The "Seanchus Mór." The brehons had collections of laws in volumes or tracts by which they regulated their judgments. Many of these have been preserved, and of late years the most important of them have been published with translations, forming five printed volumes. Of the tracts contained in these volumes the two largest and most important are the Seanchus Mór (Shan a-hus Móre) and the Book of Acaill (Ack ill). The Seanchus Mór is chiefly concerned with the Irish civil law, and the Book of Acaill with the criminal law and the law relating to personal injuries. At the request of St. Patrick, Laoghaire (Leary), the Ard-Rí, is said to have formed a committee of nine persons to revise the laws-three kings, three ecclesiastics, and three poets and antiquarians. These nine having expunged everything that clashed with the Christian faith, produced at the end of three years a revised code which was called Seanchus Mór. The very book left by St. Patrick and the others has been long lost. Successive copies were made from time to time, with commentaries and explanations appended, till the manuscripts we now possess were produced.

Nature of the Laws.-The language of the laws is extremely archaic and difficult, indicating a very remote antiquity, though probably not the very language of the text left by the revising committee, but a modified version of a later time. The brehon code forms a great body of civil, military and criminal law. It regulates the various ranks of society from the king down to the slave, and enumerates their several rights and privileges. There are minute rules for the management of property, for the several industries-building, brewing, mills, water-courses, fishing-weirs, bees and honey-for distress or seizure of goods, for tithes, trespass and evidence. The relations of landlord and tenant, the fees of professional men-doctors, judges, teachers, builders, artificers -the mutual duties of father and son, of foster-parents and fosterchildren, of master and servant, are all carefully regulated. Contracts are regarded as peculiarly sacred, and are treated in great detail.

Criminal Offences: "Eric."-In criminal law the various offences are minutely distinguished-murder, manslaughter, wounding, thefts, and every variety of wilful damage; and accidental injuries from flails, sledge-hammers, and all sorts of weapons. Injuries of all kinds as between man and man were atoned for by a compensation payment. Homicide, whether by intent or by misadventure, was atoned for like other injuries by a money fine. The fine for homicide or for bodily injury of any kind was called eric (er rick): the amount was adjudged by a brehon. The principles on which these awards should be made are laid down in great detail in the Book of Acaill.

Recovery of "Eric."-In case of homicide the fine of the victim.

were entitled to the eric. If the culprit did not pay, or absconded, leaving no property, his fine were liable. If they wished to avoid this they were required to give up the offender to the family of the victim, who might then if they pleased kill him: or failing this his family had to expel him, and to lodge a sum to free themselves from the consequences of his subsequent misconduct.

In the Book of Acaill there is a minute enumeration of bodily injuries, whether by design or accident, with the compensation for each, taking into account the position of the parties and the other numerous circumstances that modified the amount.

No Legislation.—The "Brehon Laws " were not a code of laws in the modern sense. They were mostly the decisions and opinions of celebrated lawyers on definite issues which came before them. When collected in a comprehensive form these formed a complete set of authoritative decisions upon nearly every question that could arise. There was not any legislative body to draft and adopt new laws in the modern fashion. But the collected decisions of the brehons were accepted in all parts of Ireland, and they formed a recognised system of law for the entire island.

Fosterage and Gossipred. One of the leading features of Irish social life was fosterage, which prevailed from the remotest period. It was practised by persons of all classes, but more especially by those in the higher ranks. 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 fostersisters of the child. Fosterage, which was the closest tie between individuals and families, was subject to stringent regulations, which were carefully set forth in the Brehon Law. 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. Fosterage and gossipred between families of the two races were important elements in bringing about the amalgamation of the Normans with the Irish, and they were frequently denounced by the English government which tried to prevent their union.

Public Assemblies. In early times when means of intercommunication were very limited, it was important that the people should hold meetings to discuss divers affairs affecting the public weal and for other business of importance. In Ireland popular assemblies and meetings of representatives were very common, and were called by

various names-feis, dal, mordal, aenach, oireachtas (or "iraghtes"), etc. They were continued to a late period. The aenach or fair was an assembly of the people of every class belonging to a district or province. Some fairs were annual; some triennial. According to the most ancient traditions many of these aenachs-perhaps all-had their origin in funeral games; and we know as a fact that the most important of them were held at ancient cemeteries, where kings or renowned heroes or other noted personages of history or legend were buried. At all these meetings national games were celebrated. At the Feis of Tara, as well indeed as at all other important meetings, elaborate precautions were taken to prevent quarrels or unpleasantness of any kind. Anyone who struck or wounded another, used insulting words, or stole anything, was punished with death; and all persons who attended were free for the time from prosecution and from legal proceedings of every kind.

Buildings. Before the introduction of Christianity, buildings of every kind in Ireland were almost universally round. The quadrangular shape, which was first used in the churches in the time of St. Patrick, came very slowly into use; and round-shaped structures finally disappeared only in the thirteenth or fourteenth century. The dwellinghouses were almost always of wood. The wall was formed of strong posts, with the intervening spaces filled with wicker-work, plastered, and oftened whitened or variously coloured. The homesteads had to be fenced in to protect them from robbers and wild animals. This was done by digging a deep circular trench, the clay from which was thrown up on the inside. Thus was formed all round a high mound or dyke with a trench outside: one opening left for a door or gate.

Raths, Dúns, Cashels, etc.-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. They are known by various names, lios, rath, brugh (broo), dún, cashel and caher-the cashels and cahers being usually built of stone. Some forts are very large-300 feet or more across-so as to give ample room for the group of timber houses, or for the cattle at night. 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, no doubt, the strong house of the chief stood. In the very large forts there are often three or more great circumvallations. Round the forts of kings or chiefs were grouped the timber dwellings of the dependents, forming a sort of village.

Stone Forts and Crannoges.-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 still remain near the coasts of Sligo, Galway, Clare, and Kerry, and a few in Antrim and Donegal. For greater security dwellings were often constructed on artificial islands made with stakes, trees, and bushes, in shallow lakes: these were called crannoges. Communication with the shore was carried on by means of a rude boat kept on the island. Crannoge dwellings were in very general use in the time of Elizabeth, and the remains of many of them are still to be seen in our lakes.

Churches. From the time of St. Patrick downwards churches were built, the greater number of wood, but many of stone.

The primitive stone churches, erected in the fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries are simple oblongs, small and rude. As Christianity spread the churches became gradually larger and more ornamental, and a chancel was often added at the east end, which was another oblong, merely a continuation of the larger building. The jambs of both doors and windows inclined so that the bottom of the opening was wider than the top this shape of door or window is a sure mark of antiquity. The remains of little stone churches of this antique pattern, of ages from the fifth century to the tenth or eleventh, are still to be found all over Ireland.

Round Towers.-In connection with many of the ancient churches there were round towers of stone from 60 to 150 feet high, and from 13 to 20 feet in external diameter at the base: the top was conical. The interior was divided into six or seven stories, reached by ladders from one to another, and each storey was lighted by one window-the top storey had usually four large windows. The door was placed ten or more feet from the ground outside, and was reached by a ladder : both doors and windows had sloping jambs like those of the churches. About eighty round towers still remain, of which about twenty are perfect. Formerly there was much speculation as to the uses of these round towers, but Dr. George Petrie set the question at rest in his essay on their origin and uses. It is now known that they are of Christian origin, and that they were always built in connection with ecclesiastical establishments. They were erected at various times from about the ninth to the thirteenth century.

CHAPTER VI

THE NORSE INVASIONS (A.D. 795-1014)

SECTION I. ORIGIN AND CHARACTER OF THE NORSE

Two Centuries of Warfare.-For over three hundred years the history of Ireland had been mostly the record of the progress of religion and learning during the two centuries that followed the story is one of almost ceaseless warfare against fierce invaders. The Romans and the Teutons had alike failed to reach the Irish shores, which for more than a thousand years had been free from invasion. That immunity was now to vanish before the merciless attacks of the Norsemen.

Origin of the Norsemen.-The people whose savage raids made them for over two centuries the terror of Western Europe were of the same Teutonic race as the "barbarians" who had broken up the Roman Empire. Their kinsmen who had settled in the conquered provinces had now become Christian and peaceable, owing, to a great extent, to the efforts of Irish missionaries. Their petty states-from which the modern nations were to spring-were being consolidated, for a time, into a new Western Empire by the illustrious Charlemagne. But, on the shores of the Baltic, the Scandinavian branch of the Teutons remained as pagan, as fierce, and as barbarous as were the tribes who had conquered the Romans three hundred years before. These, in their turn, were about to ravage Europe, attacking it, however, not by land, as their predecessors had done, but by sea.

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• Fionn-Ghaill” and “Dubh-Ghaill.”—The coasts from which the Norse who raided Ireland mostly came were the western shores of Norway and Denmark. Irish writers distinguish between the natives of the two countries: the earlier of the invaders, who came from Norway, are called "Fionn-Saill" (" White Foreigners") and "Lochlanns the "Dub-Saill" ("Black Strangers ") or "Danars" came later from Denmark. The distinction between the two is, however, not at all well marked, and they are frequently confused. In popular language in Ireland the invaders are collectively known as the "Danes"; while English writers refer to them as the Norse, or Vikings, or Ostmen.

Character of the Norse.-Piracy, fighting, and adventure were