, i.e. : — " "lis believed tliat this liarp, which I wake now for thee, Was a siren of old who sung under the sea ; And who often at eve through the bright billows roved, To meet, on the green shore, a youth whom she loved. 1 VA S EA RL Y MA A r A MUSICIA N ? 181 But she loved him in vain, for he left her to weep, And in tears, all the night, her gold ringlets to steep, Till heaven looked with pity on true love so warm, And changed to this soft harp the sea-maiden's form. Still her bosom rose fair, still her cheek smiled the same, While her sea-beauties gracefully curled round the frame, And her hair shedding tear-drops from all its bright rings, Fell over her white arms to make the gold strings." In his celebrated picture Maclise depicts the siren with her long tresses thrown over her arm, which rests on a straight fragment of rock, so that her attitude represents the exact form of the ancient Irish harp. The other old Irish legend, before referred to, states that a certain fair lady, overcome with aversion to her husband, fled from him to the woods. Attracted one day by the murmur of the wind as it sighed through the fins and skeleton of a sea- monster which lay on the beach, she listened so long that she was lulled to sleep by the weird music. Her husband found her, and, noting the cause of her slumber, he formed the framework of a harp from the branches of a neighbouring tree, to which he attached strings made from the fins of the stranded whale. This was the origin of the first harp. The tale is borrowed, with but little disguise, from the classics. Combs, formed of bone, are found amongst the earliest relics of primitive civilization ; for, on a remote day in the world's unwritten history, it struck some prehistoric beauty, as she con- templated her reflection in the waters of some tranquil tarn, that her tangled hair required more orderly arrangement, and the passage of her fingers through her matted locks was the initiatory stage in the invention of the comb (figs. 02, 03). In the history of inventions, woman has been almost invariably the originator of all the peaceful arts of life, whilst man has been the initiator in devising the means of killing his fellow-man, the inventor in every murderous art. In Ireland weapons, whether of flint or bronze, were, in general, of home manufacture. Gold was a product of the Wieklow moun- tains. Silver in smaller quantities, and at a much later period, appears to have been extracted from native ores ; but Irish silver articles are not relics of Pagan times ; it will probably be yet found that amber, jet, and glass ornaments were all made in our island. Professor Huxley was of the same opinion with regard to the Continent, and believed that every raw material " employed ill Kurope up to the Palreo-metallie stage, is to be found within tha limits of Europe." Fiq. 62. The Initiatory Stage in the Invention of the Comb. Fig. 63. Combs from the Sites* of Lake Dwellings in the West of Ireland. Half real size. 184 SOME ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROBLEMS. Amber was employed in the formation of ornaments, such as beads, dress -fasteners, rings, and bracelets ; the beads vary greatly in size, from diminutive objects to those nearly three inches in length. Many writers allege that amber was not found in Ire- land. It is present in a series of deposits only to be found in Ireland near Lough Neagh. Both amber and jet are present in quantities about the southern shores of the Baltic, and some writers are of opinion that ancient Irish objects of amber came from thence. There also appears to be a small but continual drift of this amber into the North Sea ; and amber found on the east coast of England is considered to be of an extremely good quality, as it must have been, to have survived its long journey. From the evidence of numerous discoveries, it is thought that there was, in prehistoric times, an amber trade from the north of Europe to the Mediterranean. Also that the Greek tale of the Heliades had its origin in northern latitudes, and that the Vistula, where amber is found, is pointed to in the legend of the weeping daughters of the sun, whose tears are transformed into amber. In Central Bussia there is an earth amber, and a salt sea must have been there in very remote times, as tiny bubbles of salt water have been discovered on cutting it open for purposes of manufacture. In it the scent of the brine has been hermetically sealed up for vast geological asons, in the same way that the scent of the pine-forest remains a permanent characteristic of amber in general. However this may be, it is highly probable that, from remote antiquity, a trade in amber existed between the shores of the Baltic and other parts of Europe. Its first discovery by savage man was, in all likelihood, owing to its being loosened from its native bed in the sands of the seashore and flung by the waves upon the beach. Primitive man soon learnt to smooth and polish these lumps ; for on the Continent, in interments of the Stone Age, some instances are found where amber ornaments are laid in the grave with the dead ; in the Bronze Age the use of amber became common. Early commerce, if the term be applicable to siich primitive traffic, is based, as a rule, not on the interchange of useful products but on barbaric geegaws, much in the same way as, in the present day, barter is" carried on between European traders and wild tribes of Central Africa. Everything seems to point out that, in primeval times, man possessed rudimentary commercial instincts, and collected objects which possessed to him what to us would be designated a pecuniary value, and hoarded them most probably for purposes of exchange. The subject of ancient commerce in amber is of great interest ; for, if the extent of that commerce and its routes could be well defined, much that is at present obscure in the early unwritten history of the inhabitants of the British Isles would ■ AMBJili ORXAMENTS. 185 77I\> Fio. ru. Amber Bead, with Ogham In- scription. Full size. Repro- duced from the Journal of the present Society of Anti- quaries ol Ireland. become clear. An amber bead, with an ogham inscription, was for many generations in the possession of a family named O'Connor in the county Clare. It was used as an amulet for the cure of sore eyes, and was also believed to insure safety to pregnant women in their hour of trial. After many vicissitudes it came into the possession of Lord Londes- borough. The following is one of the readings of this curious inscription, but it must, in all candour, be stated that \/// it does not appear to be the true trans- wn\vris, near Itin, in a large bronze caldron, toe/etiier with other antiques, Halt size. Fig. 66. Ecclesiastical Bell, made of iron, the missing. Found in a bog at Tybroi Mullhigar. One quarter real size. tongue is ban, near The rectangular bells of the early missionaries — examples, it is alleged, of primitive Christian metal work— are of rude and unfinished manufacture It was evidently a trade at which they ORIGIN OF CARTA IN ANTIQ UKS. 197 were novices, though their work in bronze and gold had been brought to great perfection. The fine bells of the late bronze period, as witnessed by the Dowris find (fig. 65), are in finish and design indefinitely superior to the wretched productions alleged to have belonged to the early Irish saints (fig. 66). The iron bell, as shown in fig. 66, resembles articles very frequently found on the sites of Roman villas in England. The iintinnabulum , or small handbell, was probably used to summon the slaves and attendants when their services were required. These bells are as frequently square as round, and are usually made of bronze. The development of Irish art after the introduction of Christianity was the outcome of the mixture of the two styles of ornamentation, the Irish or Pagan, and the Continental or Christian. In Britain Roman Art appears to have almost entirely supplanted Celtic Art, but in Ireland the native style of ornamentation was conserved intact until the introduction of Christianity. During the period that followed, a new religion and a fresh civilization rose suddenly into eminence, and then slowly sank into decrepitude. Hitherto when any peculiar antique, composed either of metal or other material, has been for the first time discovered, Irish archaeologists assign to it a foreign, frequently a Roman origin ; yet these waifs of time are, in general, ultimately identified as of home manufacture. Every archaeological relic has its history : it has either already told its tale, or its story has to be read, and we thus learn how and when it was made, what it was used for, and how it came to be lying where it was found. " The}' are the Registers, the chronicles of the age They were made in, and speak the truths of history Better than a hundred of your printed communications." In systematic research, close and accurate observation is absolutely necessary, the imperfection of our present knowledge, and the limitation of our experience involve uncertainty as to special classification of some works of art. By patient analysis we can alone hope to accomplish solid results, and arrive at clear, broad, and thoroughly correct deductions. Exceptional specimens should therefore be temporarily adjudged, until the contrary is demonstrated, as being of native workmanship, and not imported articles. If the numerous articles belonging to the ordinary usage of everyday life which have been found on pre- historic sites in different parts of the kingdom were collected together and arranged, they would, no doubt, go far towards giving us a perfect picture of the civilization of the population of early times. Unfortunately, great numbers have been lost or destroyed ; many of those which remain are scattered about in 198 SOME ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROBLEMS. private collections, from the want of a really national and scientifi- cally arranged collection in which to deposit them. Ireland, until a time well advanced in the Christian Era, appears to have been peopled by an aggregation of tribes, isolated from the European continent and developing their civilization in a manlier more or less peculiarly their own. When Irish society became known to the classic world — and Latin authors are by no means complimentary as to its manners and customs — it was already well advanced in this the tribal state. It is interesting to reflect that these writers, when applying the terms "barba- rians" and "savages" to the inhabitants of Ierne and of the Britannic Isles, little dreamed that the despised islanders, recruited, however, by the subsequent accession of much northern and truly " barbarian " blood, would found an empire far sur- passing that of Eome, and extend their sway over regions and continents then unheard of. A number of tribes are enumerated by classic authors, but no mention is made of a monarch exercis-^ ing universal sway as described by later native writers. The Irish were merely in the intermediate stage of the development of a nation ; they had passed the limits of the family, and were in the tribal stage. From a variety of causes, this mass was never welded together into a really compact body. General and chronic war- fare proved fatal to the advancement of the community, and this state of things, prolonged through endless centuries, kept the population divided into numerous hostile septs, and stereotyped disunion. Moore, in his History of Ireland, writing on this subject, remarks that " the sanguinary broils of a nation armed against itself have no one elevating principle to redeem them, and are inglorious alike in victory and defeat. Whatever gives dignity to other warfare was wanting in these personal factious feuds. The peculiar bitterness attributed to family quarrels marks also the course of civil strife ; and that flow of generous feeling which so often succeeds to fierce hostility between strangers, has rarely, if ever, been felt by parties of the same state who have been once arrayed in arms against each other." The earliest heads of Irish septs exercised their authority solely through the consent of the collected unit ; and the chief thus elected was bound by certain obligations which, if he dis- regarded, his authority was withdrawn, or if his followers tired of his rule they left him, and his chieftainship ended. When there was practically no such thing as private property, there was no basis for authority except by the delegation of power willingly conceded. When the chiefs were able to consolidate (heir power, the liberties of the members of the tribe diminished in proportion to this consolidation, for the chief was no longer bound by obli- FOUNDATION OF CENTRAL AUTHORITY. 199 gations. Then, for mutual protection, the chiefs themselves united and elected one of their number head chief, or first amongst the chiefs, but not as an absolute ruler, nor even possessed of so much power over the whole as each chief exercised over his own tribe. Even such an enthusiastic believer in the ancient glories of Erin ;is Standish O'Grady seems to coincide in this opinion. He suys : — " Like every country upon which imperial Borne did not leave the impress of her genius, Ireland in these ethnic times attained only a partial unity. The Chief King, indeed, presided at Tara, and enjoyed the reputation and emoluments flowing to him on that account, but, upon the whole, no Irish king exercised more than a local sovereignty ; they were all rci/uli, petty kings, and their direct authority was small." The late Professor T. H. Huxley drew attention to the pub- lished collection of the Hrehon laws of ancient Ireland, ar.d how the original communal land ownership of the sept became modi- fied. The chief, at first, received his share of land as an ordinary member of the tribe as well as an extra portion of pasture as a payment for his services. An increase of his power was the natural result of his being able to have more cattle than others of his sept. Then " he became a lender of cattle at a high rate of interest to his more needy sept-fellows, who, when they borrowed, became bound to do him service in other ways, and lost status by falling into the position of his debtors Again, the status of the original commoners of the sept was steadily altered for the worse by the privilege which the chief possessed, and of which lie freely availed himself, of settling on the waste lands of the commune such broken vagabonds of other tribes as sought his patronage and protection, and who became absolutel) dependent on him. Thus, without war, and without any necessity for force or fraud (though, doubtless, there was an adventitious abundance of both), the communal system was bound to go to pieces, and to be replaced by individual owner- ship, in consequence of the operation of purely industrial causes. That is to say, in consequence of the many commercial advan- tages of individual ownership over communal ownership, which became more and more marked exactly in proportion as territory became more fully occupied, security of possession increased, and the chances of the success of individual enterprise and skill as against routine, in an industrial occupation, became greater and trreutel." CHAPTER VI. THE BORDERLAND OF HISTORY. Difficulty of fixing the point where real Irish History commences — Early Narratives a mixture of truth, exaggeration, allegory, and downright fic- tion — Tighernach, the most reliable Irish scribe — Evidence of the steady growth of a healthy Current of Thought now very apparent. — No state- ment should be advanced merely on the authority of Irish JISS. — Should be corroborated by Archaeological Research — Ethnology and Philology un- certain guides in exploring the past — Archceology reliable — The present school of Archaeology very practical — The Spade a conclusive solver of Problems — Phantom Lands — Phantom Cities— Phantom Ships — Phantom Bees— Ireland as known to the Ancients — References in Greek and Roman "Writers — Ptolemy's description of the Country — Its Coasts, Rivers, Terri- tories, Tribes, Cities — Agricola's alleged Conquest of the Kingdom — Prob- able influx of Roman Traders from Britain— Truces of Roman Culture — Roman Medicine Stamps Roman Relics, Ornaments, and Coins —Roman f loins buried with the Dead — Roman Relics few in number — Of an unim- portant character — The result of Traffic, or forgotten Deposits of Irish Freebooters — Romans made no Settlements in Ireland— The few local Roman Names of Ecclesiastical Origin. This and the following Chapter must he prefaced by an apology for traversing the same ground as has already been attempted by the author in Vinjun Ireland, so thut some repetition must be excused, for when treating of the Faiths professed by the inhabi- tants of Erin, to omit a description of their religious ideas, of the effects of the Koman Conquest of Britain, of the introduction of Christianity and of the advent of St. Patrick, would be like placing the play of Hamlet on the stage and omitting the part of the unlucky Prince of Denmark. In the subject here under ex- amination ; it is impossible that any writer can rely only on his own researches and resources. If he appropriates the thoughts of his predecessors and contemporaries he is accused of being a plagiarist, yet if lie be a good adapter he treats each author as the bee treats the dower, steals sweets from it without injuring it, and essays to improve and transform them into more appetising food. It litis been sought to make the text readable, but at the COMMEXCJiMEXT OF IRISH HISTORY. 201 same time in no sense perfunctory, so that if another writer follows on, in the same track, he may be able to devote himself to a complete analysis of the subject, and may find this attempt of use to him in his literary labours ; for a good antiquary should not only chronicle what other writers have often forgotten, but he should also ignore many things on which the superficial observer reposes a misplaced confidence. According to Eobert Atkinson, ll.d., amongst the many diffi- culties which beset the path of the Irish historian " not the least is that of fixing upon any point where real information begins. The narrative, such as it is, is carried on with so plausible an evenness of apparently circumstantial detail of name and place, that the render is in danger of being hurried up the stream of time to a period long before the Homerian epoch. In these shaking bogs of bardic history, where may we set firm foot?" Tighernach, pronounced Teernah, the most reliable of early Irish scribes, died, it is stated, about a.d. 10SH, and if he be accepted as an authority, Irish History might be considered to open about two centuries before Christ; his words, "omnia monumenta Scotorum usque C'imbeath incerta erant," must, as 0'Donovan remarks, inspire a feeling of confidence in the writer; but while his details of foreign history, relating to remarkable events at and preceding the Christian Era, are ample, his enu- meration of Irish events down to the third and fourth century is exceedingly meagre. He only mentions a few kings whose reigns are, by later scribes, filled with fabulous performances ; he barely notices the fact of the great hero Cuchullin's (Coolin's) existence, and gives but a passing notice to " the Cattle Prey of Cooley." " The poor honest man was evidently troubled with a conscience rather above his business," remarks John 11. Dickson, " and he felt that he must really draw the line somewhere, ... yet this limit did not long confine the less scrupulous annalists who followed him. They boldly undertook to carry back Irish history to the arrival of ' Miledh,' said to have sailed for Spain, ria Seythia and Egypt, some thousand years earlier still ; and to give names and dates to all the kings of Ireland during the inter- vening time, filling in the pictures of most of them with details of unnatural villainy, too gross for the latitude of Dahoniy, and yet all the while implying that their country had enjoyed a happy, and heroic past. . . . The compilers of these various annals were, no doubt, most of them, honest and painstaking men who would not willingly have falsified facts within their own knowledge; but they were too ambitious, they attempted the impossible, and when their own necessarily limited knowledge failed them, they fell back on a fund of credulity that was apparently inexhaustible. To realize how great was the credulity, let anyone read for himself the 202 THE BORDERLAND OF HISTORY. earlier portions of the Annals of the Fuiir Masters (the latest and most authoritative of them all), whose office it should have been ■ to purge the works of previous writers of erudeness and inac- curacy, and yet we find them gravely repeating as facts the most childish observations " ; and all this, be it observed, so lately as the commencement of the seventeenth century. According to Tighernach (Teernah) the starting point of Irish history was the erection of the Palace of Emania, and a wild legend states its origin to be as follows : — Three kings who had been fighting amongst themselves finally agreed to reign for seven years, each in succession. They had each enjoyed the sovereignty for one of these periods, when the first king died, and his daughter claimed the right to reign when her father's term of sovereignty came round ; she was opposed, but vanquished all opposition. Her subjects suggested that she should put her prisoners to death ; this she refused to do, but condemned them to slavery^ and employed them in building a huge rath or fortress, and " she marked for them the dun with her brooch of gold from her neck," so that the palace was called Emnuin, from eo, a brooch, and muin, the neck. The early history of Ireland, whether given by ancient or modern writers, is a strange mixture of truth, exaggeration, alle- gory, and downright fiction ; however, the fact of incredible ex- ploits being ascribed to dim historic personages is not sufficient ground for denying the existence of those individuals. In the early history of almost every country, the appearance of mythical beings is reported, and formerly it was usual to deny that these persons had ever existed, but present-day historians rather incline to the opinion that they may have been real individuals, remarkable for some great quality, or for heroic deeds, around whom tradition gradually wove an accumulation of supernatural glory. The statements presented by many writers as true history are, as is remarked by O'Donovan, " after all no more than their own inferences, drawn, in many instances, from the half his- torical, half fabulous works of the ancients. In the "Middle Ages no story was acceptable to the taste of the day without the assistance of some marvellous or miraculous incidents which, in those all-believing times, formed the life and soul of every narrative." Early Greek writers possessed the gift of throwing a veil of graceful fiction over stern reality ; on the other hand, the his- torians of Ireland presented as sober facts, the wildest and most extravagant fictions, and as nature imperceptibly, but, none the less surely, planes and rounds off the rocks, covering them with ever increasing masses of verdure, so are actual facts of the elder days of Erin, planed, rounded, and covered by the accretions of TRUTH AND FICTION. 203 successive generations of so-called historians, until they are car- peted with a luxuriant crop of beautiful, but comparatively valueless legends. These legends, however, while without value as history, are of the very highest value as guides to popular thought at the time of their composition, and in some instances may contain a germ of fact which it requires the most delicate literary acumen of the historian to discern. There is a strange kind of excitement in endeavouring to unravel a complicated problem ; and certainly ample room is afforded to a student desirous of analysing and investigating the so-called history and description of ancient Erin, which have been handed down to us and repeated by writer after writer. The mythical stories of Geoffrey of Monmouth, ami other scribes of that school, relative to the colonization and history of England, have long been consigned to the literary waste-paper basket; and why should the extravagant legends related of Ireland be treated with more leniency ? To transmit, by oral tradition, a chain of events, extending back, in an unbroken order to the Creation, would be an impossibility ; we possess also good authority for not giving " heed to fables and endless genealogies," or to "profane and old wives' fables." Writers of the olden school usually commenced their histories with fables, the length and extravagance of which was in proportion to their estimate of the importance of the theme ; and nothing has tended so much to bring discredit on the proper study of Irish history and Irish antiquities as this exaggeration. In this characteristic Irish writers do not, by any means, occupy a unique position, for the early historians of all nations appear to have possessed an innate tendency to magnify the antiquity of the origin of the race whose deeds they recorded. The Arcadians alleged that they existed before the creation of the moon, and, according to Ovid, the inhabitants of Attica, not to be outdone, boasted that they were a nation before the sun shone : — " Ante Jovem gcnilum terms habuisse feruntur Arcades, et lunii gens prior ilia i'uit." Nations pride themselves on their antiquity, individuals on their ancestry; but as antiquity, or remote ancestry, is in itself nothing, that in which is their pride is in reality their humilia- tion ; for " if an individual is worthy of his ancestors, why extol those with whom he is on a level ? And if he is unworthy of them, to laud them is to libel himself. And nations also, when they boast of their antiquity, only tell us, in other words, that they are standing on the ruins of so many generations. But if their view of things is limited and their prospect of the sciences narrow and confined, if other nations, who stand upon no such 204 THE BORDERLAND OF HISTORY. eminence, see farther than they do, is not the very antiquity of which they boast a proof that their forefathers were not giants in knowledge ; or, if they were, that their children have de- generated?" " From yon blue heavens above us bent, The Gardener Adam and his wife Smile at the claims of long descent. Howe'er it be it seems to me, "J'is only noble to be good." Beranger, towards the close of the last century, wrote on this subject of historical exaggeration ; and one would almost imagine that the cautious old artist-antiquary had been inditing a prospectus for the origination of an Archaeological Society when he states, that " no traces remain of the grandeur of the ancient Irish, which we are pressed to believe without proofs, except some manuscripts, which very few can read, and out of which the Irish historian picks what suits him, and hides what is fabulous and absurd." Even, now-a-days, the stories trans- lated from the Irish, for popular reading, are eclectically selected, and many portions of the text are suppressed. No statement should be advanced on the mere authority of native Irish annals and manuscripts, unless corroborated by outside and disinterested evidence, such as is afforded by classic or foreign writers, or archaeological and material evidences of sepulchral remains, dwellings, implements, ornaments, and other traces left by the primitive and early inhabitants of the land. If material objects be accepted as proofs of the pagan ideas and customs of the aborigines, surely the evidence of still exist- ing superstitious observances of the peasantry, which can be traced to a pre-Christian source, ought to be received with, at least, the same authority ; and we should look upon all these subjects as mere links in one great chain which binds together many separate periods of semi-culture. The past can always be found in the present ; for it is easy to bring some custom or superstition of the present into connexion with the past, and to use it to bring out distinctly what was believed in and acted upon in by-gone centuries. It is to be hoped that research into the past, on these lines, may contribute to the re-construction of early history, a work which can only be finally accomplished by many united efforts ; for our discoveries are founded on those of our predecessors, and we merely utilize the ascending steps formed by an innumerable army of fellow-workers. We stand on a better basis than those that went before. It is certain that those who follow after will be better placed than ourselves; for even " a dwarf on a giant's shoulders sees further of the two." Thus the science of TRUTH AND FICTIOX. 205 archaeology is gradually evolving out of apparent chaos ; it has become vertebrate, and possesses a solid framework which can be gradually clothed correctly with details. Evidence of this steady growth of healthy archaeological thought is very apparent ; yet we have made but little progress in higher and scientific archae- ology, and the ancient antiquities of Ireland still remain in an unclassified condition. For a lengthened period archaeology was not recognised as a science, although it treats of the arts, manners, customs, and entire past of primitive man, whilst, now-a-days, it must be acknowledged as an able assistant to ethnology and philology. It is evident that philology, as a guide, must give place to, or rest its evidence on, the material proofs produced by archaeology or ethnology. Indeed, a student seeking to discover the origin of a people, through analysis of the spoken language, may be led to conclusions of the most erroneous description. For instance, in Ireland, a stranger ignorant of its early history, and finding the vast majority of the population speaking English, might come to the conclusion that they were of English descent. A good example occurred not long ago, when an English-speaking writer lamented that he could not give vent to his feelings in the Gaelic tongue, of which he was quite ignorant — English being, in his opinion, totally inadequate to express his indignation at being called an Anglo-Saxon. And, from his point of view, he was perfectly right ; for he was no more an Anglo-Saxon, because he spoke English only, than he would have been a horse had he heen born in a stable. Grant Allen illustrates, with the following personal anecdote, the facility with which the ethnological geiieraliser may be pre- cipitated into unexpected pitfalls: — "It happened to me once, many years since, to be taking a class in logic in a West Indian college. The author of our text-book had just learnedly explained to us that personal names had no real connotation. ' Neverthe- less,' he went on, ' they may sometimes enable us to draw certain true inferences. For example, if we meet a man of the name of John Smith, we shall at least be justified in concluding that he is a Teuton.' Now, as it happened, that class contained a John Smith ; and as I read those words aloud, he looked up in my face with the expressive smile of no Teutonic forefathers ; for thh John Smith was a pure-blooded negro." It is difficult to define limits to this species of investigation ; for ethnologists are of opinion that even the so-called Irish race is really a compound one, containing in addition to the true Celtic or Aryan element at least two others that are non-Aryan, probably a * Mongolian or Finnish element and an Iberian element. " Very little attempt," remarks William Larminie, "has hitherto been made to settle in what parts of the country 20o THE BORDERLAND OF HISTORY. these elements respectively preponderate ; but that there must be some preponderance of different races in different localities is shown clearly enough by the varying physical types. It is beyond question that Donegal differs from Connaught, and that both differ from Munster ; and when we find that, in spite of a co-existence of at least two thousand years in the same island, and the possession of a common language, different districts have a different folklore, is it extravagant to surmise that these different bodies are due to varying racial deposits ?" The creeds of their faith, namely, the myths, legends, and superstitions of a people, are far truer guides to their origin than is their spoken dialect. The tongue of the aborigines is usually either extin- guished or forced on one side by the stronger and dominant race, but the bent of mind of the subjected people becomes more or less stereotyped, and forms the distinguishing feature of their character. The inhabitants of Cornwall, though largely of Celtic blood, speak English ; the Romans imposed their language upon the conquered races inhabiting France and Spain. The late Pro- fessor Huxley, writing on this subject, remarked that: — " At the present day the physical characters of the people of Belgic Gaul remain distinct from those of the people of Aquitaine, notwith- standing the immense changes which have taken place since Ctesar's time ; but Belga3, Celts, and Aquitani (all but a mere fraction of the last two, represented by the Basques and the Bretons) are fused into one nationality, ' le peuple Francais.' But they have adopted the language of one set of invaders and the name of another ; tbeir original names and languages having almost disappeared. Suppose that the French language remained as the sole evidence of the existence of the population of Gaul, would the keenest philologer arrive at any other conclusion than that this population was essentially and fundamentally a ' Latin ' race which had some communication with Celts and Teutons ? Would he so much as suspect the former existence of the Aquitani ? ' ' Thus language is no absolute or even approximate test of race; it is merely evidence of a contact having taken place between races. Language may explain much ; it cannot explain everything, and may, as we have seen, in fact, in some instances, prove actually detrimental to research. Although the English language is mainly of Saxon origin, yet it is by no means so certain that the blood of Englishmen — taken as a whole nation — is as fully Saxon as their tongue ; the Celtic strain, though to a great extent absent from our tongue, exists no doubt to a large extent iu the blood. Anglo-Celtic is probably a truer description of British nationality than Anglo-Saxon; for all are not Celtic TRUTH AXD FICTION. 207 that speak with a brogue, and all are not Saxon that are guile- less of the letter h. On the other hand there is more Saxon and Noise blood flowing in the veins of Irishmen than is generally supposed. As already noticed, Ireland at the very earliest period contained a dark and a fair race, which there is every reason to believe are identical with the dark and the fair races of Britain. When the Irish first became known to history they spoke a Gaelic dialect; and though for many centuries Scandinavians made continual incursions upon and settlements among them, the Teutonic languages took no more root among the Irish than they did among the French. " How much Scandinavian blood was introduced there is no evidence to show. But, after the conquest of Ireland by Henry II., the English people, consisting in part of the descendants of Cymric speakers, and in part of the descendants of Teutonic speakers, made good their footing in the eastern half of the island, as the Saxons and Danes made good theirs in England ; and they did their best to complete the parallel by attempting the extirpation of the Gaelic-speaking Irish, and they succeeded to a considerable extent. A large part of eastern Ireland is now peopled by men who are substan- tially English by descent, and the English language has spread over the land far beyond the limits of English blood. . . . What, then, is the value of the ethnological difference between the Englishman of the western half of England and the Irishman of the eastern half of Ireland ? For what reason does the one deserve the name of ' Celt ' and not the other ? And, further, if we turn to the inhabitants of the western half of Ireland, why should the term ' Celts ' be applied to them more than to the inhabitants of Cornwall'.' And if the name is applicable to the one as justly as to the other, why should not intelligence, perse- verance, thrift, industry, sobriety, respect for law, he admitted to be Celtic virtues '! And why should we not seek for the cause of their absence in something else than the idle pretext of 'Celtic blood' '? I have been unable to meet with any answers to these questions," concludes the late Professor T. II. Huxley. There is scarcely any branch of knowledge of the past with which arclueolngv may not claim to concern itself; and even if the term be taken in its narrower sense, as the study only of the history of the outward and material life of man in past ages, and especially of the extant works of human ingenuity, yet even the historical limits of the subject are only bounded by the first appearance of man on the earth. Until a comparatively recent period the study of Irish archaeology was in a deplorable state ; travellers along" the road to antiquarian knowledge were beguiled at everv step from the true track by false guides who, like " Will- o'-the-wisp," led them aimlessly about; yet the old school of 208 THE BORDERLAND OF HISTORY. writers, whom it is the custom to sneer at, should be judged, like other men in similar circumstances, according to the light of their time. Thus while we need pay but little heed to their arguments, deductions, and assumption of learning, we must acknowledge that we are indebted to them for many most useful and explanatory facts that might otherwise have escaped being recorded. Of all the writers of the old school, General Vallancey is the one most to be admired and the least to be blamed. He wrote as he believed, and in all sincerity, as a sympathetic writer exclaims : — " Good, worthy, brave, old antiquarian : peace be to his ashes. He had an Irish heart, although he chanced to be born on the wrong side of St. George's Channel ; and an Irish head, too, if the making of a blunder, now and then, be deemed a true characteristic of our country ; but antiquarians in England can make blunders, too, only their blunders are not blunders, they are ' erroneous conclusions.' " Almost always, at the birth of a new study, zealous votaries undertake much laborious research, which has to be gone over afresh as soon as systematized work is commenced. Not only has the student proper to undo the futile work that obstructs scientific inquiry, but he has, after pulling down the edifice, to attempt a reconstruction. The very fact of great errors having been com- mitted should make us proceed with the more caution, especially in forming our own judgment. The unweighed theories of the old school of archaeologists hardly require refutation, nevertheless the emotional basis on which they rested must be demolished with a firm but, it must be admitted, reluctant hand ; and though the path be strewn, like that of the iconoclasts of old, with shattered fragments of broken idols, the remains will be found not worth the trouble of an attempted restoration. A new structure must be erected ; for an attempt to utilise too much of the old material would but mar the archaeological harmony of the rising edifice. Dr. Petrie's essay on the origin of Irish Bound Towers, a model for archaeological writers, created a literary revolution, yet, as is the case with too many other Irish writers, the amount of published matter which he has left represents most inadequately his great knowledge of archaeology. To the overthrow of romantic theories and fanciful speculations he marshalled solid arguments and a bristling array of facts, and conclusively proved that the Round Towers of Ireland, instead of being Pagan temples of the remotest antiquity, were erected by Christian ecclesiastics, in comparatively modern times, for various purposes, but certainly for keeps, or places of protection, against sudden attacks from predatory foes. The present school of archeology is before all things praeti- TRUTH AND FICTION. 209 cal, and is pre-eminently that of the spade. The spade is a great solver of problems and destroyer of fantastical theories ; it must ultimately unfold, in its entirety, primitive man's ideas regarding the dead, of the future state, of burial customs, cere- monies, and the institutions to which they gave rise. It is precisely at this early stage that the spade has much to tell ; for where historical and legendary traditions are absent, the ultimate appeal must be to it. The trend of all modern science is to essay to recover from caves, middens, and other such like sites, precise acquaintance with the manners and methods of life of the men of long past ages. Need it be stated that, as far as it has gone, investigation on every side has proved fruitful. We have, to some extent, solved the secret of the Eld. The knowledge that to-day we possess, and at which we have long ceased to wonder, would, a few years ago, have been deemed a mere dream ; but there are many more secrets of the past belonging to our land yet unravelled because traces of them are very faint, and it is to the examination of these that we should direct our attention. The mass of literature which has appeared on the subject of the name and meaning of the ancient designation of Ireland would fill a goodly sized volume : in some of the earliest manu- scripts the name is written Eriu. One legend, which on the face of it appears to bear the impress of truthfulness, alleges that, at some period either prior to or after the Deluge, Ireland was discovered by fishermen who had been blown out to sea in their skiff ; this was at least a natural and not improbable manner of discovering a new island. Whether or not Ireland was known to the Phoenicians is a subject of controversy amongst antiquarians. Even had these energetic traders been acquainted with the island, it is more than probable that they would have tried to conceal their knowledge, as they would have been unwilling to allow other maritime nations to discover the sources from which they drew their riches. We have the well-known and hackneyed story of the wily Pho 1 - nician shipmaster who, observing that, on his voyage to Britain, he was followed by a Roman galley which watched his course, deliberately ran his vessel on a shoal, on which his pursuer also struck ; the Phoenician, either a better or more fortunate seaman, floated off his craft, but the Roman galley went to pieces. The earliest writers of Greece and Rome who are supposed to refer to Ireland, have spoken of it in a manner so vague, that very little can be learned from their words ; even if Ireland may be identified as Thule, as the "sacred Island," or the poetic " Island of the Blest," in which the golden age of innocence and purity still continued to flourish, after all the rest of the world had become corrupt : but the following lines from Claudian are 210 THE BORDERLAND OF HISTORY. conclusive as to the designation of Thule, at any rate in the poet's time— not being applicable to Ireland:—" The Orkneys dripped (with blood) when the Saxons were put to flight _; Thule grew warm with the gore of the Picts ; icy Ireland bewailed the heaps of (slain) Scoti."* Eufus Festus Avienus, a poetical writer of the fourth cen- tury, a.d., in his Be Oris Maritim., professes to have derived his information from a Carthaginian source ; and he is, it is alleged, the only ancient author as yet known, who specially applied the epithet of " The Sacred Island " to Ireland. His account is curious ; he states that at a distance of two days' sail from the (Estrumnides (the Cassite rides of the Greeks, supposed to be the present Scilly Islands) lay an extensive land called " The Sacred Island," inhabited by the nation of the Hibernians. The text may be thus translated : — " This isle is sacred narn'd, by all the ancients, From times remotest in the womb of Chronos. This isle, which rises o'er the wares of ocean, Is covered with a sod of rich luxuriance. And peopled, far and wide, by the Hiberni."t " It would be a very melancholy consideration," remarks O'Donovan, " if this sacred island of the Hesperides, the abode of the Pious, and the Elysian Fields of the Blest, should turn out, when the reality became known, to have been the abode of incestuous cannibals." Although we may be inclined to smile at the small amount of geographical knowledge possessed by the ancients, yet they were, perhaps, on the whole, better informed than were the ordinary run of Irish peasantry at the close of the last, and the commencement of the present century. O'Donovan relates how his uncle was unable to make his listeners comprehend the theories respecting the laws of motion, attraction, and gravita- tion, or understand that it was the earth that moved, and that the sun was comparatively stationary. The generality of man- kind, for a long time, supposed that the earth was a flat plain, surrounded by the sea, and that the sky was a kind of roof from which heavenly bodies were suspended as lamps. Tyler, in his Maduenmt Saxone f uso Oroades, incaluit Pictorum sanguine Thule, Scotorum cuniulos flevit R'laeialis Ierne." Ast hinc iluobus in Sacrain, sic Insulam Dixere prisei, solibus cursus rati est. Hajo inter undas multum cespitem jacit, Eamque late gens Hibernorum colit." TRUTH AND FICTION. 211 Kurlij Hktory of Mnnkiwl, states that the Polynesians thought, like so many other peoples ancient and modern, that the sky descended at the horizon and enclosed the earth. They called foreigners " heaven -bursters," as having broken in from another and outside world. The sky is to most savages merely the earth on high. " There are holes or windows through the roof, or fir- mament, where the rain comes through, and if you climb high enough you can get through and visit the dwellers above, who look, and talk, and live very much in the same way as the people upon earth. As above the flat earth, so below it, there are regions inhabited by men, or man-like creatures, who sometimes come up to the surface and sometimes are visited by the inhabitants of the upper earth. We live as it were upon the ground floor of a great house, with upper stories rising one over another above us, and cellars down below." The gravest objection made by the Irish peasantry to the " new learning " of the eighteenth century was the late date of its discovery, and the improbability that the Almighty would have permitted such great truths to remain so long unrevealed to man- kind. The peasantry asserted that the new science was but the dream of visionary and irreligious madmen ; they stoutly main- tained that the earth was not a globe, but was flat, and in all probability extended to a distance simply immeasurable. With regard to Commodore Anson's discoveries,* the peasantry argued that he did not sail round the earth, but only up and down the various oceans, and returned to England after having described a circle, not in girth round the earth — for that was impossible — but on its flat surface, in the same way that an animal might walk round the flat surface of a field, but cannot pass under it. This they contended was the way Commodore Anson sailed round the earth. They also firmly believed that, under ground, there were oceans of fresh water extending in various directions as the seas do on the surface, that the upper crust of the earth was of various degrees of thickness, but that it was very thin in some places, and has been frequently broken through by the action of the water, as also by the spells of sorcerers ; that there are oceans of fresh water in the sky which would assuredly inundate the earth were they not kept suspended by God, who occasionally per- mits them to descend in the form of rain to fertilize the earth, and that (rod deigns to pour it down gently or violently, or with- holds it altogether for a season, according to man's deserts. * It is surprising how, occasionally, tin- span of two lives bridges an almost incredible space. A ladv of the county Sligo. who died in the year 1897, was acquainted with one of the officers who sailed with Captain Cook in his voyage of discovei-v, 17fi8-l771. 212 2 HE BORDERLAND OF HISTORY. The legend of an island or of a continent submerged by one of these great catastrophes is still preserved in the folk lore of almost every European nation ; for legends of the Eld and modern scientific speculation alike abound in suggestions regarding great islands and even continents once teeming with terrestrial life, but now covered with ocean billows. It has been remarked that whereas the Pacific Ocean is of great geological antiquity, it is now one of the most unquestioned facts of the world's history, that large parts of the Atlantic are geologically quite modern. " What lands may have been thickly populated, for untold ages, and subsequently have disappeared and left no sign above the waters it is of course impossible for us to say ; but unless we are to make the wholly unjustifiable assumption that no dry land rose elsewhere when our present dry land sank, there must be half-a- dozen Atalantises beneath the waves of the various oceans of the world," observes Professor Huxley. Some hold the belief that this submerged continent was the cradle of the human race. That there some tribe allied to but not identical with the present anthropoid species of apes, gradually developed into men — at first but a step removed from the brutes : then slowly advancing in the arts which characterize man. " Ancient traditions, when tested by the severe processes of modern investigation, commonly enough fade away into mere dreams; but it is singular how often the dream turns out to have been a half-waking one, pre- saging a reality. Ovid foreshadowed the discoveries of the geologist ; the Atalantis was an imagination, but Columbus found a Western World." The primitive inhabitants of the Canary Islands are said to be the remnant 'of the ancient race who peopled the drowned land of Atalantis. It was not until the fifteenth century that these isolated and forgotten remnants of a supposed lost continent were rediscovered. Their inhabitants were then living in a Stone Age ; they had no implements but hatchets made of obsidian, and wooden darts with the points hardened in the fire. O'Flaherty states that the phantom island of Hy-Brasil — marked on many old charts near the west coast of Ireland — was, in his time, " often visible." The subject has inspired several poets with beautiful fancies which have been woven into pathetic ballads. Gerald Griffin describes it thus : — " On the ocean that hollows the rocks where ye dwell A shadowy land has appeared, as they tell ;' Men thought it a region of sunshine and rest, And they called it lly-Brasil, the isle of the Blest. From year unto year on the ocean's blue rim, The beautiful spectre showed lovely and dim ; The golden clouds curtained the deep where it lay, And it looked like an Eden away, far away ! PHANTOM LANDS. 213 " A peasant, who heard of the wonderful tale, In the breeze of the Orient loosened his sail ; From Ara, the holy, he turned to the west, For though Ara was holy, Hy-Brasil was West. He heard not the voices that called from the shore — He heard not the rising wind's menacing roar ; Home, kindred, and safety he left on that day, And he sped to Hy-Brasil, away, far away ! " Mom rose on the deep, and that Shadowy Isle, O'er the faint rim of distance, reflected its smile ; Noon burned on the wan.-, and that shadowy shore Seemed lovelily distant and faint as before ; Lone evening came down on the wanderer's track, And to Ara again he looked timidly back ; Oli ! far on the vei-ge of the ocean it lay, Yet the isle of the blest was away, far away ! " Hash dreamer return ! 0, ye winds of the main, Bear him back to his own peaceful Ara again. Hash fool ! for a vision of fanciful bliss, To barter thy calm life of labour and peace. The warning of reason was spoken in vain ; He never re-visited Ara again ! Night fell on the deep amidst tempest and spray, And he died on the waters, away, far away ! Many attempts were made to discover this fabled island. Leslie, of Glaslough, described as a " wise man and a great scholar," was so imbued with belief in its real existence that he solicited a grant of the isle from Charles I. Edmond Ludlow, the celebrated republican, escaped to the Continent in a vessel chartered at Limerick, to sail in search of Hy-Brasil ; and so firm then was belief in the actual existence of this enchanted island, that the captain of the ship was allowed to depart unquestioned. A rare work entitled La X Canxxrict i-'iu. (57. Chart from La Navigation V hide Oriental, 1609, on which the two Islands of Brasil and Brandon are marked. disenchantment wrought by the lighting of the fire was but temporary; that the "godly ministers and others" have met with the fate of Ossian of old, but doubtless when the day of their release arrives we shall hear of strange discoveries. The pamphlet, purporting to give an account of the discovery of Hy-Brasil, obtained a good circulation in London in 1675. The existence of a land which would restore the aged to the full vigour of youth was of world-wide belief, but all attempts to dis- cover this land necessarily ended in disappointment; neverthe- less, the strange spirit of adventure thus engendered, laid open to PHANTOM LANDS. 215 view countries which might otherwise have remained for centuries unknown. A country of indefinite magnitude, called Brasil, is marked on maps made before or about the time of Columbus. It is lvpri'si'iiti'd south of another island which, it is thought, repre- sents the supposed position of the Scandinavian settlements of Yinclaiid; for, although we designnte the American continent 216 THE BORDERLAND OF HISTORY. the ' ' New World," it was apparently known to those ancient rovers of the sea. O'Flaherty mentions the appearance, in 1161, of "fantastical ships" in the harbour of Gal way sailing against the wind ; and Hardiman, editor of the above work, remembered having seen a well-defined aerial phenomenon of the same kind from a hill near Croaghpatrick in Mayo, on a serene evening in the autumn Fig. 69. Sketch Map, showing the approximate position of the Porcupine and Rockall Banks with regard to Ireland. of 1798. Hundreds who also witnessed the scene looked upon it as supernatural, but soon afterwards it was ascertained that the illusion had been produced by the reflection of the fleet of Admiral Warren which was then in pursuit of a French squadron off the west coast of Ireland. In like manner may not the optical illusion noted in the Irish annals as occurring in the year 1161, in the harbour of Galway, have been produced by the reflection of a distant fleet of Northern war-galleys. PHANTOM LANDS. 217 Belief in the existence of Hy-Brasil doubtless gave rise to the traditional transatlantic voyage of St. Brendan (spelled Brandion on the map, fig. 67), an adventurous ecclesiastic, styled " the Navigator," who passed seven years away from Ireland on a distant island. St. Brendan has been styled " the Sindbad of clerical romance " ; and so firm a hold of men's minds had the exploits of this Christian Ulysses at one time acquired, that islands, supposed to have been discovered by him, became sub- jects of treaty. It is not improbable that, at a later period, his adventures stimulated navigators to attempt discoveries across the western ocean. St. Brendan sailed about on a huge rock, which he finally abandoned on the coast of Donegal. St. Declan's rock may still be seen on the strand in Ardmore bay. This " boat" is computed to weigh about three tons. It navigated itself, on the sur- face of the sea, from Rome, carrying, by way of cargo, nine bells, and the curious ship reached land with its load most opportunely, just as St. Declan was in dire want of a bell to celebrate Mass. There is a curious ms. on medical subjects in the Royal Irish Academy, traditionally believed to have been originally obtained by a native of Connemara, transported by supernatural means to the enchanted isle of Hy-Brasil, where he received full instructions with regard to all diseases, their treatment and cure, and was presented, on leaving, with the ms. to guide him in his medical practice. So late as the year 1753, there is in The Ulster Mis- cellany a curious satire entitled "A voyage to O'Brazal, a sub- marine island lying off the coast of Ireland." O'Flaherty, writing in 1084, states that : " From the isles of Aran and the west continent often appears visible that enchanted island called O'Brasil, and in Irish Beg-Ara, or the Lesser Aran, set down in cards of navigation ; whether it be real and firm land, kept hidden by special ordinance of God, as the terrestial para- dise, or else some illusion of airy clouds appearing on the surface of the sea, or the craft of evil spirits — is more than our judg- ments can sound out." The Rev. Luke Connolly, writing in 1K16, states that he received minute descriptions of extraordinary Fttt/i M«r