fOr 
 
 
 
 
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PH(ENICIAN IRELAND. 
 
 AUCTORE 
 DOCTORE JOACHIMO LAURENTIO VILLANUEVA, 
 
 R^GII Hisr. OIIDINIS CAROL! III. EQUITF, CONCIIENSIS K'CLlSr.T. CA NONICO, 
 
 RKGIO ECCLESIASTE, ET M ATIUTK.NSIUM ACAbEMIAHUM 
 
 IIISI'AN^F. I:T IIIITOIIl*. SOCIO. 
 
 TRANSLATED, AND ILLUSTRATED WITH NOTES, 
 
 AN ADUrnONAL PLATE, AND PTOLOMEY'S MAP MADE 
 
 MODERN, 
 
 BY HENRY O'BRIEN, ESQ. A.B. 
 
 Aniion OF tiik "imiize essay" upon the "round towehs" of Irf.lanp. 
 
 Mulla renascenlur quje jam cecidere, cadentque 
 Quffi nunc sunt in usu ! — Hor. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 LONGMAN & Co. PATERNOSTER ROW ; 
 JOSEPH RUBINS, BRIDE COURT, FLEET STREET. 
 
 DUBLIN: 
 
 R. M. TIMMS, GRAFTON STREET ; M.KEENE & SON, COLLEGE 
 GREEN; AND, F. VV. WAKEMAN, D'OLLIER STREET. 
 
 1833. 
 
 \o • ' •■ 
 
O'NEIIl LIBRARY 
 

 ADVEllTISEMKNT. 
 
 A great portion of this work, as well in print as manu- 
 script, liaving been destroyed at the late conflagration of 
 Mr. Hardy's printing office in Dublin, where it was being 
 published, the translator was obliged to commence his 
 labors anew, else the volume should long since have been 
 given to the public. 
 
 :>oyy 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 TO THE 
 
 MOST NOBLE THE MARQUIS OF THOMOND, 
 
 &c. &c. &c. 
 
 My lord marquis, 
 
 Had I not had the honor of bearing the 
 same name, and of deriving consanguinity and con- 
 nection from that ancient stock, of which your Lord- 
 sliip is, at once, the deserving head and the distin- 
 guished representative, yet — when about to launch 
 into light a work, which purports to unfold the origin 
 of Ireland's early colonization, and seeking for a pa-* 
 tron whose discriminating taste and personal ac- 
 quirements, would add a charm to the advantages of 
 station and of birth — my eye should institictively 
 direct itself toward you ; — for, where, in the un- 
 broken catalogue of Iran's proud-born sons, could 
 I find another name so intimately interwoven with 
 
VI 
 
 her hulci/on splendors, as that of the benign 
 patriarch of the house of Thomond ? 
 
 But it is not alone, my Lord, as occupying a princely 
 post, in monarchical succession, among- the Scythian^ 
 or later Irish — immortalised by the glories of Cean- 
 chora and Clontarf — that this homage should be 
 your due ; but as the direct descendant of the very 
 principal and leader of that earlier and nobler ^ and, 
 in every way more estimable and illustrious dynasty, 
 the Tuatha Danaans, or true, Iranian, Milesian 
 Irish — the incorporation of whom with the Scythians 
 ■ — after the latter, by conquest, had wrested from 
 them the soil — gave rise to the compound of Scoto- 
 Milesians ; which no one has heretofore been able 
 to elucidate. 
 
 These Tuatha Danaans, my Lord, whom your 
 forefather, Brien, conducted into our " sacred island," 
 were the expelled Budhists of Persia -neither Phoe- 
 nicians nor Celts — whom the intolerance of the 
 Brahmins and the persecution of the Rajas had 
 thrown upon the ocean, over whose bosom wafted 
 
 * Wlio came not from Scandinavia but the place which is 
 now called Tartary. 
 
vu 
 
 to our genial sliores, they did not only import with 
 them all the culture of the cast, with its accom- 
 panying refinement and polished civilization — • 
 evidenced by those memorials of lunettes, anklets, 
 fibula), gold crowns, paterae, &c., with which oiir 
 green valleys still abound — but raised the country 
 to that pinnacle of literary and religious beatitude, 
 which made it appear, to the fancies of distant and 
 enraptured *' bards," more the day dream of romance, 
 than the sober outline of an actual locality. This, 
 my Lord, will account, for the scepticism of Dio-^ 
 dorus as to the " Hyperborean Isle ;*' and, at the 
 same time, for the vivid portraiture and enchanting 
 delineation, in which the divine Orpheus sung of 
 its liappy inhabitants. 
 
 After the establishment of this colony in our in- 
 vigorating region, b. c. 1200, no one can know better 
 than your Lordship's self, how that — in memory of 
 theirybrwer residence — they gave it the name of Iran 
 
 * The word Bards, emancipated from the mystification of 
 etymological empyrics, is but a modification of Boreades, 
 the name of our ancient Irish poetic divines — who, again, were 
 so denominated, not less in reference to their geographical 
 position than their elementary worship: 
 
VUl 
 
 —erroneously culled Erin — which— signifying-, us it 
 does, the land of the faithful, or the sacred isle — , 
 shews the existence of this epithet before the reve- 
 lation of Christianity. This original " Irmi" the 
 early Greeks — who Were Pelas^i, and allies of our 
 Tuatha Danaans — comnuited into lern^ — a mere 
 translation of the word^ from, ieros, sacred ; and, neos, 
 an island — which, again, the Latins, without, at all, ~ 
 knowing the meaning of the term,* transformed into 
 Hibernia ; f but which, however, with soul-stirring 
 triumph, means exactly the same thing, namely, 
 " sacred island" — the initial H, being only the aspi- 
 rate of the Greek, ieros, sacred ; neos, island re- 
 
 * Ami yet the priwt«v«/ sanctity of our isle was admitted 
 by llieir vvrilfr Aviemis, whon he s&ys ct" it, *' aaciam sic insu- 
 \aM(\\%evepiisci" De Oris Mariliinis. 
 
 f This name, therefore, wliich has so much puzzleil etymo- 
 logists to analyse, has nothing on earth to do with Hiar, the 
 west ; or, Iberin, extremes ; or Heber, or, Ilcremon ; or any other 
 ancU oil ttdudish nonsense. What, then, becomes of (he reveries 
 of Mr. Ritson ? " This country" (Ireland) says he, " it appears 
 was already inhabited by the Uiberni, or Hiberiones, of whose 
 origin, any more than that of the Scots, nothing is known, but 
 by conjecture, that the former were a colony from Britain." — 
 Introduction to*' xhinuls of the Caledonians, Picts, and Scots." — ■ 
 Never was such ignorance betrayed since the beginning of the 
 
IX 
 
 maining unaltered, and the letter, h, only interposed 
 for sound sake. So that, whether we consider it 
 as, Iran, lerne or Hibernia ; or under the mul- 
 tiplied variations, which diverge, almost inter- 
 niinahly, from those three originals, in the several 
 languages which they respectively represent — they 
 will be found, each and all, to resolve themselves 
 into this one, great, incontrovertible, position of 
 —the " Sacred Island." 
 
 But it was not alone, my Lord, under this vague 
 designation of sanctity, that your venerable fore- 
 fathers identified themselves with our island ; but — 
 lest there should be any misconception as to the 
 species of worship whence that " sanctity" had ema- 
 nated — they gave this scene of its exercise two other 
 
 world. The word Hiberni, vulgarised Hiberiones, in English, 
 Hibernians, is not the naraeof any particular people, but a des- 
 criptive epithet, meaning " inhabitants of the sacred island" — 
 our own Irt-in. — And the people whose character had obtained 
 it this designation, had no connection whatever with Britain I 
 Equally in the dark was he as to the origin and era of the 
 Scots, as, indeed, was every other icriter up to this date. May 
 15th, 1833, 071 the Ancient History of Scotland. But if Mr. 
 Ritson was right in asserting that " nothing was known" on 
 those matters, he should have confined the dogma to his own 
 resources — other resources now shew the reverse. 
 
names, viz., Pkud hils, and Inis-na-Pkuodka — 
 whicli, at once, associate the "worship" with the 
 profession of the worshippers — for, Pkud Inis, is 
 Biidh Inis — Ph, or, F, being only the aspirate of, 
 /?, and commiitable with it — that is, Budh Island : 
 and Inis~na-Pliuodlia, is Inis-na Buodha, tliat is, 
 the 'island of Eudha. 
 
 Your' Lordship must also know, how that, to cele- 
 brate the mysteries of their religious creed, they 
 erected those temples, which still embellish our land- 
 scape ; cind wliich — mystified in their character, like 
 their prototypes in the east, under the vague desig- 
 nations of " Pillars" and " Round Towers" — have 
 puzzled the antiquaries of all countries to develope, 
 until I had the good fortune to pierce the cloud. 
 
 And, yet, my Lord, will you not commisserate 
 with me the degeneracy ? and say " how are the 
 mighty fallen ? " when informed that the individual 
 who has revived so many intlhs, immersed beneath 
 the rubbish of three thousand years accumulation — 
 and that when his researches did not apply alone to 
 Ireland,* but took in the scope of the ivhole ancient 
 
 * Tlie forinatioij as well astlie date of this, the present name 
 of our island, I account for in a forthcoming note. 
 
XI 
 
 world — lias been defrauded of that prize for which 
 his zeal had been enlisted, and his young energies 
 evoked ? while— from that system of '* jobbing" with 
 which our country has been long accursed — he lias 
 seen the badge of his victorij transferred to another, 
 merely because that other was a member of the 
 council of the deciding tribunal, who disregarded 
 the crying fact, that the whole texture of their 
 friend's essai/ nuisl, incvifabh/, be unienable!* 
 
 However, my Lord, in the consciousness of your 
 countenance I find my consolation ; and, soon as my 
 "Towers" appear, I doubt not, this wise(1) '* tribu- 
 nal" will reap the fruits, together, of their own 
 discomfiture and of my revenge. 
 
 In the mean time, my Lord, I have the honor to 
 subscribe myself, 
 
 With every feeling of respect, 
 
 and affectionate consideration, 
 
 your Lordship's most obliged, most faithful 
 
 and most devoted, humble servant, 
 
 HENRY O'BRIEN. 
 
 * Of this I give, by anticipation, the most startling and 
 overwhelming proof, even in a note appended towards the end of 
 the 33rd chapter of the present work. 
 
xu 
 
 TO THE PUBLIC. 
 
 1 deem it right to publish the following correspondence for 
 two reasons — firstly, as an apology to my countrymen for any 
 harshness of expression which may appear in the ensuing 
 " Preface ;" and, secondly, as an act of justice to myself, to 
 assert my right against the oppression of a " Society" who 
 would not only fain extinguish the dispeller of their darkness, 
 but bury in the mire of oblivion and disregard those miracles of 
 history which his industry has unfolded. 
 
 To be explicit. The Royal Irish Academy, in their avotved 
 desire to arrive at some elucidation of the origin of the '* Round 
 Towers," proposed, in December, 1830, a premium of a " Gold 
 Medal and Fifty Pounds," to the author of an approved Essay, 
 in which all particulars respecting them were expected to be 
 eixplained. This manifesto I never saw ; — the prescribed period 
 passed over, and the several candidates sent in their works. 
 After a perusal of two or three months, the Academy came to 
 n second resolution, which exhibited itself in the following 
 form : — 
 
 "ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY HOUSE, 
 
 " Dublin, February 21, 1832. 
 
 " It having appeared to the Royal Irish Academy that none 
 of the Essays given in on the subject of the ' Round Towers,' 
 
XIV 
 
 as atlvertiscul in Decembtn-, 11)30, liavu salisfitnl tin; coiulilioiis 
 of (lie (jucstioii, thoy liiive come (oIIk! lollowiiiii, Utsoltilioiis : 
 
 «« 1st. — That the question be atlvertised agnin us lollows: — 
 
 " 'The Royal Irish Academy hereby give Notice, that 
 they will give a Premium of Fifty Pounds and the Gold Medal, 
 to the Author of an approved Essay on the Ilount) I'owers ol 
 Ireland, in which it is expected that the characteristic archi- 
 tectural peculiarities belonging' to all those ancient buildings 
 now existing shall be noticed, and the uncatuinty in which 
 their origin and uses are involved, be satisfactorily removed.' 
 
 "2nd. — That the time be extended to the 1st of June jiext, 
 for receiving other Essays on said subject, and fur allowing the 
 Authors of the Essays already given in to enlarge and improve 
 them ; for which purpose they will be returned, on application 
 at the Academy House. 
 
 *• All Essays^ as usual, to be sent post-free to the Rev. J. 
 H. Singer, D. D., Secretary, at the Academy House, 114, 
 Grafton Street, Dublin ; each Essay being inscribed with some 
 motto, and accompanied with a sealed billet, superscribed with 
 same motto, in which shall be written the author's name and 
 address." 
 
 Now, 1 put it, frankly, to any dispassionate observer, whether 
 it could, tor a moment, be supposed, that the propounders of 
 this document had seriously contemplated even the possibility 
 of ** receiving other Essays on said subject." What ! a subject, 
 whicli had baffled the researches and laughed to scorn the im- 
 potence of all writers, of all countries, from almost the earliest 
 era — that this should be embarked in by a new adventurer, at 
 three months' notice ? And that when our Academy itself — 
 after many fruitless attempts to obtain information on the point, 
 before — had allowed the candidates, in the Jirst instance, moro 
 than a twelve month for their composition ; so that, during the 
 three additional months now extended, they had only " to 
 
XV 
 
 enlarge and improve them !" The thing is absurd! It is mon- 
 strously inconsistent! And offensive alike to common sense, 
 as to honesty ! 
 
 Yes ! I have the most startling evidences — the most astound- 
 ing /oc/s — the most direct positive and substantial affirmations — 
 to shew, that the Royal Irish Academy, at the very moment in 
 wliich they published this second invitation, had actually de- 
 termined to award the Gold Medal and Premium io one of their 
 oiim Council! — in whose favor, alone, the three additional months 
 were allowed, for the completion of his work — and, consequently, 
 that the insertion of the clause by which new Essays were 
 challenged, was but to give the color of liberality to a dis- 
 honourable niauuMivrc ! 
 
 Uisregardirig, however, what their generalship had calculated, 
 and looking solely to the terms and the wording of their prO' 
 clamation, — by which I found that I was entitled to enter the 
 lists, — I grappled with the question with all the ardour of my 
 nature, and, heaven and earth, night and day, in difficulties 
 and in sorrow, I labored, until 1 finished my " Essay" against 
 the appoiiit(Ml hour, when —a hrain-blow to their expectations — 
 I sent it in - full satisfied, from the consciousness of its imper- 
 turbable axioms, that all the powers of error and wickedness 
 combined could not withhold from it the suffrage of the adver- 
 tised medal. 
 
 Four days, however, had scarcely passed over when the 
 machinations of the '' Council" break forth in another, and still 
 more glaring outrage. Having |)crceived that a new candidate 
 had taken the field, and with something like that intrepidity 
 which rectitude ever stimulates, they — at the request of the 
 identical party before favored — sent forth a third advertise- 
 ment, ordering all the Essays to be taken back again, and 
 extending the period of improvement to one month more ! 
 
 But the most barefaced and profligate part of the proceed- 
 ing was, that they had the effrontery to dress vp this advertise- 
 
XVI 
 
 mem au llio second, on Uio iornitr occasion — the **rcceiviny," 
 forsooth, of " other Essays !" —to lull tiie public by llie jtlau- 
 sibility of their motives ! 
 
 At this re-violation of all that was honest and rational— of 
 all that was conformable with justice, and in harmony with inner 
 light, I confess, my self-possession, for a moment, forsook, me. 
 Having received the intimation from another, and catching his 
 spirit as he delivered it, I proceeded, in a headlong and rather 
 too determined career, to arrest the progress of a villuuous im- 
 posture, which I knew was somewhere at work, — though I was 
 yet ignorant of the proper quarter, — and for wiiich, 1 have 
 since, been, made most retributively to sufter. However, I got 
 a clue to the main spring of the " aft'air;" and, though tliis was, 
 in itself, an undeniable good, yet did it little compensate fur 
 the injury which accompanied it; for, by the earnestness of 
 my manner having idenlitied myself with the author of ihe 7iew 
 composition, 1 did not only take from it all that charm of in- 
 cognito, under which its merits must otherwise — against all 
 conspiracies — have triumphed, but 1 embittered the umpires 
 against me personally, by the tone and bearing of my declared 
 deliance. 
 
 What, however, was the upshot? Why, truly, that, after 
 poring over my work for six long months, from no good motive, 
 it is evident when they had determined on all ihe others within 
 the short compass of three — they pronounced, in spite of them, 
 that it was the victor ! 
 
 But how did they give utterance to this forced conviction ? 
 Just in the same strain of deceptive evasiveness which charactc r- 
 ised their earlier measures — namely, by voting it a special and 
 merely nominal premium ! leaving the original one undis- 
 turbed, according to previous compact, to their own dearly 
 beloved brother, and familiar fellow council-man ! 
 
 It is worth while to quote the outline in which they advertised 
 this. |t was as foljows ;r— 
 
XVll 
 
 " ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY HOUSE. 
 
 " On Monday, December 17, a Meeting of llic Council of 
 the Royal Irish Academy was held for tlie purpose of deciding 
 on the merits of Essays received, pursuant to advertisement, 
 On the Origin and Use of the Round Towers of Ireland, when 
 the following Premiums were adjudged; viz. — 
 
 " £50. and the Gold Medal to George Petrie. 
 
 " £20. to Henry O'Brien, Esq." 
 
 Now, if this advertisement were really the herald of truth and 
 honesty : and not intended as the cover of a systematic cheat, 
 it should have been thus couched : — "The Royal Irish Aca- 
 denjy have awarded their (Jold Medal and Premium to Mr. 
 Petrie, for his successful developement of the subject proposed ; 
 but, in consequence of certain redeeming features in Mr. 
 O'Brien's Essay (which may or may not be mentioned) they 
 could not dismiss it without some mark of their approval ; they 
 have, accordingly deviated from their established rule, and. 
 voted it a separate pron>ium." Whereas, the above advortiso- 
 ment would insinuate that there were two premiums all along 
 intended ; and that the fust of these was given to the best com- 
 position, and the second to that which approached it in quality I 
 
 But this would not square with ulterior objects in view, 
 which now multiplied in intensity as they approached the de- 
 nouement, The great point to be secured was the Gold Medal, 
 not alone because of the accompanying £50; but because that 
 Lord Cloncurry had declared that he would follow the 
 Academy's verdict, or even empowered them to award his 
 premium of £100. additional, on the same topic, to the suc- 
 cessful Essayist to whom they should vote this insigne. Such 
 a boon, therefore, must not be lost to their friend, at any peril 
 or any sacrifice, while they hoped that they should lull the 
 public vigilance, by the affected ingenuousness in which they 
 issued forth the announcement 
 
XVUI 
 
 As this delusion, however, must, at some time, liavc un iimI, 
 and inevitably evaporate, soon as the rival Assays are piib- 
 Jished, it is determined on, furthermore, to keep mine in the 
 back-ground, in order to give the other a" mavket-day;" and, 
 then, when the public are insulted \\\th a farrago o{ anachronism 
 SLttd historical falsehoods, they are to be treated to the " truth," 
 in the shape of the second "Prize Essay;" by the force of 
 which all mysteries being unravelled, the reader will naturally 
 exclaim, " this alone is right." To which the Academy liave 
 this ready answer : " Oh ! Yes; and have we not admitted the 
 fact, by voting it a special premium ?" Their poor, paltry, 
 wretched, contemptible Twenty Pounds ! And yet this was 
 the subterfuge, on which tliey reckoned for impunity ! ! ! 
 
 On hearing of the "decision," [ wrote off to the secretary, 
 tendering, in indignant irony, my thanks f(ir their adjudication - 
 taking care, however, to tell them that I had expected an issue 
 more flattering to my hopes. At this time I had no idea what 
 may have been the theory of the other essayist. — I did not know 
 but that it may have been my own, supported more talentedly, 
 and, substantially, more elucidated; fancy therefore my asto- 
 nishment on learning that they were the very antipodes of each 
 other, i^nd ** wide as the poles assunder 1" 
 
 The bubble must, therefore, soon burst, I thought ; and 1 was 
 not long in suspense as to the accuracy of this inference. From 
 the commencement of the publication of ihe Dublin Penny 
 Journal' — of which the principal conductors, or at least, contri- 
 butors, are members of the academy, and Mr, Petrie, himself, 
 its antiquarian hiyh priest — pending the scheme, of the "Towers," 
 and before its formal notification, whenever reference was 
 made to their origin and date, its columns, unqualifiedly, 
 asserted that they were Christian and modern. Now, how- 
 ever, when their conviction was revolutionised by the proofs of 
 my treatise, it was necessary, of course, to retrace their steps ; 
 and, as an open acknowledgment of enw would be too self- 
 
XIX 
 
 abasing for academicians, they thought they fnuHt put forth a 
 feeler, as if implying doubt on the malter ; wiiich would have 
 the two-foM effect of screening the " council's" verdict — as the 
 result of doubt or ambiguity — and of preparing the public 
 mind for tlio altered and novel conclusion to which all must, 
 ovv. Ion;;, iis well as themselves, have arrived. 
 
 [My «>ye, however, w;is on their plans, though separated by a 
 "roaring sea." — I knew that where there were so many 
 windings to mature the plot, there must be as many to pre- 
 vent its detection ; and, accordingly, the very first move they 
 made, on their new chess board of tactics, I check-mated it, at 
 once, by the following letter : — 
 
 (No. 1.) 
 
 London, March \Qth, 1833. 
 
 Dear Dr. Singrr, 
 
 The Dublin Penny Journal of Feb. 23rd, on 
 the article " Devenish Island," contains this sentence, viz. 
 " wliotlicr the towers arc the accompaniment to the churches, 
 or the churches to the towers, is a question not yet decided." 
 
 Now, this — coupled with the circumstance of the committee 
 having awarded two premiums, to two, as 1 understand, con- 
 flicting ascriptions; and that when only one was originally 
 proposed — induces me, with all deference, to offer this me- 
 morial, through you, to the Academy. 
 
 As the developemcnt oi truth in the elucidation of history, is 
 the object of the antiquarian — and as " the labourer is worthy 
 of his hire," I take the liberty respectfully to ask, whether, if 
 I make my asaiption of the Round Towers a mathematical 
 demonstration, with every other incident relating to their 
 founders, comprehending all the antiquities of Ireland, as con- 
 nected therewith — and this by all the varieties and modes of 
 proof — whether, I say, in that event, will the academy award 
 
 A 2* 
 
XX 
 
 me the gold medal and preniiuiu ? or, if that cannot be recalled, 
 an equivalent gold medal and premium ? 
 
 My intercalary work, substantiating all the above, is now 
 finished, and can be forwarded to the committee by return of 
 the same post which will favor me with your answer. 
 1 have the honor to be, Dear Sir, 
 
 Your obedient, &c. 
 HENRY O'BRIEN. 
 Rev. Dr. J. H. Singer, 
 Secretary to the Academy. 
 
 By the above proposal I must not be understood as, for a 
 momcHt, admitting that my original Essay "was not all sufficient, 
 all conclusive, all illustrative, and all convincing," but as 1 had 
 more arguments still in reserve, I wanted to elicit from the 
 Academy the admission that it was truth they sought after, 
 in order to overwhelm them with the influx of its inex- 
 haustible light, Afier waiting, however, more than three 
 weeks, and getting no reply, I forwarded those other proofs 
 accompanied by a letter, of which the following was the con- 
 clusion, viz. — 
 
 (No. 2.) 
 
 These are but items in the great body of discoveries which 
 this intercalary work will exhibit. In truth, I may, without 
 vanity assert, that the whole ancient history of Ireland and of 
 the world, is therein rectified and elucidated — what it never was 
 before. 
 
 Am I, therefore, presumptuous in api)ealing to the Uoyal 
 Irish Academy — the heads of Irish literature and the avowed 
 patrons of itsdevelopement — for the reward of my labors? 
 
 I shall, with confidence, rely upon their justice. 
 
 I have the honor to be, with sincere regard, &c. 
 
 HENIIY O'BRIEN. 
 To the Rev. Dr. J, H. Singer, 
 
 Secretary to the Academy, 
 
XXI 
 
 (No. 3.) 
 
 Royal Irish Academy House, April IGth, 1833. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 Your improved Essay and letter were yesterday 
 laid before council ; and, as Dr. Singer is at present confined 
 with the gout, it devolves on me to communicate to you the fol- 
 lowing extract from the minutes. 
 
 " Resolved, that the Secretary be directed to reply to Mr. 
 O'Brien, and to state that any alteration or revocation of their 
 award cannot be made, whatever may be the merits of any 
 additional matter supplied to them after the day appointed by 
 advertisement; but, if Mr. O'Brien be willing that the new 
 matter be printed along with the original Essay, the council will 
 have the same perused in order to ascertain the expediency of 
 so enlarging their publication." 
 
 By order, 
 
 RICH. ROW, 
 
 Clerk to the Academy. 
 To II. O'Brien, Esq. 
 
 (No. 4.) 
 
 London, April \Qth, 1833. 
 
 Had I a notion that the Academy's reply 
 would be such as your letter has this day imparted, I would 
 never have sat down to indite those long additions, much 
 less have forwarded them for their perusal. For why 
 did I write to the Sectetary three weeks ago, but to ascertain, 
 whether or not, in the event of my doing so and so, would the 
 Academy act so and so ? and thus repair that injury which they 
 had before inflicted? What could be more easy than to give 
 mc a catagorical answer, one way or the other ? Instead of 
 
xxu 
 
 U'hicli, however, (hey left me to my own conclusions, which — 
 fts usual, in such circumstances — leading me to construe silence 
 into acquiescence -I transmitted my documents on the tacit 
 faith, that though the Academy would not pledge themselves 
 by a written promise, they would, notwithstanding, if my re- 
 searches proved adequate, reward my industry by a suitable 
 remuneration. 
 
 Now, however, when my papers have been received, and 
 ray developements communicatetl, 1 am told that, be their merits 
 what they may, the aivard is irrevocable ; and I have no alter- 
 native, in the writhings of my mortification, but the consolation 
 of being injured and duped at the same time. 
 
 You will say, perhaps, that my new evidences have not yet 
 been read ; and that, therefore, my property, is secure and sa- 
 cred. But has not the accompanying letter been read ? And 
 what was that but a jirogramme of their contents ? 
 
 / had thought that the Royal Irish Academy were not only a 
 learned, but a just and a patriotic society. 7 had thought that 
 having marshalled themselves into an institution, with the 
 avowed object oi resuscitating from death the almost despaired- 
 of evidences of our national history, they would not alone ybs/er 
 every advance toward that desirable consummation, but, shower 
 honors, and acclamations, and triumphs upon him, who has not 
 only infused a vital soicl into those moribund remains, but made 
 the history of Ireland, at this moment, the clearest, the most 
 irrefragible, and withal, the most interestingly comprehensive 
 chain of demonstrational proofs in the whole circle of universal 
 literature.^ 
 
 But it is not alone the being deprived of my reward that I 
 complain of, and the transferring of that reward to another, every 
 sentiment in whose production must inevitably be wrong^ but it 
 
 This I predicate of my work upon the " Hound Toweirs." 
 
XXlll 
 
 is the suppression of my labors, ami the keeping; tliOiii bftck 
 from the public eye, in deference to Hiy opponent's Vvork, lest 
 that the discernment of the public should bestow Upon me those 
 honors which the discretion of the Academy has thought proper 
 to alienate, that affects me as most severe. 
 
 Indeed, it has been stated from more quarters than one, that 
 the withholding of the medal from me, in the first instance, and 
 the substituting thereinstead a nominal premium of twenty 
 pounds, originated from a personal pique against me indivi- 
 dually. Such a report I would fain disbelieve, and yet it is 
 hard not to give it some credence, seeing that the irresistible 
 cogency of my trnths, and the indubitable value of my literary 
 discoveries, are not only not rewarded, but kept back from 
 publication, until aome one else more fortunate, or rather, more 
 favored, shall run away with the credit of my cherished disclo- 
 sures. 1 wish — 1 desire — I most intensely covet, that the Aca- 
 demy would convince me that this is not an act of the most 
 aggravated injustice. 
 
 You will please lay this before the Council, and tell them 
 from me, respectfully, that 1 do not want them either to ** alter" 
 or " revoke" their award; but, simply to vote me " an equi- 
 valent gold medal and premitim** for my combined essay, or, if 
 they prefer, the new portion of it. Should this be refused, / 
 will put my cause into the hands of the gj'eat God who has en- 
 lightened me, and make Him the umpire between me and the 
 Academy. 
 
 1. have the honor to be, &c. SiC. 
 
 HENRY O'BRIEN. 
 
 To the Rev. Rich. Roe, 
 Clerk in the Academy. 
 
 No answer having arrived to this communication, 1 delayed 
 the publication of the present work, though printed, to see what 
 
XXIV 
 
 the above wouUl eflect. — In the interim, Mr. Godfrey Higgins, 
 the learned and ingenious author of the *' Celtic Druids," and 
 who has been partly in possession of my developement of the 
 •' Towers" for some time back, favored me with a visit — during 
 which we conversed principally on historical qnostions. The 
 next day I addressed him a note, a copy of which, with its 
 answer, 1 take leave to sidyoin, for the sake oUhe terminating 
 clause of the latter, being the suicidal acknowledgment of the 
 •' Academy's" disinyenuousness. 
 
 (No. 5.; 
 
 May 2nd, 1833. 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 1 hope you will not feel displeased at the 
 frankness of this question which 1 am about to propose to you, 
 viz. Have yon any objection to shew me in manuscript, be- 
 fore you send to print, the terms in which you speak of me 
 in reference to those points of information which I entrusted 
 to your confidenco — anch as the ancient names of Ireland 
 and their derivation, the Towers and founders, dates, &c. 
 
 Should yon think proper to consent to this feeling of anxiety 
 on my part, I shall be most willing to shave with you those 
 other " points'' which I exclusively retain. 
 
 To the full extent you shall have them. The only condition 
 1 require is, the credit of originality — which I have laboriously 
 earned. Please to drop me a line in reply to this, and allow 
 me to subscribe myself, with great respect, 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 Your obedient, 
 
 HENKY OBIMEN. 
 Godfrey Iligyins, Esq. 
 
XXV 
 
 (No. 6.) 
 
 May 3rd, 1833. 
 My Dear O'Brien, 
 
 You may be perfectly assured I shall 
 print nothing which I have learnt from you without acknow- 
 ledging it. But I have really forgotten what you told me, 
 because I considered that I should see it in print in a few days. 
 Any thing I shall write on the subject, will not be printed for 
 years after your books have been before the public. You did 
 not tell me the name of Buddha, but I told it you, that it was 
 Saca, or Saca-sa,* which I have already printed a hundred 
 times, and can shew you in my great quarto, when you take 
 your tea with me, as I hope you will to-morrow. Sir W. 
 licthavi told me of the Tire Towers being Phailus's, last night, 
 at the Antiquarian Society. 
 
 Yours, truly, 
 
 G. HIGGINS. 
 
 * It is true Mr. Higgins has told me this, and I listened, 
 with polite silence, to what I had read "in print" a thousand 
 times before. But our chronicles call the name, Macha, and 
 I abide by them. The true history, however, of Budha and 
 Budhism, which I alone possess, neither Ae — and I say it with 
 submission to his diversified acquirements and indefatigable ap- 
 plication—nor any other writer of the present or many hxmdred 
 prccecding ages, have, or have had, even approached in thought. 
 J laving in a note, towards the conclusion of this present volume, 
 — which had passed through the press long before 1 had re- 
 solved on prefixing this expose — mentioned Mr. Higgins's name 
 as amongst the supporters of the fire fatuity — that true ignis 
 fatuus — I here gladly avail myself of the opportunity of quoting 
 that he only " thought it expedient to continue the name by 
 which these towers are generally known." ..." They are cer- 
 
XXVI 
 
 AVIlo, now, can pretend to think that the neuiralis'my award 
 of the " Council," was the effect of sceptiscism or legitimate 
 doubt ? Here Sir William Betham, — the Ulster King at Arms ! 
 the Goliah oi Antiquaries! as he is, undoubtedly, o( Pedigrees ! 
 — being himself a member o( the " deciding tribunal," proclaims, 
 in the midst of a venerable literary assembly, that my solution 
 of the Round Tower enigma is accurate;* and yet, in the teet/t 
 of this confession, and of the conviction which extorted it, 
 trampling under foot the shackles oi conscience, honesty, and 
 truth, he votes away my medal to a compilatioji of error and 
 falsehood, and thinks to evade exposure by a dexterous subterfuge. 
 But it will not do — I will take the reform of the Academy 
 into my own hands ; and furthermore claim Lord Cloncnrry^s 
 premium. 
 
 (No. 7.) 
 
 London, May the 2nd, 1033. 
 Dear Dr. Singer, 
 
 T exceedingly grieve to hear of your ill 
 health. — Its announcement, I assure you, made me look within 
 myself, and for a moment, lose sight of my own hardships. I 
 
 tainly not belfreys ; and the fire-tower scheme being gone, I 
 have not heard any thing suggested having the slightest degree 
 of probability." — Introduction to The Celtic Druids, p. 4G. 
 
 "* I ara here obliged to let out more of the secret of the 
 *' Towers," than I had intended. Then be it known, that I 
 have not on\y proved them to have been Budhist Temples, but 
 Budhist Temples themselves to have been Phalli, which ac 
 counts for their peculiar form. And if, now, the reader should 
 imagine that he has got all the arcana of my discovery, I can 
 tell him he mistakes very much. 
 
XXVll 
 
 hope, however, that you are now so far recovered as to send me 
 a favourable answer to this my last appeal. 
 
 Taking it for certain that the Academy's having not replied 
 to the tenor of my late intimation, arose from the circumstance 
 of there having been no "Council Day" since; and as I 
 anticipate that on Monday next my question will be finally 
 disposed of, I am anxious for the good of all parties, and for 
 the triumph of truth, to shew you in one view how I have am- 
 putated the last supports of error, and covered its advocates 
 with ignominy and shame. 
 
 Thus every leaf unfolds evidences to the realization of my 
 victory. I took my stand at the outset on the pedestal of truth; 
 and 1 challenge scrutiny to insinuate, that, in the multiplied 
 developements which I have since revealed, I have deviatedfrom 
 my grand position one single iota. 
 
 Let me not be supposed, in the observation with which I am 
 now about to conclude, that 1 mean any thing disrespectful 
 to the Council of the Academy. Many years have not passed 
 since I knew several of them in a different relation ; and, how- 
 ever little effect, College Associations may produce on other 
 minds, / find not their influence so fleeting or transient. It is 
 with extreme reluctance, therefore, that I would split with a 
 body who have lectured me as tutors. But time has advanced: 
 I am now right, and they are wrong ^ and the cause which they 
 patronise will not do them much credit. 
 
 1 do not, however, yet give up my hopes but that the 
 Academy will wisely retrace their steps : revocation of the 
 former medal I do not require,— much less the exercise of a 
 single grain of 2>ar/iafi7j/. — My demand merely is, as my former 
 letters have indicated, the substitution o( justice. 
 
 Please receive the assurance of my consideration, and in 
 
XXVlll 
 
 conlideiit reliance that you will use your influence in this matter, 
 and favor me with the upshot instantly after Monday's Board, 
 I remain, ever sincerely, yours, 
 
 HENRY O'BlllEN. 
 
 P.S. My translation of " Ibernia Phoenicia" has been printed 
 for some days back ; but I have suppressed its publication in 
 suspense about this affair. I shall not wait after the due period 
 for hearing- of Monday's decision. — H. O'B. 
 
 No answer having arrived to this or its precursor, I had no 
 choice but to act as follows: — 
 
 (No. «.) 
 
 London, May i)th, 1033. 
 
 Dear Dr. Singer, 
 
 My appeals are over — and, I regret 
 to say, that they have not been attended to. The virtuous and 
 cnlUjhtened part of the Academy, therefore, cannot blame me, 
 if in the assertion of my honest right, T try Ihe effect of a public 
 remonstrance. 
 
 In the interim, I transmit to you by this night's post, some 
 additional leaves, which — in the anxiety of dispatch, as well, 
 indeed, as from fear that they would not be inserted, because 
 they overwhelm for ever the antiquarian pretensions of the Dublin 
 Penny Journal — I have omitted to copy. However, I will noiu 
 forward them and claim, as an act of justice, that they be 
 printed along with those already sent, in the original Essay. 
 
 And now I shall have done by telling you that had I not 
 
XXIX 
 
 vviitleri a single word on the advertised subject but the follow- 
 'ng, I should be entitled to the advertised premium. 
 
 I shall now bring out my printed work, and prefix to it part 
 of this correspondence. It is a painful duty, but it is a duty, 
 of necessity indispensible, 
 
 I remain. Dear Sir, 
 
 Your obedient, &c. &c. 
 
 HENRY O'BRIEN. 
 To the Rev. Dr. .1. H. Singer, 
 Secretary to the Academy, 
 
 I shall now close with the following letter, which will be 
 seen for the^rsi iime through this medium, reserving my proofs 
 therein alluded to, until particularly required. In the interim, 
 if any gentleman, in the exercise of a free judgment, should 
 think proper to dissent from me, whether as editor or translator 
 of the present work, and to express that dissent in correspond- 
 ing language, I shall feel obliged — as hnving no facilities jor 
 watching periodicals, newspapers, magazines, or reviews — by 
 his favoring me with a copy of the publication in which his 
 remarks appear, directed to the care of Messrs. Longman and 
 Co. Paternoster-row, London. — And I entreat the same favor 
 of those who may approve of my views, if, peradventure there 
 be any such : — 
 
 (No. 9.) 
 
 London, May 10th, 1833. 
 Dear Dr. Singer, 
 
 1 have exhausted all tho forms of bland- 
 ness and conciliation, in tho vain hopo of inducing tho Academy 
 
XXX 
 
 to letleem themselves from disgrace, by doine; me common 'pis- 
 licc. 1 have strove in the mildest terms of conscious rectitude, 
 invigorated by a phalanx of overwhelming proofs, to make 
 them re-consider their course, and spare me the unpleasant 
 task of exposing a deed which I am loth to characterise by 
 its proper designation. But " the heart of Pharoaii" was 
 hardened — the " voice of the charmer" not listened to— +and 
 to my soft importunites nothing was returned, but the coldness 
 of obduracyand disregard. 
 
 The Rubicon, therefore, is crossed — my patience feels in- 
 sulted — and the only consideration I value, in the resolve to 
 which I have at last been driven, is, that you had nothing to 
 do with the "job" of the Round Towers. 
 
 Little did the Academy know what arguments I could 
 adduce in elucidation of cer^am ?«j/iYcTtcs. — As little <lo they 
 now dream what proofs I can summon — though you cannot 
 have forgotten one of them, while I promise I shall make 
 Dr. Mc. Donnell recollect another — that the gold medal and 
 premium were pre-determined to Mr. Petric, before ever 1 
 became a candidate ; and that, co7isequently , the advertisement 
 under which I was invited to contend, but from which the 
 Council never expected an intruder, was but a specious de- 
 lusion ! 
 
 In this determination, I violate no act of private regard, nor 
 set light by the claims of individual acquaintance. You know 
 yourself how earnestly I struggled before the consummation of 
 this nefarious proceeding, to stem the agency of that despicable 
 under-current which I had just detected. I knew that fraud, of 
 some kind, was at work ; and though unable, at the moment, to fix 
 upon the personage in whose favor it was set a-going — nay, 
 though »ien<a//i/ fastening the blame thereof upon another, whose 
 name, however, I never let slip, and to whom, I rejoice to 
 say, 1 have since made more than recompense, for this ideal 
 injury — yet could I not be persuaded but that something 
 
XXXI 
 
 sinixler was dosigncd : ami to fiiislrate that infliifiiicoof promi- 
 nent deceit, you know how vehement was my address. 1 im- 
 plored yon, I besought you, and all but upon my knees, and 
 with tears I invoked you, by your regard to justice, and your 
 feaf of a Creator, to check this trickery * and allow merit, 
 alone and anonymous, to decide the issue. 
 
 I now, in the same spirit of solemn self-composure, adjure 
 the " Council" through you — for their own sake as well as mine 
 — in the name of that God before whom they and I shall one 
 day appear, and who now suggests this threat and propels its ut- 
 terance, that they will have my cause redressed, and make me 
 reparation, not only for the substantial trespass, but for the 
 mental disquietude and agony which this " business" has occa- 
 sioned. If they do not, rest satisfied that, my path is already 
 chalked. All the evolutions of the Council, as displayed upon- 
 the " Towers," and with which I am but too familiar, shall be 
 immortalized in letter-press : and I do not yet despair of the 
 hereditary fairness of my country, but that it shall register 
 its dissent from the decision of that tribunal, which could 
 have had, at once, the obtuscness of intellect and the per. 
 versencss of conduct, to stultify their own verdict by a contra- 
 dictory award, and — ^her inveigling me into a competition which 
 they never meant to remunerate — deprive me of the fruits of my 
 indubitable triumph, in the pursuit of which I had almost lost 
 my life, and cut short my existence in the very spring of my man- 
 hood. 
 
 I mean no ofieiice, individually or collectively to the Aca- 
 demy, or its members; but as they have been deaf to the 
 justice of my " private appeals," I shall try the effect of a " public 
 
 * It is due to Dr. Singer to state that he did all he could to 
 repress it — but he cannot deny how it escaped him, perhaps in- 
 advertently, that he feared it was a forlorn hope. 
 
XXXll 
 
 remonstrance" ; and as to wZfen'or consequences, I greatly err, 
 else the upshot will shew that, the motto* adopted as my 
 fictitious signature in the " Essay," was not the random as- 
 sumption of inconsiderateness or accident, but the true index 
 to the. author's resources. 
 
 My proposal is this — my unshaken position from which I will 
 not swerve or retract — a yold medal and ■premium equivalent 
 to those originally advertised. 
 
 I am, Dear Sir, 
 
 Your's sincerely, 
 
 HENRY O'BRIEN. 
 To Rev. Dr. J. H. Singer, 
 Secretary to the Academy. 
 
 ^(uvjj £1^ T)j epe/nw. 
 
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 Should it be asked by any of my " old associates," 
 who, from college recollections, may be disposed 
 to overvalue whatever capabilities I possess, why, 
 wishing to court popularity as a writer, I would not 
 rather originate some theme of my own than make 
 my labor subservient to the fame of another — to this 
 I shall reply, that I am not so actuated by the desire 
 of appearing an original, as to forego what I conceive 
 to be a favourable opportunity of doing a practical 
 good, by presenting to the great bulk of my country- 
 men — and countrywomen also — who, in amiable devo- 
 tion to the land of their forefathers, ever allied and 
 connected with the purest virtues of the heart, yield 
 not to the daughters of the once-celebrated Sparta, 
 whilst in all those finer sensibilities* which constitute 
 the charm of social life, and sublime the human 
 
 * " The ladies of Ireland," says Carr, an intelligent and 
 highly respectable English writer," possess a peculiarly pleasing 
 frankness of manners, and a vivacity in conversation, which 
 render highly interesting all they do and all they say. In this 
 
 D 
 
11 TRANSLATORS PREPACK. 
 
 species to a nearer relation to divinity, they stand 
 proudly and pre-eminently beyond them — a faithful 
 and, I trust, an acceptable transcript of the re- 
 searches of an individual, who — in the genuine flow 
 of an ennobling gratitude for the ordinary hos- 
 pitality* which Ireland offers to every stranger — sat 
 down in the vigor of a green old age — an old age as 
 full of honor as it has been distinguished by useful- 
 ness — when the crude notions of enthusiasm are 
 naturally extinct, and the mind fixed upon the 
 awful certainty of its near transit to another sphere, 
 rejects the intrusions of vanity and self-conceit, not 
 less of worldly parade than literary hypothesisf — to 
 
 open sweetness of deportment, the libertine finds no encourage- 
 ment, for their modesty must be the subject of remark and 
 eulogy with every stranger." — Stranger in Ireland, p. 148. 
 
 " The ladies of Ireland are generally elegantly, and fre- 
 quently highly-educated ; and it is no unusual circumstance to 
 hear a young lady enter with a critical knowledge into the 
 merits of the most celebrated authors, with a diffidence which 
 shows that she is moved by a thirst for knowledge, and not by 
 vanity. A greater musical treat can scarcely be enjoyed, than 
 to hear some of them perform their own Irish airs, which are 
 singularly sweet, simple, and affecting. Those who have been 
 present at a ball in Irelaiul, can best attest the spirit, good- 
 humour, and elegance which prevail in it." — Stranger in Ire- 
 Innd, p. 149,, 
 
 * Sunt sane homines hospitalissimi, neque illis ull^ in re 
 magis gratificari potes, quam vel sponte ac voluntate eorum 
 domos frequcntaro, vel illis invitutum condicere. Stan, do reb. 
 in Uib. gest. lib. 1, p. 33. 
 
 t Opinionum commenta delet dies; natures judicia con- 
 fir mat. — Cicero. 
 
TRANSLATORS PREFACE. Ill 
 
 remove the rubbish which overhung our antiquities, 
 and exhibit before the eyes of an admiring world, 
 the source of that magnificence which commanded 
 tlie homage of tliis world before ; — anxious only to 
 elicit truth, and in the laudable pursuit of this para- 
 mount destination, deeming no industry too great — 
 no pains unrequited. Such being the spirit that influ- 
 enced our author, in the origin and prosecution of 
 this his design, I should be ashamed of myself if I 
 could allow any narrow feelings, of false delicacy or 
 overweening self-importance, to interfere with my 
 respect for such exemplary worth ; but chiefly, and 
 more especially, when the fruits of such an impulse 
 liave been brought to bear upon a country which, 
 whether its civil condition, or its literary character, 
 bo the topic of debate, never I'ails to enlist my 
 keenest emotions, and to vibrate witli interest to my 
 inmost soul. — llibernicus sum, llibernici nihil a me 
 alienum puto.* 
 
 "Nature," says Gibbon, "has implanted in our 
 breasts a lively impulse to extend the narrow span 
 of our existence, by the knowledge of the events that 
 have happened on the soil which we inhabit, of the 
 
 * IBieathes there the n'laii with soul so dead, 
 Who never to himself hath said, 
 This is my own, my native land? 
 
 Scott. 
 
 " Nescio quft natale solum dulcedine cimclos 
 Taiigit, et iminemores non sinit csso sui." 
 B 2 
 
IV TRANSLATORS PREFACE, 
 
 characters and actions of those men from whom our 
 descent, as individuals or as a people, is probably 
 derived. The same laudable emulati6n will prompt 
 us to review and to enrich our common treasure of 
 national glory ; and those who are best entitled to the 
 esteem of posterity are the most inclined to celebrate 
 the merits of their ancestors." 
 
 But as utility, not celebrity, is my object, I shall 
 forbear descanting upon my own merits in the under- 
 taking, lest those who are ignorant of my motives, 
 and of the frankness in which I habitually indulge, 
 should suppose that any further explanation, in 
 which self must be so prominent, would imply a 
 certain tenacity inconsistent with this avowal.* To 
 the critics, therefore, and to an enlightened public I 
 consign the task, while I confine myself to a consi- 
 deration of the original composition. 
 
 The purport then of the author is to prove — by the 
 analysis of names imposed in the days of Paganism 
 and retained amongst us till the present, and by 
 
 ♦ Nor, indeed, were the subject a less grateful one, would 
 I consider the province of a translator so inconsiderable by any 
 means, knowing well that it depends greatly upon the indivi- 
 dual so to invigorate, at least, if not to mould, the materials as 
 to make them appear his own ; and should my example in this 
 instance encourage those endued with brighter qualifications, to 
 undertake the translation of those Irish MSS. which He moul- 
 dering upon the shelves of our University, I shall rest satisfied 
 with having done some good ** in my day," were it only that 
 of pioneering to those who may reflect a lustre o'er the land- 
 scape. 
 
TRANSLATORS PREFACE. V 
 
 the similarity of worship cultivated in Ireland, before 
 the introduction of Christianity, to that practised 
 in Phoenicia at the same era of time — that a colony 
 from the latter place must at one period, and that a 
 very distant one, have visited our shores, and spread 
 their dominion over the whole extent of the island.* 
 It is true I may be here met by an objection, as 
 to " what possible advantage such inquiry could now 
 promote, either as regards the issue of the discussion 
 itself — the remoteness of the period, and the absence 
 of intervening records opposing so many obstacles — 
 or its effects, if successful, upon the literature, the 
 commerce, or the politics of this country." With 
 the lukewarm and apathetic, I doubt not, this ob- 
 jection may carry much weight, as they want but 
 little argument to countenance the heartlessness of 
 their recreant degeneracy . " What is it to us," they 
 say, " who trod those ' green acres ' in ancient time 
 — whoever they were, they have long since passed 
 
 * Who fill the pages of history? Political and military 
 leaders, who have lived for one end, to subdue and govern their 
 fellow-beings. These occupy the fore-ground ; and the people 
 — the human race — dwindle into insignificance, and are almost 
 lost behind their masters. The principal and noblest object of 
 history is, to record the vicissitudes of society, it» spirit in dif- 
 ferent ages, the causes which have determined its progress and 
 decline, and especially the manifestation and growth of its 
 highest attributes and interests of intelligence ; of the religious 
 principle, of moral sentiment, of the elegant and useful arts, of 
 the triumph of man over nature and himself. — J)r, Charming on 
 Poircr and Greatness. 
 
VI TRANSLATORS PREFACE. 
 
 away, and we are only interested as to the present 
 occupancy. The analysis of names — suggested by 
 caprice, or at best an allusion to some passing acci- 
 dent, no longer valuable — may afford entertainment, 
 perhaps, to etymologists, but none to u^. To us it is 
 sufficient that we can disport our exterior, and main- 
 tain a seemly attitude during our transitory sojourn, 
 among the butterflies* of the hour, while the book- 
 worm and recluse may enjoy all the pleasures they 
 can possibly extract by poring over the pages of 
 time-worn manuscripts." 
 
 *' When we have made our )ove, and gamed our gaming, 
 Drest, voted, shone, and may-be something more; 
 
 With dandies dined ; heard senators declaiming ; . 
 Seen beauties brought to market by the score. 
 
 Sad rakes to sadder husband's chastely taming; 
 There's little left but to be bored or bore ; 
 
 Witness those ' ci-devant jeunes hommes' who stem 
 
 The stream, nor leave the world which leavelh ihem."t 
 
 * Were a home tour considered as necessary to a finished 
 education as a foreign one, our high-born youth might visit 
 other countries possessed of the necessary accomplishment of 
 being able to describe their own, in which too many of them 
 are lamentably defective. The admirer of rural beauty in all 
 its varied forms may be here fully gratified ; while the man 
 who delights in antiquarian lore will, in Ireland, find numerous 
 monuments connected with the annals of a nation whose his- 
 tory, from the most remote period, has been so marked by 
 vicissitudes, as to render them at this day, perhaps, the most 
 singularly circumstanced people in Europe. — Fitzgerald. 
 t Byron. 
 
translator's preface. vii 
 
 If, in the sentiments here attributed to a certain 
 class of my comitrymen, I should be supposed to 
 include only the " giddy" and the « gay," I take leave 
 at once to correct the misconception, and — though 
 reluctant to censure— to enlarge the dimensions of 
 my portrait. It is a melancholy reflection, that, while 
 all nations on the globe feel a manifest elevation in 
 tracing the particulars of their origin to the very 
 minuteness of detail, the Irish alone should lie dor- 
 mant in the cause, and— though once distinguished 
 for the more than religious zeal with which they 
 registered their histories, and preserved their genea- 
 logies ;~a practice, which— originating in the same 
 love of order and motives to regularity, that influ- 
 enced the Israelites in the preservation of theirs, viz. 
 to regulate the succession to the throne and other 
 dignified posts, as well miUtary as magisterial— no 
 less elucidates our assertion, of the early civilization 
 of the Scoto-Milesians, as the true Irish are empha- 
 tically and properly designated, than it does their 
 intercourse at one period* with that ancient people of 
 God, from whom they adopted the practice, and whom 
 they greatly surpassed in some hnprovomcnts— yet, 
 
 * The Cuthites, Scuthae, or Irish, were seated on the coast 
 of the Red Sea when Moses passed through it. It is probable 
 that after the loss of Pentapolis they united, under the name of 
 Phoenicians, on the Red Sea, and these were ihey who gave 
 protection to Moses after he had been refused a passage by the 
 King of Edoni.— Fa/Zanccy. 
 
Vlll TRANSLATORS PREFACE. 
 
 alas! do they now — seem to have lost, perhaps, 
 with the sense of their national independence, all 
 sense, at the same time, of their hereditary honor, 
 and ancestral nobleness ! * Look to China, and see 
 how she delineates the progress of her empire 
 through ages and ages of uninterrupted continua- 
 
 * To our want of national feeling, and our tasteless and 
 ignorant prejudices, may be attributed the danger from which 
 we lately escaped of losing — what, perhaps, we have most 
 reason, and deserved most tu have lost — our unrivalled national 
 music. Divided, as we have been, by the bigotry and unge- 
 nerous policy of our rulers, aided by our own ancient super- 
 stitions — deserted by our nobles — driven by our poverty, our 
 misfortunes, and our wrongs, to the moping inanity of despair 
 — our melodies would soon have shared the fate of our min- 
 strels, if the genius and industry of two individuals had not 
 averted such a catastrophe for ever. IMoore, by uniting them 
 to poetry " worthy of their tenderness, their energy, and their 
 spirit," has raised the airs of his native country to a widely 
 extended popularity ; and the natives of the old and the new 
 world now respect the feelings, and pity the misfortunes, of the 
 islanders, whose strange and artless stories can excite, by a 
 power like magic, the strongest emotions of sadness or of joy. 
 — Dublin Examiner. 
 
 DEAR HARP OF MY COUNTRY. 
 
 Dear Harp of my country ! in darkness I found thee, 
 
 The cold chain of silence had hung o'er thee long. 
 When proudly, my own Island Harp ! I unbound thee. 
 
 And gave all thy chords to light, freedom, and song ! 
 The warm lay of love and the light note of gladness 
 
 Have wakened thy fondest, thy liveliest thrill ; 
 But so oft hast thou echoed the deep sigli of sadness. 
 
 That even in thy mirth it will steal from thee still. 
 
translator's preface. ix 
 
 tion. Turn to Egypt, to Chalclea, and to Arcadia, 
 and do they not do the same?* The houses of 
 Austria and Ascot, single famiHes, and much nearer 
 home, trace up their origin to Noah himself. Yet 
 all these pretensions, however exaggerated and in- 
 consistent, and at variance with the cosmogeny 
 given in Holy Writ, are, notwithstanding, listened 
 to with something like attention, in deference, per- 
 haps, to that " Amor PatriaB," that ever pardonable 
 vanity, which they irresistibly obtrude upon us.f 
 
 Other nations, also, that may have controlled their 
 fancies within more moderate bounds, and confined 
 their ascensions to more tangible «ras, have yet 
 
 Dear Harp of my country ! farewell to thy numbers, 
 
 This sweet wreath of song is the last we shall twine ; 
 Go, sleep with the sunshine of Fame on thy slumbers, 
 
 Till touched by some hand less unworthy than mine. 
 If the pulse of the patriot, soldier, or lover. 
 
 Have throbbed at our lay, 'tis thy glory alone ; 
 I was but as the wind, passing heedlessly over, 
 And all the wild sweetness I waked was thy own, 
 
 Moore's Irish Melodies. 
 * The comparison of these names with that of Ireland will 
 not appear so very preposterous, nor their juxta-position so very 
 casual, when my " Essay upon the Round Towers" shall have 
 been read. 
 
 f To trace nations to their origin is among the most curious 
 and delightful of intellectual pursuits : it establishes important 
 facts ; illustrates sacred records ; and, while it confirms all the 
 great truths of political science, it tends to gratify a patriotic 
 vanity ; for nations, like individuals, are proud of being de- 
 Bccnded from illustrious ancestors. — Whitly. 
 
X translator's preface. 
 
 been allowed some slight tincture of romance, and 
 have improved the indulgence to the very " poetry " 
 of aspiration. In no instance that I am aware of 
 have those claims been disputed, if we but except 
 the nations above adduced, nor can that properly be 
 called an exception, as the facts and assertions are 
 virtually ceded, when the effort is made to explain 
 them by an accommodated system of chronology. 
 But if Ireland — distracted, impoverished Ireland — 
 should raise her puny voice, and breathe an allusion 
 to her primitive consequence, the sound would be so 
 dissonant from authorised reports* — set forth by in- 
 terested or mercenary scribes, confirmed by repeti- 
 tion and ingenious circulation, while all attempts at 
 disproval were studiously suppressed — that the 
 world would look amazed at her impudence in the 
 assumption, and reject at once, and without a hear- 
 ing, her prejudged claims I Shame, however, upon 
 that policy which could war with the literature of a 
 country ! and double shame upon that country which 
 could allow itself, under any circumstances, to be so 
 
 * Peter Lombard, who was titular Archbishop of Armagli 
 in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, states, in his Anaiecta, that 
 the ** English governors endeavoured to destroy or carry away 
 every monument of antiquity belonging to the Irish of which 
 they could obtain possession; and that a great yiumber were 
 shut up in the Tower of London, and consigned to forgetful- 
 ness, which, if translated, would throw new and interesting 
 light on religion and letters." 
 
TRANSLATORS PREFACE, XI 
 
 debased, as to have its records swept away, its lights 
 stifled, and its monuments obliterated, except such 
 as accident may have saved, or laborious industry 
 decyphered^ from the scanty materials of inscriptions 
 and names, without a single clue to guide the histo- 
 rian in his path, or a single star but the polar one of 
 truth, to steer his course by, in the midnight of his 
 despairing ! "On turning," says Whitty, " from the 
 page of antiquity to the accounts of native annahsts, 
 we find the gloom which environs our inquiry pene- 
 trated but by few gleams of brightness. The 
 bigoted fury of her invaders, and the gothic policy 
 of her rulers, have been busy with the historical 
 documents of Ireland. The Dane and the Briton 
 were alike hostile to the proofs of a former glory ; 
 and what the Pagan spared the Christian sought to 
 demolish.* Their relentless antipathy being so suc- 
 cessful, perhaps the interest of truth would have 
 suffered little had their baneful industry been 
 greater. The records which survive are few, and of 
 questionable authority. The information which is 
 to be derived from them is confused and contra- 
 
 * Booth, Analecta. p. 557, et seq. Lynch Carabr. Evers. 
 pp. 41-157. The Magnates Hiberniae, in their remonstrance to 
 Pope John XXII. charge the EngUsh government, of the 13th 
 century, with the destruction of their laws. (Hearne, Scoti- 
 chron. vol. iii. p. 900.) This spirit prevailed even in the time 
 of Cromwell. His soldiers had a particular antipathy to the 
 harp. Lynch Cambr. Evers. p. 37. 
 
Xii TRANSLATORS PREFACE. 
 
 (lictory. They establish no one fact of early Irish 
 history in a satisfactory manner, and are much 
 better calculated to perplex than to elucidate." 
 
 From my soul 1 am puzzled to find a pallia- 
 tive for such a system* — a system which, ere long,f 
 must recoil with dismay before the triumphant 
 blaze of innocence aggrieved — or if I must elicit 
 some benefit from its heart-rending sorrows, it will 
 be, in its affording some excuse for the culpable, and 
 otherwise inexplicable, supinenessj that pervades all 
 
 * Opus opinum casibus, atrox seditionibus, eliain in pace 
 sevum. — Livy. 
 
 t What is a Crisis? Our great Lexicographer has well 
 defined it, as " the point in which the disease kills, or changes 
 to the better : the decisive moment when sentence is passed." 
 Precisely to this point has Ireland arrived; her disease — 
 sometimes slowly and imperceptibly, but always steadily, pro- 
 gressive—has of late advanced with overpowering rapidity ; 
 and the fiat must speedily go forth which can issue but in one 
 alternative — healthful renovation, or final dissolution. — Char- 
 lotte Elizabeth. 
 
 No one affects to deny the awful importance of this junc- 
 ture : two parties, for ages and centuries divided by an impas- 
 sable barrier, now start up in simultaneous opposition to each 
 other ; and both to a government which would unite them on 
 a basis as repugnant to the darling prejudices of the one, as it is 
 subversive of the vital principle that animates the other. — Char- 
 lotte Elizabeth. 
 
 J The idle indifference which we evince for the knowledge 
 and preservation of our antiquities, is surely, to say the least of 
 it, but little creditable to our nationality or our taste. In 
 no part of Great Britain, we may safely venture to assert. 
 
translator's preface. xiii 
 
 classes of the Irish, as to the consideration of what 
 they once were — a supineness which, I repeat, cannot 
 else be accounted for, than by the successful opera- 
 tion of that iniquitous policy,* by which they would 
 at last seem habituated and reconciled to their de- 
 gradation ! 
 
 " In all, save form alone, how changed I And who 
 That marks the fire still sparkling in each eye — 
 Who but would deem their bosoms burned anew 
 With thy unquenched beam, lost Liberty !"f 
 
 Let it not be supposed, however, that the sting of 
 this impeachment is at all levelled against the present 
 government, or even against those who have preceded 
 them in the administration. No ; I can myself bear 
 honourable testimony to the ready willingness with 
 which they, and their august master, our gracious 
 and most beloved sovereign, King William the 
 
 would a similar feeling be found among the enlightened classes 
 of society. — Dublin Examiner, 181G. 
 
 It is extraordinary, how little interest the gentlemen of this 
 county, and indeed of every other in Ireland, take in any pub- 
 lication intended to promote the improvement of their country. 
 Hely Button, Statist. Surv. Co. Clare. 
 
 * We cannot, with Doctor Lynch and others, but lament 
 the fatal policy of the English, who, until the reign of James 
 the First, took all possible means to destroy our old writings, 
 as they did those of Scotland, in the reign of Edward the First. 
 They thought that the frequent perusal of such works kindled 
 the natives to rebellion, from reminding them of the power and 
 independence of their ancestors.— O'Cbwnor Dissert, p. 130. 
 t Byron. 
 
XIV TllANSLATOR S PIIKFACR. 
 
 Fourth, encourage every pursuit that could supply 
 the deficiency, or elucidate the purport, of our muti- 
 lated annals. Nay more, I can affirm, that the taste 
 — I had almost said the avidity, or rather the rage, 
 as that is the more prevailing term — for Irish docu- 
 ments, at this moment, in the British metropolis and 
 in England altogether, exceeds any thing of the 
 kind ever before witnessed ; and to such a pitch is it 
 carried, that on every occasion upon which such docu- 
 ments are advertised for sale in Ireland, the London 
 booksellers send over agents to attend such sales ; and 
 from the poverty of our community, and its decayed 
 interest, at the same time, for all such research, I 
 need not say, that, in almost every instance, the 
 English are the purchasers. By the kind exertions 
 of a literary friend,* who exhibits in his conduct an 
 honorable contrast to the apathy of which I here 
 complain, I have been furnished with an alphabetical 
 catalogue of works that have lately produced, at the 
 hands of Englishmen, in the city of Dublin, and 
 at second hand, the respective sums affixed to each ; 
 all considerably higher than the prices of publication. 
 
 * Sir Charles Coote, Bart. This genllenian lias, during the 
 course of a long life, paid particular attention to the literature 
 of his own country. No work has ever been published upon 
 the history, the antiquities, or the statistics thereof, of which he 
 haa not made it a point to procure a copy. The consecjuence 
 is, that he now possesses the most authentic and best asaorled 
 Irish library of any in the kingdom. 
 
TRANSLATORS PREFACK. XV 
 
 and incomparably more so than what a mere regard 
 to value could have elicited. 
 
 My charge, therefore, cannot apply to the present 
 government, or to the present race of Englishmen 
 at all ; hut to governments and races of an anterior 
 date, who, in the fell work of spoliation, yielded 
 not to the Ostmen or Danes,* — our ruthless foes, and 
 the foes of all moral culture — whilst they surpassed 
 them far, in the dexterous ingenuity, and masked 
 insincerity, with which they effected their ravages.f 
 These are the persons whom I would impugn ; and 
 grievously concerned am I to add, that on the fair 
 face of the land itself, sustained by its bounty, and 
 invigorated by its atmospliere,X are to be found in- 
 
 * Tlio iiivadnrs of Trolaiid in llio ninlli conliiry conHisled of a 
 mixed crew of Danes, Trismus, Norwegians, Swedes, and 
 Livonians. 'JMie ancient Irish distinguished them into two 
 septs from the colour of their hair ; one being called Fion-gall, 
 or Fin-gal, the White Strangers, and the other Dubh-gail, the 
 Black Strangers. Fingal is supposed to have been settled by 
 the former, and Donegal by the latter. — McGregor. 
 
 f Walsh thus pathetically laments the ruin of his country by 
 the Danes and Ostmen : — •• There was no monarch now, (the 
 ninth century,) but the saddest interregnum ever any Christian 
 or heathen enemies could wish ; no more king over his people, 
 but that barbarous heathen Turgesius ; no more now the ' Island 
 of Saints.' " 
 
 X The climate of Ireland, and the fertility of its soil, have 
 been praised by all writers, as well friends as foes, who have at 
 all alluded to the topic. Orosius says, " Ireland, though less 
 extensive than Britain, is, from the temperature of its climate, 
 
XVI TRANSLATORS PREFACE. 
 
 dividuals, and they too not few, who, calling tliem- 
 selves Irishmen, and affecting all the pride insepa- 
 rable from the name, do yet — from some obliquity 
 
 better supplied with useful resources." — L. 1, c. 2. Isidore 
 states, "it is smaller thau Britain, but more fertile from its 
 situation." — Orig. L. 14, c. 6. The venerable Bede observes, 
 that " Ireland greatly surpasses Britain in the healthfulness 
 and serenity of its air." — Mist. Ec. L. 1, c. 1. And Camden, 
 ** Nature surely must have looked upon this zephyric kingdom 
 with its most benignant eye." — Brit. p. I'll. Whilst the vera- 
 cious and impartial (?) Carabrensis himself adds, that, '• Of all 
 climates Ireland is the most temperate ; neither Cancer's violent 
 heat ever drives them to the shade, nor Capricorn's cold invites 
 them to the hearth ; but from the softness and peculiar tem- 
 perature of the atmosphere, all seasons are there genial and 
 tepid." Again — "Neither infectious fogs, nor pestilential 
 vfinds, nor noxious airs, are ever felt there ; so that the aid of 
 doctors is seldom looked for, and sickness rarely a|)pears ex- 
 cept among the dying." — Top. Hib, Diet. I. 25, 27. Would 
 that this last named writer had but done as much justice to its 
 inhabitants I 
 
 '•The climate is so salubrious," says Carr, " that we fijid 
 by history those plagues which so much devastated England had 
 rarely reached Ireland. The leaves seldom fall till Novem- 
 ber; from the almost constant motion of its atmosphere, and 
 the balmy softness of it, Ireland has been for ages past called 
 the • Land of Zephyrs ;' it was also called, on account of the 
 beauty of its verdure, ' the Emerald Isle,' and the ' Green 
 Island in the West.' ": — Stranycr in Ireland, p. 129. 
 
 To the great and peculiar extent of calcareous or limestone 
 strata of which our island is composed, we may chiefly attri- 
 bute the fertility of our soil, and the salubrity of our climate ; 
 and if wu durod vontiiro to fathom iho inlontionu of an Almighty 
 and beneficent providence, we would point lo this geological 
 
TRANSLATORS PREFACE. XVll 
 
 of intellect or perverseness of intention — think they 
 amplify their importance by vilifying* their native 
 soil ; — and — to bring their dastardly desertion to a 
 still greater climax — only recognize respectability as 
 imported from abroad !f 
 
 peculiarity, us a single instance of his wisdom and goodness, as, 
 exposed as we are to the exhalations of the Atlantic, and the 
 influence of westerly winds, our soil would otherwise be unpro- 
 ductive and our climate unhealthy. To the same cause is to be 
 attributed much of the peculiarly romantic beauty of which we 
 may justly boast; our waterfalls without number, our subter- 
 ranean rivers, our natural bridges, our perpendicular sea cliffg, 
 and, above all, our fairy caverns; all these are in almost 
 every instance the result of this extensive calcareous formation, 
 and are consequently found in no other country of the same 
 extent, in equal variety, beauty, and abundauce. Most strange 
 it is, that a land so blessed and ornamcntod by the hand of pro- 
 vi<lence should be so little appreciated and too often aban- 
 doned by those to whom its fertility gives wealth, and to whom 
 its beauty should give delight and happiness.— Dui/m Penny 
 Journal. 
 
 * Why will the Protestants of Ireland permit this unfounded 
 obloquy to rest on their beautiful country, ay, and too ojtcnjoin 
 in the aspersive cry, when even a glance at their own homes 
 might convince them, that the moral blight exhales not from the 
 innocent bogs of poor Ireland. — Charlotte Elizabeth. 
 
 ■\ Revelling in all the pleasures and delights of rich and 
 royal Italy, smiling with the beauties of that sunny soil — whilst 
 many of his poor tenantry were weeping from want, and shiver- 
 ing from cold and hunger — the lord of the manor was patron- 
 izing the fine arts, and collecting, at great expense, costly 
 ornaments and other objects to adorn his mansion in England, 
 when he should return satiated with the fascinations and volup- 
 tuous attractions of the continent. — Viscount Glentwortk, 
 
XVIU TRANSLATORS PREFACE. 
 
 ** Poor, paltry slaves I yet born midst noblest scenes — 
 
 Why, Nature, waste thy wonders on such men t 
 
 * ♦ * » • 
 
 Not such were the fathers your annals can boast, 
 Who conquered and died for the freedom you lost! 
 Not such was your land in her earlier hour — 
 The day-star of nations in wisdom and power !"* 
 
 To their own reflections, however, and to the con- 
 tempt and condemnation of an enlightened, an in- 
 dignant public, I consign such renegades, whilst I 
 return to the subject whence I have been thus 
 forced to digress. 
 
 How to account, then, for this new spirit amongst 
 the English public, to cultivate an acquaintance 
 with the antiquities of Ireland, which they had so long 
 neglected and so long affected to despise — a spirit 
 too^ so insatiable, that it will not now confine itself 
 to works of acknowledged merit and reputed vera- 
 city, but extends even to those which should have been 
 exploded as fictions or absurd exaggerations — I con- 
 fess myself wholly unprepared. One thing, however, 
 is evident, that they are at last become sensible of 
 the injustice with, which we have so long been 
 treated, and, feeling their own judgment at the same 
 time not fairly dealt with in the misrepresentations 
 imposed upon them, they have — with the character- 
 istic honesty for which " John Bull " is remarkable, if 
 his prejudices and errors be but fairly removed, and 
 
 * Byron. 
 
translator's preface. xix 
 
 the spirit, at the same time, with which he resents 
 every such insult offered to his understanding — re- 
 solved, as much as possible, to atone for the past, by 
 enabling themselves to judge as to the question at 
 issue for the future. 
 
 But while lending myself as the translator of Dr. 
 Villanueva's book, from my wish to extend all dis- 
 quisitions bearing upon my country's renown, I must 
 observe that I am not at all insensible to certain, as I 
 conceive, aberrations, in his literary views, besides 
 those which . I have taken the liberty altogether to 
 erase. That the Phoenicians had been in Ireland 
 he is quite right to maintain. But as to the share 
 they had in the early splendor of the country — 
 the nature of their sojourn — and who had preceded 
 them— as it would not become we here to discuss, I 
 shall, unshackled by the apprehension of being con- 
 sidered selfish, refer the reader, who wishes to have 
 the true history of anciejit Ireland ybr once laid be- 
 fore his mind's eye, to my Essay upon the " Round 
 Towers "* of that country, in which I promise him 
 
 * Dr. Villanueva's error as to the origin and destination of 
 those mysterious structures is one in which lie may well con- 
 sole himself by the number of fellow-sufferers who have before 
 foundered upon the same sandbank. When Cambrensis, Val- 
 iancy, Montraorenci, Dalton, Beaufort, Milner, in short all 
 the writers, as well natives as foreigners, who have alluded 
 to the topic for the last seven hundred — I may say, fifteen 
 hundred — years, have been at fault on this theme, it is not to 
 be wondered at that this eminent philologist, should add another 
 
 c 2 
 
XX TRANSLATORS PREFACE. 
 
 he will find this long mystified question at length, and 
 to a demonstration, irresistibly elucidated. 
 
 If, however, I may be allowed a passing observa- 
 tion, without anticipating the subject here, it would 
 be to say that the Phoenicians were only the carriers 
 of that very ancient and sacred tribe, designated em- 
 phatically " Tuatha Dedanan," that is, the " Deda- 
 nite diviners," who planting themselves in Ireland, 
 after their expulsion from the east,* raised the isle — 
 
 unit to the number of the shipwrecked. But he can well spare 
 this and a few other almost inevitable defalcations, which, like 
 spots upon the sun's disc, only serve to make the general talent 
 which pervades his treatise the more brilliantly prominent. 
 
 As the reader may, perhaps, wish to see a specimen of this 
 venerable old gentleman's epistolary style, I subjoin the copy 
 of a note which he addressed to me on my expressing a wish 
 to see him after a separation of sijt or seven weeks, during 
 which 1 had secluded myself, to adjust my thoughts upon the 
 •'Towers," — viz: — 
 
 " J, L, Villanueva Henrico O'liricn salutem dicens, 
 *'0 care amice I Et quare tu, qui junior es, non dignaris ad 
 me venire? Vix 6 domo exeo, nam non bene valeo. Nihil- 
 bominus, te adire curabo, si vires suppetant. Benevale, ct ut 
 soles, ama tiium amicum. 
 
 "OJunii, 1832. J. L, Villanueva." 
 
 * The rare and interesting tract on twelve religions, entitled 
 "The Dabistan," and composed by a Mahomedan traveller, a 
 native of Cashmere, named Mohsam, but distinguished by the 
 assumed surname of Fani, or Perishable, begins with a wonder- 
 fully curious chapter on the religion of Hushang, which was 
 long anterior to that of Zeratusht, but had continued to bo se- 
 cretly professed by many learned Persians, even to the author's 
 time : and several of the most eminent uf them dissenting, in 
 
translator's preface. xxi 
 
 wliiclrthey also denominated from their former place 
 of abode — to that pinnacle of literary and religious 
 reputation which made it a focus of intellect in the 
 old pagan world. 
 
 Of this distinguished caste of people — who, by 
 the way, built the " Round Towers," those standing 
 records o^ our primitive scientific culture, — the Phoe- 
 nicians were only the transporters ; yet had they the 
 dexterity — by reason of their indispensible agency as 
 navigators, and the power with which they com- 
 manded the dominion of the seas— to monopolize the 
 whole credit of civilizing the human race, which 
 was 07ili/ true in as far as they joined by Iheir ship- 
 ping the different quarters of the globe. 
 
 Here, then,, is the source of those egregious blun- 
 ders, which all our historians have committed in 
 reference to the Phoenicians, at once cut away; and 
 another mistake emanating from this, and in the 
 
 many points, from the Gabrs, and persecuted by the ruling 
 powers of their country, had retired to India ; where they com- 
 piled a number of books, now extremely scarce, which Mohsam 
 imd perused, and with the writers of which, or with many of 
 them, he had contracted an intimate friendship: from them he 
 learned that a powerful monarchy had been established for 
 ages in Iran, before the accession of Cayumers; that it was 
 called the Mahabadean dinasty, for a reason which will soon 
 be mentioned ; and that many princes, of whom seven or eight 
 only are named in the Dabistan, and among them Mohbul, or 
 Maha Beli, had raised that empire to the zenith of human 
 glory. If we can rely on this evidence, which to me appears 
 unexceptionable, the Iranian monarchy must have been the 
 oldest in the world. — Sir W. Jones. 
 
XJLll TRANSLATORS PREFACE. 
 
 case of Ireland, more seductive in its overtures, is 
 now, in consequence, easily obviated. 
 
 It was too fashionable with the gentlemen who 
 have preceded me in the drudgery of Irish antiqua- 
 rian research, to flatter the self-love of the present 
 Milesian natives — of whom I am proud to boast my- 
 self one — by ascribing to their colony those high- 
 flown scenes of primeval grandeur of which Ireland 
 was undoubtedly at one time the theatre ; and of which 
 too, without being able adequately to grapple with the 
 point, or to adduce any thing like substantial insight 
 into either its date, nature, or promoters, those 
 writers, had, notwithstanding, some superficial, in-' 
 definite and vague, conceptions. No position in 
 history was ever more false. So far from the Mile- 
 sians, who were a mixed Scythian colony, implicit 
 followers of Zaoaster and not Spaniards,* (as the Dr. 
 has himself admitted) being — as a nation — lovers of 
 literature, they cultivated, on the contrary, a pro- 
 fession — that of arms — which affected to scorn it as an 
 effeminate luxury. Nor was it until by an admixture 
 
 * They merely touched at Spain on their way to Ireland 
 from Scythia, keeping up, however, a friendly intercourse with 
 the Spaniards after their arrival in Ireland, for the hospitable 
 accommodation which they had experienced on their coasts. 
 They retained their name, Scythi, Scoti, or Scythians, until the 
 eleventh century, when they resigned it to the Scots, a colony 
 of their own from Ireland, and resumed, instead, one of the 
 more ancient names of the country, viz. Ire, with the affix, land, 
 making the compound •♦ Ireland." 
 
translator's preface. xxiii 
 
 with their learned predecessors in the occupation of 
 the soil, and witnessing the charms of their refined 
 pursuits — in whijfh they were allowed still to indulge, 
 though unaccompanied with those religious peculiari- 
 ties for the celebration of which they had erected the 
 "Round Towers," and which the Milesians, upon their 
 conquest, had cancelled and obliterated — it was not 
 until then, I say, that the latter, fired by the moral 
 ether which the lessons of their new slaves had in- 
 spired, got infected with the sublimity of their en- 
 nobling acquirements, and set themselves down, 
 accordingly, to emulate their instructors. 
 
 Having mentioned the subject of the "Round 
 Towers" of Ireland, as a rock upon which the anti- 
 quaries of all countries have so miserably split — not 
 less as to their " destination and uses," than the era of 
 their erection — I may be excused if in the honest 
 fervor of patriotic triumph, undamped hy the chill' 
 ness of ill-requited success, I should proclaim that 
 those several difficulties have at last been solved, and 
 the history of those structures made as obvious to 
 every capacity as if the whole catalogue of their de- 
 tails had been graven upon their walls with the im- 
 pressive incision of steel upon adamant. Low and 
 contemptible have been the purposes which shallow 
 speculators, or interested calumniators, have at- 
 tempted to associate with those noble edifices ; but 
 • — the mist once dispelled — those Round Towers will 
 stand forward as the proof — not only of that envied 
 
XXIV TRANSLATORS PREFACE. 
 
 antiquity which our bards have so chaunted — but of 
 the literary and religious taste which gave rise to 
 those buildings, and of the grand^nd philosophic 
 principle which guided the architect in^giving them 
 their peculiar form. 
 
 But to return, another objection remains yet to be 
 disposed of before I relieve the reader's patience, per- 
 haps already too much exhausted, and that is, the un- 
 fitness of a foreigner for the performance of a task, in- 
 volving, it would seem, a personal knowledge of the 
 topography of the Island, the prejudices and habits, 
 the character and genius of the various sects and 
 denominations by whom the place is inhabited, with 
 some interest in their fortune, or identity of feeling 
 in their welfare. The compass of their views must 
 be very limited indeed who think that to be master 
 of those various requisites it could be necessary to 
 pass a life on the theatre of debate. Without stop- 
 ping, therefore, any farther to expose the lameness 
 of this argument — who, let me ask, was the author 
 of that composition, which, professing to be a history 
 of Ireland, and its conquest (?)* by Henry the Second, 
 was, in reality, nothing more than a tissue of 
 falsehood and abuse, concocted in the spirit of indi- 
 
 * They were never conquered by any people until betrayed 
 to Henry II, in 1172, who bestowed the sovereignty upon his 
 son John : but yet the kings of England were never called only 
 lords of Ireland till the title of " king" was bestowed on Henry 
 VIII. by the Irish state* themselves in parliament. — Hales. 
 
TRAJJSLATOR'S PllEFACE. XXV 
 
 vidual * and national hatred, additionally inflamed 
 by an engrossing vanity, f and a profligate disre- 
 regard even to ordinary decency in its indulgence J — 
 
 * Tliis was against Aubin O'MoUoy, a monk of the order of 
 Citeaux, and abbot of Baltinglass, by whom he was defeated 
 in a quarrel. 
 
 t His anticipations of repute and literary immortality from 
 the performaaice, he thus pompously put forth in his preface : 
 " Ore legar populi perque orana secula famA, 
 Si quid habent veri vatura presagia vivam." 
 ]Jut hoar what " Gratianus Lucius," the assumed name of 
 John Lynch, Archdeacon of Tuam, 1002, says of him— *' Li- 
 bros suos plebeculec spurcitiis inquinavit, et vulgi naivis toti 
 genti ab ipso adscriptis farcire constituit, sicut aranea virus e 
 thymo, mel apis exsugit ; sic e pessimis quibus que quorumvis 
 Hibcrnorura raoribus fasciculum ille fecit, raissa faciens quje 
 apud Hibernos prseclariora repererat. Sordes tamen istas ille 
 pro gemmis habere visus est, quas eligens et excipiens tanquani 
 elegantiora prajsenti volumine digessit, instar suis cui niagis 
 volupe est sterquilinii volutabro quam inter suavissimos quos- 
 que odores se versare." cap. 5. p. 41. Hear, also, what Ware, in 
 his "Antiquities,"says of his imitators, •' Atqui nonpossum non 
 mirari viros aliquos hujus saeculi, alioqui graves et doctos, fig- 
 inenta ea Geraldi mundo iterum pro veris obtrusisse." What 
 would he say, had he lived to see more modern scribblers, 
 such as Dempster, Abercromby, Mackenzie, " et hoc genus 
 omne" unredeemed by any of the above qualifications, (graves 
 et doctos,) but with ignoranrce corresponding to their dishonest 
 audacity, appropriating our history to their own private use ; 
 and to that end, not only denying us those advantages which 
 even our enemies before allowed us, but like the asp that 
 borrows its venom from the viper, adopting hatred against Ire- 
 land, as a legitimate inheritance, and calculating on impunity 
 from its prostration and decay. 
 
 t Having spent five years in composing this Jine work, the 
 five books of his pretended history of Ireland came forth. In 
 
XXVI TRANSLATORS PREFACE. 
 
 under the sanction, I admit, and auspicies of a wily 
 monarch, who wanted such an instrument to verify 
 the misstatements of " barbarism and impiety" with 
 which he had himself previously loaded the Irish, and 
 by virtue of which he had extorted that bull from the 
 pope * conferring on him a right (how generous !) 
 
 raptures with this new production of his genius, and unable to 
 conceal his vanity, he repairs to Oxford, where, in presence of 
 learned doctors and the assembled people, he read, after the 
 example of the Greeks, his " Topography" during three succes- 
 sive days, giving to each book an entire day. To render the 
 comedy more solemn, he treated the whole town splendidly for 
 three days : the first was appropriated to the populace — the 
 second to the doctors, professors, and principal scholars of the 
 University — and lastly, on the third day he regailed the other 
 students, with the soldiers and citizens of the town. " A noble 
 and brilliant action," says the author himself, "whereby the 
 ancient custom of the poets has been renewed in England III" 
 Ussher, Syllog. ed. par. ep. 49, p. 84, 85. 
 
 " Than vanity there's nothing harder hearted ; 
 For thoughtless of all sufferings unseen. 
 Of all save those which touch upon the round 
 Of the day's palpable doings, the vain man, 
 And oftner still the volatile woman vain, 
 Is busiest at heart with restless cares, 
 Poor pains and paltry joys, that make within, 
 Petty yet turbulent vicissitudes." 
 
 * Adrian was himself an Englishman, and consequently the 
 less indisposed to listen to this application. His Bull is given 
 at full length by Cambrensis and by Bishop Burgess ; —see also 
 Leland's History of Irelaud, vol. i. 8. It granted the sove- 
 reignty of Ireland to Henry, who was interested in its subjec- 
 tion on account of the annoyance it afforded liim, and the aid it 
 sent his enemies, upon the condition of the payment of " Petcr'n 
 
translator's preface. xxvii 
 
 to the invasion of our country, and, thereby, /or the 
 first time, * a. d. 1156, subjecting us at once to the 
 authority of a foreign Crown, and the spiritual sur- 
 veillance of the Roman See and Pontiff? f— Who, I 
 
 pence" in Ireland, which had never before been paid there ; 
 alledging the absurd claim, " Hiberniam et omnes insulas qui- 
 bus sol justitiae illuxit, et quae documenta fidei Chrislianae acee- 
 perunt ad jus B. Petri, non est dubiura, pertinere." It then 
 hypocritically exhorts him to inculcate morality and to plant 
 Christianity, as if we had it not in its splendour and purity 
 already, in Ireland ! " Stude gentem illam bonis moiibus in- 
 forraare et agas, tam per te quam per alios quos ad hoc fide, 
 verbo ac vitA idoneos esse perspexeris, ut decoretur ibi Ecclesia, 
 plantetur et crescat fidei Christianae religio." Alexander III. 
 his successor, confirmed this Bull in 1173, and added insult to 
 iniquity in representing the Irish as " barbarous," and '• Chris- 
 tians only in name." The Irish, it is true, spiritedly and nobly 
 resented these intrusions to Vivian, Alexander's legate, at the 
 synod of Waterford, held by Henry, 1177 ; but there it ended I 
 
 * The Irish, who in the eighth century were known by the 
 name of Scots, were the only divines who refused to dishonour 
 their reason by submitting it implicitly to the dictates of autho- 
 rity. Naturally subtle and sagacious, they applied their phi- 
 losophy to the illustration of the truths and doctrines of religion, 
 a method which was almost generally abhorred and exploded 
 in all other nations. This subtlety and sagacity enabled them to 
 comprehend with facility th« dialectic art, and their profound 
 knowledge of the Greek language contributed materially to the 
 same end. This made Ihem view with contempt the pitiful 
 compendiums of theology extracted from the fathers, and 
 which the unlearned ecclesiastics of other countries accepted as 
 oracles, — Mosheim. 
 
 t This ominous title — attached for more than a thousand 
 years to the regal and imperial dignity from Numa, b. c. 789, 
 to Oratian, a. d. 876, who renounced its pagan office and name, 
 
XXviil TRANSLATORS PREFACE. 
 
 repeat, was the author of that imposture, every word 
 of which its vile asserter, from compunction of con- 
 science for the injustice rendered to an innocent and 
 heroic nation, was obhged subseqCiently to retract — 
 though too late, alas ! to neutralize the poison which 
 the baneful tenor of his combined subserviency to 
 courtly favour and individual spite, — so opposite to 
 the character of the true historian, — had but too 
 successfully and extensively propagated? Why, 
 truly, it was a foreigner and a stranger — Gerald 
 Barry — or Cambrensis, as he is generally called — 
 from Cambria, the Latin for Wales,* his native 
 
 as interfering with those of tlie high-prlest of our profession, 
 Jesus Christ — but ill accords in its assumption of spiritual and 
 temporal dominion, with the meek spirit of Christianity as^ori- 
 ginally founded. " My kingdom," says our Saviour, "is not 
 of this world" — And vrhen there arose a dispute among the 
 apostles which should be accounted the greatest, he said, The 
 kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and they that 
 exercise authority over them are called benefactors," — euergetes> 
 benefactor, was a favourite title of the Macedo-Grecian kings of 
 Syria and Egypt, as we sometimes denominate our sovereigns the 
 "fountain of mercy and honour," — " but it shall not be so with 
 you." .lohn xviii. 36 ; Luke xxii. 95. It is not known which of 
 the popes first assumed the title, but Boniface III. — who, A. D. 
 C36, first arrogated to himself the unchristian one of " Uni- 
 versal Bishop," which Gregory the Great, A. D. 590, had 
 rejected with horror, calling himself in opposition thereto by 
 the lowly designation of " servant of the servants of God," 
 seems the most likely. — Hales. 
 
 * Ina, king of the West Saxons, married a second time, 
 " Gaula," daughter of Cadwalladar, the last king of the Britons, 
 and in her right inherited Cambria, thenceforward called by 
 
TRANSLATORS PREFACE. XXIX 
 
 country— and yet his unfitness on that score was 
 never questioned at the time, though possessing no 
 other knowledge of the country than what could he 
 gleaned from the sojourn of a few short months, 
 during which he was domesticated at the castle as 
 tutor to the king's son, where his sources of informa- 
 tion were necessarily circumscribed — his ignorance 
 of the native language being one great bar, aug- 
 mented by the narrow limits of the English power 
 within the island, amounting to no more than about 
 one-third of its territorial extent — whilst even the 
 scanty materials which such opportunities afforded 
 were polluted and vitiated by the medium through 
 which they passed, and the sinister influence which 
 guided their expression ! 
 
 But why dwell upon this instance of failure in 
 a foreigner undertaking a province which ho was 
 not competent to discharge, when 1 should rather 
 adduce those cases of splendid success in which 
 foreigners have ventured as historians of other coun- 
 tries, and won laurels in the attempt, as creditable 
 to their labours, as they have been honourable to their 
 subjects ? Merely to expose the illiberality, and 
 
 her name " Wales," with Cornwall and the British crown. He 
 was the first who was crowned king of the Anglo-Saxons and 
 British conjointly, A. D. "1.712 ; and the first measure of this 
 wise prince, " by the advice and consent of all the bishops and 
 chiefs, and the wise men and people of the whole kingdom," 
 was, to unite the two nations by intermarriages as speedily as 
 possible. 
 
XXX TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 make the action of their machinery, recoil upon 
 those knaves themselves, who would uphold a princi- 
 ple whilst it furthers their own objects — but no longer 
 interested in the extension of the rule — scornfully 
 reject it as an abortive bantling, though divested, 
 perhaps, of the imbecility which disfigured their pre- 
 cedent, nay, strengthened and adorned by the oppo- 
 site graces. That I may not, however, altogether 
 omit some instances of the description above adverted 
 to, will it not suffice to mention the names of De 
 Lome and Mills ; the former of whom, with a very 
 superficial knowledge of the localities of England, 
 has given a dissertation on its constitution that has 
 earned for him — from its natives not more than from 
 the whole civilized world — as much honour as the sub- 
 ject itself had excited admiration in the bosom of the 
 author; whilst the other, without ever having so 
 much as set a foot in India, or within many thousand 
 miles of its coast, has, notwithstanding, written a 
 history of that country, the most comprehensive and 
 satisfactory that has yet come from any pen. 
 
 Coolly, therefore, and dispassionately to argue the 
 point, I see no reason why a foreigner may not be as 
 competent to enter the lists of literary adventure in 
 the capacity of civil or local historian as any native — 
 nay even more competent, if an unbiassed judgment, 
 arising from a total disconnection with local preju- 
 dices and parties, be considered a requisite ingredient 
 for the exercise of such a trust. Or is literature with 
 
TRANSLATORS PREFACE. XXXI 
 
 US alone, I would ask, such a corporate affair that 
 none but the homeborn can intrude upon the mono- 
 poly ? What will the sticklers for exclusion say, how- 
 ever, when informed, that Dr.Villanueva in addition to 
 the most varied and profound acquirements, embracing 
 an intimacy with literature at large — has brought to 
 the execution of this favourite subject an acquaintance 
 with our island, obtained not more from the writings of 
 the ancients to whom its existence was familiar, than 
 by a long sojourn and j!7er*owa/ residence amongst us, 
 during which he has been occupied in digesting ma- 
 terials for this work, and enriching his stores from 
 our various libraries. But his principal and leading 
 qualification, and what constitutes his peculiar fitness, 
 in my mind, is his thorough mastership of the Hebrew 
 language, of which the Phoenician was a dialect, and 
 the affinity, of which with the Iberno-Celtic, or rather 
 IbernoSanscrit, or ancient Irish, I may endeavour 
 to elucidate in some future pages. This, then, is the 
 lever with which, single-handed and unpreceded, he 
 has encountered the difficulties of the Herculean 
 combat ; and myself the venerable recesses of un- 
 explored dates the basis of his plan, and the frag- 
 ments of names and sacred inscriptions the fulcrum 
 of his operations, he has removed that mountain of 
 uncertainty and doubt which had so long obscured 
 the horizon of our history, and — identified in spirit 
 with the dignity of the cause — the cause as it is, of 
 truth, of justice, and of letters — has triumphed in the 
 
XXxii TRANSLATORS PREFACE. 
 
 enjoyment of literary renown acquired in the investi- 
 gation of our long disputed ancestry. * 
 
 * " Cujus modi antiquitatis ne ipse qiiidetn popuIusRomanus 
 nominis sui testem proferre poterat autorem." — Ussher. — Tlie 
 value of this remark, emanating from so distinguished an autho- 
 rity, 1 may be disposed hereafter to consider in a more appro- 
 priate place. Meanwhile I feel that I cannot more happily 
 conclude this discourse, than by extracting a sentiment from a 
 very spirited publication, which has lately shot up in Dublin, 
 and which— had it no other claims on public patronage than the 
 chivalry it has evinced in embarking upon an ocean, where so 
 many miscarriages have, in that department, occurred, and in 
 thereby inviting into existence two similar periodicals which 
 have since followed its example — should, I conceive, on this 
 tingle score alone, receive countenance and encouragement from 
 all enlightened Irishmen. The sentence I so admire, as in 
 unison with my own feelings, is in a note, as follows : — 
 
 The- object of the writer of this article has been, to attack 
 modern ecclesiastical corruptions under ancient names and 
 forms ; he has therefore selected the historical materials or 
 systems that suited his subject best, without the slightest in- 
 tention of making an insidious or sectarian attack upon any 
 description of believers, detesting as he does, from his soul, all 
 sorts of polemical controversy, and convinced as he is, that its 
 melancholy effects are at this day perceptible in the slavery 
 of his country, which religious, or rather t/Tc/i(/ioMS difterences, 
 have caused, by dividing Irishmen against each other, who, if 
 united, would be invincible ! Irish Monthly Magazine. — May, 
 1032. 
 
10 THE MEMBERS OF THE ROYAL IRISH 
 ACADEMY. 
 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 Impressed with a sense of deep obligation to 
 your country, celebrated for hospitality as it most justly is — 
 not less so on Ihis score, than because of the more imme- 
 diate, and to me delightful, privilege of free access to the 
 flourishing and magnificent libraries of your capital — a pri- 
 vilege, 1 may add, which I value the more as deprived by 
 adversity of my own little collection of manuscripts and 
 books — 1 here respectfully tender to you, whose zeal for 
 the elucidation of the " antiquities of Ireland" has been ever 
 nobly conspicuous, this midnight effort of my pen, under- 
 taken with a view to assist you in that task, and discharge^ 
 on my part, the offices, at once, of gratitude and of coin- 
 mendation. 
 
 I might, indeed, give scope to my feelings in onothor 
 form, and find materials, too, for the purpose, by drawing 
 upon the fruits of a long literary life, no one moment of 
 ■which, even when most disengaged, could be well called 
 idle ; but, to your name, yomr reputation, and t/our assembly, 
 foremost as they all stand in literary fame, I could conceive 
 no oflering either more appropriate or more apposite, than 
 .this enterprising excursion into the early periods of Irish 
 
 D 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 history, to grope out, if happily to your satisfaction, from 
 beneath the darkness of that beclouded age, the nations and 
 the colonies whence you derive your origin. 
 
 If, however, in the attempt, my success shall be found 
 not adequate to my expectations, yet sliall I console my- 
 self with the hope that this little tract — on so interesting a 
 topic as that of antiquity, which, as Quintilion well observed, 
 whether local or universal, can never be too much studied, 
 in regard to the incidents it may record, the characters it 
 may develope, or the dates it may assign — may be found 
 Jieither unwelcome nor unprofitable to the lovers of such 
 pursuits ; and did I need any additional incitement to the 
 luxury of this hope, I^would find it in that praise, which 
 you, Gentlemen, who must have often felt the influence of 
 praise yourselves, have, after a diligent perusal of this my 
 work, been pleased to bestow upon my humble labors. 
 
 I have now only to beg that you will accept the j^r*^ fruits 
 of that which you have before sanctioned with the high 
 stamp of jour approbation ; and, while taking leave of your 
 body, with every feeling of regard, may I be permitted to 
 enforce my prayer, that you will — in accordance with the 
 spirit of your previous career — proceed laudably and cheer- 
 fully, by your diligence and your research — as well in push- 
 ing your own enquiries, as in patronising those of others— to 
 exalt the standard of yonr academic institution, and encir- 
 cle new wreaths on the renascent genius of lerne.* 
 
 JOACJHIMUS LaURENTIUS VlLLANUEVA. 
 
 • For the satisfaction of the classical schohir I give tlie ori- 
 guial uf this and iie]^t chapter in the appendix. — 11. O'B. 
 
PHGENICIAN IRELAND. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Scope of the Work — Origin of first Inhabitants of Ireland 
 uncertain — Way to trace it out — Difficulty of diving into 
 early dates — Instance of this — Number and credibility of 
 Irish historians — Foreign denominations of the old clans and 
 localities of Ireland — Where to look for their etymology — 
 The Author's acknowledgments as well to the more modern as 
 the ancient writers upon Irish topics — Not always safe to 
 folloio them. 
 
 The origin of the early inhabitants of Ireland is 
 not only ancient but uncertain, and not easily recon- 
 cileable to the exact rules of proof. But though we 
 must not altogether reject what tradition records of 
 them, still it strikes me that in our pursuit after 
 truth, the more likely road for its attainment would 
 be to trace out the origin of the names of the several 
 septs and tribes which from time to time have visited 
 those shores ; a course which, as in other instances, 
 will be found, if I mistake not, in this too, most con- 
 vincingly demonstrative of their lineage, their pro- 
 geny, and the country whence they emigrated. I 
 
 D 2 
 
36 
 
 do not, however, mean to say that the conviction 
 produced by such a search is in its nature so com- 
 plete as that it may not even be superseded by 
 other evidences; but this I assert, that it is not 
 contemptuously to be trifled with by ignorance 
 or guess-work, and that until something more 
 authentic in the shape of argument be adduced 
 it is entitled, at least, to a respectful hearing. If we 
 consider how difficult a thing it is, as Pliny* well 
 observed, to clothe antiquity in a modern costume, 
 to give fashion to novelty, splendor to decay, light 
 to obscurity, beauty to deformity, and belief to 
 doubt, the mere endeavor after the object, however 
 short it may fall of success, must, from the nobleness 
 of the intention, command respect for its author ; so 
 shall it be my humble boast that having been blessed 
 with the advantages of literary ease, I thought I 
 could not employ it better than by embarking in 
 some such design, conscious that whatever be my 
 fortune, my motives at least will be appreciated, as 
 purely wishing, amidst the crowd of contributors 
 that press forward at the present day, to offer my 
 mite also towards the general stock of the republic of 
 letters. 
 
 But as the remarks which I mean to submit respect- 
 
 * lies ardua vetustis novitatern dare, novis auctoritatem, oh- 
 soletis nitorem, obsouris lucem, fasliditis gratiam,dubiis fidem ; 
 ^atim non aasecutis voluisso, abunde pulclinim atque mngnifi- 
 ^ciim.est. — Hist. Nat. Praf, 
 
37 
 
 Ing the geographical names of this island, are neitheif 
 few in number, nor inconsiderable in importance, 
 involving, as they do, besides, an intimate acquaint- 
 ance with the languages of the east and north, let it 
 suffice for the present if, as a specimen, we but hint 
 at the ancient names of our Irish clans, and the idol- 
 atrous worship they indulged in, disregarding some 
 sources of my own private conjectures, which, how- 
 ever, I pledge myself shall be cheerfully supplied to 
 any gentleman who may hereafter feel disposed to 
 devote his patriotic pen to record the virtues 
 and the heroism of this second Sparta. * In the 
 mean time I flatter myself that I shall not be alto- 
 gether without reward in rendering those notes, of 
 what value soever they be, interesting in their de- 
 tails, as well to the admirers of what is amusing and 
 light as to the more grave and austere student. 
 
 It is greatly to be regretted that tho' no nation 
 on the globe has been ever known to be more ob- 
 servant of its antiquities,f nor more studiously care- 
 
 '* Dr. Villanueva having consigned to me those papers al- 
 liuled to in this sentence, the best use, I conceive, I can make 
 of them is to bestow them upon the public in the shape of an 
 appendix to the present volume. 
 
 t This extraordinary regard which the Scoto-Milesians, like 
 the Jews, paid to their history and the genealogy of their fami- 
 lies, bespeaks a nation equally polished and educated. . By a 
 funtlamental regulation of the state it was necessary to prove 
 connection with the royal house of JVlilesius before you could 
 either ascend tho throne, nssuuto the suvcroignty of any of the 
 provinces, or be appointed to any capacity, military or magis- 
 
38 
 
 ful of every thing that could appel'tain to their 
 chronology, the deeds of their ancestors, the boun- 
 daries of their jurisdictions, and their laws, than this 
 has been, there should still appear such a mist of 
 darkness spread before our path when we would in- 
 vestigate the origin of its primitive settlers. This 
 obscurity is the more to be deplored from the cha- 
 racter given by Camden of the Irish records, viz. 
 that " compared to them the antiquity of all other 
 natibns appeared as novelty, and, as it were, the 
 condition of incipient childhood."* Deplore it, 
 however, as we may, it has been occasioned, in no 
 small degree, by the odd and outlandish designations 
 given to the different tribes, as well as to many of 
 the towns, cities, mountains, lakes, and rivers, which 
 seem to have no affinity with the idiom of the 
 natives, nay, to be utterly at variance with it ; so' 
 
 teiial. The office of the antiquarians, instituted by Ollanih 
 Fodia, as part of the triennial council of the celebrated Tara, 
 and whose duty it was to watch over those genealogies and per- 
 , petuate the memory of their houses, was under the strictest 
 control of scrutinizing commissioners appointed for that pur- 
 pose, and the heaviest penalties were wont to be enforced 
 against such as were found to prevaricate in the slightest par- 
 ticular. He enacted, besides, that copies of all registries which 
 U[>on such examination were found pure, should be inserted in 
 the great registry called the "Psalter of Tara;" and this practice 
 and institution was continued and flourished up to the times of 
 Christianity and long after. 
 
 * Adeo et, prcE iilis, omnia omnium gentium antiquitas sit 
 novitas et quod-ammodo infantia. — Camd. Brit. ed. Lond. /J.72H. 
 
39 
 
 inucli so, tliat Striibo's declaration* respecting the 
 illiterately-barbarous ~ and geographical terms of 
 Spain's first inhabitants, and the places to which 
 they alluded — which, by the way, proceeded from 
 ignorance on his part of the languages they were 
 derived from — has been repeated of the Irish, with 
 literal precision, by O' Flaherty ,f a writer in other 
 respects well-informed, and who has thrown no 
 small light, too, upon the antiquities of his country. 
 For instance, the names of our early progenitors, as 
 enumerated by Ptolemy, he, forsooth, describes as 
 no less outlandish in their sound than the names of 
 the savages m some of the American forests.X He 
 
 * Plura aiiteni Ilispaniaj po|iiiIorum nomina apponere piget 
 fiigientem tajdiiim injucundtc scriplionis : nisi forte alicni volupe 
 est aiulire Plctauros, I3arduc(a/t, et Allot liyas et alia his 
 (letcriora obsciiiiora(pi« nomina. — Grogr. lih. iii. These are 
 Strabo's words ; but is it not strange thai a writer who ac- 
 knowledges the settlement of Phoenician colonists in Betica 
 and Celtiberia, should not liave recognized in these denomina- 
 tions the Syriac sources whence they sprnng ? For the name, 
 Pletauri, is compounded of the Phoenician words, pleich aur, 
 meaning a host of inhabitants in the enjoyment of freedom; or 
 oi' plcla nr, a host of inhabitants living in a valley. The name, 
 BardnelcE, is also Phoenician, from 6arrfo//tc, residing in a wood 
 or a grassy country. The Allolrigce were two Phoenician tribes 
 established amongst the Celtiberi, whence their name alh-thri- 
 iga, a divided people inhabiting an elevated country. But 
 these and similar names of the ancient Spanish clans, ema- 
 nating from Phoenician and Celtic sources, were any thing but 
 agreeable to Grecian ears. 
 
 t ^S^yg» s^"- l^^*"' Ibei'. Chron. p. 1, pag. 10. 
 
 I In this rhodomantade of O'Flaherty he was much more 
 
40 
 
 even adds, "We are no less ignorant, for the most 
 part, of the import of the names Ausona,* or Ausoba, 
 
 accurate than he intended, or, as the English say of our coun-' 
 try men, " he blundered himself into the right." Little did ho 
 know how near a connexion there existed between the two peo- 
 ple whom he ail'ected thus ridiculously to associate; and any 
 QUO who attends to the position which 1 Bubjoin, independently 
 of many others which could be brought in support of it, will 
 iiidmit the happiness of this unintentional coincidence. The 
 Algankinese are the most influential and commanding people 
 in the whole of North America. Their name in Irish indicates 
 as much, viz, ulgankine, or kine-algan, a noble communiiy, 
 corresponding to the Phoenician words al-gand-gens, which 
 means the same thing. The language of this people is the 
 master language of the whole country, and what is truly re- 
 markable, understood as Baron de Humboldt asserts, by all the 
 Indian nations except two. What then are we to infer from this 
 obvious affinity ? Why, undoubtedly, that a colony of that same' 
 people who first inhabited Ireland, and assigned to its several lo- 
 calities those characteristic names,whioh so disconcerted the har- 
 mony of Mr. O' Flaherty's acoustic organs, had lixed theniselves 
 at an early date in what has boen miscalled the " new world." 
 
 * Ausoba, or xVusona, is the ancient name of a river in the 
 western region of Connaught near Nagnata or Gallina, mentioned 
 by Ptoleujy. Some think it to be the river Galvia [or rather 
 the Suck] in Galway; others Lough Corbes, [or rather Cor- 
 rib]. The name is, however, almost universally supposed to 
 mean "a frith," from the old Britannic words, Auise aba, an 
 *' eruption of water,'' or the old Irish words, A use obba, of the 
 same import, (Collect, de reb. Ueb. iii. p. 284). To my mind 
 both names appear Phcenician. Ausoba, from uuz ob, means 
 a narrow bay. Ausona, from aits-on, a resounding river, rich 
 in water. In that part of Spain called Farsaconeses, the [les- 
 ania Citerior of the Romans, in the canton of the Ilergetes, 
 between Manresa and Gerunda, beside the river Sambroca, 
 there stood an ancient city called Ausona, or Ausa, whicb 
 
41 
 
 Daul'ona,* Ietnus,f Isammum,;]; Laberiis,§ Macoli- 
 cum,|| Ovoca/'^[ &c. ; and to crown all, "Even the few 
 
 gave name to the people called Ausetani. Being destroyed by 
 the Arabians, after their invasion of that country, and restored to 
 its original level, it was called Vicus Ausonoe, and by the natives, 
 Yich de Osona, now merely Vich. There is, also, in the canton 
 of the Asturas, a chain of mountains called Ausona; in Canta- 
 bria we (ind Mount Ansa ; in Boetica the city of Osuna ; in the 
 country of the Vacedi are the towns Ausejoand Ausines; in Cel- 
 tiberia the valley of Auso ; and other names of this kind, of Phoe- 
 nician birth, which borrow their names from the adjacent rivers. 
 
 * Danrona is derived from the Plucnician words duron, a 
 wealthy people. Spain had an old city in the canton of the 
 Celtibcrians called Duron, and the ruins of which are to be 
 seen to this day. But the name of the river Duro in Spain, as 
 well as of the river Dour in the county Cork (or rather county 
 Kerry, called now, the Mang,) in Ireland, comes from the 
 Celtic word deh', a river. 
 
 t lernus, (now Kenmare river,) either from the Phreniciaii 
 Jerain, pious, rrdigious, or from the Greek lerne, corrupted, as 
 we shall shew in a subsequent chapter, from the Phoenician 
 Iherin, and intimating Ireland. 
 
 X Isamnium, (now St. John's Foreland,) from Isanim, ancientf 
 or Izanim, armed people. 
 
 § Laberiis, an ancient city in Ireland, recorded by Ptolemy, 
 and called the capital of the Voluntii by Richard of Ciren- 
 cester, (now Kildare,) was celebrated for the idolatrous super- 
 stition of the Druids there preeminently cultivated. It is 
 derived from the Phoenician words lahab era, a flame in a cave. 
 Of the perpetual fire preserved by the sacrificing priests in the 
 temples of their idols, or in caves, and here alluded to, we shall 
 have occasion to speak more at large in the sequel. 
 
 II Macolicum, (now Killmallock,) from macolim, the stalTsor 
 walking sticks of travellers ; as in Gen. xxxii. 10, " For with 
 my staff I passed over this Jordan." Metaphorically applied 
 to a nation on a journey. 
 
 IT Ovoca, the ancient name of a river and bay in the eastern 
 
42 
 
 names," he says, *' wliicli may perhaps be understood 
 are in their meaning as vitiated and as corruptly 
 perverted as the places themselves are decayed by 
 time," Surely so distinguished a writer would not 
 have so expressed himself had he but taken the 
 trouble to compare such names with the source and 
 origin whence they emanated. 
 
 It may happen, indeed, in spite of us, and to our 
 great detriment, I allow, that we may sometimes 
 meet with obscure, nay, inexplicable, terms amongst 
 the names given of old to some of our states, our 
 cities, our rivers, or our mountains ; but this will be 
 found, for the most part, to have occurred through 
 the fault of historians and antiquarians mystifying 
 words otherwise clear, and arbitrarily affixing to 
 them whatever meaning may have been first sug- 
 gested by either their caprice or their ignorance. 
 How much more temperately, and at the same time 
 jnore correctly, does that celebrated Irish historian, 
 O'Connor, in his Rer. Iber. script, vet. 1, p. xlvi. 
 seq. express himself on this head. " If we but com- 
 pare," says lie, " the Irish names handed down by 
 Ptolemy, severally, with the British, and afterwards 
 with the Spanish names which he has also preserved. 
 
 section of Ireland, named by Ptolemy, and by some supposed 
 to be the river Arklow, by others the Dublin Hay, is derived 
 from the Phoenician vou, he emptied, lie evacuated ; whence the 
 Arabic obeCf or abic, a water-conduit, a pipe whereby water is 
 conveyed into a bath. 
 
43 
 
 we must needs acknowledge tliat by far the greater 
 part of tlieni are Spanish, bearhig reference to times 
 of the most distant date, and as such accord with 
 those accounts which we have lieard respecting the 
 very early landing of the Phajnicians in this ' holy 
 island.' "* This erudite writer accordingly steered 
 clear of the opinion of those who, pinning their faith 
 upon some would-be antiquarians, affirm that almost 
 all the names of our ancient tribes and colonists cor- 
 respond with the genius of the native idiom, and 
 must therefore be derived therefrom. Other critics, 
 with more chastened taste, and no small degree of 
 merit, derive them in part from the Celtic, in part 
 from the Cambrian, in part, too, from the Cambrian 
 and the old Teutonic ; but neither with these do I 
 agree in all particulars, seeing that they would fain 
 grub out from other sources, and no matter at what 
 pains or cost, what I am convinced in my soul are 
 derived from the spirit of the Phoenician language, 
 and from that only. 
 
 Bulletus t conceive one of those who have been' 
 thus led astray, being, as has been already observed 
 by a gentlemanf profoundly conversant in the anti- 
 quities of this country, evidently at much pains in 
 his commentaries upon the "Celtic Tongue" to 
 
 * For the origin of this' name see ' Preface, or chap, xxxiv. 
 sub. (ill. 
 
 t 'l'l>o Knglisli translator "of O. IMallot's work, " De Scp- 
 toiilrionalibiis Anlicpiitalibiis," pic-riico, page M. 
 
u 
 
 wrest, iF possible, I'roin that source, tlie luinies of 
 most of our cities, towns, rivers, &c. Nor was^ 
 Llmyd more successful in his collation of the Irish 
 with the Cantabrian language, bearing, as they do, 
 infinitely less analogy, one to the other, than the 
 Irish and the Phoenician.* I pass over, without 
 notice, the names of other writers, who have displayed 
 a good deal of industry, and to very little profit, 
 upon the geographical names of this island. 
 
 The truth is these gentlemen, with all their learn- 
 ing, have not sufficiently sifted the rubbish of the 
 Phoenician language, preserved and perpetuated 
 in those names by the ])easantry themselves, though 
 knowing nothing, as we may suppose, of the authors 
 of the contrivance ; and this observation I have had 
 occasion to make before upon the geographical 
 names of Spain, which, in my treatise upon the geo- 
 graphy of that country, I have attempted to prove as 
 emanating from the same source. And as it must 
 be admitted on all hands that the marksman who 
 aims at the object itself, however distant or elevated, 
 is less likely to miss the line of direction, than he 
 who would be content with grazing the circular 
 superficies, therefore have I ventured to lamich my 
 vessel at once into the depths of the Phoenician 
 fountains, there to explore, and mayhap with success. 
 
 * See Essay on tlie Antiquity of the Irish Language, being 
 a coMution of the Irish with the Punic. Dub. 1772. 
 
45 
 
 the genuine and true solution of those complicated 
 denominations. 
 
 The neglect of this on the part of a writer* who 
 lias otherwise shewn consunnnatc information on 
 Irish affairs, leads him to suspect that the Phoenicians 
 did only occasionally touch upon the Irish coasts for 
 the purposes of commerce, both export and import ; 
 and that in the course of time, Britain, by reason of 
 its wealthy tinf mines, holding out to them more 
 commercial inducements, became, consequently, a 
 more favorite rendezvous. Here he thinks it pro- 
 bable that they built themselves temporary huts, in 
 the capacity of purveyors for merchant's cargoes : 
 and these abodes, he conceives, not to have lasted 
 beyond the period of the third Punic war, when Car- 
 thage;}; was destroyed, and Spain laid claim to by the 
 Romans. 
 
 * Vallancey, Collect, de Reb. Ibern. vol. iii. page 405, 406. 
 
 I The abundance of this metal it was that gave rise to the 
 name of Britain, being compounded of Bruit, " tin," and Tan, 
 "country;" corresponding to " Cassiterides," the mercantile 
 name given by the Phoenicians to bolh Ireland and England. 
 
 X The Carthageiiians were a colony of the Phoenicians, who, 
 on accountof domestic dissensions, had quit their native home 
 and built themselves a new city, which they called Carthada, 
 or Carthage, which means as much, in contradistinction to 
 Tyre, their former residence. The precise time of its founda- 
 tion is unknown ; yet writers seem to agree tliat it was about 
 801) years before the Christian era, or according to otiiers, 72 
 or 03 years before the foundation of Rome. The wars which 
 this people maintained against (he Romans — and which origin. 
 
46 
 
 In the mean, time I would liave it distinctly un- 
 derstood that I do not deny but that some of those 
 names may have been of Irish (that is of Iberno- 
 Celtic) origin. Nay, I readily admit the fact. 
 This only I maintain, that most of those which are 
 supposed to be compounded of the languages of the 
 
 ated altogether in the jealousy and ambition of the latter — have 
 been celebrated all over the world for the nnexampled instances 
 they display of heroic valour, on the one hand, of cold selHsh- 
 ness and calculating design, on the other; and the awful lesson 
 licid out on both sides of the inconstancy of hnnian affairs, and 
 the transient tenure of humfin niagniKccnce. For upwards of 
 two hundred and forty years, those two nations had beheld with 
 secret distrust each other's power, till at length a pretext 
 occurred for removing the mask, and the declaration of hos- 
 tilities was the inevitable consequence of their inbred hatred. 
 The two first Punic wars had passed away, and the combatants 
 on both sides — kept in check by the vigilance of their mutual 
 operations — had covered themselves with glory and military 
 immortality; but in the third, the levelling maxim of Cato, 
 who saw that the peace of Italy could never be secured so long 
 as the capital of Africa had a being, gave a dreadful impetus to 
 the Roman perfidy and dishonour. During seventeen days 
 Carthage was in flames, and the soldiers were permitted to 
 redeem from the fire whatever possessions they could lay hold 
 of. But whilst others battened in the wasteful riot of the scene, 
 the philosophic Scipio, struck with melancholy at the sight, 
 was heard to repeat two verses from Homer, which contained 
 a prophecy concerning the fall of Troy. Being asked by ihe 
 historian Polybius to what he then applied his prediction, " To 
 my country," replied Scipio, "for her too I dread the vicissi- 
 iude of human affairs, lest in her turn she may exhibit another 
 flaminy Carthage" This event happonc<l about Ihe year of 
 Itomo mUS. 
 
47 
 
 Celts and Ancient Britons, are to be traced to a 
 much higlier quarter, namely, the language of the 
 Phoenicians, who in the very earliest days, that is 
 much about the time of the entrance of the Israelites 
 into the land of Canaan, penetrated as far, in the 
 first instance, as the coasts of Africa and Spain, and 
 thence— their ambition increasing with the success of 
 their enterprises — they extended their researches even 
 to the Irish shores. This, then, is my grand posi-. 
 tion, to establish which I shall enlist all the energies 
 of my mind and zeal — this the prize* to which I 
 shall emulously press forward, to point out the 
 riches of these Phcenician springs, and support that 
 descent they so irresistibly suggest to us ; that it 
 may become manifest to the world that they who 
 neglect this scrutiny into the earliest days of the 
 Phoenicians, are not qualified as liistorians to dis- 
 cover the true origin of the first inhabitants of Ire- 
 land ; still less so to vindicate their opinions on those 
 heads, or to refute and overturn those of their adver- 
 saries. 
 
 From what has been here said the reader may, per- 
 liaps, imagine tliat the Phoenicians were, in my view, 
 the primogenial inhabitants of this country — that, 
 in fact, "Phoenicians" and "natives" were, as re- 
 
 * Palnitiriimi — Ry Uiis word tlie nutlior would soein \o 
 allude to the G\cfk plurinix, a palni-tn e ; M'hciice some people 
 derive Phceiiicia, as abounding therein. 
 
48 
 
 garded Ireland, perfectly synonymous and con- 
 vertible terms.* To this point, however, my present 
 disquisition I shall not direct- I am well aware of 
 all that has been written by some ancient authors 
 about the aborigines, or giants, and their sanguinary 
 wars with the Partholani.f I know, also, what has 
 been said, in more recent times, of tlie last arrival 
 of theGadelians, or Milesians, from the coast of Iberia, 
 or Spain. Without either subscribing to, or reject- 
 ing, all that the most diligent searchers into Irish 
 antiquities affirm, as to this country having been 
 first colonized from the countries more adjacent to 
 it, and that it was not until after a long lapse of 
 years the Phoenicians, the Gadelians, and the Tar- 
 
 * It is more than probable that Ireland remained desert and 
 uninhabited from the creation to the deluge. No history, not 
 even that of Moses, offers any thing which can lead us to sup- 
 nose, that before the universal deluge, men had discovered the 
 secret of passing froni one counUy to another that was sepa- 
 rated by water. The ark, which was constructed by order of 
 God himself, and which served to preserve man on the watery 
 element, ia the first vessel of whicli wo have any knowledge. — 
 McGcoghcyan. 
 
 f There are some old collections of charters, with many 
 other monuments in writing, of the church of Cluau-Mac- 
 Noisk, in Latin *' Cluanensis," cited by O'Flaherty in the 
 dedicatory epistle of his Ogygia, which fix the arrival of the 
 first colonies in Ireland, under Partholan, in the year of the 
 world 1!)G9, three hundred and twelve years after the deluge; 
 this colony was followed by the Nemedians, the Fomorians, 
 the Firbolgs, and the Tuatha de Dauians. — McGeoyhe.gan. 
 
49 
 
 tesiens luul come liitlicr. I liave iipoii these and othev 
 such topics read over all the authorities, as well 
 modern as ancient, that lay within my grasp ; and 
 whilst in justice and candor I am bound to acknow- 
 ledge myself indebted to their labors on many and 
 important particulars that passed in review before 
 nic, still did I reserve to myself the privilege, ag 
 sacred as it is undeniable, of forming my conclusiong 
 unbiassed by any authority. 
 
 The chief advantage which humble diligenco 
 and diffident sagacity can derive from the labors 
 of able antecedent writers is this, that from their 
 priority in point of time they may be considered 
 as our torch-bearers through the thick and dis-^ 
 couraging darkness of ages in the distance ; yet 
 should wo not so fix our eyes upon them, as they 
 thus precede us in the way, as to omit all attention 
 on our part to the safety of our own footsteps. 
 Some of them often chalk out to themselves a road 
 through which it would be any thing but safe to 
 follow them, and 1 have accordingly, guarding 
 against sucli a risk, thought proj)cr in many in- 
 stances to take an unbeaten track and p. new liuQ of 
 journey. But inasmuch as no one hath before me 
 ever attempted this career, I may be allowed, I 
 trust, to hope that — if I shall inadvertently have 
 omitted* any thing in those commentaries which may 
 
 * " \Vhcre ancient coins?" We acknowledge we harp 
 
.50 
 
 socin Avitliin the province of an etymologist's duty — 
 and in so vast a medley of names it is impossible but 
 that some such oversight will occur — it will be in- 
 
 none. But you yomself tell us, that it was perhaps a thousaiul 
 years before our era, that the Phcenicians traded to Britain and 
 Ireland, (agreeing- pretty nearly with tlie calculations of our 
 native writers,) and you elsewhere say, that the l*hoenicians 
 (lid not coin money till six hundred years later. Do you ex- 
 pect our Phoenician ancestors should have had coins GOO years 
 before they had learned how to make them ? You also say 
 elsewhere, that " had the Phoenicians settled in any part of 
 Britain or Ireland, their usual splendour would have attended 
 them ; a few Pluenician coins," you add, " may perha[)s be 
 found in Britain and Ireland, a circumstance naturally to bo 
 expected from their trading there, but had there been any settle- 
 ments, there would have been ruins and numerous coins struck 
 at the settlement, as at all those in Spain." To all this, it is 
 only necessary to reply, that there are no remains of Phoenician 
 cities now to be found in Spain, and that the Punic coins and 
 inscriptions found there are clearly of Carthaginian origin, and 
 consequently cannot claim a very remote antiquity. Had the 
 Irish asserted a descent from the Carthaginians, the want of 
 such inscriptions and coins would be conclusive against them ; 
 but as the learned Lord Ross (then Sir L. Parsons,) observes, 
 no writer of note has ever said so, and we refer the reader to 
 that distinguished nobleman's •' Defence of the Ancient His- 
 tory of Irtilund," for couclnsivo arguments on that point. Mr. 
 Pinkertoii finally shouts, " Where is the least trace of ancient 
 art or science in your whole island ?" We respond, they are 
 exhibited abundantly in the numerous antiquities of gold, silver, 
 and bronze, dug up every day in all parts of Ireland, and 
 similar to the most ancient remains of the Greeks, Egyptians, 
 and PhcMuicians. Our gold crowns, collars, bracelets, anklets 
 — our brazen swords, spears, and domestic vessels — our cinerary 
 urns — our cairns with sepulchral chambers, which are not to 
 
51 
 
 clulgently overlooked by the learned amongst my 
 readers — and by tJiem it is more likely to be so over- 
 looked knowing by experience, as they do, the diffi- 
 culties and the accidents to which such pursuits are 
 liable — than by those who, receiving their information 
 by liearsay from others, cannot appreciate the trouble 
 which its acquisition n\ay have cost, but think it as 
 obvious to every one as it proved in their own in- 
 stance. The variety and obsoleteness of those 
 names have obliged many a searcher into their origin, 
 after a wearisome and fruitless pursuit, to give it 
 over in disgust : they have then contented them- 
 selves, as they fain would their readers, with vague 
 guesses, or obscure intimations of more obscure con- 
 jectures. Often have they assigned to them a mean- 
 ing not only different from the true one, but even 
 opposite thereto, and such as must at once so appear 
 from the actual condition and circumstances of the 
 inhabitants, the locality of cities, and several other 
 divisional and characteristic denominations. Not that 
 I would detract in the least from the merit of those 
 worthy men who have bestowed their pains — and 
 laudably so bestowed them— in illustrating the geo- 
 graphy of this my adopted country : — no — I com- 
 be paralelled in tlie British islos — and lastly, in tliose Cyclopean 
 works, agreeing identically with those in the islands, and on 
 the shores of the Mediterranean, universally attributed (o the 
 riucnicians. These are the evidences of the early colonizn^ 
 tion of Ireland. — Dublin Penny Jovrnnl. 
 
52 
 
 mend tlieir efforts — they have pioneered for me a 
 path. If I shall appear to have surpassed them in 
 any thing, for this I am indebted to that greater 
 degree of care which the opportunities of my leisure 
 have enabled me to bestow upon the valuable labors 
 of the great men of antiquity. These I peruse with 
 incessant delight — these I court with undiminishing 
 assiduity, to see if from the overflow of their genius 
 I may be able to imbibe a single drop to irrigate, 
 with the vapour of their fructifying stream, the ste- 
 rile plants of my shallow capacity. For I am not one 
 of those who leave no engine untried, no stone un- 
 turned, to detect little blemishes in every writer 
 amongst the ancients, and who vilify and distort the 
 very noblest discoveries — the very grandest pro- 
 ductions of human ingenuity, — singly and solely, and 
 without any other assignable cause, than because 
 that their own petty souls cannot relish nor com- 
 prehend the innate moral beauty of any thing that 
 is laudable. 
 
53 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Arrival of the Phcenicians together with the Iberians in Ire^ 
 land — Memorials of them in Fermoy — Leaha-Chaillde, its 
 etyvwhupj — Origin of the words Peine and Fcnians—'ihe 
 Vasconca. 
 
 But to return to our subject.— To me it appears 
 indisputable, as it is also the opinion of O'Connor, 
 that those Phoenicians who had invaded Boetica, — and 
 who in pursuance of, wliat seems to have been their 
 original destination, the discovery of Mines,* had in 
 conjunction with the Iberians or Celtiberians f pro- 
 
 * Strabo tells us that they drew such quantities of gold and 
 other commodities from this country as to make them pass a 
 law declaring it death to discover its situation to strangers. 
 The same was their motive for designating the IJritish islands, 
 Ireland and England, by the general name of Cassiterides, ex- 
 pressive of their tin mines, withholding, however, their geo- 
 graphical position for fear of intrusion upon their commerce, 
 
 t The composition of this name, Celtte and Ibcrus, might 
 have been designed to distinguish the Celtes on that, irom those 
 on this. Hide tho Pyron cos— //>»«• in Iho old C(;ltic, signifying; 
 over, ns Canl was divided into Ois and Trans Alpine, and 
 S[>nin into Citcrior and Ulterior. Lucan, however, would 
 seem to imply that they were so denominated as a mixed gene- 
 
54 
 
 ceeded thence onwards to Ireland, to work the iron 
 and tin mines for which it was celehrated — were the 
 earliest or amongst the earliest inhabitants of this 
 island — at least the southern and western parts of it. 
 I am convinced also, that the plain of Fermoy — called 
 in the " Annals of Innisfallen " the " Plain of the 
 Phoenicians" — was not so denominated without a just 
 and good cause, seeing- that in this district we meet 
 with stone pillars erected after the Phoenician fashion, 
 in plains and upon little hillocks, in great numbers, 
 and of almost monstrous proportions. In this opinion, 
 therefore, I unhesitatingly acquiesce, in preference to 
 that of a writer already alluded to, who has asserted 
 that there are no vestiges of either citadels or old 
 temples to be found in Ireland at this day that could 
 properly be attributed to the Phoenician era. Why, 
 an exceedingly antique and truly wonderful monu- 
 ment of this description, * though in ruins, is to be 
 
 ration of Celtae and Iberi — •' profugique a gente vetusla Gal- 
 lornm CeUaj miscentes nomen Iberis." — Lib. 4. 'I'liey were a 
 brave and poweifnl people, and made strong liead against the 
 llomans and Carthaginians in their respective invasions — their 
 country is now called Arragon. 
 
 * 1 should be disposed to include amongst this class the 
 small vaulted stone chambers called in Irish " Teach Draoi," 
 Druids house, some of which are to be seen on the coast of 
 Kerry, at Cashil, at Dundrum, &c. evidently pertaining to a 
 distant date, coeval, almost with the " round towers," but of a 
 less noble — though still religious application. !Nor should I 
 <Onut to mention the sacraticial altars called " Crondeach," that 
 
55 
 
 seen in the village of Glanwortli, * barony of Fermoy, 
 county of Cork, and province of Munster, consisting 
 of two stone pillars, placed at right angles, in an 
 oblong square. This laborious and stupendous piece 
 of workmanship is deservedly ascribed to the Phoe- 
 nicians, after their expulsion by Joshua, and was in- 
 tended, no doubt, either for the worship of some 
 idol, or to pepetuate the memory of some liero there 
 interred. The Irish call this structure Leaba-cliaillde, 
 meaning thereby Callid's couch, for "leaba" in Irish 
 siguifies a couch or bed ; but who this Callid was, no 
 one that I can discover, even soothsayer or propliet, 
 hath ever asserted or dared to guess ; much less can it 
 be ascertained from the interpretation of the populace 
 who understand by the term the " old hag's bed." In 
 support however of this explanation, it is alledged that 
 
 is, the /lap of the Dcitij, being an immense flat stone, supported 
 by pedestals, and sometimes, where the ground was siillieietitly 
 high, or where the weight of the incumbent stone rendered it too 
 difficult to remove it, without any pedestals; nor the hypogai 
 or antra Mithroc, being subterraneous vaults, of whicli the most 
 astonishing yet discovered is that at " New fJraiigo," cornipted 
 from (irein-lJagh, i. c.cave of tlie sun or IVlitiiras, in the county 
 of Mealh. This name is still preserved in Innis Mithra or 
 Murra, otherwise " isle of sun," nine miles from Sligo, where 
 is to be seen one of those clock grcmc, or cloch inuidhr, i. e. 
 sun stones, being a conical pillar of stone placed on a pedestal 
 surrounded by a wall to preserve it from profanation, and cor- 
 responding to the Mahoikc stone of the Crntoos, which is n 
 corruplion of tlie Irish words mah Uo, i. o. good God. 
 * So called from the goodness of its soil. 
 
56 
 
 nil monuments similarly constructed are called the by 
 Irish, Leapa na Peine, by which they conceive are 
 Ineant the dormitaries or sleeping places of the Fc-* 
 iiians, their celebrated militia of warriors. 
 
 With all rcs})cct, however, to the distinguished in- 
 dividuals who think thus, and otherwise, I am inclined 
 to imagine that Leaba-Chaillde is a Phoenician expres- 
 sion, slightly vitiated, and composed of the words 
 lehab shallaid, a burned corpse, indicating the grave 
 of some illustrious hero deceased and buried therein.* 
 For lehab, in the Phoenician language, is a ilame, 
 whence zalehab, to burn, and shallaid is a corpse, or 
 trunk of a dead body. Leopana too would seem to 
 be derived from the Phoenician lepin or leponin, that 
 is, swathings or liguments, or from leopin, linen or 
 towels ; as much as to say, that, underneath was in- 
 terred some Phoenician hero, and, according to the 
 eastern custom, wrapt up in bandages. 
 
 But what if it should appear that Feine was a name 
 given not to any individual Phoenician, but in general 
 to any chieftain or leader ? For in the Phoenician 
 dialect fen or feineh, which means the gable or out- 
 ward angle of a building, is applied metaphorically 
 to the leader of a camp, the chiefs or captains, who 
 are the strength of the people, as the corner stone or 
 
 * la the Syriac version of the Gospel according to St. Mat- 
 thew, (xiv. 12.) it is said of John the Baptist, wht) was put to 
 death by llcrod, " his discipUs look away liis body, shailldah, 
 and buried it." 
 
61 
 
 ^iible is of a house* Should tliis exposition b(3 ad-* 
 mitted, — and I sec no reason why it should not, — wo 
 need not then have recourse to Fenius the ancestor^ 
 according to an old Irish poemf of Breoganus who 
 built Brigantia, now Braganza in Spain, and whose 
 posterity are believed to have sailed thence into Ire- 
 land, under the conduct and auspices of Heber and 
 Heremon. I more incline to the ophiion of those who 
 would have the troops of the ancient Irish denomi- 
 nated Fenians, not as though they were Phoenicians 
 or descended from them, but because that they ex- 
 hibited in their conduct the prowess and fortitude of 
 tlie Ibcro-Phccnicians, who had formerly settled in the 
 country, and whose memory was preserved amongst 
 the inhabitants by long and repeated traditions. For 
 their soldiers, the Phccnii, who were equally called 
 clannaj Baoisgcnc, or the sons of the Basgncans, that 
 is the Vasconians, Were never accounted of Phoeni- 
 cian extraction, nor to have obtained that name from 
 any leader called Baoisgenes, but from the Vasconse 
 of Cantabria, whence we are informed that Milesius 
 had emigrated to Ireland, of antient date, and with 
 
 * ^o in Judges, xx. 2. " and u!I the angles, ( feiuoth,) of 
 the |»e()|)le nift." And 1 Kings, xiv. 2i). " apply liillier all 
 the angles, fjimvth of the people. 
 
 f Coemanug in carniin(> : Canam hnnadhus nan Goadhih 
 (Cano origineni Gadeliuiiiin ) 
 
 X Clanna is an Irish word, signifying sons or deccndants. 
 So is baoisgc also, and means a Hash of light, and nietapliori* 
 cally a Vain glorious, or boastful fellow.— ^iScc O'Cormon 
 
58 
 
 an immense army.* Nor, indeed, should we omit 
 noticing that those Fenii, that is, the celebrated old 
 Irish militia, otherwise called feinne, might have 
 been so denominated from the Irish word feine, sig- 
 nifying a rustic or serf, as it is more than probable 
 that this military corps were originally embodied 
 from out of the class of the peasantry. To this point 
 however, we shall again revert when speaking ex- 
 pressly, and in detail, of the word Fene as one of the 
 old clans of this country .f 
 
 * See O'Connor. 
 
 f Tlio history of mankind would be one of the most pleasing 
 studies in the universe, were it not often attended with the 
 most humiliating, the most melancholy considerations. By 
 studying human nature, we are led to consider in what manner 
 we were formed by our all-wise Creator; what we have made 
 ourselves, in consequence of our disobedience to the divine law ; 
 what we may be through Divine grace ; and then what we 
 shall be in glory. Principles of this nature, should strike 
 deep into our minds, when we consider the state of the heathen 
 world, and, at the same time, reflect on the many blessings we 
 enjoy. In vain do we pride ourselves in any of our endow- 
 ments, in vain do we pretend to superior attainments; for if 
 our allectioiis are as much attached to earthly objects as tliose 
 of the heathens, then we are much more inexcusable than 
 they. We have all the truths of the gospel laid open to us, 
 while they remain in a state of ignorance, wurship[)ing the 
 works of their own hands. Nay, worshipping even reptiles 
 and insects, offering human sacrihces, shutting up their bowels 
 of compassion, and trampling upon every moral obligation. 
 This will naturally apply to what we are now going to relate, 
 for the dignity of our holy religion never shines so bright, as 
 when contiasted with heathen superstition, pagan idolatry, and 
 every thing else that can dishonour our nature. — Hard. 
 
59 
 
 CHAP. HI. 
 
 trcland called hy different names hy the Phoenicians — Inii 
 nabjiodha — Fiod Inis- -Criocafrind — Ere — Fodhla,from the 
 toot of which latter term the Phoenicians called all Africa by 
 the name of Phut— Banba — Fail — Elga, 
 
 But my present design being to illustrate the 
 names of the several localities of this country, as- 
 serted already and maintained to have been of Phoeni- 
 cian birth, I shall begin from its very first settlers, 
 whose tribes it will be shewn have borrowed their 
 names from that language ; and in this retrospective 
 view the island itself claims our first regard, as 
 known both to foreigners and to natives under va- 
 rious appellatives. By the natives it was called Inis 
 nab fiodha, by which they would intimate the '' island 
 of woods ;" in which sense it was also called Inis 
 fiod, the " island of timber " or trees, from fiod, timber, 
 and inis> an island ; and again, crioca frindh, the 
 final wood ; from croch, a boundary, and fridh, a 
 wood.* It may have happened, indeed, that subsequent 
 
 * I never saw one hundred contiguous acres in Ireland in 
 Vvlucli there were not evident signs that they were once wood, 
 or^ at least) very well wooded. Trees and the roots of trees, of 
 
(iO 
 
 settlors, IVoin it>iu)riuicc of tlioir true lueiininy, endeii- 
 Vourcil to ticcoiuniodate to the spiritof their own hm- 
 guage tliese names and terms which they found ready 
 to their hand, and sanctioned by the usage of 
 their predecessors ; but as to their being originally 
 Phoenician, that is indispiitahle and beyond the fos^ 
 sibility of doubt. Inis nab fiodha is compounded, 
 as before observed, of the words, Inis, an island ; 
 nab, of; and fiod, a wood ; Inis, again, is composed 
 of the Phoenician words, In-is, meaning idolatrous 
 inhabitants, of intrepidity and spirit — in or un being 
 idolatry, and is, an inhabitant of manly spirit ; 
 whilst the two latter words, nab-fiodah, are pro[)erly 
 derived from the Phoenician naboa, an origin, and 
 phiobd, those who dwelt in a vanquished land. So 
 that Inis-nab-fiodah conveyed to the Phoenicians the 
 following idea, viz. who dwelt originally in a van- 
 quished land, or the posterity of those who sojourn- 
 ed in a country which they took by conquest. 
 
 the largest size, are dug up i» all the bogs j and in the culti- 
 vated countries, the stumps of trees destroyed show tliut the 
 destruction has not been of any ancient date : a vast number ot' 
 Irish names for hills, mountains, valleys, and plains, have 
 forests, woods, groves, or trees, for their signification. The 
 greatest j)art of tlie kingdom now exhibits a naked, bleak, 
 dreary view, for want of wood, which has been destroyed for 
 a century past, with thoughtless prodigality, and stdl continues 
 to be cut and wasted, as if it were not worth the preservation. 
 — Youny. 
 
61 
 
 Fiocl I Ills, from ihe Pliccnician words, Aot inis, 
 tliat is, idolatrous inhabitants who deprecate, for fiot 
 means deprecation. 
 
 Crioca frindh, from cri-ocal, cities, towns, or vil^ 
 lages aboimdinpf in victuals, provisions, or food ; and 
 fhin, the earth's produce — all which enunciate the 
 productiveness of this country. 
 
 1 pass over to the vulgar, yet most ancient names 
 given to Ireland, such as Ere Fodhla, and Banba, 
 borrowed, as some historians aver, from three royal 
 sisters, the last queens of the Tuatha Dedan, to 
 •which Fiech* the Scholiast adds two others, Fail and 
 Elga. But it is not safe trusting to fabulous records 
 wrapt up in darkness and unsubstantiated by proof ; 
 more especially when we may otherwise account for 
 tlic origin of these words by tracing them to the spi- 
 rit of the Phoenician language — for Ere comes from 
 araa or eree, a country, a climate, the inhabitants of 
 one region. Fodhla from the words phut lah, or 
 phot lah, a green land, which was formerly the 
 proper appellation of Ireland, whence the Greeks 
 used to call it smaragdon, the emerald,f from the 
 
 * This was the celebrated convert and disciple of St. Patrick, 
 afterwards promoted to the bishopric of Sletty, in the Queen's 
 county, who flourished at the end of the fifth and beginning of 
 the sixth century — distinguished by many literary productions, 
 but best known by his poetical hymn, or panegyric upon his 
 beloved instructor, the nposlle of our forefathers. 
 
 I " The ItlmcrQld " sloiu\ in its purest stale, is of n bright 
 
62 
 
 greenness and luxuriant freshness of its soil, as ap- 
 pears from the quotation " grandes viridi cum luce 
 smaragdi." Unless you would rather suppose it to 
 have heen so denominated by the Phcenicians from 
 its likeness to the country inhabited by Phut, the 
 third son of Ham. Nor need we wonder if some of 
 these should have so named this island, as they had 
 formerly all Africa,* whose western parts, namely, 
 
 ami naturally polished surface, and of a pure and charming' 
 green, without any mixture of any other color : 
 
 I'air as the glittering waters 
 
 Thy oinoruld banks that lave, 
 'Vo me thy graceful daughters, 
 
 Thy generous sons as brave. 
 Oh ! there are hearts within thee 
 
 Which know not shame or guile. 
 And such proud homage win thee — 
 
 My own green isle ! — Barton. 
 
 * In ancient times, this country was considered as a third 
 part of the terrestrial globe, and it may bo properly called a 
 peninsular ; for were it not for that small tract of land running 
 between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, it would actually 
 be an island. It is remarkable, that in ancient times there 
 were many christians here, \vho had fair and llourishing 
 churches, and here some of the most eminent christian fathers 
 resided ; aujong these were Cyprian, bishop of Carthage ; 
 Austin, bishop of Hippo ; and Tertullian, the famous apolo- 
 gist. These African churches continued to flourish till about 
 the middle of the seventh century, when the Arabians, under 
 their caliphs, established Mahometanism in many parts, such as 
 I'jgypt, Morocco, Algiers, Ikii. but at [)reseut, (he greater 
 nund)er of the inhabitants are idulators. 13ut here we (ind it 
 impossible for us to inform the reader, from whence these 
 
63 
 
 Maiiritjiiiia Tiiipfitana,* wlicrcin lies Lybi.i, arc to 
 this day known by tliis name ; and tlie river that en- 
 compasses tliose parts is still called Phuti, and the 
 country all about Phutensis.f 
 
 ]>aiiba would seem derived from the Phoenician 
 words bana balia, cities built in an extensive region, 
 or a country abounding in towns or cities. 
 
 Fail from the Phoenician faila, or a husbandman, a 
 serf, which comes from filah to plough, to harrow up 
 the soil, whence also failhin, agriculture, tillage. 
 
 Elga from the Phcenician helca, usage, privilege, 
 designating probably the customs and ordinances of 
 the primitive sages, which were the rule of conduct 
 and the model of imitation to the Irish from the very 
 beginning. 
 
 modern idolators derive their worship ; for it bears no manner 
 of afiinity to that of either the Greeks, Romans, or Egyptians; 
 and there is so little of the ancient religion of the Ethiopians, 
 Nigritians, &c. preserved in it, that it would prove a very dif- 
 ficult task to trace from those remains the idolatry of their 
 descendants. — Iliird. 
 
 * So called from Tingis, now Tangier the capital, to distin- 
 guish it from Numidia, which was called Mauritania Ca^sari- 
 ensis after Claudius, who had reduced both kingdoms to the 
 condition of Roman provinces. Mauritania is derived from 
 Maur, i. e. a western, it being to the west of Carthage and 
 Phoenicia. It is now the empire of Eez and Morocco. 
 
 t Valent. Schindl, Odcran. lex pent col. 1427. 
 
6t 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 Chjygia an ancient name for Ireland — Various opinions as to ila 
 ctymoloijy — Oijijges king of Thebes — EgTjpt called Ogygia — 
 would seem a Phoenician name, relating to geography , or else 
 indicating the bloody sacrifices of the Druids — Gia a valley 
 of Jerusalem — Perjtetualfire in Tophet — As also in the temple 
 of Hercules at Gadcs, and in other idol temples — Origin of 
 this rite — Sojis burnt by their parents in honor of Moloch — 
 Meaning of dragging children through fire — Customary with 
 the ancients to offer human victims to idols. 
 
 Plutarch and the old poets have given to Ireland 
 the name of Ogygia, to intimate thereby, as Camden 
 and others after him have supposed^ their thorough 
 conviction of its extreme antiquity. This opinion they 
 have formed, not more from the distant recesses of 
 time which the Irish explore in their historical inves- 
 tigations, than from the well known practice of the 
 poets, giving — from Ogyges the most ancient king of 
 Thebes — the name of Ogygia to any thing that is 
 ancient, * Some would have Kgypt on this account 
 
 * More especially if such antiquity he involved in darkness 
 find in doubt, as every thing rehiting to the origin of tiiis king, 
 llie age in which he lived, and the duration of his reign, con- 
 ftisscdly is. Ogygiuiu id apptillunt |»oict;v, tantinani |>trvetiis 
 
65 
 
 called Ogygia, because that its inhabitants are re- 
 corded to be the most ancient in the world, and 
 the inventors, at the same time, of all or most of the 
 sciences and arts which were subsequently borrowed 
 and improved, to much advantage, by the several 
 Asiatic and Grecian states.* 
 
 For my part, though I would not altogether ex- 
 plode the purport of this cx})lana(ion, yet I should 
 rather imagine Ogygia to be a Phoenician term, 
 compounded of the words hog-igia, that is, " the sea 
 girt isle," or hog-igiah, an inhabitant surrounded by 
 the ocean. For the Phoenicians who had begun to 
 fre(|uent in distant voyages the uttermost part of 
 either ocean, and who, as Strabo mentions, having 
 proceeded even beyond the ^^pillarsf of Hercules," had 
 circumnavigated the greater part of the habitable 
 globe, finding the earth on every side encompassed 
 by that watery expanse o'er whose bosom they were 
 wafted to their enterprising destinations, very signi- 
 ficantly gave the name of " hag" to that '' watery ex- 
 
 (lix(Mi.s al) Ofiygo votiistissinio. — R/itnlo</ntnis, lib. Ki, rnp. D;?. 
 tScc Pint. lib. dc facia in. orbc luna>.. Slalyriiis, an I'liifilislj 
 poet, calls this island, Osrygia, in his " I'ale Albione." 
 
 * Cmiib. Urit. tit. IJibcrnia. 
 
 \ Two lofty mountains named Calpe and Abyla, siliiato, 
 one on the most southern extremity of Spain, the other on 
 the opposite part of AlVica, which Hercules is said to have 
 erected, with the inscription of nc plus ultra, as if they had 
 hrcn the rxtrrnie points of tlio world. 
 
 F 
 
06 
 
 pause," intimating tlicrohy tlio " sea circimiFeronce," 
 not nnlike what tlie Arabians designate it, " the 
 circumambient sea." From hence arose the Greek 
 word Ogen, the ancient name for the ocean amongst 
 that people ; whence it is very probable, as many 
 think, that Ireland was called Ogygia by Plutarch. 
 It is worthy of note too, that hag, which is common 
 as well to the Hebrews as the l*h(Lniicians, occurs in 
 scripture as a cosmographical term, used by Isaiah 
 (xi, 22.) to express emphatically the circle of the 
 earth, and by Solomon* to indicate the circle above 
 the face of the abyss.f 
 
 lUit the foregoing interpretation must not make 
 us treat with contempt, nor fancy it a dream on the 
 part of those who imagine that by the name of 
 "Ogygia" allusion is made to the bloody victims which 
 the Druids and other sacrificing priests, introduced 
 by the Phoenicians into this country, used offer to their 
 idols according to the Syriac custom in Ireland, no 
 less than in Spain, and Gaul, and other nations of 
 those denominated Gentiles. I'or in the Phoenician 
 language, og-igiah means grief or sorrow for one 
 burned, being compounded of og, he burned, and 
 igiah, he made sorrowful. Whence the valley 
 near Jerusalem wherein Tophet was situated, and in 
 which fire was perpetually preserved for burning the 
 
 * Proverbs viii. 27. 
 \ Bochart Geog. i. 30. 
 
67 
 
 offals and bones of the dead bodies therein sacrificed, 
 — sons, by the way, whom their very parents used to 
 innnoLate to the idol Moloch, dragging them with 
 their own hands through two funeral pyles until death 
 interfered in mercy to their excruciations — was called 
 gia or gianon, from that horrifying abomination. 
 I5y this too is confirmed the belief of the l*hocnicinns 
 having made it a custom to preserve fire " inexlin- 
 guishable" in the temples of their gods, as Silius as- 
 serts of the tem])le of Gades or Cades, which they 
 had there erected and devoted to Hercules. * 
 
 The " evil spirit," no doubt, t^e great enemy of the 
 liuman species, and consequently the rival of Jehovah, 
 in this the weakest quarter of the universal created 
 scheme, had his priests also to preserve his fire in 
 the temples of his idols, so as to a))pear not inferior 
 to the people of Israel whom (ilod had enjoined to 
 feed the fire continually upon the altar. Hence the 
 Greeks at Delphi and at Athens, used to preserve it 
 both night and day ; and if ever, by any accident, it 
 got extinguished, they used to light it again by the rays 
 of the sun. The Pyrca of the Persians are also well 
 known, in which they used not only to preserve the fire 
 in an everlasting blaze, but even worship it asadivi- 
 
 * Uiuler this appollation was lypifiod the sun, tho twelve 
 labors of the" hero," heiiig nothing iiiore than a figniative repre- 
 sentation of the annual course of (liat luminary through the 
 twelve signs of the zodiac. — See Porp. Sch. lies. 
 
 F 2 
 
68 
 
 nity.* Stral)o describes tliis pyratlioia (xv) or iire- 
 worsliip, as existing- also in Capadocia.f The vestal 
 virgins, never allowed the sacred fire to be ex- 
 tinguished, it being a point of fearful and intense 
 anxiety to the Romans, as they never failed to 
 look upon its extinction as a sure presage of the 
 overthrow of their city. This custom penetrated 
 even to India, to the Brahmins themselves, who, we 
 have the authority of Arumianus for saying, " used 
 to guard the fire on hearths ever burning." But 
 the superstition had its origin with the sacrificing 
 priests of the Syrians, who were wont in honour of 
 Moloch to drag their own children through heaps 
 of fire. I 
 
 This dragging amounted in some instances to an 
 actual burning of children ; sometimes only to a 
 scorching, produced by their being either conducted 
 
 * Brison de regno Persaium. 
 
 f This country — once so immersed in profligacy and vice as 
 to share in the dishonor of the proverbial alliteration of the 
 Greek, " tria kappa kaldsta," the Cretans and (ho Cilicians lieing 
 the other two of the trio, was notwithstanding, ennobled by 
 being the birth place of Strabo, and of many martyrs and 
 beroes, such as Gregory Nazoenzen, Gregory Nysson, and St. 
 Basil, not forgetting the celebrated St. George, who had been 
 a tribune of soldiers (colonel) under the emperor Dioclesian, 
 and afterwards appointed patron of the order of the garter by 
 Edward III, all of whom shed a lustre over tlie hibtury of the 
 place, and redeem its character though almost irreparable. 
 
 { T^evit. xviii. 21. xx. 3, 4, 5. 
 
69 
 
 or carried tlirough a space betwixt two immense 
 fires, by tlieir comari or priests^ or, according to their 
 direction, by the parents themselves. Comar, or 
 cumar, as also mar, meant, with the Chaldeans and 
 Syrians, a gentile priest, a camillus, or minister of 
 idols ; whence the Syriac word cumaruth, priesthood, 
 and the rabinical cumari, a monk. But they were 
 so denominated from the burning of victims, for with 
 the people of the east camar means to burn. There 
 arc those, however, who think that the verb " to drag 
 across," when used in this acceptation, is equivalent 
 in import with the verb to ''burn." Vossius is of 
 opinion that when the scriptures make mention of 
 this dragging, " burning" is not thereby implied, but 
 merely ** conducting" between two fires. Never- 
 theless, he acknowledges that independently of this 
 scorching, which prevailed in all families, no matter 
 how aflluent, or strangers to want, there was also a 
 live-burning of their dearest pledges, and from the 
 very flower of the people too, whereby, in the mad- 
 ness of their superstition, they had cajoled themselves 
 into a belief that their deities could be propitiated 
 on occasions of great calamites. 
 
 That this was the opinion of the Phoenicians is 
 evident from Porphyry.* We learn from Scripture, 
 
 * The original imnio of Hiis writer and philosopher, and 
 greatest enetny, in both capacities, that Christianity ever ex- 
 perienced, was Melek, which in (he Syriac language signifies 
 
70 
 
 ulso, that this worsliip liad obtained tliroughout the 
 land of Canaan* and Mediterranean Syria, wliicli 
 comprehended Phoenicia within its extensive boun- 
 daries. For we read of the Israehtes, in Psalm cv. 
 being mixed with the Gentiles, and learning all their 
 practices, sacrificing, (izbechu) after their example, 
 their sons and daughters to demons — that is to the 
 graven images of Canaan. And respecting the 
 Assyriansf who were brought over to Samaria, the 
 history of II. Kuigs, xvii. 31, records that those who 
 were of Sepharvaim were wont to burn their sons in 
 honor of Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of 
 Sepharvaim. J Quintus Curtius§ treats of the Imman 
 
 •' King," changed afterwards by IiOn|iiiuia, his preceptor, to 
 J*or|)hyriiis, from pnipkura, the Greek for purple, vvliich kings 
 ll^suaily wore. I le was a native of Tyre, and died, I believe, in 
 Sicily, A. D. 301. 
 
 * The first city founded in this celebrated country, known 
 by the several naujes of l*lKBnicia, Pulesliiie, (/unaan, Israel, 
 and Judea, and one literally flowing with milk and honey, was 
 Hebron. 
 
 t This, the first great monarchy established on the earth, 
 took its name from Asluir, the second son of Shem, who 
 founded it about the year 341 after the flood. It is at present 
 called Curdiston, i. e. the country of the Cnrdes, from the 
 Curdo mountains. 
 
 X Supposed, by Sir Isaac Newton, to have been the Sephara 
 of Ptolemy, and both to correspond with Pantibibia, where 
 Zesuthrus deposited the records which he wrote before the 
 flood. Pantibibia from pun, all, and hiblon, a book, is the 
 (J reek translation of Sephara, which comes from Sphar, a book 
 
 or record. 
 
 § The era of this historian, the romantic biographer of Alex- 
 
71 
 
 victims oflcrcd by tlic Syrians. Diodorus Siculus,* 
 (xx) and Teitullian,f (Adveis. Gnost. c. vii.) record 
 the same of their Carthaginian colonies, as does Por- 
 phyry of the people of Rhodes ;| and says Paukis 
 Fagius, in the Chaldee paraphrase of Leviticus, 
 " They used to dance in the interim whilst the boy 
 was being burned in the blazing fire, striking their 
 timbrels the while, to drown thereby the shrieks of 
 
 andor the (jlreixt, is not sufllciently determined — some making 
 liim coteinporaiy with Claudius ; others with Vespasian ; and 
 others, again, with Augustus. 
 
 * This was the writer of whom Vincent used to say, that 
 " I'jvcry word of his was a sentence, and every sentence 
 a triumph over error." lie was called Sicuhis, as being 
 born at Argyra, in Sicily ; and flourished about 44 years B.C. 
 
 I Tliis eloquent writer was originally a Pagan, and after his 
 conversion became JJishop of Carthage, his native place, A. 1). 
 196. lie afterwards separated from the Catholic Church, and 
 plunged into the errors of the Montoiiists. 
 
 X This celebrated island, in the Carpathian sea, was so named 
 from (Gesurat) Rhod, which in the Phoenician language means 
 " snake," (island) corresponding to '• Ophiusa," another name 
 thereof, and which, in the Greek, signifies the very same thing 
 — from ophis, a snake. Others derive it from rodon, a rose, 
 for which, as well as snakes, the island was remarkable, and 
 adduce, in confirmation, several Ilhodian coins, exhibiting the 
 sun, to which the island was sacred, on one side, and a rose on 
 the other. But this was a mistake of the moderns not knowing 
 the Phoenician origin of the word Ilhod, and wresting it to the 
 resemblance of their own rodon, corroborated somewhat by the 
 accident of finding of a rose-bud of brass in laying the founda- 
 tion of the ancient city of l.imhis. Tin; sanu! objection, how- 
 ever, etpially applies to this, being only a little more antece- 
 dent in point of time. 
 
72 
 
 the unfortunate sulFcrer." He tlierefore, inethinks, 
 eannot be suspected of a wild-goose ])ursuit who, 
 depending upon these authorities, conceives that, in 
 the name of Ogygia, allusion is made either to the 
 Syriac settlers in this country who came from that 
 quarter of the laud of Canaan, or to the Phoenician 
 worshippers of Moloch, who, as we shall hereafter 
 prove, introduced this custom of human socri/lces, 
 along witli other bloody ceremonies and practices, 
 into their several colonies.* 
 
 "* Tlio iiiliubilaiits of ull nations in the nniverse believe in the 
 necessity of" an atonement for sin, before men can be jnstified 
 by the Supreme Being, and although very unworthy notions 
 liave been formed concerning the existence of such an essential 
 point in religion, yet it does not follow that the principle itself 
 is false. Nay it rather proves the contrary, for there is some- 
 thing in every man's conscience which points out to him that he 
 lias offended God, and that some attoneinent must be made, 
 cither by himself or by another. Now these heathens in India 
 believe, that an attonement has been made for their sins, and 
 they are to have the choice of enjoying the benefits of it, on two 
 conditions : either they are to visit several holy cities at a vast 
 distance from each other, or secondly, they are declared to be 
 absolved, in consequence of their repeating the names of their 
 gods, twenty-four times every day. Such as visit the holy 
 places, ofl'er up a sacrifice ; and on the tail of the victim is 
 written the name of the penitent, with the nature of his otl'ence. 
 This practice seems to have been universal in ancient times ; it 
 was so among the Greeks, the Romans, the Carthageniaus and 
 the Jews; and the prophet Isaiah alludes to it, when he says 
 of Christ, " surely he hath born our griefs, and carried our 
 Borrows." Isaiah liii. 4. — Ilurd. 
 
73 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 The name Hibernia given to this island varioushj luritten by 
 the Greeks and the Latins— Of Phoenician origin— Other 
 names, Eri, Eire, Iris, Lvg — The Irish called Erin, Erion, 
 and Erigin^ — Ire Erion — Couri — Miluir — Guidhonod — All 
 Phoenician names. 
 
 But tlie most ancient name we meet with ever 
 given to this island is Hibernia, tlie name by which 
 CjEsar, Pliny, Tacitus, Solinus, and others have 
 designated it. Eustathius calls it Overniti and JJer- 
 nia ; St. Patrick,* Hibcria and Hiberio. With the 
 Greek writers it is louernia, louerne, and lerne, all 
 derived from the Phoenician Iberin, meaning extre- 
 mities, limits, or boundaries. From whence comes 
 Iberne, the remotest habitation ; because, as Bo- 
 chart, Geog. sacr. i. 39, well explains it, " Tlie an- 
 
 * The family name of this venerable saint ami celebrated 
 apostle of the Irish was Succat, which, in Irish, signifies, 
 " prosperous in battle." lie was aflerwards named Magonins, 
 when ordained deacon, and, finally, Patriciiis, when conse- 
 crated a bishop. Ue was by birth a North IJrilon, born A.D. 
 372, near the village of Nenipthur, or 13anavan, in Tabernia, 
 now Dumbarton, and brought a captive, at an early age, into 
 Ireland, in one of those predatory excursions which our an- 
 
74 
 
 cients knew nothing beyond Ireland towards the ocean 
 except the vast sea." Whence he infers that the Phoe- 
 nicians, distinguished as they were for pushing their 
 voyages to the remotest extremities of the globe, 
 must have been thoroughly acquainted with the 
 locality of this country. 
 
 For I cannot at all bring myself to coincide in 
 opinion with those, who imagine that this name had 
 
 cestora imlulged in after the witlnlrawal of the Romans fiom 
 Hritiihi. J'iouh thus ulliulos to these circumstances: — 
 *' Vutiiok was horn at Nempthur, 
 
 Am n;hite(l in alorios ; 
 
 A youth of sixteen yeurs, 
 
 Wlien carried into captivity — 
 
 Succat was his name among his own tribes ; 
 
 Who his father was be it known — 
 
 He was son of Calphurnins and Otide, 
 
 (irandson of the Deacon Odesse." 
 This Odesse is, by St. Patrick himself, called Potitus, as was 
 Otide, otherwise called Conchessa, being sister to St. Martin, 
 Bishop of Tours. — The clergy at this period had not been en- 
 joined celibacy. He died on the 17th of March, A. D. 41)3, 
 at the great age of 120 years, and was buried at Down, in the 
 same tomb with St. IJridget and St. Columba, according to the 
 Latin distich — 
 
 " In burgo Duno tumido tumulantur in uno 
 
 IJrigida, Patricias, et Columba pius." 
 Thus transJated : 
 " In Down three saints one tomb do fill, 
 
 Bridget, Patrick, and Columb Kill." 
 Jlis long disuse of the Latin langmige during a continued re- 
 bidence of sixty yeurs in this isliuul, combintd with tlie igno- 
 rance of copyists, will account for the inaccuracy of the names 
 " lliberia" and " Hiberio." 
 
()ii«>iiial('(l fiom tlio Sj)anisli Ihcii, who luid onoc 
 sent hither a colony. No ; I should rather trace it 
 even to the Irish word, lar, i. e. west, from its 
 western position in reference to England ; a view in 
 Avhich I am sanctioned by Camden's approbation, on 
 the ground that Spain had been called Ilesperia 
 from its western locality, and a certain promontory 
 in Africa the Hesperian Cape, from its locality in 
 like manner.* Vallancey thinks that the Persians, 
 who had at a very early period established them- 
 selves in this island, gave it this name in allusion to 
 the district of Iran in their native country.f Cam- 
 den's view of the matter is still further supported by 
 the inference drawn from the Greek idiom by Cor- 
 mac McCuillinan, Bishop of Cashel, and King of 
 Munstcr, in the beginning of the tenth century,;]; viz. 
 that Ilibcrnia may be considered a Greek compound, 
 consisting of the two words, I libera} and Nyos, the 
 former of which signifies the ivest, and the latter an 
 island ; whilst Bochart's explanation gains credence 
 by the fact of the Plioenicians being really Iberin, or 
 Oberin, that is, passers over the sea, in which ac- 
 
 * From tlieir proximity to the north in like manner, which 
 in the Phcenician language is called garbaioy the following 
 Spanish towns have been denominated : — Garbi, Garbin, Gar- 
 bolos, Garbayuela; as also Algarbi, a district now in the pos- 
 session of Portugal. 
 
 j Observation on the primitive inhiibitaiits of Great Uriluin. 
 
 t Varaeus de Script. Ibernia, p. 6. 
 
76 
 
 ceptation we meet with the expression in Psahn viii. 8, 
 where it is said, " Who traverse (ober) the paths of 
 tlie sea." 
 
 The natives have indifferently called it Eri, or 
 Eire, and not so correctly by the name of lilrin ; 
 whence perhaps the term Iris, which we find in 
 Diodorns Sicnlus. To Eri and Eire we may also 
 apply our previous conjectures on the etymology of 
 Ere. This I prefer to the assertion of certain per- 
 sons who would have this island called lerna and 
 lerne, from the Greek Ilieron, signifying '' sacred."* 
 I must not omit to add that from Eri, or Eire, the 
 Irish have been called Erigena),f or sons of Erin, a 
 name by which John, the illustrious Irish historian']; 
 of the ninth century, is universally and emphatically 
 denominated. Farceus de Scrip. Iher. i. 5. 
 
 Another ancient name of Ireland, lu Erion, the 
 learned generally take to imply, " the isle of the 
 earth-born, or offspring of the very earth ;" for in, 
 au,§ and eu, meant *' water," or " island ;" and these 
 
 * Ogyg. 1.21. 
 
 f From Era, cailh, and (iliiioniai, lo he bom. 
 
 \ And Chaplain to Alfred ihu (ireat, who, in llie preface 
 to his translation of St. Gregory's Pastoral into the Saxon ian- 
 gnagp, was not ashamed to acknowledge his gratitude to Ire- 
 land, that had given him his education, and additionally im- 
 proved it by the superintending assistance of this distinguished 
 ccclesiaslic. 
 
 § Aa und ea, i. o. Eau, i, e. Acjua, signify water, and it may 
 1)0 here added, that the termination of names of places in a, 
 
77 
 
 were sometimes written more fully, aiig, or ag, like 
 the Teutonic oege and odglie, from the Greek ange, 
 splendor, an obvious property of water. Whence, 
 also, another name, T^ug, from luge, light. Era,"* 
 too, was used emphatically, to signify the land of 
 ancient Greece, as Er was that of Britain. Where- 
 fore the Irish at this day call themselves Erin, or 
 Erion; and from this Scotus obtained the name of 
 Erigina, or of Eriniauch, compounded, as they state, 
 of er, the earth, and geni, or eni, to be born of. In 
 confirmation of this etymology, they tell us that that 
 nation, before the arrival of the Brigantes or Phry- 
 gians, had possession of Gaul, Spain, and Britain ; 
 for to this day the Vascones anH Cantabrians in a 
 great degree make use of the ancient language of 
 the Erii.f But the first men got the name, in the 
 Greek and Latin languages respectively, of Autok- 
 thoncs and Tcrrigena^, that is, " sons of the earth," 
 and " earth-born," from the circumstance of their 
 dwelling underground in caves, like rabbits ; J which 
 
 aa, or ey, in the old Teutonic, signify places surrounded with 
 water ; nor ought the word sea, itself, in this case to be forgotten. 
 
 * It was in particular the narae of a mountain in Messenia, 
 the rendezvous of Aristomenes and his devoted band, where, 
 after many marvellous feats of almost incredible heroism, — in 
 which the women no less than the men had share, — he was at 
 last betrayed and obliged to vacate his post. 
 
 f Ixlward LImid's Archiologin. 
 
 X Strabo says Ihat the Scylhiiins used to sock refuge from 
 the cold in caverns. Hence the name Troglodytes, from iro- 
 glos, a cave. 
 
78 
 
 gave occasion to Gildas to say, "iM'om their little 
 caverns crept forth the Irish like so many swarthy, 
 sooty little worms."* This has led some to suppose 
 that the Couri, Miliiir, and Guidhonod, as they are 
 called, who are generally ascribed to a more ancient 
 date, and who })assed their lives in caves and forests, 
 were no other than those self-same original FjYu ; 
 and wishing to derive these names from the Irish 
 language, they say that Cour, in the singular num- 
 ber, means a giant, abbreviated from Can ur, " a 
 cave man," such as Cacus and the Cyclopsj- are 
 
 * Vrorepsere e caveriuilis suislusci verniiciili ll)oriii. — Guild. 
 
 Dr. Sniollet, in his ironical manner, calls the inhabitants of 
 Lapland the fag end of the human creation, which illiberal and 
 invidious expression seems to arise from not considering that 
 these people have the same rational faculties as others, and 
 only want the means to improve themselves. Now under such 
 circumstances let us seriously ask, whether these people are 
 the objects of laughter und ridicule? i\rc ihcy not riitht>r 
 objects of pity, especially when we considi^r that our ancestors 
 were once as ignorant as they, and probably more barbarous. 
 Nay, barbarity is not so much as imputed to the Laplamlers, 
 even by those who take a savage pleasure in ridiculing them 
 for what is not in their power to prevent. 'I'hat they are slaves 
 to superstition is not denied, but that su|)erstition never leads 
 to any thing of a cruel or barbarous nature. Secure in their 
 fciimple huts, they live without giving idlence to each other ; 
 and if they have but little knowledge, they have but few sins 
 to account for. — Ilurd. 
 
 + The Cyclo|)s are represented to have had l)ut one e}'e in 
 the middle of their forehead, the origin of their name, from 
 Kuklos, a circle, and Ops, an eye ; but in reality were so called 
 from their custom of wearing small steel bucklers over their 
 
79 
 
 reported to have been ; Coures, meaning a giantess. 
 Milur is a wild man, or a silvestrian, and there- 
 fore a hunter, just as Milgi, is a hound. For with 
 the Britons, Mil, meant a wild beast, as with the 
 Greeks did Melon, cattle ; and to this they think 
 that the Clanna IMilcdh of the Irish, from clann, or 
 clain, an offspring, and miledli, a soldier or war- 
 rior, bears reference. Guidhonod they conceive to 
 arise from guidhon, a witch. 
 
 But since the Pliocnician language exhibits the 
 origin of these names, I should, for my part, as- 
 cribe them to that source in preference. For in- 
 stance, lu Erion would appear derived from tlie 
 Phoenician I-Erain, an inhabitable island, or one 
 abounding in inhabitants. Lng, from log, which 
 with the Arabians is logag, the deep, as much as to 
 say, the island in the deep, or surrounded therewith. 
 JCrigena, which they would have a-kin to the Irisli 
 word Ereimane, or rather Erionnach, meaning Ire- 
 land and Irishmen, I would venture to derive from 
 the Phoenician word Erigain, foreigners ; and Erion- 
 nach itself from ICra-onag, that is, a land or country 
 abounding in delicacies, for onag, in the Syriac 
 
 faces, having but a single aperture in the middle, which corre- 
 sponded exactly with the form of an eye. This practice they 
 had recourse to in their capacity of miners, or in their profession 
 of archery, as we find a Scythian nation, too, who excelled in 
 the same art, call themselves Arimaspi, from Arima, one, and 
 spia, an eye, in allusion to the habit of dosint;; one eye to tako 
 the better aim, by collecting the visual rays to one focus. 
 
80 
 
 dialect, implies a delicacy or luxurious repast. The 
 Couri were so from the Phoenician word curin, 
 fishes, a metaphorical designation for expert and 
 dexterous mariners ; or from cura, a fire-hearth, as 
 if worshippers of fire. Miluyr, from the Phoenician 
 Mila-ur, an assemhly of fire-worshippers, or a mul- 
 titude of inhabitants living in a valley, for ur signi- 
 fies indilFcrently either one or the other, a fire or a 
 valley. Guidhonod, from the words gui-donoth, a 
 nation or people with leaders, gui,* meaning a na- 
 tion, and don, he governed. Unless you woidd 
 rather derive dhonad from donoth, that is, the chil- 
 dren of Dan, that city of Phoenicia, at the foot of 
 Mount Libanus, where its inhabitants had erected 
 a graven image, and Jeroboam had raised the golden 
 calf, as colonies, particularly from distant countries, 
 generally retain the name of their parent or mother 
 stock. 
 
 Again, the name of Iris, by which this county is 
 distinguished in Diodorus Siculus,f and from which 
 
 * rVom Phoenician gui sprung the old Irish word in, or /ly, 
 signifying a tril)e or clan. (It is also (.he genitive (;ase of the 
 word uu, a son, olVspring, posterity, the plural of which is i. 
 rrom hy, a tract, or district, many Jrish localities have ob- 
 tained their names : such as lly-Anlan, Ily-Ara, Ily-Talgia, 
 otherwise called Hi-Faillia, and primitively Hy-Bhealgia, 
 meaning a barony of worshippers of Baal, and several others 
 almost beyond reckoning. — See Collect, de Reb. Ibern. vol. iii. 
 p. 3(52. 
 
 t Diodor. Sicul. lib. v. 
 
81 
 
 its inhabitants hnve been called Irenses, or Iri, 
 altliougli I admit it may be derived from tlie old 
 Irish word Iris, which signifies brass or copper, as 
 it does, also, invention or investigation, as well as 
 friend and friendly fellowship, and, finally, religion. 
 Jaw, era, and chronicle, yet it is more likely that 
 Or})hens of Crotone, Aristotle, and other Greek 
 writers who have used Iris as a name for Ire- 
 land, have done so not from the language of the 
 natives, which to them was unknown, but from the 
 Hebrew word Iris, he possessed or obtained by in- 
 heritance ; or from Irisa, possession by inheritance, 
 which words, changing the s into f, the Phoenicians 
 used to pronounce as Irith, and Iritha. From this 
 name, variously inflected into Ire, Eri, and Eire, 
 with the addition of the English word land, was 
 formed the modern and now generally adopted 
 name, Ireland. lUit Irlandia and Irlandi, as Latin 
 for Ireland* and Irishmen, is evidently a barbarism. 
 
 * The interest which I take in every tl.iiig that concerns 
 Ireland, makes nic often sigh for the adchtional inisfortiino 
 uliich tlie geiierni ignorance of its history jtrodncrs, and has 
 h)ng since inspired me with a desire of remedying that cvil.-~' 
 Mac Geogheynn. 
 
 VVIiile many who have left thee, 
 
 Seem to forget tiiy name. 
 Distance hafh not bereft me 
 
 Of its endearing claim : 
 Afar from thee sojonming, 
 
 ^^'ln■lher i sigh or smile, 
 J call (lire still, " IMa vournrrn " 
 IMy own green isle ! — Uarton, 
 
82 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 Ancient inhabitants of Ireland — The Partholani — Variotis 
 ojiiniuns as to the etimolof/y of this word — The ahorifjines or 
 yiants, why so called — Their bloody ivars with the Partho- 
 lani thejirst tribe of Phoenicians who landed on the coast of 
 Ireland — Origin of their ancient name Formoroyh — The Ne- 
 7neth(e, when they seized upon I eland — Where they settled — 
 Etynioloyy of their name — Why called Monue or Nonue. 
 
 Having put tlie reader in possession of the several 
 names given to Ireland, I come in the next place to 
 its ancient inhabitants, whose names I at once recog- 
 nise as Phoenician, or, at least, deducible from that 
 fountain. Tlie first that present themselves are the 
 Partholani, undoubtedly the very earliest people in 
 this island, of whose colonies — which are su])poscd to 
 have preceded the arrival of the Belgians — we can- 
 not at this day discover a single vestige any more 
 than we can of the Nemeth®. Some suppose that 
 they were some of the aboriginal Britons, and that 
 they arrived in Ireland much about the same time 
 as the Nemethai, that is, as they say, in the sixth 
 century before the birth of Christ. Others derive 
 their name from the Irish words bhu3ruys-Ian-ui, as 
 
83 
 
 Jnucli as to say, the shepherds or lierdsmen beyond 
 tlie great ocean, and tliercfore suppose that they 
 must have been tlie first persons wlio introduced 
 cattle into this island.* 
 
 Otliers there are wlio think them so called from 
 Partholanus, the son of Sera, of the race of Ja- 
 phet, whom they assert to have first arrived in 
 Ireland, having set out from Scythia, or as others 
 say, from GrjEco-Scythia, or Mygdonia, a mari- 
 time district of IVIacedonia, about three hundred 
 or more years after the deluge, with his sons San- 
 guin, Saban, and Iluturugus, their armies and colo- 
 nics ; and they tell us furtliermore that he put in 
 at Inversgene in Kerry, and took up his residence in 
 Ulster at Inis Samer in the river Erne, an island 
 called from his castle, from whence also the river 
 was called Samarius. f Some writers add that those 
 colonists found before them on their arrival other 
 inhabitants whose origin was not known, and who 
 were therefore denominated by the Latins as abori- 
 gines, by the Greeks as Giants ; intimating equally 
 the natives of the soil, or the true born children 
 of the country. With these gigantic aborigines 
 they tell us that the Partholani waged an in- 
 cessant and bloody course of warfare, and with 
 such acrimony on both sides, that both were almost 
 
 * 8(0 Clolloct. <]o Uel). 11)0111. vol. iii. p. lot. 
 I Sr(> O'l'liilMirl.y, Clip. ii. p. ',\. 
 G 2 
 
84 
 
 extinguished under one general massacre. These, and 
 other such tilings equally involved in fahle, are told 
 of the Partholani amidst the darkness of an unknown 
 age. As I take it, the Partholani are the most an- 
 cient, or, if you prefer, the primitive trihcs of the 
 Phoenicians who landed on the Irish coasts, and 
 from them was given the name of Partulin to all 
 such as had transported themselves from their native 
 country. The Syriac word para, signifies to sprout 
 or shoot — tulin, number or plurality, from tul, 
 translation. But para means also he grew or en- 
 creased, so that partulin would then mean a body of 
 emigrants who encreased and multiplied. 
 
 This race the ancient Irish poets and historians 
 call Fomhoraigh , Formhoraice, and Formoragh ; by 
 which word, they think, is meant pirates, or transma- 
 rine robbers, infesting those coasts in prejudice to, 
 and defiance of, the ancient colonies; and they assert 
 that they were decended from Ham or Midacritus* 
 from Africa, with the exception of the first Formorii, 
 to whom they assign neither other sect nor origin, f 
 
 * Phny (vii. v. 0.) tells us that Miducritus was llio first who 
 hail iiupurtod leud IVoiu tlie island of Cassiterides. But later 
 critics assure us that this was no other tlian Melicartus, or the 
 Phoenician Hercules, mentioned in Sanchoniathon, to whom 
 the PhcEuicians ascribed so many voyages to the west. Mi- 
 dacritus is in itself a Greek name, and we know that the Greeks 
 were in total ignorance of the locality of the Cassiterides. — See 
 liochart. 
 
 t O'Flaherty, i. p. 9. 
 
85 
 
 Some suppose thciii to have been Celts ; otliers, 
 more correctly, Phoenicians, wliicli the name itself 
 would seem to indicate.* For, in their language, 
 famori, means the lord of an, extreme land, that is 
 of an island, which they had supposed to be the 
 utmost habitation of the globe, as we have observed 
 conformably to the opinion of Bochart. The Ne- 
 methae or Nemetii, were, as some say, the posterity 
 of Nemethus,f who, they maintain, planted a second 
 colony in Ireland thirty years after the death of 
 Partholanus, when it had now become almost a desert 
 and been overrun with forests. In his time were 
 built the fortifications of Rath Kinnech in lly-Ni- 
 ellan, in Lagenia, and Rath Kimbaith in Hy-Gem- 
 nia, a district of Dalaradia, where the plains, being 
 cleared from brushwood and trees, admitted the 
 genial influence of the sun's irradiation J Some 
 writers add, that on the arrival of the Boelgae on the 
 
 * It is said, that Neivy or Nemedius, great grand nephew 
 of Partholan, having learned by some means the disasters and 
 tragical end of his rehitions in Ireland, and wishing, as heir of 
 Partholan, to succeed him in the possession of that island, cm- 
 barked thirty-four transport vessels, carrying each thirty per- 
 sons, without counting Macha, his wife, and his four sons, Starn, 
 Janbaneal, Annin and Feargus, who followed his fortune in 
 the expedition. JMacha died after twelve years, and was in 
 terred in the place since called from her name, Ardmach. — 
 Mac Geoghcgan. 
 
 t See Collect, de Ueb. Tbcrn, vol. iii. p. 362. 
 
 ] OTiaherly, p. iii. cap. (J. 
 
8(J 
 
 coast of llcrcinoniu, whicli ia now tlu; province of 
 Lcinster, several of the Nemetliae retired backwards 
 into the northern districts of the island. 
 
 There are some who assign to the Nemethae a 
 different origin, and would call them Moma^ or 
 Nomae, deriving the same from the Celtic words 
 Mou or Nou, land or country, and Mam or Mae, 
 maternal, so that Nemethae would mean the original 
 people, * or aboriginal inhabitants of Ireland. 
 
 But expunging altogether the fables of the old 
 poets, to me it appears incontrovertible that the 
 name of Nemethae was given by the Phoenicians to 
 their tribes, as equivalent with pleasant, cheerful, or 
 agreeable. For in their language nemoth signifies all 
 tliese,from the root, neem, delightful, amiable, respect- 
 able. This tribe was furthermore called Momaj by 
 the Phoenicians, as having cemented their treaty by an 
 oath,f (noma) which furthermore proves the veracity 
 
 * Collect, de Reb.^Ibern. vol. iii. p. 400. 
 
 + The Ostiac takes his oath upon a bear's skin, spread upon 
 the ground, whereon are laid a hatchet, a knife, and a piece of 
 bread, which is tendered to him. JJeforo he eats it, he declares 
 all ho knows relating to tho matter in question, and conlirms 
 the truth of his evidence by this solemn imprecation ; " May 
 this bear tear mo to pieces, this bit of bread choak me, this 
 knife be my death, and this hatchet sever my head from my 
 body, if I do not speak the truth." In dubious cases they pre- 
 sent themselves before an idol, and pronounce the same oath 
 with this additional circumstance, that he who takes the oath, 
 cuts off a piece of the idol's nose with his knife, saying, " If 1 
 
87 
 
 and the fidelity of tlic people, nom signifying true, 
 derived from nanin, a disconrse or lungnagc. 
 
 forswear myself, may this knife cut ofl' my own nose in the 
 snmo manner, tVc." AW those nations, who inhabited tiie land 
 afterwards called Palestine, were descended from Canaan the 
 son (»f Ham ; for although we find many siibdivisions anions 
 l.hern, under ns many didcrent names, yet tin; general one was 
 that of Cnnaanites : and here it is necessary that we should an- 
 swer a deistical objection made by Lord Bolingbroke, and 
 some others, against a passage in the sacred scripture ; and this 
 we the more readily comply with, because many weak, though 
 otherwise well-meaning persons, have been led into an error by 
 those designing men. 
 
 In Genesis ix. we read of Noah having got drunk with the 
 fruit of the vine, and that while he was in a state of intoxication 
 in his tent, Ham, his youngest son, came in and beheld his na- 
 kedness ; but Shem and Japhet went backwards and covered 
 him. When Noah awoke, and found how difl'ereut tiie beha- 
 viour of his sons had been, he said (vers(! .15) " Cursed bo 
 Canaan ; a servant of servants shall he bo unto his brethren." 
 Now Canaan is no where mentioned as the aga,rcssor; but 
 there cannot remain the least doubt, but he was, at that time, 
 along with his father, and like Ham, mocked at the aged pa- 
 triarch ; a crime attended with many aggravated circumstances. 
 But the deistical objection is this, " It was inconsistent, say 
 they, with the goodness of (Jod, to inllict a curse on a nation 
 in latter ages for the guilt of an ancestor. Now let every unpre- 
 judiced reader attend to the passage, and then he will find that 
 the whole was a jyrcdiction, and not an imprecation. Noah, 
 by the spirit of prophecy, foreseeing that the descendants of iiis 
 son Ham, would commit the grossest idolatries, oidy foretold 
 what woidd happen to them in latter times. — UnnL 
 
88 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 The name oj" the Momonii supposed of Celtic oriijin — Various 
 opinions on this head — Maiahani a southern district of Ire- 
 land — The meaning of Mammoii — Different names of the 
 idol Ops — The Momonii tribes of the Phoenicians — Their 
 name Phcenician — Orhjin of the word Mummanugh — 
 Mammuna the sacrijicing priest i)i the temj)lcs of the Phce- 
 niciuns — -The Mununacocha of the Pcruoians. 
 
 I come now to the Momonii, the ancient inha- 
 bitants of tlie province of Munster, divided, we may 
 observe, according- to tlicir several settlements, into 
 Desmond or southern Momonia, Thomond or nortli- 
 ern Momonia, and Ormond eastern Momonia.* The 
 name of Momonians is agreed on all hands, as we 
 have already said, to have been composed of the 
 Celtic or Irish words mou-man or pou-man, a mother 
 or, maternal country. Mou, and pou were the 
 same as magus and pagus, mais and pais ; f so that 
 momon or mouman would signify the mother coun- 
 try of the aborigines : this part of Ireland being 
 chiefly inhabited by the Nemethae, who betook them- 
 
 * 'I'll. Burgo Ibeiii. Dumiuii appeiul. Monastic 732. 
 t Baxter, p. 100. 
 
89 
 
 •selves from the district of Bolgiu into (heir own resi- 
 dence in Leinstcr, about live liundred and (ilty years, 
 as they say, before the christian era. They add, that 
 from the fust annals of Irehmd it was discovered that 
 its southern regions were called Mumha, which they 
 interpret, the settlement or habitation of the abori- 
 gines, from whence its inhabitants were called Mum- 
 lianii or Momonii, that is inhabitants of the country 
 of the aborigines.* 
 
 Others think Momonia is a corruption or con- 
 tracted Celtic word Mammon, the ancient name of 
 the province of Munster, signifying the country of the 
 great mother ; as they derive Mama or Moma, the 
 name of a cave or cavern between Elphin and Ab- 
 bey-Boyle, from Mammoii, which, in the Celtic lan- 
 guage, means the ])lace of the shrino of the great 
 mother. For tradition tells us that there existed 
 there at one time a celebrated grot, consecrated to 
 Ops, the great mother of antiquity, whither the Bel- 
 gian chiefs used, upon occasions, resort to consult the 
 shades of their departed heroes. This object of re- 
 ligious resort was also known by the name of Sib- 
 bol Ama, Anum, Anagh, Aonagh, and Mamman, 
 whence the Bolgae, who had settled in the southern 
 parts of Ireland, and who principally worshipped the 
 idol Mammon, called themselves Mammanagh, (Mam- 
 monii) to distinguish themselves from the Crombrii, 
 
 * i!ollocl. vol. iii/.M»l. 
 
90 
 
 Criiinbiii, or Crimbrii, on the western coast, who 
 worshipped Fate ; and from the IJelgo) who wor- 
 shipped Bal, or 15eal, or Baal, that is the sun or the 
 element of fire.* 
 
 To me it appears sufficiently probable that the 
 Momonii were one of the Phoenician tribes who be- 
 came possessed of this district to which they gave 
 the name of Mamon, which in their language signi- 
 fies riches or wealth, and by a very natural associ- 
 ation called themselves Mamonii, that is the wealthy, 
 the possessors of riches and al)undance, intimating 
 the superiority of their habitation above the other 
 districts of this country, as well in artificial resources 
 as in the luxuriancy of the soil. 
 
 But if we furthermore compare the words Mamo- 
 nia and Momonii, or Mammanagh with the supersti- 
 tion of that nation, I doubt not but that we shall 
 find them strictly conformable with Phoenician ex- 
 traction; for ammun, in that language, means the 
 image or likeness of a mother, anunana, a gift or of- 
 fering, presented to a mother. Mannuanagh, I con- 
 ceive not derived from Mannnon, but from IMam- 
 numa, the name usually given by the Phoenicians to 
 the superintending or sacrificing priest belonging to 
 any of their chapels. And it is very likely that that 
 whole tribe took their name from them, as the heads 
 or presidents of their places of worship. I would 
 
 Collect, do Keb. Ibeni. vol. iii. [t. :3S)0. 
 
91 
 
 hint by the way, tlmt the ancient Peruvians wor- 
 shipped the sea as a deity, under tlie name of Mam- 
 macocha, and paid similar homage and adoration to 
 rivers and fountains as contributory to the great ele- 
 ment.* J3ut this name, though evidently bearing 
 some analogy with Mamman and Mammanach, yet 
 is of a diflerent origin, though Phoenician all tlic 
 while, if I mistake not. For maim macha in that 
 language means, encompassing waters, and metapho- 
 rically, people applauding or cla})ping their hands. 
 
 f Jas. Acosta Historia de las Indies, lib. v. c. 2. 4, from 
 which and other authorities it is manifest that the ancient pagans 
 worshipped the sea and all large collections of water. The 
 book of wisdom, xiii. 2, is clear on the point. Beyer (Selden 
 de Diis Syrii) states that the inhabitants of Mexico, Vir- 
 ginia, and J^engal oflcrcd adoration to ccitain rivers and fonn- 
 taiiis; for the ancients imagined, according to Lipsins, that 
 rivers and fountains were lesser divinities or genii. The Nile 
 was worshiped with the most scrupulous veneration by the 
 Egyptians. (See Plutarch and Athanasius.) For says Julius 
 Firmicus, from the universal benefits of water they conceived it 
 must be a god. Wherefore we find the poets calling rivers 
 sacred, (llor. lib. i. od. 1. Juven. sat. iiii.^ as they did also 
 fountains because of the presiding nymphs. Amongst the an- 
 cient idolotrous Spaniards, it is plain from an inscription of 
 Vasconius, published by Gurter, that fountains were considered 
 divine. " We," (the Spaniards) said Seneca, (epist. 41) " ve- 
 nerate the sources of great rivers, * * * the springs of warm 
 waters are worshipped, and certain pools, &c.'' The Persians 
 also, with the Scythians, Saxons, and other nations, as well 
 oast as west, conceived water to bo sacred, as appears from 
 Herodotus, (iv.) Strabo, ('xvii.) Tacitus, and others. 
 
92 
 
 ill whicli sense we find macha occurs in the psalm 
 xcvii. 9, the rivers will applaud. Maclioc, in the 
 original, meaning, waters that brush or sweep away, 
 as we often see waves do bodies upon the shore.* 
 
 ''' The Peruvians, before llieir being governed by their Incas, 
 W()r»hi|>|)e(l a iiiiinburUiss nuiltiliulo of (ioils, or ralhcr genii. 
 There was no nation, family, city, street, or even honse, but 
 had its peculiar gods; and that because they thought none but 
 the god to whom they should immediately devote themselves, 
 was able to assist them in time of need. 'I'hey worshipped 
 lierbs, plants, flowers, trees, mountains, caves ; and in the pro- 
 vince of l^uerto Viogo, emorulds, lygers, lyons, adilers, ; and, 
 not to tire the reader with an enumeration of the several objects 
 they thought worthy of religious worship, every thing that ap- 
 peared wonderful in their eyes, was thought worthy of ailora- 
 tion. 
 
93 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 The Cromhrii Fate worshippers —Orh/m of the. word Crom 
 
 Not indicating worship, hut a nation that icorships — Traces 
 of it in Ireland — As also in several geographical names of 
 Ireland — The Phoenician derivation of these words; 
 
 But since we have made mention of the Irisli 
 Cromhrii, we had best see to which nation they be- 
 longed. Crom, or crum, or crim, amongst the an- 
 cient Irish signified Providence or the Godhead, which 
 woukl lead one to suppose these words were Irish, 
 crom signifying God in that language. But if it 
 savours of the place wherein this deity was worship- 
 ped, which is not at all unlikely, then it takes its 
 origin from the Phoenician, crom in that language 
 signifying a shrubbery of trees. So that cromhrii, 
 crumbrii, or cind)rii would S(;cm to mean crnnibri, 
 foreigners, that is the Phccnicians, who i)aid worsliij) 
 to Providence or Fate* in this island. That under 
 
 * Men, ever since the creation, have endeavoured to pry 
 into the secrets of futurity : this desire is iidierent in us, and 
 has been by many philosophers adduced as one of the strongest 
 proofs of the immortahty of the soul, that, indignant at its con- 
 finement, is ever attempting to release itself, and soar beyond 
 
91. 
 
 tlie njuiic of foreigners tlie Pli(tnicians are meant, 
 will appear from this circumstance, viz. that, in their 
 
 jnesent time and circumstances. Finding, however, all their 
 efloits to discover them by the force of reason vain, they have 
 niutnally resorted to the aid of that blind got), chance; and 
 hence, omens from the ilight of l)irds, from the entrails of sacri- 
 fices, have arisen : of this last I propose now to write to you. 
 When a choice between two equal things was to be made, the 
 referring it to chance by the casting of lots would obviously 
 present itself as a fair mode of decidinf?, where the judgment 
 was unequal to do so ; and we find, therefore, this among tiie 
 most ancient usuges recorded in the bible : thus Aaron cast 
 lots for the scape-goat. The direction of tliesi! lots would, of 
 conrso, be boon inqiutcd to the divine pleasure of the Almighty 
 observer and guider of all things, and it would then occur to 
 the inquisitive that this mode might be adopted for looking into 
 futurity. Accordingly we see that this superstitious practice 
 was very quickly applied to such purposes, an instance of which 
 is given in Esther, chap. iii. verse 7, where, when llaman de- 
 sired to find out the most proper time to slay all the Jews, he 
 ordered the ■pur to be cast, that is the lot, from day »o day, 
 and from month to month, and discovered that ihe thirteenth 
 of the twelfth month was most favourable for his designs ; 
 but he was deceived, and the event proved the vanity of relying 
 upon such divination. This mode, however, was too simple for 
 tln) generality of men, and (he custom next adopted was the 
 mixing together of a number ol' tcttcrs'm an urn, throwing them 
 out, and examining (he arrangement in which they might fall; 
 but as frequently no sense could be discovered from these, in 
 lien of letters whole words were adopted, and even here the 
 answer was very often not to be understood. To obviate this, 
 Cicero tells us that a variety of predictions were inscribed oii 
 pieces ol' wood, which were kept in a box, shaken, and one 
 drawn out by a child ; he informs us how these were first dis- 
 covered, but observes, " Tola res est invvntio fallacis, aut ad 
 
95 
 
 language, bri or l)aii signifies a foreigner. And tlic 
 practice of consecrating groves to the worsliip of 
 idols, is established by innumerable testimonies from 
 the ancient heathen writers. Virgil in his ninth 
 Tluieid, introduces Cybele thus speaking of herself. 
 " On a lofty mount 1 have a grove, a piny wood, by 
 me beloved for many a year "* And Prudentius in 
 the " lioman martyr," says, " shall 1 go to the piny 
 grove of Cybele." 
 
 qxiccstum, avt ad sitperstitione7n." " The whole matter is, how- 
 ever, fallacious every way." And in another place, in speaking 
 of it, he says, " Quibus in rebus temnriias ct casus, non ratio ct 
 consilium valent^ " Chance, not reason, presides over these 
 things." This mode of divination is continually spoken of by 
 the writers of that age ; thus, Lucretius, 
 
 " Ne(|uic(juani Divuni nnnion, sorlcRtiuo fatigant." 
 " In vain thoy imploio thofJods, and Hcarch ihc /o/.s.'' 
 And Ovid, 
 
 " Anxiliutn |)cr sacras (ia!rerc sortes." 
 " To seek for aid in the sacred lots" 
 And again, 
 
 " Mota Dea est, sortenique dedit." 
 "The goddess was moved, and granted a lot." 
 Numberless other instances might be given of the frequency of 
 the practice ; but, as the urn and heaven-descended mystical 
 pieces of wood were not always at hand, another mode was in- 
 vented throughout Greece and Italy which superseded their use. 
 This was to take the words of some celebrated poet, as Homer, 
 Euripides, or Virgil ; to open this book at hazard, and to re- 
 ceive as an oracle the first passage that met the eye; these were 
 termed " Sortes Homericci" or " Vigilance,'''' Among the He- 
 brews too, there was a divination called Beth Cole, — Liin. Dlag, 
 '•' Pinca sylva mihi multos dilecla per annos 
 Lucus in arce fnit summa.— Virijil. 
 
9G 
 
 But it may be asked, wlience arose this cus- 
 tom to the lieathens of erecting altars to their de- 
 ities in woods and groves. In imitation, no doubt, 
 of Abraham, who, as we are told in Genesis, xxi. 33, 
 planted a grove in Beersheba, and there invoked the 
 name of the Lord.*' These groves consisted of oak 
 plantations; for it is said of Abraham/|- Genesis xii. 
 
 * Abraham planted a grove. la the first ages of the worhl, 
 the worship of God was exceedingly simple; there were no 
 temples, aa ultar composed sometimes of a single stone, or 
 soaietimes of turf, was all that was necessary : on this fire 
 was lighted, and the sacrifice ottered. Any place was equally 
 proper, as they knew that the object of their worship filled 
 the heavens and the earth. In process of time, when fa- 
 milies increased, and many sacrifices were to be oftered, groves 
 or shady places were chosen, where the worshippers mightea- 
 joy the protectioa of the sliade, as a coasiderable time must be 
 empoyed in oft'eriug many sacrifices. These groves became af- 
 terwards abused to impure and idolatrous purposes, and were 
 therefore strictly forbidden. See Exod, xxxiv. 12; Deut. xii. 
 a; xvi. 21.— />/•. A. Clarke. 
 
 i Abraham, the father of the faithful, was called away from 
 his native country, souievvhat less than throe hundred years 
 alter the deluge, which naturally leads us to intpiire into the 
 origin of idolatry. Abraham, as a wanderer and sojourner in a 
 strange country, had not been above ten yours absent from II r, 
 of the Chaldeans, when a famine obliged him to go into Egypt, 
 at that time a very nourishing monarchy, 'i'hat I'Igypt should 
 have had a regal government within three hundred years after 
 the deluge, has been objected to by many of our deistical 
 writers; but when attentively considered, we caimot find any 
 thing in it of an extraordinary nature. People in those early 
 ages lived in the most frugal manner, and few of them died be- 
 
97 
 
 6, 7, tliiit he passed over the hind to the place Sichem, 
 all along to the oak, (alon) Moreh, where the Lord 
 appeared unto him, and that he there erected an 
 altar in consequence. INIoses afterwards designates 
 this place in the plural number, saying, (Deut. xi. 30,) 
 " Beside (aloni) the oaks, Moreh." With which also 
 two other passages accord, one in Genesis, xxxv. 4. 
 the other in Judges ix. 0. AVe also lind in (Jenesis 
 xiii. 18, that Abraham dwelt in the oaks (aloni) of 
 Manne, in Hebron, and there built an altar to ihc 
 Lord. Afterwards also in Genesis, xiv. 13, he says, 
 " he dwelt beside the oaks of Mamre." All which 
 passages the scptuagint renders, peri ten driin, that 
 is, about the oak. From hence the idolatrous Ca- • 
 naanites began to consecrate oaks to their own 
 divinities, and to worship in groves of that wood. 
 The Phoenicians subsetpicntly introduced the custom 
 into Asia, Egypt, Africa, and the continent of Eu- 
 rope, with the British isles. Ovid, speaking of the 
 oak, calls it " sacred to Jove." Virgil says *' it was 
 accounted an oracle by tlic Grecians." And Homer 
 says the same in Od. xix.* 
 
 fore they had attained to yoars of niatiiiity ; so that tliorc is no 
 reason for ns to be surprised, when we find the children of 
 Mizraini fonndinp, a monarchy, in the fertile plains of Kfjypt, 
 as soon as a suflicient number of tiie human species had bce>i 
 collected together.— //?/?y/. 
 
 Sec ^V. Cook's en(piiry into tiie patriarchal religion, Ike, 
 
08 
 
 Tlie vestiges of the word, crom, can be still traced 
 ill Ireland in many of the old names given to its 
 several localities ; for instance, we find the actua' 
 word occurs as the name of an old village which 
 belongs at this day partly to the county of Kildare, 
 and partly to that of Dublin, in the province of 
 licinster. In Crom-artin, a little village near Ardee, 
 in the same province ; in Crom-castle, a town in the 
 county Limerick, province of Munster ; in Mount 
 Crom-mal, or Crom-la, between Loughs Swylly and 
 Foile, in the county Donegal, province of Ulster, 
 where the river Lubar, called by the natives Bredagh, 
 and the river Lavalh — beside which, in the declivity 
 of a mountain, is a very remarkable cave called 
 Cluna — take their rise ; in Mount Crom-la-shabh, 
 now called the Hill of Allen ; in Crom-oge, a little 
 town in the barony of Maryborough, Queen's 
 County, and province of Leinster ; in the old town 
 of Crom-chin, which was otherwise called Atha and 
 llathcrayhan, and Drum Druid, but now more gene- 
 rally known by the name of Croghan, being situated 
 in the barony of IJoyle, eoiuity Roscommon, pro- 
 vince of Connaught, and formerly the principal 
 city in that province. The name of Croghan is 
 supposed to have been given to it from the likeness 
 of the adjacent mountain to a pitcher, which that 
 word in Irish signifies ; and Crom-chin from a cave 
 in that mountain which the Druids had dedicated to 
 Fate. And, finally, we may trace its vestiges in 
 
99 
 
 (Tom-lin, or Crum-lin, a little toAvn in the county 
 Dublin, us well as a little village in the barony of 
 Massareene, in the county of Antrim ; which name 
 the Irish interpret as the chapel or shrine of Crom, 
 where the idolators used to sacrifice to this deity, 
 'i o thi.i origin they also refer Crumlin Water, tlie 
 name of a river in the same barony of Massareene, 
 and same county of Antrim. 
 
 But it being my opinion that the word Crom lias 
 reference not to worshi[),* but (o a nation tluit 
 
 In giving an acconnt of tlie leli^rions of ancient nations, we 
 must he directed by two guides; namely, sucied and profane 
 history. The former gives us a general view of their abomina- 
 tions; the hitter hiys open all that now can be known concern- 
 ing their public and private rites and ceremonies. Phoenice, 
 'J yre. and Carthago, were all peopled by the sons of Hani; 
 they had the same form of religion, spoke the same language] 
 encouraged the same arts and sciences, used the same i'listm- 
 mon(s in war, and inflicted the same punishments upon crimi- 
 nals. Thus their civil and religious history is so blended 
 together, that we cannot illustrate the latter, without taking 
 some notice of the former. The Phoenicians were a remnant 
 of the ancient Canaanites, who were sullered by the Divine 
 Being, to remain unextirpated, that they should be a scourge 
 upon the children of Israel, as often as they relapsed into idol- 
 atry. In scripture they are often mentioned, as a warlike 
 people, tinder the name of Philistines, for the word Pha3nice 
 IS Greek. They inhabited that part of Asia adjoining to the 
 Mediterranean sea, and worshipped an idol named Dagon, 
 much in the same form as a mermaid is represented by the fa- 
 bulous writers ; a human body from the navel upwards, and the 
 lower part that of a (ish. The figure itself was very expressive ; 
 for it pointed out, not only their situation near the sea, but 
 
 II 2 
 
100 
 
 worsliips, 1 sliall now detail iny senlinients respect in«^- 
 tlie derivation of tlic gcograjiliical names just 
 alluded to. 
 
 Crom-artin, then, I would derive from tlie Phoj- 
 nician words ('rom-arithin, a shrubbery dedicated to 
 Fate,* and surrounded with pools or rivers. 
 
 likewise that they were connected, both with sea and land. 
 Invaded in their continental territories by the neighbouring nii- 
 tions, they settled in an island near adjoining, whicli ihey called 
 Tyre; and there remained in possession of it till the time of 
 Alexander the Great. As a trading people, (hey sent colonies 
 into Africa: but most of these were comprehended under the 
 nuniu of Carthugoniiin^ ; and such regard hud Tyru and ('ar- 
 thage for each other, that when Cambyses resolved to make 
 war upon the latter, the Phoenicians refused to accompany 
 him ; alledging in excuse, that they could not fight against 
 their brethren, which obliged that prince to lay aside his 
 design. Nay, the Carthageuians sent an annual tribute 
 to the Tyrians, part of which was for the support of the civil 
 government, and part for the maintainance of the priests and 
 religion. 
 
 The religion of the Carthageuians, which was the same as 
 that of the Tyrians, Phoeniciaus, Philistines, and Cunaauites, 
 was most horrid and barbarous ; antl so regular were they in 
 practising what will ever dishonour human nature, that Chris- 
 tians, in attending to their duty, may take an example from 
 them, Nothing of any mouient was undertaken without con- 
 sulting the gods, which they did by a variety of ridiculous rites 
 and ceremonies. Hercules was the god in whom they placed 
 most confidence, at least he was the same to them as Mars 
 was to the llomans, so that he was invoked before they went 
 upon any expedition ; and when they obtained a victory, sacri- 
 fices and thanksgivings were ofiered to him. 
 
 * According to the notions of the Indian heathens, the 
 
101 
 
 Crom-mal, from Cra-in-mahi, a congregation of 
 people in a grove or shrubbery of the deity Fate. 
 Crom-la, from Cram-lah, .anxious worshippers of 
 Fate in a grove. The word sHabh, at the end of the 
 word Crom-hi-sliabh, bears alkision to a fountain of 
 tliis mountain, or forest, contiguous to tlie shrine ; 
 for sliaba in the Pliocnician, is tlie pipe of a fountain 
 through which the water flows. 
 
 Crom-oge, from Crom-og, which means, people 
 burning victims in the shrubbery of Fate. 
 
 Crom-chin, from Crom-schin, people applauding 
 in the grove of Fate. 
 
 Crom-lin, from Cram-lun, people entertained or 
 sojourning in the grove* of Fate ; or hospitality 
 beside the shrine of this idol. 
 
 god Unima writes upon the forehead of every new-born cliild 
 an account of all that shall hiippen to him in this world, and 
 that it is not in the power of God or man to prevent these 
 things from taking place. Thus we find that the doctrine of 
 fatality has taken place in the most early ages, and even in 
 the most barbarous nations. 
 
 This system being entirely that which was embraced by the 
 followers of Kpicnrus amongst the heathens, and theSadducccs 
 among the .lews, we shall not say any thing concerning it, be- 
 cause it is but a bold attempt to set aside the utility of public 
 and private worship ; for if God does not take notice of the 
 actions of men in this life, then the whole bounds of religion 
 are removed ; there is no motive to duty ; Uicre is nothing to 
 restrain us as niortnls from committing the most horrid, the 
 most unnatural crimes. 
 
 " Ah it was tli(< universal practice ilio anci<>nt heathen 
 
10-2 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 Ops not the Apis of the Egyptians, but one of the names of 
 Cybele— She was the Roman Vesta— Etymology of the 
 word — -Variously called from the mountains v)here she was 
 worshipped — Origin of the ivord Sibbol — Thence Cybele — 
 Why called Ama, Mammon, Anagh, Aonagh, or Aona^ 
 Shabana. 
 
 But, before we proceed any further, I would 
 entreat the readers' indulgence for the few inci- 
 dental observations, which 1 purpose to make, u])on 
 tliat celebrated idol of antiquity. Ops, which, an- 
 cient writers assure us, the Momonians worshipped 
 
 nations to worship their idols in groves, before temples were 
 erected, it may be proper here to inquire, what gave rise to 
 that notion ? It is a principle acquired l)y experience without 
 reading, that in every act of devotion the mind should hi; fixed 
 on the grand object of worship, Every one who has walked 
 in a grove will acknowledge, that there was more than a com- 
 mon reverential a\ve upon his mind, which must be owing to 
 the small number of objects that presented themselves. We 
 may justly call them the haunts of meditation ; but still it 
 cannot be denied, that many abominable crimes were com- 
 mitted in them : some parts near their altars were set apart for 
 tiecrct lewdness, and even for such unnatural practices aii 
 ought not to be related.— llnrd. 
 
in a celebrated grotto ; — as well as upon the other 
 names by which this deity was distinguished.* A 
 learned gentleman, and a shrewd searcher into the 
 Phoenician idolatry, suspected once that Ops was to 
 the Phoenicians the same as Apis, not that which 
 Tibullusf calls the Memphian Bull^J and which the 
 Memphians consecrated to the moon, but that 
 which the HeHopolites had consecrated to the sun.§ 
 
 * See chap. vii. 
 
 t Tibul. lib. iii. eleg. 7. 
 
 I Tli(> most magnificent temples were erected for him ; lie 
 wiis adoiod by all ranks of people while living, anil when he 
 (lied (for lie was a living Jiidl) all Egypt went into ujonrning 
 for him. We are told by Tliny, that, during the reign of 
 Ptolemy Lagus, the Bull Apis died of extreme old age, and 
 such was the pom|)ous manner in which ho was intorrc-d, that 
 the luneral expenccH amounted to a sum c<pial to that of twelvo 
 thousand ponmis sterling. The next thing to be done, was to 
 provide a successor for this god, and all I'gypt was ransacked 
 on purpose. He was to be distinguished by certain marks 
 from all other animals of his own species; particularly he was 
 to have on his forehead a white mark, resembling a crescent ; 
 on his back the figure of an eagle ; and on his tongue that of 
 a beetle. As soon as an ox answering that descri|)tion was 
 found, mourning gave place' to joy; and nothing was to be 
 heard of in Egypt but festivals and rejoi-cings. 'J'lie new 
 discovered god, or rather beast, was brought to Memphis, to 
 take possession of his dignity, and there placed upon a throne, 
 with a great number of ceremonies. Indeed, the Egyptians 
 seem to have given such encouragement to superstition, that 
 not content with worshipping the vilest of all reptiles, Ihoy 
 actually paid divine honors to vegetables. 
 § \ OSS. de orig. el progress, idolat. 1. 29. 
 
104. 
 
 For the Plioiiiicianb also worslii})ped the sun uiulei' 
 the name of Baal, or Bel, by which, as the Assyrians 
 and Babylonians, they understood, jihysicaUy, the 
 whole system of nature, as well terrestrial as celes- 
 tial, and above all, the solar nature, as Sel'vius tells 
 us. They, accordingly, very appropriately gave to 
 the sun the name of Belus, as the Moabites did 
 that of Moloch. For as this latter appellation sig- 
 nifies King, so does Baal, or Bel, signify Lord, as 
 though the arbiter of all the blessings of nature. 
 Wherefore, also, did they call him Bolatis, or Bolati. 
 from the words Bol-ati, which means Baal,* or the 
 Lord, who bestows.f But this Baal being distin- 
 guished by various names, it hence happened that, 
 in Scripture, the Israelites are blamed for serving 
 Baals, in the plural number. This seems to have 
 occiu'red in other countries also, for the Bolgae, a 
 colony of the Phoenicians in h-eland, worshipped, as 
 
 * But of nil the gods of the Syrians and Canaanites, none 
 were iionored so much as Baal, who was no other than the 
 Uelus of tlu! Chuhleans, and th(! Jupitctr of tiie (irt'cks. It is 
 probable the sun was worshipped under this name; for .losiaii, 
 willing to make some atonement for the sins of his father 
 Manasseh, in worshipping Baal and all the host of heaven, put 
 to death the idolatrous priests that burnt incense unto Baal, to 
 the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the 
 host of heaven. He likewise took away the horses that the 
 kings of Juduh had given to the sun, and burnt the chariots of 
 the sun with fire. — llurd. 
 
 t See Damascus in the life of Isidorus Photius. 
 
105 
 
 Wc sluill Ivcroaftcr shew, the sun, or the prhiciplc of 
 lire, as a deity, iiiidcr various names. The name ol" 
 Bolgaj is compounded of the Phoenician words Bol- 
 goi, meaning the nation that worships Bol, or Baal ; 
 as Belga? is compounded of tlie words Bel-goi, 
 amounting to the same. From whence the Bolgai 
 and tlie Belga) were at first called by the Latins 
 Bolgii and Belgii *,. afterwards the Belgian and the 
 Belgian nations ; and finally, as we now call them, 
 the Bolgae and the Belga;. From this cause it was 
 that the writer, above alluded to, conceived Ops the 
 same as Apis, which the llieropolitans had conse- 
 crated to the sun. 
 
 Indeed I would think this conjecture probable 
 enough, were it not evident, from another source, 
 that Ops was one of the names of (-ybele, reputed 
 by idolators as the daughter of Heaven and J'^arth, 
 and designated as the Mother of the Gods, the 
 Good Mother, and the Earth itself.* Wherefore 
 
 * Pliny (11, 05.) affirms that the (ietitik^s worshipped the 
 earth uiulcr the name of Mother, and not only Mother \i\\t (jrcat 
 Mother, because of its bountifuhiess. For this it was that tliey 
 called her the eternal creator of men and gods, (Stat. Chebaid. 
 viii. V. 304,) chief parent, and other such epithets; for having 
 fallen away into idolatry from the religion of the patriarchs, 
 who offered sacrifices to the true God through faith in the pro- 
 mised Messiah, and having thus contaminated the original 
 purity of the knowledge of the CJodhead, they worshipped the 
 elements, from which they conceived all things to have been 
 realized, either as actual divinities or symbols of divinities, and 
 
the Romans worshipped her under tlie name of 
 Vestu^ as being clothed in the beauty of her own 
 manifold productions,* according as some imagine ;f 
 though others would account for it otherwise. | Un- 
 der this latter name she had two temples at Rome,§ 
 one built by Romulus, the other by Numa Pom- 
 pilius, in the mid space between the Capitoline and 
 Palatine hills, both hills being surrounded by one 
 wall. Her temples were always round, in allusion 
 of course to the earth's form. 
 
 Others would derive the name of Ops from the 
 Egyptian word ho]), a seri)ent ; others from the 
 Hebrew apoe, a viper; whence the flreek opliis, a 
 snake, the root of which is i)oe, or phoe, to hiss. 
 Rut this has nothing common, or in connection with 
 the fables which mythology tells us of this divinity. 
 They come more near the truth who say that Ops is 
 a mountain of Phrygia, where this idol was wor- 
 shipped, the name Ops, or Opes, implying a boun- 
 
 ainoiigst these, in a special manner, the earth, whence themselves 
 originated, and into which all things again return in a state of 
 deconi|)osition. (Plato. — I'rocliis.) Cybele was afterwards 
 designated by various other names, many of which may still 
 be traced upon ancient altars, and recorded by IMutareh, 
 Pausanias, Grulur, Smelius, &c. Camden mentions to have 
 seen one of her altars in Biitain. 
 
 * Quippe quai rebus omnibus vestitur, 
 
 t See Lud. Despre. on the Odes of llor. lib. i, od. 2. 
 
 I Cicero do Nat. Deo. i. n. (>7. 
 
 § Diunys. Hal. cam. lib. ii. 
 
107 
 
 (lary, ;is tliough it were tlie liiiiit of some particular 
 country ; as also they think that she was called 
 Rhea, the name by which she was worshipped at 
 Ilicra])olis, from a mountain called Rea, meaning he 
 saw, or he observed, from its lofty position conunand- 
 ing a sight of distant objects. She was called Din- 
 dymena, from the mountain Dindemain, which 
 means, olive groves in an eastern quarter ; and Rere- 
 cynthia, from breschin, or bereschin, a fir or pine 
 grove. 
 
 Rut our decision on the word Sibbol, a name by 
 which the Irish, as well as almost all other nations, 
 designated and worshipped Ops, or Cybele, must be 
 guided altogether by another principle For here I 
 at once recognize the Syriac character as derived 
 from sibola, an ear of corn, under which guise the 
 Phcenicians used to worship tlie earth as the mother 
 of }dl harvests, fruits, and vegetables. All nations, 
 tlierefore, by one common consent, represented 
 Cybele holding in her right hand some ears of corn * 
 
 * Vossius states that there was at Rome, in the house which 
 belonged to Cardinal Cacsius, a marble altar, on which stood a 
 statue of Cybele, with a tower upon her head, and holding millet 
 and ears of corn in her right hand. The inscription was, " To 
 the Great Idean, Mother of the Gods." Many imagine that, in 
 allusion to the same principle, she was called Rhea ; not from 
 the mountain of that name, in Persia, but from the Phoenician 
 rcak, he yielded fodder ; whence rci, (>astnre : the niotiiphori- 
 cal signification of rcnh is, In; obtained dominion. She was 
 called Idean from id or ida, power. 
 
108 
 
 Wlience tlie Greeks gave her tlie name of Cubele, 
 and the Latins that of Cybele. 
 
 She was called Ama from the Phoenician word, 
 am, a mother, and Mammon, from mammon, riches, 
 or wealtli, as the bestower of all blessings. 
 
 The name of Anagh, by which she was also dis- 
 tingnished, may refer, if yon please, to the groves 
 wlierein she was worshipped ; for Anagh means de- 
 hght, or to be delighted, of course, with such worship. 
 But I would prefer deriving it from nahag, he ruled, 
 or governed ; for, as the daughter of Earth and 
 Heaven, and the mother, besides, of the gods, Ops 
 may 1)0 well supposed invested with no ordinary 
 share of authority, in directing the affairs of the 
 world. The Isle of Annagh, which lies between the 
 island of Achil and the coast of the county Mayo, in 
 the province of Connaiight, takes its name from this ; 
 as does also a little town of the same name near 
 Charleville, in the county Cork ; and Annagh-uan 
 an island adjacent to the county Galway, intimating, 
 as it were, a peophj who worshi})pe(l Anagh : for the 
 Phoenicians used, synechdocally, to call the inhabit- 
 ants of any particular district by the generic name 
 of "ben." 
 
 Nor can I see any objection to the derivation of 
 the names of these places from the giant Anac, the 
 son of Arbas,* from whom the Phoenicians were 
 
 * Josluia XV. 13, 11. Boii-Anac nioaiis liJerally the sons 
 
109 
 
 c.illcd Anakin, or Ben-Aiiac, tlie sons or dcsccndfints 
 of Anac, their principal or leading tribe, agreeably 
 and corresponding to the Irish appellatives, Mac- 
 Carthy, MacMahon,* O'Brien, O'Connel, the " Mac" 
 
 of giants or heroes, of tlie stock of wliicli Aimc was the first 
 j)iuciit, Wlicnco to this tiny, in the oh] Irish balhuls, I'ciiieagh 
 means a champion, or lieroic warrior. 
 
 * At such time as Robert Vere, Earl of Oxford, was in the 
 Barons warres against King Richard the Second, tlirougli the 
 maUice of the Peeres, banished the realme and proscribed, ho 
 with liis kinsnjan, Fitz-Ursula, (led into Ireland, where being 
 prosecuted, and afterwards in England put to death, his kins- 
 man there remaining bchinde in Ireland rebelled, and, con- 
 spiring with the Irish, did quite cast off both their English name 
 and alleagiance, since which time they have so remained still, 
 and have since beene counted meere Irish. The very like is 
 also reported of the Mac-swines, Mac-mahones, and ftlac- 
 shohics of iMonnster, how th(!y likewise wore auncicntly Mng- 
 lish, and old followers to the Enrlc of Desmond, unlill tho 
 raigne of King Edward the Fourth ; at which tirue tho Earle 
 of Desmond that then was, called 'I'homas, being through false 
 subornation (as they say) of the Queene for some offence by 
 her against him conceived, brought to his death at Tredagh 
 most unjnstly, notwithstanding that he was a very good and 
 sound subject to the King. 'J'herenpou all his kinsemen of the 
 (jleraldiues, which then was a mighty family in Monnster, iti 
 revenge of that huge wrong, rose into armes against the King, 
 and utterly renounced and forsooke all obedience to the Crovvne 
 of England, to whom the said Mac-swines, Mac-sheiiies, and 
 Mac-mahones, being then servants and followers, did the like, 
 and have ever sithence so continued. And with them (they 
 say) all tho peo|)Jc of Monnster wont out, and many other of 
 them, which were meere I'-ngiish, thoiiccforlh joyiiod with the 
 Irisli against tiie King, and termed themselves very Irish, 
 taking on them Irish habits and customes, which could never 
 
110 
 
 and tlie " O " prefixed to the latter, importing the 
 same as the Ben in the former instance, viz. " the 
 sons of/' or " descended from." 
 
 Aonagh, another name of Ops, was pronounced 
 Aona by the ancient Irish, and by otliers called 
 Shabana. And as during the celebration of her 
 solemnities they always held a fair or markets beside 
 her temple, it requires no great effort of imaginiUiou, 
 as I should think, to derive this name from aon, 
 wealth, or a place of public resort. Shabana evi- 
 dently comes from shaban, abundance, which again 
 is tlerived from shabaa, he abounded ; all obviously 
 in keeping with mercantile views and attendance on 
 the market-place. This is still more clearly proved 
 by the name given to the first of November in their 
 calendar, viz. Oidche Shambna, the day, or rather 
 the night (Oidche signifies night) on which idola- 
 trous ceremonies were usually celebrated.* The 
 festival itself was called Tlachgo, which some refer 
 to the rotundity of the earth, but I should prefer 
 deriving it from the Phoenician tla agod, a gathering 
 of yearhng lambs, such being the usual victims on 
 the {)C(;asion.f l*'i'om IMuenicia therc^fore it was 
 
 since be cleane wyped away, but the contagion lialh remained 
 still among their posterityes. Of whicli sort (they say) be most 
 of the surnames which end in an, as Hernan, Shinan, Mungan, 
 &c. the which now account themselves natural Irish. — Spenser. 
 
 * See Collect, de lleb. Ibern. p. 420. 
 
 t Noah had taught his children the knowledge of the tnio 
 
Ill 
 
 tluit tlie worship of Ops, under her various designa- 
 tions as particularized above, was introduced into 
 Ireland, to procure for her votaries that successful 
 career as well in agriculture as in commerce, of 
 which she was supposed the bountiful superintendant. 
 Wc may this day observe a vestige of her name in 
 that of an old town in Lower Ormond, the capital, 
 at one time, of the district anciently called Eog- 
 anacht Aine Cliach, called Aonoch. It is now 
 
 God; and that they were to trust in his mercy through the 
 mediation of a Redeemer, who was to be revealed to them at 
 a future period of time ; for the necessity of a mediator between 
 God and man was a general notion from the beginning. But 
 as no clear revelation was then made of this Divine person, 
 the people began to choose mediators for themselves, from 
 among the heavenly bodies, such as the stin, moon, and stars, 
 whom they considered as in a middle state between (iod and 
 men. This was the origin of all the idolatry in the heathei! 
 world ; and at first they worshipped those orbs themselves, but 
 as they found that they were as often under the horizon as 
 above it, they were at a loss how to address them in their 
 absence. To remedy this, they had recourse to making images, 
 which after their consecration they believed endowed with 
 Divine power, and this was tlio origin of ininge worship. This 
 religion lirst began among the Chaldeans, and it was to avoid 
 being guilty of idolatry that Abraham left that country. In 
 Persia, ihe first idolators were called Sabians, who adored the 
 rising sun with the profoundest veneration. To that planet they 
 consecrated a most magnificent chariot, to be drawn by horses 
 of the greatest beauty and magnitude, on every solemn festi- 
 val. The same ceremony was |)ractised by many other 
 heathens, who undoubtedly learned it from the Persians, and 
 other eastern nations.— //?«(i. 
 
112 
 
 called Naiiiagli, or Ncnagli, and is situated in the 
 county Tipperary. I should observe that Aonoch, 
 in Irish, signifies also a mountain or a leader. But 
 Nenagh I would derive from the Irish words naoi- 
 nach, an assemblage of people, rather than, as would 
 others, from neonach, a player or buffoon. 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 Tlie Ihen, a j^cojilc of Ireland — Spain not co(jnizant of the 
 Iheri of Mount Caucasus — Iberia, a Phcenician word — 
 Culjje, the extremitij of the earth in the estimation of the 
 Phoenicians — A jyromontory and city in Spain, actually the 
 extremity of the earth's extension — This occupied by the an- 
 cient Iberi — The sun setting in the riiwr Iber — The Irish 
 Iberi, a tribe of the Spa7iish Iberi— Where they settled — 
 The district of Ibrickin, a vesthje of them — Derivation of 
 this word, as also of Iber con — The idols, Sicuth and Kion. 
 
 The Iberi, a people of Ireland, of whom Ptolemy 
 makes mention, inhabited the coasts of the county 
 of Kerry, in the province of Munster. Irish writers 
 make mention of another people of this name, wlio 
 had settled in the county of Derry, in Ulster, be- 
 tween Lough Foyle and the river Ban.* But who 
 
 IJicliurd CircnesUr, in iiis «' Dc Situ HriJuiiiiiu'," clijip. 
 
1 1 :) 
 
 those Ibori were we must now bet.-ike ourselves to 
 consider briefly. 
 
 To su])pose, tlicn, that the Caucasian Ibcri liad 
 gone into Spain, and given to tbat country the name 
 of Iberia, I liesitate not to pronoiuice as nonsense 
 the most absurd, though supported by the authority 
 of Varro,* and sanctioned by the adoption ofA])ianf 
 and Diodorus Siculus.| No; the origin of Iberia 
 must be sought from another source. § Eber, in the 
 Hebrew, and Ebra or Ibra, in the Chaklee, signify 
 a passing over, or any thing remote or far away ; 
 tlicir plurals, Ibrin or Ebrin, signify boundaries or 
 limits : the Spaniards, therefore, were very naturally 
 called Iberi, being, as the Phoenicians imagined, the 
 very remotest inhabitants of the earth, and their 
 city, Calpe, the furthermost s[)ot in tlu^ir opinion 
 of the habitable globe. || Conformable to this is the 
 character given by Possidonius to the temple of 
 Hercules, in Gades or Cadiz, calling it " the bound- 
 ary of the earth and sea."^ From the same reason 
 the Jews would have Gaul and Spain to be the 
 boundaries of their own land. The Zar])hat and 
 
 iii. says, from nil old llomaii geograplier, " Tlie iincienfs put 
 it past doubt, that the Iberi took up their settlements in 
 Ireland." 
 
 * Varro ap Pliny, iii. 'A. 
 
 ^ Apian ill ll)oricis, p. 22(5. 
 
 t Diod. Sic. V. 215. 
 
 5( IJochait. (»(!o^. Hacr. iii. 7. 
 
 II Strabo, lib. iii. 
 
 11 See Rrasmus on " Pill. Ner." iii. chap. 20. 
 
 I 
 
114 
 
 Sarpliad mentioned by Obadiali, ver. 20. the Jews 
 would have to bo Gaul and Spain ; because the 
 "psalter" extends the empire of Christ even unto the 
 boundaries of the earth, which Aben-ezra * says, are 
 situated in the remote west. Finally, the Spaniards, 
 tliemsclves, have long since given the name of Finis 
 Tcrra),f or land's end, to the Nerian or Celtic 
 promontory in Artabria. A city and district of tlie 
 same country, in the district of Compostella, still 
 preserves its name of land's end — Finisterre. 
 
 Others suppose that the Spaniards were called 
 Iberi, from the river Iber; just as Egypt got its 
 name from the river Nile, which Homer designates 
 — Egyptus. Iber, the name of the river, signifies 
 in the Phoenician, rapidly flowing.]; 
 
 * Psalms Ixxi. 8. 
 
 t Some Spaniards derive this name from the Ce\ticjftn-es-tere, 
 that is, a fair and fertile mountain. As they do, also, the 
 names of the towns, Finestras, in the Ccltiberi, and Fiuestrat, 
 in the Edctani, from the Celtic fin-es-tru, a village on u hill 
 beside a river. 
 
 I The river Iber rises in the district of the Cantabrians, 
 hard by Juliobriga, and flows by the ancient Vetones and 
 Vascones, dividing the Ilergates from the Editani. Avienus 
 (in Oris Maritimis) mentions another Iberus, near the ocean, 
 to the west of the former, being no more than a stream mid- 
 way between Boetis and Anas, now called Rio Tinto, or de 
 Aceche ; these are his words : — 
 
 " Iberus inde manat amnis, et locos 
 Foeci!tndat unda. Plurimi ex ipso ferunt 
 Dictos Iberos, non abillo flumine, 
 Quod inquietos Vascones perlabitur. 
 Nam quid-quid amni gentis hugus adjacet, 
 Occiduuiu ad axem, Iberiara coguomiuuut." 
 
115 
 
 The more ancient Iberi had not possession of the 
 whole of Spain, but only of that part of it confront- 
 ing the Mediterranean, and extending from the 
 Pyrenees to Calpe, and the pillars of Hercules, 
 But though the Iberi were, properly speaking, the 
 more remote,* yet the ancient geographical writers 
 accounted the Spaniards, indiscriminately, as the 
 most distant people ; which gave rise to the fiction, 
 on the part of the poets, of the sun's setting not 
 only in the ocean, but more particularly in the river 
 Iber, thereby to mark out the extremity of the 
 earth's extent.f 
 
 The Iberia, therefore, of the ancient Irish took its 
 name from the tribes of the Iberi of Spain, and 
 consisted of that tract of country in the environs of 
 Bcerhaven, in the county of Cork ; the families of 
 which people would seem to have been the original 
 inhabitants of the county Kerry, and a part of the 
 county Clare, in the same province,! where we 
 still find the barony of Ibrickin, a proof of the 
 
 * Hence we may infer, that the Hoetic Iberi, of whom 
 Avienus speaks, were more properly so called Ibtri, for they 
 were the most extreme in respect to Spain in general. 
 
 t Bochart i. 35. Spain retains the traces of this name in 
 the Iberic Mountains, which pass through the middle of the 
 kingdom of Arragon, in Ibera, the name of an ancient city of 
 the Ilercaones, wliich Livy designates as " most opulent," and 
 in Iberum, a town of Cantabria. 
 
 I The Poets tell us, that this district of Ireland, was ap- 
 propriated to Heber, son of Milesius. See Seward. 
 
 I 2 
 
IK) 
 
 presence of the Iberi, wlio gave, it that name. 
 Tt is probable, too, that the descendants of the 
 Spanisli Iberi, who all originated from a PhcBnician 
 stock, were accounted kin, as the sons of Obab or 
 Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses,* and from him 
 called Kini. This would account for the appear- 
 ance of this word, as the last syllable of Iberi-kin : 
 and who is it that does not know the avidity of the 
 Phoenicians to perpetuate their nobility, and the 
 fondness of delight with which they dwelt upon 
 every memorial of the glory of their ancestors? 
 
 Or, Kin might be equivalent with Kini, that is 
 the Cinnoii, a people in the land of (vanaan, who 
 were also called the Cinnaean race.f And this would 
 seem supported by the names of certain localities 
 still preserved in this country ; for instance, that of 
 Cinneich, the residence of Dermott Mac Carthy,;{; Esq. 
 
 • Judges i. 10. 
 
 t Judges iv. 11, 17. 
 
 I A pathetic incident connected witli llie Mac (Uutys lias 
 Hiicli (^hiinis on tlio foelings that I will not con(:lu<lc tins naira- 
 tivu o( llicir I'oi'tuues without the mention of it. A considL'ral)lu 
 part of the lorfeited estates of tliat laniily, in the county Cork, 
 
 was held by Mr. S , about the ujiddle of the last century. 
 
 Walking one evening in his demesne, he observed a figure, 
 apparently asleep, at the foot of an aged tree, and, on approach- 
 ing the spot, found an old man extended on the ground, whose 
 
 audible sobs proclaimed the severest aflliction. Mr. S ■ 
 
 inquired the cause, and was answereil — " Forgive me, sir; my 
 grief is idle, but to moinn is a relief to the desolate heart and 
 
117 
 
 near Bandon, in the county Cork ; that of Cineal 
 Fearmaic, a district in old Thomond, in the county 
 Clare; and that of Cineal-Eoghean, an ancient and 
 extensive tract of the province of Ulster, comprising 
 the present counties of Tyrone, Armagh, Donegal, 
 and part of the county Dcrry. This latter inter- 
 pretation may be applied, also, to several names of 
 the old Irish towns beginning with Kin. To a 
 Phoenician source must we also refer the origin of 
 the word Ibercon, the name of a place in the 
 county Kilkenny,* between the baronies of Ida and 
 Jgrim, being composed of the words Iberi-con, that 
 is, the staunch, the firm Iberi. Nor is it unlikely 
 that they consisted of those, who borrowed from the 
 Phoenicians the worship of the idol Kiun or Kion, 
 which we are told by the prophet Amos, v. 20,, the 
 
 liumbled spirit. I am a Mac Cany, once the possessor of that 
 castle, now in ruins, and of this ground ; — this tree was planted 
 by my own hands, and I have returned to water its roots with 
 my tears. To-morrow I sail for Spain, where I liave long 
 hocn an exile and an onlluw since the Revolution. F am an 
 old man, and to-night, probably for the last time, bid farewell 
 (o the I place of my birth and the home of my forefathers." 
 — -Crofton Crohcr. 
 
 * (Janice, son of Laidec, a celebrated poet, was the founder 
 and first abbot of the abbey of Aghavoe, where he died the fifth 
 of tlie ides of October, in the year 591) or GOO. The e|»iscopal 
 sec was at length removed from iXghavoe to Kilkenny, (m the 
 cathedral (Kil) of Cannice (Kenny), called after this saint, to- 
 wards the end of the twelfth century, by Felix O'Dulany, then 
 bishop. — 1\I((<' Geoghcyan. 
 
118 
 
 Syrians worshipped in conjunction with their idol 
 Sicuth. The scptuagint translation of the hihle calls 
 this idol, "Astron," a star; the vulgate renders it, 
 " the image of your idols, the star of your God."* 
 The Hebrews think it to be Saturn, who was called 
 Keuan by the Persians and Arabians ; and it is well 
 known that the Phoenicians worshipped this deity 
 under a variety of names and symbols. 
 
 * V. 26. The Phoenicians were accustomed to carry about 
 with them some small imiiges, representing certain gods, in 
 carved chariots ; the tabernacle of Moloch, above mentioned, 
 seems to have been a machine of this kind. The first images 
 or statues were made in honour of great men, who had jier- 
 formed extraordinary exploits ; and these being set up in par- 
 ticular places, great veneration was paid to them, which, in the 
 end, turned to religious adoration. It appears, from Pliny, 
 that those statues were at first made of brick, such as that 
 used in building the famous tower of Babel. As to the text 
 itself, above alluded to, it should run thus : — " But ye have 
 borne the tabernacle of your god, (Moloch) ; and yc have also 
 borne Ghium, your likeness ; the star (Remphan) of your god, 
 (Me satne Moloch.) The common translation insinuates, that 
 Moloch and Kemphan, or Chium, were different deities, 
 whereas, according to that proposed, they were the same, 
 since it makes Ghium and Remphan the names of that star 
 which the Arabians and Egyptians appropriated to the false 
 deity, called by the Ammonites, &c. by way of eminence — 
 Moloch, or King. 
 
119 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 
 The Irish Brigantes, not the Breoganl of a later date — neither 
 Armenians, nor Phrygians. — Various names of Brigantia, 
 in Spain — Pharos therein, by whom built — An oracle of 
 Menistheus, in an observatory therein — Tlie Irish Brigantes^ 
 a tribe of the Spatiish Phoenicians — The Heneti — Why so 
 called — Why the Brignnters so called — Brigantium the re- 
 sidence of the Irish — Vestiges of this name, as well in Ireland 
 as in Spain. 
 
 More celebrated than the Iberi far, in ancient 
 Ireland, was another people, called the Brigantes, 
 who were either actually Phcenicians, or descended 
 from the Phoenicians of Spain. O'Connor makes 
 mention of Casraan's poem,* wherein it is said that 
 Brioganus, the son of Brathus, in a right line from 
 Fenius, one of their wise men, was the founder of 
 Brigantia in Spain. And that his posterity had 
 sailed from thence into Ireland, under the conduct 
 
 * IJcfiiniiiiip; llnis, " (,^;iiiitin luiiiliiuliis moii (»a(nlliil ;" that 
 is, " 1 sin^ of llio origin of (lio (iiKluliaiiH." 
 
120 
 
 of the two brollicrs, llcbei* and Ilereinou.f 'I'Ik; 
 Spanisli liarl)o\ir, wliicli tlic Greel^s call Bnigantia, 
 by Ptolemy called PlUaouion Brigantion, and by tbe 
 Romans, Flavia Rrigantum, is supposed to have been 
 so called after liis name. Its modern name is Co- 
 runa, and it is only forty-eight hours' voyage, straight 
 a-head, with a fair south west wind, from any port 
 on the coast of Ireland. CEticusij; still further tells 
 us, that in the abovementioned town of Brigantia 
 there is a watch-tower of prodigious height, called 
 Pharos, and intended chiefly as a light-house for 
 the direction of vessels lying out at sea.§ And 
 ()rosius,|| says that this had been built by the Tyrian 
 Hercules, who, we know from Diodorus Siculus, had 
 subdued Iberia, and all the countries thence to the 
 going down of the sun, before he had crossed the 
 Alps. Iv eating,^ nevertheless, assorts, that this tower 
 was biiilt by lireoganus the founder of the city, and 
 that the tirst discovery he made therefrom, by the 
 aid of a telescope, was the existence of this our 
 island, to which he instantly transferred a colony of 
 
 * Ciraldus Cauibrensis (Topog. Diet. iii. cap. vii.) in the 
 following century, and Nennins in tlie ninth, have asserted ihe 
 same. 
 
 t A pud. Casaub. in Strab. t. 1. p. 206. note 3. 
 
 \ This was called the town of Augustus, in the time of 
 Mela. 
 
 § Adv«Msu3 (it'ntes T. 17. Alias I. 2. 
 
 II IV. 
 
 II Psaltor of ('ormac. 
 
121 
 
 liis subjects, that is the Hrij^antes, tlie same who in 
 the Irish annals arc called Sliocht ]3riogan, that is, 
 the stock or the progeny of this leader. 
 
 Strabo,* alluding to the origin of this observa- 
 tory, says, — " In this place is the oracle of Menes- 
 theus, and the tower of Capio, built upon a rock, 
 surrounded by the sea, a prodigy of art, like the Pha- 
 ros ; and it is so contrived, that the rays of light falling 
 thereon are refracted and reflected in every direction, 
 as if issuing out of so many chinks, exhibiting all the 
 beauty and the ruddiness of the sun or moon, when 
 either rising or setting, and seen through the me- 
 dium of a transparent and a dry cloud." The 
 harbour of Mencstheus is mentioned by him in the 
 same passage, as it is also by Ptolemy ; Menestheus, 
 himself, having been the leader of the Athenians at 
 the time of the Trojan war, and the person who, as we 
 read in the commentaries of the (jrecians, on his 
 return from lUium to Athens, had been expelled 
 thence by the descendants of Theseus, and betaken 
 himself forthwith to Spain. f 
 
 * Ilisce ill locis, Oraculum Meneslhci v.<.\, ct Capionis tiir- 
 ris saxo iniposita, quod rnari cingitur, opus mirahile, Phaii 
 instai, (piibtis infractos radios visus, veliili in (islulas quasdani 
 (liflTiiiidi, ct majorern verft <|iiant,itatom fiiigpio, qnomadmodi'^iii 
 cAin sulom Iiiiiamv(! orirntotn \\\\\. ()(;ci<l<>n(.oiii per aridain, (o- 
 liiirriKpio nuhniii iiitiirniiir, riihoio piiluiinis." i, 3. 
 
 \ SiM' (^Tsaiil). ill Slrnl). O'Connor. 
 
122 
 
 Baxter,* however, is of opinion, that the Brigantes 
 were a people of ancient Phrygia and Armenia,f 
 who passed over into Thrace, and made themselves 
 masters, in the very earliest days, and by natural 
 occupation, of almost the entire of Europe ; they 
 were also, he conceives, called Heneti, from hen, 
 which, in the two countries ahovementioned, is equi- 
 valent with ancient, or antique. But the Brigantes 
 being evidently Phoenicians, or, at least, a stock of 
 the Phoenician Iberi, I should think it more pro- 
 bable, that they got the name of Ileneti, in after 
 times, from the depravity of their moral conduct, 
 the word eneth, in the Pluenician language, signi- 
 fying scandalous or depraved. And from thence, 
 perhaps, comes the Spanish word, bergante, which 
 signifies the same. It may, it is true, admit of 
 another derivation, and infinitely more to their credit, 
 namely, that of being expert at the management of 
 the spear, for heneth, in the Syriac and Hebrew, 
 
 * Gloss. Antiq. Brit. p. 40. 
 
 f Arineniu is a very extensive country, and generally divided 
 into tlie greater and lesser, but taking both together, they are 
 bounded in the following manner. Ithas (leoigia on the north; 
 on the south niountTaurus, which divides it from Meso[)otamia, 
 on the west the river Euphrates, and on the east the Cas- 
 pian mountains. Georgia has the Caspian sea on the east, the 
 Euxine sea on the west, on the north Circassia, and, on the 
 south, part of Armenia. The river Cur» or Cyrus, so called 
 from the emperor of tliat name, runs through it, dividing it into 
 two equal parts. 
 
123 
 
 signifies a spear. Another exposition may also be 
 adduced, from the custom of embalming the bodies 
 of their dead, which the Jews, as well as Syrians, 
 had borrowed from the people of Egypt.* In support 
 of this latter exposition we shall state, that henet or 
 hanat, in the Syro-Chaldaic language, signifies to 
 embalm, the ingredients in which process we may, 
 en passant, observe to have been myrrh, aloes, cedar 
 oil, salt, wax, pitch, and rosin, invented with a view 
 to the preservation of their dead, in a state of sweet- 
 ness and indecomposition, in their appropriate recep- 
 tacles. With this ceremony was the body of our 
 blessed Saviour interred, with aromatic spices, which, 
 Josephus tells us, corresponded with the form of the 
 Jewish sepulture. It is not at all improbable, there- 
 fore, that these Phoenician tribes were called Eneti, 
 
 * When any of the Egyptians died, the \vhi)le family quitted 
 the place of their abode; and during sixty or seventy days, 
 according to the rank or quality of the deceased, abstained 
 from all the comfoits of life, exce|tting such as were necessary 
 to support nature. They embalmed the bodies, and nmny 
 persons were employed in performing this ceremony. The 
 brains were drawn through the nostrils by an instrument, and 
 the intestines were emptied by cutting a hole in the abdomen, 
 or belly, with a sharp stone; after which, the cavities were 
 filled up with perfumes, and the finest odoriforous spices ; but 
 the person who made the incision in the body for this purpose, 
 and who was commonly a slave, was obliged to run away im- 
 mediately after, or the people present would stone him to 
 death. 
 
124 
 
 that is the enibalmers,* from having introduced this 
 custom into Ireland, as they did, also, into Spain. 
 
 * A question may here naturally be asked, Why do the 
 heathens in the East Indies, in conformity with the practice of 
 the Romans, burn the bodies of the dead ? There have been 
 several conjectures concerning the ori{;in of this barbarous 
 practice, as first, many of the eastern nations adored the lire, 
 and tlierefore they considered it as an acceptable piece of de- 
 votion, to offer up the dead bodies of their relations to it. 
 Secondly, their pride might induce the most celebrated heroes, 
 and the most beautiful women, to desire to conceal from the 
 woild, what poor helpless creatures they were while alive. 
 Thinlly, they beheld many indignities ollered to the dead, and 
 they wtsrc willing, nuy desirous that nothing of thiit nature 
 should happen to their relati(Mis. Lastly, they niighl do it in 
 order to prevent a contagious distemper, which often takes 
 place from the noxious smell of dead bodies, Whetlier any, 
 or all of these conjectures may be founded in truth, we leave 
 the reader to judge, but, certain it is, the practice itself, is 
 contrary to natural religion, as well as to Divine revelation. 
 Natural religion poinls out, that as man was formed out of the 
 earth, so at death his body should be consigned to it. " Dust 
 thou art, and unto dust thou shall return," Divine revelation 
 teaches us, that as Ciirist hiid down his head in the grave, so 
 the bodies of those who are his faithful followers, should be 
 deposited in the earth ; to rest till that awful period, when he- 
 shall come to judge the world in righteousness. Let us pity 
 heathens, who have none of those consolations, which our 
 holy religion holds out to us; let us daily pray for (heir coir- 
 version ; let us not be afraid to lay ilown our heads in the 
 silent grave ; let us imt reilect much on the indignities that 
 may be oilered to our bodies after death; for our J>ivine lle- 
 dennutr has gone before us, he has made the grave sweet unto 
 us, and by his almighty puwor, he will raise us up at (he last 
 lUy.-llnrd. 
 
125 
 
 Baxter, liowever, thinks that the Biigantos or 
 Heneti, as they may indifferently be called, having, 
 as we have said, passed over into Thrace, got the 
 name of Bruges, Briges, or Friges, from the cold- 
 ness of that climate, and these names got afterwards 
 inflected, according to the several Teutonic and 
 Britannic dialects, into Brigantes, Frixi, Trigones, 
 Frisii, Friscones, Brisones, Britones, and Britanni. 
 Whence he infers, and gives himself credit for the 
 discovery, that the Brigantes of Ireland were the 
 Gauls and the foreigners, who in the older times were 
 denominated the Erii * or Scots ;f and that this was 
 a name common to the Britons, nay, to all the Gauls, 
 before the arrival of the Belgse from Germany. 
 This distinguished WTitcr adds, that the original 
 Jirigantes on being exi)olIed their own terrilories, 
 
 * IJaxter's Gloss. Aiitiq. Brit. p. 119. 
 
 t Two kintles of Scols were indeed (as you may gather out 
 of l?uchanan) the one Irin, or Irish Scots, the other Albin- 
 Scots; for those Scots are Scythians, arrived (as I said) in the 
 north parts of Irehmd, where some of them after passed into 
 the next coast of Albine, now called Scotland, which (after 
 much trouble) they possessed, and of ihemselves named Scot- 
 land ; but in process of time (as it is commonly scene) the 
 dominion of the part prevaileth in the whole, for the Irish 
 Scots putting away the name of Scots, were called only Irish, 
 and the Albine Scots, leaving; the name of Albine, were called 
 only Scols. Therefore it comnieth thence that of some wi iters, 
 Ireland is called Scotia- major, and that which now is called 
 Scotland, Scolia-minor. — Spender. 
 
126 
 
 came in quest of a new settlement to this island, 
 and that the Ceangi, a people of the Dumnonian 
 Belgae, called by the Irish Scoto-Brigantes, For- 
 Bolg, or Belgian-men, followed them in the pursuit 
 of similar adventures. 
 
 But it being adoaitted on all hands, as we have 
 said, tliat the Brigantes were a people of the Phoeni- 
 cians, who landed in Ireland, from the coast of 
 Gallacia, or France ; they could not possibly have 
 been so named from the cold of that climate, which 
 we all know to be very temperate, not to say warm. 
 Neither were they so called from Briganus, the son 
 of Brethus, who belongs more to the day-dreams of 
 story-tellers, than to the rigid accuracy of historical 
 truth. No ; Bregan or Breogan, I consider a Phoeni- 
 cian term, from brekin,* which signifies, bringing 
 offerings to an idol or performing the ceremony of 
 genuflection before it, which again comes from, brie. 
 
 • The conversion of the letter k or c into g is easy and fre- 
 quent. Bracca, a city of Lusitania, is pronounced Braga, by 
 the Spaniards; Malaca, the emporium of Bcetica, Malaga; 
 liUcus, a city of Gullaccia, Lugo; Astorica, Astorgu ; the 
 river Sicoris, Segre, and so on. From the Latin secure, they 
 say segar ; from pacare, pagar ; from decoliare, degollar ; from 
 vacare, vagar ; from jocari, jugar; from joco, juego; from 
 caeco, ciego ; from cato, gato; from lacus, lago, &c. A 
 similar permutation of the same letter occurs in various words 
 in all languages : so that it is not at all to be wondered at, 
 that by the change of c or A into g, these people got from 
 Breckin, the name of Braga, Breage, or Briganges. 
 
127 
 
 that is, he bent the knee, the attitude at once of 
 adoration, prayer, and thanksgiving. It also means 
 to offer presents to an idol, by which we are to 
 understand the phrase of blessing (brie) an idol, as 
 it occurs in scripture. From brekin, therefore, they 
 being the most superstitious of all the Phccnicians, 
 they were at first called Breglian, then Bregan or 
 Breogan, whence, afterwards, the Greeks called them 
 Brigantoi, and the Latins, Brigantes, according to 
 the genius of their respective tongues. Nor are 
 there wanting persons who would maintain, that the 
 Spanish Brigantes were called Brigantoi by the 
 Greeks, from the words purgos anthos, a florid 
 tower, the name by which the Farus, in Brigantia, in 
 Spain, was formerly designated. But the Spanish 
 Brigantes, they should recollect, were not Greeks, 
 but Phoenicians. 
 
 Ptolemy places the Irish Brigantes in the south- 
 western quarters of this island, as a kin to those 
 who were distinguished under that name in Britain, 
 living about the sacred promontory, leron, just 
 opposite Wales : adjacent to them, on the west, lay 
 the Vodii, and behind those, the Itterni, or Ivernii ; 
 in the west, still behind the promontory of Notium, 
 lay the Vallabori, to whom Drosius joins the Luceni. 
 From these the Nagnatae, Erdini, and Venicnii, 
 stretched towards the north \ but in the extreme 
 northern point of the island lay the Ilobogdii, by 
 the promontory of this name. On tlie west, the 
 
128 
 
 Vohmtii, tlie Eblani or Blanii, near tlie city Eblaiia, 
 now Dublin, the Cauci and tlie Manapii, between 
 whom, and tlie Brigantes. lay the Coriondi. These 
 several people Ptolomy has handed down, as existing 
 in this country ; but we find not the Scots included 
 amongst them, and this has led Cellarius * to suspect, 
 that tlicy were subsequent to those pcoi)le, at least 
 under this name, in point of occupancy. The opinion 
 of modern f geographers is, tliat they inhabited tlie 
 eastern districts, now called Catherlaghensis, Miden- 
 sis, and Waterford ; and that from them a part of 
 the district of Media is called, as well in the Irish 
 unnals as in some old writings respecting Saint 
 Patrick, Magh-breg, or the plain of the Brigantes, a 
 name it holds to the present day. 
 
 This our Brigantia then, the modern Waterford, 
 was situated opposite to Brigantia in Spain. In it 
 not only does the river Brigas, now the Barrow, but 
 also the barony of Bargy in the souUi-west of Ire- 
 land, seem to savour strongly of the Brigantine 
 name. Bruighan-da-tlarg, a district in the county 
 Meath ; Brigowu, Brigowno or IJrighghobban, 
 formerly a city but now a little village in the barony 
 of Condons, county Cork, all savour of the same, 
 though some would suppose the last mentioned had 
 
 * Geog. Antiq. ii. 4. 
 j Slit' O'Connor. 
 
129 
 
 been called after St. Abban,* the reputed founder 
 thereof. To tliese we may add Briggo, a village in 
 the barony of Ardes, county Down ; Bright, a town 
 in the barony of Licale ; Briggs, a series of rocks 
 and cliffs projecting into the sea at Carrickfergus ; 
 Breoghain, an old district in the county Watcrford; 
 
 * Tliongli wo havo seen in llie (irst part, tl)at there were 
 Clnisiiuns in Ireland in tlio (irsi cenlnryi i^'"! '<'"K '>ef()re llio 
 mission of Si. l*atrick ; that, in(l(-|K!nilent of ('orinac-lJIfiuln, 
 monarch of this island in the third centniy, whom his piety 
 and religion had rendered odious to the Pagans, several had 
 left their native country on hearing of the Christian name, and 
 that havinj^ hecome perfect in the kno\vle<Ige of the evangelical 
 doctrine, and the discipline of the Church, some had [)reached 
 the gospel in the dillerent Pagan countries in Europe ; others, 
 filled with zeal for the salvation of tlieir fellow-citizens, had 
 successfully expounded to them the word of God; still the 
 nation was not yet considered as converted ; tliis grace was 
 reserved for the reign of Laogare, and the poiitilicate of Saint 
 Celestine I. This great pope, seeing the pious inclinations of 
 those people, and the success of private missionaries amongst 
 them, thought of sending them an apostle invested with full 
 authority, to complete a work so happily begun. The nutuher 
 of hisloii(>s, which have been cntnposed on the li(e of St. 
 I*i>tri<:k, has, in a great measure, tended to darken the kiiow- 
 l(<dge we should have of the truth of what concerns him. 
 According to Usher, and ancient monuments in the libraries 
 of Oxford and Cambridge, tiiere were sixty-three or sixty-six. 
 However, we must confine ourselves to the most genuine, and 
 those which appear the most authentic, and least liable to 
 contradiction; which are, liu; confession of St. l*atrick, his 
 letter to Corolic, and his lih-, written l)y some of his disciples. 
 — Mac GcnylieAjnn. 
 
 K 
 
J 30 
 
 the river Braghan, and the town of Brick-river. 
 But chiefJy, and ahove all, we may recognise the 
 Brigantine lineage in the names of those illustrious 
 leaders wlio swayed the destinies of this kingdom in 
 the days of its former glory, namely the Ily-Brea- 
 ghan or the O'Breaghan, subsequently altered into 
 O'Brien and ()' Brian, as Seeward,* no mean au- 
 thority, has before observed.f 
 
 In Spain, too, we find memorials of the existence of 
 those ancient people in the name, for instance, of 
 the town and country of Brigantinos, near the port 
 of Fluvia Brigantium, the modern Corurma ; in that 
 of Brigantes, a river of the Edctani ; in that of Ber- 
 gatiano, a town of the Vetones ; in that of Berganzo, 
 a city of Cantahria; and that of innumerable other 
 towns, such as Berga, Bergo, Bergara, Bergezo, 
 Bergedo, &c. But as to whether or not the Bergitani, 
 a very ancient people on the east of the Lacetani, by 
 the river Iber, could lay claim to this origin, is 
 what I could not positively take upon myself to de- 
 termine. 
 
 Amongst the Pannonians there was also a place 
 called Brigantium, which Aurelius calls Victor Ber- 
 gentium. To this we shoidd also refer the lake called 
 Brigantium Lacits, now Lago di Costanza ; so that 
 upon the whole, we see the nation of the 15rigantes 
 
 * See Topog. Article Breogliaiii. 
 
 t lly, signifies " ot," tiuitiuuoinil to " O." 
 
131 
 
 were the most numerous of any since the creation 
 of man, laying claim to ail Europe as their proper 
 country.* 
 
 * See Baxter, p. 50. Strange, that from one extroiiiity ol' 
 llie world to (lie other, even the most iiiiciilighlnl iialioiis 
 should believe tlie doctrine of the imniorfality of the soul, luid 
 yot many of those who have hern hronglit n|) nndcr (he joyful 
 sound of the gospel should deny it. This will ri^e in con- 
 deninalion against (hem, and they will be convicted at the 
 triljunal of the great Judge of all the earth, for trampling upon 
 knowledge. AVe are surprised still more, that there shoidd be 
 none but learned men in the world so abandoned, but learning 
 without grace, and the fear of (Jod becomes a real curse inst(nul 
 <d" a!i useful blessing. — Ihird. 
 
 K 2 
 
132 
 
 CHAP. XII. 
 
 The Scots %uere Scythians, a people of northern Asia — Their 
 CQudition and morality — Blended with the Phcunicians — 
 Their various incursions — Passed over into Spain — Become 
 friends of the Romans — Their remarkable victories — Land- 
 ing in Ireland from Spain — Where they settled — When 
 called Scots — Whether this name can import Woodland folks 
 — Whether the Scythians were so called from their adroitness 
 in fluufiny the javelin — Scytha and Saca, both Phoenician 
 names. 
 
 As Cellarius * is of opinion that it was not until 
 after the days of Ptolemy that the Scots f had 
 effected a hmding in Irehmd, or tliat, at least, they 
 were not recognised there under this distinctive 
 name, we cannot, I imagine, consistently with the 
 plan we have proposed to ourselves, let this oppor- 
 
 * Loco laudato. 
 
 f Whether they at their first coraming into the land, or 
 afterwards by trading with other nations which had letters, 
 learned them of them, or devised them amongst themselves, is 
 very doubtful; but that they had letters aunciently, is nothing 
 doubtful), for the Saxons of England are said to have their 
 letters, and learning, and learned men from the Irish, and 
 that also appeareth by the likenesse of the character, for the 
 Saxon character is the same with the Irish. — Spenser. 
 
133 
 
 tunity pass, without some disquisition respecting the 
 origin of tliis people, and their arrival in this 
 country. Nennius, in his little treatise called Capi- 
 tula,* or little notes, has proved to demonstration, 
 that they were originally Scythians, who, as the old 
 Irish annalsf still farther inform us, had started from 
 Egypt in the tenth year of Darius, King of the 
 Persians. Here, however, there was an obvious 
 mistake as to the place of their birth, for the Scy- 
 thians were not Egyptians, but Asiatics, the most 
 celebrated, and widely extended people too, in the 
 northern regions of that country, described by 
 Horace, J the immortal poet of the Augustan age, 
 " as wanderers and fond of living in the opcii plains." 
 T4iey built no houses, they had no fixed abode, 
 s])rcading themselves abroad over the bosom of (he 
 surface, and taking up a temporary residence for 
 themselves and their families, whom they carried 
 with them in carts, wherever and long as ever their 
 convenience and inclination afforded. Hence they 
 were called Amaxobioi and Amaxoforetoi, that is, 
 as Sallust renders it, " whose waggons were their 
 abodes." 
 
 The Scythians, says Trogus Justinus,§ have no 
 
 * Cap. ix. et x. 
 
 f Contin. Ann-nl. Tigonmch. ox eod. Diil)., written in the 
 (ifteenlh century, folio iv. vol. 1. 
 
 t Carniiniim I. oile xxxv. and Carminum III. ode xxiv. 
 ^ Lib. ii. 
 
134 
 
 boundaries amongst tliemselvcs, neither do they till 
 the ground, nor build themselves house or habita- 
 tion, being alone occupied in feeding their flocks 
 and herds, and in wandering incessantly through 
 the uncultivated deserts. Their wives and children 
 they carry with them in carts, covered over with 
 a canopy as a shelter from the weather, and thus 
 answering all the purposes of a house. They cul- 
 tivate Justice more by inclination and by habit, 
 than by the obligations of law. Gold or silver 
 they do not covet. They live on milk and honey. 
 The use of wool and of clothes is to them unknown, 
 being dressed only in the skins of wild beasts. This 
 course of abstinence and habitual restraint, extended 
 its influence even unto the heart itself, elevating the 
 tone of their moral character, and eradicating every 
 extraneous and artilicial desire."* Hence in Ilomerf 
 
 "* I will l)0{>iit then to count tlioir cust()iiio.s in tlio same 
 Qn\v.\- tliut I conntoil their nations, uiul first witli tlio Scythian 
 or Scottish numncis. Of the which there is one use, amongst 
 tlieni, to keepe their cattle, and to live themselves the most 
 iiiirt of the yearc in boolies. pasturing upon the monntaine, 
 and waste wilde places ; and removing still to tVesh land, as 
 they have ilepastured the former. The which appeareth plaine 
 to be the manner of (lie Scythians, as you may read in Olaus 
 Magnus, and lo. Bohemus, and yet is used amongst all the 
 Tartarians and the people about the Caspian Sea, which are 
 naturally Scythians, to live in heards as they call them, being 
 the very same, that the Irish boolies are, driving their cattle 
 continually with them, and feeding onely on their millvc and 
 white meats. — Spenser. 
 t Iliad V. 
 
135 
 
 we fiml iJicin called, DikiiioUiioi Aiilliropoi, '• tlic 
 most just of men." Strabo,* IIeroclotiis,f Virgil,J 
 and others, Jiave made mention of their name, and 
 equally honourable. Three things wortliy of record 
 are noticed by Justin § respecting them — their an- 
 tiquity — tlieir military valourU — and their having 
 
 t iv. 
 
 I Georg. iii. 
 § Lib. xxi. 
 
 II The Scoli or Milesian Irish, like their kinsfolk the Scy- 
 thians, when rushing to battle, made use of the war cry, 
 I'arragh, Farragh. •' Here is another proof that they l»ee 
 Scythes or Scots, for in all their incounters (iioy use one very 
 common word, crying Ferragh, Terragh, whicli is a Scottish 
 word, to wit, the name of one of the first Kings of Scotland, 
 called FerngtiH, or Fergus, which fought ajjiainst the Pictes, 
 as you may reade in Jiuchanan, de rebus Scoticis : but as 
 others write, it was long before that, the name of their chiefe 
 Captaine, under whom they fought against the Africans, the 
 which was then so fortunate unto them, that ever sithence they 
 have used to call upon his name in their battailes. Some, 
 who (I remember) have upon the same word Ferragh, made a 
 very blunt conjecture, as namely, Mr. Stanihurst, who though 
 he be the same countrey man borne, that should search more 
 neerly into the secret of these things ; yet hath strayed from the 
 trulh all the heavens wyde, (as they say,) for he thereupon 
 grouiidelh a very grosse imagination, that the Irish phould de- 
 scend from the Egy|)tians which came into that Island, first 
 under the leading of one Scota, the daughter of Pharaoh, 
 whereupon they use (saith he) iti all their battailes to call upon 
 the name of Pharaoh, crying Ferragh, Ferragh.'' — Spenser. 
 It will soon 1)0 made manifest, that Mr. Spenser, himself, 
 " fialk stnn/cd from the triilk all Ihe heavens wydv,^' as to the 
 origin of this war-cry. 
 
136 
 
 founded tlie kingdom of the Parthians. To these 
 wo may add, tlie fame of tlie Amazons, a tribe of 
 female warriors, who sprung up from their race, 
 whose exploits have been blazoned in every age and 
 in every climate, and accompanied besides with such 
 characteristics of romance, as to make some imagine 
 the whole had been a fiction. In short, they were 
 a nation indefatigable from the pursuits of labor and 
 of war, possessed of incalculable strength of body, 
 desiring to procure nothing which tliey might fear 
 to lose, and seeking nothing, when victors, but pure 
 glory."* 
 
 That the Scythians were incorporated with the 
 Phoiuicians, and had both together overran the 
 whole of Palestine, is proved by the circumstance of 
 their occupation of the city of Bethsan, which they 
 called Scythopolis, after themselves — it is further 
 proved by the name of Bambyx or Hierapolis, the 
 modern Aleppo as some suppose, which they gave 
 the city of Magog,!" ^^ called from the son of 
 JaphetjJ of that name, from M'hom the Scythians 
 Avere descended, or in memory of its fomidir, who 
 was supi)osed to have been the son of Magog, and 
 to have come from the land of Magog into Syria. § 
 
 * See more on this head in Bocliart Geog. Sac. iii. 11). 
 t Pliny V. 28. 
 t Bochart iii. 13. 
 
 § Bochart attempts to prove that Magog was the same as 
 Prometheus. And we know tliat Deucalion, the son of Pro- 
 
137 
 
 Strabo* says, that they had extended the limits of 
 their empire from tliencc all along to Armenia and 
 Cappadocia, calling Saca, a district in Armenia, 
 Sacasene, after their own name. We read, also, of 
 a settlement of the Scythians in Trogus, along side 
 of the Thermodon. Ijut what Thcrmodon means, 
 wc must still doubt, as it occurs in Plutarch as a 
 river in Scythia ; in Philostratus, as the boundary of 
 the Scythian empire. From thence they advanced 
 into Cimmeria, driving out the natives wherever 
 
 metheus. a Scythian, is said to liave been, according to Luciaii, 
 U.e founder of the city of Magog, in, Syria, and the erector 
 tli.'ieJM of a (cinplo to the "Syrian Goddess:' The name - 
 " Magog," says Valiancy, signifies pine tree, agreeably to the 
 Asiatic custom. We have a beautiful allegory of this kind in 
 the annals of Innisfallen, A. D. l.TM, composed oxten.pom 
 l)y I'udongh O'Jhicn, on the (U-ath of hin favoril(. chid' Dunotth 
 O'Dta : ^ 
 
 Truagh an teidhm, taining Ihier, rug baa borb 
 Taoisseach teann dainedh dhanih, 
 Donncha Don ; Tome is cial, cru mo chuirp 
 Craobh dom cheill an teidhm uach. 
 
 Dire is the loss,, alas ! of late 
 
 Upon tile western shore ! 
 By rnlhless death, and mnrth'ring fate, 
 
 A valiant chief's no more? 
 Ah ! woe is me : my soundest sense 
 
 And kindred friend so true ! 
 My wood has lost a imv'ring branch, 
 
 My Donoh, dear, in you! 
 
 Translated hy O'Flahcrltf, 
 Dc fluyiis. 
 
138 
 
 tlioy went, thence to Caucasus and tlie l^alus Mycotis, 
 to tlic Tanais on tlie nortliein ocean, as a])pears 
 from tlie testimony of Herod* and Diodorus Sicu- 
 lus.f From tlience they sailed over into Spain, as 
 Varro, and from him Pliny, bear testimony, which 
 accounts for the mention made in Silius Italicus,| 
 of the Scytha) or Sacae in Spain. § Horace, 1| speak- 
 ing- of the Cantabrians, who had been subdued by 
 Agrippa, says, " The Cantabrians, that ancient 
 enemy on the Spanish coast, subdued at last by a 
 long disputed victory, are subservient : the Scythians 
 now meditate to quit their plains with their bows 
 shickencd." And Ihcy did actually (piit tluMU, (irst 
 laying down their arms in submission to the lloman 
 authorities. Such, says Seutonius,^ was the reputa- 
 tion for virtue and moderation established by Au- 
 gustus, all over the world, that the Indians and 
 Scythians, who Avere not known of otherwise than 
 by rumor or hearsay, were induced, of their own 
 accord, to court his alliance, and that of the lloman 
 people, by an authorised deputation to Rome, for 
 the purpose which occasions Horace** in his sascular 
 
 * De vita Apulluii. vii. 1 1. 
 
 : iii. 3. 
 
 § iii. D(i(). 
 
 II Cariiiiii. lil). iii. Oilc U. 
 
 1( III Octavios, cap. xxii. 
 
 ** (Juim. Sa;c. v. 5r>. 
 
1.39 
 
 poem, to observe : " Now the Scythians, hitely so 
 proiul, court our answer." Yes, tliey vohmtarily 
 sought after the friendship, the hijunctions, and tlie 
 hiws of the Romans, which, as Justin * observes, was 
 the more wonderful, inasmuch, " tliey only heard of, 
 not felt, their ]:»ower."f Nay, when the em])ire of 
 Asia was thrice threatened by invasion, the Scythians 
 stood untouched, or unconquered in their native 
 independence, compelling Darius, King of the Per- 
 sians to retire with disgrace, making Cyrus and his 
 whole army the victims of their revenge, and cutting 
 to pieces the forces of Zopyrion, and himself, too, at 
 
 * Ibidem, cap. 3. 
 
 f 7\ll SpniiK! was (irst coiiqtioiod by tlio T^oiiiatis, aiid 
 iill(t(l willi cnloiiics I'loiM llicin, \vlii(<li wvw mlill iiiciiMiMcd, iiikI 
 tlio native Spaniard slill out od. Aflcrvvards (lie Curllinfiinians 
 ill all llio long I'linick NVuikjs (liaviiifi spoiled all Spnino, and 
 ill llie end subdued it wholly nnl.o (li(iiiisolvcs) did, as it is 
 likely, root out all that were affected to the I{onians. And 
 lastly the lloinans having againe recovered that countrey, and 
 beate out Hannibal, did doubtlesse cut off all that favoured 
 the Carthaginians, so that betwixt theni both, to and ("ro, there 
 was scarce a native Spaniard left, but all inhabited of Romans. 
 All which tempests of troubles being over-blowne, there long 
 after arose a new storme, more dreadful then all the former, 
 which over-ran all Spaine, and made an infinite confusion vf 
 all things ; that was, the comming downe of the Gothes, the 
 llunneB, and the Vandals: and, lastly, all the nations of 
 Scylhia, which, like a mountaine flood, did over-Uow all 
 Spaine, and quite drowned and washt away whatsoevtT relicpios 
 there was left of the land-bred pe(>ple, yea, and of all the 
 Uomans too, — Spenser. 
 
140 
 
 their head, though supported by all the spirit which 
 the consciousness of being general to Alexander the 
 Great, must necessarily have inspired. 
 
 That the Scythians, having now concluded a 
 treaty with the Romans, proceeded from Spain to 
 Ireland, is the received opinion of the historians of 
 this island. Accordingly we find in an old hymn,* in 
 honour of St. Columba, this expression, *' that the 
 Celtiberian Scythian had nothing equal to Columba." 
 They first put in at the south, and took up their 
 residence, finally, towards the north. Baxter f de- 
 clares, that their posterity are, at this day, the 
 occupiers of V^ulcntia, and we have the authority 
 of Ammianus Marcellinus and Zosimus for stating, 
 that, whilst only an Irish colony, they were the 
 confederates of the ancient Saxons, and successful 
 ones they proved, in checking the encroachments of 
 the Roman power. 
 
 O'Flaherty, conceiving he had discovered the time 
 of the arrival of the Scots from Spain, in an old 
 Irish poem J of the ninth century, ascribes that event 
 to the 3G98th year of the Julian period, which ac- 
 cording to Scaliger, would be the fifth of the reign 
 
 * Servatur iiiBobiens. Antiphonar.an. 1200, ap. — O'Connor. 
 
 t p.2ll. 
 
 X The poem of Euchad O'Floiii, beginning with these words: 
 " List ye learned. " — ft may he seen in the Dublin Tiibrary. 
 O'Connor lias pnblished a fragment of it, which designated, 
 miller an allegorical veil, the year of the Si;ots or Scythians* 
 arrival in Ireland. 
 
141 
 
 of Solomon.* Otiiers, tracing ti.e matter still farther 
 back,t assert, that when the Egyptians were drowned 
 m the Red Sea, the survivors expelled from their 
 body a Scythian of high birth who had lived 
 amongst them, lest the facilities of his situation 
 should foster his ambition to usurp dominion over 
 them, whcreui)on he betook, instantly, himself, with 
 his whole family, to Spain, where he lived for many 
 years ; and his progeny, after him, being multiplied 
 beyond the accommodation which the place could 
 am)rd, proceeded from thence unto Ireland. But 
 all the memorials of the Scots, says Tigernachus, up 
 to the period of Alexander the Great, are vague 
 and uncertain. Be it so ; yet still I cannot admit— 
 Baxter's^ assertion to the contrary notwithstanding— 
 that, before the eighth century, there was no such 
 place known in Britain as Scotia, the name by 
 which Ireland is designated by the venerable Bcde, 
 as well as by the monk Ravennas. " Ireland," says 
 Bede, "is the proper country of the Scots, who, 
 quitting it, added themselves as the third nation to 
 the Picts and Britons in Britannia. Jas. Usher,§ 
 also, a very distinguished writer, lias furthermore 
 proved, that the Romans called this island, Scotia. 
 Gibbon, too, assents to this fact in his preface to his 
 
 * O'Flaiicrty Ogyg. Pro), p. 34. 
 t Walsingliaiu'a llypoilig. 
 I p. 211. 
 § Prinionlia. 
 
142 
 
 history of the Roman empire. But it was not in 
 Ireland that tlie Scythians were first distinguished by 
 the name of Scots ; for Saint Jerom* introduces Por- 
 phyry, saying, that " neither did Britain, that fertile 
 province in tyrants, nor the Scotic nations, and all 
 the harbarous provinces round about, know any 
 thing of Moses and the prophets ;" which makes 
 O'Connor to conclude, that the Scotic nations then lay 
 beyond the pale of the British isle. Nay, Baxter him- 
 self affirms, that Scotia was so called by the Romans 
 from the Scoti. Orosius,f a presbyter of Tarracona, 
 who flourished in the beginning of the fifth century, 
 says, that, in his own time, Ireland was inhabited by 
 the nations of the Scoti ;;j; and St. Isidorus tells us, 
 that " Ireland and Scotia are the same, being called 
 Scotia, as inhabited by the Scots." " Hence, in 
 aftertimes," says Ludovicus Molina, '* arose the 
 
 * Epist. ud Elesij»horitem. 
 
 t llistor. lib. ii. 
 
 I The most celebrated geographers agree, that ancient 
 I'nrope was possessed by four grand classcb of men, viz. the 
 Celtcs, who extended themselves from (lie Hosphorus Ciuuno- 
 rinus on the Euxine, to the Cimbric Cliersonese of Denmark 
 and the llliine, (hs|)ersing themselves over western I'lnropti 
 and her isles ; the Scythians, who came from l*ersia, anil 
 spread from thence to the Euxine, and almost over all l-lnrope, 
 speaking the Gothic, and its kindred dialects, the Ttiutonic, 
 tiie Trisic, Belgic, &c. ; the Iberi or Mauri, who came from 
 Africa, and peopled Spain and Aquitain, and their language 
 survives in the Cantabric or jiiisqne ; and the Sarmat-.c, whose 
 language was the Sclavonic, and whose appearance in Europe 
 was later than tliC others. — Mac Gregor. 
 
H3 
 
 origin of tlie Ibcri in Ireland, wlio retained, as their 
 characteristic, the very ancient name of Scythians or 
 Scots, from whom the Spanish promontory, now 
 called Finisterrse, or land's-end, was formerly desig- 
 nated Scy thicum or Celticum. These people removed 
 thems(!lves to Ireland from S})ain, as Orosius informs 
 ns." 
 
 Now, IJaxter, inquiring into the etymology of the 
 word Scots,* says, that the Britons, called them 
 Isgwydhwyr, which, in the old scriptural style, is 
 equivalent to Scoituir, or woodland men. The 
 modern name, Guydhal, is the same as Brigantine, 
 or woodland Gaul. For the Irish are, undoubtedly, 
 a mingled race, consisting, as he says, on the one 
 hand, of the Erii or barbarous natives ; on the other 
 hand, of the Scots and Brigantes ; and, thirdly, of 
 the Guydhali or woodland Gauls : and from this 
 he accounts for the circumstance of their being so 
 often designated by the British writers under the 
 compound name of Scoto-Brigantes. 
 
 Others, again, would look still higher for the 
 origin of the Scythian name, and think it derived 
 from their dexterity in darting the javelin, scutten, 
 in the German language, signifying persons expert 
 
 * Egiiiharil, secretary to Charlemagne, or, according to 
 some, his son-in-law, in his annals on the year HI2, informs 
 us tliat the naval forces of the Normans landed in Ireland, the 
 island of tlic Scots, and having given them battle, in which 
 they were defeated, that those barbarians who escaped, shame- 
 fully took flight, aiul returned to their couniiy . —MacGeoghcgan. 
 
144 
 
 in tliis art ; just us a portion of the Scythians were 
 called Ariinas})!,* tliat is, who ch)se one eye, or use 
 but one,f which, we all know, is the practice of 
 those who aspire to any eminence in the science of 
 shooting. 
 
 It strikes me as more likely, not to say indubitable, 
 that the Scythians were so called by the Phoenicians 
 from the moment of their first incorporation with 
 them, occupying, as they did, a great part of Syria ; 
 and that they did so call them, from the fact of 
 having noticed their roving propensity driving them 
 on as adventurers, through hill, through dale, 
 through desert, and through forest. The word 
 Scythian, then, I would derive from shitin, which, 
 in the Phoenician language, signifies traversers, 
 wanderers, or rovers, and is itself derived from shit, 
 to go, surround, run about, or digress ; or, from 
 shitah, to expand or dilate, either in allusion to their 
 straggling, or the successful ardor with which they 
 extended their sway, striking terror into their foes 
 by the very name of their princes, and laying low at 
 their feet the most numerous armies. Saca or Sa- 
 casene too, a district of Armenia, called after them, 
 would seem referable to the same souico ; sacac, in 
 in that language, signifying to run about or walk, as 
 sacah, does a roof or covering. Perhaps, if we would 
 regard the justice of the nation, we may suppose 
 them so designated from zaca, praiseworthy or just, or 
 
 ' Dciivctl from Arima, one, uml Spia, an eye. 
 
 I 'I'lio bt;Uei to collect llu; visual lay.s lovvanl oiu; loons. 
 
145 
 
 zaki, blameless, irreproachable ; all which attributes 
 we find briefly enumerated by Chasrilus, in his work 
 called the^Diabasis of Xerxes," saying, "The pastoral 
 Sacse, a Scythian race, Asiatics who tilled the land, 
 colonists belonging to the roving nation of the No- 
 mades, a people who practised justice." The word 
 zaca, also, means to ovcu'comc or conquer, which 
 agrees well with the warlike character of the 
 Scythians.* 
 
 * Their short bovves, and little quivers with short bearded 
 airovves, are very Scytliian as you may reade in the same 
 Olaus. And the same sort both of bowes, quivers, and 
 arrowes, are at this day to bee scene commonly amongst the 
 Northerne Irish-Scots, whose Scottish bowes are not past three 
 quarters of a yard long:, with a string of wreathed hempe 
 slackoly bout, and whoso arrowes arc not much al)ovc luilfo 
 an ell long, tipped with stccle heads, made like common broad 
 arrow heades, but much more sharpe and slender, that they 
 enter into a man or horse most cruelly, notwithstanding that 
 they are shot forth weakcly .—Spenser. 
 
 I have heard some great warriours say, that, in all the 
 services which they had scene abroad in forraigne countreyes, 
 tliey never saw a more comely man then the Irish man, nor 
 that cometh on more bravely in his charge ; neither is his 
 manner of mounting nnseemely, though liee lacke stirruppes, 
 but more ready then with stirruppes ; for, in his getting up, 
 his horse is still goin<i, whereby hee gayneth way. And there- 
 fore it was called so in scorne, as it were a stay to get up, 
 being derived of the old English word sty, which is, to get up, 
 or moiinte. - Spenser. In fact, tiioy were a tribe of that people 
 Avhom Virgil (from the Punic records) designates as « Numtlie 
 infreni." 
 
HG 
 
 CITAP. XTIT. 
 
 The Irish Siluri a tribe of the Phoenicians— Whether so called 
 because wearing breeches — Origin of the Spanish word 
 Saraguelles — Not all the Phcenicians of Ireland called 
 Silures — This word implying the condition of their race, or 
 their superstition — From them the island Silura so called — 
 Whether there be oily one such or several — Derivation of 
 the zvord Cassiteris — Islands of that name in the Spanish 
 sea — Why called Cica by the ancients. 
 
 To the Phoenician Iberi belong also the people 
 of the Silures, who had fixed tlieir residence in the 
 British isles, and of whom Tacitus thus speaks : — 
 " Their faces are colored, their hair for the most 
 part twisted, and seem to encourage the belief that 
 the ancient Iberi, who lay opposite to Spain, had 
 crossed over and seized themselves of these settle- 
 ments."* The Iberi alluded to are of course, says 
 
 * This he speaketh touching the Sihires which inhabited that 
 part of South Wales, which now we call Herefordshire, Rad- 
 norshire, Ureckuocivshire, Monmouthsiiire, and (ilaniorgan- 
 shire. And although the like reason may he given for (iiut 
 part of Ireland which lyeth next unto S(»aine, yet in Tacitus 
 we lind no such inference. Buchanan, indeed, upon the con- 
 
117 
 
 Kochart, tliosc of Taitasiis, wlio were a colony of 
 tlie PIia3nicians, for these alone possessed either the 
 spirit or the skill requisite for navigation, and the 
 transplanting of colonies into distant countries. 
 And as there will be an effort, no doubt, to scoop 
 the origin of the word Silures from the vowels of the 
 Phoenician language, the learned, says he, well 
 know that the inhabitants of the British isles, as well 
 as the Gauls, were accustomed to wear breeches. 
 
 jcclure of Tacitus, hath these words. " Verisiinile nutein noii 
 pst llispanos lelictA it tergo Hiberni^, terra propiore, & coeli 
 Sc soli mitioris, in Albiiim primilra descendisse, sed primitin in 
 liiberniain appulisse, atque inde in Britannii\ colonos misses." 
 Which was observed unto me by the most learned Bishop of 
 Meth, Dr. A nth. Martin, upon conference with his lordship 
 about this point. One passage in Tacitus touching Ireland 
 (in the same booke) I may not heere omit, although it be extra 
 oleas. " Quinto expeditionum anno (saith he) nave prim<i 
 trausgressus, ignotas ad tempus gentes, crebris simiil ac pros- 
 peris prueliis domuii:, eamque partem Britannia quze Hibernidm 
 aspicit, copiis instruxit, in spem magis quam ob formidinem. 
 Siquidem flibcrnia medio inter Britanniam aque [iispaniam, 
 sita, & Gallico quoque mari opportuna valenlissimam inq>orij 
 partem niagnis invicem usibus miscucrit. Spatiiiin rjus si 
 Britannia comparetur, angustins, nostri maris insulas superat. 
 Solum coelumque & ingenia, cultusq ; hominum haiit multitm 
 k Britannia difVerunt, meliils aditiis portusq; per commercia & 
 negotiatores cogniti. Agricola expulsum seditione domestica 
 nnnm ex regulis gonlis oxcepcrat, ac specie amicitai in occa- 
 sionem retinebat. Si«|)fe ex eo audivi Legione un^ & modicis 
 auxilijs debellari, obtinerique lliberniam posse, Idque ad- 
 versi^s Britanniam proftituruni, si llomana ubicpie arma, & 
 velut e conspectu libertas tolletelur." — Sii James Ware, 
 
 L 2 
 
148 
 
 For tliis lie quotes Martial* — *' As an old pair of 
 breeches belonging to a poor liriton." Then lie 
 takes shelter in the language of the Arabians, in 
 which sirwal, and sarawuel, from which again comes 
 the Spanish word saraguelles, signify all one and the 
 same thing, namely, a pair of breeches. Sirwalin, 
 therefore, in the Arabic, signified persons who wore 
 this article of dress. From this the Romans, says 
 he, by transposition, gave the name of Silures to 
 those Phoenicians who had settled in Ireland, as a 
 mark of distinction between them and the rest of 
 their race, just as a part of Gaul, where the use of 
 this article prevails, is called Braccatu from that 
 very circumstance — such is Bochart's opinion. 
 
 To me, however, it appears more likely that not 
 all the Phoenicians who had come over to those 
 islands, but only a few of their tribes, the lowest 
 and the poorest, got the denomination of Silures 
 from the rest of their fraternity, and that not from 
 an Arabian term relating to dress, but a Phoenician 
 one, purporting obscurity and meanness of origin. 
 For zeluth, in the Phoenician, means vilcness or con- 
 temptibility, as generally applied to the rabble ; and 
 zaluth, impurities, filthiness. Thus much respecting 
 their condition as a caste. But if you would prefer 
 referring it to the superstition of the whole nation, 
 it is evident that in this point of view we may derive 
 
 * 1 1 E[)igr. 22. 
 
149 
 
 Silures from tlic words zil 'ur, that is worshippers of 
 the sun or fire ; for or, as well as ur, both in the 
 Hebrew and Syriac languages, signify the sun, to 
 blaze, or any luminous body. In this sense we find 
 it in Job,* where he says, " If I have seen the sun 
 (or) wlien lie shone ;" and in Nchcmiahf — " From 
 the morning (or) even unto the mid-day," that is 
 
 * Men have, in all ages, been convinced of the necessity of 
 an interconrse between God and themselves, and tlic adoration 
 of God supposes him to be attentive to men's desires, and, 
 consistent with his perfections, capable of complying with 
 them. But the distance of the sun and moon is an obstacle to 
 this intercourse. Therefore foolish and inconsiderate men 
 endeavoured to remedy this inconvenience, by laying their 
 hands on their mouths, and then lifting them up to their false 
 gods, in order to testify that they would be glad to unite them- 
 selves to them, notwithstanding their being so far separated. 
 We have a striking instance of this in the book of Job, which, 
 properly attended to, will throw a considerable light on ancient 
 Pagan idolatry. Job was a native of the confines of Assyria, 
 and being one of those who believed in the true God, says, in 
 his own vindication, " If I beheld the sun while it shined, or 
 the moon walking in brightness ; and my heart hath been 
 secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand," &c. 
 Job xxxi, 2G, 27. 
 
 This was a solemn oath, and the ceremony performed in the 
 following manner : 
 
 The person who stood before his accusers or before the 
 judge's tribunal, wbere he was tried, bowed his head and 
 kissed his hand three times, and looking up to the sun, invoked 
 him as an Almighty TJcing, to lake the highest vengeance upon 
 him if he uttered a falsehood. — llurd. ' 
 
 t viii. 3. 
 
150 
 
 from sum'ise .till noon ; and from this it was tliat 
 Aj)ollo was called Orus by the heathens. It also, as 
 I have intimated, signifies fire, lit and blazing, and 
 by synechdoche, the hearth wherein it blazes, in 
 which acceptation it occurs in Isaiah — " In the blaze 
 (or) of your fire." As to zila, it means to pray to, 
 or worship, as ziluth does prayer, adoration. The 
 introduction into this country oi the Phoenician 
 usage of worshipping the sun and fire, is a point 
 beyond dispute, as we shall make by and bye more 
 manifest. 
 
 From the Silures is named the island of Silura, 
 separated, by a tiubid strait, from the coast, which 
 is inhabited, as Solymus informs us, by a British 
 1-ace, the Dumnonii. There are those who would 
 name as the islands of the Silures, or the Silenae, 
 what we at this day call the Scilly Isles, and the 
 Belgians the Sorlings ; and which Camden enumer- 
 ates to the amount of about one hundred and forty- 
 five, more or less, being circularly arranged, and 
 about eight leagues distant from the extreme cape 
 of Cornwall : these have been otherwise called by 
 the ancients Cassiterides, from the tin in which they 
 abounded ; Hesperides, from their western locality ; 
 and Ostrymnidae, from the promontory of Ostrym- 
 nus, in Artabria, to which they are opposite. Now 
 there is no one so unacquainted with history as not 
 to know that the Phoenicians exported an immense 
 
151 
 
 quantity of tin from those islands. They alone,* as 
 Strabo informs us, had repaired thitlier, from Gades, 
 on tliose commercial speculations, studiously, the 
 while, concealing their schemes from all others ; 
 which Bochart confirms by several collateral testi- 
 monies. This tin they used to ship off to Syria 
 and Arabia. And we find in Numbers xxxi. 22, how 
 much it Avas sought after by the Midianites ; and. in 
 Job xix. 24, by the Arabians. Of which see at 
 large in W. Cooke, p. 23 ; Pliny Nat. Hist. vii. 5G. 
 Take care, however, that we do not confound 
 these islands with the Cassiteridesf in the Spanish 
 sea, right opposite to Baiona of Tudium, which are 
 supposed, by some, to have been so denominated 
 from the immense rocks with which they are sur- 
 rounded, called by the Greek inhabitants of Spain 
 
 * iMom some passages in Plutarch, O'llalloran ofTers a 
 conjecture, that the sacra et dclecta cohors of the Carthaginians, 
 mentioned by Diodorus and othiers, was a select body of Irish 
 troops in the pay of that people. From the time of the Scipios 
 until the reign of Augustus, a space of more than two hundred 
 years, Spain struggled witli the Romans for independence ; and 
 we may naturally suppose, that as Ireland was but a few days' 
 sail from Spain, they had auxiliaries from thence, and that the 
 Carlhaginians had them also. Hannibal's army was mostly 
 made up of foreign troops, a great part of which he brought 
 from Spain after the taking of Saguntum. — Mac Greyor. 
 
 t This name is derived from Kassitcra, the Greek for tin ; 
 being the translation of IJara anac, which, in Plncnician, sig- 
 iiifios the land of tin ; and from this again tho word JJritaimift 
 would Bcom to be immediately formed. 
 
152 
 
 Cica, from cicos, which in tlieir language signifioy 
 streng'tli, a strongliold, or fortress ; whilst others, 
 with more probability, think it a Phoenician name 
 given to those islands before ever the Grecians set a 
 foot in Spain, and from the same circumstance as 
 the other islands of the same name were denomi- 
 nated, namely, their tin mines, cicar or kicar, in the 
 Syriac, signifying metal of any kind. 
 
 CHAP. XIV. 
 
 The Vodiie, in what section of Ireland they had settled— 
 Whether they were of the race of the Erigence, or a tribe of 
 the Phcenicians — Conjecture upon the Etymoloyy of the 
 name — Vodie the country called Dergteachneagh — Origin of 
 this ivord — The Lucani, or Luceni, a people of Ireland — 
 This name supposed originally Irish — Where they settled — 
 Whether different from the Liigudii — Whence the name 
 Slioght — Luciis and Lucena cities of Spain — Conjecture on 
 the Phoenician origin of the Luceni — Fire worshipped amongst 
 the Phoenicians — The promontory of Notium. 
 
 The Vodiae, or Vodii, were, according to Ptolemy, 
 an ancient people of Ireland, contiguous, on the west, 
 to the Brigantes in the county Cork, being the same 
 as the Mediterranean Momonienses ; what you 
 
15ti 
 
 would call in iMi^rlish, says Baxter,* the woodlaiitl 
 folk, and consequently of the primitive stock of the 
 Erigenae, or real natives. Vydhieu, or Guydhieu, 
 means woods at this very day amongst the Britons. 
 Others would interpret Vydhieu as people living in 
 woody places by the water side ; for in Ptolemy we 
 also read of a place called Vodie, which the Irish 
 writers call Dergtenii, or Dergteachneagh,— and give 
 us to understand it means a woody habitation beside 
 a lake,— comprising the southern coast of the county 
 Cork, namely, the old baronies of Corcaduibhne, 
 Corcabhaisin, and Corcahuigne.f 
 
 It may be worth the attention of the learned men 
 of this country to see whether the Vodise were not 
 one of the Phoenician tribes who had settled here ; 
 for Bohodi in the Phoenician language meant a con- 
 gregated clan ; as you would say, stop with me, live 
 with me ; from whence, in the Arabic, bahad, he 
 stopped, or sojourned, and badi, the origin of a 
 race, the introduction of a family, a congregation. 
 This conjecture is supported by the name of the 
 country called Dergteachneagh, being, as I imagine, 
 an abbreviation from Derc-teachin-agch, which sig- 
 nifies travellers, or strangers, in a wilderness ; for 
 derc means he walked, teachin, living or lurking in a 
 lonely place, and agah, he passed the night. Derg- 
 
 " p. 253. 
 
 I See Collect, de Ueb. Ibern. vol. iii. p. yjjjj. 
 
15d. 
 
 tcnii sounds like that lan^Miige too, dcrc-tcnar mean- 
 ing in it a rocky road, and derc-tenin a road on 
 which men, or beasts of burden, carry provisions or 
 other merchandise. 
 
 The Lucanii, or Luceni, are to be found also in 
 Ptolemy as an ancient people in this island, of whom 
 Orosius also makes mention. Richard Cirencester 
 says, that ih^ir settlement lay in the county Kerry, 
 near the bay of Dingle.* The name is supposed to 
 be compounded of the two Irish words lugh-aneigh, 
 meaning the inhabitants of a district adjoining a 
 lake, or sea, what you would call, says Baxter, mari- 
 gcnc, or sea-born. This gentleman imagines that 
 these were originally a colony of the Dumnonian 
 Belgae, and that they gave their name to the pro- 
 vince of Lugenia, or Leinster, which certainly does 
 sound very like the land of the Lugeni, and in after 
 times had advanced farther into the interior, into 
 Momonia, or the province of Munster. Seward,f 
 and others more modern,']; suppose that they were 
 the Lugadii, who, according to the old Irish writers, 
 inhabited the south-western coasts, extending from 
 
 * This remote town in the province of Munster was once of 
 considerable iniportimce. The Spaniards held a direct inter- 
 course with the place, and Ijuilt many private residences tliere, 
 besides the parish church, &c. Queen Elizabeth granted to it 
 a charter in 1585. 
 
 I Seward, Topogr. Ibern. App. II. p. }{. 
 
 I Vid. Collect, de Reb. Ibern. loc. land, p, 'Ml, 
 
155 
 
 Waterford harbour along to the mouth of tlic river 
 Sliainion. Tlie name of Lugadii to the natives was 
 equivalent with sliocht lugach macithy, that is, a 
 maritime race of dwellers by the water. Yet, sliocht, 
 may perhaps be of Phoenician root, coming from 
 shlic, a neighbour ; in this sense, too, we shall find 
 ourselves at home, for slioght, in Irish,* signifies 
 alliance or kindred. 
 
 But Baxter, descanting upon the origin of the 
 word Lacanii, or Luceni, says, aug, by the old 
 Britons, was understood for the liquor of water, and 
 thus for the sea, whilst geni, or eni, meant descent. 
 
 * It is well known that in Muiister aud Connaiiglit, in tlio 
 western parts of Ulster, and the south of Leinster, this ancie.it 
 dialect is spoken most extensively; and although many of the 
 native Irish nro sulliciontly acqnaintcd with the Juiglish 
 tongne to use it for the purpose of daily trafTic, and mere busi- 
 ness, yet it is in their beloved Celtic that they think, through 
 that they feel, and by that they communicate to each other the 
 deep purposes of present revenge, and future triumph. It is 
 no random assertion, but an authenticated fact, that among 
 the most abject poor, who cut turf on the bogs, or break stones 
 for the roads of those districts, the proudest legends of their 
 country's former glory, and the prowess of her native chiefs, 
 couched in language the most exciting that can be conceived ,' 
 are frequently repeated; together with the wild prophetic' 
 rhymes of gifted bards, handed down orally from father to 
 child, predicting the re-appearance of that sun which they con- 
 ceive to have set beneath the dark night of English usurpation. 
 Those who have studied the Irish language concur in pronoun- 
 cing it to be njost richly and powerfully expressive, highly 
 figurative. — Charlotte Elizabeth. 
 
156 
 
 or to bo (lesceiulcd. llcncc lie iiil'ers that the 
 Sjixon pirates were called by the Britons Lhoegyr, 
 corruptly for Luguir, or seamen, and from this, he 
 says, comes the modern name of Anglia or England ; 
 Ihuch, in Britain, signifying at this day a lake, as 
 loch does in Ireland. 
 
 If one may indulge conjecture in a matter not 
 very clear, I should think myself near the true ex- 
 traction of this name by deriving it from lucus, a 
 grove, which we know those were in the habit of 
 resorting to, nay, of worshipping*. In this case we 
 may seek for the origin of slioght in the Phoinician 
 slocah, or sliocah, which signifies divinity. But this 
 I do not like, for the people called Luceni, or Lu- 
 canii, existed before the time of the Romans, which 
 would make it incongruous to take as a parallel in- 
 stance the name of the Spanish city, Lucus, now 
 Lugo, in the country of the Gallaici, which must be 
 acknowledged to be designated from those religious 
 haunts. Therefore, as well as Lucene, the name of 
 a Phoenician town in Boetia, I should suppose it 
 comes from lushen, or leshen, a word of very various 
 significations, all of which, however, spontaneously 
 apply to this people. First it is a people or nation ; 
 secondly a difference of language or dialect, which 
 we know to prevail amongst the several tribes of 
 Syria. The Ephrata;i, for instance, could not arti- 
 culate the double letter, sh, instead of which they 
 would pronounce it in its single form, s, which nuiy 
 
157 
 
 liave proceeded either from the air or local influence. 
 Tims we find that when, in Judges xii. they were 
 obliged to say shibboleth, a river, they could only 
 call it sibboleth. The Boetians of my country, also, 
 pronounce z instead of s, calling it zabana instead of 
 sabana. The Gallacians, too, differ from the other 
 provinces of Spain, not in pronunciation alone, but 
 in many other peculiarities of language. The same 
 may be observed by every one in the idiom of his 
 native country. But to return. It means, in the 
 third place, a flame of fire, which would seem at 
 once to point us to the practice of their worshipping 
 this element in their sacred groves, a practice, I may 
 add, which the Chaldasans, the Persians, the Medes, 
 and other nations of Asia, shared in common with 
 the Phoenicians, who oflcred sacrifice to fire after the 
 custom of the Persians,* at first only worshipping it 
 
 TVIien the Persians drew near to their consecrated fires in 
 their divine service, they always approached them from the 
 west side, because by that means their faces being turned to 
 those as well as the rising sun, they could direct their worship 
 towards both at the same time. * * The priests are 
 
 obliged to watch day and night to maintain and repair the con- 
 secrated fire. But it is absolutely necessary that it be re- 
 kindled after the purest manner that can possibly be devised; 
 for which purpose they frequently make use of a steel and flint', 
 or two hard sticks, which, by continual friction, will in time 
 take fire. Sometimes, likewise, they kindle it by the light- 
 ning which darts down from heaven on any combustible 
 matter; and sometimes again by those jf^wea yii^Mt which fre- 
 quently arise in marshy grounds; or else by common fire, in 
 
158 
 
 as a type or symbol of tlie Deity, but so, liowevcr, 
 that gradually, and at last, this commemoration, and, 
 as such, innocent adoration, degenerated and sunk 
 into actual and downright worship of the element 
 itself.* This superstition they imported into Ireland, 
 as they did into Spain, and their other colonies. 
 
 But as this people had established their settle- 
 ment in the country by the promontory of Notium, 
 I should not think it at all unlikely that they derived 
 their name from that very fact, for lushen, or leshen, 
 in the Syriac, is a cape, or oblong and mountainous 
 tongue of land jutting out into the sea. 
 
 The name of the Lugadii would seem to be equi- 
 valent with that of allies, for luahin, in the Phoeni- 
 cian, implies association or union. Or they might 
 have got this name from luch, or lach, meaning- 
 sturdy youths, valiant warriors, in conformity with 
 lucadin, the stormers of towns ; whence evidently is 
 derived laochd, the Irish designation for an armed 
 soldiery, as well as lugh, active, and luch, a captive 
 in battle. We find, besides, that laga, which signi- 
 fies renown, or pre-eminent distinction, was an usual 
 adjunct to the iiiames of many of the loading families 
 
 case it is pure and uiidefiled, or with such as the Banians make 
 use of to kindle the funeral piles. But they have one other 
 method still, as noble as it is pure ; and that is, by collecting- 
 the rays of the sun into the focus of a burning-glass. — Hard. 
 
 * Theodoret. Hist. Eccl. V. ilO. S. Isidor. llispal. Orig. 
 XIV. 3. Cons. Voss. De Orig. et Progr. Idolol. II. (iJ. 
 
159 
 
 of tliis isl.'ind, as Liiglimclli-hiiglici, Mac moglui 
 iiuadhat. Ricliardsoii makes mention of a cele- 
 brated tribe of tlie Arabians, called Legah, or Lukali, 
 that never acknowledged the dominion of a tyrant, 
 or bent with abject and humiliating prostration to 
 the inhuman attitude of slavery. Nor would the 
 conjecture be altogether without ground if, after 
 all our peregrination and excursive research for 
 the origin of the name of this people, we would at 
 last turn home, and look for it in the Irish word 
 lughadh, meaning the interposition of an oath,* and 
 which would indicate their compactness as a social 
 body ; or in lughad, scantiness, as if they were but 
 few ; or, finally, in luchd, a tribe or assemblage. 
 
 • According to tlic aiiimls of Ulster, cited by Ware, tlie 
 usual oath of Laogare IJ., King of Ireland, in the time of 
 St. Patrick, was by the sun and wind. The Scythians swore 
 by the wind, and sometimes by a scymeter or cutlas, in use 
 among the Persians, upon which was engraven the image of 
 Mars.— Mac Geoghcyan. 
 
160 
 
 CHAP. XV. 
 
 The Voluntii — ln what part of Ireland settled — Various 
 opinions as to the etymoloijy of this name — As also of the 
 names Ull, Ullah, and Thtiath — Conjecture with respect to 
 their oritjin beincj Phoenician — Country of the Blanii — Eb- 
 lana the aiicient name for Dublin — Derivation of this name 
 — Ebelinum, an ancient city of Spain — The town of B lane 
 — Origin of both names. 
 
 . The Voluntii or Boluntii mentioned by Ptolemy, 
 were an ancient people in Ireland, situated on the 
 east of the Luceni, who took up their quarters in a 
 tract of the county Down, which Baxter thinks is 
 so called at the present day, by corruption, for the 
 land of the Voluntii ; as, also, tliat the Britons had 
 called them Boluntii, as if from Bol or Vol-untc, 
 that is the farther head-land or Vennicnium. 
 
 Others think it a degenerated term, from Ull-an- 
 teigh, which they explain by the inhabitants of the 
 county of Ull. But teigh, in Irish, means a house 
 or shelter. Ull is, indeed, a district in this island, 
 mentioned by Ptolemy, and called by tlie Irish 
 
IGl 
 
 writers who luivc touched upon this point, UlLagh, 
 and also Ullad. Tliis word some would derive from 
 Tlmat-all-adli, a northern section of the county of 
 Ull, Avhicli formerly was the modern province of 
 Ulster, hut was afterwards circumscrihed to the 
 siui^le county ol" Down. Our old poems and chro- 
 nicles call the inhahitants of this tract, Tuath (U) 
 Donans,and understand thcrel)y the northern peo[)lo,* 
 of intrepid hravery ; for tuath, in Irish, means not 
 only a people, hut the north: and dan, brave, 
 intrepid. 
 
 To my mind Boluntii is a name of Phoenician ex- 
 traction, derived very probably from the quality of 
 the ground ; in that language, bolun means a glebe 
 or gleby land, as it docs, also, fruit and the shoots 
 of ])alm trees : or, with still more appearance of 
 probability, we may derive it from the superstitious 
 worship of that nation, bolinthis or belinthis meaning 
 the immolation of he-goats to the idols of Baal, and 
 bolintir, his augurs or soothsayers. Akin to this is 
 the gentile Spanish name of Bolontii or Bolonii, in- 
 habitants of the old city of Bolona, built by the 
 Phoenicians in the straits of Giibraltar, by the pillars 
 of Hercules. 
 
 But Ull, too, savors very strongly of the Phoenician 
 tongue, in which it literally signifies fortitude, 
 whence el, brave, powerful, and also an idol in 
 
 Vid, Collect. »lo llel). Ibern. vol. iii. p. 424, 425, 
 
 M 
 
1G2 
 
 Isaiah. * Witli this {iccej)tation agrees the name of 
 Ulhigli, for olagli in the Syriac means an idol as 
 ohiha does a goddess, hy wliich name the Phoenici- 
 ans chose to designate Diana of the Ephesians, as 
 appears from the Syriac version of the Acts'^of the 
 Apostles.f I wouUl not, indeed, deny bnt that the 
 origin of tnatli, may be essentially Irish ; bnt it is 
 worthy of remark, that the word thohath, conveyed 
 to the Phojnician mind the idea of a low gronnd, or 
 skirt of a country, which is in perfect keeping witli 
 the situation of the province of Ulster, where the 
 Yoluntii settled, being encomi)assed almost on all 
 bides by the sea/j; 
 
 On the borders of the l]oluntii, in the eastern 
 section of Ireland, the Blanii or Eblanii — whose name 
 is supposed to be composed of the Irish words, ebb 
 or aobb, a region or tract, and lean, a harbour, 
 bearing evident allusion to their propinquity to the 
 sea§ — had formed their establishment. The universal 
 opinion of the learned goes to prove that from them 
 the city of Dublin, the metropolis of this once 
 flourishing and imperial kingdom, hath obtained hi 
 Ptolemy the name of Eblanmu, which gave rise to 
 
 * Isai. xliv. 10. " Quis formavit Deuni, et sculptile for- 
 mavit ad nihil utile V 
 t 'Act. Apostol. xix. 37. 
 \ Vi(J. Seward. Topogr. Ibeni. V". Ulster. 
 § Collect, de Reb. Jbciii. ibid, |). M'l. 
 
that of Eblinii or Eblilcaneigli, gencrnlly reiulcred 
 inhabitants by tlie water-side* Of these we find 
 mention made by the ancient clnonologers of ire- 
 land, amongst the popuhition of tlie county Dublin; 
 though others wouhl place them in tlie county 
 Ivimcrick, and derive the name from ebliluin, a 
 mediterrnnean region, or one widely s(>parated from 
 the sca.f 
 
 He will not be far astray, who thinks tliat botli 
 Blanii and Eblani are Celtic terms, seeing that in 
 that language we meet with the word ebelin, in the 
 sense of a people or habitation alongside a river. I 
 incline, however, to the belief, that they are of 
 Phoenician birth, derived from eblin, uncultivated 
 wilds, or hebelin, idols, from which in a former 
 treatise I have taken upon myself to deduce Ebeli- 
 num, Ihe name of an ancient city in (.'eltiberin, in 
 Spain, on the ruins of which it is su])posed that the 
 town of Ayerbe is now erected. From the same 
 source would I derive the name of Blanes, another 
 Spanish town amongst the Ilergetes on the coast of 
 the Mediterranean, called by Nubicnsis in his geo- 
 graphical work, ICblanessa, although some would fain 
 have it of Grecian root, from balanos, an oak; or 
 planes, a wanderer ;;j; whilst others, again, would 
 
 * V. Burg. I born. Dominic, p. li\r,, la?. 
 t Collect, tic H.el). Ibern. ibid. 
 
 I When the (liuing iulvrntnrcr, or ono of tbo children of 
 want, socks, in a foreign land, that f'ortnne which is denied him 
 
 M 2 
 
164. 
 
 ascribe it to the Celtic words— blaen-ess, meaning 
 ,1 promontory in the water. 
 
 CHAP. XVI. 
 
 The Enlinii — Where settled — Whether the same as tJic Ernai 
 ■^Etymolo(j]i of the word — Vestujes of them in some of the 
 Irish toiuns — Similar ije.O(jraphical names in Spain — The 
 Veniaiii conterminous ivith the Erdinii — The promontory of 
 Venicnium called after them, not they from the promontory — 
 Conjecture upon the origin of this word as Phcenician—why 
 the Spanish promontories Juno's and Gora, called Celtic, 
 and Scythic. 
 
 The Erdinii, an ancient people of Ireland, situated 
 according to Ptolemy, on the north of the promon- 
 tory of Robogdium, in the southern section of the 
 counties of Donegal and Fermanagh, are called 
 IJardinii, in the writings of liichard Cirencester. 
 
 at home, and braves perils by land and by sea, for a bit of 
 bread, he is cheered by the hope that he may be enabled, one 
 day, to return to home and country with the fruit of his hard and 
 hazardous toil, to spin out the remnant of life's thread in the 
 land of his nativity, and to pillow his head in the la|> of liis 
 native earth. — Viscount Gkntworth. — Arliss's May. Sep. 1032. 
 
1()5 
 
 Their name some would deduee from tlie Irish ex- 
 pressions, eir dunedh, tliat is, a mountainous people, 
 or inhabitants of mountains, in the west ; and think 
 them the same as the nation which the Irish anti- 
 quarians call Ernai, that is a western people, or 
 rather the primitive aboriginal natives of the soil, 
 for Erin used for Erie, is Ireland, as Erionnach is 
 an Irishman. 
 
 I should prefer, however, to consider them a 
 haughty, arrogant and overbearing tribe of the 
 Phoenicians, who obtained this name from erdin or 
 eradin, which signifies, Hectors, from rod, he domi- 
 neered or bore haughty sway. This nation appears 
 formerly to have inhabited several districts of Spain, 
 which to this day retain their vestiges ; for instance, 
 Ardines and Ardon, amongst the Astures; Ardanue] 
 Ardanui, and Ardan«, in Ccltiberia3 ; Ardanaz, in' 
 Cantabria, and Ardon and Ardona, in Gallacia. 
 From thence, too, it is very probable, that the town ■ 
 of Ardinan, at the mouth of the river Ban, in the 
 province of Ulster, whither they had first introduced 
 their colonies, hath derived its name, as well as 
 Ardicnice, a village of the same: Ardoyne, a little 
 town in the county Wicklow, and Erinach, another 
 town in Ulster, celebrated from its spring well, de- 
 dicated to St. Fionan; beside which was erected in 
 the beginning of the' twelfth century, a monastery, 
 called by the old name of Carrig, from the immense' 
 cliff' adjacent ; for carraic, in Irish, is a rock, from 
 
IGG 
 
 ilio IMiojiiician carric, forlilicd. Perliiips to the 
 same origin belongs Artane, tlie name of a very 
 delightfnl village in Leinster, although it might 
 liave been derived from Araa-tanar, stony or flinty 
 ground, corresponding with the Irish arteine or ar- 
 tine, of the same signification. 
 
 Conterminous with the Erdinii were the Venicnii 
 or IJenicnii, ancient residents of Ireland, noticed 
 also by Ptolemy, situated by the promontory of 
 Venicnium, on the western coast of the county 
 Donegal, the Ergal of the ancients. Some imagine 
 that they were so called from this same promontory 
 alluded to in the last chapter, which Camden thinks 
 equivalent with the English words, ram's head ; 
 Venictium being, by the authority of Baxter, dege- 
 nerated from Vendne-cniu, which, in the old dialect 
 of the Brigantes, indicates the head of a young- 
 ram ; cniu, to a British ear, conveying the idea of 
 the yoimg of almost every animal, in the plural 
 number. 
 
 It strikes me, however, as more like the truth, 
 that they did not take their name from the promon- 
 tory, but that the promontory, on the contrary, was 
 denominated from them ; as that which we now call 
 Cape Finisterre, on the Cantabrian coast, was called 
 Scythic and Celtic, from those respective nations ; 
 and that which the Arabians in after times called 
 Taraf-al-garr, signifying a perilous extremity or 
 point, the modern Trafalgar, lying on the maritime 
 
107 
 
 coast of Bocticn, between Caipe and the straits of 
 Gibraltar, was called by tlic Greeks tlio promontory 
 of Juno, their favorite deity; and as the modern 
 Cabo de Gata was called by the Phoenician settlers 
 upon the Mediterranean coast of Spain, the Cape 
 of Gora; for gor, in the Syriac, intimates a stranger 
 or foreigner taking up his abode in another ])lace 
 than where he was born, a sojourner ; whence the 
 Greek georos, a neighbour, a tiller. 
 
 As to the people themselves, whether Venicnii or 
 or Bcnicnii, they appear to me to have been a tribe 
 of the Phccnicians, and to have got this name from 
 Kini, which imports, of a Cinnajan stock, or from the 
 land of Canaan : benikini consequently implyhig a 
 tribe from such a stock. Nor is it at all unlikely but 
 lliat there might linve been an additional motive for 
 this name, suggested by the frankness of those 
 people's demeanor and the purity of their moral 
 character,* for, in this language, beni-enin means 
 
 * Siicli apprar to be the general principles and outlines of 
 the popular faith, not only among the (1 reeks, hut among all 
 other primitive nations, not favored by the lights of Revela- 
 tion : for though the superiority and subsequent universality of 
 the Greek language, and the more exalted genius and refined 
 taste of the early (J reek poets, have preserved the knowledge 
 of their sacred mythology more entire ; we (ind traces of the 
 same sin)|)le priuciph^a i\nd fanciful snpnrslructiircfl from the 
 shores of the ilaltic to the baid^s of the (Janges : and tlier(! can 
 be little doubt that the voluminous political cosmogonies still 
 extant among the Hindoos, and the fragments preserved of 
 
168 
 
 itjiriglit and righteous dwellers, whether of town or 
 country, I'rom kian or kina, just and true, in which 
 sense we meet it in the Syriac version of the gospel 
 according to St. Matthew : — and Joseph, her hus- 
 band, was (kina) a just man, As to heni, it is a term 
 applied not only to sons, hut to the residents of any 
 l)articular place, which by a very natural association 
 may be considered as their mother, being there born 
 or educated. Thus in Ezekiel, xvi. 28, the people 
 of Assyria are called beni, or the sons, of Assur ; 
 and in Jeremiah, ii. 10, the Memphians are called 
 Veni, or the sons, of Noph. The word is, also, 
 referred to the condition or morals of the persons 
 alluded to, as in the third chapter of the Acts, and 
 25th verse, the Israelites with whom God had con- 
 cluded a covenant Uy the form of circumcision, are 
 styled the sons of the prophets and of the testament , 
 and in other passages throughout the sacred volume 
 and elsewhere, the wicked are designated as the sons 
 
 those of the Scandinavians, may afford us very competent ideas 
 of lliu style and sid)jects of those ponderous conipihvtions in 
 verse, wliich constituted the mystic lore of tlie ancient priests 
 of Persia, Germany, Spain, Gaul, and Britain ; and which in 
 the two latter countries were so extensive, that the education of 
 a druid sometimes required twenty years. From the specimens 
 above mentioned, we may, nevertheless, easily console our- 
 selves for the loss of all of them as poetical compositions, 
 whatever might have been their value in other respects. — 
 Knight. 
 
IfJll 
 
 of wickedness ;* the unjust, as the sons of injustice ; 
 and warriors, by the expressive circumlocution of 
 sons of strength, or hearts of oak. 
 
 * All we shall liore add is, that those who have been the 
 most irreligious in tiiis world, formed llicir notions »i|)oii the 
 inequality of rewar«ls and punishments. Were all the wicked 
 to suftVr just punishments in tiiis life, and all the virtuous to be 
 rewarded, what occasion would there be for a future judgment? 
 In many cases God has shewn himself to be at the head of 
 divine providence, but not in nil ; to convince men, that how- 
 (!ver hardened they may be in wickedness while in this world, 
 yet there may be a time, or a period, when the mask of 
 Iiypocrisy will be laid aside ; nay, it will be stripped oft", and 
 the daring sinner will stand as a culprit at the bar of infinite 
 justice. On the other hand, the oppressed virtuous man 
 should rest satisfied in this, that God will be his friend at the 
 last day, notwithstanding all the suflerings he may have been 
 subjected to in this world ; for it is an established maxim both 
 in natural and revealed religion, that the upright judge of the 
 Universe, will not deceive his creatures. — llurd. 
 
170 
 
 CHAP. XVII. 
 
 The Caticii — Various ojnnions as to their exact settlement — 
 Others of the same name amongst the Gerrnans — Whether 
 they derived this name from their stature — Anciejit inscription 
 of the Cumbri — Interpretation thereof — Their name Phoeni- 
 cian or Celtic — Cauca an ancient city of Spain — The ancient 
 Mcnapii, where settled— Mcnappia the modern Waterfard — 
 Various opinions on the oriyin of their name — Whether they 
 were Phcenicians — Customs of idolators to call llicmselves 
 and their people after their deities and the worship of them — 
 Aphrodisiu, Partus Veneris, and Artemisia, ancient cities 
 of Spain — The Isles of Momce — Evolenum — Coulan. 
 
 Ptolemy makes mention of anotlier ancient people 
 of this island, the Caucii, whose residence he defines 
 as on the east of the Cape Rohogdium. Cirencester 
 places them in the county Dublin, between the sand- 
 banks of the river Lifiey and the northern sections 
 of the county Wicklow. Others assert that they had 
 settled in the mountainous districts situated between 
 the rivers Barrow and Nore, called in the old Irish 
 dialect Ily Breoghain Gabhran, which they translate 
 an elevated country between forks.* 
 
 There were also, amongst the ancient Germans, 
 two distinct people of this name, distinguished as 
 
 ' (k)lkcl. (lu lUI.. Il)crii. hx;. IuikI. |>. 'M)h. 
 
171 
 
 the greater and the lesser, of whom the former, wa 
 are told by Ptolemy, inhabited that part of the 
 country between the Elb and the Wesser ; the latter 
 from the Wesser all along to the Emse. AVe find, 
 too, that the ancient Spaniards could boast of their 
 Caucii, in the district of the Vaccei, whose princi- 
 pal city was Cauca, placed by Antoninus as sixteen 
 days' journey, or on the sixteenth station on the 
 road from Emerita to Caesar Augusta. 
 
 Some suppose that they had obtained this name 
 from their extraordinary stature ; for cauc in the 
 old British, and coc in the Brigantine, and hauch> or 
 hoch, in the German, all imply one and the same 
 thing, namely, lofty, or high. Hence, Baxter con- 
 jectures, had been borrowed the inscription found 
 amongst the ancient Ctunbri, the (V^angi of iho 
 Briganies, " 'J'o the god Cocis," which is supposed 
 to have been executed in fulfilment of a vow to the 
 genius of the river, at this day called Coque in the 
 country of the Otonidae. 
 
 But is it not possible that those Caucii may have 
 been Celts,* cau, in their language, signifying a river ? 
 This, however, I do not like, as I think it more 
 likely that they were one of the tribes of the Phoe- 
 nicians who had landed in Ireland from Spain ; 
 whose name, like that of the Spanish city Cauca, I 
 conceive borrowed from the temperature of the 
 
 "* Tlie name of geilt, ccilt, or kcilt, wliicli signifies torror, a 
 wild mail or woman, a sylvcstrous person ; and hence 1 Miink 
 llie name, (Jelt. — VaUancry. 
 
172 
 
 climate in which they hud fixed themselves. Tliis 
 opinion 1 form from ohscrving in the rhocniciun 
 language that canzz, or coz, signifies the summer 
 season, from which cauzzi, a summer residence ; 
 and with this corresponds cauc, or coc, old age, 
 infirmity, or a country adapted from the mildness 
 of its air to renovate the energies, at least allay the 
 irritation, of the aged and enfeebled.* 
 
 The Manapii, or Menapii, were also an ancient 
 people of Ireland, on its eastern coast, being a por- 
 tion of the Brigantes Coriondi, in the city of Mana- 
 pia, or Waterford, as Camden thinks, in which he 
 is HU[)ported by the authority of Baxter. Otluua 
 would have it that they were the inhabitants of the 
 county Wicklow, the chief town of which bearing 
 the same name, the Euobenum of Probus, they 
 maintain to have been the ancient Manapia. They 
 further state that they had taken up their settlement 
 between the mountains and the sea, in that ])art of 
 the country now called Coulan, Cuolan, or Crioch 
 Cuolan, which means, says Seward, a close and con- 
 fined tract, or as others prefer a corn country. 
 
 Many persons derive the name of those people 
 from the old British words, Mene-ui-pou, a narrow 
 region, with which Coulan above mentioned almost 
 corresponds. Others ihiuk that they took, their name 
 from the city of Manapia, which they say is com- 
 pounded of the British words, Mant-ab, signifying 
 the mouth of the water. 
 
 Kegio seiiibiis aplu. 
 
173 
 
 But to my car their name sounds tlic certainty of 
 tlicir PluKuician descent. I liad formerly suj)posed 
 that it liad been derived from Mana-pip, a double 
 portion or part of some tribe or nation ; but as the 
 Syrians liad a custom of denominating themselves 
 and their people from their idols, and their super- 
 stitious worship of them, I am more disposed now 
 to think they were so called from Mani-apiin, wliich 
 means, adorning with branches or flowers a multi- 
 tude of idols, or singly, that of Mercury, which 
 Mani also signifies, and whom the Phoenicians wor- 
 shipped as the god of calculation. That this custom 
 prevailed also amongst the ancient Greeks and Ro- 
 mans, we have numerous proofs in the geographi- 
 cal names of Spain. Thus, from Afrodite, the 
 Greek name for Venus, and Afrodisios, which means 
 belonging to Venus, Timcous and Silomis liavc given 
 the name of Afrodisia to the ancient city of Gades 
 in Boetica, which was contiguous to the site of the 
 present city of Cadiz. From her also the Romans 
 gave the name of Portus Veneris, or the harbour of 
 Venus,* to that maritime city of the Ilergctcs, which 
 
 Who would not sigli ai ai tan Cuthereian ! 
 
 That hath a memory, or that had a heart ? 
 Alas ! her star must fade like that of Dian ; 
 
 Kay fades on ray, as years on years depart. 
 Aiiacroon only had the soni to tie an 
 
 llnwitherh)g myrtle rotind the hhinted dart 
 Of i:ros: but tliough tho.i hast ,,layod us many tricks. 
 Still we respect thee, '« Alma Venus Genetrix !" 
 
 Jhiron. 
 
174 
 
 is at this day corruptly called Porvcndves. From 
 Artemis, Diana, the Greeks gave the name of Arte- 
 misian, or the temple of Diana, to that city of the 
 Contestani which the Romans afterwards, and from 
 the same cause, adapted to their own language as 
 Dianium; and which now, from that decay to which 
 names as well as things nmst submit, is called 
 Dcnia. 
 
 The Monapia of Pliny, called Menavia hy Orosins, 
 seems to me to have been inhabited by the people 
 called Manapii : I mean that island in the Irish sea 
 almost midway between T^ngland and Ireland, of an 
 oblong form, extending from norlli to south — it is 
 called by Ptolemy, Mona^oida. This antl another 
 island lying more to the south, and wider in its 
 dimensions, situated in the bay of the Ordovices, from 
 whom it is separated only by a narrow strait, are 
 both designated by the common ai)pellation of JNloncjc. 
 The more southern one abounded in a hardy poi)u- 
 lation, which it hesitated not to strengthen by open- 
 ing an asylum to all deserters, without regard to the 
 cause. After its capture by the Angli, it got from 
 them the name of Anglesey, Ihat is, the isle of the 
 Angli, or English. Mona is a term of Phoenician 
 superstition, from mon, an idol or image. Moneoida 
 would seem compounded of mon, and of oid, a 
 festival, intimating a festival held in honor of an 
 idol ; and Monoceda of mon, and chedad, which 
 signifies bent or stooping, the attitude of reverence 
 in the i)rescncc of their idols. lOvolenum, which is 
 
175 
 
 supposed to have been the city of Menapia, I would 
 derive fioni hcbclin, idols ; and Coulan from coulin, 
 sounds, thunders ; elsewhere called Beth-col,* that is. 
 
 * A divination called the Bath-col, which was the taking as 
 a ])ro<licli<)M the first wonlfl they lioard anybody |H()noniice; 
 and as snpeistitions liavo over been contagious, wo find some- 
 thing similar to this in the Greciaii records; for when Socrates 
 was in prison, a person there happened tu quote from Homer 
 the following line : — 
 
 " In three days, I, Phthiaj, shall visit thy shores." 
 
 Socrates immediately said to TEschinus — " From this I learn I 
 shall die in three days!" [He formed this opinion from the 
 double sense of the word *' Phihicc," it being in (Jreek not otdy 
 the name of a place, but also signifies death.] Conformably to 
 this prediction, Socrates was put to death three days after," 
 
 All these various modes have descended to our times. The 
 fust Christians, in adopting them, rejected searching into pro- 
 fane vvril(;rs, and IooUcmI for these, as th(!y termed (liou), divine 
 ordinances, in the Scripture. They termed them ihv. " sortcs 
 sa)ictorum," a.m\ even attempted to justify the practice from the 
 authority of Proverbs, chap, xli, verse 33 — '• The lot is cast 
 into the lap, but the disposing thereof is of the Lord ;" and 
 again, of this text — " Search, and ye shall find ;" but at the 
 same time, they omitted to pay due attention to such verses as 
 these — " Thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God ;" and (Deut. 
 chap, xxiii. verse 10, j " There shall not be found among you 
 any that useth divination, &c., for all that do these things are 
 an abomination unto the Lord ;" and their sentence (according 
 to Leviticus, chap. xx. verse 27,) was to be stoned to death. 
 
 When Heraclius in his war against Cosroes, wished to learn 
 in what place he should take up his winter quarters, he purified 
 his army for three days, opened the Gospels, and found 
 "Albania?" A thousand other instances might be given to 
 prove its prevalency ; and n)any learned divines have seriously 
 argued in its favour, in many grave and ponderous folio 
 
17G 
 
 the claiiglitcr of voice, intimating- not a real or solid 
 voice, but the echo thereof, more particuhirly tlie 
 
 volumes! ! Nor is it less amusing, in our days, to remember 
 the Council of Agda, at which were assembled all the chief 
 dignitaries of the Church ; and all the learned men of that age 
 thought it worth their while to take tlie matter into their 
 serious consideration, and after discussing, with due solemnity 
 all the jnos and cons of the question, they, in the year iMi, 
 condemned the practice as superstitious, heretical, uud ahoini- 
 nablc, and denounced the severest ecclesiastical vengeance on 
 all who should resort to it ! ! !. The Viryilian Lois, in iho 
 mean time, did not languish, though the " hohj" ones so 
 much nourished ; there were still found many aihnirers of the 
 Classics, who preferred considting Virgil to Scri[)turt;, not 
 the less so, perhaps, from the then generally received opinion, 
 of Virgil's having been a great conjurer. In the reign oi' 
 Charles the First, when implicit credence was placed in 
 lots, anagrams, &c., we meet with several accounts of this 
 divination having been had recourse to. Howell, in his 
 entertaining Letters, frequently mentions it ; and Cowley, 
 writing of the Scotch Treaty, makes use of the following 
 curious words : — " The Scotch will moderate something of the 
 rigour of their demands ; the mutual necessity of an accord is 
 visBible ; the King is persuaded of it, and to tell you the truth, 
 (which I take to be an argument above all the rest,) Virgil 
 has told the same thing to that purpose." Charles the First 
 himself and Lord F'alkland being in the IJodleian Library, 
 were shown a magniiicently boimd V^irgil, and the latter, to 
 amuse the King, proposed that they shoidd try to discover in 
 the " Virgilian Lots " their futuro fortunes. They did so, and 
 met with passages equally ominous to each. 
 
 Nor has this superstition been confined to I'^urope, or the 
 borders of the Mediterranean ; it is ecjually to be met with in 
 Arabia and Persia, for Credula mens hominis, et ercctce fubulis 
 anres." " The mind of man is every where equally credulous, 
 and the ears equally open in all parts of the world to receive 
 fables." Superstitious practices are therefore never lost, but, 
 
177 
 
 representation of the reverberated voice in the 
 oracles. 
 
 where llie slightest intercourse exists, the first thing bartered for 
 are these. We need not then be surprised to find that a pre- 
 cisely siiniltir custom prevails in the east, wh-^re this sortolepe 
 is toinicd " tuliil." I lull/, is the ithicf poet whom they consult; 
 so gieat is the veneration the Persians entertain lor him, that 
 they have given him the title of "divine;^' and on eveiy re- 
 markable occasion, his Book of Odes is opened for oracidar 
 information. When Hufiz himself died, several of (he Ulemas 
 violently objected to granting him the usual rites of sepulture, 
 on account of the licentiousness of his poetry ; but at length, 
 after much dispute, it was agreed that the matter should be 
 decided by the words of Ilafiz himself. For this purpose, his 
 diruan (or collection of poems) was brought, and being opened 
 at random, the first that presented itself was read; it proved to 
 be the following : — 
 
 Turn not thy steps from Flafiz mournful grave, 
 llim plunged in sin shall heavcidy mercy save ! 
 Of course every fiinor(Mil hotiour was immodintcly ordered to be 
 |>aid him ; he was buried at the favourite mosolla, and a n)ag- 
 nilicent tomb was raised over his almost adored remains, 
 shadoweil, as Captain Fraidilin tells us, by the poet's beloved 
 cypresses; in this a remarkable fine copy of his Odes was 
 continually placed. When the great Nadir Shah and his 
 oflicera were passing by this tomb, near Shiraz, they wore 
 shewn the copy of the poet's works, and one of the company 
 opening it, the first passage that met their eyes was the follow- 
 ing, which they, of course, immediately applied to the con- 
 queror : — " It is but just that thou shouldst receive a tribute 
 from all fair youths, since thou art the sovereign of all the 
 beauties in the universe; thy two piercing eyes have thrown 
 Khater (Scythia) and Khiiten (Tartary) into confusion; India 
 and China pay homage to thy curled locks; thy graceful 
 month gave the stieams of life lo Jihn/r ; thy sugared lip ren- 
 ders the sweet reeds of Mirr ( Kgypt) coiiteni|)tible." 
 
 N 
 
178 
 
 CHAP. XVIII. 
 
 The Auteri a people of Ireland — Various opinions respecting 
 their proper amntry — Muriagh, wlience so called — Various 
 opinions likewise as to the derivation of the name Auteri — 
 Whether they were Phoenicians — Coronaan epithet of Tyre — 
 The Autetani a people of Spain — The Dannauce a ])eople of 
 Ireland — Where settled — Whether from the Danes —River 
 Dee — Conjecture on the origin of the name Dannance — Dan 
 a city of the Phoinicians — Ardes — Ardea. 
 
 The Auteri, empliaticciUy designated as the real 
 native ancient Irish, were situated at the mouth of 
 the river Erin, in the farthest extremity of tlie pro- 
 vince of Munster. Ptolemy, in alhiding to them, 
 calls them at one time, Auteiroi, at another, Auteroi, 
 and places them in certain parts of the country then 
 Jvuown hy the name of Naquatia or Connatia. Others 
 think they inhahited those districts which correspond 
 with the present counties of Galway, Mayo, and 
 Roscommon in the province of Connaught, being 
 that old and extensive tract often called Muriah or 
 lly-Moruisge, which they interpret hy the region of 
 sea water, and which is still preserved without nuicli 
 
179 
 
 alteration in Morisk, the name of a barony as well 
 a sa little town in the county Mayo,* and in Mnrrach 
 a village of the barony of Carbery in the county of 
 Cork. But Muriah would seem naturally to be de- 
 duced from the Phoenician Moriaga, which means, 
 habitations or houses systematically nrranged, from 
 whence it is probable that the Irish Murighin, that is, 
 families took its rise, and the Spanish Amoraga, a 
 gentile appellative. 
 
 Baxterf is of opinion that the Auteri were so called 
 by the Brygantes after they and the Belgae bad 
 taken possession of the greater ])art of Ireland to 
 their colonies,— that they were the Erigena) or real 
 offspring of the Irish soil— and that they were driven 
 at first by the Brigantes from Britain, who after- 
 wards, in this country, followed u[) their pursuit till 
 they made them take shelter in its remotest extre- 
 mity. Wishing then to account for the origin of 
 their name, the same author adds, '' Er in British is 
 land, from the Greek era ; from this the native Irish 
 were named Erion or Erii by the Brigantes, and the 
 island itself Iris, that is, the isle of Erii, by the 
 Greeks. And seeing that ot, or aut, means to the 
 Britons a coast or shore, what should hinder our 
 considering, aut erion being so called, as the coast of 
 the Erii, or the ancient autokthonos, or land of the 
 
 * Collect, tlo Rcb, Ibcru, vol. Ill, p, 2»5. 
 t Baxter, loc. laud. p. 30, ai. 
 
 N 2 
 
180 
 
 natives." He finally observes that the Cantabri, the 
 Vascones, and the Irish used in a great measure the 
 dialect of the Irish aborigines, interspersed with 
 many terms from the Phoenician, Celtic, and Bry- 
 gantine languages ; and this interspersion may be 
 accounted for by the fact, wliich some maintain, of 
 the Frigones and Brigantes having liad ])ossession of 
 eitli(U- Spain, long before tlie days of tin; Punic wars. 
 O'Plaherty* dillers from this o])inion, and asserts 
 that the name of Auteri was forcibly twisted out of 
 the term ath-en-ria or ath-na-rig, that is, the king's 
 ford. But Ptolemy having declared his belief that 
 Autera, an ancient city in Ireland, was the capital of 
 the Auteri residing therein, many have been thereby 
 induced to interpret the word as meaning a village 
 or state by the waters of the west, compounded, as 
 it were, of the Celtic aubh or aith, water, and eireigh, 
 a western people. For the Auteri had inhabited 
 near the sea coast. 
 
 I, however, would venture to guess that the Au- 
 teri, or ancient Irish, were the primitive Phoenicians 
 who liad discovered this island, and that they had 
 obtained or assumed this name from that spirit of 
 enterprising research which, in this as in other in- 
 stances, had been so signally rewarded. I would, 
 therefore, agreeably to this view, derive the name 
 from, thar, he explored ; or from aatarin, adven- 
 
 * O'Flaheit. Ogygia. p. 10, 17. 
 
181 
 
 turers, deserters, or people departing — as tliey did 
 from Spain to fix themselves here. It may also have 
 borne reference to a number of families of this colony; 
 for aatharin, in the Syriac, denotes, a great muster of 
 nations, whilst it does also the wealthy, and who can 
 .say but that by this name they would indicate the 
 treasures they had acquired from the mines of this 
 country, or the exportation of its commodities and 
 the produce of its soil, to the most distant quarters 
 of the then known world. Or what if they chose 
 this name from autereh, or aature, a crown ? This, 
 we know, was an epithet given of old to Tyre, the 
 caj^ital of Phoenicia, as in Isaiah xxiii. 8, it is said, 
 *' Tyre formerly crowned," as it may well be called 
 from the splendor of its buildings, the strength of 
 its citadels and fortifications, and abundance of its 
 riches, '* whose merchants were princes, and whose 
 factors were the renowned of the earth." With the 
 Hebrews and Syrians also, autereh, or crown, was 
 equivalent with honor or delight. We meet fre- 
 quently in the scri[)turcs " the crown of old men" 
 for their children's children ; "the crown of glory in 
 the hand of the Lord," &c. which ])erhaps gave rise 
 to the custom amongst some ancient states to wear 
 a crown on either their head, their neck, or their 
 light hand. That the christians of the primitive 
 church wore crowns on their hand is evident from 
 TertuUian's book " on the soldier's crown." 
 
 These Auteri may have been a tribe of the Aute- 
 
182 
 
 rani or Autetani of Spain, of whom Ptolemy makes 
 mention, and whom we now call the Ausetani. But 
 it is to me beyond question that the Spanish Autri- 
 gones, who had settled on the confines of the Can- 
 tabri and the Barduli, were a part and parcel of the 
 self same Phoenician colony ; for tlie name Antri- 
 gones is obviously perverted from Auterigones, in- 
 cluding in its formation the two Phoenician terms 
 Autereh-goin, crowned nations, or atharin-goin, ex- 
 ploring nations — goin, in the Syriac, as goim in the 
 Hebrew, meaning tribes, nations, or families. 
 
 The Danannae, or Dananni were also an ancient 
 colony in Ireland, who, as some writers declare, had 
 fixed their residence in the northern quarters of the 
 island. Tradition tells us that they had originally 
 inhabited the cities of Falia, Goria, Finnia, and Muria 
 in North Germany, and spoke the language too of 
 that country ; but an immense number of Irish an- 
 tiquarians, as O'Flaherty observes, have irrefragably 
 proved, at least put upon record, that they were in- 
 habitants of the northern parts of Britain, more 
 especially of those places that went then by the 
 names of Dobar and Indobar.* In this section of the 
 
 * The ascription which would make those people either Ger- 
 man or British, notwithstanding the vagaries of ivould-be anti- 
 quarians, even though backed by O'Flaherty, is egregiously 
 erroneous, as I shall show elsewhere. " The colony of the 
 Tuathade Danains, [thus called from three of their chiefs, named 
 Bricn, luchor, and Jucorba, — who were High Mayi, or diviners. 
 
183 
 
 sister isle, Camden tells us, lies the river Dee, which 
 makes O'Flalierty suspect that the name of Tuath- 
 Dee — intimating a people residing by that river — 
 was thereby occasioned. He does not dare, however, 
 to trace any affinity between the name Danann and 
 that of the Danes, it being notorious that it was not 
 until after the introduction of Christianity and the 
 salutary doctrines which its professors had enforced, 
 this scourge of the human species, and of the latin 
 nations in particular, had burst forth from the ob- 
 scurity of their previous existence, bringing death 
 and dismay in their desolating career, ravaging the 
 abodes of sanctity and religion, and obliterating every 
 vestige of previous civilizalion.* 
 
 as (he word Tiiatha. signifies, -biotliers, and cliildreii of Danaii, 
 daughter of Dealboitli, of the race of Nemcdiiis,] was in posses- 
 sion of Ireland, according to the Psalter of Cashel, for the spaco 
 of one hundred and ninety seven years, governed by seven kings 
 successively, namely, Nuagha Airgiodlainh, Breas, Lugha- 
 Lamh-Fada, in Latin, " Longimanus," Dagha, Delvioth, 
 Fiagha, and the three sons of Kearmada, namely, Eathur, 
 Teahur and Keahur ; who reigned alternately, a year cach^ 
 for thirty years. I'hose three brothers wore married to three, 
 sisters ; they took surnames from the didcrent idols which they 
 worshi|)ped. Eathur, who had married Baid)a, was called 
 Maccuill, from a certain kind of vvood wliich ho adored 
 Teahur espoused Fodhia, and worshipped the plough; he was 
 called Mac-Keaght. Keahur, husband of Eire, displayed 
 better taste than his brothers, as he look the sun for his divi- 
 nity, and was thence named Mac-Croino, that is to say, the 
 son of the sun. — Mac Gcoghegan. 
 
 * Danann autem non audet Vanorum nomini alline dicere ; 
 
184 
 
 1, too, would not be positive, in furtherance of my 
 own theory, in ehiiming tliose people as of Phccni- 
 ciun birth, though my pretensions to the claim may 
 not seem altogether groundless when I recollect that in 
 that language are to be found the words danihain, sig- 
 nifying illustrious,generous, noble, or rather Danin for 
 Danani or Danita,the inhabitants of the city of Dan,* 
 at the foot of Mount Lebanus, the boundary, towards 
 the north, of the ten Israelish tribes, and still more 
 celebrated as the spot where the Phoenicians wor- 
 shipped the graven image given them by Micha, and 
 where Jeroboam had erected the golden calf. I wave 
 these pretensions, however, on the probability that the 
 Aradiaus, or natives of the island of Arad, friends 
 and allies of the Pha3nicians, had given their names 
 as the very sound implies, to those towns in Ireland 
 called Ard, Ardes, Arde, &c. on the probability also 
 that the Aramaeans, or natives of Aramoea gave rise 
 to the name of the Irish Aremorice, as will appear 
 more fully in the sequel. 
 
 ci^m non nisi socculis Christianis Danorum nonien cum eorum 
 irruptioiiibua Latiiiis gentibus innotiierit. 
 
 * Afterwards called by the Greeks, |)aneas, cnesarea paijcic, 
 and Caisarea Philippi ; but by tbe barbarians Belina. 
 
185 
 
 CHAP. XIX. 
 
 The Damnii, ancierit inhabitants of the county of Down— 
 whether so called from the river Davon-Orfrotn Duniim — 
 cmijectures upon the origin of the name as Phcenician- Dam- 
 tana a city of Spain— The Damnonii whence so called-where 
 they sctthd-The Cvriomli celebrated seamen- Inhabitants 
 of Wvxfnrd— Various opinions as to the etymology of the name 
 — Curucai, ships made of bark— Used by the Spaniards— 
 Whether the Curiondi were Phcenicians— Whether descended 
 fromCaurium or Cauria, cities of Spain. 
 
 Tlic Diimnii, ainmcicnt people of Jrclaiid, to be 
 found in Ptolemy, had fixed their settlement in the 
 present county Down, in the province of Ulster, 
 Some people suppose they had derived this name 
 from the Brigantine term Davon, or Daun, a bay or 
 river. Dannii, Dunin, &c. coming from which, sig- 
 nify the country of lakes or rivers. In this sense it 
 corresponds to the Irish denomination of a tract or 
 portions of a country, Magh Gennuisg. Seeing, how- 
 ever, that in some copies of Ptolemy, they are styled 
 Damnonioi, there bo some who suspect that the 
 Danmil, of whom he makes mention, were so called 
 from Dunum, now Downpatrick. In the Celtic Ian- 
 
186 
 
 giiagc, (lull is precisely the same thing as bcrga, the 
 common name for a place of abode, and the Tcaitonic 
 berg, meaning a fortress upon a hill, or a hill sur- 
 rounded by a fortress. These have been borrowed 
 from the Arabic and old Phoenician in which we 
 meet with the word barg, a tower, and barga, a 
 villa. Hence was derived Rarca, the name of a 
 town amongst the Vetones in Spain ; liarceo, another 
 amongst the Vaccei; Barch, amongst the Edetani ; 
 Bargos, amongst the Carpetani ; Bargo, Bargota , 
 Barjas, Bergua, Berga, Berge, Begos, Borge, Bur- 
 gas, and other names of this kind to be met with 
 in almost every canton of that Peninsida. Tn this 
 list I should not have omitted Bcrgio, an ancient 
 fortified town of the Lacetani, designated by Livy 
 by the denomination of " the long town," which it 
 afterwards changed for that of Celsona ; its modern 
 name is Solsona. 
 
 I should myself suppose that the Irish Damnii 
 were a tribe of Spanish IMiocnicians, descended from 
 the Damnii, or Damniani, who built the ancient city 
 of the ICdetani, called Damiaua, the name by which 
 Ptolemy also notices it. And, though some Spanish 
 writers would derive the term from the Celtic words 
 da-min, a habitation beside a mountain or river, it 
 strikes me as more probable that it originated from 
 its Phoenician inhabitants, and in allusion to the 
 worship which they paid their idols, damain, or 
 damon, signifying in their language, idols or images. 
 
187 
 
 Or, ])crlia|)S, the name belongs to geography, and 
 conies from dumain, the descendants of Dumali, a 
 city of Syria, or Dimona which was one of the lot 
 of Judah, or from a city of Arabia of the same name, 
 and called after Dumah, the son of Ismael, of which 
 latter it is said in Isaiah, ** the burden of Dumah," 
 rendered by the septuagint Idumca ; and the Phco- 
 nicians, we may observe, never forgot the Arabian 
 cities from whence they had emigrated into Syria. 
 
 To the same source would I refer the name of 
 the Damnonii, or Dandmonii, who according to the 
 ancient* writers upon Irish topics, originally occupied 
 the lands of Cornwall and Devonshire, laying to- 
 wards the extreme west of England, just op})ositc 
 our shores ; they subsequently took possession of 
 the ancient Ily-Moruisge, or Morisk, an extensive 
 district in the west of Ireland, being the present 
 county of Mayo, in the province of Connaught, 
 Others, on the contrary, think this name derived from 
 the Celtic, or Cambrico-Britannic word, Dyvneint 
 or Duvnon, meaning depth of water, Duvnonii, 
 
 * For their tloar sakes I love thee. 
 Ma vouriieen, though unseen ; 
 13iight be the sky above thee, 
 Thy shamrock ever green ; 
 May evil ne'er distress thee, 
 
 Nor darken nor defile, 
 13ut heaven for ever bless thee — 
 My own green isle ! 
 
 /iaiton. 
 
188 
 
 Dablnionii, or Damhnoiiii, therefore, vvoultl express to 
 tliein a people settled beside the deep water or the sea. 
 O'Flaherty asserts that they were called Fir-Doin- 
 nan, equivalent to, the men or the clan of Domnan ; 
 and that several places in Ireland have been named 
 from them, for instance, Inver-Domnan, where they 
 first put in on their landing from Britain, afterwards 
 called Invermor,* and at present ArkloAV, being a 
 river and seaport town in the county of Wicklow, 
 and the capital of a barony of the same name. 
 
 The Coriondi or Curiondi, a tribe of the Irish 
 Brigantes, were celebrated sailors and lived almost 
 coutiiniidly and j)r()lessioiially upon the watc^r. 
 Ptolemy, in his writings, has made mention of them, 
 and it is generally admitted that their settlements 
 lay in the present county of Wexford, in the province 
 of Leinster. There is a tradition very prevalent 
 amongst the inhabitants of the county, that their 
 
 * Avonmore, which name signifying- the great winding slreani, 
 corresponds most happily with its character, the banks conti- 
 nually forming- the finest waving lines, either covered with close 
 coppice woods or with scattered oaU and ash of consideral)le 
 growth — the ground in some places smooth meadow and pas- 
 ture, in others rising in romantic dills and craggy precipjces. 
 At Avondale, the Avonmore meeting with the Avon beg, or 
 little Avon, the united streams assume the nameof Ovoca, and 
 passing by Shehon, it empties itself, through a bridge of nine, 
 teen arches, into the sea at Arklow, whence it keeps its stream 
 distinctly marked from the sea fur near half a mile from the 
 shore. — Fraser. 
 
189 
 
 cliiefs were the Mac-Mooroghs, or O'Moroghs, who 
 ill tlie okl records of Ireland are called tlie Leiiister 
 kings. Certain families, of their party, we find had 
 separated from the general corps, and established 
 themselves in the adjoining county of Carlow, in a 
 place then called Ily-Cahha-nagh, being a district of 
 the barony of I drone. 
 
 The opinion most received is, that the name of 
 Coriondi consists of the Irish words corcach, vessels, 
 and ondiu, a wave. In this light it may fairly be 
 rendered as equivalent with, navigators. The ancient 
 Irish used besides to call them Corthagh, that is " the 
 rowers," and their habitation or locality Hy-Moragh, 
 that is, the maritime country. Some, however, on 
 the authority of Camden, would take another road, 
 though aiming at the same sense, and maintain that 
 they were inhabitants of Corcagia or Cork, and the 
 founders of that city, in Irish Corcugh, being the 
 capital of all Munster, and next to Dublin the most 
 considerable city in the kingdom, for extent, for 
 commerce, and its concomitant wealtli. Seeing then 
 that the barky vessels or canoes of the ancient Bri- 
 tons were called curucae,* they think it very probable 
 that the town of Cork was so called, as you would 
 say " the dockyard," or naval store, and its inhabi- 
 tants, coriondi, that is, navigators, from those curucae 
 or bark boats. Others would derive their name 
 
 '* (Jvruca sou Cvrravh ciul nnvis corificou pciir lotmidii. 
 
190 
 
 from corion-diu, wliicli, for ought I know to the 
 contrary, may signify a sea hide. Certainly tlie 
 
 vitile navigiam, ut ait Plinius (IV. IG.) corio circuinsuhim. 
 Pelasgositeinet Etruscos, Britaiuiorum etScotoruni more, uavi- 
 busex corio et vimiiie usos fuisse, auctor est Dempterus (Ktru- 
 iix Regal, III. 00.) " Res, inquit Festiis Avienus (Oi(b Mariti- 
 mce lib. I.) ad miraculum — Navigio jiinctis semper aptant pelli- 
 bus — Corisque vastum saep^ percurreutsaliim." Lydii, aitlsi- 
 dorus Hispan. {Oriy. XIX. 1.) primam uavem fabricaverunt, 
 pelagique incerta petentes, perviura mare usibus humaiiis fece- 
 runt." (V. Prajs. Carol. Vallancey in n. XII. Collect, de Reb. 
 Ihern. p. CXVIII.) Talibus Silures navigasse ad Cassileiidem 
 insulum, sciibit Pliuius : qiiiii ot Cuiitabrus ct roliqiios boruaies 
 llispaiiod diplUlicrinoU yloiois t'liisse usos us([iio ad l^nitiim, ex 
 Struboiien I I.) constat: iniA ct Habylonios ipso.s ex lli^rodolo 
 (V. Haxter. loc. land.) Inde hodio Carruca vocalur ilispanis 
 quaedarn species onerarisc navis : et situs construeudis navibus 
 aptus juxta Gaditanum emporium. Ilanc navem carabum etiam 
 appellatam, testis est Isidorus in etymologicis. Quie vox dncta 
 videtur a Phoen. carab, adiit, advenit, quod de iter facientibus 
 dicitur ; vel a carab aravit : nam iter navis in mari similis est 
 sulcis, qui Hunt arando. Carraca auteni, seu currucaX Phcen. 
 carrac, circumdedit, ligavit, velavit, involvit; quod apprime 
 navibus congruit corio circumsntis. It is not unworthy of no- 
 tice that this description ot boat was quite common round the en- 
 tire coast of Ireland not long since, the very look of them would 
 be siitlicient to appal the bravest seaman from embarking his pre- 
 cious p(;rson in so small and iVail a vessel, wluire in calm weather 
 you can, in ten fathom water, see every particle through her bot- 
 tom on that o( the sea, as distinctly as you can discern an object 
 through a window ; instances have been known where acci- 
 dentally putting a foot between two ribs which it had gone 
 through, the person was obliged to keep the leg protruded in 
 that position until the land was made. 
 " Where in leathern hairy boat, 
 O'er thicatening waves bold mortals iloat." 
 
191 
 
 Britons, to tin's very day, call hides by the name of 
 cruyn, from the Greek, krous, to which the Latin 
 coriuin, also, has reference. 
 
 But we have the clearest evidence, in the very con- 
 struction of the name itself, that this was a IMueni- 
 cian nation, and the accounts given of them by the 
 Irish historians, if but diligently perused, would l)c 
 sufficient to confirm us in this conviction. For, 
 from the skill they evinced in the building of vessels, 
 and the vast number and variety of them that they 
 contrived to employ, from the adventuring trader 
 and the daring man of war., down to the cumbrous 
 lugger and the volatile skiff, plying them constantly 
 on the water, in one form or the other, they were 
 very appropriately, though metaphorically, charac- 
 terised as curin or fishes,* which we find still a])])li(>d, 
 and for the same causes, to the JJritons of this day. 
 
 * The Inland Fisheries of Ireland have never been made 
 available to their practical extent, although they contribute 
 alike to the luxuries of the rich and the comforts of the poor. 
 It is not a merely local or a partial improvement that we re- 
 commend; the benefit is not confined to a spot or district here 
 and there; the advantages we suggest are as exlcnsive as the 
 rivers are many which beautify, refresh, and fertilize every 
 county in Ireland.— And shall man, impious man, to whom the 
 all. providing word of' God gave power, when he said "Let 
 the waters brincj forth abiindantli/ the moving creatures that 
 hath life, and let nuin have dowiiiioii. over them ;"— shall man, 
 by a devastating waste, counteract the beneficent design of his' 
 CliKATOH.and even destroy, in its very source, that gracious 
 abundance intended to feed millions ! 
 
192 
 
 Nor must it be put down as a dream, and that of 
 a sick man too, if I express my belief that they were 
 Phoenicians who had proceeded from Caurium, an 
 ancient city in Spain on the borders of Lusitania, now 
 called coria, or from a city of Boetica, called Cauria 
 Siarum, now Coria del llio ; for the Phcenicians in- 
 habited them both, and both are derived from canria 
 or coria, which in their language signifies a city, a 
 villa, or a camp. Hence arose the name of many 
 of the cities in the department of the tribe of Judah ; 
 Cariathiarim, meaning the city of woods ; Cariath- 
 sepher, the city of letters ; Cariath Arbe, that of 
 the Patriarch l*]noch, as well as of several towns in 
 different parts of Spain, sucli as Corias, Coristancas, 
 Lacoriana, &c. &c. Thus Coriondi, or Curiondi, 
 quasi Corin, would express the descendants of the 
 above mentioned cities of Cauria, or Caurium ; or 
 quasi Caurionin, the robust and substantial people 
 of those places ; on, importing strength, fortitude, and 
 worldly opulence. 
 
I9;j 
 
 CHAP. XX. 
 
 The Fotnhoraicr, or sea rohhers rnvaycd Irelund — They were 
 Phccnicians — Analogy of this Irish name with the Phoenician 
 — -Vestiijes thereof in certain Spanish towns — Superstitious 
 najne of the Forcrahii inha.hitaiits of J ) eland, why so called — 
 The Vellahori a people of Ireland — Conjecture on the origin 
 of this name — Cape of Notium— The Uterni — Their prin- 
 cipal city Uverni or Rujina — Whether these names he of 
 Phirnician descent. 
 
 The Foniliorjiicc, or l^'oniiarugli,* of whom tlic old 
 poems of our ishmcl make mention, were a people 
 who plundered its southern coast, long as the Neme- 
 
 "^ Plutarch, in liis life of Sc rtoiins, lolls us llint this colr- 
 braknl conniiaiulor (loleiinitiod to make Iho Atlantii; Isle (that, 
 is Ireiaiul) a jilace of retreat and residence from the persecu- 
 tion of his cueniies. In another work, entitled " De facie in 
 orbe Lunic," he describes this " Atlantic isle" to he opposite the? 
 Celtae, and but four days sail from Britain, The Irish legions 
 ill («nul, were (jailed I'ine (jlall, l,lios(> in Albany, I'ine Alban. 
 " \Ve may very well siip[)ose," says O'llalloran, " that the 
 r'ine Fomharaigli, or African legions, so oftun met vvith in the 
 old liish manuscript*!, meant no other than the Irish cohorts 
 in that service." 
 
 <) 
 
194. 
 
 thae lield possession of it. They are supposed to have 
 been a body of PhaMiician traders, who visited tlie 
 British isles, about four hundred years before the 
 Cliristian era, and obtained this name from the occu- 
 pation of prowling sea robbers ; fomlior and fomhorac 
 in Irish, signify a pirate, as they do a giant also. 
 Tliese words, however, have originally (lieir root in 
 the Phcenieian, where wa find fom-liorae meaning fu- 
 gitives and disturbers of the earth, which well accords 
 with the description given by ancient historians of 
 those rapacious intruders into the British ishmds. 
 Perhaps they were some of the first Phoenicians who 
 Hying before Ihe face of the people of Israel, trans- 
 ported themselves from Syria, whose footsteps are 
 still preserved in the names of those towns in Spain, 
 situated amongst the Gallaici Lucani, Formarigo, 
 and Formaran : in that of Famorca, amongst the 
 Edetani, and that of Formanes amongst the Astures. 
 The Forcrabii, or Fir-na-crabii, were ancient set- 
 tlers in that part of the country called Hy-Magh- 
 neigh, end)racing in its dimensions the i)resent county 
 of Monaghau, with a ])art of what was anciently 
 called Oirgail, and under the command of the Ma- 
 honies, or Mac-Mahons. The name of this tribe 
 would appear suggested from some superstitious con- 
 sideration, as it is evidently composed of the Irish 
 words //Ve cruhhath, true religion ; or if you i)ref(!r 
 the Phoenician words, frin, fruit ; or farin, bullocks ; 
 and crabin, oblations or sacrifices, which latter \vord 
 
195 
 
 is itself derived from corban, importing any tiling 
 offered to God or to idols. Tlie name of Oirgael 
 too, or Orgiel, which some call Oircael, and interpret 
 by the eastern cael — being an extensive district, 
 consisting of the jn-esent counties of Louth, Mo- 
 naghan, and Armagh, and formerly nded over by its 
 own petty sovereigns — savors very strongly of Thcc- 
 nician superstition. For, or, in that language, is 
 fire; and gael, or gail, delight, exultation, from the 
 root ghil, wliich expresses that gladness of the mind 
 that betrays itself by the gestures of the body ; and 
 their combined import would appear to refer to the 
 joy of that nation in the days sacred to the worship 
 of fire. 
 
 The Vellabori, an ancient Irish tribe, to be met 
 with also in Ptolemy, were stationed in Munster, be- 
 side the promontory of Notium. There are who 
 think this name derived from the British words vcl- 
 aber, or bel-aber, the source of a frith.* What would 
 the learned suppose of its being of Phoenician de- 
 scent, and compounded of the words bali-bira,an anci- 
 ent temple ? which, yet, I confess 1 do not incline to so 
 
 * Baxtero (loc. laud. p. 236.) vitiosa sunt, uoniiua oueliboroi. 
 et OiicUehoroi , qua?, in (|uil)US(lani Ploleiun'i excniplaribns le- 
 gtintur. Si vei6 ha;c timuina ecriptura est, siispicarer fuissc 
 Ibero Phccniaa, oiiuudos e\ campo Abel stu O/ic.l, tpia; ciat, 
 magna Syrian plaliities (Jiidic. xi. 33.) vineis coiisUa, nbi Joplite 
 (lovicit. Ainmonitns: quiquo v^ do cawf^n. Ohcl-lhcri nppellati 
 sunt , 
 
1I)() 
 
 strongly as to the idea of its bearing reference to the 
 victims oflercd in sacrifice to Baal — whether as actu- 
 ally burned or only dragged through — in which view 
 of the matter I would suppose its ingredients to be bel- 
 aborin — which means, dragging across belbre Ihial — 
 from abar, the verb, which expresses this ceremony, 
 the natiu'e of which was to comhict or drag the vic- 
 tim —and that too a human being, and generally a 
 boy — between two pyres, or series of fires, until he 
 was burned to death. In reference to this monstrous 
 and unrighteous practice it is that we are to under- 
 stand the passage in II. Kings, xvi.3, where talking 
 of Achaz it is said, 'Mie hath devoted his son.bcarinj;- 
 him over admidst the fire." But we have descanted 
 upon this more diffusely in the early part of this 
 work, and will dwell upon it still more when we come 
 to treat of the idolatry of the Phoenicians in Ireland. 
 The promontory of Notium seems to have got its 
 name from the woods and forests in which it 
 abounded ; for Notiin, in the Phoenician, from which 
 it is manifestly derived, signifies plants, or planta- 
 tions. 
 
 The Vellabori would seem to have left traces of 
 their name in that of Ballibur, a town in the county 
 Kilkenny, province of Leinster ; in that of Bally- 
 burris, a village in the county of Carlow, same pro- 
 vince. In Spain too, from whence this people may 
 perhaps have originated, the mind instinctively asso- 
 ciates their name with that of Bal lobar, a town in 
 
197 
 
 Celtibcria, and that of Belabarce, a river in the 
 district of the Cantabrians. 
 
 The Uterni, a people mentioned by Ptolemy* as 
 living on the borders of the Irish Brigantcs, above 
 the Vodiie, were stationed in the sonthern qnarter of 
 the county Kerry, and the western quarter of tlio 
 county Cork which adjoins it, in the province of 
 Munstcr. Their chief city, as mentioned also by this 
 distinguished geographer, was Uvcrni, situated on 
 tlic sea-coast, and called, Insovenach, by the natives, 
 though Cirencester would call it llnfina, a name, it 
 is supposed, vitiated in its formation from ruadli 
 eanagh, which is generally translated, the habitation 
 of the progeny of the waters. The exact site of this 
 
 " Tliis great Alexatulrian geographer, who lived in the reign 
 of Antoninus Pins, abont tlie year of Ciirist 130, enumerates 
 several illvsirionn cities existing in his tiine in Ireland ; ami it 
 is manifest they must have existed a long tiuie before, else he 
 would not have heard of them, for he never himself visited 
 those shores — viz. — 
 
 1. Nagnata, an illustrious maritime city {polls episemos) on 
 the western coast. 
 
 2. Manapia, a maritime city on the eastern side. 
 a. liblana, a inaritiine city, on the eastern side. 
 
 4. llhigia, an inland city 13 GO ^ 
 
 .5. I?aiba, an inland city 12 59^ I 
 
 G. Laberos, an inland city 13 59 \ 
 
 7. Makolikon, an inland city 11.^ 5» -f 
 
 ». Another llhigia, an inland city.. . II W h 
 
 5). Donnon, an iidand city 12,^ MS^ \ 
 
 10. Iuernis,an inland cily 1 1 ^U '- 
 
198 
 
 city is now iinlvnovvn, Ihoiigli-sonic think i( likely lo 
 liavo Inion cillior tlio prcisciiL town of Hiiutry or Uuii 
 ol' Kcninaro. Many identify the Uterni witli the 
 Ibernii of Cirencester ; others deduce their names 
 from tlie Irish words Ubli-ernii, that is, a more 
 western people. Hut, perhaps, it is the Phoenician 
 utrin, or atrin, explorers, called also thirin, that best 
 accords with the elevated ground on which they had 
 settled. It also signifies, leaders ; or persons dis- 
 charging convoy. Whence, too, they would seem to 
 have been called Ibernii, from the Spanish Iberi, who 
 were their conductors, unless you prefer that they 
 had got their name from their physical power and 
 strength, for Iberin, in the Phoenician, signifies brave 
 or valiant. This would seem to gain countenance 
 by the name of their principal city, llufina, coming 
 from rnfiin, giants; as also by that of Insovenach, 
 composed, as it is, of the Phoenician words izzab- 
 anac, or the post where the giants stood together, 
 namely, the race of Anac, the son of Arba, from whom 
 the flower of the Phoenicians, as well in birth as 
 prowess, boasted of having derived their origin. As 
 to Uverni, by which in common with the two names 
 just elucidated, this same city was indiscriminately 
 called, it would seem to be, merely a geographical 
 term, referring to locality, for uberin, in the Phoeni- 
 cian, expresses boundaries, extremities, or sides. 
 
199 
 
 CHAP. XXI. 
 
 The NagnatcB inhabitants of Connavght — The islands of Arraii 
 
 — Sligo, why so called — Whether the Nagnatcc were 
 Phoenicians — The vallei/ of Aran amongst the llergeti in 
 Spain — Arana, Aranaz, villages and tracts of land, in Spain 
 — Promontory of Rohogd. — Its etymology — The Ueremonii, 
 what tract (f Ireland they inhahited - Origin of their name 
 
 — Whether they were the Aramcei — Footsteps of this natum 
 in Ireland and in Spain — Etymology of the tribes into 
 which they were divided. 
 
 The Nagnatae,* mentioned by Ptolciny as an 
 ancient people of Ireland, are called by him, in 
 some of his writings, by the name of Naguatae. 
 Baxter agrees with Camden in thinking, that their 
 residence lay in Connanght, that is, in the western 
 section of the island. This was a hirge and spacious 
 line of country, lying on the north of the Luceni, 
 
 * Naa,nata, a lomarkable city on the sea coast, of which no 
 traces now roinain, hiy, it is supposed, northward oltlie Aiisoha. 
 It must have been once a floiirisiiing jdace, as wo find that with 
 the prefix " Cnoii," siguifyiii!^ in Iiisli, a port, or harbour, it 
 gave name to the whole province of Con-naught. 
 
200 
 
 in the cxtrcnui boiilh of tlu; island of liobogdiuni, 
 by (lu! promontory oC tins name. 'I'lie name ol' 
 ('onnanglit is supposed tohiivebeen abbreviated from 
 Cnan-na-guactic, that is, the port of the little 
 islands, namely, those which from the natives, Erion 
 or Erii are called, at this day, Arran, for le- 
 rion. Ciian, Baxter tells us, signifies a harbour in 
 the Irish, as in the language of the modern (iauls, 
 or the I'rench, — coin, means a corner ; and congl, 
 in the British, means the same. Vict, also, or vact, 
 or guact, as it is otherwise expressed, is a little 
 island ; na, being nothing more than the mark of 
 the genilivc case in Ihe ohl language of the Brigan- 
 tes, as well as that of the Irish. 
 
 Others account for the composition of Nagnata?, 
 by the Irish words, Na-gae-taegh, meaning an abode 
 near the sea, and affirm that our ancient historians 
 had called them, Slioght gae, that is, a race or pro- 
 geny settled beside the sea ; from which latter words 
 combined, comes the modern name of Sligo 
 
 I should rather think, however, that the name of 
 this people was IMucnician, and borrowed from that 
 of the chief or leader of their body ; for in that 
 language I perceive, that nagud, means a prince or 
 chieftain, to whom the people look up, and to whose 
 decision they appeal in all matters of dispute or 
 litigation ; this word in the plural, makes nagudin. 
 Nor woidd it be straining our fancy at all too far, 
 if we would suppose them to have been so designated 
 
201 
 
 IVoin tlio (jiiiility of our lovely isle, which tlircw 
 ()|)(Mi (o (ho (lolightod vision of ihosc hold jkU 
 voiitiircrs — at the moment, perhaps, when long 
 estrangement from home and country was whisper- 
 ing- despair — the genial richness of its prolific bosom.* 
 In support of this conjecture I would observe, that 
 nagad, means a spacious country, a generous soil; 
 nagab-natah, means the same, with the additional 
 consideration of aridity or dryness ; which comports 
 well with the nature of the western districts, in 
 which those people had taken up their residence. 
 Nacha-natah, means the inhabitants of a country 
 such as we have just described. 
 
 Nor do I agree with Baxter in his etymology of 
 the islands of Arran or Aran, as they appear to me 
 to have been so named by the l^hccnicians, as a great 
 many of the Irish mountains have been, from their 
 abounding in trees, which they call Aran,f and to 
 
 * Nee absoiium est sic appellatos 6 regioiiis alienee qiialitate, 
 (jir.o els novas soJes oblulit. 
 
 + It has also, in a peculiar degree, tlic property of preserv- 
 ing bodies comniitteil to the grave. Of this property, (Jiraldiis 
 Cambrcnsis took notice five hundred years ago — the following 
 are his words as translated by Staniluirst — " There is in the 
 west of Connaught, an island placed in the sea, called Aren, 
 to which St. lirendon had often recourse. The dead bodies 
 neede not be graveled, for the ayre is so pure (hat the contagion 
 of any carrion may not infect it, there may the son see his 
 father, liis grandfather, and his great-grandfather, &c. &c. This 
 island is enemy to mice, for none is brought thither, for either 
 it K apeth into llie sea, or else Ijeing stayed it dycth presently." 
 
202 
 
 which sonobar, in the Anibic, meaning* a pine tree 
 or pinaster, exactly answers. Unless you would 
 choose to adhere to the exposition of the Spaniards — 
 known, as we must admit they are, for accuracy in 
 such points — who think that the name of the valley 
 of Aran, which lies in the county of Urgellum, and 
 under the jurisdiction formerly of the Ilergetes, 
 being watered with rivers and numberless fountains, 
 had been given it by the Phoenicians from its simi- 
 litude to Mesopotamia, which they called Ilaran. 
 The valley of Arana, which belongs to the Canta- 
 brians, is submitted to the same test of the reader's 
 decision, as are also various other tracts in Ihe 
 Spanisli peninsula of like name, such as Aranaz, 
 Aranache, Aranda, Aranga. 
 
 The promontory of Robogh is supposed to have 
 given its name to the llobogdi, who were an ancient 
 people in this island, iuhabiting parts of the several 
 counties of Antrim, Londonderry, and Tyrone, in 
 the province of Ulster. Ptolemy represents them as 
 facing the Vohmtioi. Camden thinks Robogd to be 
 synonymous with Fair-fore-land, being a shewy and 
 imposing cape ; * for in the old dialects of the liri- 
 gantes, re, ri, and ro, are indiilcrently us(m1 for rae, 
 or ragh, before ; antl vog-diu means a wave, so that 
 
 * Oil tlio water it luiiiis oik; oI" tlio.su cvci vaiyiiiy and pecu- 
 liar ii()vi;lli(;a ol" viow, wliicii in this iiurtlicni region {^ivu «in- 
 gdliir |)tuai)iii'e. 
 
203 
 
 llol)()i>(l, in his ostiinatioii, wquUI express tins local 
 position, bcloic tlu^ waves ol tlic sea. J»ut, as I 
 take it, the promontory was named after the people 
 living beside it, not the people alter the promontory; 
 (Vom the IMuLMiician words rabh-gad, a multiplicity 
 ol' associates : or rob-gad, tumultuous allies, ])lun- 
 derers, invaders. 
 
 The Ileremonii or Hermonii, who were classified 
 according to their respective tribes of the Falgii, 
 the Elii, the Caelenii, and the Morii, were inha- 
 bitants of the eastern and central division, comprising 
 the whole of the present province of Leinster. The 
 fabulous story is, that they were the descendants of 
 lleremon, who was the son of Milesius, from S})ain. 
 There is also another vulgar belief, that they were 
 so denominated from residing in the west, the very 
 name, it is sup])osed, signifying a western tract. 
 lUit if it be at all of Irish extraction, it were bettor 
 to derive it from armuinn, exiles ; but even this, I 
 do not approve of. I shall, therefore, deduce the 
 appellation from the Phoenician ermin, naked, un- 
 clothed ; or ermon, a chesnut-tree, in which the hills 
 of that district abounded. 
 
 But what if I should assert that they were Phoeni- 
 cians, from the vicinity of mount Hermon, which 
 projects over Pameas ? For this celebrated mountain 
 of Syria was so high, and so cold, that it was capped 
 with snow in the midst of summer; which made the 
 natives take ilight from its cheerless horrors, and 
 
204. 
 
 repair to the more attractive and congenial air of 
 TyvG. Or from Ilermonin, a small mountain be- 
 tween Tabor and Hermon, at the other side of the 
 Jordan ? whose inhabitants, also, are called by 
 geographers, Hermonii, or llermonita). 
 
 But if we may indulge conjecture, I would add, 
 that the Irish 1 feremonii may have been so called 
 as being- essentially a tribe of the Plucnicians. For 
 the Syrians were called Aramaii or Aremin, from 
 Aram, a region of Asia Minor, whose maritime in- 
 habitants, were Phoenicians, and their principal cities. 
 Tyre and Sidon. Now this region obtained its 
 name, not from Aram, the son of Camuel, of the 
 family of Nachor, (mentioned in Genesis, xxii. 21, 
 23.) ; but from Aram, the fifth son of Sem, with 
 whom the inhabitants of that coast ever plumed 
 themselves as being connected. Accordingly, we 
 know that Shur — that is — minus a syllable — Ashur, 
 or Assyria, and Syria itself, which was confounded 
 therewith — was called by them by the name of 
 Aram- Hence, too, the Syrians living on the con- 
 tinent of the land of Canaan, and the Phoenicians 
 hordeiing on the sea coast, would fain alfect the 
 distinctive designation of Arameans. The Greeks 
 used to call them Syrians, but they used to call 
 themselves Aramaeans, as affirmed by Josephus and 
 Strabo. The custom of the Old Testament, too, is 
 to p\it Aram for Syria, and Arami, For Syrian — 
 A rami and Armai, also, signilied to the ancients, 
 
205 
 
 idol.'itors, because tliat the first vvorshij)pcrs of 
 idols, recorded by tlic scriptures, were Syrians, as 
 Tliare, the father of Abraham ; as Laban, and Na- 
 haman, were of tliat country. Add that the gods of 
 Syria, (as in Judges, x. G,) were called Elliei Aram, 
 meaning emphatically, the goddess of St/ria — by 
 which name Juno was worshipped in the east, and 
 had a temple dedicated to her in llierapolis, a city 
 of that country. Nay, the Syriac language itself, was 
 called Arimith, from this very source, as in Esdras, 
 iv. 7, and in TI. Kings, xviii. 20, where it is said, 
 " We pray thee that thou speak to us, thy servants, 
 (arimitli,) in the Syriac tongue, and not speak to us, 
 (ihudaith,) in the Jewish." 
 
 Ireland seems still to retain some vestiges of this 
 people in the name of Armoy, a small town in the 
 county Antrim ; in that of Arman or Ardman, a 
 village in the barony of Ballaghkcen, in the county 
 Wexford. As does Spain, also, in the name of 
 Armian, a town of the Astures ; and in that of 
 Armona, a mountain between the Pyrenees, in the 
 district of the Aragonians. 
 
 That the Ileremonii were Aremin or Syrians, you 
 will be more apt to admit, if you but observe that 
 the names of the tribes into which they were dis- 
 tributed are Phoenician. Falgii, the first, from falg 
 or flag, signifies a division; I'^Jii, the second, from 
 elin, strangers,' also eminent, surpassing ; or from 
 aeli, a sacrificing i)riest, derived from ehi, a holo- 
 
206 
 
 cnust, or wliolo liiirnt offerings : elil, also in tlu; 
 Syriac and Chaldaic, signifies idols, as it does also 
 illustrious ; Caelenii, the third, the ancient inhabitants 
 of the tract called Caelan, in the county of Wicklow, 
 conveyed to the Phoenicians the idea of cloked, from 
 calaen, a cloak or outer garment.* Nor is it at 
 all improbable but that these were a tribe oC iho. 
 Babylonians, consisting of those who, alter tlie cap- 
 tivity were mixed with the Syrians, for Caleneh 
 
 * Doo you tliiiike lliat tlic niiuilU! comiueth IVoiii the Scy- 
 tliiuiis f 1 would aun;Iy think ollierwiso, lor by tli;it. which I 
 have read, it a])pearelh that most nations of the worhl uiiucieutly 
 used the mantle. For the lewes used it, as you may read of 
 Eiyas mantle, &c. The Chaldees also used it, as yee may 
 read in Diodorus. The Egyptians likewise iise<l it, as yen 
 may read in Herodotus, and may be gathered l)y the description 
 of Berenice, in the Greeke Commentary upon Callimachus. 
 The Greekes also used it aunciently, as appeareth by Venus 
 mantle lyned with starrs, though afterwards they changed the 
 form thereof into their cloakcs, called Pallia, as some ol the 
 Irish also use. And the auncient Latinos and Uomans used it, 
 as you may read in Virgil, who was a very great antitpiary : 'I'hat 
 livander, when iLlneas came to him at his least, did eiitertain(! 
 and feast him, sitting on the ground, and lying on mantles. 
 Insomuch as ho useih (he very word mantih) fur a mantle. 
 
 " llunii manlilia sterniitii.'' 
 
 So that it seemeth that the mantle was a geuerall habile to 
 most nations, and not pro|)er to the Scythians onely. — Spenser. 
 
 [" Humi mantilia steruuut."] Evander's enter- 
 tainment of iEneas, is set out in the 8 booke of Virgil's iluieis, 
 but there we have no such word as maiilile. In his entertain- 
 ment by l)i«lo we have it, but in another senee. illneid lib. 1. 
 
207 
 
 was a name given to the city of Babylon. Tlie 
 Morii, in fine, were so called from being professionally 
 masters and instructors of others, this being the 
 literal and exact meaning of Mori, or its plural 
 Morin.* 
 
 CHAP. XXII. 
 
 The Fomnrii siihducd Ireland— Thcij were Punic or Iberi 
 merchants— Win/ so called- Whether the same as the Fom- 
 horakc—The Firhohj or Bohjm—Varions nphilons on the 
 eti/mologij of this inwic— Whether it savors of snperstition— 
 Some roots of Irish vames—The Gallionii, a nation of the 
 Bolffce — Their nayne Phcenician. 
 
 The Fomorii, or Fomoriani, whom some consider 
 the Aborigines of Ireland, who were celebrated for 
 their predatory attacks n])()n all its colonies, are 
 
 " lam pafer TEiieas, & jam Troiana inventus 
 Conveiiiuiit, stiatoque super disciimhitur ostio, 
 Dant famuli mauiluis lyuiphas, Coroiemque canishis 
 Jixpediunt, tonsisq, forutit maiitiiia viliis," 
 
 Sir James Ware. 
 * A family in lielami still retains this name. 
 
208 
 
 agreed on all hands to luvve reduced it to submis- 
 sion, with the confederated assistance of the Dannani. 
 Authors disagree as to the period of their arrival. 
 Some suppose that they had been established amongst 
 us before the time of the second importation of the 
 lielga), and that they consisted of Punic or Iberic 
 merchants, who had frecpiently and from innuemorial 
 time visited the coasts : they would, therefore, in 
 accordance with this view, interpret the word as 
 seafarers, or mariners, from . its similitude to the 
 Irish fomhor, or fomhorac, a pirate. But to my 
 mind it is diUcrently composed, and comes from tbe 
 l*h(enician expressions, fom-or, implying a foot 
 shaking the earth before fire,* as much as to say. 
 
 * Tliese consecrated liics are at present iiuicli in voj^iie 
 amongst tlie Ganres, and preserved with so nincli care and 
 precaution, that they are called idolaters, and the worshippers 
 of tire, though without the least grounds to support the un- 
 generous accusation. I'or tliey |)ay no adoration to the material 
 fire, although they make use of that element in tlie celebration 
 of their divine service. It is the deity alone whom ihcjy adore 
 in the presence of the fire, as the true symbol of the Divine 
 Majesty. IMiough fire, according to the (iaures, is the [)nrest 
 of all tli(! elements, yet lluy look u[)on it only as one of (/lod's 
 most perfect creatures and it is, as lliey imagine, his favourite 
 habitation. When they pray, they neither make their addresses 
 to JMithra, nor the sun, nor the fire, but God aloue ; many in- 
 stances whereof are produced by the learned Dr. Hide from 
 
 whence we may very readily infer, that the imputations 
 of iilolatry are as rash and groundless in Asia as they are in 
 
 llurope. 
 
209 
 
 ilanccrs in honor, and revellers in honor, of this 
 element ; for we have it on historical faith, that the 
 sacrificial feasts of the Phoenicians, and of all nations 
 also, terminated generally in drunkenness, with las- 
 civious dances and plays. But if the Fomorii be the 
 same as the Fomhoraicc, or Formoragh, of whom 
 our old ballads make mention, and who are also 
 supposed to have been pirates or sea-robbers, it 
 being indisputably manifest that the latter were a 
 colony of the Poeni, or Phoenicians, I should con- 
 ceive the name originated from frima-arac, a scissure 
 of fugitives. This is the origin of Formariz, the 
 name of a town in Spain, amongst the Zamorenses ; 
 and of Formiche, the name of two small towns 
 amongst the Celtiberians. Perhaps, too, we may 
 recognize a vestige of those people in the name of 
 Fermoy, a very handsome town in the county Cork, 
 which some think to be an abbreviation for Fear- 
 magh, or Fear-magh-feine, a man living in a sacred 
 level. 
 
 The Firbolg or Bolgae,* had established themselves 
 
 * The Firboigs or Belgians, to the number of five thousand 
 men, commanded by five chiefs, either by the defeat or deser- 
 tion of the Fomorians, took possession of the island. 'I'huso 
 five leaders were Slaingey, Uughruif;,he or Ilory, Gann, 
 (lannan, and Songaii, all brothora, and children of Dola, of 
 the race of the Nemedians. They divided the island into five 
 parts or provinces, which tjave birth to tiie pentaichy, which 
 lasted with little interruption till tlie twelfth century. Slaingey, 
 
 r 
 
210 
 
 in the neighbourhood of the harbours of Wexford 
 and Arklow, in the east of Ireland. Frecincnt 
 mention of them occurs in our ancient poems and 
 annals ; and the received opinion is, that they came 
 from Britain. They are called also Siol m IJolgie, 
 and Slioght m Bealidh. They were distinguished 
 into three nations, Firbolga), Firdomnan, and Fir- 
 galion, which are generally interpreted, clan Bolus, 
 clan Domnan, and clan Galion : of the two last we 
 shall speak under the head of the Domnanii and 
 Galionii. 
 
 On the origin of the name Bolgae the learned are 
 far from agreeing in their opinions. Some think 
 that by clan Bolus are meant the Belgae of Britain, 
 who having passed over from Belgium, or the lower 
 Germany, spread themselves over the counties of 
 Somerset, Wilton, and the interior of llaverford ; 
 and that the British language which they made use 
 of in Ireland, was eloquently and expressively desig- 
 nated Belgaid, intimating it to be a Belgic idiom. 
 
 governor of I.eiiister, was the chief of Uie peiitarchy, and 
 monarch of the whole island. These people were known by three 
 different names, viz., Gallenians, Damnonians, and Belgians; 
 but the last was the general name of the whole colony ; their 
 dominion lasted about eighty years under nine kings, who were, 
 Slaingey, Ilory, Gann, Geanan, Sengau, Fiacha, Rionall, 
 I'iobgin, and Eogha, who ntarried Tailta, daughter of a 
 Spanish |)riuce, who gave name; to the place of her burial, still 
 called Tailton, in iMeath. — Mac Geoylmjan. 
 
211 
 
 Others would have tlieni called Bolgx, from bolg, a 
 quiver, as excelling in archery ; others from the Irish 
 word bol, a poet or sage, as eminent in those 
 several characters. 
 
 They come nearer to the truth who think the 
 name to be connected with superstition, and derived 
 from the worship which they paid their gods. For 
 Bel, in the language of the Celts, the Germans, and 
 all the northern nations, stood for Sol or Apollo, the 
 sun ;* and was indiscriminately called Bal, Beal, and 
 Sol, intimating his dominion as lord of the world. 
 This they received from the Phoenicians, the authors 
 of such superstition, who in the infancy of their 
 false zeal, scrupled not to offer human sacrifices to 
 
 * " Let us adore," says the Gayatri, or holiest text of the 
 Vedas, as translated by Sir William Jones, " the supremacy 
 of that divine Sun, the godhead, who illuminates all, who 
 recreates all, from whom all proceed, to whom all must return, 
 whom we invoke to direct our understanding aright in our 
 progress towards his holy seat. What the sun and light are to 
 this visible world, that are the supreme good and truth to the 
 intellectual and invisible universe, and as our coporeal eyes 
 have a distinct perception of objects enlightened by the sun, 
 thus oiir souls acquire certain knowledge by meditating on the 
 light of truth which emanates from the Being of beings ; that 
 is the light by Avhich alone our minds can be directed in the 
 path to beatitude. Without hand or foot he runs rapidly and 
 grasps firmly; withotit eyes he soes, without cars ho hears all ; 
 he knows whatever can be known ; but there is none who knows 
 him. 11 im the wise call, the great supreme pervading Spirit." 
 
 V 2 
 
212 
 
 tlieir Baal, tliough he afterwards coiulcscended to 
 aequicsce in tlio su])stitution of brute immolation.* 
 Hence, the first of May is called in Irish, La Beal 
 teine, that is, the day of the fire of Beal. Several 
 of the Irish mountains, too, retain the name of Cnoc 
 greine, that is the mountain of the sun; and in 
 many of them are to he seen the frame-work of the 
 altars, and the delapidated ruins of the temples of 
 those Gentile idolaters. The old Irish name for 
 year, was Beal-aine, now Bliadhain, meaning-, liter- 
 ally, the circle of Beal, that is the period of the 
 sun's annual revolution ; all which terms they bor- 
 rowed from the rites and religious ordinances of the 
 Phoenicians. From their bal, too, which signifies 
 power or wisdom, is derived our bale, of the same 
 import, and balg, a man of letters. 
 
 Moreover, we may refer to the worship paid by 
 those tribes to Sol or Beal, the above mentioned 
 names of Siol m Bolga, and Slioght m Bealidh ; for 
 in the Phoenician tongue, slil means a cymbal or 
 timbrel, and shiol, fire. The Gallionii or Galla3nii, or 
 clan Gallion, a tribe of the Fir-Belgoe or Bolga3 
 who settled in Ireland, are supposed to have taken 
 
 * Humanis saorificiis ■priu'i cultiis, postea belluinis. —The 
 Spaniai'ds would seem to have reversed the case in their 
 worship of Mars, for Strabo tells us, that " Oiniies, qui in 
 
 inontibus degunt. . Marti caprunj iuunolant, pra;tereaque 
 
 captives et equos." 
 
213 
 
 their name from Gallena, a city of the Attrebatii, 
 who bordered upon the Bclga) in Britain. From 
 them Lagenia,* which was formerly considered the 
 fifth province of Ireland, was called Coiged Galian. 
 It is to me, too, as clear as conviction can make it, 
 that they themselves were so designated, from the 
 Phoenician name gallein, which means, departing or 
 transported to another country, more properly 
 applied to voluntary emigrants. Unless, perhaps, the 
 name may have been derived from their idolatrous 
 ritual ; for the Phoenicians used to give the name of 
 gaclin, to heaps of stones huddled aip together, on 
 which they sacrificed their victims. From hence 
 numberless Spanish towns, such as Galinda, Galin- 
 do, Galinday, Galindush, Galinsoga, Gallinar, Gal- 
 liner, Gallinera, &c. Sic. would appear to have been 
 denominated. 
 
 We would appear, also, to have amongst us some 
 vestiges of the clan Gallion or Gallionii, in Gallian, 
 the name of that tract of country encompassing the 
 greatest part of Kildare, Carlow, and the Queen's 
 counties ; in Gallen, the name of a barony in the 
 
 * In Lagcnia statuit Regis et Regince comitatus Tlioraas 
 llatcliffe, Sussexise comes, Iberniee prorex, anno 1556, reg- 
 naiitibus Pliilippo et Mari;\. Indeqiie capitale Regis comitatus 
 oppidiim PhilHppi Ihirgus; Rcgincc vcr6 comitatus Maria: 
 Jiurgns vocantur. Wickloto in LageniA, patnim memorici co- 
 mitatus jus iiuluit. (V. O'Flahert. loc. laud. p. 27. 13urg 
 Ibern. Dominic.) 
 
214 
 
 county Mayo : in Gallen Hills, the name of a town 
 in the county Tyrone ; in Gallion Point, the southern 
 point of the harbor of Castle-haven, in the county 
 Cork. 
 
 CHAP. XXIII. 
 
 The People called Miledh, supposed to have been Milesians — 
 The Milesians, fable of the Spanish prince — Miledh and 
 Milesians why so called — Miletum a colony of the Phoeni- 
 cians — Cities built by the Milesians — Vestiges of the Miled 
 still in this Country. 
 
 The people called Miledh, and so frequently 
 alluded to in the ancient poetry of Ireland, are sup- 
 posed by the more modern antiquarians to have be- 
 longed to the Milesians. These latter again, it is 
 believed, were the posterity of the Carthagenians, 
 who sailed from Spain, under the conduct, say they, 
 of Heber* and Heremon, the two sons of Milesius, the 
 
 * Heber, after this first advantage, having refreshed his 
 troops, advanced into the country to make further discoveries, 
 in hopes of meeting some of the colony, that were scattered by 
 the storm some time before, and after a long and fatiguing 
 march, arrived at Invear>Golpa, where he found Heremon with 
 
215 
 
 king of Spain, and settled in Ireland with a host of 
 followers. In the poetical histories of the Druids, 
 we have it upon record that this island was inhabited 
 by the Miledh Slioght Fene,and the Miledh Esp;nne ; 
 which first names have been interpreted to us by later 
 times, as equivalent to Milesius the Phojnician. The 
 learned of our day, however, think that Miledh is a 
 perverted abbreviation from M Bealedh, meaning 
 the worshippers of Beal, and figuratively, the noble 
 Druids, Fene, too, they say, means wise, so that 
 Miledh Fene, to them, would represent the wise and 
 
 Ills division, by whom he was informed of the disasters that had 
 befallen his brothers Aireagh and Colpa, who had perished on 
 that coast. The brothers now uniting- their forces, formed their 
 pliuis of operation for a enm[)aif{n. Thoy dotorminod to go in 
 •piest of the enemy, who, according to the reports of their 
 scouts, was not far off, They began their march, and after a 
 few days came up with the three princes of the Tuatha de 
 Danains, in the plains of Tailton, with a formidable army ready 
 to meet them. The action began, and this battle, which was 
 to decide the fate of- both parties was for a long time doubtful, 
 the troops on both sides making extraordinary efforts ; the latter 
 to defend their patrimony against the invaders, who wished to 
 wrest it from them ; the former, less to revenge the death of their 
 countryman, than to obtain (he possession of an island which 
 had been destined for them, according to the prophecy of the 
 druids. At length the three princes of the Tuatha de Danains, 
 together with their principal oflicers, having fallen, the army 
 was put into disorder, and the rout became so general, that 
 more were killed in the pursuit than on the field of battle. 
 That day, so fatal to the Tuatha de Danains, decided the em- 
 pire of the island in favour of the Milesians. — Mac Gcoyhcgan. 
 
210 
 
 noble Druids, and Miledli Slioglit Fene, a wise and a 
 generous offspring. In like manner would some 
 writers make Miledli Easpainne, the son of Golam, un- 
 der whose guidance and auspices the Iberi established 
 themselves in the south of Ireland, to be equal in 
 import with Milesius the Spaniard ; though others 
 asserting that easpainne, espaine, or hespin, stood in 
 the old Celtic for a bare, arid, and barren coun- 
 try, understood by the words, miledh espainne mac 
 golam, noble, from the barren mountany country of 
 Cael. 
 
 But it being an acknowledged fact that the Miledh, 
 or Milesians, whichever you choose to call them, were 
 a Phoenician race, who put into this country from 
 the coast of Spain, I, for one, would derive their 
 name, not from Milesius king of Spain — who has no 
 existence in the records of that kingdom other than 
 what the fictions of the poets invest him"with — but 
 from some one of the Phoenicians who had sailed over 
 into Spain from Miletum, which was "^one of their 
 very earliest colonies.* The Phoenicians, we know. 
 
 * Greek history informs us that Miletum in Ionia was first 
 culoni.sed by Pliceuicians from Crete — that this colony was at- 
 tacked by the Persians and transplanted into Persia — that the 
 Phoenicians and Milesians joined with the Persians against the 
 lonians, at the battle of Mycale, and that they were made 
 slaves by (ho Persians, but kindly treated by Alexander — and 
 ill the time of Psamiticus a colony of Milesians settled in 
 Circcce. Tlio Sacaj joined the Persians at the ballh; of 
 
217 
 
 after tlieir taking possession of Miletum, disseminated 
 themselves in tribes in every direction. These are 
 the Milesians who pursued the Thessalonians from 
 Caria, and who took up their residence, in the first 
 instance, on the coast of Anatolia. To them is at- 
 tributed the origin of the cities of Trebezon/*' llera- 
 clea, or Penderaclea,f Sinope,J &c. After the ship- 
 wreck of Pylades and Orestes, near the " temple of 
 Diana at Taurus, the Milesians visited the Crimaea, 
 and laid the foundations of the cities of Theodosia or 
 Kafa,§ Chersonesus, and Oliera on the Dnieper. They 
 also, besides other cities, built that of Odessus, or 
 Barna, on the western shore of the black sea. But 
 their principal one seems to have been Appollonia, or 
 Sizeapolis,|l which was exceedingly fortified, and con- 
 
 MfiralhoM, tmd broke llio cciide of the Athenians. The Libor 
 Liicanos, an ancient Irish MS., informs us that one colony of 
 the Milesians arrived in Ireland in the last ye;ir of Camboath 
 (Cambyses) son of Ciras (Cyrus).— It then describes the divi- 
 sions of Alexander's empire among his generals, and says, 
 another colony arrived in Ireland in that year wherein Alex- 
 ander defeated Daire, i. e. Darius. — Vallancey. 
 
 * Trebezon k thrap cshan, fumus ex igne procedens ante 
 idolum. Heraclea, Herculi dicata. 
 
 t Penderacka, kpeneh, facies. Est facies sea simulachruni 
 Herculis. 
 
 I Sinope k zinip, thiara, vitta, insigne capitis ornatnentum. 
 § Kafa, h Kafnz, saltavit, saliit; vel k Cafa, incurvavit, 
 
 inclinavit, flexit corpus, genua, quod prosternentes se faciunt : 
 ntrumque denotat cnltum idololatricnm. 
 
 II Sizeopolis k Plucii, ziz, frons arboris, arbor :"phir. zizin : 
 
218 
 
 structed partly in the peninsula and partly in the 
 little island of Pontus, where the celebrated statue 
 of Apollo — which LucuUus afterwards brought to 
 Rome — was worshipped with all solemnity. Pieces of 
 money, stamped atAppollonia by the Milesians, bore 
 the impression of Apollo's head, with this motto, 
 *' Dorionos,"* that is, the bountiful. 
 
 Miledh, therefore, is not the name of a particular 
 race, but of the city of Miletum ; nor is Milesian 
 a proper or individual name, but a gentile or na- 
 tional one. For the Milesii were the inhabitants 
 of Miletum, and any thing appertaining or belonging 
 thereto was called Milesian. Thus we read of 
 Thales the Milesian ; Anaximander, Anaximenes, 
 Hecateus, the Milesians ; so also we find Milesi- 
 ourgos to signify any thing done by Milesian art — as 
 Milesian tapestry — Milesian wool, which was cele- 
 brated all over the world. 
 
 But the name of the city of Miletum itself would 
 appear to have been given it by the Phcenicians, 
 from milet to escape or be liberated, which accords 
 with the history of the first tribes of the Caananites, 
 who had fled before the face of Joshua and the Isra- 
 
 quasi disceres, iirbs in aiboreto vel neraore : vel <\ ziz, flos : 
 uibs florida. Odesus a Odesa, fructus. Barna a bavin, advena, 
 perfigriiius. 
 
 * John Edward Alexander's Travels to the seat of War in the 
 East, through Russia and the Crimea, T. 1. p. 293. 
 
219 
 
 elites. We slioukl observe, also, that Miletiim was 
 otherwise called Anactoria, from Anach, a descen- 
 dant of Anak, of whom many of the Phoenicians used 
 to boast as the founder of their family. 
 
 Ireland would seem to retain still some traces of 
 the name Miledli in that of Malahide, a town in the 
 barony of Coolock, in the county Dublin, just beside 
 a fort called the coiut of Malahide, and in that of 
 Malahidert, a village in ' the same county, &c. 
 
 Let us now pass ovei* to other name^' connected 
 with this. Espaine, Hespin, or Spania, is a word 
 not of Celtic but of Hebraic and Syriac extraction, 
 being derived from Span, or Sapan, a rabbit. Ilence 
 the name of Spania as abounding in them ; and this 
 is the epithet by which Catullus distinguished that 
 part of Spain at present called Celtiberia.* But the 
 Phoenicians very deservedly extended the name to 
 the country at large, seeing the multitude of those 
 
 * We have the greatest authority from the ancient chronicles 
 of Ireland to believe that tijcre was a strict frieiidsiiip and cor- 
 ros|>(Mid('nco hy navigation and trullic hntvvrcMi the Spaniards 
 and Irish, from the time that Eochard the son of Eire, the last 
 king of the Firbolgs in Ireland, was married to Tailte, the 
 danghter of Maghmore, king of Spain, so that the people of the 
 two nations were well acquainted with one another long before 
 Brah, the son of Breagar, was born. And this account is suf- 
 ficient to (lestroy the credit of that idle fancy that Ith and the 
 family of Briogan first discovered tlie country of Ireland, with 
 an optical instrument, from the top of the tower of Brigantia. 
 Keating. 
 
220 
 
 animals so overwhelmingly immense that they seemed 
 to venture even to dispute its possession with man 
 liimself; nor did trees, roots, plants, and vegeta- 
 bles alone give way, before their dense and desolating 
 myriads, but the castellated dome was not safe from 
 their attack, and whole towns have been overturned 
 by their undermining. Most ancient writers, there- 
 fore, impressed with this fact, treat of the rabbit as 
 if it were an animal peculiar to Spain. Hence we 
 may see how little weight is to be attached to the 
 reveries of those who maintain that, as Lusitania was 
 so named from lusus, play, so was Spain from Pan 
 the Arcadian, one of Bacchus's associates. T'or llis- 
 pania, the Latin for Spain, some of the ancients 
 wrote Espaine, and now frequently Spania, which 
 Vqssius and Bochart confirm by the testimony of 
 Paul the apostle, Theophilus, Eusebius, Epiphanius, 
 and others. Nay more, Eulogius, has in more places 
 than one, written Ecclesia Spanioe, (that is the church 
 of Spain) which Ambrosius Morus erroneously and 
 unjustifiably transcribed into Ecclesia Hispaniai. 
 Hence the color bltick is called si)anus by Nomis, 
 and Spanicum argentum, for Hispanicum, (that is 
 Sjjanish silver) occurs in Athanasius IJibliotheca, in 
 his life of the Pontiffs. Sliog, as we have said, is a 
 Phoenician name, indicating a certain species of 
 superstition. 
 
 It remains that we say something about Fene, or 
 Peine, Fane, Fine, or Fion, an ancient Irish clan. 
 
221 
 
 of wliom frequent mention occurs in the ancient 
 clnonicles and ballads of this island. Some would 
 look for the etymology of these names in the Irish 
 fine, which signifies a tribe or nation ; others in feine, 
 the celebrated ancient militia of our country ; others 
 lastly, would expect to find it in feine, a steward or 
 husbandman. There are those too to whom those 
 words denote a standard, or ensign, or whatever is 
 erected in an elevated and conspicuous position ; and, 
 when connected with sacred matters, the officiating 
 high priest or sacrificer ; a learned man ; a Druidical 
 temple ; as the Romans gave the name of fana to 
 the shrines wherein they worshipped their idols. 
 
 They, however, come nearer to the truth who con- 
 ceive that by these words is indicated some one of 
 the ancient colonies of the Phoenicians, who settled 
 in Ireland. For it is an admitted and established 
 opinion, that the Phoenician name was invented by 
 the Greek in imitation of the Hebrew form of ex- 
 pression, phene-anak, that is, the sons of Anak, or 
 Anaccans. Anak, as we have said, was a giant, and 
 the son of Arba, whence comes Anakim, in the plu- 
 ral, giants ; and being the founder of that race, the 
 Greeks thought that the inhabitants of all Syria had 
 derived their origin from him. Indeed, it were more 
 correct to say Bene-anak, but the Greek always 
 soften the Hebrew letter 15 (beth) in this manner, as 
 we find Josephus writing soplio instead of soba, a 
 region of Syria. It is no wonder, therefore, that 
 
222 
 
 Bene-aujik, Plioenices, and Piinici, or Poeni, should 
 all stand for the same thing, the Phoenicians. In 
 former times Beanak, or Phianak, was nsed as an 
 abbreviation for Ben anak, and from the name thus 
 abbreviated, the African Phoenicians* were called 
 Poeni, and those of Iberia, Fene, retaining in either 
 case only the first member of the naine, Fene-anak. 
 But that the Phoenicians affected the name of 
 Bene-Anak, or sons of the Anaceans, and would have 
 them themselves so designated, you may infer from 
 the fact of their calling the city of Carthage, built 
 by them, Chadre Anak, that is the scat of the Ana- 
 cjuans, as you may see in the Ptenulus of Plautus ; 
 
 * It appears, that like some of the rest of the Pagan Afri- 
 cans, they worship a being, who, according to their imagina- 
 tions, can neither do them any good nor any evil. And which 
 is still more remarkable, they worship another being inferior to 
 this, whom they believe can do them much injury, unless his 
 anger is appeased. This being they imagine frecjuenlly appears 
 to them under the most tremendous form, somewhat resembling 
 the ancient satyrs of the Greeks; and when they are asked how 
 they can believe in such absurdities, so iiicoiisislent with the 
 divine attril)ules ; their answer is to the following import : 
 " We follow the traditions of our ancestors, whose tirst parents 
 having sinned against the grand captain, they fell into such a 
 neglect of his worship, that they knew nothing of him, nor how 
 to make their addresses to him." This may serve to shew, tliat 
 however ignorant they may be in other respects, yet in this dark 
 tradition they have some faint notion of tiie fall of man, which 
 indeed is acknowledged by all the world, except some letter 
 learned men among ourselves. 
 
223 
 
 and, as wc have observed in a preceding part of this 
 chapter, tlieir calHng Miletum, a colony of tlieirs, 
 Anactoria, from Anacte, that is, a descendant of the 
 great Anak. For, although, but few of the Pliceni- 
 cians had really owed their origin to the family of 
 the Anaccans — as Bochart has before observed — yet 
 the celebrity of the race had charms for many to make 
 them wish and lay claim to it as their parent stock. 
 Besides, in all nations, it is handed down as a pre- 
 sumptive usage, that they select their name from the 
 elite of tlieir nobility ; and amongst the Canaanites 
 no family could compete with this either, in personal 
 valor or the collateral influence of a splendid name. 
 They were superhuman in strength, and so gigantic 
 in stature that, compared to them, the Israelites ap- 
 peared like so many locusts.* 
 
 * Pepin the Short, perceiving himself the object of contempt 
 amongst a particular set of his courtiers, who on account of his 
 figure, which was both thick and low, entertained but a 
 mean idea of his personal abilities, invited them, by way 
 of amusement, to see a fair battle between a bull and a lion. 
 As soon as he observed that the latter had got the mastery over 
 the former, and was ready to devour him, " Now, gentlemen," 
 says he, " who amongst you all has courage enough to inter- 
 pose between these bloody combatants? Who of you all dare 
 rescue the bull, and kill the lion ?" Not one of the numerous 
 spectators would venture to undertake so dangerous an enter- 
 prise ; whereupon the king instantly leaped into the area, drew 
 his sabre, and at one blow severed the lion's head from his 
 shoulders. Retiirning without the least emotion or concern to 
 
224 
 
 CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 The Clan Cuilcan, a people of Ireland, where settled — Called 
 also Hy-namor — Etymology of these names — The Deasii in 
 what part of Ireland they settled — Their leader — Whence 
 named — The Dareni, inhabitants of Voluntia — City of 
 Derry, ivhy so called — Whether the Dareani derive their 
 name from the Greeks or the Phoenicians — The Gadeliani, 
 tvhether from Gadela — Whether it be a Phoenician name. 
 
 To the list of the ancient inhabitants of this coun- 
 try we are to add the name also of the people called 
 Clan Cuilean, who resided in a part of the county 
 Clare, on the banks of the river Shannon, comprising- 
 all that tract formerly known by the name of Tho- 
 mond. Clain, in Irish,* signifying sprung from or 
 
 his seat, he gave those who had entertained but a mean opinion 
 of him, to understand, in a jocular way, that though Davitl was 
 low in stature, yet he deniolislied the groat (Joliah ; and that 
 though Alexander was but a little man, he performed more 
 heroic actions than all his tallest ofKcers and commanders put 
 together. 
 
 * What Erin calls in her sublime 
 
 Old Erse or Irish, or it may be Punic; — 
 (The Antiquarians who can settle time. 
 
 Which settles all things, Roman, Oroeic or Runic, 
 
225 
 
 genitive, the name of this people is generally ren- 
 dered the growth or harvest of wheat near the water. 
 They were also called Hy na mor, which sounds to 
 the natives as the maritime region. But, in my 
 opinion, clan cuilean, is a name compounded of the 
 Phoenician words, clain culain, that is, the summoned 
 together from different or mixed nations, intimating 
 their composition to be diversified and motley. Or, 
 may be, of Clanu Culain, that is, the summoned Ba- 
 bylonians^ for the Chaldeans, who had accompanied 
 the Isaraelitcs on their return into Syria from their 
 captivity, attached themselves afterwards to the 
 Phoenicians in their maritime expeditions, as well as 
 in transplanting their colonies ; and, in the Chaldee 
 language, Clanu and Calnah meant Babylon. Hy 
 na mor, also, is a Phoenician name from, inamor, a 
 variegated or party-coloured people in a sea-girt 
 province. 
 
 The Deassii, the Decies, formerly Deassies, an an* 
 cient people of Ireland inhabited the southern sec- 
 tion of the county Meath, and the northern bank of 
 the rivers Liffey and Rye, which whole line of coun- 
 try was very appropriately designated by the jiiamc 
 
 Swear that Pat's language sprung from the same clime 
 
 With Hannibal, and wears tlie 'i'yrian tunic 
 Of Dido's alphabet ; and this is rafional 
 As any other notion, and not national :) — 
 
 Jh/mn. 
 
22G 
 
 of Ean, or Magh Ean, tluit is, the region of waters. 
 Their leader is supposed to have been named Mag- 
 ean, or Ean-gus, afterwards abridged to QCngus, 
 which is usually interpreted prince of the region of 
 Ean. A tribe of this nation was afterwards trans- 
 ported to the county Waterford. This region is at 
 present divided into two baronies, namely, Decies 
 within Drum, bounded on the east and south by the 
 Atlantic ocean, and on the west by the black water ; 
 whilst, Decies without Drum, bounds it on the 
 north, and is itself the other part of this tract. 
 
 The name of Deassies, or Deassii, is supposed to 
 be derived from the Irish word deas, southern, and 
 to indicate a southern people. This is not impro- 
 bable. I would venture to guess, however, that they 
 were a Phoenician tribe, so called from deassin, or 
 deassain, or rather deazzin, that is, exulting ; from 
 duaz, which means, he exulted with joy, to which 
 daizz, joy, corresponds ; and there is no one who 
 is not aware of the dancing and rioting of idol- 
 ators during their sacrificial feasts.* The barony of 
 
 * AUIioiigh it is iliiriciilt to discover any relation between 
 (lancing and religion, yet among the Pagans it constantly made 
 a part of their worship of the gods. It was usual to dance 
 round the altars and statues; and there was at Rome, an order 
 of priests, called the Salii ; they were dedicated to the service 
 of Mars, and ihey danced on particular days, through the 
 streets, in honour of their god, and had their name from that 
 very ceremony. Indeed, religious dancing was so much the 
 
227 
 
 Deece, in the county Meatli, which Seward tells us 
 was formerly called Decies, or Desies, as well as 
 another barony of the same name, Decies, or Desies, 
 in the county Waterford, are vestiges in this country 
 of the once existence there of the Deessii. In Spain 
 too, the Phoenicians would seem to liave had a tribe 
 of this name, I mean the inhabitants of the old Can- 
 tabrian city of Decium, which is surrounded by the 
 xiver Aturia. 
 
 Baxter is of opinion that the Dareni, or Darnii, 
 
 taste of the Pagans, that the poets made the gods dance along 
 with the graces, the muses, and virtues. When the Jews kept 
 the feast of tlie golden calf, they sat down to eat and to drink, 
 and rose up to play, which means to dance, and undoubtedly, 
 they learned this in Egygt. Arnohins, an ancient Christian 
 writer, asked the Pagans, if their Gods were pleased with the 
 tinkling of brass, and rattling of cymbals, or with the sound of 
 drums and musical instruments. The idolators in other parts 
 of the world, even to this day, have the same esteem for this 
 custom, and the greatest part of the worship they pay to their 
 deities consists in dancing. On the whole it appears, that 
 dancing was first practised by the heathens in their temples, as 
 a part of their religious worsliip, to point out their gratitude to 
 their gods, either for general, or particular favors; nor have 
 the Christians been altogether free from this custom. The 
 Christians of St. Thomas, dance in honor of that saint, before 
 which they cross themselves, and sing a hymn. The men dance 
 in one apartment, and the women in another, but both observe 
 the greatest decency. At present, however, there are but few 
 Roman Catholics who pay much regard to this ceremony, and 
 in all probability it will soon fall into disrespect and cense to 
 bo practised.— /iwjt/. 
 
 q2 
 
228 
 
 tlic ancient inluibitants of Volimtia, nioutioned by 
 Ptolemy, gave its name to the city of'Derry ; as also 
 to Dairmach, which is interpreted the oaken city, 
 called also Armach, that is, the lofty city, now Ar- 
 magli. He furthermore thinks that they themselves 
 were so designated, as if descendants of the oak, 
 seeing that Ptolemy names them Darinoi, or Darnii, 
 for dar, in the British, is an oak ; and eni, or geni, to 
 be born. But I submit it to the learned to deter- 
 mine whether it be not from the Phcenician darin, 
 meaning foreigners, soujourners ; or darin, villas, 
 habitations. From the Dareni, or Darnii, I should 
 imagine that the island of Darinis, in the Black- 
 water, in the mouth of the bay of Youghal, in the 
 county Cork, took its name. After the introduc- 
 tion of Christianity, this was called Molana, from 
 St. Molanfid, who founded a convent therein, in the 
 sixth century. You will pronounce the same judg- 
 ment on another island of the same name, near the 
 city of Wexford, where St. Nemham erected a mo- 
 nastery, in the middle of the seventh century. 
 
 Spain has an old town called Dapnius, on the 
 banks of the river Muga, in the country of the 
 Ilergetes, whose inhabitants, like the Irish, are named 
 Darnii, in the ancient chronicles of the kingdom. 
 
 The Gadeliani, au old Irish tribe, are commonly 
 supposed to have derived their name from Gadelas, 
 an ancient progenitor of the Milesians. Whether 
 this Gadelas be a character of the real history of this 
 
2-29 
 
 country, or only like Milesiiis, the reputed prince of 
 Spain, an imaginary fiction for the songs of the poets, 
 I leave to the decision of more competent judges. 
 I cannot, Iiowever, but express my perfect disregard 
 to what Geraldus tells us of the Irish being called 
 Gaidheli from some grandson of Phenius, who was 
 distinguished as a linguist. My dissent from his 
 opinion I choose to couch in this strong phrase, not- 
 withstanding his being backed therein by Nennius, 
 Malmura, Eochodius, and other writers of the ninth 
 century, and countenanced by the approbation of 
 the more modern O'Connor. 
 
 But what if Gadelas, or Gadhclus was some con- 
 spicuous and honorable individual, belonging to 
 some tribe of the Phoenicians,t whose descendants 
 were after him called Gadcliani ? For gadcl, in their 
 language means, great, illustrious ; and gadclin, emi- 
 nent, superior men. Hence, also, the inhabitants of 
 two ancient cities, but now only petty towns, of the 
 
 * In fine, there are no names or dogmata of the Phoeni- 
 cians recorded by either Greek or Latin authors that are not to 
 bo found or explained in the ancient Irish, a strong collateral 
 proof that the Phoenicians of the old Greeks were not Cana- 
 anites or Tyrians. bat that mixed body of Persians, that is 
 Scythians, Medes, &c. whom Sallust informs you, from tho 
 best authority, the Punic annals, composed the Ga^fulians and 
 Numidians of Africa, the first settlement of the Phoenicians in 
 tiiat country ; and the same people that Vurro, Pliny, and .lus- 
 «H. bring from thence to Spain, conformable to the ancient hi.- 
 <ory of \ir\aiu\,~Vnllam'.cy. 
 
230 
 
 name of Gadella, in the district of the Astures and 
 Edetani, in Spain, were called Gadelin, or Godeli- 
 ani ; for I am satisfied that those cities had obtained 
 this name as expressive of their magnitude and their 
 magnificence. 
 
 CHAP. XXV. 
 
 The Degades, settlers in Ireland — In what part — Whether a 
 body of fishermen — The Tuat de Doinan arrive in this 
 country — -Whence come — Whether a tribe of the Caledo- 
 nians — Why called Ulleigh — Origin of their name — The 
 Caledonians of Brigantine origin — The Irish Cangani, 
 why so called. 
 
 The Degades, an ancient people of Ireland, are 
 supposed by some to have been a colony of the Lein- 
 ster* Scoti, who settled in the western quarter of 
 the county Kerry, some years before the advent of 
 Christ. The name is supposed to have been made 
 up of the Irish words, de ga deas, implying a situa- 
 
 * Leighan, an axe or spear, it being with such weapons the 
 Leinster people fought. — The country was thence called Lein- 
 ster, from leighan, as above, and ter, a territory. 
 
231 
 
 tion at the south of tho soa. To me, however, it 
 seems to express a colony of Phoenician fisliermen ; 
 for degah, in that language, is fish, collectively ; deg, 
 to fish ; dughioth, fishing cots or wherries made of 
 rushes ; deg, a fisherman, and adesa, profit, emolu- 
 ment ; so that Degades would appear a name abbre- 
 viated for dcg-adesa, or expressive of fishermen who 
 acquired their support from the profits of that pur- 
 suit. 
 
 The Tuatha de Danaan,* or Danans, usually ren- 
 
 f [ii my work upon the *• Tloiind Towers," it is proved to a 
 demonstration, that these (who by the way had nothing to do 
 with Britain) were the REAL authors 0/ /remand's ancient ce- 
 lebrity. They arrived here about 1200 years before Christ, 
 under the conduct of three brothers, Brien, Juchorba, and Ju- 
 chor,nnd immediately gave battle to tiie Firbolga, commanded 
 by Eogha Iheir king, at Moyturey near lake Masg, in the ter- 
 ritory of Partrigia otherwise Partry, in the county of Mayo. 
 The latter lost in one day the battle and possession of the island, 
 and were so reduced as to seek an asylum in the islands of the 
 north. Nuagha, the Tuatha Danaan general, having lost a 
 hand in the action, had one made of silver, whence he attained 
 the name of Airgiodlamh, which signifies silver hand. This 
 narrative had been long supposed a day dream of fiction, which 
 legendary chroniclers had of old trumped up. The hour, how- 
 ever, has arrived for the restoration of truth ; and I rejoice that 
 I am the Jirst person to announce to my countrymen that this 
 relic, or silver hand, is still extant. It was exhibited to the 
 "Society of Antiquaries," ashort time ago, who, of course, knew 
 nothing about it. The moment 1 saw it I exulted in the con- 
 Jirmaiion of our ancient histor y ; and did not hesitate, at once» 
 intimating to the Gentleman who had the kindness to gain me 
 
232 
 
 clered the northern race, were an ancient colony in 
 tliis country, situated behind the Fir-Bolgoe ; they are 
 supposed to liave originated from Britain, and to 
 have been a tribe of the Caledonians, who emigrated 
 over from Mull-Galloway, or Cantire, full an hundred 
 years before the Christian aera. The old Irish poets 
 seem to know nothing of the chieftains of the first 
 colony of the Caledonians, or Danani as they call 
 tliem ; but they are diffuse on the subject of their ar- 
 rival, which happened only a few years before the 
 birth of Christ. These were accustomed to style 
 themselves Ulleigh, which some would interpret as 
 worshippers of the sun, for in the Celtic dialect, ull 
 is the same as sol, or beal, which is the sun. Ac- 
 cordingly, their country was called Ulladh or Ullin, 
 and these names still represent to the native, the pro- 
 vince of Ulster. All that tract of country also, im- 
 mediately encompassing the present county of Down 
 was called Ulla informer times. Other relics of this 
 name may be traced in Ullard, a village in the barony 
 of Gowran county of Kilkenny ; and in Uiloe, a 
 little town in the barony of Coonagh, in the county 
 Limerick. 
 
 access to their umseuin, that it was the long vtisshty arm of 
 Nuagha AirgiocUamh. I now give the inscription, which is in 
 old Irish characters, for which I am indebted to the gentle- 
 man above alluded to, whose name — T. Crofton Ci-oker — 
 perhaps^ I may be pardoned if I i>ublish. 
 
to 
 
 Z ^ 
 
 Si 
 
 y 1 
 
 0> 
 
 
 
 ?• l". 
 
 U 
 
 I- 
 
 -r 
 o 
 
 5 T 
 
 21 
 
 i — 
 
 U 
 
 re 
 
 .2 
 
 
 
 r"! 
 
 P 
 
 is 
 
 I 
 
 ii 
 ^ 
 
 O 
 P t 
 
 iw o 
 
 O 
 
 
 
233 
 
 But as some will have UUeigh and Ulladh to be 
 Celtic names borrowed from their custom of worship- 
 ping the sun, so, perhaps, the name Tuath de Doinan 
 may have originated from the form of that worship, 
 which we know the Phoenicians offered to their idols, 
 prostrate and silent before their banquets. For tuath 
 donian, in that language, means those who meditate 
 in silence and fasting. Nor yet would I reject the 
 conjecture, nor deny the fact, of tuath being an 
 Irish geographical term signifying the due north. 
 
 The Caledonians were so named from Caledonia, 
 at this "day called Scotland, after the Scoto Brigan- 
 tine Irish, and formerly Valentia by the Romans, 
 after the name of their emperor Valentinian. They 
 were of Brigantine extraction, and their constant 
 allies, or rather vassals, in their several wars. The 
 name of Caledonian is supposed to have been de- 
 rived from the woods which they inhabited, being 
 called in the British, Kelydhon, or Colydhon, and the 
 Woods themselves, coit kelydhon. Nor, indeed, were 
 the foreign Brigantines called Keloi on any other ac- 
 count than that of their living in the woods, as the 
 ancients generally did, nor were the Caletes, a peo- 
 ple of the Attrebates, so denominated for any other 
 reason. 
 
 In the'Scoto-brigantine dialect of the present day, 
 coil, means a wood. In the Greek too, kalon, means 
 the same, as did, cala, in the ancient Roman ; whence 
 
234 
 
 lire tlerivod caliga, a wooden shoe ; and caloncs, 
 hewers of timber. 
 
 I suspect, however, that the Caledonians were 
 Phoenicians, who were expert in astrology ; or, per- 
 haps, Chaldeans, associates of the Phoenicians ; for 
 Ghaledain, or Chaldeiii signifies both, and that, there- 
 fore, Caledonia was named after them, and not vice 
 versa. 
 
 The Cngaanii, or Ganganii, an ancient people of 
 Ireland, mentioned by Ptolemy, were settled in the 
 western section of the county Clare, in what is at 
 present called the barony of Burrin, on the south of 
 the bay of Galway. Baxter takes them to be de- 
 scendants of the Ceangi, or shepherds of the Dam- 
 nii, who dwelt in a district called, from the summer 
 exposure, and the habitual recumbency of shepherds, 
 Somersaeten, or, asstival sitters. Tacitus calls them 
 Cangi. But as from the singular, cang, is formed the 
 Latin ceangus, so from the plural ceangon, do they 
 also form, canganus. Many persons believe that every 
 individual state had its own Ceangi, who were a co- 
 lony of minors, or of youthful shepherds, passing 
 their lives in mountains, in villages, in marshes, or in 
 fens, as suited the interests of their pastoral occupa- 
 tion. Of these, Trogus Justinus says, *' they transfer 
 their flocks now to summer, now to winter lawns. 
 As formerly, the ancient Romans had amongst the 
 Calabrians and Lucanians, so now have the Spaniards 
 
235 
 
 also amongst tlie Cantabrians and otlicr states, dis- 
 tinct i)asturcs for their flocks, as well in summer as 
 in winter." The advocates of this opinion derive 
 the word ceangus from the British ceang, or cang, a 
 branch, in the same manner, and with the same figu- 
 rative licence, as " youths" in Greek are styled 
 " branches of Mars." Others think it compounded 
 of cean gan, and interpret it, the external promon- 
 tory. Whence Canganii, to them, will express a peo- 
 ple residing beside such promontory ; as Burrin, or 
 Bhurrin, the ancient seat of those Canganii, means 
 an external region. There are those who flatter 
 themselves that they have discovered the etymology 
 of this name in the Hebrew chanoc, or chanic, ver- 
 nal ; and, finally, others who think them called 
 Ccangi, from the god Ceangus, the tutelary genius 
 of the Cumbri. In a matter so perplexed, and as 
 yet so undecided, I would venture to guess that the 
 Canganii, or Cangani, were a people of the Canta- 
 brians in Hespania Tarraconensis, who were a colony 
 of the Massagetse, or else a tribe of Phoenician agri- 
 culturists,* and that their name is composed of the 
 words can-gannin, a society of gardeners, from gan, 
 a garden, applicable as well to trees as to herbs ; 
 
 * Omnium rcrum ex qnibus aliqiiid ncfiiiintiir, niliil est agri- 
 cultural melius, niliil iiborins, tiiliil (hilcius, nihil liuniinc libcro 
 <ligtiius. — Ctccro-r/t'-0//ic. l,c. 4*2. 
 
236 
 
 or IVom gan-guiiin, the Gangimii, who excelled in 
 that department.* 
 
 * But they say, that the modern critics have despised and 
 rejected those chimeras of antiquity to which the Scoto-Mile- 
 sians aspire, as well as the authorities they produce to support 
 them. It is evident that those critics slioidd not be believed 
 in respect to the monuments of that people: they were unac- 
 quainted with the language in which they were written ; it was 
 altogether impossible for them to know it. There are but few 
 even among the natives capable of decyphering their ancient 
 writings : it is by a particular study only, of the abreviations, 
 punctuations, and of the ancient characters of that language, and 
 the Oghum, that they can attain to it. The old Scotic lan- 
 guage, which was spoken two (or rather three) thousand yours 
 ago, and which is made use of in their monuments, was entirely 
 different from what is now, and has been spoken, within the 
 last few centuries ; and has become ajargon by the adoption of 
 many Latin, English, and French words. Are these not dif- 
 ficulties, which are impossible for a stranger to surmount, who 
 fittempts to write the history of that country? If the prirai' 
 live Irish language be scarcely known by the bulk of the na- 
 tion itself, what knowledge can an Englishman have of it? — 
 
 Mac Geoghegan. 
 
 Yet for the antiquities of the written chronicles of Ireland, 
 give me leave to say something, not to justifie them, but to 
 shew that some of them might say truth. For where you say 
 the Irish have alwayes bin without letters, you are therein 
 much deceived ; for it is certaine, that freland hath had the 
 use of letters very anciently, and long before England. — 
 
 Spenser, 
 
237 
 
 CHAP. XXVI. 
 
 The Aremorici, what nation they were — Whether the Alo- 
 brites — Where they settled — Whether Aramceans or Phos' 
 nicians — The Alohrites and Morini, why so called — The 
 Aradii, inhabitants of the island of Arad — Skilled in naval 
 matters — Allies of the Phoenicians — Colonies of them in 
 Spain and Ireland — The Armeri called Cardanum by the 
 Phoenicians — Vestiges of their residence in Ireland as well 
 as Sjjain. 
 
 The Aremorici, in Irish, Armhorac, or Armho- 
 raice, are supposed to have been transmarine 
 Britons, namely, the ancient lielgoe, that is the Alo- 
 hrites, or remains of Belgic Britannia, who were 
 driven out by the Franks, or Sicambri, into Celtic 
 Gaul. They are generally considered as refugees of 
 the Belgse, who settled in the British islands, liaving 
 come thither at the season of the Saxon war. The 
 Aremorican tract, or line of country they inhabited, 
 is by some writers accounted the Saxon shore of the 
 Gauls, otherwise called Celtic Gaul, Neustria, and 
 Britannia in the Marshes ; Cossar, however, and 
 Pliny call it, Aquitania of the Vnscons. 
 
238 
 
 Baxter thinks that tlicy were called Areiuorici, 
 from armor, or arvor, a shore ; as the Morini, who 
 were the Vallonic Flanclri, were called, he says, from 
 the Celtic words, mor-eni, as if, marigenae, or sea- 
 born. With all respect, however, to so high an 
 authority, I would venture to guess that this was 
 one of the Phoenician tribes who arrived in this 
 island, and i)assed over from it afterwards into Bel- 
 gium and Gaul. From them it is probable that the 
 ancient city of Ardmore, in the barony of Dccies, 
 county Waterford, hath derived its name ; as also 
 the promontory of Ardmore on the east of the 
 Youghal harbor j and Armoy, a town of the barony 
 of Carey, in the county Antrim : just as the Phoe- 
 nicians who inhabited the district of Aram in 
 Asia Major were indiscriminately called Aramaeans, 
 Syrians, and Phoenicians, and, by a junction of the 
 two last, Syro-Phoenicians. Whence in the Syriac 
 version of the Bible, the Syro-Phoenician woman, 
 mentioned in the seventh chapter, and twenty-sixth 
 verse of St. Mark, is said to have been " from Phoe- 
 nicia of Syria." And Josephus declares that the 
 Aramaeans were called Syrians by the Greeks. 
 Strabo also asserts that some take the Syrians for the 
 Arimi, whom they now call Arami. 
 
 The Irish name Armorhac, therefore, would 
 appear to consist of the Phoenician words Arami- 
 arac, that is, a people, or nation, from the district of 
 Aram, namely, from Shur, that is Syria, or Phoenicia. 
 
239 
 
 For, arac, means a state, or nation, and Arami an 
 Aramoean, or Syrian, a native of Phoenicia; it like- 
 wise signifies an idolator ; for the first worshippers 
 of idols recorded in the sacred Scriptures were, as 
 we have above observed, Syrians. 
 
 Alobrith seems an Irish name, signifying a por- 
 tion of an ancient stock or tribe ; for, all, in Irish, 
 means extraction, or lineage ; allod, antiquity ; and 
 brith, a part or fraction of any thing. This I con- 
 ceive more rational, than to say that they had been 
 called Alobrites as equivalent to Galo-Britones, 
 which is Baxter's opinion. Nor is it more unlikely 
 if we would suppose it a Phoenician name denoting 
 a tribe who had concluded a treaty by the obligation 
 of an oath; for, alah, in that language, is an oath 
 and, brith, a league or compact, any thing about 
 which many deliberate and ultimately agree. 
 
 What if we should consider this Alobrith to be an 
 abridgement from Baalbrith,* or berith, that is, the 
 
 * Baal-Berith, or lord of the covenant, was an idol wor- 
 shipped by the Sechemite, and many of tiie idolatrous Israel- 
 ites erected altars to him. To him human sacrifices were 
 offered ; and it was common to appeal to him as a witness and 
 judge in all matters of controversy ; and, especially, when pro- 
 mises, covenants, engagements, or treaties of peace were 
 entered into. In the most early ages of the world, the Pagans 
 made their altars of earth or turf, and they were, for the most 
 part, in groves or on hills, and besides offering up sacrifices to 
 the gods, they were used for several other purposes. All 
 alliances with foreign princes were ratified on the altars, that 
 
i>10 
 
 Lord of tile Compact ; namely, the idol with whom 
 the children of Israel had concluded a treaty, after 
 the manner of the Phoenicians, and in whose honor 
 the Phoenicians had erected a temple in Gebal, a 
 mountain and city at the foot of Mount Libanus, 
 whence the circumjacent country hath obtained the 
 name of Gebalene. This temple was restored in the 
 time of Alexander the Great, and consecrated, by 
 some despicable enthusiasts of the Pagan priesthood, 
 " To Olympian Jove, the patron of hospitality." For 
 few things are better known than that the Alobrites, 
 as well as the other nations of Gaul, of lielga^, and 
 of Britannia, had embraced the idolatry and the rites 
 of the Phoenicians. 
 
 It is very probable, also, that the Morini were 
 those whom the ancient Irish called Morintinneach, 
 high-spirited ; or the Phoenicians, Marin, lords, or 
 Morin, teachers. Unless, perhaps, they may have 
 been inhabitants of the land of Jerusalem, and so 
 denominated from Mount Moriah, which is situated 
 
 the gods might be witness of the faitliful performance of them ; 
 of this wc liave many instances botli in ancient liistory and 
 poetry. Thus, Ilamilcar mudu his son llunnibal lay his hand 
 on tl»e altar, and swear he wouKl never make peace with the 
 Komans ; and thus a poet says : — ■ 
 
 " I touch the sacred altars, touch the flames, 
 ' And all those pow'rs attest, and ail their names: 
 
 Whatever chance befui on eitlicr side, 
 No term of time this union sliall divide." 
 
241 
 
 by tlie side of Mount Sioii. We liave already 
 Iiintcd, above, that the Phoenicians, like the other 
 nations of antiquity, made it an established rule, that 
 whenever they emigrated into foreign countries they 
 should, through national affection, and a wish to 
 perpetuate the remembrance of the present stock, 
 transfer to their tribes and families the names of the 
 cities or provinces, mountains or rivers, that were 
 associated with their childhood ; a fact which we 
 could prove by innumerable examples in the con- 
 duct, as well of the Phoenicians themselves, as of the 
 Celts, the Greeks, nay, of the Romans and the 
 Arabians in Spain, and recently in the conduct of 
 the Spaniards themselves, in North and South 
 America. 
 
 But it nmy sufTice to adduce the histancc of the 
 Aradii, ancient inhabitants of Ireland, who made 
 several voyages and maritime excursions, in com- 
 pany with the Phoenicians. These were originally 
 inhabitants of the island of Arad, on the coast of 
 Phenicc, at the mouth of the river Elcutherus, and 
 with part of the adjoining continent, such as Antar- 
 adus, Marathus, Laodicea, the principal city of the 
 island, and which bore the same name, Strabo says 
 had been built by some Sydonian exiles, and that 
 the Aradians contributed much to the advancement 
 of naval science. We must not wonder, therefore, 
 when, on allusion to this, we read in l^^zekicl's pro- 
 phecy, that roif;er5* from Arad and Sidon had held 
 
 R 
 
242 
 
 possession of Tyre ; nor when, in a subsequent 
 verse of the same chapter, we find that, in the vigor 
 of their bravery, they with all their forces had 
 mounted upon its walls, and nobly fought in its 
 defence. And not only Tyre but Tripolis, the most 
 illustrious city of Phenice, consisted, as Pliny tells 
 us, ])artly of Aradians, and partly of 'J'yrians and 
 Sidonians. 
 
 That from this island the Aradians, in conjunction 
 with the Phoenicians, had sailed over into Spain, and 
 there built the town of Arades amongst the Astures, 
 Aradilli amongst the Vaccei, and Aradueniga 
 amongst the Carpetani, all called after their own 
 name, is to me certain as demonstration can make it. 
 Ardisa also, formerly a city, now a small town of 
 Celtiberia ; Ardisalsdo and Ardisana, villages in the 
 country of the Astures ; Ardaiz, amongst the Canta- 
 brians, and others of that kind in various quarters of 
 Spain, seem to me indisputably as colonies of the 
 Aradians. It is the opinion of a certain very learned 
 person, that the river of Araduey also, amongst the 
 Palentincs, was called after them; although others 
 think the name derived from the (jireek, ardeuo, to 
 moisten. 
 
 Again, that from Spain, still in company with the 
 Phoenicians, the Aradians had shifted across to our 
 coast, and there established a permanent colony, we 
 may be assured, I think, from the names of the old 
 districts of Ard and Arad Cliacli, which comprise a 
 
243 
 
 great part of tlie county Tippcrary ; as well as of 
 the tract of Ardes in the county Down ; and the 
 citadel of Ardea in the county Kerry.* I pass over 
 the names of other towns, beginning, like the 
 Spanish, from the word Ard, and still Used popularly 
 and vernacularly as their current designations in the 
 Irish geography. 
 
 That a tribe of the Armenians, also, along with 
 the Phoenicians, had arrived in this country, may be 
 inferred from the names of Cany Rock, a town on 
 the sea coast of the barony of Balruddery,' in the 
 county Dublin ; of Knordoe, a town in the county 
 Galway ; of Cahirdonel, a village in the county 
 Kerry, where are to be seen the ruins of an old cir- 
 cular fortress, almost impregnably fortified, and con- 
 
 * In the name of this county we discover the commercial 
 nation by whom it was first inhabited ; for Cearagh, its Irish 
 name, is derived from cear, a merchant; whence comes, ciara- 
 ban, a company of merchants, equivalent to the eastern, cara- 
 van, of the same signification. 
 
 " O, native, (Kerry!) O, my mother isle! 
 
 How shouldst tliou prove aught else but dear inid holy 
 
 To me, who from thy lakes and mountain-hills, 
 
 Thy clouds, thy (juiet dales, thy rocks and seas. 
 
 Have drunk in all my intellectual life. 
 
 All sweet sensations, all ennobling thoughts. 
 
 All adoration of the God in nature. 
 
 All lovely and all honourable things, 
 
 Whatever makes this mortal spirit feel 
 
 The joy and greatness of its future being." 
 
 R 2 
 
244 
 
 structed of stones truly wonderful in size ; of Caliir- 
 dowgan and Cahirdriny, which were camps or forts, 
 in the county Cork; and of Cardangan, a small 
 town in the county Tipperary. For Armenia was 
 called by the Phoenicians Cardu ; and an Armenian, 
 Cardanun; whence Ptolemy calls the lofty mountains 
 of this country Gordoi ; and Quintus Curtius, Cordei. 
 I'luit this Cardanian or Armenian people had 
 seized themselves of Spain also, in conjunction with 
 the Phoenicians, we have proof clearer than the 
 moonlight, in numberless names of places in that 
 country; for instance, Cardena, the name of a river 
 of the Vaccei ; Cardenu, or Cardenus, a river of the 
 Ilergetes, flowing into the Rubricatum, now the 
 Llobregat ; Cardenas, a town of Cantabria ; Carden- 
 chosa, a little village of Boetica ; Cardona, a very 
 ancient city of the Ilergetes ; with the towns of 
 Cardenosa, Cardenete, Cardena, Cardenueta, &c. in 
 different parts of the kingdom. 
 
245 
 
 CHAP. XXVll. 
 
 The Attacoti, inhabitants of Ireland — Whether they were the 
 Silu7-es — Whether an ancient or modem people — Whether 
 descended /"rom Cuthah, a city of the Persians — Vestiges of 
 the Cutheans in Ireland, and in Spain, 
 
 The Attacoti,* mentioned by St. Jerom as ancient 
 inhabitants of Ireland, gave their name to tlie 
 country, or rather province, of Attacottia, whicli the 
 
 * Gibbon has given a very strange perversion to a sentence 
 in St. .Terom respecting the Attaootti, which runs thus: " Et 
 quum per sylvas porcorum greges et armcntornin pecudumque 
 reperiunt, pastoriini nates et ferminarum papillas solere abscin- 
 (loro, ct lias sohis ciixtnnn dolicias nrhitrari," — whicli the 
 historian tluis translates, *' They curiously selected tho most 
 delicate and brawny parts of both males and females, which 
 they prepared for their horrid repasts." But he was misled by 
 the word pastorum, which is not the genitive plural of pastor, 
 a shepherd, but of pastus, meaning well-led ; and thus the 
 sentence should be : " When the Attacotti, wandering through 
 the woods, meet with flocks and herds of black cattle, sheep, 
 and pigs, they are in the habit of cutting off the r7i7nps of the 
 tat or well-fed he beasts, and the udders of the she ones ; and 
 consider these as the only delicate parts of the animals." That 
 
246 
 
 I'^inperor Constantine, from his own name, after- 
 wards called Flavia Ca3saricn.sis. But as this people 
 are not to be met witli in Ptolemy's commentaries, 
 Baxter has been induced to believe that the Silures, 
 together with their dependants, the Demeti and 
 Cornavii, and the Cangani, who were their vassals, 
 again, had obtained this designation at a later period 
 of the Roman empire. For what does Attacotti mean, 
 he says, but, dwelling in the woods ? For At-a-coit, 
 written loosely, means, in the woods. This he con- 
 firms by some verse from Condelia, called Prydydh 
 Maus, or the great poet ; whence he conjectures 
 that the Irisli Attacotti were named from the syno- 
 nymous term Argoet, and Argoetnys, meaning men 
 beside woods ; or, as the old Leomarchus would take 
 it, Guyr Argoet. The condition of the country, which 
 
 Ihis custom, barbarous and savage us it is, was frequent amongst 
 the ancients is evident, from that text of scripture, which says : 
 — ■Neither shall ye eat any flesh that is torn of beasts in the Jield. 
 Mr. Bruce, the traveller, threw light upon this command, by 
 stating that this practice exists in Abyssinia, where pieces of 
 flesh are cut out of the animals alive and eaten ; the creature 
 being kept alive for further use. This statement was long con- 
 sidered as a traveller's exaggeration, but it has subsequently 
 been found to be true. The prohibition might have a two-fold 
 object, first, to prevent the imitation of the cruel practices of 
 the heathen ; and, secondly, to prevent the light treatment of 
 blood, when the blood which was the life of the beast was shed 
 in the sacrifices, being emblematical of the blood of the 
 covenant. — See Dr. A, Clarke. The Attacotti, however, were 
 not Irish at all, but a canton of England. 
 
247 
 
 every one must be aware from the poem of Higdenus, 
 to have been woody and uncultivated, even so late 
 as the Norman times, agrees well with this conjec- 
 ture, to which we must add Ammianus Marcellinus's 
 testimony to the effect, that the Attacoti, assisted by 
 the Saxons, the Scots, and the Picts, had ravaged 
 and laid waste the Roman province. 
 
 I imagine, however, that their nation was more 
 ancient; and would be disposed to refer their arrival 
 in this country to the times of the Phoenicians, whom 
 it is more than probable the Chutaei had accompanied 
 in their maritime excursions. The Chutaei or Chuti 
 were natives of the country of Persis, called Cutli, 
 who after the dispersion of the ten tribes were 
 carried off from Cliuthah and the other cities of that 
 empire, into Phoenice, by Salamansar, King of As- 
 syria; and they and their posterity were, for the most 
 part, so called, because the greater number of them 
 were from the city Chuthah. Being intermixed with 
 the Phoenicians, they introduced into their cities the 
 worship of the idol Nergel, which many suppose to 
 have been, tliaringol, that is, a dunghill cock, wliicli 
 they had perched upon a pole in Xhe air, as the 
 herald of the dawn. The word Attacotti, tlierefore, 
 conveys to my ear the same idea as Atha-Chuthi 
 did to the Phoenicians, and that is, the arrival of the 
 Cutheans ; or as Athar-Cuthi, a place or country 
 where the Chutajans reside ; or as Chutaei scouts. 
 
248 
 
 in keeping with the character of the people, wliich 
 Zosimus designates as a warlike nation. 
 
 From the Attacotti would seem to have been de- 
 rived Annacotty, the name of a town in the county 
 Limerick ; for Anna, in the Phoenician, lianna, means 
 delightful, acceptable. This name, if we suppose it 
 composed of the words Ilanna-Chuttai, will mean, 
 a place acceptable to the Phoenician Chutheans ; or 
 if we suppose its component parts to have been 
 Anakia-Chuti, it will then mean the offspring of the 
 Phoenician Chutheans. Or, perhaps, it bears refer- 
 ence to the idol Ana-Meloch, which the PhcDenicians 
 borrowed from the Clmthaeans and other Assyrians, 
 in which case you may render it by, the oracle of 
 Moloch ; — aonah or onah, being, an answer. On 
 these points, however, let every one judge as he 
 thinks fit. I volunteer my guesses, principally to 
 elicit those of others. 
 
 Before any sucli appear, pcrliaps the curious in 
 antiquarian lore may recognise other vestiges of the 
 Cutliajans in the name, Cot's Rock, now Castlemary, 
 in the county Cork, where is to be seen. an immense 
 stone altar, supported by three others. Inis Cathay, 
 too, now Inis Scattery,* an island at the mouth of the 
 
 * Scattery island is about three miles from the shore, and 
 contains about one hundred and eighty acres of choice land : 
 a pnory was founded here, by St. Sennan, in the sixth century. 
 It is recorded in St. Sennan's life, that during his residonce in 
 
249 
 
 river Shannon, where tliere is still standing, in toler- 
 ahle preservation, one of the Round Towers in which 
 this country abounds, may seem a vestige of Cuthaean 
 occupancy ; so may Cath, also tlie name of a rock 
 on the coast of the county Cork ; as well as Cotton, 
 an extensive district in the county Down ; and Cot- 
 land, a small town in the county Kildare. 
 
 That the Phoenicians too, who had originally 
 landed in Spain, had been Chuthaeans, appears to be 
 indicated by the name of Cotinussa, by which, as 
 Fcstus Avicnus and Pliny inform us, the island of 
 Ciades was once known ; by the names of the towns 
 of Cuthar in Bu3tica; Cutanda and Cotanda in Ccl- 
 
 this island, vvhicli was then called Inis Cathay, a ship arrived 
 tlu?ro, bringing fifty monks, Romans by birth, who were drawn 
 into Ireland by tiie desire of a more holy life and a knowledge 
 of the scriptures. This island, called also Inisgatha or Inisga, 
 the island in the sea, situated in the mouth of the Shannon, one 
 of the most convenient harbors for the Danish and Norwegian 
 invaders, who generally came north about round Scotland, was 
 for a long time a bone of contention between them and the 
 Irish ; and from the multitude of those round forts, said to be 
 thrown i^p by tho Danes — though in reality they were erected 
 long before their inroads — in the adjoining parishes in the west 
 of Clare — it is likely that tho Danes was strong in this quarter. 
 From the Annals of Munster, Act 55, p. 542, we learn that in 
 the year 975, Brion the "Great," King of Munster, at the head 
 of twelve hundred Dalgais troops, assisted by Doinnhali, King 
 of Toanhuein, recovered the island of Iniscnttory from tho 
 Danes, by defeating- Tomhar, the Norman, and his two sons, 
 Amblaib and Duibheann. Eight hundred of the Danes, who 
 fled thither for safety some time before, were slain in this battle. 
 
250 
 
 tiberia; Cotar and Cotillo in Cantabria; Cutian, (two 
 of same name) inOallacia; and Ciitialla, an immense 
 rock of the Pyrenees. To tliese you may add the 
 names of various villas and villages in different 
 quarters of that country, such as Goto, Cueto, 
 Cotanes, Cotarones, Cotovad, Cotolino, Cotorillo, 
 &c. &c. 
 
 CHAP. XXVIII. 
 
 The Druids, Magicians and Soothsayers — Whence named — 
 The introducers of human immolation and human divination 
 amongst the people of the West. 
 
 It is admitted on all hands that the soothsayers 
 and magicians, and as such — conformably to ancient 
 custoni;' — ^thc magistrates of the ancient IJritons 
 and Cauls, had been called Druids in the British 
 language.* We have the authority of Pliny for 
 
 * Of all the ancient heathen systems of religion, the Diuid- 
 ical conies nearest to that of the Carthagenians ; but then it 
 will he naturally asked, how, or in what manner did the ancient 
 I^ritons become acijuainted with the religion of a people, who, 
 
251 
 
 stating, tliat tlicse liad transmitted the science of 
 the Magi, or tlie art of Magic, to the Chaldeans and 
 Persians. Undoubtedly Orphaeus,* who was one of 
 tlieir number, taught music and theology to the 
 Greeks.f The Gauls and the inhabitants of the 
 JJritish isles, had, as Caesar and Tacitus inform us, 
 their own Druids. With both nations did the custom 
 of sacrificing Imman victims to theix idols prevail, 
 which Cicero and others record of the Gauls, as 
 Pliny does of the Britons ; and perhaps it would not 
 
 in point of locality, were situated at a vdst distahfcfe from them? 
 To a thinking person, this would afford much instruction, be- 
 cause it will serve to convince him, that the account of the 
 dispersion of Noah's children, as related in Genesis x. is 
 genuine ; and that all idolatry originated from the mistaken 
 notions which men r>inhraced, after their dispersion on the face 
 of the earth, when they vainly attempted to build the Tower 
 of Babel. Lastly, the Carthagenians, or Phoenicians, carried 
 on a very extensive commerce with the natives of Britain ; a 
 circunlstance which fcould not easily have taken place in those 
 barbarous ages, unless their religions, tnanners, and customs 
 had nearly resembled each other. That they did so, we have 
 many evidences remaining in Britain, particularly in Devon- 
 shire and Cornwall ; and to support this assertion, vt^e have the 
 testimony of the best Greek and Roman historians. 
 
 * We should observe that the ancient name for a harp, in 
 Irish, is Orpheam, an evident derivation from this great musi- 
 cian's name. 
 
 t Whilst their first taught creed, the mystic or philosophical 
 religion of an eadier age, came to them directly from India 
 itself. And of this, Herodotus himself is the authority we 
 choose to quote, who admits that the Grecian divinities were 
 partly Egyptian and partly Pelasgic. 
 
252 
 
 be straining" commentary too far if we would take 
 tlie observation of Horace, wliere he calls the 
 ** liritons savage to strangers," as allusive to the 
 same ; for some persons suppose that they were in 
 the habit of immolating strangers, which it is well 
 known the inhabitants of the county of Taurus 
 had practised without reserve. The Concani too, 
 who were a part of the Cantabrians, as we have 
 said above, residing in Hispania Tarraconensis, and 
 a colony of the Massagetae, had some things in 
 common with the Sarmatians, Thracians, and Scy- 
 thians, as far as regards cruelty and beastly pro- 
 pensities. 
 
 The word Druid some would derive from the 
 Celtico-Germanic, deruidhon, which means exceeding 
 wise ; for, der, or, dre, in Celtic, is the same as, deur 
 or, door, in the German Celto-Scythic; as are their 
 compounds Druides and Deurwitten. Others choose 
 to derive it from druis, which, both in the Celtic and 
 German, is equivalent to trowis or truvis, that is, a 
 teacher of truth and faith. Otliers from the British 
 and German, dru, faith ; by some called tru ; whence 
 too, God was called by the antient Germans, Drutin 
 or Trudin, as you may see in the gospel of Othfridus ; 
 Drudin, therefore, may signify either, divine or faith- 
 ful; either term being applicable to the priesthood. 
 Others from the old British word, drus, a da3mon or 
 magician ; or the Saxon dry, an enchanter, whilst 
 others, in fine, would derive it from the Greek, drus. 
 
253 
 
 an oak, mul tliat solely because of Pliny's remark, 
 that " they make choice of oak groves, neither do 
 they celebrate any sacred rites without that tree, so 
 much so that they may seem to have been thence 
 denominated by a Greek derivation."* What Lucan 
 says of them would seem to bear upon this, viz. 
 " deep groves, in remote uncultivated forests." 
 Whence the Greeks, by an old taunt, used to call 
 them, Saronides, from the worship of old oaks, 
 which that word originally and properly signified. 
 
 They who hold out for the Celtic etymology say, 
 that this explanation would be satisfactory enough, 
 if the Gauls had received the Druids from the 
 Massilienses, and they from the Phocenscs. But 
 the Druids were unknown to the Greeks, so that we 
 must look altogether for their origin in the Celtic, 
 especially as it is supposed, on the authority of Caesar 
 and Tacitus, that the Gauls had borrowed them from 
 the British isles. 
 
 Every one will doubtless judge for himself. To 
 my ear the word sounds of a Syro-Chaldaic, or 
 Phoenician descent, yet could I not dare to specify 
 
 * In the Irish annals, Magh, a Magian priest, is sometimes 
 put for Draoi, a Druid. The Druidical religion was at first ex- 
 tremely simple ; but such is the corruption of human nature, 
 that it was soon debased by abominable rites and ceremonies, 
 in the same manner as was practised by tiie Canaanites, the 
 Carthagoiiinns, and by nil tho licatlionH in tlio othor parts of tlio 
 world. 
 
254 
 
 its precise gignification. In the 'Phoenician language, 
 dor-ida means a progeny of wise men or benefactors, 
 or of such as have the charge of the people ; dor-id, 
 a powerful generation ; dra-id, powerful lords ; dru- 
 sin, teachers and instructors, from the singular drns 
 or dras ; each and all of which would admirably ac- 
 cord with the established and well known literature of 
 the Irish Druids,* as well as their power and inlluence 
 amongst barbarous nations, sunk in vice and devoted 
 to the worship of idols. Drur or dreur, also, in 
 that language, means exemption from work, or ser- 
 vitude ; freedom from debt or demand, &c. And we 
 know that Caesar has declared of the Druids, " that 
 they do not pay tribute in common with others, 
 having exemption from war, as- well as immunity 
 from every other demand." I am not so vain, how-' 
 ever, as to think that I have altogether in this 
 particular hit upon the truth. Mankind are liable 
 
 * The Scpto-lVlilesians, free and independent, liv^d within 
 themselves, and were separated by their insular situation, from 
 the rest of the world ; whilst the Britons were slaves, trampled 
 upon by a foreign power, and often harassed by Ihe Picts and 
 Scots. The Scoto-Milesians held a superiority over them in 
 every thing : they made war upon them in their own country ; 
 they carried away prisoners; and in. fine were a lettered 
 people, which cannot be said of the Britons. Sha.ll it be then 
 pretended, that, because there were not in the time of Gildas, 
 any historical monuments among the Britons, the neighbouring 
 nations must have been also without any ? The inferencce 
 ciinnot appear to be a just one. — />/«(; (SvoqIhujuh. 
 
255 
 
 to err in these matters, but I am greatly (Icccivcd, 
 if I am not far less distant from the truth than tlicy 
 who, in the fondness of their zeal, would boast of 
 their success in extracting this and other names from 
 the Celtic language, or that of the old Britons and 
 Germans.* 
 
 That from the Druids, as well as from the other 
 sacrificial forms of the Phoenicians and other nations, 
 was introduced into Spain and Gaul, and the 
 British islands, the barbarous custom of human 
 innnolation, called anthropothysia, together with 
 
 * Tartars, who, in Isbrancl's account of them, arc called 
 Daores, and wIjo are a branch of the Orientals, assemble 
 themselves together at midnight, both men and women, in 
 some commodious place, where one of them falls prostrate on 
 the ground, and remains stretched out at his full length, whilst, 
 the whole cabal make a hideous outcry to the dolefid sound of 
 a drum, made on purpose for the celebration of that particular 
 ceremony. At the expiration of two hours, or thereabouts, the 
 person thus extended, rises as it were in an ecstasy, and com- 
 municates his visions to the whole assembly. He is perfectly 
 apprized during his trance, of what misfortunes will befall this 
 man, and what undertakings that man will engage in with 
 success. Each word he utters is listened to with the utmost 
 attention, and is deemed as sacred as that of an oracle. All 
 their religious worship, however, does not absolutely consist 
 in this; for they have their particular sacrifices as well as 
 others. There is a small mountain on the frontiers of China, 
 which is looked iipon as holy ground, and the eastern 'I'artars 
 imagine their journrcs will prove unsuccessful, if, as they pass 
 by, they neglect to consecrate some part of their apparel to this 
 sacred mountain. 
 
250 
 
 that of liuman divination, called anthropomanteia, 
 is a question that no one can contravene. Diodorus 
 Siculus speaking of them says, " Whenever they 
 deliberate upon matters of importance, they observe 
 a wonderful and almost incredible custom : for they 
 sacrifice a man, and from some old established ob- 
 servation upon matters, affect to know the future by 
 the circumstances of his fall, whether it be from some 
 accident, or the laceration of his limbs, or the flow 
 of his blood." Tacitus, too, says, " the Druids held 
 it lawful to offer upon the altars the blood of their 
 captives, and dive into futurity by the fibres of 
 human victims."* This custom the Spaniards observed, 
 
 * Wlien the lights, after being just taken out, were found 
 still panting, it was looked upon to be so happy an omen, that 
 all other presages were considered as indifterent or of no con- 
 sequence ; because, said they, this alone sufficed to make them 
 propitious, how unhappy soever they might be. After they had 
 taken out the harslet, they blew up the bladder with their 
 breath, then tied it up at the end, or squeezed it close with 
 their hands, observing at the same time how the passages, 
 through which the air enters into the lungs, and the small veins 
 which are generaly found there, were swelled ; because the 
 more they were inflated, the more the omen was propitious. 
 They also observed several other particulars, which it would be 
 a diiiicult matter for us to relate. 
 
 They looked upon it as an ill omen, if while they were rip- 
 ping up the beast's side, it rose up and escaped out of the 
 hands of those who held it down, and they also looked upon 
 it as ill boding, if the bladder, which generally joins to the 
 harslet, happened to break, and had thereby prevented the 
 taking it out entire ; or if the lights were torn, or the heart 
 putriflcd, and so on. 
 
257 
 
 having borrowed it, no doubt, from tliem or some 
 others of the Phoenician priesthood. " The Lusitani," 
 says Strabo, " study immolation, and inspect the en- 
 trails of their victims before they have been cut out : 
 they also examine the veins of the sides, and pretend 
 to divination by touching. Nay, they prophesy also 
 from the entrails of their captives, first covering 
 them over with thick cloths : when thus, from be- 
 neath, a pulsation can be distinguished, the soothsayer 
 instantly predicts from the body of the slain. They 
 cut off the right hands of the prisoners of war, and 
 consecrate them to the gods." 
 
 The same Diodorus Siculus says, that the Druids 
 had a custom " of offering no sacrifice without a 
 philosopher to officiate : for they thought that sacred 
 rites should bo performed only by men conscious of 
 the divine nature, and as such in a near relation 
 to the g;ods."* They attended also at the sacrifices 
 
 • Some of their priests were extremely ingenious, and made 
 amulets, or rings of glass, variegated in the most curious 
 manner, of which many are still to be seen. They were worn 
 as we do rings on the finger ; and having been consecrated by 
 one of the Druids, they were considered as charms, or pre- 
 servatives against witchcraft, or all the machinations of evil 
 spirits. From what remains of these amulets, or rings, they 
 seem to have been extremely beautiful, composed, of blue, red, 
 and green, intermixed with white spots ; all of which contained 
 something emblematical, either of the life of tlie persons who 
 wore them, or of the slate to which they were supposed to 
 enter. 
 
•258 
 
 of tlie Gauls, at which, Tertullian tells us, they were 
 in tlie liabit of offering human victims to Mercury. 
 And Menutius Felix says, " the Gauls slay human, 
 or rather, inhuman, victims." Strabo, speaking of 
 their sacrifices, which had been invented, or at least 
 patronized, by the Druids, says, " they used in their 
 sacred offices to pierce some individuals to death by 
 arrows, or else crucify them ; or having reared up a 
 pillar of hay and stuck a wooden pole therein, they 
 used to burn cattle and animals of every description, 
 nay, men themselves, whole and unmutilated." And 
 Diodorus Siculus, " criminals kept for five years, 
 they nail to the stakes, and sacrifice to the gods, and 
 with other first fruits, immolate over immense funeral 
 piles."* Which practices, as well as the others apper- 
 taining to idolatrous ritual, were common to the 
 Spaniards and Britons, and its various Celtic tribes. 
 
 But as the first Druids were, in my opinion, the 
 sacrificing priests of the Phoenicians, it is very likely 
 that they borrowed this bloody and atrocious super- 
 stition from the Phoenicians, of whom Porphyry says, 
 
 * And barbarous indeed waa the manner in which it was 
 done: the victim, stripped nalied, and his head adorned witfi 
 flowers, was chained with his back to an oak, opposite the 
 place where the Arch-Druid stood ; and while ruusic of all 
 sorts, then in use, was playing, the Druid, having invoked the 
 gods to accept of the sacrifice, walked forward with a knife in 
 his hand, and stabbed the victim in the bowels. The music pre- 
 vented his cries from being heard by the people ; it was some- 
 times four or five hours before he expired. 
 
259 
 
 " the Phoenicians used to sacrifice on occasions of 
 great calamity — whether of war, of draught, or of 
 pestilence — some certain one of their dearest friends, 
 appointed for tliis purpose by common suffrage. " 
 And Eusebius : " The Phoenicians used yearly to 
 sacrifice their most beloved friends, nay, their only 
 sons." What wonder is it then that the greater part 
 of the religions of the barbarians should have at 
 length accorded with the Phoenicians in this human 
 immolation, finding it an easy transition, from sa- 
 crifice to inakfice, from fiety to enormity , from the 
 blood of victims to the murder of man? a thing not 
 only savage and revolting in the act, but monstrous 
 and horrible even in idea ! The Thessalians we find 
 used annually to sacrifice a man to Peleus and 
 Chiron ; so used the Scythians foreigners to Diana. 
 As the Syrians used to slay a virgin annually in 
 honor of Pallas, so used the Arabians a boy. The 
 Curetes, like the Phoenicians, used to sacrifice some 
 of their children to Saturn ; the Lacedemonians, a 
 man to Saturn ; the Chians, another to Bacchus ; 
 the Salaminians, another to Diomcd ; and the llho- 
 dians, another to Saturn ;* whilst the Phrigians, in 
 
 * Saturn was the deity whom the Carthagenians principally 
 worshipped ; and he was the same with what is called Moloch 
 in Scripture. This idol was the deity to whom they offered up 
 human sacrifices, and to this we owe the fable of Saturn's 
 having devoured his own children. Princes and great men, 
 under particular calamities, used to offer up their most beloved 
 
 s 2 
 
200 
 
 the heat of their superstitious zeal, used miserably 
 to hum and sacrifice themselves to the great mother, 
 Cibele. The Greeks, before setting out upon any 
 military expedition, used to sacrifice a life, thereby 
 making their devotion towards the gods to wreak its 
 vengeance upon themselves. The Athenians, oppress- 
 ed by a frightful famine on account of the assassination 
 of Androgeos, consulted the oracle ; when they got for 
 their reply, that they must send fourteen souls every 
 year to Crete for sacrifice. The Italians themselves 
 used to sacrifice every tenth man, or the tithe of 
 their population, to Apollo and Juno. But I grow 
 sick of the recital, and shall leave this unnatural and 
 impious superstition to the merited lamentations of 
 Lactantius and TertuUian.* 
 
 children to this idol. Private persons imitated the conduct of 
 their princes ; and thus, in time, the practice became general ; 
 nay, to such a height did they carry their infatuation, that those 
 who had no children of their own, purchased those of the poor, 
 that they might not be deprived of the benefits of such a sacri- 
 fice, which was to procure them the completion of their wishes. 
 This horrid custom prevailed long among the Pliajnicians, the 
 Tyriuns, and the Carthageniiins, and from them the Israelites 
 borrowed it, although expressly contrary to the order of (Jod. 
 
 * The ancient idolaters of Peru oftered not only the fruits of 
 the earth and animals to these gods, but also their captives, like 
 the rest of the Americans. We are assured, that they used to 
 sacrifice their own children, whenever there was a scarcity of 
 victims. These sacrifices were performed by cutting open the 
 victims alive, and afterwards tearing out their hearts; they then 
 smeared the idol, to whom they were sacrificing, with ihe blood 
 
261 
 
 It was chiefly on account of these human sacrifices 
 that Augustus Caesar interdicted to his subjects the 
 introduction of the Druidical religion. Tiberius re- 
 moved it from the city ; and Claudius abolished it 
 in the Gauls themselves. Yet have we the lament- 
 able truth to record, that this cruel rite was again 
 revived and perpetuated, at a subsequent period, in 
 Gaul and elsewhere, as Lampridius, Vopiscus, and 
 Eusebius, but too mournfully testify.* 
 
 Some Spaniards suppose that vestiges of the 
 Druids of that Peninsula are still preserved, in the 
 depraved names of Drada and Dradas, which are 
 small towns belonging to the ancient Lusitania, 
 which became afterwards the jurisdiction of the 
 
 yet reeking, as was the custom of Mexico. The priest burnt 
 the victim's heart, after having viewed it in order to see whether 
 the sacrifice would be agreeable to the idol. Some other idol- 
 ators offered their own blood to their deities, which they drew 
 from their arms and thighs, according as the sacrifice was more 
 or less solemn ; and they even used, on extraordinary occasions, 
 to let themselves blood at the tips of their nostrils* or between 
 the eye-brows. We are however to observe, that these kinds 
 of bleeding were not always an act of religious worship, but 
 were often employed purely to prevent diseases. — Hurd. 
 
 * No idolatrous worship ever attained such an ascendant over 
 mankind as that of the ancient Gauls and Britons ; and the 
 Romans, after their conquest, finding it impossible to reconcile 
 those nations to the laws and institutions of their mastiirs, were 
 at last obliged toabolish the Druidical system by penal statutes 
 a violence which had never, in any other instance, been prac- 
 tised by those tolerating conquerors." — Hume's Engl. J. 6. 
 
262 
 
 Suevi, as it is now of the Lucani, in the district of 
 Gallacia, They also suppose that Adrada and 
 Adrades, the names of two towns belonging to the 
 Vaccaei, allude to the same ; as also Adrados, the 
 name of two villages in the country of the Astures, 
 &c. &c* 
 
 * Some traces of the Druidical religion remained in Gaul 
 and Germany, till the time of the Emperor Constantine the 
 Great; but in that part of Britain, now called England, it was 
 totally suppressed, in consequence of the following incident. In 
 or about the year G2, the Romans having cruelly oppressed the 
 Britons, who were at that time subject to them by conquest, 
 the latter took up arms, and massacred many of their invaders. 
 News of this having been sent to Rome, Scutonius, a gallant 
 commander, was sent over to Britain, in order to subdue the 
 insurgents, and thewholebody of the Druids, calling in the aid of 
 superstition, retired to the island of Mona, since called Angle- 
 sey, in North Wales. To that island the Roman general pur- 
 sued them ; and such were the hopes that the Druids had of 
 success, that when the Romans made their appearance, they 
 lighted up fires in their groves, in order to consume them. The 
 Romans, however, put most of the Britons to the sword ; and 
 having taken the Druids prisoners, burnt them alive on their 
 altars, and cut down their consecrated groves. From that time 
 wo havo but few accounts of the Druids in the southern parts of 
 Britain, although there is the strongest reason to believe, that 
 both in the western parts, and likewise in Ireland, their religion 
 continued much longer. — Hard. 
 
263 
 
 CHAP. XXIX. 
 
 The Phoenicians initiated the Samothracians in the discipline of 
 idols — They also introduced it into Ireland — Astaroth, a 
 Phoenician idol — Vestiges of its worship in Ireland and in 
 Spain. 
 
 Thus far have we seen all that is worthy of being 
 known respecting the ancient manners of the early 
 inhabitants of Ireland. Now lest any one should 
 imagine that I have been induced, from the mere 
 circumstance of the derivation of these names, to 
 infer the possession of this island, as well in length 
 as in breadth, from coast to coast, at One time by 
 the Phoenicians, I shall endeavour to construct my 
 theory still more secure, by the idol worship which 
 anciently prevailed amongst us, and which was the 
 same as originally obtained amongst the Phoenicians, 
 from whom, doubtless, we have adopted it. In sup- 
 port of this I shall adduce, first, the authority of 
 Artemidorus, who says that " there is an island near 
 Britain, in which sacrifices used to be offered to Ceres* 
 
 * Prima Ceres ferro mortales vertere terrain, instituit. — Virg. 
 Gear. i. 7. 
 
2G1. 
 
 and to Proserpine, in the stime manner as in Samo- 
 thrace." " Nor is there any reason," adds Bochart, 
 ** that any one should tliink its inhabitants had the 
 Greeks as their instructors at the time of Artemido- 
 rus, who wrote in the reign of Ptolemy Latyrus ; 
 the learned know well that no Greek ever landed in 
 Britain : it remains, therefore, that those same 
 Phoenicians, from whom the Samothracians had 
 learned the worship of the Cabiri, had initiated 
 those also in the same discipline." In like manner, 
 are we furnished with proofs — as well from other 
 memorials as from certain terms used by the Irish 
 people, which savor strongly of the idolatrous ritual 
 — that they had instructed in the principles of their 
 superstition not only the Irish, but the Spaniards too, 
 and every other people amongst whom they could get 
 footing as a colony. 
 
 To begin with Astarte or Astaroth, the deity of 
 the Phoenicians, and the groves dedicated to 'her, 
 we may observe the evidence of her having been 
 worshipped in Ireland, in the name of that town 
 m the county Donegal, by the river Erne, called 
 Astroth, or, otherwise, Ashro ; in Ardsrath or Ard- 
 stra, the name of a town by the river Deirg, in the 
 county Antrim, now called Bathlure ; in Aterit, the 
 name of an ancient district and borough in the 
 county Gal way, now called Athenry or Atenree. 
 
 For Ashro is the Phoenician word, Ashra, a grove 
 or shrubbery that is worshipped ; or a tree planted 
 
265 
 
 in lionor of some idol beside his shrine or altar ; for 
 the Phoenicians, like the other idolators of the east, 
 were wont to plant a tree by the temples or altars of 
 their divinities, as a meeting-place for the congre- 
 gation ; a custom which, perhaps, had its rise from 
 the similar one universally observed by the easterns, 
 of planting trees over the graves of their illustrious 
 men or heroes.* A specimen of this custom we still see 
 m the linden or elm trees planted over ancient ceme- 
 tries. Spain, too, has to this day, in the district of 
 Cantabria, a celebrated tree of this sort, which they 
 call, de Garnica; under the branches of which, from 
 the earliest date, the people have been accustomed 
 to celebrate their general elections. 
 
 That the idolators used to worship a tree situated 
 in the centre of a garden may be inferred from the 
 sixty-seventh chapter, and seventeenth verse of Isaiah. 
 Holy writ speaks in more places than one, of woods 
 or groves consecrated to Baal, a superstition which 
 the Lord prohibited to Israel. The people, however, 
 forgetting the Lord their God, are said afterwards to 
 have worshipped Baalim and Ashroth or Asheroth, 
 that is his groves. Which observance the Greeks and 
 Romans in after times adopted. The Galli Narbonen- 
 
 * Super tnmnlum Iddo, propheter, q„i sepultus est in urbe 
 1 hoenicum Dan juxta fontem fluminis lor-Dan (fluvius Dan) 
 abor magna botam (terebintl.ns) collocata est. Ibidem tumula- 
 t..s o,tSahuel, Moysis ex Gcrson nepos; et super eo arbor 
 magna Sagadian. V. Schindl. loc. laud. col. 378. 
 
266 
 
 ses,who were called Massilii, that is, the inhabitants of 
 Marseilles, used to adore their gods in woods; or in 
 other words, used to consider as gods the trunks of 
 their trees ; an usage from which the Scythians, the 
 Persians, and the Lybians did not differ much, who 
 at a time when they had neither likenesses nor 
 images, began afterwards to worship idols in woods. 
 Unquestionably Jupiter was called Endendros by the 
 Rhodians, as was Bacchus by the Boetians, from 
 their being worshipped in groves, as this epithet 
 signifies. Diana, too, was called Nemorensis, or 
 presiding over groves, as she was also Arduenra, and 
 the Albunean goddess, from a grove and forest of 
 those respective names. Conformable to this is what 
 we read of King Manasses, namely, that he laid 
 down in the temple of the Lord, pesel hasherah, or 
 ashrah, the idol of the grove. 
 
 The first king who is recorded to have consecrated 
 a grove under that name is Achab. What follows is in 
 keeping with this, viz. " And they made themselves 
 statues and groves in every high hill, and under every 
 shady forest." But why under every leafy oak they 
 burned fragrant incense to all their idols may be in- 
 ferred from Hosea, iv. 13^ where it is said they did 
 so " because its shade is good." It will be enough for 
 our purpose merely to hint that the oak to which the 
 worship was offered, is understood by Salomon Jarchi 
 as the word Asherah, which signifies an oak grove ; 
 and that from it seems to be taken the sense of that 
 
207 
 
 passage in Isaiah, Ivii. 5, " Ye comfort yourselves 
 with your gods under every green tree ;" the Hebrew 
 text has eUm, which the Septuagint and EngHsh 
 versions render by idols. They, therefore, who 
 understand by those scripture texts, not the real 
 trees, but the idols consecrated by that name, bring 
 forward in proof of this acceptation the lofty oak, 
 which Maximus Tyrius assures us, had been a statue 
 of the Celtic Jove. 
 
 And, indeed, that Asharah means not a place 
 planted with trees, as Flavins Josephus supposes, 
 but actually a deity, or rather a false god, may be 
 concluded from the fact of King Manasscs having 
 placed an idol of that name, and that too of wood, 
 in the temple of Jerusalem. Whence, perhaps, by 
 the terms oak and grove, is intended a reproach 
 upon their fictitious, fragile, and perishable divinities; 
 as we find it to have been burned by King Josias, 
 and ground to dust and then flung over the groves 
 of the populace. In other places, also, the word 
 Asherath or grove, is taken for the wooden image of 
 Belus, which was consecrated above his altar. We 
 likewise frequently meet with images dedicated to 
 Astarte or Astaroth, called Asherim and Asheroth, or 
 groves ; that, both, an attention may be enlisted by 
 the allusion of the name, and a material so inade- 
 (juatc to divinity find that merited reproach which 
 the very sound must convey. All our conjectures 
 about Ashros 1 wish to be understood as equally 
 
268 
 
 applicable to Easroe and Easruadli, being but inflec- 
 tions of this word, and names of two towns in this 
 country. 
 
 With this accord the depraved names of Astrath, 
 and of the village Ardsrath, that is the idol which 
 was worshipped there, called Astaroth or Astareth, 
 or Astrath, being an image of the Sidonians, respect- 
 ing which the scripture says, " that the people of 
 Israel had forsaken the Lord and worshipped Baal 
 and Astaroth ;" for these were the supreme, not to 
 say the only deities of the Sidonians, by the former 
 of which they understood the sun, by the other the 
 moon or the earth.* Whence some heretics, by 
 reason of its being common to all men to receive 
 their vital heat from the sun and heaven, and their 
 grosser matter from the terraqueous globe, over 
 which, and more particularly over its watery compo- 
 nent, the moon exercises dominion, have specially 
 attributed this to Melchisedec,f whose father they 
 
 * This idolatry was founded on a mistaken notion of grati- 
 tude, which instead of ascending up to the Supreme Being, stopt 
 short at the veil, which both covered and discovered liim: — 
 " Ah ! how basely men their honours use, 
 And the ricli gifts of bounteous heaven abuse : 
 How better far to want immoderate store 
 Of worldly wealth, and live serenely poor ; 
 To spend in peace and solitude our days. 
 Than be seduc'd from sacred virtue's ways." 
 
 MilchelVs Jonah. 
 t He appears to have been a real personage. lie hud pre- 
 served in his family and among his subjects the worship of the 
 
269 
 
 state to be Heracles, or tlie sun, and his mother 
 Astharte, that is the moon or Tellus. Nor would 
 they have done so, but that his parents were not 
 known. 
 
 We see, then, that the idol Astrath or Astharoth, 
 was also called Astharte, of which Lucian of Samo- 
 sata thus speaks : "Now there is another temple in 
 Phoenicia which the Sidonians have, and by name 
 Astharte as they themselves call it; but I consider 
 Astharte to be the moon." Whence Eusebius hands 
 down from Philo, that Astharte had the head of a 
 bull placed upon her own as the ensign of royalty ; that 
 by his curved front he may imitate fire, and exhibit 
 at the same time the appearance of the moon. Nor 
 can we conceive any more appropriate symbol of the 
 moon than an ox's head, representing as it does by 
 its horns the moon's curvature ; as the Egyptian Isis, 
 — by which likewise was meant the moon — was in- 
 vested by that people with a pair of horns. All which 
 characteristics clearly accord with the Diana of the 
 Greeks and Latins, whom Horace designates as 
 
 true God, and the primitive patriarchal institutions; by these 
 the father of every family was both king and priest. By Salem 
 most judicious interpreters allow that Jerusalem is meant. From 
 the use made of this part of the sacred history by David, (Psa. 
 ex. 4,) and by St. Paul, (Ileb. vii. 1 — 10,) we learn that there 
 was something very mysterious, and at the same time typical, 
 in the person, name, office, residence, and government of this 
 Cannanitish prince. 
 
270 
 
 " mistress of the woods." Whence it is evident that 
 Astharte is the moon or Diana ; groves having been 
 consecrated to her, as Vossius and others have de- 
 monstrated. From Astharte the septuagint has 
 given the name of, Astarteion, to the temple of As- 
 tharoth or Beth Astaroth; where the Palestines* 
 deposited or consecrated the arms of Saul, whom 
 they slew. You also meet Astartion in Flavins 
 Josephus. 
 
 There are those who maintain that Astaroth or 
 Astharte was so called,* from its images having been 
 made in the form of a sheep, and considering Aster- 
 oth to mean, Hocks. Others suspect it was so named 
 from the multitude of its victims. Others considered 
 Astharte to be Venus, whom Procopius, of Gaza, 
 asserts to have been worshipped by the Sidonians, 
 and to have had groves planted in honor of her. 
 
 * The appellation of Palestine, by which the whole land of 
 Canaan appears to have been called in the days of Moses, is 
 derived from the Philistines, a people who migrated from 
 Egypt, and, having expelled the aboriginal inhabitants, settled 
 on tlje borders of the Mediterranean ; where they became so 
 considerable as to give thoir name to the whole conntry, 
 though they in fact, possessed only a small part of it. The 
 Philistines were for a long time the most formidable enemies 
 of the children of Israel, but about the year of the world 3841, 
 that is, before Christ 3 59, the illustrious Judas Maccabeus 
 subdued their country ; and about sixty-five years afterwards 
 Jaiinicus burnt their city (iaza, and incorporated the renmant 
 of the Philistines with such Jews as he placed in their conntry. 
 
 Uartudl Ilonic. 
 
271 
 
 And here 1 may be allowed, in passing, to remark 
 that Ilerodian has inconsiderately and ill-advisedly 
 asserted, that the Phoenicians had no images of their 
 deities ; what he and Strabo have also said of the 
 ancient Persians, as Lucian has of the Egyptians. 
 This has led some to conclude that the Gauls, too, 
 and the Britons made no use of idols in their Druid- 
 ical ceremonies: and hence that it was not to be 
 wondered at that none were ever found in the ruins 
 of their old temples throughout this island. But it 
 is manifest from Holy writ, that the Phoenicians had 
 Baal, and Astharoth, and Moloch, and other like- 
 nesses of their deities, for idols. That the ancient 
 Irish worshipped idols will appear equally evident 
 from what Diodorus Siculus tells us of the *' Hyper- 
 borean" island, "Where," he says, " peculiar worship 
 is paid to Apollo, whom they worship every day with 
 incessant singing of praises,* and in lionor of whom 
 
 * One would suppose that the most ancient sort of poetry 
 consisted in praising the Deity ; for, if we conceive a being, 
 created with all his faculties and senses, endued with speech 
 and reason, to open his eyes in a most delightful plain, to view 
 for the first time tlie serenity of the sky, the splendor of the 
 sun, the verdure of the fields and woods, the glowing colours 
 of the flowers, we can hardly believe it possible that he should 
 refrain from bursting in an ecstacy o( joy, and pouring his 
 praises to the creator of those wonders, and the author of his 
 happiness. This kind of poetry is used in all nations ; but, as 
 it is the sublimest of all, when it is applied to its true object, so 
 it has often been perverted to impious purposes by pagans and 
 
272 
 
 there is there a magnificent grove and a splendid 
 temple, of circular form."* And a comparison of the 
 original, in its several descriptive points, will prove 
 beyond the possibility of doubt, that by this island 
 was meant our own green Ireland,f as Dalton has 
 before affirmed. But, more than abundant on this 
 
 idolaters : every one knows that the dramatic poetry of the 
 Europeans took its rise from the same spring, and was no more 
 at first than a song in praise of Bacchus: so that the only 
 species of poetical composition, (if we except the epic,) which 
 can in any sense bo called imitative, was dednced from a 
 natural emotion of the mind, in which imitation could not be at 
 all concerned. — Sir W. Jones. 
 
 * Tliese are the " Round Towers," or, to speak correctly, 
 our Budhist Temples, as I have proved in my " Essay :" 
 
 Divine 
 
 And beauteous island 1 thou hast been my sole 
 And most magnificent temple, in the which 
 I walk with awe, and sing my stately songs. 
 Loving the God that made me ! 
 
 Coleridge. 
 f " Although," says Sir John Carr, " the Welsh have been 
 for ages celebrated for the boldness and sweetness of their 
 Music, yet it appears that they were much indebted to the 
 superior musical talents of their neighbours, the Irish. The 
 learned Selden asserts, that the Welsh music, for the most 
 part, came out of Ireland with Grutfydh ap Conan, Prince of 
 North Wales, who was cotemporary wiih King Stephen. *• I 
 am delighted," adds the elegant author of Julia de Roubigni, 
 " with those ancient national songs, because there is a simpli- 
 city and an expression in them, which I can understand. 
 Adepts in music arc pleased with mure intricate^ compositions, 
 and they talk more of the pleasure, than they feel ; and others 
 talk after them, without feeling at all, 
 
273 
 
 Jjciid will be tlio testimony of St. rjitrick,* whom we 
 find continimlly and keenly reproving the adorers of 
 the sun, whom he found before him in this country, — 
 grieving from his soul that the Irish could, to that 
 day, continue in the worship of ridiculous idols. 
 
 As, therefore, the Iberes in Spain worshipped after 
 the Phoenician fashion, the sun and moon, under the 
 guise of Baal and Astharoth, so did the Irish embrace 
 the same superstitions from the Ibero-Phoenicians, as 
 well as the worship of those images that prevailed 
 amongst them. Nor is it to be wondered at, if, in the 
 old walls of those temples — which Ireland still pre- 
 serves, despite the ravages of time — there are no sucli 
 images as those to be met with, as I am perfectly as- 
 sured that St' Patrick and the other preachers of the 
 gospel, took piuticular care to overthrow,-— to extir- 
 pate, and, like Josias, to burn, — every vestige of an idol 
 that came in their way or could possibly be met with. 
 This I can more immediately testify with respect to 
 Spain, where no appearance of the like is to be found, 
 by digging beneath the rubbish of old castles or towns ; 
 
 * S. Eleranus sapiens in Vita S. Patricii ii. LI II. iiariat 
 beatum hunc episcopum, in loco ubi est iiodi(i Ecclesia S. Pa- 
 tricii, qua^ Scotic^ Domnack Padruic vocatur.invonisse idobmi 
 Slecht (vel in campo Slccht) anio ct aigento ornatuni ; et 12 si- 
 mulacbra airea hincet inde crpa idohim posita. " Rex antom, 
 addit et omnis popubis hoc idobini adorabant, in quo daemon 
 possimus latitabat." — Colgan. 
 
274 
 
 though it is a well known fact that idolatry flourished 
 there, in allits varieties, of Phoenician, Celtic, Grecian, 
 and Roman forms. I will instance the town of 
 Gades, in which Philostratus bears record there were 
 deities worshipped that were scarcely elsewhere 
 known or heard of. ffilian tells us that it had one 
 altar sacred to the year, and another to the month, in 
 honor of time, of those respective durations. There, 
 too, poverty had an altar, as well as art and old 
 age; and death also, which, as Philostratus tells us, 
 they used to celebrate with songs of joy ; unless, 
 perhaps, by death we are to understand, Pluto ; whom 
 it is well known, from Sanchoniathon, that the Phoe- 
 nicians used to call Muth, which means death. But 
 to return from this digression. 
 
 Nor ought we to wonder that the Phoenicians 
 should have named those towns in Ireland after 
 their idol Astharoth, or Astharte, and the groves 
 consecrated thereto ; for there was a city also of 
 the name in Phoenicia, the royal residence of Og 
 king of Basan, in which the modern Jews will have 
 it, that the house of Job was situated. We have, 
 liowever alrcuidy ])roved, and without the })ossi- 
 bility of doubt, from the ancient geography of 
 Spain, that several of its towns and villages, as well 
 as also its distinguished cities, have been named 
 from the groves, or mountains, or caves wherein 
 they used to offer their devotions ; as well as from the 
 idols themselves to whom they used to offer them. 
 
275 
 
 To tlicso I add the example of tlic name Astarte,* 
 or Astliaroth, at present under discussion : for it is 
 to me unquestionable, that, from the worship of this 
 idol, arose the names of the Spanish villag^es of As- 
 trar, amongst the ancient Suevi, in the dcj)artment 
 of ('ompostelia ; y\steire, in tin; Lucanian territory; 
 Astariz, in the Ariensian tract ; with the town oi 
 Astrain, and the deserted and almost ruinated little 
 village of Astrea amongst the Cantabrians. Nor 
 sliould I think those to be far astray, who — merely 
 expunging the initial letter, as is usual in other geo- 
 graphical names of Spain — conceive that, from the 
 idol Asthartes, originated the name of Tartessus,f the 
 most ancient city which the Phoenicians built near 
 Calpe and the pillars of Hercules. This I beg leave 
 to say with all deference to the authority of tlic 
 poets of Spain, who, with Ovid at their head, insist 
 that Tartessus is the extreme section of the west, and 
 who think it so called from the river Tartessus, whose 
 source is in the silver mountain of Oros-pcdda, which 
 abounds in mines of that metal ; or whose sides, say 
 they, being overlaid with tin, exhibit the appearance 
 of so much silver. 
 
 * Astorc, that word of bland endearment, and familiar con- 
 verse amongst the native [risli, implying, my refulgent delight, 
 is an evident emanation from tins Astarte or Limar Goddess. 
 
 t Sic k Emerita, expunctA [iriore syllabft, dicimns Merida : 
 ^ Ccesaraiignsi/i, Zaragoza : <\ Vico Anso7ia;, Vic. Innumera 
 occnrrunt exempla. 
 
 T 2 
 
270 
 
 CHAP. XXX. 
 
 Vestiges both in Ireland and Spain of the worship of Moloch, 
 the idol of the Phoenicians — Various navies thereof — Des- 
 cription of it — The name of God attributed to the deities of 
 the Gentiles — The Sijrians used to sacrifice their sons and 
 daughters to Moloch — What meant by bcariiKj over across 
 the Jire — The horrible practice , of burnhuj alive, spread from 
 Syria into other nations. 
 
 Of Moloch too, the PhcEnician deity, as there 
 would seem to be some traces of his worship still 
 remaining amongst the Spaniards, evidenced in the 
 name of Malaca, a maritime town in the province of 
 Bcetica; and Malagon, or Malgon, a town of the 
 Artabri, so here would the name of Ard-Mulchan, a 
 town in the barony of Duleek, county Meath, seem 
 to prove itscxistcncc amongst the ancient Irish ; us 
 would also another town of the same name in the ba- 
 rony of Skreen ; Macroon, a town in the barony 
 of Bantry, county Cork ; Meelick, a town in the ba- 
 rony of Bunratty, county Clare ; Melick, a small town 
 in the barony of Gallen, county Mayo ; Melches- 
 town, a village in the barony of Moygeesh, county 
 
277 
 
 Westmeath ; Melcombe, a town in the barony of 
 Canagli, county Mayo ; Malco, a lake in the county 
 Mayo; and Mclogh, a river, in the couniy Down, with 
 numberless others ; all of which, until undeceived by 
 some other more convincing autliority, I slmll con- 
 tinue to derive from various inflexions of the word 
 Moloch, which the Phoenicians themselves used some- 
 times to pronounce, Molech ; and, with the initial 
 letter repeated at the end, Milcom, and in the Sy- 
 rian vulgate, Malcum. But the place wherein this 
 idol's sacrifices used to be performed, was called 
 Malken, or Malaken. 
 
 Molock, or Milcom was expressly the deity of the 
 Ammonites, amongst whom he had a temple in the 
 city of Gebal, and in it an image of stone, overlaid 
 with gold, and seated upon a throne ; on cither side 
 of him were two female images, also seated, and in 
 front an altar, whereon the sacrifices and incense 
 used to be offered up. But the Assyrians, who had 
 been carried away into Samaria, had other idols of 
 Moloch, which they called Adra-Melech and Ana- 
 Melech, that is, the brave and magnificent Moloch ; 
 for adir, which is one of the attributes of the deity, 
 signifies great, powerful, excellent, pr magnificent. 
 And no wonder, for as the Chaldee paraphrast, com- 
 monly known under the disguise of Jonathan, ob- 
 serves, " the Gentiles called their idols after the name 
 of the Lord Jehovah." Which is the opinion of several 
 of the Hebrews " conceiving," as St. Jerome says. 
 
278 
 
 " that their idols were made in the name of the 
 Lord, and after his likeness. Let the learned jndge, 
 whetlier or not, the town of Ard Mulchan in this 
 island, had not been so called from the name of the 
 idol Adra Malcum. 
 
 Moloch was represented with the face of a calf, 
 having his hands stretched out ready to receive any- 
 thing offered by the bystanders ; it was a concave 
 image, with seven distinct compartments ; one they 
 used to open for offering flour, another for turtles, 
 the third for a sheep, the fourtli for a ram, the fifth 
 for a calf, the sixth for an ox, but whoever affected 
 to be so exceedingly religious as to sacrifice a son for 
 him, as a mark of special approbation, they would 
 open the seventh.* Under the symbol of this idol the 
 
 * The Rabbins say it was made of brass, the body resembling 
 that of a man, and the head that of a calf, with a royal diadem, 
 and the arms extended. They add, that when children were 
 to be t>ffered to him, they heated the statue, and [)ut the mise- 
 rable victim between his arms, where it was soon consumed by 
 the violence of the flame. From the whole of this we may 
 learn, that human sacrifices were the most acceptable at the 
 altars of Moloch; which, tmdoubtedly, made our great poet 
 JVIillon rank him among the infernal deities, as oneof the fallen 
 angels ; and as one who was to be a curse to the idolatrous 
 world. 
 
 " First Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood 
 
 Of human sacrifices, and parents' tears ; 
 
 Though, for the noise of drums and timbrels loud, 1 
 
 Their children's cries unheard, that passed thro' fire 
 
 To his grim idol." 
 
279 
 
 Phceiiicians used to worsliip tlic sun and Saturn, 
 namely, that large star in the firmament which they 
 used to call Melee, king of all the rest. 
 
 They who think Saturn to have been the Moloch 
 of the Phoenicians, seem to gain countenance in the 
 idea from the practice of sacrificing children to Mo- 
 loch ; which they, in common with the Carthaginians 
 observed ; whilst we know from the Greek and Latin 
 writers that victims used also to be sacrificed to 
 Saturn. 
 
 But the scriptures inform us, in divers places, that 
 the Syrians had unnaturally burned their own seed, 
 their own sons and daughters, in honor of this deity. 
 This abominable sacrifice of the idol, tlien, consisted 
 in dragging children through the fire, and by the 
 hands of their parents in honor of him. 
 
 That this was a Phoenician custom is evident from 
 Philastrius, and Porphyry, and Eusebius too, as I 
 have already shewn when treating on the subject of 
 the Druids. It obtained particularly in the land of 
 Canaan and the Mediterranean Syria, in which Phoe- 
 nicia was comprehended ; and the author of the book 
 of wisdom, as well as Jeremy and Ezekiel, seem 
 severally to allude to the prevalence of the })ractico 
 in Syria of immolating their children. Whence the 
 valley of Gia, or of the sons of Hinnon, in the out- 
 lets of the city of Jerusalem, obtained its name from 
 tlic wailings or lamentations of boys whilst burning 
 before the idols. 
 
280 
 
 It appears too, from the testimony of the ancients^ 
 that tliese impious rites had travelled from Syria into 
 Africa and Spain ; Pliny informs us, that the Her- 
 cules of the Carthaginians, like Moloch, was usually 
 appeased by human sacrifices ; whence to me it is clear 
 as demonstration that human victims had been im- 
 molated to Hercules in the celebrated temple of Ga- 
 des, built by the Phoenicians; and where, as Diodorus 
 Siculus mentions, splendid sacrifices were wont to he 
 solemnised after the Phcenicianforni ; for the Phoe- 
 nicians, who — we are assured by St. Athanasius, Cyril, 
 Eusebius, Minutius Felix, and others, were wont to 
 sacrifice their sons and daughters to their deities — 
 made it an invariable rule to carry with them their 
 peculiar rites with the worship of their idols to their 
 several colonies. Of the Carthaginians, who were a 
 colony of the Syrians, Ennius says, they practised 
 '' that custom of sacrificing their little children to 
 the Gods." Fescenius Fcstus relates that the Car- 
 thaginians were wont to immolate human victims to 
 Saturn.* They who had no children, used to buy them 
 from the poor to offer them in sacrifice, as Plutarch 
 informs us. 
 
 * Diodorus relates an instance of this more than savage bar- 
 barity, which is sufficient to fill any mind with horror. He 
 tells us, that when Agathocles was going to besiege Carthage, 
 the people, seeing the extremity to which they were reduced, 
 imputed all their misfortunes to the anger of their god Saturn, 
 because that, instead of oftering up to him children nobly bern. 
 
281 
 
 1 sliould wish— in my zeal for the fair character of 
 Ireland, — I could have access to proofs, whereby to 
 shew that its early inhabitants, — on accepting from 
 the Phoenicians, like the Spaniards, the worship of 
 Moloch, Astarte, and Baal, as also of Hercules,— -had 
 nobly rejected, — at least one, the most unhallowed, 
 the most unnatural feature in their superstition, — • 
 human immolation. In the absence of such proofs, 
 and bound by the responsibility of a faithful histo- 
 rian, I am painfully obliged to refer my readers to 
 the authority of Ledwich, who, in the footsteps of 
 Keating, Baxter, Jurieu, and Vallancey, asserts that 
 on the festivals of Ops, or Astarte, and Baal, wlien the 
 heads of the people were assembled together on the 
 eve of the first day of November,* whatever criminals 
 liad been convicted by the Druids on Mount Usneach, 
 on the first day of May preceding, and sentenced to 
 
 he had been fraudently put ofF with the children of slaves and 
 foreigners. That a sufficient atonement should be made for this 
 crime, — as the infatuated people considered it, — two hundred 
 children of the best families in Carthage v/ere sacrificed ; and 
 no less than three hundred of the citizens voluntarily sacrificed 
 themselves, that is, they went into the firo without compulsion. 
 * A prince, on Sanmn's day, (1st of November,) should 
 light his lamps and welcome his guests with clapping of hands; 
 procure comfortable seats ; the cup-bearers should be respect- 
 able, and active in distribution of meat and drink; let there be 
 moderation of music ; short stories ; a welcoming countenance ; 
 failte for the learned ; pleasant conversations, &c. These are 
 the duties of the prince, and the arrangement of the banquetting 
 house." — Cormac. 
 
282 
 
 death, tlicy were now sacrificed by way of expiation 
 to Baal, and bnrned for that purpose between two 
 lircs. To these 1 shouhl add Seward's* remarks in 
 his Irish Topography, under the article Usneach. 
 Walker too, after declaring that the Hebrews, in 
 common with the Turks, and the Druids of the British 
 isles, made use of cymbals to drown the shrieks of the 
 human victims offered at their sacrifices, adds — in a 
 tone of that inevitable horror which the very thought 
 must suggest, — " I shudder and feel my pen tremble 
 with a religious dread, in the execution of its task, 
 when necessitated to record, that this rite was ob- 
 served by the Irish Druids, and for the very same 
 purpose/'f — or words to this effect. 
 
 * His words are as follow. — '' l/sKcac/i, a mountain, . . .on 
 which fires were kimlletl hy the Druids on 1st May> in lionor 
 of Deal, or the Sun. Tliis was the grand Ueallinnc of the 
 northern parts ot Leinster, where tlie states assembled and held 
 judgment on all criminals worthy of death, and such as were 
 found guilty were Ijurnt between two Ores of Beat: children 
 and cattle also were purified on this day by passing thenj 
 between two fires." 
 
 f ' The best way to point out false religion, is to display it in 
 its native colours; and men, by seeing unaccountable absurdi. 
 ties presented to them as objects worthy of their notice or regard, 
 will become in love with the truth. Truth carries conviction 
 along with it, and happy must that man he, who seeks wisdom. 
 He who sincerely enquires after " truth," has great reason to 
 hope, that God will direct him to it, and convince him of its 
 excellency above every other thing in this world. The Tuatha 
 Danaans, or Iranian colony, the real authors of Ireland's an- 
 cient grandeur, and the erectors of the " Round Tpivcrs," never 
 
283 
 
 CHAP. XXXI. 
 > 
 
 Tyrian Hercules worshipped in Ireland — Transferred from the 
 Phcenicians to their colonies — The celebrated temple of 
 Hercules at Gades — His sacred rites performed in the 
 Phosnician fashion — The altars of Hercules — The Alps — 
 Vestiges of this superstition in the geography of Spain — ^ 
 Whether the worship of Ijthis had obtained amongst the Irish 
 — Vossius's opinion about Iphis. 
 
 That the Tyrian Hercules, too, who was worship- 
 ped in the celebrated temple of Gades, whicli had 
 been built by the Phoenicians, has had sacrifices and 
 oblations, with all corresponding ceremonies, offered 
 to him in the British isles, may be inferred from a 
 very ancient altar, found a few years since, by Dr. 
 Todd, in a church-yard in the town of Corbridge, 
 in Northumberland, bearing an inscription deeply 
 cut in the old Greek characters, and purporting to 
 be in honor of him. Doctors Hunter and Todd have 
 
 practised those horrid rites. They were indulged in only by the 
 Fir Uoigs, who wcro Colts, ami who contrivcMl tho cromkachs 
 for the occasion. Tho Scythian Druids would fain re-establish 
 the usage, until repressed by the humanising precepts of the 
 enlightened Danaans: So they immolated only criminals. 
 
284 
 
 botli given a very accurate description of it. Cooke, 
 wlio lias sketched a drawing of it, thinks it still more 
 ancient than 'I'odd, and that it was erected — not hy 
 the Phoenicians, who unquestionably, he says, would 
 have inscribed those characters in their own language, 
 and not the Greek — but by the lonians, natives of Asia, 
 sons of Javan, otherwise called. Ion, and the founders 
 of the great city of Phocea — furthermore distinguish- 
 ed by their expertness as seamen, and by being the 
 first amongst the Greeks, as Herodotus testifies, who 
 undertook expeditions over the vasty deep. 
 
 I incline more, however, to the opinion of Todd, 
 who endeavours to prove from this altar, that the 
 Phoenicians made use of the letters of the Greek 
 alphabet after their arrival in Greece, as the Cartha- 
 ginians did those of the Latin language, which they 
 had borrowed from the Romans. This latter cir- 
 cumstance Aurelius Victor appears to allude to, 
 when, speaking of Septimius Severus, he says, " lie 
 was versed in all the literature of the Latins, and 
 spoke the Punic language with ease ; the more so, no 
 doubt, as being born in Leptis, in the province of 
 Africa." Which custom we may conclude had 
 fiourished amongst the Carthaginians in the time of 
 Plautus,* from a Carthaginian fragment inserted in 
 
 * Valiancy, a name never to be mentioned with disrespect, 
 encountered much ridicule, in consequence of his having traced 
 Irish in the Carthaginian's speech, in u play of Plautus. He 
 
285 
 
 liis Paenulus, and written in Roman characters. Seve- 
 ral inscriptions found in Africa, relating to the e})och 
 of the Carthaginians, and all written in Roman cha- 
 racters, give strength to this conjecture. 
 
 Dr. Todd has rendered the abovementioned in- 
 scription thus in Latin : " Herculi Tyrio Divina Dona 
 Archi-sacerdotalia," — that is. Divine offerings to be 
 presented to the Tyrian Hercules, by the hands of 
 the high priest. On either side were engraved the 
 heads of bulls, crowned with garlands, with the sacri- 
 ficing instruments,* as represented in the opposite 
 plate. 
 
 This learned gentleman still further conjectures, 
 that Erkelens in Gonderland, means the camp of Her- 
 cules ; and Hartland Pointf in Cornwall, the promon- 
 
 was quite correct in doing so ; and so was Bochait, when he 
 discovered Hebrew, in the same speech. The reason is obvious; 
 the Irish, Carthaginian, and the Hebrew, can all be traced to 
 the Assyrian. This fact also offers a true solution of the dis- 
 pute about the Basque, or language of Biscay ; one contends 
 that it is Celtic, another that it is an African tongue ; and both 
 are right — it is the language of the Iberi, and Mauri, who 
 peopled Spain, and which is also derived from the Syriac. 
 The resemblance, therefore, between the Irish and the Basque, 
 offers no support to the imaginary colonization of Milesius. — 
 
 Whitty. 
 
 * An EsHay on the Antiquity of the Irish Language, being 
 a collation of the Irish with the Punic Jianguago. Dublin, 
 1772. Preface, p. V. seq. 
 
 t Hartland Point, on the coast of Cornwall, in Britain, 
 called in Camden's time, Harty Point, is evidently a cor- 
 
286 
 
 tory of Hercules, and that from tlie words, Ilerculis 
 castra, which is the Latin for, tlic camp of Hercules, 
 was made the name, Hercul-ceaster, of the Saxons, 
 which hecame afterwards abridged to Colchester. 
 And Cook is convinced that the name of the town of 
 Hartlepole on the Durham coast, is a manifest de- 
 pravation of the word Ileracleopolis. 
 
 To me, too, it appears exceedingly probable that 
 the great western promontory of Airchil, with the 
 islands of the same name, were the promontory of 
 Hercules, as denominated by the Phoenicians ; and 
 whether the town of, Errigall, in each of the two 
 counties of Monaghan and Londonderry, may not 
 also be some vestige of Hercules' name, I leave to 
 the decision of more competent judges. 
 
 The worship of this deity, it is certain that the Irish, 
 as well as the Spaniards, had borrowed from the 
 Phoenicians ; for they alone had erected temples and 
 altars to the Tyrian Hercules as their national hero; 
 it being under his conduct, — whom some describe 
 as contemporary with Moses, — that the Phoenician 
 tribes had sailed to Gades. Whence, after his death, 
 they built a temple at this })lace in honor of him, 
 which was deemed illustrious for its religion, its 
 antiquity, and its wealth ; and if at a loss to know 
 
 luption from its original name, Ilerculis promontorium, which 
 it obtained from the celebrated navigator, the Tyrian Hercules, 
 knowu in our annals by the designation of Phenius. 
 
287 
 
 why it was ])aiticularly sacred, Pomponins Mela ex- 
 plains : " because that it contained Ilercules's bones." 
 Tliere were no statues in this temple, according to 
 Philostratus, but only two brazen altars without an 
 image. We have a verse of Silius Italicus to the 
 same efFcct, which may be thus translated :— 
 
 " III it were seen no sacred efligios, 
 Nor well-known likeness of their deities;" 
 
 conformably, as would appear, to the worship in 
 which Hercules had instructed them. Bochart, how- 
 ever, thinks that it was from the Jews the Phoenicians 
 had adopted the practice of not worshipping imao-es 
 in this temple ; or, perhaps, from the patriarclial re- 
 ligion, which did not recognise images. For Cornelius 
 Tacitus declares, that the Hebrews thought it im- 
 pious in any one to represent the deity by any statue 
 or likeness, and consequently ridiculed the Assyrians, 
 as Macrobius asserts, for their liabitual worship of 
 the sun and moon. Plutarch tells us, that Lycurgus's 
 doctrine corresponded in this particular with the 
 Hebrews ; and though the Scythians, tlie Persians, 
 and the Lybians, not only differed, but were directly 
 opposed to one another in their respective creeds, 
 in one point, however, they harmonised completely, 
 and that was— the invisibility of the godhead. The 
 Romans, likewise, some time subsequent, and more 
 especially in the reign of Numa Pompilius, adhering 
 to the authority of Moses, Pythagoras, Socrates, and 
 
288 
 
 Lycurgiis, continued to adore tlieir gods withont 
 statues for a period of upwards of one hundred and 
 seventy years. The ancient Germans did the same, 
 as appears from the testimony of Cornelius Tacitus. 
 But Hercules might have learned this system of 
 religion in Arabia, whence some antiquarians suppose 
 that he was descended. For the Arabian* idols con- 
 sisted, in a great measure, of huge rough stones, 
 which the posterity of Ismael had taught them to 
 worship, and upon which they used to pour oil and 
 wine, in imitation of Jacob, who poured oil upon the 
 stone which served him as a pillow at the time of his 
 vision.f Afterwards, liowever, they j)ractised their 
 
 * Tlie Arabians were the tlesceiulaiits of Islmiael, the son of 
 Abraham, by his concubine Ilagar ; and they are, in some re- 
 spects, even to this day, the most remarkable people in the 
 world. The angel told Hagar that her son should be a wild 
 man, and the Arabians remain uncivilized even to this hour. 
 His hand was to be against every man, and every man's hand 
 against him; and so it is even now, for the Arabians live by 
 plundering, not only such as travel from this part of the world, 
 but even the Turks themselves, who pretend to be their masters. 
 He was to live in the midst of his brethren ; and it is very re- 
 markable, that the Arabians were never yet conquered. In vain 
 did the great monarchs of the east attem()t to subdue them, 
 they still remain what they were three thousand years ago. 
 
 t Eastern travellers, in modern times, have been known to 
 do the same; the night air is not generally injurious in the East 
 as it is with us. We are not to suppose that Jacob laid his 
 bare head on the bare stone; a cap or turban probably guarded 
 the one, and a portion of his long garments or pcrha|)s a walli.t, 
 formed a covering for the other. 
 
289 
 
 adorations upon tliose very stonos, which it is very 
 probable that the Phoenicians did also originally ; 
 although, in process of time, before the people of 
 Israel entered into the land of Canaan, they betook 
 themselves to the worship of graven images. Where- 
 fore the Lord had commanded his people, before ever 
 they arrived at the promised land, to overturn their 
 altars, demolish their statues, and cut down their 
 groves. 
 
 Strabo relates in what spot of the island of Gades, 
 and on what occasion, the Phoenicians had erected 
 that temple, as advised by the oracle. Appian and 
 Arrian, both, assert that Hercules was worshipped 
 therein, after the Phoenician manner, as we have 
 said, with religious solemnities and magnificent 
 sacrifices ; whilst we have loads of monuments as 
 well in Asia as in Europe, to prove that the custom 
 was thence transferred, and by the same people, to 
 their different colonies, where they erected altars 
 and shrines for its celebration. Of this number, 
 it may suffice to remind the reader, only, of the 
 altars erected on the Alps, of which Petronius says, 
 *' On the aerial Alps, — where lofty cliffs ascend under 
 a Grecian name, and suffer themselves to be sur- 
 mounted, — lies a spot consecrated to the Herculean 
 altars." 
 
 From Hercules, its founder, did the ancients give 
 the name of Heraclea to the Phoenician city Seta- 
 bim, in the province of the Edetani, in Spain; as 
 also to another Phoenician city in Boetica, at the 
 
 u 
 
290 
 
 foot of mount Calpe. For as in Greclv, Ileracloia^ — 
 with an acute accent over ity penultimate — means, in 
 the general, anything belonging to Hercules, so the 
 same word, with a circumflex — thus, Heracleta — over 
 the same syllable, means, sacred rites or sacrifices de- 
 dicated to Hercules ; and in either sense are to be 
 found several cities of this name, in various parts of 
 the East. From Hercules, too, it is probable that 
 the Phoenician settlers in Spain, gave the name of 
 EriguelcV, as it is now called with some slight varia- 
 tion from the original, to "a village of the Artabri ; 
 as, also, to Arcalis and Argolell, villages of the Iler- 
 getes ; Arcal and Argalo, towns of the Suevi, near 
 Compostella ; Arquillo, amongst the Numantines ; 
 ArguU, Arcallana, and Arguiello, amongst the As- 
 tures. Wherefore, I should hope it will not seem 
 over-absurd if I should trace, in this country also, 
 some vestiges of the name Hercules — in that of 
 Arklow, a town in the county Wicklow, near the 
 vale of Ovoca, where are to be seen, at this day, the 
 remains of an ancient camp ; and in Errigol-Keeroge, 
 a little town in the barony of Clogher, county Tyrone: 
 for as Keeroge would seem derived from the Phoeni- 
 cian, Kerag, a census or cess ; or Kerac, a citadel or 
 fortress, we may easily understand by the name of 
 this town, either " the fortress of Hercules," or tri- 
 butary to the worshij) of Hercules.* 
 
 * 111 every stugo of society inoii naliirally love llio marvellous; 
 but iii the early .stages, a ceitaiu i)orlioM of it is iieet.^jsary to 
 
291 
 
 I should wish to give u whet to the investigating 
 talent of the learned sons of Ireland, to ascertain 
 whether Ifla and Offa, the name of a barony in the 
 county Tipperary, province of Munster, may not be 
 a vestige of the worship of Iphis, that we may bo 
 able thence to infer whether or not the Phoenicians 
 had imported it among us. For some Spaniards are 
 very positive, that from Iphis, was given the name of 
 Iphae, to a rock of a conical form, and miraculous 
 elevation, without the slightest support on either 
 side, lying on the Mediterranean coast, between 
 Alona and Dianium. Although others derive it from 
 the riianiiclan word li)lui, handsome ; and others, 
 again, from the Celtic If-ach, meaning standing alone, 
 or unsupported. As to Iphis itself, some Syriac 
 
 make any iiairal.ioii siifficioiitly interesting to aUract alkntion, 
 or obtain an audience : whence the actions of gods are inter- 
 mixed with those of men in the earliest traditions or histories 
 of all nations ; and poetical fable occupied the place of his- 
 torical truth in their accounts of the transactions of war and 
 policy, as well as in those of the revolutions of nature and 
 origin of things. I'^och had produced some renowned warriors, 
 whose mighty achievements had been assisted by the favor, or 
 obstructed by the anger, of the gods ; and each had some 
 popular tales concerning the means, by which those gods had 
 constructed the universe, and the principles, upon which they 
 conlinuod to govern it: whence theOreeks and llomans found 
 a llercuh's in every country which they visited, as well as in 
 their own ; and the adventurcH of some such hero supply the 
 (irst materials for history, as a cosmogony or theogony exhibits 
 the first system of philosophy, in every nation. 
 
 ' u 2 
 
292 
 
 antiquarians suppose it to be a corrupted name from 
 Jeptliis, that is, the daughter of Jephtlia, and so 
 called after him ; from the union of which name with, 
 anassa, which, in the Greek, means, queen, was made 
 up the name of Iphianassa ; as from its union with 
 genia, which signifies descended from, arose Iphige- 
 nia. Wherefore, also, the daughter of Je})htha had 
 a place amongst the deities of the Phoenicians, having 
 divine honors paid to her by the inhabitants of Sa- 
 maria, who celebrated an annual festival in her 
 honour — as we learn from Epiphanius — the origin of 
 which we will see accounted for in the book of 
 Judges. 
 
 From the story of Jephthah, who devoted his only 
 daughter in fulfilment of his vow to God, Homer 
 took occasion in his fiible of Agamemnon to make 
 him sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia, with all suit- 
 able solemnities. Memnon, too, who had been slain 
 by Achilles, after he had come an auxiliary to Priam 
 in the Trojan war, is a farther instance, having been 
 wept* for, after his death, and worshipped by the As- 
 syrians as a distinguished scion of Aurora — as Oppi- 
 an relates — with a temple, also, built in Egypt, to 
 
 * Sunt lachrymoe rerum etmeiitein inortalia a tangiinf. — This 
 reminds nie of the pliilosophic tears of Xerxes, at the contem- 
 plated mortality of his innumerable army ; and as I happen to 
 light upon an unpublished poem — written by a young officer of 
 the artillery corps, merely as a school exercise during his pre- 
 paratory education — I feel happy at the opportunity of inserting 
 
293 
 
 his honour by the inhabitants of Thebes. And here 
 I cannot avoid reflecting with Vossius on the great 
 
 an extract from it here, as ^foretaste of talents which I have 
 reason to appreciate, and which I doubt not will shine out, 
 some day, an honour to tlicir |)osscssor, and a benefit to his 
 country. 
 
 Unnumbered plumes are waving o'er the plain, 
 The gentle zephyrs wave them back again : 
 So golden corn that ripens in the sun, 
 Stoops, gently stoops, the zephyrs' force to shun : 
 AVave after wave in soft succession roll, 
 Cheer the glad eye, and sooth tlic musing soul. 
 The monarch saw, and high in fortune's gale 
 Pride, hope, ambition, in their turn prevail : 
 And as he saw his countless hosts below 
 With her bright garland victory crowns his brow 
 He looks again, but other feelings rise, 
 Rush on his heart, and sorrow dims his eyes ; 
 He thinks, he feels — and with averted head 
 Soils the proud purple with the tears he shed. 
 Vyhy weeps the king ?— 'Tis nature at this hour 
 Claims her full force, and proves her rightful power : 
 By her subdued as by some magic spell. 
 In fancy's car he hoars the funeral knell. 
 Knell of those myriads whose bright banners stream, 
 While martial music aids the living dream. 
 Whose plumes around them cast a moving shade, 
 Their souls all fire, their limbs of iron made. 
 That fire shall die : those plumes shall cease to wave : 
 Those swords and spears shall rust within the grave ; 
 Where music floats around, shall silence reign. 
 And prostrate banners strew the desert plain. 
 Ere one short century shall near be run. 
 To tell the dreadful tale shall live not one ; 
 
294 
 
 similarity existing between the Phoenician and the 
 lilgyptian sacrificial forms ; and on the extreme 
 probability, that the fleet which first landed in that 
 colony in Spain, consisted not only of Phoenicians 
 but of Egyptians also ; so that both countries may 
 severally lay claim to the honour of the enterprise. 
 J may be allowed just to hint, that it was, probably, 
 from this very cause, that Hercules was indifferently 
 called the " Tyrian " or the " Egyptian." 
 
 llxpiiugeil each iiurilo — the mighty and the meiiii, 
 Jmoiii being's page, as tiiougli they ne'er had been : 
 Thus fade the (lowers in Teinpe's lovely vale ; 
 Thus vanish clouds before ihe driving gale : 
 Thus Time, omnipotent, sweeps all away — 
 Grandeur's proud blaze, and pleasures of the gay. 
 
 Stanley Hornby. 
 
295 
 
 CHAP. XXXII. 
 
 The Cabiri, divinities of the Phoenicians — Their worship in 
 Ireland^'Etymology of the name — The Coryhantes sacri- 
 ficinij priests of the Cabiri — Whc7ice so called — Vestiges of 
 them in the Geography as well of Ireland as of Spain. 
 
 From the Cabiri, Seward thinks is derived, Cab- 
 ragli, or Cabaragh, tlie name of a very ancient Irish 
 town situated formerly near Dublin Castle, but now 
 so in cor2)orated with this Metropolis of the kingdom, 
 tliat its very limits cannot be pointed out. The name 
 Cabiri itself, he conceives consonant with the Irish 
 word Cabliar, a prop or buttress ; or rather, I take it, 
 with Cabhaire, one who props, a supporter. These 
 deities, he says, the Coryhantes invoked, who were 
 the sacrificing priests of Ireland as tliey were of the 
 Greeks too, on sudden and unexpected emergencies. 
 Whence he supposes it likely, that the above men- 
 tioned term of Cabaragh was so called as containing 
 within it, or as being itself a seminary of, the Cory- 
 hantes. — From the same source would he derive the 
 name of the district of Cabragh, or Cabra, near 
 
29G 
 
 Hatlifiiliind, in the county Down ; to which we may 
 add Cahra-castle, near Kills, in the county Meath. 
 Tlie Spanish towns of Caheiro and Caheiros amongst 
 the Snevi, in the canton of Toledo, savor strongly of 
 the same superstition ; which would rather seem de- 
 rived from Cabiraj, or Cabiria, the sacred rites of the 
 Cabiri ; just as the district of Asia Minor, where 
 they were worshipped, was called after tliem Cabira. 
 Pausanias, too, assures us that a district of Perga- 
 mus was called by the name of Cabiris. 
 
 Some of the ancients have supposed that the 
 name of the Cabiri was borrowed from that of a 
 mountain in Phrygia, called ('abirus, where they 
 were worshipped with religious solemnities. But 
 the reverse is more likely to have been the fact, and 
 that the mountain was so called after them. They 
 were themselves ancient divinities, belonging to the 
 Phoenicians, which they designated as, Cabirin, that 
 is, great or potent, from the singular, Cabir, which, 
 by the addition of, a, and the expunction of, c — which 
 to them is only an adverb of similitude — becomes 
 al)ir, that is, strong, or preeminent in fortitude. This 
 word — originally, truly applied to God — the Syrians 
 transferred to Ceres, Pluto, and Proserpine — by some 
 called AxieroSjAxicersus, and Axicersa — whose father 
 too they state to have been Vulcan. Therefore it was, 
 perhaps, that in some coins, these deities were re- 
 presented under the appearance of a man holding in 
 liis right hand a mallet, and in his left an anvil. 
 
297 
 
 Sonic would liavc them to be Jupiter, Baccluis, and 
 Ceres ; others, Osiris, Orus, and Isis * Julius Fir- 
 micus, in his " Errors of profane religions" says,, that 
 the Cabiri were three brothers, the eldest of whom 
 having been slain by the two others, was enrolled 
 amongst the Gods, and worshipped by the Thessa- 
 lonians. But this I look upon as foreign from the 
 truth, and merely a fiction of the poets. For the 
 worship of tlie Cabiri had its origin in Phoenicia, 
 whence it passed over to the islands of the i^^jgean 
 sea, and more especially to Samothrace and the 
 Imbri, where their religion was flourishingly esta- 
 blished, until, at length, it made way to Athens and 
 
 '^ Those were the gcnoral gods of T'''gypt, nnd siicli as wore 
 worshipped by the king, and liis courtiers ; for almost every 
 district had its particular deity ; Some worshi|)ped dogs; others 
 oxen ; some hawks ; some owls ; some crocodiles ; some cats ; 
 and others ibis, a sort of an Egyptian stork. The worship of 
 these animals was confined to certain places ; and it often 
 happened, that those who adored the crocodile, were ridiculed 
 by such as paid divine honours to the cat. ^ To support the 
 honor of their different idols, bloody wars -often took place ; 
 and whole provinces were depopulated to decide the question 
 — whether a crocodile or a cat was a god ? 
 
 It does not, however, appear that these people were idolators, 
 in the strict sense of the word, although it is more than pro- 
 [)able, that, in many instances, they deviated from the worship 
 of the true god, according to its original purity. Pharaoh, the 
 king of Egypt, calls the God of vVbraham, Jehovah and 
 l'>LOHlM, both of which are the highest titles that can be as- 
 <Mil)C(l lo the Divine Ucing, because Ihey include all his incon- 
 ceivable attributes. 
 
298 
 
 the other cities of Greece, with Spain and all the 
 other colonics which the Phoenicians had planted. 
 There are those, too, who add a third to their num- 
 ber, namely, Kadmus, or Kasmilus, or Kadmilus, 
 whom many suppose to have been the same as Her- 
 mes, or Mercury ; for by Varro's testimony, in the 
 Samotliracian luysteries, Kasmilus is tlie name given 
 to a certain oilicer or attendant upon the sacred 
 rites offered to the great gods, that is, the Cabiri. 
 The natives of the island of Lesbos, also, worshipped 
 him under the name of Kadmus, or Kadmilus, which, 
 by the way, they borrowed from the Phoenicians, in 
 whose language cadmi, means a harbinger ; and 
 cadmilac, a forerunner of some news or message. 
 Therefore, also, it was that Mercury was called Her- 
 mes, from the Greek word signifying an interpreter, 
 or messenger — which was his province anunigst 
 the heavenly inhabitants ; and they who conceive 
 his real name to be originally Celtic, derive it from 
 the words, mere, traffic, and ur, a man ; which emi- 
 nently accords with the Phoenician word Cnani, or 
 Canani, which signifies not only a Canaanite, or na- 
 tive of the land of Canaan, but also a merchant or 
 trafficer, the inhabitants of that country having 
 been ever intent upon trade, in the furtherance of 
 which, with a view to the improvement of their for- 
 tunes, they spent their whole life and energies. 
 
 These four Cabiri were worshipped in some shrines 
 as the gods of the deceased ; Ceres, who was also 
 
20<) 
 
 called Cnbiiia, us the earth that sustains them ; Pluto 
 and Proserpine as a symbol of hell, wherein they re-' 
 side ; and Mercury, as their leader and conductor. 
 
 A great portion of the leading men of that age 
 used to visit the celebrated temple of the Cabiri, in 
 Samothrace, to be initiated in their mysteries. This 
 journey was undertaken by the heroes of the Trojan* 
 
 * Sir Isaac Newlon brings the sera of the destruction of 
 Troy about lliree hundred years lower down than any otiier 
 dironologist had done l)of()ro, fixing it to the 70th your nflor 
 the death of Solomon, the year l)efore our vnlgarmranoi ; — and 
 i\w. year of l)i(h>'s bnihlin<> Carthage, to the year OP.:), i. c. 21 
 years after, when /I'lneas might very well he alive. Those who 
 will take the trouble to examine his book, will find it no easy 
 matter to withstand the weighty reasons he offers in support of 
 his singular opinion. To shorten the reader's labour, I shall 
 briefly mention a few of them. 
 
 1. lie observes that Virgil agrees with the Arundel marbles. 
 As Tirgil relates, probably from the archives of Tyre or Cy- 
 prus, that Teucer came from the war of Troy to Cyprus in the 
 days of queen Dido (see iEn. I. 623.) and with his father 
 seized Cyprus; so the Arundel Marbles say that Teucer came 
 to Cyprus seven years after the destruction of Troy, and built 
 Salamis. 
 
 2. In the temple built at Cadiz to Hercules, under the name 
 of iMelcartus, was Teucer's golden belt, beside Pygmalion's 
 golden bow, by which it appears, that the temple was built in 
 their days, and that they were contemporary. 
 
 3. Dionysins Ilalicarnassens reckons sixteen kings from La- 
 tinus, who roigncd in Italy in the lime of the Trojan war, to 
 Jlomulus ; and fr.om him to the consuls were six kings more : 
 which twenty two reigns, at a medium of eighteen years to a 
 reign (taking the lowest reckoning, because many of them died 
 violent deaths), amount to ;JJJ(> years. 'I'hesc, counted back- 
 
300 
 
 war, by Philip of Mticedon, and others — not solely 
 because of the protection and support which they had 
 promised themselves from those deities against dan- 
 gers and accidents, and more especially storms, but be- 
 cause of the respect which ever attached to any indivi- 
 duals who happened to have the honor of initiation 
 in those solemnities. Heathen writers have omitted 
 all allusion to those mysteries, f either from 
 
 ward from the consuls Brutus and Publicola, place the Trojan 
 war about seventy-eight years after the death of Sohtnion, 
 according' to Sir Isaac's iirst computation. 
 
 4. Herodotus, who says IJomer and llesiod, were but 400 
 years before him, wrote iu the time of Neheniiah, i. e, 444 years 
 before Christ. And Hesiod said he was but an age after the 
 destruction of Troy. Now 400, 444, and 60 years more for 
 the time between Hesiod and the war of Troy, bring it to the 
 year before Christ 904, as Sir Isaac reckons. 
 
 6. Lastly, in the year 1G89, the cardinal points had gone 
 back one full sign, six degrees, twenty-nine minutes, from the 
 cardinal points of Chiron (in the time of the Argonautic expe- 
 dition) as nearly, he says, as can be determined from the coarse 
 observations of the ancients. Consequently, at the rate of 
 seventy-two years to a degree, 2G27 years had then passed since 
 Chiron, which brings us back to the forty-three years after the 
 death of Solomon, for the time of the Argonautic expedition ; 
 and the destruction of 'I'roy was about thirty or thirty-five years 
 later. So that all these collateral proofs agree in one point, 
 and fix the SEra of the ruin of Troy about one and the same 
 year, viz. 904 years before our vulgar a;ra. 
 
 * There never was any one religion whatsoever, that had 
 not a particular set of mysteries, which none but a few select 
 devotees could ever attain to. In order to arrive at that pitch 
 of perfection, there have ahvays been such extravagant cere- 
 
301 
 
 some groundless veneration wliicli they thought 
 silence would encourage; or, what appears more cer- 
 tain, from the obscenities of conduct with which they 
 were but too grossly defiled, and to which even 
 the high priests themselves would be ashamed to 
 give utterance. Therefore it was, probably, that 
 during their celebration they made use of a peculiar 
 dialect, unintelligible to the vulgar ; which Cam- 
 byses very humorously upbraids them with, at the 
 doors of those deities, as Herodotus informs us. 
 Some people confound the Curetes, or Corybantes, 
 with those Cabiri, whilst others think it more pro- 
 bable that they were their sacrificing priests, and 
 more especially of Ceres, Cibele, or Rhea, wliose 
 agonising spirit and disconsolate heart for the dis- 
 astrous loss of her darling Atys, those ministers af- 
 fected to represent in their devotions, rending the 
 air with the most hideous yells, adding thereto the 
 confused conceit of timbrels and brazen cymbals, 
 running about all the while, and shaking their heads 
 from one side to the other ; in short, exhibiting 
 every symptom and gesticulation that madness could 
 suggest. 
 
 Strabo conceives the Corybantes were so called 
 from, coruplontes bainein, that is, from their walking 
 as if they danced ; whence lunatics and frantic 
 
 monies to bo observed, as wore suflicient to surprise, blind, 
 shock, and oven confound tho inlorior class of religionists. 
 
302 
 
 pc()[)lo liavt) boun culled corybimlcs. Othors think 
 lliG nuuic derived from corns, u heliuet ; others tVom, 
 vorultu, to butt with the horn, or toas the head ; 
 others from, cruho, or crubazo, to conceal, as they 
 assisted Rhea in doing with respect to her offspring ; 
 others from, crouo, to beat, or make a noise, at which 
 they excelled — clashing instrument against instru- 
 ment, and metal against metal, bearing the brunt of 
 all upon their sonorous shields, and seasoning the 
 whole with their *' most sweet" voices.* 
 
 But in as much as these all, coming from a Grecian 
 source, are disapproved of by some people — as too far 
 fetched, injudicious, and at variance with one another, 
 — they look upon it as more to the purpose, what 
 Diodorus Siculus asserts, namely, that the Corybantes 
 were so called from Corybas, the son of Cybele, by 
 Jasion ; or from another of the same name, who con- 
 veyed into Phrygia the sacred rites of the mother of 
 the gods, and named the directors of her religious 
 ceremonies after himself. But Corybas, the son of 
 Cybele, belongs to mythology ; and as it appears 
 from other sources, that the names of Cybele and the 
 Cabiri took theirs from Pluenicia, I consider the 
 same may be said of the Corybantes, who were the 
 officiating ministers of the Cabiri ; for in the Pha*- 
 
 * Sucli is the origin of driiiiis, uiul altliough (liey mako at 
 present a ilisliiiguishing rigiuo in our avuiics, yet tlu-y were no 
 more, orij^inully, llmu in)|)leinenls of idolatry and superstition. 
 
iiiciiin hmgiuigc, Corban, or Coribiui, iiiomis a gift 
 or ofFcring presented either to God, to idols, or to 
 men ; as it does also, the treasury, or the coffer, in 
 which such presents were deposited ; and idolators 
 took occasion subsequently to transfer the name to 
 their shrines or chapels ; and, as the superintendants 
 of such shrines had the charge and custody of all 
 donations consigned to them, they thence, naturally, 
 were denominated Corybantes. Or they may have 
 assumed to themselves the name from, Coribin, mean- 
 ing kinsfolks, kindred, or relatives, with a view to 
 conciliate the affections of the i)opulacc from the fa- 
 miliarity of its tone. 
 
 The geography of Spain appears still to retain 
 some vestiges of the names of Corybas and Cory- 
 bantes in. that of Corbate, a town situated in the 
 province of the Vaccei ; Caravainos, Caravion, and 
 Caravanzo, amongst the Astures ; Corbite, Curbian, 
 and Curantes, in the district of the Suevi. The 
 learned men of this country also may, perhaps, please 
 to consider whether the proper names of, Corballys 
 and Corbally, with that of Carbery and Lake Corib, 
 as also that of, Corribinny, which is a promontory 
 situated near the harbour of Cork, and on the sum- 
 mit of which is still preserved an ancient sepulchre, 
 may not be vestiges of the same name. The analogy 
 too, which W(* may observe bctwcuMi Cainiins, or 
 Kadmilus, a name of JNlercury, and the names of cer- 
 tain Irish towns, such as that of Candin, in the 
 
304. 
 
 county Antrim; Camolln, in the county Wexford ; 
 not forgetting that beautiful and delightful mansion 
 belonging to Lord Mount Norris, near Gorey, in the 
 same county, called Camolin-park, deserve especial 
 and particular notice. 
 
 To me, at least, it is extremely probable, that, the 
 ancient city of Caniala amongst the Astures in Spain, 
 was so named from the Phoenician worship of Ca- 
 milus, or Kadmilus ; though others consider it a 
 Grecian name, from, Kemelaia, a little olive tree — to 
 which I must add the names of, Cameles and Cama- 
 leno, towns of the Astures ; Camellera, a village of 
 the Ilergites, and Comillas, a maritime town of Can- 
 tabria. 
 
'U)5 
 
 CHAP. XXXIII. 
 
 Fire worship in Ireland — By whom introduced— Ur a city of 
 the Chaldeans, why so called— Called also Camerina, and 
 why — Vestiges of these names in the geography of Spain — 
 The religion of fire transferred from the Phoenicians to 
 other nations — The Estia of the Greeks, and Vesta of the 
 Romans. 
 
 That the ancient Irisli were worshippers of fire is 
 a point upon which the antiquarians of the country 
 are all unanimous. — But whether they derived the 
 superstition from the authority of tlie Celts or Phcc- 
 nicians, is what has not yet been determined, though 
 closely contested by the partisans of either side. I 
 think, however, the controversy admits of a very 
 easy solution, if we but attend to the rise and pro- 
 gress of the worsliip itself, as well as the names of 
 certain localities in this island, which are considered 
 to bear a direct reference to it. 
 
 The first, then, who, according to Vossius, ordered 
 fire to be worshipped as a deity, was Nimrod,* whom 
 
 * Or, rather, in whom they considered the Belus, or Sun, to 
 1)0 iiorsonifud. Flo resided ior some time at Babylon, but 
 
 X 
 
30G 
 
 the Gentiles called, Bclus, tluit is, niiister or lord. 
 From this circumstance, Ur, a city of the Chaldeans, 
 in which sacrifices used to have heen performed 
 to fire, obtained its name, as it did also those of 
 Urge, Urie, and Camarina ; for, ur, or, or, means a 
 flame or blaze of fire, or the hearth wherein it 
 blazes ; camar, as before observed, to burn ; cuma- 
 rin, idol priests, and cumarith, the office of priest- 
 hood. But as from. Urge and Ur, I conceive M^ere 
 named those very ancient Phoenician cities of Spain, 
 called Urci and Urgellum ; as well as that extensive 
 and flourishing district in Ireland, which formerly 
 constituted a dynasty in itself, and comprehends 
 within its compass the modern counties of Louth, 
 Armagh, and Moneghan, I mean Orgeal. — And as 
 from Camarina, I imagine, were denominated Cama- 
 rena and Camarenilla, towns of the Carpenti ; with an 
 Camorina — both town and river — of the Suevi, near 
 
 Nineveh was the grand seat of his empire. This city was 
 built on the eastern banks of the river Tigris, and was one of 
 the largest ever known in the world. It was about sixty miles 
 ill circuinl'eience; die walls were one hundred feet high, and so 
 broad, that chariots could pass each other upon them. They, 
 were furthermore, adorned with lifleen hundred towers, and 
 each of these two hundred feet high ; which, may, in some 
 measure, account for what we read in the book of Jonah, that 
 Nineveh was an exceeding great city, of three days journey. 
 
 Her lofty towers shone like meridian beams, 
 And asa world within herself she seems. 
 
.'507 
 
 Compostella ; in all of wliicli fire worship was insti- 
 tuted by their several founders. — So from the plural, 
 Urin, signifying, hearths, or fires lighted, do I think 
 it exceedingly probable that the tiver Urrin in Ire- 
 land, in the county of Wexford, and barony of 
 Scarewalsh, had boon denominated. Again the town 
 of Urcgare, in the barony of Coshma, and county 
 Limerick, is obviously compounded of, ur-egar, mean- 
 ing, a shrine dedicated to fire ; or else, of, ur-egur, 
 an altar consecrated to the same. Urglin, too, the 
 name of a village in the barony of Catherlough, 
 county Carlow, is made up of the words ur-glin, a 
 manifestation, or revelation of fire ; or, ur-galglin, 
 fire in a round heap of stones ; for, glin, in the Syriac, 
 means heaps of stones, as well as it did, a manifest- 
 ation ; and galglin, rotundities, or roiuidiiesscs. It is 
 not improbable but that there might have been 
 erected there some one of. those round towers so 
 frequent in this kingdom. 
 
 St. Jerome makes mention of this fire worship 
 amongst the Chaldeans, whose whole country, 
 from the same circumstance, was called, Orkoe 
 The Persians too, had their, ur ; and it is well 
 known that they held fire in great veneration, 
 having first only worshipped it as a symbol of 
 the deity, but this figurative worship gradually 
 passed into actual and downright homage, until, in 
 the progress of time, as Lucian observes, they were 
 content with no less than offering sacrifices to it. 
 
 X 2 
 
308 
 
 The same is asserted by the ancients of the RIedes. 
 from whom this superstition was transferred to the 
 Syrians, and from tliem again to otlier nations inha- 
 biting Asia ; nay, to the Cauromatians, Macedonians, 
 and Cappadocians, whose Magi were called " Purai- 
 thoi," that is, fire kindlers, and their temples " Pu- 
 raitheia, that is, places wherein fire is kindled, which 
 latter, we may add, consisted of " immense inclosures 
 in the centre of which was erected an altar, where the 
 magi used to preserve a heap of ashes, besides the ever 
 burning fire," resembling, as D' Alton affirms,* our 
 
 * Yes, but Mr. D'Allou, and Mr. IJ ig{> ins, (Celtic Dniuls,) 
 and all the other /?re votaries, should know that those fire tem- 
 |)les of the (jlhobres, were nothing- more than, what Dr. Ilurd, 
 an ocular witness, has appropriately styled them, viz. " sorry 
 huts" — i\\Q ancient ones, being, according to Sir John Malcolm, 
 arched vaults about fifteen feet high ; and the modern ones, ac- 
 cording to Captain Keppel, without any covering at all ! Ilan- 
 way, who appears to have misled all our fire speculators, fell 
 into a similar mistake, himself, with respect to the " Round 
 Towers," or Biidhist Temples, which he met with in the east — 
 calling them, " fire temples."- Yet, by and by, when he has 
 occasion to describe an ac/tm/fire temple, he re|)resents it as a 
 vault, not exceeding, in heiyht, ten orjifteenjcct, of which, by 
 the way, we have several still in Ireland, before hinted at in 
 an early note in this volume, and distinct altogether from the 
 " Round Towers," which are specimens oii\\e Jinest architecture 
 extant in awj/ country. In 1820, Henry deLoundres, archbishop 
 of Dublin, put out this fire, culled •' unextinguishable," — which 
 had been preserved, though a remnanl of the pagan idolatry 
 of Raal — from the earliest times, by the nuns of St. Brigid, 
 at Kildare. It was re-lighted, and continued to burn until the 
 
309 
 
 Irish " Koiind Towers,"*" as well as tlic " Atusli kudu," 
 or firo clia])els, which Zoroaster had ordered to be 
 
 total suppi'essioii of monasteries; the ruins of the fire-house 
 and nunnery still remain, and bear no relation to the " Round 
 TowoiM." Hero was Dr. V'lWauiio.va'H greatest mistake, 
 
 * As (he benefit of light is best knowu when contrasted with 
 darkness, so truth is the more admired for being compared with 
 falsehood. On this principle it vvas that the early missionaries 
 of the Ciiristian church have proceeded in Ireland. Finding-, 
 on their arrival, a hallowed regard attached to those localities, 
 whereon stood the memorials of previous Pagan adoration, the 
 best use, they conceived they could make of this " regard," was, 
 to erect, on the same " localities," Christian houses of worship; 
 to, at once, conciliate the prejudices of those whom they would 
 fain persuade, and divert their adoration from the creature to 
 the Creator. 
 
 We observe, accordingly, mouldering in decay, beside each 
 of the three species of ancient Trish worship, llie Celtic, the 
 JJndhist, and the Drnidical — i\\(i Jirst tind last of which be- 
 came iiltimately identified, and of which the Cromleachs and 
 Mithratic caves are the memorials; while the " RouiidTowers" 
 represent the purer, the bloodless, and the inoffensive Budhist 
 faith — Christian ruins of more modern structures, yet venerable 
 ill anti(iuity, and composed by architects who could not vie in 
 skill, of either design or cement, with their pagan predecessors. 
 
 And yet upon this single circumstance of contiguity to Ec- 
 clesiastical dilapidations - coupled with the bas-relief of a cru- 
 cifix which presents itself over the door of the Budhist temple 
 at Donoghmore in Ireland, and that at Brechin in Scotland — 
 have the deniers of the antiquity of those venerable edifices, 
 raised that superstructure of historical imposture, which, 1 pro- 
 mise them, will soon crumble around their ears, before the 
 indignant elTulgeuce of regenerated veracity. It might be suf- 
 ficient for this purpose to IcU them that they might as well, 
 from this vicinity, infer that the Cromleachs were also erected 
 
310 
 
 erected. Tliese ancient temples of Cybele or Vesta, 
 wlierein loas preserved the perpetual fire, were 
 
 by tlie early missionaries, as they would fain make out; by 
 precisely the same mode of inference llial the Biidhist temples, 
 or Round Towers, had been ! But this would not suit. They 
 cotild find no ascri))tion associated with Christianity, to which 
 to assign the Cromleachs ; — and thus have the poor missiona- 
 ries escaped the cumbrous imputation of having those colossal 
 pagan slabs aOiliated upon them. 
 
 Not so fortunate the towers. After ransacking the whole 
 catalogue of available applications, ap|)ertaining to the order of 
 monastic institutions, with which to siamise those tem|)Ies, the 
 lloyal Irish Academy have at last hit upon the noble and dig- 
 nified department of a — dungeon keep ! or, lock up ! — as the sole 
 use and purpose of their costly erection I 
 
 Now, if the monks possessed the secret of fabricating those 
 Round Towers, or eve7i the materials whereof they are con- 
 structed — being, in some instances, an artificial substance 
 resembling a reddish brick, squared, and corresponding to the 
 composition of the Round Towers of Mazumderan ; or else, 
 when natural, a reddish grit, or pudding stone. — Why were not 
 the monasteries, the more important edifices, according to our 
 would-be-antiquaries, composed of the same elements.'' and is 
 it not strange, that all elegance and extravagance should have 
 been lavished upon the appendages, while uncouthness, inele- 
 gance, want ofdurabilitg, or other architectural recommendation, 
 are the (.'huracterislics of, what they tell ns were, the principah ? 
 Yet, neither in the Monasteries, nor in any other Christian struc- 
 ture, do we meet with those materials above described, either 
 generally ov partially ; except where the ruins of a neighbouring 
 " Round Tower" have made them available — which, in itself, 
 is stdhcicnt to overthrow, for ever, the anachronisms of those 
 who would deny the existence of the Round Towers anterior to 
 the Christian eera. 
 
311 
 
 called by the Irisli, Tlacligo, which some would de- 
 rive from the Irish word, tlacht, the earth, the world. 
 
 But the sign of the crvcifixion remains yet unanswered? 
 nn«l, no donbt, my opponents fancy that it \v\\\ remain m \ and, 
 nay more, nnnvswerablc, unless nttompted to be evaded l)y the 
 piTlext of interpolation. No such thing. -Hand tali auxilio, nee 
 dcfensoribns istis tcmpns cgct. 'I'he genuineness of i\\\s emblem 
 and of the other signs whicli accompany it, is at once the 
 triumph of my truth and my discovery. Do I mean to say 
 that the crucifixion of Jesus Christ can bear any relation to the 
 doctrine of Budhism? That is the question whicli ignorance 
 will ask. But our Saviour was Hot the onhj one who was cru- 
 cified for his faith. In my work upon the •' Round Towers," 
 1 have shewn that Budha, in ivhose honor those temples were 
 constructed— w^s crucified also, in sustainment of a religion the 
 very counterpart of Christianity, differing from it only in pri- 
 ority of date.— And I have given, at the same time, an effigy 
 of this idol, representing his godship in this attitude of cruel- 
 fixion ; which, with two other effigies, all representatives of 
 Budha— in different bearings of his inca»na<wra— have been dug 
 up in the bogs of Ireland, and reserved for me to develope and 
 elucidate. 
 
 Struck with this extraordinary similitude between the 
 Christian and the Budhistical religions, the Jesuits-who 
 went to convert the Boduins on the coast of Guinea, Mada- 
 gascar, Socotora, and the countries thereabout— and unable, 
 furthermore, to account for the veneration which those heathens 
 universally paid to the cross— all of them, without exception, 
 wearing it about their necks— while they celebrated^eir divine 
 service in Chaldee, a dialect of our ancient Irish— concluded 
 most absurdly, that Budhism must have been a modification of 
 Christianity before promulgated,— whereas Budhism was pro- 
 pagated many thousand years before Christianity, or Brah- 
 minism either ; and this cross was the symbol of Budha crucified. 
 
312 
 
 But it more properly coinos from the Phoenician^ 
 thlul, lie exalted, in conformity with the elevation 
 of those edifices. Nay, the word, clogha itself, the 
 Iberno Celtic denomination thereof, appears to me of 
 Phoenician origin, from clach, he shut up, in reference 
 to the fire ; for the Phoenicians called these fires, 
 cammia, from, camas, hidden ; because that in them 
 was preserved the fire concealed. See Collect, de 
 Ileb. Ibern. p. 308. From the Greeks, the prac- 
 tice of worshipping fire passed to the Romans, who 
 worshipped it under the name of Vesta ; for it is 
 past dispute that by Vesta, or the Grecian Estia, was 
 meant not only Cybele, but also a public hearth, or 
 fire place. But as all sacred names have been de- 
 rived from the east, so were Estia and Vesta, from, 
 
 It will readily be believed, therefore, that my indigrtatiun 
 and my disgust were, in no small degree, excited, on reading an 
 article in the " Dublin Penny Journal," written by Mr. Petrie, 
 representative of \.\io antiquarian literature ? of the Royal Irish 
 Academy — in which, having never once dreamt of Budha or 
 his crucifixion - he iynorantly attempts — but with a confidence 
 which, in my oar.-i, sounded as blas|jhemy — to identify the above 
 image with that of our saviour (Jhrist ! As 1 would fuin hope, 
 liowcviir, that this error xvas cucoura<ii'.d. iVoni any other ciuiso 
 rather than what has been broadly affirmed — a prejudice to me 
 personally, 1 forbear — for the present — saying more upon the 
 point, as — having appealed from the tenor of the late decision — 
 I have adopted a course to remove every pretext for incertitude 
 and scepticism; after which, if my just reward be withheld, 
 or viciously neutralized, I shall make no secret of the pro- 
 ceedings. 
 
313 
 
 es, fire, and iali, one of the denominations of the 
 deity ; tantamount to the **God of fire/' or the ^' fire of 
 God." Means were taken also to preserve ever burn- 
 ing the hearth of Vesta, as the Romans appointed 
 virgins to the superintendance thereof, while the 
 (jJrccks elected widows, well stricken in years, as best 
 Jidaptcd to the office. Upon which Tullius says, "ves- 
 tal virgins guard in the city the eternal fire of the 
 public hearth." 
 
 Besides the name of Urrin, Uregare, and Urglin, 
 there occur others in the topography of Ireland 
 which evidently borrowed their origin from this wor- 
 ship of fire ; Delgany for instance, or, Delgueny, as 
 it is otherwise called, being the name of a village in 
 the county Wicklovv, Baxter conceives denominated 
 from delgue, or delga, an old British word, signify- 
 ing an idol or image ; whence the Delgovicia of An- 
 toniinis, the modern Wighton, he looks upon as equi- 
 valent to *'the sacred image ;" — for there was a cele- 
 brated temple belonging to some idol in a certain 
 village thence called Godmundam, that is, the divine 
 mouth. But to my mind, Delgany is a Phoenician 
 name derived from, dclkin, which means a burning 
 fire, the root of which is, delcche, blazed or burned. 
 From this worship also, would seem to be derived 
 the name of the ancient district of Duleek, which at 
 present forms both a barony and borough town in 
 the county Meath ; for, in the Syriac language, du- 
 leek, signifies an immense fire. Thus in the Syriac 
 
314 
 
 version of the gospel according to St. Jolni, verse 
 .35, it is said, "he was (dnlek) a burning light." 
 From the same root was named the Phoenician town 
 of Delica, amongst the Cantabrians in Spain. 
 
 Aire-Caldachiaroc, the name of a district in the 
 county Tyrone, seems to me to be compounded of 
 the Phoenician words, hair, he kindled a blazing 
 fire; Caildai, a Chaldean ; and, chiric, an enclosed 
 place, or chirac, a citadel ; intimating altogether, a 
 fortifi.ed place, where the Chaldaeans — the name by 
 which the Phoenicians designated all magicians and 
 soothsayers — used to worship the sacred fire. Ac- 
 cording to the testimony of Strabo, as we have just 
 before observed, the fire temples consisted of immense 
 enclosures, in the centre of which, upon an altar, was 
 preserved the perennial hearth. From the word, hair, 
 too, which indicates the worship of fire, it is pro- 
 bable that the Phoenicians had designated the town 
 of Airoa, in the county of the province of the Bri- 
 gantes in Spain; as also that of Aireje, Aireja, Airesa, 
 and Aireche amongst the Lucanians, who were also 
 a colony of the Phojnicians. 
 
.•J15 
 
 CHAP. XXXIV. 
 
 The worship of Baal in Ireland — Various names of Baal — 
 The Baby Ionic Bel — The Edessenian — The Phnenician — 
 Jupiter Thatasius^—Bel ivith the Celts meant Sol^^Whence 
 the Irish designated the first day of May — Origin of the 
 word Orian — Grange Mountain — Grec7ificld — Green Island 
 — Green Mount, ^c. — The Cities, Countries and Nations 
 that derive their name from Baal — Origin of the names 
 Mcrns, Foggart, Feighe, and Feigh — Meaning of Baali. 
 
 There are innumerable names in the Irish topo- 
 graphy, whicli point out to the eye the extensive 
 prevalence, at one period, from one part of the king- 
 dom to the other, of the Phoenician worship of Baal, 
 who was the principal deity of that people. Some of 
 those places begin with the singular Bal or Bel, and 
 Bally or Baily : others by the plural Balin and Ballin, 
 or Ballim, There are, I know, those who derive all 
 these from tho Irish, ball or bail, a place, coast, or 
 margin ; or from, balla, a wall or fortification. This 
 may be true of some of them, but by far the greater 
 part of tliem, if not evidently, at least, very probably. 
 
savor of the worship of this idol. But though my 
 intention is to shew this more fully hi my forth- 
 coming work on the Phoenician Geography of Ire- 
 land, I flatter myself that my learned readers will 
 not think I trespass upon them too much, if, in the 
 interim, I give them a few as a specimen. 
 
 liaillie Boroug, a town in the county Cavan, pro- 
 vince of Ulster, beside a fort of the same name. 
 Very probably, this may come from the Irish words, 
 baill, grateful, delightful, pleasant; and borg, a dis- 
 strict or village, corresponding to the Teutonic 
 borough ; or from the Phoenician words, ballei, 
 ancient; or ballia, the same in the feminine; and 
 barg, a tower ; or barga, a villa, a hut, which were 
 in use amongst the ancient Persians and Chaldeeans ; 
 but now they are not read of but amongst the 
 Arabian writers. 
 
 Yet I look upon it as more likely, that, Boroug, is 
 a corruption of the Phoenician word, borac, implying 
 genuflexion, from barac, he bent upon his knees ; and 
 that Baillie, too, emanates from Baal, under whose 
 veil the Phoenicians worshipped several idols, of which 
 we will discuss a little more diffusely when oppor- 
 tunity shall offer, because that very many of our Irish 
 towns and little villages have been denominated after 
 them. The Sidonian Belus, the Phegorian Belus, and 
 the Babylonian Belus, were almost the same in reality 
 as the Jupiter Olympius, Jupiter Latiaris, Jupiter 
 
'M7 
 
 Crctensis ; or the Apollo Clurius, Apollo Dclphicus, 
 Apollo Selinnutius, &c. &c.* 
 
 The word Bel, omitting the letter, a, after the 
 manner of the Chaldeans, was peculiar to them and 
 the Babylonians. Thence the Greeks and the Latins 
 indiscriminately call the Phoenician Baal, Bel — utterly 
 regardless of Eastern dialects. Perhaps the temple 
 of Belus, the Babylonian, was the ''great house," 
 which Periegetes mentions, that Semiramis erected 
 to 15clus in the Babylonian citadel. Bel was wor- 
 shipped from the earliest times at Edessa, a city of 
 the Phoenicians ; as was also Mercury, whom they 
 name Monimus; and Mars, whom they name Azizius, 
 
 * The primitive religion of the Greeks, like that of all other 
 nations not enlightened by Revelation, appears to have been 
 elementary, and to have consisted in an indistinct veorship of the 
 sun, the moon, the stars, the earth, and the waters, or rather of 
 the spirits supposed to preside over those bodies, and to direct 
 their motions and regulate their modes of existence. Every 
 river, spring, or mountain, had its local genius or peculiar deity ; 
 and as men naturally endeavour to obtain the favor of their 
 gods by such means, as they feel best adapted to win their own, 
 the first worship consisted in oflering to them certain portions 
 of whatever they held to be most valuable. At the same time 
 that the regular motions of the heavenly bodies, the stated re- 
 turns of summer and winter, of day and night, with all the 
 admirable order of the universe, taught them to believe in the 
 existence and agency of such superior powers ; the irregular 
 and destructive eflbrts of nature, such as lightning and tempests, 
 inundations and earthquakes, persuaded them that these mighty 
 beings had passions and artections similar to their own, and only 
 differed in possessing greater strength, power, and intelligence. 
 
318 
 
 as you may sec in a liymn to tlie sun, composed by 
 Julian tlie Apostate, who acknowledges that the 
 sentiment and the information here alluded to, was de- 
 rived from Jamblicus the Syrian, who had been once 
 his preceptor. As bearing reference to this Phoenician 
 Belus, it is that we are to understand what is said 
 in the It. Kings, xvi. 31, 32, where King Achab in 
 compliment to his father-in-law, Ithoboal, King of 
 the Sidonians, is recorded as having consecrated a 
 temple to Baal in Samaria, called Beth Baal, that is 
 the slu'ine or chapel of Baal. But the Syrians have 
 handed down from age to age, that this Belus, who 
 was called the Jupiter Thalasius, or Marine Jnpiter 
 of the Sidonians, and who, Hesychius mentions, had 
 been worshipped in Sidon :--the Syrians, I say, have 
 a tradition that he had descended from this latter 
 place, which was a maritime and flourishing com- 
 mercial city of Phoenicia. The Europeans called 
 Belus by the names of Zeus* and Jupiter, as applied 
 to whom we are to receive that sentence in the first 
 
 * As ihcinaiiileiiaiicc of order and k>iil)()rdiuiUiou umong' men 
 required the authority of a su|>reuie uiugjstruti), the cuiitiuuatiou 
 (Vud general predomiuance of order and regularity in thg universe 
 would naturally suggest the idea of a suprynie Ciqi], to whose 
 soverign control all the rest were subject; and this ineftahle 
 personage the primitive Greeks appear to have called by a name 
 expressive of the sentiment, which the contemplation of his 
 great characteristic attribute naturally inspired, Deus, siguify- 
 ing, according to the most probable etymology, reverential fear 
 or a\ve. Their poets, however, soon debased his dignity, and 
 
319 
 
 i^neid, where it is said, that " he filled with wine a 
 goblet, which Belus and all descended from Belus, 
 were accustomed to fill ;" for the Carthaginians had 
 sprung from Phoenicia, and the poet is here speaking 
 of the libation of Dido, their queen. Stephanus also 
 relates, that there was a temple in honour of the 
 Carthaginian Belus or Baal, in Balis, a city of Lybia. 
 Bel, in its diminution from Belin, meant, with the 
 Celts, Sol or Apollo; which they borrowed from the 
 Phoenicians, the authors of this superstition, and to 
 whom Baal, Beal or Bel expressed the sun, which 
 they originally worshipped with human sacrifices, as 
 we have mentioned, afterwards substituting the brute 
 creation. Hence the first day of May, in Irish, was 
 called La Baal teinne, that is, the day of the fire of 
 Baal ; and several of our Irish mountains still retain 
 the name of Cnocgreine, that is, mountain of the 
 sun ; in numbers of which you may yet see the ruins 
 of heathenish altars and chapels; for the sun is sup- 
 posed to have been called Grian, Gren-ur, or Gren-or, 
 in Irish, from the circumstance of the worship paid 
 thereto ; which accords with the Grynean Apollo of 
 Homer, and Grynaeus, a town of Asia Minor, where, 
 as Strabo asserts, is a temple, and an oracle, and a 
 grove sacred to Apollo, and celebrated for their an- 
 
 made liiin the subject of as many wild and extravai^ant fables 
 as any of Ins sniiject j)iogcny ; wliicli fables became n part of 
 their religion, tliough never serionsiy believed by any btit the 
 lowest of the vulgar. 
 
.320 
 
 tiquity, togetlicr with their other attrihiites. 'I'o 
 tlicso we may add the river Granicus, as called also 
 from the sun, since its source lay in mount Ida, 
 which was sacred to Apollo, and where the Idean 
 stone was preserved, upon which Homer asserts that 
 Hector was in the habit of sacrificing. From the 
 same worship of the sun was named Grange, a con- 
 secrated mountain near Drogheda, formerly Tredagh, 
 which is a town in the county Louth, where O'Conor 
 testifies is to be found a circle of immense stones,* 
 
 * This extraordinary monument or pyramid, or rather sub- 
 terraneous temple, which is now but a rniu of what it originally 
 was, covers two acres of ground, and has an elevation of about 
 seventy feet ; but it? original height was not less than one 
 hundred. It is formed of small stones, covered over with earth; 
 and at its base was encircled by a line of stones, of enormous 
 mftgnitude, placed in erect positions, and varying in height, 
 from four to eleven feet above the ground, and supposed to 
 weigh from ton to twelve tons each. Of these stones, ten only 
 remained about fifty years back ; and one has since been re- 
 moved. About a century ago, there was also a large pillar 
 stone, or stele, on the summit of the mount, now also destroyed. 
 These stones, as well as those of which the grand interior 
 chamber is built, are not found in the neighbourhood of the 
 pyramid, but have been brought hither from the mouth of th 
 river Boyne — a distance of seven or eight miles. The stones of 
 which the entire structure consists, are of great size: those 
 which form the lintels or roof of the gallery, are but six in 
 number; and, of these, the first is twelve feet four inches long, 
 the third eighteen feet, and the fifth about twelve feet; the 
 breadth of these stones is not less than six feet. The tallest of 
 tho upright ones forming the entrance to the recess, is seven 
 ftiol six inches in htight, and il8 comi)anion seven feel. The 
 
:V2\ 
 
 and other vestiges of idolatry, of wonderful magni- 
 tude, as appears, also, in the descriptions of Llhuydh 
 and Pownall. These and other such vestiges of the 
 sacrificing priests, are even at this day called Leab 
 tliacha na bh Feine, or the monuments of the Phce- 
 nicians. 
 
 From the sun's worship, too, it would seem that 
 Greenfield, which is situated by the banks of the 
 Blackwater, in the county Cork, had obtained its 
 name ; as well as Green-Island, which lies in Dona- 
 gliadce harbour, in the county Down ; Green-Mount, 
 a town in the county Louth ; Green-Hills, which 
 are the summits of certain mountains in the county 
 Kildare. But we should observe, that hill, which 
 with us means a mountain, meant with the Phoeni- 
 cians, an idol, and was spelled with one, /. The Irish 
 word Grian or Green, too, — the sun, — is derived from 
 the Phoenician Krew, the sun's ray or splendour. 
 
 Hence the Irish call the zodiac or sun's revolution, 
 by the name of Grean blieach ; and a sun dial, by 
 
 vase or urn within this chamber, is three feet eight inches in 
 diameter ; that in tl»e opposite chamber is displaced from its 
 supporter : these urns are of granite. On the first examination 
 of the interior, apyramidial or obeliscal stone, six or seven feet 
 in lieight, is said to have stood in the centre, near which the 
 skeletons of two human bodies worn found ; and about the same 
 period, two gohl Honian coins were discovered on the top of 
 the Mount — the one of tlio ehler Valentinian, and tlie other of 
 Thcodosius. 
 
;}22 
 
 tlie luiinc of Grian clog, tliat is, a solar clock ; to 
 this I refer the names of Cnoc (ireine and Tuam 
 Greine, that is, hills of the sun ; very many of which, 
 as the Irish writers attest, were remarkable for idol- 
 atrous altars; Aois-Greine, called Cnoc-Greine, from 
 the hill of the sun, lying in the county Limerick, up 
 to the suburbs of the very city. And although Aois 
 may well be derived, as O'Conor imagines, from the 
 Irish word Aos, which signifies a religious sect or 
 society, because there formerly a certain leading sect 
 of the Druids was worshipped, or paid worship them- 
 selves ; yet the Irish word, aos, itself, must be derived 
 either from the Phojnician, aoz,he assembled; or, aos, 
 he was assembled. Likewise the name of that Druid- 
 ical altar, called Granny's* Bed, near Fermoy, in the 
 county Cork, is supposed to have been corrupted from 
 Grean Beacht, which is usually interpreted, the sun's 
 circle. I prefer, however, the word, bed, which is, 
 the PliCEnician, beth, meaning a house, a shrine, a 
 temple. 
 
 The Phoenicians named some of the cities of their 
 country from the name of Baal ; for instance, Baal 
 
 * Caile, ov Granny, that is, " old hag," the name of a 
 giantess, who devoured all the children of the neighbourhood, 
 corresponding with the destructive goddegs, Calee, of the 
 Br4hn)ins, whose neck is ornamented with a chain of human 
 skulls, descriptive of the human sacriiices which were annually 
 oiVcrcd to her in Ilindostan. 
 
323 
 
 Mcon, mentioned in Numbers xxxii. 3S ; Bnal Hfc- 
 mon, in Canticles viii. U ; Baal Zeplion, in Exodus 
 xiv. 2 : for the story of Aben Ezra is, that this idol 
 was constructed by Pharoah's Magi, in imitation of 
 the position of the heavenly bodies, and placed beside 
 the Arabic Gulph, with a view to observe and retard 
 the Israelites, — being vested with the power of in- 
 veigling them on their march, and diverting their 
 course from their heaven-ordained enterprise. The 
 Phoenicians, also, gave the name of, Baal Gad, to a ])art 
 of Mount Lebanus, beginning within the precincts of 
 their own jurisdiction, under Tyre, afterwards called 
 Gibel ; and the plain of Jericho, they called Baal 
 Thamar, as you would say the palm-grove of Baal : 
 for, Jericho, itself, was called Thamar, or the city of 
 palms, from the numerous plantations of this kind 
 with whicli it was environed and ornamented. Of 
 this Phoenician custom of consecrating to Baal the 
 names of cities and of peo})le, Spain still retains evi- 
 dent proofs, in the names of Balin and Balina, towns 
 belonging to the Astures and the Gallicians ; as it 
 does, also, in Balimana, a village of Celtiberia. 
 Madrid had formerly a gate, opposite to the river 
 Manzanares, named Balnadu, comprising, in its for- 
 mation, the Phoenician, Baalin dub, that is, the river 
 dedicated to Baal; or beside the temple of Baal; 
 which I shall also prove, in its proper place, to be tlie 
 etymology of Dublin. So also Baillie Boroug would 
 
 t2 
 
324 
 
 seom to liuvc l)coii a town or tciuple of Uaal ; or 
 as, bending tlic knee before Baal.* 
 
 But it is not only to tlie names of places and 
 cities, but, also, to those of men, that we can ad- 
 duce the most copious instances to show, that the 
 name of Baal was added as an honorary adjunct. 
 Certainly, we may trace it in the final syllable of 
 those ancient and distinguished Carthaginian appel- 
 latives — Annibal, Ardrubal, and Adhubal. The 
 Easterns, too, have very often modelled their names 
 after the same plan, as we may see in the first sylla- 
 ble of Beladane; the last of Ethobale; and several 
 otliers of the same kind. And Daniel, the prophet, 
 was called Beltzazar, that is, " according to the name 
 of my God," as that tyrant, Nebuchadnezar, ex- 
 presses it. 
 
 That the Phosnicians had introduced into Ireland, 
 as tliey did into Spain and other colonies, the worship, 
 sacrifices, dances,f and other religious rites, instituted 
 
 * The Burates celebrate a kind of sacrifice, twice or thrice 
 a year, which consists in driving stakes through their he-goats 
 and sheep, whilst they are alive, and planting them before 
 their tents. I'licy keep constantly bowimj their heads to these 
 iiictiiiis, till they expire. 
 
 i We are awakened from our first sleep by the sounds of 
 tinkling instruments, accompanied by a chorus of female voices. 
 I looked out of the window, and saw a band of thirty damsels, 
 at least, come tripping towards us, with measured paces, and 
 animated gestures. The moon shone very bright, and we had 
 
.125 
 
 in lionor of Haal, is as clear as tho uooji-clny, from 
 miml)cilcss names of the topograpliy of tlic country. 
 The memory of this su])erstition is preserved to tlie 
 present clay, in the islands of Ebudae, Ebonite, or 
 Evonas, situated in the Deucaledonian sea, and 
 whose number is not known, but called, by the Scoto- 
 Brigantine Irish by the modern name, Inseu Gal, or 
 the Brigantine Islands. For as Martin, who is by 
 far the most accurate and most diligent describer of 
 them, has shewn, it is usual amongst them to apply 
 to persons, who happen to stand on the brink of any 
 difficulties, the expressive proverb of their *' standing 
 between the two fires of Belus;" — alluding, of course, 
 to the bloody sacrifices of youths and infants, who, 
 in honor of tliis idol, as we have often before men- 
 tioned, were cruelly burned between two funeral 
 ])i1es. Nay, more, the very word "funeral pile "was, 
 by the Anglo-Saxons, called Ba)l-fir ; and a priest, by 
 the Aremorici, was designated Belec, as you would 
 
 a full view of them, from their entering the gate of our street, 
 until they reached our house. Here they stopped, and spread- 
 ing themselves in a circle before the door, renewed the dance 
 and sung with iniinite spirit, and recalled to our minds the 
 picture which is so fully given of these dancing females in holy 
 ivrit. It seems that they took our house in the way to he 
 river, where tlicy went down to bathe at that late hour, and to 
 sing the praiscs-of the benevolent power who yearly distributes 
 liis waters to supply the iiocossities of the natives. 
 
 Irwin s Voyage up the Red Sen. 
 
326 
 
 say, the niinistev of I5cl or Biuil. Whence, too, may 
 T ask, comes the V ulcan of the Romans, unless from 
 the Syriac, Bel-canna, whicli is the Celtic, Belcan, 
 that is, the bm-ning hot Bel or Baal ? 
 
 Fm'thermore the Irish, Samhain, or sacred season, 
 appears to me to have originated from, Shamain, 
 which was another name for Baal amongst the Phoe- 
 nicians, in whose language, Shamain, litterally ex- 
 presses, the heavens ; and, by Synechdoche, the god of 
 heaven, or who dwells therein. An, likewise, in 
 Irish, signifies a planet ; and, samh, the sun ; whence 
 after the manner of the Phoenicians, who looked upon 
 the sun as tlie only god in heaven, as Phylo Bybli- 
 ensis,the interpreter of Sanchoniathon mentions, they 
 worshipped this planet under the name of Baal. 
 Respecting which, Augustine, on Judges xvi, says, 
 " Tlie Carthaginians seem to call Baal, the Lord, 
 Whence they are understood to say, Baal-samen, as 
 if, the lord of heaven — the heavens with them being 
 called, samen ; " where instead of, samain, Ave per- 
 ceive that he uses, samen ; in conformity, perhaps, 
 with the Phoenician dialect of that age. But this 
 very deity, which the Phoenicians styled Beal- 
 samen, or lord of heaven, was no other, as Philo re- 
 marks, than the Olympian Jove, or the Jupiter 
 of the Grecians. And observe now the origin of the 
 Irish words, samh, (the sun) and samhain, (sacred 
 season,) for the sun's circuit round the earth, or 
 more jnoperly, of tlie earth round the .sun, is a ni(;a 
 
.•J27 
 
 sure of time, and this nieasiue, wliicli they nscribed 
 to tlieir deity, they luitiirally h)oked upon as sacred. 
 To this too, I refer the etymology of Merns, the 
 name of one of the Scotch counties — one of its most 
 fertile, I may observe, both for tillage and pasture. 
 For what else is it, with a slight alteration, than 
 Mamas, the idol of Gaza, a city of Palestine, by 
 which name the Gazeans affected to worship Baal ; 
 for Mar or Maran, in Syriac, if you look to the ages 
 after the captivity, is interpreted the same as 13aal ; 
 hence in the Phoenician, marnas, or marnasa, means 
 the divinity, or lord of mankind.* When the island of 
 Crete adopted the worship of this idol, he was called 
 by its iidiabitants, Jupiter Crctensis ; so that you sec 
 the Cretans borrowed their Jupiter from the Phoe- 
 nicians, not the latter from the former. And they 
 transferred their idol Mamas, witli their own an- 
 cient name into the British isles. The same con- 
 jecture gains countenance in Foggart, a town in the 
 county Louth, province of Leinster ; for under this 
 name there seems to lie concealed the idol Fegor, or 
 Baal Fegor, which the Moabites worshipped, and 
 
 * We read in I. Kings, xix. that when Elijah the prophet was 
 called upon, by the " still small voice," in the wilderness, he 
 answerrd, that ho only was loft in Israel to worship the trno 
 (jlod. J?nt lot.ns remember the reply ; " I have seven thousand 
 in Israel, who have not bowed the knees unto Baal, and mouths 
 that have not kissed hinj." 
 
,'5-28 
 
 \vhich St. Jerome, commenting on ii verse in Hoseaj 
 affirms " we may pronounce to have been" Pri- 
 apiis. Althougli others think tlie name derived from 
 Fegor^ a mountain in the country of Moab, opposite 
 the desert of Jesimmon, in which iiu.il, or as 
 Suidas calls him, Beal, had a temple and religious 
 honors paid him, which may have been the origin, 
 perhaps, of the Irishf words, feighr, a hill, and fcigh, 
 bloody, in allusion to the human victims immolated 
 to this idol. Finally, Bel, or Baal, is a name impi- 
 ously given to other images also, whether of stars, 
 or of heroes, the memory of which they would far 
 rather cherish, and was to them more dear. 
 
 But the Baali, here indicated, does not only mean 
 Baal, but, my Baal, or my Lord, which name was 
 originally given to the true God. The Israelites, 
 with propriety and devotion, called God their Baal, 
 before that God himself, from the frequent applica- 
 tion of that name to profane divinites, forbad its 
 farther use. That the Phoenicians had often used 
 Baali for Baal, is evidenced by the very localities and 
 local names of this country, for instance, Ballibofy, 
 Ihdlyboughan, Ballibrack, Ballibur, Ballicary, Bal- 
 tinglas, or Beal-tine-glas, a mountain in the comity 
 
 t Yet the chastity of the women, and the bravery of the 
 men, are traits of the national character on which these people, 
 7iol witkuul justice, pique themselves. — Philos. Surv. of l/u: 
 South of Ireland. 
 
329 
 
 Wicklow. This was the great Beal-timie of the 
 southern tUvision, m which were lighted fires hy the 
 idolatrous natives, on the first day of May and Au- 
 gust respectively, in honor of the sun. In its vici- 
 nity are to be seen, to this day, several altars and 
 moiunnonls of ancient superstition. The word is 
 usually translated in Irish, lieal-tinnc-glass, that is, 
 the custody of Baal's fire, or the fire of the mysteries 
 of Baal, because of the fires then lighted by the 
 Druids. 
 
 From this worship of Baal, or the sun, and of 
 Saturn— as also from the veneration paid to Astarte, 
 and to fire, for which the Phoenician colonists of 
 Ireland, and their Druids, or sacrificing priests were 
 conspicuous beyond all the nations of the west — Ire- 
 land was designated the " sacred Island,"* by tliem- 
 
 * The land of heaufy and of grandeur, lady, 
 VVhere looks the cottage out on a domain 
 The palace cannot boast of. Seas of lakes, 
 And hills of forests ! crystal waves that rise 
 'Midst mountains all of snow, and mock the sun, 
 Returning him his flaming beams more thick 
 And radiant than he sent them. Torrents there 
 Are bounding floods ! and there the tempest roams 
 At large, in all the terrors of its glory ! 
 And then our valleys ! ah, they are the homes 
 For hearts! our cottages, our vineyards, orchards — 
 Our pastures studded with the herd and fold I 
 Our native strains that melt us as we sing them ! 
 A free — a gentle — simple — honest people. 
 
 Knowles. 
 
330 
 
 selves, and by the Bards,* and by other states; and 
 the first liead-land which presented itself to the Phoe- 
 nicians on their sail from Cornwall to I erne, was 
 characterised by the epithet of the " sacred promon- 
 tory." f In Irish, the word ''sacred," or otherwise, 
 fatal "island," is Inis-fail ; which originated from the 
 
 * Of the ancient bards or poets, Lucan makes this mention 
 in tlic first booke of his Pliarsaha. 
 
 " Voa ([uo([iie fortes aninui, belloqiie pereniptas 
 *• Lanilibus in longum vates dimittis aivnm, 
 *' Plurima securilFiidistis carmina Bardi." 
 
 The word signified among the Ganles a singer, as it is noted 
 by Mr. Camden, and Mr. Sehlen, out of lestus Pomjyeins, and 
 it had the same signification among the British. Sir lohn Price 
 in the description of Wales, exponnds it to bee one that had 
 knowledge of things to come, and so (saith he) it signifieth at 
 this day, taking his ground (amisse) out of Lucan's verse? 
 Doctor Powell, in his notes upon Caradoeof Lhancarvan, saitL 
 that in AVales they preserved gentleniens arracs and pedigrees. 
 At this time in Ireland the bard, by common acceptation, is 
 counted a rayling rimer, and distinguished from the poet. — 
 
 Sir James Ware. 
 
 'I'hetrue origin of the word " Bard," however, was as muck un- 
 knoicn to Sir James himself as to any of the above authorities. It 
 being but a modification of Boreades, the name of the ancient 
 Irish priests, as 1 prove in my work upon the " Tlound Towers." 
 
 I Opposite to " JIartland point, or llerculis promontoriiini, 
 on the Irish coast, is " Carnsore point," which in Irish is equi- 
 valent to " promontorium sacrum ;" for " came," from the ori- 
 ental keron, " a horn," is usually applied to those sacred mounts 
 or high places on which Pagan temples or altars were wont to 
 be erected; and " soire," c-orrcsponding to, surya, of the same 
 import, in Sanscrit, signifies in Irish, " the rising sun," or the 
 
331 
 
 prophetic stone, called liack-fail,* or stone of destiny, 
 used by the ancient Irish kings during the Cci'eniony 
 of their coronation, a practice which continued up to 
 the period of Murtogh Mac Earc, in the sixth Cen- 
 tury, wlto Rent It to Scotland for i]\(S nioVn solemn 
 inutiguration of his brother Fergus, the first founder 
 of the Irish monarchy in Scotland. ThC epithet, 
 sacred, was more aptly afterwards applied to this 
 isle, when — after extirpating therefrom all idolatrous 
 usages, by the exhilirating announcement of the 
 gospel of Christ,f it became in St. Bernard's Words 
 
 east. Ill Analogy Willi this i^ame we find on tli6 Atlantic, hbt 
 far (VoiTi GibrflltAr, that of Cape St. Vinceht^ V^hicii was for- 
 meHy denoniinalfed, *' Promoiitoriuni sacrlltto." 
 
 * Ware, speaks of the fatal stone called Liafail, or *' saxuin 
 fatale," Vvhich the Tnnthft Daiitini* htonf^ht <vith them to 
 Jrclaiid) And which groaned when the kiltgji; vic^i^ seated 
 on it J»t their boronntioJu This st(Mie, he niontioHf^, Vvrts «(^nt 
 into Albania to he used at the coronation of Fet^ghs ; ihjit 
 Keneth had it placed in a wooden chair, in which the kings of 
 Scotland sat at the time of their coronation in the abbey of 
 Scone, whence it was transferred by Edward I., king of l^ng- 
 land, and placed in Westminster abbey. 
 
 f We cannot but admire the omnipotence of God, and power 
 of liis grace, in the rapid conversion of this idolatrous nation. 
 So sudden a change can only be attributed to him who has the 
 power of softening the most callous hearts ; for it can be said 
 with truth, that no other nation, in the christian world, received 
 with so much joy the knowledge of the kingdom of God, and 
 the faith in Jesus Christ. Nothing can be found to equal the 
 zeal with which the new converts lent their aid to St. Patrick, 
 in breaking down \\\v\v idols, demolishing their temples, and 
 building churches. — Mac Gvoglicyan. 
 
332 
 
 truly blessed mul prolific in saints, yielding' ihiit 
 many fold in the vineyard* of the Almighty, whose 
 inhabitants, in virtue prospering — as with the impetus 
 of an inundating tide — diffused the sweet odor of 
 that celestial sanative, which they had themselves ex- 
 perienced, into the remotest quarters of the habi- 
 table world.f 
 
 * Oh ! let the Christian philanthropist promote its general 
 diffusion there ; and, should no visible harvest crown his 
 toil, yet his work will be with the Lord, and his reward 
 with his God. But a harvest there will assuredly he; lor the 
 fields are already white unto it: and glorious will be the "day 
 when he thatsoweth and he that reapeth shall rejoice together" 
 — «' WHEN THEY THAT BE WISE SHALL SHINE AS THE SUN, 
 AND THEY THAT TURN MANY TO RIGHTEOUSNESS AS THE 
 STARS rOR EVER AND EVER." 
 
 f Veri sanctus, Joecundusque sanctorum, copiosissim^ fructi- 
 ficans Deo: cujus incolai virtute florentes, quasi inundaiione 
 factd, Christi boiium odoreni in exteras etiam nationes effude- 
 runt. — Bernard. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
:}.3r> 
 
 HE(iI/E 115ERNLE ACADEMI/E 
 JOACHIMIJS LAURENTIUS VILLANUEVA. 
 
 I N NiJM KRIS ill) liospil.alibus Ibcriiis alVoctus boiicCiciis, rt (|uod 
 niilii, libris et MSS. codicibus spoliato, appriin^ cordi est, ad 
 principes et ditioies Dubliiii l)ibIiothecas admissus ; en tibi, 
 illiistiis Acadeniiii, (jiiie patriis ai)li(iuitatibiis obicidaiulis mag- 
 nopen> stiidcs, liaiic lucubratiuneiilam, Ibcrnicnc laudis orgo k 
 mo arrcptarn, in grati unimi oniciiiin icvciUMitcr oxliibco. l*au- 
 cula quidem alterius generis ^ penu meo deproniere possem, 
 cui ne otium unquam otiosuia est ; sed nomini, institute, et eru- 
 ditissimo coetui tuo nihil niihi visum est quod propriils et con- 
 venientiils offerrem, qu^m ardua h?ec excursio in reraotissima 
 Iberniaj tempora, si fort^ lepererini inter spissas illius <etatis tene- 
 bras, quae fuerunt gentes quee earn priraitiJs incoluerunt. Quod 
 si non plenfe asseeutus sum, (nee enim in evolvendAantiquitate, ut 
 aiebat Quintilianus, nee in nutiti<\ vel rerura, vel hominum, vel 
 temporum, satis operas insumitur) non injucundam tanien, nee 
 inntilcm banc comnientatiunculani hnjusmodi ernditionis cullo- 
 ribus futurani, vel ipsa lans, (piani vos, laudati viri, pro luinia- 
 nitale ct benignitato vcslrfi, post ccnsoriam operis auimadvcrsi- 
 
336 
 
 onem, lahori meo conliilistis, propemodum iiulicat. Nimo oro, 
 lit qnod ;\ vobis probatum est, coniiter excipiatis. Valete qua- 
 pro[)ler, Socii criiditissimi, et Acadeiniic vestrai, atque etiam 
 Iberniae gloiiam laboribus ac studiis vestiis aniplificare, ut jam 
 laiidabiliter coepistis, alacriter pergite. 
 
 DiUiim Duhlini [dil>,.li(nii, ami. ISril, 
 
337 
 
 IBERNIA PHOENICEA, 
 
 &c. &c. 
 
 CAPUT J. 
 
 Scopus opcris — Tncertn Tbnrnicc incnlarum origo — Via p.nm in- 
 quire.ndi — Ardna res est in prisca tcmpora pcnetrarc — Ifujns 
 conatufs specimen — I bernioi historiarum copia ct. Jides — Iher- 
 7iicc priorutn gr.niiuvi ct locorum, pcrcgrina nomina — Undc 
 petendum est eorum ctrjmon — Gratus animus crga rccentiores 
 et veteres rerum Ibernicarum scriptores— Non semjier tutum 
 est COS sequi. 
 
 Priorum Iberniic incolaruin, \\\\^m veins, tani iiiceita origo 
 est, nee ratione satis concipicnda. Quamvis auteni qua; de iia 
 fama celebrat, ea non prorsfis abneganda sunt ; ad verilatoni 
 tanien propiiJs aecedendi tutius iter est norainum originem ve- 
 terum hujus insulte populorum et liibuum investigate; qua; 
 ccrt(>, magn^ saltern ex parte, sicnt in aliis orbis regionibus ac- 
 cidit, eorum genus, ct stirpcm, et patriani unde emigrarunt, ve- 
 biti digito monstrant, Non dicam inconvuha, sed aliquantula 
 tamen huic expiscationi inanet fides, cujus pretium non inani- 
 
 Z 
 
338 
 
 bus vilipendenilum conjeetiiris, nisi potiora et inagis aiithentica 
 accedant aigumenta. CiJni enim res ardua sit, ut ajebat Pli- 
 nius, vetustis uovitatcm dare, novis auctoritatem, obsoletis nito- 
 rem, obscuris lucem, fastiditis gratiam, dubiis fidem ; etiam iioii 
 assecutis voluisse, abund^ pulchrtira atqiie niagniflciim est. Id 
 quod ego cordi habens, aliquali reipublica; litterariaj bono, fa- 
 cile in id consilium veni, ut aliquid simile tentare, ne dicam 
 periicerc statuorim ; banc mud(> provinciani veluli olii lillcrarii 
 caussil suscipere nou dubitans. 
 
 Ciim \er6 ilia, qua3 sn[)er geograpbicis Iberniic nominibus 
 discutero in aninio est, nee pauca, nee exigna sint, ac sedido 
 egeant examine, linguarumqne orientalium et septontrionalium 
 studio ; Gornm specimen in priseis Iberiiarum geulinm nominibus 
 et idololatrico eanim cultu interim innuisse sulliciat ; icjictis 
 quibusdam mearum coiijectationnm fonlibus, qui pricsto esse 
 possunt iis quibus banc Spartam deinceps ornare libeat. Ali- 
 quantulam tamen gratiam inire confido, si hujusniodi scrinia, 
 munusculi instar, tarn iis pra;beam, quiludicris levibusque cre- 
 pundiis assueti sunt, qui\m iis, qnibus cordi est gravis ac 
 severus litterarum atqne bonestarum disciplinarnm cultus. 
 
 Dolendum sane est, tot nebulis interfusum veterum Iberniai 
 incolarum originis investigandi iter ; cilm alias nusquam gen- 
 tium alia natio antiquitatum ab omni ;cvo observantior, exac- 
 tiils cbronograpliiam, majorum facta, ditionnm terminos, jura, 
 et omuem demnm vetustatis supellectilem custodicrit. Ut non 
 immerit(^ dixerit Camdonus " pric illis Ibeinicis bisloriis, om- 
 nem omnium gentium anti(}uilatem esse novitatem, et (juod- 
 ammod(^ infantiam." Huic obscuritati ansam praibuit raritas 
 ipsa nominum, tarn Iberniie gentium, qu^m piurium oppidorum, 
 urbium, montium, lacuum, amnium, qucC nihil habere videntur 
 commune cum indigenarum idiomatc. Adeo ut quod de ru- 
 dibns etburbaris Hispauiic veterum incolurum et geogiaphicis 
 
339 
 
 nominibus scripserat Strabo, lingiiarnm ignanis iiiulo dpsiimpta 
 fueraiit; id ipsum de Ibeniicis repetit llodericus OTIaheityus, 
 vir ceteioqui doctissimus, et de Ibernicis antiquitatibus bene- 
 iiieritus. Nam veterum hujus Insulte populorum nomina, qiios 
 Ptoleniir.iis rocensct, nnii mimis sono pcrer/rina vocat, (/viiin 
 Afiicricani tracfm gentbnn. Phrnmqno. etiam, addit, Incornm 
 vmnina Aiisona, vcl Aiisoba, Danroiin, Icnnis, iRanmiiim, 
 Laboriis, Macolicnni, Ovoca, tVc, von mhivs nohia invoffnila 
 sunt. Et tatulcni : Panca locorum nnmina nobis 7iofa, non 
 minus corrupta ac dcptavata sunt, quoin ipsa loca vetustate, 
 cxcsa. llivc forte iioii dicerot vir clarissinuis, si bujiisiiiodi 
 iiomiiia cum scaturigine contulisset, iiiide emanarunt. 
 
 Nostro enim vitio sit, quc>d obscura qiiocdam, et, ut ita dicam, 
 arcauii, in vcteribus lljeiiiix populornin, url)iiim, moiitiiim, 
 amnium nominibus deprehendamus : plenunque vf r»^ histoiio- 
 graphorum et antiquariorum culpA, qui sepe clarissimis alioqni 
 vocibus tenebras otlundentes, etyma pro arbitratu depravarunt 
 eo sensu quern ipsis placuit eHiiigere. 
 
 Rectiilscl. C, O'Connor (Rer. Ibernic. Script. Vet. t. I. p. 
 xlvi. set].): " Si singula nomina Ibcrnica, in(piit, i\ Ptolcmieo 
 servata, cum Britannicis ab eodem servatis conferamus, et pos- 
 tea cum Hispanicis; longe plnra ilispanica esse fateamur 
 necesse est, atque ad tempora antiquissima referenda ; ideocpie 
 cum iis convonire, qua) do vctustissimis PiifiRnicum iu liisuhim 
 sacram expeditionibus superius relata sunt." Cavit ergo era- 
 ditus vir in eorum sententiam ire, qui qnorundara autiqiiariorum 
 fide freti, penfe omnia priscarum Iberniie gentium et tribuum 
 nomina Iberno idiomati consentanea utpote ab eo ducta, an- 
 tiimant. Alios lando subacti jndicii criticos, qui partim ('^ 
 Celticoducunt, partim i^ Oambrico, partim etiam t\ Britannico 
 et veteri Teuthonico. Sed nee in omnibus eorum sententiam 
 j)robo: ci»m niihi exploratum sit multa, (pia' evidenter c 
 
 z 2 
 
340 
 
 l*li(ienicori liiigiii\ diicta sunt, cuiiaii eos ex iiliis toiitihiis 
 
 Ita iiiilliiciiiatiis videturcl. JJullelus , qui in siiis conuneiilu- 
 riis super Linyua Ccllica, sinistra interpretatioiie conatur ex e!i 
 educere plura Ibeiiiiiu iiibiiiui, oppidoiiini, tliiniiiiuin, S:c. uo- 
 iniua ; iit obsorvuvit vir aiitiqiiitatiiiu Jl)eniicanirn peritissimiis. 
 Nee [)i<)pius ad voiiliiteia aceessil, el. IJiijdns in colUitiono 
 Jingiiu3 ibernica3 ciiin CaiitabiinA: intor quas longe minor alli- 
 nitas est, qn^ni inter Il)craicam et Punicam. Oaiitto alios 
 scriptores, qui perperam geographica linjus insulae nomina in- 
 lellexenint. 
 
 Neinpc viri alias doeti, non satis scrutati sunt lin[>uix; [*li(jii- 
 niceaj rudera, qnoi in his nominibus servavernnt vel rnric(clio 
 ipsi, (piibns fabiiae liujns aiietores ij^noti erant : quod et in 
 .Llis|)aniic veteiibns coloniis et uoininibus geograpliicis nnpcr 
 observavi, qnse ut plnriniuni ex eodem fonte nianasse, in nieo 
 geographize Elispanicai opere denionstrare proposui. Nam 
 qui yd punctual collimare eoatendit, is certe a scopo minus 
 aberrabit, quam qui superficieaj circularem assequi contentus 
 est. Ideo ad fontes usque Phoeaiceos attingere ausim, si forte 
 ia illis veram et genuiaani liorum aominuui ratioaeai invencrim. 
 Haec quoniam non piiestitit vir ceteroqui rerum Ibernicaruai 
 peritissimus, suspicatur Plioenices tantum pro re nata ad ll)erniie 
 orani ut ncgotiatores appulisse, merciaionia poregrina advelK.a- 
 di, vel iaq)ortan<li caussfi ; donee Hritaania, ob ditissiaias, 
 (piibus gaudel, stunai I'odiaas, locus luit eoruni eopiis ad eoa- 
 venienduni priuscriptus. llbi probabile existimat liabitaeula 
 stabiliisse eoruni oblcctamento, vel (juasi niereatoruai procura- 
 tores. Sed haec tantilai durasse usque ad (iaeai Belli Punici, 
 quando Carthago deleta est, et Hispania ^ Roniaais conquisita. 
 laterea illud veliai animadverti, aoa improbare aos aliquot 
 horuia aoniiauia Ibernieani origiaeni, iaio eaai t'ateri ingeauc. 
 
,341 
 
 Id tiintiitn osleiidere iiitinuir, pliira ox iis, (jiite Ceiticis vel 
 iJritaiinicis vocibiis cont'ecta creduiitiir, ultii^s esse lepcteiida, 
 ex Plicenicum nerape linguti, qui primis teniporibus, id est, non 
 long^ ab ingressu Israelitarum in terrain Chanaan, ad AfriciC 
 et Hispaniai primiin), et exinde ad Ibernia; litora perveiieruiit. 
 Ad hoc nobis adnitenduin est : hoc opus nostrum est jialniari- 
 uni, Phcmicoaa scilicet lias scaturigines indigitare, et ex iis 
 apontuncnm. ortnm fidcire : ut palAni omnibus fiat, eos cpii ro- 
 niotissima Phociiicum s<vcula penetrare negligunt, non satis esse 
 aptos ad inveniendam veram antiqiiorum Ibernia; incolaruni 
 originem : miniJs autem ad placita sua confirnianda, et ud 
 contraria refutanda vel eluenda. 
 
 Fortasse inde quis colligat, meo judicio fuisse Phrcnices 
 priscos Ibcrniec populos. Atqni non mod6 instituenda est 
 niihi super hoc disputatio. Novi qua; de Ahoriyinibxis seu 
 Gigantibus scripsere quidam veteres, et de eorum cum Parlho- 
 lanis bellis cruentissimis ; et tandem de postremo Gadelianorum 
 scu MiU'.sianorum adventii ex Iberia; oris. INec ampleclor, nee 
 rospuo quod scribnnt Ibernarum anticjuitalum solcrtissimi in- 
 dagatorcs, primos neinp^ ll)oriii;v; incohis h viciniorilius com- 
 niigrasse ; et longo post intervallo temporis suas in eX colonias 
 statuisse Phoenices, Gadilanos utique et Tartesios. Super his 
 et aliis Iberniie antiquitatibus percurri (pias ad maniim habere 
 potui veterum ac rcccnliorum lucubrationes. Sunt (jiuudam, et 
 non pauca inter eas magni pretii, quibtis fateor me valde ad- 
 jutum. Hie enini est fructus, quern ex excellentium virorum 
 laboribus percipit modestasoUertia ; qui ideo nobis praeiverunt, 
 ut in spissis remotissima; eetatis tenebris facem succedentibus 
 priv.ferrnnt. Non tamcn in superioribus ita ociili defigcndi, ut 
 propriis etiam gressibus non attendamus. Per illas enim qui- 
 dam incedunt aiiquando semitas, in quibus non tutum sit eos 
 se([ui : id (juod et ego hie cavi, s"«pe vias pariim Iritas secutus. 
 
342 
 
 Sicut autoui haic teiitavit ante me nemo ; sic indulturos viros 
 ductus spero, si (|ui(l in liisce commeiitariolis pi'%teiniiserim, 
 (jiuc ad otymologi oliiciiini pertinent. In tantii enim nomiiiuai 
 tanagine facile est aliquam negligentiam irrepere, quam liben- 
 tiils ignoscent docti viri, tpii quam proclive sit liujusmodi in 
 stndiis dellceio expciimeuto didiceiunt, quam ceteii, (pii sin- 
 gula in propatuio pntant, et ut ipsi casu ab aliquo audicruut, 
 ila eadem etiam unicniquo in nnmerato esse vellent. Nam ut 
 sunt vai'ia et obsoleta Ujcc nuniina, indagatoies eorum oiiginis 
 s?3pe eftugiunt, qui cilm in earn penetrare nequirent, divinando 
 et tentando prope, quantum fas est, accedere, vel k longe saltern 
 indigilare curarunt. Allixerunt eis S2epe-nuraer6 sensum, non 
 mod6 diversum, sed etiam adversum, queraque ipsa incolarum, 
 conditio, et regionum aut urbium situs k veritate alienum de- 
 monstrat. Non qu6d ego quidquam detractum eis velim, qui 
 ante me Ibernicee Geographic illustrandse operam conlulerunt. 
 Laudo conatus iilorum; illi mihi viam aperuerunt. 8i qua in 
 re a me supcrati sunt, acceptum id refero niagnis ex antiquitate 
 viris, quos majori cnm curA, majore certe otio assidue tero, ut 
 eorum scaturigine ingenioii mei iiortulos inigem. Nee ex iis 
 esse fateor, qui nullo labori parcunt, dum anliquorura vitia et 
 nvevos pervestigant, quique pulcherrima saepe inventa vexant, 
 ideo tantilm, quii^ quod laude dignnm est, k genio eorum 
 abliorrel. 
 
 CAPUT II. 
 
 Iberniam nietallorum venisesse divitem, ait CI. Jac. Waricus 
 (Disqids. de Ibeniid et Antiy. ejus cap. xxv.) quotidiana ex- 
 poricntia docet, speciatim sunt ibidem ali(|u-ic |>lumbi fodin'<c, 
 
343 
 
 qua?, niixtarn liabent lucrosam aigcnti quantitatem, Hadiianus 
 Junius, in Ibcrnia; laudeni, fotlinas hasce pnri argenti venas 
 poetic(^ appellat. 
 
 Et pari argenti venas, quas terra refossis 
 Visccribns manes ivios visnra reeludit. 
 
 I ii(l(! ((»!, Miiniini nmoi ol argonloi in I Ikm nia. |)oicnssi : indo scyplii, 
 inuiiilja, et alia id goiioiis pignora, de cpiibiis in veterihus Inijus 
 Insnlie Annalibus frequens mentio occurrit, et quorum spe- 
 cimen exhibuit idem Warjeus loco laud. 
 
 CAPUT IV. 
 
 Ab idolorum sacrificulis paicntos |)crauasos fnisso, imius 
 inorln, rerKpioH bboros hoc saciiTicio rieptum iri, flccpic lotA 
 vitA futuros prosperrimos, affirmat judacua hispanus \l. Levi 
 ]3arceIonius. " Falsi flamines, inquit, patri prolis apondebant, 
 benelicio oblati filii rolicpiam ejus stirpem prosper^ liabiturum, 
 quocum que se verteret, adeoque domi sua? locum habituram 
 benedictionera et prosperitatem. Utque dolus facilius sue- 
 cederet, iiuUam initio fixerunt legem, nisi illi, cui praeter filium 
 datum, alius superesset, ne obsequium detrectarent, sive com- 
 burendus plane fuerit filius, sive tantilm traducendus juxta 
 quosdam interpretes, perflammam. Et nt certos cos redderent 
 benedictionis et prosperitatis in rellquis, sicque his blanditiis 
 commodius simplices pellicerent ; acclamabant sacerdotes patri 
 sacrificanti : Utile crit tibi : dulcc condimentum erit tibi, &c." 
 
344 
 
 Itleo Vallis Hinnon juxta Hierosolyinani, ubi iianiolutos 
 |»ueros constat, appellata est thophet, ob tynipanorum usuni, 
 <|iiib(ib laincutabiloju piioiormn voceiii, (juui nuhum (nigions) 
 erat, suppiimerent, ne ainliietur i parentibus. Nam hebiaeis 
 thoph erat tympanum, d sono sic vocatuin ut existimat Pas. in 
 Novi Tcstam. Lexico, de rege Josia legitur lieg. IV. cap. xxiii. 
 10. " conlaminavit quoque Thophelh quod est in convalle Jilii 
 Miinoin ; ut nemo coiisccraiet iilium suum aut filiam per ignem, 
 Moloch." 
 
 -Appellatus est etiam locus ille mahken, quod signilicat 
 furnum ad conjiciendos lateres, sed ibi ad comburendam te- 
 nellam eetatem. 
 
 CAPUT IX. 
 
 Tellurem Mail is nomine k gentibus cultam, testis est Plinius 
 (II. 65.) : neque Matris solum, sed magncB quoque ob nimiam, 
 quam pra^stat xitilitatem. Nisi forte in lioc, sicut in aiiis bene- 
 multis, sacra scripturA abusi sunt, quic terram viatrein omnium 
 appellat (Eccli. xl. 1.) immemores dcum esse ijui magna fecit 
 in ovini terra (Eccli. 1. 24.) Unde homimimque deumque ccter- 
 nam creatricem earn appellabant (Stat, thebaid. viii. vers. 304.) : 
 almam parentem : summam parentem, &c. Priscae enim gentes, 
 post quam k Patriarcharum religione, vero Deo ex fide in pro- 
 inissum messiam sacrificantium, ad Idolonianiam, cum coiCi^ 
 sacrificioruuj, defecissent, et primvcvam connatic de Deo \]n^ 
 vero notitiitt puritatem infecissent ; ekmcnta, ex quibus omnia 
 
345 
 
 coaluisse arbitrabantiir, vel pro Numinibus, vcl pro Nmninuni 
 symbolis coluerunt. Et inter baic maximi^ Terram, fe qua origo 
 ipsis, et in quani soluta reverterentur omnia, ut apiicl Platoneni 
 (Tim. Lib. IV.) ajebat Proclus. 
 
 Qu(^(l autem Cibde, qufc Mater Magna vel Mater Deuin 
 prinii^m fiicrit, compliiribus postca nominibus in(li[>itala lucrU; 
 inde Veorum Matrcm nomina in vctcribus aris rcperta sunt, 
 quarum mentionem invcnire est in Plutarchi Marccllo, et in 
 Pausaniac Atticis. Plurimas ex insculptis hisce aris in EiiropA 
 repertas prodidere Gruterus et Smetius. Sed et ejusmodi aram 
 ;\ se visam in Brigantibus meminit Camdenus, etiam ad majorum 
 animaiium sacri(icia peragenda aptam. Hanc in Lancastria : 
 alteram quoquo habet in agro Dunelmensi : tertia) dcscripti- 
 onem ad se missam, sibi ostendisse, asserit Seldenus. De Diis 
 Syris Syniagm. II. cap. 2.) 
 
 CAPUT XII. 
 
 Doctorum virorura sententia est, Scotos, sen Ibernos, Scy- 
 tharum more, ante.'praelium, tum ad robur excitandum, tum ad 
 liostes perterrendos, elamore Martio usos esse, Faragh, Faragk 
 acerrim^ Sicpe iterantes. (Warjcus Ve Ibernia et Antiquit. ejus 
 Cap. II.; Has autem voces h Pbcenicibus mutuasse, mihi in- 
 dubiuni est. Nam corum Vuigua farak significnt lacerarc, fran- 
 gere, rumpere ; quod legioni in busies irruenti apte dicitur, ut 
 COS dissolvat, et abrumpat, faraa autem est liberari '^ jugo ser- 
 vitutis, et ab injuriis liostium : tum et viiidicari, ulcisci. Sic 
 
M6 
 
 llispani olim ad prselium contra Saracenos euntes, acclamare 
 solebant Santiago y a ellos, quasi dicerent : In hostes irruamus, 
 Jacobi ApostoU munimene fult.i. De vocibus ante pugnam 
 Graicis et Romanis usitatis, consul! possuut Suidas, et Ammia- 
 nus Marcelliniis lib. xxxi. 
 
 Nisi nialis Sacas u Pcrsis Scythas appellatos ob victoriam 
 in COS a Cyro priniitns rcportutani : (|iian) iiacarum chuleni 
 IMiotiiis in IMiriobib. (!od. 72. libris »iiccidanc>is incuiinit, Indo 
 opinantur quidani origineni habuisso I'cstuni Saccu, i\ Cyro iiac 
 de causs^ institutnin, et sacratuin Anailidi, Diana: nenipe 
 Persieze, quod numen erat patriuni. Ipsum autem victoriae 
 diem, nnde festi initium, Sakeian dictum k Cyro, ait Eustathius 
 (ad Periegeten), et Anaitidi dicatnm. Addit Strabo (XI.) 
 ubicumque hujus Numinis t'ainun esset, ibi et sancivisse ut 
 sacra celebrarentur, velut bacchanalia interdiil noctuque ad 
 morera Scythicuni ordinata, compotanlibus viris feminisque et 
 lascivientibus. Haic sacra fiehant quinque diebus continuis, in 
 qnibus nioreni esse, ait Berosus Ghalda;us (ap. Athenajum Dip- 
 nosoph. 14.), dominos parere imperio servorum : praesse autem 
 familiai eorum unum, vestem regia; similem indutuni, queni zo- 
 yaneu nuncnpabant: numen, ccrtfe, quod Chaldaicam petit 
 origineni, nam in ea dialeclo Sayan erat prcEtectus, proipositus. 
 Cons. Selden. De Diis Syiis, Syntagm. II. caj). xiii. 
 
 CAPUT XXIV. 
 
 figmenta sunt etiam a viris doctis explosa, qua? de Ibernicae 
 linguae origine narrant quidam, cujus auctorem t'uisse existiraant 
 Gaidhelum hunc, seu Gaolhelum, i\ quo Gaolic, seu Geolic appel- 
 
347 
 
 iita est, qua si ex ceteris Unguis desumpta; turn ct Ibcrnos ipsoS 
 Guydfdll nominatos ; quamquam hajc Huinfiedi Lliuidi Cam- 
 bio-Iiritanni sentcutia est in Fragmento Bt ifaidcce dcscrijitionis. 
 (Cons. Jac. Warasi Disquis. Be Jhernia, et Antiq. ejus, cap. I.) 
 Sunt qui existiment iiomen cualcmalec quo olim appellatam 
 |)utant linguani Ibcrnicam, ductuin k nomine cnlamuam, (pio 
 antiquitus vocatani fuissc Iberniam, asserunt. Sed si verum 
 est linguam ]l)einicam sic olim dictam, quod in suis coUcctaneis 
 historicis docuit Thadajus Dowling, PhoeniceiC esse originis hoc 
 nomen probabile duxeris. Nam Syrophceniciis calarn vox est, 
 S(M nio, oratio : halcc, viator ; adoo spoiito (Init viatoniin sen 
 exterorum linguam, esse cualcmalec. 
 
 CAPUT XXVI. 
 
 Ante divisionem imperii in Assyrios et Syros, ab Aram, Semi 
 filio, dictos esse Syros Aramscos, testantur Fl. Josephus et 
 Strabo. (lib. xvi.) Hoc nomen apud Syros desiisse deinceps 
 ex bac causs^ quidam conjiciunt, (juod nomen Ara7ncei pro 
 gentili itlolotrA usurpatum fuit, ut in Gemara Talmud Babylo- 
 nici, do idololatrio, ubi Samaritanus sive Cuthccns, medius 
 ponittir inter Jndccum et AramcEum, vel idololatrara gcntilem< 
 Apud Onkelos Levit. xxv. 47. Aramoivs ponitur pro Idololatro. 
 Et in versiouc Novi Testamenti Syriaca (Oalat. ii. 14. et iii. 2.) 
 pro gentibus et groicis, Jegimus aramceos. Eruditam super hoc 
 edidit Dissertationem M. Andraias Keyerus in Additamentis 
 ad Seldeni Syntagm. l)c JJiis Syris, pag. 2. seq. 
 
318 
 
 CAPUT XXVll. 
 
 De Romanis ait T. Livius (1. 22.) In hello Punico secundo, 
 ex fatalibus libris sao'ificia aliquot extraordinaria fecissc, inter 
 quae Galium ct Galium, Groicum et Grcecajii in foro hoario 
 vivos suh terrain detnissos. 
 
 Ilodie, ait Minutius Felix, a llomanis Latiaris Jupiter ho- 
 micidio colitur ; et quod Saturnifilio diynuru est, mali et noxii 
 hominis sanguine saginutur. 
 
 Imnianius est quoil de iufaiitis, niaterno utero exsecti et 
 mactati sacrificio, legitur apud Lueanuni (VI.) 
 
 " Vulnere si ventris, non qui iiatura vocabat, 
 " Extrahitur partus, calidis ponendiis in aris." 
 
 Pratereo Imstuavias victimas in certaminibus fnnebribus, qui- 
 bus litatum est mortuis ; et in Spectaculis mutu6 caisos, de qni- 
 bus Tertullianus (lib. De Spectaculis, cap. xii.) Lndovicus de 
 La Cerdu (in IV. iliiieid. pag. 3MG.) aliique. Jure Romani, 
 inqnit Jnstns Lipsins (Lib. I, Saturnat. cap. viii.), quia gladi- 
 ator ma sanguine plucari manes credebaut, caque prima ludicri 
 caussa, hoc spectaculum dedicarunt crudo ct sanguineo dco. 
 Vid. Grotium de Verit. Religionis Christ, et Beyeruni loc. laud, 
 pag. 263. seq. 
 
:}49 
 
 CAPUT XXVIII. 
 
 Litem dicing osl, i\ liicd etiusc;\ voce, scjiem significaiiic jiixta 
 I'raiiciscmu Saiictiimi (Miiieivaj pag. 437.) Nam juxla Lucanum 
 I'harsalit^, Lib. 111. Lxicus crat longo nnnquam violaius ab 
 cevo, &c. Claudianus etiatu De laude StUicon. Lib. 1. 
 
 .... Lucosquc vetusta 
 
 Religioue truces, et robora numinis instar 
 
 Barhurici nostrm feriant impune secures. 
 
 IVuces dixit, propter victimas humanas. Robora vert> numi- 
 nis instar barbarici, vocat Deos arbores, de quibus Seldenus, et 
 alii ; sive quercns siiperstitioiii dicatos, de quibus Plinius, Lib. 
 XVI. cap. idt. et iios in pr:usonti capite. 
 
 Alii Lucos dictos credunt per aiitiphrasin, quasi minimi lu- 
 ccant. Alii ^ coiivcrso, quia rnaxinu^ luccanl, religionis caussft. 
 (Vid. Scaiig. Poet. Lib. IlL c. !)0. et Voss. Elymolog. p. 290.) 
 Erant haec onmis nequitise et spurcitiae latibula, diaboli con- 
 sistoria, in quibus libidini sub specie religionis vacabant. De 
 quo legi merentur Dillier. (t. I. disp. 127.) nbi agit de Mcretri- 
 cibussacris; et Selden. (loc. laud. Syntagin. 1 1, cap. 27, p. 237.) 
 ubi de Vencre Babylonica, quae k Chaldajis Regina ccelorutn 
 appellabatur. 
 
 De veleribus Ibernis narrat auctor De Statibus Imj)eriorum, 
 pag. 44. genua flexisse ante Liinam novam, ei dicentes : Jta 
 nos salvos dcgcrc sinas^ sicuti nos invcnisti. Vana idolatrarum 
 superstitio juxta diei prKsidcni, noctis quoque Lunam, utpote 
 inter planetos lerra> proximani, et influxu suo iiotabilem coluit 
 
350 
 
 (V. Ilovclins ill Sctcnoyrniihicis, pii^. 202.) TiMiiixiro ejus 
 ilofecliis, (|ii<iiitiis t'lu'.iii (.'oitim tiiiior, (|iiuiiln<|(ie tropuliitio, vol 
 ex Tucitu (I. Ainiuliiiiii) constat. Et (|iiuii(lo doliciohut, ejus 
 lumen aeris sono et tubarum, cornuunique coucentu revocaii 
 posse stulte sibi persuadcbant. IJaiie veteium consuetudinem 
 produnt Jacobus Aiulia;as Crusius (De iioete et nocturnls officiis, 
 Cap. IV. pag. 106, 107.) et alii. Etiam num a pluribus fere 
 omnium terraj partium colitur Luna ut divinum uumen : ab 
 ludorum beiiemultis sub nomine Schendra: sub aliis noniinibus 
 a barbaris Africanis et Nigritis maritimis, a Conganis, Anzi- 
 cliaris, turn t\ sueciie populis siibpolaribus, Catainis, Tarlaiis, et 
 Samojedis, Hujus Seleiwlutriic vestigia leperta sunt etiam iu 
 insulis Java Majore, Moluccis et Pbili|)pinis. Lectu digiia 
 sunt qux de hoc argumento lilteris mandarunt Kircherns (^7i'(//^J. 
 A^ijyjU. torn. J. lib, V. ca|). iv. p. 41 (J. se(j.) IJarlajus (Dc 
 rebics gestis sub Maur, pag, G'2.) GotttVedus (Uistoiia Anlipodar, 
 P. I. pag. 30.) 
 
 Ibcruorum morein scrvabant etiam llonuuii qui solemni ritu 
 Junonem invocabaut Caitbiginiensem, Lunain alioquentes. 
 Calantcs, nimirum, pontiHces nonus mensium, (piod fieii soii- 
 tum kalendis in capitolio, iu CuiiA Calabril,clamabant : '' Dies 
 te quiuque Kalo Juno novella, aut Septem dies te Kalo Juno 
 novella :" uti auctor est Varro (De Linyud hit. lib. v.) Nisi 
 pro Junone Janam substituas, ut suspicatur Seldenus. Nam 
 Varroni (Dc re rustled 1. 37.) Jana, Luna, dicitur : et in ve- 
 tustioiibus excusia; ( De re rustled) uou novella, sed cocellu 
 legitur. Covella autcm, Urania, sen cajlostis inteipietatur. 
 Nam veteres covum ca;lum vocabant, ut auctor est Sextus 
 Pompeius. Et Uranlam, sen Lunain, quam ^ Pcenis accepe- 
 rat, veneratus esse videtur Massauissa, Numidarum rex, dura 
 Juno nis fanum magno lionore prosetpiutus est in Melit{i insul;\ ; 
 quod ex Cicerone constat (in Vcrreni Act 1 V.) Undo ccjelestem 
 
.351 
 
 liaiic Venerem, sive Lunam vocabant Assyrii Mylilaon^ ab 
 Arabibiis dillidciitcs, qui cam vciierabaiitur sub nomine Alilat, 
 et a Persis, qui earn vocabant Mitram. Mylita aiitem vox est 
 ducta ab Arabica? Mylidath, genitrix : Alilat aiabibus etiam 
 Inna est nascens et noctiluca. Cui afiine est nomen Lilith, quo 
 Z?«mm vocabant Juilaii; a lilak, nox. (V. Selden. De Diis 
 Syris Syntagin. II. cap. 2. et M. Andrea) ]3cyeii Additani. 
 in hunc loo.) 
 
 Ex hoc Lnnae corniculantis cultu, qui apnd veteres Saracenos 
 sen agarenos invaluit, Mahuniedanorum foitfe superstitiosus 
 ritus ortus est, qui summis Mescbitarum et turrium fastigiis 
 lunulas imponunt. In bon6reni quippe sua; Cabar, id est, 
 magna dea^ (juo nomine Lunam seu Venerem venerabantur, ut 
 niox dicemus, insignia ilia anticpiitus coUocata et sacrata, doc- 
 tornin virorum scntentia est. (^iianupiam alii voiunt colocatiis 
 \i Maliuuiedanis lias Lunulas in mcmoriam llcgiroc, id est, fuga; 
 Mahumedis ex MechA, qua; accidit biduo post verum Lunce 
 coitum, in initio videlicet, mcnsis Muharam, et anni arabici 
 lunaris, corniculante jam Lund. (V, Scaliger Ve cmcndat. 
 tcwfwr. Can. 1 J. III. et Selden. he, laud. Syntagm. 11. cap. 
 iv.) Sed Hegird vetustiorem Lunularum apud Saracenos 
 honorem fuisse, vel ex eo coUigi potesi, quod Lunulce priscis. 
 Ismaelitarum regibus, eorumque caraelis, uti singularia erant 
 ornamenta, et veluti gentis symbola. Unde de Gedeone post 
 quam occidit reges Zebee et Salmana, legitur (Judic. viii. 21.) 
 ILt tulit (^Scbahoronim) ornamenta ac hullas, quibus colla rega- 
 lium camelornm decorari solent. Ila;c autem ornamenta erant 
 Luna; similia : bulloe in modum Luna; rotundas : quas postea 
 (v. 2(5.) vocat torques anrens camelorum. Unde arabes appel- 
 lant, Schuor, Lunam, circulum : — turn et mensem, Innationcm. 
 Nee inverisimile est ab iis tulisse nobiles Komanos morem ha- 
 bondi in calccis notani Ln7i(C, unde Ln7ialos9G esse gloriabanlnr. 
 
352 
 
 Iiule lortasse Asiutui [)luralitor dicohaiitur, qiieinailiuodiiin 
 ic|»eiirc t.'st apiul LXX. Senioies (Judie. ii. 13.) Nam, iit 
 pliires Jiiiiones, ait. Seldonus (loc. laud, Synt. II. cap. 2.) Plu- 
 res Veneres, Deai Syiiaj plures ob sinmlachrorurn nmltitudinein 
 erant; ila et Astartes plnres. Id ipsum pane dixerat D. Au- 
 giistiiuis (ad Judic ii. (jnmst. xvi.) " Juno, iiiqnit, sine dubi- 
 tatione, ah illis (a Pceiiis) Aslarte vocatur. Et quoniam isla; 
 lingiiic ( L*li(unicia ut Puniea) noii nuiUuni inlor sc ditlcrunt, 
 merits creditur do filiis Israel hoc dicere Scriptura, quod /^aa/i 
 servierunt et Astarlihus: quia Jovi ei Junonibiis. Nee niovere 
 debet quod non dixit Aslarti, id est, JunoHi,sed tamqiiani niul- 
 i'di a'wit J unones J pluraliler hoc nomen posuit. A<\ simnlacro- 
 rum enini niultitudinem referri vohiit inteilectiini ; ({uoniaut 
 unum quodque Junonis siniulacrum Juno vocabatur : ac per 
 hoc tot Junones, qnot sunt simulacra intelligi voluit." 
 
 Jocelinus, monachus Cisterciensis coenobii Furnessensis apud 
 Lancasterienses in Vita S. Patritii, cap. 00. tradit Loegarium, 
 iilium Nelli, regis Iberniai adorasso iduluui quoddara appella- 
 tuin Caencroithi, id est, caput oinuinm deorum, " eo quod, 
 inquit responsa dare putabatur <[ po|)ido stulto." Sunt qui du- 
 bitent an eo nomine Apollonem Iberui intellexerint sed forte 
 cean fuerit Saturnus, quern Hebraeis ciun, et ceuan, linguA Jsma- 
 elitic^ appellatum Persis et Arabibus, ex Aben Ezrai testimonio 
 constat : unde facile hoc nomen Phoenices, Saturni cultorcs, 
 trahere potuerunt. Sub hoc nomine coluisse pravaricatores Is- 
 raelitas Saturnum una cum Moloch, testatur Amos Propheta : 
 qui cvlm dixisset : Porlustis tabernaculum Moloch vestri (Amos 
 V. 2(3.) addit : et ciun, imaginem vestram: cujus loco habet 
 vulgatus interpres : Et imaginem Idolorum vestronim. Sed 
 Aquila et Symmachus retinnerunt vocem Ciun, pro Rempham, 
 in versione allocutlonis B. Stephani Protomartyris (Actor, vii. 
 'V,\.,) (pii hunc locum Amou luudavit ud rcdargucndam scniorum 
 
juJaici |)(t|)iili vX scril)iuiim dmitiem. Sunt (pii in iiotniiie Chut 
 reperire opinentur nomiiiis Chan vestigium quo Hercules, /Egyp- 
 tioriirn lingiikl appellatus est, Sed hoc iiec Seltleno placet, nee 
 satis, lit ostoiidit, hue quadrat, Satiirnuni, ver6 cofirtnant versio 
 Novi Testameiiti Coptica, turn coiiseiisiis coiiinientarioium cop- 
 ticorum in Caput. VII. Actuuni, et Lexiei Arahiei coi)1ici, 
 (juod Rcphnn, vol Rcmpham vocant Satunium, l.unain esse 
 o[)inatur Vossius (loc. laud. II. 23.) Victoriuiis Stiigehus 
 (pag. 309.) IJypomnem. Alii Syrii stellam, veluti nunien cul- 
 tatn apud ^gyptios pro felici agrorum inundatione : quia ciica 
 Syrii ortum iucipit Nilus ebullire, wtcinn sit quasi canis : quod 
 tainen vix PhaMiicum iheologia perraittet. (Vid. Selden. Inc. 
 Imid. Synfof/m. 1 1, cap. 1 1. et Addit. IJeyoil in hoe caput : tun» 
 i.'l. Hotting. Siur.ym. Orient, p. M!). 
 
 Croifhi veiA duxorini, vol a voce Phcpuieea act. v(d creit, 
 thesaurus ; ut fuerit ceiin croHhi thesaurus, vel ditissimum 
 I'auuni Saturni: vel ;\ gente Palajstinae hellicosissimA crithi, 
 yel cerethi, ex qua habuit David Satellites, sen corporis sui 
 custodes (11. Reg, xv. IB.) et (juorum pars cum Cititeris 
 I'liceniciis k facie Jopiic liigerat. 
 
 De alio Idolo, quod Clochorce e lapide aureo responsa dare 
 solebat, testatur VVaraeus (loc. laud. cap. v.) fieri mentionem in 
 llegesto Clohorcnsic, Clochora (moiled Clogher prov. Ulster) 
 cxiatimant Ibornorum Anti(piarii noiucu duxisse a lapide aureo, 
 oliiu dieto Lia fail, ant Lcc Jail, do <pio serino nobis est ad 
 palcem capitis xxxiv. Clochora CDngmitcum vocibus Phoeniciis 
 clo-cor, imago in 'ccre, auro, argento, vel saxo sculpta. 
 
 Plinii (II. 7.) lestinionio constat Rouianos morbis, et multis 
 ctiain pcstibns, diini placandun esse trepido metu cnpiorunt, Araa 
 crcxisse: turn et public^ Febri fanuin in Palatio dicusse. Nee 
 Paupertas hoc apud eos honore curuit, ob id Viva dicta, Ar- 
 temque dignati sunt ut cam eflfngerent, teste Ttiliano (ap liu-' 
 
 A a 
 
354 
 
 stathium in coinmchl. atl Dionys.) Apml Komanos (Miani tt 
 alias gciites iiabiienint Aras Mors, Tarlarus, Senectus, Lucius, 
 Fames, Funus, Favor, Dolor, Sojior, iiiimiiieia alia. (Cons. M. 
 Aiidr. Beyer, ad Cap. 111. Seldeni Proleg. Cap. V.) 
 
 CALMJT XX rx. 
 
 Cuidain cordati iiiterprclos VuUcni fJiniiou (Jos. xviii. a.). 
 Sive (xti-ben-IJinnou, vallisTilii lliiiiioii, vi;l Ge lliunon (Jcmm. 
 vii. ni.) vallitj llimioii, diuliiia iiialiiiil poliiis, (|iiaiii «!X iioiniiiu 
 pro|Mi(), iit'bcio ciijiis Jlinnon. Vallis ista crat locus iiifaiiiis, 
 ob I'oedaru istain idoiolatiaim, infantum Molocho tostorum ulu- 
 latus, elaots sordes, et perpetuum ignem ; at que ad inferorum 
 horrorem reprtestnt ardum uptisshmts. (V. Dillien. Eclo(j. 
 Sacr. p. 120.) Qnare et jnditi Orcum, sive locum daninatorum 
 usitatissime Gehinnou vocant. Est enim tnfernus, uti vallis 
 hoc Ilieiosolyniic erat, communis totius Orbis sentina, quo 
 itidem confluxit omnis generis, atque omnimoda spurcities, qua 
 sepeliendi iniprobi numquam monturi, perpetu6 flammis ustu- 
 landi, sicuti commune scpulcrctum IJrbis vallis ilia credita 
 nonully est. Norn Ixx. ISonioros Jcremiic xix. 2. et (i. per 
 locum ubi multa scpulcra sunt, roddidorunt. Nlc in Inferorum 
 signilicalu salvator et scriptnra ab liac voce abliorret, nenipc 
 ychenna ignis- -gdienna ignis inextinguibitis. (Marc. ix. 44 — 40.) 
 Cons. Liglittoot. Uor. Fulmud. ad Math. v. 2. 
 
 A Pluenicibus derivatam esse in Africam ad Pqmios, banc 
 imniolandorum liominum cnjuscunupia: aitatis maximc impube- 
 rum, superstitioneni, Dcorum pads exposccndix cuussd, constat 
 
ex Curtio, Lib. IV. cap. 3. pt Jiistiiio, Lib. XV 11 1, cap. 6. 
 Siliiis Italiciis, liib. IV. v. IHI. 
 
 Mosfiiit in populis quos condidit advena Dido, 
 Poscrre. cccde Dcos vcniam ac flagrantihux oris. 
 Injandum dictu, pantos iniponcrc nains. 
 
 Gerniani, si quarulo aliqiio iiietu adducti, Deos placandos 
 esse arbitrabaiitur, liumanis liosliis eoruin aras et tenipla ftiiies- 
 tabant, ut ne religionem qxddem colere potuerint (ait Tullius 
 Orat. pro M. Front.) nisi earn priiis scelere violarint. 
 
 CAPUT XXX. 
 
 Jlcrvnk Romniio loquitur Soliuus (cap. I.) ATracliiiiiiH cul- 
 tus est Hercules, Koniopion sive locustas abigcns : nam eonira 
 lingua I'arnopa (corrupt^ h Kornopa) locusta erat. Erythraiis 
 Ipoktonos appellatus, quasi diceres, vermiculorum vitibus in- 
 festorum occisor. Europaeis JJerculem generatira Baalzebub 
 nomine cultum opinatui Seldenus (loc. laud. Synt. II. cap. G.) 
 Jiaalzcbub autem, Deus muscce, seu Dens musca iuterprctatur, 
 k Muscarwm multitudine, quaj Victimarum carncs in gentilium 
 fanis plerumque sectabanlur, dictus, ut nonnulli coistimant. 
 Quamquam Scaligeri judicio, " id quod dicebatur Baal-zebahim 
 (sic ille). Deus victimarum, immolationum, sacrificiorum, jocu- 
 lari vocabulo scriptuia vocavit Dcum Muacoi qnt>d in tompio 
 Ilierolymitano muscK carncs victimarum non liguriebant, 
 quum tamcn gentium fana ;\ muscis infestarentur propter nido- 
 rem victimarum." 
 
 Aa2 
 
l*r()liaiiiiius taiuon est AccaroniUs i|isis, liiijiis idoli eultoiiljns, 
 iIIikI Jlaalzchitb tlicliim. (^ijus rci Uisliiiioitiiiin (;st, (jiiod ciiin 
 Oiiliorias rox Isiaol, pet- i-.uncellos cauactdi sui praiceps tloci- 
 tlisset, (le salute consuluit liualzdnth (leiitu Accaroii (IV. Reg. 
 1. 2.) Ecquis, inqiiit ScIiKmuis (ibid.) niiinen, quod coleret, 
 ac de salutis instauratione contulaiiduin duceret, in honesto et 
 joculari vocabulo compellaret? Accedit quod etiam Ruropaji 
 iioc iionien in Hcrculis cultu retinuerunt, quasi doinimim muscce 
 cum appellantcs ; in quo Accaronitaruui Plicenices ajmuli vi- 
 dentiii extitisse. Cujus lei indicium est siiperstitiosus cultus 
 idoli Adior, quern in AtVicam Phoenices, in ejusoram appulsi, 
 iiivcnerunt. Nam de Cj/rcnaicts ait Plinius (X. 17.) Achorc/n 
 donm invocure, ii;uscariiui multiludino peslilentiam aflVioiite ; 
 iiddciis protinus iMlciiii.' muscus ci'tm illi nuniiiii lilatuni est. 
 in Achore en'uu vestigia appareht Accai'onis, et qua; de viuscis 
 dicit, ea Beelzebub a|)ertissin»e indicant. Quo nomine, eadem 
 <le causA et simili allusioiie, flcrcatem Plioeniccs invocasse, atl- 
 njodum ost verisiniile. Non enim xVccaronitaun cultu sui idoli 
 (juam l^lioeuices in cultu llerculU pii magis censendi sunt, aut 
 religiosiores. Quod de Graecis etiam et liouiauis intelligito, <jui 
 Herculis sacra a Plioiuicibus acceptruut. Et satis sit iiinuisse 
 Muscat urn annua sotemuia in ApoUinis Aciii delubro fieri so- 
 lita, (!e quihus in Annalium lib, XI. loquitur 71^]lianus. An 
 auteni Ilcrcnit acciderit (piod Accaronitarum idolo accidit, mii- 
 tatio URUjpe nominis Bedzebub in Beelzebul, asscrere non ausim. 
 ('erte Accaronitarum idulum Hcclzebul, id est, domhium ster- 
 ooreuin legimus apud Atlianasium, Origenem, Cyrillum, et alios 
 Patres Grajcos. Quaj mulatio apud Hispanos etiam obtinuit, 
 quorum Celebris poeta Prudentiiis {Peri Stephanon Hymn V.) 
 do IMartyre Viucc-ntio l.cvita canit. 
 
 hicd liclzcbulis callida 
 
 (*ommcnta (Jhrislus deslruil. 
 
357 
 
 Siipor liuc iiif»ninoiito mnlfa scifii dipna collegit cori)|»Iiiteiisls 
 Ui«'()l()f«iis Loo do C!ii,sU() ill suo Apoliu/dico. (liil). Vl.pnf^'. 
 (JSa.) Bcdzebiil iiutcm pro Beehebuh legi in benemiiltis griccis 
 i^aiigolionnn oxorii|»laril)iis, turn et in vottistissiniA versione 
 ArabicA tl Tlioina Erpenio Edita, Soldenus aiictor est. Nisi 
 veils iiiveiitiim vocabulnm Beelzebvl, in contumeliam idoli 
 iVccaroiiitariim, (pia; est sonteiitia J. Unisii. Nam Jiida;orum 
 sapieiites hujusraodi appellationuiu variationes in fictoruni nu- 
 niiimm ignotiiiniam fieri piaecepisse, res est notissinia. Sic 
 inipostorein Barchocobam (filiuni stellae), sub Trajano principe 
 Messia} noinen venditantem, liarchochibam (filinm mendacii) 
 appellarunt. Mo»s etiani olivarum, rpii hebraic^ dicebatur 
 liar hamischah (Mens olivarnm sen unetionis) : nnitato ele- 
 niento, et Jod addito, appellatus est liar hamaschifh (mens 
 corruptioiiis sen oirensionis) postquam eiim Salomon iiupiinavit 
 cultn Astarotb, Chanios et Melchoin (IV. Reg-, xxiii. 13.^ 
 Quo noniine locus indicatiir, sed uon sine opprobiio. Ad ido- 
 loruni eiiani ignoiniiiiain IL Abniliani Itoii-kaltnii vcrbn ilxodi. 
 ^xx. 3.) Non habebis dcos aliinos coram me, sic expoaiiit: Noti 
 sines apiid te habitare (jui volitiit deos perr.grinos, vcl stercoreos. 
 Sicut enira, spiritus sancti stylo, ab adjuiicl^l vanitate et turpi- 
 tudine omnia idola bebraice, elilim, per paranomasiam vocantur 
 (jalilim, (niliilum, stercora) ita longA, apud judaeos praxi obliuuit, 
 ut ab idoloiiitris noniina suis idolis tributaperverterent probroso 
 aliqiio nomine (V. Ligbtfoot. Ilor. Talmud in Math, pag, 108.) 
 Tsaiani imitantes qui dxit (xxx. 22.) : Disperges ea (sculptilia) 
 sicut immnnditiam menstruatce. Sic quod vocabant idolatras 
 Faciem Dei (Strab. xvi.) vocabant judiei Faciem canis'. quae 
 idololatris crat Fons cnlicis, liacbreis appollata est fo7is tondii, 
 vel tribularum : Foriuna: vocabiduni gentilicnm miitarunt in 
 Ffetorcm: idcpie Icvi littoraruni mutatione, vel transpositione, 
 oppiduin, quod ali(iuando dicuni (>st Jicthel (Domus Dei) 
 
358 
 
 ilietuni est postea Bethaven (Domiis vunitatis). (iuotl autein 
 lianc praxiin hodierui judiL'i iicquiliosc' (;ts;u|)iiis occiiltc iiniloii- 
 (iir, osteiulit Biixtoillins Lexic. Talmud, (ail ia«l. cara.) 
 
 CAPUT XXXI II 
 
 liurdos i)(<etas t'liisse, tostis est Sliabo (lV.),<|iios cantiomim 
 factores vocat Diodnrus Siculds (V.). De iis ait laicaiins (I.) 
 in lonpim <emim dimillaa laudi/ms Jutlcs uuiinas, bclUxpic pe- 
 remptos. JSomeii (jaUicum existiiuat l*oiiipcJus Festus, quod 
 non quenicunique cantoreni significat, sed qui carit virorum 
 fortium laudes. Sed cum indubia res sit veteres Ibernos Poetas 
 Bardos appellatos, conjectaie ausim ^ Phoeiiiciis hoc, nomen 
 traxisse, in quorum lingua bar significat polire, dilucidare, de- 
 clarare ; diiz auteni, exultavit, gavisus fuit: lit iuorit Bar-daz 
 qui l'«tanter declarat seu dilucidat lierouni et fortium virorum 
 res gestas. Quod apprime Bardis seu Vatibus Ibernicis congruit 
 qui heroica sua carniina, lingu'^ cantui aptissim'^ scripta, uti ad 
 oculum demonstravU CI. Vallancey, dulcissinu\ modulatione 
 canebant, quic non aures pulsabat, sed cor. (V. Encyclop. Bri- 
 tann. Art. Music, et Jos. C. Wal keri ///s^om-a/ Memoirs of the 
 Irish Bards, Vol. I. pag. 08. seq.) Idem de Musicis eorum 
 instrumentis adstruit Giraldus Cambrensis {Topocjraph. Ibcrnie. 
 dist. III. cap. 11.) " in quibus, inquit, velox et pra;ceps, 
 suavis tameit etjucunda sonoritas. Mirum tpiiVl in tunlA lam 
 prxcipiti digitorum rapacitate, musica servatur proportio, ct 
 ...lam suuvi velocilate, ...consona redditur et complelur 
 
359 
 
 ineIo<lia . . . Soinpor ab molli iiici|>iimt, ct in idem reilouiit, \\i 
 cuncta Bill) jncuml'.u soiinritatis dulcetlino complcantiir," &c. 
 Fiiisse Bardns inter veteies Ibnrnos Itlololatras res est notissi- 
 ma : e qiionnu iiumero fiiit Dubtachiis, de quo ait Jocelinus 
 (ill Vita S. Patiicii, Cap. XLV.) carmina in laudem falsorum 
 deoruin studio florciitcpcrcrfissc ; coiivoisiiin aiitom ad fidetn, in 
 laudem omiiipnicntis Did, et snndorxim clariora Pocmata com- 
 postiisse. Medii ?cvi scriptoies appellare solebant Bardos in- 
 ferioris iiolac T'oetas, vulgo dictos JRi/thmicos ; qui carmina, seu 
 Rythmos caiiebaut, noii semper ad aedificationem et pacem 
 popidorum, sed ad inorum pleruuiquc corru[)lelam, vel ad sedi- 
 tioiiis iiicitamontuui. Qui abusus, ut observat Wara^us, ansam 
 taiidoni pricbuit statu(is saucitis ab Anglicanis et Ibernicis 
 commitiis contra eos, eorumque rcceptores (Waracus loc. laud. 
 cap. V.) Bardos etiam a quibusdam medii sevi scriptoribus 
 vocatos reperies Stolidos quosque et impolitos. Lectu dignum 
 est Ducaiigii Glossar. Medice et Jujimce Latinit. V. Bardus. 
 
 Hoc Saxum ait\Var;«us j\ Ihnathcdcdania iu Ibcrniam por- 
 tatum, at(jue indc, regiiante Moriertacho, Ercjc filio fMortoglii 
 Mac Fiiirc) ad Fergnsium fratrem in Argatheliain missum, sod 
 k Kenetlio regc iigne^k cathedra postoainclustim, Regibus Scoto- 
 rum consccraiidis, in Monasterio Sconcnsi collocatiim, ac tan- 
 dem k rege Cdvardo prime Anglije, Westmonasterium transla- 
 tum. Addilque famam tenere, Ethnicismi temporibiis ante 
 Christum natuni, eum dumtaxat Ibcrniam monarcham approba- 
 tum, sub quo Saxum iliud collocatum ingemiscebat, vel (ut 
 liber llouthensis penes 'J'homam Stafl'ordium equitem habet) 
 loquebatur (Warsens loc. laud. cap. V.) 
 
 Saxa, ut deorum simulachra, coluisse veteres, res est notis- 
 siraa. Exemj)Io sit Alagahalns (queni depravate Ilcliogabalum 
 quidam eft'erebant), Sol, nempe, Pijramidis specie i\ Phceniciis 
 cultus. Vencrcm, pilic, seu quadrati saxi formA colebant 
 
iiGO 
 
 Arabes. Testatnr Pausuiiias s(;|)tcin coltiinnas imocIus rilii 
 prisco a|)iid Lacoiias, enuntiam steUaruin sigiia. Volusl.issimiis 
 fuit (iitt'corum nios, Saxa, sive (juadiala, sivo riidiu, .s;iitLMU 
 aliam, qu^m Saxi speciem j)ia3 se iioii fereiitia, pro ^Jilnlllu(;ll^i■. 
 ponere, neque aliter, qtiam siiniilacluis (liviiiuiii lionottin exlii- 
 bere. Quod ex ejiisdiiiu Pausaiiiee (in Acliuicis) testiiiioiiio 
 constat. V. Seidell, loc. land. Prolcyom. cap. It I. 
 
 liujus lapidis portio usijue hodie servari dicitur in tliroiio 
 Anglorum regio. 
 
 Cave confuudas hoc Saxum cum lapidibiis sen coluninis cir- 
 cumiitis et vacillantibus, quas in Tyri urbe erexerunt Pluiv 
 nices ; nude proUahIc exislinial W. Cooke (toe. land.) al) ipsisi 
 emm in liritanuicis insulis uollocatiis, ubi voc:al)aiitiir Anihn;, d 
 Main Ainbrc, id est, Lu^m Awhrosius, ait. Canidonus. Iloiinn 
 lapiduui (juosdain inventos ess<} in IberniA, miclor est cl. Tolan- 
 dus in Druidarum ilisloriii. Robertas Sibai(bis alterius nie- 
 niinit in ScoliA: aiteritis juxta Balvaird in Fife. Dr. Stukely 
 assent se aliud ex Gygonian, sen saxis vaciUantibus vidisse in 
 Derbyshire. Quod ver6 conspiciebatur juxta Peiisaiis in Corn, 
 wall, dirutum est in bello eivili ab uno ex Cromwelli gnberna- 
 toribus. Depictuin est hoc saxum in Nordcu's History of Coni- 
 wally p. 48. Nuni borum lapiduni vestigium sit nomen Am- 
 brose Town, oppidi baron. Baryiem comit. W^ea/brf/, aliis dis- 
 quirendum relinquo. Mihi vabie probabile est ab Ins Aiubrosiis 
 Saxis, (pivo Phcenices in llispania coUoeavernnt, nomen sortitani 
 lubuui liiisitaniiu velustis.simani AmbraciKs, non l«)ngo ab ICiiio- 
 ritd ; tnni ni omrnVd Ambros, Ambrox, A mbrpz, Aiubres, Ambru- 
 sero, &c. 
 
 Habes hio, prajclara Ibernia; sapientum virorum concio, cpio} 
 \fi meis scheduUs adnotaveram de Plianiceo ejus colonum et 
 idololalrix origine. lludera sunt aicis vetnstissiiuai, pulvcre 
 oblila, qua; do.qtiores alii liinpida forsan aliquando et a sordibuh; 
 
361 
 
 lilxMii ill liiiius insuku gloiiiim postcris ofl'eient. Fastitlioiit, 
 liifcdi, cxilia liau! noalra, si coiircrnnt.ur cum oriuIiloMiiii liicii- 
 biatioiiibiis, qui lianc Spartam peragrarunt. VeriJm prutlens 
 lector, noil ex operum sapientis cujusquam viri praistantiA haec 
 nostra nietiatur ; qiiin potiils ex bono ea duntaxat aninio dijii- 
 dicet. Qiiiitii %'ellem, ut ego gratam et obsequenteni erga 
 Ibernos vobmtalem prodere nunc studui ; sic illi incain banc 
 observantitim asqui bonique consiilurent ! Sed quid ab insitA 
 Ibemoruni, planeque sinj^ulari erga me humanitate nunc mihi 
 polliceri dubitem ? Quae quidem etsi stiinulis non egeat, nee 
 precibus locum reliiiquat; passuros tamen spero, ut de ei\ jugiter 
 milii conscrvaiidA, tam(]uam de re mibi turn charissimA, turn 
 H|)cclatissim{l, cujus inslar eoruni, qui pretiosas res possident, 
 sollicitum esse me decet, eos majorem in modum exorandos 
 nunc ceiiseam. Age interim et tu, quisquis e^, qui liajc legeris, 
 accipe libenter has nostrii ingenioii conjecturas ; et si quid ill is 
 rectins novisti, candidus imperii: si non, his utere mecnm. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 llOnlNS AND SONS, nilNlEnS, SOUlIUVAltK. 
 
ERRATA ET CORRIGENDA. 
 
 Instead of " Tuatha Dedanan," p. 20, pref. read, Tuatha Uanaan; and instead 
 
 of, " Dedanite diviners," read, Danaanite diviners. 
 Instead of " Milesian" — and " Milesians," ps. 22 and 23, pref. read— Scythian 
 
 — and Scytliians. Scoto-Milesian, however, is the correct designation of the 
 
 present Irisli, as implying the intermixture explained in my ''Dedication." 
 Instead of " Myself the venerable," p. 31, pref. road, making the venerable. 
 Instead of "eatim," p. 3G, note, read, etiam. 
 Instead of " Ilierin" p. 41, note, read, Iberin. And here let me observe that of 
 
 the notes in said page, only the words within parenthesis are mine. 
 Instead of " Numda?," p. 145, note, read, Numidai, 
 Instead of" accpiintur,'' p. 235, note, read, acquiritnr. 
 Instead of "landed in that colony," p. 294, read, landed that colony. 
 
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