i53 



Semina nee unquam Scotica terra tulit. 



Nulla venena nocent, nee serpens serpit in herba. 



Nee conquesta canit garrula rana lacu. 



In qud Scotorum gentes habitare merentur, 



Inclyta gens hominum milite, paee, fide.* 



After this highly interesting description of a country, peaceful and 

 sequestered, what a frightful, appalling history succeeds ; as if Dona- 

 tus's picture had been sketched when the fame of Ireland was setting 

 in grandeur, and all that too rapidly follows is mist and vapour, and 

 intellectual darkness, illumined only by the torch of desolation, the 

 fire of churches, convents, palaces, and cities, consuming into promis- 

 cuous ashes. -f" 



The pirates of the north, Danes, Frisians, Norwegians, Swedes, 

 and Livonians,:]: had within the scope of the last period, commenced 

 those systematic expeditions for plunder, which assimilated them to 

 the descendants of Ishmael, their hand against every man, and every 

 man's hand against them. At first these incursions were conducted 

 with little system, " a chieftain sailed with a few ships and collected 

 all the scattered adventurers who were willing to partake his fortunes ; 

 they landed on the coast, and formed a temporary fortress, to which, 

 as to a strong hold, they drove all the cattle, and having killed and 

 salted them, the freebooters returned home, where they spent their 

 jol, (i. e. yule,) or brumal feast, with much glee and triumph. Such 

 an expedition was called a strand-hoggva, or strand-slaughter. "§ 

 Horses, it would appear, were on such occasions a great article of ra- 

 pine, and the feast of jol, which lasted three days, is thought to have 

 derived its name from the eating the flesh of these animals. II 



• De Burgo's Hibemia Dominicana, p. S. 



•J- "Tempus tenebrarum Hibemise illud autumant, quo prius Gurmundus ac postea Tur- 

 gesius, Norwegienses principes pagani, in Hibemid debellata rcgnabant" — Jocelin, VitaS. Pa- 

 tricii, c. 175. 



X Ant. Celt. Scand. p. 72. § Ant. Celt. Scand. p. 65. n. 



II " Jo-ol ab equinsB camis esu baud absurde forte quis derivaverit." — Edda Saemund. p. 599. 



