JOURNAL OF THE COUNTY DONEGAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY know just what it wa:, I felt strangely intrigued with it and as the saying goes "chanced my arm" by buying it- not without difficulty as the dealer, wmehow, had formed the impression that it was extremely rare and valuable. I felt vaguely that I had seen somewhere an illu&tration of a similar article and aftd considerable search I ran the illustration to earth, a& it were, in the pMes of the British Museum Guide to the Iron Age. There it was fully illustrated and des.cribed. The bronze part was the hilt of what is known as an Anthropoid short sword or dagger from its resemblance to the human figure. The blade of iron to whi.ch the ma:,s of sand and shells had been attached had entirely disappeared leaving behind a perfect mould of itself in the material. This acquisition gave me inteme pleasure and led to a most interesting correspondence, not only with our own Museum officials, but also with those of the British Museum and with French authorities on this particular period as the object itself is of Continental origin rather than Irish; and was in all probaibility lost overboard from the ship of some trader or invader. Only a few anthropoid swords have been found on the Continent and as mine was the only one found in Ireland it was illustrated and described not onlv in the Journals of the Irish Antiquaries, but also in the French Revue Archeoiogique of the year 1926. I gave it on loan for a considerable period to the National Museum of Ireland and finally parted with it to that mu:,eum as I felt that this unique object should ibe housed in a National Collection rath~r than in a private one. The Museum officials, however, very kindly presented me with an excellent plaster replica just to remind me of an interesting episode of my collecing experiences. [ have had few thrills with ancient !pottery beyond fragments from shore :,ettlements, 261. but it has provided me with, at !east one firs'; class disapipointmt.nt. Many years ag.o, seventy to eighty, I believe, some labourers, removiing sarn;i from a pit on a kinsman's farm, discovered a small stone-lined chamber covered with a flagstone-the usual type of cist, I supiposeand inside was a small rpottery vessel with some dust in it and according to the finders, a few fragments of bones. The "wee bowl" a& the men called it was taken to the farm,house and after inspection, and a little serious oonsultation the finders were in- ~ t:-ucted to take it back and to reiplace it as they had found 1t and to cover all carefully again. Some years ago an antiquarian friend and I spent many hopeful hours probing with pointed iron rods the approximate site of the cist in the belief that we might Locate the flagstone. It brought no result : And there it is beneath the lea To hntalise the lil<e of me! ('.\fany of you will remember that some months ago a ploughman unearthed a similar cist with two vessels near Bridgend and that the find attracted considerable public notice as it was considered of great importance. Like many others Mr. MacDona.gh and I planned to visit the finder and the site and so one fine evening-in somewhat altered version of famou:, words : We ea.me. We sa:w. And we carried away! Yes, - actually carried away in a splendid and flagrant disregard of all rules and regulation&, byelaws and Acts of Parliament. I think that we justified our action -to ourselves, at least-by feeling that we were securing the P'recious vessels from any or all IPOSsiible risk that might be run had the more orthodox proc.eedure been awaited. I, therefore, had the great privilege and pleasure of housing, for several weeks, the:,e two interesting examples of the part played by the potter in the early burial customs of Ireland. One day, hoiw-
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NzQxNzU3