An Illustrated History of Ireland from AD 400 to 1800 Part 22

[Ill.u.s.tration: STONE DRINKING-CUP.]

Drink was usually served to the guests after meals. Among the seven prerogatives for the King of Teamhair (Tara) we find:

"The fruits of Manann, a fine present; And the heath fruit of Brigh Leithe; The venison of Nas; the fish of the Boinn; The cresses of the kindly Brosnach."

[Ill.u.s.tration: PALSTAVE CELT.]

Dr. O'Donovan suggests that the "heath fruit" may have been bilberries or whortleberries, and adds that some of the old Irish suppose that this, and not the heath, was the shrub from which the Danes brewed their beer.[259] It would appear that the Celts were not in the habit of excessive drinking until a comparatively recent period. In the year 1405 we read of the death of a chieftain who died of "a surfeit in drinking;"

but previous to this entry we may safely a.s.sert that the Irish were comparatively a sober race. The origin of the drink called whisky in modern parlance, is involved in considerable obscurity. Some authorities consider that the word is derived from the first part of the term usquebaugh; others suppose it to be derived from the name of a place, the Basque provinces, where some such compound was concocted in the fourteenth century. In Morewood's _History of Inebriating Liquors_, he gives a list of the ingredients used in the composition of usquebaugh, and none of these are Irish productions.

There is a nice distinction between aqua vitae and aqua vini in the Red Book of Ossory, which was rescued by Dr. Graves from a heap of rubbish, the result of a fire in Kilkenny Castle in 1839. MacGeoghegan, in his annotations on the death of the chieftain above-mentioned, observes that the drink was not _aqua vitae_ to him, but rather _aqua mortis_; and he further remarks, that this is the first notice of the use of _aqua vitae_, usquebaugh, or whisky, in the Irish annals. Mead was made from honey, and beer from malt; and these were, probably, the princ.i.p.al liquors at the early period[260] of which we are now writing. As to the heath beer of Scandinavian fame, it is probable that the heather was merely used as a tonic or aromatic ingredient, although the author of a work, published in London in 1596, ent.i.tled _Sundrie Newe and Artificial Remedies against Famine_, does suggest the use of heath tops to make a "pleasing and cheape drink for Poor Men, when Malt is extream Deare;"

much, we suppose, on the same principle that shamrocks and gra.s.s were used as a subst.i.tute for potatoes in the famine year, when the starving Irish had no money to buy Indian corn. But famine years were happily rare in Ireland in the times of which we write; and it will be remembered that on one such occasion the Irish king prayed to G.o.d that he might die, rather than live to witness the misery he could not relieve.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MOULD FOR CASTING BRONZE CELTS.]

It would appear that b.u.t.ter was also a plentiful product then as now.

Specimens of bog b.u.t.ter are still preserved, and may be found in the collection of the Royal Irish Academy. The b.u.t.ter was thus entombed either for safety, or to give it that peculiar flavour which makes it resemble the old dry Stilton cheese, so much admired by the modern _bon vivant_. A writer in the _Ulster Archaeological Journal_ mentions that he found a quant.i.ty of red cows' hair mixed with this b.u.t.ter, when boring a hole in it with a gouge. It would appear from this as if the b.u.t.ter had been made in a cow-skin, a fas.h.i.+on still in use among the Arabs. A visitor to the Museum (Mr. Wilmot Chetwode) asked to see the b.u.t.ter from Abbeyleix. He remarked that some cows' heads had been discovered in that neighbourhood, which belonged to the old Irish long-faced breed of cattle; the skin and hair remained on one head, and that was red. An a.n.a.lysis of the b.u.t.ter proved that it was probably made in the same way as the celebrated Devons.h.i.+re cream, from which the b.u.t.ter in that part of England is generally prepared. The Arabs and Syrians make their b.u.t.ter now in a similar manner. There is a curious account of Irish b.u.t.ter in the _Irish Hudibras_, by William Moffat, London, 1755, from which it appears that bog b.u.t.ter was then well known:--

"But let his faith be good or bad, He in his house great plenty had Of burnt oat bread, and b.u.t.ter found, With garlick mixt, in boggy ground; So strong, a dog, with help of wind, By scenting out, with ease might find."

A lump of b.u.t.ter was found, twelve feet deep, in a bog at Gortgole, county Antrim, rolled up in a coa.r.s.e cloth. It still retains visibly the marks of the finger and thumb of the ancient dame who pressed it into its present shape.

Specimens of cheese of great antiquity have also been discovered. It was generally made in the shape of bricks,[261] probably for greater convenience of carriage and pressure in making. Wax has also been discovered, which is evidently very ancient. A specimen may be seen in the collection of the Royal Irish Academy. According to the Book of Rights, the use of wax candles was a royal prerogative:--

"A hero who possesses five prerogatives, Is the King of Laighlin of the fort of Labhraidh: The fruit of Almhain [to be brought to him] to his house; And the deer of Gleann Searraigh; To drink by [the light of] fair wax candles, At Din Riogh, is very customary to the king."[262]

In this matter, at least, the Irish kings and princes were considerably in advance of their Anglo-Saxon neighbours. Wright informs us[263] that their candle was a mere ma.s.s of fat, plastered round a wick, and stuck upon an upright stick: hence the name candlestick.

It is probable that fire-light was, however, the princ.i.p.al means of a.s.sisting the visual organs after dark in both countries. Until comparatively recent times, fires were generally made on square, flat stones, and these could be placed, as appears to have been the case at Tara, in different parts of any large hall or apartment. There was sometimes a "back stone" to support the pile of wood and turf. The smoke got out how best it might, unless where there was a special provision made for its exit, in the shape of a round hole in the roof. At a later period a "brace" was sometimes made for conducting it. The brace was formed of upright stakes, interlaced with twigs, and plastered over, inside and outside, with prepared clay--the earliest idea of the modern chimney.

Macaulay[264] gives us a picture of an ancient Roman fire-side, and the occupations of those who sat round it. We can, perhaps, form a more accurate and reliable idea of the dress, amus.e.m.e.nts, and occupations of those who surrounded the hall-fires of ancient Tara, or the humble, domestic hearths of the crannoges or wattled houses.

The amus.e.m.e.nts of the pre-Christian Celt were, undeniably, intellectual.

Chess has already been mentioned more than once in this work as a constant occupation of princes and chieftains. Indeed, they appear to have sat down to a game with all the zest of a modern amateur. A few specimens of chessmen have been discovered: a king, elaborately carved, is figured in the Introduction to the Book of Rights. It belonged to Dr.

Petrie, and was found, with some others, in a bog in the county Meath.

The chessmen of ancient times appear to have been rather formidable as weapons. In the _Tain bo Chuailgne_, Cuchullain is represented as having killed a messenger, who told him a lie, with a chessman, "which pierced him to the centre of his brain." English writers speak of the use of chess immediately after the Conquest, and say that the Saxons learned the game from the Danes. The Irish were certainly acquainted with it at a much earlier period; if we are to credit the Annals, it was well known long before the introduction of Christianity. Wright gives an engraving of a Quarrel at Chess, in which Charles, the son of the Emperor Charlemagne, is represented knocking out the brains of his adversary with a chessboard. The ill.u.s.tration is ludicrously graphic, and the unfortunate man appears to submit to his doom with a touching grace of helpless resignation.

We may then suppose that chess was a favourite evening amus.e.m.e.nt of the Celt. Chessboards at least were plentiful, for they are frequently mentioned among the rights of our ancient kings. But music was the Irish amus.e.m.e.nt _par excellence_; and it is one of the few arts for which they are credited. The princ.i.p.al Irish instruments were the harp, the trumpet, and the bagpipe. The harp in the Museum of Trinity College, Dublin, usually known as Brian Boroimhe's harp, is supposed, by Dr.

Petrie, to be the oldest instrument of the kind now remaining in Europe.

It had but one row of strings, thirty in number; the upright pillar is of oak, and the sound-board of red sallow. The minute and beautiful carving on all parts of the instrument, attests a high state of artistic skill at whatever period it was executed. As the harp is only thirty-two inches high, it is supposed that it was used by ecclesiastics in the church services, Cambrensis[265] mentions this custom; and there is evidence of its having existed from the first introduction of Christianity. Harps of this description are figured on the knees of ecclesiastics on several of our ancient stone crosses.

The subject of Irish music would require a volume, and we cannot but regret that it must be dismissed so briefly. The form of the harp has been incorrectly represented on our coins. It was first a.s.sumed in the national arms about the year 1540. When figured on the coins of Henry VIII., the artist seems to have taken the Italian harp of twenty-four strings for his model; but in the national arms sketched on the map of Ireland in the State Papers, executed in the year 1567, the form is more correct. That the Irish possessed this musical instrument in pre-Christian times, cannot be doubted. The ornamental cover of an Irish MS., which Mr. Ferguson considers to date prior to A.D. 1064, contains five examples of the harp of that period. This, and the sculptured harp at Nieg, in Ross.h.i.+re, are believed to be the earliest delineations of the perfect harp. Dr. Bunting gives a sketch of a harp and harper, taken from one of the compartments of a sculptured cross at Ullard, county Kilkenny. This is a remarkable example. The cross is supposed to be older than that of Monasterboice, which was erected A.D. 830, and this is believed to be the first specimen of a harp without a fore pillar that has been discovered out of Egypt. If the Irish harp be really a variety of the cithara, derived through an Egyptian channel, it would form another important link in the chain of evidence, which leads us back to colonization from Egypt through Scythia. Captain Wilford observes,[266] that there may be a clue to the Celtic word bard in the Hindoo _bardatri_; but the Irish appellation appears to be of comparatively modern use. It is, however, a noticeable fact, that the farther we extend our inquiries, the more forcibly we are directed to the East as the cradle of our music. Several recent travellers have mentioned the remarkable similarity between Celtic airs and those which they heard in different parts of Asia.[267] Sir W. Ouseley observed, at the close of the last century, that many Hindoo melodies possessed the plaintive simplicity of the Scotch and Irish.

A German scholar has written a work, to prove that the pentatonic scale was brought over by the Celts from Asia, and that it was preserved longer in Scotland than elsewhere, on account of the isolated position of that country.[268] The Phoenicians are supposed to have invented the _kinnor, trigonon_, and several other of the most remarkable instruments of antiquity. Their skill as harpists, and their love of music, are indicated by the prophetic denunciation in Ezechiel, where the ceasing of songs and the sound of the harp are threatened as a calamity they were likely specially to feel.

We give at least one evidence that the Irish monks practised the choral performance of rhythmical hymns. Colgan supplies the proof, which we select from one of the Latin hymns of St. Columba:--

"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.