i 5 2 BOOK OF THE DAMNED 



That Mr. J. H. Hooper, Bradley Co., Term., having come upon a 

 curious stone, in some woods upon his farm, investigated. He dug. 

 He unearthed a long wall. Upon this wall were inscribed many al- 

 phabetic characters. "872 characters have been examined, many 

 of them duplicates, and a few imitations of animal forms, the moon, 

 and other objects. Accidental imitations of oriental alphabets are 

 numerous. 



The part that seems significant: 



That these letters had been hidden under a layer of cement. 



And still, in our own heterogeneity, or unwillingness, or inability, 

 to concentrate upon single concepts, we shall or we sha'n't accept 

 that, though there may have been a Lost Colony or Lost Expedi- 

 tion from Somewhere, upon this earth, and extra-mundane visitors 

 Who could never get back, there have been other extra-mundane 

 visitors, who have gone away again altogether quite in analogy with 

 the Franklin Expedition and Peary's Sittings in the Arctic 



And a wreck that occurred to one group of them 



And the loot that was lost overboard 



The Chinese seals of Ireland. 



Not the things with the big, wistful eyes; that lie on ice, and that 

 are taught to balance objects on their noses but inscribed stamps, 

 with which to make impressions. 



Proc. Roy. Irish Acad. y 1-381: 



A paper was read by Mr. J. Huband Smith, descriptive of about a 

 dozen Chinese seals that had been found in Ireland. They are all 

 alike: each a cube with an animal seated upon it. "It is said that 

 the inscriptions upon them are of a very ancient class of Chinese 

 characters." 



The three points that have made a leper and an outcast of this 

 datum but only in the sense of disregard, because nowhere that I 

 know of is it questioned : 



Agreement among archaeologists that there were no relations, in 

 the remote past, between China and Ireland; 



That no other objects, from ancient China virtually, I suppose 

 have ever been found in Ireland; 



The great distances at which these seals have been found apart. 



After Mr. Smith's investigations if he did investigate, or do more 

 than record many more Chinese seals were found in Ireland, and, 

 with one exception, only in Ireland. In 1852, about 60 had been 

 found. Of all archaeologic finds in Ireland, "none is enveloped in 

 greater mystery." (Chamber's Journal, 16-364.) According to the 



