Such are some of the deductions to be drawn from a comparison of traditional accounts with those of history, taken in connection with the ethnical features and the customs of certain races of people. There are many more inferences which could be made, but these may reasonably be deferred until the true value of tradition has been tested. The way in which this can be done has been pointed out in the foregoing pages. Should tradition prove itself reliable as a guide to the dwellings of "the little people," then all its statements regarding them will merit the closest consideration.
APPENDIX A.
THE BRUGH OF THE BOYNE, NEW GRANGE.
The descriptions of the New Grange mound given by Llhwyd and Molyneux are of much importance, since they both belong to about the beginning of the eighteenth century; and as they are not very accessible to the general reader they may suitably be quoted here. The two writers do not altogether agree in their account of the appearance of the chamber, and their theories as to its origin are certainly different; but whatever may be the value of the latter, there can be no doubt that descriptions which were made at a time when the interior of this mound was fresher by two centuries than it now is have a value that is lacking in the descriptions of modern writers, however accurate. The following is
"An Account of a large Cave nigh Drogheda, by Mr. Edward Llhwyd."[331]
"The most remarkable curiosity we saw by the way, was a stately mount at a place called New Grange near Drogheda; having a number of huge stones pitch'd on end round about it, and a single one on the top. The gentleman of the village (one Mr. Charles Campbel) observing that under the green turf this mount was wholly composed of stones, and having occasion for some, employ'd his servants to carry off a considerable parcel of them; till they came at last to a very broad flat stone, rudely carv'd, and placed edgewise at the bottom of the mount. This they discovered to be the door of the cave,[332] which had a long entry leading into it. At the first entering, we were forced to creep; but still as we went on, the pillars on each side of us were higher and higher; and coming into the cave, we found it about twenty foot high. In this cave, on each hand of us, was a cell or apartment, and another went on straight forward opposite to the entry. In those on each hand was a very broad, shallow bason of stone, situated at the edge. The bason in the right hand apartment stood in another; that on the left hand was single; and in the apartment straight forward there was none at all. We observed that water dropt into the right hand bason, tho' it had rain'd but little in many days; and suspected that the lower bason was intended to preserve the superfluous liquor of the upper, (whether this water were sacred, or whether it was for blood in sacrifice) that none might come to the ground. The great pillars round this cave, supporting the mount, were not at all hewn or wrought; but were such rude stones as those of Abury in Wiltshire, and rather more rude than those of Stonehenge: but those about the basons, and some elsewhere, had such barbarous sculpture (viz., spiral like a snake, but without distinction of head and tail) as the forementioned stone at the entry of the cave. There was no flagging nor floor to this entry nor cave; but any sort of loose stones everywhere under feet. They found several bones in the cave, and part of a stag's (or else elk's) head, and some other things, which I omit, because the labourers differed in their account of them. A gold coin of the emperor Valentinian, being found near the top of this mount, might bespeak it Roman; but that the rude carving at the entry and in the cave seems to denote it a barbarous monument. So, the coin proving it ancienter than any invasion of the Ostmens (sic) or Danes, and the carving and rude sculpture, barbarous; it should follow, that it was some place of sacrifice or burial of the ancient Irish."
From the account given by Dr. Thomas Molyneux,[333] the following extracts may be taken:—
"'Tis situated in the county of Meath and barony of Slaine, within four miles of the town of Drogheda; from its largeness and make, from the time and labour it must needs have cost to erect so great a pile, we may easily gather 'twas raised in honour of some mighty prince, or person of the greatest power and dignity in his time. I have not heard of any thing of this kind that equals it in Ireland: 'tis a thousand foot in the circumference at the bottom, and round the flat surface at the top measures three hundred foot, it rises in the perpendicular about a hundred and fifty foot; and is seated so advantageously upon a rising ground, that it is seen from all parts round at a vast distance, and from its top yields a delightful prospect of all the adjacent country.