543 



Europe. Over the same vast region there is often a particular, and 

 always a general, resemblance in the megalithic memorials which have 

 come down to us from unrecorded ages. The similarity of popular 

 tales, legends, and superstitions will also show the early connexion of 

 the ancestors of many nations which are now geographically remote. 

 Nearly two thousand years ago Pliny has recorded the similarity of the 

 magical arts of the British Druids and the Persian Magi ; and we are 

 all familiar with the close resemblance between many of the Irish and 

 Oriental popular superstitions and beliefs. That the characters en- 

 graved on this cromleac are Oriental, I have little doubt ; but, not being 

 an Oriental scholar, I commit the task of pursuing the investigation to 

 those competent to deal with such a question. 



Although inscribed cromleacs have hitherto received little attention 

 from antiquarian writers and investigators, I trust the publication of 

 this present notice may lead to a re-examination and comparison of all 

 such remaining records of prehistoric times, wherever they are known 

 to exist ; and no doubt many such will be discovered by those who 

 know what they may expect to find on cromleacs. 



Up to the present time, these ancient monuments have been exa- 

 mined and classified rather in relation to the mode of their construction, 

 &c, than with the hope of finding upon them incised records in lines, 

 cup-like hollows, &c, which might lead to a fuller elucidation of their 

 history. Since it is known that some of them at least contain such cha- 

 racters, would it not be highly interesting that antiquaries, in every 

 country —in Asia, Africa, and Europe — where cromleacs still exist, 

 should most carefully examine them, for the purpose of comparing every 

 record they may be found to contain ? Some clue to the reading of such 

 characters may then turn up, as trustworthy as the celebrated Rosetta 

 Stone* afforded to the interpreters of the hieroglyphics in the Pyramids 

 of Egypt. 



About a year ago, the late John Win dele, Esq., of Cork, sent me a 

 sketch of the characters on an inscribed cromleac near Macroom, the 

 similarity between which and that near Eathkenny is very striking. 

 I regret I am not able to enter into fuller particulars respecting the 

 Cork cromleac ; but, not having seen it, I content myself with sub- 

 mitting Mr. Windele's sketch (Plate XL, fig. 3). 



* The Rosetta Stone, now in the British Museum, is a slab of basalt, about 3 feet 

 long, and 1\ feet broad. It was found near Rosetta, on the western mouth of the Nile, 

 in the year 1800, and appears to have been placed originally in a temple dedicated to 

 Atum, by the monarch Nechao. It exhibits three inscriptions, of the same import,— 

 namely, one in hieroglyphics (some of which are lost by a portion of the stone having 

 been broken off at the right-hand upper corner) ; another, in the Egyptian written cha- 

 racter, called Demotic or Enchorial (this part of the stone being quite perfect) ; and a 

 third, in the Greek language (a portion of which is also lost by a fracture at the right- 

 hand lower corner of the stone). These inscriptions, furnishing the key to the decipher- 

 ing of the Hieroglyphical and Demotic characters of Egypt, record the services which 

 Ptolemy the Fifth (Epiphanes) rendered to his country. He is commended for his piety, 

 his liberality to the temples, his victories, his remission of arrears of taxes and diminution 

 of the imposts, and his protection of the lands by dams against the inundations of the 

 Nile. He reigned between B. C. 205 and B. C. 182. 



