456 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



near the Pyrenees to secure flocks from the wolves. With us the 

 sidhe" are rather dwellers in the earth-mounds than in dolmens ; 

 but certain May^ and August sports at the ''labbas" suggest a 

 possible connexion. 



May Eve and the morning of May Day have many milk-and-butter 

 superstitions in Ireland and elsewhere. The Basques carry a Sitsa 

 (? Sidhe) figure on May Day, and fasten it to a holy tree. Can the 

 rude figures at Ballymihil and Coolnatullagh be of this nature? As 

 for August, we understand that both in Ireland and in the Pyrenean 

 districts some observance during that month attaches to certain 

 dolmens. The August games at St. Eertrand de Comminges are con- 

 nected by Eorlase with the Sun-God Lug, and the ancient name of 

 the place, Lugdunum, with which he equates the "Lugnasad" 

 festival. In Belgium there are found traces of indecent names and 

 usage attached to dolmens. There also seem to have been malignant 

 rites, to judge from such names as the "Devil's Church" and 

 Devil's Chair " dolmens; and many of the peasantry stigmatized 

 the Clare o:fferings as gifts to the evil principle, though this was 

 indignantly repudiated by the families involved. Their connexion 

 with giants is marked not only by the name " Giants' Graves," but 

 by direct legends at Ballynahown and Kiltumper. At the first, a 

 giant, who dwelt in the inland promontory fort of Doonaunmore, 

 " lost his druid's staff," and so was defeated and slain. The belief 

 that he lay with his sword beside him under the giant's grave in 

 the townland led to the overthrow of the monument. The Kiltumper 

 tradition made it the place where a giant or Dane, chased from 

 Cahermurphy fort by the Dalcassians, was slain and buried. 



PoKEiGN Analogies. 



"We cannot altogether pass away from the dolmens of the Continent 

 without noting, though very briefly, the similarity (though usually 

 on a larger scale) of these monuments, both in types and names, to 

 our *'labbas." We find in Sweden cists with an outer kerbing of 

 slabs, cists in circles and tumuli, passage graves, with round enclosures 

 at the end, like the Irish monuments at Annacloghmullin, Achill, 

 Sligo, and, to some degree, Creevaghin Clare. The Swedish, French, 

 and German dolmens have basins in the covers called " elf-querns" in 

 the first-named country. The Swedish " ghost-doors" are, however, 



^ Theophilus OTlanagan cites Comyn (1750) for a statement that such sports 

 were held at Altoir na greine on Mount Callan. 



