At midday, whatever game they had killed during the morning they sent by their attendants to the place appointed for the evening meal, which was always chosen near a wood and beside a stream or lake. The attendants roasted one part on hazel spits before immense fires of wood, and baked the rest on hot stones in a pit dug in the earth. The stones were heated in the fires. At the bottom of the pit the men placed a layer of these hot stones: then a layer of meat-joints wrapped in [sedge] to keep them from being burned: next another layer of hot stones: down on that more meat; and so on till the whole was disposed of. When the hunters returned, their first care was to bathe, so as to remove the sweat and mire of the chase. Then they attended to their hair: for they wore the hair long, and were very particular about combing, dressing, and plaiting it. By the time their preparations were completed, the meat was ready: and the hungry hunters sat down to their smoking-hot savoury meal.
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Ancient Irish ornamented comb in the National Museum, Dublin. |
Ancient Irish gold earring, one of a pair found in Co. Roscommon |
After the meal they set up their tents, and each man prepared his bed. He first put down a thick layer of brushwood from the surrounding forest; on that he spread a quantity of moss; and on that again a layer of fresh rushes, on which he slept soundly after his day of joyous, healthful toil. In the old tales these three materials—brushwood, moss, and rushes—are called the "Three beddings of the Fena."[33]
The Fena were in the service of the kings, and their main duties were to uphold justice and put down oppression and wrong, to [suppress] robbers and other evil-doers, to [exact] fines and tributes for the king, and to guard the harbours of the country against pirates and invaders. For these services they received a fixed pay: during the six months hunting season, their pay was merely the animals they killed, of which they used the flesh for food and sold the skins.
[An Irish poet] of our day has written of the Milesian people in general, including those Fena of Erin and the Red Branch Knights:—
"Long, long ago, beyond the misty space
Of twice a thousand years,
In Erin old there dwelt a mighty race
Taller than Roman spears;
Like oaks and towers they had a giant grace,
Were fleet as deers,
With winds and wave they made their biding place,
Those western shepherd [seers].
Great were their deeds, their passions, and their sports.
With clay and stone,
They piled on [strath] and shore those [mystic forts],
Not yet o'erthrown:
On [cairn-crowned hills] they held their council-courts;
While youths alone,
With giant dogs explored the [elk] resorts
And brought them down."
