CHAP, the fancies and fired the paffions, of the people, were held in veneration. Thefe artifts availed themselves, of their influence to render their profeffion hereditary, and to appropriate to it large portions of land, Since they are faid to have engroffed a third of the national property, and by their numbers and exactions to have raised a general alarm in the fixth century, we may well suppose that under the fame clafs were comprehended the hiftorians or genealogists, called feanachies, who noted the exploits and lineage of their patrons.

Food.

As, from the inftability of tenures in land, agriculture among the ancient Irish was very limited, their food confifted chiefly in the milk and flesh of their cattle, to which were often added wild herbs of feveral kinds, as water-creffes and forrel. The milk was varioufly modified. I have feen, when a boy, a family dining on curds and butter, a piece of the latter being laid on each spoonful of the former, which was recommended as an ancient and moft wholfome food by a priest who was one of the com, pany. Wild fwine, abundant in the forefts of oak, which covered the land in great proportion, conftituted a much esteemed part of the animal food, From the improper ufe of fuch aliments, bad cookery, or want of correctives, the leprofy was frequent. Corn, inftead of being threfhed, was freed by fire from the hufks and straw, was pounded and boiled, or ground with a handmill, and the bread baked in cakes under embers, or on an iron plate called griddle. The chief beverage was mead, on which account the pre

fervation of bees was a particular object in the Bre- CHAP.

hon laws.

The drefs of the ancient Irish has been beft inves tigated by Walker and Ledwich, more especially the latter, whose book on the antiquities of Ireland is a most valuable performance. A mantle or fhort cloak, originally of skin, afterward of cloth, compofed, for ornament, of stripes of different colours fewed together, was enlarged in later times into a long cloak; and a hood, attached to the mantle was exchanged for a cònical cap. A jacket, called fallin, and trowfers defcending to the feet, were worn, except by the poorer fort, who feem to have been naked below. As their fheep were moftly of the black fort, their garments were generally dark, except the trowsers, which were often yellow. Of the fame dye was the fhirt, when fuch was worn, wide with large folds and fleeves of great fize. The fhoe feems to have been only a piece of unfewed leather, tied on the foot by a thong, fuch as we find still in use among the Livonians and fome others in the north of Europe. The beard was long, at least on the upper lip; and a great bunch of hair over the forehead, called Glibb or cooleen, was thrown into various forms, and tended to give a ferocity of afpect.

III.

Dress.

Variations in drefs and other matters were intro- History. duced by the Danes and other foreigners, of whofe tranfactions in Ireland, as of thofe of the natives, our accounts are obfcure. We are furnished with the names of thirty kings of Ireland reigning in fucceffion from Laogaire, the firft chriftian monarch, to Hugh Dorndighe, or Donchad Mac Domnail, in

whofe

III.

CHAP. whofe time the kingdom was miferably ravaged by formidable bands of Danish invaders, who foon rendered themselves mafters of moft of the country. Of the acts of these princes, or the events of this period, very little is recorded, except the violent deaths, with which almost all the reigns concluded. Of Laogaire himself, who entered on the regal function in the year 428, no favourable account, notwithftanding his converfion to chriftianity, is given. Defeated and taken prifoner by the people of Leinfter, in his invasion of their country to inforce the payment of the Baromean tax, and releafed on his renunciation of that claim for ever under a folemn oath, he violated his engagement, and fell in another battle by the fwords of the Leinstrians, or, as others report, by lightning, an inftrument of divine

vengeance.

To provide a remedy against the alarming numbers, infolence, and exactions of the bards, a great affembly of the princes, nobles, and clergy of Ireland was in 568 convened at Drumceat, by Hugh Mac Ainmer the monarch, who was oppofed in his defign by a famous monk named Columb-cill. This advocate of the bards, most of whom we muft fuppofe from this occurrence to have been converts to chriftianity, prevailed in the affembly, perhaps not lefs by the terror of temporal arms than of fpiritual, fince he had been a warrior, to prevent any measures of a feverer kind than the reduction of their numbers. Monkish influence was not on all occafions attended with fuch effects. Congall, who reigned in the beginning of the feventh century, is faid to have fo perfecuted

III.

perfecuted the ministers of the christian faith as to CHAP. commit alive to the flames both fecular and regular clergy at Kildare. From this and other inftances we have reason to believe that the univerfal converfion of the Irish to the Gospel was not fo early as has been commonly fuppofed. Nothing further in the civil hiftory of Ireland occurs worth our notice till the great invafion of the Danes in the ninth century.

CHAP.

CHA P. IV.

Danes-Charlemagne-Turgefius or Thorgils-Amlave, Sitrick, and Ivar-Danish Invaders of Ireland, comparatively few in number-Laft Kings of Ireland-Cormac Mac Cuillenan-Brian Boro Battle of Clontarf-Mortough O'Brian-MagnusLearning-Scholars-Columbanus, &c.—Virgilius Solivagus-Mean bigotry Johannes Scotus Erigena, &c.-Hiftorical Records of Ireland-Pfal ter of Cafhel, &c. Ecclefiaftical History-Cul

dees-Bifhops, &c.

CHAP. IN ages anterior to the birth of Christ, the regi IV. ons about the Baltic had been peopled by ScandiDanes. navian Goths, who early adopted habits of maritime adventure. Colonists of this race under the name of Scots, as I have already obferved, were, at least fo foon as the fourth century of the Chriftian era, poffeffed of fo confpicuous a power in Ireland as to have acquired to it the appellation of Scotia or Scotland, an appellation in later times transferred and appropriated to another country. Armaments of Scandinavians, in the decline of Roman power, infefted the coafts of European countries with predatory vifits; but, after their conqueft of South Britain in the fifth and fixth centuries, which for fome time ferved as a drain for their fuperfluous numbers, or for the individuals of their tribes most prone to adventure or emigration, we hear little

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