Part 22 (2/2)
”Protegat nos altissimus, De suis sanctis sedibus, Dum ibi hymnos canimus, Decem statutis vicibus.”
Mr. O'Curry gives the names of all the ancient Irish musical instruments as follows:--_Cruit_, a harp; _Timpan_, a drum, or tambourine; _Corn_, a trumpet; _Stoc_, a clarion; _Pipai_, the pipes; _Fidil_, the fiddle. He adds: ”All those are mentioned in an ancient poem in the Book of Leinster, a MS. of about the year 1150, now in the Library of Trinity College. The first four are found in various old tales and descriptions of battles.”
We shall find how powerful was the influence of Irish music on the Irish race at a later period of our history, when the subject of political ballads will be mentioned.
The dress of the rich and the poor probably varied as much in the century of which we write as at the present day. We have fortunately remains of almost every description of texture in which the Irish Celt was clad; so that, as Sir W. Wilde has well observed, we are not left to conjecture, or forced to draw a.n.a.logies from the habits of half-civilized man in other countries at the present day.
In the year 1821 the body of a male adult was found in a bog on the lands of Gallagh, near Castleblakeney, county Galway, clad in its antique garb of deerskin. A few fragments of the dress are preserved, and may be seen in the collection of the Royal Irish Academy. Portions of the seams still remain, and are creditable specimens of early needlework. The material employed in sewing was fine gut of three strands, and the regularity and closeness of the st.i.tching cannot fail to excite admiration. It is another of the many proofs that, even in the earliest ages, the Celt was gifted with more than ordinary skill in the execution of whatever works he took in hand. After all, the skin of animals is one of the most costly and appreciated adornments of the human race, even at the present day; and our ancestors differ less from us in the kind of clothes they wore, than in the refinements by which they are fas.h.i.+oned to modern use. It is stated in the old bardic tale of the _Tain bo Chuailgne_, that the charioteer of the hero was clothed in a tunic of deerskin. This statement, taken in connexion with the fact above-mentioned, is another evidence that increased knowledge is daily producing increased respect for the veracity of those who transmitted the accounts of our ancestral life, which, at one time, were supposed to be purely mythical. Skin or leather garments were in use certainly until the tenth century, in the form of cloaks. It is supposed that Muircheartach obtained the soubriquet ”of the leathern cloaks,” from the care which he took in providing his soldiers with them; and it is said that, in consequence of this precaution, there was not a single man lost in this campaign.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ANCIENT BOOT.]
We give a specimen of an ancient shoe and boot, from the collection of the Royal Irish Academy. It would appear as if the Celt was rather in advance of the Saxon in the art of shoemaking; for Mr. Fairholt has been obliged to give an ill.u.s.tration selected from Irish remains, in his history, although it is exclusively devoted to British costume. In ill.u.s.trating the subject of gold ornaments, he has also made a selection from the same source. Some curious specimens of shoes joined together, and therefore perfectly useless for ordinary wear, have also been discovered. Sir W. Wilde conjectures they may have been used by chieftains as inauguration shoes.[269]
[Ill.u.s.tration: ANCIENT SHOE.]
Saffron was a favourite colour, though it does not appear evident how the dye was procured. There is no doubt the Irish possessed the art of dyeing from an early period. Its introduction is attributed to King Tighearnmas, who reigned from A.M. 3580 to 3664. It is probable the Phoenicians imparted this knowledge to our ancestors. Although our old illuminations are not as rich in figures as those from which English historians have obtained such ample information regarding the early costume of that country, we have still some valuable ill.u.s.trations of this interesting subject. These representations also are found to correspond faithfully, even in the details of colour, with the remains which have been discovered from time to time. Our ancient crosses give immense scope for antiquarian research, though the costumes are princ.i.p.ally ecclesiastical, and hence are not of so much general interest. But the Book of Rights[270] affords ample information, as far as mere description, of the clothing of a higher cla.s.s. While the peasant was covered with a garment of untanned skin or fur, however artistically sown together, the bards, the chieftains, and the monarchs had their tunics [_imar_] of golden borders, their mantles [_leanna_] or s.h.i.+rts of white wool or deep purple, their fair beautiful matals, and their cloaks of every colour. If we add to this costume the magnificent ornaments which still remain to attest the truth of the bardic accounts of Erinn's ancient greatness, we may form a correct picture of the Celtic n.o.ble as he stood in Tara's ancient palace; and we must coincide in the opinion of the learned editor of the Catalogue of the Royal Irish Academy, that ”the variegated and glowing colours, as well as the gorgeous decorations of the different articles of dress enumerated in the Book of Rights, added to the brilliancy of the arms, must have rendered the Irish costume of the eighth and ninth centuries very attractive.”
With a pa.s.sing glance at our ancient _Fauna_ and _Flora_, and the physical state of the country at this period, we must conclude briefly.
It is probable that the province of Ulster, which was styled by statute, in Queen Elizabeth's time, ”the most perilous place in all the isle,”
was much in the same state as to its physical characteristics in the century of which we write. It was densely wooded, and strong in fortresses, mostly placed on lakes, natural or artificial. Two great roads led to this part of Ireland--the ”Gap of the North,” by Carrickmacross, and the historically famous pa.s.s by Magh-Rath. From the former place to Belturbet the country was nearly impa.s.sable, from its network of bogs, lakes, and mountains. We shall find at a later period what trouble these natural defences gave to the English settlers.
Munster so abounded in woods, that it was proposed, in 1579, to employ 4,000 soldiers for the sole purpose of hewing them down. Indeed, its five great forests were the strongholds of the Earls of Desmond; and enough evidence still remains at Glengariff and Killarney, to manifest the value of their sylvan possessions. The cold and withering blasts of the great Atlantic, appear to have stunted or hindered the growth of trees in Connaught. In 1210 the Four Masters mention the wilderness of Cinel-Dorfa, its princ.i.p.al forest; but it was amply provided with other resources for the protection of native princes. In 1529 Chief Baron Finglas gave a list of dangerous pa.s.ses, with the recommendation that the ”Lord Deputy be eight days in every summer cutting pa.s.ses into the woods next adjoining the king's subjects.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: HEAD OF OX.]
In Leinster the forests had been cleared at an earlier period; and the country being less mountainous, was more easily cultivated. But this portion of Ireland contained the well-known Curragh of Kildare, which has its history also, and a more ancient one than its modern visitors are likely to suppose. The Curragh is mentioned for the first time in the _Liber Hymnorum_, in a hymn in praise of St. Brigid. The Scholiast in a contemporary gloss says: ”_Currech, a cursu equorum dictus est_.”
It is also mentioned in Cormac's Glossary, where the etymology is referred to running or racing. But the most important notice is contained in the historical tale of the destruction of the mansion of Da Derga.[271] In this, Connaire Mor, who was killed A.D. 60, is represented as having gone to the games at the Curragh with four chariots. From this and other sources we may conclude, that chariot-races preceded horse-races in ancient Erinn, and that the Curragh has been used as a place of public amus.e.m.e.nt for the last 2,000 years. It would appear that every province in Ireland possessed an _Aenach_ or ”fair-green,” where the men a.s.sembled to celebrate their games and festivals. In an old list of Irish Triads, the three great _Aenachs_ of Ireland are said to have been _Aenach Crogan_, in Connaught; _Aenach Taillten_, in Meath; and _Aenach Colmain_, the Curragh. The last would appear, however, to have been frequented by persons from all parts of Ireland; and it is not a little strange that it should still be used in a similar manner as a place of public amus.e.m.e.nt. Ireland in the tenth century and Ireland in the nineteenth form a painful contrast, notwithstanding the boasted march of intellect.
The ancient forests have been hewn down with little profit[272] to the spoiler, and to the injury in many ways of the native. The n.o.ble rivers are there still, and the mountains look as beautiful in the sunsets of this year of grace as they did so many hundred years before; but the country, which was in ”G.o.d's keeping” then, has but little improved since it came into the keeping of man; for the poor tenant, who may be here to-day, and to-morrow cast out on the wayside, has but subst.i.tuted ill-fenced and ill-cultivated fields for wide tracts of heather and moorland, which had at least the recommendation of attractive scenery, and of not suggesting painful reflections.
[Ill.u.s.tration: HEADS OF IRISH WOLF DOGS.]
The most formidable, if not the largest, of the carnivora in this island, was the brown bear. The wolf lingered on until the beginning of the last century; and the Irish greyhound has pa.s.sed with it also. The gigantic Irish elk, _Cervus megaseros_, belongs more to the palaeontologist than to the historian, as it is supposed to have existed only in pre-historic times. A smaller variety has been found in peat overlaying the clay, from which it is inferred that some species may have been contemporary with the human race. The horse co-existed with the elephant. The red deer was the princ.i.p.al object of chase from an early period. The wild boar found abundant food from our n.o.ble oaks; and the hare, the rabbit, the goat, and the sheep supplied the wants of the Celt in ancient as in modern times. But the great wealth of Ireland consisted in her cows, which then, as now, formed a staple article of commerce. Indeed, most of the ancient feuds were simply cattle raids, and the successful party signalized his victory by bearing off the bovine wealth of the vanquished enemy.
It is impossible exactly to estimate the population of Ireland at this period with any degree of reliable exact.i.tude. The only method of approximating thereto should be based on a calculation of the known or a.s.serted number of men in arms at any given time. When Roderic and his allies invested the Normans in Dublin, he is said to have had 50,000 fighting men. Supposing this to include one-fourth of all the men of the military age in the country, and to bear the proportion of one-fifth to the total number of the inhabitants, it would give a population of about a million, which would probably be rather under than over the correct estimate.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FERRITER'S CASTLE.]
FOOTNOTES:
[245] _Day_.--Wilkinson's _Geology and Architecture of Ireland_, p. 59.
[246] _Celt_.--Catalogue of R.I.A. p. 43. This celt is the largest discovered in Ireland, and is formed of coa.r.s.e clay-slate. It is 22 inches long, 1 inch thick, and 3-3/4 broad at the widest part. It was found in the bed of the river Blackwater, two miles below Charlemont, county Armagh.
[247] _Axe_.--Catalogue of R.I.A. p. 80. Sir W. Wilde p.r.o.nounces this to be one of the most beautiful specimens of the stone battle-axe which has been found in Ireland, both for design and execution. It is composed of fine-grained remblendic sylicite, and is highly polished all over. It was found in the river at Athlone.
[248] _Wright_.--_History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments_, p. 11.
[249] _Hall_.--Hence the term ”hall” is still used to denote mansions of more than ordinary importance. The hall was the princ.i.p.al part of the ancient Saxon house, and the term used for the part was easily transferred to the whole.
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