Page:Athletics and Manly Sport (1890).djvu/201

176 a sword; a club, or mace (see page 191); and a square helmet: while a chief of the Tuatha Dé Danann used a shield, a sword, and two spears.

The craisech of the Firbolg was a pointless spear, rounded and sharpened on the front edge, and fastened to its pole by rivets. The spear of the Tuatha Dé Danann was "thin-pointed and sharp," and the sword "hard and sharp."

Whence the Tuatha Dé Danann came to Ireland has not been settled. They were a highly-civilized people. They

conquered the Firbolgs, and ruled Ireland for two centuries, till conquered in their turn by the Milesians, who came from Spain. (Ancient Irish annalists call them Scythians.)

All these weapons were made of fine bronze, as were all the weapons of the Irish down to about the Christian era.