S52 



V 



" ornamented with figures in bas relief and many curious inscriptions 

 in the ancient Irish character."* 



Of the art of war mention has been already made of the little reliance 

 which the Irish placed in fortifications, and of the simple mode of en- 

 trenchment adopted by the Prince of Ossory, (anfe, p. 344,) with which 

 the words of Sir John Davis fully agree: "all the passes are cleared, and 

 places of fastness laid open, which are the proper walls and castles of 

 the Irish,*' and while Giraldus particularizes the weapons used by the 

 native Irish as of three kinds, lances, darts, and axes,"!" it is evident, 

 from his silence as to their using shields or helmets, that the same 

 rash chivalry, which raised a prejudice againt fortifications, seems to 

 have despised the use of defensive armour. The native annals, how- 

 ever, allude frequently to shields at a much earlier period, and Hove- 

 den, in his Nomenclator,J observes, that "some used a head-piece 

 covered with the hides of beasts." To the arms mentioned by Giral- 

 dus, the skene, or short sword, should be added; it was "sometimes a 

 foot and a half long, sometimes shorter, and m as a Firbolgian instru- 

 ment. When the Irish did homage to Richard the Second, they laid 

 aside, as Davis tells us, their caps, skenes, and girdles. "§ In the 



* Archdall, Mon. Hib. p. 541. 



f "Tribus uluntur armorum generibus, lanceis non longis et jaculis binis in qtiibus et 

 Basclensium mores sunt imitati. Securibusquoque amplis fabrili diligentia optirae chalybatis, 

 quas a Norwagiensibus et Ostmannis sunt muluati, una tantum manu et non ambabus in securi 

 percutiunt, pollice desuper manubrium in longum extenso ictumque regente, a quo nos galea 

 caput in collum erecta, nee reliquum corpus ferrea loriciE tricatura tuetur. Unde et in nostris 

 coutigit temporibus totam militis coxam, ferro ulrimque fideliter vestitam, uno securis ictu 

 praecisam fuisse, ex un& parte equi coxa cum tibia, ex altera vero corpore cadente moribund©. 

 Lapides quoque pugillares cum alia defecerint hostibus in conflictu damnosissimos prae ali& 

 gente promptius et exfteditius ad manum habent." — Top. Hib. Dist. 3. c. 10. 



X Cited Ware's Antiquities, p. 162. § Ledwich's Antiq. p. 287. 



