My....

■>'-;; .r,

I ■» ■ "^1? • j^; ■-'5-}'. ^

mzM:Zm

#0-,^!.-fe^:

A'.i- i¥>;.. .. ,»ss«i .

'lii ..Jiii.

■ID

CO

HANDBOUND AT THE

^^.^/

-t

Fig. i57A.

Shrine of St. Patrick's Bell, made by order of Donall O'Loghlin, king of Ireland (died 1121) now in the National Museum, Dublin. See vol. I., p. 374, supra.

(From Miss Stokes's Early Christian Art m Ireland.)

A SOCIAL HISTORY

OF

ANCIENT IRELAND

TREATING OF

The Government, Military System, and Law ;

Religion, Learning, and Art ; Trades, Industries, and Commerce ;

Manners, Customs, and Domestic Life,

of the Ancient Irish People

BY

P. W^. JOYCE,

LL.D., TRIN. COLL., DUB. ; M.R.I. A. ; Oni" of the ComTftissioners for the Publication of the Ancient Laws of Ireland

VOL. II

Fig. 167B.— Cormacs Chapejon the Rock of Cashel. (From Miss Stokes's Early Christian Architecture in Ireland.)

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.

39, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON

NEW YORK, AND BOMBAY

1903

:r)A

Printed at the

By Ponsonby & GiBBS

Ornament composed from the Book of Kclls.

CONTENTS OF VOL. II

PART III

SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE

CHAPTER XIX

PAGE

The Family, 3

Section

1. Marriage, 3

2. Position of Women and Children, . . . . . . S

3. Fosterage, 14

4. Family Names, 19

CHAPTER XX

The House, 20

Section

1. Construction, Shape, and Size, 20

2. Interior Arrangements and Sleeping Accommoda-

tion, 45

3. Outer Premises and Defence, 54

4. Domestic Vessels, 68

5. Royal Residences, 79

CHAPTER XXI

Food, Fuel, and Light,	c	. 104
Section
I, Meals in General, ..	, ,	. 104
2. Drink,	• •	. 114
3. Cooking,		122
4. Flesh Meat and its Accompaniments,		. 127
5. Milk and its Products,		. 136
6. Corn and its Preparation,		. 141
7. Honey,		• 144
8. Vegetables and Fruit,		148
9. Fuel and Light,		. 158
10. Free Public Hostels,		166

VI

CONTENTS

CHAPTER XXII Dress and Personal Adornment,

Section

1. The Person and the Toilet,

2. Dress

3. Personal Ornaments,

4. Rough Classified List of Gold Objects in the

National Museum,

PAGE 176

176 189 222

265

CHAPTER XXIII Agriculture and Pasturage, ..

Section

1. Fences,

2. Land, Crops, and Tillage,

3. Some Farm Animals,

4. Herding, Grazing, Milking,

264

264 269

277 281

CHAPTER XXIV

Workers in Wood, Metal, and Stone, 286

Section

1. Chief Materials,

2. Builders,

3. Brasiers and Founders,

4. The Blacksmith and his Forge, . .

5. Carpenters, Masons, and other Craftj

smen, 6. Protection of Crafts and Position of Craftsmen,

286 292 294 301 310 324

CHAPTER XXV

Corn Mills,

Section

1. History,

2. The "Eight Parts" of a Mill,

3. Small Mills,

4. Drying and Grinding,

5. Common Property in Mills,

6. Querns and Grain Rubbers,

330

330 335 338 341

344 345

CONTENTS

Vll

CHAPTER XXVl Trades and Industries connected with Clothing,

Section

1 . Wool and Woollen Fabrics,

2. Flax and its Preparation,

3. Dyeing,

4. Sewing and Embroidery,

5. Tanning,

PAGE

349

349 354 356 363 367

6. Workers in Leather, and the Articles they made, 368

CHAPTER XXVH

Measures, Weights, and Mediums of Exchange, .. 371

Section

1. Length and Area, 371

2. Capacity, 375

3. Weight, 377

4. Standards of Value and Mediums of Exchange, . . 380

5- ^"ime, 387

6. Enumeration, . , . . . . . . . . . . . . 392

CHAPTER XXVni Locomotion and Commerce,

Section

1. Roads, Bridges, and Causeways,

2. Chariots and Cars,

3. Horse-riding,

4. Communication by Water,

5. Foreign Commerce,

393

393 401

410

422 429

CHAPTER XXIX

Public Assemblies, Sports, and Pastimes, .. .. 434

Section

1. The Great Conventions and Fairs, 434

2. The Fair of Carman (Wexford), .. .. .. 441

3. General Regulations for Meetings, . . . . . . 447

4. Some Animals connected with Hunting and Sport, 451

5. Races, 462

6. Chase and Capture of Wild Animals, .. .. 4^6

7. Caman or Hurling, and other Athlf.tic Games, . . 474

8. Chess, 477

9. Jesters, Jugglers, and Gleemen, 481

Vlll

CONTENTS

CHAPTER XXX Various Social Customs and Observances,

Section

I. Salutation,

Pledging, Lending, and Borrowing, . . Provision for Old Age and Destitution, Irish Poetry and Prosody : Love of Nature

Natural Beauty, Six Stages of Life, Human Temperaments,

7. Blood -Covenant,

8. Cremation-Ashes thrown into Water

9. Something further about Animals,

10. Animals as Pets,

11. The Cardinal Points,

12. The Wind,

13. The Sea,

14. Bishop Ultan and the Orphans,

15. Prophecies of Irish Saints,

16. Sundry small matters worthy of notice,

2. 3-

4-

5- 6.

AND OF

488

488 491

493

497 509 509 510 512

514 516 520 521

523 526

528

529

CHAPTER XXXI

Death and Burial,	533
Section
I. Wills,	533
2. Funeral Obsequies,	539
3. Modes of Burial,	546
4. Cemeteries,	554
5. Sepulchral Monuments,	562

Appendix, 581

List of Authorities consulted, and quoted or

referred to throughout this work, .. .. 585

Index to the Two Volumes, 6ii

Sculpture on a Capital : Priest's House, Glendalough : Beranger, 1779. (From Petrie's Round Towers.)

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOL. II.

167A. Shrine of St. Patrick's

Bell. 167B. Corraac's Chapel, Rock )

of Cashel. )

168. Clochan or beehive-shaped house,

169. Maynooth Castle,

170. Antique wooden hut,

171. Coloured glass plate, enamelled,

172. Coloured glass ornament

173. Another, .

174. Another, .

175. Another, .

176. Bronze key,

177. Do.,

178. Trim Castle,

179. King John's Castle, Limerick,

180. Plan of ancient Irish homestead, j8i. Bunratty Castle in Clare,

182. Plan of interior of ancient Irish

house, ....

183. Castle of Athlone, .

184. Great Moat of Kilfinnane,

185. Section of underground hut,

186. Staigue Fort in Kerry,

187. Dun Aengus in Aran,

188. Stone fort of Ballykinvarriga,

189. Carlow Castle,

190. Dundrum Castle, Co. Down,

191. Section of crannoge,

Frontis- piece

Title Page

22

25

28

32 32 32 32 36 36 38 40 41 43

46 51 55 56 57 58 60 61 64 66

FIG.

192. Crannoge village,

193. Stone drinking-cup,

194. Do., do., 105. Carrickfergus Castle, ig6. Bronze vessel, hammered,

197. Bronze vessel, cast, .

198. The Kavanagh drinking-horn

199. Ancient Irish wooden vessel,

200. Figure of man drinking,

201. Mether,

202. Do.,

203. Ancient wooden pail,

204. A bullaun stone,

205. Glazed earthenware pitcher,

206. PlanofTara,

207. The Forradh mound at Tara,

208. Mound of Dinnree palace,

209. Mound of Naas palace, .

210. Carbury Castle, Kildare, 2H. Rock of Cashel,

212. Caber Castle, .

213. Small antique table,

214. Bronze strainer,

215. Ancient bronze caldron, .

216. Ancient wooden butter-print,

217. Firkin of bog-butter,

218. Rush-holders, .

219. Do.,

220. Do.,

PACK

67 68 68 69 71 71 72 73 74 75 75 76 77 78 81

83 95 96 98 99

lOI

no H7 125

137 138 164 164

164

X

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOL. II.

FIG.		PACE	FIG.
221.	Ancient bronze lamp, . • •	i6s	262.
222.	Bronze figures of ecclesiastics,	176
223.	Specimen of plaited hair.	180	263.
224.	Ancient comb, ....	181	264.
225-	Do., ....	181
226.	Do., ....	i8i	265.
227.	Ancient bronze razor,	184	266.
228.	Small antique gold box, .	188	267.
229.	Angel, from Book of Kells, .	197	268.
230.	Evangelist, from Book of Kells,	197
231.	Figures on a book-cover.	200	269.
232.	Mac Murrogh Kavanayh and Earl		270.
	of Gloucester,	201	271.
233-	Figures on St. Manchan's shrine,	204	272.
234-	Bronze pin, ....	206	273-
235-	Do	206	274.
236.	Do., ....	206	275-
237-	Do., ....	205
238.	Do., ....	205	276.
239-	Do., ....	206	277.
240.	Do.,	206	278.
241.	Bronze button,	206	279.
242.	Figure showing trousers,	208	280.
243-	Group of figures, 16th centurj-.	210	281.
244.	Figures showing costume.	211	282.
245-	Do., do.,	211	283.
246.	Do., do.,	211	284*
247.	Portion of veil,	. 216	285.
248.	Ornamented shoe, .	. 217	286.
249.	Do.,	. 217	287.
250.	Sandals with rosettes.	. 218	288.
251-	Pair of shoes connected, .	. 220	289.
252.	Gold bracelet, ....	. 224	290.
253-	Bronze bracelet.	. 224	291.
254-	Gold finger-ring,	. 22s	292.
255-	Jet bead for necklace or fastener.	. 227	293-
256.	Do., do..	. 227	294.
257.	Do., do..	. 227	295-
258.	Gold bead for necklace, .	. 228	296.
259-	Do., do.,	. 228
260.	Gold torque, ....	• 231	297.
261.	Do., ....	. 232

Gold crescent or necklet of the first tj'pe, ....

Do., do..

Gold crescent or necklet of the second type.

Do , do.,

Front of gold boss of crescent,

Do., do.,

Gold crescent or necklet of the

third type, .... Gold Bunne-do-at or fibula, .

Do., do..

Do., do,.

Do., do..

Small Bunne-do-at,

Do., do.,

Great Bunne-do-at in Trinity

College, .... Gold circular ornamental plate, Bronze brooch. Bronze spring-brooch, Crowned Irish king, Enamelled fillet of a crown, . Spurious Irish crown. Gold earring, .... Hollow gold balls, . Pillar-stone in a rath, A holed-stone, Ancient Irish bronze reaping-hook

Do., do.,

Yoke for oxen or horses, Brasier's anvil.

Do., . . . ,

Inlaid metallic hook. Spear-head, .... Mould for spear-head, . Mould for celt.

Do., ....

Plan of two - chamber smith's

bellows, ....

Plan of four - chamber smith's

bellows, ....

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOL. II.

XI

FIG.				PAGE	FIG.		PAGE
2g8. Stone hatchet, . . . .312	331-	Small bunne or gold ring,	• 385
2gg. Do.,				312	332.	Ancient chariots.	. 408
300. Bronze adze, .				314	333-	Horseman, from Book of Kells,	413
301. Stone hammer.				315	334-	Do., do.,	• 417
302. Do.,				315	335-	Single-piece canoe.	• 423
303. Do.,				315	336.	Skeleton of Irish elk.	• 459
304. Bronze hammer.				315	337-	Otter trap	• 471
305. Bronze chisel,				318	338.	Bone chessman,	• 479
306. Do.,				318	339-	The colours of the twelve winds.	. 522
307. Do.,				318	340-	Cromlech at Tawnatruffaun, .	■ 537
308. Do.,				318	341-	Sepulchral stone circle.	• 539
309. Bronze gouge.				3i8	342.	Do., do..	542
310. Specimen of dry masonry.		319	343-	Cinerary urn.	• 546
311. Clochan-na-Carraige, .		320	344-	Do., ....	546
312. Round Tower, Devenish,		322	345-	New Grange	• 555
313. Christian stone oratory,		• 323	346.	King Dathi's grave and pillar-
314. Window of Castlederraot Abbey,	325		stone,	. 557
315. Doorway of Rahan Church,	326	347-	Carn near Sligo,	• 563
316. Front of Killaloe Church,	328	348.	Duma or burial-mound,	• 564
317. Ancient mill-wheel and shaft.	• 339	349-	Sepulchral chamber, with carvings
318. Upper stone of quern.		346		and sarcophagus,	56s
3ig. Quern, ....		347	350.	" Giant's grave,"	567
320. Grain-rubber, .		348	3SI-	Tomb of the Four Maels at Ard
321. Specimen of weaving,		352		naree,	569
322. Do., do..		352	352.	The great cromlech at KJlternan,	570
323. Portion of goat-hair web.		352	353-	The Phoenix Park cromlech, .	■ 570
324. Plaited woollen band.		352	354-	Decorated lid of stone coffin .	572
325. Portion of woollen dress.		352	355-	Lugnaed's headstone.	■ 573
326. Two bronze needles,		• 364	356.	An ;</(?(/ or altar-tomb, .	. 576
327. Antique specimen of sowing,		365	357-	Strongbow's monument in Christ-
328. Steelyard,		379		church, Dublin, .	578
32g. Bracteate coin.		382	358.	Tomb of Felim O'Conor, king 0
330. Do.,				382		Connaught,	579

PART III

SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE

MS. Ornament. (From Miss Stokes's Early Christian Architecture.)

CHAPTER XIX

THE FAMILY

Section i. Marriage.

ANCIENT Ireland it was a very general custom, as it was in Wales, and in Greece in the time of Homer, that when a couple got married the man was bound to bring the marriage portion or dowry, not the woman. Instances of this custom are mentioned everywhere in f^ our literature : and so well was it recognised, that the ancient Irish writers — as was their wont in such cases — assign a legendary origin for it. The legend is found in the Book of Leinster, into which it was copied from the still more ancient Book of Dromsnechta. When the sons of Milesius arrived in Ireland, they found there some Hebrew women who had been driven thither from the Tyrrhene or Mediterranean sea by a tempest. The newcomers proposed marriage to them : but the women answered that they preferred to return to their own country ; and that they would not abandon it to marry the Milesians unless they got Tinnscra or dowry as a sort of compensation : to which the Milesians agreed. And the old account goes on to say : — " It is from this circum- " stance than in Erin it is the men that purchase wives " always : while it is the husbands that are purchased in " all the rest of the world."*

*0'Curry, MS. Mat., 15, bottom : LL, 190, c, 27.

B 2

4 SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE [PART III

There were several terms in common use to designate dowry : and according to an ancient manuscript in Trinity College, Dublin, quoted by O'Donovan,* the several names were used for different sorts of dowries. The Tinnscra was a gift of gold, silver, copper, or brass: the Coibche [c5-ve] consisted of clothes and warriors : the Slabra of cattle and horse-bridles : and the Tochra of sheep and swine. But there is good reason to believe that these distinctions were not rigidly adhered to, and that the several terms were in some measure used indiscriminately. Thus O'Clery, in his Glossary, explains Tinnscra by Coibche : and many other such instances might be cited. Moreover, the dowry might consist of other things besides those named above, such as land, or houses, or the con- cession of some valuable favour or privilege. " Give me,'" said Oengus mac Natfree, king of Munster in the fifth century, "your foster-child [Eithne Uathach] as a wife, and I will give you land as Ttnnscra."-\ There were^ other terms, too, for ' dowry,' such as fola and foluch. Occasionally time was given for payment of the dowry : if it was paid in hand, it was called by the general name EllamX from lam, ' the hand.'

In Ireland, as among all the Aryan nations,^ the original conception was that the man purchased his affianced wife from the father or other guardian, and the dowry he brought in was the bride-price. It was usually paid over by the bridegroom to the father of the bride. Accordingly, Cormac's Glossary interprets coibche as meaning cendach, i.e. ' buying.' The bride-price often consisted of a yearly payment from the husband after marriage : and we find it laid down in the Brehon Law that the woman's father was entitled to the whole of the

* In Hy F, 207, note r: see also Silva Gad., 525, is. t LU, 54, ^, 2 : and Sullivan, Introd., 174, note 295. For houses as dowry, see O'Curry, MS. Mat., 133. % Corm. Gloss., 67, '<Ellam."

§ De Jubainville, Cours de Litt. Celt., vr. 303.

CHAP. XIX] THE FAMILY 5

first year's coibche^ to two-thirds of the second year's, to one-half of the third : and so on, diminishing to the twenty- first, when the claim ceased.* In each case, what was left of the coibche belonged to the wife.f

We meet many instances where the dowry consisted of a privilege. When Fergus mac Roy, king of Ulaid (Ulster) in the first century of the Christian era, proposed marriage to the beautiful widow Ness, she refused to marry him except on this condition as Tinnscra : — That her son Concobar, then a mere boy, should be permitted to reign as king, instead of Fergus, for one year : to which Fergus, with the consent of his nobles, agreed. But at the end of the year — just as the wily widow expected — when Fergus claimed his throne, the nobles refused to supersede Concobar, who — by the help of his mother — had so com- pletely won them over that he remained king for the rest of his Hfe.J

Within late historical times we find a still more interesting example of this sort of bride-price. Early in the fourteenth century, it happened on one occasion that Cormac O'Clery, a learned young ollave or doctor of laws, visited the house of Matthew O'Sgingin, professor of history to the O'Donnells of Tirconnell. For many generations the O'Sgingins had been hereditary historians to the O'Donnells : but this Matthew was destined to be the last ollave of the name, for his only surviving child was a daughter, a beautiful young girl. The two young people soon fell in love with each other : and the father consented to their union, but demanded from O'Clery as Tinnscra, that the first son born of the marriage should be sent to study history, so as to succeed to the position held by the

*Br. Laws, ii. 347; ni. 315.

t In remote times the idea of sale and purchase of the woman in marriage must have been prominent and familiar : see an instance of Concobar mac Nessa buying a woman after the death of her first husband : Br. Laws, IV., p. 9, note 2.

X LL, 106, a, 30 : MS. Mat., 274, 636: Stokes, Lives of SS., XXXV, top.

6 SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE [PART III

O'Sgingins. The young man willingly agreed : and he faithfully kept to his promise. His first son, who became a historian, was the ancestor of the O'Clerys of Kilbarron in Donegal, who succeeded the O'Sgingins as hereditary ollaves of history to the O'Donnells * They were a race of scholars who have left us many precious works in Irish, illustrating the history and antiquities of Ireland, including the Annals of the Four Masters, the greatest and most important of all.f

The fact that the husband paid the bride-price did not prevent the bride bringing goods or valuables of her own, if she had them. Any number of cases might be cited where the young woman brought jewels, or gold, or herds, or land : and after the marriage, these continued to be her own special property. Sometimes the friends of the young couple made a collection for them, which was called Tinol {I.e. 'collection': pron. tinnole), of which two-thirds belonged by law to the man, and one-third to the woman.| This custom was common among high and low, and we meet with instances everywhere in the tales. Our present custom of making a young married couple presents is not unlike the old Irish tinnole.

It was usual that girls should be married in order of age, beginning with the eldest. We are told in the story of the Boroma that Tuathal the Legitimate, king of Ire- land (a.d. i30-i6o),_had two daughters, of whom Eochaid [Ochy], king of Leinster, married the elder, though he pre- ferred the younger, who was more beautiful. " For at that time " — says the story — " it was not the custom in Erin for the younger sister to be married before the elder."§ The lady Emer, when Cuculainn sought her in marriage, says : — " I may not marry before Fial my sister, who is older than

*FM, Vol. I., Introd. Remarks, xx. For Kilbarron, see vol. r., p. 524, supra.

t For examples of other sorts of dowries, see Oss. Soc, IV. 299 (head of a destructive wild boar), and Bee Fola, p. 175 (a brooch).

X Br. Laws, 11. 347, 350, 351. § Rev. Celt., xiii. 37 : Silva Gad., 402.

CHAP. XIX] THE FAMILY 7

I am." It was expected, too, that a girl should marry a man of a family equal to her own in social standing.*

Marriages, as stated elsewhere (chap, xxix., sect, r, infra), formed a prominent feature of the fair of Tailltenn, held during the last days of July and first days of August. But it would appear from a passage in Cormac's Glossary (p. 82, "Gam") that throughout Ireland in general the favourite and fashionable month for getting married was November. According to some authorities quoted by Sullivan in his Introduction to O'Curry's Lectures (p. 240), a tribute had to be paid — at least in some cases — to the king, on the marriage of every maiden of his people. This tribute was usually a fdinne maighdena [fawnya mydena], or ' maiden's ring' ; for it was often a gold ring : but it might be an ounce of gold, or less, or it might be the bride's wedding-dress.

The general custom was to have only one wifet : but there were exceptions, for in very early times we some- times find a king or chief with two. In the story of the Cattle Spoil of Fraech in the Book of the Dun Cow, referring to far distant pagan ages, it is related how Fraech, a powerful chief of Erris, goes to the house of Ailill and Maive, king and queen of Connaught, as a suitor for the hand of their daughter Finnabair, though it was well known that he had at the time a wife and three sons. Cobthach Coel Breg, king of Ireland before the Christian era, had more than one queen. + Coming to Christian times, Dermot, king of Ireland, A.D. 544-565, had two queens. § In the time of St. Finnchua (seventh century) old Nuada the sage, king of Leinster, had two wives {da bainchele), who, as might be expected, kept the poor old king in hot water by their jealousies and bickerings.il

*Br. Laws, 11. 347.

t On Monogamy, the basis of Greek, Roman, and Celtic society, see De Jubainville, Cours de Litt. Celt., vr. chap. iv. X Orgain Dind Rig, in Zeitschr. Celt. Phil., in. 9. § See chap. xxii. sect. 3, farther on. || Stokes, Lives of SS., p. 237.

8 SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE [PART III

That chastity and modesty were prized we know from many passages, such as that in the Life of St. Finnchua, in which he leaves blessings to Leinster, among them " chastity in their queens and in their wives, and modesty in their maidens."* A wedding was called banais : a married couple was Idiiamain : marriage, Idnamiias : a widow was fedb and bentrabhthach.

2. Position of Wometi and Children.

In ancient Ireland free women (as distinguished from slaves) held a good position : and it may be said that as to social rights and property they were in most respects quite on a level with men. Husband and wife continued to own the respective shares they brought in at marriage, such as land, flocks, household goods, &c., the man retaining his part and the woman hers, each quite independently of the other. Of this custom we find illustrations everywhere ; and there are many records of married women taking legal proceedings on their own account against outsiders, quite independently of the husband, in defence of their special property, either on account of trespass or for any other sufficient reason. t

But notwithstanding this separate ownership, as both portions were worked more or less in conjunction, and naturally increased from year to year, it was generally impossible — even if so desired — to keep them distinct, so that a part at least of the entire possessions might be looked upon as joint property : and for this state of things the law provided. It is from the Brehon Law we get the clearest exposition of the rights of women regarding property. The respective privileges of the couple after marriage depended very much on the amount of property

* Stokes, Lives of SS., p. 239.

t For the law on the point, and instances, see Br. Laws, 11. 361, 363, 3*9 : O'Curry, Man. & Cust., II. 89 : Stokes, Lives of SS., 165, 235 : Feilire, 75 : Reeves, Adamn., 305 : and vol. i., p. 216, supra (\.\\e glaisin crop).

CHAP. XIX] THE FAMILY 9

they brought in. If their properties were equal at marriage " the wife " — says the Senchus Mor — " is called the wife of equal rank," and she was recognised as in all respects, in regard to property, on an equality with her husband.* In this case all transactions affecting the joint property, such as buying and selling, had to be made with the consent of both parties : and any contract made by either, for his or her own special benefit, without the consent of the other, was null and void. But if it could be shown that the transaction tended equally to the advantage of both, the law confirmed it. If profit accrued from any transaction (such as selling) it was apportioned to husband and wife in the ratio of their respective shares.

That the husband and wife were on terms of equality as to property is made still more clear from the provisions laid down to meet the case of separation : and from the evident care with which these are set forth, we may con- clude that the separation of married couples was, in those days, by no means an uncommon occurrence. Sometimes they separated by mutual consent and sometimes as the outcome of legal proceedings. Seven different kinds of injury are enumerated in the law, which if inflicted on a wife by her husband, gave her the right to separate from him : most of which would at this day lead to a decree of "separation from bed and board." If she proved her case home, she was entitled to her dowry (or that part of it that remained with her after marriage) in addition to personal damages as Ejieclanii or honour- fine.f

If the couple separated by mutual consent, the woman took away with her all she had brought on the marriage day ; while the man retained what he had contributed. Supposing the joint property had gone on increasing

* Br. Laws, 11. 357 : and Preface, Ivi.

t Br. Laws, V. 293: see also II. 357, 359, 361, 381, 383; and Sullivan, Tntrod., 176.

lO SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE [PART III

during married life : then at separation the couple divided the whole in proportion to the original contributions.*

But all this might be modified by special circumstances, which are detailed in the law with much exactness. One of these was whether the woman was a " great worker " or a " small worker." She was a "great worker" if she had, of her own, all the utensils necessary for her feminine occupations : such as a mill, a sieve, a loom, a spinning wheel, a distaff, spindles, &c. : she was a " small worker "' if these were supplied by the husband.f In the division of property a great worker took a larger share than a small worker. For instance, in case of flax at the time of pulling and drying : a great worker got one-sixth of it ; a small worker one-ninth.J

If the woman was a "great worker" during married life, and helped by her industry to increase the property, she was entitled, at separation, to one-ninth of the increase, even though she had no property (beyond the utensils) at the time of marriage.§ And in like manner the man, under similar circumstances, if he had been a "great worker," could claim just one-ninth of the increase. Here, in the words of the law tract (IL 391), "the man goes in the place of the woman, and the woman in the place of the man."

As to household articles manufactured by the woman's hand, she was entitled to a part, as in case of other goods — even though having no property at the time of marriage : but the exact amount depended on the state of advance- ment of the work. Take woollen goods as an example, which were generally managed exclusively by women. If the wool was in the fleece at the time of separation, she took one-eighth. If it had been separated into locks or flakes ready for combing, she took one-sixth ; if after being combed ready for spinning, one-third: after spinning, or

*Br. Laws, n. 397: O'Curry, Man. & Cust., II. Ii8.

tBr. Laws, 11. 411. + Br. Laws, 11. 419.

§Br. Laws, II. 391, 393,395.

CHAP. XIX] THE FAMILY II

X

when in cloth, one-half.* So also flax : one-ninth growing " on foot " ; one-sixth after drying ; one-third after scutch- ing ; one-half after that. Similar arrangements were laid down for dye-stuffs in the several stages of preparation ; and for various other materials and products. From all this, moreover, as well as from many separate passages, it may be inferred that great importance was attached to hand-work of all kinds. f\j

Women, as has been said, might take actions at law on their own account, and if successful might distrain the goods of the defendant. But the distress should be confined to such things as were understood to specially pertain to women, in their daily life, of which a list is given in the Senchus Mor. These included sheep, lap-dogs, and cats ; all utensils used in the manufacture of cloth, such as spindles, wool-bags, needles, weavers' reeds, &c., and also such articles as looking-glasses, sieves, and kneading-troughs.f

When the wife owned land, it was subject to the same law of succession as that of the husband ; viz., if she had sons it descended to them, whether there were daughters or not : if she had no sons it went to the daughters. Here however there were proper safeguards to prevent the land passing from the tribe, in case the woman married a man of another tribe. J When land passed by any right to a woman, she entered into formal possession, by a process which was attended with very curious ceremonies.§ When a woman came into possession of land, she was bound to send men for war-service like male land-owners : but she was set free of this obligation on giving up to the_/f«^ or tribe half the land; a privilege which was not accorded to men.ll

*Br. Laws, ii. 369, 373: O'Curry, Man. & Cust., 11. 118.

t General list in Senchus Mor, Br. Laws, i. 151 ; and see 149. See also IV. 9, note 3 ; and 13, 19.

X See Br. Laws, iv. 17 and 19, 39 and 41, 45, 47, top : and Introduction, cxvi, cxvii. § Ceremonies: for which see Br. Laws, iv. 9, 11, 13.

II Br. Laws, iv. 19, 8 to end of par. ; 21, note 2:41, mid. par. ; 45 ; 47, u ; 49 ; and Introduction, cxvii, bottom.

12 SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE [PART III

Husband and wife stood on equal terms in a brehon's court, so that if the husband gave evidence against his wife, she was entitled to give evidence against him. For, as the Senchus Mor expresses it, " though the Law cedes " headship to the man [husband] for his manhood and " nobility, he has not the greater power of proof upon the " woman on account of it, for it is only contract that is " between them."* But her father could give evidence against her, and she was not permitted to rebut it by her evidence.^

The testimonies hitherto brought forward are mostly legal and historical. But the general popular conception of the position of married women may be also gathered from the old romantic tales and legends, including those of the Dinnsenchus, in which women hold as high a place as men. We read of great female physicians, such as Air- meda the daughter of the leech-god Dianket ; and of distinguished female brehons or lawyers, such as Brigh Bruigaid, whose decisions were followed as precedents for centuries after her death.

But with all that has been said so far in commendation of the position of women, there were some features, which, regarded from a moral point of view, were very objection- able. These were not indeed peculiar to Ireland, but were common enough among European nations at the time ; but they were not the less repulsive for that. It is manifest from Irish literature in general, and especially from the Brehon Laws, that the practice of separation of man and wife, either by mutual consent or by process of law, was unpleasantly common. Concubinage was very general, especially among the higher classes, and does not appear to have been regarded by the general public as in any degree reprehensible : indeed the Brehon Law provides for it as a recognised custom. Female slaves too were treated with great grossness, at least till the time of

*Br, Laws, ii. 351. t Hid., 347-

CHAP. XIX] THE FAMILY 1 3

Adamnan (at the end of the seventh century), by whose exertions some much-needed improvements were effected in their position, as well as in that of women in general.*

It is worthy of remark that the good old lawyers who compiled the Brehon Law tracts, while doing full justice to the position of women, are sometimes given to a rather pompous assertion of the superiority of their own sex. We have seen the lofty expression in last page : and the commentator, explaining why the Senchus Mor, though treating as much of women as of men, is still called the " Senchus of the Men of Erin," says " it is proper indeed " that it should be so called, so as to give superiority to " the noble sex, i.e. to the male : for the man is the " head of the woman, and the man is more noble than the " woman."t

The son was under the father's control till formally emancipated : but what was the age or in what the ceremony of emancipation consisted I have not found.J

We have seen (vol. I., p. 165, supra) that, even as late as the twelfth century, it was common among the English to sell their children and other relatives, especially to the people of Ireland. In Ireland illegitimate children were sometimes sold, but not legitimate children. It is laid down in the Brehon Law that the children begotten illegitimately of a woman who has been abducted belong to the woman's family, who may sell them if they choose. § That fathers also sometimes sold their illegitimate children is shown by a story in the Life of St. Brigit, who — accord- ing to this legend — was the illegitimate daughter of a pagan chief named Dubthach. When she was a girl living in her father's house, she was so charitable that every- thing in the house she could lay hands on she gave away

* Trip. Life, Introd., xxii. f Br. Laws, i. 35.

J Br. Laws, iv. 231, 12; V. 357, n; 439, 5. See De Jubainville, Cours de Litt. Celt., vr. 312 : and " Saer-leicthe " in Atkinson's Br. Law Glossary. As to the duty of the son to support the parents, see chap, xxx, sect. 3, infra.

\ Br. Laws, iir. 403, 541.

14 SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE [PART III

to the poor and the needy : till her father became at last so incensed that he resolved to rid himself of her by selling her for a slave. He actually brought her away in his chariot with this object, but was diverted from his purpose by the advice of a friend : and so Brigit was saved from bondage* In the annals and other ancient writings we sometimes come across references to times of famine and distress so severe that people were driven to sell their legitimate children to procure food. But these entries, so far from showing that the practice was customary in Ireland, prove, as acknowledged exceptions, the very reverse.

Adoption, whether of individuals, of families, or of whole septs, has been already dealt with (vol. I., p. i66, supra).

A child was called in Irish lenab, now leanbh, pron. lannav : an infant was noidiu. A son was 7/iac, corre- sponding with Welsh map : a daughter, zn^-en [ing-een] : a grandson was ua, kua, or /laue. A father was athair : a mother, mdthair : a brother, dearbhr athair, now pron. drahaar : a sister, deirbhshiur, pron. drihoor.

3. Fosterage.

One of the leading features of Irish social life was fosterage (Irish, altram or altrum), which prevailed from the remotest period. It was practised by persons of all classes, but more especially by those in the higher ranks. The most usual type of fosterage was this : — A man sent his child to be reared and educated in the home and with the family of another member of the tribe, who then became foster-father, and his children the foster-brothers and foster- sisters of the child. While young persons were generally fostered in this manner, in families, some were put in care of distinguished ecclesiastics : and many of the Irish saints

* Stokes, Lives of SS., 187.

CHAP. XIX] THE FAMILY 1 5

were fostered in this way, whose early training in a great measure determined their future Hfe. St. Columkille was fostered and educated during childhood by a holy priest named Cruithnecan.* For a number of individual examples of the fosterage of well-known historical personages, the reader may refer to O'Curry's Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish, I. 374, 375.

The foster-father was denoted by the word aite or oide [2-syll.] : the foster-mother by nmiine [mumme] : the foster-child by dalta. Dalta is still in use as a term of endearment to denote a favourite or a petted child, but is now always applied to a boy. A foster-brother was comalte [3-syll.]. Fosterage was subject to stringent regulations, which were carefully set forth in the law. A special portion of the Senchus Mor — occupying twenty- four pages, Irish type, of the second volume — is devoted to it ; in which the rights, duties, and obligations of the parties are detailed with minute particularity : and it is referred to in other parts of the law. I give here a few of the most important of these regulations.

A child might be sent to fosterage at one year of age. Boys might be kept till seventeen and girls till fourteen, which were considered the marriageable ages : then they returned to their parents' house. There were two kinds of fosterage — for affection and for payment. In the first there was no fee : in the second the fee varied according to rank. The fosterage fee iiarraitJi) sometimes consisted of land, but more generally of cattle. For the son of an og-aire or lowest order of chief, the fee was three cows ; and from that upwards to the son of a king, for whom the fee was from eighteen to thirty cows. For girls, as giving more trouble, requiring more care, and as being less able to help the foster-parents in after-life, it was something higher than for boys. The child, during fosterage, was treated in all respects like the children of the house : he worked at

* Reeves, Adamnan, 191.

l6 SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE [PART III

some appropriate employment or discharged some suitable function for the benefit of the foster-father : and he had to be educated in a way that suited his station in life : as has been already described (vol. I., p. 441). There were minute regulations regarding clothes, food, and means of amuse- ment, all of which varied according to rank. How far the foster-father was liable for injuries suffered by the foster- child at the hands of others, or for his misdeeds, is set forth with great care.

Precautions were taken, in the shape of penalties, to prevent the fosterage being terminated before the time by either party without sufficient cause. At the termination of the period of fosterage the foster-father gave the foster- son a parting gift, the amount of which was regulated according to rank and other circumstances. If in after-life the foster-father fell into poverty, and had no children of his own to support him, he had a claim on his foster-son for maintenance, provided he had duly discharged all the duties of fosterage, including that of the parting gift. The foster-mother had a similar claim. It was usual for a chief to send his child to be fostered to one of his own sub- chiefs : but the parents often chose a chief of their own rank. Sometimes a chief had a large number of children at fosterage : in the Book of the Dun Cow we are told that at one time Ochy Beg, king of Cliach, the district round Knockainy in Limerick, had forty boys in his charge, sons of the nobles of Munster.* In cases where children were left without parents or guardians, and required pro- tection, the law required that they should be placed in fosterage under suitable persons.f

The children of kings, chiefs, or other distinguished persons were eagerly sought after for fosterage ; and in order to satisfy such claims, it sometimes happened that such children had two or more foster-fathers, with whom

* O'Curry, Man. & Gust., i. 357. f Br. Law-, II., Fref. Ivii.

CHAP. XIX] THE FAMILY ly

they lived in succession or in turn. Thus the great _ Dedannan chief, Lugh the Ildana, had nine fosterers ;* and coming to historic times, Lewy Mac Con, king of Ireland (a.d. 250-253), was fostered by Olioll Olum, king of TVIunster, and by Olioll's brother, Lewy Laga.f To be fostered by several was considered a mark of distinction. Laegaire's daughters, when inquiring from St. Patrick about God (who they thought might be some great chief), asked, among many other questions, did many foster His Son — implying that this would be a sure indication of rank and dignity.^

Although it was more usual to send boys to be fostered than girls, still we often find in the old tales pleasant pictures of girls in their homes with their foster-sisters. In the story of the courtship of Emer, the young hero Cuculainn, going to the house of her father, Forgall Monach, at Lusk, north of Dublin, to woo the young lady, found her on the lawn of the fort with her foster-sisters, who were learning embroidery and hand-dexterity with henji

Fosterage was the closest of all ties between families. The relationship was regarded as something sacred. The foster-children were often more attached to the foster- parents and foster-brothers than to the members of their own family : and cases have occurred where a man has voluntarily laid down his life to save the life of his foster-father or foster-brother. This attachment is noticed by many English writers from Giraldus down|| : and illustrations are found everywhere in Irish writings both ancient and modern. At the great Battle of Moyrath, fought in 637 by the monarch Domnall against his rebellious foster-son, Congal Claen, the king, both before and during the battle, shows himself most anxious for the personal safety of Congal, now his mortal enemy. 'i For a

* Rev. Celt. , xil. 89. + Todd, St. Patk., 453 : see also Trip. Life, clxix. t Silva Gad., 349. § Kilk. Aiclia3ol. Journ., 1870-1, p. 404.

11 Girald., Top. Hib., in. xxiii. H Moyrath, 135, 155, 161, 305.

C

1 8 SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE [PART III

modern illustration, see Carleton's story of " The Foster- Brother."* The custom of fosterage existed in Ireland — though in a modified form — even so late as the seventeenth or eighteenth century.

There was also a literary fosterage, when a boy was sent to be reared up by an ollave or professor, and instructed for a deg-ree. The foster-father was " to instruct him with- " out reserve, to prepare him for his degree, to chastise " him without severity, and to feed and clothe him while " learning his legitimate profession." The amount of fee was regulated by law. All gains earned by the pupil while learning were to be paid to the tutor, and also the first fee he earned after leaving him. If the teacher fell into poverty in after-life, his foster-pupil was bound to support him. The relationship of literary fosterage was regarded as still more close and sacred than that of ordinary fosterage.

Gossipred. — When a man stood sponsor for a child at baptism, he became the child's godfather, and gossip to the parents. Gossipred was regarded as a sort of religious relationship between families, and created mutual obligations of regard and friendship.!

After the Anglo-Norman invasion the people of the English colony, from the great lords down, often sent their children to be fostered by the Irish : and as might be expected, these young persons grew up speaking the Irish language, and thoroughly Irish in every way. Mainly for this reason the two customs of fosterage and gossipred were bitterly denounced by early English writers,^ most of whom were anxious to keep the two races apart : and we know that the Government passed several stringent laws forbidding them under the penalty of high treason : but these laws were generally disregarded. Gossipred in

* Irish Penny Journal, 338.

t For full accounts of Fosterage, see Br. Laws, 11. 147, 349 ; v. 97 : and for both customs, Ware, Antiqq., chap. xi. + Instance, Spenser, 112.

CHAP. XIX]

THE FAMILY

19

a modified form exists to this day all over the empire ; and the custom of fostering was formerly common among the Welsh, the Anglo-Saxons, and the Scandinavians.

4. Family-Names.

Hereditary family-names became general in Ireland about the time of Brian Boru, viz. at the end of the tenth and the beginning of the eleventh century : and some authorities assert that they were adopted in obedience to an ordinance of that monarch. The manner of forming the names was very simple. Each person had one proper name of his own. In addition to this, all the members of a family took as a common surname the name of their father, with Mac (son) prefixed, or of their grandfather or some more remote ancestor, with Ua or O (grandson or descendant) prefixed. Thus the O'Neills are so called from their ancestor Niall Glundufif, king of Ireland (a.d. 916), and 'John O'Neill' means John the descendant of Niall: the Mac Carthys of Desmond have their surname from a chief named Carrthach, who lived about the year 1043. The same custom was adopted in Scotland : but while in Ireland O was much more general than Mac, in Scotland the O was very rarely chosen, and nearly all the Scotch Gaelic family-names begin with Mac.

Sculpture on a Column, Church of the Monastery, Gleadalouj^^h. lI'"roin Petric's Round Towers, 260.)

C 2

Ornament : composed from the Book: of Kells.

CHAPTER XX

THE HOUSE

Section i. Constrtiction, Shape, and Size.

'EFORE the introduction of Christianity, buildings in Ireland, whether domestic, military, or sepulchral, were generally round or oval. The quadrangular shape, which was used in the churches in the time of St. Patrick, came very slowly into use, and round structures finally disappeared only in the fourteenth or fifteenth century. But the round shape was not universal, even in the most ancient period. The great Banqueting-Hall of Tara was rectangular, as we see by its ruins at the present day. The Craebh-riLadli [Creeveroe], a similar hall at Emain, was of a like shape ; and the bruden or feasting- hall at Dun-da-benn (the fort overhanging the waterfall in the Bann near Coleraine) was square : both of these made in imitation of the hall of Tara.* And in case of many of the ordinary good-sized dwelling-houses, the expressions used regarding them show that the walls were straight and parallel, and that consequently the shape was rectangular. Some of the old lisses or forts still to be seen are of this shape : and even where the surrounding rampart was round the wooden houses it enclosed were often rectangular.f

*Tain bo Fiaeich, i6o, i6i : Mesca Ulad, 13.

t See for example Sick Bed, Atlantis, 11. 105, first line: also O'Curry, Man. & Cust., 11. 31.

CHAP. XX] THE HOUSE 21

The common Irish word for a house is tecJi, Lat. tectum ; whence come the compounds tegdiiis or teaghdais, one of the names for a homestead ; and teaghlach, 'a family or household.' A dwelling in general is denoted by ariis or aross; a homestead by bailc\ now generally anglicised bally, but used in a more extended sense to denote a town- land. The word brttg or bnigJi [broo] was also applied to a large dwelling : in Peter O'Connell's Dictionary, taken from old authorities, we find : — '^ Bnig, the same as baile, a mansion, manor, or farmhouse." But this word bi'iig had other applications, which will be found fully set forth in Hennessy's Introduction to the Mesca Ulad, p. 7.

It has sometimes been stated that there were no towns or cities in ancient Ireland : but this statement is mis- leading. There were many centres of population, though they were never surrounded by walls, and the dwellings were detached and scattered a good deal — not closely packed as in modern towns. In our old records, both native and Anglo-Irish, we have many records of towns and cities. As a comparatively late example — in the twelfth century — may be mentioned Downpatrick, which Giraldus Cambrensis, in his account of John de Courcy's invasion of Ulster, calls the " City of Down " : but it was quite open and undefended. Then we know that some of the large monasteries had two or three thousand students, which implies a total population much larger. Some of the provisions of the Brehon Law show that numbers of lis-dwellings must have been clustered together : one statement, for instance, that a mill or a fishing-weir was sometimes the common property of the fine or tribe.

The dwelling-houses, as well indeed as the early churches, were nearly always of wood, as that material was much the most easily procured. The ordinary kinds of timber were used according to circumstances, but the most common were deal, oak, and yew. The custom of building in wood was so general in Ireland that it was considered

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CHAP. XX] THE HOUSE 23

a characteristic of the Irish — more Scottoriun, " after the manner of the Scots " — as Bede expresses it. Yet we know that the Britons, Saxons, and Franks also very generally built in wood. When Henry II. was in Ireland, 1171-2, "he had a royal palace constructed for himself of " planed wood, built with wonderful taste, in which he and " the kings and princes of Ireland kept the festival of " Christmas."* Of course this house was the work of Dublin builders and tradesmen. Some of the houses in Waterford in 1168 were of wood: and it was by pulling one of them down that Raymond le Gros effected an entrance into the city. Wooden houses, highly orna- mented, continued in use in Dublin, Drogheda, and other towns, down to the last century.f

But although wood-building was general in Ireland before the twelfth century, it was not universal : for some stone churches were erected from the time of the intro- duction of Christianity : beehive-shaped houses, as well as cahirs and cashels (see below), were built of stone, without mortar, from pre-historic times : and the remains of these primitive structures — churches, houses, and cahirs — are still to be seen in many parts of Ireland. J In all these mortarless buildings, the stones, though in their natural state — not hammered or chiselled into shape — are fitted to each other with great skill and accuracy : or, as Pctrie expresses it, "with wonderful art."§

The dwelling-houses were almost always constructed of wickerwork : tech-figiJii or tecJi-fitJii, a ' wickerwork house ' : from figint^ ' I weave.' The wall (/rai'g) was formed of long stout poles (s/at, ' a pole ') placed in a circle, if the house was to be round, standing pretty near each other, with their ends fixed deep in the ground, the

*Hoveden, quoted in Cambr. Ev., 11. 173. t Dublin Penny Journ., i. 89 and 268.

X For a whole town of pre-historic circular stone houses in Kerry, see Macalistcr's article in Trans. Roy. Ir. Acad., vol. xxxi., p. 209. § See Stokes's Life of Petrie, p. 135.

24 SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE [PART III

spaces between closed in with rods and twigs neatly and firmly interwoven ; generally of hazel. The poles were peeled and polished smooth. The whole surface of the wickerwork was plastered on the outside, and made brilliantly white with lime, or occasionally striped in various colours ; leaving the white poles exposed to view. The residence of O'Murphy at Dunflin in Sligo in the thirteenth century is called in HyF (265) " a white wattled edifice of noble polish."* When the house was to be rectangular the poles were set in two parallel rows, filled in with wickerwork.

Building in wickerwork was common to the Celtic people of Ireland, Scotland, and Britain. t It is very often referred to in Irish writings of all kinds. An instance has been already cited in vol. i., p. 10. Adamnan (p. 106) relates that Columba on one occasion sent his monks to bring bundles of rods {znrgaruin fasciados) to. construct one of the houses of a hospice. The same incident is told in the Irish Life of St. Columba ; and here the rods or wattles are called by the Irish term caelaig (sing, caelac/i, ' anything slender,' ' a slender wattle,' from cael, ' slender,' pron. kail). The cliatJi [clee-a] or hurdle and the wattles or laths for building houses are often mentioned in the Brehon Laws.:[: In some large houses the standing poles were very thick and high : in describing the construction of Bricriu's house at Dun- Rury, the writer of the "Feast of Bricriu " (p. 5) states, probably with some exaggeration, that it took seven strong men to put each pole in its place. But more usually they were of moderate dimensions.

From the curious details given in the Brehon Law- tract called Crith Gabhlach,§ it appears that, after the

*0n all this, see O'Curry, Man. & Cust., ii. 32: HyF, 265, 279: Three Irish Homilies, 77 hot. : and vol. i., p. 10, supra.

tBede, Eccl. Hist., iii. x. : Rhys, The Welsh People, igg, 200: Ware, Antiqq., xxv.

JAsin vol. IV. 253, 305, 313. § Br. Laws, IV. 305.

CHAP. XX]

THE HOUSE

25

poles had been fixed in the ground, the spaces were filled up with wickerwork in the following manner, to form the fraig or side wall. Beginning at the bottom, a strip of a certain width was woven all round ; another strip was woven above that : and so on till the eave was reached ; after which a sloping drip-board was fixed all round at the junction of each adjacent pair of strips, and one at the eave over all.

Fig. 169.

Maynooth Castle at present: pliotograpli. Erected originally in 1176 by Maurice Fitzgerald : but greatly altered and enlarged subsequently. One of the Anglo-Norman castles referred to in sect. 3 farther on. (From Journal of the Kildare Archaeological Society, I., p. 223.)

This last description, and that of Bricriu's house- poles above, go to show that the side wall was often very high : and this is borne out for other buildings by- many passages, both direct and incidental. Keating (page 333), drawing from old authorities, says that the Banqueting-Hall of Tara was 300 feet long by 75 feet wide and 45 feet high : and Kineth O'Hartigan, in the tenth century, makes a similar statement as to length and height.* Now Keating understates both the length and breadth, as appears by actual measurement of the present

• Petrie's Tara, 190.

26 SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE [PART III

existing ruin * so we may take it that the height was not under 45 feet. Again, three great heroes contend in another banqueting-hall, the feat consisting in throwing a heavy rotJi or wheel-quoit upwards towards the roof. Laegaire the victorious throws it half-way up the wall : Conall Cernach throws it to the ridge pole : but Cuculainn sent it right through the roof.f Lastly, in the Battle of Rossnaree (p. 5), Concobar, speaking of the devastation committed by the Connaughtmen in Ulster, says : — " Our " fine dwellings were burned so that they were left no " higher than single rooms or outhouses." This passage seems to point to two-storied houses, with which other passages concur. But in some cases the wall, or part of it, was so low that the eave was within reach of the hand, like the eaves of some " Swiss cottages " of the present day : for the Crith Gabhlach+ lays down a penalty for taking away any portion of the straw from the thatch of a bo-aire's house. When there was more than one apartment in a house, each had a separate wall and roof: except, of course, where one apartment was over another.

In the Highlands of Scotland wattled or wicker houses were used, even among high-class people, down to the end of the eighteenth century§ ; and it is probable that they continued in use in Ireland to as late a period.

In the superior classes of houses, and in churches, a better plan of building was adopted, by forming the wall with sawed planks instead of wickerwork. The little hut erected at lona for St. Columba's special use was con- structed of wood planks (in tiiguriolo tabiilis stiffulto).\\ The oratory built at Rahan in the present King's County in the year 747 was of boards ; and we are told that it was unusually large, so that it took a thousand boards to build

* For actual dimensions, see sect. 5, below.

fKilk. Arch. Journ., 1870, p. 438.

X Brehon Laws, iv. 313,

§ Stuart, in Book of Deer, Pref. cli, note i.

II Adamnan, p. 54; and see 177.

CHAP. XX] THE HOUSE 2/

it.* But the dwelling-houses of monasteries, as well as the smaller oratories, were generally of wickerwork : of which one instance has already been cited at p. 24 from Adamnan. In the houses of the higher classes the door- posts and other special parts of the dwelling and furniture were often made of yew, carved, and ornamented with gold, silver, bronze, and gems. We know this from the old records ; and still more convincing evidence is afforded by the Brehon Law (iv. 313, 315), which prescribes fines for scratching or otherwise disfiguring the posts or lintels of doors, the heads or posts of beds, or the ornamental parts of other furniture.

Small square timber houses, consisting generally of just one apartment, have often been found deep in bogs, and sometimes in clay. They consist of beams and planks of oak and other timber, joined together with much rude skill by tenon-and-mortise without nails. They seem to have served some temporary purpose, as they are too small for permanent residence ; perhaps they were in- tended to shelter workmen for the time who were cuttinsf turf, or for those who attended to cattle when they were grazed in the booleys. Or possibly some may have been the little buildings connected with ancient mills (see chap. XXV.). From the position in which some of these houses have been found, it seems plain that they are very archaic : belonging probably to a time beyond the reach of history.f

The roof of the circular house was of a conical shape, brought to a point, with an opening in the centre for the smoke. It w^as of wickerwork or hurdles supported by rafters sloping upwards from the tops of the wall-poles all round, to the centre at the very top. From its shape and material this sort of roof was often called aia-chlethe,

* O'Curry, Man. & Cust., II. 37.

t Instances : Kilk. Arch. Journ., 1879-82, pp. 307, 561 : see also Wood- Martin, Pagan Ireland, p. 223 et seq.

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CHAP. XX] THE HOUSE 29

* cup-shaped wicker roof.'* The roof of the quadrangular houses was much hke that of the common run of houses of the present day. If the house was large, the conical roof of those of circular form was supported by a tall, strong iiiireadh or pole standing on the centre of the floorf ; in case the house was quadrangular, there was a row of such supporting poles, or two rows if the structure was very large. The circular building with conical roof was in shape exactly like the buildings called ' tholos ' among the Greeks.

Straw was used for roof- covering from the earliest times, and its use has continued to the present day. In 1596 the straw thatch of O'Madden's Castle was ignited by a firebrand thrown by the besiegers, so that the roof was burned (Hy Many, 150). The word tuga was used to denote a roof- covering, whether made of straw or of any other material. In the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick (p. 157) we are told that a certain person built a house in Ess Mace n-Eirc ; but that a rush of the thatch {simni tuga : sivini^ ' a rush ') had not been put upon it before it was demolished by another person. Reeds were often employed ; and for this purpose they were sometimes cultivated in special plots of ground.^ We have seen that St. Finan roofed his church at Lindis- farne with reeds {harundine texit). Whatever the material, the covering was in all cases put on with some degree of art and neatness, such as we see in the work of the skilled straw-thatchers of the present day.

A better class of roof than any of the preceding was what is called in Irish sliiin, commonly rendered b}^ shingle. The house of Ailill and Maive at Cruachan had a roof of slinn {tuga slmued).\ Slimi, in Old Irish,

* Sullivan, Introd. 299, note 531 : and LU, 19, a, 17. t O'Curry, Man. &l Cust., 11. 32. JAdamnan, 163.

§ Tain bo Fr., 141 : Ir. Texte, i. 281, n : and see " Slind " in Wirterbuch, same vol.: also Fled Bricrenn, § 55.

30 SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE [PART III

glosses imbrex^ ' a brick or tile,' and it has the same meaning in the modern language : but tiiga slinned generally means a roofing of thin boards. For instance, in an Irish poem written by Mac Conmidhe early in the thirteenth century, the church of Armagh is said to be roofed with sliiins of oak {slinntech darach)* ; and in another much older authority shingles made of yew are mentioned.f The covering was constructed by making the small flat pieces overlap as in modern slated or tiled roofs. Sometimes, anticipating modern usage, they employed materials superior to any of the preceding. The Annals of Ulster record that in the year 1008, the oratory of Armagh was roofed with lead.

The thatch of ladies' greenans (see p. 42, infra) was sometimes formed of birds' wings. In the poem composed by the hero Gael O'Nemnann about the lady Crede [Cray], daughter of the king of Kerry, it is stated that her beautiful greenan was thatched with the wings of birds, so arranged as to form bright stripes of brown, reddish purple, and other colours;!: : and King Cormac Mac Art, when he visited Tir Tairngire or Fairlyland, saw people thatching a house with the wings of white birds.§

Over the top of the principal room on the inside extended a ridge-pole or roof-tree called feici [faika], from which lamps were suspended to light the apartment : whence Cormac's Glossary (p. 81) derives the word from feigJie [fay], ' illumination.' This last word again is derived from fcig, which Zeuss (998, 38, 39) explains ' bright, or illuminated,' and which is connected with the modern Gaelic verb, feiicJi, 'see.' This word feicivjdjs, also applied to the ridge-pole of a tent, and sometimes to the lintel of a door.ll The feici was used in houses of a rectangular shape, and possibly in round houses also. It was supported

* O'Curry, Man. & Cust., ii. 58. t Ibid., p. 34.

X O'Curry, MS. Mat., 309 : Man. & Cust., 11. 12, 13 : Silva Gad., 120. § Ir. Texte, in. 213. || Moyrath, 200, 13.

CHAP. XX] THE HOUSE 3I

by the posts already mentioned, which also supported the roof. In Cormac's Glossary (34, under "clu") a house-post is rnentioned as tapering from floor to ridge.

There were windows in the fraig or wall, and often a skylight in the roof A window was called by two names seiiiester ^.nd ftdnneog, the first derived from \. Tit. fenestra, and the second — which is the word now in use — from A.-Sax. windeage* A skylight was called by the native name forless (' top-light '), from less or les, ' light.' On one occasion persons kept a lady in concealment in a wicker- work house, door and windows all closed up except one seinister and a forleas, ' a window and a skylight.'t The house of Ailill and Maive at Croghan had a shutter of brass to each of its windows, and a fastening of brass to its forles.X

Glass was known among various ancient nations from the most remote period : the Celts of Britain were well acquainted with it : and from constant references to it in our oldest writings, it is obvious that it was well known to the ancient Irish.§ Beads and other small ornamental objects of glass, variously coloured, are constantly found in Irish pre-Christian graves and crannoges : and in one of the Loughcrew graves were found a number of them, one about an inch long, and — says Mr. Fergusson — obviously shaped by being softened by fire.ll The statement that this bead was softened by fire is quite true indeed, inasmuch as all the objects of this kind wherever found in Ireland were formed while the material was heated to softness. More- over the manufacture of these little articles was an art requiring long training and much delicate manipulative skill, for most of them are made of different coloured glass

* Stokes, in Lives of SS., Pref. c. t Stokes, Da Derga, 19, 20.

X Crowe, Tain bo Fr., 141 top.

§ See, for examples, Miss Stoices, in Trans. Roy. Ir. Acad., xxx. 283: Fled Bricrenn, 208 : Todd, St. Patrick, 222 : and Kilk. Arch. Journ., 1879- 82, p. 532. II Fergusson, Rude Stone Mon., 218.

32

SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE

[part III

or porcelain — blue, white, yellow, pale red, &c. — blended and moulded and beautifully striated in the manner shown imperfectly here in the black-and-white figures. They were used for ornamentation, very often forming the heads of pins, but sometimes made into rings, or strung together for beads.*

One of the testimonies to the use of glass at a remote period in Ireland is the fact that it has two native Irish

names — not derived — viz. gloine or glaine [2-syll.], which signifies clearness and purity, from gicin, ' pure,' ' clear,' ' bright ' : and bus, which is explained by O'Davoren as 'crystal or glass.' We often read of copans or cups of bus, corns

Fig. 171.

Fig. 172.

Fig. 173.

Fig. 174.

Fig. 175.

Glass and porcelain ornaments, full size, now in National Museum. In figures 172, 173, and 175, the coloured ornaments form part of the substance, and were worked into shape while the whole mass was softened by heat. Figure 172, made of clear glass, with a yellow spiral ornament. Figure 173, of opaque light-green glass, grooved from top to bottom. Figure 174, body of deep blue, on which is twisted, and fastened while soft, an ornament of white enamel. Figure 175, pin-head of fine light-red porcelain decorated with wavy stripes, some white, some yellow: found with part of bronze pin attached, as shown in figure.

There are in the Museum many ornaments of coloured glass, with variously coloured patterns of enamel on the surface, of which the most beautiful is shown, full size, in figure 171. It is a circular disk, half-inch thick, the body of dark blue glass, with a wavy pattern of white enamel, like an open flower, on the surface. (All, both figures and descriptions, from Wilde's Catalogue, pp. 162-165.)

'or horns of bus, &c. These words were also applied to natural crystal as well as to glass. Glass was turned to various uses. Glass drinking-vessels were known to the Irish at least as early as the sixth century. Adamnan (p. 147) relates that a druid named Broichan, foster-father

* See Wilde's Catalogue, 162 to 169.

CHAP. XX] THE HOUSE 33

of the Pictish King Brude, in the time of St. Columba, had a glass drinking-cup {vitreain biberani) of great value which, as he was about to drink from it, fell and was broken into fragments : and vessels of glass are mentioned in the Lebar Brecc* In the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick (p. 95) there is a legend of a stone altar found in a cave in Connaught with four glass chalices {ceitri cailig glainidi) at the four corners.

Glass and vessels of glass are frequently mentioned in the most ancient of the tales. In several passages of the Voyage of Maildune we read of lestars or drinking-vessels of glass : and in one part of the voyage he sails over a transparent sea "like green glass." In a sermon in LU, on the Day of Judgment, the six kinds of mercy by which heaven is to be attained are called " the six glass doors " through which comes the light of eternal life into the *' church."-f- Add to all this that the remains of a regular glass factory have been found by the Rev. Mr. Ffrench in the townland of Moylisha, almost beside the ancient church of Aghowle in Wicklow, where great quantities of lumps of glass, chiefly of the three colours, blue, green, and white, have been — and can still be — dug up. The fuel used in the manufacture was charcoal, bits of which are found among the fragments (Kilk. Arch. Journ., 1885-6, p. 420).

Glass was used in England for church windows in the seventh century ; and it had been long previously in use for this purpose on the Continent : so we may conclude that the knowledge of the use of glass for windows found its way into Ireland from Gaul, Italy, and England, through missionaries and merchants.^ At all events glass windows are mentioned in many of the ancient Irish tales, which shows that this use of glass was familiarly known to the original writers. In the Feast of Bricriu in LU, which was

♦Atkinson, Pass. & Homil., p. 48, 265- t Rev. Celt., IV. 249 : LU, 32, a, 29. X See Petrie, Round Towers, 201.

D

34 SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE [PART III

copied in iioo from earlier books, we are told that Bricriu made an apartment for his own special use, with windows of glass {senistre glainide) on every side ; and he placed one over his own couch in his greenan, so that he could have a full view of the banquet-hall and company through it * In the same tale the house of Ailill and Maive, king- and queen of Connaught in the first century, is described as having twelve windows closed up with glass.f There is of course bardic exaggeration in all this : still we are forced to believe that glass of some kind was used in Ireland for windows, certainly before iioo, and probably as early as- the beginning of the historical period.

There was one large door leading to the principal apartment of the dwelling-house, with smaller doors, open- ing externally, for the other rooms. Generally the several rooms did not communicate with each other internally. In the outer lis or rampart surrounding the homestead (for which see farther on), there was a single large door. The doors of some great houses were very large and heavy. In the Boroma, Branduff and his companions "went forth out- " side and shut the great royal doorleaf of the palace behind " them " {to iadsadar in rig-coinlai inoir in rigtJiigi dara- neise), " for the strength of nine men was in each of them+ " :: which implies that the conila or door was very massive.. But such doors were exceptions, and those of ordinary houses were not larger than was necessary. The common Irish word for door was, and is, dorus : a single leaf of a. door was comla.

Sometimes there was a cairtJie or stone column or pillar — or more than one — standing at the side of the outer or lis doorway. In the Mesca Ulad a person, seeing certain white objects in the distance, mistakes them for shields : but his companion says : — " They are not shields at all but

'^-Ir. Texte, i. 254 ; and Fled Bricrenn (Henderson), p. 5. fir. Texte, I. 281 : Henderson, 69. X Rev. Celt., xiii. 61 : Silva Gad., 410.

CHAP. XX] THE HOUSE 35

" the [white] stone cokimns {colomna clock) that are in the " doors of these royal raths "* : and in the " Destruction of Dind Rig " we are told that at the door of the dun outside there was a cairthe or standing-stone. The knocker was a small log of wood called bas-chraiDi, i.e. 'hand-wood,' which lay in a niche by the door. It is everywhere mentioned in the old tales that visitors knocked with the bas-chra7tn. In rich people's houses there was a special doorkeeper (Irish doirseoir, doirslde or doirsire), to answer knocks and admit visitors. At the bottom of the door was a tairsech or threshold. Cormac, in his Glossary (p. i6i), derives this word from tairis, 'over it,' because " people pass inwards over it." It is a derivative from the Irish tars or tarsa, 'across,' connected with Latin trans.

The jamb was anciently called aursa or irsa, but in the modern language it is ursa: the lintel was for-doriis (i.e. ' on the door '), now usually fardoriis. A certain student was making prostrations near the door of his hut, when he struck his head against \he fordortis and fell dead.f On the outside of the door of the lis was a porch called aurdulne (lit. ' front part of the dim '}. Cormac's Glossary explains aurdnine as a structure " at the doors of the duns, which is made by the artisans " — implying ornamentation. The lis door was always closed at night. A more usual name for a door-porch was iniiiidorns {^inun or im, ' about ' : ' about a door'). In the Vision of Mac Conglinne (90, 91) persons are spoken of as carrying offal " from the iinuidorns of the great house to the imnidoriis of the diDi or rampart on the outside." In O'Clery's Glossary innndorus is stated to be the same as fordortis, from which it would seem that the two words were sometimes used one for the other. 1 The door was secured on the inside either by a bolt ! or by a lock. We have the best evidence to show that locks were used in Ireland in very early times. When

* Mesca Ulad, 2 1 .

t Fordorus : so ia LL : sec Stokes, Lives of SS., I'ref. xi, note 5.

1) 2

36

SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE

[part III

St. Columba went to visit the Pictish King Brude, " the door of the fortress " — as the Irish Life of the Saint relates — " was shut against him, and at once, through Colum- cille's prayer, the iron locks (^glais iarnaidhi) opened." We are told by Adamnan that a certain disciple on an important occasion peeped at St. Columba in his hut at lona through the keyhole, and was soundly rated by the saint next day for his curiosity. Another similar occurrence ended less harmlessly. While Columba was surreptitiously copying St. Finnen's Book of Psalms at Drumfinn (vol. I., p. 501, supra), Finnen sent a messenger to spy out what he was doing, who looked through the keyhole and saw him at the work. But the saint's pet crane, happening to be with him, walked over to the door and neatly picked out the man's eye through the keyhole.*

Fig. 176.

Fig. 177.

Bronze Keys. Figure 176, a very perfect and highly decorated key, 2% inches long, with a pipe in the shaft : found in Tory Island. Figure 177, \% inch long. (From Wilde's Catalogue.)

In the romantic literature notices of locks and keys are equally common. In the story of Mongan in the Book of the Dun Cow, mention is made of a beautiful chamber locked and opened by a key.t And in the story of the Demon Chariot of Cuculainn in the same old book, we are told that the king's palace in the Isle of Skye had iron locks.J Locks were used for other purposes, as, for instance, to fasten fetters. In the seventh-century Life of St. Patrick by Muirchu, it is related that Maccuil put •on his feet an iron fetter which he locked, and threw the key into the sea.§ The common word for a lock is glas.

* Adamnan, 226, and note c.

t Voyage of Bran, i. 55 : LU, 134, a, last line, and b, first line.

X Kilk. Arch. Jouni., 1870-1, p. 385. \ Trip. Life, 288, 28-

CHAP. XX] THE HOUSE 37

A key is denoted by echinr or eochtiir (gen. eochrach), which in Cormac's Glossary (p. 68) is derived from two words signifying 'crooked-straight': i.e. partly crooked and partly straight. A keyhole is poll-eocJirach {poll., ' a hole'). Sometimes a door had a chain {slabrad) attached, which was probably used to fasten it. When Labraid and his men were about to set fire to the palace of Dinnree, they drew out the chain that was attached to the comla or double door, and put it on or round the pillar-stone outside, apparently to prevent the escape of those inside, who in a little time were all burned to death.* Mention is made of the aradh or ladder, which must have been in constant use.

The houses were generally small, according to our idea of size. But then we must remember that, like the people of other ancient nations, the Irish had very little furniture. In the main room there was probably nothing — besides the couches — but a sufficient number of small movable seats and a large table of some sort, or perhaps a number of small tables. On this point it has been remarked that the Grianan of Ailech on Greenan-Ely near Derry, a circular building of uncemented stones, which was the palace of the Ulster kings, " gives a very poor idea of the extent of an ancient Irish regal abodet": inasmuch as it was, as its ruins show, only seventy-seven feet in diameter. But this was merely the central keep or citadel. The dwelling of the king himself may have been within this enclosure, which afforded space enough for a respect- ably large house. The whole hill is surrounded by several earthen ramparts, one outside another, now nearly levelled, with broad spaces between (for which see section 5 below). In the intervening spaces timber houses were built, in which the chiefs and numerous dependents of the king lived : and probably the king himself had one or more

* Stokes, Destruction of Dinnree, Zeitschr. Celt. Phil., ni. 13. + Hennessy, Book of Fenagh, 63, note 3.

38

SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE

[part III

outside the circular fortress. Many of the EngHsh and Anglo-Irish square castles, (^f which the ruins are seen to this day all through the country, were small and incon- venient to live in — often much smaller than the Greenan- Ely fortress : but most of them were merely citadels, which were originally surrounded by buildings of a lighter con- struction and more convenient size, in which the family and dependents customarily lived.

Fig. 178.

Trim Castle, originally built by Hugh de Lacy the Elder, end of twelfth century; but afterwards rebuilt. One of the Anglo-Norman strongholds referred to farther on. (From Cromwell's Tours. Drawn by Petrie.)

Still the general run of houses were small in early times, in Ireland as elsewhere. Moreover the standard of living was in all countries low and rude compared with what we are now accustomed to ; a fact that ought to be borne in mind by the reader of the account given here of the domestic arrangements in ancient Irish houses. In England, even so late as the time of Holinshed — sixteenth century — hardly any houses had chimneys. A big fire of logs was kindled against the wall of the principal room, the smoke from which escaped through an orifice in the roof right overhead. Here the meat was cooked, and here

CHAP. XX] THE HOUSE 39

the family dined. In very few houses were there beds or bedroonns, and the general way of sleeping was on a pallet of straw covered with a sheet, under coverlets of various coarse materials, with a log of wood for a pillow : while the manner of eating, which is noticed farther on (next chapter), was correspondingly rude. All this is described for England by Roberts.*

It is not easy to understand the statements given in the Brehon Laws as to the size of houses. For instance, the text of the Crith Gablach (iv. 311) says that a brewy or public hospitaller had " a house of 27 feet," and a backhouse or kitchen of 17 feet. But this is obviously a partial and imperfect statement — like so many others in the Brehon Laws ; for elsewhere we are told that he should be provided with all the necessary appliances to accommodate numer- ous guests, including, in case of one high class of brewy, 100 beds. It is probable that the " house of 27 feet " was his own special residence, rectangular in shape, 27 feet wide : the length undetermined. In this case the little apartments for the family beds (see p. 46, infra) might be along one or both side walls : but if it was a circular house 27 feet in diameter, some at least of the family beds must have been in separate houses outside. As for the beds for the brewy's guests, there must have been a number of separate houses for these,

St. Patrick, in laying out the ecclesiastical buildings in Armagh, imitated the ancient fashion of the country, as he wisely did in most other things : for we are told in the Tripartite Life (p. 237) : — " In this wise then Patrick *' measured the ferta, namely, seven score feet in the lis "{i.e. the circular rampart enclosing the whole establish- " ment], and twenty-seven feet in the great house, and " seventeen feet in the kitchen, and seven feet in the " oratory : and in that wise it was that he used to found ^'the congbala [ecclesiastical homesteads] always." * See Roberts, Soc. Hist., p. 318.

40

SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE

[part III

We know that many of the great houses were very- large. The present remains of the Tech Midcliuarta or Banqueting- Hall of Tara measure 759 feet long and 46 feet wide : and Petrie states that it must have been originally about 90 feet wide.* In the " Wooing of Emer " (p. 69) we are told that the measurement of the hall of Emain was " fifteen feet and nine score " : which refers to a square shape.

Fig. 179.

King John's Castle in Limerick. Erected in the beginninff of the thirteenth century by one of the Anglo-Norman chiefs. Stanyhurst states that it was built by the order of King John. One of the Anglo-Norman castles referred to in sect. 3 farther on. (From Mrs. Hall's Ireland.)

We may form some idea of the better class of dwellings from an enumeration, in the Crith Gabhlach, of the various buildings in the homestead of a well-to-do farmer of the class bo-aire, who rented land from a chief and whose property was chiefly in cattle. His dwelling consisted of (at least) seven different houses, each as already observed with a separate wall, door, and roof: — i. Dwelling-house {tech), at least 27 feet in diameter : 2. Kitchen or cooking-

*Petrie's Tara, p. 185.

CHAP. XX]

THE HOUSE

41

house {ircha, or aichtair, or mile), at the back of the dwelling-house : 3. A kiln (aith) for drying corn : 4. A barn {saball) in which corn was stored : 5. A sheep-house {Has* cdiracli) : 6. A calf-house {lias Ideg) : 7. A pigsty {7)iuc-f6il or 7)iuccdl, from unic, ' a pig,' and /oil or /ail, ' a house' — /ail, ' domus,' Z., 5, 43).t These were all in one

Fig. 180.

Conjectural plan of homestead of a well-to-do farmer of the bo-nire class, constructed from the descriptions given in the Brehon Laws, " Dw," family dwelling-house, of wickerwork, 27 feet in diameter, with three outside sleeping -rooms (which might be either round or rectangular); "Kit," kitchen: " K," kiln (chiefly for corn-drying): "B,'"barn: " C," calf-house : *' P," pig-house : *' S," sheep-house. The whole group surrounded by a circular rath or defensive entrenchment, with one entrance. The cows and horses were kept outside this enclosure.

group close together ; and each generally, though not always, consisted of the usual round-shaped wicker-house with conical roof, except the barn, which was oblong : the whole group being surrounded by the lis or rath, described farther on. In all houses of the more comfortable class the

*•• This word lias [leece] was in very general use to denote a hut for the smaller animals — calves, sheep. Iambs, &c. It must be distinguislied from les, lios, or lis, ' a rath or fort.' t Brehon Laws, iv. 309, 311.

42 SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE [PART III

kitchen was separate from the dwelling-house and placed at the back : and there was a separate pantry for provisions, called in Irish seallad, a word which glosses cellariuvi in some Old Irish documents.*

From a fanciful derivation of sabhall, given in Senchus Mor (Br. Laws, I. 141), we may infer that a barn was oblong and had one side quite open, with the roof sup- ported at that side on posts. From the same derivation, and from other passages,t it would appear that while in some cases the barn belonged to the owner of the home- stead individually, in others it was common to the several families of the same Jine, each householder using his own compartment for storing his corn : but in this case it must have been very large and detached — not situated within the enclosure of any private homestead. This arrange- ment could be adopted when the lisses and houses were near each other, forming a village or hamlet.

The women had a separate apartment or a separate house in the sunniest and pleasantest part of the home- stead. This was called a grianan [greenan], which signifies a solarium, solar, or summer-house : a diminutive derivative from grian, ' the sun.' The women's greenan is constantly mentioned in Irish writings : and sometimes the master of the house had a greenan for himself, to which he could retire when he pleased. In Cruachan the greenan was placed over the fordorus or lintel, as much as to say it was placed in front over the common sitting- room : and probably it occupied some such position in most houses.

In great houses there was one apartment called the house of conversation {tech imjudcallaniae), answering to the modern " drawing-room," where the family often sat, especially to receive visitors. Prince Fraech, when he visited Maive at the jDalace of Cruachan on important

* Stokes, Ir. Glosses in Tract on Declension, No. 741. t And see also Biehon Laws, iv. 305, mid.

CHAP. XX]

THE HOUSE

43

business, was always brought into the " house of con- versation" to discuss matters' when an interview was needed.*

Sometimes there was a small side-room beside the principal apartment, from which a door opened directly into it : having no separate outside door. This was called erdam or erdomJi or aurdoni, as it is given in Cormac's Glossary (p. 3 : ' on or by a house ' : dam or dovi, ' house '). This plan was often adopted in Christian churches where a small apartment was placed at the side of the church.f

Fi(i. 18 1.

Bunratty Castle in the south of Clare, on the Bunratty river, where it joins the Shannon : built about the end of the thirteenth century by Thomas de Clare, an Anglo-Norman lord. One of the Anglo-Norman castles referred to in sect. 3 below. (From Kilk. Archaiol. Journ., 1890-91, p. 292.)

The privy was cAXed Jialfeck, i.e. 'veil-house' (Jial, 'a veil ' : tech, ' house ') : the urinary was fualiech, from ftial, ' urine.' In the Rule for the Culdee Monks, both houses are said to be the abode of demons ; and whoever goes to them is enjoined to bless them and also to bless himself— i.e. to make the sign of the cross.ij: The fialtech and

* Tain bo Fr., 143, 145.

t See the Erdamli or Erdam discussed at length in Petrie's Round Towers (Index). + Reeves, Culdees, 91.

44 SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE [PART III

the fualtech are often referred to incidentally, but most often in connexion with monasteries.

Maigens or Sanctuaries. — The plot of land around the house of a person of rank was a sort of asylum. This was called a niaigeii or precinct : and within it no man should break the peace without the consent of the owner. The higher the rank the larger the maigen. The maigen of a bo-aire, the lowest rank entitled to the privilege, was the smallest : it extended the cast of a spear all round his house. That of an aire-desa extended two casts. The extent doubled for each rank upwards to the king of the tuath, whose maigen extended sixty-four casts round his residence. The maigen of a provincial king or of the king of Ireland included the whole plain on which the palace stood. There was also a maigen — varying according to rank — round the dwelling of an ecclesiastic, and also round a church : the sanctuary of a church was often called Termon land (l. 358, siipra). The Archbishop of Armagh had the same extent of maigen as the king of Ireland. It will be mentioned farther on (chap, xxi., sect. 10) that every brtiden or first-class hostel was also an asylum.

A fugitive, no matter what his crime, and also whatever property he had with him, whether belonging to himself or to the pursuer, once he entered on a maigen, were safe for the time., provided the regulations were complied with. The following conditions and formalities were necessary to ensure his safety: — i. The owner, or some member of his family legally entitled to act for him in such cases, should give permission to the fugitive to enter on the precinct, and should persist in claiming asylum for him. 2. The owner or his deputy should inform the pursuer that the place was a precinct. 3. The owner or deputy should guarantee that no loss should accrue to the pursuer or aggrieved party by the temporary shelter afforded to the fugitive — that the original claim should hold good — that the fugitive should not be enabled to finally escape from

CHAP. XX] THE HOUSE 45

justice. If any one of these failed he might be arrested on the maigen. A person who committed any act of violence within a maigen — provided he knew it was one, and that the necessary formalities were observed — had to pay damages to the owner, the amount depending on honour-price, on the extent of the violence, and on other circumstances.

This law of sanctuary in and around a house existed also in early times in England, and in a form almost identical with that laid down in the Brehon Law.*

This is a proper place to observe that there was an all-important distinction between the asylum-right of a private residence and that of a church or a hostel. The right accorded to the maigen of a dwelling was for the protection of the owner against scenes of violence on his premises by outsiders — not primarily in the interest of the fugitive ; and as it depended on the will — or caprice — of the owner, it was uncertain. It was indeed not an asylum at all in the proper sense of the word. But the sanctuary of a church or the asylum of a bruden was absolute and inviolable, depending on no conditions and on no man's will or caprice.

2. Interior Arrangements and Sleeping Accommodation.

It will be shown farther on that in large houses there were separate sleeping-rooms. But among the ordinary run of comfortable, well-to-do people, including many of the upper classes, the family commonly lived, ate, and slept in the one principal apartment,! as was the case in the houses of the Anglo-Saxons, the English, the Germans, and the Scandinavians of the same period. In the better class of houses in Ireland there were, ranged along the wall,

* Brehon Laws, ill., Introd. by Richey, ciii. For the whole law of Precincts see Brehon Laws, iv. 277. See also III. 119 to 145.

■f For examples, see Mac CongUnue, 58 ; and Tromdamh, 51, 55, 61.

46

SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE

[part III

little compartments or cubicles, each containing a bed, or sometimes more, for one or more persons, with its head to the wall. The wooden partitions enclosing the beds were not carried up to the roof; they were probably about eight or nine feet high, so that the several compartments were open at top. A little compartment of this kind, whether open or closed overhead, was called an imda. The pri- mary meaning of imda is a ' bed,' as is clearly indicated in Cormac's Glossary (p. 6), where it is stated that the adhart or ' pillow ' is so called because it is higher than the

T—

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-en- -Tzr tr t^ -o tT t: tr • |

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Conjectural plan of a good-class house, where the family lived, ate, and slept in the one large apartment: constructed from the descriptions in Tales and Brehon Laws. (House here made quadrangular, but might be round or oval.) Eight imdas, cubicles, or sleeping-places, each with one bed: some beds for one person, some for two, some for three. Four low, small tables and a number of seats are shown, all movable. Seats at ends of cubicles outside are fixed. Five supporting posts (shown by little circles): fire near middle. The openings or windows in walls are not marked ; neither are the doors in doorways of bouse and cubicles.

rest of the imda or bed. But by a natural extension of meaning the word is often used to denote the whole compartment or cubicle with its bedstead. Sometimes the word imda was applied to a large room : for example, in Kineth O'Hartigan's poem it is stated that in Tara there were fifty imdas, each with fifty men in it.* But the usual meaning was either a bed or the little room containing a bed. In the Bruden Da Derga, Ingcel goes to reconnoitre the hostel that his party are about to attack. He sees many imdas of different sizes with men in them varying in number from one up to nine. From the whole context it

*Petrie's Tara, p. 190.

CHAP. XX] THE HOUSE 47

is plain that these imdas were not couches but little com- partments open in front, so that all those in them could be seen sitting or reclining on couches : and accordingly the persons are described all through, not as on the imda, but as in it. Let us add that Dr. Stokes, in his edition of this story, always translates inida by ' room.'

At the foot of each iinda outside, and projecting into the main room, there was a low fixed seat, often stuffed with some soft material, for use during the day. Besides these there were on the floor of the main apartment a number of detached movable day couches or seats — all low — with one or more low tables of some sort.

The preceding description of the disposition of the beds applies to the better class of houses. The lower classes of people probably slept, like those of Wales and Scotland of those times, on beds or pallets ranged along the wall with little or no attempt to screen one from another. Giraldus describes the Welsh as sleeping in this manner with their heads to the circular wall and their feet towards the fire.

The fire was in or near the middle, and the people sat or reclined by day all round it ; while the smoke escaped through an opening in the roof: a custom which, as Scott records, existed in Scotland down to 200 years ago.* In England also, down to the time of Elizabeth, before coal was brought into domestic use, and when wood was the general fuel, there were hardly any chimneys, and the fire was lighted — as in Ireland and Scotland — in the centre of the single big room or hall, or up against one of the walls, the smoke escaping through a hole in the roof t

That these arrangements for living and sleeping were in general use in Ireland is abundantly plain from many passages in the old writings. We find the expression, so many " imdas from fire to side wall in the house all

* Rob Roy, chap, xxviii.

tRoberts, Social Hist., pp. 325, 348 : see also Mr. P. H. Newman in " Social England," I. 225.

48 SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE [PART III

round "* constantly used in the tales. That there were seats distinct from those at the ends of the cubicles appears from a passage in the Crith Gabhlach describing the house and furniture of an aire-tuisi chief, in which we read that there were " eiglit iindas with their proper furniture [namely, " bedsteads with beds and end-seats], besides six couches " \brothracJi, ' a couch ' : pi. broihracha\ with their proper " furniture both pillows and sitting-skins " {i.e. skins stuffed with feathers).t All this shows that the ancient Irish of the higher classes had two distinct kinds of couches : a couch or bed for sleeping on, and another sort for sitting or reclining on at meals, or on other occasions during the day ; just as the Romans had their two kinds of lecti or couches for the same two purposes.

The bedstead within the iinda, in the best class of houses, consisted of four pillars connected by rails, with a canopy overhead, and curtains running by rings on copper rods.J Such a bed was designated lige cuvitachta, i.e. a 'protected,' enclosed, or testered bed: and this designation occurs so often that such beds must have been pretty common. Near the foot of the bed and within the imda there was a rack with pins or hooks for hanging clothes or other articles on.§ Lige or ligi [lee] was a usual term for a bed, cognate with Lat. lectus : but the commonest name was lepad, which, in the form leaha or leabadJi [labba], is the term in use at the present day. This v/ord was also used to denote a couch for day use, which had generally a little table beside it for food and drink. St. Patrick, when at Tara, was summoned to King Laegaire's lepad in the banquet-room to have some food.li Both lige and lepad were applied to a grave. The word sceng [skeng] also means ' a bed,' though not often used : and hence the enclosure round a bed or couch was

*TaiiiboFr., 139. + Silva Gad., 120.

t Brehon Laws, IV. 326, 6 ; 327, u. § Brelion Laws, iv. 75, bot.

il Trip. Life, 55.

CHAP. XX] THE HOUSE 49

often called iniscuig [ini, 'about'). In Cormac's Glossary (p. 98) we have " imscing, a little house [or apartment] in which a bed [^ijiidae] fits " : and again (p. 1 50), " sceng, i.e. uiindha, a bed, whence imscing, a small both or tent which surrounds a bed." Sceng and imscirig, like lepad, were applied also to day-couches. King Domnall, at the banquet of Dim-nati-gedh, sat or reclined at the head of the table in his golden imscing (Moyr. 29) : i.e. an imscing ornamented with gold.

A bedframe or bedstead is often called tolg. We are told in an ancient book of Irish annals, and also in the story of the Boroma, that Feredach, king of Ossory in the sixth century, falling very sick, had to lie abed : and he caused to be brought to him all his treasures, which he kept beside him in his tolg : — " For it was [then] the " custom of kings to have couches {tolgs) of yew around "them, in which they had a collection of their bars and " ingots of silver, and their [valuable] cups and vessels, and " their chessmen and chessboards, and their camans or " hurleys."* The fierce old warrior Cellach^ unable to walk or move about on account of his great age, had a brass tolg as his bed, in which he always remained : and his only treasure and consolation was his sword, which he kept unknown to all, hidden under the bedclothes. f The practice of keeping a sword in bed must have been common : Dalian mac Moire, chief poet to Cerball king of Leinster (A.D. 885-909), in his poem addressed to Cerball's sword, asks: "from the day that Cerball departed, with whom shalt thou have bed-fellowship?" {Ieptha7ias).\

As distinct from the imda and bedstead, the bed-tick or mattress was called dergitd [dergu], a distinction clearly pointed out in this passage from the voyage of Maildune : — " There were seventeen canopied imdas in the house, with

* Three Fragments of Annals, 9 : Silva Gad., 416.

tMoyrath, 43.

X Kuno Meyer in Rev. Celt., xx., p. 12 : LL, 47, b, 13 from bottom,

E

50 SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE [PART III

good derguds {dagdergudhaib) set in them."* The word colcaid (a loan-word from Lat. culcitd) was also often applied to a bed or bed-tick : O'Donovan always renders it 'a flock- bed ' : but whatever sort of bed it W'as, it must have been regarded as a luxury, for we are told in Cormac's Glossary (p. 44) that it was used by nobles. This word was also often applied to a quilt or other bed-covering ; having undergone a change of meaning like the English word qidlt^ which also comes from ctilcita. The blanket {selzgi) and other bed-covering were brought out by day to be aired and sunned. t White linen sheets were used, and in grand houses they were often embroidered with figures.^

Beds of the best class were stuffed with feathers. St. Columba is made to prophesy of a certain king that he would not be killed in battle, but that he would die on his own feather-bed {pluinatiuncuiain).% Some of the beds in the guest-house of the Cork monastery were made of feathers. Straw was sometimes used : Mac Conglinne (p. 14) growls by way of contempt that the attendant who waited on him in Cork monastery had no better way of lighting the fire in the guest-house than by pulling a wisp of straw from the bed. The Book of Aicill,|l defining the penalty for stealing straw, lays down a double fine if the straw was intended to be put as beds under people ; which indicates that it was subjected to some sort of preparation. Rushes were sometimes used for beds — as in> Wales1[ — especially in cases of emergency or for tempo- rary use. When Cuculainn and Ferdiad had finished their day's fighting, their attendants prepared beds of fresh rushes for them.** When the Fena of Erin were out on their hunting excursions, they put up hunting-booths each evening, after which — to use the words of Keating: —

* Rev. Celt., x. 65. t Mac Conglinne, 10, -i-i.

J Leahy, Courtship cf Ferb, 29 : LL, 256, b, top line : Three Fragm., 11, 17. § Adamnan, 44. IT Giraldus, Descr. of Wales, I. x.

[j Brehon Laws, iii. 151, u, 15. ** O'Curry, Man. & Cust., 11. 439.

CHAP. XX]

THE HOUSE

51

" Each man constructed his bed of the brushwood of the " forest, moss, and fresh rushes. The brushwood was laid " next the ground ; over that was laid the moss ; and the " fresh rushes were spread over all : which three materials " are designated in old books tri cuilcedha na F^ine, ' the " three bed-materials of the Fena.' " The people often used beds of hides stuffed with some soft material : or perhaps they simply spread the skin on the top of straw or rushes. The Senchus Mor mentions " a poor sick man lying on the hides."*

Castle of Athlone : erected by John de Grey, Lord Justiciary, or Governor, of Ireland, 1210-1213. One of the Anglo-Norman castles referred to at p. 65, iu/ra. (From Mrs. Hall's Ireland.)

A pillow was used for the head. The most common word for a pillow was adari [ey-art], which is used to this day by speakers of Irish. A fanciful derivation of the word given in Cormac's Glossary (p. 6) indicates clearly the nature of the article: — '' Adart, i.e. atJi-ard, "additional height, because it is higher than the rest " of the bed." Sometimes frithadart was used ; and a

* Brehon Laws, I. 195. E 2

52 SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE [PART III

passage in Fiach's Hymn, in which this word occurs, also indicates the distinction between the bed and the pillow : — " He [St. Patrick] slept on a bare flagstone, a pillar-stone was his pillow " {friihadart).* Another name for a pillow was cerchaill or cenncherchaill (where cenn is ' head '). Cormac's Glossary (p. 38) defines cerchaill as " head-protection." From the same passage we learn that a pillow was filled with feathers, and that the case was [sometimes] made from the skin of a wild deer (" It is of " his hide [the hide of a wild deer] that the case for the ^' feathers is made ").

Often two, and sometimes three, persons slept in the same bed. St. Patrick placed the youth Aed, the king of Leinster's son, in charge of Cascorach the minstrel, say- ing : — " Let the king of Leinster's son be in one bed {in " aeinlebaid) and in one condition with thee till we reach " Leinster."t When St. Caillin visited the O'Cahalans of Connaught, they received him so well that he blessed them and prophesied that there should be always among them some chief who would be [so much esteemed as to be] selected as a king's bed-fellow.+ It was a mark of distinc- tion to set apart a bed for one. Maildune and his men came to a certain house in which were a number of bed- couches, one intended for Maildune alone, and each of the others for three of his people § : and in another place was a house with a number of large beds, each for three of the household, and one smaller bed for the master of the house. II One of the complaints of the unreasonable demands of the poets who were on a visit to Guaire king of Connaught was that they insisted on a separate bed for each.^

In great homesteads there were sleeping -houses or apartments distinct and separate both from the sitting-

* Trip. Life, 408-9. § Joyce, Old Celtic Romances, 141.

t Silva Gad., 205. || Ibid., 125.

J Book of Fenagh, 179, 185. H Tromdamh, 41,15; 109, verse.

CHAP. XX] THE HOUSE 53

or banquet-room and from one another, each probably- circular and having a conical roof of its own : often called tech-leptha, i.e. ' bed-house.' When the three Red Branch champions came to the palace of Cruachan, Ailill and Maive gave them the choice of a house {tecJi) for each, or one house for the three : and they selected three houses, in each of which was a bed.* " We have distinct " statements in our ancient records " — says O'Curry — " that " different members of the same family had distinct houses " (and not apartments) within the same rath, dun, lis, or " cathair : that the lord or master had a sleeping-house, " his wife a sleeping-house, his sons and daughters, if he " had such, separate sleeping-houses, and so on, besides " places of reception for strangers and visitors."! But this applies to the great houses belonging to people of rank. Even in high-class houses, however, it was usual to put two or three in the same room, with a bed for each.J

People of the upper classes sat upon seats covered with skins. St. Patrick's chariot-seat was covered with the skin either of a cow or of a seal : both are mentioned in the Tripartite Life (p. 75) as in use. Skins for sitting on {Gaiinniu suidi) are mentioned in the Crith Gabhlach^ as in the house of an aire-tuisi chief: and the following verse is quoted in Cormac's Glossary (p. 81), from an ancient poem : —

"It is delightful to me to be sitting on the skin of a calf in Garbhan's house."

It was a common practice in the better class of houses to strew the floor with rushes : and when distinguished visitors were expected, the old rushes were removed and fresh ones supplied. The women-servants always managed this business. When Murkertagh of the Leather Cloaks

'fc>'

*

Fled Brier., 69. t Man. & Cust., 11. 70.

X See Silva Gad., 52 mid. and 102,9; and Hyde, Lit. Hist., 295. § Brehon Laws, IV. 326, %.

54 SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE [PART III

was approaching Ailech his home, with many royal captives, after his circuit round Ireland, A.D. 941, he sent on a page the day before with directions that women should be sent to cut rushes for the floor.* The use of rushes for this purpose was so well understood that there was a special knife for cutting them ; and such a knife is enumerated among the household articles in the house of a brugh-fer or brewy.f Sometimes the floor was covered with soft green-leaved birch-branches with rushes strewn over them.+ We know that this custom of covering the floor with rushes also prevailed in England, where it was continued down to the time of Elizabeth, In some of the inferior apart- ments of Irish houses, straw was used : for example, it was expected that the kitchen of a bo-aire chief should be kept strewn v/ith fresh straw,§ which one would think a dangerous practice,

3. Outer Premises and Defence.

The homesteads had to be fenced in to protect them from robbers and wild animals. This was usually done by digging a deep circular trench, the clay from which was thrown up on the inside. This was shaped and faced ; and thus was formed, all round, a high mound or dyke with a trench outside, and having one opening for a door or gate. Whenever water was at hand the trench was flooded as an additional security : and there was a bridge opposite the opening, which was raised, or closed in some way, at night. The houses of the Gauls were fenced round in a similar manner. Houses built and fortified in the way here described continued in use in Ireland till the thirteenth or fourteenth century (see Westropp's "Anc, Forts of Ireland," p, 624).

* Circuit, 53 and note: see also Mesca, 13 top: and O'Curry, Man. & Cust., II. 13,21. jBrehonLaws, iv. 311.

X Leahy, Courtship of Ferb, 8 : LL, 253, h, 23. § Brehon Laws, iv. 315 top.

CHAP. XX] THE HOUSE 55

These old circular forts are found in every part of Ireland, but more in the south and west than elsewhere ; many of them still very perfect — but of course the timber houses are all gone. Almost all are believed in popular superstition to be the haunts of fairies. They are now known by various names — lis, rath, briigJi, niikr, dim, moat, caiseal [cashel], and cathair [caher] : the cashels, murs, and cahers being usually built of stone without mortar. These are generally the very names found in the oldest manu- scripts. The forts vary in size from 40 or 50 feet in diameter, through all intermediate stages up to 1500 feet: the size of the homestead depending on the rank or means

Fig. 184.

Tlie great " Moat of Kilfinnane," Co. Limerick, believed to be Treda-na-Ree, the triple-fossed fort of tlie kings, one of tlie seats of the kings of Munster. Total diameter 320 feet. (From a drawing by the author, 1854.)

of the owner. Very often the flat middle space is raised to a higher level than the surrounding land, and sometimes there is a great mound in the centre, with a flat top, on which the strong wooden house of the chief stood.*

Forts of this exact type are still to be seen in England, Wales, and Scotland, as well as in various parts of the Continent ; and the figure of an existing one near Geisel- berg in Germany, given by Borlase (p. 1128J, might be mistaken for a drawing of some of those in Ireland. Round the very large forts there are often three or more

* On this point see the instructive letter of the Welsh antiquary, Mr. Geo. T. Clarke, in Stokes's Life of Petrie, p. 216 ; showing that the same custom existed in England and Normandy: and see also Mr. Westropp's Essay (Ancient Forts of Ireland), p. 585, in which are given, from the Bayeux Tapestry, representations of houses on the tops of forts.

56

SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE

[part III

great circumvallations, sometimes as many as seven* The " moat or fort of Kilfinnane," figured above, has three. A di'm, sometimes also called dind, dinn, and dingna, was the residence of a Ri [ree] or king : according to law it should have at least two surrounding walls with water between. t Round the great forts of kings or chiefs were grouped the timber dwellings of the fudirs and other dependents who were not of the immediate household, forming a sort of village. Any great fortified residence of this kind was often called port : in Cuimmin's Poem on the Saints of Ireland, Armagh is called Port Mac/ia.%

Fig. 185.

Section of an underground beehive-shaped hut. (From Wood-Martin's Pagan Ireland, p. 205.)

In most of the forts, both large and small, whether with flat areas or with raised mounds, there are underground chambers, commonly beehive-shaped, which were probably used as storehouses, and in case of sudden attack as places of refuge for women and children. In the ancient litera- ture there are many references to them as places of refuge.§ The Irish did not then know the use of mortar, or how to build an arch, any more than the ancient Greeks ; and these chambers are of dry-stone work, built with much

* See Kilk. Arch. Journ., 1870-71, p. 387, verse xi.

t O'Curry, quoting Brehon Laws, Man. & Cust., 11. 3, 4.

X Stokes, in Zeitschr. Celt. Phil., i. 72.

§ Miss Stokes, Eaily Chr. Art, 3 : Kinahar, On Luscas [or caves] in Raths, in Kilk. Arch. Journ., 1883-4, p. 11 : and Westropp, Ancient Forts, p. 666.

CHAP. XX] THE HOUSE 57

rude skill, the dome being formed by the projection of one stone beyond another, till the top was closed in by a single flag.

Where stone was abundant the surrounding rampart was often built of dry masonry, the stones being fitted with great exactness. In some of these structures the stones are very large, and then the style of building is termed cyclopean. Many great stone fortresses of the kind described here, usually called caher, Irish cathair^ still remain near the coasts of Sligo, Galway, Clare, and Kerry, and a few in Antrim and Donegal : two charac- teristic examples are Greenan-Ely, the ancient palace of

KiG. 186.

Staigue Fort in Kerry. Of stones without mortar. External diameter 114 feet ; internal, 88 feet: wall 13 feet thick at bottom, 5 feet at top. (From Wood-Martin's Pagan Ireland, p. 180, and that from Wilde's Catalogue, p. 120, where a further description of this fort will be found.)

the kings of the northern Hy Neill, in Donegal,* and Staigue Fort near Sneem in Kerry. The most magnificent fortress of this kind in all Ireland is Dun Aengus on a perpendicular cliff right over the Atlantic Ocean on the south coast of Great Aran Island (see next page).

At the most accessible side of some of these stone cahers, or all round if necessary, were placed a number of large standing stones firmly fixed in the ground, in no order — quite irregular — and a few feet apart. This was a very effectual precaution against a sudden rush of a body of assailants. Beside some of the existing cahers these stones, or large numbers of them, still remain in their places (shown in figs. 187 and 188).

*For which see sect. 5 of this chapter below.

58

SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE

[part III

The caiseal or cashel was a strong stone wall round a king's house, or round a monastery ; of uncemented stones in pagan times, but often built with mortar when in con- nexion with monasteries. The caher was distinguished from the cashel by being generally more massive in structure, with much thicker walls. The cahers are almost confined to the south and west of Ireland* Buildings like our cahers are also found on the Continent, as mentioned by Borlase (pp. ii 26-11 29).

That the wooden dwelling-houses were erected within the enclosing lios^ /cs, or rath, is abundantly evident from

\ LdJi ..w

Fig. i«7.

Dun-Aengus on the great Island of Aran, on the edge of a cliff overhanging the sea : circular Firbolg caher : without mortar : the standing-stones were intended to prevent a rush of a body of enemies. (Drawn for Dr. Wilde; published in Arch. Cambr., 1858 : and subsequently in Wilde's Lough Corrib. See p. 57, supra.)

the records. Queen Medb (or Maive) Lethderg (not Queen Maive of Croghan) is recorded to have built the rath near Tara, now called from her, Rath-Maive : " and she built a choice house within that rath."f There were often several dwelling-houses within one large rath : within the great rath at Emain there were at least three large houses, with others smaller^ : the Rath-na-Righ at Tara had several houses within it : and in the romantic story of Cormac in Fairyland, we are told that he saw " a very large kingly d/in which had four houses within it."

* On these fortified residences, see the valuable article in Stokes's Life of Petrie, p. 216 et seq.

t O'Curry, MS. Mat., 480. + O'Curry, Man. & Cust., 11. 11.

CHAP. XX] THE HOUSE 59

There is good reason to believe that originally the word ratJi was applied to the surrounding embankment or rampart, and lios or les to the space enclosed. Thus a person who was making his way tovv^ards the palace, leaped over the three ratJis, until he was on the floor of the les, and from that until he was on the floor of the royal house i^for Idr rig-tJiige)* : a passage which moreover affords additional testimony that the houses were built within the enclosure. Again, in the tale of the sons of Usna, it is told that the child shrieked " so that it was heard all over the /zV."t But these distinctions have long since ceased to be observed : and the words ratJi and lis are now applied to the whole structure.

The rampart enclosing a homestead was usually planted on top with bushes or trees, or with a close thick hedge, for shelter and security : or there was a strong palisade on it : — Co 11-accai in liss in-bilech m-barrach : "so that I saw a li'ss topped with trees. "+ Ttiitlid cndi cuill cainmessa dobilib rath : " the fair-fruit hazel-nuts fall from the trees of the raths."§ Lisses and raths such as we see through the country are generally round or oval : but they are occasionally rectangular or square.!! Vitrified forts, i.e. having the clay, gravel, or stone of the rampart converted into a coarse glassy substance through the agency of enormous fires, are found in various parts of Ireland as well as in Scotland : and similar forts are still to be seen in several parts of the Continent.^

Sometimes outside the outer earthen or stone rampart there was a timber palisade of strong stakes, enclosing a

* Voyage of Bran, 1.47,17, and 51,10: see also Kilk. Arch. Joum., i868-g, p. 223: and 1870-1, p. 447.

tO'Curry, 3 Sorrowful Stories, Atlantis, in. 399.

+ Mac Conglinne, 68. S^ LL, 1 18, a, 16.

II Kilk. Arch. Joum., 1849-51, pp. 23, 24 ; 1867, p. 4 : and Mr. Westropp's Essay on the Ancient Forts of Ireland, p. 583.

U See Wood-Martin, Pagan Ireland, 183: Kilk. Arch. Joum., 1879-82, p. 756: Borlase, 1126: Stokes's Petrie, 223, 357: Proc. Roy. Ir. Acad., v., p. 69; and Adamnan, 151, note b.

6o

SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE

[part III

large area : this palisade was called sotinacJi (and sometimes tonnach), from sotin, a cuaille or ' stake.' Aed Guaire, king of Connaught in the sixth century, built, in preparation for a marriage-feast for his wife, a new [wooden] house {tech) within a dun or double circular rampart ; and round the d'im again, that is, outside all, he made " a sonnach of red oak." Just as it was finished Aed Baclamh, the king of Ireland's spear-bearer, made a circuit round the kingdom to test obedience and discipline among the provincial and minor kings : and he demanded that all doors should be

Fig. i88.

Bally kinvarga Stone Fort (mortarless) near Kilfenora in Clare. Shape, oval ; 153 feet by 135 feet. Showing chez'aux defrise of standing-stones, to prevent a rush. tSee Mr. Westropp's description of •this fort in Journ. Roy. Soc. Antiqq., Irel., for 1897, p. 121 ; and p. 57, supra.)

broken open wide enough to permit him to enter freely with his long spear held crosswise. Things went well with him till he came to Aed's new house. Aed went so far as to break an opening in the outer palisade : but when the ill-grained visitor demanded that a corresponding opening should be made in the elaborately carved door of the house, he found to his cost that he had met his match ; for Aed, flying into a rage, struck off his head with one blow of his sword.^

* O'Grady, Silva Gadelica, 70.

CHAP. XX]

THE HOUSE

6l

Immediately outside the outer door of the rath was an ornamental lawn or green called aurla, a name often varied to iirla and erla, which was regarded as forming part of the homestead : " then queen Maive went out through the " door of the liss into the aurla \isin 7i-aiirlainn\ and three " times fifty maidens along with her."* So also prince Cummascach, when he visited Branduff king of Leinster at Baltinglass, pitched his tent on the erla of the king's baile

Fig. 189.

Carlow Castle in 1845: believed to have been erected by Hugh de Lacy, who was appointed Governor of Ireland in 1179 One of the Anglo-Norman castles referred to at p. 65, infra. (From Mrs. Hall's Ireland.)

or homestead.f Beside the dun or lis^ but beyond and ■distinct from the aurla — and outside the sonnach if there was one — was a large level sward or green called z.faitJic]ie [fa/ia] — commonly Latinised platea or plateolaX — which was chiefly used for athletic exercises and games of various kinds : it was sometimes called blai.% Some idea of its

* Ir. Texte, i. 280: Fled Brier., 69.

X Adamnan, 98 [e) ; 360 ; 450.

§ See Windisch, Wiirterbuch, Ir. Texte, I., "Bla," land

t Silva Gad., 408.

62 SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE [PART III

size may be formed from the statement in the law that the faitJiche of a brewy extends as far as the voice of a bell {i.e. of the small bell of those times) or the crowing of a cock can be heard.* Finn mac Cumail when a boy, coming one day to a dun, found a number of youths hurling {oc ividin) on the faithche.\ The law lays down certain regulations regarding the striking of the ball on the faitJiclie in hurHng.:j: When not formally measured and enclosed, the four fields nearest the house were understood to constitute ihQ faithche.% A visitor was free to go upon the faithche and could not be sued for trespass, " for every faitJicJie is free " [to all comers].! | Th.Q faithche was not to remain profitless : animals, commonly sheep, were kept grazing on it.*!" The haggard for grain-stacks, which was always near the homestead, was called ithla (gen. itJilmm), from ith, ' corn.' The tth/a, like the barn, sometimes belonged to an individual, and sometimes to the Jine or clan, of which each householder had his share** : but in this case the ith/a was very large, standing apart, and unconnected with any one homestead. A garden or enclosure at the back, fenced in for general purposes, was often called airh's.ff The hibgort, or ' kitchen-garden,' will be spoken of in chap, xxi., sect 8.

At a little distance from the dwelling it was usual to enclose an area with a strong rampart, into which the cattle were driven for safety by night. This was what was called a badhuii [bawn], i.e. 'cow-keep,' from ba, pi. of bo, ' a cow,' and dunXX : and sometimes bo-dhai7ige7i [bo-ang-in], which has the same meaning {daingett, ' a stronghold '). This custom continued down to a late

*Brehon Laws, iv. 195. As to H Br. Laws, iv. 311 bottom,

these measurements, see chap, xxvii., ** Ibid., i. 125, 141 ; in. 285.

sect. I, infra. ff /did., iv. 313 bottom.

t Oss. Soc, IV. 295. Xt See Moylena, 183 (whole page) :

JBrehon Laws,;iii. 253. and Joyce, Irish Names of Places,

§ Corm. Gloss., 78. i. 308.

II Brehon Laws, in. 253.

CHAP. XX] THE HOUSE 6^

time : and was adopted by the English and Scotch settlers. One class of the planters who were settled in Ulster in the time of James I. were required to build a castle and a bawn. The ruins of many of these settlement-bawns still remain.*

The outer defence, whether of clay, or stone, or timber^ that surrounded the homestead was often whitened with lime. When Nuada the druid built a dun on Alinu, now the Hill of Allen in Kildare, " he rubbed the simd or simn " or outer rampart with alaviu {ro comled alaniu dia suiid) " until it was all white."t The text does not tell us what this colouring stuff alainu or alviu was. Stokes ( Acallamh 283) makes it alum ; and we know that alum is a native product, with which people have been familiar from early times,* It is indeed probable that alum was in the writer's mind ; for the impossibility of procuring so much of it as would whiten a whole immense rampart would be no difficulty to an etymologist who invented the episode to account for the name. The dun was made white at any rate ; and it is pretty certain that lime was the real material ; which seems borne out by an old verse relating to Almu, quoted in the story in the Book of the Dun Cow : —

"All white is the dun of battle renown As if it had received the lime of Ireland."

That the outer rampart of duns or homesteads was often whitened with lime is shown by many other passages. Maildune comes to a little island with a large dun on it surrounded by a white wall {inur gel), as white " as if it " had been built of burnt lime or carved out of one unbroken

* See the article 011 Bawns, Ulster Journ. Archteol., V. 125; and a particular bawn described by Dr. J. P. Mahaffy, in the Athenceum of 10th August, 1901.

tSee LU, 41, b, 26 and 29 : Hennessy in Rev. Celt., H. 89 ; Silva Gad., JI32, 3- J See Kinahan, Geol., 358 ; and "Alum" in Inde.\.

64

SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE

[part III

" rock of chalk."* " The colour of the dun of the lady Crede " — says another story — " is like the colour of lime."t The great ramparts of Tara must have shone brilliantly over the surrounding plain : for it is called " White-sided Tara," in the " Circuit of Muirchertach mac Neill " : but this was a memory only, for when the poem was written, Tara had been deserted for centuries.

Fig. 190.

Dundrum Castle, near Newcastle, County Down. Built at the end of the twelfth century by John de Courcy, on the very site of the old Irish fortress called Dun Rury, which covered the summit of the rock. The jifreat earthworks belonging to the original dn}t still remain at the base of the rock at one side, but are not seen in this figure. (From Kilk. Archseol. Journ, for 1883-4, p. 158.)

The treatment of forts here is necessarily very brief. Those who wish to study the subject farther may consult Mr. Westropp's essay in Trans. Roy. Ir. Acad, on " The Ancient Forts of Ireland," in which the whole subject is examined for the first time scientifically and in considerable detail, and the similarity of the ancient Irish forts to those of Greece, Thessaly, Italy, France, Austria, Germany, and other parts of the Continent, is pointed out.

In modern times, when the native knowledge of Irish history and antiquities had greatly degenerated, and the light of our own day had not yet dawned, many writers attributed the ancient Irish raths and duns to the Danes,

♦Joyce, Old Celtic Romances, 131. f O'Curry, Man. & Cust., Ii. 13.

CHAP. XX] THE HOUSE 65

SO that it became the fashion to call them " Danish raths or forts " : but this idea has been long since exploded, as the reader will have seen who has glanced through the preceding pages. The peasantry have the same notion : but their error arose from confounding the Dedannans or Dananns with the Danes, through similarity of sound.*

The Anglo-Normans built stone castles in Ireland according to their fashion : and not unfrequently they selected the very site, or the very vicinity, of the old Irish fortresses : for an Anglo-Norman had at least as keen an eye for a good military position as an old Irish warrior. Accordingly the circumvallations of the ancient native forts still remain round the ruins of many of the Anglo- Norman castles ; as at Rahinnane in Kerry, Knockgrafifon near Cahir in Tipperary, and Dundrum in County Down.f Several of those Anglo-Norman or Anglo-Irish castles are figured throughout this chapter. It is to be observed that the Irish began to abandon their earthen forts and build stone castles — many of them round like the older earthen forts and cahirs — shortly before the arrival of the Anglo-Normans in 1169: but this was j^robably in imitation of their warlike neighbours.+

Crannoges. — For greater security, dwellings were often constructed on artificial islands made with stakes, trees, and bushes, covered with earth and stones in shallow lakes, or on small natural islands if they answered. These were called by the name cramiog [crannoge], a word derived from cranti, ' a tree,' as they were constructed almost entirely of wood. Communication with the shore was carried on by means of a small boat, commonly dug out of one tree-trunk. At night, and at other times when precaution was necessary, it was kept in a boat-house on the island. But in ordinary times, for the convenience

*On this see Stokes's Petrie, 218 : and Wilde, Boyne, 70. t See Kilk. Arch. Journ., 1854-5, PP- 394-"- + Stokes's Petrie, 2lZ et seq.

F

66

SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE

[part III

of the residents and visitors coming and going, it was usually left floating in the lake-channel, with a cable from boat to island and another from boat to mainland, so that whether arriving or departing the person could pull it towards him.* Usually one family only, with their attendants, lived on a crannoge island ; but some- times several families, each having a separate wooden house. Where a lake was well suited for it — pretty large and shallow — several crannoge islands were formed, each with one or more families, so as to form a kind of little crannoge village.

Fig. igi.

Section of Crannoge in Ardakilien Lough, near Strokestown, Co. Roscommon. Gives a good* idea of the mode of constructing these little islands. The three horizontal lines at top show the level of the water according to season. (From Wilde's Catalogue, p. 226.)

Crannoge dwellings were in use from the most remote prehistoric times, as is clearly shown by the remains found in them, implements of various kinds, which belonged to primitive ages. They are very often noticed, both by native Irish and by English writers, and they continued in use down to the time of Elizabeth. They are referred to in the Tripartite Life by the name itisola in gronna, ' an island in a bog.' Cambrensis describes them as he saw them in the twelfth century, though he does not use the name cranjioge : — " These lakes [of Ireland] encompass " some slightly elevated spots, most delightfully situated, " which, for the sake of security, and because they are " inaccessible except by boats, the lords of the soil appro- " priate as their places of refuge and seats of residence."t

*Bec Fola, 179. t Top. Hib., i. vii.

CHAP. XX]

THE MOUSE

67

Great numbers of crannoges have of late years been explored, and the articles found in them show that they were occupied by many generations of residents. In most of them rude " dug-out " boats have been found, many specimens of which are preserved in the National Museum, Dublin, and elsewhere. In some cases the original crannoge dwelling was, in later ages, replaced by a stone-and-mortar castle, of which the finest existing example is the Hag's Castle in Lough Mask in Mayo. This is circular like

^s-fs-

FiG. 192.

A Crannoge Village in Lough Eyes, near Lisbellaw, County Fermanagh. The little artificial islands are there still, but the wooden dwelling-houses are all gone : and this is an attempted resto- ration, by Mr. Wakeman, of the appearance of the whole group when a house stood on each. (From Colonel Wood-Martin's Traces of the Elder Faiths, I. 223.)

the original structure, occupying almost the whole of the little island : and it is perhaps the earliest stone-and- mortar castle erected in Ireland before the Anglo-Norman invasion.* Lake-dwellings similar to the Irish crannoges were in use in early times all over Europe, and explorers have examined many of them, especially in Switzerland.!

* See Wilde, Lough Corrib, 260: and Kilk. Arch. Journ., 1872-3, p. lu t Numerous descriptions of individual crannoges and of their exploration

■will be found in the Proc. Roy. Ir. Acad., and in the Killj. Arch. Journ.

and its continuation, the Journ. of the Roy. Soc. Antiqq., Irel. Easily

found out by glancing through the Indexes.

F 2

68

SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE

[part III

The word ' crannoge ' was also used by the ancient Irish to designate a small wooden vessel of some sort. In the " Colloqu)' of the Ancients," Feredach, king of Ossory, is spoken of as using gold and silver for decorating such things as drinking-horns, crarmoges, swords, chessboards, and chessmen.* In later times the ' crannoge ' was familiar among the Anglo-Irish — a sort of basket of a certain size used as a measure for corn.f In the Senchus Mor * crannog ' is used simply to denote a rod.+

4. Domestic Vessels.

The material in most general use for vessels was wood ; but there were vessels of gold, silver, bronze, and brass, all ■of which however were expensive. Occasionally we read

of iron being used : among the treasures possessed by Ailill and Maive, as we find stated in the Tain, were iarn-lestair^ 'iron vessels.'§ There were also vessels of stone : but these were not much in use. A stone bottle, of the kind hitherto known only in Egypt, has been found in the big rath near Lucan|! : and two stone drinking-cups are figured here. Drinking-goblets of glass have been already noticed ; and leather vessels for holding liquids will be described in chap, xxvi., sect. 5.

Fig. 193.

Fig.

194.

Figure 193, Stone Driiiking-cup, 43s inches wide across the bowl. Found, buried deep, in the bed of the Shannon.' Figure 194, Stone Cup. (Wilde's Catal., p. 114.)

* Silva Gad., 416. t Ware, Antiqq. 223.

\ Brehon Laws, i. 152, 20 ; 153, 9 from bot.

§ O'Cuny, Man. & Cust., 11. 89 : LL, 54, a, 33.

II Stokes's Petrie, 420: see Wilde, Catal., 114. Petrie and his biographer, Dr. William Stokes, seem to have regarded this as an Irish imitation of an Egyptian bottle. Many years later Miss Margaret Stokes calls it an " Egyptian alabaster bottle," and looks upon it as brought hither by some ■of those Egyptian monks mentioned in vol. i., p. 413, supra. See Miss Stokes, Inscr., 11. 137.

CHAP. XX]

TIIK HOUSE

69

For making wooden vessels beech was oftenest em- ployed : but the best were made of yew. In one of O'Curry's Lectures,* he gives, from an old MS., a curious list of vessels, all made from the trunk of one immense yew-tree. A large proportion of the timber vessels used were made of staves bound by hoops, like those in use at present, indicating skill and accuracy in planing and jointing. This is proved by many passages. St, Finnchua's mother during her pregnancy — according to

,FiG. 105.

Carrickfergus Castle in 1840. On a rock over the sea. Built originally by John de Courcy in the end of the twelfth century, on the site of an older Irish fortress, but greatly enlarged and altered after his time. One of these Anglo-Norman castles referred to at p. 65, supra. (From Wrights Ireland Illustrated.)

the legendf — once longed for a drink of ale, and asked the brewers for a little : but the churlish fellows refused. She went away : but scarcely had she turned her back when the hoops {circalla : sing, circall, a ' circle ' or ' hoop'/: Lat. circulus) slipped off the vats, and the ale all ran about. In the list of yew-tree vessels noticed above, several are mentioned as having grown so old that the hoops at last fell off. There was also a native term for a \iOoy^—fo7insa : the Brehon Law (v. 483) enumerates the material {ot foiinsa or hoops — i.e. plantations of the *Man. & Cust., 11. 61. t Stokes, Lives of SS., 85, 232.

70 SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE [PART III

proper timber, such as sallow-trees— as forming part of the " Commons " property of a territory.

A large open-hooped tub or vat was called by several names. One was dahach or dahhach [dauvagh], of which the derivation in Cormac's Glossary (p. 52) shows that the vessel was a two-handled tub like that of the present day : — " Dabach, derived from de-oach, two c's or ' ears/ " meaning two handles upon it : for at first there used to *' be no handles on vessels." It may be remarked that the side-handle of a vessel was often called an 0 or 'ear,' of which the word oach is a modification. In O'Clery's Glossary it is stated that a coimde was the same as a dahach. Another name for this sort of vessel was lotar or lothar [loher] : " a trough wherein are kept hraichles or grains left after brewing," says Cormac's Glossary (p. 105). A moderately-sized tub with two handles, called a drolmach^ was used by women for bringing water. This word is still in use and pronounced drowlagh.

There was a special drinking-vessel, originally made of yQ.ys! {tbar), and thence called tbrach, or in modern spelling tubhrach [yooragh]. This was until lately in use in Mayo, and called by its old name : it was deep, and grew narrow from bottom to top.

The people used a sort of pitcher or hand-vessel called a cilorn [keelorn], having a stiiag or circular handle in its side, from which it was also called stuagach, i. e. ' circle- handled ' : sometimes called mi'lan-diitrn and metair-diiirn^ i.e. * hand-vessel ' ; for mi Ian and metair (or medar) both mean ' a small vessel ' : and dorii, gen. duirn is a ' hand ' or 'fist' In Zeuss (p. 41,26) ctlornn glosses urceus, 'a pitcher.' In the Coir Anmann we read that a certain Lugaid went with a cilorn in his hand to bring water for drinking at dinner.* Milan glosses urna in the Tract on Lat. Decl. (No. 138); and it must have been intermediate in size between the cilorn and the medar : for in the list of

*Ir. Texte. III. 319.

CHAP. XX]

THE HOUSE

71

yew vessels mentioned above (p. 69) it is stated that when the original cilorii became worn out from age, the owner made a milan out of what was left : and when this milan again became decayed and worn, there was only as much sound wood left as made a medar. In the Voyage of Maildune it is related how a certain man gathered up a great many valuable articles, and among them a number of brazen cilorns* This ancient term is still preserved in the south of Ireland, where it passes quite current as an English word, in the form of keeler^ though the people apply it now to a vessel of a different shape and with a different use. A broad, shallow tub about 18 inches across and 6 or 8 inches deep, and having two handles formed by

Fiu. ii,o.

Fig. 197.

Two bronze Drinking-vessels in National Museum. Figure 196 is 75^ inches wide : hammered out and shaped with great skill from one single thin piece of metal : found in a crannoge in County Roscommon, Figure 197, oval, ^-^ inches in the long diameter. Handle decorated, and terminating at top in an animal's head. Found near Keshcarrigan, County Leitrim. (Both from Wilde's Catalogue, pp. 533, 534.)

the projection upwards of two of the staves, is universally called a ' keeler.' Milk is ' set ' in a keeler for a night to throw the cream to the top for churning.

A corn [curn] or horn was a drinking-vessel, usually made from a bullock's horn, hollowed out and often highly ornamented with metal-work and gems. A corn mounted with silver was sometimes called a fethal (Corm. 80). This word corn seems to be borrowed from Latin cornua : but there was a native name also, viz. huahaill [boovill], from ho or bn, ' a cow ' : and another, adarc [ey-ark], which is now the common Irish word for ' horn ' : but huahaill may be a borrowed word. Conn the Hundred Fighter, on a

* Rev. Celt., X. 83.

72

SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE

[part III

certain occasion during the feis of Tara, stood up from where he sat on his throne, and with a polished buabaill in his hand, spoke to the assembled nobles.* That a corn is the same thing as a buabaill is proved by this : — that while in one version of the Boroma it is stated that certain messengers, arriving at the palace of Ailech, found king Aed mac Ainmirech drinking mead from a cor^i, in another version the self-same drinking-horn is called a coi'7i-b2iabaill.\ 'Drinking- corns were made at home from cows' or bul- locks' horns ; but very large ones were imported and much valued. Among the " foreign " valuables mentioned in the Brehon Law, the glossator enumerates cuirn-biiabaill [ctiirii^ pi. of corn) : these no doubt were genuine ffalo-horns, as is perhaps indi- cated by the Irish word buabailLX

These corns were

'-^-^-.: „-• -^" sometimes given as a

Fig, 198. part of the stipend due

The "Kavanagh Horn, " drawn from an exact model f T O m OnO king tO ■'n National Museum, Dublin : 22 inches along the convex

or under side. On a brass plate round the top is this anOtllCr aS We find bv inscription : — "TlGERNANUS O'LAUAN ME FECIT ' ^ ^

DEO GraciaS. I. H. S.": which gives the name of the maUV etttricS lu tile artist, Tiernan O'Lavan. This is not a very old speci-

men. (From Wildes Catalogue, p. 266.) Book of RlghtS, wliere

they are often called curved corns from their shape. Sometimes they were coloured : part of the stipend or taiircrcc due to the king of Offaly from the king of Ireland was four corns " of various colours " (Bk. of R., 253). According to the bardic history, ornamented drinking-horns covered with gold and silver were first introduced into Ireland by king Tigernmas, many centuries before the Christian era, a

* Silva Gad., 143 : Jr. Texte, 131, 10. t Rev. Celt., xiil. 63.

\ Brehon Laws, V. 220, 23 ; 221, 29.

CHAP. XX] THE HOUSE 75

record which, though legendary, indicates the general costHness of the workmanship. Some of these corns are preserved in our museums, of which one is figured on page 72.

The escra was a drinking-goblet : Cormac's Glossary (p. 69, twice) says it was a copper vessel for distributing

Fig. 159.

Ancient Irish vessel, 15 inct.es liigli, and 15 inches in width at the mouth : made out of a single piece of oak, except the bottom, which is of alder. The carving on the side is the Opus IHbernicnin or interlaced work. It had a hd wlien found, similarly carved ; but this has been lost. The wl-.ole outer surface was originally painted in a kind of dark enamel, portions of which still remain. This very ancient vessel was found five feet deep in a bog in County Fermanagh. (From Kilk. Archaeol. Journ. for 1879-82, p. 98.)

water ; but it was sometimes made of silver. The sons of O'Corra, in the course of their voyage, landed on an island, where a lady came towards them having in one hand a copper cilorn full of food like cheese, and in the other a silver escra. And she gave them the food to eat: and she brought them water in the escra from a well on the strand : " and there was no delicious flavour that was

74

SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE

[part III

"ever tasted by man that they did not find in this food *' and drink."* In the Life of St. Darerca it is stated that the escra was a silver drinking-cup from which great people were wont to drink.f

The word lestar was applied to vessels of various kinds, among others to drinking-vessels : it was often used as a generic term for vessels of all kinds, including ships. In the Life of St. Brigit it is related that on one occasion the king of Teffia was drinking out of a lestar covered with

gems, when a careless man took it from his hand and let it drop so that it was broken into bits.+ The beautiful lestar represented in fig. 199 was found some years ago, as stated in the descriptive note, but what special name was applied to it we cannot tell. There was a drinking-cup of some kind called

h/T 1 fir indtile which Cormac (p. 58) defines

vA>-J t J "a little lestar or vessel in which

drink fits," i.e. for holding drink : which agrees with O'Reilly's '■Hnntille, a drinking-cup." The simple word aia^ and its derivatives cuad and ciiach, all mean ' a cup.' In the gloss on the Senchus Mor we are told that a folderh (see below) is a cua in the shape of a bell {ctta cluic)% : and the Crith Gabhlach speaks of a etmd 12 inches high for drinking milk out of|l Ciiach, which is the common word for ' cup,' is retained in Scotland to this day and used as an English word, in the forms of quaigh and cogue, for a drinking-cup. It was prophesied for Finn mac Cumail by his wife that on

*Rev. Celt., xiv. 47; Joyce, Old Celtic Romances, 415. This food like cheese, containing every delicious flavour, is a stock incident in ancient Welsh, as well as in Irish, tales.

t Three Fragments, 9, i. \ Brehon Law, i. 134, 5,

\ Stokes, Three Irish Homilies, 73. || Ibid., IV. 306, 9.

Fig. 200.

Grotesque figure of a man drinking : from tlie Book of Kells (seventli century i. (From Wilde's Catalogue, p. 299.)

CHAP. XX] THE HOUSE 75

whatsoever day he should drink from a horn [adarc], he would die. Accordingly he took good care always to drink from a ciiach. But one day in his old age, being overcome with thirst, and not having his cuach, he drank from an adarc : and on that same day he was killed on the Boyne.* laii, gen. ena, means ' a vessel ' : it is often applied to a small drinking-mug. The Crith Gabhlach mentions a vessel, iaii-Sil [drinking-z^;?/], three hands high, used for drinking milk.f Cormac's Glossary (p. 34) de- scribes a sort of drinking-goblet called a cingif, in such a way that we may infer it was slender in the middle and opened out at the top ^o^y^-— — -^-^

and bottom, so that the two halves were alike, or nearly so, in shape and size, and were probably intended to be reversible.

The usual drinking- vessel among the com- mon people, especially at meals and drinking-bouts, was a inedar or viether (so called from the drink called mead), made of wood, with two or four handles : it circulated from hand to hand, each passing it to his neighbour after taking a drink. Many of these inethers are preserved in museums, of which two are figured here.+ People drank from the corners. A sort of hamper or vessel called a ruse [roosk], made of bark-strips on a wicker-work framiC, was much used in farmhouses.§

A churn was known by several names — among others cutnneog, which is the present name. In the Senchus

* Silva Gad., 98. t Brehon Laws, iv. 302, 23.

:{: See Dub. Pen. Journ., i. 300: Kilk. Arch. Jouni., 1860-61, p. 54: and Wilde, Catal., 214.

\ Stokes, Lives of SS., line 1277, and p, 320 hot. Also Three Irish Homilies, 62,11: and "Ruse" in Windisch's Wiirterbuch.

KiG. 201. Fig. 202.

Wooden Methers. From Wiklc's Catalogue, p. 214.

^6 SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE [PART III

Mor it is called comm ; and in the gloss, this again is interpreted by three names : — aiairt (' round -vessel '), belcumaiig ('narrow-mouth'), and miiide* showing that it was something like the hand-churn still in use. Derh is another name for a churn, according to O'Clery's Glossary, which explains this word as meaning either a churn {cnin- neSg) or a cup iballiui). A saying quoted in the same glossary, " my ear to the ear of the derh" shows that the ancient churn had two ears or handles, which the modern hand-churn has not. The compound_/^//^<!?;'Z' was also used ;. but from- the words of the gloss in the Senchus Mor, it would seem to denote here an ordinary drinking-cup : —

" Folderb which has a ring or handle {Joil or fdll) out of its side, and it is a bell-shaped cua"\ Another compound of derb is given in Cormac's Glossary (p. 58) to denote },\G~2oz. a churn — derb-loma, i.e. the derb of

Pail or bucket, made out of one loim OX milk. From all tlie preced-

piece of red deal : i foot long, 6}<

inches deep, and loH inches broad, jng we may iufer tliat derb and its

Cover made of yew, pressed into

shape when softened (see •• can- COmpOUnds WerO USCd tO dcnOte

tair," ' a press," in Index). Now in

National Museum. (From Wilde's botli a drinklng-cuo and a chum.

Catalogue, p. 213.)

The form of churn used among the ancient Irish was that in which the cream or milk is agitated by a dash worked with the hand. The churn- dash was — and is still — called loinid, and sometimes loimdha, from loim, ' milk. 'J

For bringing home milk from the milking-place, Adam- nan (pp. 126, 445) mentions a wooden vessel of such a make that it could be strapped on the back. The lid was kept in its place by a wooden cross-bar {gercemi) which ran through two holes at opposite sides near the rim. Adamnan tells a story of a young member of the lona community bringing home on his back a vessel full of milk

* Brehon Laws, i. 124, 1; and 134, 2,3. \ Ibid , 124,5.

X O'Curry, Man. & Gust., r. 133.

<:hai'. xx]

THE HOUSE

77

into which a demon had entered : and when St. Columba, blessing the milk according to his custom, made the sign of the cross, it became agitated, and the bar which fastened the lid was driven through the two holes and shot away to a distance. Adamnan, writing in Latin, uses the original Irish word for this bar in the form ger genua. The word is elsewhere explained as a slender bar which passes through two openings and fastens ■ the lid. In "Mac Conglinne's Vision" (p. 87, 19) it is used for an ordinary door-bolt — which seems its primary meaning. It appears that this term is not found in any other Latin document besides Adamnan's : and it is probably an original Gaulish or Celtic word.*

Fig. 204.

Natural Boulder-Stone; height 3 feet, with three artificial ballAns. (1-rom Col. Wood-Martin's l*a>;an Ireland, p. 411. Drawn by Wakenian.)

It will be seen from what precedes that there was in old times in Ireland quite as great a variety of vessels of all kinds, with distinct names, as there is among the people of the present day ; and there are, besides, other names not }'et noticed. The cup that St. Patrick was drinking out of at Tara, when the druid attempted to poison him, is called ardig in the Tripartite Life (p. 54, 7j : ardig or airdig being a common old word for a drinking- goblet. A balldn seems to have been a simple, cheap, wooden drinking-cup in very general use : in one place,

* See Kuno Meyer in Rev. Celt., xiii. 506.

78

SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE

[part III

Cormac's Glossary (p. 25) defines it as "a poor man's vessel " : and elsewhere (p. 27) as a vessel used by lepers. Keating applies it to a drinking-cup, and it was sometimes also applied to a milk-pail.* In Connaught it is used to designate round holes in rocks usually filled with water : which use modern antiquarians have borrowed, and they now apply " ballaun " to those small cup-like hollows, generally artificial, often found in rocks, and almost always containing water.t

Escoiiii, escand^ or escann is described in Cormac's Glossary as a vessel for distributing water, derived from esc, 'water,' and " cann, the name of a vessel." This last phrase is interesting as showing the existence in ancient Gaelic of a term for a drinking -vessel identical with the English word can. There was a pail or vessel of some kind called sitheal, which was Fig. 205. sometimes made of silver.

The word cernin [kerneen] is given in Cormac's Glossary (p. 37) as meaning miass, i.e. a dish on which food is placed at table ; in which sense it is also found in an ancient satire given in the Book of the Dun Cow,, said to have been the first satire ever composed in Ireland. Cernin is a diminutive of the simple word cern — modern form cearn — which is used to denote a dish of any kind,, for measuring commodities, such as grain: Peter O'Connell explains it " a certain dry measure " : and Keating has the expression cearn-arbhair, a 'cern of corn.' Bleid ox bleide was the name of a goblet or vessel of some kind, mentioned both in the Brehon Laws and in the Tales. The word

*Comi. Gloss., 54 ("Del"). "^ Ibid., 25.

Earthenware glazed Pitcher, 13 inches high. Found in a crannoge in County Down. (From Wilde's Catalogue, p. 15S.)

CHAP. XX] THE HOUSE 79

miass or mias, given above from Cormac's Glossary, is very commonly used for a platter or dinner dish* Coire, 'a caldron'; cusal \ criol\ and some other terms, as well as the vessels they denote, will be dealt with elsewhere in this book. Most of those named in this section will be found mentioned in vol. v. of the Brehon Laws, p. 407, and the following pages.

Earthen vessels of various shapes and sizes were in constant use. They were made either on a potter's wheel, or on a mould, or on both. This appears from a curious commentary on the Latin text of a passage in the Psalms (n. 9), written in the Irish language by an Irishman, in the eighth or ninth century, contained in a manuscript now in Milan. This old writer, evidently taking his illustration from his native country, explains " a potter's wheel " as " a "round wheel on which the potters [Irish na cerda, 'the " cairds or artisans '] make the vessels, or a round piece of "wood about which they [the vessels] are while being " made."f The " round piece of wood " was the block or mould on which they were first formed roughly, to be afterwards perfected on the wheel.

5. Royal Residences.

Almost all the ancient residences of the over-kings of Ireland, as well as those of the provincial and minor kings, are known at the present day ; and in most of them the circular ramparts and mounds are still to be seen, more or less dilapidated after the long lapse of time. As there were many kings of the several grades, and as each was obliged to have three suitable houses (vol. I., p. 58), the royal residences were numerous ; of which the most important will be noticed here.+ In addition to these,

* See the story of B6thar-na-Mias in Joyce, Ir. Names of Places, 11. 191. t Stokes and Strachan, Thesaurus, I., p. 23.

X The present appearance of several of the royal residences will be found described in Air. T. O. Russell's " Beauties and Antiquities of Ireland."

80 SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE [PART III

several of the great strongholds described in vol. I., pp. 84 to 90, were royal residences.

Tara. — The remains of Tara* stand on the summit and down the sides of a gently-sloping, round, grass}- hill, rising 500 feet over the sea, or about 200 over the sur- rounding plain, situated six miles south-east of Navan, in Meath, and two miles from the Midland Railway Station of Kilmessan. It was in ancient times universally regarded as the capital of all Ireland, or, as Muirchu, in his seventh- century Life of St. Patrick calls it, caput Scotoriiiii, the ' capital of the Scots ' ; so that in building palaces elsewhere it was usual to construct their principal houses and halls in imitation of those of Tara. It was the residence of the supreme kings of Ireland from prehistoric times down to the sixth century, when — as already mentioned — it was deserted in the time of King Dermot the son of Fergus Cervall on account of St. Ruadan's curse. Although it has been abandoned to decay and ruin for thirteen centuries, it still presents striking vestiges of its ancient importance.

Preserved in the Book of Leinster and other ancient manuscripts there are two detailed Irish descriptions of Tara, one written in the tenth century by Kineth O'Hartigan, and the other in the eleventh by Cuan O'Lochain (for whom see vol. I., p. 462, supra). Both these distinguished men examined the remains personally, and described them as they saw them, after four or five centuries of ruin, giving the names, positions, and bearings of the several features with great exactness. These two interesting documents are published with translations and learned annotations in Petrie's essay on Tara. More than sixty years ago Dr. Petrie and Dr. O'Donovan made a most careful detailed

* Old Iiish name Temair (modern Teamhair), gen. Temrach, dat. Teiiiraigy which is represented by the present name "Tara." For more about this name, and for other places of the same name, see Joyce, Ir. Names of Places, I., p. 294.

N

/^.

Fig. 20(3. Plaii of Tara, as it exists at the present day. (I-"roiii the two Plans ^iven by I'etrie in his Essay on Tara.)

82 SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE [PART III

examination of the hill and its monuments ; and with the aid of those two old topographical treatises they were able, without much difficulty, to identify most of the chief forts and other remains, and to restore their ancient names. The following are the most important features still existing, and they are all perfectly easy to recognise by any one who walks over the hill with the plan in his hand. A much more detailed description of them, with their full history and all extracts relating to them from Irish manuscripts, is given in Petrie's essay on Tara, from which most of the account given here has been condensed. It is to be borne in mind that the forts now to be seen were the ramparts or defences surrounding and protecting the houses. The houses themselves, as has been already explained (p. 55), were of wood, and have of course all disappeared.

The principal fortification is RatJi Righ [Rath-Ree] or Rath-7ia-R{gh, the ' fort of the kings,' also called Caher Crofinn^ an oval occupying the summit and southern slope of the hill, measuring 853 feet in its long diameter. The circumvallation can still be traced all round ; and judging from the existing remains, there were originally two walls or parapets with a ditch between. Moreover it is pretty certain that one at least of these two ramparts was of stone, as the "caher" (Irish catJiair] in the name "Caher Crofinn " would indicate ; and as a matter of fact the stones still remain for about a fifth of the whole circuit. This seems to have been the original fort erected by the first occupiers of the hill, and the most ancient of all the monuments of Tara.

Within the enclosure of Rath Ri'gh are two large mounds, the Forrad or Forradh [Forra] and Tech Connate, beside each other, and having portions of their ramparts in common. The Forradh has two outer rings or ramparts and two ditches : its extreme outer diameter is nearly 300 feet. The name " Forradh " signifies ' a place of public

CHAP. XX]

THE HOUSE

83

meeting,' and also a judgment-seat, cognate with Y^dX.furiini ; so that it seems obvious that this is the structure referred to by the writer of the ancient Norse work called "Kongs Skuggsjo " or ' mirror for kings,' already referred to (vol. I., pp. 226, 300). This old writer, speaking of Tara, says : — " And in what was considered the highest point of the city " the king had a fair and well-built castle, and in that " castle he had a hall fair and spacious, and in that hall he " was wont to sit in judgment."

On the top of the Forradh there now stands a remark- able pillar-stone six feet high (with six feet more in the earth), which Petrie believed was the Lia Fail, the inaugu- ration-stone of the Irish over-kings, the stone that roared

Fig. 207. The Mouad called the Forradh, at Tara. (From Mrs. Halls Ireland. Drawn by Wakeman.)

when a king of the true Milesian race stood on it (see vol. I., p. 45) ; but recent inquiries have thrown grave doubts on the accuracy of this opinion.

Tech Cormaic (' Cormac's house ') was so called from the illustrious King Cormac mac Art, who reigned A.D. 254 to 277. It is a circular rath consisting of a well-marked outer ring or circumvallation, with a ditch between it and the inner space ; the extreme external diameter being 244 feet. We may probably assign its erection to King Cormac, which fixes its age.

Duma nan Giali or the ' mound of the hostages,' situated just inside the ring of Rath Righ, is a circular earthen mound, 13 feet high, 66 feet in diameter at the

G 2

84 SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE [PART III

base, with a flat top, 25 feet in diameter. The timber house in which the hostages lived, as already mentioned (vol. I., p. 54), stood beside this, or perhaps on the flat top.

A little to the west of the Mound of the Hostages stands another mound called Dtcnia na Bo (the ' mound of the cow'), about 40 feet in diameter and 6 feet high. It was also called Glas Teinrach (the ' Glas of Tara ') which would seem to indicate that the celebrated legendary cow called Glas Gavlin, which belonged to the Dedannan smith Goibniu,* was believed to have been buried under this mound.

About 100 paces from Rath Righ on the north-east is the well called NeninacJi (' bright ' or ' sparkling ') so cele- brated in the legend of Cormac's mill — the first mill erected in Ireland, for which see chap, xxv., sect, i, below. A little stream called NitJi (' shining ') formerly ran from it, which at some distance from the source turned the mill. The well is now nearly dried up ; but it could be easily renewed.

Rath na Seanaid (the ' rath of the synods '}, now popu- larly called " the King's Chair," has been partly encroached upon by the wall of the modern church : the two ramparts that surrounded it are still well-marked features. Within the large enclosure are two mounds, 106 and 33 feet in diameter respectively. Three synods are recorded as having been held here, from which it had its name : — one by St. Patrick on the occasion when he preached to King Laegaire and his nobles at Easter, A.D. 433; one by St. Ruadan or Rodanus when he pronounced the curse that caused Tara to be abandoned (for which see "Ruadan " in Index] ; and the last by Adamnan, probably in the year 697, in which he procured acceptance for the law exempting women from taking part in battles (see vol. I., p. 96, supra).

* For Goibniu, see vol. i. 261, supra: and for the wonderful cow, Glas Gavlin, see Joyce, Ir. Names of Places, r. 163 : and FM, i., p. 18, note j.

CHAP. XX] THE HOUSE 85

Near the Rath of the Synods, and within the enclosure of the modern church, stood Adaninan's Cross, of which the shaft still remains, with a human figure rudely sculptured in relief on its side. A little to the south-east of this cross was situated the house which — as already related, vol. i., P* 307 — "^vas burned round young Benen and the druid Lucet Mail, when Benen escaped and the druid was reduced to ashes.

On the northern slope of the hill are the remains of the Banqueting-Hall, the only structure in Tara not round or oval. It consists of two parallel mounds, the remnants of the side walls of the old Hall, which, as it now stands, is 759 feet long by 46 feet wide ; but it was originally both longer and broader. It is described in the old documents as having twelve (or fourteen) doors : and this description is fully corroborated by the present appearance of the ruin, in which six door-openings are clearly marked in each side wall. Probably there was also a door at each end : but all traces of these are grone.

The whole site of the Hall was occupied by a great timber building, 45 feet high, ornamented, carved, and painted in colours. Within this the Feis or Convention of Tara held its meetings, which will be found described in chap, xxix., sect, i, farther on. Here also were held the banquets from which the Hall was named Tech Midckuarta, the 'mead-circling house'; and there was an elaborate subdivision of the inner space, with the compartments railed or partitioned off, to accommodate the guests according to rank and dignity. For, as will be seen in chap, xxi., sect, r, they were very particular in seating the great company in the exact order of dignity and priority. From this Hall, moreover, the banqueting-halls of other great houses commonly received the name of Tech Midchicarta.

Rath Caelchoji was so called from a Munster chief named Caelchii [^q\\. Caelchon), who was contemporary

86 SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE [PART III

with Cormac mac Art, third century. He died in Tara^ and was interred in a leocht or earn, beside which was raised the rath in commemoration of him. The rath is 220 feet in diameter ; and the very earn of stones heaped over the grave still remains on the north-east margin of the rath.

Rath Grdi7ine is a high well-marked rath, 258 feet in diameter. It received its name from the lady Grainne [Graunya], daughter of King Cormac mac Art, and betrothed wife of Finn mac Cumail. She eloped with Dermot O'Dyna, and the whole episode is told in detail in the historic romance called " The Pursuit of Dermot and Grainne."* This mound, and also the smaller mound beside it on the south called the FotJiad of Rath Grdintie^ are now much hidden by trees.

A little north-west of the north end of the Banqueting- Hall, and occupying the space north of Rath Grainne and Rath Caelchon, was the sheskin or marsh of Tara, which was drained and dried up only a few years before Petrie's time: but the well which supplied it, Tober Finn (Finn'.s. well), still remains.

Rath Laegaire [Rath Laery], situated south of Rath Righ, was so called from Laegaire, king of Ireland in St. Patrick's time, by whom, no doubt, it was erected. It is about 300 feet in diameter, and was surrounded by two great rings or ramparts, of which one is still very well marked, and the other can be partially traced. Laegaire was buried in the south-east rampart of this rath, fully armed and standing up in the grave, with his face towards the south as if fighting against his enemies, the Leinster men. The whole account of his interment will be found in chap, xxxi., sect. 3, farther on.

West of Rath Righ was the well called Laegh [Lay], a name signifying ' calf : it is now dried up, though the ground still remains moist. In this well, according to

*This fine stor}' will be found in Joyce's Old Celtic Romances.

CHAP, XXj THE HOUSE g/

the seventh-century Annotations of Tirechan, St. Patrick baptised his first convert at Tara, Ere the son of Dego who afterwards became bishop of Slane, and who is com- memorated in the Httle hermitage still to be seen beside the Boyne (vol. I., p. 320). This well is called Laeg by Cuan O'Lochain ; and Tirechan calls it Loig-les, which he translates vitulus dvitatum, the ' calf of the lisses or cities.* Probably there was some legend accounting for this very old name of Laeg or ' calf,' but it is not now known.

The five main sliges [slees], or roads, leading from Tara in five different directions through Ireland, will be found described in chap, xxviii., sect. i. Of these, portions of three are still traceable on the hill. The modern road traverses and covers for some distance the sites of two of them, Slige Dala and Slige JSIidliiachra, as seen on the plan : Slige Asail still remains, and is sometimes turned to use.

In one of the ancient poetical accounts quoted by Petrie (Tara, 147, top), it is stated that the houses of the general body of people who lived near Tara were scattered on the slope and over the plain east of the hill.

In connexion with Tara, two other great circular forts ought to be mentioned. A mile south of Rath Righ lies Rath Maive, which is very large — 6^^ feet in diameter ; it forms a striking object as seen from the hill, and is well worth examining. It was erected, according to one account, by Queen Maive, wife of Art the solitary, the father of King Cormac mac Art, which would fix the period of its erection as the beginning of the third century. This lady, observe, was different from Queen Maive of Croghan.

The other fort is Rafhmiles, 300 feet in diameter, lying one mile north of the Banqueting-Hall : but nothing is known of its history.

After the abandonment of Tara the kings of Ireland took up their abode where they pleased, each commonly in one of his other residences, within his own province or

88 SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE [PART III

immediate territory. One of these seats was Dun-na-Sciath (the ' Fort of the Shields ' : pron, Doon-na-Skee), of which the circular fort still remains on the western shore of Lough Ennell in County Westmeath (MS. Mat., 24). Another was at Rath near the western shore of Loch LeibJiinn (now Lough Lene in Westmeath), two miles from the present town of Castlepollard. This residence was occupied for a time by the Danish tyrant Turgesius, so that the fort, which is one of the finest in the country, is now known as Dim- Torgeis or Turgesius's fort ; while the Old Irish name has been lost (Petrie, Tara, 128). In the time of St. Fechin, Dermot, one of the joint kings of Ireland (A.D. 656-664), had a residence in an island in Lough Lene, which, accord- ing to a local tradition, was also occupied for a time by Turgesius.* The tradition is probably correct, for the island is now known by the name of Turgesius's Island.

Cenaimus. — In the second century Conn the Hundred Fighter, while yet roydauma, before he became king of Ireland, resided in his stronghold at Cenannus, now Kells, County Meath : and four centuries after his time Dermot (son of Fergus), king of Ireland (544-565), had a palace here, probably the very stronghold occupied by Conn.

Fremainn. — The kings of Tara had two royal residences at two different places called Fremainn (LU, 129, b, 25). One of these is still well known, and retains its old name : now locally designated Frewen Hill, rising over the western side of Lough Owel in Westmeath, on the top of which the old fort still stands (see MS. Mat., 285).

Raeriu. — There were two very ancient palaces at two places called by the same name Raeriu, both of which still retain the name slightly altered. One was at the place now called Reary-more near the village of Clonaslee in the north of Queen's County. The other at Mullagh-Reelan, five miles south-east of Athy in Kildare, where the old

* See FM, l., p. 501, note/-: Three Fragments, 169, note t : and Rev. Celt., xn., 343.

CHAP. XX] THE HOUSE 89

mound still remains near Kilkea Castle. In this anglicised name, the termination " Reelan " represents Raeri?m, the dative of the old name, by the usual change of r to /.*

Maistiu (gen. form Matstetin). — A better-known royal homestead stood five miles nearly east from Ath-I (now called Athy), where on the summit of a low hill the large circular fort remains, and is now well known by the name of the " Rath of Mullamast," in which the last syllable represents the old name. (This is mentioned farther on, for which see Index.)

It has been already stated (vol. I., p. 38) that Tuathal the Legitimate, king of Ireland in the second century, built four palaces at Tara, Tailltenn, TJshnagli, and Tlachtga. The fort of Tlachtga still remains on the summit of the Hill of Ward near the village of Athboy in Meath. There were royal residences also at Dunseverick in Antrim, the ancient Dun-Sobairce ; at the Old Head of Kinsale in Cork, called in Irish Dun-mic-Patraic ; at Derry ; at Rathbeagh on the Nore, where the rath is still to be seen ; at Dun-Aenguis on Great Aran Island (for which see p. 57, supra) ; and on the site of the present Baily Lighthouse at Howth, where several of the defensive fosses of the old palace-fort of Dun-CriflFan can still be traced.

Emain. — Next to Tara in celebrity was the palace of Emain or Emain-Macha, or, as its name is Latinised, Emania. It was for 600 years the residence of the kings of Ulster, and attained its greatest glory in the first century of the Christian era, during the reign of Concobar (or Conor) Mac Nessa, king of Ulster. It was the centre round which clustered the romantic tales of the Red Branch Knights. t The most ancient- written Irish tradi- tions assign the foundation of this palace to Macha of the

*As to these two mansions, see FM, i., p. 38, note r; and Book of Rights, pp. 210, 211.

fFor the Red Branch Knights, and the literature connected with them, see vol, I., pp. 83 and 536, supra.

90 SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE [PART III

Golden Hair, wife of Civibaeth^ king of Ulster three or four centuries before the Christian era. From that period it continued to be the residence of the Ulster kings till A.D. 335, when it was burned and destroyed by three brothers, cousins of Muredach, king of Ireland — Colla Uais, Colla Menn, and Colla Dachrich, commonly known as the Three Collas — after which it was abandoned to ruin. The imposing remains of this palace, consisting of a great mound surrounded by an immense circular rampart and fosse half obliterated, the whole structure covering about eleven English acres, lie two miles west of Armagh. Nay^ the ruin retains to this day the old name " Emain " slightly disguised ; for it is familiarly called " The Navan Fort or Ring," in which " Navan " correctly represents the sound of 'n-Einain, i.e. the original name with the Irish article ^n prefixed.

When the Red Branch Knights came to the palace each summer to be exercised in feats of arms, they were lodged in a great house near Emain, called the Craobli- Ruad/i, commonly Englished the * Red Branch,' from which the whole body took their name. But according to an old glossary, riiadh here means not 'red,' which is its usual sense, but ' royal ' : so that Craobh-Ruadh should be translated 'royal branch': but the designation "Red Branch Knights " is now too well established to be dis- placed. The name of this house is also preserved : for " Creeveroe," which very well represents the sound of Craobh-RiiadJi, is still the name of a townland near the Navan fort. So far as we can judge from old tales, the Craobh-RitadJi seems to have been altogether built of wood, with no earthen rampart round it, which explains why the present townland of Creeveroe contains no large fort like that of Emain.*

♦According to LL, as quoted by O'Curr}', Man. & Cust., i. 332, there were, in the time of Concobar, three chief houses in Emain : — The craeb ruaid, or ' royal branch,' where the Icings and chiefs feasted : the craeb

CHAP. XX] THE HOUSE 9I

Ailech or the Grianan of Ailech. — Another Ulster palace, quite as important as Emain, was Ailech, the ruins of which are situated in County Donegal, on the summit of a hill 800 feet high, five miles north-west from Derry, command- ing a magnificent view of Lough Foyle and Lough Swilly with the surrounding country. It is a circular stone cashel of dry masonry, jy feet in internal diameter, the wall about 13 feet thick at the base, and on the outside sloping gradually inwards. This central citadel was surrounded at wide intervals by five concentric ramparts, three of which may still be traced, the whole area originally including many acres. According to the old tradition it was founded by the Dedannans, and continued to be a royal residence to the time of its destruction, sometimes of the king of Ulster, and sometimes of the king of Ireland. After the fourth century it was the recognised residence of the northern Hy Neill kings, down to the year iioi, when it was destroyed by the Munster King Murkertagh, in retaliation for the destruction of Kincora by the Ulstermen thirteen years before. After this it was abandoned ; and the kings of Ailech transferred their residence to Inis- Eanaigh — now called Inchenny — in the County Tyrone, near Strabane, where they probably resided till the arrival of the Anglo-Normans. For nearly eight centuries Ailech continued in a state of ruin, the wall being reduced to a height of about 6 feet : but during the years 1874-8, it was rebuilt — in the face of great difficulties — by Dr. Bernard of Derry, a man of culture, with antiquarian tastes, who, as far as he could, restored it to its original shape. The wall

derg, or ' crimson branch,' where were kept their spoils and trophies and the skulls of their enemies: and the teite brecc, or 'speckled house,' wherein were deposited the heroes' arms, so as to have them safely out of reach in case the owners should quarrel over their cups. There was also, according to Keating (p. 271), a hospital for the sick and wounded, called Brdn-Bherg, or the "Warrior's Sorrow." See the Paper on the Plan of Navan Fort by M. D'Arbois de Jubainville in Rev. Celt., xvi., p. i : Joyce, Irish Names of Places, i., p. 90: and Mr. T. O. Russell, p. 58.

92 SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE [PART III

is now about 17 feet high. It still retains — has all along retained — its ancient name, in the form of Greenan-Ely, where Ely correctly represents the sound of Ailigh, the genitive of Ailech*

The Dalaradian princes had their residence in the sixth and seventh centuries, in a place of great repute called Rathmore-Moylinny. The fort still remains in the townland of Rathmore two miles from the town of Antrim. Adjoin- ing Rathmore townland is another called Rathbeg, which takes its name from the rath of another palace of much celebrity, where Dermot, the son of Fergus Cervall king of Ireland, lived for some time after he had left Tara, and where he was slain in the year 565, by Aed Dubh, king of Dalaradia.f

Cruachan. — The chief palace of the kings of Connaught was CriiacJian (or as it is now called, Croghan) from times beyond the reach of history down to the death of King Raghallach, who, as already related (vol. L, p. 409), was assassinated A.D. 648. It figures in various parts of this book, and is chiefly celebrated as being the residence of Ailill and Maive, king and queen of the province, in the first century of the Christian era. Here they held their court, which is described in the Tales of the Red Branch Knights in a strain of exaggerated magnificence : and from this the warlike queen set forth with her army to ravage Ulster and bring away the great brown bull which was the main object of the expedition, as described in the epic story of the " Tain bo Chuailnge " [Quelna].

The remains, which are situated three miles north-west from the village of Tulsk in Roscommon, are not imposing : for the main features have been effaced by cultivation. The principal rath, on which stood the timber palace and

* See Ordnance Survey of Londonderry, p. 217. In this work, Dr. Petrie, with the assistance of O'Donovan and O'Curry, has given an elaborate historical, literary, and topographical description of Ailech.

t See Reeves, Eccl. Antiqq., pp. 69 and 278-281: Adamnan, p. 68, note: F]\[, A.D. 558 : and Voyage of Bran, I. 58.

CHAP. XX] THE HOUSE 93

the subordinate houses, is merely a flat, green, circular moat about an English acre in extent, elevated considerably above the surrounding land, with hardly a trace of the enclosing circumvallation. There are many other forts all round, so that, in the words of O'Donovan, who has described the place in some detail in the Four Masters under A.D, 1223 — the whole site may be said to be "the "ruins of a town of raths, having the large rath called " Rathcroghan placed in the centre": but they are scattered much more widely and at greater distances than those at Tara. Besides the homestead forts there are also, in the surrounding plain, numerous other antiquarian remains, indicating a once busy centre of royalty and active life — cromlechs, caves, pillar-stones, and mounds, including the cemetery of Relig-na-ree, about half a mile south of the main rath, which will be described in chapter xxxi.

Durlus Guaire or Dungory. — The royal house known by this name was the abode of Guaire [Goorie], the hospitable king of Connaught in the seventh century. It was built on a little island beside the seashore, half a mile north-east from the present village of Kinvarra on Gal way Bay. On the site of the old dun a stone castle was subsequently erected, the ruin of which is now called " Dungory Castle," a name that commemorates the fortress of the hospitable monarch.*

Ailenn or Ailend, now Knockaulin. The most important residences of the kings of Leinster were Ailenn, Dinnrigh, Naas, Liamhain, and Belach-Chonglais or Baltinglass, in all of which the raths still remain. Ailenn is a round hill, now commonly called Knockaulin (y^2^//« representing 'Ailenn') near Kilcullen in Kildare, rising 600 feet over sea-level,, and 200 or 300 feet over the Curragh of Kildare which lies adjacent, and over all the plain around. The whole summit of the hill is enclosed by a huge oval embankment, 514 by 440 yards, enclosing an area of 37 statute acres,

* See Tromdamh, p. 120, note 2.

94 SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE [PART III

one of the largest forts, if not the very largest, in Ireland. Within this great enclosure stood the spacious ornamental wooden houses in which, as we learn from our records, the Leinster kings often resided : for each king had at least three palaces (vol. I., p. 58, supra) which he occupied in turn, changing from one to another as it suited his pleasure or convenience. On the present 6-inch Ordnance map the fort is called the " Hill of Allen," instead of the proper modern popular name Knockaulin, which tends to confound it with the equally celebrated hill, now properly and universally called the Hill of Allen near Newbridge in Kildare, Finn mac Cumail's residence already described (vol. I., p. 88) : a mistake evidently committed without O'Donovan's knowledge, when he and others were employed sixty or seventy years ago to settle the local names of Ireland.*

Dinnrigh. — One of the most noted, and probably the oldest, of the Leinster palaces was Dinnrigh [Dinnree : the ' din?i or fortress of kings '], also called by two other names,

*I am informed, on the best authorit)', that this mistake will be rectified in future editions of the 6-inch map.

The fact that there are no remains of a fort on the Hill of Allen — i.e. the hill properly so called, near Newbridge — a place of such celebrity as having been the residence of the renowned hero Finn mac Cumail — seems so unac- countable as to lead some to conjecture that the ancient Irish writers confounded the names of the two hills — names which are somewhat like each other ; and that the fort of Ailenn above described may have been really Finn's residence. But this is pure conjecture without a shadow of evidence to support it. The absence of remains on the Hill of Allen has been already satisfactorily accounted for (vol. i., p. 90). As to the two names : they have never been confounded by any old writer, and could not possibly be, except by an amount of stupidity never exhibited by the writers of the Book of Leinster or the Book of the Dun Cow. The oldest form of the name of Finn's residence was Alinu, gen. Almaii, dat. Almain ; which dative — in accordance with a well-known linguistic law — is often used as a nominative, on which a second genitive Abname has been formed. The oldest form of the name of Knockaulin is Ailend or Ailenn. The names of both vary somewhat in form ; but there is one obvious and never-failing distinction : — that however Almu is varied, it always has the ?« : however Ailenn is varied, it never has an m. The evidence that Finn lived at Abnu, or what is now properly called the Hill of Allen, is quite as clear as that by which we know that Brian Boru lived at Kincora.

CHAP. XX]

THE HOUSE

95

Tiiaitn-Tenha and Duvia-Slainge, 'Slainge's burial-mound,' because the Firbolg king Slainge died and was buried there (FM, A.M. 3267). Besides being very often men- tioned in the records, it was the scene of a tragedy which is related in detail in the historical story called " The Destruction of Dinnree," contained in the Book of Leinster, which has been edited and translated by Dr. Whitley Stokes.* Some two centuries and a half before the Chris- tian era, Cobthach the Slender of Breg murdered the king

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Fig. 208.

Dinnree, the most ancient residence of the kinfrs of Leinster. Now Ballyknoclcan Fort, on the west bank of the Barrow, half a mile below Leighlin-bridge, Carlow. (From Mrs Hall's Ireland.)

of Ireland — his own brother — and also the king's son Ailill, and usurped the throne. But Ailill's son Labra Loingsech,or Lavra the Mariner, who iled to the Continent, returned after some years with a party of Gauls, and landed at Wexford, where he was joined by large contin- gents of the men of Leinster and Munster, who hated the usurper. Marching quickly and silently by night to Dinn- ree, where the king then happened to be holding court, he surrounded the palace, and setting fire to the houses while

111 Zeitschr. Celt. Phil., vol. ]ii.

96 SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE [PART III

the company were engaged in feasting, he burned all — palace, king, and courtiers — to ashes.*

Dinnree continued to be used as a royal residence far into Christian times. From a passage in the Life of St. Finnchua,t we know that it was occupied early in the seventh century by " Old Nuada the Sage," king of Leinster : but when it was abandoned is not known. The old documents define very clearly the position of this palace : and the fine old fort still exists in good preserva- tion. It is situated on a high bank over the River Barrow on the west side, half a mile south of Leighlinbridge, and is now commonly known by the name of " Ballyknockan Moat." The moat or mound — figured in the illustration, p. 95 — is 237 feet in diameter at the base; the circular plateau on the top is 135 feet in diameter, and 69 feet over he River Barrow (FM, vol. I., p. 15, note /).

Fig. 209.

North Moat, Naas : remains of ancient palace. House on top modern. (From a drawing by the author, 1857.)

Naas. — In old times Naas was a place of great celebrity,, where the Leinster tribes held some of their periodical aenachs or fair -meetings, from which it got the name of Nds-Laigen [Naas-Lyen], i.e. the 'assembly-place of Leinster,' corresponding exactly with the name of Nenagh in Tipperary. There were here two royal houses, the forts of which still remain. One is an ordinary circular, flat

* See O'Curry, MS. Mat., 252 to 257 : Keating, 253 : and Joyce, Irish Names, i. 93. t Stokes, Lives of SS., pp. 237, 238.

CHAP. XX] THE HOUSE 97

rath, now called the south moat, situated near the southern end of the town. The other, called the north moat, is a hi<Th, flat-topped mound on which the citadel once stood, but which is now occupied by an ugly modern house. Naas continued to be a residence of the Leinster kings till the death of King Cerball (already referred to, p. 49), who was slain by the Danes in 908*

Belach Chonglais. — Another of the |Leinster palaces was at Baltinglass in the county Wicklow, whose old name was Belach-Chonglats {CugXsiSs road): but a still older name was Beladi-Diibthaire [DufferaJ.f Here resided in the sixth century Brandufif, the powerful king who defeated and slew Aed mac Ainmirech, king of Ireland, in the Battle of Dunbolg, A.D. 598 (vol. I., p. 141, sicpra). On the hill rising over the town are two great raths or forts, the remains of the old residences. One, now called Rathcoran, is on the very summit, 1256 feet over sea-level. It is an oval, about a quarter of a mile in its longer diameter, having two ramparts, and containing about twenty-five statute acres. The other and smaller fort, now called Rathnagree, is on the northern slope of the hill : it has also two ramparts and covers about seven acres.

Liamhain. — The name of Liamhain or Dun-Lianthna [Dun-lavna] is still preserved in that of Dunlavin, a small village in the county Wicklow. The mound of this residence is still to be seen a mile south of the village : but it has lost its old name and is now called " Tornant Moat." (Tornant, ' nettle-mound ' : ominous of ruin.)

Side-Nechtain. — The Hill of Carbery in Kildare has a dim legendary history as a royal residence. It was anciently called Side-NecJitain [Shee-Nechtan], i.e. ' Nechtan's Shee or fairy-hill ' : showing that it was the site of one of those elf-mounds described in vol. I., p. 254, supra. This Nechtan, according to the old documents, was king of Leinster, and

*FM, vol. n., p. 573, note 0: see Tromdamh, p. 166, for a further account of Naas. fRev. Celt., xiii. 57: Silva Gad., 411.

H

98 SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE [PART III

also a poet. But the place contained a residence of a less shadowy kind ; for on the north-west slope there are still two remarkable and very perfect military raths or forts. Near the base of the hill is Trinity Well, the source of the Boyne, the enchanted well that in old times burst up and overwhelmed Boand, Nechtan's queen, as described in vol. I., p. 284, supra. But in subsequent times the Christian missionaries — as in case of many another well (vol. I., p. 166) — removed its heathenish character and

Fig. 210. Carbury Castle, County Kildare. (From a pliotograiili.)

associations, and dedicated it to the Holy Trinity. The Anglo-Norman De Berminghams, who took possession of the district, having an eye to something more substantial! than Dedannan fairy palaces, took advantage of the selec- tion of their immediate Milesian predecessors and built a splendid castle not far from the old Irish fortresses, near the summit, the ruins of which are now conspicuous for leagues round the hill.*

Cashel was one of the most renowned seats of the North Munster kings, though not the oldest as a royal

* See Wilde's Boyne, pp. 24 to 32.

CHAP. XX]

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99

residence. Its chief feature is the well-known lofty isolated rock overlooking the surrounding plain — the magnificent Golden Vale, as it is called, from its fertility. The most ancient name of the rock was Sidh-Dhridin [Shee- drum or Sheerim], ' fairy-ridge ' ; but it was also called Lec-na-gcM [Lack-na-gade], the ' rock of the hundreds,' and Druiin-Fiodhbhuidhc [Drum-Feevee], ' woody ridge ' ; and in Christian times Lec-Phairaic, ' St. Patrick's Rock.' An ancient legend still preserved in old Irish MSS., and

Fig. 211.

Rock of Cashel (top of Round Tower appears to the right). (From Brewer's Beauties of Ireland. Drawn by Petrie.)

given by Keating, relates that two swineherds, while feeding their flocks in the woods round the hill, in the beginning of the fifth century, saw an angel as bright as the sun standing on the rock, blessing the place with voice more melodious than any music, and prophesying the coming of St. Patrick. Core mac Luighdheach, king of Munster, coming to hear of this, immediately took posses- sion of the whole place, and on the summit of the rock built a stronghold, which was known as Lis-na-Laochraidhe [Laikree], the ' fort of the heroes,' and which then became the chief residence of the Munster kings, and continued so

II 2

100 SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE [PART III

till the beginning of the twelfth century. In iioi King Murkertagh O'Brien dedicated the whole place to the church, and handed it over to the ecclesiastical authorities, since which time it figures chiefly in ecclesiastical history. Then began to be erected those splendid buildings which remain to this day ; so that the " Rock of Cashel " is now well known as containing the most imposing group of ecclesiastical ruins in the kingdom.*

Grianan Lachtna. — One of the ancestral residences of the Dalcassian kings of Thomond or North Munster was Grianan-Lachtna or Greenan-Lachna, the fine old fort of which is still to be seen occupying a noble site on the south slope of Craig-Liath or Craglea in Clare, over the western shore of Lough Derg, two miles north of Killaloe.

Kincora. — But when Brian Boru ascended the throne, he came to live at Kincora, where the remains of the palace have all disappeared, inasmuch as the site is now occupied by the town of Killaloe. The O'Briens, as kings of Thomond, continued to reside at Kincora for two centuries after the Battle of Clontarf: but about 12 14 they removed their residence to Clonroad near Ennis. One of the outlying forts still remains, however, beside the Shannon, a mile north of Killaloe, and is now known by the name of Beal Boru.

Dungrud. — In East Munster there were, from remote times, two royal residences. One was Dun-gcrot^ now called Dungrud or Dungrott, in the Glen of Aherlow, at the foot of the Galtys, on the site of which the English of Galbally erected a strong castle.

Caher. — The other East Munster palace was on a little rocky island in the river Suir at the town of Caher in Tipperary. It was originally called Dun-tasgach, the ' fish- abounding dun,' from the dun that constituted the original

•On all this, see O' Curry, MS. Mat., 485 and 623: Comyn's Keating, 1. 123: and for a description of the buildin^i on it, Petrie's article in the Irish Penny Journal, p. 17.

CHAP. XX]

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lOI

fortress-palace. This was succeeded by a circular stone caher, which gave the place its present name. The castle was built by the Anglo-Normans on the site of the caher.* Another of these Munster palaces was Dun-gclaire [Doonglara], the fort of which is still in good preserva- tion, standing at the northern base of the mountain of Slievereagh near Kilfinnane, two miles nearly north-west from Ballylanders, on the left of the road as you go from

Fig. 212. Caher Castle in 1845 (From Mrs. Hall's Ireland.)

this village to Knocklong. It covers about four statute acres, and is now called Doonglara, or more often Lis- Doonglara.

Brugh-righ. — Bruree in the county Limerick, situated beside the river Maigue, was from remote times one of the seats of the kings of South Munster, as its Irish name Brugh-righ indicates, signifying the ' House of Kings.' It was also called Dim Eocliair Mhaighe, the ' fort on the

*See Petrie's article on Caher Castle in Irish Penny Journal, p. 257. For all these Munster palaces, see Comyn's Keating, pp. 121 to 129.

102 SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE [PART III

brink {eocliair') of the River Maigue.'* The illustrious King Ailill Olom, ancestor of many of the chief Munster families, lived there in the second centuryf : and it continued to be occupied by the Munster kings till long after the Anglo-Norman Invasion. The Anglo-Norman chiefs also adopted it as a place of residence, as they did many others of the old Irish kingly seats : and the ruins of two of their fine castles remain. There are still to be seen, along the river, several of the old circular forts, the most interesting of which is the one now universally known in the neighbourhood by the name of Lissoleem, inasmuch as it preserves the very name of King Ailill Olom, whose timber house was situated within its enclosure. It is situated on the western bank of the river, a mile below the village, in the townland of Lower Lotteragh, in the angle formed by the Maigue and a little stream joining it from the west. It is a circular fort with three ramparts, having the reputation — like most other raths — of being haunted by fairies : and as it is very lonely and much overgrown with bushes, it is as fit a home for fairies as could well be imagined.

This king's name, Ailill Olom, signifies 'Ailill Bare-Ear,' so called because — as already mentioned (vol. I., p. 263) — one of his ears was cut off in a struggle with the fairy lady Aine of Knockainy. Olom is accented on the second syllable, and is compounded of 0^ ' an ear,' and lorn, ' bare ' : in the name " Ailill Olom " it is in the nomina- tive case : " Olom Bare-Ear " (not " of the Bare-Ear ") : like the English names William Longsword, John Lackland, Richard Strongbow. But when placed after " Lis," it takes — as it should take — the genitive form, " Oluim " : and " Lis-Oluwi" which is exactly represented in sound by " Lissoleem," signifies ' Olom's lis or residence.' Many examples of the preservation of very old personal and other names in our existing topographical nomenclature * Comyn's Keating, p. 123. t Silva Gad., p. 348.

CHAP. XX] THE HOUSE IO3

are given in my " Irish Names of Places "; and this case of Lissolecm — which has not been noticed before— is fully as interesting as any of them,

Temair-Luachra. — In the time of the Red Branch Knights and of the Munster Degads (vol. I., p. S6), and from immemorial ages previously, the chief royal residence of South Munster was Teamair or Tara-Luachra, the fort of which in all probability still exists, though it has not been identified. Mr. W. M. Hennessy, in his Introduction to the Mesca Ulad, has brought together the several notices bearing on its position : and the Rev. Dr. Hogaii has a remark on the subject in Rossnaree (p. 23, note 7)- It was well known in the time of