N

Notwithstanding the number and variety of sepulchral remains in Ireland, it is strange that the rites and ceremonies attending the disposal of the dead in prehistoric times have not received from Irish archæologists the systematic study they deserve. Unfortunately many of the burial sites have, in the past, been treated in a manner that has left but little data of any scientific value for expert use. The number discovered, of cinerary urns containing human remains has been very great, and establish, beyond a doubt, the fact of the general custom of cremation. Most of these urns have been destroyed, either through the ignorance and stupidity of the discoverers, or the carelessness of the subsequent owners.

Under all human conditions it is necessary that some method should be adopted for the disposal of the dead; but there can be no doubt that the religious sentiment has ever been the predominating factor in all burial customs. The earliest method of disposing of the dead was by simple interment; and even when cremation became general, the practice was never entirely abandoned. Both forms may occur in the same mound; but the general result is that the inhumed remains are found at the bottom, and the cremated remains nearer the surface, which shows these were later in point of time. Where, however, the earliest interments have been burnt bones, inhumed bodies, as at Ballon Hill, may form secondary burials. The result of Canon Greenwell’s explorations in the barrows of Yorkshire showed that out of 379 burials 301 were by inhumation, and in 78 cremated remains were found. Exploration in other parts of England gave similar results.57 Out of 297 interments in Derby, Stafford, and York, Mr. Bateman found that 124 were of burnt bones; 163 were of ordinary burials, of which latter the bodies in 97 had been placed in a contracted or sitting position. Sir R. C. Hoare found that out of 267 interments in Wiltshire, 214 were of cremated remains, 53 of inhumed, of which the skeletons of 15 were found contracted. In the district of Glasinac is a vast collection of tumuli. ‘Their total number,’ says Dr. Munro, ‘is estimated at 20,000​—​an estimation which is now regarded as coming far short of the actual number​—​of which about 1000 have been explored.... The builders of these burial mounds practised both inhumation and cremation, the former being in the proportion of 60 per cent., and the latter 30 per cent., while the remaining 10 per cent. were of a mixed character, i.e., contained both kinds of interments.’58 In the Hallstatt cemetery in the Noric Alps (which has given its name as a distinctive term to an archæological period, owing to the importance of its ‘grave-goods’), tombs to the number of 993 were examined as far back as 1868. Of these ‘525 contained simple interments; 455 had incinerated human remains; and in 13 the bodies had only been partially burnt before being interred.’59 Great quantities of implements, domestic articles, and objects for personal use and adornment have been found in both classes of graves.

At Ballon Hill, near Tullow, County Carlow, a number of cinerary urns and great quantities of cremated remains were discovered in 1853, evidently of the pure Bronze Period. This spot has not been identified with any of the great burial-places mentioned in early Irish records. Three skeletons were found a couple of feet beneath an immense boulder, ‘huddled together in a small space not above 2 feet in length.’ At a considerable depth below these, and beneath four granite blocks, a bed of charcoal was reached, containing broken urns of four different patterns. Many perfect urns were found, some of which are among the finest examples yet discovered in Ireland. The urns were placed in stone cists, and also in the earth without any trace of an enclosure. There was evidence of great fires, while deep pits and beds of charcoal were laid bare, showing the extent to which cremation and the attendant funeral rites had been carried out at this spot. The only weapon found was a single dagger blade of bronze.60 Carrowmore furnishes an instance of a mixed interment, where the inhumed remains were found over the calcined bones. ‘At the lowest level,’ says Colonel Wood-Martin, ‘of the side-stones of the cist a floor or flagging of calpy limestone slabs was found. It was on this​—​which overlay the undisturbed “till”​—​that the body or bodies of the primary interment had been originally cremated, portions of the floor showing marks of fire; and semi-burnt wood was found inlaid, with the layer of calcined bones above. It was plainly evident from the floors and burnt bones extending in “pockets” under the side-stones of the cist, that the latter had been constructed over the funeral pyre, and that the calcined remains were the primary interment, and that they had not been placed within an already completed chamber.’61

In a small tumulus at Dysart, County Westmeath, Dr. Dillon Kelly discovered, in 1876, two kistvaens containing skeletons in a contracted position. One was of an irregular pentagon shape, the longest diameter being 3 feet 9 inches, and the depth 2 feet 3 inches. In this there were three animal teeth; and each chamber contained a fine urn of baked clay. Cremated remains were found on the covering stones and round the cists. The burning seems to have taken place over the inhumed bodies, whose heads may, from their sitting position, have come into almost immediate contact with the covering stones. The supposition receives additional weight from the baked look of the tops of the skulls, both of which presented such an appearance over the whole of their vertical aspects.62

Urn burials on a larger scale were found at the Hill of Rath, near Drogheda, in 1841. Here remains of some 150 to 200 urns were discovered in an inverted position, each covering a quantity of human bones. They were placed in the earth without any protection, and were in consequence mostly broken by the pressure of the earth. Singly and in small groups urns containing incinerated remains have been found in most parts of Ireland. Worsaae was of opinion that many of the mounds or barrows were places of family sepulture, and that cists containing urns with burial remains found in open fields were those used by the poorer class who had no burial mound in which to place their dead.63

We have ample evidence of the antiquity and general practice of cremation in Europe. It was the custom of the Achæans, as Homer tells us, at least 1000 B.C. The remains of Achilles ‘were wash’d in wine and given fit unction,’ and, with the bones of Patroclus, placed in a ‘two-ear’d bowl of gold.’ This was placed in a grave, and over it was raised a ‘matchless sepulchre’ high above the Hellespont. The body of Hector was burned on a mighty pile of wood, and the remains treated with similar observances. Recent archæological opinion ascribes the origin of cremation to the Celtic tribes inhabiting Central Europe. It is urged that the custom would not have arisen among nomadic tribes, but rather among a people living in a land covered with woods and forests. Tacitus says that the Germans ‘simply observe the custom of burning the bodies of illustrious men with certain kinds of wood. They do not heap garments or spice on the pyre. The arms of the dead man, and in some cases his horse, are consigned to the fire. A turf mound forms his tomb. Monuments, with their lofty elaborate splendour, they reject as oppressive to the dead.’ In Denmark cremation became a general practice; and in Scandinavia it was an essential religious custom in the worship of Odin. Professor Montelius thinks that the evidence favours the view that in the north of Europe the Stone Age ended rather before than after 1500 B.C. During it the bodies were always buried unburnt in a recumbent or sitting position, and, as in the British Isles, urns and implements are found with the burial remains.64

The Gauls, as we know from Cæsar, burned some of the servants, slaves, and favourite animals of the dead chief, or warrior, in celebrating their funeral rites. Cremation was not practised in Asia Minor, Phœnicia, or Palestine. The Egyptians embalmed their dead, for they believed that as long as the body existed, so long did the soul exist in the spirit world. The Scythians, as Herodotus tells us, did not burn, but buried their dead. They embalmed the body of their king; and ‘they strangle and bury with him one of his concubines, his cook, cup-bearer, groom, lackey, his messenger, and some of his horses, firstlings of all his other possessions, and some golden cups.’ Over all was raised a mound; and ‘this Scythian custom, in its late Greek and Roman imitations, explains the countless tumuli which travellers see to this day in Bulgaria, in the Dobrudscha, in Wallachia, Moldavia, and Southern Russia, as far as the Crimea.’65 The Thracians either burned or buried their dead, held feasts and games, and raised tumuli. In Illyria and in Bosnia, as we have stated, inhumation and cremation were observed at the same time. Historical evidence goes to show that the Thracians and Illyrians were conquered by the Celtic tribes from the Alps; ‘and as the culture of the early Iron Age in the Danubian region corresponds to that of the Celtic Hallstatt, there is a probability that the practice of cremation, which makes its appearance in the early Iron Age in Bosnia, and which was practised by some Thracians in the fifth century B.C., was introduced by the Celtic conquerors who lived with the Illyrians and Thracian tribes.’66 Mr. Ridgeway, having carefully considered the methods of disposing of the dead in the countries bordering on the Mediterranean, finds that, without exception, ‘inhumation, or some other method of disposing of the body without the use of fire, was universal in early times, and continued so over most of the area down to the Christian era.’ His conclusion is ‘that cremation did not pass into Greece from either Libya, Egypt, or Asia Minor, nor did it originate among the Pelasgians of the islands, nor yet in the mainland.’67 Whether the practice arose among the Celtic tribes of Central Europe, or was adopted by them, it passed with other customs and things westwards and northwards along the trade routes, and its adoption in Britain and Ireland was merely a matter of time.

Man’s belief in a spiritual existence was, as we have already pointed out, the cause of that respect for the dead, which has shown itself in the countless sepulchral monuments scattered all over the world from prehistoric times down to our own days. To house the dead and hold the spirit entombed was the idea that once prevailed, and does so still among savage tribes. Immense cromlechs, cairns, and mounds of earth were raised above the dead, not only to house the spirit fittingly, but to prevent its return to earth; and strange customs still survive among primitive races to puzzle the dead should they attempt to return to their old habitations. It was a belief, too, among the Celtic tribes, as it has been among other races, that the spirit of the dead chief would keep watch and ward over them, and hence the burial-mound was sometimes raised close to or within the ring-wall of the camp. We are told that Eoghan Bel, King of Connaught, having received his death-wound in the Battle of Sligo, ordered that his grave should be dug in the side of his rath, and his body buried ‘with his red spear in his hand and his face to the north.’68 The site overlooked the pass traversed by the Ulstermen in their accustomed raids; and the burial was so effective in terrifying these foes that they made a special incursion, exhumed the body, and buried it with its face downwards on the shores of Lough Gill. King Laoghaire69 was buried, as we have already mentioned, in the south-east external side of the rampart of Rath Laoghaire, Tara, with his weapons upon him, and ‘his face towards the Lagenians in the attitude of fighting with them.’70 (See p. 50.)

The dead were believed to require servants, food, raiment, weapons, and a home such as they did in life; and hence the quantity of ‘grave-goods’ of early races, so important to the archæologist, discovered in many burial-mounds and tombs. Small fictilia, which are considered food-vessels by some, are commonly found with body burials, the offering of food and libations to the dead being a primitive custom, which still exists in many heathen lands, and has its survival in some Christian practices down to our own time. When inhumed, the dead chief was laid in the grave, or within the chambered tumulus, clad in full apparel, with his ornaments and weapons, and servants to attend him. We have references to the burial of warriors with their weapons in Irish MSS. Dr. Sullivan quotes the following:​—​‘Dearg Damhsa, the druid, made a capacious yellow-sodded Fert for Mogh Neid on the plain, and he buried him in it with his arms, and with his clothes, and with his armour.’ And from the Book of Lecan he cites this:​—​‘He killed Feradach after that, the good son of Rocuirp; according to rule, and until his death, he brandished his arms which are under the Duma of the beautiful Carn. Feradach was killed at the Battle of Carn Feradaig, and this here is Feradach’s Fert.’71

In cremation the old neolithic practice was changed with the newer conception of the relation between the soul and body. This belief was that the soul could not pass into the spirit world until the body had been destroyed by burning. Total separation was necessary, and the quickest and most effective method was through the medium of fire. The practice was probably an evolutionary one, as in France the process of the natural destruction of the flesh from the bones, before the latter were burned, seems in the first instance to have been adopted. Until the body was destroyed the spirit haunted its local habitation; and the Homeric idea, shared by the Celt and Norse, was that, when the earthly tabernacle was consumed, the soul departed for ever to the world of shades.

Cremation was very probably confined to the chiefs, heroes, or other important persons, as from the very difficulties attending burning the ordinary practice of interment was doubtless adopted for the rank and file of the tribe. Inhumation was practically universal all over Europe until the close of the Stone Age; but all through the Bronze Age both customs were practised, and in the west of Europe interment remained the prevailing custom of disposing of the dead. In the north of Europe, however, cremation reached a far higher development than elsewhere. In remote districts of Spain, France, and in the British Isles the sepulchres of the Stone Age long lingered; and in the tombs and chambered cairns cremated remains have been found of the later Bronze Period.

Though there are numerous references in Irish MSS. to burials in early times, on the subject of cremation they are silent. We have one remarkable passage, however, which has frequently been quoted and commented on, as it seems to refer to this custom. In the Book of Ballymote is the following account of the death of Fiachra, son of Eochaidh Muighmhedhoin, and brother to Niall of the Nine Hostages: ‘Then the men of Munster gave him battle in Caenraigne, and Maidhi Meascoragh wounded Fiachra mortally in the battle. Nevertheless, the men of Munster and the Erneans were defeated by dint of fighting, and suffered great slaughter. Then Fiachra carried away fifty hostages out of Munster, together with his tribute in full, and set forth on his march to Temor. Now, when he had reached Forraidh in Uibh Maccuais, in Meath, Fiachra died of his wound. His Leacht (grave) was made, and his Fert (mound) was raised, and his Cluicht Caintech72 were ignited, and his Ogam name was written, and the hostages which had been brought from the south were buried alive round Fiachra’s Fert, that it might be a reproach to the Momonians for ever, and that it might be a trophy over them.’ Though we have but this single recorded instance in Irish Annals of human sacrifice​—​that of strangers at the burial of a chief​—​it must not be regarded merely in the light of revenge for the death of their leader. The reproach here cast on the men of Munster followed a principle common wherever similar burial customs have prevailed. According to the practice usually observed at the burial of a chief, the attendants and slaves who were to accompany Fiachra to the spirit world would have full funeral rites conferred upon them. But the Momonian hostages were thus destroyed, so that their souls might keep perpetual guard around Fiachra’s fert, that covered his sepulchre of stone.

Urns.​—​As we have seen, urns are among the objects commonly found with the remains of the dead, whether inhumed or cremated. The Irish fictilia are usually classified as food-vessels, cinerary urns, and incense-cups. In Great Britain a fourth class is known, called ‘drinking-cups,’ but none of these have been found among burial remains in Ireland. The cinerary urns vary in size and ornamentation, and are found from 10 to 25 inches in height; one of the latter size is in the Grainger collection in the Belfast Museum. They are usually of narrow base, and reach their widest above the middle; they contract towards the mouth, which has an overhanging rim; this is sometimes broad enough to contain all the ornamentation on the urn. This consists of chevron, lozenge, or other archaic designs impressed into the clay. A good many of the richer description present mouldings, bosses, &c., in relief. It is difficult to form an exact opinion as to the manner in which the more highly decorated and larger urns were manufactured. They generally present an outer surface, some eighth or so of an inch in depth, composed apparently of well-kneaded compost of yellow or buff-coloured clay, which exhibits but few or no traces of the action of fire. Underneath this envelope is a black, highly-fused mass of coarser composition, which forms what may be called the strength of the vessel. It is a curious fact that the majority of cinerary vases exhibit upon the interior indications of an intense action of fire, while in many examples the outer surface would seem to be simply sun-baked. From a careful examination of a considerable number of urns found in Irish tumuli and sandhills, it seems to us that at least three stages in the process of their formation are indicated. First, the vessel appears to have been fashioned of a somewhat coarse, gritty material; it was then baked in a strong fire, and burnt almost to blackness. It would seem, upon cooling, to have been overlaid with a fine matter, generally buff or cream-coloured, sufficiently soft to receive impressions readily from a tool formed of wood, horn, bone, stone, or possibly of bronze or iron. Strips of light material, like that of the coating or veneer already referred to, were then laid on, just, to use a homely illustration, as a modern cook will embellish a pie-crust. The overlayings, while still soft, were then indented with patterns, and the work either dried in the sun or presented to the influence of a moderate degree of heat from a fire of wood or peat.

All sepulchral urns were hand-made and invariably unglazed. They have been found to contain portions of the bones of a human body, sometimes of more than one, in a highly calcined state; and there is reason to believe that occasionally some relics, also burnt, most notably those of the dog, had been inurned along with the remains of man. Arrow-heads and knives of flint, pins of bone or bronze, glass and stone beads, rings of jet, and in one case, at least, a beautiful knife or dagger of bronze, have formed, with the bones, portion of the contents of these vessels; charcoal and particles of half-consumed wood constitute the remainder. Sometimes the urn is found placed mouth downward, and, as at Drumnakilly, surmounting a cup-hollow; but in general it stands on its base, and is covered by a thin flat stone or slate. A unique and very beautiful example, preserved in the National Museum, is furnished with a veritable lid. Though generally presenting the appearance of a cinerary urn, this relic may have been a food-vessel.

The vessels considered to have been receptacles for food are usually found associated with inhumation, and are supposed to have contained food for the spirits in their journey to the world of shades. Though they vary greatly in ornamentation, yet they are better made and more richly decorated than the British urns of a similar class. They are somewhat globular in form, and are well represented in the figure on next page, which shows a specimen discovered in connection with the cromlech-like tomb in the Phœnix Park, already described. This vessel, with some antiquities of the same ‘find,’ may be seen in the National Museum. One other example (p. 149), remarkable for the elaborate character of its ornamentation, is from Ballymote, County Sligo.

The so-called ‘Incense Cups’ found in Ireland are, like their British prototypes, invariably of very small size. They are usually undecorated; the rims are sometimes pierced with four or more apertures, as if for suspension. In Ireland vessels of this kind are usually found enclosed in urns of the larger and richer class. There is no evidence to support the theory that they were used as vessels for holding ‘incense,’ or as ‘chafers’ containing burning coals for a short time. They are now generally considered as cinerary urns in which the remains of infants were placed. Perhaps the most beautiful specimen yet discovered in the British Isles was found near Bagenalstown in 1847, which contained the burnt bones of an infant or very young child. ‘It was embedded in a much larger and ruder urn, filled with fragments of adult human bones.’ The smaller urn, when reversed, ‘presents,’ says Wilde, ‘both in shape and ornamentation all the characteristics of the Echinus, so strongly marked that one is led to believe the artist took the shell of that animal for his model.’ It is 2⅛ inches high, and 3¾ across the outer margin of the lip, which is beautifully ornamented, and has the rare addition of a handle. The body is divided into a number of upright sections, all elaborately worked in a variety of patterns. A rope-like ornament surrounds the neck, and the under-portion of the lip has an accurately cut chevron.

OGAM STONES.

The passage we have quoted from the Book of Ballymote (p. 142) is one of many from Irish MSS. which refer to Ogam Stones. In the account in the Leabhar na h-Uidhre of the death and burial of Fothadh Airgthech, who was killed in the Battle of Ollarba, near Larne, in 285 A.D., we are told of his burial in a stone sepulchre with ‘his two Fails (bracelets), his Bunne-do-At (twisted hoop), and his Muintorc (neck-torque) of silver; and there is a rock standing at his tomb; and there is an Ogam inscription on the end which is in the ground of the rock, and what is written on it is: Eochaidh (or Fothadh) Airgthech is here.’73 In the Táin Bó Chuailgne (the Cattle raid of Cooley), the earliest copy of which is to be found in the Book of Leinster, we read that when Fergus mac Roigh brought back the body of Fergus Etercomal, who was slain by Cuchulainn, they celebrated his funeral games, planted a stone over his grave, and inscribed his name in Ogam. In an early poem in the Book of Leinster we have, in an account of the Battle of Gabhra, which was fought in 283 A.D., the following lines referring to the death of Cairbre Lifeachair:​—​

Many passages exist, too, referring to the use of Ogam writing on pieces of wood to convey messages by hand. Opinion has been divided as to how far the passages we have quoted bear testimony to the antiquity of Ogam stones for sepulchral purposes. This at least is plain: the belief in this use of the stones existed when the MSS. were written, and the stones themselves furnish strong presumptive evidence that the testimony of the records is based on something more than mere vague tradition. Many of the stones no doubt stand in their original position; but the meagre nature of the inscriptions renders it difficult, if not impossible, to identify them with any degree of certainty with those who figure in ancient Irish records.

The earliest notice of Ogam writing is in the Book of Leinster, which gives the scale of letters. The Book of Ballymote is of especial interest, as it contains a tract on the Ogam writing of the Gaedhil, with the ‘key now ordinarily used in the translations of inscriptions, as well as a variety of ciphers founded on the original characters.’74 It was not until 1784 that the attention of antiquaries was directly drawn to the existence of Ogam stones by the discovery of the Mount Callan monument in Co. Clare with an inscription in Ogam character. A vigorous controversy raged over this ‘find’; but it had one important result, the interest of archæologists was aroused, and in subsequent years General Vallancey and others gave considerable attention to the subject of Ogams; many stones were discovered and their nature and character investigated, not, however, without many wild theories being advanced, supported by unsound arguments and distorted learning. In 1846 the late Bishop Graves for the first time brought scientific methods to bear on the elucidation of Ogam inscriptions, and clearly demonstrated by independent investigation the certainty of the scale in the Book of Ballymote. The general principle upon which he based his analysis was: ‘That in any given language, or group of cognate languages, there is a preference for particular sounds and particular sequence of sounds.’ After various trials he established satisfactory results, and placed the whole scheme of inquiry in papers read before the Royal Irish Academy, in the years 1848–9. ‘The Ogam alphabet,’ says Dr. Graves, ‘consists of lines, or groups of lines, variously arranged with reference to a single stem-line, or to an edge of the substance on which they are traced. The spectator, looking at an upright Ogam monument, will, in general, observe groups of incised strokes of four different kinds: (1) groups of lines to the right; (2) others to the left of the edge; (3) other longer strokes crossing it obliquely; (4) and small notches upon the edge itself.... Ogam inscriptions, in general, begin from the bottom, and read upwards, from left to right. Almost all those which have been deciphered present merely a proper name with its patronymic, both in the genitive case. The monuments appear, for the most part, to have been sepulchral in the first instance. But there is reason to suppose that they were used to indicate the proprietorship of land, either standing as boundary stones, or buried in crypts, as evidences to be referred to in case of disputes arising.’

It will be seen from the accompanying score that the letters are arranged in four groups of five letters each. Those of the first or B group are to the right of the edge, represented here by the horizontal line; the second or H group to the left; the third or M group cut the edge obliquely; and the fourth or vowel group are small notches on the edge itself. Ogam inscriptions are written continuously, but the difficulty of a right division into words was simplified when it was found that the same group of incisions, which is rendered by Maqi, Maqui, or other form, the old genitive of Maquas, a son, invariably occurred in these scores. A general idea of the readings may be gathered from the annexed figure, which gives​—​Feqreq Moqoi Glunlegget,(the Stone of) Fiachra, Son of Glunlegget; the scores on this stone are inverted. The first name is usually in the genitive case, and the word ‘stone’ or ‘monument’ is supposed to be understood.

The number of Ogams discovered (including fragments and lost stones) is now about 270, and these are chiefly confined to the south of Ireland; but it is significant, as Dr. Rhys points out, that the most recent discoveries are in Ulster and Mayo. The county of Kerry furnishes nearly one-half the entire number, the barony of Corkaguiny being the richest in these remains of antiquity. There are nine in the burial-ground at Ballintaggart, near Dingle, and collections have been made at Burnham House (Lord Ventry), and at Parknasilla. The finest yet formed, numbering thirty, is in the National Museum, Dublin. The stones vary in form: most are tall and tapering, of a somewhat pyramidal shape; many are flags; some are amorphous monoliths; and others are rounded, especially those on the shores of the Dingle peninsula, which were probably worn by the action of the Atlantic waves. Ogam stones appear always to have been set up in the rough state, as those found present no appearance of having been cut into shape. Standing above the ground, they vary in height from 3 to about 19 feet. The scores commence at some distance from the foot of the stone, so that it is evident that the blocks, whether now prostrate or not, were originally intended to stand upright.

Ogam stones to the number of 54 exist in Great Britain, the cipher being identical with that of the Irish inscriptions. Of these South Wales has 25, Scotland 16, south-west of England 5, and the Isle of Man 6. Most of the Welsh and south-west stones have Roman lettering of a rude type which points to the early Christian period, when there was close intercourse between the Irish and Welsh Churches. One of the Welsh stones is of considerable importance, as it furnished an efficient test to the truth of the key to the cipher in the Book of Ballymote, and as demonstrated independently by Dr. Graves. This stone is at St. Dogmael’s, near Cardigan; it contains an Ogam inscription, and another in Roman letters. A copy of the former was sent to Dr. Graves, whose reading was practically identical with the Roman lettering which he had not seen. On a close examination of the stone, traces of the vowel a, which had been cut by a crack and absent in the copy of the cipher, were discovered, and the truth of his reading thus wholly verified.

Besides marking burial and other sites, Ogam stones are found in all kinds of situations: in souterrains, in some fourteen of which Ogam stones have been discovered; in drains and other field uses; and in the walls of churches and other buildings. In the underground chamber of Dunloe there are seven Ogam stones; in Drumloghan, Co. Waterford, ten; and on the stones forming the roof of a drain at Ballyknock, Co. Cork, there are fifteen inscriptions. When their original use had long been forgotten, they were evidently taken from their sites and converted into such building or farm purposes as the occasion required.

The Ogam character was sometimes used in other material than that of stone. There is MS. evidence, as we have mentioned, of its having been applied to wood, which was doubtless the material first used for the purpose; and examples occur in bone, amber, gold, silver, and lead. Of these are the Conyngham gold manilla, the authenticity of the characters of which was, however, doubted by Dr. Graves; a silver brooch found in 1806 at Ballyspellan (Co. Kilkenny), and which is considered to date from the end of the eleventh or beginning of the twelfth century. The specimen in lead was discovered by Mr. Wakeman in 1844; the little vessel upon which the scores appeared was then in use as an ink-bottle. It is interesting not only from the legend being in relief, which goes to establish its genuineness, but also from the circumstance of its discovery in Kilmallock, the name of which place it gives. The characters are in two lines, and, if read from the bottom upwards, give the words: ‘Nig-Lasmeich,’ and ‘Cill Mocholmog.’ The object on which they occur is a narrow, quadrangular vessel, one inch and three-eighths in height, with sides converging upwards, and with a low, small, circular neck. The Ogam character, in one form or another, was sometimes used as a charm, as in the case of the amber bead belonging to a family of the O’Connors, near Ennis, Co. Clare; or, as shown by Bishop Graves, for purposes of divination.

Archæologists are not yet agreed on all matters relating to Ogams. The varied opinions as to the readings of most inscriptions, the somewhat uninteresting and meagre details of all, the doubt hitherto as to whether they are cryptic or not, the great difficulty of identifying them through the medium of Irish written records, limit the interest and check inquiry in this particular field of archæological research. But Dr. Stokes and Dr. Rhys have established their non-cryptic character, and shown their exceptional value from a philological point of view. Doubt, too, has long been thrown on their antiquity. Brash and others claim for them a pre-Christian origin; but recent authorities, such as Dr. Rhys, do not consider them earlier than the introduction of Christianity into the British Isles. It has been well urged by Bishop Graves that the division of the alphabet into vowels and consonants ‘furnishes internal evidence of its having been contrived by persons possessing some grammatical knowledge, and acquainted with alphabets of the ordinary kind.’ Other questions arise, such as the presence of the Christian emblem on many stones, the number standing in church burial-grounds, and their presence in caves, from which various deductions have been drawn. It has been urged by the claimants for the pagan origin of Ogams, that it was the custom of the early missionaries to convert things identified with heathen uses to Christian purposes, and to mark such objects as these stones with the sacred symbol of the Cross. A consideration of these questions would lead us too far afield, and not necessarily lead to a final judgment on any of the points at issue. It is sufficient, however, to say that the internal evidence of the alphabet, and the affinity of the Irish unilingual Ogams to the bilingual stones of Wales, are in themselves highly presumptive of their dating within, and not without, the period marking the establishment of Christianity in Ireland.