232 Proceedings or the Royal Irish Academy. 



time could have had cognizance. Ancient texts, then hidden away in >tss. 

 almost or entirely inaccessible, have been published. A more rigid historical 

 criticism has been applied to the documents of which Tetrie made use, and 

 to the interpretations which he and Ins contemporaries put upon them. The 

 science of Anthropology in its several branches has come into being, shedding 

 light on corners which to Petrie and his friends were totally obscure. In 

 short, we have reached a stage where it seems profitable and desirable to 

 review the whole suhji 



The topog il part of the present paper, which occupies Section 2, is 



entirely corrective or supplementary to Tara, and no details there given 

 accurately are i here, unless some special circumstance makes it 



necessary. I have more than once read over the descriptions in Tara on 

 the If, ami have judged of their correctness with the actual remains 



before me. 



The views put forward in tin- later sections of this paper have been 

 growing in my mind for some time. That they air at the moment "in the 

 mi by the fact thai t" a certain degree they have recently 

 anticipated in publication by my friend Dr. Josef Baudis, in an 

 article published in Erin. 1 I am very glad that tins scholar has come, 

 quite independently, to the same conclusions as myself, as it encourages me 

 1" put Forward iny own suggestions witb all the more confidence. Mr. A. B. 



published in Folk-lore* even earlier indicated 



similar • I would interpret some of the facts a little differently 



from my pn .ml in the following study I endeavour, bo far .1- 



..•id traversing tl ground as they have done. Practically 



all tin- points which the-, . ird were familiar to me, and 



would have 1 n included here had their writing- on the .subject not seen the 



light. But it would not i»' reasonable, es] i ally in these times of stress, 



• A i.v to reprint i bready accessible ; and accordingly 



where work thai lias already appeared -nil holds good, I content myself 

 with a simple referen 



The study of ih. phy of the site must be based on that remark- 



try knowr ■ „,!. This document, 



with its wild folk-lore, may well seem a perilous quicksand on which to 

 found what is intended to i rical inves a a. But the 



• unes, and the I sea-monsters and other 



imp with which it is so la _ ued, must not blind 



1 On ti vol. viii. p. lo]. 



' The I |. iv-.iviii. 



