Efrench — On a Manner of Lighting Houses in Old Times. 627 
by tliem in candlesticks. But tlie method of household illumination 
which I would seek to bring under the notice of the Academy, 
is neither that of the very rich or of the very poor but the 
ordinary common manner of lighting houses, which, I believe, has 
come down to us from times that are prehistoric, and like the quern 
or hand-mill may be found in a few isolated instances still in use. 
The conservative Celt did not readily give up the use of his quern 
hand-mill, and even yet makes use of the rush-light. The candles 
that were used for ordinary lighting purposes seem to have been of 
three kinds : the dipped candle, which was made by taking a wick of 
flax, and dipping it again and again into melted grease until it had 
attained the necessary thickness ; rushes may also have been used for 
wicks in this kind of candle ; secondly, the rush-light candle, or rush 
taper, which was the light in every-day use; and, thirdly, the resin 
oandle, called a snob, which was made by rolling resin in a soft state 
: around a wick of linen rag. Just as the arrangements of Irish houses 
were in most respects similar to those of the Anglo-Saxons, so I believe 
' were the methods of household illumination common to both. My 
attention was first called to Irish rush -light candlesticks by an 
( engraving of an English candlestick that was exhibited in the collection 
[ of an English antiquarian, which I saw in one of the illustrated 
1 journals. I subsequently purchased one exactly similar to that 
I engraving at a farm-house in my neighbourhood. Afterwards I saw 
; a second illustration of another type of these candlesticks in that 
j journal; and I also found one similar to it in another farm-house. I 
may mention that the English writer altogether misunderstood his 
candlestick, as he believed the pincers arrangement to hold the rush- 
light taper to be a kind of snuffers to snuff the candle, which was 
placed in the caudle-holder. 
The earliest mention I have been able to find of the preparation of 
rushes for lighting purposes is in a pretty story in the life of Cormac 
•Mac [Art, King of Ireland, about the year a. d. 200 or 227. This 
story, as related by Keating and others, tells us that Cormac, riding 
through a wood, came suddenly and unobserved upon a fair damsel, 
;who was engaged in her household avocations of milking and drawing 
water, and cutting rushes with a sharp hook; and as she cut the 
Tushes she separated those that were long and green from such as were 
ishort and withered, and laid them in different heaps (the long green 
ones being, as we know, suitable for lighting purposes, and the others 
in accordance with the custom of the times for strewing the floor). 
One version of the story tells us that, when he revealed himself to her, 
