272 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



and of probable antiquity. What follows will be taken for wliat it is 

 worth, considering the nature of the composition : — " And great 

 numbers of bulls and rams used to be killed and roasted around those 

 flags, and the blood and the brains of those animals used to be spilled 

 and rubbed upon that altar." He then narrates the appearance of the 

 great wild pig, its slaughter by the youthful heroes, the offering up of 

 it on Altoir na Greine, and its distribution as food to the multitudes : 

 on which it is only necessary to remark that he places the site of the 

 altar on a height above the lake, leaving no doubt that the object 

 referred to was at the time of the composition, 1749, standing on the 

 •ame spot where it was referred to by Mr. Kennedy, in 1814, and seen 

 by Professor O'Looney in 1844-5. 



Behind this date I am unable to discover any further evidence, 

 either of the positive or presumptive kind, tending to show how long 

 Altoir na Greine had existed. The evidence adduced renders it hard 

 to understand how such a state of facts could have oiiginated in 

 modern times. Had it been a mass-altar, erected during the enforce- 

 ment of the penal laws, its nature would have been fresh in every- 

 one's knowledge when Comyns wrote. The change of name on such a 

 supposition would imply a double process in the popular mind, of 

 forgetting something of which the speakers would be proud, and 

 inventing something in lieu of it, of which they would be ashamed. 

 Its position also, with its back to the west, seems difficult to reconcile 

 with that idea. Its structure, however, does not appear to have had 

 the solidity of ancient monuments in general ; and the aspect of the 

 neighbouring inscription, as has already been observed, does not bespeak 

 a remote antiquity. Still the place appears to have been the scene of 

 assemblies representing the old (Enachs, which were commonly held in 

 the neighbourhood of ancient sepulchral monuments ; and if the rites 

 which presumably may be believed to have been associated with it in 

 popular tradition, a hundred years ago, savour of a Gentile worship, it 

 is not necessary to ascend so high as the very early Christian era, for 

 t he presence of remains of Gentilism in Ireland. 



[A further paper on this subject was read before the Academy by Dr. Ferguson 

 on the 8th of is'oveniber, 1875, which will appear in the Proceedings. — Ed.] 



