Pagan Ireland.

by Eleanor Hull

Children in Early Ireland.

Authorities: Old Romances, with Sir Henry Maine'-; "Early Institutions," and the Lives of the Saints from the Book of Lis- more.

Power of Parents.

THE children of ancient Ireland were much more completely in the power of their parents than are children nowadays. Not only had the father entire authority over them in their youth, but during his whole lifetime the son was bound to obey him, and could do nothing of an official kind, such as making contracts, or buying or selling the family property, without the consent of the father. This arose out of the custom of families living so much together, on one farm, so that even after they were married they remained under one roof, or in one settlement. Any payments made for any part of the family property went to the father; and the son could conclude no bargain on his own account. Only if the father was old and incapable could the son act on his behalf, and carry on business for him in connection with the family property. If the son was unwilling to take charge in such a case, or had gone away from home, a youth was adopted to take his duties and manage the estate for the old man with the consent of the tribe and family.

The power of an Irish father over his sons was very great indeed: he even had the right to put them to death if he chose; they were as completely his property as the cows or sheep on his farm.

As a matter of fact, the father probably seldom exercised this right, except perhaps when the children were deformed or weakly, though we find that female babies were sometimes exposed to die by their parents. There are several instances of girl-infants being made away with. Even kings sometimes treated their children with cruelty. We read of a king of Ulster, named Cormac, abandoning his own daughter, and giving her to his rough slaves to throw down a pit. But just as they were about to do so the child smiled so prettily up into their faces, that they had not the heart to destroy it, and they took it home and nourished it, and it grew into a beautiful woman. This unkindness went on even into Christian times, for we read of a king who had been told by his Druid that one of his own children should kill him, and who, on this account, commanded his wife to put to death any child they had. There was born to them a little daughter, and Mairenn gave it to her swineherd to kill. But the swineherd, looking upon the tiny baby's face, his heart went forth to her; so putting her into a leathern pouch, he carried her to the house door of a certain pious woman that was his neighbour, and left the bag hanging upon a cross hard by. Seeing the pouch on the arm of the cross, she peeped to see what might be in it. When she beheld the baby she loved her forthwith, and took care of her and nurtured her in all the ordinances of the church, until in all Ireland there was not a fairer maid than she Perhaps, however, in this instance, the child would have been condemned to be killed whether it had been a girl or boy.

Fosterage.

Children were seldom brought up in their own homes or by their parents. They were given over to fosterers, and became almost more part of the foster mother's family than they were of their own. Often the parents did not see them for years, and did not recognise them when they returned home. The tie between the fosterers and their adopted children was very close and strong, and the child was bound to provide for his foster parents in their old age.

Children were generally fostered in the families of persons of higher rank than their own. The large farmers took the children of the small farmers, and the children of the nobles were fostered in the family of the chief or king. The price of the education of a child in another family was fixed by law, and in noble families the cost of the education of a small farmer's child was equal to the honour price of the child's father; but the son of a noble was taken for a price proportionately less, because the honour price would have been very heavy. The children were often kept until they were grown up, and it was the duty of the fosterer to teach them riding, swimming, the use of arms, and all manly exercises, besides, if the child were a poorer boy, the duties of a farmer.

In Christian times, children were often confided to the ' charge of nuns and monks to be reared up. St. Columcille was fostered at first by a cleric, and St. Brendan by St. Jta, who loved him dearly, and wrote a little song, with which she sang the babe to sleep, likening him to the infant Jesus, taking refuge in her hut. Children so fostered were generally intended for the church.

Literary Fosterage.

But besides this fosterage of the young child, there was in Ireland also what was known as " literary fosterage." If the child were destined for a learned profession, such as that of Brehon or File, he entered the family, which was also the school, of a Brehon, and became one of his children, in much the same sense as he had before been and still remained the child of the fosterer. As the fosterer trained him in dexterity and manly ways, so the Brehon trained him in learning and literature. The child or his father did not make a bar- gain for the education of his son, as is done nowadays; the fees were fixed by law.

They were not paid by instalments, but when the Brehon was in need, he had through life a claim on the property and goods of his pupil. No pupil would have allowed his master to be in want, as is alas! often the case now. Instead of merely getting so much teaching out of the master for a certain sum, and then forgetting him, the pupil became one of his family. If the master did not require payment none was given, but on the other hand, through all his life afterwards the pupil would be ready to help and provide for his old master if he were infirm or in need. This was a very beautiful system, and I wish it could be introduced again among us, for we do not now think as highly as we ought of those who have taught and helped us in our youth. They are too often forgotten in after life, and few pupils take the trouble to find out whether they are in want or not. Even girls ' seem sometimes to have been placed under the charge of Druids or Brehons for instruction, for we hear of two daughters of King Laegaire in St. Patrick's time, who became Christians, living under the care of a Druid when St. Patrick met them. Probably the same system of payment was carried on into Christian times, and the pupil gave what he could to the monastery in which he was taught. We hear of St. Ciaran, when he was a boy, begging his mother to allow him to take a cow with him as a gift when he went to his first monastic school.

Games.

You will perhaps like to hear what sort of games the children played in ancient Ireland. Most of their sports were a sort of preparation for their after life; and this was, after all, a very sensible plan. They were taught to swim and do wonderful feats under the water; and to wrestle and hunt and exercise themselves in various ways in order that they might grow strong and clever. And they were taught to fish and shoot birds for food. They were especially fond of hurley, and hockey, and at the king's palace at Emain Macha, in the North of Ireland, there was a Boys' Club formed for playing together on the green in front of the palace. Here it was that Cuchulain played with the other boys of the Corps. One day the king, who was very fond of his Boy Corps, was about to take a journey, and he went out to bid the boys farewell. There he saw a curious sight. At one end of the green were three hundred boys, and playing against them at the other end was one single little lad, who yet, in spite of all, always took the goal. As the king- watched, they began to play a game called the hole game, in which each boy had a ball that he had hit into a hole while the other side prevented it.

Again, there was Cuchulain standing alone beside the hole, and catching all the balls so that not one went in; but when his turn came he would get in the entire set of balls without missing one. The king grew interested in watching the little fellow who was so much cleverer than the rest, and stayed on to see what they would do next. They played then a game to see who could tear off each other's mantles (this must have been rather a rough game), and Cuchulain would have the mantles off them all before they could even get out his brooch. Then they played at upsetting one another, and before they could get him down he would have them all lying on the grass.

When the king saw that, he said, "If this little boy proves as clever when he is grown up as he now is, it is a good thing for our country that he is come to us." And so it was, for when he was a man he saved the province of Ulster from the hands of its enemies, all alone and unaided, as he had defeated the Boy Corps in his childhood. Cuchulain was always doing something or other, either work or play : he was never idle for a moment, and that is how he accomplished so much in his short life, for he died when he was only twenty seven years old. Even when he was going a long journey on foot as a little boy, he used to take his hurley stick with him, and make the way seem shorter by driving his hurley ball before him and running after it.

In this way the journey did not fatigue him so much, for he forgot the distance in his interest in the game. But as warfare was the chief business of the men, so to learn early to fight was the chief desire of the boys. The Boy Corps at Emain was chiefly formed for this pur- pose, and the king took special interest in it, and himself invested the lads in their armour the first day they put it on. They had complete suits of tiny armour, with swords and spears and shields, just like a grown warrior, and it was a proud day for the young fellow when he was allowed for the first time to don his arms.

He was bound to go out and prove his fitness by some feat of courage, done single-handed, and on his return he had to report himself to the king. Sometimes, in moments of great danger, the Boy Corps is said to have taken part in actual fighting. An old Roman writer once said that Irish mothers gave their babes the first bit of food from the point of a sword, to make them fond of fighting, and certainly the Boy Corps seems to have been very anxious to take part in real warfare. At the time of the Battle of Ventry, of which we heard in the last lesson, the boys of the Corps in Emain petitioned the king to let them go and help to defend the coasts against the Norsemen. The king refused, thinking that they were too young to fight with grown and fierce warriors, but when they heard that the fighting was going on, and that Finn and the warriors of Ireland were in sore distress, they once more begged to be allowed to go.

The king gave leave, and they marched right across Ireland from North to South, and arrived during the heat of the battle at Ventry.* Alas ! hardly one of the brave boys returned alive. Their leader, the son of the king of Ulster, was drowned fighting with a foreigner, and the two bodies were washed up the next morning by the tide locked in each other's arms; and nearly all the little band of followers was slain. It must have been a sad day for Emain Macha when the remnant returned home, broken and wounded, to their friends.

The Irish fought with spears and javelins, swords and sling stones, which last were thrown by hand. They had large shields, with bosses on them, and those of the chiefs were often chased with elaborate patterns in gold. They marched to battle to the sound of music, and the long trumpets that have been found may have been used to call to arms. The Irish pipes were held under the arm, and were not blown by the mouth, like the Scottish pipes. The Irish harp was usually small and held in the hand, instead of resting on the ground.

" Battle of Ventry Harbour," ed. Kuno Meyer.

It will easily be seen that there is a confusion in this tale as regards dates. The Norse descents did not begin till long after the fall of Emain Macha.ve, essay on the earliest chapter in Irish literary history."