at Drumcliff, county Sligo, in company with calcined bones and traces of iron remains; it seems to be identical in style, size, and material with those found in crannogs, as for example fig. 176, from the crannog of Cloonfinlough, ornamented with a border of circles with dots in the centre surrounding four groups of similar circles: each group consists of four circles. Fig. 177, from the same locality, is plainly decorated with five circles arranged in a cruciform pattern. Both these articles are stained a dark-brown colour.[151] [Illustration: Fig. 175.--Unperforated Bone Disc from Drumcliff, Co. Sligo. One-half size. Fig. 176. Fig. 177. Unperforated Bone Discs from Cloonfinlough. Full size.] [Illustration: Fig. 178.--Perforated ornamented Bone Disc from Lagore. One-half size. Fig. 179. Fig. 180. Perforated Bone Discs, with Spike, from Lagore. One-half size.] With regard to the perforated discs, it should be borne in mind that they were of the same size as the _unperforated_, were decorated with similar designs on one side only, and that it is almost incredible so much trouble should have been bestowed on the ornamentation of an object intended to serve merely as a spindle whorl, as for example on the accompanying examples from Lagore. The more natural inference seems to be, that these discs were employed in some game--say chess--the perforations being intended for reception of the upper parts, marking the distinctive character of the various pieces used in the game. Nos. 10 and 11, plate XXV., may possibly have been these distinctive upper portions. An object similar to fig. 180 is described in the _Catalogue of the Museum, R.I.A._, as a “whorl,” in which a portion of the lower end of the bone spindle still projects; but might it not equally be supposed to represent a chessman--possibly a pawn--judging from the simple outlines of its projecting portion? Plate XXX., Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, from Lagore, and now in the Petrie Collection, R.I.A., are all perforated. Nos. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 are discs formed of bone or horn, varying in thickness from ¼ to ⅛ of an inch; No. 6, however, is scarcely ¹⁄₁₆ of an inch. All these are unperforated, therefore could not have been used as “spindle-whorls.” No. 11 is quite plain, the other specimens are ornamented, but only on one side; all the above are of bone; Nos. 12 and 13--both of them composed of stone and perforated--also came from some of the crannogs in the neighbourhood of Strokestown, and the latter is a good specimen of the so-called “whorl” commonly found in the northern counties, where hundreds of them have been discovered in a great variety of places, in carns, crannogs, plough lands, &c. [Illustration: Fig. 181.--Stone Chessman, in the British Museum.]