An Account of Medieval Ireland, by Bartholomew Anglicus. 75 



none passing heat or cold, there be wonderful lakes, ponds, and wells. 

 For there is a lake, in which if a staff or a pole of a tree be pight, and 

 tarrieth long time therein, the part that is in the earth turneth into iron, 

 and the part that is in the water turneth into stone, and the part that is 

 above the water abideth still in its kind of tree. There is another lake 

 in which if that thou throwest rods of hazel, it turneth those rods into 

 ash : and ayenward if ye cast ashen rods therein, they turn into hazel. (4). 

 Therein be places in which dead carrions never rot, but abide there 

 always uncorrupt. Also in Ireland is a little island, in which men die 

 not, but when they be overcome with age, they be borne out of that island 

 to die without (5.) In Ireland is no serpent, no frogs, nor venemous 

 addercrop, but all the land is so contrary to venemous beasts, that if the 

 earth of that land be brought into another land, and spronge on the 

 ground, it slayeth serpents and toads. Also venemous beasts flee Irish 

 wool , skins and fells. And if serpents or toads be brought into Ireland 

 by shipping, they die anon. (6). 



" Solinus speaketh of Ireland, and saith the inhabitants thereof be fierce 

 and lead an unhuman life. The people t'here use to harbour no guests, 

 they be warriors, and drink men's blood that the)- slay, and wash first 

 their faces therewith ; right and unright they take for one . . . Men 

 of Ireland be singularly clothed and unseemly arrayed and scarcely fed 

 they be cruel of heart, fierce of cheer, angry of speech, and sharp. Nath- 

 less they be free-hearted, and fair of speech, and goodly to their own 

 nation, and namely those men that dwell in woods, marshes, and moun- 

 tains. These men be pleased with flesh, apples, and fruit for meat, and 

 with milk for drink ; and give them more to plays and to hunting, than 

 to work and travail. (.7)." 



(1) The term Iris was applied by Pliny to hexangular 

 crystals of quartz, which, when placed in the sun, were capable 

 of forming the prismatic spectrum on a wall. Another 

 variety, esteemed by the ancients, owed its colours to the 

 existence of internal fractures with which the phenomenon of 

 Newton's rings was manifested. 



(2) Jet may occur in other places in Ireland, but is 

 certainly obtained from the Coal-measures of Ballycastle, Co. 

 Antrim, its characters being apparently due to the influence 

 of basaltic dykes on the coal seams which occur there. There 

 is a sample of an early polished specimen from this locality 

 in the Dublin Museum, and I have heard, locally, of ornaments 

 having been formerly carved from this material. 



(3) As is well known, pearls are produced in a species of 

 freshwater mussel ( Unid) in the rivers of Fermanagh, Tyrone, 

 and Donegal. There are records of pearls of considerable 

 value having been found in these rivers. 



