424 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS .—H. 
culture of the megalithic period in Northern Ireland. Some forty megaliths 
of this type have now been recognised in the six counties and five have been 
excavated : they show many variations in detail of construction, but most 
of them consist of long cairns containing segmented chambers (normally 
three in number) opening on to a semicircular facade of standing stones 
which embrace a paved forecourt. Some cairns are built on a prepared 
floor of clean soil or clay. Burials are after cremation or inhumation (ap- 
parently partial). Finds include leaf-shaped arrowheads, hollow-scrapers, 
chipped flint axes, polished axes, stone and bone beads, and a polished 
javelin-head. The pottery is nearly all round-bottomed (with the exception 
of some Early Iron Age intrusions) and has strong affinities with the Scottish 
horned-cairn pottery. Although it possesses certain Windmill Hill features, 
the use of cord and whipped-cord ornament is not uncommon and some 
high-shouldered pots find their nearest parallels in the Isle of Man. On 
the other hand some features can only be matched farther afield, either in 
the Baltic area or in Brittany. One of the most interesting discoveries is 
a proto-food-vessel from Ballyalton, County Down. 
Mr, J. Foster Forses.—Megalithic circles and monolithic monuments of 
north-east Scotland (11.45). 
It is the purpose of this paper to endeavour to extract, from known data 
out of the remote past, evidence that will go far to solve the mystery not 
only of the megalithic circles, but to show that the incised monolithic 
symbols were carried out by the same people and that they formed an 
integral part in the megalithic construction. It is vain to search for evidence 
of the origin of these stones amongst races and peoples coming in from other 
countries and settling in Scotland, where no trace of megalithic’ circle 
formation has been known to exist in their own lands. In this category 
one can well exclude those who migrated from Northern and Central Europe 
and penetrated as far as the eastern and north-eastern seaboards of Scotland. 
Although it has long been known that the Pheenicians penetrated as far 
as these islands and traded with the inhabitants, there is no evidence to show 
the existence of the megalithic circles in the country of their origin. On 
reputable authority it has been stated that the race of people more correctly 
known as the Caledonians (and afterwards given the name of the ‘ Picts ’) 
originated from Spain and the Basque country ; that, at one time, numbers 
of their race migrated from Spain and formed colonies on the shores of 
Brittany, Cornwall, South Wales and Cumberland. Others proceeded to 
Ireland, from which country they were ejected, taking with them a number 
of their Irish women-folk as wives and finally landing in Scotland. These 
people constituted the earliest race of settlers at a period known as the New 
Stone Age, which followed that of the Second Ice Age. 
Dr. Marcaret Murray.—Dating of folk-lore (12.30). 
Much work has already been done on the geographical distribution of 
folk-lore, especially of folk-tales. The ethnographical side of the subject 
has also received some attention, but the dating of folk-customs and beliefs 
has been neglected. Some of these customs and beliefs can be dated to 
a definite time, others are more vaguely dated to the Middle Ages or to 
post-Christian and pre-Christian, and a few can only be referred back to 
the Bronze Age and the Paleolithic Age. The chronological method applied 
to the study of folk-lore still requires a great amount of careful and scientific 
research. 
