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[ 33 
DESCRIPTION of an ANCIENT IRISH INSTRUMENT, 
prefented to the Royal Irifh Academy by the Right Honourable 
Lord Vifcount DILLON, M. R. IA. extratted from his Lord- 
: foip’s Letter on the Subje& to the Right Honourable the Earl of 
CHARLEMONT, Prefident, and from an Account of the fame 
Inftrument by RALPH OUSLEY, Ey; M.R.L A. Communicated 
to the Committee of Antiquities by JOSEPH COOPER WALKER,, 
Efq; M. R. I. A. Secretary. 
" ‘Tus inftrument is fuppofed by Mr.. Oufley to have been 
a fpecies of trumpet, called in the ‘old Irifh tales and romances 
Benwowen, Barr-vaill, and Buadb-vaill, which laft name fignifies 
mouth-piece of victory; he is informed that a trumpet of 
this name is mentioned in the Pfalter of Cafhel, but not de- 
feribed. It is made of a light fine-grained wood, probably 
willow; is fix feet four inches long; the wider end meafures 
three inches and a quarter diameter, ‘from whence it gradually 
tapers to a point at the other end, where he fuppofes a mouth- 
piece to have been fixed. 
Vou. IV. [ Eat THE 
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175 A7QUe- 
