Pagan Ireland.

by Eleanor Hull

Dwellings in Ancient Ireland.

Authorities: Paper "On the Remains of Ancient Stone-built Forts, etc., West of Dingle, Co. Kerry," by Mr. Du Noyer (Archaeological Journal for March, 1856. vol. xv. p. i.), Mono- graph on "An ancient settlement in the South-west of the Barony of Corkaguiney, Co Kerry," by R. A. Stuart Macalister (Trans. R. Irish Academy, vol. xxxi.. Part vii., 1899). O'Curry's Mans Cust., and Old Romances.

Houses of the People.

IT will help us to realise the life of the time, if we describe the houses in which the inhabitants lived. We have already said something about the greatest dweling in the land, the Palace of Tara, and we will now speak of the dwellings of the poor and of the upper classes of farmers.

Just as there are differences to-day between the houses of the poor and the rich, so there were in olden times. The poor lived in a very simple fashion indeed, their little huts were built of wood and wattle or of stone, according to whether stone or wood were most plentiful in the neighbourhood. Those people who lived in settlements in the clearings of the forests naturally made themselves dwellings out of stakes of wood. These huts were round, and the stakes were closely twisted in and out with osiers, until they were quite waterproof, and thatched.

They were sometimes covered with white lime outside to make them warm and bright. They had one door, but probably no window and no chimney, only a hole in the roof at which the smoke could go out. The Romans have pictured on some of their monuments huts they saw in Gaul (France), and no doubt the Irish huts were very similar. Even the monasteries, such as Clonard and Clonmacnois, when they were first erected, were built of wattled huts. Of course these feeble building's could not last long, so that we have none of them left. But in Kerry and in some other parts of the west of Ireland, there are some very old stone huts still remaining. They are probably not older than the introduction of Christianity, but they must have been built on much the same plan as those the ancestors of the builders were accustomed to occupy. It is certain that they belonged to times when raids and sudden descents of the enemy were frequent, for they are often surrounded by strong walls. They are built in groups within an encircling wall for defence, and such a group is called a Cathair. These huts are very curious; they are called Cloghans or sometimes " bee-hive huts " because their shape is like that of a bee-hive. The surrounding wall is usually of immense thickness. Through this wall there was a passage leading into the enclosure, originally closed by a strong door.

One of these settlements, near Dingle, in Co. Kerry, was described by a visitor about forty or fifty years ago, who made a drawing of it as it then was. But I am sorry to say that since then most of the wall and some of the little houses have been destroyed. The people do not know or care about them, and the stones have been carried away to make sheep-pens. This is very sad, for they form one of the most interesting groups of early buildings in Ireland. There were five huts or Cloghans standing when the picture was taken, three perfect, and two without their roofs, and there were the remains of several more in the enclosure. The huts have very thick walls, so thick that there are sleeping- places in them into which a lad can creep and lie down flat. But the old inhabitants must have been a low- sized people, for these sleeping-places are short for an ordinary man now. The Cloghans are built of sloping stones, with no mortar to fix them together, but so beautifully laid one over the other that they have lasted for hundreds of years. The stones are so laid that the rain runs off outside and does not penetrate the walls. At the top is the small hole which serves both for chimney and window. The doors are nicely built of large flat upright stones, with a large stone for lintel, but they also are not of any great height. Several of these huts may have been used for the same family, for we find that when one hut was not large enough for a family, instead of building a larger one, which they did not know how to do, they added new Cloghans.

They were generally close together, and united by passages. In some of the houses we find a square hole in the floor, evidently for a cooking-stove. The kitchen thus seerns to have been separate from the living-hut, and the house of the women was generally separate also. Outside the surrounding wall of this group there is a little chamber, concealed in the thickness of the wall, and looking out over Dingle Bay. In it a watchman used to sit, to see if any enemy were approaching, in order to give warning to those within the " Cathair," or fortified enclosure. In the old stories, we often hear of these watchmen, who were bound to challenge any passer-by and find out who he was and what he wanted, before letting him enter the door. The surrounding wall, besides being of great thickness, was built of massive stones, so that when the heavy stone door was shut it must have been very difficult to effect an entrance. In the wall, which is 18 feet thick, there are secret passages, either for storing goods, or for hiding-places. A little hut near the entrance with pointed roof seems to have been a guard room, or hut for soldiers.

Houses of Hospitality.

We will now speak of the houses of the large farmers,

Mr. Du Noyer has mistaken the name of this fort which he calls ' Cahair-na-mac-tirech,' "The Stone Fort of the Wolves." It is usually known as Cathair Connor, and is in the townland of Glen Fahan, Corkag Tnney. or land-owners, who had very different sort of dwellings. The great houses of which we hear most were the six famous " Houses of Hospitality" of which I spoke to you before. There was one at Tallaght, near Dublin, another at Lusk, a few miles north of Dublin, and others in different parts of the country. Each was owned by a Brughfer, who was the steward of the chief or king, and gathered the yearly revenues from the whole tribe. He was generally a very wealthy man, and he would need to have been so, for it was his duty to entertain the chief and all his retinue when he passed through his territory.

It was the pride of the different Brughfers to see who could longest support the burden of entertaining the king. When the chief or king travelled on ordinary occasions, he was only permitted to take twelve men with him, because the people found they could not support the entertainment of such hosts of followers; but on state progresses, which the kings seem to have been very fond of making, they travelled with their whole establishment of soldiers, judges, harpers, poets, pipe and horn players, jugglers and fools, besides their servants. On these state occasions the Brughfer with whom he stayed had to spend weeks in preparing for his coming; some- times he had to even build a new house, if his own were not large enough ; and all the inhabitants were forced to bring in supplies of milk, corn, butter, honey, cows and sheep, pigs, and all sorts of provisions. This became a great tax on the poor, but the Brughfer made a good thing out of it, for as it was his office to collect the king's tributes, which were not paid in money, but, as we have said, in kind, he could oblige them to bring whatever he wished.

The house of the Bruighfer was supposed to be a model for the whole tribe of what a house ought to be, and how it ought to be kept; and he was heavily fined if it were not always in perfect order. A very considerable piece of land belonged to him all round his house, but it was never closed, as the other houses of which we have been speaking were, for he was bound to keep open house for all travellers, whoever they might be. The Bruighen (Breen), as his house was called, had four or six doors, with pathways leading up to them from every side, and they were bound to be open night and day. There were, however, severe punishments inflicted on anyone who stole out of the house or yard. When the tributes had been brought in and the place was full of cattle, fowls, and all sorts of produce, it must have been rather a temptation to wayfarers, but these houses were well guarded by warriors, who were always ready to pursue any offender. The establishment consisted of a large group of buildings, the dwelling house, with a large room at the back for sleeping in or for servants; a mill, a kiln, a baking house, a house for the women, besides pens for sheep, cow houses, and pig sties. The owner was obliged to keep at least one good riding horse, besides a certain number of cattle; these he sometimes lent out to the small farmers for a settled payment.

He generally had a well in the centre of his dwelling; but in the Bruighen Da Derga, at Tallaght, of which we shall learn more presently, the River Dodder ran through the court, so that there always was a supply of fresh water. Outside was a huge vat, or often two, cne for milk, and one for ale or mead, and the Brughfer was obliged to possess one pot large enough to cook a whole hog at a time, for state occasions.

Round the house or houses was a garden, in which apple and other fruit trees, onions, and garden produce were grown. The dairy was furnished with all that was needed to make butter, and fresh rushes had to be constantly strewn on the floors, even of the store-houses. A huge candle, standing on a pedestal, was to be kept burning all night, to guide the wayfarers. Round the house, at increasing distances, were three high raths or banks of earth, and between them were grassy lawns, where the young men used to exercise themselves in sports and feats of arms, and where the ladies sat or walked to take the air. There was always a large family living in a Bruighen, for the master used to invite the daughters of the smaller farmers to come and live with his daughters, that they might be trained by them in all sorts of useful arts, butter-making, kneading bread, grinding corn (though this was considered menial work and was generally done by slaves); needle-work and embroidery, in which the Irish ladies were very expert; singing, and last but not least, gentle ways of speaking and acting towards everyone. This was a very good plan, and very pleasant for the girls all living together and learning to be useful; very good, too, for the richer ladies to have to teach them, so that all learned these things to gether. No one was allowed to be idle.

Life in a " Bruighen."

I will tell you a story about these girls, and the hero Cuchulain, of whom we have spoken before, which will illustrate their way of life. Cuchulain had from his childhood been famous for his courage and beauty, for his noble behaviour and his manliness. When he was grown up all his friends in Ulster, where he lived, wished to find for him a suitable wife, but though they sought through the length and breadth of Ireland, they could not find any woman whom Cuchulain cared to woo. Then he said that he would go himself and find a wife, for he had heard of the beauty and accomplishments of Emer, the daughter of Forgall the Wily, a Brughfer who lived at Lusk, near Malahide. So he had his chariot made ready, and dressed himself in his goodliest raiment, and set forth with his charioteer, flying along the plains of Meath from Dundalk, then called Dun-Dalgan, where he lived, to Lusk. It was the swiftest chariot in Erin, and came bounding along, the hoofs of the horses tearing up the sod, so that it seemed as though a flock of birds were following them, while sparks as of fire, flew from their foaming jaws.

One horse was grey, the other jet-black, and they were held well in hand by the charioteer, Laegh, a tall freckled man who stood before his master in the chariot. His bright red hair was held back by a fillet or band of bronze, and by two It le cups of gold on each side of the head, in which the hair was confined. The daughters of Forgall were sitting in the playing field in front of the house when Cuchulain drew near. Around Emer were her foster sisters, the daughters of the neighbouring* farmers, to whom she was teaching fine embroidery and needle work. Emer was the only woman in Erin whom Cuchulain would deign to woo. For she had the six womanly gifts : the gift of modest behaviour, the gift of singing, the gift of sweet speech, the gift of beauty, the gift of wisdom, and the gift of needle work, and Cuchulain had said that he would woo no maiden but she who was his equal in age and race and feature, and who was wise and gentle, and skilled in needlework. While Emer and her maidens were sitting on the bench before the door of the house, they heard coming towards them the clatter of horses' hoofs, the creaking of the chariot and the rattle of the weapons. " Go," said Emer to her girls, " and see what is coming towards us." Then Fiall, her sister, ran to the top of the rath, and she cried that a noble chariot of fine wood with wicker sides, and frame of copper, was approaching; and within it a sad dark man, comliest of the men of Erin.

Around him, she said, was a beautiful crimson cloak, fastened on the breast with a brooch of inlaid gold, over a white shirt interwoven with flaming gold. A crimson shield with rim of silver was on his shoulder, and in his hand a golden-hilted sword. Hardly had she finished describing him, when Cuchulain arrived at the place, and drawing up before the maidens he wished a blessing to them. Emer lifted up her lovely face and recognised Cuchulain, and here is her sweet greeting : " May God make smooth the path before you," she said. "And you," he said, "may you be safe from every harm." Then they talk a long time to each other in a mystic speech, understood only by the learned; they did not want the maidens to understand, for fear they should repeat everything to Forgall the Wily, and he should send away Cuchulain.

Emer says she is not anxious to be married, and that it is not the custom in Ireland for the younger daughter to marry before the elder, so she recommends him to marry her elder sister, who is, she says, much cleverer than she is at needle- work. But Cuchulain, who is delighted that she can talk to him so easily in the secret language of the bards, says he will have none but herself as his wife. Then she tells him that he must go away for a whole year, and learn many arts of warfare and feats of skill before she will marry him. If in a year's time he comes back a fully taught warrior, then she will go with him. So Cuchulain is forced to be content with this, and for a whole year he goes away, and he perfects himself in all the arts of a champion before he returns to claim his bride.

He had much difficulty in getting her even then, for Forgall had heard about it and he said he would not give his daughter to Cuchulain, and he set guards round his fortress to prevent him from seeing Emer. But Cuchulain persevered, and after another whole year spent in watching for his opportunity, he one day entered the dun or fort, and carried off Emer, fighting his way with her back to Dundalk against Forgall's troops. But Emer was worth fighting for and worth winning, for she was a noble woman, and a true wife to Cuchulain.

These houses, being all made of wood, and generally thatched, were in constant danger of being burned down, and in time of war the enemy often flung burning brands into the thatch or into the door, and destroyed the house and all who were in it. This is the way in which several of the six chief Bruighens were destroyed, and there are fine old stories about these destructions which I hope you will read some day. You will find one of these tales in Chapter XVI., which describes the burning of the Bruighen Dd Derga in the reign of Conaire the Great.