SECTIONAL VIEW OF THE BRUGH OF THE BOYNE.
(From the West.)
The entrance to this underground hall, which has been rediscovered for about two centuries, may be discerned almost at the base of the hill, slightly to the left of the figures of the man and boy in the foreground. This entrance or doorway is represented below, and, like the others of this series, it is the work of an artist who is also an eminent Irish archæologist, than whom no one possesses a more intimate acquaintance with the interior and exterior of the Boyne mounds. This, then, is an Irish illustration of what the Shetland boys used to call a "trow's door!"[201]
DOORWAY OF THE BRUGH.
The (not too portly) explorer who enters this doorway and creeps, sometimes laterally, along the passage, at one point very low and narrow, works his way at length into the comparatively large chamber that forms the main part of the structure. The relation which this passage and chamber bear to the mound which was heaped over them will be seen from the transverse sectional view of the "hill," which is represented in the accompanying plate. The dimensions and general appearance of this underground gallery and "hall" will also be fully understood by an examination of this and the other designs. And one point will be noticed, namely, that no access to the top of the mound, as in such a case as Finn's dwelling in Sylt, or the Orkney Maes-how, is here visible. But it must be borne in mind that, over those portions of the mound which are represented as solid, the word "Unexplored" might fitly be written. If this is like some of the "fairy hills" of tradition, it ought to have a channel, or passage, leading upward to the summit, and, indeed, the lower end of such a passage, though at present choked up, is suggested at one side of the inner chamber (on the right hand of the explorer), as may be seen in the plan of the year 1889.
It is necessary, however, to discriminate between one kind of "fairy hill" and another. Maeshow and the Sylt Denghoog appear to closely resemble the modern Lapp gamme, as regards the upper portion of the structure, for access to both of these may be gained from the roof. The "trap-door" to which Mr. Black refers in the Sylt instance appears to have always existed in one shape or another; and its original use may be guessed from the following notice of the same portion of a Lapp gamme. The gamme "is generally circular, or oblong, having the appearance of a large, rounded hillock, which indeed it may be termed," says a Lapland traveller of sixty years ago.[202] And he further states that "an opening in the roof, nearly over the fire-place, served to let out the smoke; and might be covered at times with a kind of trap-door, to retain the internal warmth, when the fire is burnt out. This is always let down at night." That this was the usage in the dwelling of Finn, or whatever may have been the name of the Sylt dwarf whose bones were found in the Denghoog, seems very probable. But to such chambered mounds as the Broch of the Boyne, another traditionary egress, whether for the dwellers or for the smoke, seems more applicable. It has already been noticed that "pits on the top of hills were supposed to lead to the subterranean habitations of the Fairies."