170 Mr. Alfred Perceval Graves [Jan. 26, 



that Irish "direct metre" was the most difficult kind of verse 

 under the sun — the despairing opinion of another leading Irish 

 philologist. 



Dr. Whitley Stoke's comment is " that in almost all the ancient 

 Celtic poetry, substance is ruthlessly sacrificed to form, and the observ- 

 ance of the rigorous rules of metre seems regarded as an end in 

 itself." The consequence of such an artificial system, combined with 

 the high privileges of the bardic caste, resulted in the multiplication 

 of minor parts to a degree which would have paralysed all Mr. Traill's 

 efforts to keep pace with them, had he been a contemporary critic. 



O'Curry quotes this droll account of their pecuniary dealings: "At 

 this time we are told that the poets became more troublesome and 

 importunate than ever. They were in the habit of travelling about 

 the country in companies of thirty, composed of pupils and teachers, 

 and each company had a silver pot, called 'the Pot of Avarice,' 

 having chains of bronze attached to it by golden hooks. It was 

 suspended from the points of the spears of nine of the company, 

 which were thrust through the links at the other end of the chains. 

 The reason that the pot was called the Pot of Avarice was because it 

 was into it that whatever of gold or silver they received was put, 

 and, whilst the poem was being chanted, the best nine musicians in 

 the company played music round the pot. If their minstrelsy was 

 well received, and adequately paid for, they left their blessing behind 

 them in verse ; if it was not, they satirised their audience in the 

 most virulent terms of which their poetical vocabulary was capable; 

 and, be it observed, that to the satire of an Irish baid, to whom there 

 still clung in the popular belief the mystical attributes of the druid, 

 there attached a fatal malignity." 



At the time of the conversion of Ireland to the Christian faith, 

 the bards were said to number a third of the male population, and 

 in 590 a.d. a Synod was held at Drumkeat, by Aed, king of Ulster, 

 which greatly reduced their forces. Indeed, such was the popular 

 irritation against them, that had it not been for the friendly inter- 

 vention of the statesman-poet, St. Columbkille, they would probably 

 have been banished altogether. 



The Filea, or bard, no doubt was a minstrel as well as a poet, in 

 the first instance, but in the course of time there would appear to 

 have been a further bardic differentiation, and we learn that perfection 

 in the three Musical Feats, or three styles of playing, gave the 

 dignity of Ollamh, or Doctor of Music, to the professors of the harp. 

 Now what were the three Musical Feats ? Here they are, well 

 described in a weird old folk tale. 



Lugh (the Tuatha da Danann king), and the Daghda (their great 

 chief and druid), and Ogma (their bravest champion), followed the 

 Fomorians and their leader from the battlefield of Moyturah, because 

 they had carried off the Daghda's harper, Uaithne by name. The 

 pursuers reached the banqueting house of the Fomorian chiefs, and 

 there found Breas, the son of Elathan, and Elathan the son of 



