121 



Some Crom-leacs were of great size, and seem to have formed a 

 sort of low temple. — Baal-tien, about three miles from the town of 

 Killala, county of Mayo, appears to have been something of this kind. 

 A rude pronaos, formed by four upright stones on each side, led to 

 an altar, placed over a deep pit, at each end of which a great 

 stone is fixed ; upon these the large, now displaced table stone, was 

 laid ; the pit has perpendicular sides, and is so deep that it must 

 have been very difficult for either human creature or four-footed 

 beast to have got in or out of it, in order to pass under the fire. 

 Possibly therefore, it may have been for the purpose of receiving 

 the blood of the victims slaughtered upon the altar ; such pits* 

 were used by the Greeks and Romans when sacrificing to the 

 infernal deities ; and as the sun, the Sol Infernus of the winter 

 half year, was in Egypt, according to Porphyry classed among 

 the infernal deities, and worshipped under the name of Serapis ; it 

 is not impossible that at the winter festivals, this mode of sacri- 

 ficing may have obtained in Ireland. 



A larger Crom-leac temple remains on the hill of Garry-Duflf^ 

 county of Kilkenny,-f- where there are sixteen stones placed in four 

 rows ; the ' two in the centre were each composed of five stones, 

 the lines at four feet distance from each other ; three stones formed 

 each of the outer rows : these cells had formerly covering stones, 

 and in the earth beneath burnt bones and ashes have been found ; 

 lower down, on the side of the hill, stands a tapering pillar stone, 

 which is eleven feet high from the present surface of the ground. 



Of the same species is that of Labacally, near Glanworth, county 



• In Hebrew a pit with the sign of classification affixed, signifies fire-worship. — [Classical 

 Jour. No. LVII. p. 88. note.] Among the ruins of the Temple of Serapis, at Puzzuoli, a deep 

 square pit for receiving the sacrificial blood is always pointed out by the Ciceroni. 



f Tighe's Survey of Kilkenny, p. 627. 



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