Lake and hill for fish and fowl.”
They formed their ordinary implements and their weapons of warfare from flint, stone, bone, shells, and even wood.
“They were, then were not; they have lived and died,
No trace, no record of their date remaining.”
New comer succeeded new comer in Erin. This epoch was eminently characterized by the sway of brute force—a warlike front alone secured immunity from spoliation; in short, these times were governed on
“… the good old plan
That he should take who has the power,
And he should keep—who can.”
Wooded nature of the Country.—The ancient classical name of Ireland was Ierne, which some etymologists derive through its Greek form from the Celtic, signifying, they say, “the extremity,”[2] the “Ultima Thule” of classic writers; a mystic land, girded by unknown seas, and protected by phantom dangers, the product of imagination,
“Gorgons and hydras and chimeras dire.”