But the question arises, Did they so repress such perversions of
history as their wandering undisciplined members might commit?
Too much, of course, must not reasonably be expected. It was an
age of creative thought, and such thought is difficult to control;
but that one of the prime objects and prime works of the bards, as
an organisation, was to preserve a record of a certain class of
historical facts is certain. The succession of the kings and of the
great princely families was one of these. The tribal system, with
the necessity of affinity as a ground of citizenship, demanded such
a preservation of pedigrees in every family, and particularly in
the kingly houses. One of the chief objects of the triennial feis
of Tara was the revision of such records by the general assembly of
the bards, under the presidency of the Ard-Ollav of Ireland. In the
more ancient times, such records were rhymed and alliterated, and
committed to memory--a practice which, we may believe on the
authority of Caesar, treating of the Gauls, continued long after
the introduction of letters. Even at those local assemblies also,
which corresponded to great central and national feis of Tara, the
bards were accustomed to meet for that purpose. In a poem [Note:
O'Curry's Manners and Customs, Vol. I., page 543.], descriptive of
the fair [Note: On the full meaning of this word "fair," see Chap.
xiii., Vol. I.] of Garman, we see this--
"Feasts with the great feasts of Temair,
Fairs with the fairs of Emania,
Annals there are verified.
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