Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 1, 1890.djvu/247

Rh under one set of social ideas and institutions’? Nothing less so, I should say. Again, is it safe to draw any conclusions as to the race-connections of the Firbolgs from the fact that the Firbolg Ferdiad is described as a blonde in the Tain bó Cuailgné? There is the same uncertainty respecting his personal appearance as there is respecting that of Cuchullain, and until we can satisfactorily explain this uncertainty no conclusion can be drawn, one way or another, respecting the races to which either hero is assigned by tradition. Moreover, what does Mrs. Bryant mean by the statement on p. 15, that the Irish Gael had no traces of matriarchalism? If there is a Gaelic kingly hero par excellence, it is Conchobor, and he is always described by his matronymic, Mac Nessa—Nessa’s son.

The pinch of salt which the reader should bring with him to the consideration of Mrs. Bryant’s first chapter must ever be at hand through the remainder of the book. A fascinating and coherent account of early Irish culture is attained by the simple process of passing over the shadows and the difficulties. But with this caveat the book may be warmly recommended. It groups clearly and suggestively the facts of early Irish society as they may be gathered from texts which are, in part at least, as old as the ninth century. Mrs. Bryant gives, in fact, a modern rendering of the views which the great Irish mediæval scholars (down to and including O’Curry) held concerning the social past of the race. Some of these views depart at times widely from actual fact, but their existence constitutes a fact of first-rate importance in the history of Ireland throughout the last 1,000 years, and it is as much the duty of the historian to investigate the rise and development of opinions as to ascertain the nature and sequence of events.

This statement would not commend itself to Archdeacon O’Rorke, a vehement champion of Radical views respecting the early history of Ireland. He quotes in his preface from