TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 145 



euages of Central India and Northern Bengal. In the Dravidian group a form is 

 found also of saralti, and in Sanskrit of sara : this is also found in Nepal. On the 

 Chinese frontier of Tibet it is sdirna. Crossing to East Africa, we have in Ki- 

 ginde, a member of the great Oaffre group, musali, m being a auffix. 



On Ancient Sculptures and Objects of Art from Irish Cairns. 

 By Eugene Alfked Conwell, LL.D., M.R.I.A. 



If the early history of a country, at a period concerning which there are no 

 written records, can be best studied from the instructive memorials of bygone ages, 

 we have the advantage of possessing in Ireland some rare monuments of departed 

 splendour, in the form of cairns, or ancient tombs, which still happily survive the 

 ravages of time and decay. 



The author's present intention is not to treat of the well-known tumuli at Dowth 

 and New Grange, in the County of Meatli ; these, among archaeologists, have had, 

 and deservedly so, a world-wide fame. In the same county, however, there exists 

 a much less known, and perhaps far more interesting series of cairns, which until 

 recently have escaped aU notice and investigation. Remarkable as they are, and 

 reverenced and sacred as they must have been in former times, strange to say, these 

 cairns have not yet been identified with any description or historical allusion in the 

 ancient annals of the country. 



During an excursion in June 1863 to the Loughcrew Hills, where these ancient 

 tombs are most conspicuously situated, about two miles south-east of the town of 

 Oldcastle, the author found the remains of thirty-one cairns, partially destroyed, no 

 allusion to which was inserted on the Ordnance Maps beyond a few dots, with the 

 word " stones " appended. The rural popidation of the neighbourliood believed 

 these heaps of atones to be the magical work of a witch, and had current among 

 them a legend to that effect. Hence the name given to the highest peak, Sliabh- 

 na-Caillighe, or "The Hag's Mountain." 



After having made some preliminary explorations in two of the cairns, he had 

 the good fortune to enlist the interest of the proprietor of the estate, the late James 

 Lenox William Naper, Esq., in having a thorough examination of the place 

 imdertaken. It must, however, injustice, be stated here that, in securing his co- 

 operation and indispensable assistance in supplying labour &c., the author was 

 mainly indebted to the scientific tastes of his agent, Charles Wm. Hamilton, Esq., 

 J.P., of Hamwood, who also communicated with Colonel Sir Henry James, R.E., 

 as to the omission of these cairns on the Ordnance Maps ; in consequence of which 

 a highly qualified Sapper, Mr. Thomas Pearson, was sent from the Ordnance De- 

 partment, Phoenix Park, with instructions to remeasure the hills, and to insert the 

 antiquities on a map 25'344 inches to a statute mile *. 



In a paper which the author had the honour of reading before the Royal Irish 

 Academy on 26th February, 1866, he described these cairns, naming each by a letter 

 of the alphabet, in some cases with an index figure. Out of tiie remains of thirty- 

 one cairns, fourteen were found to contain parietal or chamber-stones, richly covered 

 with sculptures ; in some cases the work having been punched, and in others clearly 

 and cleanly cut or engraved. 



In each of the cairns careful drawings have been made of the devices upon these 

 stones, amounting to 11.5 in number, several of which were exhibited to the Section. 

 In the well-known cairn at Dowth there are eleven inscribed stones, and at the 

 celebrated tumulus of New Grange twenty ; while in Cairn T, at Loughcrew, as 

 many as thirty-one, no two being exactly alike ; and many most elaborately 

 covered with devices, which afforded stnmger evidence of their having been in- 

 tended as symbolic emblems than the (in many cases) evidently ornamental sculp- 

 tures at New Grange. 



Caibn F. 



The present remains of this cairn, which is I65 yards in diameter, rise only to 

 the height of 5 feet. In the south-western corner of the southern crypt in the in- 



* A copy of this map was exhibited to the Section, zincographed copies of which can 

 be obtained from the Ordnance Publishers. 



1870. 10 



