Association in 1869, says: — "I would be led to suppose .... 

 that these beads were imported, and that they may be classed 

 with the antiquities which belong to the late bronze and early 

 iron period. When found by the peasantry, they are still 

 regarded as possessing a talismanic power, and are sometimes 

 called gloine-an-drudgh, or ' the magician's glass,' and in Scot- 

 land they are called 'adder stones' and 'snake stones.'" In 

 speaking of the colours of these beads, Mr. Day writes: — " Blue 

 appears to have been the favourite colour, but, while that is so, 

 our museums and private collections can show others in pale 

 green, white, yellow, and red, and with spirals and other orna- 

 ments of varied colours ; while others have a dark ground- 

 work, and are studded with fragments of red, green, yellow, 

 blue, and white enamel, which are set without any attempt at 

 order on the surface. There is one form of glass ornaments 

 which, so far as I can ascertain, is only found in Ireland ; it is 

 shaped somewhat like a dumb-bell, and is made of green 

 vitrified porcelain or opaque glass." Some of these small 

 double-headed beads are in the Benn collection. I am aware 

 that Mr. Edward Benn considered his collection of beads very 

 important, and that he communicated a paper upon them to 

 the Historical Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, which 

 was published in their transactions. There are several fine 

 cinerary urns in the collection, but, unfortunately, most of 

 them are more or less broken, while some consist of mere 

 fragments. These urns contained the ashes of individuals of a 

 race which practised cremation, that extremely satisfactory 

 way of disposing of the remains of the dead, to which 

 ancient practice there now seems a disposition to return. 

 Such urns have frequently been found in Ireland, and in 

 England and Scotland. They are filled with fragments of 

 charred bones, and are generally discovered with the mouth or 

 open downwards, resting on a slate or small slab, and sur- 

 rounded by a rudely-built chamber of stones. One of the urns 

 in this collection was found in a sand-hill near Dervock, County 

 of Antrim; another one was found at Belsallagh, parish of 

 Skerry, County of Antrim, in 1834; and another larger one is 



