[324] Elton's "Origins," p. 169; quoted from Dion Cassius.
[325] Fuller, as quoted by Kingsley.
[326] Scots Magazine, 1823, Vol. 13, pp. 424-6.
[328] This is variously spelt "Aticam," "Styticam," and "Tithicam" (Petrie's Monumenta historica Britannica); and the solutions are as various as the spellings. If by "Tithicam vallem" is denoted the valley of the River Teith, this variant appears preferable to any; and the district referred to would be the whole of the Teith or Forth basin, which at that period was probably a mixture of land and water,—a northern Bedford Level, or fen-country.
[329] Gildas' "De Excidio Britanniæ," Stevenson's edition, London, 1838, pp. 24-25.
[330] Elton's "Origins," p. 169. The first sentence is from Herodian.
[331] This paper forms the last of "A Collection of such Papers as were communicated to the Royal Society, Referring to some Curiosities in Ireland. Dublin: Printed by and for George Grierson, at the Two Bibles in Essex-Street, M, DCC, XXVI." (The "Collection" forms Part II. of "A Natural History of Ireland," issued from the same press.)
[332] Either this describes a slab which was subsequently destroyed or carried away, or it relates to the carved slab fixed in the ground below the doorway (as portrayed by Mr. Wakeman, at p. 121, ante).
[333] In the volume already referred to as containing Llhwyd's description, and other papers.
[334] A slip for "south."
[335] The writer has evidently overlooked his previously expressed belief that the whole "mount" was artificial; or else he has assumed that the builders first raised a solid "pyramid" of stones, and then burrowed into it; which is obviously absurd.
[336] This tract was published in 1725. The "young gentleman's" illustrations have been re-produced in the present volume, in the plates facing pp. 124 and 126.
[337] Dr. Molyneux assumes throughout that such "mounts" were erected by the Danes; and this origin is very often ascribed to them by Irish and Hebridean tradition. But Lady Ferguson's observation that the "Danes" and the "Dananns" or "Tuatha De Danann," are evidently confounded in the popular memory, is worth considering here. It is clear, at any rate, that the "Danes" of the year 861 who plundered those Boyne mounds cannot have been the people who reared them.
[338] Of all these terms the "shallow tray" (or "saucer," if a new one may be added) is the most appropriate. From the plan of the Dowth mound (ante, p. 138) it will be seen that the central chamber there also has one of those large stone "trays." No satisfactory solution has yet been offered of the purposes for which these "trays" were made.
[339] Described in the Edinburgh Courant of January 6, 1886.
[340] Antiq. Amer. p. 182n.
[341] P. 43, note a.
[342] Pages 180-1. It ought to be added that the version which is given on p. 149 has svartir ("swarthy" or "black") instead of smáir. But whichever of these versions has the correct word, the small stature of the Skrælings is beyond dispute.
[343] Page 162, note a. The account above referred to is given at pp. 161-2, and again at pp. 182-3.
[344] According to the version on p. 162. That of p. 182 makes both names feminine, and indicates that the boys were not sons of one mother. A footnote on p. 162 gives many variants of these names, e.g., Ægi, Ovægi, etc., Weihilldi, Veinhildi, etc.
[345] That, at any rate, is the locality agreed upon by those who have tracked the routes of the Northmen.
[346] Op. cit., p. 43.