220 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 
died B.C. 123, according to the chronology of the Eour Masters, we 
have a poem of the rebellion of his three sons, who fought with their 
father at Ath Comair, near Drumcree, county Westmeath, bringing 
with them a band of followers collected in Ulster having champion 
stones. One of his sons, Lothar, hurled his weapon with a straight 
unavoidable blow at his father, whom it struck on the chest ; he fell 
down, throwing up black frothy blood, but was not killed. 
0' Curry remarks, with much sagacity, that as the army of the 
rebellious sons was probably composed of Ultonians, who are distinctly 
stated to have carried with them these champion stones, it is not too 
much to suppose they either belonged to some particular tribe, or else 
were natives of some particular district in which the use and manufac- 
ture of these stone weapons was specially practised. 
Again, at a later epoch, a.d. 270, at the siege of Dromdamhghaire, 
in Munster, now Knocklow, in the S.E. of county Limerick, it is again 
employed, and we have a Druidic legend of its mighty powers as a 
weapon. The story I have already alluded to about its use by Piad 
Mac Cumhaill is contained in this legend. 
Last of all, about a.d. 400, in the reign of Mall of the Mne 
Hostages, we have an Irish prince, Eochaidh, killing a poet in his anger 
who stood reviling him upon the opposite bank of the river Slaney. 
" He suddenly drew from his girdle a leic cur ad, " a champion flat stone, 
which he threw and struck the poet on his head, killing him on the 
spot. After a duration of near 600 years, the champion stone vanishes 
from Irish history, the latest instance of its use recorded by 0' Curry 
being a.d. 400. Since that time 1400 years have passed, and this is, 
I believe, its first re-appearance in public. 
When I obtained it I knew nothing of its value or historical 
interest. I took it for a mere variety of the polished stone battle-axe, 
and it was only after repeated careful study of 0' Curry's records I ar- 
rived at the conclusion that it bore no relation with the latter class of 
weapons beyond both being formed from stone, ornamented with regular 
designs and highly polished ; probably also they belong to the same 
stage of civilization: in fine, I consider it to be the long-missing 
champion hand-stone of Irish legend and early history. 
In the Museum of the Academy, together with other interesting 
remains, found by Mr. Conwell in cairns of the Lough Crew hills, 
about twenty years since, is a round polished ball of basaltic stone, 
similar in material to that now described ; it is about the size of :i 
small orange. Mr. Conwell, from other circumstances, ascribed these 
cairns to the Ultonian kings. 
