90 
were exposed, each about 3 feet 6 inches in length, 2 feet 6 inches in 
breadth, and 4 inches thick; one of these is said to have shown marks 
of fire, and on it were found some remnants of charcoal. Underneath 
these were found two small chambers, lying east and west, divided by an 
upright flag, and floored with stones similar to those on top. The largest 
of these chambers, which was of a pentagonal form, was but 2 feet 
3 inches deep, and about 3 feet 6 inches in its greatest diagonal. Both 
chambers, but particularly the western, were nearly filled with ‘ an 
umber-coloured, fine flour-like mould, evidently the deposition of ages, 
from the surrounding mound, which forced its way through the chinks 
of the kistvaen.’ Each contained a human skeleton, a sufficient number 
of the bones composing which were collected to lead to the belief that 
when interred they were quite perfect; but in what position the bodies ~ 
were placed, or whether they were denuded of the flesh before inter- 
ment, were questions which the furnished accounts do not enable us to 
determine. It is greatly to be regretted that when excavations are 
about to be made into ancient tumuli, the assistance of persons already 
conversant with such matters is not sought, and sketches are not made 
of the precise position of the remains when first discovered. Fortunately, 
Dr. Kelly, of Mullingar, visited the spot very shortly after the dis- 
covery, and furnished ‘ The Westmeath Guardian’ of the 6th and 20th 
of August, 1857, with all the particulars attending the excavation. 
“The eastern chamber contained portions of the skeleton of a middle- 
aged man, with fragments of a skull of a globular form, with a high 
frontal development, and light thin bone plates, similar to that found in a 
stone-chamber at Dunamase, now in the Academy’s collection, and which 
I described in the Proceedings, vol. iv., p.35, in 1848, and to which I then 
assigned the name of Tuatha da Danaan, in contradistinction to the long- 
headed, low-foreheaded J’rbolg race found in the tumulus in the Phoenix 
Park. The teeth throughout the whole dental series, both above and 
below, have their crowns so much worn down as not only to obliterate 
the tubercles, but to hollow out the bony portion so deep as to leave in 
some teeth nothing but a hollow surface, with a thin shell of enamel all 
round it. This peculiarity in the very earliest ofthe Irish skulls I have 
long since called attention to, and believe it to be produced by the tritu- 
ration of hard grain food, such as parched corn. Coexisting with such 
formation, we find a stout jaw-bone, with a well-developed prominent 
chin process. None of the teeth in either of these skeletons, nor, in- 
deed, in any ancient Irish crania which I have examined, exhibit any 
signs of decay. The only other object found in this chamber was a large 
boar’s tusk. 
“¢ All the bones which we have received of both skeletons,— con- 
sisting of those of the head already described, the long bones of the legs 
and arms of one, and those of the arms of another skeleton,—are ex- 
ceedingly light and friable, and evidently do not contain as much animal 
matter as those found in the Phcenix Park tumulus. 
‘<The western chamber contained a skeleton in somewhat better pre- 
servation, and with it the remains of the skull of one of the long-headed 
