258 
Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 
the appearance on the one rock, or boulder, of ten, seven, five, four, 
three, or two basins. One cavity or basin would surely have sufficed 
for the requirements of baptism. Sometimes one hollow touches, or 
opens into, another. 
In the Journal of the Royal Historical and Archmlogical Association 
of Ireland for July, 1875, p. 438, Dr. Martin contends that hulldns 
are simply rude mortars, in which Churchmen of an early period had 
pounded or ground their corn for food. Mr. G. H. Kinahan would 
appear to have adopted a like idea. In the same publication for 
January and April, 1888, p. 332, Mr. J. Browne, M.R.I.A., after 
noticing a work of this kind, called *'St. Columb's Font," which 
appears to have been at one time in the graveyard of the old church 
of Desert-Toghill, Co. Londonderry, writes : — 
"The question suggests itself to me — Could these bulldn stones 
have been used for the reception of exposed children ? for, as far back 
as the time of Justinian, houses of mercy for children were founded 
by him. The churches and church charities became refuges for this 
unfortunate class." 
Mr. Browne, I think, could not have personally examined even a 
few of the remains under question. The late Rev. James Graves has 
remarked that there was some probability in the view expressed by 
Dr. Martin that these basins had been designed for grinding or pound- 
ing operations : — 
" He had no doubt that the clergy lived close to, if not within, the 
ancient parish churches. In many instances the arrangements for a 
loft or upper room might yet be traced at the west end of some of 
these ruined buildings. The stones were so extremely rude that there 
was a difficulty in believing them to have been used as fonts even at 
the earliest period of Christianity in Ireland, and the hollows, cer- 
tainly, were too small to have served for total immersion. On the 
contrary, however, it must be remembered that if unsuited for baptis- 
mal purposes, many of these hulldns were also, from their depth and 
small size, ill-fitted for mortars. There was a suspiciously pagan 
aspect about this class of ancient remains." 
Mr. Graves seems to have had in mind only those examples which 
occur in the vicinity of primitive ecclesiastical sites ; he does not 
appear to have considered the marked variety in the distribution of 
these mysterious waifs of time. They may be observed in districts 
which had never possessed a church. Christian cemetery, or holy 
well ; along the shores of low-lying lakes or rivers ; upon or near the 
summits of lofty hills ; within natural or artificial caverns. Examples 
