172 



The memory of the two venerable people who gave name to Cor- 

 dalea, in the parish of Kilmore, Cavan, has quite perished from the face 

 of the earth, except only so far as it is preserved in the name Cor-da- 

 liath, the hill of the two grey persons. Two people of a different com- 

 plexion are commemorated in Grlendaduff in Mayo, the glen of the two 

 black visaged persons. Meendacalliagh, in the parish of Lower Pahan, 

 Donegal, means the meen, or mountain flat of the two calliaghs, or hags, 

 probably a pair of those old witches who used to turn themselves into 

 hares, and suck the cows. 



It must occur to any one who glances through these names to ask 

 himself the question — what was the origin of this curious custom ? I 

 cannot believe that it is a mere accident of language, or that it sprung 

 up spontaneously, without any particular cause. I confess myself 

 wholly in the dark, unable to offer any explanation : I have never met 

 anything that I can call to mind in the whole range of Irish literature 

 tending in the least degree to elucidate it. Is it the remnant of some 

 ancient religious belief, or some dark superstition, dispelled by the 

 light of Christianity? or does it commemorate some wide-spread social 

 custom, prevailing in times beyond the reach of history or tradition, 

 leaving its track on the language as the only manifestation of its exis- 

 tence ? "We know that among some nations certain numbers were 

 accounted sacred, like the number seven among the Hebrews. "Was 

 two a sacred number with the primitive people of this country ? I 

 refrain from all conjecture, though the subject is sufficiently tempting; 

 I give the facts, and leave to others the task of accounting for them. 



XXV. — On Chinese Porcelain Seals pound in Ireland, with 

 Eemarks on their alleged Antiquity. By Dr. "W. Prazer, 

 M.E.I. A. Dublin, 1868. 



[Read January, 1868.] 



Certain seals of porcelain, bearing Chinese inscriptions, have been 

 picked up from time to time in different parts of Ireland during the 

 past century, and Mr. Joseph Huband Smith deserves the credit of hav- 

 ing first directed attention to these seals, and their alleged claims to a 

 venerable antiquity (see " Proceedings Eoyal Irish Academy," vol. i., 

 p. 381). My interest was excited by accidentally obtaining two of 

 these seals and being rather sceptical about their age, I was led for 

 some years to pursue the inquiry at intervals, with the results now laid 

 before the reader. 



Mr. Smith's ideas having influenced more or less those who have 

 written on this subject, it is just to state them in his own words : " An 

 extract from the Grammpr of Abel Eemusat showed that the inscriptions 

 on those seals are those of a very ancient class of Chinese characters 

 in use since the time of Confucius, who is supposed to have flourished in 

 the middle of the sixth century B.C. The remote period to which 



