The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-07-03

few miles west of Drogheda. That of
Newgrange is the most wonderful of its
class now existing in western Europe.
One writer has aptly remarked OF this
vast structure that were it found upon the
banks of the Nile instead of the Boyne 1t
would be styled a pyramid and considered
older than any OF the pyramids OF Egypt.
From my own inspection / should judge
it 70 be nearly one hundred feet high, and
it presents TO the eve at a distance a
sharply-defned shrubbery-covered hill
rising boldly from gentle grassy eleva-
ton upon the banks OF the murnurous
Boyne. A circle of enormous stones FORM
erly surrounded its base, and mighty
obelisk once rose from It's summit En-
trance to the mound was accidentally dis
covered in 1899. The huge mound con-
sists OF a huge cairn or hill of small stones,
covering area OF two acres, calculated
at 10000 tons weight, covering a cruel
form chamber nearly siXty-iive feet long,
twenty-five feet broad at the transverse
crypts, and about eighteen feet high at
the head of the cross. The stones FORM
ing the side walls and covering are simply
stupendOus; they bear evidence of having
been transported to the spot from very re-
mote points and many are enriched by
rude carvings both in relief and intaglio.
Vast hollow stones, evidently sepulchral
urns, are still seen within the huge struc-
ture; while gold coin of Nalentinian,
and one of Theodosius, as well as two an
cient gold tOrques and golden chain and
two rings, with the residue of incinerated
human remains, have been discovered
within this massive sepulcher, which may
we'll claim equal interest from tourist and
antiquarian with its no more inspiring
brethren of Sackara and those beside the
Nile.
ireland is exceedingly rich in pagan
military remains. The museum OF Trim
ity college. and the rooms of the Royal
Irish historical and archaeological society,
in Dublin are great store-hOuses OF the
most interesting relics of this character to
be found in any land. To myself has
been more deeply interesting in the huge
rath, lis, cathair, dun, or fort. as it is va
riously termed where the mystich people
gathered their herds, women and other
treasures, and fought for their saving
when the world was young. / have
visited a score or so OF the smaller,
and three of the greatest, of these
Don Aengus, on the largest OF the
Aran islands at the entrance of
Galway bay; the Staigue fort, in Kerry
and the Grianan of the Aileach, a few
miles from old Londonderry, in the North.
The Staigue fort (Staigue amor, the
STARED palace of slaughter crowns
rising ground in a deep hollow sur
rounded by mountains opening only to
the sea, about five miles southwest OF the
village of Sheen, county Kerry. 1t con-
sists of a circular wall of uncemented
stones, nearly one thousand feet in cir
conference, twelve feet thick, and from
eighteen to twenty feet high. The single
doorway is composed of unhewn stones
with horizontal Intel, and the inner sur
face of the structure furnished with regu-
lar flights of stone steps leading to the top
of the immense walls, while a great ditch
or moat defended its exterior.
On the remOtest point Of Aranmore, the
most desolate of all of Ireland's islands,
where the limestone cliffs pitch sheer
hundreds OF feet into the bowling Allan
tic, out of sight of single human habita-
ton, and where for centuries no sound
more human than the sea-gulPs shrek or
the puffin's gurgled whistle has been
heard, stand the grim remains of that ire
mendous pagan stronghold, Dun Aengus.
The proioundest arch8ologist Ireland
ever produced, DIR. Petrie, pronounces this
''the most magnificent barbaric monument
now extant in Europe;" yet how many
Americans ever set eyes upon it !?
Three great walls, the first over
800 feet long, twelve feet high
and nearly twenty feet thick, at ir
regular distances apart, form the inclosure,
the whole representing little more than
one-half of an irregular circular. Between
the different huge lines of ramparts are
acres of tremendous jagged, spike-like
stones, pointing outward, an incOnceiva-
bly, mighty and awful chevaux de freise.
The walls of the inner stronghold are still
nearly thirty feet high, and quite as thick.
The legend goes that these stupendous
Cvclopean defenses and keeps-for on the
Aran islands alone / visited the remains
of five other forts, Dun Oghil, Dubh
Cathair or Black fort, Dun COnchover,
Dun Onaught and the Dun of Inisheer-
were built by the flying and fated Firbolgs,
from / 900 to 800 years before the Chris
tian era. No matter about the legend.
There they stand to-day, more weird,
suggestive and awe-inspirinR in their dread
secrets OF the people that were, than
ever could lie in the silence of the Lbyan
sphinx.
The mystic Grianan OF Aileach stands
bleak and lone on the peak of a conical de-
nuded hill, nearly one thousand feet above
the sea, six miles northwest of the city of
Londonderry. In the Dinnsenchds l find
these lines:
Aileaeh-Firin, plat of the king-rath
royal Of the world;
Dun, TO which led horse-roads, through
FIVE mighty ramparts.
And so they did You can trace three Of
these ramparts and one of the roads as
clearly as a path in your own garden.
And that one road leads squarely to-day
to the one narrow stone doorway into "the
Shining Dun ''the Royal Seat" the
Grianan. 1t is massive walled circular
Enclosure, $50 feet in circumference, with
walls fifteen feet thick at the base and
seventeen feet high. Stone steps lead right
and left to the first platform; The second
is similarly reached, and the last
or grand, platform is assembled by seven
stone stairs irregularly placed. Two in
tramural galleries, one seventy and the
other forty feet long, for retreat, exist be-
meath the walls. This grand antique,
which can be seen through the valleys of
the lonely region for thirty and forty
miles with the aid of a field-glsss, is clearly
located as the Regia of Ptolemy; while, as
Eochy Ollahir, the Dagda, known to be its
one-time possessor, exactly synchronizes
with the Assyrian monarch, Darcylus,
its existence can be definitely traced to
the period, 1853 before Christ. What
thrill flashes through one
when standing alone upon the
Grianan's somber walls On the
crests of these circling mountains burned
the signal fires in the dim days, tiara of
flame to wake the helots and their herds.