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Directed to the spot by the manuscript, and feeling convinced of its 

 identity, I excavated the cairn, and found in the centre, beneath a vast 

 flagstone, 44 inches by 36 on the surface, a small chamber, somewhat 

 smaller than the covering flag, and 28 inches high, containing a single 

 urn, filled with incinerated human bones. Perhaps a more convincing 

 proof of the authenticity of history was never adduced. 



O'Donovan, when examining the barony of Kilmain, in 1839, did 

 not visit any of these monuments, which exist in the hollow south- 

 east of Toneleane, the site of Cath na-Bunnen, or Dannan, on 

 which several of the battle monuments stand. But the transla- 

 tion which he has left of the Cath Magh Tidreadth has directed 

 me to the discovery of this and several other monuments still ex- 

 isting, and which I hope to bring before the Academy on a future 

 occasion. I have also had the advantage of collating, with Mr. 

 O'Looney, 0' Donovan's translation with 0' Curry's transcript of the 

 Trinity College manuscript now in the Catholic University. I here 

 beg to present this very beautiful, and I may add historic urn, to the 

 museum of the Academy. It is a very beautiful object, about five and 

 a half inches high, and six 

 inches wide in the mouth, ta- 

 pering gracefully to the bot- 

 tom, which is only two inches 

 broad. It is also highly deco- 

 rated all round the lip, and has 

 six decorated fillets beneath 

 the outer edge of the rim ; and, 

 what is unique in vessels of 

 this description, four slightly 

 elevated knobs, like handles. 

 The lower plain surface be- 

 neath the fillets and handles 

 is covered with herring-bone 

 ornamentation. The surface of 

 the vessel is of a reddish- 

 brown colour, and the interior of its substance black, showing that it 

 was submitted to the process of baking or roasting, either in its original 

 formation, or at the time of the pyre, or when the hot embers of the 

 human remains were placed within it. I may observe that it is a re- 

 markable circumstance that we have no word in Irish to express an urn ; 

 and that, when found, the wondering people called it a "crucka beg," 

 or little crock. I beg also to express my obligation to Charles Blake, 

 Esq., of Tuam, the proprietor of the land, who had most kindly given 

 me permission to make whatever excavations I chose. 



