272 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



apart, with horizontal lines drawn through the 

 centres of the circles ; also a vertical line. Such 

 crosses, in some cases, are fringed with tracery, and 

 present a handsome appearance. The cross near 

 the gable [of the church has a hole of more than an 

 inch in diameter pierced through it (fig. 171). Such 

 holes are looked upon as a mark peculiar to the 

 pillar-stones used in pagan times for the double 

 purpose of commemorating the dead and also as 



objects of worship, 

 while after the in- 

 troduction of Chris- 

 tianity they were 

 adapted for reli- 

 gious use, and ap- 

 propriated to its 

 service by the cross 

 being incised on 

 them." This kind 

 of pillar is called 

 Clogh-a-poul, or 

 hole-stone. 

 Some of the 

 appendages were inclosed 

 or cashels, evidently for 

 These are very similar 



Fig. 168. Common Irish'Cross 



churches and their 



within massive walls, 



the purpose of defence. 



in construction, and evidently were built after the 



pagan cashels. 

 Caiseal (pro- 

 nounced cashel) 

 is derived from 

 the same root as 

 caisiollacht, the 

 round rim of a 

 pot or caldron, 

 and originally was 

 applied only to a 

 round inclosing 

 stone wall or 

 fortifi cation, 

 although subse- 

 quently it was 

 more modern square 



Fig. 169. Cross inscribed by Bishop 

 when consecrating a church. 



sometimes applied to the 

 castles. 



Each ecclesiastical cashel contained within its 

 wall churches, a well, and habitations; the latter 

 seem to have been wall-cells, cloghan, and luscas. 

 The wall-chambers are commonly found in cashels 

 that were built on the solid rock: they are very 

 common in the cashels in the counties Kerry and 

 Galway. They were constructed in the thickness 

 of the wall, may be of any length, from five to seven 

 or eight feet wide, and usually are four and a half 

 or five feet high. The cloghans have been described 

 previously. A lusca, or lusk, is a cave, crypt, or 

 subterranean habitation, and is explained by 

 O'Cleary, " Teach talmhan," a house in the earth. 

 Some lusks are simply caves, scooped out in drift 

 or such • like accumulations ; others evidently 



A 



V 



were excavations in which habitations were built, 

 which afterwards were covered up with clay. Some 

 of them are most ingeniously constructed, and here- 

 after will be more fully described. In some cashels 

 stones to build the surrounding wall seem to have 

 been quarried in their interior, the hollow afterwards 

 being turned into lusks. In Aran there are struc- 

 tures partaking of both the nature of lusks and 

 cloghans, as they are partly below ground like a lusk, 

 but are roofed like the latter. The post-Christian 

 cashels had massive stone doorways that have been 

 mistaken for cromleacs when the adjoining wall was 

 removed. One of these detached doorways has 

 already been figured in Chapter V. (fig. 52). Other 

 habitations were the lauras and coenobiums : some 

 of the lauras were inside cashels. Petrie, while 



writing of the anti- 



quities on Aranmore, 

 describes a laura as 

 a building containing 

 many cells divided 

 from each other, 

 where every monk 

 provided for himself, 

 and led a solitary 

 life under the autho- 

 rity of a bishop or 

 abbot ; while a 

 ccenobium was a 

 house in which the 

 monks dwelt, lived, 

 and ate together, all 

 being provided for 

 from a common purse. 



Of the three islands Aranmore was the great 

 place for the saints, it is teeming with the ruins of 

 ecclesiastical structures and other objects that per- 

 petuate their memory, while on the other islands 

 fewer are met with. On lnisheer,! or the south 

 island, is St.Gobuet's church, a small cyclopean struc- 

 ture; and St. Caomhain's, or Cavan's church, which 

 is nearly imbedded in the sand. The latter is sup- 

 posed to be a twelfth-century church, and is divided 

 into a nave and chancel by a beautiful arch. Imme- 

 diately north of the church is the saint's tomb, now 

 called Labbacaomhain, which is supposed to be very 

 effective in curing the sick, who visit it in great 

 numbers on his day, which formerly was the 3rd of 

 November, but it is now changed to the 14th of 

 June. The saint died A.D. 865. There are also 

 the ahala of the daughters ; Cloghanavillaun ; and 

 Cloghan Eany, or St. Eude's house. 



On the middle island are three churches, an 

 aharla, and a holy well. One of the churches is 

 called Teampull Seachtmicrigh, or the church of 

 the seven sons of a king ; and a second Teampull 

 Crannanach, or Kenanack's church. It is after this 

 saint, whose original name was Gregory, that Gre- 

 gory's Sound is called. This church is a^very com- 



^ 



Fig. 1"0. Common form of Irish 

 Cross. 



