Mooney. ] 256 (Oct. 19, | 
Silver Hand, the place of the missing member being supplied by an arti- 
ficial substitute. As if in confirmation of these statements there is an 
instance on record where a stone coffin was discoverd in the County 
Wicklow, ‘‘just large enough to contain a small urn, which was inverted 
over two small bones belonging to human fingers and toes, and no other 
part of the body.’’* | 
The stone dolmens, sepulchral or otherwise, ar popularly known : 
throughout Ireland as ‘‘giants’ graves,’’? and many stories ar current 
of giant skeletons found within them. It is hardly necessary to state that 
no such skeletons hav been found, the supposed giants’ bones being prob- 
ably those of some of the larger domestic animals which formd a part of 
the funeral sacrifice. The mounds and circular earthen forts, on the 
other hand, ar universally attributed to the fairies or ‘“ good people,’’ who 
ar supposed to dwell within them, and so deeply is this belief rooted in 
the minds of the people that very few of the older ones would venture to 
lift a spadeful of earth or even to cut a bush from the neighborhood of 
such a structure. In some instances burial kistvaens have been found in 
the outer circumference of the rath, or earthen fort. | 
We hav thus seen that the ancient inhabitants of Ireland disposed of 
their dead by cremation, by disjointed burial and by extended burial, the 
first method being almost universal, while the last mentioned is rare and 
apparently of intrusiv origin. The human remains wer inclosed within 
an urn or stone coffin, the urn itself being sometimes within the coffin. 
The place of burial was sometimes unmarkd, at other times distinguishd 3 
by a pillam stone, a hillock, a dolmen, or an immense mound. Weapons, | 
ornaments, and probably amulets wer buried with the dead, and there is 
abundant evidence that both human and animal sacrifice frequently accom - 
panied the funeral ceremonies, The human victims wer probably prison- 
ers taken in war and perhaps wer of a different race from that of the 
principal occupant of the tomb, while the animals slaughterd wer gene- 
rally such as might hav furnishd a funeral feast to those in attendance. 
Should this picture seem dark to the patriotic Irishman he may find com- 
fort in the reflection that exactly the same thing may be said of probably 
every nation in Europe. 
Strabo asserts that at the beginning of the Christian era the Irish prac- 
ticed cannibalism and regarded it as an honorable deed to eat the flesh of 
their dead parents.{ With regard to this statement it may be said that, 
while this practice is widespread among savage tribes—founded, as it is, 
on the natural idea that by partaking of the flesh they imbibe the desira- 
ble qualities of the dead man}t—the Irish at that period wer already a 
* W. R. Wilde, The Boyne and the Blackwater, 2d ed., 234, Dublin, 1850, 
+ Strabo, iv, 6, 2 and 4, quoted by Fligier, Mittheil. Anth. Gesell., ix, 249, Wien, 1880. 
t Speaking of Australian funeral customs, a competent authority says: “I am, as I 
said, obliged to confess that the natives eat the flesh of some of their departed friends, 
and evidently think by so doing they are both benefiting themselves and conferring an 
honor upon the déad__ It is not done altogether from a craving after human flesh. * * * 
The reason, I am told, is that by partaking of the flesh of a person they inherit the vir- 
tues of that person.’? Albert McDonald, Mode of Preparing the Dead among the Natives 
of the Upper Mary River, Queensland, Jour. Anth. Inst., ii, 179, London, 1873. 
e a 
