carn, and an Ogumis [inscribed] on the end of the pillar-stone, which is in the earth, and what is in it is, 'Eochaid Airgthech here.' It was Cailte that was here along with Finn. All these things were searched for by the youth who had arrived, and they were found."-pp. 105, 106. In other examples the cists are of various dimensions; sometimes composed of enormous masses of stone, frequently with low, narrow passages formed of rough stone, set on end and covered with similar ones like lintels to bear the superincumbent earth. Some contain the bones of a single individual; in others are found the remains of children and adults, both male and female. Along with human remains are frequently found fragments of charcoal, implements of bronze, iron and stone, sometimes of gold and silver, articles of rude pottery, generally urns, glass, stone and earthenware, beads, pins and combs of bone, all evidently deposited with the bodies at their interment. But by far the most extraordinary monuments of this class remaining in the country are the great mounds of Dowth, Knowth, and New Grange, which, with a vast number of moats, forts, raths, pillar-stones, &c., formed the great cemetery of Brugh na Boine, the burial-place of the Tuatha de Danann race of kings. In Mr. Wilde's very interesting and valuable work, "The Boyne and Blackwater," is an admirable description of this very remarkable locality, which he styles "the Irish Memphis." I shall not here go over the oft-repeated description of New Grange, or that of the more recently excavated Dowth. Mr. Wilde gives a most careful and elaborate account of both, which I would recommend to the careful perusal of the student in this interesting class of our national antiquities. A very curious and interesting account of the opening of a tumulus, on the banks of the Tour in Siberia, is contained in a letter from Paul Demidoff, of Petersburgh, read before the Society of Antiquaries, Feb. 5, 1767. The Russian government having been informed of the existence of vast numbers of tumuli near Tomsky, which were opened and plundered of their contents by the neighbouring tribes, "sent a principal officer with a sufficient number of troops to open such of these tumuli as were too large for the marauding parties to undertake, and to secure their contents." This officer, upon taking a survey of the numberless monuments of the dead spread over this great desert, concluded that the barrow of the largest dimensions most probably contained the remains of the prince or chief; and he was not mistaken, for, after removing a very deep covering of earth and stones, the workmen came to three vaults, constructed of stones, of rude workmanship. That wherein the prince was deposited-which was in the centre, and the largest of the three-was easily distinguished by the sword, spear, bow, quiver and arrow which lay beside him. In the vault beyond him, towards which his feet lay, were his horse, bridle, saddle and stirrups. The body of the prince lay in a reclining position upon a sheet of pure gold extending from head to foot, and another sheet of gold of the like dimensions was spread over him. He was wrapt in a rich mantle, bordered with gold and studded with rubies and emeralds; his head, neck, breast and arms naked and without ornament. In the lesser vault lay the princess, distinguished by her female ornaments. She was placed reclining against the wall, with a gold chain of many links, set with rubies, round her neck, and gold bracelets round her arms. The head, breast and arms were naked. The body was covered with a rich robe, but without any border of gold or jewels, and was laid on a sheet of fine gold, and covered with another. The four sheets of gold weighed 401b. The robes of both looked fair and complete, but, on touching, crumbled into dust. A very coincident discovery was made in the year 1805, near Castle-martyr, in the county of Cork, as detailed in that interesting work of Thomas Crofton Croker's, "Researches in the South of Ireland." A skeleton was discovered in a cavern, partly natural and partly artificial, which was partly covered with a sheet of pure gold formed with exceedingly thin plates of stamped or embossed work joined by rivets of the same material. There were also found some beads of amber. One only of the plates escaped the crucible of the goldsmith, and is now in the possession of Mr. Lecky of Cork. It is to be regretted that a vast number of these sepulchral tumuli have been destroyed, and their contents scattered and lost, through the ignorance or avarice of individuals. It would be desirable if this and kindred societies took more active steps to disseminate, among our gentry and farmers, the value and importance of monuments of this class, that, when their removal is unavoidable, they may be instructed as to the necessity of having a competent person on the spot to investigate and report upon them.1 It would be also desirable if a fund could be appropriated for the examination of such of these tumuli as are accessible; or if one or more members took upon them the opening of one each every year, I am sure the results would be most gratifying to those concerned, and our museums would be enriched by many an article of ancient art, calculated to throw light on the dim past and to illustrate the history, habits and religion of the early habitants of our land. Our ancient annals and literature teem with references to the sepulchres of the mighty dead, to the fields of conflict, to the spots where heroes and chiefs and kings have fallen. With such lights on his path, the well-directed efforts of the antiquary cannot fail of being crowned with success. The Kilkenny Archælogical Society has printed and circulated gratuitously, a pamphlet comprising "hints" on this subject.-EDs, THE ANCIENT CROSS OF BANAGHER, KING'S COUNTY. BY THOMAS L. COOKE, ESQ. THE old church of Banagher, King's County, was heretofore known by the appellation Kill-Regnaighe, and the parish in which its ruins exist is still called Reynagh. This parish was situate in the diocese of Clonmacnoise. The names just mentioned were given to both the church and the parish in consequence of St. Regnach, alias Regnacia, sister of St. Finian who resided at Clonard, having founded a religious house here, over which she was abbess. St. Regnacia in all probability died about the same time as her brother Finian, who went to rest A.D. 563. The ruins of the church of Kill-Regnaighe stand nearly in the centre of the town of Banagher (celebrated for its fairs), and the walled-in space which encompasses them is used as the parish cemetery. On a fine summer day, many years ago, loitering about the straggling, long, and unpicturesque street of Banagher, I happened to ramble into this church-yard, as well with a view to beguile time as for the purpose of examining any relics of antiquity which might there present themselves. The trouble of the visit was amply compensated; for I there found, prostrate on the earth, a stone, of which I send a sketch with this paper, showing it as it then was. In using the words "it then was" I do so emphatically, in order to contrast its then with its present condition; for the stone has since that time been sadly and wantonly damaged. On first inspection it was evident to me that this remain of antiquity had served as the shaft of a once stately cross, of which the other component portions were no longer to be found. I made inquiry as to what had become of the remainder of this highly sculptured remain; but my inquiries proved unsuccessful. The only information I could glean was that the stone then and there lying humbly prostrate had, in former and more propitious days, stood erect beside a crystal spring, which once sent forth its limpid waters in the old market-square adjoining the church-yard, but whose abundant source was very many years stopped up. No person could be found to tell me the meaning of the carving on the stone, or why or on what occasion it had been carved at all. I will now describe what remains of this very interesting antique. It is formed out of that description of greyish-brown sand-stone, which, when recently taken from the quarry, is so very soft as almost to cut beneath the pressure of an ordinary knife; but which becomes of adamantine hardness after being some time exposed to the atmosphere. The sketch, which accompanies this paper, presents a representation of the front or principal face of what is extant of this cross-shaft, from the lower part of which a piece has been broken off, This stone is five feet long, by one foot two inches in breadth at top, and one foot four inches at bottom. The sculpture on it consists of three compartments. On the uppermost of these we find a lion passant, three-tailed or guived, as a herald would express it. A small hollow about the place of the lion's shoulder was abraded into the stone when I first saw it. This has since been greatly enlarged. Beneath the lion I have mentioned, and on the same compartment with it, is the figure of a bishop on horseback, and bearing his pastoral staff as emblematical of his sacred office. The crosier is of that plain form which indicates antiquity. In the second compartment is a beast of the deer kind, and which is proved by the character of its horns to be the red deer (cervus elephas); an animal now, I believe, nearly extinct in Ireland. The poor creature is portrayed as in great pain, its head being thrown up in an attitude of anguish and distress, whilst its off or right fore-leg is found to be entangled in something resembling a trap. When I first beheld this stone the deer was quite perfect; but it has been mutilated by reckless and savage hands since that day. The lowest compartment consists of four naked and ill-proportioned male human figures arranged around the central point of the compartment after the manner of spokes in a wheel. Their legs are hooked together, and the left hand of each figure grasps the hair of the figure immediately preceding it. Their respective right hands hold the beard of the figure immediately in rere. The sides of the stone are ornamented with an interlaced tracery, some of which resembles serpents. This tracery it would be difficult, if not wholly impossible, to describe in words. The character of it is that of similar ornaments found in various carvings on stone of the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries. The most remarkable object on the back of the stone is some sort of mythic combination shaped like an animal, with a nondescript head, but rudely resembling that of a hawk. The ears seem to be represented by the heads of two serpents, whose bodies are twined into trinodal and circular forms of curve. The serpent, I need scarcely observe, was at all times acknowledged an emblem in religious rites. I do not remember to have met with anything like to this, excepting the figure on the little brazen talisman from Hindostan which I forwarded for inspection of the members of our useful Society. A sketch of this compartment of the stone is at B on the plate. The stone, the subject of this communication, appears to have been part of a sepulchral or commemorative cross, set up at the Banagher well to record the death of bishop William O'Duffy, who was killed by a fall from his horse A.D. 1297. I read in the original English edition of Ware's "Bishops," published at Dublin, 1704 (p. 29, Bishops of Meath and Clonmacnoise)" William O'Duffy, a Minorite, after two years vacancy, succeeded and was restored to the temporalities, October 6th, 1290. He was killed by a fall from his horse in 1297." Harris, in his edition of Ware's "Bishops," quotes the Patent Rolls of Edward I. to show that he was bishop of Clonmacnoise. But the Four Masters say that he was bishop of Clonfert in the following passage at the year 1297—Ujlljam o Dubtoigh eff Clvana Fearta do ¿vitim dia eaċ, 1 a ecc dja bjċjn; i.e. “William O'Dubhtoigh (or O'Duffy) bishop of Cluain Fearta (Clonfert) fell from his horse and died in consequence of it." Perpetuated on the stone now being written of, is the record of that fatal event, for on it is to be seen a bishop on horseback. He is without (it is worthy of remark) either stirrups or saddle. Above his lordship is the lion, the hieroglyphic of strength and power, and being emblematic of the bishop's authority and character before the unfortunate accident befel him. Next to this we find the red deer taken in a trap and writhing in mortal agony and distress. This is plainly symbolical of O'Duffy's name and melancholy fate. The Irish word damped, pronounced nearly as if written Davefeei, or Duffy, signifies a red deer. A letter written to me by my learned friend, the excellent Irish scholar, professor Owen Connellan, the 4th of October, 1846, in answer to one from me suggesting that the cross, of which this stone was a portion, had been erected in memory of bishop O'Duffy's sudden death, runs as follows:-"Whether the O'Duffy family derived their name from a person called Dvbiaċ, or from some celebrated hunter, who might from that circumstance have obtained the epithet dajejo, is very difficult to determine;" and again, "the stone which you describe is very curious, and there is scarcely a doubt but that it refers to bishop O'Duffy, who fell from his horse as related in the Annals, and I have no hesitation in agreeing with you that the sculptor meant the deer, which appears on the stone, to have reference to the origin of the family name." It is manifest that the trap in which the foot of the deer appears to be entangled is merely intended to record the accident which deprived O'Duffy of life. The words of the Four Masters do not lead us to believe that his death was instantaneous, for they only say that he died in consequence of the fall from his horse. As to the carving on the lowest compartment, I own that I can form no certain conjecture respecting its meaning. I have met with the same sort of symbolic representation only once elsewhere, namely, on an exceedingly curious stone cover of a coffin in the ancient burialground at Kil-Corban, county of Galway. The four human figures are certainly typical, and may have been intended to remind the beholder of never-resting time, or of the succession of the four seasons of the year, ever going their mystic round in close communication, the one with the other, Thus to remain Amid the flux of many thousand years, |