Page 34 - Demo

34 Stephen Dunford: The Journey of The IrIsh
of value was a sét or séad, a young heifer. A higher unit was the cumal-the aforementioned female slave, reckoned as equal to six séads. Similar units are to be found in Homeric Greece, and even the Latin word for money, pecunia, comes from pecus, ‘cattle’. Furthermore, a man’s status was expressed in material terms by his eneclann or ‘honour-price’, and dam- ages due to him in a law case were assessed according to this price. Added to which, he was not permitted to make a legal contract for an amount worth more than this, nor was his evidence on oath valid in cases involving a larger amount.
Life was tough and busy in those days, even for the richest and noblest of individuals, and while there were craftsmen who did specialised work and were paid for it, with regard to the common things of life, every household was self-supporting.
As there was no machinery of any kind, everything had to be fashioned by hand, so each family provided its own food-mostly porridge and milk, salted or fresh meat or fish, oaten or wheaten bread, butter and cheese, with venison, salmon, and on special occasions, honey.
Again, the women of each house spun and wove wool into cloth, dyed in bright colours, then cut, sewed and embroidered the garments for the entire family. The Greeks and Ro- mans always spoke of the Celts as wearing trousers, but in reality, they normally wore a form of kilt-like tunic and only the lower classes wore trousers which were tight-fitting and could be short or long. They were usually worn together with a short jacket. On the other hand, the upperclasses and aristocracy, both men and women, wore a voluminous cloak called a brat over a shirt or tunic-the léine –which varied in length. The brat was often secured with a fine brooch. It is recounted that it was Tiernmas, a Milesian King who ruled about 1000 B.C., who is credited with having established the practice of wearing garments of different hues with the object of distinguishing different classes of his subjects.
For example, the dress of a slave was to contain only one colour, that of a peasant two, that of a soldier three, &c. Tiernmas is also credited with the introduction of public worship of idols and named as the first who smelted gold and silver, which he used for goblets and brooches.
The main weapons used by these ancients were the craiseach, a large thick, blunt-pointed, sharp-edged spear, mounted on a long heavy handle; the sleagh, a light, narrow, sharp-point- ed spear; the laighin, said to have been introduced by Labhraidh Loing-seach, from Gaul, seems to have differed but little from this. These particular weapons were used chiefly for thrusting. The gae and fogad were light javelins used for throwing; so too the saiget, which was kept in a
fffffff