That was
easy; for early Irish civilization seems to have existed only in the
convents and for the religious; and when they were crushed, mere barbarism
was left behind. And now the same process went on in the east of Ireland,
which went on a generation or two later in the east of Scotland. The Danes
began to settle down into peaceful colonists and traders. Ireland was
poor; and the convents plundered once could not be plundered again. The
Irish were desperately brave. Ill-armed and almost naked, they were as
perfect in the arts of forest warfare as those modern Maories whom they so
much resembled; and though their black skenes and light darts were no
match for the Danish swords and battle-axes which they adopted during the
middle age, or their plaid trousers and felt capes for the Danish helmet
and chain corslet, still an Irishman was so ugly a foe, that it was not
worth while to fight with him unless he could be robbed afterwards. The
Danes, who, like their descendants of Northumbria, the Lowlands, and
Ulster, were canny common-sense folk, with a shrewd eye to interest,
found, somewhat to their regret, that there were trades even more
profitable than robbery and murder. They therefore concentrated themselves
round harbors and river mouths, and sent forth their ships to all the
western seas, from Dublin, Waterford, Wexford, Cork, or Limerick.
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