156 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INTELLIGENCE.

detail as may be accounted for by its far inferior size. The tumuli on the Boyne were royal sepulchres, each comprising many chambers connected by passages, whilst the Cutfborough tumuhis was most probably the burial place of a petty chieftain of the district. Mr. Petrie in his recent able work has proved beyond a doubt that the tumuli on the Boyne were erected as the burial places of the Irish monarchs of the Tuatha De Danann race : in proof of which he quotes, in the original Irish, a passage from the " Dinn- senchus" (contained in the Book of Ballymote, fol. 190) descriptive of that royal cemetery, of which the following is his translation : ' Of the monuments of Brugh (Brugh-na-Boinne) here, viz., the bed of the daughter of Forann, the Monument of the Dagda, the Mound of the Morri- gan, the Monument of (the monster) Mata ; . . . . the Bare of Crimthann Nianar^, in which he was interred ; the grave of Fedelmidh the Lawgiver; the Cairn-ail (stone earn) of Conn of the Hundred Battles '^ ; the Cumot (commensurate grave) ofCairbre Lifeachair '^ ; the Fulacht of Fiacha Sraiph- tine*^.' — Petrie s Eccl. Architecture of Ireland, Sfc, pp. 100, 101. From the above passage we are enabled to assign the tumuli on the Boyne to a date from about B.C. 100 to A.D. 200 ; from its similarity of type the tumulus at Cuffborough must be considered of the same period. This tumu- lus presents an example of the disuse of cremation. Whether or not the remains originally deposited in New Grange, and the other tumuli on the Boyne, were subjected to the action of fire, has not, that I am aware of, been certainly determined. If we may credit Ledwich, no remains of ashes or marks of cremation were observable there in his time : and he mentions having seen it stated in the MS. additions to the Louthiana, made by Mr. Wright, and then in possession of a Mr. Allen of Darlington, that on first entering the dome of New Grange two skeletons were found ^ However this may have been, the modern condition of the royal tumuli on the Boyne cannot be depended on with the same certainty as that of the small tumulus under notice ; for whilst the latter from its very insignificance escaped vio- lation, and remained undisturbed until accident at the present day caused its discovery, the former, being the well known burial place of the Irish kings, were at a very early period broken open in search of plunder ; the annals of Ulster, as quoted by Mr. Petrie, relate this act of spoliation as follows : ' A.D. 862. The cave of Achadh Aldai, and of Cnodhba (Knowth), and the cave of the sepulchre of Boadan over Dubhad (Dowth), and the cave of the wife of Gobhan, were searched bi/ the Danes, quod antea non perfectnni

• Criintliaiin Niaiuir became monarcli "' Cairbre Lifiacliair became monarch of

of Ireland, A.M. lO'il, and reigned (i Ireland, A.D. '251', and reigned '27 years. — years. — Keating's History oi' Ireland. Ibid. Table of Kings. '^ Fiacha Sraipbtine became monarch of " Fedelmidh the Lawgiver became mo- Ireland, A.D. 282, and reigned oO years. — narch of Iieland, A.D. 113, and reigned Ibid.

5 years. — Ibid. ' Ludwich's Anti(jnitics, 2nd ed. p. ll.

<■ Conn of the Himdrcd Battles became New Grange was first ojiened in modern monarch of Ireland, A.D, 122, and reigned timcb in the year lOi)!). Ibid. 7 years.— Ibid.