402 THE BRITISII ISLES. 



monuments of the country, and when they sought to render exceptional honour to 

 their ehnmpion O'Connell, they raised one of these minarets over his grave in the 

 cemetery of Dubh'n. 



In many respects the Middle Ages, and even prehistoric times, continued longer 

 in Ireland than in Great Britain.* Lake dwellings, such as are now being explored 

 with so much curiosity in the lakes of the Alps, existed until quite recently 

 in the vast lowland region of Ireland. The nature of the soil was favourable to 

 their existence. After the great forests had been destroyed, an island, surrounded 

 by deep water, afforded, in fact, the most secure retreat. Several cranogues, 

 or wooden forts placed upon piles or artificial islands, continued to be inhabited 

 up to the beginning of the seventeenth century. The more remote a district, and 

 the less intercourse it had with strangers, the longer could ancient manners and 

 customs survive in it. The island of Aran, which lies out of the world, from which 

 it is defended by winds and waves, and abounds in cromlechs, raths, and barrows, 

 was the " Sacred Island" of the Irish Celts, as the islands of Sein, Mona, and lona 

 were sacred to the Britons of Armorica and Great Britain. Still more remote are 

 the islands of Inishkea, in the open Atlantic, off the coast of Mayo. Their inha- 

 bitants, living far away from high-roads of commerce and ignored by their con- 

 querors, were heathens in 1872, and probably are so still. When the wind 

 blows a tempest and renders fishing impossible, the islanders carry an idol, dressed 

 in wool, along the strand, in the hope that he may calm the sea : their wishes are 

 frequenth' fulfilled, when they respectfully restore their idol to its sanctuary. 

 Seals are numerous along the coasts of Inishkea, but the inhabitants take care not 

 to kill them, for they believe that the souls of their departed relatives reside in 

 them.t Inish Torragh, or Tory Island, near the coast of Donegal, has no gods 

 of its own, but it has a fisherman, elected by his three or four hundred companions, 

 for its king, and this potentate has power to exile those amongst the islanders 

 •who refuse compliance with the ancient customs.* On Slieve Callan, an almost 

 insulated mountain in the county of Clare, on the Bay of Liscanor, there stands an 

 altar raised in honour of the sun-god, and up to the close of the last century pigs 

 were sacrificed iqjon it, and flowers scattered over the turf around it.§ 



In a few of the more remote districts the aspect of the inhabitants is almost that 

 of savages, their small eyes, low foreheads, and tangled hair giving them the 

 appearance of Tatars. But as a rule the Irish are a fine race, notwithstanding the 

 small turned-up nose, which at once enables us to pick out a son of Erin amongst 

 a crowd of Englishmen.il The natives of Joyce's Country, in Connemara, are of 

 almost gigantic stature, with fine limbs and strong muscles. The men of Tipperary, 

 though smaller, are no less strong, and are distinguished for their agility and 

 grace. Comparative measurements made in the universities of the United Kingdom 



* O'CiuTj-, " On the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish." 

 t Journal of the London Anthropolorjical InstHute, ii. p. 447. 

 X A. M. Sullivan, "New Ireland." 



§ Ferguson, " Evidences of Sun-"\Vorship at Mount Callan," Froceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 

 Decemher, 1875. 



II Roget de Belloguet, " E'Jmogénie Gauloise," ii. 



