Weir.—Salt appears to have been used also at a very ancient period, though it cannot now be ascertained how it was procured. Perhaps it was obtained from native sources now unknown.
Gold.—Book of Rights, pp. 145, 209, &c. The King of Cashel was entitled to a hundred drinking horns.—p. 33.
Beer.—Book of Rights, p. 9.
Period.—Accounts will be given later of the use of aqua vitæ, or whisky, after the English invasion. The English appear to have appreciated this drink, for we find, in 1585, that the Mayor of Waterford sent Lord Burleigh a "rundell of aqua vitæ;" and in another letter, in the State Paper Office, dated October 14, 1622, the Lord Justice Coke sends a "runlett of milde Irish uskebach," from his daughter Peggie (heaven save the mark!) to the "good Lady Coventry," because the said Peggie "was so much bound to her ladyship for her great goodness." However, the said Lord Justice strongly recommends the uskebach to his lordship, assuring him that "if it please his lordship next his heart in the morning to drinke a little of this Irish uskebach, it will help to digest all raw humours, expell wynde, and keep his inward parte warm all the day after." A poor half-starved Irishman in the present century, could scarcely have brought forward more extenuating circumstances for his use of the favourite beverage; and he might have added that he had nothing else to "keep him warm."