198 



the landscapes ; but whether or not they are at present employed in 

 worship is not remarked, nor is any conjecture offered concerning 

 them. It is however a striking circumstance, that from these Cau- 

 casian and Colchian regions some of the colonising tribes, which 

 formed the early inhabitants of Erin, are said to have come. Many 

 resemblances between the ancient Irish and the Caucasian nations 

 have been already pointed out, as the dwellings and their surround- 

 ing fences, the prejudice against stone houses, their claim of de- 

 scent, their language, and their name, all facts confirmatory of the 

 older annals of Ireland. 



Mr. Harmer, a name of great authority in oriental research, has 

 given a description, from a Greek author, of a tower situate in 

 Palestine, twelve yards square and three stories high, standing on 

 the western side of a monastery ; in this two or three hermits usually 

 shut themselves up, as it were to keep a look out ; for on the upper 

 story is a bell, which is rung to give the convent notice of the ap- 

 proach of visiters from Jerusalem. The entrance into this watch- 

 tower is by twelve or fourteen stone steps, placed at twelve feet 

 distance from the wall, and communicating with the door by a 

 draw-bridge, let down from the tower to the top of the stair-case.* In 

 size and character this differs widely from the Irish lowers, and 

 affords but little aid in elucidation of the subject : the mode of en- 

 trance is perhaps the most applicable part of the description, as it 

 suggests the possibility of some such mode having been adopted for 

 entering our towers, all traces of which may easily be conceived to 

 have long since disappeared. 



At Kassinof, in Bulgaria, Professor Pallas, as quoted at length 

 by General Vallancey,-!- describes a tower, which both in shape and 



* Archeologia, v. IX. 



t Collect. Reb. Hiber. III. p. 193. 



