In Switzerland, at Robenhausen, a settlement of the Stone Age which had been buried under a bed of peat, it is stated by Keller that horizontal layers were discovered of a foreign substance, from two to ten inches thick, ascertained on analysis to be composed of the fæces of cattle. May not some of the dark strata on crannogs be composed of like matter? for there is documentary evidence that the Irish chiefs kept cattle on their islands in time of war. The Lord Treasurer Winchester, writing to announce the decease of Shane O’Neill to the Lord Deputy, says, that “he ought to inspect Shane’s lodging in the fen, where he built his abode, and _kept his cattle_ and all his men,” &c., &c. This “abode” is known to have been a crannog. _Butter._--The custom of burying or hiding butter in bogs is probably of very ancient origin, but, like many old customs, was carried down in Ireland to a very late period. Thomas Dineley, in a diary of his visit to Ireland in the reign of Charles II., states that the Irish used “Butter layd up in wicker basketts, mixed with store of … a sort of garlick, and buried for some time in a bog.” Sir William Petty mentions “butter made rancid by keeping in bogs.” The custom is thus described in the Irish _Hudibras_:-- “Butter to eat with their hog Was seven years buried in bog.” The Faröe islanders had a similar practice with regard to tallow. Bog butter, or mineral tallow, is usually met with in single-piece wooden vessels, like long firkins. _Yokes._--For beasts of burden, the yoke was in use from the earliest ages, but any that have been hitherto discovered, whether double or single, appear too small for cattle of species still existent; however, the old race of domesticated kine in Ireland may have been smaller in size than those of the present day. Probably the first yoke that attracted notice was the one described and illustrated by Wilde in his Catalogue of the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, for it was not until a comparatively late period that the attention of antiquaries was directed towards this class of remains, usually found covered by a considerable depth of bog. A good idea of their general appearance is conveyed by the accompanying illustrations (plate XVI.) representing two yokes of wood that were discovered under eighteen feet of peat in Donagh, county Monaghan, in the year 1867. Fig. 2 is drawn on a somewhat larger scale than fig. 1. Figs. 3 and 4 represent yokes found by turf-cutters about the year 1874, deeply buried in a bog abutting on Lough Erne. One of them was composed of oak. Figs. 5 and 6 are specimens curiously contorted, twisted, and split, the result of over-hasty drying.[105] [Illustration: Fig. 48. Fig. 49. Fig. 50. Fig. 51. Fig. 52. Piscatory Implements or Arrows and Spear-heads.]