388 



Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



of the native tribes. It consists of a disc of wood with two holes through 

 which an endless loop of cord is passed. This being twisted and passed 

 over the hands, the disc is made to revolve rapidly alternately twisting and 

 untwisting the cord; a siuind resembling that of the bull-roarer proper is 

 thus produced. 1 



Every one of the principal New Grange "ornaments" can tlms be 



explained in a simple and natural way, as referring to the worship that 



centered in its dark recesses. Even the quartered lozenge (fig. 45), which in 



i lie days when I believed in the Cretan theory 1 imagined to be a double 



tits into its place as an ornamented bull-roarer; the definition <>!' these 



Fio. I.— Petroglyph Irange and eUetrhere. 



objects is a study in itself, and is always significant. Around Ungual in his 

 tomb resounds eternally Ihe pealing of thunder and ihe scream of ihe bull- 

 roarer: it is little wonder that the incoming Celts should have identified him 

 with ■ ■ lllgotbacb ! 



The conclusions here indicated involve the abandonment of everything 



that had been supposed to have' een established as to the date of New Grange. 



it New Grange be independent of the Mycenaean tombs, we can no longer 



having a _ "ii the chron e I problem. We are driven 



liaek to the internal evidence which it pi It- alliance with the megalithic 



construction of the dolmens would predispose ns (it the Mycenaean aualogies 



Set ii , , . , m • ■ oj .l/.i,., p- 2S4. 



