34 THE IKISH PEOPLE. 



covering even the neck cannot protect the head, nor 

 the coat of mail save the body against the blow. 

 Thus it happened in our own time that the whole 

 thigh of a knight, well cased in its double iron plate, 

 has been lopped off by one blow of the axe, the dis- 

 membered limb falling on one side of the horse, and 

 the expiring body on the other. When other 

 weapons fail they hurl stones against the enemy 

 with most damaging results, and more dexterously 

 and vigorously than any other nation ; belabouring 

 with showers of stones our mailed and armed 

 men, and by their agility advancing and retir- 

 ing in perfect security." On these statements 

 of Gerald Barry, Sharon Turner writes as 

 follows : " According to Giraldus, the Irish did 

 not nurse their children elaborately, as was then 

 usual elsewhere ; but they left them to nature. 

 The Irish may be proud of the remark, though 

 meant to be censorious, for their custom was wiser 

 than the art they neglected. They did not adapt 

 them (their children) to cradles, nor swathe them in 

 bands, nor cherish their tender limbs in baths, nor 

 compose them by art. Their midwives did not erect 

 their noses, nor depress their faces, nor pull out 

 their legs ; but they left nature to fashion the limbs 

 as she pleased." This of course was very barbarous : 

 but the consequence was, says Turner, " that the 



