of Thomond. For this Turloch was in some
favour with the government, by whom his distress was sometimes relieved.
Thus it appears from the printed calendar of Irish Chancery Rolls, that a
writ of _liberate_ issued in the 4th Rich. II. for the payment to him of
forty marks; and again, 5 Rich. II., of twenty marks, "ei concord. [p=]
recompens. labor." He was much befriended by the Earl of Desmond, whose
successor being high in favour with the kings Henry V. and VI., obtained a
large grant of land in the county of Waterford, which he immediately
conferred on the sons of Turloch. Yet some of those sons may, through his
interest, have been established in England. It becomes, therefore, a matter
of considerable interest to ascertain whether the _Inq. P. M._ 2 Henry IV.
contains any proof that Nicholas Thosmound was an O'Brien.

While on this subject, may I inquire the reason why the O'Briens quarter
with their own arms the bearing of three piles meeting in a point? These
latter were the arms of the English baronial family of Bryan, not at all
connected with the Irish family. I suspect the Irish were late in their
assumption of arms, and borrowed in many cases the arms of English families
of nearly similar names.

A. B.

* * * * *

CORONATION STONE.

(Vol. ix., p. 123.)

Possibly the following authorities may tend to throw light upon the
question started by your correspondent.

In _Ant. Univ. Hist._, vol. xvii. p. 287., 4to. ed., London, 1747, it is
said:

"St. Austin tells us that some of the Carthaginian divinities had the
name of Abaddires, and their priests that of Eucaddires. This class, in
all probability, was derived from the stone which Jacob anointed with
oil, after it had served him for a pillow the night he had his vision;
for in the morning he called the place where he lay Bethel. Now it is
no wonder this should have been esteemed as sacred, since God himself
says, he was the GOD OF BETHEL, the place where Jacob anointed the
pillar. From Bethel came the baetylus of Damascius, which we find
called Abaddir by Priscian. This Abaddir is the Phoenician Aban-dir,
that is, the spherical stone, exactly answering to the description of
the baetylus given us by Damascius and others. The case seems to have
been this; the Canaanites of the neighbourhood first worshipped the
individual stone itself, upon which Jacob had poured {329} oil;