129 



greatness, but for the superstitious regard in which they are held. 

 " So venerated indeed are they to this day by the peasantry, that 

 they cannot be prevailed on to touch them with the spade or plough, 

 fancying that they are inhabited by the spirits of the illustrious chiefs 

 and sages of antiquity."* We regret however to learn, that in the 

 province of Ulster, where they have not the love and fear of the fairies 

 so much before their eyes, not only some of the raths, but even of the 

 funeral mounts, are beginning to disappear, their soil being an excel- 

 lent refreshment to tillage lands. 



" Many of the larger raths have caves contrived within them 

 under ground, running in narrow galleries, some of above twenty-six 

 feet in length, five feet high, and as many broad, which make several 

 returns, and join to one another in almost right angles ; where they 

 meet, the passage is enlarged, and at the corners forms a sort of closets 

 that are square in some raths and round in others ; the walls or sides 

 of those galleries are made of stones laid flat on one another, with- 

 out mortar or other cement, like dry walls, and covered with flag 

 stones laid across, that rest with their ends on the side walls. * » * 

 Being so strait and small they could never be designed for the recep- 

 tion of men, * * * they were contrived for the convenient disposal 

 of their stores, arms, provisions, and other warlike necessaries, that 

 lay secure from the weather, and at hand ready for their use, and 

 under such a guard that kept them safe from thieves or enemies. "-f* 

 Possibly too, in cases of actual attack, these cavern passages might 

 serve to shelter the women and children, and offer a dernier resort for 

 the men when all else was hopeless ; a last retreat, where a few 

 might retard a multitude, and probably by secret outlets effect their 



* O'Flaherty's Isles of Arron, p. 48. 



t Molyneux's discourse in Boate's Nat. Hist, of Ireland, p. 209. 



VOL. XVI. S 



