455 



ther this be designed to represent some detail of harness, or part of the 

 natural outline, the writer does not venture to speculate ; bnt refers to 

 the fact, that amongst the objects shown to Pallas, as having been found 

 in the tombs surrounded by stone circles, on the Obi, were flat cast 

 figures of elks, reindeer, and stags. The object supposed by the Avriter 

 to be a plough on the Tahle cles Marchands has been thought by careful 

 observers to represent portion of an animal figure. 



As regards the probable age of the rnegalithic monuments of Erit- 

 tany, the w^riter noticed the fact, that Cisalpine Gaul was peopled by 

 tribes from the region of Transalpine Gaul, corresponding with modern 

 Brittany, so early as the first and second centuries after the foundation 

 of Home ; and that, with one exception near Trent, no monuments of 

 this character appear to have been observed anywhere in the valley of 

 the Po. On this subject the writer invited information, and submitted 

 that, if in fact the Gaulish family did not leave such memorials of 

 their presence in Lombardy, the conclusion would seem to follow that 

 we must seek for the people who practised those modes of sepulture in 

 an earlier epoch than that of the Celtic migrations. The singular taste 

 and barbaric aspect of the objects appear to the writer to refer them 

 to a race having more of the characteristics of the Indian and Poly- 

 nesian offshoots from the parent seats, than of any of the existing na- 

 tionalities of Europe. 



Denis H. Kelly, Esq., read the following — 



Account oe Insceieed Stones lt Eueett, County op Roscommon. 



Previous to entering on the subject matter of the paper to be submitted 

 to the Academy's notice this evening, I think it well to read St. Evin's 

 words, as quoted by Colgan in the tripartite Life of St. Patrick, in order 

 that a correct idea may be formed of the remarkable locality in which 

 these inscribed stones have been discovered, and which my lamented 

 friend, Dr. O'Donovan, has fully identified in the Ordnance Survey 

 letters, county of Eosconimon, in 1838, with the pi6apc of Colgan : — 



''The holy man came afterwards to the country of lia ITIaine ; and, 

 preaching the divine word there, converted and baptized all the people 

 of that country, and laid the foundation of the church of pi6apc, over 

 which he appointed one of his disciples re et nomine Justus, and who was 

 in dignity a deacon. He left him the ' Eitual Book of the Sacraments 

 and of the Sacred Ministry.' 



'' The sanctify of Justus was not more wonderful than his age; for 

 it is said ' that it was from this Ritual Booh, left him by St. Patrick, 

 he read, in the CXL'^" 3- ear of his age ! the form and the rite, when he 

 regenerated St. Kiernan of Cluain in the salutary water of baptism.' " 



Colgan also says, in a note, that '' Eidhart was in his own time a 

 parish church, in the diocese of Elphin, and in the countrj^ of Mainech." 



Dr. 0' Donovan, at considerable length, in the Ordnance Survey 

 Letters, Eoscommon, proves the Eiodart of Colgan to be derived from 

 pio&, a wood, and apb, arduus, an height; and from the analogy of 



E. I. A. PROC— VOL. VIII. 3 p 



