One of the men had taken the shell of a sea turtle, and stretched some thin strings of gut across it and he picked these strings with his fingers while singing his song.] They ate the bread cakes, and drank the wine, which made them very merry and gay. The old men, who later on were called bards, made a song in honour of Modor's victory, and one of them played the first music that man had ever heard. He had taken the shell of a sea turtle, and stretched some thin strings of gut across it and he picked these strings with his fingers while singing his song. Many hundreds of years later these bards, with their rude harps, wandered all through the country, from village to village, entertaining the people around the fires at night with songs of the mighty deeds of Modor and other great chiefs and leaders of the past. In those days, before people had learned to write, these bards were the ones who kept the history of the past, and even to-day we can find some of their songs and stories in the ancient sagas and legends of almost every people and country. Some of the deeds of these ancient heroes as told by the bards were so wonderful that the people came to look upon them as gods. One of the young men in Modor's boat made a new discovery, while the battle was going on. When the attacking canoes came alongside, he sprang into one of them, followed by some of his companions, and fought the crew with his axe. A shower of sling stones from another canoe flew about him. To protect his face and head from the stones he snatched up the round wicker top of one of the fish baskets, and held it before him, so that the sling stones bounced off and did him no harm. This was the first shield. Later on, when the battle was over, he took one of these round wicker tops, and stretched a piece of heavy leather over it. Then he fastened two leather thongs on the inside, so that he could slip his arm through them and so hold the shield before him while still having his hand free to grasp his bow. Modor, who was a great chief, as well as a skilful carpenter, saw how useful this was at once. He sent a party up the coast to where he had seen the reeds growing, and had them bring back many bundles of them. With these he showed the women how to make frames of basket-work, and cover them with tough hide, so that each man had a shield to defend himself with. [Illustration: THE FIRST ARMOUR Modor made wide gold bands and put them on each arm from the elbow to the shoulder, and these bands, originally ornaments, formed the first metal armour.]