Smyth yn byw yn Nulyn, a thua 1561 rhoddodd ar glawr ddarlun byw iawn o waith y reacaire. Son yr oedd Smyth am yr aos dan (h.y. gwyr wrth gerdd) a'u dylanwad melldithiol ar y wlad wrth annos gwyr i anrheithio a'u canmol am wneud:
"They will then drive all the kine and plowe horses, with all other cattell, and drive them awaye. Then muste they have a bagpipe bloinge afore them, and if any of theis cattell fortune to waxe wearie or faynt, they will kill them, rather than it sholde do the honeur's goode... and when he is in a safe place, they will fall to the devision of the spoile, accordinge to the dyscresion of the captin.... Now comes the Rymer that made the Ryme (the Aos Dan which is to say in English the bards), with his Rakry. The Rakry is he that shall utter the ryme; and the Rymer himself sitts by with the captain verie proudlye. He brings with him also his Harper, who please (plays) all the while that the raker sings the ryme. Also he hath his Barde, which is a kinde of folise (foolish) fellowe; who also must have a horse geven him; the harper must have a new safern shurte (saffron shirt), and a mantell, and a hacnaye; and the Rakry must have xx or xxx kine, and the Rymer him— self horse and harnes with a nag to ride on, a silver goblett, a pair of bedes of corall, with buttons of silver, etc."
(Gwel Prolegomena, Quiggin, td. 20—1.)
Wele air arall am Reacaire o lyfr yr O'Connor Don:
"Their royal countenances flushed and glowing, as they hearken to verses and poetic lays on their ancestors and forbears, eloquently uttered by declaimers and royal bards" (reacaireadh a rioghbhard), gwel Knott, T. Dall, td. XL.
Y mae'r bardd Spencer yn dyst o'r un peth yn ei View of the State of Ireland, 1596 td. 119:
"There is amongst the Irish a certain kind of people, called Bardes, which are to them instead of poets, whose
