295 



ducted to the nuptial bed by lier father, lights being carried before, 

 according to the Roman custom ; while it may be added, that it was 

 at their feasts this people principally debated the affairs of their com- 

 munity, referring, however, all determination to the morning, on the 

 principle that the proper time to speak each others sentiments was 

 when the soul was too open for disguise, and to decide when it was 

 too cautious to err. As to the habit already noticed of retaining buf- 

 foons and jesters for domestic diversion, Tigernach mentions that a 

 king of the Danes was slain by his own jester in 989. 



The funeral ceremonies of the Irish continued in this interval the 

 same that Christianity had introduced. In 933 Concovar, " Ardma- 

 chae cum magni honore sepultus est,"* while the funeral of Brien 

 Boroimhe and his sons after the battle of Clontarf, and the religious 

 watchings on the occasion are fully detailed in the Annals of Ulster 

 (ad ann. 1014,) and in the Trias Thaumaturga, (p. 298.)-f' The Danes, 

 up to their conversion to Christianity, appear to have buried their 

 dead under mounts and cairns, similar in many respects to those pre- 

 viously in use with the Irish, but also distinguished as in the instance 

 of New Grange,:]: by some of the peculiarities of their own religion, 

 and accordingly the number of those monuments in Ireland was in 

 this period considerably increased by the then peculiar practice of 

 the invaders.§ Even after the introduction of coffins, the mounts 



• Trias Thaum. p. 296. 



t " Profectus est postea vicarius Patricii cum religiosis et reliquiis sanctorum usque Sor- 

 dum oppidum S. Columbae, et abstulit inde corpus Briani regis Hiberniae et corpus Murchadi 

 filii ejus, et caput Conangi et caput Mothli ad sepelienda in Ardmacha in novo sepulchro. 

 Duodecem noctibus vigilaverunt religiosi congregationis S. Patricii, custodientes corpora, prop- 

 ter honorem regfis positi." 



X See ante, p. 286, &c. 



§ See Vail. Coll. Hib. vol. ii. p. 94, and Ware's Ants. p. 136, &c. 



