1893-94.] 63 



and forced to settle elsewhere, or from the necessity of a larger 

 and more elaborate dwelling during a time of prosperity, or 

 when a more favourable site was discovered. We must not 

 suppose that these works were an exception to the universal 

 law ot development. An immense time passed during their 

 occupation, and no doubt many of the smaller and more 

 rudimentary of them became obsolete and were abandoned for 

 more improved forms, so that a long succession of disused 

 dwellings of widely different dates, on account of their indestruc- 

 tible nature, and the superstition of later times when agriculture 

 commenced, are now preserved together. 



To illustrate this idea, let us suppose for a moment that some 

 other human exuviae were as immortal as earthen mounds. 

 Let us take cast-off boots for example. Suppose that all the 

 boots worn by the late Dan O'Connell during his life were still 

 in existence, ranged together on the field of Tara, and pointed 

 out to Macaulay's New Zealander, on his arrival there, as 

 evidence of the number of feet possessed by that extraordinary 

 man. What a splendid theme for the local guide ! Wouldn't 

 he treat the stranger to a symmetrical legend ; perhaps some- 

 thing like this — 



" In ould ancient times, your honor, there was a great giant 

 lived in these parts by the name of the Big Beggarman ; he 

 was a great giant entirely, for he had a foot on him for every 

 day in the year. And it's him was well off, too, for he had a 

 boot to fit every foot he had, and that was a quare thing in 

 them times, for there was plenty of cratures then that hadn't a 

 boot to their foot at all, at all. And sure enough, your honor, 

 isn't there his boots to this day." 



Of the antiquity of these raths we have sufficient evidence, 

 but chiefly of a negative character ; for instance, we never find 

 mortar used in the construction of the souterrains. Nor had 

 their builders any knowledge of the arch, and no weapons or 

 other articles of metal have been found in them. Then the 

 great accumulations of bones that surround the crannoges, 

 amounting to many tons sometimes, are entirely absent. Why 



