361- 



iittired according to the above descriptions ; and the reader will also 

 obtain a pretty accurate notion of the dress of the age, from the 

 figures of O'More's soldiers in two drawings of Ledwich. With these 

 also agree the notices of the Irish chieftains, who, in the time of 

 •Richard the Second, " made their oaths of fidelity to the Earl Mar- 

 shal, laying aside their girdles, their skeins, and their caps."* 



Of the colour of the Irish garments, Cambrensis would seem to 

 imply that they were mostly black, -f- while in the native poems " red 

 or crimson robes are frequently mentioned, and a number of Irish acts 

 of parliament bear witness to the propensity of the old inhabitants to 

 yellow. Black, crimson, purple, and yellow, therefore, appear to have 

 been the principal colours in use among the ancient Irish, as among 

 the ancient Britons and Gauls ;":]: and the materials, from which these 

 colours were extracted, are illustrated in the second volume of the 

 Anthologia Hibernica, (pp. 334, &c.) Spelman, in his Glossary, title 

 " coccula," also mentions a species of mantle as used by the Irish 

 from remote ages.§ ^ 



In reference to the manners and customs of this ancient and inte- 

 resting people, we must not here omit two usages, " proper and pecu- 

 liar to the Irishry,"|i which, though not heretofore mentioned, seem 

 to have originated in a period far earlier than the present ; — foster- 

 ing and gossipred. — " For fostering I did never hear or read that 



•- tJu:;.,:-.:^ '^ -- ■ --^.— :■ - ■■- •••-- 



• Davis's Hist Rel. p. 22. 



t " Laneis tenuiter utuntur, el his" bninfbus ferine nigris, (quia terres istius oves nigrx 

 sunt,) et barbaro ritu compositis." — ^Top. Hib. Dist. 3. c. 10. 



J Anthol. Hib. vol. ii. p. 334. 



§ " Coccula, sagum Hibemicunji villosum absque snturS, et quod marginem inferiorein 

 planam exhibet, superiorem arcuatam cirrisque sive jubis laneis fimbriatam." 



I Davis's Hist. Rel. p. 78. -./■=<- 



VOt, XVI. 3 A 



