manifest to you that it is a king's mansion,
Which was built by the firm Dagda;
It was a wonder, a court, a wonderful hill."

[Footnote A: _Tumuli at New Grange. Trans. Roy. Irish Academy_, XXX. 1.]

But certain of the expressions in this are evidently to be taken
figuratively, since Mr. Coffey states, in connection with this and other
quotations, that their importance consists in that they establish the
existence at a very early date of a tradition associating Brugh na Boinne,
the burial-place of the kings of Tara, with the tumuli on the Boyne. The
association of particular monuments with the Dagda and other divinities
and heroes of Irish mythology implies that the actual persons for whom
they were erected had been forgotten, the pagan traditions being probably
broken by the introduction of Christianity. The mythological ancestors of
the heroes and kings interred at Brugh, who probably were even
contemporarily associated with the cemetery, no doubt subsequently
overshadowed in tradition the actual persons interred there.

Finally, it seems that the fairy hills may have been actual
dwelling-places, fortified or not, of prehistoric peoples. Such were no
doubt some of the Picts' houses so fully dealt with by Mr. MacRitchie,
though Petrie[A] seems to have considered that many of these were
sepulchral in their nature. Such were also the Raths of Ireland and
fortified hills, like the White Cater Thun of Forfarshire.

[Footnote A: _Anthrop. Mems._, ii. 216.]

The interior of the mound-dwellings, as described in the stories, is a
point to which allusion should be made. Sometimes the mound contains a
splendid palace, adorned with gold and silver and precious stones, like
the palace of the King of Elfland in the tale of "Childe Rowland." In the
Scandinavian mound-stories we find a curious incident, for they are
described as being capable of being raised upon red pillars, and as being
so raised when the occupants gave a feast to their neighbours. "There are
three hills on the lands of Bubbelgaard in Funen, which are to this day
called the Dance-hills, from the following occurrence. A lad named Hans
was at service in Bubbelgaard, and as he was coming one evening past the
hills, he saw one of them raised on red pillars, and great dancing and
much merriment underneath."[A] This feature is met with in several of the
stories collected by Keightley, and is made use of in Cruikshank's
picture, which forms the frontispiece to th