1888.] 255 
[ Mooney. 
metal. With regard to the authors of these Antrim tombs, Mr. Holden 
Says: “Though the structural forms of interment differ so much over so 
small an area, yet it is highly probable that all were erected by the same 
race and people, who thus showed their reverence and respect for the 
dead, according to the rank they held while living. The total absence of 
metal, and presence of worked flint, do not allow their civilization to be 
placed higher than the Neolithic period.” 
In the manuscript narrativ of the Battle of Moytura, already referd to, 
there is an account of a Firbolg hero who lost his life in defending that of 
his king. The Firbolgs came up soon after, and each one taking a stone 
in his hand, they erected a monumental carn over the body, calling it the 
‘Carn of the One Man.”’ After reading the detaild account in the manu- 
script and going carefully over the ground, Sir William Wilde became 
convinced that the tomb was identical with a mound, crownd with a circle 
of standing stones, situated on the southern border of Lough Mask and 
known under the name of Carn Minin Uisge.* The chief point in the 
identification was the vicinity of a remarkable wel, at which, according 
to the account, the king was surprised by his enemies. Procuring some 
men, Sir William put thera to work excavating the mound, telling them 
beforehand that if it had not been already opend, they would find within 
it a chamber containing the remains of the Firbolg hero. True to the 
prediction they soon came upon a large horizontal flag, below which was 
another somewhat larger. On removing this latter it wag found to cover 
a small square chamber twenty-eight inches high and thirty-seven wide, 
the walls of which wer tormd of small stones. Within this chamber was 
found a small urn, of beautiful design and ornamentation, containing in- 
cinerated human bones. *‘Here, no doubt,” says Wilde, ‘‘the body of 
the loyal Firbolg youth was burned, and his ashes collected and preserved 
in this urn. Perhaps a more convincing proof of the authenticity of Irish 
or any other ancient history has never been afforded.’’+ 
From this it seems evident that the Firbolgs practiced cremation, and 
the same account specifies four different classes of burial structures— 
mounds, hillocks, pillar stones and simple graves—which they erected 
over the slain, according to the rank of the warrior. The monumental 
pillar stone, sometimes bearing an Ogham inscription, in connection with 
the tomb, is frequently mentiond in the old manuscripts, and stone and 
tomb alike took their name from the hero whose remains wer there 
interd. : 
In the same manuscript is an account of a carn which the Firbolgs 
erected over the head of one of their slain heroes, which they recoverd 
from the enemy, while on the other hand the Tuatha-de-Dananns erected 
a monument over the severd arm of one of their champions, who after- 
ward became king of Ireland under the title of Nuadhat (Nuath) of the 
* Pronounced, Carn Meeneen Ishga, probably signifying “carn of the little watery 
plain.” 
t W. R, Wilde, Lough Corrib, 226, Dublin, 1867, 
PROC. AMER. PHILOS. 80C. XXV. 128, 2G. PRINTED DEC, 27, 1888, 
