162 



moose deers' skeletons have undoubtedly been found in Ireland, and 

 " the occurrence of these fossil remains in shell marl, shews that this 

 magnificent animal must have lived at a comparatively late period in 

 those countries, where its bones are at present found."* Certainly 

 we cannot well suppose that their horns, fragile, slight, and porous, 

 could be so perfectly preserved from the action of the flood ; and Dri 

 Molyneux conjectures-f- their destruction might have been the conse- 

 quence of a pestilential murrain, many of which are recorded in the 

 ancient Irish annals. J That such plagues destroy herds of rein-deer 

 Johannes Bureus bears testimony; while SchefFer, in his description 

 of Lapland, (ch. 28,) mentions it as commonly annihilating whole 

 droves of the cervus rangifer.-f* 



The Irish annals frequently allude to a more honorary species of 

 diversion, in the public games and royal sports celebrated at Tailten, 

 the Olympia of Ireland, during fifteen days before and fifteen days 

 after the summer solstice. § Saxo Grammaticus also, in his narrative 

 of the above expedition of Frotho the Fourth, says that the King of 

 Ireland at that day was " zealous in his munificence to buffoons and 

 jesters,"|| while further evidence of the continued practice of such 

 sources of entertainment will be found hereafter.** In the Book of 

 Lecan chess is mentioned as known in Ireland in the second century ; 

 and in the old Brehon laws one of the taxes levied by the monarch 

 was to be paid in chess boards and a complete set of chess men, 

 while every place of entertainment was obliged to furnish a chess 



* Edinburgh Philosoph. Journ. v. 13. p. 384. 



t Lond. Philos. Trans. No. 227. See also Philos. Trans. Nos. 346 and 394. 

 t See ante, p. 53. 



§ " Ad Talteniam, ubi regiae nundinse et public! regni ludi et certamina quotannis servari 

 solebant." Evinus, p. 129, and Jocelin, Vita S. Patr. c. 53. See also Ware's Bishops, p. 14. 

 II " Circa mimos et joculatores munificentiffi studiis uti consuevit." — Hist. Dan. lib. 6. 

 ** Period 2. sect. 4. and Period 3. sect. 1. 



