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so in Cairn Grainey, the Heap of the Sun, in the county of 

 Antrim ; — in Clare, on Mount Callen, Altoir na Greine, the Altar 

 of the Sun ; — and near Killala is a ruin, in very good preservation, 

 called Baal-tien, the House of Baal. From the names of the num- 

 berless monuments of this nature, the legends attached to them, 

 and the reverence with which they are still regarded by the people, 

 especially in the western and southern parts of the island, where the 

 ancient race has been the least intermixed with that of their 

 invaders, it appears that this worship was retained here to a later 

 period than in the sister kingdom ; it may be also inferred from 

 some differences in the remains of antiquity, that in times subse- 

 quent to those, when the rude altar was raised in both islands, 

 some change took place in Ireland in the manner of the worship, 

 and a consequent alteration in the religious structures. 



The purpose of these detailed remarks is to point out the eastern 

 origin of the Irish, and their eastern worship, which, in con- 

 junction with these reflections, will be found to throw useful light 

 upon much of the remains of primitive Irish architecture. 



Of these the greater part bear a religious character ; and, as in 

 all other nations, are the only fabrics of the early rages which have 

 come down to our time. Such are the crom-leac, the cairn, the 

 circle of upright stones, the pillar-stone, and the mount. To these 

 succeed the round tower ; a description of edifice so rare in other 

 countries as to be very nearly peculiar to Ireland ; and also the 

 small stone-roofed buildings, of which a few still remain. These all 

 belong to ancient Erin, in ages previous to those successive in- 

 vasions, whose rapine and conquests had nearly swept away her 

 early civilization. 



That she had advanced in civilization and the arts of life, is 

 evidenced by a variety of circumstances ; her extended husbandry is 



