62 [Proc. B.N.F.C., 



proper at all. The reason of this, no doubt, is because of the 

 rarity of those objects interesting to collectors to be found in 

 connection with them. 



Mr. Wakeman in his book on " Irish Antiquities," when 

 speaking of the souterrains found in raths, says (page 136) — 

 " These chambers were partly used as places of temporary 

 retreat, or as storehouses for perishable commodities, the want 

 of ventilation rendering them unfit for the continual habitation 

 of man," and Mr. Brash, in his exhaustive work on ogam 

 inscriptions, in which he devotes a chapter to raths, says — 

 " The rath is assigned to pagan times in our legendary and 

 historical relations, and the traditions of the peasantry have 

 sanctified them by a thousand weird tales. They are said to 

 be the abode of the ' good people.' They dread to pass them 

 after nightfall lest they should disturb their occupants at their 

 occult orgies. And the existence of such numbers of them in 

 the country is entirely owing to the peasantry, whose super- 

 stitious fears prevent them from aiding or assisting in their 

 destruction." Again — "That the rath, lis, or caher, as these 

 constructions are variously called, are the oldest works in the 

 country, there can be no doubt. The hardest oak decays, 

 stone will yield to the influence of wet and frost, the strongest 

 built walls will succumb when the mortar that unites them 

 loses its cohering quality ; but the earth mound that encircles 

 the rath will last as long as the clouds and the summer sun 

 that fertilise its grassy slope." 



Both these statements show close observation, and commend 

 themselves by their probability ; but when we find Sir W. 

 Wilde, in accounting for the great numbers of these raths, 

 saying — " Certain districts in Kerry presented a greater amount 

 of population than at present exists in any rural part of Ireland 

 of the same extent." He seems to assume that all the raths 

 now to be seen were occupied simultaneously, which is most 

 unlikely — so many causes would lead to their abandonment 

 from time to time. For instance, their occupants being driven 

 away in the numerous raids so common in those lawless times, 



