102 Mr. PKTRIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



having been erected as places of sepulture, at least in pagan times ; for, though 

 it does not throw any light on the character of the monuments in use preced- 

 ing Christianity, it refers us distinctly to their principal localities, in many of 

 which we may still examine the monuments themselves. 



Our ancient MSS., in like manner, acquaint us with the localities of the 

 principal battle-fields in Ireland, and with the particular monuments of the 

 most distinguished kings and warriors, from the earliest periods to the estab- 

 lishment of Christianity in the country ; and in most of these localities the 

 monuments still remain. But do we in any of those places discover a Round 

 Tower, or the vestige of one ? Most assuredly not, nor any monument having 

 a characteristic in common with one. We find the stone earn and the green 

 mound, with their sepulchral chambers within them, and their monumental 

 character indicated by the upright stones, sometimes single like the stele of 

 the Greeks and sometimes forming a circle, or concentric circles. We find 

 the giants' graves, or beds, as they are called by the Irish the cromlechs and 

 Druids' altars of speculative antiquaries. And when we explore any of these 

 monuments, we find, according to their age, either the rude unglazed sepulchral 

 urn of baked clay, and occasionally of stone, containing bones more or less cal- 

 cined, or unburned skeletons, or occasionally both, in the same sepulchre. We 

 also find very frequently weapons of stone or metal ; and, in monuments of im- 

 portance indicating the distinguished rank of the persons interred, ornaments 

 of silver and gold. And that such and no other were the varieties of sepul- 

 chral monuments in use in Ireland in pagan times, a volume of historical evi- 

 dences from our ancient MSS. might be adduced to prove : a few examples will, 

 however, be sufficient for my present purpose. Thus, as an example of the class 

 of monuments in use in Ireland during the sway of the Tuatlia De Danann race, 

 as well as subsequently, I take the two following passages, relative to the monu- 

 ments at the royal cemetery of Brugh na Boinne, on the banks of the Boyne, as 

 given in the Dinnsenchus, contained in the Book of Ballymote, fol. 1QO. 



" t)o oinjncnb in &poj;a inn po .1. Conj inline popaino, Cecc in iDajoa, ffiup na TTloppigna, 

 ?,ecc in niacae, if oia colpca paicep Inbep Colpcu; 6apc Cpimchaino Niunuip, ip ann po 

 aonacc; pepc peoelmio Reccmaip, Capn ail Cuinn Cer-caraij, Cumoc Caipppi Cipeacaip, 

 pulacc piachach Spaipcine, &c." 



" Of the monuments of Brugh here, viz. the Bed of the daughter of Forann, the Monument of 



