Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1885-03-19
Motes Of Trarelin Gmtupe,
OBSERVATIONS ON IRELAND.
BY REV. r. LATHAM.
en- for the Yorkyille ENQUIRER.

the study of nothing else, to acquire cor
rect knowledge of them. Of these antlqul
ties the Irish are proud. This is not to bs
wondered at, for Ireland is a grand museum
stored with rare relics of the time past. Ir
every section of the Island there is some
thing which points back either to the early
ages of Christianity, or to periods long an
terror to Christianity. These Irish antiqui
ties may be classed under the heads or do
mestic, military, sepulchral and ecclesiastic
al structures. 1t is often difficult to tell the
particular class to which these antiquities
properly belong. Some of them, no doubt
were designed for the three-fold purpose of 8
military structure, a place in which to bury
or deposit the dead, and an erection IN
which to perform religious services.
With regard to the origin of these struc
lures as we'll as the uses for which they were
designed, the field is open for conjectures
For these it has been open for a long time
and multitudes have enteredit. The people
of Ireland take more interest in old things
than we Americans do. In fact, the Amer
lean people care nothing at all about anti
quities. There are antiquarian societies IN
Ireland, which send out individuals to buy
up all the strange old things they can lind
Private individuals do the saEne thing.
saw collections, in Ireland, made by private
gentlemen, that would compare favorably
with similar collections made by antigua
rian societies in our large cities.
Among the curious things which saw in
Ireland, 1 may mention a'rov heads, or
as they were called when 1 was boy, In
dian darts. I have ever been puzzled to
know how those Indian darts were made.
The Indians who were inhabiting the coun-
try when Captain John Smith and his colo
nv settled at Jamestown, or when the pas
sengers on board the -Malfoaoer landed at
Plymouth Rock, did not make them. AT
least, have never yet been able to see how
it was possible for them to make them. In
the first place, they had no tools with which
to make them, and even if they had been in
possession of tools, they had not mechanical
Skill sufficient to make an arrow head. l
doubt very much whether there is stone
mason, or marble-cutter, or lapidary in
America who can, with any tools which he
may be able to secure, make an Indian ar
in ten trials. Another difficulty, is the fact
that some of those Indian arrow heads are
made of a peculiar kind of stone, which, if
found at all in America, is certainly very
rarely found. Now l found arrow heads in
Ireland, which in every respect resemble
those which are found in our southern fields.
Strange, at least to me, they are made of the
identical same kind of stone of which these
rare ones in America are made. In Ire
land as in America, no one knows by whom,
or when, or how they were made. There is
nodifficulty in discovering where, in Ireland,
the makers of these arrow heads procured
the stone out of which to make them. The
country, in many places, abounds in it,
1t seems that it may be safely inferred
that between those who made and used ar
row heads at one time in Ireland, and those
who made and used them in America, there
was some connection. For anything that
any one knows, they may have had COM
mon origin-may have sprung from the
same stock. So far as / am aware, no one
ever made an effort to trace the Indian Ian
guage, and it is now very nearly too late.
They are all killed out. What little effort
has been devoted to the study Of the Indian
language has revealed the fact that it, in
some instances-that is-in some of the
tribes, the Indian language resembles the
Hebrew language. Thus the word Peru is
easily derived from Hebrew word which
about which any and everybody is at full
liberty to conjecture, venture the opinion
that both Ireland and America were orig
inally settled by the Phenicians, a people
who inhabited narrow strip Of country
east of the Mediterranean Sea, and north
west of Palestine. The Phcenicians were a
sea-faring people, and traces Of them can be
found in many parts of Europe. They dis
covered and worked the tin mines of Corn
wall. They settled colonies in Italy, and
why may we not suppose that they, by q
route to us unknown, and at period of
which there is, SO far as is now known, no
record, reached the shores of the American
continent. In addition to the arrow heads,
it may be stated that what few traces of In
dian civilization, if such it may be called,
the rush for wealth has spared, present a
striking resemblance to some that are found
in Ireland.
Passing over the arrow heads for the pres
ent, I mention a very remarkable relic of
the past, which is found in Ireland. This
is what is called the round towers. Ofthese
round towers there are a great many in Ire
land. Only about sixty, however, are in a
full state of preservation. The proper name
for the round towers, was told, is cloiq-
Meach, which means, in the Irish language,
"a steeple in which to hang bell" These
round towers vary in height, from fifty to
one hundred and fifty feet. The circumfer-
ence of the base, on which they rest, is from
forty to sixty feet, and they gently taper as
they increase in height, terminating in a
cone-shaped roof or covering. They are
hollow and are assembled in the inside by
winding steps of stone. The cement in
which the stones in these towers are laid is
as hard as the stones themselves and as en-
during. l was told that modern chemists
are unable to discover the composition of
this cement, or the manner in which it was
made. Like the tempering Of copper, the
making of Irish cement is to be reckoned
among the lost arts. These round towers
Il lol s,,{r c,f~ fl,n last 1xy
having four windows in it, which open to-
pass-NOrth, South, East and West.
1t is absolutely impossible to say with
any degree of certainty when or for what
purpose these round towers were built.
The common people Of Ireland generally
connect them in some way with race OF
giants who, tradition says, once inhabited
the island. Some claim that these towers
were built long before the Christian Era and
others claim that they date no further back
than the early part Of the fourteenth CEN
tury. From the descriptions which we
have of the obelisks of Egypt, and the two
towers of India we conclude that between
these and the round towers of Ireland
there is a striking resemblance and conse-
quentiy, the general object which was in
view in erecting them was the same. This
is in harmony with the tradition commonly
accepted by the common people in Ireland.
These say they were built as burying
places for the giants, who were the lead
ers or kings of tribes or clans.
1t is claimed by some that these round
towers do not antedate the introduction of
Christianity into Ireland, from the fact that
cement was used in their construction.
Those who hold this opinion claim that the
pagan Irish used no mortar or cement in
the construction of their buildings. This is
denied. The weight Of evidence is in favor
of the opinion that these round towers were
huilt hV the NIilesianS who came to Ireland