Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, fyc. 347 



with sensitiveness and shame, if he should not be chaste and pure in heart and mind, like the froth 

 of the wave, or like the cailc on the bendchobar of a duirtheack, or like the colour of the swan before 

 the sun ; without any kind of sin, small or great, remaining in his heart." 



But though it may thus be considered as certain that the duirtheachs, or 

 oratories, were usually of wood, and that their name was originally significant of 

 their material, in contradistinction from those larger churches built of stone, it 

 by no means follows that they were always erected of this material, or even 

 that the word would not be applied to stone oratories, after its etymology had 

 been popularly forgotten. And that oratories were indeed erected of the latter 

 material, at a very ancient period, not only in districts where wood was scarce 

 and stone abundant, as in the rocky islands of Aran, where so many ancient 

 structures of this kind still remain, but also in districts where wood was abun- 

 dant, appears certain from various passages in our Annals. Of these, I have 

 already referred (p. 143) to that curious one in the Annals of Ulster, at the 

 year 788, in which the stone oratory at Armagh is spoken of, and from which 

 we may safely infer that the other duirtheachs there were not, at that period, 

 of this material. And a similar inference may, indeed, be drawn from all the 

 notices which we have of other oratories built of stone, for if such buildings 

 were usually of this material, it would have been unnecessary to distinguish 

 them in this manner. 



A still earlier example of a stone oratory, in the neighbourhood of Armagh, 

 one even coeval with St. Patrick himself, and of which some ruins yet 

 remain, is preserved to us in St. Evin's, or the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, 

 as translated by Colgan. The passage is as follows : 



" Vnam autem ex his Crumtkerim appellatam, mirse virtutis virginem, ab aliis segragauit, et in 

 cella siue lapideo inclusorio in monte vulgo Kenngobha vocato, Ardmachse versus orientem vicino, 

 inclusit : curamque tradidit S. Benigno, vt singulis diebus ad vesperum de ccenula ei curaret 

 prouideri." Trias Thaum., p. 163. 



I might adduce additional examples, but these are sufficient for my pur- 

 pose ; and I shall only add, that such notices of stone oratories clearly indicate 

 that it was not the usual custom to erect such structures of this material, for if 

 it were, there would be no necessity to distinguish such as were so, in this 

 manner. 



2. SIZE. That the duirtheachs were distinguished from the daimhliags as 



2 Y 2 



