HI] 



AND HISTORIC TIMES 



397 



Such relics seem to indicate that the Irish traditions of the 

 invasion of fair-haired strangers from Gaul, in the centuries 

 preceding the birth of Christ, are based on actual facts, and are 

 not the mere outcome of a romancist's brain. In any case they 

 demonstrate that there was constant intercourse and trade 

 between the Continent and Ireland at that period. 



FIG. 118. Bronze Shield; co. Limerick 1 . 



Fortunately, for our immediate purpose, a description of 

 Cuchulainn's horses is given in The Wooing of Emer. They 

 were " alike in size, beauty, fierceness and speed. Their manes 

 were long and curly, and they had curling tails. The right- 

 hand horse was a grey horse, broad in the haunches, fierce, 

 swift, and wild ; the other horse jet-black ; his head firmly knit, 



1 The Early Age of Greece, Vol. i. p. 479. 



