Browne — Ethnography of Inishhofin and Inishshark. 365 



There is another cross in the church which is of much finer 

 workmanship, and is probably the true Leac Leo. In 1870, when 

 Mr. Kinahan yisitecl the island, the church was in ruins, and was used 

 as a cattle pen, and the cross, or a stone coffln lid, he is not at this 

 time able to say which, was set up on its side, leaving a space between 

 it and the wall to form a trough, 



(3.) St Leo's Cave {TJaimli Leo), on the south side of the island. 



(4.) Tholhar Leo. — St. Leo's "Well is situated, not in the cave, but 

 some distance from the top of a deep and almost precipitous cove, 

 called Fuath Leo. 



(5.) Cloghan Leo is a small round cell, now almost completely ruin- 

 ous, built within an enclosure of very little larger area. The saint's 

 footprint is pointed out in the rock on which the building stands. 



YII. — History. 



As a Paper of this nature woiild be incomplete without some men- 

 tion of the changes and vicissitudes that the population of the islands 

 has undergone, a slight historical sketch is attempted here. It is not, 

 and does not pretend to be, complete, as unfortunately the material 

 available is very scanty, especially in regard to its earlier history ; for, 

 though the Venerable Bede, the Eour Masters, and others make several 

 references to the islands, yet these nearly all relate to ecclesiastical 

 events, which have at most only a secondary bearing on the history of 

 the people, and are not within the scope of this Paper, 



The annalists record that in the sec(jnd century a tribe of the Pir- 

 bolgs (Clann Humoir) who occupied that part of the mainland oppo- 

 site the islands were conquered and enslaved by Tuathal Teachtmar, a 

 Scotic or Milesian monarch, and it is probable, if the islands were 

 inhabited by members of the first-named people, that they shared the 

 same fate as the rest of their tribe. It is not known whether such 

 was the case, as this is "the only mention of this teritory while in 

 the hands of the Belgae," says O'Donovan in his "Letters," except 

 that one of their chiefs named Modh, or Modha, gave his name to Inis 

 Modha, or the Clew Bay islands. After the conquest of the Clann 

 Humoir the territory came into the hands of the Milesians, and the 

 records about it relate, at first, to the deaths of their chiefs, and later 

 on in the 9th century to the incursions of pirates (believed to have 

 been Scandinavians), but make no specific mention of Inishhofin or 

 its inhabitants. 



