163 



board amongst the gratuitous accommodations for travellers.* It is 

 also said that in the ancient Irish tale of the three sons of Usnoth, 

 the Finian heroes are introduced playing at chess, which species of 

 amusement Vallancey insinuates was introduced from the east. 



On the subject of marriage it would seem as if, before Christianity 

 had been well established, the kings of Ireland had maintained the 

 practice of eastern polygamy; for in an ancient synod, extant in 

 D'Achery's Spicilegium,-f- the distraction of mind and affection, in- 

 duced by such an intercourse, is strongly deprecated. 



In reference to the funeral rites then practised, in addition to the 

 modes of burial already alluded to, when treating of mounts and 

 cairns, it does appear from the Irish annals, that a short time previous 

 to the birth of our Saviour, a custom was introduced of burying under 

 ground or in caves ; and Tigernach, after A. D. 222, expressly men- 

 tions the battle of the tomb or grave ; yet this mode of interment seems 

 to have been confined to kings or great heroes ; and from the same 

 source it is stated that a mausoleum, denominated religna-riogh, i. e. 

 the resting-place of kings, was in the first century hollowed and en- 

 closed at Rath-Croghan, where, according to the Annals of Innisfallen, 

 the remains of Dathy were interred in A. D. 406. 



This distinction is well borne out by the ancient Book of Canons 

 of sixty-one titles, in the Cotton library, written in the time of the 

 Anglo Saxons, where, under the head " De nomine Basilicae et ejus 

 scissura," we read " Synod. Hibern. Ba(n\ev£ in Greek, Rex in 

 Latin, from whence Basilica Regalis, a cathedral, borrowed its name; 



« See Walker's Anecdotes of Chess, Vail. Collect, v. 5. p. 366. 



t "Quantam dignitatem acceperit rex, tantum timorem habere debet; multae enim muli- 

 eres animam ejus depravant, et animus" ejus multitudine uxorum divisus in peccalum labitur." 

 — Spicil. torn. 9. p. 16. 



Y 2 



