hambered barrows or cairns,--as on the lids of stone cists, megalithic
circles, etc.; and, from this connection with the burial of the dead,
these antique sculpturings were possibly of a religious character. In a
work on "Archaic Sculpturings of Cups, Rings, etc. upon Stones and Rocks
of Scotland, England, and other Countries," published last year by the
author of the present communication, it was further argued that they
were probably also ornamental in their character, in a chapter beginning
as follows:--

"Without attempting to solve the mystery connected with these archaic
lapidary cups and ring cuttings, I would venture to remark that there is
one use for which some of these olden stone carvings were in all
probability devoted--namely, ornamentation. From the very earliest
historic periods in the architecture of Egypt, Assyria, Greece, etc.,
down to our own day, circles, single or double, and spirals, have
formed, under various modifications, perhaps the most common fundamental
types of lapidary decoration. In prehistoric times the same taste for
circular sculpturings, however rough and rude, seems to have swayed the
mind of archaic man. This observation as to the probable ornamental
origin of our cup and ring carvings holds, in my opinion, far more
strongly in respect to some antique stone cuttings in Ireland and in
Brittany, than to the ruder and simpler forms that I have described as
existing in Scotland and England. For instance, the cut single and
double volutes, the complete and half-concentric circles, the zig-zag,
and other patterns which cover almost entirely and completely some
stones in those magnificent though rude western Pyramids that constitute
the grand old mausolea of Ireland and Brittany, appear to be, in great
part at least, of an ornamental character, whatever else their import
may be."

In a communication on the Great Pyramid, made to the Royal Society 16th
December 1867, Professor Smyth most unexpectedly, and quite out of his
way, took occasion to criticise severely the remarks contained in the
preceding extract, on two grounds:

_First_, He laid down that the term pyramid was misapplied, as the term
referred only to figures and structures of a special mathematical form;
being apparently quite unaware that, as shown in the text and notes, pp.
219 and 220, it was often applied archaeologically to sepulchral mounds
and erections that were not faced, and which did not consist of a series
of tr