158 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS 



estine, Tyre, &c.," referring to the last you may find this extract : 

 " As an Irishman I felt no small degree of interest on first touching 

 the motherland, whose colony we claim to be. I asked myself, was 

 this the city whose antiquity was of ancient days, the mart of nations ? 

 Could this be the strong city Tyre, the daughter of Sidon, whose 

 ships were constructed of the fir trees of Senir, the cedars of Leb- 

 anon, the oaks of Bashan, which pushed her colonies beyond th'e 

 Pillars of Hercules to Gades and the Isles of the West ?" 



Again, the same writer remarks, when describing some of the 

 peculiarities of the tombs he discovered at Tyre, (Palsetyrus), " I m.en- 

 tioned the similarity that existed between the ground plan of the 

 Egyptian, Phoenician, Grecian, and also the Irish, as exhibited in 

 cromlech or pyramid of New Grange, in all of which the tomb 

 consists of a stone chamber having three recesses or tabernacles for 

 bodies, i. e., one on each side and one opposite the entrance. Now, 

 in these chambers that I have just described the same character is 

 preserved, showing a similarity of sepulchral architecture throughout 

 these several countries." Herodotus, who lived 413 B. C, states, 

 he "was informed by the priests of Hercules that their temple was 

 in existence since the city was built 2,300 years before." The cele- 

 brated Sir Isaac Newton in his " Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms," 

 mentions the Phoeniciars going to the coast of Spain, building 

 Carteia, Gades, and Tartessus ; others going further to the Fortunate 

 Isles, to Britain and Thule. History tells us, the Persian fleet, sixty 

 in number, were defeated by twelve Sidonian ships. They must 

 have been superior both in size and skill to overcome such a dispar- 

 ity of forces. The suastika, or symbol of fire, which Schliemann 

 claims to have discovered recently, in what he considers the ruins of 

 Troy, is also engraved on sculptured objects from Africa, India, 

 Greece, Denmark and Ireland. 



When I was quartered in the Ionian Isles I was presented by a 

 Greek Monk with an oval lead bullet about the size of a bantam's 

 egg. It was found in a tomb in Cephalonia, and was supposed to 

 have been used by a slinger in Pagan times. There is in Dublin a 

 mould which was formed apparently for casting such missiles. 



In a paper by John I. Robinson, A. R. H. A., on " Celtic re- 

 mains in England," referring to photographs taken by Mr. Allen, I 

 find this statement : — " I think that the light now being thrown on 

 the subject goes to prove the truth of the Irish annals and traditions. 



