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 http://archive.org/details/essayonantiquityOOvall 
 
AN ESSAY 
 
 ON THE 
 
 ANTIQUITY OF THE IRISH LANGUAGE; 
 
 BEING A COLLATION OF 
 
 THE IRISH WITH THE PUNIC LANGUAGE. 
 
 WITH A PREFACE, 
 
 PROVING IRELAND TO BE THE THULE OF THE ANCIENTS. 
 
 Addressed to the Literati of Europe. 
 
 A Correction of the Mistakes of Mr. LHWYD in reading the ancient 
 Irish Manuscript Lives of the PATRIARCHS; And of those 
 committed by Mr. BARETTI in his Collation of the Irish with 
 the Biscayan Language. 
 
 THE THIRD EDITION. 
 
 BY 
 
 LIEUT.-COL. CHARLES VALLANCEY, LL.D- 
 
 ET SOCIET. ANTIQ. HIB. SOC. 
 
 ON THb 
 
 F CJ ' rE AN^jQUITY OF THE IRISH LANGUAGE, 
 
 J,<i,r^gf(»d tp the Printer of the London Chronicle, 
 -■40^* In the Year 1772. 
 
 ' 
 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED FOR RICHARD RYAN, OXFORD STREET. 
 
 1818. 
 
 BOSTON COLLEGE UBRAUY 
 CaSSTKTO BILL, MASS. 
 

 C 3 
 
 Printed by J. Brettell, 
 Rupert Street j Haymarket, London. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 TO THE 
 
 THIRD EDITION. 
 
 From the great inquiry that has been 
 made lately for Works relating to Ireland 
 and on the Irish Language, it is imagined 
 the Republication of the following Tract 
 will be an acceptable offering to the Public. 
 
 It is printed verbatim from the Second 
 Edition in Colonel Valla^cey's Collectanea, 
 urA is respectfully Dedicated to the Natives 
 of Ireland, and the Lovers of Irish Anti- 
 quities, by 
 
 THE PUBLISHER. 
 
 i i 
 
PREFAC 
 
 Ireland, properly so called, was probably the 
 first of the British isles that got the Name of 
 Thule, as being the first the Carthaginians met 
 with steering their course northward, when they 
 departed from CapeFinestre the northern head-land 
 of Spain. And this island seems to be the same 
 said by Aristotle to have been discovered by the 
 Carthaginians, Lib. de mirabil. auscultat. where he 
 says, " extra columnas Herculis aiunt in mari a 
 Carthaginensibus insulam fertilem inventam, ut 
 quae tarn sylvarum copia, quam fluminibus navi- 
 gationi idoneis abundet, cum reliquis fructibus 
 floreat vehementer, distans a continente plurimum 
 dierum itinere," &c. 
 
 Bochart confirms this by what he observes, that 
 the ancient writer Antonius Diogenes (who wrote 
 twenty-four books of the strange things related of 
 Thule, not long after the time of Alexander the 
 Great) had his history from certain tables of cypress 
 wood digged at Tyrus out of the tombs of Mantima 
 and Dercelis, who had gone from Tyrus to Thule, 
 and had remained some time there. 
 
 The situation of Thule has been much contro- 
 verted; yet all agree it was some place towards 
 
 B 
 
2 PKEFACE. 
 
 the north, with respect to the first discoverers, and 
 many make it to be one of the British isles. This 
 agrees perfectly with the situation of Ireland, for 
 the Carthaginians in sailing from Cadiz having 
 once cleared Cape St. Vincent, had Ireland in a 
 direct northern course before them. 
 
 The ancients seem mostly to agree, that Thule 
 was one of those islands that are called British. 
 Strabo, one of the most ancient and best geogra- 
 phers extant, speaks thus; Pytheas MassiJiensis says, 
 it is about Thule, the furthest north of all the 
 British isles. Yet he himself maketh it nearer than 
 Pytheas did : But I think, says he, that northern 
 bound to be much nearer to the south ; for they 
 who survey that part of the globe, can give no 
 account beyond Ireland, an isle which lies not far 
 towards the north, before Britain ; inhabited by 
 wild people almost starved with cold ; there, there- 
 fore, I am of opinion the utmost bound is to be 
 placed ; so that in his opinion, that which he calls 
 Ireland must be Thule (a). 
 
 Catullus is of the same mind. 
 
 Sive trans altas 
 Graditur Alpes, 
 Caesaris visens 
 Monumenta magni, 
 Gallicum Rhenum, 
 Horribilesque et 
 Ultimos Britannos. 
 
 Whether he o'er the Alps his way pursue 
 The mighty Caesar's monuments to view, 
 As Gallic Rhine and Britons that excel 
 In fierceness, who on the earth's limits dwell, 
 
 (a) Camd. Br. p. H07, 
 
PREFACE. S 
 
 Serves iturum Caesarem in ultimos orbis 
 Britannos. Hor. (b) 
 
 Preserve thou Caesar safe, we thee implore, 
 Bound to the world's remotest Britons shore. 
 
 Caerulus haud aliter cum dimicat incola Thules, 
 Agmina falcifero circumvenit acta covina. 
 
 Silicus Italicus, 
 
 As Thule's blue inhabitants surround 
 
 Their foes with chariots hook'd, and them confound, 
 
 Pliny places Thule among the British isles, and 
 Tacitus (c) says, when the Roman navy sailed 
 about Britain, despecta est et Thule, " they saw 
 Thule also." 
 
 Statius ad Claud. Uxorem, describes Thule to 
 the westward of Britain. 
 
 ' et si gelidas irem mansurus ad Arctas, 
 
 Vel super Hesperiae vada caligantia Thules. 
 
 If in the cold north I go to abide, 
 
 Or on dark seas which western Thule hide. 
 
 Although the Romans never were in Ireland, 
 yet Statius, with the liberty of a poet, has certainly 
 brought them there in this verse, apparently for the 
 honour of having them in Thule. 
 
 tu disce patrem, quantusque nigrantem 
 
 Fluctibus occiduis, fessoque Hyperione Thulen 
 Intrarit, mandata gerens, 
 
 Learn, from thy sight, how glorious he was, 
 When he did with the senate's order pass 
 
 (b) Lib. I, od. 35, (c) Vita Agric. supra. 
 
4 PREFACE. 
 
 O'er to dark Thuie, in that ocean, west, 
 Where Phoebus gives his weary horses rest (d). 
 
 Qu. Where could he conduct them westward 
 from Britain, but to Thule — to Ireland ? 
 
 Sir R. Sibbald explains the transmarinse Gentes 
 or Scotorum a Circio, i. e. the Scots from the 
 north-west and beyond the seas, mentioned by 
 Bede, to be Scots and Fights, because, says he, 
 Ireland cannot be said to he to the north-west of 
 the Roman province. I do affirm the Scoti or 
 nothern Irish, from whom all expeditions passed 
 into Albion, lie due north-west of the Roman 
 province. 
 
 Ireland was ever anciently remarkable for learn- 
 ing, it was the insula sanctorum. Stephanus By- 
 zantinus says, I'E'PNH, vt^©* 3 ev tw weqctTi, vipog 
 IvjIlciTq. Upon which words Holstenius thus remarks, 
 Vsqvy ilia insula est, quae hodie Hibernia dicitur. 
 Aristoteles de Mundo: E'v rep ihxeavq ye "jxijy vypni 
 [LSyiqai re Tuy%#V8<7/ Kcreci %vo, BqsTavixui heyoiLavctt, 
 A"a€/ov vma Tiqvvi. In Oceano insula duce sitce sunt, 
 quam maxime, qnas JBritannicas apellant, Albion 
 et lerna : de hac vide plur. apud Andr. Schottum 
 lib. 11, Observat. cap. 20. Festo Avieno in ora 
 maritima Hibernia vocatur sacra insula. Quod 
 quam aliam ob causam fecerit nunc non succuriit, 
 nisi quod* Tt$ legerit pro fegvif. To iQvwdv, 
 Veqvu,T®>, w? AeqvuT®*. Et foemininum I'eovlg, quod 
 apud Orpheum legitur Argon, v. 1179- n^' a* 
 «5« vvjcov ccfiE&ev tepid a (e). 
 
 (d) Camd. supra. 
 
 * fsgevs. Sacerdos. Augur a Plutarcho vectitur l'egiw pro 
 &$£iov, to, victima, sacrificia. 
 
 (e) Holsten. in Steph. Byzant. de urb. p. 144. 
 
PREFACE. 5 
 
 Festus Avienus lived In the fourth century, 
 therefore this was not named the holy island after 
 St. Patrick's conversion, as some think, for he did 
 not arrive here till the beginning of the fifth cen- 
 tury ; this must therefore be the island sacred to 
 Apollo (that is to Baal) of which Diodorus Siculus 
 makes particular mention. See p. 51. 
 
 Thus, Arngrimus Jonas describes Thule {/)'. 
 
 penetravit ad Indos, 
 
 Ingeniumque potens ultima Thule colit. 
 
 His eloquence did reach the utmost Indies, 
 And powerful wit enlightened farthest Thule. 
 
 And then he adds ; from whence it may fairly be 
 inferred, that either Britain or (as Pliny will have 
 it) some island of Britain was the ultima Thule ; 
 yet Sibbald will interpret some island of Britain 
 to be Britain itself. 
 
 Again, " In the history of the kings of Norway, 
 it is said that king Magnus, in an expedition to the 
 Orcades, Hebrides, Scotland and Britain, touched 
 also at the island of Thule and subdued it." Here 
 Scotland, Britain, and Thule are very plainly 
 distinguished. 
 
 Wernerus Ralwingus says, in the time of Pope 
 Linus arose the Scottish nation of Picts and Hiber- 
 nians in Albion, which is a part of England ; that 
 is, a nation of Picts and Hibernians arose in Albion 
 a part of England. As plain and intelligible as 
 this is, Sibbald will have Hibernia to be part of 
 Scotland. 
 
 Strabo always mentions Thule and Britain as 
 the British isles. Speaking of Pytheas's blunders, 
 
 (f) Specimen Island, hist. p. 2. p. 120. 
 
6 PREFACE. 
 
 he says, 0"n Uv^siag $ Muo-axXiuryg Iwa&v shut 
 QiKoffoQ®*, -^evliquT^ yKifx^y iv oh rx %efi 08A*v 
 xai Bqeraviag y£uy%ci$et. Quod Pytheas Massiliensis, 
 cum visus fit Philosophus esse, in descriptione 
 Thules ac Britanniae, mendacissimus deprehen- 
 ditur. 
 
 And thus an anonymous author (g) in the life of 
 St. Cadrac, extracted ex membranis monasterii S. 
 Huberti in Ardenna, speaking of the migration of 
 the Irish, says, " Pactolus igitur Asiae fluvius 
 Choriam Lydiamque regiones dividit, super quern 
 Chorischon urbem manus antiqua fundavit ; cujus 
 incola lingua, et cultu nationem Graeci multimodi 
 laboris negotiis serviebant, &c. — itque IHiricos ex- 
 euntes fluctus, inter Baleares insulas devecti ebusum 
 Hispanicum intraverunt. Nee multo post per 
 Gaditanas undas occidentale pelagus ingressi, ap- 
 pulsi sunt, rupibus quae visus hominum altitudine 
 excedentes, antiqui erroris fama, columnae Herculis 
 dictae fuerunt. Hihc illius Airico vento exurgente 
 post immensa pericula in Tyle vel Thule ultimam 
 detorquentur. 
 
 Some derive the name Thule from the Arabic 
 word Title, which signifies afar off, and think it 
 was in allusion to this the poets usually called it 
 ultima Thule. Bochart derives it from a Phoenician 
 word signifying darkness. But the words Thual 
 and Thuathal in the Irish, and probably in the 
 Punic language, signified the north, as also the left 
 hand, agreeable to the oriental manner of naming 
 the cardinal points with respect to their looking 
 towards the east in their devotions. Thus the 
 north part of Munster, in old manuscripts is called 
 Thuathal -Mkumhan or Thuath-Mhumhaii. in 
 
 (§) Voig. p. 495. col, i. 
 
PREFACE. 7 
 
 English Thomond, and the south part of the same 
 province is named Deas-Mhumhan, in English 
 Desmond, So also the northern province of 
 Ireland retains the word Thual to this day, in 
 Coige Thualle et corrupte Coige Ulla (the ih 
 being an hiatus) in English Ulster. See the Irish 
 names of the cardinal Points more fully explained 
 at page 38 of the following Essay. 
 
 To what I have already said I will adjoin the 
 opinion of a gentleman who has made many curious 
 researches into the antiquities of Great Britain. 
 " The Thule of the ancients seems most clearly to 
 have been Ireland, from the manner in which 
 Statius addresses a poem to Crispinus, whose father 
 had carried the emperor's commands to Thule. 
 
 tu disce patrem, quantusque nigrantem 
 
 Fluctibus ocdduis.fessoque Hyperione Thulen 
 Intravit, mandata gerens. 
 
 It should also seem, from other parts of the same 
 poem, that this general had crossed from Scotland 
 to the north of Ireland or Thule : 
 
 Quod si te magno teRus frtenata parenti 
 Accipiat, quantum ferus exultabit Araxes ? 
 Quanta Caledonios attollet gloria campos ? 
 Cum tibi longaevus referet trucis incola terrae, 
 Hie suetus dare jura parens, hoc cespite turmas 
 AfFari ; nitidas speculas, castellaque longe. 
 Aspicis ? ille dedit cinxitque hsec moenia fossa. 
 
 Statius, V* 14. 
 
 Crispinus's father, therefore, must have resided 
 some time in Scotland, from whence he went to 
 Thule or Ireland ; for the Hebrides (the only land 
 to the west, except Ireland) could not have been of 
 sufficient consequence for the emperor's commis- 
 
8 PREFACE. 
 
 mission, or the fortifications alluded to; besides, 
 that the expression ofjessoque Hyperione implies, 
 that the land lay considerably to the westward (h). 
 
 Although Ireland be the first Thule discovered 
 by the Carthaginians, says Sir Robert Sibbald, yet 
 it is not that Thule in which the Romans were 
 and made conquest of; for it is certain they never 
 were in Ireland, properly so called. The Horesti, 
 that is the Highlanders were called Hyberni, says 
 he, as being a colony from Ireland. Yet Strabo 
 says, Qui Iernen-JBritanniam viderunt, nihil de 
 Thule dicunt ( i ). But seeing Scotland has those 
 within herself who are able to trace her original 
 from the highest antiquity, I will only point out 
 the fountain from whence I can conceive these 
 truths are to be drawn, and offer some things 
 which I would have them diligently to consider; 
 for in this point I profess myself a sceptick. 
 
 First therefore of their original, and then of the 
 place from whence they were transplanted into 
 Ireland. For it is plain, that out of Ireland (an 
 island peopled by the Britons) they came over into 
 Britain; and that they were seated in Ireland when 
 they first became known to writers by that name. 
 
 So Claudian speaking of their inroads into Britain ; 
 totam cum Scotus Hibernem*, 
 
 Movit et infesto spumavit remige Thetis. 
 
 When Scots came thundering from the Irish shores. 
 And th' ocean trembled struck with hostile oars. 
 
 {b) See The possibility of approaching the North Pole dis- 
 cussed, in page 62 of Miscellanies by the Honourable Daines 
 Barrington. London, 1781, Quarto. 
 
 {%) Lib. I. p. 39. * Iernam, 
 
PREFACE. 9 
 
 In another place, 
 
 Scotorum cumulos flevit glacialis Hiberne *. 
 
 And frozen Ireland moan'd the crowding heaps 
 Of murthered Scots (k). 
 
 The first inhabitants of Ireland came from 
 Britain. Ireland was inhabited by Scots. Paulus 
 Orosius, lib. I. cap. 2. He is an author of the 
 fifth century. 
 
 Gildas, who must have perfectly known that 
 country, assures us, that in the sixth century the 
 Picts and the Scots inhabited Ireland. Basnage 
 Hist. Eccles. (/). This testimony of Gildas is con- 
 firmed in our ancient topography. 
 
 It was a received opinion in the time of Pro- 
 pertius, who lived under Augustus Caesar, that the 
 Irish were descended from the Scythians ; witness 
 that verse, lib. 4. el. 3, 
 
 Hibernique Getae, pictoque Britannia curru. 
 Whence it appears that the Irish were descended 
 from the Getae (Goths) a branch of the Scythians, 
 the common origin of all the Celtic tribes who 
 inhabited Europe. 
 
 Scytae in quarta aetate mundi obtinuerint Hiber- 
 niam, says Usher (m). 
 
 Britones in tertia mundi aetate in Britanniam, 
 Scoti in quarta venerunt in Hiberniam. Hunting- 
 don, lib. I. 
 
 Hence it appears that the Scoti were a colony of 
 the Scytae ; that they were the same people, and 
 even preserved and bore the same name with the 
 alteration of one letter only, the o for the y, owing 
 to the difference of pronunciation, Scoytce, Scotte, 
 
 * Ierne. (k) Camd. Brit. p. cxliv, 
 
 (/) Vol, l.p, 747. (w) Prim. p. 731. 
 
10 PREFACE. 
 
 Scoti for Scytce ; and it is not improbable that the 
 word Celtce is likewise a corruption of Scytce, in 
 process of time probably called Scheltce or Skeltce, 
 Keltce or Celtce. 
 
 Ferocissimi Gallorum sunt, qui sub septen- 
 trionem habitant et Scythae vicini sunt; dicunt 
 ex iis nonnullos antropophagos esse, sicut Britannos 
 qui Irin inhabitant. 
 
 Galatae qui ad septentrionem vergunt et Scytiae 
 vicini sunt, ferocissimi sunt ; eorum nonnullos 
 dicunt hominibus vesci, ut Britannos qui Irim 
 inhabitant. 
 
 Diodorus Siculus (n) supposes, as a thing known 
 and out of dispute, that the inhabitants of Ireland 
 were Britons, and consequently descended from 
 the Gauls, Galatae, Skeltae or Celts. 
 
 Buchanan (o) confirms the Irish history, that 
 numbers of Spaniards fled to Ireland, being much 
 disquieted in their own country by the Cartha- 
 ginians and Romans, and that all the north side of 
 Spain was possessed by Gallic colonies. He con- 
 tradicts Tacitus, who says, the west side of Albiuni 
 was possessed immediately by Spaniards, but that 
 they came from Ireland ; for, says he, all our annals 
 relate that the Scots passed more than once out of 
 Ireland into Aibium ; first of all under Fergusius 
 son of Ferchard. And Bede's account of the 
 Scythians coming to Ireland by distress of weather 
 c6rresponds with our Irish history. 
 
 At what period these Spaniards or mixture 
 of Spaniards and Carthaginians, emigrated from 
 Spain to Ireland is variously related by Irish 
 historians. 
 
 (n) Lib. 5. p. 214. edit. H -Steph. 1559; 
 (o) Edit. Edmb. Vol. I. p, 61. 
 
PREFACE. 11 
 
 Keating, from various authors, fixes this emi- 
 gration from Spain at the 280th year after Pharaoh 
 perished in the Red Sea to 1000 years before 
 Christ ; but it is most probable it was about the 
 time of Asdrubal's defeat in Spain by Scipio and 
 his brother Cneius, that is about 216 years before 
 Christ ; for at that time the Carthaginians were 
 not only repulsed in Spain, but in Africa, and the 
 Balearic islands likewise ; and many of the cantons 
 of Spain at tins time threw off the Carthaginian 
 yoke and submitted to the Roman power. Some 
 of the Irish historians agree in this period. 
 
 Here it must not be forgotten, that all agree 
 that Milesius, who headed this colony from Spain, 
 was only so named on this expedition from mil a 
 champion, and that his proper name was Gallamh, 
 i. e. the white hand, and this method of naming 
 became common, as red hand, withered hand, &c. 
 
 The old name of Leinster was Galliain, that is, 
 the country of the Galls ; many places yet retain 
 the name as Dun-na-Gall (Donnegal), Fion-na- 
 Gall (Fingal), Port-na-Gatt (Gallorum portus), 
 Gal way, or Gattamhain, i. e. amnis Gallorum, 
 Tuamdalhalan now Tuam, with many others. 
 
 In travelling through Ireland we frequently meet 
 with mounts or raths, the repositories of the 
 illustrious dead. In two very remarkable passages 
 of the Iliad the poet intimates, that this was the 
 practice both of the ancient Greeks and Phoenicians, 
 and their manner of burying their dead, particu- 
 larly of their heroes and eminent men, of which 
 the monument of Patroelus in the 23rd book of 
 the Iliads and that of Hector in the last, are 
 remarkable instances. See also Virgil's JEneid 
 lib. ii. &c. Lucan's Pharsalia, lib. 8. Et regum 
 cineres extructo monte quiescunt. The Irish had 
 
12 PREFACE. 
 
 also the common letter and the Ogham ; and thai 
 they were both in use at one and the same time is 
 evident from this passage in the ancient book of 
 Ballimote, fol. 146. Fiachra Mac Eacha Muigh- 
 mheadhon (Righ Eirin) do ghuin san gcath ro 
 shroin for Muineachaibh i Gcaexire. A ecc dia 
 gonaibh iar tteacht go Hui-mac-uais Midhe, ro 
 cladh a leacht &; ro laigh, a f heart for au scribh, a 
 Ainm Oghaim ; i. e. Fiacra, son of Eacha Moyme- 
 don, was mortally wounded at the battle of Caonry, 
 wherein he was victorious against the Momonians. 
 On his return to Hy-mac-uais in Meath, he died 
 of his wounds. His funeral leacht was erected, 
 and on his tomb was inscribed his name in the 
 Ogham character. JV.2?. The battle of Caonry was 
 fought A. D. 380. 
 
 That the Latin language was in later ages the 
 common dialect of the Africans as well as the 
 Punic, we learn from St. Augustine, who says he 
 learned the Latin in Africa inter blandimenta nu- 
 iricum : and the same author also notifies the decay 
 of the Punic language in another part of his works, 
 m%, de verbis Apostoli. " Proverbium notum est 
 Punicum quod quidem Latine vobis dicam, quia 
 Punice non omnes nostis." St. Hierome also 
 writing to a young noble Roman lady called De- 
 metrias, being in Africa, says, " Stridor Punicae 
 linguae procacia tibi fescennina cantabit " — " the 
 jarring Punic language shall sing thee bawdy songs 
 at thy wedding." From these authorities we may 
 conclude, the Latin language and the Roman 
 letter were common even in Carthage in the time 
 of Plautus, and that the Punic speech given by 
 that author in his comedy of the Poenulus, was 
 written in the Roman letter. 
 
 The positive assertions of all the Irish historians. 
 
PREFACE. IS 
 
 that their ancestors received the use of letters 
 directly from the Phoenicians, and the concurrence 
 of them all in affirming that several colonies from 
 Africa settled in Ireland, induced the author of the 
 following Essay, who had made the ancient and 
 modern language of Ireland his peculiar study for 
 some years past, to compare the Phoenician dialect 
 or Bearla Feni of the Irish with the Punic or lan- 
 guage of the Carthaginians. 
 
 The affinity of the language, worship, and man- 
 ners of the Carthaginians, with those of the ancient 
 Irish appeared so very strong, he communicated 
 his discoveries from time to time to some gentlemen 
 well skilled in the antiquities of Ireland, and of the 
 eastern nations; their approbation of this rude 
 sketch induced the author to offer it to the consi- 
 deration of those who have greater abilities and 
 more leisure to prosecute such a work. 
 
 Well knowing the ridiculous light most etymolo- 
 gists are held in, the author has trod with all pos- 
 sible caution in this very remote path of antiquity. 
 The arbitrary liberties taken by some etymologists 
 have justly drawn on them the censure of the 
 learned. Their general rule of the commutation 
 of letters has often led many astray, and caused 
 them to lose sight of the radical word and its 
 primitive sense ; thus for example, the word adder 
 may, by an etymologist unacquainted with the 
 English language, be turned to otter, for the a and 
 o being both broad vowels are commutable, and 
 the word may be written odder ; the d being also 
 commutable with t, the word may be formed to 
 otter, an animal of a very different species from the 
 primitive word adder. 
 
 Monsieur Bullet in his Memoirs de la Langue 
 Celtique, has been guilty of the same error, in his 
 
14 " PREFACE. 
 
 etymon of the British names of rivers, towns, &c. 
 as is observed by the ingenious translator of Mr. 
 Mallet's northern antiquities (p) ; and the learned 
 Lhwyd has, in my humble opinion, succeeded little 
 better in his collation of the Irish language with 
 the Biscayan or Basque ; between which I do aver 
 there is no affinity ; but between the Irish and the 
 Punic I think I may affirm there is a greater 
 affinity, than between the Irish and any other 
 ancient language whatever. 
 
 Many learned men are of opinion that the 
 Hebrew characters now used by the Jews were 
 first invented by Ezra. Scaliger is so much con- 
 vinced of this, he reproaches every one who is not 
 of the same opinion ; in his epistol. ad Thompsonum 
 et Ubertum, he affirms, Graecas literas a Phoenicibus 
 natas quibus omnes olim et Cananaei et Hebraei usi 
 sunt, adhucque Samaritani utuntur; neque alias 
 in usu fuisse a temporibus Mosis ad excidium 
 templi. Nam eae, quibus Judaei hodie libros, et 
 omnia acta sua scribunt, nuperae et novitiae sunt, 
 ex Syriacis depravatae, illae autem ex Samaritanis ; 
 quod cum luce clarus sit, tamen quidam semidocti, 
 semitheologi, et ut signatius loquar, semihomines 
 non solum Judaicas literas vere Hebraicas esse 
 priscas audent dejerare, sed etiam impios putant, 
 atque adeo vocant, qui aliter sentiunt; miseram 
 vero doctorum et priorum hominum conditionem, 
 si doctrinae et pietatis suae, non alios testes haberent, 
 quain asinos. 
 
 Grotius, Bochart, Morinus, Vossius agree with 
 Scaliger, and of the ancients Hieronymus and 
 Eusebius are of the same opinion. Certum est, 
 says Hieronymus, Esdram scribam, legisque doc- 
 
 (p) Preface, p. H. 
 
PREFACE. 15 
 
 torem, post captam Hierosolyman et instaura- 
 tionem templi sub Zorobabel, alias lit eras com- 
 perisse, quibus nunc utimur, cum ad illud usque 
 tempus, idem Samaritanorum et Hebraeorum 
 eharaeteros fuerint. And Eusebius says, affirmatur 
 Esdra divinas scripturas memoriter condidisse, et 
 ut Samaritanis non miscerentur Uteris, Judaicas 
 commutasse. Scaliger further observes, he had 
 seen coin of the Hebrews with inscriptions in the 
 Samaritan characters. Siclos quotidie circumferii 
 qui sub regibus Judae in usu fuerunt, quibus eadem 
 literae incisae sunt quae in scriptis Samaritanorum 
 leguntur, sine ulla aut exigua mutatione. Yet 
 Angelus Rocca confirms what Diodorus Siculus 
 says, (q) that the Phoenicians received their letters 
 from the Syrians. 
 
 With the authority already quoted, we may 
 venture to affirm, that the primitive Phoenician 
 letters were the same as the ancient Samaritan. 
 That the ancient Spaniards had various alphabets 
 and various languages, see Strabo, lib. 3. speaking 
 of the Turdetani, " Hi inter Hispaniae populos, 
 sapientia putantur excellere, et literarum studiis 
 utuntur et memoranda^ vetustatis volumina habent 
 poemata, leges quoque versibus conscriptas ex sex 
 annorum milibus, ut aiunt. Caeteri autem Hispani 
 usum habent literarum non uno quidem genere, 
 neque una illis lingua est. — Utuntur et reliqui 
 Hispani grammatica non unius omnes generis, 
 quippe ne eodem quidem sermone. 
 
 That the present Irish character (improperly 
 called the Roman Saxon) was formerly used in 
 
 (?) 2«£ov £/„£y Evgtioci ygxp-iAXTUv eta, irot^a. $« rsrwv $3(>/x£j 
 v.ix.Qovtss roTs EXXvicrt mx^a^uKxaiv. Syri quidem literarum in- 
 ventores sunt, ab illis autem Phoenices discentes Gra3Cis 
 tradiderunt. 
 
16 PREFACE. 
 
 Spam, see the ancient MSS. copied in Aldretes 
 origin de la lingua Castellana. ch. 18. 
 
 IDfiCfCiaf er oirce;* Or. 
 
 Prescius et omnipotens Dens. 6cc. cS:c. 
 And that the Punic letter differed from the Greek, 
 see Justin. Kb. 20. in fin. 4i Facto senatus consulto. 
 ne quis postea Carthaginensis. aut Uteris Graecis, 
 aut Graeco sermoni studeret. ne aut loqui cum 
 hoste. aut scribere sine interprete posset." 
 
 It matters not in the present treatise, whether we 
 acknowledge the Irish to be a Celtic. Pceno-Celtic, 
 or Scytho- Celtic dialect ; they all were originally 
 the same ; at the time of this island being first 
 peopled, they were identically the same, as may 
 be proved from language, customs, and maimers. 
 I refer the reader to the Observations Sacra? of the 
 learned Campegius Vitringa. who published his 
 works in quarto at Leovardia in 1689- His seventh 
 chapter is entitled de Persis. Scythis. horumque 
 progenie. populis septentrionales regiones incolen- 
 tibus, disseritur. eorumque linguarum convenientia 
 mutua inter se, et origo ex una Hebraea lingua 
 ostenditur. Proferuntur etiam ad finem exempla 
 modorum loquendi integrorum, qui Hebra^is ac 
 Belgiis communes sunt. I mean not, says he, 
 to speak of the Persians so denominated by 
 Xenophon, but of that more ancient people under 
 the name of cfr^gnailim, ga'rfim. as we find them 
 in sacred history. 'EAufMeifoij whose most powerful 
 king was known in the ao;e of Abraham, under the 
 name of Cedorlaomer, apud Mosen. 1. I. c. 14. 
 Strabo mentions the Elymcei, inhabiting between 
 Media and Mesopotamia, 1. 15. TetTviet 5i tij 
 'Ecvfih tv: Ba^vXuvmg, Sec. he i. e. Susidi ea pars 
 Babylonia proxima est, qua? quondam Sitacena. 
 postea Apollionatis, est dicta : Ambabus a septen- 
 
PREFACE. 17 
 
 trione orientem versus Elymaei imminent, et Para- 
 tacaeni, latrones, et asperis montibus freti. 
 
 Symmachus and Procopius prove these Elymaei 
 to be Scythians ; Herodotus that they were neigh- 
 bours to the Medes ; and Bochart that they were 
 the ancestors of the Persians. 
 
 Let us now collate the old Persic words with 
 the Irish, as we find them in Brissonius de regno 
 Persarum, 1. u. p. 279- 
 
 Uin cheres, H. sol, Persic; crian, cria, gria, 
 grian, Irish. 
 
 JTJ dec, decern, P. deich, Ir. 
 
 n>*ttf shac, rex, P. seadh, Ir. potens. 
 
 "fifi 1PU nar-malcha, amnem regium. n^n-malace, 
 aqua regia. 
 
 Suren, surena, next in power to the king. 
 Yteqypa, Zosimus ; ab Ebraeo nttf sari vel "W sar, 
 princeps. Irish saor and saoi, a burgess, a noble ; 
 from whence the English Sir, and the French 
 Mon-Sieur. 
 
 Gan-gamel, P. a camel's hovel; Ntorp Heb. 
 i. e. gan, locum obtectum ; Ir. gan, septus, an 
 inclosed place ; gan-ail, a hovel, i. e. inclosed with 
 stone and covered ; ganail-gamuil, a camel's hovel ; 
 hodie ganir, a hovel. 
 
 Hesychius says, that Aaqetoc v-no Heqir&v is called 
 tyovi^oq, inquiror ; this is easily derived from the 
 Hebrew ttni daras, inquirere ; Irish deara, make 
 particular enquiry or notice ; b<xi/ie a proper name 
 of the same signification with the Persian Darius. 
 Strabo says Dareis, Darius, JDariaues, differ only 
 in their termination. Reland thinks it is derived 
 from the Persian dara, lord or master ; or darab, 
 i. e. in the water, because, as they pretend, Darius 
 was exposed by his mother on the river Tigris. 
 But after all, is not the name Darius derived from 
 
 c 
 
18 PREFACE. 
 
 the Celtic b&ift dair, an oak, the most strong and 
 majestic of all trees ? 
 
 The celebrated Boxhornius has this remarkable 
 passage from Strabo (r), " Sicut notae versus sep- 
 tentrionem gentes uno prius nomine Scythae, vel 
 Nomades (ut ab Homero) appellabantur, ac postea 
 temporis cognitis regionibus occiduis Celtae, Iberi, 
 aut mixto nomine Celtiberi ac Celto- Scythae dici 
 ceperunt, cum prius ob ignorantiam singula? gentes 
 imo omnes nomine afficirentur." Therefore all 
 the nations which migrated northwards were called 
 Scythae. Thus there were the Asiatic Scythians 
 and the European Scythians. 
 
 The learned Mr. Selden also says (s), i( Ad hunc 
 certe modum qui occidentem inhabitabant pie- 
 rumque omnes generatim Celtae, qui austrum 
 iEthiopes, qui ultra Syriam Indi, qui Boream 
 Scythae veteribus dicebantur. Quae in fabulis de 
 Syro rege, atque alia hujus nominis etyma con- 
 sulto praeterimus. Hoc sane nos acquiescendum 
 duximus." 
 
 It may be thought presumptuous in any one to 
 attempt an Essay of this kind after such learned 
 orientalists as Selden, Bochart, Vossius, &c. who 
 have all treated of the Punic language ; yet the 
 opinion of that learned body of men who composed 
 the Royal Academy of Inscriptions and Belles 
 Lettres of Paris, gives room to think that an Irish- 
 man but little skilled in the Hebrew has an equal 
 right to an attempt of this kind : take their own 
 words. 
 
 " Plusieurs savans, et entre autres M. Bochart 
 dans son Phaleg, ont entrepris de prouver que la 
 langue Phenicienne etoit la meme que l'Hebraique, 
 
 (r) L. I p. 22. (s) De Dis Syr. proleg. p. 5. 
 
PREFACE. 19 
 
 et que la Punique ou celle de Carthage etoit aussi 
 la meme. II y a certainement une grande con- 
 formity mais elle n'est pas telle qu'on puisse dire 
 que ces langues fuissent les memes ; car la peine 
 que Scaliger, Saumaise, Petit, Bochart, et d'autres 
 ont eue a expliquer la scene Punique du Paenulus 
 de Plaute, en est une preuve aussi bien que l'obscu- 
 rite des medailles et quelques inscriptions Puniques, 
 qui n'ont pu jusqu'a present etre lues, et encore 
 moins expliquees par les savans, quoique les carac- 
 teres de la plupart soient tres nets et tres bien 
 conservez (£)". 
 
 With the greatest deference this small treatise is 
 offered to the consideration of the learned, and in 
 particular to those Irish antiquaries skilled in the 
 Bearla Feni or Phoenician dialect of their own 
 country, in which language their most ancient 
 records and codes of laws are written. 
 
 If an affinity of the Irish language with the 
 Punic be allowed, this discovery will throw great 
 lights on the darker periods of the Heathen Irish 
 history. It will shew, that though the details be 
 fabulous, the foundation is laid in truth. It will 
 demonstrate the early use of letters in this island, 
 because nothing but that use could preserve the 
 least affinity from the flourishing era of Carthage to 
 the present, a space of more than 2300 years. It 
 will account for the Irish assuming to themselves 
 the names of Feni or Fenicians, which they have 
 retained through all ages. It will with the same 
 certainty account for their giving the name of 
 Bearla Feni (the Phoenician tongue) to one of their 
 native dialects. In fine, it will shew, that when 
 they adopted the Phoenician Syntax, they confined 
 
 (0 Mem. de l'Academ. torn. III. p. 30, 
 
20 PREFACE. 
 
 their language to oriental orthography, while it 
 harmonized itself out of its primitive consonantal 
 Celtic harshness, by the suppression of many radical 
 letters in the pronunciation of words. 
 
 Ex plane ratione Phoenicum vocem a Graecis 
 fuisse puto ad instar Hebraicarum p352 *)1 Pheni- 
 Anak, ac si filios Anac vel Anaceos dixeris. Rectius 
 quidem scripseris Bene-Anak; sed Graeci Beth 
 Hebraeum passim ita emolliunt, ut cum Sophonem 
 dicit Josephus pro Soba. Ut jam nemo miretur 
 quod nos et Phoenices, et Punicos et Poenos pro 
 iisdem habeamus (u). 
 
 Or are we to be surprised at the assertions of the 
 Irish Seanachies, of the Milesians or Phenians 
 finding themselves understood by the natives at 
 the time of their landing ; for the ancient Gauls, 
 who also colonized this country as well as Britain, 
 spoke the same Phenian dialect. Non est tamen 
 quod quisquam putet Poenis et Gallis aut eandem 
 fuisse linguam aut sola dialecto diversam. Ita enim 
 asserit Polybius de Autarito Gallo, Punice loqui 
 didicerat longo militice usu (w). Constat igitur 
 Gallos et Poenos, et si propter commercia vel com- 
 munia bella, vel, quod suspicamur potius, propter 
 vetustam aliquam Phoenicum coloniam in Gallias 
 deductam, alii ab aliis multa vocabula mutuati 
 sint, 
 
 (u) Boch. geog. sacr. p. 362. (w) Id. p. 758. 
 
AN 
 
 #00ag 
 
 ON 
 
 THE ANTIQUITY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 
 
 JLT has been generally thought, that the Irish 
 language, is a compound of the Celtic, and old 
 Spanish, or Basque ; whoever will take the pains to 
 compare either of these languages with the ancient 
 manuscripts of the Irish, will soon be convinced, 
 that the Irish partakes not the least of the Bis- 
 cayan. 
 
 On a collation of the Irish with the Celtic, Punic, 
 Phoenician, and Hebrew languages, the strongest 
 affinity, (nay a perfect identity in very many 
 words) will appear ; it may therefore be deemed a 
 Punic-Celtic compound; and the following Essay 
 will prove this to be somewhat more than a bare 
 conjecture. 
 
 The Irish is consequently the most copious lan- 
 guage extant ; as from the Hebrew proceeded the 
 Phoenician, from the Phoenician, Carthaginian, or 
 Punic, was derived the iEolian, Dorian, and Etrus- 
 can, and from these was formed the Latin; the 
 
22 ON THE ANTIQUITY OF 
 
 Irish is therefore a language of the utmost im- 
 portance, and most desirable to be acquired by 
 antiquaries and etymologists. 
 
 The Irish historians do all agree, that they re- 
 ceived their letters from the Phoenicians, and that 
 their language was called bearla Fine or the 
 Fenician dialect, of which their ancient manuscripts 
 bear sufficient testimony. 
 
 Keating (a), and M'Curtin in their general his- 
 tories of Ireland, and the M'Firbiss's (authors of 
 the Liber Lecanus), all confirm the arrival of the 
 Fomhoraicc's, or African pirates, in Ireland at 
 several periods : that they introduced the art of 
 building with stone and lime, astronomy, &c. that 
 they adored certain stars, supposed to have power 
 from the God of the Sea, either to guide or mislead 
 the ships : that at length they over-ran the country, 
 and made a complete conquest, drove out the 
 Nemedians, and laid the island under tribute. 
 Spencer, who bears as hard on the Irish, and with 
 arguments futile as Macpherson's, allows, that they 
 received the use of letters from the Phoenicians, 
 and positively asserts, that a colony of Africans 
 settled in the western part of Ireland. Orosius and 
 even some modern authors, have gone so far as to 
 deny the use of letters to the Carthaginians, before 
 the Romans conquered that republic; and, as a 
 proof of this, they quote many inscriptions in 
 Roman characters from various places in Africa. 
 
 It is true, the Carthaginians adopted the Roman 
 letter in the first Punic war, which character it is 
 very probable they brought with them to Ireland, 
 
 {a) Keating'* Hist. Ireland, Dublin edit. p. 18, 19. Col- 
 lectanea Lib. Lecan. p. 1 , 2, 3. M'Curtin's Antiq. oflreland, 
 p. 39, Spencer, p. 1546. 
 
THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 23 
 
 as no inscription has been found in this island in 
 the Phoenician letter. It is evident from the order 
 of the alphabet, and from the figure of the letters 
 in the ancient manuscripts, that the Irish did not 
 receive the use of letters, or the alphabet, from St. 
 Patrick ; nay, that saint in his own life declares 
 that Fiech, poet laureat to Laogaire, at the time of 
 his arrival, found so little alteration in the charac- 
 ter, that he read the Latin Gospels in fourteen 
 days, in two months after he embraced Christianity, 
 and also composed an ode in praise of that saint. 
 
 Of the Roman Saxon capital letters, the Irish 
 use but three, all the others bear a very great re- 
 semblance to the primitive Hebrew and Phoenician, 
 as given us by Scaliger and Postellus ; and in the 
 Chaldaic characters given us by the latter, are to 
 be found, all those used by the ancient Irish, bear- 
 ing the same figure and power. 
 
 Pliny says (b), the Romans held the Carthagi- 
 nian writings on agriculture and botany, in so great 
 esteem, that after the sacking of Carthage, they 
 ordered twenty-eight volumes on these subjects, 
 the work of Mago or Magon, to be translated into 
 the Latin language ; and that Q. Septimius trans- 
 lated the history of the Trojan war from the Punic 
 into the Latin. Again, that author (c) mentions 
 the memoirs of Hanno's voyage to the W. coast 
 of Africa, being translated into Latin by order of 
 the senate, the original of which was a long time 
 preserved with great care in the public library. 
 
 Almost all the Carthaginian manuscripts were 
 committed to the flames, and the history of this 
 brave and learned people has been written by 
 their most bitter enemies, the Greeks and Romans ; 
 
 (6) L. 18. e. 4. (c) L. 2, c. 67. 
 
24 ON THE ANTIQUITY OF 
 
 in this too they resemble the Irish (d) ; — Quand 
 l'horrible desbord des Arabs et Sarrasins fut faict 
 lors que les Scismatiques, qui laisserent le pontife de 
 Bagadeth, passerent en Afrique, les roys Maho- 
 metistes feirent brusler tous les liures des Africains, 
 affin que par la lecture d'iceux ils ne se reuoltassent 
 de la religion de leur alcoran, et ainsi l'ignorance a 
 cause la mine de ce peuple iadis tant gentil, riche, 
 courtois et scavant, lequel on estime auoir eu aux 
 siecles passez des characteres de lettres a luy pro- 
 pres, tirees et extraictes des characteres des lettres 
 des Chananeens, Syrians, et Phoeniciens iusques a 
 ce que les Romains s'en firent seigneurs lesquels y 
 introduirent, comme dict-est, les characteres de 
 leurs lettres Latines. 
 
 From Pliny (e) we learn, that the Carthaginians 
 were the first that traded by sea ; and that they 
 had great skill in the art of building, which they 
 inherited from the Tyrians. See this more fully 
 under the article of Hercules. 
 
 Herodotus says (f), the Phoenicians were of a 
 most happy genius : arithmetic and astronomy 
 either took their rise with them, or were brought 
 by them to great perfection. From them those 
 excellent sciences flowed into Greece together with 
 their letters. 
 
 The Phoenicians traded to all the known parts 
 of the world, in which were included the British 
 isles, commonly understood by the name of the 
 Cassiterides (g). 
 
 {d) C. Dur-et Bourb. H. de I'Origine des Langues de cest 
 Univ. p. 393. 
 
 (<?) L. 71. c. 56. Univ. Hist. 8vo. vol. II. p. 338. 
 
 (f) L. 5. c. 58. 
 
 CgJ Huet. Hist, de la Nav. des Anc. p. 58. 
 
THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 25 
 
 They had two kinds of ships, called (h) gali and 
 {i) argo (k) 9 the first moved only by the wind, and 
 were chiefly designed for trade, the last moved by 
 wind and oars, and were ships of war. Gaulus 
 genus navigii pene rotundum. 
 
 Their first settlement in Spain was at the island 
 of Gadiz or Cadiz, where they met with a friendly 
 reception from the inhabitants, therefore Hercules 
 called it (I) Cadiz. 
 
 Polybius (m) informs us, that the Carthaginians 
 were the first foreign nation the Romans entered 
 into an alliance with, out of their own continent ; 
 that a treaty of commerce and navigation was con- 
 firmed between them as early as the consulship of 
 Brutus, which treaty was engraved on a marble 
 pillar ; and that this inscription was discovered so 
 soon after as the second Punic war, when not a 
 Roman was to be found who could read it. Such 
 an alteration had the Latin tongue suffered in so 
 short a space ! 
 
 I am not of Galateus his opinion, that the 
 Punique tongue was utterly extinguished by the 
 Romans. (Galat. de Situ. Japyg. p. 98.) Nor can 
 I agree with the whims and fancies of some learned 
 men, that it was the vulgar Arabic spoken in 
 Africa at this day. (See Gesner. in Mithridat. in 
 Ling. Arab. Roccha de dialect, in Ling, Arab. 
 Postellus de Ling. 12. in Ling Arab. Mas. in Gr. 
 Syriaca, Bibliand. de ratione Linguar. Schindler. 
 Lex. Pentaglotto in voce mp. Mart. Galeott. de 
 doctr. promiscua, cap. 6. and many others. 
 
 ■(/*) Irish gal, a gale of wind. 
 
 (i) Arga, champions, warriors; argadh, to plunder. 
 (*) Festus., p. 162. (/) Irish cadas, friendship. 
 
 (•*») L, 3. c. 23, 
 
26 ON THE ANTIQUITY OF 
 
 For it is well known the Poeni were of another 
 offspring and not of Arabian race, and that it is 
 not yet 1000 years, since that tongue was brought 
 by the Arabians into Africa. 
 
 And as certain also it is, that the remnants of the 
 Africans progeny, as Leo Africanus hath recorded, 
 have a different language from the Arabic. The 
 Punic tongue, without doubt, was the Canaanitish 
 or old Hebrew language, somewhat altered from 
 the original pronunciation, as usually befals all 
 colonists planted amongst strangers. That Carthage 
 and divers other cities of Africa (of which Pliny 
 nameth Utica and Leptis as the principal) were 
 colonies of the Phoenicians, namely of the Tyrians, 
 is not only acknowledged by Strabo, Mela, Livy, 
 Pliny and many others, but also the very names of 
 Poeni and Punici being but variations of the name ; 
 Phoenicii import so much, and lastly their language 
 confirms it. For Hierome writing, that their 
 language was grown somewhat different from the 
 Phoenician tongue, doth manifestly declare, it had 
 been the same. Now the Phoenicians were Canaan- 
 ites, of whose merchandizing we read so much in 
 ancient histories, and whose name D32U3 Canaim 
 (Irish Canaithe) signiiieth merchants. 
 
 For, the very same nation that the Grecians 
 called Phoenicians (Qoivmig) and the Romans in 
 imitation of that name Poenos and Punicos, for the 
 exceeding store of good palms wherewith that 
 country abounded, in so much that in monuments 
 of antiquity the palm tree is observed for the ensign 
 of Phoenicia ; the same nation I say called them- 
 selves, and by the Israelites their next neighbours 
 were called Canaanites. 
 
 And, that they were indeed no other, I am able 
 easily to prove. For first, the same woman that in 
 
THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 27 
 
 Matthew xv. 22. is named a Canaanite, is in Mark 
 vii. 26. called a Syro-Phoenician. Secondly, where 
 mention is made in Joshua of the kings of Canaan, 
 they are in the septuagint translation named 
 fiuaiAeig rv\g &oivi'xvig. Thirdly, to put it out of all 
 question, all that coast from Sidon to Azah (that 
 was Gazah) near to Gerar, is registered by Moses, 
 Gen. x. 19. to have been possessed by the posterity 
 of Canaan. 
 
 Herodotus says, the language of the Phoenicians 
 was a dialect of the Hebrew ; it was that of the 
 Canaanites. Their letters or characters were the 
 same, or very like the Samaritan characters (n). 
 
 The Phoenician language being a dialect of the 
 Hebrew, and the Poeni or Carthaginians having 
 been originally Phoenicians, it is undeniable their 
 first language must have been Phoenician. How- 
 ever Scaliger says (0), that the Punic in some 
 respects deviated from the Hebrew and Phoenician ; 
 which, considering how distant the Carthaginians 
 were from their mother country Phoenicia, and 
 the people they were incorporated among, is not 
 to be wondered at ; it is much more wonderful 
 that tney should retain so much of their original 
 tongue. 
 
 Rheseus Ambrosius (p) had seen some Punic 
 writings ; he gives two alphabets, one of which he 
 calls the original character of the Phoenicians, the 
 other the Phoenician-Ionic: whether this author 
 had ever seen a grammar of their language, I 
 
 (n) See Doctor Shaw's remarks on the Showiah language, 
 apd Mr. Jones's on the Shilhae, in the essay on the Celtic- 
 language prefixed to the Irish Grammar, pag. 12, &c, of 
 the secondedition. » . 
 
 (o) Ad Ubert. p. 362. (p) In his Appendix. 
 
28 ON THE ANTIQUITY OF 
 
 cannot say; but he gives us the declension of a 
 noun substantive, which so perfectly agrees with the 
 Irish, I shall here present it to the reader. " Varias 
 " atque difFerentes esse Punicorum, Carthaginen- 
 " sium, sive Arabicorum elementorum formas, ita 
 " clarum esse suspicor, ut probatione non sit opus ; 
 " sunt quippe mihi plus quam triginta librorum 
 " capita, turn parva, turn magna, et volumine duo 
 " quae explicata ad quinque fere brachiorum longi- 
 " tudinem se extendunt," &c. 
 
 Ex. Gr. 
 
 Punic. Irish. 
 
 Nom. a dar the house N. an dae the house 
 Gen. mit ta dar G. meud na dae (the bigness 
 
 of the house 
 Dat. la dar D. la dae with or to the house 
 
 Ace. a dar A. an dae the house 
 
 Voc. ya dar V. a dae O house 
 
 Abl. fa dar Ab. fa dae with or by the 
 
 house. 
 
 It is very remarkable, that all the Irish gram- 
 marians ancient and modern, have followed this 
 method of expressing the genitive, by the substan- 
 tive meud prefixed as in the example above. 
 
 In the dative, la in old manuscripts is equal to 
 dona or don, as leighios Canoin la German, i. e. 
 legit Canones ad Germanum, vita. S, Patricii. 
 Fiach apud Colganum. 
 
 In the plural, dar is turned into diar, by the 
 addition of the vowel i ; the same rule subsists in 
 the Irish language. 
 
 Selden and Scaliger are the first who endeavoured 
 in earnest to settle the Punic language. As for 
 Petit and Bochart they have been much more 
 
THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 29 
 
 copious on this head ; however there is still room 
 enough left for any learned man to exercise his wit 
 and talents on this subject. 
 
 M. Maius, professor of the Greek and Oriental 
 languages in the Ludovician university of Giessen, 
 (q) published a small piece in 1718, wherein he 
 proves, that the present language of the Maltese 
 contains a great deal of the old Punic. He was 
 supplied with the materials for this tract by father 
 James Stanislaus John Baptist Ribier de Gattis, a 
 missionary Jesuit, and native of Malta, who died 
 at Oxford in 1736. One of the authors of the 
 Universal History knew this father Ribier. He 
 confirmed to this person by word of mouth, every 
 particular he had communicated to Maius, and 
 added some others ; to wit, that he had carefully 
 examined most of the oriental words in the Maltese 
 tongue, and found that they approached much 
 nearer the Hebrew, and Chaldee, than the Arabic 
 (r) ; that the natives had a sort of tradition, that 
 they were descended from the Carthaginians, &c. 
 &c. Some small manuscripts relating to the pre- 
 sent subject, he left in the hands of the person 
 above mentioned. 
 
 If this small treatise should fall into the hands of 
 the person now in possession of the above papers, 
 and he will be pleased to communicate a copy of 
 them, directed to the committee of Irish antiquaries 
 at the Dublin Society's house, in Grafton Street, 
 Dublin, the favour will be most gratefully acknow- 
 ledged, and the expense of transcribing repaid. 
 
 Andrew Theuet says (s), the language of the old 
 
 (9) J. H. Maius in spec. ling 1 . Punic, in hod. Melitens, 
 (r) Un. Hist. vol. 17. 8vo. p. 298. note, 
 (s) Cosmog. 1. c. 12. 
 
30 ON THE ANTIQUITY OF 
 
 inhabitants of the island of Malta savours strongly 
 of the ancient Punic or Carthaginian language, and 
 that an ancient marble was discovered in Malta 
 with these words, Eloi Effetha et Cumi. 
 
 And in another place he adds, " The Maltese 
 " have always preserved the Moresque and African 
 " language, not that as spoken this day by the 
 " Moors, but the dialect formerly spoken by the 
 " inhabitants of Carthage, and as a proof, the 
 " Maltese understand some of the verses in Plautus, 
 " which are in the Carthaginian language." 
 
 Quintus Hoeduus in a letter to his friend Sophus, 
 dated Malta 20 Jan. 1533, has these words, 
 " Nostra haec Melita insula est Millib. 60. Mari 
 " satis periculoso ab Sicilia disjuncta Africam versus 
 " Punicae quondam ditionis quae et ipsa adhuc 
 " Aphrorum lingua utitur ; et nonullae etiamnum 
 " Punicis litteris inscriptae Stellas lapidae extant ; 
 " figura et appositis quibusdam punctulis, prope 
 " accedunt ad Hebraeas. Atque ut scias aut nihil 
 " aut minimum differe a vetere, quod nunc habet 
 " Idioma Hannonis cujusdam Poeni apud Plautum, 
 " Avicennae, huj usque similium Punica verba plu- 
 " rima intelligunt Melitenses, tametsi sermo is sit 
 " qui litteris Latinis exprimi bene non potest 
 " multo minus ore aliquo enunciaii, nisi suae gentis. 
 " Ejusdem quoque sunt linguae verba ilia in Evan- 
 " gelio Eloi epsta Cumi. Nunc siculi juris est ac 
 
 " maris, ' 
 
 G. Pietro Francesco Agius de Solandis, published 
 a treatise della Lingua Punica presentemente 
 usata da Maltesi, &c. &c. to which he added a 
 Punica-Maltese dictionary; from this book, the 
 author of this essay has taken the following Punic 
 words, omitting such only as Agius declares to be 
 
THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 31 
 
 purely Hebrew or Arabic. To these are annexed 
 such Irish words as correspond thereto in letter 
 and sense. 
 
 It will be necessary first to shew the reason why 
 the orthography in some do not so closely corres- 
 pond, although the pronunciation and meaning do, 
 and this is best expressed from the author's own 
 words. 
 
 " Conosco invero essere alquanto malagevole im- 
 " presa il favellare della lingua Punica-Maltese, e 
 " 1' andarne a ricercare 1' orgine, non avendone 
 " pure presentemente il proprio alfabeto, quale per 
 " altro non le manco in altri tempi. 
 
 " Cid non ostante andano al fonte, da cui e ori- 
 " ginata questa favella, usata solo a mio parera 
 " nelle Isole di Malta, Gozo, e Pantallarea, ritrovo 
 " che molti Scrittori accreditati, anno dato il pro- 
 " prio giudizio senza perd provarlo. Fra questi 
 " chi credetella sola Araba, chi Carthaginese, chi 
 " Ebrea, chi Fenicia, chi Greca, chi Punica, chi 
 " Samaritana, e chi fmalmente Siriaca. Quanti 
 " giudizi sopra una sola lingua ? De' nostri appieno 
 " niuno parlonne, degli Stranieri solamente Gio. 
 m Arrigo Mojo, celebre professore delle lingue 
 " Orientali in Jessa, dimostro in due Disserta%ione 9 
 " con proue ed autorita valevoli, essere la nostra 
 
 " lingua propriamente Punica. La lingua Pu- 
 
 " nica certamente venne pronunziata anticamente 
 " colla gorgia, e ne resta provato in quel piccol 
 " monumento, che la Scena prima di Plauto ci ha 
 " lasciato col carattere Latino." 
 
 All etymologists agree that where the letter and 
 the sense correspond in any two languages, they 
 must be identically the same ; before we proceed to 
 the collation it may not be improper to advertise 
 the young etymologists, that in most languages the 
 
32 
 
 ON THE ANTIQUITY OF 
 
 letter d is commutable with t ; b with p ; c with g* ; 
 bh 9 mh with a consonant ; that the broad vowels 
 a 9 o 9 u, are indifferently written one for the other, 
 as also the small vowels e, and i 9 are often substi- 
 tuted one for the other ; that in the Irish language 
 an adventitious d with an hiatus, or dh, is often 
 introduced in syllables, where two or more vowels 
 are connected : this liberty was taken by the Irish 
 poets of the ninth and tenth centuries, to make up 
 the just metre, although the dh is not allowed to 
 divide the syllable. 
 
 Punica Maltese. 
 Alia, God. 
 
 Samem, (t) the Heavens. 
 
 sema, an assembly. 
 
 Baal, Sidoniorum seu 
 Phcenicum, et Belus 
 Kartaginiensium numi- 
 nis nomen est: ut Bel 
 Chaldeorum Saturnus. 
 
 Allen bier eq f God bless 
 you. 
 
 iva tfalla, a curse. 
 
 tummin, truly. 
 
 ara I interjectio. 
 
 ardu, the end or summit. 
 
 Irish. 
 
 All, mighty, omnipotent. 
 
 Ailt-dhe, paenates. 
 
 Samk, the Sun, samhra, 
 
 summer. 
 samhadhj a congregation. 
 Bel, Bal, Beat, the chief 
 
 Deity of the ancient 
 
 Irish. 
 
 I all (pro ealta Lhwyd) 
 heir a dhuit, may you 
 repent. God forgive you. 
 
 Jobhadh (pronounced iva) 
 bio Alia, may death come 
 from the Almighty. 
 
 tarn ann, that's true, truly. 
 
 ara h /an interjection. 
 
 arda 9 high, haughty. 
 
 ard, a hill. 
 
 (0 Philo Byblius ex Sanchoniathone Beyretk), tStov Sboy 
 IvopiZpi fj.ovoy sgecvZ xvgiov BEEA2AMHN xaXavrss, o hi ttocga. $om%t 
 YLv^ios OvguvU Xils Vs mug EXXyai, hunc deum putabant solum 
 cceli dominum, Beelsamin vocantes, quod est Phoenicibus 
 dominus coeli, Zeus Graecorum. Bayerus, p. 69. 
 
THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 
 
 33 
 
 Punica Maltese. 
 
 artap, liquido,molle, vizzo, 
 soft, flabby. 
 
 baghda, hatred, strife. 
 
 ballut, an $ acorn, also a 
 burying place, a monu- 
 ment. 
 
 bandia, a cord, a swing, a 
 measure. 
 
 ban-gham-mi, the son of 
 my uncle. 
 
 ghamt, an aunt. 
 
 berqarqara, or casall ber- , 
 carcara, in Malta il piu 
 vicino Citta Valetto, i, e. 
 bel antica ; berquara 
 Augusta, grande, i. e. 
 antico Augusto Villagio 
 di Malta. 
 
 bin or ben, a son. 
 
 bent U mutha, figlio de la 
 morte. . 
 
 Irish- 
 
 anairt, soft. — -tap is an affix 
 of the Arabic, signifying 
 the overflowing of a 
 river, hence artap may 
 imply ooze, slab, mire — 
 from tap, the Irish tap- 
 bior, to par, tobar, a well 
 or spring. 
 
 bdgh, a contest, a fight. 
 
 bal-lacht, the wall of a 
 grave, a monument. 
 
 bann, suspension. 
 
 bandia and ban da/, a cer- 
 tain measure used in the 
 south, somewli.it more 
 than halfayard, by which 
 coarse linens are sold in 
 the markets under the 
 name of bandal cloth. 
 
 bannlamh, a handle, a cubit 
 in measurement. 
 
 ban is a son, as in the com- 
 pound. 
 
 banscoth, a son*in-law. 
 
 banta, is also a niece. 
 
 gean, a woman. 
 
 ingean, a daughter. 
 
 barrachas, august, great 
 power — overplus. 
 
 bar-cathar, (cahar) an au- 
 gust city, 
 
 ban or bar, as banscoth, a 
 
 son-in-law. 
 mughaim, to be put to death. 
 teadh, to grieve. 
 bani teadh mugha* 
 
 D 
 
 BOSTON COLLEGE LIBRARY 
 r.HESTSUT HILL, MASS. 
 
34 OK THE ANTIQUITY OF 
 
 Punica Maltese. Irish. 
 
 bir, a well, a fountain. bior, bir, a fountain, a 
 
 well. 
 bua, or bva, to drink. buadh, food, ibba, to drink. 
 
 beniet, young woman. benne-eUe, woman's age. 
 
 abu ! voce ammirativa ! abo! the war cry of the an- 
 
 cient Irish — now a com- 
 mon interjection of ad- 
 miration. 
 challa, or challi, to forsake, caillidh, to lose, to destroy. 
 
 to abandon. t seala, to separate. 
 
 chall, sharp. calg, a prick, a sting. 
 
 chafir, to pardon. cabhar, help, assistance, 
 
 relief. 
 for, protection, defence. 
 cheles, solution, resolution, ceil, sense, reason ; do cliur 
 
 determination. a cceil, to demonstrate. 
 
 ciacir, meandring, scatter- cearacadh, wandering, 
 
 ing. straying. 
 
 dafra, tresses, or locks of fraigh, a bush of hair. 
 
 hair. 
 daqqa, an act or deed. deacdah, a law. 
 
 dar, a house, and impro- dars, a habitation: dde, a 
 perly written (says our house ; riogh-dhae, a pa- 
 
 author) dars. lace. 
 
 dar el binat, a nunnery, a dde, or daras na bene, a 
 house for young women. nunnery. See the word 
 
 ben, O'Brien's diction- 
 ary.) 
 dar^dir, desire will. deoir, will, pleasure. 
 
 (Lhwyd, at the word 
 Voluntas, 
 deck ■, dior, a proper incli- 
 nation. 
 ghogiol (arm en turn) a herd giogail, to follow close, to 
 
 of cattle. herd. 
 
 fart, an ox, bull, or cow. fearb, an ox, or cow ; mart, 
 
 the same ; og-wart, an 
 heifer* 
 fahhal, a spiteful expres- fala, spite, malice, 
 sion, also derision. 
 
THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 
 
 35 
 
 Punica Maltese. 
 
 fahhal, a stall fed ox. 
 Thus we call a libertine 
 fahhal, and to a harlot, 
 we commonly cry, 
 
 baqra or baqar. 
 
 barra, besides, out of. 
 
 base, below, at the bottom. 
 bahu, to empty, to make 
 void. 
 
 bedui, a countryman. 
 belt , a house. 
 
 bet-al, domus Dei. 
 
 bet e lent, domus panis. 
 
 dem, blood, kindred. 
 
 dor's, fruit. 
 
 feithh, to open, to discover. 
 
 emma, but, 
 engkarra, imposition. 
 
 esma, hear me, hearken. 
 
 far, over, beyond, to trans- 
 port from place to place. 
 farac, mirth, consolation. 
 
 fieg-ku, powerful, puissant. 
 
 Irish. 
 
 fail, a stye, a stall; as fail 
 muice, a pig-stye. 
 
 baccaire and boccar are 
 terms of reproach in 
 Irish, fully answering 
 the idea of the Punic 
 word. 
 
 barr, over and above, be- 
 sides, the end. 
 
 bas, the base or bottom. 
 
 bdthamb, ( pronounced 
 bahu) to cancel, to blot 
 out. 
 
 bodach, a rustic clown. 
 
 bath, boith, a cottage, hut, 
 or booth. 
 
 both-all, domus Dei. 
 
 both-lan, domus satietis. 
 
 daimb, kindred, consangui- 
 nity. 
 
 toradh, fruit. 
 
 feithea, to overlook, to give 
 attention. 
 
 amh, but, even, also. 
 
 aincheard, an impostor. 
 
 aincheara, imposition. 
 
 eisd me, hear me, listen to 
 me, more properly eisd 
 Horn. 
 
 for, over, beyond ; for- 
 aimh, a journey. 
 
 fore, forca, advice, conso- 
 lation. 
 
 foch, entertainment, hospi- 
 tality. 
 
 feadhmach, potent, power- 
 ful. 
 
 feadh»cuaith, an extensive 
 country, (dominions,) 
 
36 
 
 ON THE ANTIQUITY OF 
 
 Punica Maltese. 
 
 filfla, a rock in the sea, on 
 the Maltese coast, so 
 called because, forma to 
 della natura agreuisa di 
 Pape nella forma. 
 
 fv.q, the summit, high 
 above. 
 
 gka-dira, standing water, 
 marshy ground, slush. 
 
 ghain, the face, front, the 
 eyes. 
 
 ghana, to sing. 
 
 aghniq, rich, prosperous. 
 gh-arma] plenty of corn. 
 
 gha-qal, sensible, reason- 
 able. 
 
 gha-aqqa, a term used to 
 mortify a strumpet. I 
 believe (says our author) 
 from acca, a famous har- 
 lot in our history. 
 
 ghaz-el, distinction, com- 
 prehension. 
 
 gheaq, tyhoides coccineus 
 
 tuberosus, sea blubber, 
 
 sea spunge. 
 ghuscia, a place in Malta, 
 
 but properly a sorcerer, 
 
 a conjurer. 
 gibu, to give, to present. 
 leckart, a gift. 
 hhabba, corn. 
 
 Irish. 
 
 feile-Jla, an arrant bad 
 sovereign, a bad master. 
 
 fa-uachdar, upon the sum- 
 mit. 
 
 go orga, the sea ; g<i-dire?n f 
 water without passage. 
 
 cainsiy the face or counte- 
 nance. 
 
 canadh, ccanadh, (pro- 
 nounced gana) to sing; 
 do ghan se, he sings. 
 
 aghmhdrach, fortunate, 
 prosperous. 
 
 armhar, or arbhar, corn. 
 
 aga-armhar, plenty of corn. 
 
 go-ceil/, sensible, reason- 
 able. 
 
 giabhair, a harlot, a strum- 
 pet. 
 
 aga, addition, an augmen- 
 tative. 
 
 giabhair-aga 9 a very whore. 
 
 ceasa^ geasa, to see plainly 
 and distinctly; the Arabic 
 affix e/, answers to the 
 Irish prefix cow, as ad 
 con-ceas, I distinguished, 
 or saw plainly. 
 
 geargj a blubber, botch, or 
 bile, any tubulous body. 
 
 gu-sighe ; gu a lie — sighe a 
 demon, a familiar spirit ; 
 geasa, sorcery. 
 
 geibhadh, to obtain, to get. 
 
 ti-laca, a gift. 
 
 arbhar, corn. 
 
THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 37 
 
 Punica Maltese. Irish, 
 
 hhadar, to assist at a wed- adharadh, to join together. 
 
 ding. 
 hbai, to live. beatha, to live. 
 
 hbaia, Jife. beatha, life. 
 
 hh-alleitu, releas'd, aban- dealuighthe, released, di- 
 
 don'd. voiced, separated. 
 
 hhami, hot. time, heat, (Lhvvyd. vid. 
 
 Calor.) 
 hham-ria, reddish earth. uim, earth ; ria, sky colour- 
 
 also ed. 
 
 ruadhy red. 
 uim-rua, red earth. 
 hham-ria, an ass, aimhreidhe, obstinacy, 
 
 I believe (says our au- strife; 
 
 thor) from his dun This word seems more 
 
 colour. analogous to the quali- 
 
 ties of this beast. 
 hh-apas, a prison for slaves, adhbhas, a garrison ; abas, 
 
 a great man's house ; 
 
 adhbha, a dungeon. 
 
 haqem, a man in power, a acmhuin, potent, able; air- 
 
 captain. gim, to plunder or spoil. 
 
 haten, knowledge. aitne, knowledge ; aithni, 
 
 to know. 
 hazer, an entrance, or fore- asaidh, to rest, or stop. 
 
 court to a palace. 
 hhabar, news, novelty. abhra, a speech ; abar, 
 
 speak thou. 
 abfann, bad news. 
 hhaniena, pity, (voca fe- anaoidhin, pity, compas- 
 nicia). sion ; is anaoidhin dhuit, 
 
 woe unto thee. 
 iassu, old age. aois'e, old age. 
 
 ieqerdu, ruin, destruction. eag-orda, ruinous frag- 
 ments, (Lhwyd. ad voc. 
 Ruina.) 
 ias-cesc, shrivelled with aois-caiseac, wrinkled with 
 
 age. age. 
 
 i-dein, the hand, the fist. dorn, the fist. 
 itqatta, twisted. athcasda, twisted. 
 
38 
 
 ON THE ANTIQUITY OF 
 
 Punica Maltese. 
 itzahhar, to expand. 
 
 kadin, a prolongation of 
 time. 
 
 kafar, to bind to a per- 
 formance. 
 
 ghana, to sing. 
 karh, cruel, merciless. 
 kasma, a gap, a chink, a 
 
 separation. 
 ksim, to divide, to bend. 
 
 ka-vi, strong, valiant, ro- 
 bust. 
 
 'k-aura f a place in Malta; 
 signified ponente, the 
 west. 
 
 Irish. 
 
 athsearradh, to stretch, to 
 
 expand. 
 cairde, delay ; do chur se 
 
 air cairde, he prolonged 
 
 the time. 
 caithfidh 9 must, ought, 
 
 (oportet) an impersonal 
 
 compulsive verb. 
 comh-farran, to keep by 
 
 compulsion. 
 canadh, to sing. 
 cruasy rigour. 
 casnadh, split wood, chips. 
 
 casm, to wind, to turn, to 
 
 bend. 
 cath-fhir, warriors. 
 
 agiathar, agiare, in the 
 
 west, 
 ahhor, Hebrew, asterius, 
 
 the west. 
 
 It is to be wished we had the pure Punic names 
 of the four cardinal points, as the Irish language 
 differs from all others in this particular ; although 
 the manner of expression agrees perfectly with the 
 old Hebraical or scriptural. First, The Hebrew 
 word Jamin properly signifies the right hand (u), 
 and Benjamin, i. e. Alius dextra, is also written to 
 imply the South (w) ; because the Hebrews in 
 their prayers to God always faced the East, and 
 therefore being considered in that position, their 
 right hand was next to the South. Jamin est mundi 
 Plaga Australis, ut quce Orientem aspieientibus, 
 orantium modo dextra est. Dav. Lex. • This 
 
 (w) Jerem. xx. 24, (u>) Job xxiii. 9; Psal. lxxxix. 4 
 
THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 39 
 
 form is also peculiar to the Irish nation and lan- 
 guage, for the word deas properly means the right 
 hand, as na shuidhe ar deas laimh T>e, sitting at 
 the right hand of God, and deas is also the only 
 word to express the South. 
 
 Secondly, The Hebrew word smol, which pro- 
 perly signifies the left hand (x), is used for the 
 same reason to imply the North (?/), and is the 
 same in Irish ; for iliuaidh is properly the left 
 hand, as tuathallach, a left-handed or undextrous 
 man, is the only proper word, viz. tuath and tuag 
 to point out the North. 
 
 Thirdly, The Hebrew word achor, which pro- 
 perly signifies behind (s), is commonly used to 
 imply the West (a), and the Irish word iar signi- 
 fying behind or after, is the proper word to express 
 the West. 
 
 Fourthly, The Hebrew word cedem, which 
 naturally means before, or the fore part (b), is 
 used to signify the East (c). In the same manner 
 the Irish words oir and oirthear, whence the Latin 
 oriens and ortus, are the proper words in this 
 language to signify the East or the rising Sun ; 
 and this word oirthear also signifies the beginning 
 or fore part, as iarthar also means the end or 
 hindmost part of any thing, — as in this example, 
 O oirthear go hiarthar a aoise, from the begin- 
 ning to the end of his age. 
 
 The Irish still retain one of the Phoenician 
 names of the cardinal points, viz. badhb, which the 
 dictionary writers translate the North, but it is 
 evidently the Chaldean and Phoenician 171 badh i 
 i. e. posterius, implying the West. 
 
 (x) Gen. xxiv. 49 ; xlviii. 14. (y) Job xxiii. 9. 
 
 (z) Gen. ix. 28 ; 2 Sam. x 9. 
 
 (a) Josh. ix. 12; Job xxiii. 8, (/;) Psal. lv. 20. 
 
 (c) Num. xxiii. ; Isa. xi. 
 
40 
 
 ON THE ANTIQUITY OF 
 
 tunica Maltese. 
 
 k'S-cuir, to separate the hull 
 from the grain — chaff, 
 also bran. 
 
 lailly the night. 
 
 tugur'w^ casa rustica, a vile, 
 a wretched hut, a cabin. 
 
 mirgiarr, or megiarr, two 
 places in Malta, so 
 called because near the 
 sea shore. 
 
 mieta, a certain tax on 
 any vendible commo- 
 dity. The word is totally 
 Punic, and has been 
 used time immemorial 
 by the Punic people of 
 Sicily, Malta, and Gozo. 
 
 mur-ammcij a country edi- 
 fice. 
 
 Irish. 
 
 caith, chaff; scaradh, sepa- 
 ration. 
 
 daille, the night, (Lhwyd. 
 
 Nox.) 
 teagh, a house ; uir, mould, 
 
 clay. 
 teagh-uire, a house of clay. 
 muir-gearr, close to the sea. 
 
 measta, taxed ; it is used 
 in that sense in all the 
 old Irish law books, and 
 in the New Testament, 
 Luke, ch. ii. v. 1, an 
 domhan vile do mheas. 
 
 mur-amagh, a building or 
 dwelling in the plains 
 or country. 
 
 siorij the weather, the sea- 
 sons. 
 
 soinine, the seasons. 
 
 samhy the sun. 
 
 seimh, a small portion, 
 
 single. 
 sgeith, chosen, selected, 
 con cui si glonano 1 lit- sci, scia, to beautify, to 
 
 sena & 
 snin. 
 
 ( parole Fenici) 
 the seasons, a 
 year. 
 
 sama, the heavens, (voce 
 Punica.) 
 
 sebniy a portion, a share. 
 
 sciehh, un uffizio decoroso, 
 
 terati, signion, prineipi 
 e governadori delle 
 citta 
 sara, to combat, to fight. 
 
 sillura, an eel. 
 
 adorn. 
 
 saiagka, conquest, victory. 
 sarugha, to overcome, to 
 
 rescue. 
 siliou, (Armorice) eels* 
 
THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 
 
 41 
 
 Punica Maltese. 
 sahhta, wasted, destroyed. 
 
 iembi, a vessel for working 
 or stamping dough with 
 the feet. 
 
 levi & luvi, to bend, or 
 wring. 
 
 Utiy a grand procession. 
 
 loqma, a bit of bread, a 
 morsel. 
 
 marbat, (anello, a ring) 
 Voce de Fenici, di cui 
 il Salmasio, e Boccardo, 
 parlano presso il Majo, 
 da cui nacque marbut 
 legato. Erbit, legare (to 
 bind) norbtu ligamo. 
 
 ma tra, h difficile ritrovare 
 un termine proprio ad 
 esprimare questa voce, 
 ma piuttosto per abbel- 
 limento di chi e dille 
 tante del la propria fa- 
 vella, ne altro signitica, 
 se non si e, if so, say 
 you sof 
 
 rnedd, magnitude, prolon- 
 gation 
 
 meriy to contradict, to 
 thwart. 
 
 meut, death. 
 
 Irish. 
 
 sachadh, to sack, to de- 
 stroy. 
 
 saghaidhthe, destroyed. 
 
 leim, leaping, jumping, 
 stamping; /;/, bin, food. 
 
 lubha, to bend, or twist. 
 
 lith, solemn pomp ; faith, 
 
 a crowd. 
 loghda, an allowance. 
 
 mear^ a finger, and beart, 
 an ornament or cloth- 
 ing ; as cois-bheart, worn 
 on the legs, i. e stock- 
 ings ; ceann-bheart, worn 
 on the head, i. e. a hat ; 
 these compounds are 
 very common in the 
 Irish ; so mear-bheart, 
 worn on the finger, i. e. 
 a ring. 
 
 ma ta, if so ; mar ata, if so. 
 
 ma ta raidh, if so said. 
 
 mature, soon, speedily. 
 
 ma-truth, if in due time, 
 
 ma-atraidhj if he said. 
 
 meid, bigness, magnitude, 
 
 mearaigh, to mistake, to 
 
 err. 
 meath, decay, (death). 
 
42 
 
 ON THE ANTIQUITY OF 
 
 Punica Maltese. 
 
 ??iut, il Majo scrive muto, 
 nomine consecravit mor- 
 tuum, cum Phoenices 
 mortem et Plutouem 
 vocat. 
 
 ml-alet, a ball of wool. 
 
 ?nnaria, festivata di S. Petro 
 e Paolo apostoli, il suo 
 significato miilto diffe- 
 risce dalla sua etirnolo- 
 gia. Minar, ebe presso i 
 Turchi sono quelle torri 
 altissiine, attacate alle 
 loro Mosche, illumi- 
 nate nellefesteprincipali 
 del loro falso propheto 
 Maometta ; e Mnaria 
 vuol dire illuminazione, 
 facendosi da per tutto 
 in questo giorno de' 
 Santi Apostoli, donde 
 nacque mnara la lucerna, 
 che e il candellire del la 
 bassa gente. 
 
 n'asciar, to cut off, to ex- 
 clude. 
 
 Irish. 
 
 mudha 9 dying, perishing. 
 meathadh, to die. 
 mudha, mutha, dying. 
 
 mol-olla, (Minister dialect) 
 combed wool, made up 
 in a ball. 
 
 moigheanear, is a word in 
 the Bear la fene or Phoe- 
 nician dialect of the Irish, 
 not yet explained in any 
 dictionary. Dr. O'Brien 
 translates moigheanear 
 fear do chonairc an la 
 so; Happy is the man 
 that saw this day. — It 
 therefore means festi- 
 vity, happiness, rejoic- 
 ing, and answers to the 
 Maltese mnaria. 
 
 och, a nun. 
 
 ba schar, good tidings. 
 
 casid, cased, holy, unde- 
 nted. 
 q'al, speech. 
 qala } the breast, the bosom. 
 
 ascaradh, separation. 
 
 eiseidh, to lop off, to ex- 
 clude. 
 
 Exam. eiscis agcionna 
 dhiob, i. e. their heads 
 shall be cut off. 
 
 ogh, a maid, a virgin. 
 
 ba-sceal, good tidings. 
 
 sacarbhuig, a confession. 
 
 cast, undefiled, chaste. 
 
 agall, speech. 
 gaile, the stomach. 
 
THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 
 
 43 
 
 Punica Maltese. 
 
 gala, the sail of a ship. 
 
 N. B. This is the Cartha- 
 ginian name of those 
 ships moved by wind 
 only, to distinguish 
 them from ships of war, 
 worked both by wind 
 and oars. 
 
 qarab, an approaching. 
 
 qaita, a stick, club, or 
 spear. Voce de Fenice. 
 
 qaber, & cabir, a grandee, 
 a nobleman. 
 
 Irish. 
 gal. a gale of wind, 
 
 q'elp, hounds. 
 
 9 UQau > e §§ s - 
 ra, sight. 
 
 rabba, plenty, increase. 
 r'as, a headland, a pro- 
 montory. 
 riebh, wind. 
 
 r'aqha, a cavalcade. 
 
 sabaq, strong, valiant. 
 sqffaq, serene. 
 sfaffaq, observing, careful, 
 frugal. 
 
 gara, near, at hand. 
 gar-ab, not close. 
 gath, a spear or javelin. 
 
 cairbre, the name of several 
 Irish princes ; so also 
 Charibert, one of the 
 kings of France. Cair- 
 bre also signifies a ter- 
 ritory. 
 
 cu-ealb'a,a pack of hounds, 
 i. e, hounds in herd, or 
 drove. 
 
 ugh, an egg ; orca, eggs. 
 
 abhra (am a) ; romhra ; 
 radharc, sight. 
 
 rabbac, fruitful, plentiful. 
 
 tiros, a headland ; ross has 
 the same meaning. 
 
 areabh, wind. (Lhwyd. 
 Ventus.) 
 
 This is a compound of the 
 Irish eac, a horse, a word 
 still used at Constanti- 
 nople ; ar - eic, upon 
 horses. 
 
 sab & sabag, able, strong. 
 
 suvac, serene, calm, mild, 
 
 sabhallach, careful, sparing. 
 
44 ON THE ANTIQUITY OF 
 
 It is evident, that in this catalogue of words 
 given by Agius, as Punic, many are purely Arabic, 
 and some are Hebrew. The difference in ortho- 
 graphy between these Maltese words and the Irish 
 words corresponding thereto is easily accounted 
 for ; the Maltese use the Arabic character, and the 
 difficulty the author found in transcribing them 
 into the Roman letter, has already been shewn in 
 his own words. The author of this essay, has fre- 
 quently conversed with the various nations of the 
 Mediterranean Sea, particularly with the Africans, 
 and from his own experience can testify that every 
 nation of Europe, would differ in the orthography 
 of the same word, particularly in the gutteral and 
 aspirated consonants ; the Irish would be the most 
 similar to the original African dialect. Quintilian 
 observes, in his time they were much embarrassed 
 how to transcribe the ancient Latin, having lost 
 the power of several letters ; and Claudius and 
 Origen say the same. 
 
 Of the DII PUNICI, or CARTHAGINIAN 
 
 DEITIES. 
 
 The knowledge we have of the Carthaginian 
 manner of worship, is derived from the Greek and 
 Roman writers (d), who have affixed the names of 
 their own Gods to those of the Carthaginians. 
 This has rendered their accounts and observations 
 on this head more imperfect and less valuable. 
 
 (d) Herod. Polyb. Diod. Sic. Liv. Quint. Curt, aliiq. 
 multi. 
 
THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 45 
 
 It is therefore impossible to come to an exact 
 knowledge of the Carthaginian Gods, from what 
 is delivered of them by the Greek and Roman 
 authors. 
 
 The chief Deity of the Carthaginians was Baal, 
 Beal, or Bel, the Sun, to whom they offered 
 human sacrifices. The chief Deity of the Heathen 
 Irish was Beal, the Sun, to whom also they offered 
 human sacrifices. The Irish swore by the Sun, 
 Moon, Stars, and the Wind : " Omnes, qui inci- 
 derint, adjuro per sacrum Solis circulum, in 
 sequales Lunce cursus, reliquorumque siderum 
 vires et signiferum circulum, ut in reconditis haec 
 habeant, nee indoctis aut profanis communicent, 
 sed praeceptoris memores sint eique honorem retri- 
 buant. Dii jam dicti sancte jurantibus dent quae 
 velint ; pejerantibus contraria." Astrologus autem 
 hie Vettius Valens est Antiochenus et in proemio, 
 Lib. 7. oivSoXoytuv inseruit. Selden. de Dis Syr. (e) 
 
 The sacrifice of beasts was at length substituted 
 among the Carthaginians, the same custom we 
 learn from the ancient Irish historians, prevailed in 
 this country. The month of May is to this day 
 named Mi Beal teinne, i. e. the month of Beal's 
 fire ; and the first day of May is called la Beal 
 teinne, i. e. the day of Beal's fire. These fires 
 were lighted on the summits of hills, in honour of 
 the Sun ; many hills, in Ireland still retain the 
 name of Cnoc-greine, i. e. the hill of the Sun ; and 
 on all these are to be seen the ruins of druidical 
 altars. 
 
 On that day the druids drove all the cattle 
 through the fires, to preserve them from disorders 
 the ensuing year; this pagan custom is still ob- 
 
 (<?) Prol. p. 35, 
 
46 ON -THE ANTIQUITY OF 
 
 served in Minister and Connaught, where the 
 meanest cottager worth a cow and a whisp of 
 straw practises the same on the first day of May, 
 and with the same superstitious ideas. The third 
 day of May is also at this day named treas la 
 samh-ra, or the third day of the Sun's quarter. 
 On this day each bride married within the year 
 makes up a large ball covered with gold or silver 
 tissue, (in resemblance of the Deity) and presents 
 it to the young unmarried men of the neighbour- 
 hood, who having previously made a circular gar- 
 land of hoops, &c. (to represent the zodiac) come 
 to the bride's house to fetch this representation of 
 that planet. To such a pitch is this superstir 
 tious ceremony carried, I have known in the county 
 of Waterford a ball to have cost a poor peasant 
 two guineas. The old Irish name of the year, is 
 Sealaine, now corrupted into Sliadhain, i. e. the 
 circle of Selus, or of the Sun. 
 
 The Carthaginians did not represent Seal, as 
 they had him before their eyes daily in all his 
 glory ; they made their addresses immediately to 
 him according to the ancient rite. No idol of 
 Seal is ever mentioned by the ancient Irish 
 historians, or was any ever found since Christianity 
 was introduced. Had they represented their chief 
 Deity by any image, St. Patrick would have taken 
 particular notice of it. Sal in the Punic language 
 signified power, knowledge ; bale in Irish signifies 
 the same ; and balg is a man of erudition. 
 
 Saal-samhain was another Punic appellative of 
 his Deity ; Seal-samhahi in Irish signifies Beal the 
 planet of the Sun ; for an is a planet, and samJi is 
 the Sun ; thus we say lu-an the Moon, i. e. the 
 small planet; re-an a star; and samhra is Irish 
 for summer, i. e. the Sun's quarter ; so also dia-ra 
 
THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 47 
 
 daily, &c. the word ra signifying a quarter or 
 division of time. 
 
 Sam-min, vel samhmim, vel samhain, la samhmln 
 vel la samhain, is also to this time the name of the 
 first day of November or All-hallow-tide, the vigil 
 of which is called oidche shamhna agreeable to the 
 idiom of the language, and corruptly ee oivna. 
 On what day this festival of the Sun was observed 
 is not noticed, but at the change of the heathen to 
 the Christian kalendar was judiciously fixed at the 
 eve of All Souls. 
 
 Samk, as I have already shown, is the Sun, and 
 Meni is an appellative of the same Deity : " But 
 ye are they that forget my holy mountain, that 
 prepare a table for Gad, and that furnish the drink- 
 offering unto Meni (f)T The Seventy translate 
 this thus, iroi^cc^ovreg rcf SuTpoviq rqk%eZciv, mi 
 KKeqovvTeg tvj tv%v\ as^eta-^et, which passage St. Jerom 
 has fully explained to have been mistaken by the 
 Seventy, and it should have been " Parentes 
 fortunae (Gad) mensam ; et implentes daemon! 
 (Meni) mixtam potionem;" for as St. Jerom and 
 several others agree, gad signifies fortune, or rather 
 good fortune, and in this sense it is used in the 
 30th chap. Genesis, v. 11. and is further confirmed 
 by Selden in his Diis Syris. Here then is a full 
 confirmation of the origin of the Irish cad-druid- 
 heact or necromancy, handed down to us by the 
 custom still retained of burning nuts and shells to 
 tell fortunes on this evening, and of the apples and 
 libations of ale (to Meni) joined to the ceremony 
 of the same evening. 
 
 Origen in his commentaries on St. John, re- 
 
 (f) Isa. Ixv. 11. 
 
48 ON THE ANTIQUITY OF 
 
 buked the Jews for the worship they paid to 
 fLsvt na) geXmvi, to Meni and to the Moon. Meni 
 therefore is manifestly the Sun. The word meni, 
 which produces the Greek pip comes from the 
 Hebrew root r\20 men, which signifies to number ; 
 and because the motion of the Sun serves to 
 measure time, the Syrians added this appellative 
 to Samk ; and because the Moon serves us for the 
 same purpose, the Greeks called her also M^vvj ; 
 hence also the ^Egyptians gave the name Me?ii to 
 their God Orus (which was the Sun) ; hence also 
 the Greek ^vsg, and the Latin menses, and the 
 English months, i. e. the space of time measured 
 by Meni or the Sun ; and from the same root 
 comes the iEolick jaSvvfc, from whence the Latin 
 manes which were the Genii, according to Servius. 
 Manes genios dicit, quos cum vita sortimur (g). 
 
 Those passages in Jeremiah (h), where he com- 
 plains so bitterly against the superstition of the 
 Jews, of making, cakes for the queen of Heaven, 
 &c. bear a great affinity with this of Isaiah. 
 
 Camden gives us several ancient inscriptions of 
 altars, found in England, dedicated to Belus ; no 
 such inscriptions or idols have ever been found in 
 this island ; several mountains retain his name, as 
 Sliabh JSahteinne, i. e. the mountain of Baal's fire ; 
 and some towns hand down to us the scite of his 
 temples, as Bal-ti-more, i. e. the great house of 
 Belus ; Bal-ti-na-glaise (Baltinglass), the house of 
 Belus's necromancy, &c. &c. Semiram in Belo 
 fanum in arce Babylonia? condidisse his verbis 
 scribit Periegetes /xiyav lo^xov sktuto Ma:v, id est 
 magnam domum extruxit Belo. Selden, pag. 164. 
 
 (g) uEneid, v. 743. (A) vii. 18. and xliv. 1718, 19, 
 
THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 49 
 
 But the pagan customs of the common people 
 still retained in the country, are the most valuable 
 monuments of antiquity. 
 
 Now as the ancients at this festival did eat the 
 sacrifices of the dead, to use the psalmist's words, 
 where could the primitive Christians have fixed 
 this day so properly as on the eve of All Souls ? 
 
 Ut mittam nunc Irlandos seu incolas Hibernise, 
 qui, referente auctore de statibus imperiorum de 
 Hybernia, p. 44, se mettent a genoux en voyant 
 la Lune nouvelle et disent en parlant a Lune, go 
 Jhga tu me mur tu fnaras me — laisse nous ausi 
 sains que tu nous as trouve — ita nos salvos degere 
 sinas, sicuti nos invenisti, &c. Vid. de l'Estat du 
 Roy d'Espagne, p. 236, ubi dicitur, quod, plusieurs 
 adoront le Soleil 2t la Lune, recognoissans toute fois 
 un seul Dieu, Createur de toutes choses, <Scc. (i) 
 
 This custom is still preserved, and every peasant 
 in Ireland on seeing the new Moon crosses himself 
 and says, slanfuar tu sin agus slan adfaga tu sin, 
 whole you find us and whole leave us. 
 
 Most of the ancient places of druidical worship 
 in Ireland retain the name of the God Baal, as 
 Magh-adhair, or the field of worship ; as Glan- 
 magh-adhair, now Glan-mire, four miles north of 
 Cork, and near the same place is Beal-atha-magh- 
 adhair, i. e. the plain of Baal's field of worship, 
 where the druidical altar yet remains. See 
 O'Brien's dictionary at the word magh. Several 
 places also retain the name of the Moon, or places 
 allocated to the particular worship of that planet ; 
 as Aiha-luan, Athlone ; Lough-Re, a part of the 
 river Shannon not far distant, and a town of the 
 
 (i) And. Beyeri ad J- Selden, de Dis Syris syntagmata, 
 addit. prol. ad cap. 3. p. 80. 
 
 E 
 
50 ON THE ANTIQUITY OF 
 
 same name at the side of a lough in the county of 
 Galway, 
 
 3/nan 9 Grian 9 the name of the Sun in Irish, was 
 latinised into Grynceus, which was a classical 
 epithet of Apollo ; and in Camden we meet with 
 an inscription apollini granno. It is true this 
 had been set up by a Roman, but this might have 
 been done in compliment to the tutelar deity of the 
 nation he governed. This epithet of Grynaeus for 
 Apollo we find in Virgil (k) : 
 
 His tibi Grynaei nemoris dicatur origo 
 Ne quis sit lucus, qua se plus jactet Apollo. 
 
 Again (/) : 
 
 Sed nunc Italiam magnam Grynaeus Apollo 
 Italiam Lyciae jussere capessere sortes : 
 Hie amor, haec patria est. 
 
 Grynium, says Strabo, was a town in iEolia, 
 where was a temple of Apollo and an Oracle. 
 And the Greeks being ignorant of the Celtic 
 derivation of Grynaeus, have formed according to 
 their custom, a fabulous history for Grynaeus, that 
 he was the Sun, Eupophorinus, &c. 
 
 Veteri sane inscripto saxo et apud Conseranos 
 in Novempopulonia reperto ita legitur 
 
 MINERVA 
 BELISA1NOE 
 C. VALERIUS 
 MONUM. 
 
 Haut cuiquam constaret opinor, quid aliud Beli- 
 sama hie denotet. Minervae autem, Junonis, Ve- 
 
 {k) Eel. 6. (/) Mn. ir. 1. 345> 
 
THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 51 
 
 neris, Lunae nomina sunt ita, cum ad Asiaticos 
 Deos respexeris, confusa, ut qui Minervam Beli- 
 samam, Junonem Belisaman, Venerem aut Lunam 
 dixerit, idem semper ipsum dixerit. An Littori 
 Britannia occidentalioris (Lancastrensem agrum 
 dico) sestuarium illud BcA/o-a^a Ptolemseo dictum, 
 ah hanc Dea apud vicinos cnlta, sic fuerit nuncu- 
 patum, cogitent quorum interest. 
 
 Apollo was the principal God of the pagan 
 Irish, and from the harp's being sacred to him we 
 may discern the reason why that instrument is the 
 ensign armorial of Ireland. 
 
 Diodorus Siculus gives an account of a northern 
 island, about the bigness of Sicily, situated over 
 against the Celtae, as being fruitful and pleasant, 
 and dedicated to Apollo, to whom round temples 
 and large groves were sacred, wherein the priests 
 chaunted to their harps the praises of their God. 
 Every particular of this is very applicable to 
 Ireland. 
 
 The last Sunday of the summer quarter is called 
 by the Irish domhna cram, and is observed with 
 several druidical superstitions to this day. Some 
 have thought crom was a pagan deity, but we 
 shall prove that it was another day consecrated to 
 particular worship, and to the punishment of the 
 guilty, by the sentence and execution of the druids. 
 Crom, in the modern Irish, implies bending or 
 bowing the body ; bo c/tdm yiof bor? iobal, he 
 bowed down to the idol. Chrom, in the Bohemian 
 language, signifies a temple, church, or place of 
 worship. Crom-liag or crom-leac, is the name 
 given by all Celtic nations to the druidical altars, 
 yet remaining in many places in Ireland, Scotland, 
 and England ; we also find cromihear the old Irish 
 name for a priest, perhaps particularly from his 
 
5 C J> ON THE ANTIQUITY 01 
 
 office on this day ; the root of this word in all the 
 eastern dialects implies worship. In Arabic D*"D 
 reverere* honorare. So in Matthew xv. v. 4, it 
 is the word used to denote reverence and honour 
 to your parents. With the Talmudists it implies 
 a synagogue, gymnasium, schola ; see Schindler. 
 FfbEFO cremlith, in the Chaldaic, implies a public 
 place of worship, the sanctum sanctorum, which 
 the common people were not to approach; Locus 
 communis et publicus sed inaccessus, qui publice 
 transiri, vel non solet, vel non potest. Buxtorf. 
 And this I take to be the origin of the Irish crom^ 
 Hag and cromJeac, from T\f) luck, a table of stone; 
 n6 dlin cherem-lucJi, a consecrated stone ; hence 
 lac and laac in old Saxon is a sacrifice. But "CTsTS 
 cherem, in the Hebrew, Chaldaic and Arabic, 
 signifies anathemati subjicere, Deo dicare, morti 
 adducere, excommunicare ; and this day I fancy is 
 in remembrance of the annual excommunication 
 and punishment of the people, by the druids, from 
 whence many have conjectured they offered human 
 sacrifices. In old manuscripts we find frequent 
 mention of the crom-crua, or bloody crom, (from 
 cm, blood) so called from the punishment inflicted 
 on this day. This was also practised by the 
 ancient Jews, as we learn from Belandus, p. 117. 
 (but query, at what season of the year ?)' " decer- 
 nebat .hoc Synedrium de rebus majoris momenti 
 tarn politicis quam sacris, privatis quam publicis, 
 et poenas capitales reis irrogatas, hae autem quatuor 
 fuere apud Judaeas, lapidatio, combustio, decollatio 
 et strangulatio, et excommunicatio, cujus species 
 levior W etiam NnDttf dicta fuit, gravior Din 
 cherem. 
 
 The pagan Irish were strangers to any other 
 idolatrous worship, than what their ancestors 
 
THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 53 
 
 brought from the Assyrians, namely, that of the 
 Sun, Moon, and Stars; all were included in the 
 general name of fmmw or fwmm, which to this 
 day is the appellation of the starry constellations ; 
 and this word explains that passage in the second 
 book of Kings, v. 18 : " In this thing the Lord 
 " pardon thy servant, that when my master goeth 
 " into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and 
 " he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the 
 " house of Rimmon," &c. This Rimmon was 
 certainly a Syrian idol say some, but Mr. Hutch- 
 inson very properly conjectures that it collectively 
 expresses the fixt Stars ; but all others before him 
 have been much at a loss, as the word in Hebrew 
 ]ID1 Rimmon signifies a pomegranate, both fruit 
 and tree ; which name I conjecture was given that 
 fruit from the beautiful star formed on the top, 
 like the apex of an apple. The Cam-ceacta or 
 Northern bear seems to have been the peculiar 
 worship of the pagan Irish ; when the Fomorii or 
 Phoenicians landed in Ireland they sacrificed to 
 the Stars which had guided them ; these could be 
 no other than those of the North pole, viz. e<\m- 
 cgcta ; hence the word jrocla signifies both an 
 offering and the North ; and it appears as if the 
 word cgact<\ was also derived from the Hebrew 
 HNKjn ckataa, sacrificium ; see Ezra xlv. 23. to 
 which was added c<xro, to bow, bend, or. adore. 
 Although I have applied this to the North pole, it 
 is certain an orientalist would apply the Hebrew 
 npnn^n Chama Ckataa to signify literally the 
 sacrifice of the Sun, for, as I noticed, in the pre- 
 ceding page Chama is Sol. This is again fully 
 explained by St. Stephen in his argument with the 
 Jews, (as mentioned by St. Luke) to be the God 
 Miwmon, as I have already described, See Acts 
 
54 ON THE ANTIQUITY OF 
 
 of the Apostles vii. 43. " Yea, ye took up the 
 " tabernacle of Moloch, and the Star of your God 
 " Remphan, figures which ye made to worship 
 " them." This is evidently no more than the 
 tabernacle of the Sun and Planets ; for mole or 
 moloc in Irish signifies fire, which they worshipped 
 as a type of the Sun, and Remplian or Remman 
 signified the inferior planets. Again this Remphan 
 is called Kiun by Amos, v. 26. " You have borne 
 " the tabernacle of your God Moloch and Km??, 
 " your images, and the star of your Gods whom 
 " ye have made." Now Rimmon was the Syrian 
 name, and Remphan and Kiun the name given to 
 the same deity by the Moabites. This passage has 
 put the interpreters on the rack, because of the 
 difference between the Hebrew text and that of 
 the Septuagint. St. Jerom explains this to be 
 Lucifer or Saturn only. [Selden, Grotius and 
 Thomassin.] Now Kiun, or, as the Persians 
 name it, Kaivan, is the name of the planet Saturn, 
 because he has many satellites to light him, and his 
 belt also is composed of many more ; now Kaivan 
 is the same as the Iberno-Celtic c<xi13ban or caivan, 
 signifying a throng or cluster, and is this day used 
 for a rout or throng of people, and therefore appli- 
 cable to the Deity they worshipped under the 
 name of Rimmon, Rinnim, Rempham, and Kiun, 
 that is, the heavenly host together; ail which 
 returns again to Baal, Relus, and Rimmin. 
 
 The Irish druids caused all fires to be extin- 
 guished throughout the kingdom on the eve of 
 May day, and every house was obliged to light his 
 fire from the arch-druid's holy fire, kindled on some 
 elevated place, for which they paid a tribute to the 
 druid. This exactly corresponds with Dr. Hyde's 
 description of the Parsi or Guebri, descendants of 
 
THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 55 
 
 the ancient Persians, who have, says he, an annual 
 fire in the temple, from whence they kindle all the 
 fires in their nouses, which are previously extin- 
 guished, which makes a part of the revenues of 
 their priests ; and this was undoubtedly the use of 
 the round towers, so frequently to be met with in 
 Ireland, and which were certainly of Phoenician 
 construction. 
 
 I will here hazard a conjecture. I find bYtigadul 
 to signify magnus ; I find also that the oriental 
 nations at length so named the tower of Babylon, 
 &c. JifrlJiD magudaluth, turres ab amplitudine 
 dictae. Bochart. p. 42. Geog. Sacr. Gad, i. e. 
 gadul, turris ; may not our Irish name cloghad for 
 the round towers built in Ireland, which apparently 
 were of Phoenician workmanship, be derived from 
 this word gad, and clogh a stone? It must be 
 allowed that dug is a bell, and hence these towers 
 have been thought to have been belfries ; but we 
 have many places called clogh, i. e. saxum. 
 
 Again ; the druids called every place of worship 
 cloghad, alluding to the circles of stones they 
 usually set up in those places ; there is therefore 
 no positive authority to say these cloghads or 
 towers were used as belfries only, or that they 
 took their name from that use. 
 
 There are many reasons which induce me to 
 believe, that the druids of the British islands main- 
 tained their religion in its purity, much longer 
 than those upon the continent. They all of them 
 had retained so much of the original doctrine, as 
 inclined them to distinguish their errors, and en- 
 abled them to see the great conformity there was 
 between their ancient tenets and the precepts of 
 the gospel, which they universally entertained. 
 They believed the Deity to be infinite and omni* 
 
56 ON THE ANTIQUITY OF 
 
 present, and thought it ridiculous to imagine, that 
 he whom the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain, 
 should be circumscribed within the narrow limits 
 of a roof ; and, for the perpetual establishment and 
 support of the seventh day, they were wont to 
 dedicate the tenth of all their substance (m). 
 
 Again : The chiefs of their respective families 
 were their priests and princes, yet all acknowledged 
 one superior in the sacred office. Hence in the 
 Phoenician and Hebrew ]np Jeoken is a priest, and in 
 Irish conac is a lord, ac being an adjunct termina- 
 tion in the Celtic, con-ac lordly, by the Irish poets 
 written codhn-ac. 
 
 Coelum, Col was the most ancient of the Gods, 
 and had for one of his children Time named 
 Saturn. It is no hard thing to guess why Coelum 
 is said to be the first of the Gods, and the father of 
 Saturn or Chronus, since it is evident that the 
 motions of the Heavens make and measure the 
 duration of time ; bl cal, all, perfect ; - Wo an hola- 
 caust, a sacrifice. 
 
 Chronus, according to some, was another name 
 of Seal ; but we will shew hereafter that Chronus 
 was an appellative of Satum. Chron signifies in 
 Irish time, and Clwonog a circle, i. e. the orbit of 
 the Sun. 
 
 " Here, say the authors of the Universal His- 
 tory, we have three Baals, who are said to have 
 been once mortal men ; which might fairly induce 
 one to think, that the learned are mistaken in 
 supposing the Phoenician God Baal in general to 
 be the Sun." It fs evident from the foregoing 
 explanation, that they were only different appella- 
 tives significant of the same God, the Sun. 
 
 (m) Cooke on the Patriar. and Druidic relig. p. 64. 
 
THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 57 
 
 Baal, Bal, Beel, Bel " San Hieronymo junta 
 dellos mucho, i de su origen, i aviendo del Rei 
 Belo, i su historia prosigue. Quam Belus, primus 
 Rex Assyriorum, ut supra diximus : Quos constat 
 Saturnum, quern et Solem dicunt, Junonemque 
 coluisse : quae numina etiam apud Afros postea 
 culta sunt. Unde et lingua Punica Bal, deus 
 dicitur. Apud Assyrios autem Bel dicitur quadam 
 sacrorum ratione et Saturnus et Sol." 
 
 The chief if not the only deities of the heathen 
 Irish were 3/ uar >> Col, and Ce<xct, which signifies 
 the Sun, Moon, and Stars ; though it appears that 
 they worshipped the Wind also ; for to swear by 
 the Wind was a common oath. 3fii<xn is to this 
 day Irish for the Sun, and cam ceacta for the Bear 
 or Seven Stars which roll about the Pole ; this 
 word is Phoenician and is derived from p|M cimah 
 (Pleiades the Seven Stars) and 1D]S cocabh (Stella 
 also Mercurius) plur. coccnth, also nDPf Cham, Sol, 
 the Sun. Schindler, p. 827. 
 
 To those who do not trace the origin of the 
 ancient Celtes and their language from the Orien- 
 tals, it is matter of wonder how the worship of 
 Baal should be known to the Iberno-Celts or Irish. 
 The name of Beal or Baal which signifies dominus 
 or dominator, was first the name of the true God ; 
 and after the Assyrians, Chaldaeans and Phoenicians 
 had conveyed this sacred name to the Sun, whom 
 they adored as their chief deity, the Lord com= 
 manded the people of Israel to call him no more 
 Baal i as in Hosea, ch. ii. v. 16. "And it shall be 
 " in that day, that thou shalt call me Ishi, and 
 " shalt call me no more Baalir So also they 
 called the Moon mttftf aschera, i. e. regina Cceli ; 
 " et ut Sol respectu Lunae Baal dicitur, quod 
 respectu Lunee sit instar domini, qui de suo decore 
 
58 ON THE ANTIQUITY OF 
 
 et splendore uxori suae communicat ; sic etiam 
 Luna vocatur Aschera, quod nomen est foeminini 
 generis quasi ilia sit foemina Solis, quia illius 
 desiderio tenetur. Hibernice Easca, vel Easga 
 et Re ." Sal mhaith art and Sal dkia dhuit, the 
 good Bal and the God Bal to you, are to this day 
 common salutations in Munster, and particularly 
 about Waterford. 
 
 Hercules was the protector of Tyre and Car- 
 thage ; Africus and Eusebius prove his Carthagi- 
 nian name was Archies, i. e. say they, strong, 
 robust. Bochart (n) derives his name from the 
 Hebrew word ercol sinewy. Aichill in Irish 
 signifies strong, robust ; and hence Achilles, Thus 
 also with us aicittidhe means an active, dextrous 
 man. May we not conjecture that our great 
 western promontory <iciiU, Aichil, and the islands 
 of Aichil, were the Hercidis promontorium of the 
 Phoenicians. Pliny (o) calls Hercules Midacritus, 
 but his Phoenician name was Archies; he was 
 indeed named Mil-car -thus at Carthage, as being 
 the peculiar Deity and protector of that city (p). 
 He was a great navigator, and the first that 
 brought lead from the Cassiterides or British 
 islands ; he was called Melec-cartha, i. e. king of 
 the city, says Bochart : Mil-cathair in Irish, is the 
 champion of the city. Pliny (q) calls him corruptly 
 Midacritus. Sir Isaac Newton rejects this notion, 
 and derives his name from his having been the 
 founder of Carteia in Spain ; but Hesychius says, 
 the Amathusians called Hercules by the name of 
 Malic. 
 
 Next to Hercules was Jol-aus. Vossius and 
 
 {n) Phaleg. (o) Plin, 1. 7. cap. 56. 
 
 (p) Univ. Hist. 8vo. vol. 2. p. 338. (q) L. 71. cap. 36, 
 
THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 59 
 
 Pausanias describe the ceremonies paid to this 
 Deity. The Carthaginians supposed him nearly 
 related to Hercules ; that he helped to destroy 
 the Hydra, and that he was called Jol-aus, because 
 when he had lived to a very great age, he was 
 changed into a youth. Jol in Irish is to change, 
 and aos is age, the compound makes Jol-aos. 
 
 Aesculapius or Aisculapius was the God of 
 physical knowledge ; his temple was built on a 
 high rock, where all his healing miracles were 
 performed, and from thence he took his name. 
 Aisci in Irish is to heal, and scealp is a rock. 
 Servius calls him also Poeni-gena, because, says 
 he, bom of a Carthaginian woman ; Poeni-geine, 
 in Irish, is the offspring of a Carthaginian. 
 
 Syria or Dece Syrice were Gods not described 
 by any author with certainty ; probably they were 
 the sea-nymphs, for suire is Irish for sea-nymphs. 
 Keating in his ancient history of Ireland, describes 
 the suire playing round the ships of the Milesians 
 in their passage to Ireland. 
 
 Ceres or Keres was worshipped as the Moon. 
 Ceo in Irish signifies clouds, vapours ; and Me is 
 the Moon, which compounded forms Ceore. She 
 was also named Ceolestis and Keolectis, and was 
 invoked in droughts in order to obtain rain : " ipsa 
 virgo Ceolestis pluviarum pollicitatrix." Tertulliau. 
 (r) Ceo4eis-teisi, in Irish, signifies dropping, mists, 
 or rain. Mr. Rollin thinks this Deity was the 
 same Queen of Heaven, to whom the Jewish 
 women burnt incense, poured out drink-offerings, 
 and made cakes for her with their own hands,— 
 vit faciaxit placentas reginse Coeli. The children 
 gathered the wood, the fathers kindled the fire, 
 
 (r) Apol. c. 23, 
 
60 ON THE ANTIQUITY OF 
 
 and the women kneaded the dough, to make cakes 
 for the Queen of Heaven ; Jeremiah vii. 18. This 
 pagan custom is still preserved in Ireland on the 
 eve of St. Bridget, and which was probably trans- 
 posed to St. Bridget's eve, from the festival of a 
 famed poetess of the same name, in the time of 
 paganism. In an ancient glossary now before me, 
 she is thus described : Brighid ban fhileadh 
 inghean an Dagha ; bean dhe Eirinn ; i. e. 
 Brigit a poetess, the daughter of Dagha ; a god- 
 dess of Ireland. On St. Bridget's eve every far- 
 mer's wife in Ireland makes a cake called bairin- 
 breac, the neighbours are invited, the madder of 
 ale and the pipe go round, and the evening con- 
 cludes with mirth and festivity. 
 
 Tellies, the earth, was also worshipped by the 
 Carthaginians. Tellur, tella, telarnh is Irish for 
 earth. 
 
 Uranus was their God over land and water. 
 TJir in Irish is land, and an water. " Uiran, 
 Uraniae meminet (Diodorus) tanquam urbes Car- 
 pasiae vicinae, cujus fabulae vestigia alibi non 
 reperi." Bochart (s). 
 
 They worshipped the Moon under the name of 
 Ashtoreth, and the women gave up their bodies to 
 the men in her temples for hire ; aisteoreacht in 
 Irish is leachery, lewd, lascivious pranks. Ashtoreth 
 or Astarte, says Bochart, " eadem quae lo mutata 
 in bovem, et mater Phoenicium ; tamen Ashtoreth 
 vulgo pro Venere sumitur. mfityN astarach, ardere 
 libidine, Rom. i. 17- 1 Pet. iv. 4. TIuQiviq w^Qviiuv 
 vtiu(> Ee$Qaw)G f{J*£QoeiQ. Veneris sponsalis aqua sestra- 
 chus amabilis, pro %sg$axog legerim Eq^ay.og, Vid, 
 Bochart (t). 
 
 (s) Pag. 371. 4to. (0 P. 370, 
 
ME IRISH LANGUAGE. 61 
 
 At Byblos Ashtoreth was worshipped in a 
 temple as the Venus of Adonis, and there such 
 women as would not conform to the shaving their 
 heads, at the annual .time of lamenting Adonis, 
 were bound to prostitute their bodies one entire 
 day for hire, and the money thus earned was pre- 
 sented to the Goddess. Adonis, Ossiris, and 
 Adonosiris or Thamut%, all centre in one object, 
 and Isis had a temple at Byblos where they 
 worshipped the heath which concealed Ossiris's 
 coffin : this Byblian Isis, say the authors of the 
 Universal History, must have been Astarte or 
 Ashtoreth. 4< Inde, says Selden (u), Alagabalus 
 (quern Heliogabalum etiam depravati veteres efFe- 
 rebant, nos Alagabalum magis dicendum fuisse in 
 capite de Belo adstruimus) nimirum Sol ipse 
 Pyramidis specie colebatur Syris ; Venus pilce seu 
 quadrati saxi Arabibus, uti etiam Paphius alibique, 
 et septem columnae erectae sunt ritu prisco apud 
 Laconas teste Fawsamaferantium stellarum signa.) 
 — Prophetae ejus " a mane usque ad meridiem in- 
 vocaverunt nomen Baal, dicentes, O Baal exaudi 
 nos." Mos. iEgyp. More. Neboch. 1. 1. c, 58. (to) 
 So we end as we begun with Baalim and As- 
 toreth. 
 
 " Illos tummodo Syros jam vocamus Deos — 
 cujus modi agnoscas licet Belum seu Baalim, 
 Astartem sive Ashtaroth, Dagon, Rammut%? 
 &c. (x) 
 
 " And the children of Israel did evil in the sight 
 " of the Lord, and served Baalim and Ashtaroth, 
 " and the Gods of Syria, and the Gods of Zidon," 
 &c. Judg. x. 6. 
 
 (u) Proleg. p, 52. (u,) Id. p. 56. 
 
 {x) Selden de Dis Syris, Prolegom. cap. 3. 
 
62 ON THE ANTIQUITY OF 
 
 Saturn was the God of bread-corn, because he 
 taught men to till the earth ; He is often repre- 
 sented on Punic medals by an ear of wheat : He 
 was also called Chronics ; though some, as we have 
 before observed, think Ckronus and Baal were 
 the same. Sat, in Irish, is abundance, and aran 
 is bread ; which compounded makes Saiharan. 
 
 The God Neptune, say the authors of the Uni- 
 versal History, was the Punic Scyphus, from scyph 
 a rock : I think these learned authors mistaken, for 
 we have already proved scealp was Punice a rock; 
 scif or scib is Irish for a ship, and Neptune was 
 the God of the sea : but the name Neptune is 
 plainly derived from the Irish Nimh a Deity, and 
 ton the waves of the sea. 
 
 Mercury is represented as a swift messenger of 
 the Gods, and being an humble servant of theirs, 
 says Bochart (y) 9 was called by the Carthaginians 
 Assumes, Assumhal, in Irish, is very humble, 
 most humble; but the iEolic name Mercury is 
 derived from three Irish words, viz. Mer active, cu 
 a greyhound, and ri running. May not this be the 
 reason that he was sometimes represented with a 
 Dog's head ? Rowland (s) says he was so called 
 from marc a horse, and ri running. 
 
 They had a certain God of antiquity named 
 P'atas, called by the Greeks Patceci and Patakoi, 
 the etymon of which words have confused many 
 of the learned. 
 
 Some, from the ignorance of the Grecian au- 
 thors, have thought it was an ape, from the affinity 
 of the Greek word pitkekos an ape. Monsieur 
 Morin, agrees with Scaliger, and both think it 
 should be read Fatas ; the letter P with an hiatus 
 
 (y) Phaleg. (s) Mori. Ant. 
 
THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 63 
 
 being equal to F ; they therefore ascribe this 
 divinity to Vulcan, the supreme Deity of the 
 Egyptians, remarkable for his skill and knowledge. 
 Fatlias in Irish signifies skill, knowledge, and also 
 divine poetry. But M. Bullet very justly derives 
 Patakoi from the Celtic pat, vel vat, vel bad, a 
 boat, a skiff; to which may be added that oiclii 
 signifies champions; and thence JBad-oichi or 
 Patakoi may signify main champions or skilful 
 mariners. 
 
 Hesychius and Suidas will have these Patceci 
 to have been placed in the poops of the ships ; and 
 Herodotus compares them to pygmies : if they 
 were the tutelar Gods of seafaring men, and carried 
 about for protection from disasters at sea, the 
 custom seems to be still preserved by the Spaniards, 
 who at this day carry to sea with them little images 
 of their saints, that they may stand their friends 
 in distress; these are Christian Pataeci: why should 
 we wonder at the Carthaginians or Phoenicians ? 
 
 They suspended certain stones to their necks 
 called bcetyli, as preservatives of the body against 
 danger. Bith Irish for life, Mile all, whole, com- 
 plete ; bithuile : " these stones, says Bochart (a), 
 " were also called abdir, probably from aband or 
 " ebendus, Hebrew words for a round stone ;" ab 
 a priest in Irish and dior the law ; so that I should 
 translate it a something worn by the law of the 
 priests, (if Bochart be right.) D6r?i means in Irish 
 a round stone, and abdorn would mean, the round 
 stone of the priests. 
 
 The bishop of Cork, in his letter (b) to the 
 Royal Society in London, has strangely confused 
 the Baitulia with the Beth-al, in his description 
 
 (a) Phaleg. (b) Phil. Tr. No. 471. 
 
64 ON THE ANTIQUITY OF 
 
 of the druidical monuments in Ireland. We have 
 already shewn that Beith-al, both in Hebrew and 
 Irish signifies the House of God ; the bishop there- 
 fore thinks it was one of these monstrous unhewn 
 stones forming the druidical temples, which Rhea 
 gave to Saturn to swallow instead of a child, 
 because it was called by the Greeks baitulos. 
 Hesychius is also as much mistaken in the etymon 
 of the hcetyli, which he says was covered with a 
 woollen garment ; from the Greek word baite. 
 
 But St. Austin says, the Carthaginian Deities 
 in general were called abdire ; and the priests who 
 assisted at their sacrifices euc-adire : now ab in 
 Irish expresses a Deity also, and adkra is to wor- 
 ship : thus abadhra the worship of the Deity ; so 
 eugadh is to die in Irish, and eugadhra means to 
 die in the sacrifice, or worship. 
 
 Titan, says Pezron, was the iEolic name of the 
 Sun, and signifies fire and water ; it is true, tith or 
 teth is heat in Irish, and an is water, but we have 
 already explained, that an in the Irish and Punic 
 signifies a planet, so Tithan or Tetlian is the 
 planet of heat ; thus also greadh is to scorch, and 
 greadhan or gri-an is the Irish common appellative 
 for the Sun, i. e. the scorching Planet. * 
 
 The fire of the stars seems to have been honoured 
 in the person of Jupiter, called in Greek Zevg 9 and 
 in Phoenician DUD Cham, both names being de- 
 rived from heat and fire (c). 
 
 Ioh-pater Jupiter, was esteemed the father of all 
 fruits ; iok is Irish for the fruit of beast, plant, or 
 tree, and p, athair, i. e. priomh athair, first, or 
 chief father. The Etruscan name of Jupiter was 
 aaJKAivi, (iup'ter) i. e. he-primus atar ; and thus 
 
 (c) Danet's diet, of antiq. ad verb, ignis. 
 
THE IEISH LANGUAGE. 65 
 
 primus afar was contracted to p. atar, all from the 
 Phoenician priomli at/iair, first father; hence the 
 Greek pater, and pateros ; Lat. pater ; Bisc. aita ; 
 Gothic aita ; Thessal. atta ; Persic, padder, &c. 
 
 It is plain (says Adrian Reland de nomine Je- 
 hovah, Utrecht 1707) that the Latins formed the 
 name of their God Jupiter, whom they called 
 Jovis, from the name Jehovah or Jehovih. 
 
 It however is verv uncertain, whether or no the 
 Latins borrowed their Jovis of the Hebrew ; since 
 Varro derives it from the Latin verbjuvare, to aid 
 or assist (d). 
 
 The pagan Irish never admitted the modern 
 Deities of the Greeks or Romans into their wor- 
 ship ; even to the days of St. Patrick their worship 
 was pure Assyrian, and consisted of the heavenly 
 host alone, as I have described elsewhere. 
 
 Curetes were the keepers of Jupiter, remarkable 
 for valour, as well as for skill in astronomy ; 
 curaithe in Irish is champions. Thus JEHolus the 
 God of the winds was so called from his know- 
 ledge in astronomy and the winds ; in Irish gaoith 
 is the wind, and eolas is knowledge, hence gaoth- 
 eolas into aeolus. " Memoriae tradidit Isacius, 
 iEolum hominem fuisse astronomic peritissimum, 
 et illam scientiam praecipue exercuisse quae pertinet 
 ad naturam ventorum, ut prodesset navigantibus, 
 
 Praedicebat igitur et quae marl futura esset 
 
 tempestas (e). Bochart thinks the derivation of 
 this name is from the Hebrew bv^ aol % vel gaaol, 
 tempestas. Indeed the Celti never had these 
 Greek and Roman Deities, for they were deified 
 from the Celtic fables by the Greeks ; I mean 
 
 (d) Supp. du journ. des Scayarjs, Juin 1709. torn. 44, 
 
 (e) Natal. Com, mitolog.l, 8, Cap, 10 
 
 f 
 
66 ON THE ANTIQUITY OF 
 
 most of them, for as we learn from the Stoic Cor- 
 nutus or Phurnutus they borrowed from various 
 nations, Ts ds %qxXuq y.ai TomiKag te^l Sstav ysyovev&i 
 
 'KCC^U. TJtlQ KClklQlQ 'EAAVJO"/ (JLCi^OTTOlCig^ l£Q CiXKCLl {JL£V £Tl 
 
 Mayoig ysyovueiv, ciKhai Ve 7r«p' Aiyvnrioig v.ui Kehrotg, 
 v.ai Aifivei, kzi tyvfy, mm TOl G ccKKoig fQvvj^ cap. 17- 
 L e. among the many and various fables which the 
 ancient Greeks had about the Gods, some were 
 derived from Mages, some from iEgyptiant, some 
 from the Celti or Gauls, and others from the 
 Africans and Phrygians, &c. Will not this stop 
 the laughter of the classic gentry, at my deriving 
 the names of Apollo, Mars, Mercury, Venus, 
 Jupiter, &c. from the Celtic, whose virtues and 
 powers are not to be explained in the composition 
 of their names in any other language? 
 
 Venus is derived from bean or bhean, pronounced 
 van, or vean a woman. But to return to the Car- 
 thaginians. 
 
 Phiditia or fidites were public feasts at Car- 
 thage, where the elders instructed their youths. 
 Irish fidir,fithir 9 and feathair, a teacher .or doctor ? 
 and fiadhaithe, relating, telling, instructing, as 
 fiadhaid a bhds, they relate his death. 
 
 Bad or badhb, the wind, and some think parti- 
 cularly the North wind; it is also said to be a 
 bean-sig/ie, or familiar spirit, which is supposed to 
 belong to particular families ; this word appears to 
 be of Asiatic root, for in the present Persic lan- 
 guage bad is not only wind, but also the name of 
 the genius or deity, who, like the iEolus of the 
 Greeks, presides over winds : he has the superin- 
 tendance of the 22nd day of the month, which 
 is consecrated to this spirit and called by his 
 name (f). 
 
 (f) See Richardson's Persic, Lex. p. 318, 
 
THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 67 
 
 The supreme magistrates of Carthage were 
 called sqffites (g), because men in great power ; 
 sofar in Irish is powerful, strong, valiant, plural 
 sofaraith. They are called soffites, says Selden (h) 9 
 from the Hebrew souffitem, judices sonat. So in 
 compound Irish words signifies an aptness, or 
 facility in doing, also excellency ; thus soother 
 means most capable of teaching, or governing, and 
 is most applicable to the supreme magistrate. 
 
 Barach. " S. Hieronymo en la vida de S. Halia- 
 rion dize, que los Saracenos salian a encontrar a el 
 sancto con sus mugeres i hijos, et submittentes colla 
 et voce Syra Barach inclamantes ; id est Benedict. 
 Barach i Benedic, eadem est Hebrseis significatio, 
 a quorum lingua non solum Syram sed Chaldaeam 
 quoque, Arabicum, et iEthiopicam demonstra- 
 mus (i)? In Irish bar a learned man, barrachas, 
 supreme excellency, great sway, and barraighhin 
 is a mitre. 
 
 The name of Carthage was Carthago from its 
 situation by the sea-side, says C. Duret; cathair is 
 Irish for a city, and go is the sea. According to 
 Bochart and Vossius it was called Cathardo and 
 Cathardreannac, meaning the new city. — Ca- 
 thardo and Cathardreannad in Irish signifies the 
 good city, for do or da and dreannad, means 
 good. 
 
 Howel explains this name much better, he says 
 Carthage was built at three several times ; the first 
 foundation consisted of cothon, i. e. the port or 
 harbour ; in Irish, cuan is an harbour or port, and 
 cothadh-an is a noble support. Megard was a part 
 of the town built next, and in respect to cothon 
 was called Kartha adaih 9 agath. or hadtha, that 
 
 Cg) Liv. (h) De Dis Syr. c. 1. 
 
 (0 Ant. de Espan. Afric. Aldrete, lib. % p. 187, 
 
68 ON THE ANTIQUITY OF 
 
 is, says he, the new buildings, or the additional 
 town ; in Irish, agadth, or adath, is an addition. 
 and thus cath air -adath signifies the new added 
 city. 
 
 The ancient name of Carthage, as given by Dido, 
 was Bosra, or as some have it Byrsa ; Bosra they 
 say means a royal fort. JBorrsa in Irish is noble, 
 royal, magnificent, and rath (pronounced rd) is a 
 fort ; thus Borrsa-rath, is a royal fortress, Byrsa, 
 according to some, signifies plenty of water ; bier 
 in Irish is a spring or fountain, (hence tobair a 
 well, also Birr the name of many towns abounding 
 with springs) and sa is an augmentative article, so 
 biorsa implies plenty of water. 
 
 The names of the Carthaginians, says Bochart, 
 had commonly some particular meaning, thus Anno 
 signified gracious, bountiful : the proper name 
 En no frequently occurs in the Irish history, but 
 Ana in Irish signifies plenty of riches, a cornu- 
 copia ; and adds, the same author, Dido means 
 amiable, well-beloved ; and Sojihonisba. one who 
 keeps her husband's secrets faithfully : in Irish 
 didil is excessive love ; dide gratitude, and dildo 
 most amiable, Sofonn-easba also signifies, mucli 
 addicted to vanity. 
 
 Adrian R eland, in his miscellanies, thinks the 
 Cabires may be derived from the Hebrew -on 
 chabar, chabiriw, to unite or conjoin, as much as 
 to say the united deities. Here again is a proof of 
 the affinity of the Irish language to the Hebrew, 
 for cab r aim is to conjoin or unite together, cabar 
 a junction. He insists that cabir. as well as the 
 root cabar, is always used to express the quantity 
 or multitude, and never to express the greatness or 
 grandeur ; he owns that in the Arabic it does 
 mean grand, great, but denies the word having 
 
THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 69 
 
 any such meaning in the Hebrew, and leaves it to 
 others whether it may not also be derived from the 
 Hebrew kebirim, buried, deceased, &c. 
 
 The Carthaginians had certain undistinguished 
 Deities called Cabiri, a kind of Penates or house- 
 hold Gods, who were supposed to preside over every 
 action of their lives, and whom they occasionally 
 invoked for their help. Cabair in Irish signifies 
 help, assistance, and cobra is a target or shield. 
 Yet Selden (k) seems to think Cabiin signified 
 Venus : " Saracenorum Cabar sive Cuba?' a Syria 
 seu Babylonia Venere alia non erat ; sed commune 
 iis, qui tarn vicini erant, numen. Cubar enim ipsa 
 Venus (quae et Luna Dea) esse censebatur." And 
 this is not his opinion only (/), " Ad Heraclii 
 Imperatoris tempora Saraceni idolis dediti sunt. 
 Luciferum adorabant et Venerem quam Cabar sua 
 nominant lingua. Cabar autem Magnam inter- 
 pretatur." Again — Catachesi Saracenorum. " Ana- 
 thematizo eos qui matutinum sidus Luciferum et 
 Venerem adorant, quam Arabum lingua Chabar, 
 quod Magnum significat, nominant. Sed vero (m) 
 minime di versa sentias Luciferum et Venerum 
 numina." But, says Bochart, these Gods were 
 called Dioscuire, high, mighty, puissant. JDiscir 
 is Irish for fierce, valiant, mighty ; but is not this 
 word more properly derived from di a God, as 
 having, curam the care ; diascuram, the God who 
 had the particular care of them, as the Penates 
 were supposed to have ? 
 
 Polybius (n) has transmitted to us a treaty of a 
 
 (*) Synt. 2. p. 21. 
 
 (I) Euthemius Zygabeenus in Panoplia. Catachesi Sara- 
 cenonum. 
 
 (m) Seld « Synt. 2. p. 21. {n) Lib. 7. p. 699. 
 
70 ON THE ANTIQUITY OF 
 
 peace concluded between Philip son of Demetrius 
 king of Macedon, and the Carthaginians, in which 
 their intimate persuasion that the Gods assisted and 
 presided over human affairs, and particularly over 
 solemn treaties mad,e in their name and presence, is 
 strongly displayed. " This treaty was concluded 
 in the presence of Jupiter, Juno, Apollo, &c. in 
 the presence of the Daemon of the Carthaginians ; 
 of Hercules, Iolaus," &c. &;c. — It is very remark- 
 able that this custom prevailed in Ireland after 
 Christianity, even down to queen Elizabeth's reign, 
 in all solemn contracts, bonds, deeds, &;c. I have 
 seen many sentences of the Brehon laws, and other 
 deeds and contracts, as late as the time here men- 
 tioned, all of which conclude thus, abJifiddhnaisi, 
 dia ah* this, 7 A. 7 JE>. &c. i. e. in the presence of, 
 God first, and of A. and of B. &c. 
 
 Marmol says, near the spot where Carthage once 
 stood, the Christians have erected a tower, on a 
 rock which the Africans call al menare ; which he 
 interprets le roque de Mastinace. Almionaire is in 
 Irish the shameless rock, and wonderfully agrees 
 with this author's explanation of the African 
 almenare. 
 
 Nullibi plures reperies Punica quam apud Plau- 
 tum in Paenulo ; 
 
 which lines, says Bochart, (o) are partly Punic and 
 partly Lybice, for they used both languages, as we 
 may learn from Virgil : 
 
 Quippe domum tenet ambiguam, Tyriasque 
 bilingues. 
 
 And from Silius : 
 
 Discintos inter Libycos, populosque bilingues. 
 
 (o) Phaleg. p 699. 
 
THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 71 
 
 And from Claudian : 
 
 Tollite Massylas fraudes, removete bilingues in- 
 sidias. 
 
 All which, with great deference to Bochart, does 
 in my opinion prove no more than that the Punic 
 language was a compound of the Lybian ; not that 
 the Carthaginians spoke sometimes a sentence in 
 one, and sometimes in another ; that would be a 
 most ridiculous supposition indeed : and I, believe 
 no instance can be given of people speaking such a 
 dialect. 
 
 The following Punic speech of Plautus will on 
 consideration be found to have as great or greater 
 affinity with the ancient Irish, or hearle Feni, i. e. 
 the Phoenician dialect, than with the Hebrew, and 
 as with as few alterations of the text as are to be 
 found in Bochart, Petit, Patreus, Pausanias, Vos- 
 sius, &c. 
 
 I have now before me several editions of Plautus; 
 each of them vary considerably in this speech. 
 
 The curious and learned reader who would con- 
 sult the various copies of Plautus, will find a cata- 
 logue of 143 commentators on this author, in the 
 edition published by Gronovius, at Leyden, in 
 1665. 
 
 The second edition, in 1482, is to be found in 
 the library of Trinity College, Dublin, from which 
 the Punic speech is transcribed, together with the 
 Latin translation. We have not sufficient authority, 
 from any of the editors, to say whether Plautus 
 used the Phoenician or the Roman characters in 
 this speech : We know it was written during the 
 second Punic war, and the Roman letter was used 
 in Carthage as early as the end of the first Punic 
 war. 
 
72 ON THE ANTIQUITY OF 
 
 From the following confession of Gronovius, we 
 may judge what interpolations and omissions have 
 been committed in this speech by ignorant tran- 
 scribers ; " Punica haec scripta erant sine punctis 
 vocalibis ; ut et Hebraea sive Phoenicia omnia ; 
 librarii vero vocales pro ingenii, et eruditionis suae 
 modulo substituerunt, falso saepius quam factum 
 vellem ;" but he does not say he had seen the 
 manuscript, nor does he tell us from what authority 
 he conjectures that this speech was written in 
 Phoenician characters. 
 
 In the French edition of Plautus by M. de 
 Limiers, he has added the following note to this 
 play. " Les dix lignes qu'il prononce (Hanno) en 
 langue Punique ou Phenicienne, n'aiant jamis ete 
 ecrites qu'en caracteres Latins, et par des gens qui 
 ne les entendoient pas, il auroit ete difficile d'en 
 penetrer le veritable Sens. 
 
 And although, says Dr. Brerewood (p), that 
 Punique speech in Plautus, which is the only con- 
 tinued speech in that language, that to my know- 
 ledge remaineth extant in any author, have no 
 such great convenience with the Hebrew tongue ; 
 yet I assure myself the faults and corruptions that 
 have crept into it by many transcriptions, to have 
 been the cause of so great difference, by reason 
 whereof, it is much changed from what it was at 
 first, when Plautus writ it, about 1800 years ago. 
 " Les Carthaginois, observes the learned M. 
 Huet, (q) auroient pu apprendre des Africains 
 Fusage de la rime.. Dans cesuers Puniques que 
 Plaute a inserez dans son Penule, Selden (r) a cru 
 
 (p) Enquiries touching the diversity of languages, p. 57. 
 
 {q) Huetiana> p. 189. 
 
 (r) Selden de Dis Syr. Prol. c. 2. 
 
THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 73 
 
 avoir trouve une rime entre le premier et le second 
 vers, sans avoir pousse plus loin sa recherche, sup- 
 posant le reste semblable. Mais ceux qui ont 
 anatomise ces vers plus curieusement, n'y ont rien 
 appercu de tel. 
 
 Had this speech been the only remains of the 
 Punic dialect, the author would not have attempted 
 this collation, persuaded from the above testimony, 
 that we have not in our possession the speech of 
 Hanno the Carthaginian, but of the various tran- 
 scribers of Plautus ; nay Plautus himself assures us, 
 he founded his comedy on a Greek tragedy of 
 Achilles Aristocles ; and it may be conjectured by 
 the dialogue in the next scene, between Milphio 
 and Agarastocles, that he (Plautus) did not under- 
 stand the Punic langurge, more than Milphio, 
 whom he has chosen as the interpreter. 
 
 The great affinity found in many words, nay 
 whole lines and sentences of this speech, between 
 the Punic and the Irish (bearla feni ) strengthened 
 and supported by the collation in the former pages, 
 urged the author to attempt an Irish transcript, 
 and from thence to make a free translation into the 
 English ; how far he has succeeded, must be left to 
 the impartial critic. 
 
 From Gronovius's Edition we give the Argu- 
 ment and the Dramatis Persons. 
 
 Quidam adoloscens Carthaginiensis furtim sur= 
 reptus, avehitur Calydonia in iEtoliam, et ibi 
 venditur seni civi. Hie adoptavit ilium, et 
 moriens reliquit haeredem. Amabat adoloscens 
 puellam popularem et cognatam : patrui enim 
 ea filia erat, quod ipse nesciebat, nam praedones 
 ruri deprehensas duas parvulas filias hujus, una 
 
74 ON THE ANTIQUITY OF 
 
 cum nutrice abductas lenoni Calydonio vendide- 
 rant in Anactorio, quod nomen loci, et oppidi 
 fuit in Acarnania. Cum nihil aequi adoloscens a 
 lenone de suis amoribus impetrare posset, usus 
 servi sui consilio, insidias fecit lenoni, ut ille furti 
 manifesti condemnaretur. Interea indicium fit, 
 puellas esse Carthaginienses ingenuas : et pater 
 illarum (Hanno) qui ubique gentium ipsas quae- 
 rebat, advenit, et eas agnoscit ; et majorem natu 
 nuptum dat fratris filio. 
 
 DRAMATIS PERSONS. 
 
 Agarastocles, Adoloscens Carthag, 
 
 Milphio, Servus. 
 
 Adelphasium, 1 
 
 > Meretrices. 
 Anterastilis, I 
 
 Lycus, Leno. 
 
 Anthemonides, Miles. 
 
 Hanno, Poenus. 
 
 Giddeneme nutrix, &c. &c. 
 
 ACTUS QUINTI SCENA PRIMA. 
 
 From the Edition of Mocenigus. 
 
 Tarvisii 1482 die 21 Junii Joanne Moeenigo 
 Principe jucundissimo et Duce Foelicissinio. 
 In the Library of Trinity College, Dublin. 
 T. T. 2. 4. 
 
 Nythalonim ualon uth si corathissima comsyth 
 Chim lach chunyth mumys tyal mycthibarii imischi . 
 
THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 75 
 
 Lipho canet hyth bynuthii ad sedin bynuthii. 
 Byrnarob syllo homalonim uby misyrthoho 
 Bythlym mothym noctothii uelechanti dasmachon 
 Yssidele brin thy f el yth chylys chon. them liphul 
 Uth. bynim ysdibur thynno cuth nu Agorastocles 
 Ythe maneth ihy chirsae lycoth sith naso 
 Bynni id chil luhili gubulin lasibit thym 
 Bodyalyt herayn nyn nuys lym monchot lusim 
 Exanolim uolanus succuratim mistim atticum esse 
 Concubitum a bello cutin beant lalacant chona 
 
 enus es 
 Huiec silic panesse athidmascon alem induberte 
 
 felono buthume. 
 Celtum comucro lueni, at enim auoso uber hent 
 
 hyach Aristoclem 
 Et te se aneche nasoctelia elicos alemus duberter 
 
 mi comps uespti 
 Aodeanec lictor bodes iussum limnimcolus. 
 
 From the same in Latin. 
 
 Deos deasque veneror, qui hanc urbem colunt ut 
 
 quod de mea re 
 Hue veneri te venerim. measque ut gnatas et mei 
 
 fratris filium 
 Reperirem. esiritis: id vostram fidem quse mihi 
 
 surreptae sunt. 
 Et fratris filium. qui mihi ante hac hospes anti- 
 
 madas fuit 
 Eum fecisse aiunt : sibi quod faciundum fuit ejus 
 
 filium 
 Hie praedicant esse Agorostoclem. Deum hospi- 
 
 talem ac tesseram 
 Mecum fero. in hisce habitare monstratust regi- 
 
 onibus. 
 Hos percontabor, qui hue egreduintur foras. 
 
n 
 
 6 OX THE ANTIQUITY OF 
 
 Bochart (s) thinks these lines of Plautus are 
 partly Punic and partly Libyan : the six last he 
 does not attempt to transcribe or translate, but 
 conjectures that they are a repetition of the ten 
 first, in the Lybian language ; the ten first he 
 says are Punic, and he thus transcribes them in 
 the Hebrew : 
 
 Na eth eljonim veeljonoth sechorath iismecun zoth 
 Chi malachai jitthemu : maslia middabarehen iski. 
 Lephurcanath eth beni eth jad udi ubenothui 
 Berua rob sellahem eljonim ubimesuratebem. 
 Beterem moth anoth othi helech Antidamarchon 
 Is sejada il; Beram tippel eth chele sechinatim 
 
 leophel 
 Eth ben amis dibbur tham nocot nave Agorastocies 
 Otheim anuthi hu chior seeli choc : zoth nose 
 Binni ed chi lo haelle gebulim laseboth tham 
 Bo di all thera inna ; Hinno, esal immancar lo 
 
 sem. 
 
 Which lines Bochart thus translates into Latin. 
 
 Rogo Deos et Deas qui hanc regionem tuentur 
 Ut consilia mea compleantur : Prosperum sit ex 
 
 ductu eorum negotium meum. 
 Ad liberationem filii mei manu praedonis, et filia- 
 
 rum mearum 
 Dii per spiritum multum qui estis in ipsis, et per 
 
 providentiam suam 
 Ante obitum diversari apud me solebat Antidamar- 
 
 chus. 
 Vir mihi familiaris ; sed is eorum coetibus junctus 
 
 est, quorum habitatio est in caligine. 
 
 (s) Phaieg. ch.2. 
 
THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 77 
 
 Filium ejus constans fama est ibi fixisse sedem 
 
 Agorastoclem (nomine) 
 Sigillum hospitii mei est tabula sculpta, cujus sculp- 
 
 tura est Deus meus : id fero. 
 Indicavit mihi testis eum habitare in his nnibus. 
 Venit aliquis per portam hanc ; Ecce eum ; rogabo 
 
 nunquid noverit nomen (Agorastoclis.) 
 
78 ON THE ANTIQUITY OF 
 
 We will now collate this speech with the Irish. 
 
 Plautus. 
 
 Nyth al o nim ua lonuth sicorathissi me com syth (t) 
 Chim lach chumyth mum ys tyal mycthi barii im schi. 
 
 Irish. 
 
 N'iaith all o nimh uath lonnaithe! socruidhse me com 
 
 sith. 
 Omnipotent much dreaded Deity of this country! as- 
 
 swage my troubled mind, 
 Chimi lach chuinigh ! muini is toil, miocht beiridh iar 
 
 mo scith 
 (thou) the support of feeble (u) captives ! being now ex- 
 hausted with fatigue, of thy free will guide me to my 
 children. 
 
 Plautus. 
 
 Lipho can ethyth by mithii ad sedan binuthii 
 Byr narob syllo homal o nim ! ubymis isyrthoho, 
 
 Irish. 
 
 Liomhtha can ati bi mitche adeadan beannaithe, 
 O let my prayers be perfectly acceptable in thy sight* 
 Bior nar ob siladh umhal; o nimh ! ibhim a frotha ! 
 An inexhaustible fountain to the humble; O Deity! let 
 me drink of its streams ! 
 
 (t) We have a remarkable Irish poem written in the 13th 
 century, beginning much in the same manner, 
 
 " Athair chaidh choimsidh neimhe" - 
 
 («) Captives ; his daughters, 
 
THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 79 
 
 Irish verbum verbo. 
 
 (n)) O all nimh (1) n'iaith, lonnaith, (2) uath ! socruidhse 
 
 me com sith 
 O mighty Deity of tlrs country, powerful, terrible ! 
 
 quiet me with rest. 
 Chuinigh lach (3) chimithe; is toil, rauini beiridh (4) 
 
 miocht, 
 A support of weak captives ; be thy will to instruct (me) 
 
 to obtain my children, 
 Iar mo scith(5) 
 After my fatigue. 
 
 (6) Can ati liomtha(7) mitche bi beannaithead eadan,(8) 
 Let it come to pass, that my earnest prayers be blessed 
 
 before thee, 
 Bior nar ob siladh umhal ; O Nimh! ibhim a frotha, 
 A fountain denied not to drop to the humble; O Deity 
 
 that I may drink of its streams. 
 
 (iv) See Lhwyd and O'Brien's Dictionaries for these words: 
 
 (1) iath, land, territory, as iath o neachach, a part of the 
 county of Waterford. 
 
 (2) uath, dread, terrible. Lh. O Br. 
 
 (3) time, cimidh, cimeadh, prisoners, cimim> to enslave, 
 O Br. 
 
 (4) iochd, children, miocht, my children. O Br. 
 
 (5) Marique terraque usque quaque quseritat. Plaut. 
 Proleg. lin. 105. 
 
 (6) con adi, let it so happen. Old Parchments. 
 
 (7) itche, a petition> request; liomtha, pronounced limpha, 
 O Br. 
 
 (8) ad* eadan, in thy face, eadan, the front of any thing. 
 
80 ON THE ANTIQUITY OF 
 
 Plautus. 
 
 Byth lym mo thym noctothii nel ech an ti daisc machon 
 Ys i de lebrim thyfe lyth chy lys chon tecnlyph ula 
 
 Irish. 
 
 Beith liom ! mo thime noctaithe, niel acb an ti daisic mac 
 
 coinne 
 Forsake me not! my earnest desire is now disclosed, 
 
 which is only that of recovering my daughters; 
 Is i de leabhraim tafach leith, chi lis con teampluibh 
 
 alia 
 This was my fervent prayer, lamenting their misfortunes 
 
 in thy sacred temples. 
 
THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 81 
 
 Irish verbum verbo. 
 
 Beith Horn ! mo (1) thime (2) noctaithe, niel ach an ti (3) 
 Be with me ! my fears being disclosed, I have no other 
 
 intention but 
 (4) daisic, macoinne. (5) 
 of recovering my daughters. 
 
 (6) tafach a (7) leith, is i de leabhraim, (8) chi lis (9) 
 this particular request, was what I made, bewailing their 
 
 misfortunes, 
 con (10) ulla teampluibh. 
 in (thy) sacred temples. 
 
 (1) tint, time, fear, dread. O Br. also pride, estimation. 
 
 (2) nocdaighe, & nocta naked, open, disclosed. O Br. 
 
 (3) ti design, intention. Lh. do rabhadar ar ti, they in- 
 tended. Nehem. iv. 7. noch do bhi ar ti lamh do chur, who 
 designed to lay hands. Est. vi. 2. 
 
 (4) aisioc, restitution : aisiocadh to restore. Lh. O Br. 
 
 (5) mac choinne daughters ; macoamh, a youth, a girl. O Br. 
 
 (6) tafac craving, also exhortation. Lh. O Br. 
 
 (7) a leith, distinct, particular, ibid. 
 
 (8) ci, to lament ; a mhacain na ci, lament not young men. 
 O Br. 
 
 (9) lis, evil, mischief. O Br. 
 
 (10) ulla, a place of devotion. O Br. 
 
 G 
 
|P ON THE ANTIQUITY OF 
 
 Plautus. 
 
 Uth bynim ys diburt hynn ocuthnu Agorastocles 
 Ythe man eth ihychirsae lycoth sith nasa. 
 
 Irish. 
 
 Uch bin nim i is de beart inn a ccomhnuithe Agorasto- 
 cles ! 
 
 O bounteous Deity ! it is reported here dwelleth Ago- 
 rastocles ! 
 
 Itche mana ith a chithirsi ; leicceath sith nosa! 
 
 Should my request appear just, here let my disquietudes 
 cease ! 
 
 Plautus. 
 
 Buini id chillu ili guby lim la si bithym 
 Bodyalyther aynnyn my sly monochetl us im. 
 
 Irish. 
 
 Buaine na iad cheile ile : gabh liom an la so bithim'l 
 Let them be no longer concealed ; O that I may this day 
 
 find my daughters! 
 Bo dileachtach nionath n'isle, mon cothoil us im 
 
 they will be fatherless, and preys to the worst of men, 
 
 unless it be thy pleasure I should find them. 
 
THE laiSH LANGUAGE. 83 
 
 Irish verbum verbo. 
 
 Uch bin nim ! is de beart inn, accomhnuithe Agorastocles 
 
 O sweet Deity! it is said in this place, dwells Agorasto- 
 cles 
 
 ( 1) mana itche a chithirsi (2) itb ; nosa (3) leicceath 
 sith. 
 
 if the cause of my request should seem to you to be j ust ; 
 now grant (me) peace. 
 
 na cheile iad (4)buaine (5) ile; gabh liom (6) bithm' an 
 
 la so ! 
 do not conceal them for ever; O that I may find my 
 
 daughters this da}' ! 
 dileachtach bo nionath n'isle; mona codthoil 
 
 being orphans, they will be the prey of the very dregs of 
 
 men; unless it be thy will 
 (7) us im 
 (to give) tydings about them. 
 
 To obviate the censure of the modern Irishman 
 we have quoted the authors where the obsolete 
 words in the foregoing speech of Hanno are to be 
 found. 
 
 (1) mana, a cause or occasion. O Br. 
 
 (2) idh or ith, good, just. O Br. 
 
 (3) leicceadh or leigeadh, to permit. O Br. 
 
 (4) buaine, perpetuity, continuance. O Br. 
 
 (5) ( ile, a diversity, a difference, partially. O Br. 
 
 (6) \ bithe, females, belonging to the female sex. O Br. 
 Hanno here prays they may not be partially concealed, i. e. 
 that he may discover his nephew, Agorastocles, as well 
 as bis daughters, and then breaks out with the following 
 ejaculation, respecting his daughters particularly. 
 
 (7) us, news, tydings. O Br. 
 
84 6n the antiquity of 
 
 Plautus. 
 
 £c anolim uo lanus succur ratim misti atticum esse 
 Con cubitu raabel lo cutin bean tla la cant chona enuses. 
 
 Irish. 
 
 Ece o riim uath lonnaithe ! socair-ratai mitche aiticimse 
 But mighty and terrible Deity, look down upon me! 
 
 fulfil the prayers I now offer unto thee, 
 Con cuibet meabail le cuta bean, tlait le caint con inisis, 
 without effeminate deceit or rage, but with the utmost 
 
 humility, 1 have represented my unfortunate 
 
 situation. 
 
 Plautus. 
 
 Huie csi lee pan esse, athi dm as con alem in dubartfelo 
 
 no buth ume 
 Celt um co mu cro lueni ! ateni mauo suber r benthyach 
 
 Agorastociem,, 
 
 Irish. 
 
 Huch ! caisi lecc pian esse athi dam, as con ailim irt 
 
 dubart felo 
 Ogh? the neglect of this petition will be death to me! 
 
 let no secret disappointment 
 no buth ume 
 befall me, 
 Celt iiaim c 5 a tnocro luani ! athini me an subha ar 
 
 beanuath Agorastocles. 
 Hide not from me the children of my loins ! and grant 
 
 me the pleasure of recovering Agorastocles. 
 
THE IRISH LANGUAGE 85 
 
 Irish verbum verbo. 
 
 all o nim lonnaithe, uath Ece! (I) ratai socair.mitcbe(2) 
 
 aiticimse. 
 O great Deity powerful, terrible, Behold (me)! prosper 
 
 with success my petition I ask. 
 (3) Con cuibet (4) meahail le cuta (5) bean; le tlait 
 
 c'aint inisis con (6) 
 Without deceitful fraud or effeminate rage ; witb hum» 
 
 ble speech I have told my meaning 
 
 Huch ! (7) leicc caisi as con ailim, pian esse (8) aith(9) 
 
 dhamhna bioth 
 Alas ! the neglect of the cause I have set before thee, 
 
 would be the pains of death to me, let me not 
 uaim an feile dobart (10) 
 meet any secret mischief. 
 Celt (11) c'a uaim (12) cro mo luani; aithin me an 
 
 subha (13) beanuath 
 Hide not from me the children of my loins ; and grant 
 
 me the pleasure of recovering 
 ar Agorastocles. (14) 
 Agorastocles. 
 
 (1 ) rathai, to make prosperous. Lh. O Br. socair, prosperity, 
 reflective. (2) aitichim, to pray or entreat, ibid. (3) con 
 pro gan, old MSS. (4) cuibket, fraud, cheat. (5) cutha, 
 rage, fury. (6) con, sense, meaning. O Br. (7) leicc, 
 neglect. O Br. (8) ess, death. Lh. O Br. (9) ailh, quick, 
 sudden. Lh. (10) dobart, mischief. O Br. (11) cro, 
 children. Dichu go lion cro. i. e. go lion clann. Lh. (12) cha 
 for ni, old MSS; frequently used by the old Irish at this day ; 
 as, cha deanan, I will not do it. (13) beanughadh, to recover. 
 do bhean se ar tiomlan, he recovered the whole. Lh. (14) His 
 nephew. 
 
S6 ON THE ANTIQUITY OF 
 
 Plautus. 
 
 Ex te se anechc na soctelia eli cos alem as dubert ar mi 
 
 comps, 
 Uesptis Aod eanec lie tor bo desiussum lim nim co lus. 
 
 Irish. 
 
 Ece te so a Neach na soicble uile cos ailim as dubairt ; 
 Bebold O Deity, tbese are the only joys I earnestly 
 
 pray for ; 
 ar me compais, 
 take compassion on me, 
 is bidis Aodh eineac lie Tor, ba desiughim le mo nimh 
 
 co lus. 
 and grateful fires on stone towers, will I ordain to blaze 
 
 to Heaven. 
 
THE IHISH LANGUAGE, 87 
 
 Irish verbum verbo. 
 
 Ece a (1) Neach ete so uile cos na soichle (Q) ailim as 
 
 (3) dubairt; 
 behold, O Deity, this is every consideration of joy, I 
 
 earnestly pray for ; 
 ar me (4) compais, 
 take pity on me, 
 is bidis (5) eineac (6) Aodh ar (7) he tor ba desiughim 
 
 co lus 
 and there shall be grateful fires on stone towers, which f 
 
 will prepare to burn 
 le mo nimh. 
 to my Deity. 
 
 (1) ,ach,'\, e. neamhach, a heavenly spirit. O Br. 
 
 (2) ailim, to pray or entreat. Lh. O Br. 
 
 (3) dubairt, an earnest prayer. O Br. 
 
 (4) chompais, compassion, pity. O Br. 
 
 (5) cincach, bountiful, liberal. O Br. 
 
 (6) Aodh, fire. Lh. O Br. 
 
 (7) lie, leicc s a stone ; liac, a great stone. O Br. 
 
88 OX THE ANTIQUITY* OF 
 
 ACTUS QUINTI SCENA SECUNDA. 
 
 Agorastocles. Milphio. Hanno. 
 
 Mi lp. A Dibo hosce, atque appellabo Punice; 
 
 -Tjl Si respondebunt, Punice pergam loqui : 
 Si non : turn ad horurn mores linguam vertero. 
 Quid ais tu? ecquid adbuc commerainisti Punice ? 
 
 Ag. Nihil adepol. nam qui scire potui, die mihi, 
 Qui illinc sexennis perierim Kartbagine? 
 
 Han* Pro Di immortales ! plurimi ad bunc modum 
 Periere pueri liberi Kartbagine. 
 
 Mil. Quid ais tu ? Ag. Quid visr Mil. Vin' ap- 
 pellem hunc Punice ? Ag. An scis ? Mil. Nulius me 
 est hodie Poenus Punior. 
 
 Ag. Adi atque appella, quid velit, quid venerit, 
 Qui sit quojatis, unde sit : ne parseris. 
 
 Mil. Avo ! quojatis estis? ayt quo ex oppido ? 
 
 Han. Hanno Muthumbaile bi Cbaedreanech. 
 
 Irish. 
 
 Hanno Mutbumbal bi Cbathar dreannad. 
 
 I am Hanno Muthumbal dwelling at Cartbage. 
 
 Chathar dreannad, signifies the good city; we have 
 
 already shewn from good authority, that it was also 
 
 called Cathar apadh. See the word Carthage. 
 Lambinus reads this passage thus ; Hanno Muthum 
 
 Bade beccha edre anech. 
 Reinesius has it thus ; Muthum tails ben chadre anech. 
 Which he translates, Deuin vel Dominum Averni, 
 
 Ditem, seu Piutonem : Mutk id est Pluto Phcenicibus, 
 
 seu domicilium mortis. 
 That mutk in the Punic and ratuth in the Irish, signifies 
 
 death, destruction, decay, &c. we have shewn in the 
 
 preceding collation of the Punica Maltese words with 
 
THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 89 
 
 the Irish; but that Muthumbal was Punice a proper 
 name, is evident from a Punic medal now in the choice 
 cabinet of the Earl of Charlemont, round the exergue 
 of which is the word MVTHVMBALLVS, and on 
 the reverse, the city of Carthage, with some Phoeni- 
 cian characters. — This is also a strong proof of the 
 early introduction of the Roman letters among the 
 Carthaginians, and a sufficient reason, in my opinion, 
 that no other characters have been found in use 
 amongst the ancient Irish than the old Roman or 
 Etruscan, except the contractions which are to be 
 found in the Chaldean, Coptic, &c. 
 
 Ag. Quid ait ? Mil. Hannonem sese ait Karthagine 
 Carthaginiensem Muthumballis filium. 
 
 Han. Avo. Mil. Salutat. Han. Donni. 
 Mil. Doni volt tibi dare hinc nescio quid, audin' 
 pollicerier ? 
 
 Avo ! donni ! 
 
 Alas ! most unfortunate that I am. 
 
 Abho, pronounced avo 9 and donaidhe, the compar. of 
 dona, unfortunate, are interjections common among 
 the Irish to this day. 
 
 Ag. Salutahunc rursus Punice verbis meis. 
 Mil. Avo donni! hie mihi tibi inquit verbis suis. 
 Han. Me bar bocca ! 
 
 Irish, 
 
 a ma babacht ! O my sweet youth, (meaning his 
 nephew.) 
 
 Mil. Istuc tibi sit potius quam mihi. Ag. Quid 
 ait? 
 Mil. Miseram esse prsedicat buccam sibi 
 
 Fortasse medicos nos esse arbitrarier. 
 Ag. Si ita est. Nega esse, nolo ego errare hospitem. 
 Mil. Audi tu rufen nuco istam. Ag. Sic volo, 
 Profecto verar cuncta huic expedirier. 
 Roga, nunquid opus sit ? Mil. Tu qui Zonam non babes 
 Quid in hanc venistis urbem, aut quid quaeritis I 
 
90 ON THE ANTIQUITY OF 
 
 Han. Muphursa! Ag. Quid ait? Han, Mi tide 
 chiannal 
 
 Irish. 
 
 Mo thuirse ! Mo buile chionna ! 
 
 O my grief ! My sorrow is of long standing. 
 
 Ag. Quid venit : 
 Mil. Nod audis? mures Africanos praedicat 
 
 In pompom ludis dare se veile aediiibus. 
 Ha.v. Laech la chananim liminichot, 
 
 Irish. 
 
 Luach le cheannaighim liom miocht. 
 
 At any price I would purchase my children, 
 Mil. Ligulas canalis ait se advexisse et nuces : 
 
 Nunc oral, operant ut des sibi, ut ea yeneant. 
 Ag, Mercator credo est. Han. Is am ar irinam. 
 
 Irish. 
 
 Is am ar uinneam ! 
 This is the time for resolution ! 
 Ag. Quid est r 
 Han. Palum erga dec t ha! 
 
 Irish. 
 
 Ba liom earga deacta. 
 
 I will submit to the dictates of Heaven. 
 
 Ag. Milphio, quid nunc ait. 
 Mil. Palas vendundas sibi ait et mergas datas, 
 
 Ut hortum fodiat, atque ut frumentum metat. 
 
 Admessim credo missus hie quidern tuam. 
 Ag. Quid istuc ad me r Mil. Certiorem te essevolui, 
 
 Ne quid clam furtive accepisse censeas. 
 Han. Ma phannium sucorahim. 
 
 Irish. 
 
 me fuinim ; socaraidhim ; 
 
 that I may here finish my fatigue ! and that I may now 
 be at rest ! 
 
 Mil. hem! caue sis feceris 
 Quod hie te orat. Ag. Quid ait? aut quid orat } 
 expedi. 
 
THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 91 
 
 Mil. Sub cratim uti jubeas sese supponi, atque eo 
 Lapides imponi multos, ut sese neces. 
 Had. Can eoel Balsameni or a san. 
 
 Irish. 
 
 Guna bil Bal-sarnen ar a son ! 
 O that the good Bal-samhan may favor them ! 
 Bal-samhan, i. e. Beal the Sun, as explained before at 
 the word Bal. 
 
 Ag. Quid ait? 
 Mil. Non Hercle nunc quidem quicquam scio. 
 Han. At ut scias nunc, de hinc latine jam loquar. 
 &c. &c. 
 
 In the THIRD scene of the FIFTH act of 
 Plautus, where the plot begins to open, are two 
 more lines of the Punic language, and bearing a 
 greater affinity with the old Irish than any of the 
 former. In this Scene the old Nurse recollects 
 Hanno. 
 
 GlDDENEME, MlLPHIO, HANNO, AoOEASTOCLES. 
 
 Gid. Quispultat? Mil. Qui te proximus est. Gid. 
 Quid vis I M i l. Eho, 
 Novistin' tu illunc tunkatum hominem, qui siet. 
 
 Gid. Nam quern ego aspicio? pro supreme Juppiter, 
 herus mens bic quidem est 
 Mearum alumnarum pater; Hanno Carthaginensis. 
 Mil Ecce autem mala, preestigiator hie quidem 
 Poenus probus est 
 Perduxit omnis ad suam sententiam. Gid. O mi here 
 
 salve Hanno, 
 Insperatussime mihi, tuisque filius, salve atque eo 
 Miran noli, neque me contemptarier. Cognoscin' Gid- 
 denemen 
 
92 ON THE ANTIQUITY OF 
 
 Ancillam tuam ? Poe. Novi, sed ubi sunt meae gnatae ? 
 id scire expeto. 
 Ago. Apud sedem Veneris. Poe. Quid ibi faciunt 
 
 die mihi ? 
 Ago. Aphrodisia (x) hodie Veneris est festus dies. 
 Oratum ierunt deam, ut 
 Sibi esset propitia. Gid. Pol satis scio impetrarunt, 
 
 quando hie, hie 
 Adest. Ago. Eo an hujus sunt illse filiae. Gid. Ita 
 
 ut prsedicas. 
 Tua pietas nobis plane auxilio fuit. Cum hue advenisti 
 
 hodie in ipso 
 Tempore. Narnque hodie earum mutarentur nomina. 
 Facerentque indignum genere qusestum corpore. 
 
 Poe. Handone silli hanun bene silli in mustine. 
 r)anbone yilli h<wum {y) bene, plli m (z) muftine 
 Whenever Venus proves kind, or grants a favour, she 
 grants it linked or chained with misfortunes. 
 Gid. Meipsi & en este dum & a lam na cestin um. 
 OQei^i i <xn eifti i<xm -j (a) -aUum n<x ceiftw <xw (b). 
 Hear me, and judge, and do not too hastily question me 
 (about this surprize). 
 
 (x) The Aphrodisia were celebrated in honour of Venus 
 at Cyprus and other places. Here they who would be in- 
 itiated, gave a piece of money to Venus, as to a prostitute, 
 and received presents from her. Abbe Banier. 
 
 (y) Bene, Celtic, from whence Venus. 
 
 (z) This is a compound -of muis and tine; muis a frowning, 
 contracted, menacing brow, tine a link of a chain. 
 
 (a) <xl<UiT) alam, out of hand, off-hand, indiscriminately. 
 
 (6) <xm no um .i. olc. 
 ceivtmim. to question, to doubt, to be afraid. 
 
THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 93 
 
 The following specimen of the Bearla Feni or 
 iPhoenician dialect of this country is extracted from 
 ancient law books now in the author's possession ; 
 the language will appear much more foreign to the 
 vulgar Irish of this day than the Punic speech of 
 Hanno. 
 
 Extract from the Sehanchas mor or the Great 
 Antiquity, being a code of laws composed by Sean 
 the son of Aigid in the time of Fergus Mac Leid 
 king of Ulster, 26 years before the birth of Christ. 
 
 " Tir do beir icoibchi mna nad bi maith naduid- 
 
 naidet a folta coire. 
 Tir do beir dar braigit fine aratreissu indatengaid 
 
 dec diathintud. Oldas intoentenga doascud. 
 
 Gach fuidir conatothcus techta. Niicca cinaid 
 a meic. Nachai nachaiarmui nach aindui nach a 
 comoccus fine. Nach acinaid fadeisin flathair id- 
 mbiatha ise iccass acinaid. Airnilais dire aseoit 
 achd colauin aithgena nama nigaib dire ameic nai 
 • riaea dibad naceraicc nacha mathair flaith aram- 
 biatha issi nodbeir, agus iccas achinaid agus folloing 
 acinta." 
 
 The following specimen is extracted from another 
 ancient manuscript on vellum in the author's pos- 
 session. This manuscript, as also that from whence 
 the foregoing is taken, bears the name of Edward 
 Lhwyd on several leaves, and from the following 
 passage given by that author at the end of his pre- 
 face to his Irish dictionary, it is evident these 
 manuscripts did once belong to the collection of 
 that great antiquary. 
 
 Mr. Lhwyd has done great injustice to the ori* 
 
94 ON THE ANTIQUITY OF 
 
 ginal, as he did not understand our (c) Cionn fa 
 eite or Cgv fa chasan, i. e. Boustropkedon of the 
 Irish ; and has consequently made a strange jumble 
 of unconnected words. 
 
 Mr. Lhwyd prefaces this passage in these words : 
 " Ar an adhbhair gur nach lanchloidhte an dhulth- 
 aobh sin, cuirim an so shios Siompladha eigein as 
 leabhruibh Ghaoidheilg ro aosda. Mas eidir leis aon 
 Leughthoir san Eirin no Halbuin a heidiimhin- 
 iughadh : ataim sar dhulchannach coimhfhreagradh 
 dfagail leis. Do thairng rne iad choimhcheart budh 
 feidir learn amach as sean mheamruinibh a INIbaile 
 ath cliath." i. e. " As the following pages are not 
 in print, I have here given an example of very 
 ancient Irish out of certain old books. If any 
 reader in Ireland or Scotland is able to explain it, 
 I earnestly request his correspondence. I drew 
 these examples as exact as I could from old parch- 
 ments in Dublin." 
 
 (c) Cionn fa eite (citire or eitrigh) signifies the head of a 
 ridge, and Cor fa citasan means the reaper's path ; they are 
 commonly denoted in ancient manuscripts by this mark ^5^ 
 or this j C, which imply, that a sentence finishes, and that 
 the reader is to go to the next line, from the end of which 
 he is to turn to the Cionn fa eite. Whether the ancient Irish 
 returned from right to left as the Phoenicians did, does not 
 appear from any manuscripts that have fallen in the author's 
 wav, or whether the Carthaginians did, has not occurred 
 to his reading. We know the Grecians practised the 
 Bousti-ophedon, which they learned from the Phoenicians. 
 Pausanias, lib. 5. 32U. mentions an inscription written in this 
 manner on a monument dedicated to Glympius by Cypselus ; 
 and Suidas remarks the laws of Solon were written in the 
 same manner on the Axones and Cyrbes. It is remarkable 
 that the interpretation of Bouslrophcdon, and of Cionn fa eite 
 is extremely similar, both meaning the ridges of a plowed 
 field, which are returned from right to left, and from left to 
 right. 
 
*THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 95 
 
 The Extract according to Lhwyd. 
 
 Page 250. Buidin inrighan. i. rabacca oc eist- 
 eachd fri sin atsesc don reilg aitt iriubhe iacob ag 
 ingri cserach conep — fris cotisadh dochasnumh 
 nabeanr an frisin inncail cinnus do de nuinnsi ol 
 iac6p isin so olsi. I. marbhtha le tuime ann olamiT 
 
 The extract from the Original. 
 -Q Csin, 7 ro eirigh rehnpi iar ndul do chach 
 
 Buid in righan. I. rebecca oc eisteachd fris in athaesc 
 don tseilcc, aitt iraibhe iacop ag inguiri caerach, 
 Qep-fris, cotisad do chosnumh na beanneachdan fris 
 sin mac aile. Cinnus do denuinn sin ol iacop ; ise so 
 ol si. I. marbhthar latsa meannan ol a mr, 7 fuinntir 
 lat 7 tabair do. Ocus do fuaid c°iceann meannain 
 fot laimh, ariT iesau, ar is finnfad c . lamha iesau. 
 Do gni iacop in nisin, 7 fulactaigh in meannain, 7 
 beirid lais inbrochan, 7 atnaigh dia atair. Ocus ajbt 
 ris ; caith inseire ol ui. A mic ol isac, is mcc do 
 rochdais on tseilcc indiu seach ga la riamh, mas for 
 fir atai. In ceud tseilcc for andeachus is fuirre fuaras 
 adbair sere 7 b°chain deitsiu ; ise sin dom fuc co 
 moch. Na hapuir breg ol se, oir is tusa iacop 7 £t& 
 
 tu iesau. Is deailK" earn n c aiberainn gai ata~ ol se. 
 
 Sin uait do laimh ol isac, co feasam inn tu iesau. 
 
 Sinis uadh a laimh do, 7 c°icinn mininn impi. 
 
 Geibidh isac in laimh. Is fota atai oc imrisin friom 
 
 ar iacob, ar is me iasau. Atnaigh isaac oc lamuch — 
 
 na laimhe 7 ad f. Is i laimh iesau ol isaac, 7 is e 
 
 guth iacob. &c. &c. 
 
 The two first lines of which must be read thus. 
 Buid in righan. i. rebecca oc eisteachd fris in 
 athaesc sin, 7 ro eirigh reimpi iar ndul chach don 
 tseilcc, aitt iraibhe iacop, &c. &c. 
 
96 ON THE ANTIQUITY OF 
 
 The Translation, (d) 
 
 The Queen, viz. Rebecca, hearing this discourse, 
 after the people were gone to hunt, she straightway 
 arose and went to Jacob where he was tending his 
 sheep. She told him he should receive the blessing 
 instead of the other son. How shall I do that, quoth 
 Jacob ; do this, says she ; viz. kill a kid, and dress 
 it and give it to him, and I will sow the skin of the 
 kid upon thy hands to resemble Esau, for the hands 
 of Esau are hairy. Jacob did so, and dressed the 
 kid and brought with him the pottage and presented 
 it to his father ; and he said to him, eat this mess. 
 O son, says Isaac, you are returned this day from 
 hunting earlier than any former day, if you tell the 
 truth. At the first-hunt I quickly found wherewith 
 to make you a mess of pottage, and that is the 
 reason, says Jacob, I returned so soon. Tell not a 
 lie, says he, for thou art Jacob, and thou art not 
 Esau. Truly, replied he, I would not tell a lie 
 before thee. Stretch forth thy hands, says Isaac, 
 that I may know thou art Esau. He stretched 
 forth his hands to him with the skin of the kid 
 about them ; Isaac took the hand. Thou art long 
 
 (d) Doctor O Brien has quoted this valuable manuscript 
 frequently in his Irish dictionary as a standard of the Bearla 
 feni or Phoenician dialect of the ancient Irish ; see the words 
 fualachtadh, seire , &c. in his dictionary. 
 
 O Brien calls this the speckled book, or leabhar breac of 
 Mac Eogan, properly Mac Aodhagan. Keating and Bishop 
 Nicolson mention leabhar frreac of Mac Eoghan as a valuable 
 chronicle of the Irish history, and this manuscript before us 
 contains only the lives of the patriarchs and Moses, so that 
 probably there are two manuscripts of the same author under 
 the same name : this is supposed to be a copy of the Old 
 Testament brought to Ireland either by St. Kieran, St. Aillu, 
 St. Declan or St. Ibar, the precursors of St. Patrick. 
 
\ 
 
 THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 97 
 
 suspicious of me, says Jacob ; I am Esau. Isaac 
 feeling the hand said, this is the hand of Esau, and 
 it is the voice of Jacob, &c. &c. Vide Genesis, 
 chap. 27. t, 
 
 Mr. Lhwyd has extracted the following passage 
 from the same book, and with greater mistakes 
 than in the former. 
 
 Do rias umro iacop iarsin go atair, feisinrotid 
 dha imdha exam a doiasau. 1. diabrathriarbh 7 an 
 bisidh ficairdine bhunuidh 7 a mbrathairsi iarsin 
 ite ann so na hasgadha. 1. 200 caerach 7 200 gabhar 
 7 xxx camhal 7 xl bo. 20. reiti, 20 tarbh ocech ut 
 dx. Da. c. coera xx boc da. c. ngabur tre ginn 
 ngort ix reithi rad cenlochd xl bo reithi bale. Fiche 
 tarbh nach taraill tonn 7 xxx ngall xx , aisan 
 aluinnoll ocus xx oiceach anu. hillogh shidha iasau 
 sut. o iacop cembrigh a brecc. febh adcuadus duibhi 
 ar fir ise sin allin na. c. da. c. coerrc. &c. 
 
 Here follows the Extract taken exactly from the 
 
 Original. 
 
 -^Cluic asga 
 
 Do rias umro iacop iarsin go atair feisin ro tid- 
 dha imdha exama doiasau. 1, dia brath ar b7' doib 
 
 isidh 7 i 
 caird ne bhunuidh 7 ambrathairsi iarsin. Ite ann so 
 na hasgadha. 1. 200. caer e 7 200 gab" 7. xxx 
 
 camaill 7 xl. bo. 
 20 reithi. xx tarbh ocech, ut d£ 
 
 Da. c. caera. xx. boc, 
 
 da. c. ngabhur tre gnim ngart, 
 
 xx reithi rad cenlochd s 
 
 H 
 
98 ON THE ANTIQUITY 01* 
 
 xl b6 reithi bale. 
 Fiche tarbh taraill tonn, 
 7 xxx camhall ngall, {e) 
 xx assan aliunn oil, 
 ocus xx oiceach ann. 
 Hillogh shidha lasau sut 
 o iacop cen brigha brecc. 
 febh ad cuadhas daibh iar fir 
 i$ e sin allin na. c. 
 
 Da. c. cetera. &c. 
 
 Mr. Lhwyd having confounded the verse with 
 the prose, and having neglected the Cionn fa eite, 
 has rendered this passage entirely obscure : The 
 last line, Da. c. caera, is a repetition of the first 
 line of the verse ; this method was observed by all 
 the ancient poets of Ireland to shew the copy was 
 complete. 
 
 The Translation. 
 
 Therefore after Jacob had been with his father, 
 he presented divers gifts to Esau his brother, as the 
 pledge of his brotherly peace and friendship thence- 
 forward : These are the gifts ; viz. 200 ewes, and 
 200 she-goats, and 30 camels, and 40 cows ; 20 
 rams, 20 young bulls, as the poet has said. 
 
 Two hundred ewes, xx he-goats 
 
 Two hundred she-goats, he generously bestow'd. 
 
 xx rams without fault he gave, 
 
 XL kine, which proudly herd together. 
 
 (e) Gall. lac. Latine, milk; old glossary in my possession. 
 Gall is also translated milk in M'Naghton's dictionary in the 
 college-library. 
 
THE IHISH LANGUAGE. 99 
 
 Twenty bulls with massy hides, 
 And xxx camels giving milk, 
 xx very fair she-asses, 
 And xx colts along with them. 
 
 These were the peace-offerings to Esau, 
 
 From Jacob most sincerely given ; 
 
 For having wandered from the truth. 
 
 These are the numbers of the hundreds (given).(/) 
 
 By the Arabian numerals used in the manuscript, 
 we may nearly ascertain the time it was written : 
 the figures are not Arabic, nor so old as those 
 given us by Jo. de sacro Bosco, nor are they the 
 ancient Saxon, but they are all our modern figures 
 improved from the Arabian. Dr. Wallis is of 
 opinion, contrary to J. Gerard Vossius and father 
 Mabillon, that the use of figures in these European 
 parts, was as old at least as the time of Hermannus 
 Contractus, who lived about the year of our Lord 
 1050 ; and he vouches an old mantle-tree at 
 Helmdon in Northamptonshire with this date, 
 A°. D°. M°. 133. that is, 1133. 
 
 Mr. Luffkin afterwards produced an inscription 
 from Colchester of the date of 1090. 
 
 Dr. Harris, in his history of Kent, gives the date 
 on a window at Preston thus, IIo2, and observes 
 that the figures used at present were first generally 
 made use of about 1120. 
 
 The poem quoted by our author is of much 
 greater antiquity ; the Roman numerals only being 
 usecL 
 
 It is not probable that the Irish received the use 
 of figures directly from the Spaniards ; as all inter- 
 
 0) Vide Genes, xxxii. 13. 
 
100 ON THE ANTIQUITY OF 
 
 course with that nation was stopped, long before 
 figures were improved by them into their present 
 form. Professor Wallis thinks they came first from 
 the Persians or Indians to the Arabians, and from 
 them to the Moors, and so to the Spaniards. This 
 was the opinion of John Gerard Vossius, John 
 Greaves, Bishop Beveridge, and many others. 
 
 Jeoff Keating mentions an ancient chronicle of 
 Irish affairs written by Mac Aodhagain, entitled 
 the Leabhar ISreac, which he says was then 300 
 years old ; Keating finished his history in 1625 ; 
 we may therefore conclude this MS. to be part of 
 the same Leabhar JBreac or speckled book of Mac 
 Eogain, who died in the year 1325. 
 
 It cannot properly be called a ve? r y ancient MS. 
 as Mr. Lhwyd terms it in the short preface to his 
 quotations ; but it is a strong proof that the Irish 
 language of this day is totally different in sense and 
 orthography, to that dialect spoken 400 years ago. 
 The abuses which have been admitted into this 
 language by the liberties taken by the modern 
 poets, shall be the subject of another work. 
 
 We have already taken notice, that on com- 
 paring the Bascongada or Biscayan language with 
 the Irish, there does not appear the least affinity. 
 The author of this essay has carefully perused the 
 Biscayan grammar written by Larramendi, and 
 could not perceive the least affinity between that 
 language and the Irish, even in those parts of 
 speech, which generally bear some affinity be- 
 tween two dialects formed on the same radical 
 language. 
 
 Mr. Baretti, in the fourth volume of his journey 
 from London to Genoa, has taken upon him to say 
 the same, and has given the Pater Foster in the 
 Biscayan and in Irish ; the former varies so much 
 
THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 101 
 
 from that given by (g) Wilkins, (h) Megiserius, 
 (i) Reuterus, and the (k) anonymous publisher of 
 the Lord's Prayer in one hundred languages ; and 
 the Irish given by Mr. Baretti is so mutilated, that 
 the author of these sheets could not pass it by 
 unnoticed. The reader is here presented with 
 Mr. Baretti's Biscayan and Irish in one column, 
 and in the opposite with the Biscayan from the 
 above named authors, to which is added the 
 proper Irish. 
 
 Earetti. Wilkins. Megiserius. Renter. 
 
 Pater Noster qui es in coelis sanctiftcetur nomen 
 
 tuum. 
 
 1 1 
 
 Biscayan. Biscayan. 
 
 Gure Aita ceruetant za- Gure Aita cerue tan aice- 
 rena erabil bedi sainduqui na sanctifica bedi hire 
 zure icena. icena. 
 
 Irish. Proper Irish. 
 
 Ar Nahir ata ere neave ArnAthairataarneamh, 
 guh neavfiar thanem. naomthar hainm. 
 
 g) Wilkins in Op. Anglico. de lingua Phil. p. 435. 
 (6) H. Megiserius in Spec. 50 lingu. 
 (i) J. Reuterus Livon. in Forat. Dom. 40 lingu. 
 (k) Oratio Domin. London 1700. 
 
102 ON THE ANTIQUITY OF 
 
 Baretti. Wilkins. Megiser. Reuter. 
 
 2 
 
 Advenit regnum tuum. 
 
 2 2 
 
 Biscay an. Biscay an. 
 
 Ethor bedi zure erresu- Ethoz bedi hire rechuma. 
 ma. 
 
 Irish. Proper Irish. 
 
 Gudhaga de riaught. Tigeadh do rioghach. 
 
 3 
 Fiat voluntas tua sicnt in ccelo et in terra. 
 
 3 3 
 
 Biscay an. Biscay an. 
 
 Eguin bedi zure boron- Eguin bedi hire vozon- 
 datea ceruam bezala lur- datea cervan be cala lur- 
 ream ere. rean ere. 
 
 Irish. Proper Irish. 
 
 Gu nahium de heil ar Deuntar do thoil ar an 
 dallugh marr thainter ere ttalamh mar do nithear 
 neave. ar neamh. 
 
 4 
 Partem nostrum quotidianum, da nobis hodie. 
 
 4 4 
 
 Biscay an. Biscay an. 
 
 I guzu egon gure egu- Gure eguneco oguia igue 
 neco og uia. egun. 
 
 Irish. Proper Irish. 
 
 Thourdune nughe ar Ar naran leathamhail 
 naran leahule. tabhair dhuinn a niu. 
 
THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 103 
 
 Baretti. Wilkins. Megiser. Reuter. 
 
 5 
 
 Et dimitte nobis debita nostra, 
 
 5 5 
 
 Biscayan. Biscayan. 
 
 Eta barkhua detzagutzu Eta quitta jetrague gure 
 gure corrac. cozrac. 
 
 Irish. Proper Irish. 
 
 Moughune are veigha. Agus maith dhuinn ar 
 
 bhfiacha. 
 
 6 
 
 Sicut et nos dimittimas debitoribus nostris. 
 
 6 6 
 
 Biscayan. Biscayan. 
 
 Guc gure gana zordun Nola gucre gure coz- 
 direnei barkhateem de- duney quittatzen baitra 
 ruztegun bezala. vegu. 
 
 Irish. Proper Irish. 
 
 Marvoughimon yare Mar mhaithmidne dar 
 vieghuna fane. bhfeitheamhnuibh fein. 
 
 7 
 Et ne nos inducas in tentationem. 
 
 7 7 
 Biscayan. Biscayan. 
 
 Eta ezgaitzatzula utz Eta quitta zalasar eraci- 
 tentamendutan crorcera. tent a tentatione tan. 
 
 Irish. Proper Irish. 
 
 Na leaghshine a caghue. Agus na leig sinn a 
 
 ccathughadh. 
 
104 ON THE ANTIQUITY, &C. 
 
 Baretti. Wilkins. Megiser. Reuter. 
 
 8 
 
 Sed libera nos a malo. Amen. 
 
 8 8 
 
 Biscay an. Biscay an. 
 
 Aitcitic beguiragaitzatzu Baima delibza gaitzac 
 gaicetic. Halabiz. gaich totic. 
 
 Irish. Proper Irish. 
 
 Agh cere shen onulukt. Achd saor inn o olc. 
 baighmarson(£)ahearna, biodh mar sin: id est. 
 Amen. Amen. 
 
 (I) a hearna if used, should be written, a thigheania, id 
 est, O Lord. 
 
REMARKS 
 
 ON 
 
 THE ESSAY ON THE ANTIQUITY 
 
 OF 
 
 ®f)t Srtef) ^Language, 
 
 ADDRESSED TO 
 
 THE PRINTER OF THE LONDON CHRONICLE, 
 IN THE YEAR 1772. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 In the present Century some useful researches 
 have been made into European antiquities, and 
 the subject having fallen under the direction of a 
 higher principle than bare curiosity, much may be 
 expected from future investigations. Relatively 
 to our own northern nations, the ends proposed, 
 and the means pursued, are now admirably suited 
 to each other : to learn, as much as can be known 
 of their ancient history, it has been judiciously con- 
 certed to reject in the lump, every modern hypo- 
 thesis, generally containing fewer deformities, but 
 certainly fewer truths than the ancient documents 
 they are brought to demolish. It was deemed 
 proper also, to try the swollen panegyrics of ancient 
 
106 REMARKS. 
 
 bards, and the several invectives of ancient stran- 
 gers, by the degrees of probability on one side, 
 and the means of information on the other ; to 
 weigh at the same time the credibility of the facts 
 in which both agree, and investigate the reason 
 why old writers, who could not act in concert, 
 happened to agree so well. It was further found 
 expedient to try the pretensions of domestic histo- 
 rians, by getting acquainted with the languages, 
 in which they conveyed their informations ; a 
 drudgery not to be borne, were it not rewarded 
 by real knowledge ; by infallible signatures of the 
 defects, and grammatical incongruities, which 
 point out at once an unlettered and barbarous 
 nation, or those elegancies of expression and com- 
 modious texture of words which declare a civilized 
 one. On these principles, associations for the study 
 of our northern antiquities have been established in 
 several European kingdoms, and within the present 
 year the spirit has happily migrated into Ireland. 
 The Dublin Society, (now so celebrated in Europe) 
 have appointed a select committee of their own body 
 to inspect into the ancient state of literature and 
 arts in Ireland, and Mr. Vallancey, one of the 
 learned members of that committee, has already 
 given the public a specimen of his abilities, in an 
 Essay on the Irish Language ; it is a new and 
 great accession to European literature, and with- 
 out any doubt the forerunner of a greater. To 
 trace languages to their fountain heads ; to point 
 out the streams they have mingled with in their 
 descent to our own times, and mark the changes 
 they underwent, in their several stages of improve- 
 ment and corruption is an arduous tak most 
 certainly. Few nations can afford sufficient mate- 
 rials for such an investigation ; few writers have 
 
REMARKS. 107 
 
 skill enough to accommodate such materials to the 
 purposes of useful information. The learned pains 
 of most philologers served only to cover their igno- 
 rance of particulars which alone should ensure 
 success to their inquiries. They have surfeited the 
 world with etymologies unsupported by probability, 
 with grammatical conceits unattended with rational 
 analogy, and with hypothesis contradicted by anci- 
 ent records, and inadmissible had no such records 
 existed. From the learned Goropius Becanus 
 down to the ingenious translator of Ossian they 
 have done nothing else. The display of their 
 erudition, however, could not impose long, but it 
 has created a disgust, which nothing, but the 
 taking up this subject on the principles laid down 
 by the learned Lhwyd and recommended by the 
 great Leibnitz, could remove. On such principles, 
 now adopted by Mr. Vallancey, languages may be 
 traced to their true sources ; much light may be 
 thrown on the antiquities of nations ; and, a rule 
 being found through this medium, for separating 
 the true from the false in old traditions, the sum of 
 our inquiries must centre in knowledge. The era 
 of the cultivation of letters may be ascertained with 
 some truth, among any people who have preten- 
 sions to an early civilization; or at least such a 
 state of it, as may entitle their early history to any 
 degree of attention. 
 
 Fortunately, no countries in Europe can furnish 
 better materials for the knowledge attainable from 
 ancient languages, than our own isles of Britain 
 and Ireland. Allowing for the alterations una- 
 voidably made by time, the Celtic, as ancient a 
 language as any in the world, is to this day ver- 
 nacular in Wales. To that language the Greeks 
 have been indebted for a great number of signifi- 
 
108 REMARKS. 
 
 cant terms, with which they have enriched their 
 own ; and the Romans have adopted a still greater 
 number. The -introduction of it into Britain pre- 
 cedes all memory of things in Europe by letters ; 
 and it forms, so to speak, a most authentic inscrip- 
 tion of itself, so legible to all nations, as to inform 
 us with precision, that a people exist still in a 
 corner of Europe, who have survived all revo- 
 lutions, and have hitherto baffled every effort for 
 subduing them to a dereliction of their own lan- 
 guage. 
 
 Ireland planted originally by British colonies did 
 not escape like the parent nation. The Gomeraeg, 
 or primeval Celtic, was, no doubt, the current 
 language in both isles for many ages ; but in pro- 
 cess of time, a new mixed language (wherein 
 indeed the Celtic terms bore the greater part) 
 prevailed over the old. A colony from the con- 
 tinent, partly Celts, partly Phoenicians, invaded 
 and subdued Ireland, long known before to the 
 latter people, the first and best navigators in the 
 world. The most ancient Irish Fileas have re- 
 corded this revolution ; their successors, from a 
 vanity common to all nations, have antedated it ; 
 but the tradition itself has been invariably preserved 
 through all ages; and we shall see how Mr. 
 Vallancey in a few pages has furnished us with an 
 irrefragable proof of its authenticity. 
 
 By collating the language in the old books of 
 Ireland, with the Gomeraeg now spoken in Wales, 
 that learned gentleman found a thorough identity 
 of signification in a great number of words, but 
 no analogy of syntax in the texture of those 
 tongues. From this difference of construction, as 
 well as the use of numberless words in Irish, not to 
 be found in Welch books or glossaries; he dis.- 
 
REMARKS. 109 
 
 covered that he must seek further for the original 
 of the former language. His knowledge of the 
 oriental tongues opened a sure path for him. On 
 collating; the Irish with the remains of the ancient 
 Punic now spoke in the island of Malta, and the 
 specimen of the same language preserved in the 
 Pcenulus of Plautus, he found so perfect an identity 
 in the signification of many words, and such an 
 affinity of construction in the phraseology (so far as 
 it could be picked from the corrupt copies of the 
 Punic in Plautus) as shews to a demonstration, 
 that the colony who imported this mixed language 
 into Ireland, had early intercourses with the Phoe- 
 nicians. 
 
 Here, as in other instances, the ancient Irish 
 traditions reflect back on Mr. Vallancev's discoverv 
 the illustration they receive from it. They term 
 the Irish a JBerla Teihidhe, i. e. a mixed language, 
 and they denominate one of its dialects, a Berla 
 Fene, or the Phoenian dialect ; they inform us also 
 that the ancestors of the Irish nation (when on 
 the Continent) learned the use of letters from a 
 celebrated Phenius, from whom they took the 
 patronimic appellation of Pheni or Phenicians. 
 These traditions inform us further, that those con- 
 tinental ancestors sojourned for several generations 
 in Getluige (the Getulia of the Romans), and in 
 this account, stripped of its poetical garb, we find 
 the original of the name of Gaeclhil, which with 
 that of Pheni the Irish retained through all ages. 
 They tell us moreover, that the Gaedils migrated 
 from Getluige into Spain ; and thence, after a con- 
 siderable time, into Ireland. 
 
 Let these reports be paralleled with foreign 
 traditions universally credited. The latter inform 
 us that the Phenicians were the first instructors 
 
110 REMARKS. 
 
 of the Europeans in navigation and letters ; that 
 one of their colonies planted in Carthage, arose to 
 a mighty republic, conquered several maritime 
 provinces in Lybia and Spain, and, according to 
 the policy of the early ages, transplanted con- 
 quered tribes from one country to another. These 
 truths confirm in a great degree, the certainty of 
 the Irish traditions relatively to those migrations 
 from Lybia to Spain. They account for the in- 
 troduction of letters by a great Phenius, as the 
 Greeks account for their receiving in like manner 
 the use of letters, from the brother of another great 
 Phenix or Phenician, whom they call Cadmus. 
 We find in this parallel of ancient reports, how 
 these Getuli, or Lybian subjects of Carthage, mixed 
 with Celtiberians or (a) Scytho-Celts in Spain ; how 
 the two people incorporated into one ; how, under 
 Punic masters, a mixed language was formed of 
 the Celtic and Punic ; and lastly how in some con- 
 vulsion of the Carthaginian government (at the 
 time probably when the Chaldeans over-ran Spain, 
 according to Josephus and other ancients 590 
 years before our Saviour) a maritime people of 
 Spain fled for shelter into Ireland, rather than 
 submit to servitude from new masters. 
 
 (a) I say Scytho-Celts ; as the Scythians, a roving people 
 in all ages, have mixed with the northern Celts of Spain. 
 Silius Italicus, a Spaniard by birth, confesses the fact, and 
 the mixture of Celts and Scythians in several other coim- 
 tries, was the more common, from the little difference in 
 their languages, till they have split into various and dis- 
 cordant dialects in latter ages. I mention this only to intro- 
 duce the tradition of the Irish, wherein they pretend a 
 descent from a famous Eber-Scot ; that is, from an Iberian 
 Scythian. It accounts for the name of Scots ; as the Lybian 
 names of Gaedhal and Phenius account for the appellations, 
 Gaedhils and Pheni. 
 
REMARKS. Ill 
 
 Much darkness, no doubt, spreads itself over 
 the earlier periods of Lybian and Spanish affairs ; 
 we do not pretend to dispel the clouds which rest 
 upon them ; it is enough if in confronting a few 
 foreign with a few domestic traditions, we can 
 catch at some truths, and those we have mentioned 
 are important. Through Mr. Vallancey's learned 
 researches, we discover why a dialect of the Irish 
 language is to this day called JBerla Fene or the 
 Phenician ; and in our ancient traditions we have 
 also a reason why the vulgar dialect is called 
 Gctedhlic, instead of deriving it from a single 
 Gaedal whom fable has made the grandson of 
 Phenius : We discover also, the reason why the 
 harshness of the Celtic, so grating to the ears of 
 the old Romans, has been laid aside for an harmo- 
 nious oriental cadence ; and in fine, why the con- 
 sonantal roots of most Celtic words have (for the 
 sake of etymology) been preserved in writing, but 
 suppressed in the pronunciation. 
 
 At what time soever a colony of lettered strangers 
 migrated from a Punic province into Ireland, we 
 are not at liberty to pronounce gratuitously that 
 they immediately degenerated into savages. The 
 description of some old Greek and Latin writers 
 are of no great weight in this case. They received 
 their intelligence from mariners, who had but just 
 fidelity enough to aver that the climate of Ireland 
 was of all others the most horrid ; and philosophy 
 enough to report, that the natives knew no distinc- 
 tion of right and wrong. Such accounts equally 
 true, may well go together, and dignify the pages 
 of some modern declaimers. 
 
 That barbarism, however, prevailed in Ireland 
 in some periods cannot be denied ; their tumul- 
 tuary government infers it, though it never pre- 
 
112 REMARKS. 
 
 vailed in kind or degree, equal to what might 
 be naturally expected. Customs controlled their 
 barbarism, particularly the admirable establish- 
 ment of the order of Fileas, that is, of colleges 
 of philosophers, who devoted themselves to abstract 
 studies, who likewise had a right to vote in their 
 national assemblies, and whose districts in the heat 
 of the most cruel domestic conflicts were left un- 
 touched, as so many sacred places of refuge, for 
 the cultivation of human knowledge. It was the 
 custom of all ages and times, while the shadow of 
 monarchy remained in the kingdom. Their lan- 
 guage likewise is a living proof of the influence 
 and industry of the Fileas, as it includes the 
 elegance, the copiousness, the variations, and con- 
 versions which none but a thinking and free people 
 can use, and which barbarians can never attain 
 to ; as it contains also the signs of those mixed 
 modes and technical terms of art, which no en- 
 lightened people can want. It is easy to account 
 for the preservation of a language under such regu- 
 lations as I have here slightly mentioned. Through 
 the want of such regulations, letters have been 
 despised in the Gaul now called France, though not 
 absolutely in the ancient Gaul, which extended 
 from the Elbe to the pillars of Hercules ; the like 
 contempt of letters is remarkable of the Thracians 
 in the very confines of Greece ; and even among 
 Christian nations we find, from the fifth to the 
 thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, such a slight put 
 upon letters in most European countries, that even 
 the prime nobility knew not how to write or read. 
 That Ireland fared better is certain. Its Celto- 
 Punic could not be preserved without the use of 
 letters ; however it might be somewhat altered in 
 the course of ages, it could not certainly be 
 
REMARKS. US 
 
 adulterated in an island seldom disturbed by 
 foreign invasions till the ninth century. 
 
 This language included two principal dialects, 
 the Gnath Bherla and the Berla Fene, i. e. the 
 Common and the Phenian ; the latter like the 
 Mandarin language of the Chinese, was known 
 only to the learned : the science of jurisprudence 
 was committed to this dialect peculiarly, under 
 the patronage of Concovar Mac Nesse king of 
 Ulster, who reformed the order of the Fileas, and 
 flourished in the first century. This jurisprudence 
 under the title of Br eatha Nimhe or Judgments of 
 Heaven, was cultivated with remarkable industry 
 under Cormac O Quin king of Ireland in the third 
 century, and it continued to be extended and com- 
 mented upon under his successors, till the end of 
 the ninth century ; many of those tracts, and some 
 of them of the earliest date, are still extant in our 
 English and Irish libraries ; nor was the knowledge 
 of the Phenian dialect neglected in Ireland, till the 
 reign of Charles II. ; the last school for the study of 
 it was kept in the county of Tipperary, under the 
 professorship of Boethius Mac Egan in the reign of 
 Charles I. and it was in that seminary that the cele- 
 brated Duald Mac Firbis got his knowledge of it, 
 and closed the line of Phenian Learning. Among 
 several old tracts of Phenian jurisprudence, there 
 are some transcripts of it in Mac Firbis's own hand 
 writing ; and I am well informed that they have 
 lately been put into the hands of Mr. Vallancey, 
 by Sir John Seabright, Bart, and that he is now 
 engaged in- collecting and translating the small 
 fragments of these laws left in this country; a work 
 which cannot fail of being as acceptable to the 
 public as was the publication of the Welch laws of 
 Howel Dha. Pity it is indeed, if not a reproach 
 
114 REMARKS. 
 
 to the kingdom, that so valuable a part of ancient 
 learning should survive the domestic confusions of 
 many centuries, and be lost in our own peaceable 
 times ! The recovery of it is certainly one of the 
 great desiderata of the present age. 
 
 Why the earliest historical accounts of the Irish 
 have been long despised by the learned, was partly 
 owing to a natural notion, that so very remote a 
 people could fare no better in the cultivation of 
 literature than the other northern nations. 
 
 It was only on the publication of Sir Isaac 
 Newton's Chronology, that a trial was made 
 whether their traditions, stripped of the poetical 
 and marvellous, could bear the new light which 
 that great man has poured on European antiquities. 
 The trial succeeded beyond expectation, and I refer 
 for the many proofs on this subject, to the learned 
 author of the Remains of JapJieth. I will only 
 observe, by the way, how very remarkable it is, 
 that Sir Isaac Newton, whose work has been so 
 severely attacked by some critics, should, after his 
 death, find props to some parts of his system, in the 
 very traditions which he judged of no value ; and 
 which, in truth, he never thought worthy of the 
 smallest examination. 
 
 On the whole Mr. Vallancey has poured still 
 more day light on this subject; and his Essay on the 
 I)*ish Language is highly worthy of the attention of 
 the learned of Europe, to whom it is inscribed. He 
 has made his study of this and other ancient lan- 
 guages subservient to the history of arts and civil 
 society in their earliest periods; and in the small 
 pamphlet before me, strengthened his principal 
 argument by shewing the conformity of the an- 
 cient Irish theology, with that of the Phenicians. 
 What he has now published is, evidently, only a 
 
REMARKS. 115 
 
 bare delineation of a future picture, on which he is 
 (we may suppose) at present laying the strongest 
 colouring : and to the want of the lights he 
 struck out, we should attribute some mistakes of 
 Dr. Parsons and of the writer of the Dissertations 
 on Irish History, in some matters they have 
 advanced relatively to the Irish language. 
 
 To conclude ; I do not advance that Mr. Val- 
 lancey has committed no mistakes himself in some 
 parts of his collation, particularly in compound 
 words, and even in a few that are less complex ; 
 it is enough that he is right in the greater number, 
 and that he hath the merit of exciting the learned 
 of these islands to cultivate the fertile field he has 
 thrown open to them. 
 
 1 am, Sir, 
 
 Your humble Servant, 
 
 CELTICUS. 
 
 FINIS, 
 
Printed by J. Brettell, 
 Rupert Street, Haymarket, London* 
 
The following Works, relative to the History, 
 Antiquities, and Language of the Irish, are 
 now on Sale at R. Ryan's, No. 339, Oxford 
 Street. 
 
 1 XXNCIENT Irish Histories, being the Works of 
 
 Spencer, Campion, Hamner, and Marleburrough, 
 2 vols, 8vo, new, in boards, 1 4s - - 1809 
 
 2 Another copy, elegantly half bound, £ I 1809 
 
 3 Another copy, 2 vols, 4to, lar^e paper, boards, £2 2 
 
 1809 
 
 4 Anthologia Hibernica,4 vols, royal 8vo, maps and plates, 
 
 extra bound, £b 5 0- - - - 1793 
 
 5 Another copy, boards, some of the plates wanting, 
 
 £3 3 ------ 1793 
 
 6 Ancient and present State of the County of Down, 
 
 8vo, map, good copy, 15s - - - 1744 
 
 7 Archdall's Monasticon Hibernicum, maps and plates, 
 
 4to, half bound in calf, £2 2 - - 1786 
 
 8 Another copy, elegantly half bound in russia, £2 10 
 
 1786 
 
 9 Another copy, calf, super extra, £2 15 1786 
 
 10 Beaufort's Memoir of a Map of Ireland, maps, 4to, 
 
 ,£15 - - - - - - 1792 
 
 11 Boate and Moiyneux's Natural History of Ireland, 
 
 plates, 4to, £\ 10 - - - - 1726 
 
 12 Another copy, of 1 15 - - - 1755 
 
 13 Borlase's (Dr.) History of the Irish Rebellion, good 
 
 copy, folio, £\ 8 - - - - 1680 
 
 14 Borlase's (Dr.) History of the Irish Rebellion, with 
 
 Letters from Cromwell, Ireton, &c. 8tc. folio, 
 c£2 2 - - - - - - 1 743 
 
Works relative to Ireland. 
 
 15 Borlase's (Dr.) Reduction of Ireland to the Crown of 
 
 England, 12mo, neatly bound in brown calf, 8s 6d 
 
 1675 
 
 16 Boulter's (Dr. Hugh) Letters from Ireland, 2 vols, 8vo, 
 
 neatly half bound, 14s - 1769 
 
 17 Bush's Hibernia Curiosa, maps, plates, &>c. 8vo, half 
 
 bound, 8s __---- 1780 
 
 18 Carte's Life of the Duke of Ormonde, 3 vols, folio, a 
 
 good copy, £9 - - - - 1736 
 
 19 Another copy, a fine copy in calf, c£lO 1736 
 
 20 Another copy, neat in old calf £\\ 11 1736 
 2 1 Carte's Letters and Papers of the Duke of Ormonde, 
 
 2 vols, 8vo, neat, 18s - - - 1739 
 
 22 Comerford's History of Ireland, plates, 12mo, neat in 
 
 brown calf, 10s 6d - - - - 1770 
 
 23 Cox's History of Ireland, 2 vols, folio, maps, fyc. good 
 
 set, i2 1689 
 
 24 Crawford's History of Ireland, 2 vols, Svo, neatly half 
 
 bound, £\ 8 1783 
 
 25 Another copy, extra bound, ,£115 - 1783 
 
 26 Curry's (Dr.) Review of the Civil Wars in Ireland, 
 
 4to, good copy, 18s - - - - 1775 
 
 27 Another copy, 2 Vols, 8vo, neat in calf, £\ 6 1786 
 
 28 Davies's (Sir John) True Cause why Ireland was never 
 
 entirely subdued, l2mo, neat, 8s - 1777 
 
 29 Dissertations on the Ancient History of Ireland, maps, 
 
 fyc. 8vo, very neat, £% 2 - - - 1753 
 
 30 Dublin Magazine from 1798 to 1800, 5 vols, 8vo, 
 
 plates, #c. £\ 5 
 
 31 Duhigg's History of the King's Inns Ireland, 8vo, half 
 
 bound, 10s 1806 
 
 3$ Duigenan's (Dr. Patrick) History of the Irish Rebellion 
 and the Union, 8vo, neatly half bound, 8s 1800 
 
 S3 -. — — — . — „ — Political Tracts, 8vo, uni- 
 formly half bound, 8s - 1800 
 
 34 ,.- Lachrymge Academical 8vo, 
 
 5s ------- 1777 
 
 35 Dunton's (John) Dublin Scuffle, &c. &c. 8vo, a good 
 
 copy,£\ 5 1699 
 
 36 Ferrar's History of Limerick, maps and plates, 8vo, 
 
 neat, 14s - - - - - - 1787 
 
Works relative to Ireland,. 
 
 37 Ferrar's View of Dublin, plates^ 8vo, neatly half bound, 
 
 8s 6d .... _ - " 1796 
 
 38 Gordon's History of Ireland, 2 vols, 8 vo, new and neat, 
 
 £l 10 1806 
 
 39 Grose's Antiquities of Ireland, 2 vols, 4to, fine impres- 
 
 sions, boards, uncut, £o 5 - - 1791 
 
 40 Hamilton's Natural History of Antrim, 12mo, neat, 6s 
 
 41 Another copy, maps and plates, 8vo, extra bound, 18s 
 
 1790 
 
 42 Harris's Hibernica, 8vo, very neat, £l 4 1770 
 
 43 Another copy, extra bound, £ I 10 - 1770 
 
 44 Harris's History and Antiquities of Dublin, map and 
 
 plates, 8vo,"£ i 5 - 1766 
 
 45 Another, fine copy, £l 11 6 - - - 1766 
 
 46 Hay's History of the Insurrection of Wexford, map, 
 
 8vo, half bound, 10s 6d - 1803 
 
 47 Hibernia (The) Magazine for 1810, plates, «Sfc. 8?c. 
 
 boards, 5 s 
 
 48 Historical Memoirs of the Irish Rebellion in 1641, 
 
 12mo, neatly bound in brown calf, 10s 6d 1765 
 
 49 History of Ireland from the earliest period to the 
 
 Siege of Limerick, 8vo, good copy, 12s 1784 
 
 50 Another copy, neatly half bound in russia, 14s 1784 
 
 5 1 History of Limerick, plates, l2mo, neatly half bound, 6s 
 
 1767 
 
 52 Holmes's Sketches of the Southern Countries of Ire- 
 
 land, 8vo, plates, half bound, 9s 1801 
 
 53 Jocelin's Life of St. Patrick, translated by Swift, 8vo, 
 
 boards, 5s 1809 
 
 54 Another copy, elegantly half bound, 8s - 1809 
 
 55 Another copy, large paper, extra bound, 15s 1809 
 
 56 Keating's History of Ireland, folio, with portrait, and 
 
 all the genealogies and arms, fine copy, russia extra, 
 marbled leaves, £6 Id 6 - - - 1723 
 
 57 King's (Dr.) State of the Protestants of Ireland, 4to, 
 
 8s ---_-.. 1691 
 
 58 Another copy, 8vo, neatly half bound, 12s 1744 
 
 59 Ledwich's (Dr.) Antiquities of Ireland, plates, Sec. 4to, 
 
 half bound in russia, extra marbled leaves, £% 5 
 
 1804 
 
 60 Leland's (Dr.) History of Ireland, 3 vols,4to, half bound 
 
 russia, extra, marbled leaves, £3 13 6 1773 
 
Works relative to Ireland. 
 
 61 Life of James Duke of Ormond, with head, 8vo, extra 
 
 bound, 14s - - - - - - 1747 
 
 62 Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, by Archdall, 7 vols, 8vo, 
 
 plates, neat in calf] £4 14 6 - - 1789 
 
 63 Lucas's (Dr.) Constitutions of Great Britain and 
 
 Ireland, 2 vols, 8vo, bound in one, 12s - 1751 
 
 64 Ludlow's Memoirs, head, 3 vols, 8vo, good copy, 
 
 il 10 - - - . * - 1698 
 
 65 Ma-Geoghegan Histoire de 1'Irlande, avec cartes, 
 
 3 tomes, 4to, fine set, £6 6 - - 1758 
 
 66 Mc Cuirten and O Brien's English and Irish, and Irish 
 
 and English Dictionaries, 2 vols, 4to, russia extra, 
 marble leaves, £l6 1 6 - - - 1732 
 
 67 Memoirs of Ireland from the Restoration to the pre- 
 
 sent Time, Svo, 7s 6d - - - - 1716 
 
 68 Molyneux's Case of Ireland, and Atwood's Reply, in 
 
 l"vol. 12mo. 9s ----- l 1698 
 
 69 Monasticon Hibernicum, 8vo, map and plates, fine 
 
 copy, il 16 ■ - -'■"'- - 1722 
 
 70 Another copy, russia extra, marble leaves, £2 2 
 
 1722 
 
 71 Moryson's History of Ireland from 1599 to 1603, 
 
 2 vols, Svo, good copy, £% 12 6 - - 1735 
 
 72 Moryson's Itinerary, three parts, (containing Ireland) 
 
 good copy, folio, £o 5 - - - 1 6 1 7 
 
 73 Mullala's Political History of Ireland, 8vo, neatly half 
 
 bound, Is 6d 1793 
 
 74 Musgrave's (Sir Richard) Memoirs of the Rebellions 
 
 in Ireland, 4to, maps and plate?, half bound russia, 
 £l 11 6 - - -, - - J 801 
 
 75 Another copy, 2 vols, 8vo, neatly half bound, £l 4 
 
 1802 
 
 76 Newenham's Inquiry into the Population of Ireland, 
 
 8vo, half bound, !0s 6d - - - 1805 
 
 77 O Flaherty's Ogygia, 4to, fine copy in vellum, £4 4 
 
 1685 
 
 78 Another copy, russia extra, gilt leaves, £o 5 1685 
 
 79 O Flaherty's" Ogygia, translated by Hely, 2 vols, 8vo, 
 
 good sett, £\ 16 - - - - 1793 
 
 80 O Halloran's Introduction to the History and Antiqui- 
 
 ties of Ireland, p/afes, 4to, <£2 10 - 1772 
 
Works relative to Ireland. 
 
 81 O Halloran's Introduction to the History and Antiqui- 
 
 ties of Ireland, and I erne Defended, in 1 vol, 4to, 
 half bound, £2 10 - 1772 
 
 82 O Halloran's History of Ireland, 2 vols, 4to, good copy, 
 
 ,£3 3 - - - - - - 1778 
 
 83 Another copy, neat in calf, £3 10 - - 1778 
 
 84 Parliamentary Debates of the Commons of Ireland 
 
 from 1781 to 1789 inclusive, 9 vols, 8vo, boards, 
 £3 3 
 
 85 Petty's (Sir William) Political Survey of Ireland, 8vo, 
 
 very neat, 8s - - - - - 1719 
 
 86 Philosophical Survey of the South of Ireland, 8vo, 
 
 many plates, 10s - - - - 1778 
 
 87 Another copy, very neat, 12s ■'.."," 1778 
 
 88 Post Chaise Companion through Ireland, maps and 
 
 plates, 8vo, neat, 12s 1803 
 
 89 Rice on the Irish Grand Jury Laws, map, 8vo, boards, 
 
 5s 1815 
 
 90 Ruttey's (Dr.) Natural History of Dublin, 2 vols, 8vo, 
 
 map and plates, good set, 16s - - 1772 
 
 91 Seward's Topographs Hibernica, 4to, map, neat, 
 
 £i 5 - - - - - - 1795 
 
 92 Shaw's Galic and English Dictionary, 2 vols, 4to, 
 
 neatly half bound in one, £2 2 - - 1780 
 
 93 Sheffield's (Lord) Present State of Ireland, 8vo, very 
 
 neat, 9s -_-«-- 1715 
 
 94 Sleater's Civil and Ecclesiastical Topography of Ire- 
 
 land, 8vo, new and neat, 12s - - 1806 
 
 95 Smith's Ancient and Present State of the County of 
 
 Cork, 2 vols, 8vo, maps and plates, £2 2 1750 
 
 96 Smith's Ancient and Present State of the County of 
 
 Cork, Kerry, and Waterford, 4 vols, 8vo,fine copy, 
 maps and plates, £7 - - - 1774 
 
 97 Another copy, russia extra, gilt leaves, £8 8 1750 
 
 98 Stafford's Pacata Hibernia, heads, maps, and plates, fine 
 
 copy, russia extra, gilt leaves, £Q 9 - 1633 
 
 99 Story's History of the Wars of Ireland, with the Con- 
 
 tinuation, maps andplans, 4to, £4 40 • 1693 
 
 100 Another copy, 4to, russia extra, gilt leaves, £0 5 
 
 1693 
 
 101 Stafford's (Lord) State Papers by Dr. Knowles, 2 vols, 
 
 Mio, stained, £ I 10 ... 1740 
 
Works relative to Ireland. 
 
 102 Temple's (Sir John) History of the Irish Rebellion, 
 
 small 4to, half bound, 9s - 1646 
 
 105 Another copy, 8 vo, good copy, 10s - - 1746 
 
 104 Traveller's (The) New Guide through Ireland, 8vo, 
 
 maps and plates, half bound russia, 18s 1815 
 
 105 Twiss's Tour in Ireland, 8vo, maps and plates, half' 
 
 bound, 7s 6d - 1776 
 
 106 Vallancey's (Colonel) Collectanea de Rebus Hiber- 
 
 nicis, 4 vols, 8vo, plates, half bound russia, £l 7 
 
 1786 
 
 107 Vallancey's (Colonel) Grammar of the Irish Language, 
 
 8vo, figures, stained, £\ 15 - - 1782 
 
 108 Walker's Historical Memoirs of the Irish Bards, 
 
 plates, and Essay on the Dress of the Irish, plates, 
 in 1 vol. 4to, russia extra, marble leaves, £5 5 
 
 109 Ware's (Sir James) Antiquities and History of Ire- 
 
 land, plates, %c. folio, £\ 10 - 1705 
 
 110 Ware's (Sir James) Antiquities and History of Ire- 
 
 land, by Harris, plates <5fc #c. 2 vols, folio, good set, 
 c£l2 - - - - - - 1764 
 
 111 Another copy, fine copy, £ 13 13 - - 1739 
 
 1 12 Warseus deScriptoribus Hibernicse, small 4to, stained, 
 
 18s 1639 
 
 113 Warner's History of Ireland and the Irish Rebellion, 
 
 2 vols, 4to, neat, £S 3 - 1763 
 
 114 , very neat, £3 13 6 - - 1763 
 
 115 . — , 4to, boards, £\ 11 6 - 176S 
 
 116 r 9 4to, half bound russia, £2 1763 
 
 117 , 2 vols, 8vo, £l 8 - - 1770 
 
 1 18 Warner's History of the Rebellion in Ireland, 2 vols, 
 
 8vo, good copy, £l 4 - 1768 
 
 119 Weld's Illustrations of the Scenery of Killarney^rce 
 
 plates, royal 8vo, extra bound, Jl 10 1817 
 
 120 Winne's History of Ireland, map and plates, 2 vols, 
 
 8vo, neat, 14s - - - - - 1774 
 
 121 Wright's Louthiana, plates, 4to, half bound russia, 
 
 £i 8 1748 
 
 122 Another copy, plates and head, 4to, half bound russia, 
 
 £l 11 6 - 1748 
 
 123 Young's Tour in Ireland, 2 vols, 8vo, plates, extra 
 
 bound, £% <l - - - - 1780 
 
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