Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 3.djvu/114

94 neighbour, and the oppression of the more civilized invader tended only to aggravate miseries which had arisen from anarchy and barbarism.

It is, however, a remarkable fact, which can only be appreciated by examination of such collections of Irish antiquities, as the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, that certain decorative arts, the craft of working in bronze and other metals, of producing elaborate ornaments of filagree or enamel, appear to have flourished in Ireland at a remote period, even amidst the aggravated miseries of that ill-fated country. These ornaments present great variety in form and design, and are for the most part marked by a peculiar character, distinguishing them from objects considered as of contemporary date, found in other countries of Europe. Several vestiges of the earliest period are yet to be traced in the barony of Farney, such as the remains of Druidical circles, trenches with a double row of great stones, about 40 feet in length, to which the popular name of the "Giants' graves" has been applied, and various stones of memorial, with which certain traditions are connected. The maul or hammer-head, formed of horn-stone, one of the best specimens which have been found in Ireland, and of which a representation, reduced to one half of the original size, is here presented to our readers, is remarkable on account of its peculiar form, and the skilful precision with which so hard a substance has been fashioned and polished. This object was found in a bog near the banks of Lough Fea. In another of those great treasuries of remains illustrative of the habits of the primitive inhabitants of the country, a curious boat, formed of the hollowed trunk of an oak tree, was found; it measured 12 feet in length, and 3 feet in breadth, and was furnished with handles at the extremities, evidently for facility of transport from one lough to another, in a district where so