250 THE FOGOTJ AT HALLIGEY, TRELOWAEREN. 



The discovery of what is believed to have been a Celtic Urn 

 containing human ashes, a cup, and some bones supposed to be 

 of deer. 



All these points taken in connection with the absence of 

 quarrying appliances seem very clearly to indicate that this is an 

 ancient British, or Eomano-British work. 



Celtic warriors and other inhabitants of the locality could have 

 completed such a structure as this within their fort openly and 

 without fear of its being betrayed, and they could have used it 

 as a store, as a place of temporary concealment in time of pressing 

 danger, and perhaps as a dungeon for captives. It would serve 

 also as a place in which to deposit the relics of cremation. It 

 could never have been used as a human habitation for long at a 

 time, nor as a cattle shed, for want of light, ventilation, and fit 

 entrances. 



Not only in Cornwall but in other parts of the British Isles 

 and also abroad, mysterious chambers, caves, and dens have been 

 discovered. Tacitus, writing in A.D. 98, described* those that 

 were then used on the continent. He relates that the tribes 

 there fixed their abodes near a spring or in some other conveni- 

 ent spot. They built with rude materials regardless of beauty 

 or proportion, they dug subterranean caves which they thickly 

 covered over, and these served them as a retreat, or as a de- 

 pository for their crops. If at any time an enemy approached, 

 although he might lay waste or seize anything he could see, the 

 hidden contents of these places dug in the ground escaped 

 capture, either through being unsuspected or because it was so 

 troublesome and difficult to find them even by a careful search. 



There is no evidence to shew that Cornish Fogous were tem- 

 plesf or sacred enclosures. Some have surmised that they were 



*Part of his description has reference to a climate unlike ours. Omitting 

 such allusions, his words are: — "Colunt diversi ut fons, ut campus, ut nemus 

 placuit. Materia ad omnia utuntur informi et citra speciem aut delectationem. 

 Solent et subterraneos specus aperire, suffugium, et receptaculum frugibus. Et 

 si quando hostis advenit, aperta populatur, abdita autem et defossa aut ignorantur 

 aut eo ipso fallunt quod quserenda sunt." — {Tacit : Germ : cap. 16). 



f As to whether Halig, holy, forms part of the name of Halligey, see con- 

 cluding chapter following this Introduction. 



