The discovery of the weapons was made at a locality called Island Bridge, and many of them were fortunately secured for the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, where they may now be seen. The swords are long and straight, formed for cutting as well as thrusting, and terminate in points formed by rounding off the edge towards the back of the blade. The hilts are very remarkable in form, and in one or two instances, like the example we have engraved, are highly ornamented. The mountings are generally of a kind of brass, but several richly plated with silver were found, and it is said that one of them had a hilt of solid gold. The spears are long and slender, and similar in form to the lance-heads used in some of the cavalry corps.
All these weapons, with one exception, are composed of a soft kind of iron. Many of the swords were found doubled up, a circumstance for which it is difficult to assign a reason, as they had evidently been purposely bent. The sword we have represented in our engraving, is remarkable for the unusual degree of ornament which appears upon its hilt, and also for its material, steel.
DINNER IN CHINA.
It is certain that a real Chinese dinner would be a very odd thing in the eyes of a stranger, especially if he were one of those who think, as some people do, that there is only one way of living. To begin dinner with the dessert, and end it with the soup; to drink the wine smoking hot, out of little china cups, and have your food brought to you ready cut up into small pieces, and to be presented with a couple of sticks, instead of a knife and fork, to eat it with; to have, instead of napkins, a provision of little bits of silk paper by the side of your plate, which, as you use, the attendants carry off; to leave your place between the courses, to smoke or amuse yourself; and to raise your chop-sticks to your forehead, and then place them horizontally upon your cup, to signify that you have finished your dinner;—all these things would doubtless seem very odd, and create the curiosity of Europeans. The Chinese, on the other hand, can never get over their surprise at our way of dining. They ask how we can like to drink cold fluids, and what can have put it into our heads to make use of a trident to carry food to our mouths, at the risk of pricking our lips or poking our eyes out. They think it very droll to see nuts put on the table in their shell, and ask why our servants cannot take the trouble to peel the fruit, and take the bones out of the meat. They are themselves certainly not very difficult in the nature of their food, and like such things as fried silkworms and preserved larvæ, but they cannot understand the predilection of our epicures for high game, nor for cheese that appears to belong to the class of animated beings.
CISTERN OF MAJOLICA WARE.
We have engraved the annexed, as it affords at once both a beautiful specimen of the potter's art, and also an example of the taste and luxury of the present day in articles of expensive ornament. It is a cistern made of Majolica, or the enamelled pottery of Italy, the most beautiful specimens of which were made in the sixteenth century. The one before us came to England from the collection of the Borghese Palace; and at the great sale at Stowe, the seat of the Duke of Buckingham, was disposed of by auction for sixty-four guineas, and this although it was much broken.
THEATRES IN THE TIME OF SHAKSPEARE.