They had torques for the neck made of twisted gold bars; and the elaborate and immensely expensive crescents or gorgets have been already described ([p. 96]). There was a gold ornament—a kind of open ring with bosses or buttons on the ends—called Bunnĕ-do-at, worn on the breast: suspended from an ornamented button. Thin circular gold plates were also worn fastened on the breast: and as for brooches, they were of all shapes and sizes, some plain, simple, and cheap, some of gold or other expensive material, of elaborate workmanship.
Pictures and full descriptions of all these ornaments will be found in either of the two Social Histories.
CHAPTER XVII.
HOW THEY FENCED IN AND TILLED THEIR LAND.
Ever since that remote time when legend and history begin to give us glimpses of the occupations of the inhabitants of this country, we find them engaged in Agriculture and Pasturage. For both of these purposes open land was necessary; and accordingly, people worked hard in old times to clear the land from wood. But there was always more pasturage than tillage.
In very early ages there was little need of fences, for the people were few and the land was mostly common property. But as the population increased it became more and more necessary to fence off the portions belonging to different individuals. The Brehon Law describes the several kinds of farm fences, some of which are still used; and it lays down strict rules regarding them.
Fences or merings of a more enduring kind were needed to bound off large territories or sub-kingdoms. There were several kinds of these territorial boundaries, some natural, some artificial, the most usual being rivers, roads, pillar-stones, and great ramparts of earth sometimes extending for miles.
Manure—chiefly stable-manure—is often mentioned in the Brehon Laws. The laws also take account of several things that add to the value of land; such as a wood properly fenced in: a mine of copper or iron: the site of an old mill [with millrace and other accessories, rendering easy the erection of a new mill]: a road opening up communication: situation by the sea, by a river, or by a cooling-pond for cattle. The art of obtaining water by digging deeply into the ground was understood and practised.