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they all declared that a human skull was found ; that they had it in 

 their hands ; that it was in a very decayed state ; that it was handled 

 by such a number of the peasantry, and so knocked about, that it 

 went to pieces before it had been seen by any reliable person : these 

 men had evidently no object in stating an untruth, and they spoke with 

 every appearance of honest veracity. 



The finding of the clinkers and limestone cores may at first sight 

 seem to indicate a modern date for these excavations ; but we should 

 be slow to accept such as evidence. Lime, for some considerable time 

 back, has been the plentiful and common manure of the country ; and it 

 is quite usual to see the clinkers intermixed with the lime spread out 

 on the fields. I am confident that Mr. Kane's discovery was not the 

 first : doubtless the caves had been broken into on previous occa- 

 sions ; and the above materials had found their way in, being found 

 plentifully intermixed with the soil. What, then, the uses of these 

 caves were, and by whom excavated, will in all probability remain a 

 mystery ; the labour of excavating them in the rock, and the removing 

 of the debris through passages that a slight man could scarcely drag him- 

 self through, must have been immense ; the motive for doing so must 

 have been strong indeed. The darkness and closeness of these caves, 

 and the difficult communications from one to the other, preclude at 

 once the idea of their ever having been habitations. The same objec- 

 tions will arise to the theory of their having been granaries or store- 

 houses ; men would not have devised such tortuous chambers, and so 

 difficult of access, for such a purpose, when they could have constructed 

 one simple receptacle of more capacity than all these put together. I 

 am more inclined to the opinion that they were sepulchral. Some 

 strange and universal belief respecting the bestowal of the dead existed 

 in remote ages ; it led to the construction of the Pyramids, those mon- 

 strous erections, that covered very small sepulchral chambers, entered by 

 narrow and difficult passages. It led to the construction of the strange 

 cemeteries of Etruria, whose intricate galleries, and narrow and difficult 

 passages, as depicted by Dennis (" Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria"), 

 bear a startling resemblance to the Souterrains of our own country. 

 Again, could they have been used for strange and mysterious rites of 

 initiation ? Such were common amongst those Eastern races with whom 

 the Irish Celt claims affinity. These rites — if we are to believe classic 

 authorities — were always administered in caves, and the relics of them 

 have come down to nearly our own day in the ordeals of St. Patrick's 

 Purgatory, and the Scellig pilgrimages. I am not here advancing any 

 theory. In our present stage of limited knowledge it would be prema- 

 ture ; I am merely throwing out hints that may be kept in view, and 

 pondered over, and which may be found useful in analyzing new 

 discoveries. 



