'/t

:W*4.

:

i'tri^

%;:,>:.

>^-

.^:

>

J--'

^#

r-XA

V>

-) Teampulgeal ; [c) Kilmalkedar. See also one drawn by Mr. Windele among his MSS. in the R.I.A. from Loughadrine. It was a much-venerated In front of the Rountl Tower at Clones is a tomb, the form stone, and was said to cure diseases. It has a projecting stone at either end of of which presents in survival that of the earlier structures. See Wakeman, in Journ. Kilk. Archaeol. Soc, vol. iii., 1874-75, p. 336. the ridgeway of the roof.: ; ,

Syria.

72>2>

with the injunction

in the Koran that the dead should face the Caaba in peace. Whilst, then, the general character of the dolmen has been preserved, this alteration in position is attribuThe Romans would seem to table to later religious notions. have treated the dolmens with care, and Roman buildings often lie

near them.In his work called"

Across the Jordan," Herr Schumacher

mentionstrict

many

megalithic remains.dis^^*-''''

So

thickly are the dolmens

of the Ain

Dakkar

grouped

togetherof

'

'"^

that,

standing on one

them, he could count one

hundred and sixty others. They are called by the Arabs Kubur Beni Israel, that is, " Graves of theChildren of Israel."terraces

Wt!slei-n side.

"They

are always built on circular

which elevate them about three feet above ground," in which respect they resemble some of the North- Africanexamples.

Fig. 682.

Dolmen near Ain Dakkar ("showing headings ").

Fro/n Schumacher.

They

are distant from each other about ten yards.six

"In most cases they are formed of

upright slabs and two

Fig. 683.

Terminal ornaments on gables of Irish(2)

Teampulgeal.

(3)

cilics. After Atkinson. Tobar-na-Dru.

(l)

Kilmalkedar.

covering-slabs

of irregular

shape

laid

close

together.is

Their

greater axis

is

E. and

W."

The western end

broader than

734the eastern, and

The Dolmensits

of Ireland.

cap-stone has high ends or headings which recall the high ends of Bedawin tombs, and the horned head onIrish oratories.

These dolmens vary from

7 to 13 feet in length.

So systematically are they constructedis

able to record the observation that in exceeds eight feet in length a second covering-slab is employed. This remark would hold good, I think, in the case of most of

Herr Schumacher where the chamber casesthat

Fig. 684.

Dolmen of

Tsil.

From

Schtimacher.

the dolmens ofparticular.

Western Europe, and of those of Ireland

in

2

In the case of one or two dolmens there is an aperture "about feet in diameter, large enough to crawl through, and of

roundish shape, pierced in the eastern slab."

The

terrace

is

not

always circular, but occasionally the dolmen is surrounded by a There are also "sacred" rectangular rectangular peristyle. enclosures. Bones of animals have been found in some, whichare attributed to feasts of jackals.

Another variety of dolmen seems to approach more closelyto

the

type"

of

Hiinebedden.\Tsil.

some German These occur atare

They

long

areasis

running E. and W., but therestone,

never more than one covering-

and that over the

W. end."circles,,

In the same district areFig. 685. Ground-plan of a dolmen with headings, from Schumacher.

avenues, and alignments formedof hugebasaltic

blocks.

A

monolith of basalt, 7 feet high and 4 feet broad, but probably It is split into at one time larger, is called the " Rock of Job." two portions, and there is a small depression on its upper surface.t See alsofig.

678, sttpra.

Syria.

735

Passing from dolmens to architectural structures, Herr Schumacher observes that towers are found here, and he describes arectangular building called the Wely enof whichis

Neby Sam,

at the S.

end

a tomb, and at the same place, which is held sacred dolk by Christians and Moslems, is a terebinth tree and a well, the whole presenting an exact parallel to the leaba or cille that

is

to say, the little building containing the grave, withtree, generally

its bild

or

venerated

an ash, and

its

tober-na-naomh, or saints'

well, so often

found associated

in Ireland.

fields.

In a third work,f Herr Schumacher describes several dolmenIn that of Ard-el-Mahajjeh there are twelve dolmens.

They He due E. and W. In one example, the two side-stones measure respectively 1 1 feet 5 ins. and 1 1 feet 9 ins. long, and from 2 feet 7 ins. to 3 feet high. At the W. end there is aterminal stone, but the E.

end

is

open.in

The1

cover

ing-slab,

typical

amples, measures

98

ins.ins.

long,

fromfeet

5

to

9

9i

broad, and about2 ins, thick.

Theis

interior

of the vault

3 feet

wide at the W. end, and narrows to 2 feet 6 ins. at the E. end. In the centreof the covering-slabis

a

Fig.

686. Dolmen

at

Mutrakibat).

Ard-el-Mahajjeh (El Ekla'a El Froin Schujuacher.

circular depression or hole,

measuring 10 inches in diameter, and 4 inches deep. I know no description of dolmens which recalls so precisely the more compact ones of Clare as does that of the ones in this group. Near Kefr Yuba the dolmens stand on terraces, consisting either of a single platform of large stones, or of two or three layers built up like steps one above the other. The environmentis

circular, but, as

a rule, the dolmen does not stand in the centre.it

The

enclosed area surroundingit

extends to the S. and

W.

of

the dolmen, so that

includes an area about double that of theitself.

portion which encloses the structure

This

is

an arrange-

ment commonlyt

to

be observed

in the

German

Hiinebedden.

"Northern

'Ajlun, within the Decapolis," pp. 131 and 165.

736

The DolmensThis eccentric position

of Ireland.

for the

dolmen

is

characteristic of

all

The covering-stones are described as of immense this group. In the upper surfaces of some of them depressions are size.

Fig. 687.

Dolmen from

Scluimacher, showing the basins and ducts in the covering-stone.

observed; but it is impossible, adds Herr Schumacher, to say whether they are naturally or artificially produced.

Fig. 688. rian of the dolmen El Ekla'a El Mutrakil)at.

From

Schtiniacher.

As

is is

the case with

cast end

all the dolmens of these districts, the narrower than the west. Some few of this group lie

Syria.

1Z1

is only one end-stone, and that is end being left open. These dolmens stand about 24 to 30 feet apart, and the intermediate spaces are occupied by lines of large blocks arranged in two parallel rows

N.W. and

S.E.

In

some there

at the west, the east

3 feet 3 ins. apart.

In the interior of the dolmens, 14 inches under the earth, found a mass consistino- of ashes mixed with small fraements Among the charred of charcoal, and remnants of decayed bone. remains copper rings are found, measuring 3 inches in diameter.is

Upon

these,

round a portion of the outer

side, a primitiveis

formslab

of decoration, consisting of a zigzag pattern,

engraved.

A

Fig.

689. Specimen

of architecture at Kherbet-Hass, Syrie Centrale. from an engraving in De Vogue's work.

Etched by the author

Such were the results of Herr Schumacher's exploration of more than one hundred out of the eight hundred to a thousand dolmens whichof Stone was always found under the charred mass.

compose

this

Kefr Yuba group.Irish

The

resemblances between

antiquities

and those ofin

Syria by no means stops short at the dolmen epoch. With regard to the buildings of the Roman period

Central

72>^

The DolmensI

of Ireland.

Syria,

will

merely

say, in

parenthesis, that their architecture

stands in closer relation to that of the early ecclesiastical structures To convince of Ireland than does any other style in existence.ourselves of the truth of this statement,Centrale," and then, taking

we have

only to glance" Syrie

through the plates of M. de Vogue's magnificent work,

up

Petrie's " Ecclesiastical Architecture

of Ireland," turn to such examples as Kilmacduagh on the coast of Connemara, or the interior of Trinity Church, Glendalough.

In

Syria, too, may be found structures seemingly analogous to the much-debated "Round Tower" of Ireland on the one hand, andto the minaret of the

Mosque (borrowedhaveI

also

from a pre-Christian

prototype) on the other.

So

struck, indeed,

often been with these resemblances,

and with those of the concurrent (to which I have alluded) which accompanied them, that I have sometimes thought that a chapter must have been lost to history, and that a time comthere must have been mencing none can say when, butsuperstitions

not terminating before the

fifth

when a vast superstitioncentury,a.d.

a

mighty and far-

reaching system of Death-Cultus,

which had made its way westFiG.690.-windowintheeastendofSt.Mac ward from Central Asia perhaps Dara^ church on the island called Cruach settled down On thcse lands, Mic Dara (Connemara). Afier Peine. and was thence diffused nortliivards through Scythia to the Baltic and the Elbe, first by pagans, then by Christians, each of whom absorbed and assimilated its fetichism and its ceremonial forms, and southwards, again, to Arabia and Africa, where the followers of Mahomet preservethe traces of it to-day in their tomb-worship and well-worship and rag-offerings, just as, in the furthest island of North-Western Europe, do the followers of Christ. Granted the existence of such a centre in these parts, and we

know not how muchsuperstitions,

of our folk-lore, and

the originit.

of whichdessil,

is

sois

obscure,

how many of those may not bemoving sun-

attributable to

With the

that

to say, the

Syria.

739

ways, or right-hand ways, round some venerated spot.f we might connect the dance of the dervishes who, eight in number, move

round

an orbit, though in a contrary direction, perhaps in In these dervishes accordance with a Mahommedan precept.in

and

Conder thinks we may see a survival of the mystic Cabiri, "the Seven Great Ones, or planetary gods, revolving round the green centre of the terrestrial globe." Withtheir dance, Captain

the

Midsummer

fires,

again,

worship of

Tammuz

at the?

why summer

shouldsolstice

we

not connect thein

by the Phoenicians

their holy city of

Byblos

That

the merchant cruises of this latter people could have, as

^.^y\a-

-

Fig.

691. Trinity Church

at

Glendalough.

After Pclric.

some have asserted, borne any appreciable part in the implanting in all the Western and North-western lands of so widespread and It follows deeply rooted a system of mythos is inconceivable. into the countries that, if it started from Syria, it went overland where it is found.however, rather to Persia than to Syria that we would look for the oriorinal centre whence fire-worship went westward. The name of the present desert of Mogon, where the surface is ablaze with flames naturally produced, recalls the Baron vonItis,

" paganus cursus " so especially prohibited in the Capitularies of Charlemagne. t This was the iniectea on their travels, were popularly supposed to be Frankish stock, form of heresy. Poor Saint Rudbert, although of royal with this demonstrative vulgar crowds wno, mixed with the blood of Irish chieltains, had to put up with derision from the to look upo'jj" not content with laughing at his ignorance of their language, were accustomed ines. Cavisius, Scotic pilgrims as " deceptores, gyrovagi, et cursores " (see "Hist. S. Rudberti ;Irish bishops, as they called themselves,

Mon.

III.," pt.

ii.

p. 319).

740

The Dolmens

of Ireland.

Haxthauson's f account of the Holy-Land of Mugon, the country of the Median Magi, the cradle-land of the worship of Ormuzd, in the midst of the land of heroes, Iran proper, where burned theeternal

and sacred

fires

of Baku.

The course of historic immigrations, as pointed out by tradition, Thus was, we feel sure, that o{ prehistoric immigrations as well. when we find EustathiusJ and Theophylact speaking of theUnni (Huns) as a Scythian race on the Caspian, possessing vast treasures of gold, and tributaries, first of the Medes and then of the Babylonians, migrating into Europe by way of the Palus Meeotis, we may see reason to think that elder nations, too, hadpassed along that route.

have already spoken of trade-routes by which amber was Professor Virchow thinks that the transmitted to the south. earliest route by which bronze arrived in Europe went northwards from the Black Sea, his opinion being based on the fact that the bronze implement so common in Northern Europe, namely, the celt, was not found in Greece, Asia Minor, or the Caucasus. He considered that the original inventors of bronze were to be sought for in Central Asia, in the Hindu Koosh, and the Altai. Some archaeologists have thought that the origination of this compound metal is to be looked for among the Semitic peoples of Western Asia, and others among the Turanian aborigines of thelower Euphrates. Worsaae considered that India was the cradleland of the bronze industry, and that thence it spread to China and Sophus Siberia, and so over the Urals to the N.E. of Europe.

We

remarked the resemblance (implying relationship) of the forms of the old North and Middle European bronzes to the Siberian ones, and the difference between them and those of Greece, and from this concluded that the bronze culture came from Asia to Northern and Middle Europe northwards from the Black Sea, but that Greece received it by a southern route. All these authorities were acjreed that it ori, side wall slabs; c, round hole in centre slab; d cf, upright slabs for entrance: Contents, broken pottery, calcined bones, ashes (human), and charcoal mixed with grey earth.

be found of dolmens in Keljhar. A tradition A exists that these were raised by the Kurumbar shepherds. large one at Muhl was undoubtedly a place of worship, as a goat had been sacrificed in front of it only half an hour before the author of the account arrived on the spot. This temple, as he an accountwill

calls

It was 4 feet broad, and 4 feet high. At the back closed on three sides, but open towards the east.it,

was 6

feet long,

was a raised terrace of earth on which were set up a number of stones smeared with vermilion, each said to be a Kurmar Devi the Gondi name for the deity of the Kurumbar shepherds. These " temples " are called Malldna by the shepherds themselves, and they are generally built in pairs, one dedicated to Mallana Deva, and the other to Mallana Devi. There was a second small "cromlech" at Muhl close beside the larger one. The Kurumbars sacrifice a goat to the Mallanas to save their flocks from tigers and murrain. The shrines are generally opentliere

to the east, but

sometimes completely closed for the purpose of keeping the sacred stones which represent the Mallana deities quite safe. Wooden figures are offered by sick people to avertSee note by Rawlinson, " Herod." vol. iii. pp. 58-62, and a section t " Hist.," lib, iv. c. 71. of a Scythian tomb, with the construction of the roof of which compare New Grange. X Cunningham, 1879, P'- ^^v. p. 140.

India.

755

death.similar

by tigers and snakes are buried under dolmens raised on low mounds on which relatives placekilledItis

Men

rude representations of horses.Fifteen villaores have two dolmens each.

added that

Fig. 698.

Dolmen in the Province of I\Iadras.

From Mr.

0^ Hara' s paper in Proc. R.I.A.

Colonel

Meadows-Taylor considered them

as templesin

and not

tombs, and that he found no

human remains

them.

dolmen of a different form to those we have been considering has been figured and described by Mr. O'Hara in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy.f It is in the province In outline it bears a great resemblance of Madras (Fig. 698). to that at Knockatotaun in Sligo. \t Vol.ix.,

A

1864-1866, p. 190.

X Fig. 169, supra.

756

The Dolmens

of Ireland.

PART HI. NAMES. LEGENDS, AND SUPERSTITIONS ASSOCIATED WITH DOLMENS AND OTHER MEGALITHIC REMAINS AND VENERATED SITES INIRELAND.borne by dolmens in Ireland may be divided into two those which are simply descriptive (d) those which are derived from some current opinion as to their origin and purpose, which may be referable, either (i) to imagination pureclasses:

The names

(a)

;

and simple, orquarian

(2) to false

etymological conceits, or (3) to antilast

speculations

dating from the

century,in the

or

(4) to

endeavours to connect them with events set down

medieval

MSS., or (5) to genuinely ancient oral tradition. With regard to the latter category, to imagine for a moment that any, even the faintest, echo of a tradition as to the />erso7is by whom the earlier examples were erected, could have survived from the Neolithic or the Bronze Age, when they were built, until thepresent day,

may berecord,

dismissed as an absurdity.

On

the othersybil

hand, a

ctiltiis

dies a very lingering death,

and Folk-lore, the

who keeps

its

was

already an old

woman when,

race com-

mingling with race, and language supplanting language, and a newreligion assimilating the earlier forms, History

was moulded from thein cases

rude materials of the prehistoric past.

Traces, then, of the p^irpose

for and

luhich these structures

were erected may, although

few

far between, have reached our times, either in the form in which they were committed to writing by scribes in the eleventh

and following centuries, or in some faint orally transmitted story still hanging round the once venerated and still awe-inspiring spot. As examples of names simply descriptive, we may take {