all the Mahometans to cut off all their beards close save onelie their moustachios which they wear long." This custom, he says, was due to the fact that hair on the face was found unpleasant in warm countries; while on the contrary the northern nations wore all their hair on head and face, and therefore "the Scythians and Scottes wore glibbes to keep their heads warm and long beards to defend their faces from cold. And as amongst the old Spaniards the Irish women have the management of all household affairs both at home and abroad, ride on the wrong side of the horse, and wear a deep smock sleeve.

While from the Gauls he would derive the custom of drinking blood and smearing the face therewith. But while the Gauls drank the blood of their enemies, the Irish drank the blood of their friends. At the execution of one Morrogh O'Brien he saw, he tells us, an old woman who was his foster mother taking up his head and sucking the blood that flowed therefrom, saying that the earth was not worthy of it; and also steeping her face and breast in the blood, and tore her hair crying out and shrieking most terribly. Campion remarks that Solinus said that the Irish were wont to embrue their faces in the blood of their slain enemies in order to seem terrible and martial.

Spenser also alludes to the Irish custom of holding assemblies upon a rath or hill, which he says they held in order to discuss wrongs between township and township and one private person and another. He alleges that "these round hills and square bawnes which you see so strongly trenched and thrown up" -which we know as raths and forts-were folkmotes or meeting places for the people, and that many

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villainous deeds have been wrought, and many Englishmen and good Irish subjects murdered at the same meeting-places. "For the Irish never come to those raths but armed, whether on horse or foot, which the English nothing suspecting are there commonly taken at advantage like sheep in the pen-fold." We presume the long mantle was a complete concealment for their weapons and the long glibbs hanging over the eyes afforded a perfect cover for their evil intentions.

Spenser suggests that the round hills were cast up by the Danes as forts for their protection in each quarter of the cantred so that in case of any sudden alarm they might betake themselves thereto, and that the other bawns which were "foure square, wellentrenched," were built by the Saxons for parley and discussion. Other mounds, cairns and stone monuments, according to him, mark the scene of some battle or burial; and with regard to the gigantic dolmens and cromlechs which in his time were called "Giants' Trevetts," because it was thought that no one but giants could have raised them into their present position, it is interesting to note that even in his day there was much discussion over these then remains of prehistoric man, and that some went so far as to deny that they had been placed there by man's hand or art, "but only remained there so since the beginning and were afterwards discovered by the deluge and laide open as then by the washing of the waters or other like casuality." The latter suggestion quoted by Spenser is not very remote from the theories of inland sea and glacier, which are said to explain certain strange marks of men's hands and animals'

feet which have been found imprinted on many of the stones in Ireland.

But these and kindred subjects have been discussed in Celtic Types of Life and Art, and I shall not, therefore, weary my readers further than to invite them to make personal researches in the history of Irish life and customs which will indubitably prove as instructive as interesting.

NOTE TO CHAPTERS XIII. AND XIV., ETC.

THE following is a short glossary of difficult legal terms in these and other chapters, most of which are Irish:

Bieng (Irish), a bribe given to the Brehon for his favour in settling disputes, in the State Papers of the period means money, cattle or horses given to the lords marchers or their followers to secure favour; Black-rent, a bribe paid by English to Irish neighbours to abstain from plunder (Black-mail in Scotland); Bonacht also bonogh, Irish buana, billeted soldier, and bunadh, a soldier; O'Reilly gives buanacht, free quarters for soldiers; Bonneh or Boyne, the same as coin in coyne and livery, bonn is Irish for groat, exaction for maintenance of the lords, gallowglasses or kerne, also bonagium; Byerahe, a quarterly exaction by the lord on persons living under his jurisdiction; caanes (Ir. cain, tribute), ransom for murder, theft or felony, also a fine for not giving he lord the pre-emption; Coyne (Ir. coinnimh entertainment) generally coyne and livery, free quarters for man and horse, livery is the English word for deliver; also coyne and foy; also coine bon; Cuddee (Ir. cudoich, night's portion); also cody, night's supper taken by the lord for himself and retinue; kyntroisk, a forfeiture of a beef or animal for refusing coin and livery, probably from Irish cain, fine and truscad, fasting, a fine for having made the soldiers fast; mertyeght, exaction of meat, drink and candles upon a visit of a great man. The following words refer to crime :-Alterages, one of the amends for offences less than murder; also meant nourishing (alo Latin, nourish) of a child; garty, ransom for felony; sault, ransom for murder or manslaughter; slauntiagh, surety or bail; srahe, means tax; urragh from Ir. oireacht, a clan or family; oireachtas, meeting of the clans; Regrating means buying and selling in the same fair or market. 1

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APPENDIX.

SOME KING'S COUNTY FAMILIES IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

THE plan followed in compiling these notes has been to deal only with those families who were actually resident in the county, and whose names appear, either as members of Parliament, High Sheriffs, or Grand Jurors. Owing to lack of space, it is inevitable that many names must be passed over; and since Mr. Hitchcock has written fully on families of native origin, we have dealt principally with those who, from time to time, have settled in the county. Most of the landowners, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, held their estates under patents of Elizabeth or James I., while some represented families which had been established from a period anterior to the formation of the county in 1558. The presence of French names may be ascribed to the fact that the Huguenot settlement of Portarlington is situated on the borders of the county. With few exceptions, the families of Dutch descent, such as Westenra, Bor, Grave, etc., derived from merchants who had settled in Dublin after the persecutions of Alva, and not, as might have been expected, from the adherents of King William.

In cases where families are still represented in the county, we have endeavoured to outline the descent;