Roughly speaking, one may compare it with the civilization of the Greeks, as described by Homer.[22] Both peoples were in the tribal and pastoral stage of culture, in which the chiefs are the great cattle-owners round whom their less wealthy fellows gather. Both wear much the same attire, use the same kind of weapons, and fight in the same manner—from the war-chariot, a vehicle already obsolete even in Ireland by the first century of the Christian era. Battles are fought single-handed between chiefs, the ill-armed common people contributing little to their result, and less to their history. Such chiefs are said to be divinely descended—sons, even, of the immortal gods. Their tremendous feats are sung by the bards, who, like the Homeric poets, were privileged persons, inferior only to the war-lord. Ancient Greek and Ancient Celt had very much the same conceptions of life, both as regards this world and the next. We may gather much detailed information of the early inhabitants of the British Islands from our various authorities.[23] Their clothes, which consisted, according to the Latin writers, of a blouse with sleeves, trousers fitting closely round the ankles, and a shawl or cloak, fastened at the shoulder with a brooch, were made either of thick felt or of woven cloth dyed with various brilliant colours. The writer Diodorus tells us that they were crossed with little squares and lines, “as though they had been sprinkled with flowers”. They were, in fact, like “tartans”, and we may believe Varro, who tells us that they “made a gaudy show”. The men alone seem to have worn hats, which were of soft felt, the women’s hair being uncovered, and tied in a knot behind. In time of battle, the men also dispensed with any head-covering, brushing their abundant hair forward into a thick mass, and dyeing it red with a soap made of goat’s fat and beech ashes, until they looked (says Cicero’s tutor Posidonius, who visited Britain about 110 B.C.) less like human beings than wild men of the woods. Both sexes were fond of ornaments, which took the form of gold bracelets, rings, pins, and brooches, and of beads of amber, glass, and jet. Their knives, daggers, spear-heads, axes, and swords were made of bronze or iron; their shields were the same round target used by the Highlanders at the battle of Culloden; and they seem also to have had a kind of lasso to which a hammer-shaped ball was attached, and which they used as the Gauchos of South America use their _bola_. Their war-chariots were made of wicker, the wooden wheels being armed with sickles of bronze. These were drawn either by two or four horses, and were large enough to hold several persons in each. Standing in these, they rushed along the enemy’s lines, hurling darts, and driving the scythes against all who came within reach. The Romans were much impressed by the skill of the drivers, who “could check their horses at full speed on a steep incline, and turn