152 



it cannot be supposed their use was unknown to the heathen priest- 

 hood of Ireland. Modern geologists, will also have it, that coal- 

 mines were even at this period worked to a great extent at Ballycastle, 

 and that galleries, chambers, and pillars, still remain to testify the 

 skill of the ancient engineers.* 



Even at this early period we have some sketches furnished by 

 foreign authors, of the military habits of the Irish people, and their 

 art and weapons of war ; and though Eumenius,-f- in the spirit of a 

 Roman author, treats them with much disrespect as compared with 

 his countrymen, yet Gildas speaks of them;^ as enemies not to be 

 slighted, (" gravibus hostibus.") Claudian expresses the terror of 

 the Irish military weapons, (" tela Scotica,")§ and Krantz, in his 

 account of the expedition of Frotho the First to Ireland says,|| "King 

 Frotho leaving Britain assaults Hibernia. That nation being stran- 

 gers** to wealth, have led a hardy life, wherefore they are the more, 

 formidable in war, as in their case steel and not gold is to be encoun- 

 tered. For even when driven to fly, they fight with spear sf-^ and 

 swords, which they carry on their backs; whence it happens, that 

 those who fall in this kind of running fight, are not fewer than they 



T»u; xu)(,lt»i K^iKtVi iret^iii «/»;(;gt/o-ou{ x<«( J«xtwA(«i;5 ci\itXoytvi tri ai ^jj^vmvj Sw^ax*;." — 

 Diod. Sicul. Bibl. Hist. lib. 5. p. 351. 



* See Hamilton's Letters on the Coast of Antrim, p. .35. 



t Ante, p. 41. t Ante, p. 67. § Ante, p. 69. 



II See post, section 6, of this Period. 

 **"Froto Rex relicta Britannia Hibemiam pulsat. Ea gens opum expers duram egit vitam ; 

 perinde bello terribilior, quippe cujus ferrum non aurum tentetur. Nam et in fugam versi 

 pugnant cuspidibus atque mucronibus in tergum relatis; quo fit, ut non pauciores fun- 

 dant in fuga quam concidant stantes in acie. Tamen tum a Frotone victi cum Cepo Rege, 

 et cum Germanus ejus tributa polliceretur, in jura Danorum venerunt." — Krantz. Chron. 

 Dan. lib. I.e. 32. 



ft Tigernach mentions spears, ad annos 212, 264, &c. 



