129 



Hills of Loughcrew, which are called by the peasants the Witches 

 Hops, is an extensive excavation, consisting of three large cham- 

 bers with a narrow passage leading to them. In one of these rooms 

 is a flat altar-stone of considerable size ; — near to this artificial cave 

 stand two lofty pillar stones known among the people, by the names 

 of " the speaking stones,'' and " the Whisperers."* Names evi-' 

 dently traditional of there iiaving been oracles or divinations given 

 from these " dark places of the earth. "-f- 



But the most remarkable Cairn is that of New Grange,]; county 

 of Meath ; this is of great size, being estimated by Governor Pow- 

 nal§ to be seventy feet high, and to contain an hundred and eighty 

 thousand tons of stone. This prodigious tumulus is now so grass 

 grown that it appears like an earth-work, but it is composed entirely 

 of rounded coggle-stones,|| which must have been brought from the 

 sea side, a distance of at least twelve miles. Around the base is a 

 circle of very large upright stones, of which only a few are now 

 standing ; these are from seven to nine feet high, and two of them 

 are so placed as to indicate the entrance. When it was seen by 

 Lhwyd, who published the earliest description of New Grange, the 

 top was crowned by a tall pillar stone, and the broad flat stone 



burnt on these altars. In the Mitliratic Excavations in Persia soot and smoke are encrusted on 

 the sides and vaulted roofs. — K. Porter's Travels in Persia, Vol. II. pp. 542, 602, 



* From the Rev. J, Egan. Two upright stones in the island of Col, are there called the whis- 

 pering stones — E. D. Clark's Life, I. p. 308. , , 



f Psalm, ixxiv. iO. Bible Trans. — Isaiah, Ixxiv. 20 — 21. 



J A name imagined by General Vallancey to have been derived from Grian-Uagh, the Cave 

 of the Sun. 



§ Archeologia II. 



II Most of the cairns described by Pennant in his Western Tour are formed of round stones 

 from the shore. Possibly such stones were supposed to possess peculiar virtues or holiness, as 

 lie mentions some round black ones, preserved in the Cathedral of Oransay, upon which the 

 people made oaths, that were regarded as more binding than any others. In the Letters from 



VOL. XV. s 



