XXVI.

Of the bracelet

Called a

Budne.

his

'On our word', said Cailte, though good his countenance, music is better. Take thy Timpan, O young man', said she. He did take it, and played, and freely performed for her. The lady then gave him the two Fails that were upon her arms".(251) It would appear from the first stanza of the poem attributed to Oisin, which I quoted above,(252) that these Fails or armlets were sometimes pledged as stakes at the chess board.

From the bracelet called the Fail, let us now pass to the ring, or bracelet, which was called Budne, or Buinne. The word literally means a wave of the sea, or, in domestic art, the wave or strong welt of rods which basket-makers weave like a rope in their work, to give it strength and firmness. In the metallic arts, this kind of work was produced by two different modes. The first was by twisting a round, square, or flat bar of metal, so as to give it a spiral or screw form. This is the ordinary mode still. The second mode was, by taking a solid square bar or prism of metal, and cutting out of it with a chisel along the lines of the longitudinal edges, at the four sides, all the solid metal, to within a thread or line of the centre, and leaving standing, along the edges, a thin leaf of the metal; so that when the whole is cleared out, what was a solid bar before, now consists of a mere skeleton, formed of four thin leaves standing out at right angles from a central axis, and proceeding, as it were, along its line, from the two solid ends, which were not at all hollowed out. Two specimens of Budnes, or ropes of gold, manufactured after the latter mode, have been found together at Tara, one smaller and more delicate than the other; the smaller one was perhaps intended for a woman. more to say on these two ornaments in the next lecture.

(251) original:-Cret in tairfideċ ut atfarra a Chailte? ar an ingen. Cas Corac mac Caincindi airfided T. D. D. uili ar Cailte, agas in tairfideċ is ferr a nEirinn agas a nalbain. As mait a dealb, ar an ingen, masa maith a airfited. Dar ar m-breiter aṁ, ar Cáilte, giỏ mait a

I shall have

dealb, is ferr a airfideċt. Geib do timpan a oclaig, ars. Agas rogab agas roboi ica sefnad, agas ica saeirfeinm. Tuc iarum an ingen inda falad boi imma laiuib do.— Book of Lismore (O'Curry's copy, R.I.A.), f. 239. a. col. 1.]

(252) Ante, vol. ii. p. 166.

LECTURE XXVII.

[Delivered 19th July, 1860.]

(VIII) DRESS AND ORNAMENTS (continued). Anonymous notice of Irish Torques; description of two found at Tara; accounts of Torques found in England; no account of Torques in the works of older Irish antiquaries; those found at Tara bought in 1813 by Alderman West of Dublin; the author does not agree with the anonymous writer as to the mode of production of the Tara Torques. Uses of the Tara Torques; reference to such a ring of gold for the waist in an ancient preface to the Táin Bo Chuailgne ; another reference to such a ring in an account of a dispute about the manner of death of Fothadh Airgteach between king Mongan and the poet Dallan Forgaill from the Leabhar na h-Uidhre; Cailte's account of his mode of burial; a hoop or waist-torque among the ornaments placed on Fothadh's stone coffin. Story of Cormac Mac Airt and Lugaidh Laga showing one of the uses of rings worn on the hands. Ornaments for the neck; the Muinche; first used in the time of Muineamhon (circa B.c. 1300); mentioned in a poem of Ferceirtne on Curoi Mac Daire; also in account of the Battle of Magh Leana. The Niamh Land or flat crescent of gold worn on the head, as well as on the neck. The Neck-Torque of Cormac Mac Airt. Descriptions of the dress and ornaments of Bec Fola. The Muinche mentioned in the tale of the "Wanderings of Maelduin's Canoe", and in the story of Cano. Muinche and Land used also for the neck ornaments of animals and spears. Use of the term Muintorcs. Of the Mael-Land mentioned in the Táin Bo Fraich. The ferrule of a spear called a Muinche in the account of the Battle of Magh Leana; discovery of such a ring in Kerry; the term also used for the collars of grayhounds, chiefly in Fenian tales. Mention of the Torc in its simple form in the Book of Leinster. Of the Land or lunette; it formed part of the legal contents of a lady's workbag, and of the inheritance of daughters. The Land was worn on the head as well as on the neck, as shown by the descriptions of Conaire Mór's head charioteer and apprentice charioteers; and also of his poets.

I SHOULD not have ventured to offer so unartistic, and indeed so very dry, a description of the very beautiful ornaments to which I alluded at the end of the last lecture, while I might have availed myself of a very learned and artistic description already published, but that I differ in opinion with the writer of that description, whoever he may be, as to the manner of manufacture and mode of wearing them. The description or Anonymous account of these ornaments of which I have just spoken ap- Irish peared anonymously in "Saunders's News-letter" of the 31st of Torques; December, 1830; and as it contains all that is known of the history of these articles, and the thoughts and observations of a scholar, I shall quote from it as much as appears pertinent to my present purpose. The article in question is headed "Antiquities: The Irish Torques". After which it proceeds:

notice of

XXVII.

of two found

at Tara;

"Two specimens of this ancient, and now extremely rare description ornament, were discovered about eighteen years ago, in some reclaimed ground, at Tarah, in the county Meath. They are wreathed bars of pure gold, nearly five feet in length, bent into a circular form, flexible, but returning with elasticity into their natural curved shape; each bar consists of four flat bands, most accurately united along one of their edges, and then closely and spirally twisted throughout the whole length. The extremities end in smooth solid truncated cones, suddenly reflected backwards so as to form two hooks, which can be brought naturally to clasp in one another. Perpendicularly from the base of one of these cones proceeds a gold wire, a quarter of an inch thick and eight inches long, terminating also in a solid conical hook. This last appendage is deficient in every other torque that we have seen or read of, and adds considerable difficulty to what already existed in explaining the use of these expensive and singularly wrought ornaments The weight of the larger is about twenty-five ounces; of the lesser, fifteen ounces.

"Three particulars contribute to render these ornaments objects of great interest to the antiquarian-their invariably wreathed or twisted form; the perfect purity of the gold they are composed of; and, lastly, there being no other ornament in the use of which so many nations have conspired. The Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, and almost every people of ancient Europe, have adorned themselves with them in the accounts of early periods of their history. . Of English writers

Torques found in England;

no account

of Torques in

older Irish

antiquaries;

Lhuyd is the first who published an account of the torques. The one he describes was found A.D. 1692, at Harlech, Merioneth; its weight, eighty ounces; length, nearly four feet. Another is described by Woodward, in his 'Collection of Curiosities', published in 1728. In 1787, a torque weighing thirteen ounces was discovered by a labourer at Ware. Fearing that it might be claimed by the lord of the manor, he sold it to a Jew, who melted it; a drawing, however, had been previously taken, and appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine' for September, 1800.

'It strikes us as not a little singular that this splendid proof the works of of the ancient wealth and adornment of our island should hitherto have escaped the observation of every Irish antiquarian. No trace whatever can be discovered in the writings of Keating, Ware, Pocock, or Ledwich, which manifests the least acquaintance with it. It has even eluded the research of the patriotic Vallancey.

"The specimens which have given rise to this article", con

XXVII.

at Tara

1813 by

tinues the writer, "were purchased in the year 1813 by the late Alderman West, and have since remained at his estab- those found lishment in Skinner Row, open to the inspection of the cu- bought in rious. They are evidently the production of the most re- Alderman mote antiquity, and, with the exception of two others, much West. smaller in dimensions and inferior in design, are the only relics from the existence of which we can lay claim to an ornament so much prized by the civilized portion of the ancient world. On no other occasion have two torques been discovered together. The regal solidity of the one is contrasted with the feminine lightness of the other; and, if we are allowed to annex any importance to the site where they were found, we consider it rather surprising that monuments such as these should have so long remained unnoticed by the learned.

"We are induced to offer the foregoing remarks in hopes that the attention of the curious will be directed to the acquisition. of these invaluable ornaments, which will be offered for sale, this day, by the executors of the late Mr. West".

not agree

as to the

duction and

Tara

With the deepest respect and gratitude to the, to me un- Author does known, writer of this learned and candid article, I feel that with anony. I must differ from his assumption and conclusions as to the mous writer mode of manufacturing these two particular ornaments, and their mode of proobject and use. I do not believe-indeed they bear ample use of the evidence to the contrary-that they were produced by twisting Torques; a wreathed bar of gold. Neither do I believe that these capacious circlets were ever intended to be worn as torques at the neck, although there is good reason to believe that ornaments of a similar form, but of much narrower compass, were so worn. In support of my first opinion I have only to direct an examination of the article itself, to convince any one, in my mind, that it was chiselled out of a solid bar of gold. In support of my second opinion, as to the object and use of ornaments of this size and type, I trust I shall be able in a few words to show, that they were not ornaments for the neck, as well as what they really were. I believe that they were girdles, or circlets, to go Uses of the round the body; and it is singular that Gibbon, in his edition of Torques; Camden's Britannia', comes to the same conclusion, but with some modification; he thought they were belts from which the ancients suspended their quivers of arrows. There appears to me no better way of disposing of this curious and long standing question, than by bringing forward one or two examples from our ancient writings, in which various kinds of personal ornaments are enumerated, and by contrast and external knowledge, to define the use and place of each, and see if among them there

.

Тага

XXVII.

reference to such a ring

shall not be found an appropriate description, name, and place, for these very articles.

of gold for ture,

the waist in

Táin Bo

It may be remembered that at the opening of the last lec(253) I translated from an ancient Gaedhelic MS., a gorgeous an ancient description of the cavalcade which attended upon Bobhdh Dearg, preface to the great Tuatha Dé Danann chief of Magh Femhen, in TippeChuailgne. rary, when he went on a visit to his friend Ochall Oichne, at the hill of Cruachan in Connacht. Upon that occasion we are told that each man of the seven score charioteers and seven score horsemen of the retinue, wore, among other ornaments, a helmet, or cap (Cend-Barr), beset with crystal and Findruine upon his head; and a radiant blade (Niamh-Land) of gold around his neck, with a gem worth a new milch cow set in its centre (Firsine); and a wavy ring (Bouinde do At or Bunne do At) around each man, worth thirty ounces or ungas of gold.

Another reference to

from the

Leabhar na h-Uidhre;

dispute

about the

death of

Here we have the three most costly articles of personal ornamentation, set out with so much precision as to leave no difficulty whatever about their identification. There is, first, the Cend-Barr, or cap, or whatever its form may have been, upon the head, ornamented with crystal stones and Findruine. There is, in the second place, the Niamh-Land, or radiant crescent, of gold, with a gem worth a new milch cow, around the neck. This was a torque or gorget of the level fashion, and from its name, which is not an uncommon one, it could not possibly have been a spiral or twisted article. Next comes the Bunne or Bouinde do At, that is, the wavy or twisted ring, which we are told each man wore around him; and from its size, estimated by its value or weight of thirty ounces, it requires no argument to prove that it could only have been worn where we are told, around the body.

I shall only give one other reference to the wavy ring, or such a ring Bunne do At, where it is placed in such a contrast as, like the last case, to leave no room to doubt its use and destination. In an ancient story preserved in Leabhar na h-Uidhre in the library of the Royal Irish Academy, we are told, that at a certain time a dispute in historical questions arose between Mongan, king of Ulster, who died in the year 620, and Dallan Forgaill, so well known as the writer of the celebrated elegy on the death of Saint Colum Cillé. The king Mongan one day asked the poet, where and what was the manner of the death of Fothadh Airgteach [one of the three Fothadh brothers, who reigned conjointly over Erinn for one year, between the years of our Lord 284 and 285]; the poet answered that Fothadh Airgteach had been slain in the Dubthir of Leinster [now Duffern (253) See Lect. xxvi., ante, vol. ii., p. 156.

Fothadh Airgteach between

Dallan Forking Mon

gaill and

gan;