243 



HARDWICKE'S SC IENCE- GOSSIP. 



places but as prisons. This, however, seems highly 

 improbable, as the structures evidently were in- 

 tended as tombs, and as the dish-shaped bullans 

 seem to be a necessary appendage to the large cams, 

 it appears probable they were connected in some 

 way with the ancient funeral rites. The small,' 

 shallow bullans, as far as we are aware, are always 

 found in or close to churches, and were evidently 

 used either as baptismal fonts, or for holding water 

 for washing purposes. Some are nearly rectangular 

 in shape, while between the small dish-shaped bullan 

 to the stalked or pedestal font of the present day, 

 there are regular gradations. 



Fig. 154. Dish-shaped bullan in Cist of the Chamber of the 

 larger Cam, Slieve-na-caillighe. 



Many, if not nearly all, the bowl-shaped bullans 

 may. have been used as baptismal fonts, but some 

 were undoubtedly used as corn -crushers. This has 

 been proved by Dr. W. King, of Galway. At 

 Roscapne Round tower, near Galway, are two stones, 

 one containing three bullans and the other two ; and 



Fig. 155. Sculptured bullan (restored), Donaghraore Church, 

 co. Wexford, 1 ft. diameter, and nearly 3 in. deep. 



King, after considerable research, found in an old 

 wall in the vicinity, an oval quern that exactly fitted 

 the deeper bullan in the two-holed stone, while the 

 smaller hole in the same stone seems to have been 

 made to rest the quern in while the crushed corn 

 was being removed. This also seems probable in 

 some of the other double-holed stones, although in 

 no other place has the upper stone or quern been 



found. This may not, however, have been the case 

 with all double-holed bullans, as in some cases the 

 holes are of nearly equal depths and of different 

 shapes. Near Killgoola, west of the lower portion 

 of Lough Corrib, are a pair of small bullans cut in 

 the solid rock, of nearly equal size, and called Gluine 

 Phaudrick (Anglice, Patrick's Knees), as the saint 

 is said to have worn them praying. Their original 

 use seems very obscure. The wcrd bullan properly 

 means any conical substance, or a circular excava- 

 tion ; thus water-worn holes in rocks are called 

 bullans, also a cow's teats ; both from their shape 

 and aperture. In olden times baptismal fonts, from 



Fig. 156. Section of the Bullan near Lough Gur, co. Limerick. 



being circular excavations in stones, may have been 

 so called, but they are called in modern Irish 

 Umarbaisdidh, or baptismal troughs. To us it 

 would seem probable that the bullans at the 

 churches may have been put to more than one use, 

 sometimes being used as fonts, at other times as 

 corn-crushers, or even for grinding up the herbs, 

 &c, used for the distillation of the drinks of the 

 period. The latter suggestion would specially refer 

 to the five-holed buMu, called Leac-na-poul, or the 

 holed flag, at Cong (fig. 157), as it was in the vicinity 

 of a large abbey, a place where probably there was 

 a large consumption. Those also in such localities 

 as the mountains near Adrigole, Tulla, &c, may 

 have been used for bruising the heather for the 

 manufacture of the ale about which we hear. Un- 

 fortunately the process is now unknown ; but that 

 the heather was once valuable seems probable, as 

 otherwise we would not find the remains of the 

 walls and fences dividing up the wild heathery 

 mountains into small lots. 



Erom bullans we naturally go to the holy wells, 

 as many of the former are thus designated. These 

 wells are dedicated to different saints, although 

 probably they were a pagan custom that was en- 

 grafted on to the Christian religion. At various 

 times the priests of the different forms of Chris- 

 tianity have tried to do away with them, but with- 

 out success, and at the present day they are much 

 venerated and visited. Without doubt they are 

 efficient in some diseases, such as sore eyes ; this, 

 however, is just as probably due to the regular 



