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variety (see Fig. 9, below). The two other figures (Figs. 7 and 8) are 
of the ordinary goat : both are from Dunshaughlin. 
Fig. 8. 
The old Irish goat was small, in some instances white, but more 
usually of an iron-gray colour. Many localities throughout the country, 
hills, rocks, and mountains, derive their names from goats, such as 
Keam-a-gower, the goat’s path, in the west of the county of Cork; Lisna- 
ngabhar, the goat’s fort, in the county of Monaghan; and the celebrated 
pass in Achill Island, called the Mcnaun, or kid’s path. 
St. Patrick had two buck-goats, which he employed for carrying 
water. An account of them will be found in Colgan’s “‘ Trias Thauma- 
turga.’’ They were stolen by three thieves, of the Ui-Torra, in the 
territory of Hy-Meith-tire, in the now county of Monaghan; but 
the saint received information which enabled him to detect the thieves, 
who declared that they had not stolen the goats. Patrick, however, it is 
stated, worked a miracle on the occasion, and caused the animals, which 
they had killed and eaten, to bleat from their bellies, and he prayed that 
the descendants of the thieves should, throughout all time, be distin- 
guished by producing and wearing on their chins beards similar to 
those of buck-goats. ‘‘Ad cujus miraculi augmentum et continuam me- 
moriam accessit, quod imprecante Patricio tota posteritas istorum furum 
velut avitd heredytate semper barbas, caprinis subsimiles habeant.”’—p. 150, 
c. 10. 
Sheep, Cutra, or Caeirt. Although the Irish histories do not refer to 
sheep at so early a date as horned cattle are alluded to, still there is evi- 
dence to show that they existed prior to our Christian era; for in the ‘‘ Le- 
abhar-na-gCeart,”’ or Book of the Rights and Privileges of the Kings of 
Erin, they are thus mentioned in the Tribute of Cashel: ‘‘ Sixty smooth- 
wethers ;” also, ‘‘seven hundred wethers, not hornless;”’ again, “a 
thousand fine sheep,’ and “a thousand rams swelled out with wool,” 
with many similar references to sheep, all showing that there were great 
numbers as well as different breeds thereof in Ireland at a very early 
period. 
All the crania of sheep in the Academy’s collection are horned, and, 
with the true goat’s heads, already alluded to, amount to twenty-two 
