Plate XVI.
Figs. 1 and 2.—Top and Side view of Yoke found in Donagh Bog.
Figs. 3 and 4.—Yoke found on the margin of Lough Erne.
Figs. 5 and 6.—Yoke found with Figs. 3 and 4.
Wooden Yokes found in Donagh Bog and on the margin of Lough Erne.
In Switzerland, at Robenhausen, a settlement of the Stone Age which had been buried under a bed of peat, it is stated by Keller that horizontal layers were discovered of a foreign substance, from two to ten inches thick, ascertained on analysis to be composed of the fæces of cattle. May not some of the dark strata on crannogs be composed of like matter? for there is documentary evidence that the Irish chiefs kept cattle on their islands in time of war. The Lord Treasurer Winchester, writing to announce the decease of Shane O’Neill to the Lord Deputy, says, that “he ought to inspect Shane’s lodging in the fen, where he built his abode, and kept his cattle and all his men,” &c., &c. This “abode” is known to have been a crannog.
Butter.—The custom of burying or hiding butter in bogs is probably of very ancient origin, but, like many old customs, was carried down in Ireland to a very late period. Thomas Dineley, in a diary of his visit to Ireland in the reign of Charles II., states that the Irish used “Butter layd up in wicker basketts, mixed with store of … a sort of garlick, and buried for some time in a bog.” Sir William Petty mentions “butter made rancid by keeping in bogs.” The custom is thus described in the Irish Hudibras:—
“Butter to eat with their hog