Page:Athletics and Manly Sport (1890).djvu/199

174, usually denominated 'celts,' of any country in the world, but the second largest amount of swords and battle-axes. And, moreover, these, and all the other ancient metal articles of Ireland, show a well-defined rise and development from the simplest and rudest form in size and use to that of the most elaborately constructed and the most beautifully adorned."

The time is approaching when this marvellous collection of antiquities will be a centre of world-interest, especially to those of Irish or Celtic extraction. An Irish-American traveller from Boston, last year, a scholar and observer, declared on his return that the most interesting and instructive day he had spent in any European country was that on which he had visited the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy.

II. THE MOST ANCIENT WEAPONS USED IN IRELAND. weapons and armor of the ancient Irish were, in the main, like those of the Greeks, with a greater variety in the length and shape of both spear and sword.

"In the year of the world 4465," translating