class="citation pginternal" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">[168] when pursued by the hounds and hunters, they contributed, by their numbers, to their own destruction.”

CHAPTER IX
OF THEIR SOBER SUPPER AND FRUGALITY

Not addicted to gluttony or drunkenness, this people who incur no expense in food or dress, and whose minds are always bent upon the defence of their country, and on the means of plunder, are wholly employed in the care of their horses and furniture.  Accustomed to fast from morning till evening, and trusting to the care of Providence, they dedicate the whole day to business, and in the evening partake of a moderate meal; and even if they have none, or only a very scanty one, they patiently wait till the next evening; and, neither deterred by cold nor hunger, they employ the dark and stormy nights in watching the hostile motions of their enemies.

CHAPTER X
OF THEIR HOSPITALITY AND LIBERALITY

No one of this nation ever begs, for the houses of all are common to all; and they consider liberality and hospitality amongst the first virtues.  So much does hospitality here rejoice in communication, that it is neither offered nor requested by travellers, who, on entering any house, only deliver up their arms.  When water is offered to them, if they suffer their feet to be washed, they are received as guests; for the offer of water to wash the feet is with this nation an hospitable invitation.  But if they refuse the proffered service, they only wish for morning refreshment, not lodging.  The young men move about in troops and families under the direction of a chosen leader.  Attached only to arms and ease, and ever ready to stand forth in defence of their country, they have free admittance into every house as if it were their own.

Those who arrive in the morning are entertained till evening with the conversation of young women, and the music of the harp; for each house has its young women and harps allotted to this purpose.  Two circumstances here deserve notice: that as no nation labours more under the vice of jealousy than the Irish, so none is more free from it than the Welsh: and in each family the art of playing on the harp is held preferable to any other learning.  In the evening, when no more guests are expected, the meal is prepared according to the number and dignity of the persons assembled, and according to the wealth of the family who entertains.  The kitchen does not supply many dishes, nor high-seasoned incitements to eating.  The house is not furnished with tables, cloths, or napkins.  They study nature more than splendour, for which reason, the guests being seated in threes, instead of couples as elsewhere, [169a] they place the dishes before them all at once upon rushes and fresh grass, in large platters or trenchers.  They also make use of a thin and broad cake of bread, baked every day, such as in old writings was called lagana; [169b] and they sometimes add chopped meat, with broth.  Such a repast was formerly used by the noble youth, from whom this nation boasts its descent, and whose manners it still partly imitates, according to the word of the poet:

“Heu! mensas consumimus, inquit Iulus.”

While the family is engaged in waiting on the guests, the host and hostess stand up, paying unremitting attention to everything, and take no food till all the company are satisfied; that in case of any deficiency, it may fall upon them.  A bed made of rushes, and covered with a coarse kind of cloth manufactured in the country, called brychan, [170] is then placed along the side of the room, and they all in common lie down to sleep; nor is their dress at night different from that by day, for at all seasons they defend themselves from the cold only by a thin cloak and tunic.  The fire continues to burn by night as well as by day, at their feet, and they receive much comfort from the natural heat of the persons lying near them; but when the under side begins to be tired with the hardness of the bed, or the upper one to suffer from cold, they immediately leap up, and go to the fire, which soon relieves them from both inconveniences; and then returning to their couch, they expose alternately their sides to the cold, and to the hardness of the bed.

CHAPTER XI
CONCERNING THEIR CUTTING OF THEIR HAIR, THEIR CARE OF THEIR TEETH, AND SHAVING OF THEIR BEARD

The men and women cut their hair close round to the ears and eyes.  The women, after the manner of the Parthians, cover their heads with a large white veil, folded together in the form of a crown.

Both sexes exceed any other nation in attention to their teeth, which they render like ivory, by constantly rubbing them with green hazel and wiping with a woollen cloth.  For their better preservation, they abstain from hot meats, and eat only such as are cold, warm, or temperate.  The men shave all their beard except the moustaches (gernoboda).  This custom is not recent, but was observed in ancient and remote ages, as we find in the works of Julius Cæsar, who says, [171] “The Britons shave every part of their body except their head and upper lip;” and to render themselves more active, and avoid the fate of Absalon in their excursions through the woods, they are accustomed to cut even the hair from their heads; so that this nation more than any other shaves off all pilosity.  Julius also adds, that the Britons, previous to an engagement, anointed their faces with a nitrous ointment, which gave them so ghastly and shining an appearance, that the enemy could scarcely bear to look at them, particularly if the rays of the sun were reflected on them.

CHAPTER XII
OF THEIR QUICKNESS AND SHARPNESS OF UNDERSTANDING

These people being of a sharp and acute intellect, and gifted with a rich and powerful understanding, excel in whatever studies they pursue, and are more quick and cunning than the other inhabitants of a western clime.

Their musical instruments charm and delight the ear with their sweetness, are borne along by such celerity and delicacy of modulation, producing such a consonance from the rapidity of seemingly discordant touches, that I shall briefly repeat what is set forth in our Irish Topography on the subject of the musical instruments of the three nations.  It is astonishing that in so complex and rapid a movement of the fingers, the musical proportions can be preserved, and that throughout the difficult modulations on their various instruments, the harmony is completed with such a sweet velocity, so unequal an equality, so discordant a concord, as if the chords sounded together fourths or fifths.  They always begin from B