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Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



does he linger in the wine-shop ; but if it be a holiday or a Sunday, 

 and in a rural district, he puts on a clean shirt, with a large gold or 

 silver stud, as a neck-fastening, and his newest hat, vaiying in shape 

 according to the locality, but always of black felt, and of a kind which 

 we see in pictui^es of Spanish life. He throws oyer his shoulders a 

 black cloth cloak, with a real gold or silver clasp. He takes his favourite 

 ox-goad in his hand, as tall as himself, straight as an arrow, well 

 rounded and polished, and bound with brass. He slings his guitar 

 round his neck, and makes his way to the nearest fashionable threshing- 

 floor, or peasant's drawingroom. Here are gathered old and young of 

 both sexes, come hither for gossip, song, or dance." The ox-goad is in 

 general use all over the Peninsula, wherever oxen are used for draught, 

 more or less varied in weight or length, but always bearing at the end 

 a short iron or steel point. In the northern provinces and in Portugal 

 a sort of quarterstaff is used. Thus, in the Earl of Carnarvon's Por- 

 tugal and Galicia " (1861), he states, p. 35 (neighbourhood of Coimbre), 

 " They also carry the Pao, or long pole, as in the neighbourhood of 

 Lisbon." Pao is the Portuguese or Galician pronunciation of Palo, 

 the term employed in Asturias, and really represents the Asturian 

 pronunciation of the Latin Palum^ that is with the " o " very long and 

 full, and the " m " quite mute and barely audible. Eut this quarter- 

 staff is also found among the Berbers, as appears from the following 

 citation from Cunningham Graham's " Magreb-el-aska, a Journey in 

 Morocco " (1898), p. 214. Describing a Berber runner " or recass," 

 he says, " And in his hand he carried a stout quartersta:ff, full five 

 feet long, with which all ' recasses ' used to walk, try the depth 

 of water in crossing streams, defend themselves, and ease their backs 

 by passing it behind them, through their two arms, and resting on it 

 as they trot along." Of this people it is stated in the excellent 

 article concerning them in Yirian de St. Martin's * ' Dictionnaire de 

 Geographic TJniverselle " : " Les Berbers de 1' Atlas sont physique- 

 ment de veritables Europeens : ils sont aussi blancs que les Erangais 

 du Nord. Beaucoup de Kabyles, dit Mr. Shaler, qui ont le teint 

 clair and les cheveux blonds, rappellent plutot des paysans du iN'ord 

 de I'Europe, que des habitants de I'Afrique." This race is said to 

 have at one time extended along the west coast of the Peninsula as 

 far north as Galicia. Hence, it may be inferred that the use of this 

 weapon, whether in the form of a boar-spear (epieu), or of a quarter- 

 staff, or in that of an ox- goad, may be considered as extremely 

 ancient, and that the straw cloak of the Minho and Tras os Montes 

 provinces carried by the farmers, and used by the labourers, is of 



