Fig. 438.—Limerick. 1/6
There are two distinct classes of these instruments, so far as the process of their manufacture is concerned, viz. those which are cast in one piece, and those which are formed of sheet-metal turned over and riveted to form the tube. There are also two distinct varieties of the instrument, viz. those in which the aperture for blowing is at the end, and those in which it is at the side.
Sir W. Wilde, in his Catalogue[1375] of the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, has devoted several pages to a detailed description of the trumpets found in Ireland, to which the reader is referred. Those which he figures are all curved, some almost to a semicircle, others to a more irregular sweep. Some straight tubes which were found in company with several curved horns he has regarded, but without sufficient cause, as the portions of a “commander’s staff,” or of the handle of a halberd. One of these is shown in Fig. 438, borrowed from his Catalogue.[1376] A similar straight tube, (23¾ inches,) found with trumpets at Dunmanway, Co. Cork, is now in the British Museum. The earliest known instance of the discovery of such instruments is, according to Wilde, that recorded by Sir Thomas Molyneux,[1377] in 1725, of a “short side-mouthed trumpet” being found with others in a mound near Carrickfergus, which was then regarded as of Danish origin. But so early as 1713 Mr. F. Nevill described eight bronze trumpets found at Dungannon,[1378] Co. Tyrone. In 1750 thirteen or fourteen more curved bronze horns were discovered between Cork and Mallow, three of which are described and figured in the “Vetusta Monumenta.”[1379]
Fig. 439.—Tralee.
There is a remarkable resemblance between these trumpets and three of those found near Chute Hall, Tralee, Co. Kerry, and described by Mr. Robert Day, F.S.A., in the Journal of the Royal Historical and Archæological Association of Ireland.[1380] By his kindness I am able here to reproduce his cuts as Figs. 439, 440, and 441. It will be observed that in two of them the ends are open, so as to be adapted for the reception of mouth-pieces, and that the end of the other is closed. In this there is a lateral opening to which to apply the mouth. It is on the inner curve of the trumpet, but in some other cases it is at the side. As Mr. Day has observed, there are rivet-holes at the wide ends of two of the horns, as if for securing some more widely expanding end, while in the more bell-mouthed examples no such rivet-holes are present. The trumpet shown in Fig. 440 is made of two pieces which fit exactly into each other, one of them being nearly straight. The length of this instrument, taken along the external curve, is 50 inches, and its bell-shaped mouth is 4 inches in diameter. It will be seen that at the mouths, and in other positions on these three trumpets, there are small conical projections or spikes always in groups of four. Mr. Day has suggested the possibility of these being added to give effect to blows with the trumpets in case it became necessary to use them as weapons of offence. He has also pointed out the remarkable resemblance between the horns with the lateral openings and the war trumpets in use in Central Africa, which are made from elephants’ tusks. One of these is shown in Fig. 442, also kindly lent by Mr. Day. The conch-shell trumpets of Fiji have also lateral openings.
Figs. 440 and 441.—Tralee.
As will subsequently be seen, trumpets of the two types represented by Figs. 439 and 440 have been found associated with bronze weapons.
