i9oi- Otway. — Irish Red Deer. \ox 



o 



use in many raths in the Counties of Waterford and Cork, in 

 the Ardmore crannoge, a lake-dwelling now swept by the 

 inroads of the sea, and among the sand-hills of Tramore Bay. 

 The rath-dwellers made much use of deer's horn to form pins, 

 knife-handles, .spindle- whorls, and other objects, in the manu- 

 facture of which they were so industrious that antlers are only 

 to be found in raths in a fragmentary state. Special cooking- 

 places are scattered over the country which are called by an 

 Irish name signifying " the roasting of the deer." These are 

 marked by a blackened patch where the soil, on being turned 

 by the plough, is found full of charcoal ; and an oven dug in 

 the ground and lined with sandstone slabs was found at 

 Cappagh. In such ovens the venison was baked, swathed in 

 rushes, as is done by savage nations at the present day. 



Cooking-places of another type, which are always near 

 spring-water, are marked by large heaps of burned stones 

 used as pot-boilers, while the hearth on which the fire was 

 lighted, and the oak trough in which the venison was boiled, 

 have been discovered in Co. Waterford. 1 



The antlers found in the muds and sands of rivers and in bogs 

 appear to have become embedded entire, and many beautiful 

 examples are preserved in different parts of Ireland ; but in 

 some cases the tynes and branches have been worn off, as 

 though the}* had been exposed longer than the other portions. 



In the Ballynamintra bone-cave a considerable number of 

 Red Deers' bones were found in the grey earth of the second 

 stratum that contained the remains of the Irish Elk, associated 

 with human relics' 2 ; but the few cervine remains from the 

 stalagmite which formed the fourth stratum in the above cave, 

 appear to belong to Reindeer, and in that stratum were also 

 found bones and teeth of Grizzly Bear. 



In the Shaudon bone-cave the principal finds of Red Deers' 

 remains were in Cullen's chamber, ^where the bones were less 

 infiltrated with calcareous matter, were lighter in weight, and 

 had a more recent aspect than those of Mammoth and Rein- 

 deer from the breccia. 8 



1 Journal AY. Hist, and Archaol. Assoc.. 1886, p. 390. 



2 Sci. Trans Royal Dublin Soc. (2) vol. i., part xiv. , 1880, p. 199. 



3 Trans. R. Irish Academy, vol. xxvi., 1S76, pp. 223,224. 



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