,
which they used as an Antidote against the _Plague_ or _Murrain_ in
cattle; and it was performed thus: All the fires in the Parish were
extinguish'd, and eighty-one marry'd men, being thought the
necessary number for effecting this Design, took two great Planks
of Wood, and nine of 'em were employed by turns, who by their
repeated Efforts rubb'd one of the Planks against the other until
the Heat thereof produced Fire; and from this forc'd Fire each
Family is supplied with new Fire, which is no sooner kindled than a
pot full of water is quickly set on it, and afterwards sprinkled
upon the people infected with the Plague, or upon cattle that have
the Murrain. And this, they all say, they find successful by
experience.'--_Description of the Western Islands of Scotland_
(second edition), p. 113.

"As authority for Miss Beaufort's second assertion, relative to the
Tower of Thlachtga, etc., we are referred to the _Psalter of Tara_,
by Comerford (p. 41), cited in the _Parochial Survey_ (vol. iii.,
p. 320); and certainly in the latter work we do find a passage in
nearly the same words which Miss Beaufort uses. But if the lady had
herself referred to Comerford's little work, she would have
discovered that the author of the article in the _Parochial Survey_
had in reality no authority for his assertions, and had attempted a
gross imposition on the credulity of his readers."

Mr. D'Alton relies much on a passage in _Cambrensis_, wherein he says
that the fishermen on Lough Neagh (a lake certainly formed by an
inundation in the first century, A.D. 62) point to such towers under
the lake; but this only shows they were considered old in Cambrensis's
time (King John's), for Cambrensis calls them _turres ecclesiasticas_
(a Christian appellation); and the fishermen of every lake have such
idle traditions from the tall objects they are familiar with; and the
steeples of Antrim, etc., were handy to the Loch n-Eathac men.

One of the authorities quoted by all the Paganists is from the _Ulster
Annals_ at the year 448. It is--"Kl. Jenair. Anno Domini cccc.xl