Title: The Story of Ancient Irish Civilization
Author: Joyce, P. W. (Patrick Weston), 1827-1914
Language: English
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ANCIENT IRISH CIVILISATION



[Illustration: PLAN OF TARA, AS IT EXISTS AT THE PRESENT DAY.

Constructed to illustrate Dr. Joyce’s Social Histories of Ancient Ireland.

From the two Plans given by Petrie in his Essay on Tara.]



  THE STORY OF ANCIENT IRISH CIVILISATION


  BY P. W. JOYCE, LL.D., M.R.I.A.
  _One of the Commissioners for the Publication
  of the Ancient Laws of Ireland President of the
  Royal Society of Antiquaries, Ireland_


  LONDON: LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO.
  DUBLIN: M. H. GILL & SON, LTD.
  1907



_Printed by_ PONSONBY & GIBBS, _University Press, Dublin_.



PREFACE.


This little book has been written and published with the main object of
spreading as widely as possible among our people, young and old, a
knowledge of the civilisation and general social condition of Ireland from
the fifth or sixth to the twelfth century, when it was wholly governed by
native rulers. The publication comes at an appropriate time, when there is
an awakening of interest in the Irish language, and in Irish lore of every
kind, unparalleled in our history.

But the book has a further mission. There are many English and many
Anglo-Irish people who think, merely from ignorance, that Ireland was a
barbarous and half-savage country before the English came among the people
and civilised them. This book, so far as it finds its way among the two
classes above mentioned, will, I fancy, open their eyes. They will learn
from it that the old Irish, so far from being barbarous, were a bright,
intellectual, and cultured people; that they had professions, trades, and
industries pervading the whole population, with clearly defined ranks and
grades of society, all working under an elaborate system of native laws;
and that in the steadying and civilising arts and pursuits of everyday
life they were as well advanced, as orderly, and as regular as any other
European people of the same period. They will find too that, as regards
education, scholarship, and general mental culture, the Irish of those
early ages were in advance of all other countries of Europe; that they
helped most materially to spread Christianity, and to revive learning, all
over the Continent; and that to Irish missionaries and scholars, the
Anglo-Saxons of the Heptarchy were indebted for the greater part of their
Christianity, and for the preservation and restoration of learning when it
was threatened with extinction all over England by the ravages of the
Danes.

But there were, and are, Englishmen better informed about our country.
More than three hundred years ago the great English poet, Edmund Spenser,
lived for some time in Ireland, and made himself well acquainted with its
history. He knew what it was in past ages; so that in one of his poems he
speaks of the time

        “When Ireland flourishèd in fame
  Of wealth and goodnesse, far above the rest
  Of all that beare the British Islands name.”

But it is better not to pursue these observations farther here, as it
would be only anticipating what will be found in the body of the book.

This book is the last of a series of three, of which the second is
abridged from the first, and the third from both.

The First--“A Social History of Ancient Ireland” (2 vols., richly gilt,
both cover and top, in 31 chapters, with 361 Illustrations)--contains a
complete survey of the Social Life and Institutions of Ancient Ireland.
All the important statements in it are proved home by references to
authorities, and by quotations from ancient documents.

The Second--“A Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland” (1 vol., cloth,
gilt, 598 pages, in 27 chapters, with 213 Illustrations)--traverses the
same ground as the larger work; but, besides condensation, most of the
illustrative quotations and nearly all the references to authorities are
omitted.

This Third book--“The Story of Ancient Irish Civilisation”--gives in
simple, plain language, an account of the condition of the country in the
olden time; but as it is here to speak for itself, I need not describe it
further. For all the statements it contains, full and satisfactory
authorities will be found in the two larger works.

I have done my best to make all three readable and interesting, as well as
instructive.

The ordinary history of our country has been written by many, and the
reader has a wide choice. But in the matter of our Social History he has
no choice at all. For these three books of mine have, for the first and
only time, brought within the reach of the general public a knowledge of
the whole social life of Ancient Ireland.

P. W. J.

  LYRE-NA-GRENA,
  _February, 1907_.



The old Irish writers commonly prefixed to their books or treatises a
brief statement of “Place, Time, Person, and Cause.” My larger Social
History, following the old custom, opens with a statement of this kind,
which reappears in the Preface to the Smaller Social History, and which
may be appropriately repeated here:--

    _The Place, Time, Author, and Cause of Writing, of this book,
    are:--Its place is Lyre-na-Grena, Leinster-road, Rathmines, Dublin;
    its time is the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and seven;
    the author is Patrick Weston Joyce, Doctor of Laws; and the cause of
    writing the same book is to give glory to God, honour to Ireland, and
    knowledge to those who desire to learn all about the Old Irish
    People._



CONTENTS.


  CHAPTER.                                                            PAGE

  I. HOW THE ANCIENT IRISH PEOPLE WERE GOVERNED BY THEIR KINGS
  AND CHIEFS                                                             1

  II. HOW THE WARLIKE OLD IRISH CONQUERED FOREIGN LANDS                  8

  III. HOW KINGS, CHIEFS, AND PEOPLE WERE SUBJECT TO THE BREHON
  LAWS                                                                  17

  IV. HOW THE ANCIENT IRISH LIVED AS PAGANS                             24

  V. HOW THE IRISH PEOPLE LIVED AS CHRISTIANS                           33

  VI. HOW IRELAND BECAME THE MOST LEARNED COUNTRY IN EUROPE             40

  VII. HOW THE IRISH MISSIONARIES AND SCHOLARS SPREAD RELIGION
  AND LEARNING IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES                                     51

  VIII. HOW THE ANCIENT IRISH WROTE DOWN ALL THEIR LITERATURE,
  AND HOW BOOKS INCREASED AND MULTIPLIED                                60

  IX. HOW THE IRISH SCHOLARS COMPILED THEIR ANNALS                      67

  X. HOW THE IRISH DERIVED AMUSEMENT AND INSTRUCTION FROM
  HISTORICAL AND ROMANTIC TALES                                         74

  XI. HOW THE ANCIENT IRISH EXCELLED IN MUSIC                           82

  XII. HOW THE ANCIENT IRISH EXCELLED IN ART                            92

  XIII. HOW THE ANCIENT IRISH PHYSICIANS WERE SKILLED IN
  MEDICINE                                                              98

  XIV. HOW THE OLD IRISH PEOPLE BUILT AND ARRANGED THEIR HOUSES        106

  XV. HOW THEY ATE, DRANK, FEASTED, AND ENTERTAINED                    111

  XVI. HOW THE PEOPLE DRESSED                                          121

  XVII. HOW THEY FENCED IN AND TILLED THEIR LAND                       129

  XVIII. HOW IRISH HANDICRAFTSMEN EXCELLED IN THEIR WORK               131

  XIX. HOW THEY PREPARED AND MADE UP CLOTHING MATERIALS                138

  XX. HOW THE IRISH TRAVELLED ON LAND AND WATER                        143

  XXI. HOW THE PEOPLE HELD GREAT CONVENTIONS AND FAIRS; AND HOW
  THEY AMUSED THEMSELVES                                               148

  XXII. HOW THE CHARACTER OF THE OLD IRISH PEOPLE SHOWED ITSELF
  IN VARIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES AND ON VARIOUS OCCASIONS                    158

  INDEX                                                                169



ANCIENT IRISH CIVILISATION.



CHAPTER I.

HOW THE ANCIENT IRISH PEOPLE WERE GOVERNED BY THEIR KINGS AND CHIEFS.


There were in Ireland, from times beyond the reach of history, kings, who
were of various grades according to the extent of the country or district
they ruled over. The highest of all was the king of Ireland, who lived in
the royal palace at Tara. He was called the Ard-ri [ard-ree], _i.e._,
‘High king’ or Over-king, because he claimed authority over all the
others. There was also a king over each of the five provinces--Leinster,
Munster, Connaught, Ulster, and Meath--who were subject to the Ard-ri. The
provinces were divided into a number of territories, over which were kings
of a still lower grade, each under the king of his own province. If the
district was not large enough to have a king, it was ruled by a chief, who
was subject to the king of the larger territory in which the district was
included.

The king was always chosen from one particular ruling family; and when a
king died, those chiefs who had votes held a meeting, lasting for three
days and three nights, at which they elected whatever member of that
family they considered the wisest, best, and bravest. After this a day was
fixed for inaugurating the new king, a ceremony corresponding in some
respects with the _crowning_ of our present monarchs. This Inauguration,
or ‘making’ of a king as it is called in Irish, was a great affair, and
was attended by all the leading people, both clergymen and laymen. There
was always one particular spot for the ceremony, on which usually stood a
high mound or fort, with an ‘Inauguration Stone’ on top, and often a great
branching old tree, under the shade of which the main proceedings were
carried on.

The new king, standing on the Inauguration Stone, swore a solemn oath in
the hearing of all, that he would govern his people with strict justice,
and that he would observe the laws of the land, and maintain the old
customs of the tribe or kingdom. Then he put by his sword; and one of the
chiefs, whose special office it was, put into his hand a long, straight,
white wand. This was to signify that he was to govern, not by violence or
harshness, but by justice, and that his decisions were to be straight and
stainless like the wand. Several other forms had to be gone through till
the ceremony was completed; and he was then the lawful king.

The old Irish kings lived in great style, especially those of the higher
ranks, and--like the kings of our own day--kept in their palaces numbers
of persons to attend on them, holding various offices, all with good
salaries. The higher the grade of the king the greater the number of his
household, and the grander the persons holding offices. Forming part of
his retinue there were nobles, who did nothing at all but wait on him,
merely to do him honour. There were _Ollaves_, i.e., learned and
distinguished men, of the several professions--Historians, Poets,
Physicians, Builders, Brehons or Judges, Musicians, and so forth. All were
held in high honour, and exercised their several professions for the
benefit of the king and his household, for which each had a house and a
tract of land free, or some other equivalent stipend.

Then there was a house-steward, who issued orders each day for the
provisions to be laid in for next day--the number of oxen, sheep, and hogs
to be slaughtered, the quantity of bread to be baked, and of ale, mead,
and wine to be measured out; and he regulated the reception of guests,
their arrangement at banquets, and their sleeping accommodation; with
numerous other matters of a like kind, all pertaining to the household.
His word was law, and no one ever thought of questioning his arrangements.
The house-steward’s office was one of great responsibility, and he had
plenty of anxiety and worry; and accordingly he held a high rank, and was
well paid for his services.

There was a champion--a fierce and mighty man--who answered challenges,
and, when necessary, fought single combats for the honour of the king.
Guards were always at hand, who remained standing up with drawn swords or
battleaxes during dinner. There was a master of horse, with numerous
grooms; keepers of the king’s jewels and chessboards; couriers or runners
to convey the king’s messages and orders, and to bring him tidings;
keepers of hounds and coursing dogs; a chief swineherd, with his
underlings; fools, jugglers, and jesters for the amusement of the company;
with a whole army of under-servants and workmen of various kinds.

Each day the whole company sat in the great hall at dinner, arranged at
tables in the order of rank the great grandees and the ollaves near the
king, others of less importance lower down, while the attendants--when
they were not otherwise occupied--sat at tables of their own at the lower
end of the hall. To pay the expenses of his great household, and to enable
him to live in grandeur as a king should live, he had a large tract of
land free, besides which, every tenant and householder throughout his
dominion had to make a yearly payment according to his means. These
payments were made, not in money--for there was little or no coined money
then--but _in kind_; that is to say, cattle and provisions of various
sorts, plough-oxen, hogs, sheep, with mantles and other articles of dress;
also dyestuffs, sewing-thread, firewood, horses, rich bridles,
chessboards, jewellery, and sometimes gold and silver reckoned out in
ounces, as Abraham paid Ephron for the cave of Machpelah. Much income also
accrued to the king from other sources not mentioned here; and he wanted
it all, for he was expected to be lavish in giving presents, and
hospitable without stint in receiving and entertaining guests.

Besides all this, the king often went on what was called a ‘Free Circuit,’
_i.e._, a visitation through his dominions, moving quite leisurely in his
chariot from place to place, with a numerous retinue, all in their own
chariots; while the several sub-kings through whose territories he passed
had to lodge, feed, and entertain the whole company free, while they
remained.

These old Irish kings--when they were not engaged in war--seem to have led
a free and easy life, and to have had a pleasanter time of it than the
kings and emperors of our own day.

The Irish took care that their kings had not too much power in their
hands; so that they could not always do as they pleased--a proper and wise
arrangement. They were what we now call ‘limited monarchs’; that is, they
could not enter on any important undertaking affecting the kingdom or the
public without consulting their people. On such occasions the king had to
call a meeting of his chief men, and ask their advice, and, if necessary,
take their votes when there was a difference of opinions. And besides
this, kings, as we shall see farther on, had to obey the law the same as
their subjects.

Each king, of whatever grade, should, according to law, have at least
three chief residences; and he lived in them by turns, as suited his fancy
or convenience. Nearly all those old palaces are known at the present day;
and in most of them the ramparts and mounds are still to be seen, more or
less dilapidated after the long lapse of time. The ruins of the most
important ones--such as we see them now--are described in some detail in
my two Social Histories of Ancient Ireland; but here our space will not
permit us to mention more than a few.

The most important of all is Tara, the chief residence of the over-kings,
which is situated on the summit of a gentle green hill, six miles from
Navan in Meath, and two miles from the Midland Railway station of
Kilmessan. The various mounds, circular ramparts, and other features are
plainly marked on the plan given at the beginning of this book; and anyone
who walks over the hill with the plan in his hand can easily recognise
them.

Next to Tara in celebrity was the palace of Emain or Emania, the residence
of the kings of Ulster, and the chief home of Concobar Mac Nessa and the
Red Branch Knights. The imposing remains of this palace, consisting of a
great mound surrounded by an immense circular rampart and fosse half
obliterated, the whole structure covering about eleven English acres, lie
two miles west of Armagh.

Another Ulster palace, quite as important as Emain, was Ailech, the ruins
of which are situated in County Donegal, on the summit of a hill 800 feet
high, five miles north-west from Derry. It is a circular stone fortress of
dry masonry, still retaining its old name in the form of “Greenan-Ely.”

The chief palace of the kings of Connaught was Croghan, the old fort of
which lies three miles from Tulsk in Roscommon.

The most important residence of the Leinster kings was Aillenn, now called
Knockaulin, an immense fort surrounding the summit of a hill near
Kilcullen in Kildare.

Besides these there are the Munster palaces, the Rock of Cashel, Kincora
at Killaloe, Bruree in Limerick, and Caher in Tipperary: also we have Naas
in Kildare, Dunlavin in Wicklow, Dinnree in Carlow, and many others.



CHAPTER II.

HOW THE WARLIKE OLD IRISH CONQUERED FOREIGN LANDS.


From the remotest times the Irish had a genius for war and a love of
fighting; and if it fell within the scope of this narrative, it would be
easy to show that these features in our character have come down to the
present day. For good or for bad, we are, and always have been, a fighting
race.

In old times the ‘Scots’--as the Irish were then called--were well known
for their warlike qualities, and very much dreaded; so that fabulous
rumours regarding them ran among some of the people of the Continent. One
Latin writer tells us that Irish mothers were wont to present the first
food on the point of a sword to their newly-born male infants, as a sort
of dedication to war. This is certainly an invention, for it is not
mentioned in our own records; but it indicates the character the Irish
people had earned for themselves abroad. They fought a great deal too much
among themselves at home; but in this respect they were not a bit worse
than the English people at the time of the Heptarchy or than the
Continental nations of the same period.

That the old Irish should be warlike is only what we might expect; seeing
that they were in great measure descended from the Continental Gauls, who
in ancient times were renowned as warriors and conquerors. But mighty as
the Gauls were, and though they were at least as brave as the Romans, they
were subdued in the end by superior discipline, when Julius Cæsar invaded
them. And so with the old Irish. Though they were fierce and strong, and
taken man for man quite a match for the Anglo-Normans, they were forced,
after a long struggle, to yield to science, skill, and discipline, when
they were invaded by that people--then the greatest warriors in the world.

The Irish were not content with fighting at home, but made themselves
formidable in foreign lands. Their chief foreign conquests were in Wales
and Scotland; but they frequently found their way to the Continent. Irish
literature of every kind abounds in records of foreign raids, invasions,
and inter-marriages; and in many particulars these native accounts are
borne out by authorities that no one questions, namely, Roman classical
writers, whenever they find occasion to touch on these matters.

Those who have read the early history of England will remember that the
Picts and Scots, marching southwards from the Scottish Highlands, gave
much trouble, year after year, for a long period, to the Romans and
Britons. The Picts were the people of Scotland at the time; and the Scots
were the Irish, who, crossing over to Alban or Scotland in their _curragh_
fleets, joined the Picts in their formidable raids southwards. We know
all this, not only from our own native historians, but also from Roman
writers, who tell us how the Romans had often to fight in Britain against
the Scots from Ireland.

In order to protect the British people against these two fierce nations,
the Romans, at different intervals in the second and third centuries,
built great walls or ramparts from sea to sea, between Britain and Alban,
of which the ruins are still to be seen: one beginning at the Frith of
Clyde and another at the Solway Frith.

For several hundred years--from the third to the sixth century, and even
after--the Irish streamed continually to Scotland across the narrow sea.
The first of these migrations of which we have reliable accounts
originated in a famine, exactly as the great exodus of our own day from
Ireland to America was set going by the terrible famine of 1847. And this
migration is related partly by old Irish writers, and partly by the great
English historian, the Venerable Bede.

The famine in question fell on Munster early in the third century, so that
numbers of people were forced to leave the province. One particular chief
led a great host of fighting men, with their families, northwards, till
they reached the extreme district now known as the county Antrim. Here
they divided: and while one part remained in Ireland (_i.e._, in Antrim),
the other part, under the same leader mentioned above, crossed over to
Alban or Scotland, where they settled down. From this time forward, there
was a continual migration, year after year, from the northern coast to
Scotland, till, after the lapse of about three centuries, occurred the
greatest invasion of all, led by the three brothers, Fergus, Angus, and
Lorne, in the year 503.

It has been already related in our Histories of Ireland, and need not be
repeated in detail here, how these colonists ultimately mastered the
country, over which their first king, Fergus, ruled; how they gave
Scotland its name; how the subsequent kings of Scotland were the direct
descendants of Fergus; and how from him again, through the Stuarts,
descend, in one of their lines of pedigree, our present royal family.

At about the same period the Irish mastered and peopled the Isle of Man;
and for centuries there was constant intercourse between the parent people
of the north-east coast of Ireland and this little colony. Though the
Norsemen wrested the sovereignty of the island from them in the ninth
century, they did not succeed in displacing either the Gaelic people or
their language. The best possible proof that the Irish colonised and held
possession of Man for ages is the fact that the Manx language is nothing
more than Irish Gaelic, slightly changed by lapse of time. There are also
still to be seen all over the island Irish buildings and monuments, mixed
up, however, with many of Norse origin; and the great majority of both the
place-names and the native family-names are Gaelic.

In our old historical books we have accounts of migrations of Irish people
to Wales, some as invaders intending to return, some as colonists
purposing to settle and remain. At this time the Romans were masters of
England and Wales, but they were not as mighty a people in the fourth
century as they had been previously; for on the Continent the northern
barbarians were pressing on them everywhere; and in Britain the Picts and
Scots, as we have said, kept continually harassing them from the north.

These raids became at last so intolerable, that the Roman government sent
an able general named Theodosius (father of the emperor Theodosius the
Great) to Britain to check them. At the very time that Theodosius was in
Britain, a brave and strong-handed king reigned in Tara, named Criffan
(A.D., 366 to 379), who on several occasions invaded Britain, and took
possession of large tracts, so that he is called in our old records
“Criffan the Great, king of Ireland, and of Albion to the British
Channel.” The Roman historians tell us that Theodosius succeeded in
beating back the Picts and Scots, and even chased them out to sea, in
which there is probably some exaggeration, as there is, no doubt, on the
part of our own historians in calling Criffan “King of Albion to the
British Channel.”

Criffan was succeeded by Niall of the Nine Hostages (A.D. 379 to 405), who
was still more distinguished for foreign conquests than his predecessor.
He invaded Britain on a more extensive and formidable scale than had yet
been attempted, and swept over a large extent of country, bringing away
immense booty and whole crowds of captives, but was at length forced to
retreat by the valiant Roman general Stilicho. On this occasion a Roman
poet, praising Stilicho, says of him--speaking as Britannia:--“By him was
I protected when the Scot [_i.e._, Niall] moved all Ireland against me,
and the ocean foamed with their hostile oars.”

For the extensive scale of these terrible raids we have the testimony of
the best possible authority--St. Patrick--who, in his “Confession,”
speaking of the expedition in which he himself was taken captive (probably
that led by Niall), says:--“I was about sixteen years of age, when I was
brought captive into Ireland _with many thousand persons_.”

The preceding were warlike raids; but no doubt, while the main body of the
host returned on each occasion to their homes in Ireland, large numbers
remained and settled down in Wales. But we have an account of at least one
expedition undertaken with the direct object of colonising. In the third
century, a powerful tribe called the Desii, who occupied the territory of
_Deece_, near Tara, were expelled from the district by King Cormac Mac
Art, for a serious breach of law. Part of these went to Munster, and
settled in a territory which still bears their name, the barony of Decies,
in Waterford. Another part, crossing over to Wales under one of their
leaders, took possession of a district called Dyfed, where they settled
down and kept themselves distinct as an immigrant tribe, speaking their
own language for generations, till at length they were absorbed by the
more numerous population around them, just as, many centuries later, the
Anglo-Normans who came to Ireland were absorbed by the Irish.

We are told in Cormac’s Glossary that in those times it was quite a usual
thing for Irish chiefs to own two territories, one in Ireland and the
other in Wales; and that they visited and lived in each by turns, as
suited their convenience or pleasure. And the Irish chiefs often crossed
over to receive the tributes due to them from their Welsh possessions.

Plain marks and tokens of these migrations and settlements exist in Wales
at the present day, as we are told by eminent Welsh writers who have
examined the question. Numerous places are still called after Irishmen,
as, for instance, Holyhead, of which the Welsh name means the ‘Rocks of
the Gaels.’ The Irish, wherever they settled down in Wales, built for
themselves circular forts, as was their custom at home in Ireland. Many of
these remain to this day, and are called ‘Irishmen’s Cottages.’ Moreover,
the present spoken Welsh language contains a number of Irish words,
borrowed by the people from their Irish neighbours in days of old. All
this we are told--as already stated--by several great Welsh scholars.



CHAPTER III.

HOW KINGS, CHIEFS, AND PEOPLE WERE SUBJECT TO THE BREHON LAWS.


The ancient Irish had a system of laws which grew up gradually among them
from time immemorial. And there were lawyers who made law the business of
their lives, and lived by it. When a lawyer was very distinguished, and
became noted for his knowledge, skill, and justice, he was recognised as
competent to act as a _Brehon_ or judge. A brehon was also a magistrate by
virtue of his position. From this word ‘brehon,’ the old Irish law is now
commonly called the ‘Brehon Law.’

We have seen that every king kept in his household distinguished men of
all the learned professions, and paid them well. Among these the brehon
always held a high place; so that a large number of brehons found
employment in this way. But many were unattached, and lived by deciding
cases brought before them; for which they held courts, and were paid fees
by the litigants in each case. On these fees they lived, for they had no
regular salaries. And there were practising lawyers also, not holding the
position of brehon, who made a living by their profession, like lawyers of
our day.

To become a lawyer a person had to go through a regular course of study
and training. The subjects were laid down with great exactness from year
to year of the course; and the time was much longer than that required by
a young man now-a-days to become a barrister. Until the student had put in
the full time, and mastered the whole course, he was not permitted to
practise as a lawyer of any kind--pleader, law-agent, professor of law,
law-adviser, or brehon.

Law was perhaps the most difficult of all the professions to study. For
there were many strange terms hard to understand, all of which had to be
learned, many puzzling forms to be gone through, many circumstances to be
taken into account in all transactions where law was brought in, or where
trials took place in a brehon’s court. And if there was the least flaw or
omission, if the smallest error was committed, either by the client or by
his lawyer, it was instantly pounced upon by the opposing pleader, and the
case was likely enough to go against them.

As soon as the Irish had learned the art of writing, they began to write
down their laws in books. There is the best reason to believe that before
the time of St. Patrick the pagan brehons had law-books. But they were
full of paganism--pagan gods, pagan customs, and pagan expressions
everywhere through them; and they would not answer for a Christian people.
So about six years after St. Patrick’s arrival, when Christianity had been
pretty widely spread through Ireland, he saw that it was necessary to have
a new code, suitable for the new and pure faith; and he advised Laeghaire
[Laery], the ard-ri, to take steps to have the laws revised and
re-written. The king, seeing this could not be avoided, appointed nine
learned and eminent persons--of whom he himself and St. Patrick were
two--to carry out this important work. At the end of three years, these
nine produced a new code, quite free from any taint of paganism: and this
book got the name of Senchus Mór [Shannahus More], meaning ‘Great old
law-book.’

The very book left by St. Patrick and the others has been long lost. But
successive copies were made from time to time, of which some are still
preserved. We have also manuscript copies of several other old Irish
law-books, most of which, as well as the Senchus Mór, have been lately
translated and printed. As the language of those old books is very obscure
and difficult, it was a hard task to translate them; but this was
successfully done by the two great Irish scholars, Dr. John O’Donovan and
Professor Eugene O’Curry. These translations of the Senchus Mór and the
other old law-books, with the Irish texts, and with notes, explanations,
and indexes, form six large printed volumes, which may now be seen in
every important library.

The brehons held courts at regular intervals, where cases were tried. If a
man was wronged by another, he summoned him to one of these courts, and
there were lawyers to plead for both sides, and witnesses were examined,
much in the same way as we see in our present law courts; and after the
brehon had carefully listened to all, he gave his decision. This decision
was given by the brehon alone: there were no juries such as we have now.

All parties, high and low, submitted to the Brehon Laws, and abided by the
judge’s decisions; unless the party who lost the suit thought the decision
wrong--which indeed happened but seldom--in which case, he appealed to the
court of a higher brehon. Then, if it was found that the first had given
an unjust decision, he had to return the fee and pay damages, besides more
or less losing character, and lessening his chances of further employment.
So the brehons had to be very careful in trying cases and giving their
decisions.

The highest people in the land, even kings and queens, had to submit to
the laws, exactly the same as common subjects; and if a king was wronged,
he had to appeal to the law, like other people. A couple of hundred years
ago, when the kings of France were, to all intents and purposes, despotic,
and could act much as they pleased towards their subjects, a learned
French writer on law, during a visit to England, happened to pass near the
grounds of one of the palaces, where he observed a notice on the fence of
a field belonging to the king:--“Trespassers will be prosecuted according
to law.” Now this gave him great pleasure, as it showed how the king had
to call in the aid of the law to redress a wrong, like any of his
subjects; and it gave him occasion to contrast the condition of England
with that of France, where the king or queen would have made short work of
the trespasser, without any notice or law at all.

But if the same Frenchman had been in Ireland 1,500 years ago, he might
have witnessed what would give him still greater pleasure:--not a mere
notice, but an actual case of trespass on a queen’s ground, tried in open
court before his eyes. In those days there reigned at Tara a king named
Mac Con, whose queen had a plot of land, not far from the palace, planted
with _glasheen_, i.e., the woad-plant, for dyeing blue. In the
neighbourhood there lived a female _brewy_, or keeper of a hostel for
travellers, who had flocks and herds like all other brewys. One night a
flock of sheep belonging to her broke into the queen’s grounds, and ate up
or destroyed the whole crop of glasheen; whereupon the queen summoned her
for damages.

In due course the case came before the king (for the queen would not
appear before an ordinary brehon), and on hearing the evidence he decided
that the sheep should be forfeit to the queen to pay for the crop. Now,
although the glasheen was an expensive and valuable crop, the sheep were
worth a great deal more; and the people were enraged at this unjust
sentence; but they dared not speak out, for Mac Con was a usurper and a
tyrant.

Among the people who dwelt in Tara at this time was a boy, a handsome,
noble-looking young fellow, whom the people all knew by the name of
Cormac. But no one in the least suspected that he was in reality a prince,
the son of the last monarch, Art the Solitary, who had been slain in
battle by the usurper, Mac Con. He was wise and silent, and carefully
concealed from all who he was; for he well knew that if he was discovered
the king would be sure to kill him.

While the trial was going on he stood behind the crowd listening quietly;
and being by nature noble and just-minded, even from his youth up, he
could not contain himself when he heard the king’s unfair and oppressive
sentence; and he cried out amid the dead silence:--“That is an unjust
judgment! Let the fleeces be given up for the glasheen--the sheep-crop for
the land-crop--for both will grow again!”

The king was astonished and enraged, and became still more so when the
people exclaimed with one voice:--“That is a true judgment, and he who has
pronounced it is surely the son of a king!”

In this manner the people, to their great joy, discovered who Cormac was.
How he managed to escape the vengeance of the king we are not told; but
escape he did; and after a time the usurper was expelled from Tara, and
Cormac was put in his place. To this day Cormac Mac Art is celebrated in
Irish records as a skilful lawyer and writer on law, and as the wisest and
most illustrious of all the ancient Irish kings.[1]



CHAPTER IV.

HOW THE ANCIENT IRISH LIVED AS PAGANS.


When Ireland was pagan the people were taught their religion, such as it
was, by Druids. These druids were the only learned men of the time, and
they had in their hands all the learned professions--they were not only
druids, but judges, prophets, poets, and even physicians. They were the
only teachers, and they were employed to instruct the sons and daughters
of kings and chiefs in whatever learning was then known. They were also
advisers to king and people on all important occasions; so they were, as
we can well understand, held in high estimation, and had great influence.
They had the reputation of being mighty magicians, and could do many
wonderful things, as our old romantic stories tell, and as the people
firmly believed. They could raise a druidical or magic fog, which hid
things from view, or bring on darkness in the day, like the blackest
night; they could bring down showers of fire or blood, cause a snowfall
even in summer, till the ground was covered half a yard deep; and bring on
storms and tempests on sea or land. They could drive a man mad by their
sorcery--a power which was dreaded most of all by the people in general.
For this purpose the druid prepared what was called a ‘madman’s wisp,’
that is, a little wisp of straw or grass, into which he pronounced some
foul, baleful verses; and, watching his opportunity, he flung it into the
face of the poor victim, who straightway became a madman, or, what was
just as bad, an idiot--all beyond cure. Many other instances of the power
of their spells are related in old Irish tales.

They were often employed in divination, _i.e._, foretelling the future.
Sometimes they forecasted by observing the clouds or the stars, sometimes
by means of a rod of yew with Ogham letters cut upon it, often by
interpreting dreams, or from sneezing, or by the voices of birds,
especially the croaking of the raven, or the chirping of the wren. By
some or all of these means they professed to be able to tell the issue of
a coming battle, or whether a man’s life was to be long or short, and what
were the lucky or unlucky days for beginning any work, or for undertaking
any enterprise; besides many other matters lying in the future.

The Greeks and Romans of old had--as we know--their augurs or soothsayers,
who forecasted the future, like our druids, and by much the same
observations, signs, and tokens. We must not judge those old people,
whether Greek, Roman, or Irish, too severely for believing in these
prophets; for although there are no druids or soothsayers now, we have
amongst us plenty of palmists and fortune-tellers of various kinds, who
make a good living out of those people who are simple enough to believe in
them.

There were druids in every part of Ireland; but Tara, as being the
residence of the over-kings, was their chief seat, where they were most
powerful; and those who have read the early history of Ireland will
recollect St. Patrick’s contest with them, in presence of king Laeghaire
[Laery] and his court, and how he put them down in argument.

The pagan Irish had many gods and many idols. Among other things, they
worshipped the Fairies, who were, and are still, called in Irish _Shee_.
The fairies dwelt under pleasant green little hills; and there they built
themselves palaces all ablaze with light, and glittering with gems and
gold. These residences, as well as the elves or fairies themselves, were
called _Shee_. Many of the old fairy hills all over the country are still
well known; and to this day there is a superstition among many of the
people that the fairies still remain in them, and that they also dwell in
the old _lisses_, _raths_, or forts that are found everywhere in Ireland.
The fairies were not always confined to their dwellings: they often got
out, but they were generally invisible. Whenever they made themselves
visible to mortals--and that was only seldom--they were seen to be very
small, hardly the height of a man’s knee. People had to be careful of
them, for they often did mischief when interfered with.

Mannanan Mac Lir was the Irish sea-god, like Neptune of the Greeks and
Romans. He generally lived on the sea, riding in his chariot at the head
of his followers. He is in his glory on a stormy night, and on such a
night, when you look over the waste of waters, there before your eyes, in
the dim gloom, are thousands of Mannanan’s white steeds careering along
after their great chief’s chariot.

Angus Mac-an-oge was a mighty magician, who had his glorious palace under
the great mound of Brugh [Broo] on the Boyne, now called Newgrange, a
little below Slane in Meath. There were many other gods; and there were
goddesses also. Poets, physicians, and smiths had three goddesses whom
they severally worshipped, three sisters, all named Brigit. There were
also many fairy queens, who were considered as goddesses and worshipped in
their several districts, all living in their palaces under fairy mounds or
rocks.

Many of these residences are still well known, such as Carrigcleena, a
circle of grey rocks near Mallow, where lived Cleena, the fairy queen of
south Munster; and Craglea, near Killaloe, where Eevin or Eevil, the
guardian fairy queen of the Dalcassians of Thomond, resided. The people of
several districts had local gods also, such as Donn, the king of the
Munster fairies, who had his airy home on the top of Knockfierna, near
Croom in Limerick; John Macananty of Scrabo carn, near Newtownards; and
Tierna, the powerful and kindly fairy lord, who lived in his bright palace
under the great carn on the hill of Carntierna, over Fermoy.

Besides those that were acknowledged and worshipped as gods or goddesses,
there were battle-furies who delighted in blood and slaughter; also
loathsome-looking witch-hags, and plenty of goblins, sprites, and
spectres--some harmless, some malignant--who will be found enumerated and
described in either of my two Social Histories.

The idols worshipped by the pagan Irish were nearly all of them stones,
mostly pillar-stones, which were sometimes covered over with gold, silver,
or bronze. The people also worshipped the elements--that is to say, water,
fire, the sun, the wind, and such like. The worship of wells was very
general. Most of those old Pagan fountains were taken possession of by St.
Patrick, St. Columkille, and other early missionaries, who blessed them,
and devoted them to baptism and other Christian uses; so that they came to
be called holy wells; and though they were no longer worshipped, they were
as much venerated by the Christians as they had been by the pagans.

It must not be supposed that each of the objects mentioned above was
worshipped by all the people of Ireland. Each person, in fact, worshipped
whichever he pleased. And it was usual for individuals, or a tribe, to
choose some idol, or element, or pagan divinity, which they held in
veneration as their special guardian god.

There was a belief in a pagan heaven, a land of everlasting youth, peace,
and happiness, beautiful beyond conception, called by various names, such
as Teernanoge, Moy Mell, I-Brassil, etc., which is often described as
being situated far out in the Western Ocean. It was inhabited by fairies,
but it was not for human beings, except a few individuals who were brought
thither by the fairies.

There is a pretty story, more than a thousand years old, in the Book of
the Dun Cow, which tells how Prince Connla of the Golden Hair, son of the
great king Conn the Hundred-Fighter, was carried off by a fairy in a
crystal boat to Moy-Mell. One day--as the story relates--while the king
and Connla, and many nobles were standing on the western sea-shore, a boat
of shining crystal was seen moving towards them: and when it had touched
the land, a fairy, like a human being, and richly dressed, came forth from
it, and addressing Connla, tried to entice him into it. No one saw this
strange being save Connla alone, though all heard the conversation: and
the king and the nobles marvelled, and were greatly troubled. At last the
fairy chanted the following words in a very sweet voice: and the moment
the chant was ended, the poor young prince stepped into the crystal boat,
which in a moment glided swiftly away to the west: and Prince Connla was
never again seen in his native land.


THE FAIRY MAIDEN’S CHANT TO PRINCE CONNLA.

  I.

                A land of youth, a land of rest,
                  A land from sorrow free;
                It lies far off in the golden west,
                  On the verge of the azure sea.
                A swift canoe of crystal bright,
                  That never met mortal view--
                We shall reach the land ere fall of night,
                  In that strong and swift canoe:
                    We shall reach the strand
                    Of that sunny land,
                  From druids and demons free;
                    The land of rest,
                    In the golden west,
                  On the verge of the azure sea!

  II.

  A pleasant land of winding vales, bright streams, and verdurous plains,
  Where summer all the live-long year, in changeless splendour reigns;
  A peaceful land of calm delight, of everlasting bloom;
  Old age and death we never know, no sickness, care, or gloom;
                    The land of youth,
                    Of love and truth,
                  From pain and sorrow free;
                    The land of rest,
                    In the golden west,
                  On the verge of the azure sea!

  III.

  There are strange delights for mortal men in that island of the west;
  The sun comes down each evening in its lovely vales to rest:
                    And though far and dim
                    On the ocean’s rim
                  It seems to mortal view,
                    We shall reach its halls
                    Ere the evening falls,
                  In my strong and swift canoe:
                    And evermore
                    That verdant shore
                  Our happy home shall be;
                    The land of rest,
                    In the golden west,
                  On the verge of the azure sea!

  IV.

  It will guard thee, gentle Connla, of the flowing golden hair;
  It will guard thee from the druids, from the demons of the air;
  My crystal boat will guard thee, till we reach that western shore,
  Where thou and I in joy and love shall live for evermore:
                  From the druid’s incantation,
                    From his black and deadly snare,
                  From the withering imprecation
                    Of the demon of the air,
  It will guard thee, gentle Connla, of the flowing golden hair:
  My crystal boat will guard thee, till we reach that silver strand
  Where thou shalt reign in endless joy, the king of the Fairy-land![2]



CHAPTER V.

HOW THE IRISH PEOPLE LIVED AS CHRISTIANS.


It is not our business here to tell how the Irish were converted to
Christianity; for this has been already related in our Histories of
Ireland. Whether St. Patrick was born in Gaul or in Scotland, we know at
any rate that he brought with him to Ireland, to aid him in his great
work, a number of young Gauls and Britons whom he had ordained as priests.
But soon after his arrival he began to ordain natives also, whom he had
converted; so that the hard work of travelling through the country, and
preaching to the people, was for some time in the beginning done by
foreigners and Irishmen. But as time went on the missionaries were chiefly
native-born. St. Patrick loved the Irish people; and he was continually
praying that God would bestow favours on them. And his prayers were
answered; for, after the Apostolic times, there never were more devoted or
more successful missionaries than those who preached the Gospel in
Ireland, and there never were people who received the Faith more readily
than the Irish, or who practised it after their conversion with more piety
and earnestness.

An old Irish writer who lived about twelve hundred years ago tells us that
the saints of Ireland who lived, and worked, and died before his time were
of “Three Orders.” “The First Order of Catholic saints”--says this
writer--“were MOST HOLY: shining like the sun.” They were 350 in number,
all bishops, beginning with St. Patrick. For more than thirty years they
were led by their great master, with all his fiery and tireless energy;
and the preachers of this order continued for a little more than a
century. They devoted themselves entirely to the home mission--the
conversion of the Irish people--which gave them quite enough to do.

“The Second Order was of Catholic Priests”--continues the old
writer--“numbering 300, of whom a few were bishops. These were VERY HOLY,
and they shone like the moon.” They lasted for a little more than half a
century.

The priests of this Second Order were chiefly monastic clergy--that is to
say, monks--and during their continuance monasteries were founded
everywhere through Ireland. Though there were monks and monasteries here
from the time of St. Patrick, they began to spread much more rapidly
after the foundation of the great monastery of Clonard in Meath, by St.
Finnen or Finnian--one of the Second Order of saints--about the year 527.
It was the monks belonging to this Order, and their successors, who
preached the Gospel in foreign lands with such amazing success, as will be
told in Chapter VII.

The monks and students in these establishments led a busy and happy life;
for it was a rule that there should be no idleness. Everyone was to be
engaged at all available times in some useful work. Some tilled the land
around and belonging to the monastery--ploughing, digging, sowing,
reaping--and attended to the cattle; some worked as carpenters, tailors,
smiths, shoemakers, cooks, and so forth, for the use of the community.
Some were set apart to receive and attend to travellers and guests, who
were continually coming and going: to wash their feet, and prepare supper
and bed for them. Many were employed as scribes, to copy and ornament
manuscript books; while others made beautiful crosiers, brooches,
chalices, crosses, and other works of metallic art; and the most scholarly
members were selected to teach in the schools. Besides this, all had their
devotions to attend to, which were frequent and often long.

The Third Order of Irish saints consisted of about 100 priests, of whom a
few were bishops: “these were HOLY, and shone like the stars”; and they
lasted a little more than three-quarters of a century. They were all
hermits, living either singly or in monasteries in remote lonely places.
Even when they lived together in numbers they were still hermits, spending
their time in prayer and contemplation, each in his own little cell; and
they never met together, or had any communication with each other, except
at stated times, when all assembled in the little church for common
worship, or in the refectory for meals.

We know that there were nuns and convents in Ireland from St. Patrick’s
time, but they increased and multiplied, and flourished more than ever
during and after the time of the greatest nun of all--St. Brigit of
Kildare.

In the time of St. Patrick, and for long afterwards, the churches were
small, because the congregations were small; and they were mostly of wood,
though some were of stone. We have, in fact, the ruins of little
stone-and-mortar churches still remaining in many parts of the country,
built at various times during the four or five centuries after St.
Patrick. In the eleventh and following centuries, however, large and
grand churches were built, the ruins of which still remain all over the
country.

Near many of the monasteries the monks began to erect tall Round Towers in
the beginning of the ninth century, as a protection against the Danes.
They were built with several stories, each story lighted by one little
window, and reached by a ladder inside. The door was small, and was
usually ten or twelve feet from the ground. The moment word was brought
that a party of Danish marauders were approaching, the monks took refuge
in the tower with all their valuables and a good supply of large stones,
and barred the door and windows strongly on the inside, so that it was
impossible to get at them during the short time the robbers were able to
stay. In fact the Danes were generally afraid of their lives to approach
too close to these towers; for if one of them ventured near enough, a big
stone, dropped by one of the monks from a height of sixty or seventy feet,
was likely enough to come down right on his skull and make short work of
him. We have still remaining many of these old towers.

There was a spring well beside every monastery, either that, or a stream
of pure water. The founder never selected a site till he had first
ascertained that a well or a stream was near. These fountains served the
double purpose of baptising converts and of supplying the communities with
water. In most cases they were named after the founders, and retain their
names to this day. It has been already stated how the early missionaries
often took over the wells the pagans had worshipped as gods, and devoted
them to Christian uses.

We have now Holy Wells in every part of Ireland, and it is with good
reason we call them so, for they preserve the memory, and in most cases
the very names, of those noble old missionaries who used the crystal water
to baptise their converts. We ought to make it a point, so far as lies in
our power, to take care of these holy wells, and to keep them neat and
clean, and in all respects in a becoming condition; and also to preserve
their old names as our fathers handed them down to us. If there could be
such a thing as grief in heaven, an old Irish missionary would certainly
feel grieved to look down on the little well he loved, and used, and
blessed, now lying unnoticed and neglected.

St. Patrick used consecrated bells in celebrating the Divine Mysteries,
and in nearly all other religious ceremonies, and the custom has
descended through fifteen centuries to this day. The bells used by the
early saints were small handbells, made of iron dipped in melted bronze;
but three or four hundred years after St. Patrick’s time people began to
make them of a better material--bronze melted and cast in moulds. We are
told that St. Patrick left a little iron bell in every church he founded;
and, to supply the great number he required for this purpose, he kept in
his household three smiths whose sole business from morning till night was
to make iron bells. The very bell he himself used in his
ministrations--commonly called “The Bell of the Will”--may now be seen in
the National Museum in Dublin--the most venerable of all our early
Christian relics. Beside it in the same glass-case stands a beautiful and
costly shrine, made by an accomplished Irish artist about the year 1100,
to cover and protect it, by order and at the expense of Donall O’Loghlin,
king of Ireland.

It was usual for the founders of churches to plant trees round the
buildings. These “Sacred Groves,” as they were called, were subsequently
held in great veneration, and it was regarded as a desecration to cut down
one of the trees, or even to lop off a branch.



CHAPTER VI.

HOW IRELAND BECAME THE MOST LEARNED COUNTRY IN EUROPE.


In old pagan times, long before the arrival of St. Patrick, there were
schools in Ireland taught by druids. And when at last Christianity came,
and was spreading rapidly over the land, those old schools were still held
on; but they were no longer taught by druids, and they were no longer
pagan, for teachers and scholars were now all Christians.

But as soon as St. Patrick came, a new class of schools began to spring
up; for he and the other early missionaries founded monasteries everywhere
through the country, and in connexion with almost every monastery there
was a school. These were what are called monastic or ecclesiastical
schools, for they were mostly taught by monks; while the older schools,
being taught by laymen, were called lay schools.

In lay schools was taught what might be called the native learning--the
learning that had grown up in the country in the course of ages. It
consisted mainly of the following subjects:--To read and write the Irish
language; Irish grammar, and rules of poetical composition--a very
extensive and complicated subject; geography and history, especially the
topography and history of Ireland; and a knowledge of the poetry, and of
the historical and romantic tales of the country: while a great many of
the schools were for professions--special schools of law, of medicine, of
poetry, of history and antiquities, and so forth. In these last the
professional men were educated.

These lay schools, being now within the Christian communion, were not
abolished or discouraged in any way by St. Patrick or his successors. They
were simply let alone, to teach their own secular learning just as they
pleased. They continued on, and were to be found in every part of Ireland
for fourteen centuries after St. Patrick’s arrival, down to a period
within our own memory; but of course greatly changed as time went on. In
later times they were much more numerous in Munster than in the other
provinces; and they taught--and taught well--classics and mathematics; and
often both combined in the same school. I was myself educated in some of
those lay schools; and I remember with pleasure several of my old
teachers: rough and unpolished men most of them, but excellent, solid
scholars, and full of enthusiasm for learning--enthusiasm which they
communicated to their pupils. In some respects indeed they resembled the
rugged, earnest, scholarly Irishmen of old times, who travelled through
Europe to spread religion and learning, as described at pp. 54, 55,
farther on. But the famine of 1847 broke up those schools, and in a very
few years they nearly all disappeared.

But our business here is mainly with the early monastic schools, which
became so celebrated all over Europe. Before going farther it is well to
remark that these schools also continued, and increased and multiplied as
time went on. They held their ground successfully--as the lay schools
did--during the evil days of later ages, when determined attempts were
made, under the penal laws, to suppress them; and at the present day they
are working all over the country quite as vigorously as in days of yore.

To notice all the monastic schools of old that attained eminence would
demand more space than can be afforded here. So we must content ourselves
with mentioning the following, all of which were very illustrious in their
time:--Bangor (Co. Down), Lismore (Co. Waterford), Clonmacnoise, Armagh,
Kildare, Clonard (Meath), Clonfert (Galway), Durrow (King’s Co.),
Monasterboice (near Drogheda), Rosscarbery (Co. Cork), and Derry. Besides
these, at least twenty-five others, all eminent, are specially mentioned
in our old books. Most of these colleges were working, not in succession,
but all at the same time, from the sixth century downwards. When we bear
in mind that there were also, during the whole period, the lay schools,
which, though smaller, were far more numerous--scattered all over the
country--we shall have some idea of the universal love of learning that
existed in Ireland in those days, and of the general spread of education.
No other nation in Europe could boast of so many schools and colleges in
proportion to size and population.

Many of the monastic colleges had very large numbers of students. In
Clonard there were 3,000, all residing in and around the college; and
Bangor founded by St. Comgall, and Clonfert founded by St. Brendan the
Navigator, had each as many. And there were various smaller
numbers--2,000, 1,500, 1,000, 500--down to fifty.

The students were of all classes--rich and poor--from the sons of kings
and chiefs down to the sons of farmers, tradesmen, and labourers; young
laymen for general education, as well as ecclesiastical students for the
priesthood. All those who had the means paid their way in everything. But
there were some who were so poor that they could pay little or nothing:
and these ‘poor scholars’ (as they afterwards came to be called) received
teaching, books, and often food, all free. But most of even the poorest
did their best to pay something; and in this respect it is interesting to
compare the usages of those long past times with some features of the
college life of our own days. In some of the present American universities
there is an excellent custom which enables very poor students to support
themselves and pay their college fees. They wait on their richer comrades,
bring up the dishes, etc., from the kitchen for meals, and lay the tables:
and when the meal is over, they remove everything, wash up dishes and
plates, and put them all by in their proper places. In fact, they perform
most of the work expected from ordinary servants. For this they receive
food and some small payment, which renders them independent of charity.

And the pleasing feature of this arrangement is, that it is not attended
with any sense of humiliation or loss of self-respect. During study and
lecture hours these same young men, having put by aprons and napkins, and
donned their ordinary dress, are received and treated on terms of perfect
equality by those they have served, who take on no airs, and do not pose
as superiors, but mix with them in free and kindly intercourse as
fellow-students and comrades.

All this was anticipated in Ireland more than a thousand years ago; for a
similar custom existed in some of the old Irish colleges. The very poor
students often lived with some of their richer brethren, and acted as
their servants, for which they received food and other kinds of payment.
Many of these youths who served in this humble capacity subsequently
became great and learned men, as indeed we might expect, for boys of this
stamp are made of the best stuff; and some of them are now famed in our
records as eminent fathers of the ancient Irish Church.

The greatest number of the students lived in houses built by themselves,
or by hired workmen--some, mere huts, each for a single person; some,
large houses, for several: and all around the central college buildings
there were whole streets of these houses, often forming a good-sized town.

Where there were large numbers great care was taken that there should be
no confusion or disorder. The whole school was commonly divided into
sections, over each of which was placed a leader or master, whose orders
should be obeyed: and over the whole college there was one head-master or
principal, usually called a _Fer-leginn_, i.e., ‘Man of learning’: while
the abbot presided over all--monastery and college. The Fer-leginn was
always some distinguished man--of course a great scholar. He was generally
a monk, but sometimes a layman; for those good monks selected the best man
they could find, whether priest or layman.

I suppose those who are accustomed to the grand universities and colleges
of the present day, with their palatial buildings, would feel inclined to
laugh at the simple, rough-and-ready methods and appliances of the old
Irish colleges. There were no comfortable study rooms, well furnished with
desks, seats, and rostrums: no spacious lecture halls. The greater part of
the work, indeed, was carried on in the open air when the weather at all
permitted. At study time the students went just where they pleased, and
accommodated themselves as best they could. All round the college you
would see every flowery bank, every scented hedgerow, every green glade
and sunny hillock occupied with students, sitting or lying down, or pacing
thoughtfully, each with his precious manuscript book open before him, all
poring over the lesson assigned for next lecture, silent, attentive, and
earnest.[3]

Then the little handbell tinkled for some particular lecture, and the
special students for this hurried to their places, and seated themselves
as best they could--on chair, stool, form, stone, or bank, and opened
their books. These same books, too, were a motley collection--some large,
some small, some fresh from the scribe, some tattered and brown with age:
but all most carefully covered and preserved; for they were very
expensive. You now buy a good school copy of some classical author for,
say, half-a-crown: at that time it would probably cost what was equivalent
to £2 of our present money.

Then the master went over the text, translating and explaining it, and
whenever he thought it necessary questioned his pupils, to draw them out.
After this he had to stand the cross-fire of the students’ questions, who
asked him to explain all sorts of difficulties: for this was one of the
college regulations. There were no grammars, no dictionaries, no simple
introductory lesson books, such as we have now. The students had to go
straight at the Latin or Greek text, and where they failed to make sense,
the master stepped in with his help. And in this rugged and difficult
fashion they mastered the language.

Yet it was in rude institutions of this kind that were educated those men
whose names became renowned all over Europe, and who--for the period when
they lived--are now honoured as among the greatest scholars and
missionaries that the world ever saw.

The great Irish colleges were, in fact, universities in the full sense of
the word, that is to say, schools which taught the whole circle of
knowledge: they were, indeed, in a great measure the models on which our
present universities were formed. The Latin and Greek languages and
literatures were studied and taught with success. In science the Irish
scholars were famous for their knowledge of Geometry, Arithmetic,
Astronomy, Music, Geography, and so forth. And they were equally eminent
in sacred learning--Theology, Divinity, and the Holy Scriptures.

The schools proved their mettle by the scholars they educated and sent
forth: scholars who astonished all Europe in their day. Sedulius of the
fifth century (whose name is still represented by the family name Shiel),
an eminent divine, orator, and poet, travelled into France, Italy, Greece,
and Asia, and composed some beautiful Latin hymns, which are still used in
the services of the Church. ‘Fergil the Geometer’ went in 745 from his
monastery of Aghaboe in Queen’s County to France, where he became famous
for his deep scientific learning, and where he taught publicly--and
probably for the first time--that the earth is round, having people living
on the other side. John Scotus Erigena (‘John the Irish-born Scot’) of the
ninth century taught in Paris; he was the greatest Greek scholar of his
time, and was equally eminent in Theology. St. Columbanus of Bobbio (in
Italy), a Leinsterman, a pupil of the college of Bangor, proved himself,
while in France and Italy, a master of many kinds of learning, and was one
of the greatest, most fearless, and most successful of the Irish
missionaries on the Continent.

These men, and scores of others that we cannot find space for here, spread
the fame of their native country everywhere. It was no wonder that the
people of Great Britain and the Continent, when they met such scholars,
all from Ireland, came to the conclusion that the schools which educated
them were the best to be found anywhere. Accordingly, students came from
all parts of the known world, to place themselves under the masters of
these schools. From Germany, France, Italy, Egypt, came priests and
laymen, princes, chiefs, and peasant students--all eagerly seeking to
drink from the fountain of Irish learning. And let us bear in mind that in
those days it was a far more difficult, dangerous, and tedious undertaking
to travel to Ireland from the interior of the European Continent, than it
is now to go to Australia or China. But even in much greater numbers than
these came students from Great Britain. An English writer of that period,
who was jealous of the Irish schools and in very bad humour with his
countrymen for coming to them, is nevertheless forced to admit that
Englishmen came to Ireland “in fleetloads.” In our Histories of Ireland we
have read of the real Irish welcome they received--as recorded by the
Venerable Bede and by others--and how the Irish, not only taught them, but
gave them books and food for nothing at all! It was quite a common thing
that young Englishmen, after they had learned all that their own schools
were able to teach them, came to Ireland to finish their education.

The more the students crowded to the Irish schools, whether from Ireland
itself or from abroad, the more eagerly did the masters strive to meet the
demand, by studying more and more deeply the various branches of learning,
so as to equal or excel the scholars of other countries. Then Ireland
became the most learned country in Europe, so that it came at last to be
known everywhere as ‘The Island of Saints and Scholars.’



CHAPTER VII.

HOW IRISH MISSIONARIES AND SCHOLARS SPREAD RELIGION AND LEARNING IN
FOREIGN COUNTRIES.


Towards the end of the sixth century the great body of the Irish were
Christians, so that the holy men of Ireland were able to turn their
attention to the conversion of other people. Then arose an extraordinary
zeal for spreading religion and learning in foreign lands; and hundreds of
devoted and determined missionaries left our shores. There was ample field
for their noble ambition. For these were the Dark Ages, when the
civilisation and learning bequeathed by old Greece and Rome had been
almost wiped out of existence by the barbarous northern hordes who
overran Europe; and Christianity had not yet time to spread its softening
influence among them. Through the greater part of England and Scotland,
and over vast regions of the Continent, the teeming populations were
fierce and ignorant, and sunk in gross superstition and idolatry, or with
little or no religion at all.

To begin with the Irish missionary work in Great Britain. The people of
Northern and Western Scotland, who were solidly pagan till the sixth
century, were converted by St. Columkille and his monks from Iona, who
were all Irishmen; for Iona was an Irish monastic colony founded by St.
Columkille, a native of Tirconnell, now Donegal.

In the seven kingdoms of England--the Heptarchy--the Anglo-Saxons were the
ruling race, rude and stubborn, and greatly attached to their gloomy
northern pagan gods. We know that the kingdom of Kent was converted by the
Roman missionary St. Augustine; but Christianity made little headway
outside this till St. Aidan began his labours among the Northumbrian
Saxons. Aidan was an Irishman who entered the monastery of Iona, from
which he was sent to preach to the Northumbrians on the invitation of
their good king, Oswald. He founded the monastery of Lindisfarne, which
afterwards became so illustrious. He was its first abbot; and for thirty
years it was governed by him and by two other Irish abbots, Finan and
Colman, in succession. He and his companions were wonderfully successful,
so that the people of the large kingdom of Northumbria became Christians.
Not only in Northumberland but all over England we find at the present day
evidences of the active labours of the Irish missionaries in Great
Britain.

Whole crowds of ardent and learned Irishmen travelled on the Continent in
the sixth, seventh, and succeeding centuries, spreading Christianity and
secular knowledge everywhere among the people. On this point we have the
decisive testimony of an eminent French writer of the ninth century, Eric
of Auxerre, who himself witnessed what he records. In a letter written by
him to Charles the Bald, king of France, he says:--“What shall I say of
Ireland, who, despising the dangers of the deep, is migrating with almost
her whole train of philosophers to our coasts?” And other foreign
evidences of a like kind might be brought forward.

These men, on their first appearance on the Continent, caused much
surprise, they were so startlingly different from those preachers the
people had been accustomed to. They travelled on foot towards their
destination in small companies, generally of thirteen. They wore a coarse
outer woollen garment, in colour as it came from the fleece, and under
this a white tunic of finer stuff. The long hair behind flowed down on the
back: and the eyelids were painted or stained black. Each had a long stout
walking-stick: and slung from the shoulder a leathern bottle for water,
and a wallet containing his greatest treasure--a book or two and some
relics. They spoke a strange language among themselves, used Latin to
those who understood it, and made use of an interpreter when preaching,
until they had learned the language of the place.

Few people have any idea of the trials and dangers they encountered. Most
of them were persons in good position, who might have lived in plenty and
comfort at home. They knew well, when setting out, that they were leaving
country and friends probably for ever; for of those that went, very few
returned. Once on the Continent, they had to make their way, poor and
friendless, through people whose language they did not understand, and who
were in many places ten times more rude and dangerous in those ages than
the inhabitants of these islands: and we know as a matter of history, that
many were killed on the way. But these stout-hearted pilgrims were
prepared for all this, and looking only to the service of their Master,
never flinched. They were confident, cheerful, and self-helpful, faced
privation with indifference, caring nothing for luxuries; and when other
provisions failed them, they gathered wild fruit, trapped animals, and
fished, with great dexterity and with any sort of next-to-hand rude
appliances. They were somewhat rough in outward appearance: but beneath
all that they had solid sense and much learning. Their simple ways, their
unmistakable piety, and their intense earnestness in the cause of religion
caught the people everywhere, so that they made converts in crowds.

A great French writer, Montalembert, speaks of the Irish of those days as
having a “Passion for pilgrimage and preaching,” and as feeling “under a
stern necessity of spreading themselves abroad to combat paganism, and
carry knowledge and faith afar.” They were to be found everywhere through
Europe, even as far as Iceland and the Faroe and Shetland Islands. Europe
was too small for their missionary enterprise. Many were to be found in
Egypt; and as early as the seventh century, three learned Irish monks
found their way to Carthage, where they laboured for a long time and with
great success.

Wherever they went they made pilgrimages to holy places--places sanctified
by memories of early saints--and whenever they found it practicable they
were sure to make their way to Rome, to visit the shrines of the apostles,
and obtain the blessing of the Pope.

The Irish “passion for pilgrimage and preaching” never died out: it is a
characteristic of the race. This great missionary emigration to foreign
lands has continued in a measure down to our own day: for it may be safely
asserted that no other missionaries are playing so general and successful
a part in the conversion of the pagan people all over the world, and in
keeping alight the lamp of religion among Christians, as those of Ireland.

Irishmen were equally active in spreading secular knowledge. Indeed the
two functions were generally combined; for it was quite common to find a
man a successful missionary, while at the same time acting as professor in
a college, or as head of some great seminary for general education. Irish
professors and teachers were in those times held in such estimation that
they were employed in most of the schools and colleges of Great Britain,
France, Germany, and Italy. The revival of learning on the Continent was
indeed due in no small degree to those Irish missionaries. It was enough
that the candidate for an appointment came from Ireland: he needed no
other recommendation.

When learning had declined in England in the ninth and tenth centuries,
owing to the devastations of the Danes, it was chiefly by Irish teachers
it was kept alive and restored. In Glastonbury especially, they taught
with great success. We are told by English writers that “they were skilled
in every department of learning sacred and profane”; and that under them
were educated many young English nobles, sent to Glastonbury with that
object. Among these students the most distinguished was St. Dunstan, who,
according to all his biographers, received his education, both Scriptural
and secular, from Irish masters there.

As for the numerous Continental schools and colleges in which Irishmen
figured either as principals or professors, it would be impossible, with
our limited space, to notice them here. A few have been glanced at in the
last chapter; and I will finish this short narrative by relating the odd
manner in which two distinguished Irishmen, brothers, named Clement and
Albinus,[4] began their career on the Continent.

One of the historians of the reign of Charlemagne, who wrote in the ninth
century, has left us the following account of these two scholars:--When
the illustrious Charles began to reign alone in the western parts of the
world, and literature was almost forgotten, it happened that two Scots
from Ireland came over with some British merchants to the shores of
France, men incomparably skilled in human learning and in the Holy
Scriptures. Observing how the merchants exhibited and drew attention to
their wares, they acted in a similar fashion to force themselves into
notice like the others. They went through the market-place among the
crowds, and cried out to them:--“If there be any who want wisdom (_i.e._,
learning), let them come to us, for we have it to sell.” This they
repeated as they went from place to place, so that the people wondered
very much; and some thought them to be nothing more than persons half
crazed.

Strange rumours regarding them went round, and at length came to the ears
of King Charles; on which he sent for the brothers, and had them brought
to his presence. He questioned them closely, using the Latin language, and
asked them whether it was really the case that they had learning; and they
replied--in the same language--that they had, and were ready, in the name
of God, to communicate it to those who sought it with worthy intentions.
Then the king asked what payment they would expect, and they replied:--“We
require proper houses and accommodation, pupils with ingenious minds and
really anxious to learn; and, as we are in a foreign country where we
cannot conveniently work for our bread, we shall require food and raiment:
we want nothing more.”

Now at this very time King Charles was using his best efforts to restore
learning, by opening schools throughout his dominions, but found it hard
to procure a sufficient supply of qualified teachers. And as he perceived
that these brothers were evidently men of real learning, and of a superior
cast in every way, he joyfully accepted their proposals. Having kept them
for some time on a visit in his palace, he finally opened a great school
in some part of France--probably Paris--for the education of boys of all
ranks of society, not only for the sons of the highest nobles, but also
for those of the middle and low classes, at the head of which he placed
Clement. He also directed that all the scholars should be provided with
food and suitable habitations: it was in fact a great free
boarding-school, founded and maintained at the expense of the king. As for
Albinus, he sent him to Italy, with directions that he should be placed at
the head of the important school of the monastery of St. Augustine at
Pavia. And these schools are now remembered in history as two great and
successful centres of learning belonging to those ages.



CHAPTER VIII.

HOW THE ANCIENT IRISH WROTE DOWN ALL THEIR LITERATURE, AND HOW BOOKS
INCREASED AND MULTIPLIED.


Printing was not invented till the fifteenth century, and before that time
all books had of course to be written by hand.

According to our native records the art of writing was known to the pagan
Irish, and the druids had books on law and other subjects, long before
the time of St. Patrick. Besides these home evidences, which are so
numerous and strong as hardly to admit of dispute, we have the testimony
of a learned foreigner, which is quite decisive on the point. A Christian
philosopher of the fourth century of our era, named Ethicus of Istria,
travelled over the three continents, and has left a description of his
wanderings, in what he calls a ‘Cosmography’ of the World. He visited
Ireland more than a hundred years before the arrival of St. Patrick; and
he states that he found there many books, and that he remained for some
time in the country examining them. So far then as Ethicus records the
existence of Irish books in the fourth century, he merely corroborates our
own native accounts.

The pagan Irish books were, of course, written in the Irish language; but
as to the nature or shapes of the letters, or the form of the writing, or
how it reached Ireland, on these points we have no information, for none
of the old books remain. The letters used in these books could hardly have
been what are known as Ogham characters, for these are too cumbrous for
long passages.

Ogham was a species of writing, the letters of which were formed by
combinations of short lines and points, on and at both sides of a middle
or stem line. Nearly all the Oghams hitherto found are sepulchral
inscriptions. Great numbers of monumental stones are preserved with Ogham
inscriptions cut on them, of which most have been deciphered, either
partially or completely. They are in a very antique form of the Irish
language; and while many were engraved in far distant pagan ages, others
belong to Christian times.

But whatever characters the Irish may have used in times of paganism, they
learned the Roman letters from the early Roman missionaries, and adopted
them in writing their own language during and after the time of St.
Patrick: which are still retained in modern Irish. These same letters,
moreover, were brought to Great Britain by the early Irish missionaries
already spoken of (p. 52), from whom the Anglo-Saxons learned them; so
that England received her first knowledge of the letters of the
alphabet--as she received most of her Christianity--from Ireland. Formerly
it was the fashion to call those letters Anglo-Saxon: but now people know
better. Our present printed characters--the very characters now under the
reader’s eye--were ultimately developed from those old Irish-Roman
letters.

After the time of St. Patrick, as everything seems to have been written
down that was considered worth preserving, Manuscripts accumulated in the
course of time, which were kept in monasteries and in the houses of
professors of learning: many also in the libraries of private persons. The
most general material used for writing on was vellum or parchment, made
from the skins of sheep, goats, or calves. To copy a book was justly
considered a very meritorious work, and in the highest degree so if it was
a part of the Holy Scriptures, or of any other book on sacred or
devotional subjects. Scribes or copyists were therefore much honoured. The
handwriting of these old documents is remarkable for its beauty, its
plainness, and its perfect uniformity; each scribe, however, having his
own characteristic form and style.

Sometimes the scribes wrote down what had never been written before, that
is, matters composed at the time, or preserved in memory; but more
commonly they copied from other volumes. If an old book began to be worn,
ragged, or dim with age, so as to be hard to make out and read, some
scribe was sure to copy it, so as to have a new book easy to read and well
bound up. Most of the books written out in this manner related to Ireland,
as will be described presently; and the language of these was almost
always Irish; except in copies of the Roman classics or of the Scriptures,
where Latin was used.

Books abounded in Ireland when the Danes first made their appearance,
about the beginning of the ninth century; so that the old Irish writers
often speak with pride of “the hosts of the books of Erin.” But with the
first Danish arrivals began the woeful destruction of manuscripts, the
records of ancient learning. The animosity of the barbarians was specially
directed against books, monasteries, and monuments of religion: and all
the manuscripts they could lay hold on they either burned or
“drowned”--_i.e._, flung them into the nearest lake or river. Next came
the Anglo-Norman Invasion, which was quite as destructive of native books,
learning, and art as the Danish inroads, or more so; and most of the old
volumes that survived were scattered and lost.

Notwithstanding all this havoc and wreck, we have still preserved a large
number of old Irish books. The ornamented and illuminated copies of the
Scriptures are described in the chapter on Art. We have also many volumes
of Miscellaneous Literature in which are written compositions of all
kinds, both prose and poetry, copied from older books, and written in, one
after another, till the volume was filled. Of all these old books of
mixed compositions, the largest that remains to us is the Book of
Leinster, which is kept in Trinity College, Dublin. It is an immense
volume, all in the Irish language, written more than 750 years ago; and
many of the pages are now almost black with age and very hard to make out.
It contains a great number of pieces, some in prose and some in verse, and
nearly all of them about Ireland:--histories, accounts of battles and
sieges, lives and adventures of great men, with many tales and stories of
things that happened in this country in far distant ages.

The Book of the Dun Cow is preserved in the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin.
It is fifty years older than the Book of Leinster, but not so large; and
it contains also a great number of tales, adventures, and histories, all
relating to Ireland, and all in the Irish language.

Two other great Irish books kept in Dublin are the Yellow Book of Lecan
[Leckan] and the Book of Ballymote. These contain much the same kind of
matter as the Book of Leinster--with pieces mostly different however--but
they are not nearly so old. The Speckled Book, which is also in Dublin, is
nearly as large as the Book of Leinster, but not so old. It is mostly on
religious matters, and contains a great number of Lives of saints, hymns,
sermons, portions of the Scriptures, and other such pieces. All these
books are written with the greatest care, and in most beautiful
penmanship.

The five old books described above have been lately printed, in such a way
that the print resembles exactly the writing of the old books themselves.
The printed volumes are now to be found in libraries in several parts of
Ireland, as well as in England and on the Continent; so that those
desirous of studying them need not come to Dublin, as people had to do
formerly. Another grand old book preserved in Dublin is the Book of Lecan.
Besides these there are vast numbers of Irish manuscript books in Dublin
and elsewhere, both vellum and paper, having no special names, all
containing important and interesting pieces. There are also numerous books
of law, of medicine, of science, genealogies, Lives of saints, sermons,
and so forth, which on account of limited space cannot be described here.

Many people are now eagerly studying these books; and men often come to
Ireland from France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Russia, and other
countries, in order to learn the Irish language so as to be able to read
them. But this requires much study, even from those who know the Irish of
the present day; for the language of these books is old and difficult.



CHAPTER IX.

HOW THE IRISH SCHOLARS COMPILED THEIR ANNALS.


Among the various classes of persons who devoted themselves to Literature
in ancient Ireland, there were special Annalists, who made it their
business to record, with the utmost accuracy, all remarkable events simply
and briefly, year by year. The extreme care they took that their
statements should be truthful is shown by the manner in which they
compiled their books. As a general rule they admitted nothing into their
records except either what occurred during their lifetime, and which may
be said to have come under their own personal knowledge, or what they
found recorded in the compilations of previous annalists, who had
themselves followed the same plan. These men took nothing on hearsay: and
in this manner successive annalists carried on a continued chronicle from
age to age.

We have still preserved to us many books of native Annals. They deal with
the affairs of Ireland--generally but not exclusively. Many of them record
events occurring in other parts of the world; and it was a common practice
to begin the work with a brief general history, after which the annalist
takes up the affairs of Ireland.

There are many tests which prove the remarkable accuracy of the Irish
Annals. For instance, their records of such occurrences as eclipses,
comets, tides, and so forth, are invariably found to be correct. Indeed
they could not be otherwise, for the good reason that the faithful
chronicler noted down the events, each at the very time of its occurrence.
If he waited for some future time, or noted down some event that had
occurred years before, taking hearsay evidence, or calculating the time
backwards as best he could, the chances were that there would be an error
in the date.

A remarkable example occurs in the record of an eclipse of the sun of A.D.
664. At the present day astronomers can calculate to a minute the time of
an eclipse occurring in that or any other year. But it was otherwise
twelve centuries ago. Then the rules of calculation were not quite
correct, so that a person calculating backwards was pretty sure to be in
error as to the exact time. The great English historian and scholar, the
Venerable Bede, who wrote fifty or sixty years after the above-mentioned
eclipse, was aware of the year (664), but had to calculate the day and the
hour. The rule then in vogue led him astray, and accordingly his record of
the date--the 3rd May--is two days wrong. In the Annals of Ulster the
correct date--1st May, 664--is given, and even the very hour. This shows
quite clearly that the event had been recorded by some Irish chronicler,
who actually saw it and noted it down on the spot. We find numbers of
records of this kind in our Annals, which, according to the accurate tests
we are now able to apply, are all found to be correct.

Another remarkable instance of a similar kind deserves to be mentioned
here. We have an old Irish book called “The War of the Irish with the
Danes,” written early in the eleventh century, soon after the battle of
Clontarf, in which that great battle is very fully described. In the
course of his narrative the writer makes these very specific
statements:--that the battle was fought on Good Friday, the 23rd April,
1014; that it commenced at sunrise _when the tide was full in_, and that
it lasted the whole day till the tide was again at flood about the same
hour in the evening, when the foreigners were routed. Moreover, the old
historian puts in the time of high water, morning and afternoon, merely to
explain why there was such terrible slaughter of the Danes in the evening;
for on account of the full tide they were not able to reach their ships,
which lay some distance out in the bay, whereas if it had been low water
they might have waded out to them. Beyond that he was not in the least
concerned about the time of high tide.

The tide comes in at any particular point of the coast about every 12
hours 25 minutes, and accordingly the hour changes from day to day, so
that there might be a high tide at any hour of the twenty-four: but
astronomers can now calculate the exact time of high tide for any day of
the month at a particular place in any year, no matter how far back. Now,
the question is, was the tide really at its height on the Clontarf shore
at sunrise on that fatal morning?

Forty years ago, the Rev. Dr. Todd, who was then engaged in translating
the old book mentioned above, in order to test the chronicler’s accuracy,
put this question to the Rev. Dr. Haughton, a great science scholar, of
Trinity College, Dublin:--At what time was there high tide in Dublin Bay
on the 23rd April, 1014? After a laborious calculation, Dr. Haughton found
that the tide was at its height that morning at half-past five o’clock,
just as the sun was coming over the horizon, and that the evening tide was
in at fifty-five minutes past five: a striking confirmation of the truth
of this part of the narrative. It shows, too, that the account was written
by or taken down from an eye-witness of the battle. Dr. Haughton’s
calculation--every figure--may now be seen in Dr. Todd’s published book.

Little did the old annalist think, when penning his simple record, that
after lying by unnoticed and forgotten on some obscure bookshelf for eight
centuries, it was destined to be at last brought out under the broad light
of science, and its accuracy fully tested and established.

There are several other ways of testing the truth of our annals. One is by
comparing them with the testimony of foreign writers of good standing.
Events occurring in Ireland in those early ages are not often mentioned by
British or Continental writers. Indeed they knew very little about
Ireland, which was, in those times, especially as regards the Continent, a
very remote place. But whenever they do notice Irish affairs, it may be
said that they are always in agreement with the native records.

In our Irish books we find accounts of events or customs, which some
people--not knowing better--would be inclined to pronounce fabulous, but
which we find recorded as sober history by certain great English and
Continental historians. The colonisation of Scotland from Ireland, for
instance, which was formerly doubted by many, is fully confirmed by the
Venerable Bede. And to take another instance from the battle of
Clontarf:--All the Irish chronicles state that a general rout of the Danes
took place in the evening, and that there was an awful slaughter of them,
for they were cut off from their fortress by the river Liffey, and from
their ships by the high tide; while the infuriated Irish assailed them,
front, flank, and rear. Now in the description of the battle by a Danish
writer--the best possible authority in the case, as he had good reason to
know what happened--there is a full confirmation of this. His record is
simple and plain:--“Then flight broke out throughout all the Danish host.”

The more the ancient historical records of Ireland are examined and
tested, the more their truthfulness is made manifest. Their uniform
agreement among themselves, and their accuracy, as tried by various tests,
have drawn forth the acknowledgments of the greatest Irish scholars and
archæologists that ever lived.

The existing books of Irish Annals will be found described in our
Histories of Ireland, and more fully in the two Social Histories of
Ancient Ireland. Most of them have been published with translations. Here
we must content ourselves with mentioning one, the Annals of the Four
Masters, the most important of all. These were compiled in the Franciscan
monastery of Donegal, by three of the O’Clerys, and by Ferfesa O’Mulconry,
who are now commonly known as the ‘Four Masters.’ They began in 1632, and
completed the work in 1636. The Annals of the Four Masters was translated
with most elaborate and learned annotations by Dr. John O’Donovan; and it
was published--Irish text, translation, and notes--in seven large volumes.

The _Dinnsenchus_ [Din-shannahus] is a treatise giving the history and
derivations of the names of remarkable hills, caves, raths, lakes, rivers,
fords, and so forth. Another corresponding treatise for the names of noted
Irish historical persons is called the _Cóir Anmann_, meaning ‘fitness of
names.’ Both have been translated and published.



CHAPTER X.

HOW THE IRISH DERIVED AMUSEMENT AND INSTRUCTION FROM HISTORICAL AND
ROMANTIC TALES.


From the earliest date, the Irish people, like those of other countries,
had Stories, which, before the introduction of the art of writing, were
transmitted orally, and modified, improved, and enlarged as time went on,
by successive _shanachies_, or ‘storytellers.’ They began to be written
down when writing became general: and it has been shown by scholars that
the main tales assumed their present forms in the seventh, eighth, and
ninth centuries; while the originals from which they sprang were much
older. Once they began to be written down, a great body of romantic and
historical written literature rapidly accumulated, consisting chiefly of
prose tales. They are contained in our old manuscripts, from the Book of
the Dun Cow downwards.

The chief use of popular tales all the world over was--and is--to amuse.
The storyteller recited the narrative for his audience, who listened
because it gave them pleasure. But in Ireland the native stories were
turned to another important use:--they were made to help in educating the
people in the manner explained farther on. Besides this use a large part
of the History of Ireland is derived from the historic tales; and it is
proper to remark here that the early histories of England, France,
Germany, and other countries, as we find them now presented to us by the
best and most reliable modern authors, are largely derived from similar
sources.

The construction and arrangement of the tales were carefully studied by
the Irish literary men of the olden time, and not more than their
importance deserved. They were arranged in seventeen classes or groups,
and in each group there were a number of individual stories. This grouping
was a great help to the storyteller, who had to store up in his memory a
large number of tales: for by having them in this manner, sorted as it
were in parcels, he was enabled to call them up all the more readily--to
put his hand on them, so to say--when he wanted them. ‘Voyages,’ for
instance, formed one group, which included “The Voyage of Maeldune,” “The
Voyage of St. Brendan,” “The Voyage of the Sons of O’Corra,” and many
others. Another was ‘Tragedies,’ under which came “The Fate of the
Children of Lir,” “The Fate of the Sons of Usna,” etc., etc. There were
‘Military Expeditions,’ ‘Courtships,’ ‘Cattle-raids,’ ‘Sieges,’ and so on,
to the number of seventeen, each group with its own parcel of stories.

We have in our old books stories belonging to every one of these classes.
The whole number now existing in manuscripts is close on 600: of which
about 150 have been published and translated. But outside these, great
numbers have been lost: destroyed during the Danish and Anglo-Norman wars.

Most of the Irish tales fall under four main cycles or periods of history
and legend, which, in all the Irish poetical and romantic literature, were
kept quite distinct.

_First_:--The Mythological Period, the stories of which are concerned with
the mythical colonies preceding the Milesians, especially the Dedannans.
The heroes of the tales belonging to this cycle, who are assigned to
periods long before the Christian era, are gods, namely, the gods of the
pagan Irish.

_Second_:--The Period of Concobar mac Nessa and his Red Branch Knights,
who flourished in the first century. These Red Branch Knights were a sort
of heroic militia, belonging to Ulster, mighty men all, who came every
year to the palace of Emain to be trained in military science and feats
of arms, residing for the time in a separate palace called Creeveroe or
the Red Branch. Their greatest commander was Cuculainn, a demigod, the
mightiest of all the Irish heroes of antiquity, whose residence was
Dundalgan, now called the Fort of Castletown, near Dundalk. Others of
these great heroes were Conall Kernagh, Laery the Victorious, Keltar of
the Battles, Fergus mac Roy, and the three Sons of Usna--Naisi, Ainnle,
and Ardan. They were in the service of Concobar or Conor mac Nessa, king
of Ulster, who feasted the leading heroes every day in his own palace.

_Third_:--The Period of the Fena of Erin, belonging to a time two
centuries later than the stories of the Red Branch. The Fena of Erin, who
flourished in the time of King Cormac mac Art, in the third century, were
a body of militia kept for the defence of the throne, very like the Red
Branch Knights. Their most celebrated leader was King Cormac’s son-in-law,
Finn, the son of Cumal--or Finn mac Coole, as he is commonly called--who
of all the ancient heroes of Ireland is at the present day best remembered
in tradition. We have in our old manuscripts many beautiful stories of
these Fena, like those of the Red Branch Knights.

_Fourth_:--Stories founded on events that happened after the dispersal of
the Fena (in the end of the third century). Many fine stories--nearly all
of them more or less historical--belong to this Period.

The stories of the Red Branch Knights form the finest part of our ancient
Romantic Literature. The most celebrated of all these is the
Táin-bo-Quelnĕ, the epic or main heroic story of Ireland. It relates how
Maive, queen of Connaught, who resided in her palace of Croghan, set out
with her army for Ulster on a plundering expedition, attended by all the
great heroes of Connaught. The invading army entered that part of Ulster
called Quelna or Cooley, the territory of the hero Cuculainn, the north
part of the present county Louth, including the Carlingford peninsula. At
this time the Ulstermen were under a spell of feebleness, all but
Cuculainn, who had to defend single-handed the several fords and passes,
in a series of single combats, against Maive’s best champions. She
succeeded in this first raid, notwithstanding Cuculainn’s heroic defence,
and brought away a great brown bull--which was the chief motive of the
expedition--with flocks and herds beyond number. At length, the Ulstermen,
having been freed from the spell, pursued the raiders, and attacked and
routed the Connaught army. The battles, single combats, and other
incidents of this war, form the subject of the Táin, which consists of one
main story, with about thirty shorter tales grouped round it.

Of the Cycle of Finn and the Fena of Erin we have a vast collection of
stories. In these we read about Finn himself and his mighty exploits;
about Ossian his son, the renowned hero-poet; about Oscar the brave and
gentle, the son of Ossian; about Dermot O’Dyna, brave, honourable,
generous, and self-denying, perhaps the finest hero of any literature; and
many others. The Tales of the Fena, though not so old as those of the Red
Branch Knights, are still of great antiquity.

Some of the Irish tales are historical, _i.e._, founded on historical
events--history embellished with some fiction; while others are altogether
fictitious--creations of the imagination, but always woven round
historical personages. From this great body of stories it would be easy to
select a large number, powerful in conception and execution, very
beautiful, high and dignified in tone and feeling, many of them worthy to
rank with the best literature of their kind in any language. The stories
of the Sons of Usna,[5] the Children of Lir,[6] the Fingal Ronain, the
Voyage of Maeldune,[6] The Voyage of the Sons of O’Corra,[6] Da Derga’s
Hostel, The Pursuit of Dermot and Grania,[6] the Boroma, and the Fairy
Palace of the Quicken Trees[6]--all of which have been published with
translations--are only a few instances in point. And it would be easy to
name many others if our space permitted.

On the score of morality and purity the Irish tales can compare favourably
with the corresponding literature of other countries; and they are much
freer from objectionable matter than the works of many of those early
English and Continental authors which are now regarded as classics. Of one
large collection of Irish tales, the great Irish scholar Dr. Whitley
Stokes, a Dublin man, says:--“The tales are generally told with sobriety
and directness: they evince genuine feeling for natural beauty, a passion
for music, a moral purity, singular in a mediæval collection of stories, a
noble love of manliness and honour.” On the Irish Tales in general Dr.
Kuno Meyer, a German, one of the greatest living Celtic scholars, justly
remarks:--“The literature of no nation is free from occasional grossness;
and considering the great antiquity of Irish literature, and the
primitive life which it reflects, what will strike an impartial observer
most is not its license or coarseness, but rather the purity, loftiness,
and tenderness which pervade it.”

The tales were brought into direct touch with the people, not by
reading--for there were few books outside libraries, and few people were
able to read them--but by Recitation: and the Irish of all classes, like
the Greeks, were excessively fond of hearing tales and poetry recited.
There were professional shanachies and poets whose duty it was to know by
heart numerous old tales, poems, and historical pieces, and to recite them
at festive gatherings for the entertainment of the chiefs and their
guests: and every intelligent person was supposed to know a reasonable
number of them by heart, so as to be always ready to take a part in
amusing and instructing his company.

The tales of those times correspond with the novels and historical
romances of our own day, and served a purpose somewhat similar. Indeed
they served a much higher purpose than the generality of our novels; for
in conjunction with poetry they were the chief agency in
education--education in the best sense of the word--a real healthful
informing exercise for the intellect. They conveyed a knowledge of
history and geography, and they inculcated truthfulness, manliness, help
for the weak, and all that was noble and dignified in thought, word, and
action. Along with this, the greater part of the history, tradition,
biography, and topography of the country, as well as history and geography
in general, was thrown into the form of verse and tales, so that the
person who knew a large number of them was well educated, according to
what was required in those times. Moreover, this education was universal;
for, though few could read, the knowledge and recitation of poetry and
stories reached the whole body of the people. This ancient institution of
story-telling held its ground both in Ireland and Scotland down to a
period within living memory.



CHAPTER XI.

HOW THE ANCIENT IRISH EXCELLED IN MUSIC.


From the very earliest ages Irish musicians were celebrated for their
skill, not only in their own country but all over Europe. Our native
literature, whether referring to pagan or Christian times, is full of
references to music and to skilful musicians, who are always spoken of in
terms of the utmost respect.

Everywhere through the Records we find evidences that the ancient Irish,
both high and low, were passionately fond of music. It was mixed up with
their daily home-life, and formed part of their amusements, meetings, and
celebrations of every kind. In the religious tales music is always one of
the delights of heaven; and a chief function of the angels who attend on
God is to chant music of ineffable sweetness to Him, which they generally
do in the shape of beautiful white birds. A good example of the people’s
intense fondness for music is found in an old Irish religious poem, in
which the hard lot of Adam and Eve for a whole year after their expulsion
from Paradise is described, when they were--as the poem expresses
it--“without proper food, fire, house, _music_, or raiment.” Here music is
put among the necessaries of life, so that it was a misery to be without
it.

In the early ages of the Church many of the Irish ecclesiastics took
delight in playing on the harp; and in order to indulge in this innocent
and refining taste they were wont to bring with them, on their missionary
journeys, a small portable harp, with which they beguiled many a weary
hour after their hard work.

In very early times Irish professors of music were as eagerly sought after
on the Continent as those of literature and general learning, so that they
were sometimes placed at the head of great music-schools. At a later time
it was quite common among the Welsh bards to come over to Ireland to
receive instruction from the Irish harpers. In the eleventh century one of
the Welsh kings, Griffith ap Conan, brought over to Wales a number of
skilled Irish musicians, who, in conference with the native Welsh bards,
carried out some great improvements in Welsh music. Ireland was long the
school for Scottish harpers also, who regularly came over, like those of
Wales, to finish their musical education--a practice which continued down
to about 150 years ago.

Giraldus Cambrensis, a Welshman, who visited Ireland in 1185, though very
much prejudiced against the Irish, says that Irish harpers were
incomparably more skilful than those of any other nation he had ever heard
play. From that period, in spite of wars and troubles, music continued to
be cultivated, and there was an unbroken succession of great professional
harpers, till the end of the eighteenth century, when, for want of
encouragement in the miserable condition of the country under the penal
laws, the race died out.

The Harp is mentioned in the earliest Irish literature: it is constantly
mixed up with our oldest legends; and it was in use from the remotest
pagan times. The old Irish harps were of a medium size, or rather small,
the average height being about thirty inches: and some were not much more
than half that height. They had strings of brass wire which were tuned by
a key, not very different from the present tuning-key. Irish harpers
always played with the fingers or with the finger-nails.

The Irish had a small stringed instrument called a Timpan, which had only
a few strings. It had a body like a flat drum, to which at one side was
attached a short neck: the strings were stretched across the flat face of
the drum and along the neck: and were tuned and regulated by pins or keys
and a bridge. It was played with a bow or with the finger-nail, or by both
together, while the notes were regulated in pitch--or ‘stopped’ as
musicians say--with the fingers of the left hand, like those of a fiddle
or guitar. This little instrument was a great favourite, and is constantly
mentioned in Irish literature.

Harpers and timpanists were honoured in Ireland beyond all other
musicians; and their rights and privileges were even laid down in the law.
Kings had always harpers in their service, who resided in the palaces and
were well paid for their services.

The harp and timpan were the chief instruments of the higher classes, many
of whom played them as an accomplishment, as people now play the piano and
guitar. But the bagpipe was the great favourite of the common people. The
form in use was what we now call the Highland or Scotch pipes--slung from
the shoulder: the bag inflated by the mouth. This form of pipes took its
rise in Ireland: and it was brought to Scotland in early ages by those
Irish colonists already spoken of (page 11). There is another and a better
kind of bagpipes, now common in Ireland, resting on the lap when in use,
and having the bag inflated by a bellows: but this is a late invention.

The old Irish had also Whistles and Flageolets, with holes for the fingers
and blown by the mouth, much like those of the present day. Some
flageolets were double, and some even triple, _i.e._, with two, or with
three, pipes, sounded by a single mouthpiece, and having holes which were
all stopped by the fingers. On many of the great stone crosses are
sculptured harp-players and pipe-players, from which we learn a great deal
about the shapes and sizes of the several instruments.

The Irish had curved bronze Trumpets and Horns of various shapes and
sizes, which, judging from the numbers found buried in clay and bogs, must
have been in very general use. In the National Museum in Dublin is a
collection of twenty-six ancient trumpets, varying in length from 8 feet
down to 18 inches. The larger ones are of most admirable workmanship,
formed by hammering; curved, jointed, ornamented, and riveted with
extraordinary skill and perfection of finish.

Among the household of every king and chief there was a band of
trumpeters--as there were harpers--who were assigned their proper places
at feasts and meetings. Trumpets were used for various purposes:--in war;
in hunting; for signals during meetings and banquets; as a mark of honour
on the arrival of distinguished visitors; and such like. For war purposes,
trumpeters had different calls for directing movements--for battle, for
unyoking, for marching, for halting, for retiring to sleep, for going into
council, and so forth.

The ancient Irish were very fond of a _Craebh ciuil_ [crave-cule], or
‘musical branch,’ a little branch on which were suspended a number of
diminutive bells, which produced a sweet tinkling when shaken: a custom
found also in early times on the Continent. The musical branch figures
much in Irish romantic literature.

The music of ancient Ireland consisted wholly of short airs, each with two
strains or parts--seldom more. But these, though simple in comparison with
modern music, were constructed with such exquisite art that of a large
proportion of them it may be truly said no modern composer can produce
airs of a similar kind to equal them.

The Irish musicians had various ‘_Styles_,’ three of which are very often
mentioned in tales and other ancient Irish writings: of these, numerous
specimens have come down to the present day. The style they called
‘Mirth-music’ (_Ganntree_) consisted of lively airs, which excited to
cheerfulness, mirthfulness, and laughter. These are represented by our
present dance tunes, such as jigs, reels, hornpipes, and other such
spirited pieces, which are known so well in every part of Ireland. The
‘Sorrow-music’ (_Goltree_) was slow and sad, and was always sung on the
occasion of a death. We have many airs belonging to this style, which are
now commonly called _Keens_, i.e., laments, or dirges. The ‘Sleep-music’
(_Suantree_) was intended to produce sleep; and the tunes belonging to
this style were plaintive and soothing. Such airs are now known as
lullabies, or nurse-tunes, or cradle-songs, of which numerous examples are
preserved in collections of Irish music. They were usually sung to put
children to sleep. Though there are many tunes belonging to these three
classes, they form only a small part of the great body of Irish music.

Music--as already remarked--entered into many of the daily occupations of
the people. There were special spinning-wheel songs, which the women sang,
with words, in chorus or in dialogue, when employed in spinning. At
milking-time the girls were in the habit of chanting a particular sort of
air, in a low gentle voice. These Milking-songs were slow and plaintive,
something like the nurse-tunes, and had the effect of soothing the cows
and of making them submit more gently to be milked. This practice was
common down to fifty or sixty years ago; and I well remember seeing cows
grow restless when the song was interrupted, and become again quiet and
placid when it was resumed. The same custom was common in the Highlands of
Scotland. While ploughmen were at their work they whistled a sweet, slow,
and sad strain, which had as powerful an effect in soothing the horses at
their hard labour as the milking-songs had on the cows: and these
Plough-whistles also were quite usual till about half a century ago.

Special airs and songs were used during working time by smiths, by
weavers, and by boatmen. There were, besides, hymn-tunes; and young people
had simple airs for all sorts of games and sports. In most cases words
suitable to the several occasions were sung with lullabies, laments, and
occupation-tunes. Examples of all the preceding classes of melodies will
be found in the collections of Irish airs by Bunting, Petrie, and Joyce.

The Irish had numerous war-marches, which the pipers played at the head of
the clansmen when marching to battle, and which inspired them with courage
and dash for the fight. This custom is still kept up by the Scotch; and
many fine battle-tunes are printed in Irish and Scotch collections of
national music.

The man who did most in modern times to draw attention to Irish music was
Thomas Moore. He composed his exquisite songs to old Irish airs. They at
once became popular, not only in the British Islands, but on the
Continent and in America; and Irish music was thenceforward studied and
admired where it would have never been heard of but for Moore.

Of the entire body of Irish airs that are preserved, we know the authors
of only a very small proportion; and these were composed within the last
two hundred years. Most of the remaining airs have come down from old
times, scattered fragments of exquisite beauty that remind us of the
refined musical culture of our forefathers. No one now can tell who
composed “The Coolin,” “Savourneen Dheelish,” “Shule Aroon,” “Molly
Asthore,” “Eileen Aroon,” “Garryowen,” “The Boyne Water,” “Patrick’s Day,”
“Langolee,” “The Blackbird,” or “The Girl I left behind me”; and so of
many other well-known and lovely airs.

The national music of Ireland and that of Scotland are very like each
other, and many airs are common to both countries: but this is only what
might be expected, as we know that the Irish and the Highland Scotch were
originally one people, and kept up mutual intercourse down to recent
times.



CHAPTER XII.

HOW THE ANCIENT IRISH EXCELLED IN ART.


The old Irish people became wonderfully skilful in some branches of Art;
and many specimens of their handiwork still remain--preserved through the
wreck of ages--which exceed in beauty of design and in perfection of
execution all works of the kind done by the artists of other nations.

While Art was cultivated in several branches, the Irish attained more
skill in Ornamental Penwork than in any other. They took special delight,
and used their utmost efforts, in ornamenting religious and devotional
books, especially the Gospels and other parts of the Holy Scripture; for
they justly considered that to beautify the sacred writings was one way of
honouring and glorifying God.

The special Irish style of pen ornamentation was developed by successive
generations of artists, who brought it to marvellous perfection. Its most
marked feature is interlaced work formed by bands and ribbons, which are
curved and twisted and interwoven in the most intricate way, something
like basket-work infinitely varied in pattern. Here and there among the
complicated designs may be seen strange half-formed faces of animals, and
sometimes human faces, or full figures of men or of angels. But vegetable
forms are very rare.

What most astonishes a person examining this work is the amazing variety
and minuteness of the patterns, and the perfect smoothness and evenness of
the curves, as if they had been traced by compasses or some other fine
instruments; though they were all drawn by the unaided hand. The scribes
usually made the capital letters very large, so as sometimes to fill
almost an entire page; and on these they exerted their utmost skill. They
painted the open spaces of the letters and ornaments in brilliant colours:
and in this art--an art usually designated ‘Illumination’--the old Irish
scribes also excelled.

Several manuscript-books, ornamented in this manner, have been preserved,
of which it will be sufficient to mention one here--The Book of Kells, now
in Trinity College, Dublin, though there are several others almost equally
beautiful. It is a copy of the Four Gospels in Latin, written on vellum in
the seventh or eighth century. Miss Margaret Stokes, of Dublin, a skilled
artist and a great judge of such matters, who has carefully examined this
book, thus speaks of it:--“No effort hitherto made to transcribe any one
page of this book has the perfection of execution and rich harmony of
colour which belongs to this wonderful book. It is no exaggeration to say
that, as with the microscopic works of nature, the stronger the magnifying
power brought to bear upon it, the more is this perfection seen. No single
false interlacement or uneven curve in the spirals, no faint trace of a
trembling hand or wandering thought can be detected. This is the very
passion of labour and devotion, and thus did the Irish scribe work to
glorify his book.”

Professor Westwood, of Oxford--an English gentleman--who examined the best
specimens of penwork all over Europe, speaks even more strongly. “The Book
of Kells,” he says, “is the most astonishing book of the Four Gospels
which exists in the world. How men could have had eyes and tools to work
out the designs, I am sure I, with all the skill and knowledge in such
kind of work which I have been exercising for the last fifty years, cannot
conceive. I know pretty well all the libraries in Europe where such books
as this occur, but there is no such book in any of them. There is nothing
like it in all the books which were written for Charlemagne and his
successors.”

There was a book like this, long since lost, in St. Brigit’s convent of
Kildare, which was shown to the Welshman Giraldus Cambrensis more than
seven hundred years ago, and which so astonished him that he has recorded
a legend--to which he devotes a separate chapter of his book--that it was
written under the direction of an angel. He described it; and his
description would now exactly apply to the Book of Kells. But in those
times there were many such books. We can hardly be surprised at Giraldus’s
legend; for whoever looks closely into some of the lovely pages of the
Book of Kells--even in the photographic reproductions--will be inclined to
wonder how any human head could have designed, or how any human hand could
have drawn them.

These beautiful books were all written by Christian artists. We do not
know if there was any attempt to ornament books in pagan times. But the
pagan Irish, long before the introduction of Christianity, practised art
of another kind--Metal-work--and attained great perfection in it. Those
old artists exercised their skill in making and ornamenting shields;
trumpets; swords with their hilts and scabbards; chariots; bridles;
brooches; gold gorgets or circlets for the neck; and so forth.

We can now judge of their handiwork for ourselves; for numerous beautiful
specimens are preserved in our museums. The most remarkable are what are
now commonly called ‘Crescents,’ of which we have many in the National
Museum, in Dublin. These are broad circlets of pure gold to be worn round
the neck, all covered over with ornamental designs. Both the general shape
and the designs were produced by hammering with a mallet and punches on
shaped solid moulds. The patterns and workmanship are astonishingly fine,
showing extraordinary skill in manipulation: they are indeed so
complicated and perfect that it is difficult to understand how they could
have been produced by mere handwork, with hammers, punches, and moulds.
Yet they could have been made in no other way.

We may see then that when St. Patrick arrived, in the fifth century, he
found the art of working in metals already highly developed. We know that
he kept, as part of his household, smiths, brasiers, goldsmiths, and other
artists, who were constantly employed in making crosses; crosiers;
chalices; bells; and such like.

On the score of obtaining skilled workmen there was no difficulty, for he
had plenty of pagan artists to choose from, who, on their conversion,
turned their skill to Christian work, and found little difficulty in
adapting their cunning fingers to new objects and to new forms of
ornamentation. So the primitive pagan artistic metal work was continued on
and improved in Christian times, and was brought to the highest perfection
in the tenth and eleventh centuries. The ornamentation was generally like
that used in manuscripts (p. 92).

Many of the beautiful objects made by those accomplished artists are now
preserved in museums; some of them will bear comparison with the best
works of the kind executed by artists of other countries; and a few might
be found to bear the palm from all.

The three objects that are usually brought forward as examples of the best
workmanship of the Irish Christian artists are the Cross of Cong, the
Ardagh Chalice, and the Tara Brooch, all of which may be seen in the
National Museum in Dublin: but there are many others in the same museum
almost equally beautiful. These three will be found pretty fully
described, with illustrations, in the two Social Histories of Ancient
Ireland. The Tara Brooch was shown some years ago in one of the great
London exhibitions, and drew the eyes of all visitors. One English writer,
who examined it and wrote an account of it, says that he found a
difficulty in conceiving how any fingers could have made it, and that it
looked more like the work of fairies than of a human artist.



CHAPTER XIII.

HOW THE ANCIENT IRISH PHYSICIANS WERE SKILLED IN MEDICINE.


Among most nations of old times there were great leeches or physicians,
who were considered so skilful that the people believed they could cure
wounds and ailments as if by magic. In some countries they became gods, as
among the Greeks.

The ancient Irish people, too, had their mighty leech, a Dedannan named
Dianket, who, as they believed, could heal all wounds and cure all
diseases; so that he became the Irish God of Medicine. He had a son,
Midac, and a daughter, Airmeda, who were both as good as himself; and at
last Midac became so skilful that his father killed him in a fit of
jealousy. And after a time there grew up from the young physician’s grave
365 herbs from the 365 joints and sinews and members of his body, each
herb with mighty virtue to cure diseases of the part it grew from. His
sister Airmeda plucked up these herbs, and carefully sorting them, wrapped
them up in her mantle. But the jealous old Dianket came and mixed them all
up, so that no one could distinguish them: and but for this--according to
the legend--every physician would now be able to cure all diseases without
delay, by selecting and applying the proper herbs.

Leaving these shadowy old-world stories, let us come down to later times,
when we shall, as it were, tread on solid ground. We find in some
authorities a tradition that in the second century before the Christian
era, Josina, the ninth king of Scotland, was educated in Ireland by the
Irish physicians, and that he afterwards wrote a treatise on the virtues
and powers of herbs. Though we may not quite believe this tradition, it
shows that the Irish medical doctors had a reputation abroad for great
skill at a very early period.

Surgeons and doctors figure conspicuously in the old tales of the Red
Branch Knights, and indeed in very many others, whether historical or
romantic and fictitious: as well as in the strictly historical writings. A
medical staff always accompanied armies, each man having, slung from his
shoulder, a bag full of herbs, ointments, bandages, and such other medical
appliances as were used at the time. They followed in the rear of the
army--each company under one head doctor; and at the end of each day’s
fighting--or during the fighting when possible--they came forward and
applied their salves.

We are all now familiar with the humane practice of giving medical aid to
the wounded after the battle, without distinction of friend or foe. The
same practice was common in Ireland two thousand years ago. We read in one
of the Tales, that when Kehern, a famous Ulster hero, returned from
fighting, all covered with wounds, the Ulstermen sent a request to the
Connaught camp--_i.e._, the camp of the enemy--for physicians, as it
happened that none of the Ulster leeches were just then at hand: and
physicians were promptly despatched with the messenger.

A king or a great chief had always a physician as part of his household,
to attend to the health of his family. The usual remuneration of these men
was a residence and a tract of land in the neighbourhood, free of all rent
and taxes, together with certain allowances: and the medical man might, if
he chose, practise for fee outside the household. Some of those in the
service of great kings had castles, and lived in state like princes. Those
not so attached lived on their fees, like many doctors of the present day:
and the fees for the various operations or attendances were laid down in
the Brehon Law.

Though medical doctors were looked up to with great respect, they had to
be very careful in exercising their profession. A leech who through
carelessness, or wilful neglect, or gross want of skill, failed to cure a
wound, might be brought before a brehon or judge, and if the case was
proved home against him, he had to pay the same fine to the patient as if
he had inflicted the wound with his own hand, besides forfeiting his fee.

Medicine, as a profession, like Law, History, etc., often ran in families
in Ireland, descending regularly from father to son; and several Irish
families were distinguished leeches for generations, such as the O’Shiels,
the O’Cassidys, the O’Hickeys, and the O’Lees.

Each medical family kept a book, which was handed down reverently from
father to son, and in which was written, in Irish or Latin, all the
medical knowledge derived either from other books or from the actual
experience of the various members of the family; and many of these old
volumes, all in beautiful handwriting, are still preserved in Dublin and
elsewhere. As showing the admirable spirit in which those good men studied
and practised their profession, and how much they loved it, it is worth
while to give a translation of the opening statement, a sort of preface,
in the Irish language, written at the beginning of one of these books,
nearly six hundred years ago:--

“May the good God have mercy on us all. I have here collected practical
rules of medicine from several works, for the honour of God, for the
benefit of the Irish people, for the instruction of my pupils, and for the
love of my friends and of my kindred. I have translated many of them into
Gaelic from Latin books, containing the lore of the great leeches of
Greece and Rome. These are sweet and profitable things which have been
often tested by us and by our instructors.

“I pray God to bless those doctors who will use this book; and I lay it as
an injunction on their souls, that they extract knowledge from it not by
any means sparingly, and that they do not neglect the practical rules
herein contained. More especially I charge them that they do their duty
devotedly in cases where they receive no payment on account of the poverty
of their patients.

“Let every physician, before he begins his treatment, offer up a secret
prayer for the sick person, and implore the heavenly Father, the Physician
and Balm-giver of all mankind, to prosper the work he is entering upon,
and to save himself and his patient from failure.”

There is good reason to believe that the noble and kindly sentiments here
expressed were generally those of the physicians of the time; from which
we may see that the old Irish medical doctors were quite as devoted to
their profession, as eager for knowledge, and as anxious about their
patients as those of the present day.

The fame of the Irish physicians reached the Continent. Even at a
comparatively late time, about three hundred years ago, when medicine had
been successfully studied and practised in Ireland for more than a
thousand years, Van Helmont, a well-known and distinguished physician of
Brussels, in a book written by him in Latin on medical subjects, praises
the Irish doctors, and describes them correctly as follows:--

“In the household of every great lord in Ireland there is a physician who
has a tract of land for his support, and who is appointed to his post, not
on account of the great amount of learning he brings away in his head from
colleges, but because he is able to cure diseases. His knowledge of the
healing art is derived from books left him by his forefathers, which
describe very exactly the marks and signs by which the various diseases
are known, and lay down the proper remedies for each. These remedies
[which are mostly herbs], are all produced in that country. Accordingly,
the Irish people are much better managed in sickness than the Italians,
who have a physician in every village.”

The Irish physicians carefully studied all the diseases known in their
time, and had names for them--names belonging to the Irish language, and
not borrowed from other countries or other languages. They investigated
and noted down the qualities and effects of all curative herbs (which had
Gaelic, as well as Latin, names); and they were accordingly well known
throughout Europe for their knowledge and skill in medicinal botany.

There were Hospitals all over the country, some in connexion with
monasteries, and managed by monks, some under the lay authorities; and one
or more doctors with skilled nurses attended each hospital, whether lay or
monastic. The Brehon Law laid down regulations for the lay hospitals:--for
instance, that they should be kept clean, and should have four open doors
for ventilation, that a stream of clear water should run across the house
through the middle of the floor, that the patients should not be put into
beds forbidden by the physician, that noisy talkative persons should be
kept away from them; and many other such like. There were no such
regulations for the monastic hospitals, as being unnecessary. The
provision about the open doors and the stream of water may be said to have
anticipated by more than a thousand years the present open-air treatment
of consumption. Those who had means were expected to pay for food,
medicine, physician, and attendance: but the poor were received and
treated free.

If a person wounded or injured another unlawfully, he was obliged to pay
for “sick maintenance,” _i.e._, the cost of maintaining the wounded person
in a hospital till recovery or death; which payment included the fees of
the physician and of one or more nurses.

It is pleasant to know that the Irish physicians of our time, who, it is
generally agreed, are equal to those of any other country in the world,
can look back with respect, and not without some feeling of pride, to
their Irish predecessors of the times of old.



CHAPTER XIV.

HOW THEY BUILT AND ARRANGED THEIR HOUSES.


Before the introduction of Christianity, buildings of every kind in
Ireland were generally round or oval. The quadrangular shape, which was
used in the churches in the time of St. Patrick, came very slowly into
use; and round structures finally disappeared only in the fourteenth or
fifteenth century. But the round shape was not universal, even in the most
ancient period. Look at the plan of Tara, at the beginning of this book,
and you will see that the Banqueting Hall was quadrangular, the only
building of this shape on the whole hill. And in this respect Tara may be
said to represent the proportion for the whole of Ireland: that is to say,
while the generality of buildings were oval or round, some--very much the
fewer in number--were quadrangular, sometimes long in shape, sometimes
square.

There were many centres of population, though they were never surrounded
by walls; and the dwellings were detached and scattered a good deal--not
closely packed as in modern towns. The dwelling-houses, as well indeed as
the early churches, were nearly always of wood, as that material was much
the most easily procured. But although wood-building was general in
Ireland before the twelfth century, it was not universal: for many stone
churches, as we have seen, were erected from the time of the introduction
of Christianity; and there were small stone houses from time immemorial.

The dwelling-houses were almost always constructed of Wickerwork. The wall
was formed of long stout poles standing pretty near each other, with their
ends fixed deep in the ground, the spaces between closed in with rods and
twigs neatly and firmly interwoven; generally of hazel. The poles were
peeled and polished smooth. The whole surface of the wickerwork was
plastered on the outside, and made brilliantly white with lime, or
occasionally striped in various colours; leaving the white poles exposed
to view.

In many superior houses, and in churches, a better plan of building was
adopted, by forming the wall with sawed planks instead of wickerwork. In
the houses of the higher classes the doorposts and other special parts of
the dwelling and furniture were often made of yew, carved, and ornamented
with gold, silver, bronze, and gems.

In the sunniest and pleasantest part of the homestead the women had a
separate apartment or a separate house for themselves, called a ‘Greenan’
meaning a ‘sunny apartment’ or a summer-house; to which they retired
whenever they pleased.

The roof was covered with straw, or rushes, or reeds, or with thin boards
of oak, laid and fastened so as to overlap, like our slates and tiles.
Occasionally churches were roofed with lead.

In great houses there were separate sleeping-rooms. But among the ordinary
run of comfortable, well-to-do people, including many of the upper
classes, the family commonly lived, ate, and slept in the one principal
apartment, as was the case in the houses of the Anglo-Saxons, the English,
the Germans, and the Scandinavians of the same period. But the
sleeping-places and beds were shut in from view; for in at least the
better class of houses in Ireland there were, ranged along the wall,
little compartments or cubicles, each containing a bed, or sometimes more,
for one or more persons, with its head to the wall. The wooden partitions
enclosing the beds were not carried up to the roof; they were probably
about eight or nine feet high, so that the several compartments were open
at top.

The homesteads had to be fenced in to protect them from robbers and wild
animals. This was usually done by digging a deep circular trench, the clay
from which was thrown up on the inside. This was shaped and faced; and
thus was formed, all round, a high mound or dyke with a trench outside,
and having one opening for a door or gate. Whenever water was at hand the
trench was flooded as an additional security: and there was a bridge
opposite the opening, which was raised, or closed in some way, at night.
The houses of the Gauls were fenced round in a similar manner.

Numbers of these old circular forts still remain in every part of Ireland,
but more in the south and west than elsewhere; many of them still very
perfect: but of course the timber houses erected within them are all gone.
Almost all are believed in popular superstition to be the haunts of
fairies. They are still known by the old names--_lis_, _rath_, _brugh_,
_múr_, _dún_, _moat_, _cashel_, and _caher_: the cashels, múrs, and cahers
being usually built of stone without mortar. The forts vary in size from
40 or 50 feet in diameter, through all intermediate stages up to 1,500
feet: the size of the homestead depending on the rank and means of the
owner.

Very often the flat middle space is raised to a higher level than the
surrounding land, and sometimes there is a great mound in the centre, with
a flat top, on which the strong wooden house of the chief stood. The outer
defence, whether of clay, or stone, or timber, that surrounded the
homestead was generally whitened with lime; and on the top all round,
there was a hedge or strong palisade for additional security. Beside
almost every homestead was a Kitchen Garden for table vegetables. And hard
by were several enclosed spaces for various purposes, such as games and
exercises, storing up the corn in stacks, securing the cattle at night,
etc.

For greater security, dwellings were often constructed on artificial
islands made with stakes, trees, and bushes, covered with earth and
stones, in shallow lakes, or on small flat natural islands if they
answered. These were called by the name _Crannoge_. Communication with the
shore was carried on by means of a small boat, commonly dug out of one
tree-trunk. The remains of these crannoges may still be seen in some of
our small shallow lakes. In most of them old ferry-boats have been found,
of which many specimens are now preserved in museums.



CHAPTER XV.

HOW THEY ATE, DRANK, FEASTED, AND ENTERTAINED.


Dinner, the principal meal of the day, was taken late in the afternoon;
and there was commonly a light repast or luncheon, called ‘Middle-meal,’
between breakfast and dinner. It was the custom to have better food on
Sundays and church festivals than on the other days.

Among the higher classes great care was taken to seat family and guests at
table in the order of rank; and any departure from the established usage
was sure to lead to quarrels. The king was always attended at banquets by
his subordinate kings, and by other lords and chiefs. Those on his
immediate right and left had to sit at a respectful distance. While King
Cormac Mac Art sat at dinner, fifty military guards remained standing near
him.

The manner of arranging the banquets at Tara was generally followed at
other royal entertainments. The Banquet-hall here was a long building,
with tables arranged along both side-walls. Immediately over the tables
were a number of hooks in the wall at regular intervals to hang the
shields on. Just before the beginning of the feast all persons left the
hall except three:--A _Shanachie_ or historian: a marshal to regulate the
order: and a trumpeter. The king and his subordinate kings having first
taken their places at the head of the table, the professional ollaves sat
down next them. Then the trumpeter blew the first blast, at which the
shield-bearers of the lordly guests (for every chief and king had his
shield-bearer or squire) came round the door and gave their masters’
shields to the marshal, who, under the direction of the shanachie, hung
them on the hooks according to rank, from the highest to the lowest. At
the next blast the guests all walked in leisurely, each taking his seat
under his own shield (which he knew by special marks).

Only one side of the tables was occupied, namely, the side next the wall:
and in order to avoid crowding, the shields were hung at such a distance
that when the guests were seated “no man of them would touch another.”
This arrangement at table according to rank was continued in Ireland and
Scotland down to a recent period, as Scott often mentions in his novels;
and it continues still everywhere, though in a less strict form.

At all state banquets particular joints were reserved for certain chiefs,
officials, and professional men, according to rank. A thigh was laid
before a king, and also before an ollave poet; a haunch before a queen; a
leg before a young lord; a head before a charioteer, and so on. A similar
custom existed among the ancient Gauls and also among the Greeks. A
remnant of this old custom lingered on in Scotland and Ireland down to a
period within our own memory. Seventy years ago in some parts of Ireland,
when a farmer killed a bullock or a pig, he always sent the head to the
smith, so that at certain times of the year you might see the smith’s
kitchen garnished with forty or fifty heads hanging round the walls.

In the time of the Red Branch Knights, it was the custom to assign the
choicest joint or animal of the whole banquet to the hero who was
acknowledged by general consent to have performed the bravest and greatest
exploit. This piece was called _curath-mir_, i.e., ‘the hero’s morsel or
share’; and there were often keen contentions among the Red Branch heroes,
and sometimes fights with bloodshed, for this coveted joint or piece. This
usage, which prevailed among the continental Celts in general, and which
also existed among the Greeks, continued in Ireland to comparatively late
times.

Tables were, as we have seen, used at the great feasts. But at ordinary
meals, high tables, such as we have now, do not seem to have been in
general use. There were small low tables, each used no doubt for two or
more persons. Often there was a little table laid beside each person, on
which his food was placed--the meat on a platter.

Forks are a late invention: of old the fingers were used at eating. In
Ireland, as in England and other countries in those times, each person
held his knife in the right hand, and used the fingers of the left instead
of a fork. The Greeks and Romans had no forks at meals: they used the
fingers only, and were supplied with water to wash their hands after
eating.

As early as the eighth or ninth century the Irish of the higher classes
used napkins at table, for which they had a native word _lambrat_, i.e.,
‘hand-cloth.’ I suppose the chief use they made of it was to wipe the
left-hand fingers; which was badly needed. It was the custom, both in
monastic communities and in secular life, to take off the shoes or sandals
when sitting down to dinner; which was generally done by an attendant.
The Romans we know had the same custom. The Irish did not sit up at dinner
as we do now; but, like the Romans, they reclined on couches on which the
feet also rested; and this was why the shoes were taken off.

In old times people were quite as fond of intoxicating drinks at dinners
and banquets as they are now. They sometimes drank more than was good for
them too: yet drunkenness was looked upon as reprehensible. At their
feasts they often accompanied their carousing with music and singing.
Besides plain water and milk, the chief drinks were Ale and Mead or
metheglin, which were made at home; and Wine which was imported from
France.

In great houses there were professional cooks, who, while engaged in their
work, wore a linen apron round them from the hips down, and a flat linen
cap on the head. But among ordinary families the women did the cooking.

Meat and fish were cooked by roasting, boiling, or broiling. A spit
(_bir_), made of iron, was regarded as an important household implement.
But the spits commonly used in roasting, as well as the skewers for
trussing up the joint, were pointed hazel-rods, peeled and made smooth
and white. Meat, and even fish, while roasting, were often basted with
honey or with a mixture of honey and salt.

In the house of every chief and of every brewy (see p. 119 below) there
was at least one bronze Caldron for boiling meat. It was highly valued, as
a most important article in the household; and it was looked upon as the
special property of the chief or head of the house--much in the same way
as his sword and shield. Everywhere we meet with passages reminding us of
the great value set on these caldrons. One of them was regarded as a fit
present for a king. The caldron was supposed to be kept in continual use,
so that food might be always ready for guests whenever they happened to
arrive. Many bronze caldrons have been found from time to time, and are
now preserved in the National Museum, Dublin--several of beautiful
workmanship.

In early ages kitchen utensils were everywhere regarded as important. The
inventory of the jewels of the English King Edward III. gives a list of
his frying-pans, gridirons, spits, etc. There is a curious provision in
the Brehon Law that if any accident occurred to a bystander by the lifting
of the joint out of the boiling caldron, the attendant was liable for
damages unless he gave the warning:--“Take care: here goes the fleshfork
into the caldron!”

Milk was used both fresh and sour: butter was made in a small hand-churn;
and cheese of various kinds was made from curds. There were water-mills
and querns to grind corn, and sieves to separate the ground corn into meal
and flour. The staple food of the great mass of the people was porridge,
or, as it is now called in Ireland, stirabout, made of meal, generally
oatmeal. It was eaten with honey, butter, or milk, as _kitchen_ or
condiment.

All the various kinds of meal and flour were baked into cakes or loaves of
different shapes. Flour was usually mixed with water to make dough: but
bread made of flour and milk was also much in use. Honey was often kneaded
up with cakes as a delicacy: and occasionally the roe of a salmon was
similarly used. Wheaten bread was considered the best, as at present:
barley-bread was poor. Yeast, or barm, or leaven was used both in baking
and in brewing.

The management of Bees was universally understood, and every comfortable
householder kept hives in his garden. Wild bees, too, swarmed
everywhere--much more plentifully than at present, on account of the
extent of woodland. Accordingly honey was very plentiful, and was used
with all sorts of dishes. Often at meals each person had placed before him
on the table a little dish, sometimes of silver, filled with honey; and
each morsel whether of meat, fish, or bread was dipped into it before
being conveyed to the mouth. Honey was the chief ingredient in the making
of mead.

As the country abounded in forests, thickets, and brakes, the most common
Fuel for domestic use was wood: but peat or turf was also much used, cut
from a bank with a _slaan_ or turf-spade as at present. Founders and other
workers in metal used wood-charcoal, of which that made from birch-wood
gave the greatest heat.

Flint and steel with tinder (or _spunk_) were used for striking and
kindling fire. The whole kindling-gear--flint, steel, and tinder--was
carried in the girdle-pocket, so as to be ready to hand; and accordingly,
fire struck in this way was called _tinnĕ-crassa_, ‘girdle-fire.’

For Light, dipped candles were used in the better class of houses. Poor
people used dipped rushes, which gave a feeble light and burned out
quickly. In the houses of the rich they used beeswax candles, as indeed we
might expect from the great abundance of bees.

Hospitality and generosity were virtues highly esteemed in ancient
Ireland; in the old Irish Christian writings indeed they are everywhere
praised and inculcated as religious duties; and in the secular literature
they are equally prominent. The higher the rank of the person the more was
expected from him, and a king should be hospitable without limit. There
were all over the country Public Hostels for the free lodging and
entertainment of travellers. At the head of each was an officer called a
_Brewy_ or _Beetagh_, a public hospitaller or hosteller, who was held in
high honour.

In order to be at all times ready to receive visitors, a brewy was bound
to have three kinds of meat cooked and ready to be served up to all who
came; three kinds of raw meat ready for cooking; besides animals ready for
killing. In one of the law tracts a brewy is quaintly described as “a man
of three snouts”:--viz. the snout of a live hog rooting in the fields; the
snout of a dead hog on the hooks cooking; and the pointed snout of a
plough: meaning that he had plenty of live animals and of meat cooked and
uncooked, with a plough and all other tillage appliances.

There should be a number of open roads leading to the house of a brewy, so
that it might be readily accessible: and on each road a man was stationed
to make sure that no traveller should pass by without calling to be
entertained; besides which a light was to be kept burning on the lawn at
night to guide travellers from a distance. To enable him to meet this
great expense and to pay himself into the bargain, a brewy was allowed a
great tract of land free.

Besides the hostels, there were the monasteries, too, where travellers
were also boarded and lodged free for the time. And along with all this
the people were kind and hospitable in their own houses to strangers and
visitors. So we see that travellers were quite as well off then as now:
indeed in one respect much better off: for whereas we have to pay a smart
charge in an inn or hotel, there was in those times a hearty welcome and
no charge at all.

The Irish missionaries carried this fine custom to the Continent in early
ages, as they did many others: for they established free hostels in France
and Germany, in places where there were no monasteries, chiefly for the
use of pilgrims on their way to Rome.



CHAPTER XVI.

HOW THE PEOPLE DRESSED.


An oval face, broad above and narrow below, golden hair, fair skin, white,
delicate, and well-formed hands with slender tapering fingers: these were
considered as marking the type of beauty and of high family descent; they
were the Marks of Aristocracy. To these natural advantages the people
added by the usual artificial means. Among the higher classes the
finger-nails were kept carefully cut and rounded. It was considered
shameful for a man of position to have rough unkempt nails.
Crimson-coloured finger-nails were greatly admired; and ladies sometimes
dyed them this colour. Deirdrĕ, uttering a lament for the sons of Usna,
says:--“I sleep no more, and I shall not crimson my nails; no joy shall
ever again come upon my mind.”

Ladies often dyed the eyebrows black with the juice of some sort of berry.
We have already seen (p. 54) that the Irish missionary monks sometimes
painted or dyed their eyelids black. An entry in Cormac’s Glossary plainly
indicates that the blush of the cheeks was sometimes heightened by a
colouring matter obtained from the alder tree: and the sprigs and berries
of the elder were applied to the same purpose. Among Greek and Roman
ladies the practice was very general of painting the cheeks, eyebrows, and
other parts of the face.

Both men and women wore the hair long, and commonly flowing down on the
back and shoulders. The hair was combed daily after a bath. The heroes of
the Fena of Erin, before sitting down to their dinner after a hard day’s
hunting, always took a bath and carefully combed their long hair.

Among the higher classes in very early times great care was bestowed on
the hair; its regulation constituted quite an art; and it was dressed up
in several ways. Very often the long hair of men, as well as of women, was
elaborately curled. Conall Kernach’s hair, as described in the story of Da
Derga, flowed down his back, and was done up in “hooks and plaits and
swordlets.” The accuracy of this and other similar descriptions is fully
borne out by the most unquestionable authority of all, namely, the figures
in the early illuminated manuscripts and on the shrines and high crosses
of later ages. In nearly all the figures of the Book of Kells, for example
(seventh or eighth century), the hair is combed and dressed with the
utmost care, so beautifully adjusted indeed that it could have been done
only by skilled professional hairdressers, and must have occupied much
time. Whether in case of men or women, it hangs down both behind and at
the sides, and is commonly divided the whole way, as well as all over the
head, into slender fillets or locks, which sometimes hang down to the eyes
in front. I do not find mentioned anywhere that the Irish dyed their hair,
as was the custom among the Greeks and Romans.

The men were as particular about the beard as about the hair. The fashion
of wearing the beard varied. Sometimes it was considered becoming to have
it long and forked, and gradually narrowed to two points below.
Sometimes--as shown in many ancient figures--it falls down in a single
mass; while in a few it is cut straight across at bottom not unlike
Assyrian beards. Nearly all have a mustache, in most cases curled up and
pointed at the ends as we often see now. In many the beard is carefully
divided into slender twisted fillets, as described above for the hair.
Kings and chiefs had barbers in their service to attend to all this.
Razors were used made of bronze as hard as steel, as we know by finding
them mentioned in Irish documents as early as the eighth century; and many
old bronze razors are now preserved in museums.

From what precedes it will be understood that combs were in general use
with men as well as with women; and many specimens of combs are now found
in the remains of ancient dwellings.

Bathing was very usual, at least among the upper classes, and baths and
the use of baths are constantly mentioned in the old tales and other
writings. In every public hostel, in every monastery, and in every
high-class house, there was a bath, with its accompaniments. Soap was used
both in bathing and washing.

Woollen and linen clothes formed the dress of the great mass of the
people. Both were produced at home; and in chapter xix. the modes of
manufacturing them will be mentioned. Silk and satin, which were of course
imported, were much worn among the higher classes. The furs of animals,
such as seals, otters, badgers, foxes, etc., were much used for capes and
jackets, and for the edgings of various garments, so that skins of all the
various kinds were valuable. They formed, too, an important item of
everyday traffic, and they were also exported.

The ancient Irish loved bright colours. In this respect they resembled
many other nations of antiquity--as well indeed as of the present day; and
they illustrated Ruskin’s saying--“Whenever men are noble they love bright
colour, and bright colour is given to them in sky, sea, flowers, and
living creatures.” The Irish love of colour expressed itself in all parts
of their raiment; and we know that they well understood the art of dyeing.
The several articles of dress on one person were usually coloured
differently. Even the single outer cloak was often striped, spotted, or
chequered in various colours. King Domnall, in the seventh century, on one
occasion sent a many-coloured tunic to his foster-son Prince Congal: like
Joseph’s coat of many colours.

A very common article of dress was a large cloak, generally without
sleeves, varying in length, but commonly covering the whole person from
the shoulders down. The people also wore a tight-fitting coat with
sleeves, something like our present frock-coat; but it was much shorter
and without a collar, and it was kept tight by a belt round the waist. A
short cape was often worn on the shoulders, sometimes carrying a hood to
cover the head. The outer covering of the general run of the peasantry was
just one loose sleeved coat or mantle, generally of frieze, which covered
them down to the ankles; and which they wore winter and summer. Women
commonly wore a long loose cloak, with a hood, a fashion which is common
at the present day. The over-garments were fastened by brooches, pins,
buttons, girdles, strings, and loops, many of them beautifully made and
ornamented.

The ancient Irish wore a trousers which was so tight-fitting as to show
perfectly the shape of the limbs. When terminating below the ankles it was
held down by a slender strap passing under the foot. Like other Irish
garments it was generally striped or speckled in various colours. Leggings
of cloth or of thin soft leather were used, and were laced on by strings
tipped with white bronze, the bright metallic extremities falling down
after lacing, so as to form pendant ornaments. A _kilt_ was often worn, in
which case the legs were left bare at the knees, with leggings below: for
the kilt is of Irish origin, and was brought--like many other fashions--by
the early colonists to Scotland, where it is still held on, while it has
been long disused in Ireland.

Both men and women wore a garment of fine texture next the skin, commonly
made of wool or linen, but sometimes of silk or satin, embroidered with
devices in gold or silver thread worked with the needle.

Girdles were commonly worn round the waist inside the outer loose mantle:
those used by high-class people were often elaborately ornamented so as to
be worth as much as from £40 to £100 of our present money. Garters were
worn, partly for use, partly for ornament: often they were made of very
expensive materials. Gloves were very common among all classes high and
low, and were often highly ornamented.

The men wore a hat of a conical shape without a leaf; but among the
peasantry, men, in their daily life, commonly went bare-headed, wearing
the hair long behind so as to hang down on the back, and clipped short in
front. Married women usually had the head covered either with a hood or
with a long web of linen wreathed round and round in several folds. The
veil was in constant use among the higher classes, and when not actually
worn was usually carried, among other small articles, in a lady’s
ornamental hand-bag.

Shoes were often made of untanned hide stitched with thongs, with several
layers for a sole. But there was a more shapely shoe, made of fully tanned
leather, having serviceable sole and heel, and often ornamented with
patterns stamped in.

The Irish were excessively fond of personal ornaments, which among the
higher classes were made of expensive materials, such as gold, silver,
gems, white bronze, etc. They wore rings and bracelets of various shapes
on the fingers (including the thumb), round the wrist and forearm, and
even round the leg above the ankle. Necklaces were very common, from the
cheapest kind up to those with the studs made of gold, pearls, and other
gems, all of which materials were found native.

They had torques for the neck made of twisted gold bars; and the elaborate
and immensely expensive crescents or gorgets have been already described
(p. 96). There was a gold ornament--a kind of open ring with bosses or
buttons on the ends--called _Bunnĕ-do-at_, worn on the breast: suspended
from an ornamented button. Thin circular gold plates were also worn
fastened on the breast: and as for brooches, they were of all shapes and
sizes, some plain, simple, and cheap, some of gold or other expensive
material, of elaborate workmanship.

Pictures and full descriptions of all these ornaments will be found in
either of the two Social Histories.



CHAPTER XVII.

HOW THEY FENCED IN AND TILLED THEIR LAND.


Ever since that remote time when legend and history begin to give us
glimpses of the occupations of the inhabitants of this country, we find
them engaged in Agriculture and Pasturage. For both of these purposes open
land was necessary; and accordingly, people worked hard in old times to
clear the land from wood. But there was always more pasturage than
tillage.

In very early ages there was little need of fences, for the people were
few and the land was mostly common property. But as the population
increased it became more and more necessary to fence off the portions
belonging to different individuals. The Brehon Law describes the several
kinds of farm fences, some of which are still used; and it lays down
strict rules regarding them.

Fences or merings of a more enduring kind were needed to bound off large
territories or sub-kingdoms. There were several kinds of these territorial
boundaries, some natural, some artificial, the most usual being rivers,
roads, pillar-stones, and great ramparts of earth sometimes extending for
miles.

Manure--chiefly stable-manure--is often mentioned in the Brehon Laws. The
laws also take account of several things that add to the value of land;
such as a wood properly fenced in: a mine of copper or iron: the site of
an old mill [with millrace and other accessories, rendering easy the
erection of a new mill]: a road opening up communication: situation by the
sea, by a river, or by a cooling-pond for cattle. The art of obtaining
water by digging deeply into the ground was understood and practised.

Most of the native crops now in use were then known and cultivated: chief
among them being corn of various kinds. Nearly all the agricultural
implements now known were then used:--such as ploughs, sickles, spades and
shovels, flails, rakes, clod-mallets, etc.

The chief farm animals were cows, pigs, sheep; and oxen, which were used
for ploughing and for drawing waggons. Horses were not then so much used
in farm-work as they are now. Pigs were kept in great droves at very
little expense; for as forests abounded everywhere, the animals were
simply turned out into the woods in care of a keeper, and fed on nuts,
roots, and whatever else they could pick up.

Cows and sheep were very often grazed on ‘Commons,’ _i.e._, tracts of
grassy uncultivated land lying near a village--generally upland or
mountain land--which belonged to the whole of the village or townland, but
not to any particular individuals. These commons exist to this day near
many villages, and are still used as in old times.

Women always did the milking, except of course in monasteries, where no
women were employed, and the monks had to do all the work of the
community.



CHAPTER XVIII.

HOW IRISH HANDICRAFTSMEN EXCELLED IN THEIR WORK.


All the chief materials for the work of the various crafts were produced
at home. Of wood there was no stint: and there were mines of copper, iron,
lead, and possibly of tin, which were worked with intelligence and
success.

From the most remote times there were in Ireland professional architects
or builders, as there were smiths, poets, historians, physicians, and
druids; and we find them mentioned in our earliest literature. There were
two main branches of the builder’s profession:--stone-building and
wood-building. An ollave builder was supposed to be master of both.

The most distinguished ollave builder of a district was taken into the
direct service of the king, and received from him a good yearly stipend:
for which he was to oversee and have properly executed all the king’s
building and other structural works. In addition to this he was permitted
to exercise his art for the general public for pay: and as he had a great
name, and had plenty of time on hands, he usually made a large income.

The three chief metal-workers were the _Gobha_ [gow], the _Caird_, and the
_Saer_. The gobha was a smith--a blacksmith; the caird, a worker in brass,
gold, and silver--a brasier, goldsmith, or silversmith; the saer, a
carpenter or a mason--a worker in wood or stone.

We have already seen that the ancient Irish were very skilful in metallic
art. Metallic compounds were carefully and successfully studied, copper
commonly forming one of the ingredients. The most general alloy was
Bronze, formed of copper and tin: but brass, a compound of copper and
zinc, was also used. There were two kinds of bronze:--red bronze, used for
spear-heads, caldrons, etc.; and white bronze, which was much more
expensive, and used for ornamental works of art--fine metal-work of all
kinds.

The exquisite skill of the ancient Irish brasiers is best proved by the
articles they made, of which hundreds are preserved in our museums. The
gracefully-shaped spear-heads, which, in point of artistic excellence, are
fully equal to any of those found in Greece, Rome, or Egypt, were cast in
moulds: and we have not only the spear-heads themselves but many of the
moulds, usually of stone. In one glass case in the National Museum there
are more than forty moulds for bronze axes, spear-heads, arrow-heads,
etc.: some looking as fresh as if they had been in use yesterday. The old
cairds were equally accomplished in making articles of hammered bronze, of
which the most characteristic and important are the great trumpets (page
87 above) and the beautifully-formed caldrons (page 116)--many of
admirable workmanship--made of a number of bronze plates, hammered into
shape and riveted together.

In old times in Ireland, blacksmiths were held in great estimation; and in
the historical and legendary tales, we find smiths entertaining kings,
princes, and chiefs, and entertained by them in turn. We know that Vulcan
was a Grecian god; and the ancient Irish had their smith-god, Goibniu,
the Dedannan, who figures in many of the old romances.

The old Irish smith’s anvil was something like the anvil of the present
day, but not quite so large and heavy: it had the usual long snout, and
was fixed firmly on a block. There were sledges and hand-hammers, pincers
or tongs, and a water-trough. The bellows was very different from the
present smith’s bellows: it had two air-chambers of wood and leather lying
side by side and communicating with the blowing-pipe. These were worked by
a bellows-blower, who stood with his feet on the two upper boards, and
pressed them down alternately, by which the two chambers were emptied in
turn into the main pipe, so as to keep up a continuous blast. It should be
remarked that in private houses they used a different sort of bellows,
commonly called a ‘blower,’ which was held in the lap, and worked by
turning a handle: this, by means of cog-wheels, caused a number of little
fans in the inside to revolve rapidly, and thus to force a current through
the pipe.

The fuel used by metal-workers was wood-charcoal. The smith’s furnace was
made of moist clay, specially prepared, a sort of fire-clay, which was
renewed from time to time when needed. This furnace surrounded and
confined the fire on four sides, otherwise the light charcoal would be
scattered by the blast of the bellows.

There was plenty to do for carpenters and other wood-workers, more indeed
than for almost any other tradesmen, as the houses were then nearly all
made of wood.

The yew-tree was formerly very abundant. Its wood was highly valued and
used in making a great variety of articles: so that working in yew was
regarded as one of the most important of trades. It required great skill
and much training and practice: for yew is about the hardest and most
difficult to work of all our native timber: and the cutting-tools must
have been particularly fine in quality. Various domestic vessels were made
from it, and it was used for doorposts and lintels and other prominent
parts of houses, as well as for the posts, bars, and legs of beds and
couches, always carved. Yew-carving accordingly gave much employment.
There were also painters and metal-engravers; and here it is just as well
to remark once for all, that the various articles of everyday life--hats,
curraghs, shoes, book-covers, shields, chariots, leather, and so on, were
made by special tradesmen (or women), all with their several suitable
tools and instruments. The makers of vessels of wood, metal, and clay
were very numerous, and they were quite as skilful and dexterous as those
of the present time. A thousand years ago the Irish coopers were able to
make vessels of staves bound with hoops, like our tubs and churns, as
water-tight and as serviceable as those made by the best coopers of our
day.

The tools used by the various tradesmen are often mentioned in the Brehon
Laws, from which we learn that there was as great a variety in Ireland
then as there is now: but our limited space will only allow us to barely
mention a few. There were saws, axes, hatchets, and hammers of various
shapes and sizes; an adze for coopers and shield-makers; compasses for
circles; planes both for flat surfaces and for moulding; lathes and
potter’s wheels for turning in wood and soft clay; chisels and gouges,
awls, and augers. Besides the common whetstone they used a circular
grindstone, which was turned on an axis by a cranked handle like those now
in use.

Numerous stone structures erected in Christian times, but before the
Anglo-Norman invasion, with lime-mortar, still remain all over the
country, chiefly primitive churches and round towers. It is only necessary
to point to the round towers to show the admirable skill and the delicate
perception of gracefulness of outline possessed by the ancient Irish
builders. A similar remark might be made regarding many of the ancient
churches.

Artificers of all kinds held a good position in society and were taken
care of by the Brehon Law. Among the higher classes of craftsmen a builder
of oratories or of ships was entitled to the same compensation for any
injury inflicted on him in person, honour, or reputation, as the lowest
rank of noble: and similar provisions are set forth in the law for
craftsmen of a lower grade.

No individual tradesman was permitted to practise till his work had been
in the first place examined at a meeting of chiefs and specially qualified
ollaves, held either at Croghan or at Emain, where a number of craftsmen
candidates always presented themselves. But besides this there was another
precautionary regulation. In each district there was a head-craftsman of
each trade, designated _sai-re-cérd_ [see-re-caird], _i.e._, “sage in
handicraft.” He presided over all those of his own craft in the district:
and a workman who had passed the test of the examiners in Croghan or Emain
had further to obtain the approval and sanction of his own head craftsman
before he was permitted to follow his trade in the district. It will be
seen from all this that precautions were adopted to secure competency in
handicrafts similar to those now adopted in the professions.

Young persons learned trades by apprenticeship, and commonly resided
during the term in the houses of their masters. They generally gave a fee:
but sometimes they were taught free or--as the law-tract expresses
it--“for God’s sake.” When an apprentice paid a fee, the master was
responsible for his misdeeds: otherwise not. The apprentice was bound to
do all sorts of menial work--digging, reaping, feeding pigs, etc.--for his
master, during apprenticeship.



CHAPTER XIX.

HOW THEY PREPARED AND MADE UP CLOTHING MATERIALS.


The wool was taken from the sheep with a shears having two blades and two
handles, much the same as our present hedge-shears. After the shearing the
whole work up to the finished cloth was done by women, except fulling,
which was regarded as men’s work. The wool, after shearing, was sorted
and scoured to remove the grease, and then carded into soft little rolls
ready for spinning. Both wool and flax were spun with the distaff and
spindle as in other countries; for the spinning-wheel was not invented
till the fifteenth or sixteenth century.

The thread was woven in a hand-loom, nearly always by women in their own
homes. Ladies of high rank practised weaving long ornamental scarfs as an
accomplishment, which they did by means of a long thin lath--something
like our crochet work--as the Greek ladies of old practised weaving
ornamental webs. The woollen cloth was fulled or thickened by men who
practised fulling as a distinct trade.

Our records show that linen was manufactured in Ireland from the earliest
historic times. It was a very common article of dress, and was worked up
and dyed in a great variety of forms and colours, and exported besides to
foreign nations. So that the manufacture for which Ulster is famous at the
present day is merely an energetic development of an industry whose
history is lost in the twilight of antiquity.

The flax, after pulling, was tied up in sheaves and dried, after which it
was put through various stages of preparation much like those of the
present day. After spinning, the thread was finally wound in balls ready
for weaving.

The beautiful illumination of the Book of Kells, the Book of Mac Durnan,
and numerous other old manuscripts, proves that the ancient Irish were
very skilful in colours: and the art of dyeing was well understood. The
dyestuffs were not imported: they were all produced at home, and were
considered of great importance.

The people understood how to produce various shades by the mixture of
different colours, and were acquainted with the use of mordants for fixing
the dyes. One of these mordants, alum, is a native product, and was
probably known in very early times. Dyeing was what we now call a cottage
industry, _i.e._, the work was always carried on in the house: as I saw it
carried on in the homes of Munster more than half a century ago.

The cloth was dyed by being boiled with the several dyestuffs. The
dyestuff for black was a sediment or deposit of an intense black found at
the bottom of pools in bogs.

A crimson or bright-red colour was imparted by a plant which required good
land, and was cultivated in beds like table-vegetables, requiring great
care. There were several stages of preparation; but the final dyestuff was
a sort of meal or coarse flour of a reddish colour.

The stuff for dyeing blue was obtained from the woad-plant (called in
Irish _glasheen_) after several stages of preparation, till it was made
into cakes fit for use. A beautiful purple was produced from a sort of
lichen growing on rocks, after careful preparation. A still more splendid
purple was obtained from a little shellfish or cockle. This method of
obtaining purple was practised also by the ancient Britons or Welsh; and
by the same process was produced the celebrated Tyrian purple in still
more distant ages.

For sewing, woollen thread was usually employed. Women sewed with a needle
furnished with an eye as at present. From an early time needles were made
of steel, but in primitive ages of bronze. In those days a steel or bronze
needle was difficult to make; so that needles were very expensive: the
price of an embroidering needle was an ounce of silver. The old Irish
dressmakers were accomplished workers. The sewing on ancient articles of
dress found from time to time is generally very neat and uniform: one
writer describes the sewing on a fur cape found in a bog as “wonderfully
beautiful and regular.”

Embroidery was also practised as a separate art or trade by women. An
embroiderer kept for her work, among other materials, thread of various
colours, as well as silver thread, and a special needle. The design or
pattern to be embroidered was drawn and stamped beforehand, by a designer,
on a piece of leather, which the embroiderer placed lying before her and
imitated with her needle. This indicates the refinement and carefulness of
the old Irish embroiderers. The art of stamping designs on leather, for
other purposes as well as for embroidery, was carried to great perfection,
as we know from the beautiful specimens of book-covers preserved in our
museums.

Ladies of the highest rank practised needlework and embroidery as an
accomplishment and recreation. For this purpose they spun ornamental
thread, which, as well as needles, they constantly carried about in a
little ornamented hand-bag.

The art of tanning leather--generally with oak-bark--was well understood
in Ireland. By the process of tanning, the hide was thickened and
hardened, as at present. Tanned leather was used for various purposes, one
of the principal being as material for shoes; and we know that curraghs
or wicker-boats were often covered with leather. A jacket of hard, tough,
tanned leather was sometimes worn in battle as a protecting corselet.



CHAPTER XX.

HOW THE IRISH TRAVELLED ON LAND AND WATER.


That the country was well provided with roads we know from our ancient
literature, and from the general use of chariots. They were not indeed
anything like our present hard, smooth roads, but constructed according to
the knowledge and needs of the period, sometimes laid with wood and stone,
sometimes not, but always open and level enough for car and horse traffic.
There were five main roads leading from Tara through the country in
different directions: and numerous roads--all with distinct names--are
mentioned in the annals. Many of the old roads are still traceable: and
some are in use at the present day, but so improved to meet modern
requirements as to efface all marks of antiquity.

In old times the roads seem to have been very well looked after: and the
regulations for making and cleaning them, and keeping them in repair, are
set forth with much detail in the Brehon Laws.

Rivers were usually crossed by bridges, which were made either of planks
or of strong wickerwork supported by piles. Where there were no bridges
people had to wade or drive across broad shallow fords: or to use a
ferryboat if the stream was deep; or as a last resource to swim across.

The higher classes had chariots drawn by horses: usually one horse or a
pair: but sometimes there were four. The chariot was commonly open: but
some were covered over by an awning or hood of bright-coloured cloth,
luxuriously fitted up, and ornamented with gold, silver, and feathers. The
body of the chariot was made of wickerwork supported by an outer frame of
strong wooden bars: and it was frequently ornamented with tin. The wheels
were about four feet high, spoked, and shod round with iron. But no matter
how carefully and beautifully it was constructed the Irish chariot, like
those of the Greeks, Romans, and other ancient nations, was a springless
jolting machine and made a great deal of noise. Two persons commonly rode
in a chariot, the master and the charioteer. The general run of people
used cars drawn by oxen.

Horses were put to the same uses as at present:--riding, drawing chariots,
racing; and more rarely ploughing, drawing carts, and as pack-animals. A
bridle with a single rein was used in horse-riding. The rein was attached
to a nose-band not at the side but at the top, and came to the hand of the
rider over the animal’s forehead, passing right between the eyes and ears,
and being held in its place by a loop or ring in the face-band which ran
across the horse’s forehead. This single rein was used to restrain merely:
it could not be used to guide. No spurs were used: the rider urged on and
guided the horse with a rod having a hooked goad at the end. The ancient
Irish--like the Britons, Gauls, and Romans--used no saddles: but there was
usually a thick cloth between rider and horse. Chariot-drivers sat too far
from the horse to make use of a horse-rod; so they used a two-rein bridle
like ours.

Those who kept horses for riding were very fond of ornamenting their
bridles and trappings with gold, silver, and enamel: so that the bridle
alone was often worth from five or six cows up to eighteen or twenty.

The Irish used several kinds of boats, of which the commonest was the
curragh, made of wickerwork woven round a frame of strong wattles, and
covered with hides which were stitched together with thongs. Boats of this
kind are still used round the coasts, but tarred canvas is employed
instead of skins, as being cheaper. Those used on rivers and lakes and on
short coast voyages, were small and light and covered with a single skin.
But those intended for rough seas and long voyages were made large and
strong, with solid wooden decks and seats, and a mast, spars, and sails,
so that they could be propelled by oars or sails, or both together. These
were covered with two, or with three, hides, one outside another, and the
hides were tanned so as to make them thick and hard, much the same as our
thick leather. Some of these were large enough to hold fifty or sixty
people. It should be remarked that wicker-boats were also used very
generally in Britain, and occasionally on the coasts of some parts of the
Continent.

The Irish had also ordinary wooden ships with sails and oars, and with
sleeping-berths, like our small sailing vessels, and these they often used
in very long voyages, either for trade or invasion. But for foreign
expeditions their favourite vessel was the strong well-made curragh; and
how suitable and safe these curraghs were is indicated by the fact that on
one occasion Julius Cæsar ordered a number of them to be made for use in
some special expedition. Gildas, a British writer, tells us that whole
armies of the Irish were often seen landing on the British shores from
curraghs; and an ancient Irish writer says that during a certain military
expedition the sea between Ireland and Scotland looked as if covered with
a continuous bridge of curraghs.

The people of Ireland carried on considerable trade with England,
Scotland, and the Continent. So constant was their communication with the
Continent, that, as we are told by a great Roman writer, foreign merchants
were, in those early days, better acquainted with the harbours of Ireland
than with those of Britain.

The various articles mentioned in our records as brought from foreign
lands to Ireland were imported to supplement the home produce; in which
there was nothing more remarkable than our present importation of
thousands of articles from foreign countries, all or most of which are
also produced at home. The articles anciently imported were paid for in
home commodities--skins and furs of various animals, wool and woollens,
oatmeal, fish, salted hogs, etc.



CHAPTER XXI.

HOW THE PEOPLE HELD GREAT CONVENTIONS AND FAIRS; AND HOW THEY AMUSED
THEMSELVES.


Public assemblies of several kinds and for various purposes were held all
through Ireland; they were considered very important, and were looked
forward to on the several occasions with great interest. Affairs of
various kinds, some affecting the whole kingdom, some the particular
province or district, were transacted at these meetings.

The laws were, when necessary, publicly recited to make the people
familiar with them. There were councils or courts to consider and settle
such matters as the claims of individuals to certain privileges; acts of
tyranny by rich and powerful people on their weaker neighbours; disputes
about boundaries; levying fines; imposing taxes for the construction and
repair of roads; and such like. In fact the functions of these meetings of
more than a thousand years ago were in many respects like those of our
present county and district councils. In all the assemblies of whatever
kind there were markets for the sale and purchase of commodities.

Some meetings were established and convened chiefly for the transaction of
serious business: but even at these there were sports and pastimes: in
others the main object was the celebration of games: but advantage was
taken of the occasions to discuss and settle important affairs, as will be
described farther on.

The three great assemblies of Tara, Croghan, and Emain were not meetings
for the general mass of the people, but conventions of delegates who
represented the kingdoms and sub-kingdoms, _i.e._, the states in general
of all Ireland, and who sat and deliberated under the presidency of the
supreme monarch. The word _Féis_ [faish] was generally applied to these
three meetings.

The Féis of Tara, according to the old tradition, was founded by Ollam
Fodla [Ollav-Fóla], who was king of Ireland seven or eight centuries
before the Christian era. It was originally held every third year, at
_Samain_, i.e., 1st November. The provincial kings, the minor kings and
chiefs, and the most distinguished ollaves (doctors) of the learned
professions attended. According to some authorities it lasted for a week,
i.e., _Samain_ day with three days before and three days after: but others
say a month.

Each provincial king had a separate house for himself and his retinue
during the time; and there was one house for their queens, with private
apartments for each, with her attendant ladies. There was still another
house called _Rélta na bh-filedh_ [Railtha-na-villa], the “Star of the
poets,” for the accommodation of the ollaves, where these learned men held
their sittings. Every day the king of Ireland feasted the company in the
great Banqueting Hall, which was large enough for a goodly company: for
even in its present ruined state it is 759 feet long by 46 feet wide. The
results of the deliberations were written in the national record called
the Saltair of Tara. The conventions of Emain and Croghan were largely
concerned with industrial affairs (see page 137 above).

The Aenach or fair was an assembly of the people of every grade without
distinction: it was the most common kind of large public meeting, and its
main object was the celebration of games, athletic exercises, sports and
pastimes of all kinds. The most important of the Aenachs were those of
Tailltenn, Tlachtga, and Ushnagh. The Fair of Tailltenn, now Teltown on
the Blackwater, midway between Navan and Kells, was attended by people
from the whole of Ireland, as well as from Scotland, and was the most
celebrated of all for its athletic games and sports: corresponding
closely with the Olympic, Isthmian, and other games of Greece. It was held
yearly on the 1st August, and on the days preceding and following.
Marriages formed a special feature of this fair. All this is remembered in
tradition to the present day: and the people of the place point out the
spot where the marriages were performed, which they call ‘Marriage
Hollow.’ The remains of several immense forts are still to be seen at
Teltown, even larger than those at Tara, though not in such good
preservation.

The meetings at Tlachtga and Ushnagh, which have already been mentioned,
seem originally to have been mainly pagan religious celebrations: but
there were also games, buying and selling, and conferences on local
affairs.

At the Irish fairs, wherever held, all kinds of amusements were carried
on; for the people loved games, sports, and fun of every kind. In order to
make sure that there should be nothing to spoil sport, there was a very
strict law against brawls, quarrelling, or fighting. Anyone who struck a
blow or raised any disturbance was sure to be punished: and if it was a
very bad case, he was put to death. So if there were any grudges between
individuals, or families, or clans, they had to be repressed during these
meetings. The old Greeks had a law for their games exactly similar, which
they called the “Sacred Armistice.”

An Irish fair in those times was a lively and picturesque sight. The
people were dressed in their best, and in great variety, for all, both men
and women, loved bright colours; and from head to foot every individual
wore articles of varied hues. Here you see a tall gentleman walking along
with a scarlet cloak flowing loosely over a short jacket of purple, with
perhaps a blue trousers and yellow headgear, while the next showed a
colour arrangement wholly different; and the women vied with the men in
variety of hues.

The people were bright and intelligent and much given to intellectual
entertainments and amusements. They loved music and singing, and took
delight in listening to poetry, history, and romantic stories; and
accordingly, among the entertainments and art performances was the
recitation of poems and tales of all the various kinds mentioned at p. 75
above, like the recitations of what were called Rhapsodists among the
Greeks. For all of these there were sure to be special audiences who
listened with delight to the fascinating lore of old times. Music always
formed a prominent part of the amusements: and there was no end of
harpers, timpanists, pipers, fiddlers, and whistle-players.

In another part of the fair the people gave themselves up to uproarious
fun, crowded round showmen, jugglers, and clowns with grotesque masks or
painted faces, making hideous distortions, all roaring out their rough
jests to the laughing crowd. There were also performers of horsemanship,
who delighted their audiences with feats of activity and skill on
horseback, such as we see in modern circuses.

In the open spaces round the fair-green there were chariot and horse
races, which were sure to draw great multitudes of spectators. Indeed some
fairs were held chiefly for races, like those at the Curragh of Kildare,
which was as celebrated as a racecourse twelve hundred years ago as it is
now.

Special portions of the fair-green were set apart for another very
important function--buying and selling. There were markets for stock and
horses, for provisions and clothes; and there you might also see foreign
merchants from Continental countries, exhibiting their gold and silver
articles, their silks and satins, and many strange curiosities: all for
sale. Embroidering-women--all natives--showed off their beautiful
designs, and often kept doing their work in presence of the spectators. A
special space was assigned for cooking, which must have been on an
extensive scale to feed such multitudes.

At length the leaders gave the signal that the aenach was ended; and the
people quietly dispersed to their homes.

Hunting was one of the favourite amusements of the Irish. Some wild
animals were chased for sport, some for food, and some merely to extirpate
them as being noxious; but whatever might be the motive, the chase was
always keenly enjoyed. It is indeed quite refreshing to read in some of
the tales a description of a hunt and of the immense delight the people
took in the sport and all its joyous accompaniments. The hunters led the
chase chiefly on foot, with different breeds of hunting-dogs, according to
the animals to be chased. The principal kinds of game were deer, wild
pigs, badgers, otters, and wolves; and hares and foxes were hunted with
beagles for pure amusement. Pig-hunting was a favourite sport. Wolves were
hunted down with the great Irish wolf-dogs, some of which were as big as a
colt or an ass.

Wild animals were trapped as well as chased. There was an elaborate trap
for deer, a deep pitfall with a sharp spear at bottom pointing upwards,
all covered over and concealed by a _brathlang_ or light covering of
brambles and sods. There was a special trap for each kind of animal--wolf,
wild-hog, otter, and so forth. Birds were caught with nets and cribs: and
indeed bird-catching was considered of such importance, that it was
regulated by a special section of the Brehon Laws called ‘Bird-net laws.’

Fish were caught, as at present, with nets, with spears either single or
pronged, and with hook-and-line. Fishing-weirs on rivers were very common.
A man who had land adjoining a stream had the right to construct a weir
for his own use: but according to law, he could not dam the stream more
than one-third across, so that the fish might have freedom to pass up or
down to the weirs belonging to others.

Coursing was another amusement, as we find mentioned in our literature.
The dogs were pitted against each other; and it was usual to see
greyhounds, trained for this special purpose, exhibited for sale in
markets, like cows, horses, and sheep.

Hurling or goaling has been a favourite game among the Irish from the
earliest ages: played with a ball and a _caman_ or hurley as at present.
In the latter part of the last century it declined somewhat in popularity;
but now there is a vigorous attempt to revive it. Our modern cricket and
hockey are only forms of the old game of _caman_.

In ancient Ireland chess-playing was a favourite pastime among the higher
classes. Everywhere in the Tales we read of kings and chiefs amusing
themselves with chess, and to be a good player was considered a necessary
accomplishment of every man of high position. In every chief’s house there
was accordingly at least one set of chess appliances for the use of the
family and guests; namely, a chequered chess-board, with chessmen and a
bag to hold them, which was often made of woven brass wire.

From the most remote times in Ireland, kings kept fools, jesters, clowns,
and jugglers in their courts, for amusement, like kings of England and
other countries in much later times. In the Tales we constantly read of
such persons and their sayings and doings. They wore funny-looking
dresses; and they amused the people something in the same way as the court
fools and buffoons of later times--by broad impudent remarks, jests, half
witty, half absurd, and odd gestures and grimaces. King Conari’s three
jesters were such surpassingly funny fellows that, as we are told in the
story of Da Derga, no man could refrain from laughing at them, even though
the dead body of his father or mother lay stretched out before him.
Professional gleemen--commonly called _crossans_--travelled from place to
place earning a livelihood by amusing the people like travelling showmen
of the present day.

There were hand-jugglers, who performed wonderful tricks of
slight-of-hand. King Conari’s head juggler and his trick of throwing up
balls and other small articles, catching them one by one as they came
down, and throwing them up again, are well described in the old tale of Da
Derga:--“He had clasps of gold in his ears; and wore a speckled white
cloak. He had nine [short] swords, nine [small] silvery shields, and nine
balls of gold. [Taking up a certain number of them] he flung them up one
by one, and not one of them does he let fall to the ground, and there is
but one of them at any one time in his hand. Like the buzzing-whirl of
bees on a beautiful day was their motion in passing one another.”



CHAPTER XXII.

HOW THE CHARACTER OF THE OLD IRISH PEOPLE SHOWED ITSELF IN VARIOUS
CIRCUMSTANCES AND ON VARIOUS OCCASIONS.


Some of the modes of salutation and of showing respect practised by the
ancient Irish indicate much gentleness and refinement of feeling. When a
distinguished visitor arrived it was usual to stand up as a mark of
respect. Giving a kiss, or more generally three kisses, on the cheek, was
a very usual form of respectful and affectionate salutation: it was indeed
the most general of all. When St. Columba approached the assembly at
Drum-ketta, “King Domnall rose immediately before him, and bade him
welcome, and kissed his cheek, and set him down in his own place.”

A very pleasing way of showing respect and affection, which we often find
noticed, was laying the head gently on the person’s bosom. When Erc, King
Concobar’s grandson, came to him, “he placed his head on the breast of his
grandfather.” Sometimes persons bent the head and went on one knee to
salute a superior.

Although there were no such institutions in ancient Ireland as
pawn-offices, pledging articles as security for a temporary loan and its
interest, was common enough. The practice was such a general feature of
society that the Brehon Law stepped in to prevent abuses, just as our law
now contains provisions to safeguard poor people from being wronged in
their dealings with pawn-offices. A person might pledge any movable
article--a horse, a brooch, a mantle, etc.--and the person holding the
pledge might put it to its proper use while it remained with him. He was
obliged to return it on receiving a day’s notice, provided the borrower
tendered the sum borrowed, with its interest: and if he failed to do so he
was liable to fine. Borrowing or lending, on pledge, was a very common
transaction among neighbours; and it was not looked upon as in any sense a
thing to be ashamed of, as pawning articles is at the present day.

There were distinct terms for all the parts of these transactions--a loan
for kindness merely, a loan for interest, a loan in general: and interest
was designated by two distinct words. The existence in ancient Ireland of
the practice of pledging and lending for interest, the designation of the
several functions by different terms, and the recognition of all by the
Brehon Law, may be classed, among numerous other customs and institutions
noticed throughout this book, as indicating a very advanced stage of
civilisation. At what an early period this stage--of lending for
interest--was reached may be seen from the fact that it is mentioned in an
Irish gloss of twelve hundred years ago.

       *       *       *       *       *

Old age was greatly honoured, and provision was made for the maintenance
of old persons who were not able to support themselves. As to old persons
who had no means, the duty of maintaining them fell of course on the
children; and a son or daughter who was able to support parents but who
evaded the duty was punished. If an old person who had no children became
destitute the tribe was bound to take care of him. A usual plan was to
send him (or her) to live with some family willing to undertake the duty,
who had an allowance from the tribe for the cost of support.

In some cases destitute persons dependent on the tribe, who did not choose
to live with a strange family, but preferred to have their own little
house, received what we now call outdoor relief. There was a special
officer whose business it was to look after them: or, in the words of the
law tract, to “oversee the wretched and the poor,” and make sure that
they received the proper allowance: like the relieving officer of our
present poor laws. He was paid for this duty; and the law specially warned
him not to take offence at the abuse he was likely to receive from the
poor cross peevish old people he had in charge.

Care was taken that the separate little house in which a destitute old
person lived should be a fit and proper one; and its dimensions and
furniture, as well as the dimensions of the little kitchen-garden, are set
forth in the law. The law also specifies three items of maintenance--food,
milk, and attendance; and it adds that the old person was to have a bath
at regular intervals, and his head was to be washed every Saturday.

From the arrangements here described it will be seen that there was a
kindly spirit in the provisions for old age and destitution, and that the
most important features of our modern poor-laws were anticipated in
Ireland a thousand years ago.

       *       *       *       *       *

“A thing of beauty is a joy for ever.” So says the English poet, Keats, in
his poem of Endymion, and he enumerates various natural features and
artificial creations as things of beauty; among many others, the sun, the
moon, “trees old and new,” clear rills, “the mid-forest brake,” “all
lovely tales that we have heard or read.” If he had been in Ireland in old
times, he would have come across delightful proofs of the truth of his
saying everywhere among the people. They loved and had an intense
appreciation of all things of beauty, whether natural or artificial; and
they were remarkable for their close observation of the natural features
of the world around them.

We know all this from their poetry, their tales, and their writings in
general, which strongly reflect this pleasing aspect of their character.
Everywhere we meet with passages in which are noticed, with loving
admiration, not only those features mentioned by Keats, but many others,
such as the boom and clash of the waves, the cry of the sea-birds, the
murmur of the wind among the trees, the howling of the storm, the sad
desolation of the landscape in winter, the ever-varying beauty of Irish
clouds, the cry of the hounds in full career among the glens, the beauty
of the native music, tender, sad, or joyous, and so forth in endless
variety.

The few examples that follow here, as the reader will at once perceive,
exhibit vividly this very fine and very attractive characteristic.

The singing of birds had a special charm for the old Irish people. Comgan,
a poet of the seventh century, standing on the great rath of Knockgraffon
in Tipperary--one of the old Munster royal residences--which was in his
time surrounded with woods, uttered the following verse:--

  “This great rath on which I stand
  Wherein is a little well with a bright silver drinking-cup:
  Sweet was the voice of the wood of blackbirds
  Round this rath of King Fiacha.”

Among the examples of metre given in an old Irish treatise on prosody is
the following verse, selected merely for a grammatical purpose:--

  “The bird that calls within the sallow-tree,
  Beautiful his beak and clear his voice;
  The tip of the bill of the glossy jet-black bird is a lovely yellow;
  The note that the merle warbles is a trilling lay.”

It would be hard to find a more striking or a prettier conception of the
power of music in the shape of a bird-song, than the account of Queen
Blanid’s three cows with their three little birds which used to sing to
them during milking. These cows were always milked into a caldron, but
submitted reluctantly and gave little milk till the birds came to their
usual perch--on the cows’ ears--and sang for them: then they gave their
milk freely till the caldron was filled. This corresponds with the effect
of the milking-songs described at p. 89. (See also for bird-songs, p.
83.)

Many students of our ancient literature have noticed these characteristics
of the old Irish and their writings. “Another poem,” writes Mr. Alfred
Nutt, “strikes a note which remains dominant throughout the entire range
of Ossianic Literature: the note of keen and vivid feeling for certain
natural conditions. It is a brief description of winter:--

    “A tale here for you: oxen lowing: winter snowing: summer passed away:
    wind from the north, high and cold: low the sun and short his course:
    wildly tossing the wave of the sea. The fern burns deep red. Men wrap
    themselves closely: the wild goose raises her wonted cry: cold seizes
    the wing of the bird: ’tis the season of ice: sad my tale.”

In a certain plain, simple prose narrative in one of our old books, where
there is not the least effort at fine writing, it is related how, in the
noon of a summer day, a little child fell over a cliff into the sea. The
mother ran down shrieking expecting he was dashed to pieces: but she found
him quite safe “sitting in the trough of the sea”--to quote the lovely
words of the old writer--“playing with the waves. For the waves would
reach up to him and laugh round him; and he was laughing at the waves, and
putting the palm of his hand to the foam of the crest, and he used to lick
it like the foam of new milk.”

In the Life of St. Columkille it is stated that, while residing in Iona,
he wrote a poem in Irish, a tender reminiscence of his beloved native
land, in which he expresses himself in this manner:--

    ST. COLUMKILLE’S REMEMBRANCE OF ERIN.

    “How delightful to be on Ben-Edar before embarking on the foam-white
    sea; how pleasant to row one’s little curragh round it, to look upward
    at its bare steep border, and to hear the waves dashing against its
    rocky cliffs.

    “A grey eye looks back towards Erin; a grey eye full of tears.

    “While I traverse Alban of the ravens, I think on my little oak grove
    in Derry. If the tributes and the riches of Alban were mine, from the
    centre to the uttermost borders, I would prefer to them all one little
    house in Derry. The reason I love Derry is for its quietness, for its
    purity, for its crowds of white angels.

    “How sweet it is to think of Durrow: how delightful would it be to
    hear the music of the breeze rustling through its groves.

    “Plentiful is the fruit in the Western Island--beloved Erin of many
    waterfalls: plentiful her noble groves of oak. Many are her kings and
    princes; sweet-voiced her clerics; her birds warble joyously in the
    woods: gentle are her youths; wise her seniors; comely and graceful
    her women, of spotless virtue; illustrious her men, of noble aspect.

    “There is a grey eye that fills with tears when it looks back towards
    Erin. While I stand on the oaken deck of my bark I stretch my vision
    westwards over the briny sea towards Erin.”

Even the place-names scattered over the country--names that remain in
hundreds to this day--bear testimony to this pleasing feature of the Irish
character: for we have numerous places still called by names with such
significations as “delightful wood,” “silvery stream,” “cluster of nuts”
(for a hazel wood), “prattling rivulet,” “crystal well,” “the recess of
the bird-warbling,” “melodious little hill,” “the fragrant bush-cluster,”
and so forth in endless variety.[7]

       *       *       *       *       *

There is a very old legend that Ailill Inbanna, king of Connaught in the
sixth century, earned heaven by his noble self-sacrifice in order to save
his people. A bitter war was waged between him and the two princes Donall
and Fergus, sons of the king of Ireland, till at last a decisive battle
was fought between them at a place called Cúil-Conari, in the present
county Mayo, in which Ailill was defeated. And at the end of the day, when
he and his army were in full retreat, the king, sitting in his chariot in
the midst of the flying multitude, said to his charioteer:--“Cast thine
eyes back, I pray thee, and tell me if there is much killing of my people,
and if the slayers are near us.” The charioteer did so, and said:--“The
slaughter that is made on thy people is intolerable.” Then said the
king:--“Not their own guilt, but my pride and unrighteousness it is that
they are suffering for. Turn now the chariot and let me face the pursuers;
for as their enmity is against me only, if I am slain it will be the
redemption of many.” The chariot was accordingly turned round, and the
king plunged amidst his foemen and was slain; on which the pursuit and
slaughter ceased. That man, says the old legend, by giving up his life, in
his repentance, to save his people, attained to the Lord’s peace.

       *       *       *       *       *

In the old Irish Canon Law, there was a merciful provision to save the
family of a dead man from destitution if he died in debt; namely, that
certain specified valuable articles--such as a cow, a horse, a garment, a
bed, etc.--belonged to the family, and could not be claimed by a creditor.

       *       *       *       *       *

The yellow plague wrought dreadful havoc in Ireland--and indeed desolated
all Europe--in the seventh century. In Ireland at least it appears to have
attacked adults more than children, so that everywhere through the country
numbers of little children, whose mothers and fathers had been carried
off, were left helpless and starving. At this same time lived Ultan, the
kindly bishop of Ardbraccan in Meath. It wrung his heart to witness these
piteous scenes of human suffering all round him; and he took steps, so far
as he was able, to relieve and save the little children. He collected all
the orphan babes he could find, and brought them to his monastery; and
procuring a great number of cows’ teats, and filling them with milk, he
put them into the children’s mouths with his own hands, and thus contrived
to feed the little creatures. The number increased daily, so that at last
he had as many as 150; and as he was not able to do all the work himself,
he had to call in others to assist him in his noble labour of love.

It is proper to remark here that we find other examples in history of the
use of a cow’s teat for milk-feeding, and that in Russia infants are often
fed in this way.

All this is remembered to St. Ultan down to the present day; for he is
often mentioned in old Irish histories, almost always with a remark
something like this:--“Little children are always playing round Ultan of
Ardbraccan.”

It would be difficult to find an instance where charity is presented in
greater beauty and tenderness than it is in this simple story of the good
bishop Ultan.



INDEX.


  Adam and Eve, 83.

  Adze, 136.

  Aenach, a fair, chap. xxi.

  Aghaboe, in Queen’s County, 49.

  Agriculture, 35, chap. xvii.

  Agricultural implements, 130.

  Aidan, St., 52, 53.

  Ailech, palace in Donegal, 7.

  Ailell Inbanna, king of Connaught, 166.

  Aillenn, palace of, 8.

  Ainnle, son of Usna, 77.

  Airmeda, daughter of Dianket, 98, 99.

  Alban, Scotland, 11, 165.

  Albinus, and Clement, 58, 59, 60.

  Ale, 115.

  Alloys, 132.

  Alum, 140.

  American Universities, 44, 45.

  Anglo-Normans, 10, 15, 64.

  Anglo-Saxons, 52.

  Angus Mac-an-oge, 28.

  Animals belonging to farm, 130.

  Annals, the Irish, chap. ix.

  Annals of the Four Masters, 73.

  Antrim, 12.

  Anvil, the smith’s, 134.

  Apprenticeship, 138.

  Architects, 131.

  Ardagh Chalice, 97.

  Ardan, son of Usna, 77.

  Ardbraccan in Meath, 168.

  Ard-ri, the over-king of Ireland, 1.

  Aristocracy, marks of, 121.

  Armagh, 42.

  Army doctors, 99, 100.

  Art, chap. xii.

  Art the Solitary, king of Ireland, 23.

  Artificers: see Handicrafts and Art.

  Assemblies, Sports, and Pastimes, chap. xxi.

  Assyrian beards, 123.

  Augustine, St., 52.

  Augurs, 26.


  Bagpipes, 86.

  Baking, 117.

  Bangor, Co. Down, 42, 43, 49.

  Banqueting Hall at Tara, 106, 111, 112, 150.

  Barbers, 123.

  Barm, 117.

  Baths and bathing, 122, 124.

  Beard, 123.

  Beauty of Nature and Art admired, 161 to 164.

  Bede, the Venerable, 11, 50, 69, 72.

  Bees, 117.

  Beeswax, 118.

  Beetagh, a public hosteller, 119.

  Bell of the Will, the, 39.

  Bellows, described, 134.

  Bells, 38, 39, 88.

  Ben-Edar, now the Hill of Howth, near Dublin, 165.

  Bir, a spit, 115.

  Birds and Bird-net Laws, 155.

  Bird-singing, 162, 163.

  Black in dyeing, 140.

  Blacksmith, 39, 113, 132, 133, 134.

  Blanid, Queen, 163.

  Blower, a sort of bellows, 134.

  Blue, in dyeing, 141.

  Boats, 110, 145, 146, 147.

  Bobbio in Italy, 49.

  Book of Kells, 93, 94, 95, 122, 140.

  Book of Lecan, 66.

  Book of Lecan, Yellow, 65.

  Book of Leinster, 65.

  Book of Mac Durnan, 140.

  Book of the Dun Cow, 65, 74.

  Books and Literature, chap. viii.

  Borrowing, 159.

  Boundaries of territories, 129.

  Bracelets, 128.

  Brasiers and their work, 97, 98, 128, 132, 133.

  Brass, 132.

  Brathlang, a covering for a deer-trap, 155.

  Bread, 117.

  Brehon, a judge, 17.

  Brehon Laws, the, chap. iii., 148.

  Brendan the Navigator, St., 43.

  Brewing, 117.

  Brewy, a public hospitaller, 116, 119.

  Bridges, 144.

  Bridles, 145.

  Brigit, St., 36.

  Brigit, the goddesses so named, 28.

  Britain, 50, 52.

  Britannia, 14.

  Britons, 141, 145.

  Bronze, 116, 132, 133, 141.

  Brooch, 126, 128.

  Brugh, now Newgrange on the Boyne, 28.

  Bruree, palace of, 8.

  Builders, 131, 132.

  Bunnĕ-do-at, a kind of gold ornament, 128.

  Butter, 117.

  Buttons, 126, 128.


  Caher in Tipperary, 8.

  Caird, a brasier or silversmith, 132, 133.

  Caldron, 116.

  Candles, 118.

  Canon Law, old Irish, 167.

  Cape for shoulders, 125, 141.

  Car in common use, 144.

  Carding wool, 139.

  Carlingford peninsula, 78.

  Carntierna near Fermoy, 28.

  Carpenters, 132.

  Carrigcleena near Mallow, 28.

  Carthage, 56.

  Carving and carvers, 135.

  Cashel, Rock of, 8.

  Castletown Fort, near Dundalk, 77.

  Celts (people), 114.

  Champion, a king’s, 4.

  Charcoal, 118.

  Chariot, 144.

  Charioteer, 113, 144, 145.

  Charlemagne, 58, 59, 60.

  Cheese, 117.

  Chess and chess-playing, 156.

  Christian Ireland, chap. v.

  Churches, 36, 37, 136, 137.

  Churn, 117.

  Cleena the fairy queen, 28.

  Clement and Albinus, 58, 59, 60.

  Cloak, 125, 126.

  Clonard in Meath, 35, 42, 43.

  Clonfert in Galway, 43 (twice).

  Clonmacnoise in King’s County, 42.

  Clontarf, Battle of, 69 to 72.

  Clothes and clothing industries, chap. xix.

  Clowns, 153, 156.

  Coats, 125, 126.

  Cogwheels, 134.

  Cóir Anmann, the, 73.

  Colman, abbot of Lindisfarne, 53.

  Colours of dress, 124, 125, 126, 152: see Dyeing.

  Columba, St.: see Columkille.

  Columbanus, St., 49.

  Columkille, St., 29, 52.

  Combs and combing, 122, 124.

  Comgall, St., 43.

  Commerce, 147.

  Commons (land), 131.

  Compasses (for circles), 136.

  Conall Kernagh, 77, 122.

  Conari, king of Ireland, 156, 157.

  Concobar or Conor mac Nessa, 7, 76, 78, 158.

  Congal, Prince, 125.

  Conn the Hundred Fighter, king of Ireland, 30.

  Connla of the Golden Hair, Prince, 30, 31, 32.

  Convents, 36.

  Cooks and cooking, 115, 116, 154.

  Cooley or Quelnĕ, 78.

  Coopers, 136.

  Copper, 130, 131, 132.

  Copyists, 63.

  Cormac Mac Art, king of Ireland, 23, 24, 77, 111.

  Cormac’s Glossary, written by archbishop Cormac Mac Cullenan, king of
      Munster, died A.D. 807, 16.

  Corn, 130.

  Coursing and coursing hounds, 155.

  Courts of justice, 17, 18.

  Cows, 130.

  Cow’s teat as feeding-bottle, 168.

  Craebh-ciuil, 88.

  Craglea near Killaloe, 28.

  Crannoge, a lake-dwelling, 110.

  Creeveroe at Emain, 77.

  Crescents for the neck, 96, 128.

  Criffan the Great, king of Ireland, 14.

  Crimson in dyeing, 140, 141.

  Crochet-work, 139.

  Croghan, palace of, 8, 78, 137, 149, 150.

  Crops, 130.

  Cross of Cong, the, 97.

  Crossans, gleemen, 157.

  Cuculainn, 77, 78.

  Cúil-Conari in Connaught, 166.

  Curath-mir, the hero’s morsel, 113.

  Curds, 117.

  Curragh, a wicker-boat, a coracle, 10, 143, 145, 146, 147.

  Curragh of Kildare, 153.

  Cycles of Irish Tales, 76, 77, 78.


  Danes, the, 37, 57, 64, 69, 72.

  Dark Ages, 51.

  Decies in Waterford, 15.

  Dedannans, the colony preceding the Milesians. The Irish gods and
      fairies were mostly Dedannans; 76: see chap. iv.

  Deece baronies near Tara, 15.

  Deirdre, 121.

  Dermot O’Dyna, 79.

  Derry, 43, 165.

  Desii, the tribe of, 15.

  Dianket, the Irish god of medicine, 98, 99.

  Dinner, 111, 115.

  Dinnree in Carlow, 8.

  Dinnsenchus, the, 73.

  Diseases, 104.

  Distaff and spindle, 139.

  Divination, 25.

  Divinity taught in schools, 48.

  Domnall, king of Ireland, 125, 158.

  Donall, Prince, 166.

  Donegal, 52.

  Donegal, Monastery of, 73.

  Donn, the fairy king, 28.

  Dress, chap. xvi.

  Drink, 115.

  Druids, 24, 25, 26, 40.

  Drum Ketta, 158. (See this in Index of History of Ireland.)

  Drunkenness, 115.

  Dundalgan, Dundalk, 77.

  Dunlavin in Wicklow, 8.

  Dunstan, St., 57.

  Durrow in King’s County, 43.

  Dyeing, 139, 140, 141.

  Dyeing the face, hair, etc., 121, 122, 123.

  Dyfed in Wales, 15.


  Ecclesiastical Schools, chap. vi.

  Eclipses, 68, 69.

  Education, 75, 81, 82.

  Eevin or Eevil the fairy queen, 28.

  Egypt, 50, 55.

  Election of kings, 2.

  Elements, worship of, 29.

  Emain or Emania, 7, 76, 137, 149, 150.

  Embroidery, 142, 153.

  Endymion, poem of, 161.

  England, 52, 53, 57, 62.

  Engravers, 135.

  Erc, Concobar’s grandson, 158.

  Eric of Auxerre, 53.

  Ethicus of Istria, 61.

  Eyebrows dyed black, 121.

  Eyelids, dyed black, 54, 121.


  Fairies, 27 to 32, 109.

  Fairs, chap. xxi.

  Farm animals, 130.

  Farm fences, 129.

  Farming implements, 130.

  Faroe Islands, 55.

  Feis, a festival, a great meeting of delegates, 149.

  Fena of Erin, the, 77, 79.

  Fences, 129.

  Fergil the Geometer, 49.

  Fergus, Angus, and Lorne, 12.

  Fergus, Prince, 166.

  Fergus Mac Roy, 77.

  Fer-leginn, the principal of a college, 46.

  Ferryboats, 110, 144.

  Fiacha Mullehan, king of Ireland, 163.

  Finan, abbot of Lindisfarne, 53.

  Finger-nails, 121.

  Finn mac Coole, or Finn, son of Cumal, 77, 79.

  Finnen or Finnian, St., 35.

  Fish and Fishing, 155.

  Fishing weirs, 155.

  Flageolets, 86.

  Flax, 139, 140.

  Fleshfork, 117.

  Flint and steel, 118.

  Food, chap. xv.

  Fools (for amusement), 156.

  Fords, 144.

  Foreign conquests, chap. ii.

  Foreign merchants, 147, 153.

  Foreign missions, chap. vii.

  Forge, a blacksmith’s, tools in, 134.

  Forks and knives, 114.

  Forts, or lisses, or raths, 16, 109.

  Fortune-tellers, 26.

  Founders (in metals), 118, 132, 133.

  Four Masters, the, 73.

  France, 21, 50, 57, 58, 120.

  Free circuit of kings, 5.

  Frieze, 125.

  Frith of Clyde, 11.

  Frock-coat, 125.

  Fuel, 118, 134.

  Fulling cloth, 138, 139.

  Furnace, 134.

  Furs of animals, 124.


  Game, different kinds of, 154, 155.

  Ganntree, mirth-music, 88.

  Garters, 127.

  Gauls, the, 9, 109, 113, 145.

  Germany, 50, 57, 120.

  Gildas, the British writer, 147.

  Giraldus Cambrensis, 84.

  Girdle, 118, 125, 126, 127.

  Glasheen, the woad-plant, 22, 23, 141.

  Glastonbury, 57.

  Gleemen, 157.

  Gloves, 127.

  Goad for horses, 145.

  Goaling or hurling, 155.

  Gobha, a smith, 132, 133, 134.

  Gods, the pagan Irish, 27 to 30.

  Goibniu, the Irish smith-god, 134.

  Gold-plate ornament, 128.

  Goldsmiths and their work, 97, 98, 128, 132.

  Goll-tree, sorrow music, 88.

  Gorgets, 96, 128.

  Gospels, 93, 94.

  Great Britain, 50, 52, 57.

  Greece, 51, 151.

  Greek language, 48.

  Greeks, the, 81, 113, 114, 122, 139, 144, 152.

  Greenan, a summer-house, the women’s apartment, 108.

  Greenan Ely, 7.

  Greyhounds, 155.

  Griffith ap Conan, king of Wales, 84.

  Grindstone, 136.

  Guests, 4.


  Hair, 122, 123, 127.

  Handbag for ladies, 127, 142.

  Handicrafts, chap. xviii.

  Harp, the, and harpers, 83, 85, 86.

  Hat, 127.

  Haughton, the Rev. Dr., 70, 71.

  Head covering, 127.

  Heads of pigs and oxen, for smiths, 113.

  Heaven, the pagan Irish, 30, 31, 32.

  Heptarchy, the, 52.

  Hermits, 36.

  Hero’s morsel, 113.

  Historical and Romantic Tales, 41, chap. x.

  Holyhead, 16.

  Holy wells, 38.

  Honey, 116, 117, 118.

  Hood, 125, 127.

  Horns (blowing), 87.

  Horses, and horsemanship, 130, 145, 153.

  Horse-rod, 145.

  Hospitality, 119, 120.

  Hospitals, 104, 105.

  Hostels, free, 119, 120.

  House, the, chap. xiv.

  Household of king, 3, 4, 5.

  House-steward, 3.

  Hunting, 154.

  Hurling or goaling, 155.


  I-Brassil, the pagan Irish heaven, 30.

  Iceland, 55.

  Idols, the Irish, 27, 29.

  Inauguration of kings, 2.

  Insanity, 25.

  Interest on loans, 159.

  Intoxicating drink, 115.

  Iona, 52.

  Irishmen’s cottages in Wales, 16.

  Iron, 130, 131.

  Island of Saints and Scholars, the, chap. vi., 51.

  Isle of Man, 12, 13.

  Isthmian games of Greece, 151.

  Italy, 50, 57, 60.


  Jesters, 156.

  John Macananty, the fairy king, 28.

  John Scotus Erigena, 49.

  Joints for special persons, 113.

  Joseph’s coat of many colours, 125.

  Josina, king of Scotland, 99.

  Jugglers, 153, 156, 157.

  Julius Cæsar, 9, 146.


  Keats the poet, 161.

  Keens or laments, 89.

  Kehern, 100.

  Keltar of the Battles, 77.

  Kent, 52.

  Kildare, 36, 42, 95.

  Kilmallock Abbey, 47, note.

  Kilt, 126.

  Kincora, palace of, 8.

  Kings, chap. i.

  Kiss on cheek as salutation, 158.

  Kitchen garden, 110.

  Kitchen, a relish or condiment, 117.

  Kitchen utensils, 116.

  Knives and forks, 114.

  Knockaulin fort, 8.

  Knockfierna in Limerick, 28.


  Laeghaire, king of Ireland, 19, 26.

  Laery the Victorious, 77.

  Lambrat, a napkin, 114.

  Lathes, 136.

  Latin, 48.

  Law books, 19, 20.

  Law to be obeyed by kings, 6.

  Lay schools, 40, 41, 42, 43.

  Lead, 131.

  Learning, chap. vi.

  Leather and leather-work, 142, 143.

  Leaven, 117.

  Leggings, 126.

  Letters of English alphabet, 62.

  Lichen for dyeing, 141.

  Liffey, the river, 72.

  Light, 118.

  Linen, 124, 139.

  Lis or Liss, a circular fort, 16, 109.

  Lismore in Waterford, 42.

  Locomotion, chap. xx.

  Louth, Co. of, 78.

  Luncheon, 111.


  Mac Con, king of Ireland, 22, 23.

  Madness, 25.

  Maive, queen of Connaught, 78.

  Man, Isle of, 12, 13.

  Mannanan Mac Lir, the Irish sea-god, 27, 28.

  Mantle, 125.

  Manure, 130.

  Manuscripts, 63.

  Manx language, 13.

  Markets in fairs, 153.

  Marriages and Marriage Hollow at Tailltenn, 151.

  Marshal, the, 112.

  Masons, 132.

  Mead or metheglin, 115, 118.

  Meals, 111.

  Medical books, 101, 102.

  Medicinal herbs, 98, 99, 100, 104.

  Medicine and medical doctors, chap. xiii.

  Metal-work and metal-workers, 95, 132, 134. See Brasiers, and Goldsmiths.

  Meyer, Dr. Kuno, 80.

  Midac, son of Dianket, 98.

  Migrations of Irish to Scotland, 11, 12, 72.

  Migrations of Irish to Wales, 13.

  Milesian colony, 76.

  Milk, 115, 117.

  Milking, 131.

  Milking-songs, 89.

  Mills, 117, 130.

  Mine on a farm, 130.

  Mines and mining, 131.

  Mirth-music, 88.

  Missionaries, chap. vii., 120, 121.

  Monasterboice near Drogheda, 43.

  Monasteries, 34, 35, 36, 120.

  Monastic schools, 40 to 51.

  Monks, 34.

  Montalembert, 55.

  Moore, Thomas, 90.

  Mortar, 136.

  Moulds for metal-casting, 133.

  Moy Mell, the pagan Irish heaven, 30.

  Munster, 11, 140.

  Music, chap. xi., 115, 152.

  Musical Branch, 88.

  Mythological period of Irish Tales, 76.


  Naas in Kildare, 8.

  Nails (of fingers), 121.

  Naisi, son of Usna, 77.

  Names of Places, 165, 166.

  Napkins, 114.

  Nature closely observed, 162.

  Necklaces, 128.

  Necklets, 96.

  Needle and needlework, 141, 142.

  Niall of the Nine Hostages, 14, 15.

  Nobles, 2.

  Norsemen, 12.

  Northumberland, Northumbria, and Northumbrians, 52, 53.

  Nuns, 36.


  O’Cassidys, the, 101.

  O’Clerys, the, 73.

  O’Curry, Professor Eugene, 20.

  O’Donovan, Dr. John, 20, 73.

  Ogham writing, 61, 62.

  O’Hickeys, the, 101.

  Old age and destitution, provision for, 160.

  O’Lees, the, 101.

  Ollam Fodla, king of Ireland, 149.

  Ollave, a doctor of any profession, 3, 112, 113, 132, 149.

  O’Loghlin, Donall, king of Ireland, 39.

  Olympian games of Greece, 151.

  O’Mulconry, Ferfesa, 73.

  Orkney Islands, 55.

  Ornaments, personal, 128.

  Oscar, son of Ossian, 79.

  O’Shiels, the, 101.

  Ossian, son of Finn, 79.

  Oswald, king of Northumbria, 53.

  Outdoor relief, 160.

  Oxen, 130.


  Pagan Ireland, chap. iv.

  Pagan schools, 40.

  Painters, 135.

  Painting or dyeing the face, 121, 122.

  Palaces, 6, 7, 8.

  Paris, 49, 59.

  Pasturage and tillage, chap. xvii.

  Patrick, St., 15, 19, 26, 29, 33, 35, 36, 38, 39, 40, 41, 61, 96.

  Pavia in Italy, 60.

  Peat, 118.

  Penal Laws, 85.

  Penwork, 92.

  Periods or cycles of Irish Tales, 76, 77, 78.

  Picts and Scots, 10, 13, 14.

  Pigs, 130.

  Pillar-stones as boundaries, 129.

  Pillar-stones as idols, 29.

  Pins, 126.

  Place-names, 165, 166.

  Planes (carpentry), 136.

  Pledging for loan, 159.

  Plough whistles, 90.

  Poets and poetry, 41, 81, 82.

  Pond for cattle, 130.

  Poor-laws, 160, 161.

  Poor scholars, 44, 45.

  Pope, the, 56.

  Porridge, 117.

  Potters wheel, 136.

  Printing, 60.

  Professions, 3, 41, 101.

  Provinces, the five, 1.

  Purple in dyeing, 141.


  Quelnĕ or Cooley, 78.

  Querns, 117.


  Races, 153.

  Ramparts as boundaries, 129.

  Rath or lis, a circular fort, 16, 109.

  Razors, 123.

  Recitation of stories and poems, 81, 152.

  Red in dyeing, 140.

  Red Branch Knights, 7, 76 to 79, 113.

  Relieving officer, 161.

  Rélta na bh-filedh, the meeting-house for the ollaves at Tara, 150.

  Residences of kings, 6, 7, 8.

  Retinue of kings, 3, 4.

  Revenue of kings, 5.

  Rhapsodists of Greece, 152.

  Rings, 128.

  Rivers as boundaries, 129.

  Road through or by farm, 130.

  Roads, 143, 144.

  Roads as boundaries between territories, 129.

  Rock of Cashel, 8.

  Roman classical writers, 10, 11.

  Roman walls between England and Scotland, 11.

  Romans, 114, 115, 122, 144, 145.

  Rome, 51, 56.

  Rosscarbery in Cork, 43.

  Round Towers, 37, 136, 137.

  Rushlight, 118.

  Ruskin, 125.


  Sacred groves round monasteries, 39.

  Sacred armistice of the Greeks, 152.

  Saer, a mason or carpenter, 133.

  Sai-re-caird, a head craftsman, 137.

  Salmon, 117.

  Salt, 116.

  Saltair, of Tara, 150.

  Salutation, modes of, 158.

  Samain, 1st November, 149.

  Satin, 124, 126.

  Schools and colleges, chap. vi.

  Science, various branches of, taught in Irish schools, 48.

  Scotland, 10, 11, 12, 52, 72, 82, 86, 89, 90, 91, 112, 113, 126, 150.

  Scots, _i.e._, the Irish, 9, 10, 58.

  Scottish harpers and music, 84.

  Scrabo near Newtownards, 28.

  Scribes, 63.

  Scriptures, the Holy, 48.

  Sedulius, 49.

  Senchus Mór, Great Law Book, 19, 20.

  Sewing, 141.

  Shanachie, a storyteller, a historian, 74, 81, 112.

  Shears, 138.

  Shee, fairies and fairy-dwellings, 27, 28, 29.

  Sheep, 130.

  Shellfish in dyeing, 141.

  Shield, 112.

  Ships, 146.

  Shirt, 126.

  Shoes, 127.

  Shoes taken off at meals, 115.

  Showmen, 153.

  Shrine of St. Patrick’s Bell, 39.

  Silversmiths: see Goldsmiths.

  Sick maintenance in a hospital, 105.

  Sieves, 117.

  Silk, 124, 126.

  Singing, 115, 152.

  Singing of birds, 162.

  Skewers, 115.

  Slaan, a turf-spade, 118.

  Sleeping accommodation, 108.

  Sleep-music, 89.

  Smiths, 39, 113, 132, 133, 134.

  Soap, 124.

  Solway Frith, 11.

  Soothsayers, 26.

  Sorrow-music, 88.

  Spear-heads, 133.

  Speckled Book, 65.

  Spinning, spindles, and wheel, 139, 140.

  Spinning-wheel songs, 89.

  Spit for cooking, 115, 116.

  Spunk, tinder, 118.

  Spurs, none used, 145.

  Squire or shield-bearer, 112.

  Steel, 141.

  Stilicho, 14.

  Stirabout, 117.

  Stokes, Miss Margaret, 93.

  Stokes, Dr. Whitley, 80.

  Stone-building, 107, 132, 136.

  Stuarts, the, 12.

  Styles of Irish music, 88.

  Suantree, sleep-music, 89.

  Swimming, 144.


  Tables, 114.

  Tailltenn, fair of, 150.

  Táin bo Quelnĕ, story of the, 78, 79.

  Tales, the Irish Historical and Romantic, 41, chap. x.

  Tanning, 142, 143.

  Tara, 1, 7, 26, 111, 143, 146, 149.

  Tara, Plan of, _Frontispiece_.

  Tara Brooch, 97.

  Teernanoge or Tirnanoge, the pagan Irish heaven, 30.

  Teltown in Meath: see Tailltenn.

  Theodosius, 13.

  Theology, 48.

  Things of beauty, 161, 162.

  Three Orders of Irish Saints, 34 to 36.

  Tierna, the fairy king, 28.

  Tillage and pasturage, chap. xvii.

  Timpan and timpanists, 85, 86.

  Tin, 131, 132.

  Tinder, 118.

  Tinnĕ-crassa, fire from flint and steel, 118.

  Tirconnell, now Donegal, 52.

  Tlachtga, fair of, 150, 151.

  Todd, the Rev. Dr., 70, 71.

  Tools of various handicraftsmen, 136.

  Torques for the neck, 128.

  Towns, 106.

  Trades, how learned, 138.

  Tradesmen of the various crafts, 135: see Handicrafts.

  Traps for wild animals, 154, 155.

  Travelling, 143.

  Trousers, 126.

  Trumpets and trumpeters, 87, 112, 133.

  Turf for firing, 118.

  Tyrian purple, 141.


  Ulster, 76, 78, 139.

  Ultan, St., 167, 168.

  Universities, the Irish, 48.

  Ushnagh, fair of, 150, 151.

  Usna, sons of, 77.


  Van Helmont, the physician, 103.

  Various customs, chap. xxii.

  Veil, 127.

  Verse, 81, 82.

  Vessels, makers of, 136.

  Vulcan, 133.


  Wales, 10, 15, 16.

  War of the Irish with the Danes, 69, 70.

  Warfare, chap. ii.

  War-marches (music), 90.

  Water, digging for, 130.

  Watermills, 117.

  Wax candles, 118.

  Weaving, 139.

  Weirs for fishing, 155.

  Wells, 29, 37, 38.

  Welsh, 84, 141.

  Westwood, Professor, 94.

  Whistles, 86.

  Wickerwork building, 107, 144.

  Wine, 115.

  Wolfdog, 154.

  Wolves, 154.

  Wood, a, on a farm, 130.

  Wood cleared off the land, 129.

  Wood for working, 131.

  Wood-building, 107, 132.

  Wood-workers, 135: see Carpenters.

  Wool and woollens, 124, 126, 138, 139, 141.

  Writing, art of, 60, 61.


  Yeast, 117.

  Yellow Book of Lecan, 65.

  Yellow Plague, the, 167.

  Yew-tree and wood, 135.



FOOTNOTES:

[1] Many of the provisions of the Brehon Laws, such as those relating to
Land, to Offences, Compensations, and Punishments; to Professions, Trades,
and Industries; to the mutual duties of the various classes of people,
from the king down to the slave; to the modes of summoning wrong-doers
before the brehons’ courts, with a description of the manner in which
trials were conducted; and various other details, will be found in my two
Social Histories of Ancient Iceland.

[2] Freely translated (in “Old Celtic Romances”) by Dr. Joyce, from the
old poem in the original Irish version.

[3] I saw the same custom in full swing in some of the lay schools before
1847. Many a time I prepared my lesson--with some companions--sitting on
the grass beside the old abbey in Kilmallock, or perched on the top of the
ivy-mantled wall.

[4] The Irishmen who went to the Continent in those times always took
Latin names, which were generally translations of their Irish names.

[5] Translated in my “Reading Book in Irish History.”

[6] Translated in my “Old Celtic Romances.”

[7] For the originals of all the above names, and for numerous others of a
like kind, see Irish Names of Places, vol. II., chap. IV., on “Poetical
and Fancy Names.”



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