225 



blageof remains of the most ancient limes and superstitions is vrey 

 remarkable, and may be considered as aflfording confirmation of thie 

 foregoing opinions. 



Most of these stone- roofed houses, as at Ardinore, contain an 

 oblong projection, covered by a large stone slab,* which it is likely 

 has in all cases answered as an altar : in some instances this altar 

 bears the legendary appellation of the saint's bed, in others of his tomb. 



Of these ancient fabricks some have single high wedge-shaped 

 roofs, but the greater number, like St. Flannen's house at Killaloe, 

 and that of St. Columba at Kells, have also the stone arched 

 ceiling, leaving a space or low chamber between them. 



Had this been a customary mode of constructing churches would 

 there not be some traces of it at Oransay, in the Hebrides, where 

 St. Columb made so great an establishment, or would it not have 

 been continued in the small early churches ? It would seem then 

 that thev are of earlier date than either the latter buildings, or the 

 remains of his buildings in lona, the great antiquity of which is 

 however testified by many of the inscriptions being in the oldest 

 Irish letter. -f 



The idea of these low stone buildings having been Atash- 

 Gah, or fire-houses, as the Persians term them, where the sacred 

 flame was preserved, fed with spice and incense as Lucian says 

 were those on the altars of the Druids, gains support from the fact, 

 that the unextinguishable Jire was preserved with reverential care 

 by the nuns of St. Bridget or Brighid, at Kildare, until 1220, 

 wben Henry de Loundres archbishop of Dublin, considering it as a 

 heathen superstition, put it out. It was afterwards however re- 



* Researches iu Ireland, p. 163. 

 + Pennant's Western Tour, p. 2S6. 



VOL. XV, G G 



