l_.--Hence the term "hall" is still used to denote mansions of
more than ordinary importance. The hall was the principal part of the
ancient Saxon house, and the term used for the part was easily
transferred to the whole.

[250] _Discovery_.--_Ulster Arch. Journal_, vol. v. p. 83.

[251] _Assigned_.--Petrie's _Tara_, p. 200.

[252] _Smith_.--The animals were brought to the smith, who knocked them
down with his big hammer: hence, probably, the name of Smithfield for a
cattle market. He was an important personage in the olden time. In the
Odyssey, as armourer, he ranks with the bard and physician.

[253] _Tinnes_.--Dr. Petrie does not give the meaning of this word, but
Dr. O'Donovan supplies the deficiency in the Book of Rights, where he
explains it to mean a salted pig, or in plain English, bacon.

[254] _Table_.--In the earliest ages of Tara's existence, the household
may have been served as they sat on the benches round the hall. The
table was at first simply a board: hence we retain the term a hospitable
board; a board-room, a room where a board was placed for writing on. The
board was carried away after dinner, and the trestles on which it stood,
so as to leave room for the evening's amusements.

[255] _Cooked_.--Wright's _Domestic Manners_, p. 87. The knights in this
engraving are using their shields as a substitute for a table. At p. 147
there is an illustration of the method of cooking on a spit; this is
turned by a boy. The Irish appear to have had a mechanical arrangement
for this purpose some centuries earlier. Bellows, which are now so
commonly used in Ireland, and so rare in England, appear to have been a
Saxon invention.

[256] _Poems_.--_Ulster Arch. Journal_, vol. i. p. 108. It would appear
as if corn had been eaten raw, or perhaps partly scorched, at an early
period, as was customary in eastern countries. Teeth have been found in
crania taken from our ancient tombs, quite worn down by some such
process of mastication.

[257] _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.

[258] _Gold_.--Book of Rights, pp. 145, 209, &c. The King of Cashel was
entitled to a hundred drinking horns.--p. 33.

[259] _Beer_.--Book of Rights, p. 9.

[260] _Period_.--Accounts will be given later of the use of _aqua vitae_,
or whisky, after the English invasion. The English appear to