262 
Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 
intended to answer the purpose of a mortar. The cross here found is 
of the earliest class, and may be as old as the dawn of Christianity in 
Erin. It occurs on a monument distant from any cemetery or church 
site, and in a situation so lonely that few but herdsmen ever come 
that way. There is no ancient road, pathway, station, or holy well, 
in the neighbourhood. Tradition is silent concerning it, as also about 
a fractured bloek of sandstone which lies prostrate a few yards distant : 
the latter is, probably, a ruined dallan. I cannot but regard the 
presence of the cross here as very interesting and suggestive. If, as 
we have seen, during an early period of the Church in Ireland, as in 
England and upon the Continent, it was the custom, at least occa- 
sionally, to sanctify quondam idolatrous monuments, and utilize them 
for Christian purposes, may not the character of this hulldn have been 
so transformed ? We would seem to recognize at Drumgay a form of 
consecration differing only in style, certainly not in spirit, from that 
displayed at Kill- of -the- Grange — the usual symbol of Christianity 
instead of the dedicatory dom for domini, domino, or dom, for the 
words DEO OPTIMO MAXIMO. 
Perhaps after the two inscribed hidldns just noticed, the ten-holed 
example of which I furnish a faithful drawing, is the most re- 
markable in Ireland. (See Plate XVII., fig. 2.) It stands on the 
shore of Upper Lough Macnean, and close to the ancient ruined 
parish church of Killinagh. The basins, which average about ten 
inches in diameter, are of various depths, and each is nearly filled 
with a somewhat circular or oval stone. There is a holy well 
close at hand, dedicated, like the church, to St. Prigid. The 
hulldn is popularly known as " St. Prigid's stone," or altar. A 
lady, who from infancy had resided in the immediate neighbour- 
hood, was good enough to inform me that she had been told when 
a child by her old nurse, who was a native of the district, that many 
years before this curious monument was known amongst the people as 
the "cursing-stone." 
I heard the same story from a very old man who had lived all his 
life almost in sight of the time-stained gables of the neglected and 
mouldering cill. It was the custom, he said, when any of the neigh- 
bours bad a grudge against a real or supposed enemy, and wished him 
harm, to proceed to the " altar" and anathematize him, at the same 
time turning the stones deposited in the basins. This practise, how- 
ever, was not carelessly or lightly to be indulged in, as the curses, when 
undeserved, were sure to descend in full force on the person or pro- 
perty of their utterer. Surely this custom was at least un-Christian ? 
It looks very like a relic of paganism, and, no doubt, so it was. We 
