and most educated men of their day) to pass from one province into another, at pleasure, on a circuit, as it may be called, of visits among the kings, chiefs, and nobles of the country; and, on these occasions, they used to receive rich gifts, in return for the learning they communicated, and the poems in which they sounded the praises of their patrons or the condemnation of their enemies. Sometimes the poet's visit bore also a diplomatic character; and he was often, with diplomatic astuteness, sent, by direction of his own provincial king, into another province, with which some cause of quarrel was sought at the moment. On such occasions he was instructed not to be satisfied with any gifts or presents that might be offered to him, and even to couch his refusals in language so insolent and sarcastic as to provoke expulsion if not personal chastisement. And, whenever matters proceeded so far, then he returned to his master, and to him transferred the indignities and injuries received by himself, and publicly called on him, as a matter of personal honour, to resent them. And thus, on occasions where no real cause of dispute or complaint had previously existed, an ambitious or contentious king or chief found means, in those days just as in our own, to pick what public opinion regarded as an honourable quarrel with his neighbour." To these words of O'Curry's I should add, that the rules of hospitality and honour with regard to the poets in ancient Erinn forbade the refusal to them of anything, whatsoever it might be, they chose to ask for; and this was now and then made the means of embarrassing an enemy. Thus, on the day of Cúchulainn's death, his cunning foes sent a poet to ask him for his spear[1] when
- ↑ Rev. Celt. iij. 177—180.
