86 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



greenish-grey felstone. They are highly polished. Their butt-ends appear 

 to have been broken off; but the butt of one has been smoothed and polished, 

 and a saltire has been cut upon it. These celts are interesting specimens : 

 the cutting edges of two are slightly expanded, as if they were late in date, 

 and had been reacted on by a metal form. It hardly appears likely that 

 they were used to fell the tree, were broken in the attempt, and then thrown 

 aside. Possibly they were deposited at the root of the tree as a votive 

 offering. The worship of trees was so widespread in prehistoric times' that 

 such an offering need cause no surprise: while the axe was frequently 

 regarded us a sacred symbol by peoples of antiquity; so that its votive use is 

 easy to understand. Another celt, formerly in the collection of Dr. Petrie, has 

 its butt-end, which Beems to have been broken, polished and ornamented 

 this specimen, and the celt above described, appear to he the only two in the 

 Academy's collection which show this curious feature. 



Two roughly made celts, now in the possession of Professor Lucas White 



King, m.im.a.. are >i;i!cd t.i have been found together at Menlough, Co. Galway. 



The butt of one is pointed; it has ;i Battened side. The butt of the other 



is oval. l'i White King has allowed these celts to be illustrated. 



Fig. L,g and IO.) 



A -mall Btone celt, 1!; inches in length, and \\l inch in breadth, and 

 portions of what were probably two others, ate in the Academy's collec- 

 tion. All are stated to have been found together, close to the castle of 

 Aughnanure, I I Galway. The perfect celt has a butt-end 



closely approaching a point, li is not possible to determine exactly the 

 Bhape of the broken specimens. 



Kilkenny. — Two large polished Btone celts, formerly in the Dawson 

 collection, of similar Bhape, with roughly squared butts, are stated by 

 Wilde' to have been found at Baysrath, Co. Kilkenny. The two celts are so 

 alike in form as to lead to the supposition that they were fashioned by the 

 same hand. There can be little doubt they were found in association. 

 (Fig. I 



Co. I. -'.-. — There ne B aumbei of stone celts in the Academy's 

 collection which icribed as having been procured from Lough Gur, 



Co. Limerick. Lough Gur is a lake situated some three miles north of Bruff. 

 Many antiquities of Btone, bronze, and iron have been obtained cither from 

 the lake or mar it. but as a rule particulars as to the exact spot where they 

 were obtained are wanting. The lake appears to have been a place of 



I .. OoUL ii /;.../.;/,. 3rd edition, ii. Part I. p. 7. »qq. ' "/'• •'»'•. I 1 61. 



