268 



NATURE 



[July 22, 1897 



THE IRISH DOLMENS. 



The Dolmens of Ireland; their Distribution., Structural 



Characteristics., and Affinities. By William Copeland 



Borlase, M.A. 3 vols. Pp. xxxvi + 1234. (London: 



Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1897.) 



THIS work is divided into four parts: a descriptive 

 topographical catalogue of the Irish dolmens .: a 

 discussion of the classification and distribution of 

 dolmens in general ; a collection of the popular lore 

 relating to the Irish examples ; and an ethnological 

 investigation of the subject. 



Until the long-desired official survey of British 

 archaeology is carried out, we can hardly look for the 

 compilation of a perfect list of dolmens or of any other 

 remains of the kind. At present a student has to be 

 content with the Ordnance maps — from the archaeo- 

 logical point of view most unsatisfactory documents— 

 and with the often inadequate and unscientific writings 

 of previous workers. Mr. Borlase has made the best 

 possible use of this imperfect apparatus ; but the 

 Ordnance maps have misled him into including an un- 

 interesting microlithic cairn at Baltinglass among the 

 Wicklow dolmens, and into omitting an example at 

 Donard in the same district : while it is something of 

 a disgrace to Irish archaeologists that for an account 

 of the very remarkable structures at Breastagh and 

 Rathfran, in Mayo, he has had to depend on Caesar 

 Otway's worthless gossip. Notwithstanding these and 

 similar more or less unavoidable inaccuracies, the first 

 part of this book is a useful contribution to archaeological 

 literature ; indeed, it is almost a pity that Mr. Borlase 

 did not content himself with publishing Parts i. and iii. 

 together, omitting the speculative portions of the book, 

 which overload it and are sufficiently independent of 

 its subject to form a separate work. Four excellent 

 maps show the distribution of the recorded dolmens in 

 each of the provinces of Ireland ; but their value would 

 have been enhanced by the use of different marks to 

 distinguish dolmens of different types from each other 

 and from chambered tumuli. 



The second part consists of a conspectus of the 

 dolmens of Europe and Asia, resembling the well-known 

 bird's-eye view in Fergusson's " Rude Stone Monuments," 

 but much more full and up to date. It reveals, however, 

 how much has still to be done in elementary field-work 

 on the prehistoric remains of the continent. 



Part iii. is of considerable value. It consists of a 

 careful classification of the names attached to various 

 Irish monuments and the popular lore concerning them. 

 Here Mr. Borlase has made full use of the Ordnance 

 Survey Letters, now so long left unpublished by the 

 deplorable parsimony of the wealthiest of Governments. 

 Not the least valuable part of the work consists in the 

 long extracts from these MSS., here for the first time 

 edited. It is not, however, to be expected that all Mr. 

 Borlase's statements will command acceptance. His 

 view, somewhat obscurely set forth ^ on p. 758, that a 

 reference to cats m the name of a monument has no 

 connection with the animal, but means that the object 

 has a hole in it {cuthe, a pit), is negatived by one of his 



^ A fault not confined to this one passage : the book is sometimes difficult 

 to follow from the imperfection of the English style, and the frequency and 

 length of the digressions. On pp. 1056-7 is one portentous sentence, un- 

 broken by any stop heavier than a comma or dash, thirty-four lines long ! 



NO. 1447, VOL. 56J 



own examples— Kit's Coty House, which has no such 

 hole, except one left by the natural irregularity of the 

 central stone : nor is there any hole in the ring-fort 

 known as Cathair na gcat at Ballywiheen, in Kerry. It 

 is not necessary, as the author does (p. 769), to make a 

 pagan word of leaba "a bed" (in the sense of "grave") ; 

 on Aran we have Leaba Brecain, Leaba na seacht naoinh, 

 and the strangely named Leaba an Spioraid Naoimh. 

 On p. 842 the author repeats one of the most extra- 

 ordinary blunders made in recent anthropological re- 

 search — the assignment of a high index of nigrescence 

 to the west of Connacht and Kerry. 



Ireland is no exception to the rule that the antiquities 

 of a country cannot be properly investigated without a 

 preliminary study of its language. An experience nar- 

 rated on p. 846, shows that Mr. Borlase has not gone 

 through this desirable preparation. For two reasons 

 this is regrettable : popular lore would be much more 

 accessible to him ; and sorne of his amazing blunders in 

 writing Irish names and words would have been impos- 

 sible. Such a sentence as the following — supposed to 

 be addressed to a child— could not have been passed 

 without a feeling of discomfort — 



Eist a laogh (!) agus cuiramag(!!) diotal (!) air an Garran (!) 

 ban (!) dhuil (!!)i 



The eccentricities of this sentence exemplify what is a 

 very serious fault throughout this book— its typographical 

 inaccuracy, which is little short of disgraceful to printer 

 publisher and author. Mr. Borlase speaks in his pre- 

 face of the " desperate monotony" of proof-reading : but 

 this monotony is the common lot of all authors, and 

 affords no excuse for " Sir S. Fergusjon," " 0'Curr/>," 

 "Hissar/ik," " paals/ab " (four times, pp. 675-80), 

 "poletax" (p. 1090), "culminator" (for calumniator, 

 p. 1046), &c. 



In the fourth part of the book the author discusses 

 at considerable length the physical features of the in- 

 habitants of different districts in Ireland, with reference 

 to the characteristics of other races. He begins with the 

 skulls, comparing them with all European varieties, from 

 the Neanderthal downwards. On the whole this part of 

 the work is unsatisfactory ; it is inaccurate in some 

 places, out of date in others ; and most of the pictures of 

 skulls are very bad. For instance, it is a pity that the 

 author speaks (pp. 979 sqq) of Irish "long-barrow" 

 skulls ; for no such thing has hitherto been described. 

 Both the Trillick and Tily Hole specimens have been 

 posthumously deformed, and they are thus more than 

 doubtful analogues of the English long-barrow type. The 

 Aylesbury Road mound, on which Mr. Borlase lays much 

 stress, is an equally unfortunate example ; for, in the first 

 place. Prof. Macalister, of Cambridge, who exhumed 

 many and examined all of the remains there found, is 

 positive that "no one familiar with the long-barrow race 

 could ever confound a single skull from this heap with 

 the long-barrow type of skull" ; and, in the second, it is 

 questionable whether the Aylesbury Road massacre, 

 which has been so luridly depicted for us, is a historical 

 event at all, for there is no reason for regarding the 

 mound as anything less prosaic than a mediaeval plague- 



1 It ought of course to be something like this — Eist a laoigk, agtts 

 cuir/ead diallaid air (better ar) an ngarrdn bhdn duit, " Hush, oalfie, and 

 I'll put a saddle on the white nag " (not white mare, as Mr. Borlase 

 renders it) " for you." 



