_Urns._--As we have seen, urns are among the objects commonly found with the remains of the dead, whether inhumed or cremated. The Irish fictilia are usually classified as food-vessels, cinerary urns, and incense-cups. In Great Britain a fourth class is known, called ‘drinking-cups,’ but none of these have been found among burial remains in Ireland. The cinerary urns vary in size and ornamentation, and are found from 10 to 25 inches in height; one of the latter size is in the Grainger collection in the Belfast Museum. They are usually of narrow base, and reach their widest above the middle; they contract towards the mouth, which has an overhanging rim; this is sometimes broad enough to contain all the ornamentation on the urn. This consists of chevron, lozenge, or other archaic designs impressed into the clay. A good many of the richer description present mouldings, bosses, &c., in relief. It is difficult to form an exact opinion as to the manner in which the more highly decorated and larger urns were manufactured. They generally present an outer surface, some eighth or so of an inch in depth, composed apparently of well-kneaded compost of yellow or buff-coloured clay, which exhibits but few or no traces of the action of fire. Underneath this envelope is a black, highly-fused mass of coarser composition, which forms what may be called the strength of the vessel. It is a curious fact that the majority of cinerary vases exhibit upon the interior indications of an intense action of fire, while in many examples the outer surface would seem to be simply sun-baked. From a careful examination of a considerable number of urns found in Irish tumuli and sandhills, it seems to us that at least three stages in the process of their formation are indicated. First, the vessel appears to have been fashioned of a somewhat coarse, gritty material; it was then baked in a strong fire, and burnt almost to blackness. It would seem, upon cooling, to have been overlaid with a fine matter, generally buff or cream-coloured, sufficiently soft to receive impressions readily from a tool formed of wood, horn, bone, stone, or possibly of bronze or iron. Strips of light material, like that of the coating or veneer already referred to, were then laid on, just, to use a homely illustration, as a modern cook will embellish a pie-crust. The overlayings, while still soft, were then indented with patterns, and the work either dried in the sun or presented to the influence of a moderate degree of heat from a fire of wood or peat. [Illustration: Cinerary Urn from Co. Carlow.] [Illustration: Cinerary Urn, Co. Wicklow.] [Illustration: Cinerary Urn, Co. Cavan.]