were held may point to an
actual cult, the hero being worshipped when dead, while he still
continued his guardianship of the tribe. We know also that the tomb of
King Cottius in the Alps was a sacred place, that Irish kings were often
inaugurated on ancestral burial cairns, and that Irish gods were
associated with barrows of the dead.[533]

The cult of the dead culminated at the family hearth, around which the
dead were even buried, as among the Aeduii; this latter custom may have
been general.[534] In any case the belief in the presence of ancestral
ghosts around the hearth was widespread, as existing superstitions show.
In Brittany the dead seek warmth at the hearth by night, and a feast is
spread for them on All Souls' eve, or crumbs are left for them after a
family gathering.[535] But generally the family ghost has become a
brownie, lutin, or pooka, haunting the hearth and doing the household
work.[536] Fairy corresponds in all respects to old ancestral ghost, and
the one has succeeded to the place of the other, while the fairy is even
said to be the ghost of a dead person.[537] Certain archaeological
remains have also a connection with this ancient cult. Among Celtic
remains in Gaul are found andirons of clay, ornamented with a ram's
head. M. Dechelette sees in this "the symbol of sacrifice offered to the
souls of ancestors on the altar of the hearth."[538] The ram was already
associated as a sacrificial animal with the cult of fire on the hearth,
and by an easy transition it was connected with the cult of the dead
there. It is found as an emblem on ancient tombs, and the domestic Lar
was purified by the immolation of a ram.[539] Figurines of a ram have
been found in Gaulish tombs, and it is associated with the god of the
underworld.[540] The ram of the andirons was thus a permanent
representative of the victim offered in the cult of the dead. A
mutilated inscription on one of them may stand for _Laribus augustis_,
and certain markings on others may represent the garlands twined round
the victim.[541] Serpents with rams' heads occur on the monuments of the
underworld god. The serpent was a chthonian god or the emblem of such a
god, and it may have been thought appropriate to give it the head of an
animal associated with the cult of the dead.

The dead were also fed at the grave or in the house. Thus cups were
placed in the recess of a well in the churchyard of Kilranelagh by those
interring a child under five, and