Part 6 (2/2)

[Ill.u.s.tration: FROM SCULPTURES AT DEVENISH.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: ROUND TOWER OF DYSART, NEAR CROOM, LIMERICK.]

FOOTNOTES:

[57] _Scota_.--The grave is still pointed out in the valley of Gleann Scoithin, county Kerry.

[58] _Taillten_.--Now Telltown, county Meath.

[59] _Amhergen_.--Annals of the Four Masters, vol. i. p. 25.

[60] _Also_.--This tale bears a simple and obvious interpretation. The druids were the most learned and experienced in physical science of their respective nations; hence the advice they gave appeared magical to those who were less instructed.

[61] _Geisill_.--The scene of the battle was at a place called _Tochar eter dha mhagh_, or ”the causeway between two plains,” and on the bank of the river _Bri Damh_, which runs through the town of Tullamore. The name of the battle-field is still preserved in the name of the townland of Ballintogher, in the parish and barony of _Geisill_. At the time of the composition of the ancient topographical tract called the Dinnseanchus, the mounds and graves of the slain were still to be seen.--See O'Curry, page 449. The author of this tract, Amergin Mac Amalgaidh, wrote about the sixth century. A copy of his work is preserved in the Book of Ballymote, which was compiled in the year 1391.

There is certainly evidence enough to prove the fact of the _melee_, and that this was not a ”legend invented from the tenth to the twelfth centuries.” It is almost amusing to hear the criticisms of persons utterly ignorant of our literature, however well-educated in other respects. If the treasures of ancient history which exist in Irish MSS.

existed in Sanscrit, or even in Greek or Latin, we should find scholars devoting their lives and best intellectual energies to understand and proclaim their value and importance, and warmly defending them against all impugners of their authenticity.

[62] _Island_.--The axe figured above is a remarkable weapon. The copy is taken, by permission, from the collection of the Royal Irish Academy.

Sir W. Wilde describes the original thus in the Catalogue: ”It is 3-1/8 inches in its longest diameter, and at its thickest part measures about half-an-inch. It has been chipped all over with great care, and has a sharp edge all round. This peculiar style of tool or weapon reached perfection in this specimen, which, whether used as a knife, arrow, spike, or axe, was an implement of singular beauty of design, and exhibits great skill in the manufacture.”

[63] _Fotharta_.--Now the barony of Forth, in Wexford.

[64] _Bede.--Ecclesiastical History_, Bohn's edition, p. 6.

[65] _Honey_.--Honey was an important edible to the ancients, and, therefore, likely to obtain special mention. Keating impugns the veracity of Solinus, who stated that there were no bees in Ireland, on the authority of Camden, who says: ”Such is the quant.i.ty of bees, that they are found not only in hives, but even in the trunks of trees, and in holes in the ground.” There is a curious legend anent the same useful insect, that may interest apiarians as well as hagiologists. It is said in the life of St. David, that when Modomnoc (or Dominic) was with St.

David at Menevia, in Wales, he was charged with the care of the beehives, and that the bees became so attached to him that they followed him to Ireland. However, the Rule of St. Albans, who lived in the time of St. Patrick (in the early part of the fifth century), may be quoted to prove that bees existed in Ireland at an earlier period, although the saint may have been so devoted to his favourites as to have brought a special colony by miracle or otherwise to Ireland. The Rule of St. Alban says: ”When they [the monks] sit down at table, let them be brought [served] beets or roots, washed with water, in clean baskets, also apples, beer, and honey from the hive.” Certainly, habits of regularity and cleanliness are here plainly indicated as well as the existence of the bee.

[66] _Fish_.--It is to be presumed that fish are destined to prosper in Hibernia: of the ancient deer, more hereafter. The goats still nourish also, as visitors to Killarney can testify; though they will probably soon be relics of the past, as the goatherds are emigrating to more prosperous regions at a rapid rate.

[67] _Monarchs_.--See Bunsen's _Egypt, pa.s.sim_.

[68] _Writers_.--The first ten books of Livy are extant, and bring Roman history to the consuls.h.i.+p of Julius Maximus Gurges and Junius Brutus Scoene, in 292 B.C. Dionysius published his history seven years before Christ. Five of Plutarch's Lives fall within the period before the war with Pyrrhus. There are many sources besides those of the works of historians from which general information is obtained.

[69] _Niebuhr_.--”Genuine or oral tradition has kept the story of Tarpeia for _five-and-twenty hundred years_ in the mouths of the common people, who for many centuries have been total strangers to the names of Cloelia and Cornelia.”--_Hist_. vol. i. p. 230.

[70] _Event.--Credibility of Early Roman History_, vol. i. p. 101.

[71] _Libri lintei_.--Registers written on linen, mentioned by Livy, under the year 444 B.C.

[72] _Nail_.--Livy quotes Cincius for the fact that a series of nails were extant in the temple of Hostia, at Volsinii, as a register of successive years. Quite as primitive an arrangement as the North American _quipus_.

[73] _Seanchaidhe_ (p.r.o.nounced ”shanachy”).--It means, in this case, strictly a historian; but the ancient historian was also a bard or poet.

[74] _Privileges_.--We can scarcely help requesting the special attention of the reader to these well-authenticated facts. A nation which had so high an appreciation of its annals, must have been many degrees removed from barbarism for centuries.

[75] _Before_.--O'Curry, p. 240.

[76] _Before_.--This, of course, opens up the question as to whether the Irish Celts had a written literature before the arrival of St. Patrick.

The subject will be fully entertained later on.

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