431 



time too much prized to be employed in such a pastoral use. 

 Besides this, the crotals were not sufficiently sonorous to be 

 audible at a few yards' distance, even in a silent chamber. 

 How, then, could they be heard at the most moderate distance 

 in the open air, and in a country obstructed by forest trees, 

 and thickly entangled underwood ? He who takes the trou- 

 ble to shake one of the pear-shaped crotals belonging to the 

 Academy, or the spherical-shaped one from my collection, now 

 exhibited, must admit their inutility as instruments of sound. 

 Moreover, I believe that if the people of this island had in 

 former times been in the habit of appending such bells to the 

 necks of sheep or cattle, the bells would have been common ; 

 and thence arises the question, if they were so common, why 

 is it that none of them have been found elsewhere than at 

 Dowris? Why is it that such bells have never been disco- 

 vered sparsim, or by separate specimens, but that all that have 

 been hitherto found have been met with together, and along 

 with a great variety of other articles ? It must also be borne 

 in mind, that, notwithstanding the numerous notices of tribute 

 of sheep and cattle mentioned in almost every page of the 

 Book of Rights, a solitary expression is not to be found which 

 could lead to the belief that any sort of bells were appended 

 to the subjects of such tribute. On the contrary, we must 

 presume, that if bells had been so used, they would not have 

 been omitted in the record ; for, in some parts of the same 

 book, brass chains are mentioned as being upon the necks of 

 the animals sent in payment. 



" I apprehend, that Dr. Robinson has, in strictness, in- 

 accurately described the Dowris crotals as having loose clap- 

 pers. They each merely contain a single and very small de- 

 tached piece of metal, somewhat in the manner of a modern 

 sheep-bell. But a modern sheep-bell emits a loud sound when 

 compared with the feeble tinkling of these ancient crotals. 



" The cause of tenuity of sound in the Dowris crotals is 

 obvious. In the first place, they were formed of a rather soft 



