Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/447

 9*s. XIL NOV. 28, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Brehon laws, otherwise the Fenechas which, though disturbed by successive invasions of Dane, Anglo-Norman, and Englishman, lasted until the seventeenth century constitutes to the student the most important and remunerative portion of the first volume. These laws, in which the col- lective wisdom of the Brehons or judges the special interpreters and, in a sense, administrators of the laws, a body of men in which we seem to see some species of approach to the French magistracy is preserved, have been in great part published in six volumes, of which one consists of a much-needed and very serviceable glossary. They took root in pagan times, a collection of them being made in 438 at the request of St. Patrick, to whom the Fenechas code was interpreted by a Christian convert. A committee of nine men was appointed, including Laegaire (Leary), King of Ireland, and other kings, ecclesiastics, and poets, and by them what is known as Cain Patrick, or Patrick's Laws, a version revised according to Scriptural law, is said to have been issued. Much that is mythical attached, not only to the laws, but to the Brehons them- selves, for whose maintenance, in some cases, lands were set apart. In these days it seems strange to Englishmen to find an Irish Attorney-General of James I., himself an Englishman, declaring that no people under the sun had a greater love than the Irish for even-handed and impartial justice.

Greek and Latin writers have little that is im- portant or trustworthy to say concerning Ireland, and C. Julius Solinus a geographer of the third century, who sponged upon Pliny, narrating fables such as that there were no bees in Ireland, and that when dust or pebbles from that country were scattered among alien hives the bees at once took fright and vanished may almost be accepted as representative. Civilization in Ireland was arrested by the incursions of the Danes and by Anglo- Norman invasions, until we can only judge by material remains and by written reports what, under more favourable conditions, Irish art and learning might have become. Literary sources are the lives of saints in Irish and Latin, martyr- ologies, glosses and glossaries, romantic literature, &c., many of those first named remaining still in MS. It is, of course, known that a mass of infor- mation preserved in the islands and highlands of Scotland is equally applicable to Ireland.

We can make no attempt to follow Dr. Joyce through his elaborate and scientifically arranged pages, but may only dip into them at widely sepa- rated portions. Under the head of ' Warfare ' we find that there were in Ireland, as elsewhere, professional female warriors, corresponding to Boa- dicea, whose Celtic name Buadac has the same signification as that of a later queen, Victoria. In theory the land in Ireland belonged to the tribe, a portion being assigned as mensal land to the king or chief. In the chapters concerning paganism our readers will trace what is perhaps most to the taste of the majority. Some traces of Phoenician influence are to be found in the worship of Bel ; but what is most interesting concerns belief in the fairies, Manannan Mac Lir (the Irish sea -god), the ban- shee, the leprechaun, Neit and Nemon (the god and goddess of battle), &c. The Pooka is not native Irish. Idols were generally worshipped, as were pillar stones. But one document is found in old Irish literature mentioning human sacrifice, chil- dren being slain at the shrine of Cromm Cruach in order that their parents might obtain corn, honey,

and milk. As in the kirk-grims and the like, the foundations of buildings were established by sprinkling them with the blood of human victims. A curious instance of correspondence with the Greek legend of Iphigenia is narrated i. 286. Under 'Geasa or Prohibition,' a species of taboo, much that is striking is found. Information is, of course, imparted concerning the writing known as Ogham. The view that learning in Ireland was confined to the monasteries is oppugned, and the account of lay schools, principally for the upper classes, repays study. After passing by such subjects as art, music, &c., we find much curious and some startling information regarding Irish medi- cine and methods of cure. Even more significant is what is supplied in the second volume as to the family, with questions concerning marriage and the position of women and children, the house, food, light, agriculture, mills, measures, locomotion, commerce, public assemblies, &c. Such space as we can assign to a single work is, how- ever, exhausted, and we can but commend the study of a profoundly interesting and trustworthy work to all who seek to obtain a species of know- ledge to which for long Englishmen have shown a reprehensible and not too explicable indifference. The illustrations to these volumes are, as we have said, numerous. They are also specially service- able. A fine index is an eminently satisfactory feature.

Great Masters. Parts II. and III. (Heinemann.) WE have already drawn attention to the appear- ance of the admirable and unique series of repro- ductions of the finest pictures of the world on which the Fine - Arts Publishing Company has bestowed the title of ' Great Masters.' Two further parts, which now appear, keep up the high level attained at the outset. Part II. contains Gains- borough's superb picture of Mrs. Robinson, the Perdita to the Florizel of the Prince of Wales, subsequently George IV. This portrait, in which Mrs. Robinson is accompanied by a colley dog, may be pronounced exquisite. It is from the Wallace Collection. From the gallery of Lord Howe come* Hals's 'Man with Guitar.' A couple of generations ago pictures by Hals were as common as they could well be ; now they are virtually priceless. The execution in this is marvellous. From the Cassel Gallery comes a delightful portrait by Rembrandt of Saskia van Uylenborch, his wife, and from the Louvre the 'Virgin, Infant Christ, and St. John' of Botticelli, with its sweet serenity of beauty. In Part III. the first attraction consists of the portrait of Giovanna degli Albizi by Domenico Ghirfandajo, the master of Michelangelo. This is from the Col- lection Rudolf Kann, Paris. Well-merited praise is bestowed in the accompanying appreciation on the artistic severity and restraint of this noble work, with " a dignity like in kind to that obtained by the Greek masters of sculpture." Hans Hol- bein's portrait of Georg Gisze, from the Berlin Museum, is an unsurpassable instance of repro- duction. ' Castle Bentheim,' by Jacob van Ruijsdael, from the gallery of Mr. A. Beit, is an absolute masterpiece of landscape and architectural design. Last comes from Madrid k The Surrender of Breda ' of Velasquez, one of the finest, best-known, and most amply discussed works of the master now, perhaps, most in request. The execution remains perfect, and no greater triumph of the latest pro- cesses of reproduction is to be anticipated, just as