282 



tion of those brazen trumpets, emblematic of their martial barbarism, 

 and of which so many have been found in Ireland.* We cannot omit 

 that the Annals of Ulster at A. D. 814, make mention of organs'!" 

 also, " direptio organorum ecclesiae Cloonerene." 



Relative to the naval knowledge of the day, the Irish annals fur- 

 nish some evidences of victories obtained even over the Scandinavians, 

 whose maritime expeditions were indeed astonishing, and whose ordi- 

 nary barks were capable of containing 100 or 120 men. This alone 

 would at least speak much for the aptitude of the natives in this de- 

 partment, while Tigernach expressly speaks of an Irish prince in A. D. 

 981, with the epithet "of the ships," and another in 986. 



Of their astronomical knowledge, Dungallus is an eminent exam- 

 ple. " A native of Ireland," says Mosheim, "he left his country, 

 and retired into a French monastery, where he taught philosophy and 

 astronomy with the greatest reputation. He wrote an epistle to Char- 

 lemagne on a solar eclipse, which is found in D'Achery and the Biblio- 

 theca Patrum. Dupin confesses he has numerous quotations from the 

 Greek and Latin fathers, and much erudition ."J There are also several 

 accurate notices in the Irish annals of eclipses during this interval ; 

 of the sun and moon in 864, of the moon in 807 and 877, of the sun 

 in 810 and 884, and the appearance of a comet is referred to 911.§ 



The medical knowledge of the Irish receives some illustration from 

 Stanihurst, who speaks of them as reading very old and smoke dis- 

 coloured MSS. of vellum, and written in the Irish character, which 



• See Walker's Irish Bards, p. 109. 



f Organs were known and used in England in the time of king Edgar. — See Spelman's 

 Glossary, tit. " Organum." 



X Cited Ledwich's Ants. p. 362. See also, as to Dungallus, O'Conor's Rer. Hib. Script. 

 Proleg. ii. p. cxxxvi. and Hist. Litt. de la France, torn. iv. p. 493. 



§ It may be noted, that the Danes in computing time used calendars called Runic 

 staffs. — Mallet's Northern Antiquities. 



