THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. I47 



Harbour, abounds in cahirs and clochauns. From the description 

 given of it, it appears to be of very great antiquity. In a note to 

 a chapter of the History of Ancient Ireland, by Mr. Haverty, the 

 vi'riter expresses his behef that we have the descendants of these Bel- 

 gian colonists yet among us. The brachycephalus (round skull) 

 may be frequently noticed in Connaught and among Kerrymen in 

 confirmation of this opinion. 



Mortuary Urns and Cremation^ Pagan Ireland.— T^iO. mor- 

 tuary urns of the pre-historic inhabitants of Ireland are very beauti- 

 ful, both in design and execution generally, but I have seen some 

 few exceptions which one may compare with the rude pottery of the 

 Indian ossuaries in Canada. They are found both in tumuh, i. e., 

 Druids' altars or cromlechs, and in what we call kists and caverns, 

 rarely however in the latter. In most cases they contain ashes 

 and burnt bones. The kist itself is a small bee-hive like structure, 

 (sometimes square) a little beneath the surface of the soil, and pro- 

 bably was formed where the body was cremated. In addition to 

 human bones, remains (teeth) of the dog have been found also in the 

 urns, which leads us to conclude the hound was cremated with the 

 master. The cromlechs may have been the sepulchral monuments 

 of the more distinguished chiefs. The memorable discovery of the 

 one in the Phoenix Park, Dublin, A. D, 1838, first opened the eyes 

 of antiquarians to the real nature of the so-called altars and sacrifi- 

 cial stones, when the pick and spade of the working man solved a 

 problem which all the learning of Europe failed to decipher. In 

 leveUing a mound about fourteen or fifteen feet high the labourers 

 came on a massive flagstone resting on others placed perpendicu- 

 larly. They had previously discovered a little outside this, i. e , the 

 central point, four small kists containing burned bones ; inside the 

 chamber formed by the flags were two complete male skeletons 

 placed not full length (the space did not admit of that), but bent as 

 it were at the knees ; a number of small littoral shells, pierced for 

 a chaplet or neck-lace apparently, lay close to each skull ; a bone 

 pin, two arrow points and a flint knife were lying near by also. The 

 circumstance of finding the two modes of burial in the same mound 

 Sir Wm. Wilde notes as " a remarkable fact." Warren Moorhead, 

 I think, mentions that the Red Men of Ohio at a recent period fre- 

 quently interred their dead in the pre-historic burial places of the 

 mound-builders. ; I 



