members of the sept including the dead man's adult sons. Gavelkind in a modified form still exists in Kent.

59. It should be remarked that all payments were made in kind: Cows, horses, sheep, or silver.

A cow

was the unit of value, and as such was called a séd [shade]. A cumal was equal to three séds.

CHAPTER X.

MUSIC.

60. From very early times the Irish were celebrated for their skill in music. Our native literature abounds in references to music and to skilful musicians, who are always spoken of in terms of the utmost respect.

During the long period when learning flourished in Ireland, Irish professors and teachers of music would seem to have been almost as much in request in foreign countries as those of literature and philosophy. In the middle of the seventh century, Gertrude, abbess of Nivelle in Belgium, daughter of Pepin mayor of the palace, engaged SS. Foillan and Ultan, brothers of the Irish saint Fursa, of Peronne, to instruct her nuns in psalmody. In the latter half of the ninth century the cloister schools of St. Gall were conducted by an Irishman, Maengal or Marcellus, under whose teaching the music school there attained its highest fame.

61. The cultivation of music was not materially interrupted by the Danish troubles. Giraldus Cambrensis, who seldom had a good word for anything Irish, speaks of the Irish harpers as follows:-"They are incomparably more skilful than any other nation I have ever seen. For their manner of playing on these instruments, unlike that of the Britons to which I am accustomed, is not slow and harsh, but lively and rapid, while the melody is both sweet and sprightly. It is astonishing that in so

complex and rapid a movement of the fingers the musical proportions [as to time] can be preserved; and that throughout the difficult modulations on their various instruments, the harmony is completed with such a sweet rapidity." For centuries after the time of Giraldus music continued to be cultivated uninterruptedly; and there was an unbroken succession of great professional harpers, who maintained their ancient pre-eminence down to the seventeenth century.

62. It is only when we arrive at the seventeenth century that we begin to be able to identify certain composers as the authors of existing airs. The oldest harper of great eminence coming within this description is Rory Dall (blind) O'Cahan, who was the composer of many fine airs, some of which we still possess. Died 1600.

Thomas O'Connallon was born in the county Sligo early in the seventeenth century. He seems to have been incomparably the greatest harper of his day, and composed many exquisite airs. Died about 1700.

A much better known personage was Turlogh O'Carolan or Carolan: born at Nobber, county Meath, about 1670, died in 1738. He was blind from his youth, and ultimately became the greatest Irish musical composer of modern times. A large part of his musical compositions are preserved.

63. The harp is the earliest musical instrument men tioned in Irish literature. It was called crot or cruit, and was of various sizes from the small portable hand harp to the great bardic instrument six feet high. It was commonly furnished with thirty strings, but sometimes had many more.

The Irish had a small stringed instrument called a timpan, which had only a few strings-from three to eight. It was played with a bow or plectrum.

The bagpipe was known in Ireland from very early times: the form used was that now commonly known as the Highland pipes-slung from the shoulder: the bag inflated by the mouth. The other form-resting on the

lap, the bag inflated by a bellows-which is much the finer instrument, is of modern invention. The bagpipe was in very general use, but it was only the lower classes that played on it: the harp was the instrument of the higher classes.

64. The music of ancient Ireland consisted wholly of short airs, each with two strains or parts, seldom more. But these, though simple in comparison with modern music, were constructed with such exquisite art that of a large proportion of them it may be truly said no modern composer can produce airs of a similar kind to equal

them.

65. It was only in the last century that people began to collect Irish airs from singers and players, and to write them down. The principal collections of Irish airs are those of Bunting, Petrie, Joyce, Horncastle, Lynch, and Hoffman. Other collections are mostly copied from these.

The man who did most in modern times to draw attention to Irish music was Thomas Moore. He composed his exquisite songs to old Irish airs. The whole collection of songs and airs-well known as 'Moore's Melodies is now published in one small cheap volume.

66. We know the authors of many of the airs composed within the last 200 years: but these form the smallest portion of the whole body of Irish music. All the rest have come down from old times, scattered fragments of exquisite beauty, that remind us of the refined musical culture of our forefathers. To this last class belong such well known airs as Savourneen Dheelish, Shule Aroon, Molly Asthore, The Boyne Water, Garryowen, Patrick's Day, Eileen Aroon, Langolee, &c. To illustrate what is here said, I may mention that of about 120 Irish airs in all Moore's Melodies, we know the authors of less than a dozen as to the rest, nothing is known either of the persons who composed them or of the times of their composition.

CHAPTER XI.

ART.

67. Penwork. In Ireland art was practised in four different branches :-Ornamentation and illumination of manuscript books; metal work; sculpture; and building. Art of every kind reached its highest perfection in the period between the end of the ninth and the beginning of the twelfth century. All cultivation degenerated after that, on account of the Danish irruptions and the Anglo Norman Invasion.

68. The special style of pen ornamentation was quite peculiar to the Celtic people of Ireland. Its most marked characteristic is interlaced work formed by bands, riobons, and cords, which are curved and twisted and interwoven in the most intricate way, something like basket work infinitely varied in pattern. These are intermingled and alternated with zigzags, waves, spirals, and lozenges; while here and there among the curves are seen the faces or forms of dragons, serpents, or other strange looking animals, their tails, or ears, or tongues elongated and woven till they become merged and lost in the general design. This ornamentation was chiefly used in the capital letters, which are generally very large. capital of the Book of Kells covers a whole page. The pattern is often so minute and complicated as to require the aid of a magnifying glass to examine it. The pen work is throughout illuminated in brilliant colours, which in several of the old books are even now very little faded after the lapse of so many centuries.

One

69. The Book of Kells, written in the seventh or eighth century, is the most beautiful Irish book in existence. Professor Westwood of Oxford, who has examined the best specimens of ancient penwork all over Europe, says: :-"It is the most astonishing book of the Four Gospels which ex

ists in the world: there is nothing like it in all the books which were written for Charlemagne and his immediate successors."

Speaking of another Irish book, Mr. Westwood says:"I have counted [with a magnifying glass] in a small space scarcely three quarters of an inch in length by less than half an inch in width, in the Book of Armagh, no less than 158 interlacements of a slender ribbon pattern formed of white lines edged with black ones." The Book of Durrow and the Book of Armagh, both in Trinity College, Dublin, are splendidly ornamented and illuminated.

Giraldus Cambrensis when in Ireland in 1185, saw copy of the Four Gospels in St. Brigit's nunnery in Kil dare, which so astonished him that he has recorded a legend that it was written under the direction of an angel.

70. The early Irish missionaries brought their arts of writing and illuminating wherever they went, and taught them to others; and to this day numerous exquisite speci mens of their skill and taste are preserved in the libraries of England, France, Germany, and Italy.

71. Metal work. The pagan Irish, like the ancient Britons, practised the art of working in bronze, silver, gold, and enamel. This primitive art was continued into Christian times, and was brought to its highest perfection in the tenth and eleventh centuries.

The ornamental designs of metal work were generally similar to those used in manuscripts, and the execution was distinguished by the same exquisite skill and masterly precision. The principal articles made by the artists were crosses; croziers; chalices; bells; brooches; shrines or boxes to hold books or bells or relics; and book satchels, in which the two materials, metal and leather, were used. Specimens of all these may be seen in the National Museum in Dublin. The three most remarkable as well as the most beautiful objects in the Museum are the Cross of Cong, the Ardagh chalice, and the Tara brooch.

72. The chalice was found a few years ago buried in