150 



however, that can be brought to bear upon this early period, is that 

 of Mela, which, however unjustly severe upon the climate, is quite 

 explicit as to the exercise of agriculture and grazing. " Iverna," says 

 the geographer, " is of a climate unfavourable for the ripening of seeds, 

 hut so luxuriant; in pasture, not only thick but sweet, that the cattle 

 fill themselves in a small part of the day, and if not restrained from 

 the pasture would burst by over-eating. The cultivators of this soil 

 are an uncouth race, &c. &c.," *while it would appear that the chiefs 

 and principal lords of the country committed the management of 

 their lands to the labour of slaves, either taken in war, or carried oft' 

 in these expeditions to Britain, which have been herein detailed ;-f a 

 helotism, of which further mention shall be madej hereafter. 



The necessities of this agriculture, and of the commerce which Taci- 

 tus unequivocally attributes to Ireland, must have induced the for- 

 mation of roads and causeways; accordingly the annals of Tigernach 

 record§ a battle fought in the beginning of the third century, on the 

 road of Cualgnia, (in the present County Louth ;) also the battle of 

 " the recess of the road ;" the battle of the corner of the causeway; 

 and other domestic legends say that four grand highways issued from 

 the celebrated hill of Usneach, (in the County Westmeath,) to the 

 different quarters of the country ;|| while a highly ancient causeway, 

 upwards of thirty feet in width, is yet traceable from Inis Caorach, 

 on the north side of the Shannon to the mainland ; and another 

 across Lough Gara in Connaught. 



* " Ivema est coeli ad maturanda semina iniqui, verum adeo luxuriosa herbis, non laetis 

 modo sed etiam dulcibus, ut se exigua parte diei pecora impleant, et nisi pabulo prohibeantur, 

 diutius pasta dissiliant. Cultores ejus inconditi sunt, &c. &c." — De Situ Orbis, lib. 3. c. viii. 



t Ante, p. 63, &c. 



1 Post, sixth section of this Period, and sixth section of second Period. 



§ O'Conor's Rer. Hib. Script, vol. 2. p. 40. 1| See Acta Sanctorum, p. 369. 



