Page:The Celtic Review volume 3.djvu/87

72 deeds; and of their respect for the sayings of the druids and soothsayers.

All these things are the commonplace of Irish romance, and I cannot imagine a description, made by a man viewing the people from outside, that in a brief space hits off a greater number of characteristic points than this of the Roman historian. It shows a great deal of accurate observation and inquiry.

We will take a few examples proving the accuracy of each of these statements in turn. . . . The manner of their feasting, to which Diodorus refers (see also Strabo, Bk. IV. ch. iv. § 3), was probably conditioned to a certain extent by the status of the families, or the special conditions under which they found themselves. The statement that they sat on the ground while eating is the only one which does not seem entirely borne out by the Irish stories. Probably this is due to the fact that the interior of houses of which descriptions have come down to us, are usually concerned with chief duns or strongholds, and not with the dwellings of the common people. The banqueting-hall of Tara, and, it would appear, those of other large halls formed on the same pattern as that of the kingly palace, are described as having a number of compartments or divisions, with doors between, all along the walls, which were occupied by the company according to their rank. These divisions were filled with seats or couches of some kind, and, as Diodorus describes, the centre of the hall was taken up by one or more large fires, at which the flesh-meat was roasted on spits, the animal being roasted whole on special occasions.

In these large establishments there were regular servants, stewards, and distributors, who attended the guests, but it may well have been that children waited on their elders in the lower ranks of society. The usual custom was to strew the floor with rushes, on which the guests probably seated themselves (see Táin bó Cualnge, Windisch, l. 114, p. 17; Mesca Ulad, Stokes, p. 13; Circuit of Murtough of the Leather Cloaks, Tracts Relating to Ireland, Ir. Archæol. Soc, vol. i.