Il'ifiia:::'' mm' * 9 1 ;^" z ^. ^^ '-^^^ v^' "^f Vl^^ ^ ''^. •v^" « ^y. .^x> €(^^ fj- s^ %h *-'^ ■%# A-^^' "-* .^^ % -<^ '' " ^^ A^"" o 0' M^^Vs^^^ ^XN ■MJ)^K^^^ ^€K' ' ^ /' ^> ■o. ,1 : '^,# *ii^ #-^-^ '-ym^: ,^\ ■- i^' ^'X *^^' ^ A^* .^^^- -..^V"*'\*^ .."•• 0' .^^^'>v c^ N<^ ' \* . ■^- ^ N^--^ -^^^ -N-^^ .'- :^% ". . V ^ -i^ #/ ■ .x'^^'\l%K\ \ \ r 1 f :%.^^ ^ C-^ ^A 2 ^ '^' V ^^ _..^" ^>^ V^ ,0 o 0( O- ^ ■- ,x 'c^, %:^ '■^- ^:^ Oo^ ^3 .>:^'^ '^O. ■ V- .0^ . ,^^^■ ".:a^ ^-^%z,% . - , '^./. * '-> N ^ ^^ ''/ C V v^ ■0' ^ v-^' s ////; .A -^^ o o o^ 1 PH(ENICIAN IRELAND, TRANSLATED, AND ILLUSTRATED .WITH NOTES, PLATES, AND PTOLOMEY'S MAP OF ERIN MADE MODERN, BY HENRY O'BRIEN, ESQ. A.B. Author of the "prize essay" upon the "round towers" of Ireland. Multa renascentur quae jam cecidere, cadentque Quae nunc sunt in usu ! — Hor, DUBLIN: R. M. TIMMS, GRAFTON STREET ; M. KEENE & SON, COLLEGE GREEN ; AND, F. W. WAKEMAN, D'OLLIER STREET. 1833. a. ADVERTISEMENT. A great portion of this work, as well in print as manu- script, having been destroyed at the late conflagration of Mr. Hardy's printing office in Dublin, where it was being- published, the translator was obliged to commence his labors anew, else the volume should long since have been given to the public. DEDICATION. TO THE MOST NOBLE THE MARQUIS OF THOMOND, &c. &c. &c. My lord marquis, Had I not had the honor of bearing the same name, and of deriving consanguinity and con- nection from that ancient stock, of which your Lord- ship is, at once, the deserving head and the distin- guished representative, yet — when about to launch into light a work, which purports to unfold the origin of Ireland's early colonization, and seeking for a pa- tron whose discriminating taste and personal ac- quirements^ would add a charm to the advantages of station and of birth — my eye should instinctively direct itself toward you ; — for, where, in the un- broken catalogue of Iran's proud-born sons, could I find another name so intimately interwoven with VI her halcyon splendors, as that of the benign patriarch of the house of Thomond ? But it is not alone^my Lord, as occupying a princely post, in monarchical succession, among the Scythian^ or later Irish — immortalised by the glories of Cean- chora and Clontarf — that this homage should be your due ; but as the direct descendant of the very principal and leader of that earlier and nobler, and, in every way more estimable and illustrious dynasty, the Tuatha Danaans, or true, Iranian, Milesian Irish — the incorporation of whom with the Scythians — after the latter, by conquest, had wrested from them the soil — gave rise to the compound of Scoto- Milesians ; which no one has heretofore been able to elucidate. These Tuatha Danaans, my Lord, whom your forefather, Brien, conducted into our ^' sacred island," were the expelled Budhists of Persia -neither Phoe- nicians nor Celts — whom the intolerance of the Brahmins and the persecution of the Rajas had thrown upon the ocean, over whose bosom wafted * Who came not from Scandinavia but the place which is now called Tartary, Vll to our genial shores, they did not only import with them all the culture of the east, with its accom- panying refinement and polished civilization — evidenced by those memorials of lunettes, anklets> fibulae, gold crowns, pateree, &c., with which our green valleys still abound — but raised the country to that pinnacle of literary and religious beatitude, which made it appear, to the fancies of distant and enraptured *^ bards," more the day dream of romance, than the sober outline of an actual locality. This, my Lord, will account, for the scepticism of Dio- dorus as to the '' Hyperborean Isle ;" and, at the same time, for the vivid portraiture and enchanting delineation, in which the divine Orpheus sung of its happy inhabitants. After the establishment of this colony in our in- vigorating region, b. c. 1200, no one can know better than your Lordship's self, how that — in memory of their ybrmer residence — they gave it the name of Iran * The word BardSf emancipated from the mystification of etymological empyrics, is but a modification of Boreades^ the name of our ancient Irish poetic divines — who, again, were so denominated, not less in reference to their geographical position than their elementary worship. Vlll —erroneously ciilled Erin — which — signifying, as it does, the land of the faithful, or the sacred isle — shews the existence of this epithet before the reve- lation of Christianity. This original " Iran^' the early Greeks — who were Pelasgi, and allies of our Tuatha Danaans — commuted into Terne — a mere translation of the word, from, ieros, sacred ; and, neos, an island — which, again, the Latins, without, at all, knowing the meaning of the term,"* transformed into Hibernia ; f but which, however, with soul-stirring triumph, means exactly the same thing, namely, " sacred island" — the initial H, being only the aspi- rate of the Greek, ieros, sacred ; neos, island re- * And yet the primeval sanctity of our isle was admitted by their writer Avienus, when he says of it, *' sacram sic insu- latn dixereprisci." De Oris Maritimis. t This name, therefore, which has so much puzzled etymo- logists to analyse, has nothing on earth to do with Hiar, the west ; or, Iberin, extremes ; or Heber, or, Heremon ; or any otlier such outlandish nonsense. What, then, becomes of the reveries of Mr, Ritson ? " This country" (Ireland) says he, *' it appears was already inhabited by the Hiberni, or Hiberiones, of whose origin, any more than that of the Scots, nothing is known, but by conjecture, that the former were a colony from Britain." — Introduction to '^ Annals of the Caledonians, Picts, and Scots." — Never was such ignorance betrayed since the beginning of the IX maining unaltered, and the letter, h, only interposed for sound sake. So that, whether we consider it as, Iran, lerne or Hibernia ; or under the mul- tiplied variations, which diverge, almost inter- minably, from those three originals, in the several languages which they respectively represent — they will be found, each and all, to resolve themselves into this one, great] incontrovertible, position of — the '' Sacred Island." But it was not alone, my Lord, under this vague designation of sanctity, that your venerable fore- fathers identified themselves with our island ; but — lest there should be any misconception as to the species of worship whence that " sanctity" had ema- nated — they gave this scene of its exercise two other world. The word Hiberni, vulgarised Hiberiones, in English, Hibernians, is not the name of any particular people, but a des- criptive epithet, meaning '* inhabitants of the sacred island" — our own Iran. — And the people whose character had obtained it this designation, had no connection whatever with Britain ! Equally in the dark was he as to the origin and era of the Scots, as, indeed, was every other writer up to this date, May 15th, 1833, on the Ancient History of Scotland. But if Mr. Ritson was right in asserting that " nothing was known" on those matters, he should have confined the dogma to his own resources — other resources now shew the reverse. Phud Inls, and Inis-na-Phuodha — which, at once, associate the "worship" with the profession of the worshippers — ^for, Phud Inis, is Budh Inis — Ph, or, F, being only the aspirate of, B, and commutable with it — that is, Budh Island : and Inis-na-Phuodha, is Inis-na Buodha, that is, the island of Budha. Your Lordship must also know, how that, to cele- brate the mysteries of their religious creed, they erected those temple'^, which still embellish our land- scape ; and which — mystified in their character, like their prototypes in the east, under the vague desig- nations of " Pillars" and ^* Round Towers" — have puzzled the antiquaries of all countries to develope, until I had the good fortune to pierce the cloud. And, yet, my Lord, will you not commisserate with me the degeneracy ? and say '' how are the mighty fallen ? " when informed that the individual who has revived so many truths, immersed beneath the rubbish of three thousand years accumulation — and that when his researches did not apply alone to Ireland,^ but took in the scope of the whole ancient * The formation as well as the date of this, the present name of our island, I account for in a forthcoming note. XI world — has been defrauded of that prize for which his zeal had been enlisted, and his young energies evoked ? while — from that system of ''jobbing'' with which our country has been long accursed — he has seen the badge of his victory transferred to another, merely because that other was a member of the council of the deciding tribunal, who disregarded the crying fact, that the whole texture of their friend's essay must, inevitably, be untenable ! * However, my Lord, in the consciousness of your countenance I find my consolation ; and, soon as my "Towers" appear, I doubt not, this ivise(l) '* tribu- nal" will reap the fruits, together, of their own discorjifiture and of my revenge. In the mean time, my Lord, I have the honor to subscribe myself. With every feeling of respect, and affectionate consideration, your Lordship's most obliged, most faithful and most devoted, humble servant, HENRY O'BRIEN. * Of this I give, by anticipation, the most startling and ovei'whelming proof, even in a note appended towards the end of the 33rd chapter of the present work. Xll! TO THE PUBLIC. I deem it right to publish the following correspondence for two reasons — firstly, as an apology to my countrymen for any harshness of expression which may appear in the ensuing '* Preface ;" and, secondly, as an act of justice to myself, to assert my right against the oppression of a ** Society" who would not only fain extinguish the dispeller of their darkness, but bury in the mire of oblivion and disregard those miracles of history which his industry has unfolded. To be explicit. The Royal Irish Academy, in their avowed desire to arrive at some elucidation of the origin of the ** Round Towers," proposed, in December, 1830, a premium of a" Gold Medal and Fifty Pounds," to the author of an approved Essay, in which all particulars respecting them were expected to be explained. This manifesto I never saw ; — the prescribed period passed over, and the several candidates sent in their works. After a perusal of two or three months, the Academy came to a second resolution, which exhibited itself in the following form : — "ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY HOUSE, *' Dublin, February 21, 1832, " It having appeared to the Royal Irish Academy that none of the Essays given in on the subject of the * Round Towers,' XIV as advertised in December, 1830, have satisfied the conditions of the question, they have come to the following Resolutions : — " 1st. — That the question be advertised again as follows : — " * The Royal Irish Academy hereby give Notice, that they will give a Premium of Fifty Pounds and the Gold Medal, to the Author of an approved Essay on the Round Towers of Ireland, in which it is expected that the characteristic archi- tectural peculiarities belonging to all those ancient buildings now existing shall be noticed, and the uncertainty in which their origin and uses are involved, be satisfactorily removed.' " 2nd. — That the time be extended to the 1st of June next, for receiving other Essays on said subject, and for allowing the Authors of the Essays already given in to enlarge and improve them ; for which purpose they will be returned, on application at the Academy House. " All Essays, as usual, to be sent post-free to the Rev. J. H. Singer, D. D., Secretary, at the Academy House, 114, Grafton Street, Dublin ; each Essay being inscribed with some motto, and accompanied with a sealed billet, superscribed with same motto, in which shall be written the author's name and address." Now, I put it, frankly, to any dispassionate observer, whether it could, for a moment, be supposed, that the propounders of this document had seriously contemplated even the possibility of '* receiving other Essays on said subject." What ! a subject, which had baffled the researches and laughed to scorn the im- potence of all writers, of all countries, from almost the earliest era — that this should be embarked in by a new adventurer, at three months' notice ? And that when our Academy itself — after many fruitless attempts to obtain information on the point, before — had allowed the candidates, in ihe first instance, more than a twelve month for their composition ; so that, during the three additional months now extended, they had only 'Mo XV enlarge aiul improve them !" The thuig is absurd! It is mon- strously inconsistent ! And offensive alike to common sense, as to honesty ! Yes ! I have the most startling evidences — the most astound- ing /acfs — the most direct positive and substantial affirmations — to shew, that the Royal Irish Academy, at the very moment in which they published this second invitation, had actually de- termined to award the Gold Medal and Premium to one of their own Council! — in whose favor , alone, the three additional months were allowed, tor the completion of his work— and, consequently, that the insertion of the clause by which new Essays were challenged, was but to give the color of liberality to a dis- honourable manoeuvre ! Disregarding, however, what their generalship had calculated^ and looking solely to the terms and the wording of their prO' clamation, — by which I found that I was entitled to enter the lists, — I grappled with the question with all the ardour of my nature, and, heaven and earth, night and day, in difficulties and in sorrow, I labored, until I finished my '* Essay " against the appointed hour, when —a brain-blow to their expectations — I sent it in —full satisfied, from the consciousness of its imper- turbable axioms, that all the powers of error and wickedness combined could not withhold from it the suffrage of the adver- tised medal. Four days, however, had scarcely passed over when the machinations of the '' Council" break forth in another, and still more glaring outrage. Having perceived that a new candidate had taken the field, and with something like that intrepidity which rectitude ever stimulates, they — at the request of the identical party before favored — sent forth a third advertise- ment, ordering all the Essays to be taken back again, and extending the period of improvement to one month more ! But the most barefaced and profligate part of the proceed- ing was, that they had the effrontery to dress up this advertise- XVI mem as the second, on the former occasion — the " receiving, ^^ forsooth, of " other Essays T' —to lull the public by the plau- sibility of their motives ! At this re-violation of all that was honest and rational — of all that was conformable with justice, and in harmony with inner light, I confess, my self-possession, for a moment, forsook me. Having received the intimation from another, and catching his spirit as he delivered it, I proceeded, in a headlong and rather too determined career, to arrest the progress of a villanous im- posture, which I knew was somewhere at work, — though I was yet ignorant of the proper quarter, — and for wliich, 1 have since, been, made most retributively to suffer. However, 1 got a clue to the main spring of the ** affair;'' and, though this was, in itself, an undeniable good, yet did it little compensate for the injury which accompanied it; for, by the earnestness of my manner having identified myself with the author of the new composition, I did not only take from it all that charm of in- cognito, under which its merits must otherwise — against all conspiracies — have triumphed, but I embittered the umpires against me personally, by the tone and bearing of my declared defiance. What, however, was the upshot ? Why, truly, that, after poring over my work for six long months, from no good motive, it is evident when they had determined on all the others within the short compass of three — they pronounced, in spite of them, that it vras the victor ! But how did they give utterance to this forced conviction .-' Just in the same strain of deceptive evasiveness which character- ised their earlier measures — namely, by voting it a special and merely nominal premium ! leaving the original one undis- turbed, according to previous compact, to their own dearly beloved brother, and familiar fellow council-man ! It is worth while to quote the outline in which they advertised this. It was as follows :- — XVll '' ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY HOUSE. '' On Monday, December 17^ a Meetiiig of the Council of the Royal Irish Academy was held for the purpose of deciding on tlie merits of Essays received, pursuant to advertisement, On the Origin and Use of the Round Towers of Ireland, when the following Premiums were adjudged; viz. — " £50. and the Gold Medal to George Petrie. '• £20. to Henry O'Brien, Esq." Now, if this advertisement were really the herald of truth and honesty: and not intended as the cover of a systematic cheat, it should have been thus couched : — " The Royal Irish Aca- demy have awarded their Gold Medal and Premium to Mr. Petrie, for his successful developement of the subject proposed ; but, in consequence of certain redeeming features in Mr. O'Brien's Essay ( which may or may not be mentioned) they could not dismiss it without some mark of their approval ; they have, accordingly deviated from their established rule, and voted it a separate premium." Whereas, the above advertise- ment would insinuate that there were two premiums all along- intended ; and that the first of these was given to the best com- position, and the second to that which approached it in quality ! But this would not square with ulterior objects in view, which now multiplied in intensity as they approached the de- nouement. The great point to be secured was the Gold Medal, not alone because of the accompanying £50; but because that Lord Cloncurry had declared that he would follow the Academy's verdict, or even empowered them to award his premium of £100. additional, on the same topic, to the suc- cessful Essayist to whom they should vote this insigne. Such a boon, therefore, must not be lost to their friend, at any peril or any sacrifice, while they hoped that they should lull the public vigilance, by the affected ingenuousness in which they issued forth the announcement A * XVI u As this delusion, however, must, at some time, have an end, and inevitably evaporate, soon as the rival Essays are pub- lished, it is determined on, furthermore, to keep mine in the back-ground, in order to give the other a** market-day;" and, then, when the public are insulted w\th a farrago oi anachronism 2Lnd historical falsehoods, they are to be treated to the " truth/^ in the shape of the second '* Prize Essay ;" by the force of which all mysteries being unravelled, the reader will naturally exclaim, " this alone is right.'' To which the Academy have this ready answer : *' Oh ! Yes; and have we not admitted the fact, by voting it a special premium ?" Their poor, paltry, wretched, contemptible Twenty Pounds ! And yet this was the subterfuge, on which they reckoned for impunity ! ! ! On hearing of the *' decision," I wrote off to the secretary, tendering, in indignant irony, my thanks for their adjudication — taking care, however, to tell them that I had expected an issue more flattering to my hopes. At this time I had no idea what may have been the theory of the other essayist. — I did not know but that it may have been my own, supported more talentedly, and, substantially, more elucidated; fancy therefore my asto- nishment on learning that they were the very antipodes of each other, and " wide as the poles assunder !" The bubble must, therefore, soon burst, I thought ; and I was not long in suspense as to the accuracy of this inference. From the commencement of the publication of the Dublin Penny Journal — of which the principal conductors, or at least, contri- butors, are members of the academy , and Mr. Petrie, himself, its antiquarian high priest — pending the scheme of the *'Towers," and before its formal notification, whenever reference was made to their origin and date, its columns, unqualifiedly, asserted that they were Christian and modern. Now, how- ever, when their conviction was revolutionised by the proofs of my treatise, it was necessary, of course, to retrace their steps ; and, as an open acknowledgment of en'oi' would be too self- XIX abasing for academicians , they thought they must put forth a feeler, as if implying douht on the matter; v/lrich would have the two-fold effect of screening the " council's" verdict — as the result of doubt or ambiguity — and of preparing the public mind for the altered and novel conclusion to which all must, ere long, as well as themselves, have arrived. My eye, however, was on their plans, though separated by a " roaring sea." — I knew that where there were so many windings to mature the plot, there must be as many to pre- vent its detection ; and, accordini^ly, the very fiist move they made, on their new chess hoard of tactics, I check-^nated it, at once, by the following letter : — (No. 1.) London, March 16th, 1833. Dear Dr. Singer, The Dublin Penny Journal of Feb. 23rd, on the article '* Devenish Island," contains this sentence, viz. " whether the towers are the accompaniment to the churches, or the churches to the towers, is a question not yet decided." Now, this — coupled with the circumstance of the commijttee having awarded two premiums, to two, as 1 understand, con- flicting ascriptions i and that when only one was originally proposed — induces me, with all deference, to offer this me- morial, through you, to the Academy. As the developement of truth in the elucidation of history, is the object of the antiquarian — and as " the labourer is worthy of his hire," I take the liberty respectfully to ask, whether, if I make my ascription of the Round Towers a mathematical demonstration, with every other incident relating to their founders, comprehending all the antiquities of Ireland, as con- nected therewith — and this by all the varieties and modes of proof — whether, I say, in that event, will the academy award a2* XX me the gold medal and premium ? or, if that cannot be recalled, an equivalent gold medal and premium ? My intercalary work, substantiating all the above, is now finished, and can be forwarded to the committee by return of the same post which will favor me with your answer. 1 have the honor to be, Dear Sir, Your obedient, &c. HENRY O'BRIEN. Rev. Dr J. H. Singer, Secretary to the Academy, By the above proposal I must not be understood 3.s,for a moment, admitting that my original Essay "was not all sufficient , all conclusive, all illustrative, and all convincing," but as I had more arguments still in reserve, I wanted to elicit from the Academy the admission that it was truth they sought after, in order to overwhelm them with the influx of its inex- haustible light. Afier waiting, however, more than three weeks, and getting no reply, I forwarded those other proofs accompanied by a letter, of which the following was the con- clusion, viz. — (No. 2.) These are but items in the great body of discoveries which this intercalary work will exhibit. In truth, I may, without vanity assert, that the whole ancient history of Ireland and of the world, is therein rectified and elucidated — what it never was before. Am I, therefore, presumptuous in appealing to the Royal Irish Academy — the heads of Irish literature and the avowed patrons of its developement — for the reward of my labors? I shall, with confidence, rely upon theiv justice. i have the honor to be, with sincere regard, &c. HENRY O'BRIEN. To the Rev. Dr. J. H. Singer, Secretary to the Academy, XXI (No. 3.) Royal Insh Academy House, April \Qtli, 1833. Sir, Your improved Essay and letter were yesterday laid before council ; and, as Dr. Singer is at present confined with the gout, it devolves on me to communicate to you the fol- lowing extract from the minutes. " Resolved, that the Secretary be directed to reply to Mr. O'Brien, and to state that any alteration or revocation of their award cannot be made, whatever may be the merits of any additional matter supplied to them after the day appointed by advertisement; but, if Mr. O'Brien be willing that the new matter be printed along with the original Essay, the council will have the same perused in order to ascertain the expediency of so enlarging their publication." By order, RICH. ROW, Clerk to the Academy. To B. O'Brien, Esq. (No. 4.) London f April 18th, 1833. Had I a notion that the Academy's reply would be such as your letter has this day imparted, I would never have sat down to indite those long additions, much less have forwarded them for their perusal. For why did I write to the Sectetary three weeks ago, but to ascertain, whether or not, in the event of my doing so and so, would the Academy act so and so ? and thus repair that injury which they had before inflicted ? What could be more easy than to give me a catagorical answer, one way or the other ? Instead of XXll which, however, they left me to my own conclusions, which — as usual, in such circumstances — leading me to construe silence into acquiescence -1 transmitted my documents on the tacit faith, that though the Academy would not pledge themselves by a written promise, they would, notwithstanding, if my re- searches proved adequate, reward my industry by a suitable remuneration. Now, however, when my papers have been received, and my developements communicated, I am told that, be their merits what they may, the award is irrevocable ; and I have no alter- native, in the writhings of my mortification, but the consolation of being injured and duped at the same time. You will say, perhaps, that my new evidences have not yet been read ; and that, therefore, my property, is secure and sa- cred. But has not the accompanying letter been read ? And what was that but a programme of their contents ? I had thought that the Royal Irish Academy were not only a learned, but dijust and a patriotic society. 1 had thought that having marshalled themselves into an institution, with the avowed object oi resuscitating from death the almost despaired- of evidences of our national history, they would not alone ybs^er every advance toward that desirable consummation, but, shower honors, and acclamations, and triumphs upon him, who has not only infused a vital soul into those moriburid remains, but made the history of Ireland, at this moment, the clearest, the most irrefragible, and withal, the most interestingly comprehensive chain of demonstrational proofs in the whole circle of universal literature* But it is not alone the being deprived of my reward that I complain of, and the transferring of that reward to atwther, every sentiment in whose production must inevitably be wrong^ but it This 1 predicate of my work upon the " Round Towers." XXlll is the suppression of my labors, and the keeping them back from the public eye, in deference to ray opponent's work, lest that the discernment of the public should bestow upon me those honors which the discretion of the Academy has thought proper to alienate, that affects me as most severe. Indeed, it has been stated from more quarters than one, that the withholding' of the medal from me, in the first instance, and the substituting thereinstead a nominal premium of twenty pounds, originated from a personal pique against me indivi- dually. Such a report I would fain disbelieve, and yet it is hard not to give it some credence, seeing that the irresistible cogency of my truths, and the indubitable value of my literary discoveries, are not only not rewarded, but kept back from publication, until some one else more fortunate, or rather, 7nore Javored, shall run away with the credit of my cherished disclo- sures. I wish — 1 desire — I most intensely covet, that the Aca- demy would convince me that this is not an act of the most aggravated injustice. You will please lay this before the Council, and tell them from me, respectfully, that I do not want them either to ** alter" or " revoke" their award ; but, simply to vote me " an equi- valent gold medal and premium'' for my combined essay, or, if they prefer, the new portion of it. Should this be refused, / will put my cause into the hands of the great God who has en- lightened me, and make Him the umpire between me and the Academy. I have the honor to be, &c. &c. HENRY O'BRIEN. To the Rev. Rich. Roe, Clerk to the Academy. No answer having arrived to this communication, 1 delayed the publication of the present work, though printed, to see what XXIV the above would effect. — In the interim, Mr. Godfrey Higgins, the learned and ingenious author of the ** Celtic Druids," and who has been partly in possession of my developement of the ** Towers" for some time back, favored me with a visit — during which we conversed principally on historical questions. The next day I addressed him a note, a copy of which, with its answer f I take leave to subjoin^ for the sake of the terminating clause of the latter, being the suicidal acknowledgtnent of the •* Academy's" disingenuousness. (No. 5.; May 2nd, 1833. Dear Sir, 1 hope you will not feel displeased at the frankness of this question which 1 am about to propose to you, viz. Have you any objection to shew me in manuscript, be- fore you send to print, the terms in which you speak of me in reference to those points of information which I entrusted to your confidence— such as the ancient names of Ireland and their derivation, the Towers and founders, dates, &c. Should you think proper to consent to this feeling of anxiety on my part, 1 shall be most willing to share with you those other " points" which I exclusively retain. To the full extent you shall have them. The only condition 1 require is, the credit of originality — which I have laboriously earned . Please to drop me a line in reply to this, and allow me to subscribe myself, with great respect, Dear Sir, Your obedient, HENRY O^BRlEN. Godfrey Higgins, Esq. XXV (No. 6.) May ^rd, 1833. My Dear O'Brien, You may be perfectly assured I shall print nothing which I have learnt from you without acknow- ledging it. But I have really forgotten what you told me, because I considered that I should see it in print in a few days. Any thing I shall write on the subject, will not be printed for years after your books have been before the public. You did not tell me the name of Buddha, but I told it you, that it was Saca, or Saca-sa,* which I have already printed a hundred times, and can shew you in my great quarto, when you take your tea with me, as I hope you will to-morrow. Sir W. Betham told me of the Fire Towers being Phailus's, last night, at the Antiquarian Society. ^ Yours, truly, G. HIGGINS. * It is true Mr. Higgins has told me this, and I listened, with polite silence, to what I had read '*in print" a thousand times before. But our chronicles call the name, Macha, and I abide by them. The true history, however, of Budha and Budhism, which I alone possess, neither Ae -and I say it with submission to his diversified acquirements and indefatigable ap- plication — nor any other writer of the present or many hundred preceeding ages, have, or have had, even approached in thought. Having in a note, towards the conclusion of this present volume, — which had passed through the press long before 1 had re- solved on prefixing this expos6 — mentioned Mr. Higgins's name as amongst the supporters of the fire fatuity — that true ignis fatuus — I here gladly avail myself of the opportunity of quoting that he only " thought it expedient to continue the name by which ^Aese towers are generally known." ..." They are cer- XXVI Who, now, can pretend to think that the fieutralising award of the '' Council," was the effect of sceptiscism or legitimate doubt ? Here Sir William Betham, — the Ulster King at Arms ! the Goliah of Antiquaries ! as he is, undoubtedly, of Pedigrees ! — being himself a member of the '' deciding tribunal," proclaims, in the midst of a venerable literary assembly, that my solution of the Round Tower enigma is accurate;* and yet, in the teeth of this confession^ and of the conviction which extorted it, trampling under foot the shackles of conscience^ honesty, and truth, he votes away my 7nedal to a compilation of error and falsehood, and thinks to evade exposure by a dexterous subterfuge. But it will not do — I will take the reform of the Academy into my own hands; and furthermore claim Lord Cloncurry^s premium. (No. 7.) London, May the 2nd, 1833. Dear Dr. Singer, I exceedingly grieve to hear of your ill health. — -Its announcement, I assure you, made me look within myself, and for a moment, lose sight of my own hardships. I tainly not belfreys ; and the fire-tower scheme being gone, I have not heard any thing suggested having the slightest degree of probability." — Introduction to The Celtic Druids, p. 46. * I am here obliged to let out more of the secret of the " Towers," than I had intended. Then be it known, that I hare not only proved them to have been Budhist Temples, but Budhist Temples themselves to have been Phalli, which ac counts for their peculiar form. And if, now, the reader should imagine that he has got all the arcana of my discovery, I can tell him he mistakes very much. XXVll hope, however, that you are now so far recovered as to send me a favourable answer to this my last appeal. Taking it for certain that the Academy's having not replied to the tenor of my late intimation, arose from the circumstance of there having been no "Council Day" since; and as I anticipate that on Monday next my question will be finally disposed of, I am anxious for the good of all parties, and for the triumph of truth, to shew you in one view how I have am- putated the last supports of error, and covered its advocates with ignominy and shame. Thus every leaf unfolds evidences to the realization of my victory. I took my stand at the outset on the pedestal of truth; and 1 challenge scrutiny to insinuate, that, in the multiplied developements which I have since revealed, I have deviated from my grand position one single iota. Let me not be supposed, in the observation with which I am now about to conclude, that I mean any thing disrespectful to the Council of the Academy. Many years have not passed since I knew several of them in a different relation ; and, how- ever little effect, College Associations may produce on other minds, /find not their influence so fleeting or transient. It is with extreme reluctance, therefore, that I would split with a body who have lectured me as tutors. But time has advanced: I am now right, and they are wrong, and the came which they patronise will not do them much credit. I do not, however, yet give up my hopes but that the Academy will wisely retrace their steps : revocation of the former medal I do not require, — much less the exercise of a single grain of ^^ar/ia/zY?/. — My demand merely is, as my former letters have indicated, the substitution of justice. Please receive the assurance of my consideration, and in XXVIU confident reliance that you will use your influence in this matter, and favor me with the upshot instantly after Monday's Board, I remain, ever sincerely, yours, HENRY O'BTMEN. P.S. My translation of " Ibernia Phoenicia" has been printed for some days back ; but I have suppressed its publication in suspense about this affair. I shall not wait after the due period for hearing of Monday's decision. — H. O'B. No answer having arrived to this or its precursor, I had no choice but to act as follows ; — (No. 8.) London, May 9th, 1833. Dear Dr. 'Singer, My appeals are over — and, I regret to say, that they have not been attended to. The virtuous and enlightened part of the Academy, therefore, cannot blame me, if in the assertion of my honest right, I try the effect of a public remonstrance. In the interim, I transmit to you by this night's post, some additional leaves, which— in the anxiety of dispatch, as well, indeed, as from fear that they would not be inserted, because they overwhelm for ever the antiquarian pretensions of the Dublin Pen7iy Journal — I have omitted to copy. However, I will now forward them and claim, as an act of justice, that they be printed along with those already sent, in the original Essay. And now I shall have done by telling you that had I not XXIX written a single word on the advertised subject but the follow- ing, I should be entitled to the advertised premium. I shall now bring out my printed work, and pretix to it part of this correspondence. It is a painful duty, but it is a dutyt of necessity indispensible. I remain, Dear Sir, Your obedient, &c. &c. HENRY O'BRIEN. To the Rev. Dr. J. H. Singer, Secretary to the Academy. I shall now close with the following letter, which will be seen for the^rs^ ^ime through this medium, reserving my proofs therein alluded to, until particularly required. In the interim, if any gentleman, in the exercise of a free judgment ^ should think proper to dissent from me, whether as editor or translator of the present work, and to express that dissent in correspond- ing language, I shall feel obliged — as having no facilities Jor watching periodicals ^ newspapers, magazines, or reviews — by his favoring me with a copy of the publication in which his remarks appear, directed to the care of Messrs. Longman and Co. Paternoster-row, London. — And I entreat the same favor of those who may approve of my views, if, peradventure there be any such : — (No. 9.) London, May 10th, 1833. Dear Dr. Singer, I have exhausted all the forms of bland- ness and conciliation, in the vain hope of inducing the Academy XXX to redeem themselves from disgrace^ by doin^ me common jus- tice. I have strove in the mildest terms of conscious rectitude, invigorated by a phalanx of overwhelming proofs, to make them re-consider their course, and spare me the unpleasant task of exposing a deed which I am loth to characterise by its proper designation. But " the heart of Pharoah" was hardened — the *' voice of the charmer" not listened to — and to my soft importunites nothing was returned, but the coldness of obduracyand disregard. The Rubicon, therefore, is crossed — my patience feels in- sulted — and the only consideration I value, in the resolve to which I have at last been driven, is, that you had nothing to do with the ''job" of the Round Towers. Little did the Academy know what arguments I could adduce in e\wc\Adiiion oi certain mysteries. — As little do they now dream what proofs I can summon — though you cannot have forgotten one of them, while I promise I shall make JDr. Mc. Donnell recollect another — that the gold medal and premium were pre-determined to Mr. Petrie, before ever I became a candidate ; and that, consequently, the advertisement under which I was invited to contend, but from which the Council never expected an intruder, was but a specious de- lusion ! In this determination, I violate no act of private regard, nor set light by the claims of individual acquaintance. You know yourself how earnestly I struggled before the consummation of this nefarious proceeding, to stem the agency of that despicable under-current which I had just detected. I knew that fraud, of some kind, was at work ; and though unable, at the moment, to fix upon the personage in whose favor it was set a-going — nay, though rwewifa% fastening the blame thereof upon another, whose name, however, I never let slip, and to whom, I rejoice to say, I have since made more than recompense, for this ideal injury — yet could I not be persuaded but that something XXXI sinister was designed : and to frustrate that influence of promi- neot deceit, you know how vehement was my address. I im- plored you, I besought you, and all but upon my knees, and with tears I invoked you, by your regard to justice, and your fear of a Creator, to check this trickery * and allow merit, alone and anonymous, to decide the issue. I now, in the same spirit of solemn self-composure, adjure the *' Council" through you — for their own sake as well as mine — in the name of that God before whom they and I shall one day appear, and who now suggests this threat and propels its ut- terance, that they will have my cause redressed, and make me reparation, not only for the substantial trespass, but for the mental disquietude and agony which this " business" has occa- sioned. If they do not, rest satisfied that, my path is already chalked. All the evolutions of the Council, as displayed upon the " Towers," and with which I am but too familiar, shall be immortalized in letter-press : and I do not yet despair of the hereditary fairness of my country, but that it shall register its dissent from the decision of that tribunal, which could have had, at once, the obtuseness of intellect and the per. verseness of conduct, to stultify their own verdict by a contra- dictory award, 3.nd—9.itev inveiy ling me into a competition which they never meant to remunerate — deprive me of the fruits of my indubitable triumph, in the pursuit of which I had almost lost my life, and cut short my existence in the very spring of my man- hood. I mean no offence, individually or collectively to the Aca- demy, or its members; but as they have been deaf to the justice of my " private appeals," I shall try the effect of a *' public * It is due to Dr. Singer to state that he did all he could to repress it — but he cannot deny how it escaped him, perhaps in- advertently, that he feared it was a forlorn hope. XXXll remonstrance" ; and as to ulterior consequences, I greatly err, else the upshot will shew that, the motto* adopted as my fictitious signature in the *' Essay," was not the random as- sumption of inconsiderateness or accident, but the true index to the author's resources. My proposal is this^ — my unshaken position from which I will not swerve or retract — a gold medal and premium equivalent to those originally advertised. I am, Dear Sir, Your's sincerely, HENRY O'BRIEN. To Rev. Dr. J. H. Singer, Secretary to the Academy. Owvr? ev TT] spe/uiu). TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. Should it be asked by any of my " old associates," who, from college recollections, may be disposed to overvalue whatever capabilities I possess, why, wishing to court popularity as a writer, I would not rather originate some theme of my own than make my labor subservient to the fame of another — to this I shall reply, that I am not so actuated by the desire of appearing an original, as to forego what I conceive to be a favourable opportunity of doing a practical good, by presenting to the great bulk of my country- men — and countrywomen also — who, in amiable devo- tion to the land of their forefathers, ever allied and connected with the purest virtues of the heart, yield not to the daughters of the once-celebrated Sparta, whilst in all those finer sensibilities* which constitute the charm of social life, and sublime the human * '* The ladies of Ireland," says Carr, an intelligent and highly respectable English writer,'* possess a peculiarly pleasing frankness of manners, and a vivacity in conversation, which render highly interesting all they do and all they say. In this B 11 TRANSLATORS PREFACE. species to a nearer relation to divinity, they stand proudly and pre-eminently beyond them — a faithful and, I trust, an acceptable transcript of the re- searches of an individual, who — in the genuine flow of an ennobling gratitude for the ordinary hos- pitality* which Ireland offers to every stranger — sat down in the vigor of a green old age — an old age as full of honor as it has been distinguished by useful- ness — when the crude notions of enthusiasm are naturally extinct, and the mind fixed upon the awful certainty of its near transit to another sphere, rejects the intrusions of vanity and self-conceit, not less of worldly parade than literary hypothesisf — to open sweetness of deportment, the libertine finds no encourage- ment, for their modesty must be the subject of remark and eulogy with every stranger." — Stranger in Ireland, p. 148. *' The ladies of Ireland are generally elegantly, and fre- quently highly-educated ; and it is no unusual circumstance to hear a young lady enter with a critical knowledge into the merits of the most celebrated authors, with a diflfidence which shows that she is moved by a thirst for knowledge, and not by vanity. A greater musical treat can scarcely be enjoyed, than to hear some of them perform their own Irish airs, which are singularly sweet, simple, and affecting. Those who have been present at a ball in Ireland, can best attest the spirit, good- humour, and elegance which prevail in it." — Stranger in Ire- Inndy p, 149. * Sunt sane homines hospitalissimi, neque illis uUa in re magis gratificari potes, quam vel sponte ac voluntate eorum domos frequentare, vel illis invitatum condicere. Stan, de reb. in Hib. gest. lib. 1, p. 33. t Opinionuni comraenta delet dies; naturae judicia con- firmat.— Cicero. TRANSLATORS PREFACE. Ill remove the rubbish which overhung our antiquities, and exhibit before the eyes of an admiring world, the source of that magnificence which commanded the homage of this world before ; — anxious only to elicit truth, and in the laudable pursuit of this para- mount destination, deeming no industry too great — no pains unrequited. Such being the spirit that influ- enced our author, in the origin and prosecution of this his design, I should be ashamed of myself if I could allow any narrow feelings, of false delicacy or overweening self-importance, to interfere with my respect for such exemplary worth ; but chiefly, and more especially, w^hen the fruits of such an impulse have been brought to bear upon a country which, whether its civil condition, or its literary character, be the topic of debate, never fails to enlist my keenest emotions, and to vibrate with interest to my inmost soul. — Hibernicus sum, Hibernici nihil a me alienum puto.* ^'Nature," says Gibbon, "has implanted in our breasts a lively impulse to extend the narrow span of our existence, by the knowledge of the events that have happened on the soil which we inhabit, of the * Breathes there the man with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land? Scott. *' Nescio qua natale solum dulccdine cunctos Tangit, et iinmemores non sinit esse sui." B 2 IV TRANSLATORS PREFACE. characters and actions of those men from whom our descent, as individuals or as a people, is probably- derived. The same laudable emulation will prompt us to review and to enrich our common treasure of national glory ; and those who are best entitled to the esteem of posterity are the most inclined to celebrate the merits of their ancestors." But as utility, not celebrity, is my object, I shall forbear descanting upon my own merits in the under- taking, lest those who are ignorant of my motives, and of the frankness in which I habitually indulge, should suppose that any further explanation, in which self must be so prominent, would imply a certain tenacity inconsistent with this avowal.* To the critics, therefore, and to an enlightened public I consign the task, while I confine myself to a consi- deration of the original composition. The purport then of the author is to prove — by the analysis of names imposed in the days of Paganism and retained amongst us till the present, and by * Nor, indeed, were the subject a less grateful one, would I consider the province of a translator so inconsiderable by any means, knowing well that it depends greatly upon the indivi- dual so to invigorate, at least, if not to mould, the materials as to make them appear his own ; and should my example in this instance encourage those endued with brighter qualifications, to undertake the translation of those Irish MSS. which lie moul- dering upon the shelves of our University, I shall rest satisfied with having done some good '* in my day," were it only that of pioneering to those who may reflect a lustre o'er the land- scape. translator's preface. V the similarity of worship cultivated in Ireland, before the introduction of Christianity, to that practised in Phoenicia at the same era of time — that a colony from the latter place must at one period, and that a very distant one, have visited our shores, and spread their dominion over the whole extent of the island.* It is true I may be here met by an objection, as to '' what possible advantage such inquiry could now promote, either as regards the issue of the discussion itself — the remoteness of the period, and the absence of intervening records opposing so many obstacles — or its effects, if successful, upon the literature, the commerce, or the politics of this country." With the lukewarm and apathetic, I doubt not, this ob- jection may carry much weight, as they want but little argument to countenance the heartlessness of theii' recreant degeneracy . '^ What is it to us," they say, '' who trod those ' green acres ' in ancient time — whoever they were, they have long since passed * Who fill the pages of history? Political and military leaders, who have lived for one end, to subdue and govern their fellow-beings. These occupy the fore-ground ; and the people — the human race — dwindle into insignificance, and are almost lost behind their masters. The principal and noblest object of history is, to record the vicissitudes of society, its spirit in dif- ferent ages, the causes which have determined its progress and decline, and especially the manifestation and growth of its highest attributes and interests of intelligence ; of the religious principle, of moral sentiment, of the elegant and useful arts, of the triumph of man over nature and himself. — Dr. Chaniiiny on Poiver and Greatness. vi translator's preface. away, and we are only interested as to the present occupancy. The analysis of names — suggested by caprice, or at best an allusion to some passing acci- dent, no longer valuable — may afford entertainment, perhaps, to etymologists, but none to us. To us it is sufficient that we can disport our exterior, and main- tain a seemly attitude during our transitory sojourn, among the butterflies* of the hour, while the book- worm and recluse may enjoy all the pleasures they can possibly extract by poring over the pages of time-worn manuscripts." " When we have made our love, and gamed our gaming, Drest, voted, shone, and may-be something more; With dandies dined ; heard senators declaiming ; Seen beauties brought to market by the score, Sad rakes to sadder husband's chastely taming; There's little left but to be bored or bore ; Witness those * ci-devant jeunes hommes^ who stem The stream, nor leave the world which leaveth them/'f * W^efe a home tour considered as necessary to a finished education as a foreign one, our high-born youth might visit other countries possessed of the necessary accomplishment of being able to describe their own, in which too many of them are lamentably defective. The admirer of rural beauty in all its varied forms may be here fully gratified ; while the man who delights in antiquarian lore will, in Ireland, find numerous monuments connected with the annals of a nation whose his- tory, from the most remote period, has been so marked by vicissitudes, as to render them at this day, perhaps, the most singularly circumstanced people in Europe. — Fitzgerald. t Byron. translator's preface. vii If, in the sentiments here attributed to a certain class of my countrymen, I should be supposed to include only the '^ giddy" and the ''gay/' I take leave at once to correct the misconception, and — though reluctant to censure — to enlarge the dimensions of my portrait. It is a melancholy reflection, that, while all nations on the globe feel a manifest elevation in tracing the particulars of their origin to the very minuteness of detail, the Irish alone should lie dor- mant in the cause, and — though once distinguished for the more than religious zeal with which they registered their histories, and preserved their genea- logies ; — a practice, which — originating in the same love of order and motives to regularity, that influ- enced the Israelites in the preservation of theirs, viz. to regulate the succession to the throne and other dignified posts, as well military as magisterial — no less elucidates our assertion, of the early civilization of the Scoto-Milesians, as the true Irish are empha- tically and properly designated, than it does their intercourse at one period* with that ancient people of God, from whom they adopted the practice, and whom they greatly surpassed in some improvements — yet. * The Cuthites, Scuthae, or Irish, were seated on the coast of the Red Sea when Moses passed through it. It is probable that after the loss of Pentapolis they united, under the name of Phoenicians, on the Red" Sea, and these were they who gave protection to Moses after he had been refused a passage by the King of Edoni. — Vallancey. Vlll TRANSLATORS PREFACE. alas ! do they now — seem to have lost, perhaps^ with the sense of their national independence, all sense, at the same time, of their hereditary honor, and ancestral nobleness!* Look to China, and see how she delineates the progress of her empire through ages and ages of uninterrupted continua- * To our want of national feeling, and our tasteless and ignorant prejudices, may be attributed the danger from which we lately escaped of losing — what, perhaps, we have most reason, and deserved most to have lost — our unrivalled national music. Divided, as we have been, by the bigotry and unge- nerous policy of our rulers, aided by our own ancient super- stitions — deserted by our nobles — driven by our poverty, our misfortunes, and our wrongs, to the moping inanity of despair — our melodies would soon have shared the fate of our min- strels, if the genius and industry of two individuals had not averted such a catastrophe for ever. Moore, by uniting them to poetry *' worthy of their tenderness, their energy, and their spirit," has raised the airs of his native country to a widely extended popularity; and the natives of the old and the new world now respect the feelings, and pity the misfortunes, of the islanders, whose strange and artless stories can excite, by a power like magic, the strongest emotions of sadness or of joy. — Dublin Examiner, DEAR HARP OF MY COUNTRY. Dear Harp of my country ! in darkness I found thee, The cold chain of silence had hung o'er thee long, When proudly, my own Island Harp ! I unbound thee. And gave all thy chords to light, freedom, and song ! The warm lay of love and the light note of gladness Have wakened thy fondest, thy liveliest thrill ; But so oft hast thou echoed the deep sigh of sadness, That even in thy mirth it will steal from thee still. TRANSLATORS PREFACE. IX tion. Turn to Egypt^ to Chaldea, and to Arcadia, and do they not do the same ?* The houses of Austria and Ascot, single families, and much nearer home, trace up their origin to Noah himself. Yet all these pretensions, however exaggerated and in- consistent, and at variance with the cosmogeny given in Holy Writ, are, notwithstanding, listened to with something like attention, in deference, per- haps, to that '' Amor Patriae," that ever pardonable vanity, which they irresistibly obtrude upon us.f Other nations, also, that may have controlled their fancies within more moderate bounds, and confined their ascensions to more tangible aeras, have yet Dear Harp of my country ! farewell to thy numbers. This sweet wreath of song is the last we shall twine ; Go, sleep with the sunshine of Fame on thy slumbers, Till touched by some hand less unworthy than mine. If the pulse of the patriot, soldier, or lover, Have throbbed at our lay, 'tis thy glory alone ; I was hut as the wind, passing heedlessly over. And all the wild sweetness I waked was thy own. Moore's Irish Melodies. * The comparison of these names with that of Ireland will not appear so very preposterous, nor their juxta-position so very casual, when my " Essay upon the Round Towers" shall have been read. f To trace nations to their origin is among the most curiou* and delightful of intellectual pursuits : it establishes important facts ; illustrates sacred records ; and, while it confirms all the great truths of political science, it tends to gratify a patriotic vanity ; for nations, like individuals, are proud of being de- scended from illustrious ancestors. — Whitty. X translator's preface. been allowed some slight tincture of romance, and have improved the indulgence to the very '' poetry " of aspiration. In no instance that I am aware of have those claims been disputed, if we but except the nations above adduced, nor can that properly be called an exception, as the facts and assertions are virtually ceded, when the effort is made to explain them by an accommodated system of chronology. But if Ireland — distracted, impoverished Ireland — should raise her puny voice, and breathe an allusion to her primitive consequence, the sound would be so dissonant from authorised reports* — set forth by in- terested or mercenary scribes, confirmed by repeti- tion and ingenious circulation, while all attempts at disproval were studiously suppressed — that the world would look amazed at her impudence in the assumption, and reject at once, and without a hear- ing, her prejudged claims ! Shame, however, upon that policy which could war with the literature of a country ! and double shame upon that country which could allow itself, under any circumstances, to be so ♦ Peter Lombard, who was titular Archbishop of Armagh in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, states, in his Analecta, that the ** English governors endeavoured to destroy or carry away every monument of antiquity belonging to the Irish of which they could obtain possession ; and that a great number were shut up in the Tower of London, and consigned to forgetful- ness, which, if translated, would throw new and interesting light on religion and letters." translator's preface. xi debased, as to have its records swept away, its lights stifled, and its monuments obliterated, except such as accident may have saved, or laborious industry decyphered, from the scanty materials of inscriptions and names, without a single clue to guide the histo- rian in his path, or a single star but the polar one of truth, to steer his course by, in the midnight of his despairing ! *^ On turning," says Whitty, '' from the page of antiquity to the accounts of native annalists, we find the gloom which environs our inquiry pene- trated but by few gleams of brightness. The bigoted fury of her invaders, and the gothic policy of her rulers, have been busy with the historical documents of Ireland. The Dane and the Briton were alike hostile to the proofs of a former glory ; and what the Pagan spared the Christian sought to demolish.* Their relentless antipathy being so suc- cessful, perhaps the interest of truth would have suffered little had their baneful industry been greater. The records which survive are few, and of questionable authority. The information which is to be derived from them is confused and contra- * Booth, Analecta. p. 557, et seq. Lynch Carabr. Evers. pp. 41-157. The Magnates Hiberniae, in their remonstrance to Pope John XXII. charge the English government, of the 13th century, with the destruction of their laws. (Hearne, Scoti- chron. vol. iii. p. 908.) This spirit prevailed even in the time of Cromwell. His soldiers had a particular antipathy to the harp. Lynch Cambr. Evers. p. 37. Xll TRANSLATORS PREFACE. dictory. They establish no one fact of early Irish history in a satisfactory manner, and are much better calculated to perplex than to elucidate." From my soul 1 am puzzled to find a pallia- tive for such a system* — a system which, ere long,f must recoil with dismay before the triumphant blaze of innocence aggrieved — or if I must elicit some benefit from its heart-rending sorrows, it will be, in its affording some excuse for the culpable, and otherwise inexplicable, supinenessj that pervades all * Opus opinum casibus, atrox seditionibus, eiiam in pace sevum. — Livy, t What is a Crisis? Our great Lexicographer has well defined it, as " the point in which the disease kills, or changes to the better : the decisive moment when sentence is passed." Precisely to this point has Ireland arrived; her disease — sometimes slowly and imperceptibly, but always steadily, pro- gressive — has of late advanced with overpowering rapidity ; and the fiat must speedily go forth which can issue but in one alternative — healthful renovation, or final dissolution. — Char- lotte Elizabeth. No one affects to deny the awful importance of this junc- ture : two parties, for ages and centuries divided by an impas- sable barrier, now start up in simultaneous opposition to each other ; and both to a government which would unite them on a basis as repugnant to the darling prejudices of the one, as it is subversive of the vital principle that animates the other. — Chav lotte Elizabeth. X The idle indifference which we evince for the knowledge and preservation of our antiquities, is surely, to say the least of it, but little creditable to our nationality or our taste. In no part of Great Britain, we may safely venture to assert, TRANSLATORS PREFACE. XUl classes of the Irish^ as to the consideration of what they once were — a supineness which, I repeat, cannot else be accounted for, than by the successful opera- tion of that iniquitous policy,* by which they would at last seem habituated and reconciled to their de- gradation ! " In all, save form alone, how changed ! And who That marks the fire still sparkling in each eye — Who but would deem their bosoms burned anew With thy unquenched beam, lost Liberty !"t Let it not be supposed, however, that the sting of this impeachment is at all levelled against the present government, or even against those who have preceded them in the administration. No ; I can myself bear honourable testimony to the ready willingness with which they, and their august master, our gracious and most beloved sovereign, King William the would a similar feeling be found among the enlightened classes of society. — Dublin Examiner, 1816. It is extraordinary, how little interest the gentlemen of this county, and indeed of every other in Ireland, take in any pub- lication intended to promote the improvement of their country. Hely Dutton, Statist. Surv. Co. Clare, * We cannot, with Doctor Lynch and others, but lament the fatal policy of the English, who, until the reign of James the First, took all possible means to destroy our old writings, as they did those of Scotland, in the reign of Edward the First. They thought that the frequent perusal of such works kindled the natives to rebellion, from reminding them of the power and independence of their ancestors. — O'Connor Dissert, p. 139. t Byron. XIV TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. Fourth, encourage every pursuit that could supply the deficiency, or elucidate the purport, of our muti- lated annals. Nay more, I can affirm, that the taste — I had almost said the avidity, or rather the rage, as that is the more prevailing term — for Irish docu- ments, at this moment, in the British metropolis and in England altogether, exceeds any thing of the kind ever before witnessed ; and to such a pitch is it carried, that on every occasion upon which such docu- ments are advertised for sale in Ireland, the London booksellers send over agents to attend such sales ; and from the poverty of our community, and its decayed interest, at the same time, for all such research, I need not say, that, in almost every instance, the English are the purchasers. By the kind exertions of a literary friend,* who exhibits in his conduct an honorable contrast to the apathy of which I here complain, I have been furnished with an alphabetical catalogue of works that have lately produced, at the hands of Englishmen, in the city of Dublin, and at second hand, the respective sums affixed to each ; all considerably higher than the prices of publication. * Sir Charles Coote, Bart. This gentleman has, during the course of a long life, paid particular attention to the literature of his own country. No work has ever been published upon the history, the antiquities, or the statistics thereof, of which he has not made it a point to procure a copy. The consequence is, that he now possesses the most authentic and best assorted Irish library of any in the kingdom. TRANSLATORS PREFACE. XV and incomparably more so than what a mere regard to value could have elicited. My charge, therefore, cannot apply to the present government, or to the present race of Englishmen at all ; but to governments and races of an anterior date, who, in the fell work of spoliation, yielded not to the Ostmen or Danes,* — our ruthless foes, and the foes of all moral culture — -whilst they surpassed them far, in the dexterous ingenuity, and masked insincerity, with which they effected their ravages.f These are the persons whom I would impugn ; and grievously concerned am I to add, that on the fair face of the land itself, sustained by its bounty , and invigorated by its atmosphere, % are to be found in- * The invaders of Ireland in the ninth century consisted of a mixed crew of Danes, Frisians, Norwegians, Swedes, and Livonians. The ancient Irish distinguished them into two septs from the colour of their hair ; one being called Fion-gail, or Fin-gal, the White Strangers, and the other Dubh-gail, the Black Strangers. Fingal is supposed to have been settled by the former, and Donegal by the latter. — McGregor. t Walsh thus pathetically laments the ruin of his country by the Danes and Ostmen : — *' There was no monarch now, (the ninth century,) but the saddest interregnum ever any Christian or heathen enemies could wish ; no more king over his people, but that barbarous heathen Turgesius ; no more now the ' Island of Saints.' " X The climate of Ireland, and the fertility of its soil, have been praised by all writers, as well friends as foes, who have at all alluded to the topic. Orosius says, ** Ireland, though less extensive than Britain, is, from the temperature of its climate. XVI TRANSLATORS PREFACE. dividuals, and they too not few, who^ calling them- selves Irishmen, and affecting all the pride insepa- rable from the name, do yet — from some obliquity better supplied with useful resources." — L. 1, c. 2. Isidore states, ** it is smaller than Britain, but more fertile from its situation." — Orig. L. 14, c. 6. The venerable Bede observes, that ** Ireland greatly surpasses Britain in the healthfulness and serenity of its air." — Hist. Ec. L. 1 , c. 1. And Camden, *' Nature surely must have looked upon this zephyric kingdom v^^ith its most benignant eye." — Brit. p. 7*27. Whilst the vera- cious and impartial (?) Cambrensis himself adds, that, " Of all climates Ireland is the most temperate ; neither Cancer's violent heat ever drives them to the shade, nor Capricorn's cold invites them to the hearth ; but from the softness and peculiar tem- perature of the atmosphere, all seasons are there genial and tepid." Again — '• Neither infectious fogs, nor pestilential winds, nor noxious airs, are ever felt there ; so that the aid of doctors is seldom looked for, and sickness rarely appears ex- cept among the dying." — Top. Hib. Diet. 1. 25, 27. Would that this last named writer had but done as nnuch justice to its inhabitants ! " The climate is so salubrious,'' says Carr, " that we find by history those plagues which so much devastated England had rarely reached Ireland. The leaves seldom fall till Novem- ber ; from the almost constant motion of its atmosphere, and the balmy softness of it, Ireland has been for ages past called the ' Land of Zephyrs ;' it was also called, on account of the beauty of its verdure, * the Emerald Isle,' and the * Green Island in the West.' " — Stranger in Ireland, p. 129. To the great and peculiar extent of calcareous or limestone strata of which our island is composed, we may chiefly attri- bute the fertility of our soil, and the salubrity of our climate ; and if we dared venture to fathom the intentions of an Almighty and beneficent providence, we would point to this geological 'TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. XVll of intellect or perverseness of intention — think they amplify their importance by vilifying* their native soil ; — and — to bring their dastardly desertion to a still greater climax — only recognize respectability as imported from abroad !f peculiarity, as a single instance of his wisdom and goodness, as, exposed as we are to the exhalations of the Atlantic, and the influence of westerly winds, our soil would otherwise be unpro- ductive and our climate unhealthy. To the same cause is to be attributed much of the peculiarly romantic beauty of which we may justly boast; our waterfalls without number, our subter- ranean rivers, our natural bridges, our perpendicular sea cliffs, and, above all, our fairy caverns; all these are in almost every instance the result of this extensive calcareous formation, and are consequently found in no other country of the same extent, in equal variety, beauty, and abundance. Most strange it is, that a land so blessed and ornamented by the hand of pro- vidence should be so little appreciated and too often aban- doned by those to whom its fertility gives wealth, and to whom its beauty should give delight and happiness. — Dublin Penny Journal. * Why will the Protestants of Ireland permit this unfounded obloquy to rest on their beautiful country, ay, and too ojtenjoin in the aspersive cry, when even a glance at their own homes might convince them, that the moral blight exhales not from the innocent bogs of poor Ireland. — Charlotte Elizabeth. ■\ Revelling in all the pleasures and delights of rich and royal Italy, smiling with the beauties of that sunny soil — whilst many of his poor tenantry were weeping from want, and shiver- ing from cold and hunger — the lord of the manor was patron- izing the fine arts, and collecting, at great expense, costly ornaments and other objects to adorn his mansion in England, when he should return satiated with the fascinations and volup- tuous attractions of the continent. — Viscount Glentworth, xviii translator's preface. ** Poor, paltry slaves I yet born midst noblest scenes — Why, Nature, waste thy wonders on such men ? * " * * * « Not such were the fathers your annals can boast. Who conquered and died for the freedom you lost! Not such was your land in her earlier hour — The day-star of nations in wisdom and power I"* To their own reflections, however, and to the con- tempt and condemnation of an enlightened, an in- dignant public, I consign such renegades, whilst I return to the subject whence I have been thus forced to digress. How to account, then, for this new spirit amongst the English public, to cultivate an acquaintance with the antiquities of Ireland, which they had so long neglected and so long affected to despise — a spirit too, so insatiable, that it will not now confine itself to works of acknowledged merit and reputed vera- city, but extends even to those which should have been exploded as fictions or absurd exaggerations— I con- fess myself wholly unprepared. One thing, however, is evident, that they are at last become sensible of the injustice with which we have so long been treated, and, feeling their own judgment at the same time not fairly dealt with in the misrepresentations imposed upon them, they have — with the character- istic honesty for which ^^ John Bull" is remarkable, if his prejudices and errors be but fairly removed, and Byi TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. XIX the spirit, at the same time, with which he resents every such insult offered to his understanding — re- solved, as much as possible, to atone for the past, by enabling themselves to judge as to the question at issue for the future. But while lending myself as the translator of Dr. Villanueva's book, from my wish to extend all dis- quisitions bearing upon my country's renown, I must observe that I am not at all insensible to certain, as I conceive, aberrations, in his literary view^s, besides those which I have taken the liberty altogether to erase. That the Phoenicians had been in Ireland he is quite right to maintain. But as to the share they had in the early splendor of the country — the nature of their sojourn — and who had preceded them— as it would not become me here to discuss, I shall, unshackled by the apprehension of being con- sidered selfish, refer the reader, who wishes to have the true history oi ancient Ireland yr;r once laid be- fore his mind's eye, to my Essay upon the " Round Towers "* of that country, in which I promise him * Dr. Villanueva's error as to tlie origin and destination of those mysterious structures is one in which he may well coa- sole himself by the number of fellow-sufferers who have before foundered upon the same sandbank. When Cambrensis, Val- iancy, Montmorenci, Dalton, Beaufort, Milner, in short all the writers, as well natives as foreigners, who have alluded to the topic for the last seven hundred — I may say, fifteen hundred — years, have been at fault on this theme, it is not to be wondered at that this eminent philologist, should add another c 2 XX translator's preface. he will find this long mystified question at length, and to a demonstration, irresistibly elucidated. If, however, I may be allowed a passing observa- tion, without anticipating the subject here, it would be to say that the Phoenicians were only the carriers of that very ancient and sacred tribe, designated em- phatically '' Tuatha Dedanan," that is, the " Deda- nite diviners," who planting themselves in Ireland, after their expulsion from the east,* raised the isle — unit to the number of the shipwrecked. But he can well spare this and a few other almost inevitable defalcations, which, like spots upon the sun's disc, only serve to make the general talent which pervades his treatise the more brilliantly prominent. As the reader may, perhaps, wish to see a specimen of this venerable old gentleman's epistolary style, I subjoin the copy of a note which he addressed to me on my expressing a wish to see him after a separation of six or seven weeks, during which 1 had secluded myself, to adjust my thoughts upon the ** Towers," — viz : — *' ./. X. Villanueva Henrico O^Brien salutem dicens, '* O care amice ! Et quare tu, qui junior es, non dignaris ad me venire ? Vix i dome exeo, nam non bene valeo. Nihil- bominus, te adire curabo, si vires suppetant. Benevale, et ut soles, ama tuum amicum. "6Junii, 1832. J. L. Villanueva." * The rare and interesting tract on twelve religions, entitled *« The Dabistan," and composed by a Mahomedan traveller, a native of Cashmere, named Mohsam, but distinguished by the assumed surname of Fani, or Perishable, begins with a wonder- fully curious chapter on the religion of Hushang, which was long anterior to that of Zeratusht, but had continued to be se- cretly professed by many learned Persians, even to the author's time : and several of the most eminent of them dissenting, in TRANSLATORS PREFACE. XXI which'ithey also denominated from their former place of abode — to that pinnacle of literary and religious reputation which made it a focus of intellect in the old pagan world. Of this distinguished caste of people — who, by the w^ay, built the " Round Towers/' those standing records of our primitive scientific culture, — the Phoe- nicians were only the transporters ; yet had they the dexterity — by reason of their indispensible agency as navigators, and the power with which they com- manded the dominion of the seas— to monopolize the whole credit of civilizing the human race, which was onli/ true in as far as they joined by (heir ship- ping the different quarters of the globe. Here, then, is the source of those egregious blun- ders, which all our historians have committed in reference to the Phoenicians, at once cut away ; and another mistake emanating from this, and in the many points, from the Gabrs, and persecuted by the ruling powers of their country, had retired to India ; where they com- piled a number of books, now extremely scarce, which Mohsam had perused, and with the writers of which, or with many of them, he had contracted an intimate friendship: from them he learned that a powerful monarchy had been established for ages in Iran, before the accession of Cayumers; that it was called the Mahabadean diaasty, for a reason which will soon be mentioned ; and that many princes, of whom seven or eight only are named in the Dabistan, and among them Mohbul, or Maha Beli, had raised that empire to the zenith of human glory. If we can rely on this evidence, which to rae appears tmexccptionable, the Iranian monarchy must have been the oldest in the world. — Sir W. Jones. XXii TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. case of Ireland, more seductive in its overtures, is now, in consequence, easily obviated. It was too fashionable with the gentlemen who have preceded me in the drudgery of Irish antiqua- rian research, to flatter the self-love of the present Milesian natives— of whom I am proud to boast my- self one—by ascribing to their colony those high- flown scenes of primeval grandeur of which Ireland was undoubtedly at one time the theatre; and of which too, without being able adequately to grapple with the point, or to adduce any thing like substantial insight into either its date, nature, or promoters, those writers, had, notwithstanding, some superficial, in-- definite and vague, conceptions. No position in history was ever more false. So far from the Mile- sians, who were a mixed Scythian colony, implicit followers of Zaoaster and not Spaniards,* (as the Dr. has himself admitted) being — as a nation — lovers of literature, they cultivated, on the contrary, a pro- fession — that of arms — which affected to scorn it as an effeminate luxury. Nor was it until by an admixture * They merely touched at Spain on their way to Ireland from Scythia, keeping up, however, a friendly intercourse with the Spaniards after their arrival in Ireland, for the hospitable accommodation which they had experienced on their coasts. They retained their name, Scythi, Scoti, or Scythians, until the eleventh century, when they resigned it to the Scots, a colony of their own from Ireland, and resumed, instead, one of the more ancient names of the country, viz. Ire, with the affix, landf making the compound " Ireland." TRANSLATORS PREFACE. XXUl with their learned predecessors in the occupation of the soil, and witnessing the charms of their refined pursuits — in which they were allowed still to indulge, though unaccompanied with those religious peculiari- ties for the celebration of which they had erected the "Round Towers/' and which the Milesians^ upon their conquest, had cancelled and obliterated — it was not until then, I say, that the latter, fired by the moral ether which the lessons of their new slaves had in- spired, got infected with the sublimity of their en- nobling acquirements, and set themselves down, accordingly, tp emulate their instructors. Having mentioned the subject of the "Round Towers" of Ireland, as a rock upon which the anti- quaries of all countries have so miserably split — not less as to their ''destination and uses,'' than the era of their erection — I may be excused if in the honest fervor of patriotic triumph, undamped hy the chill- ness of ill-requited success, I should proclaim that those several difficulties have at last been solved, and the history of those structures made as obvious to every capacity as if the whole catalogue of their de- tails had been graven upon their walls with the im- pressive incision of steel upon adamant. Low and contemptible have been the purposes which shallow speculators,^ or interested calumniators, have at- tempted to associate with those noble edifices ; but ■ — the mist once dispelled — those Round Towers will stand forward as the proof — not only of that envied XXIV TRANSLATORS PREFACE. antiquity which our bards have so chaunted — but of the literary and religious taste which gave rise to those buildings, and of the grand and philosophic principle which guided the architect in giving;them their peculiar form. But to return, another objection remains yet to be disposed of before I relieve the reader's patience, per- haps already too much exhausted, and that is, the un- fitness of ?i foreigner for the performance of a task, in- volving, it would seem, a personal knowledge of the topography of the Island, the prejudices and habits, the character and genius of the various sects and denominations by whom the place is inhabited, with some interest in their fortune, or identity of feeling in their welfare. The compass of their views must be very limited indeed who think that to be master of those various requisites it could be necessary to pass a life on the theatre of debate. Without stop- ping, therefore, any farther to expose the lameness of this argument — who, let me ask, was the author of that composition, which, professing to be a history of Ireland, and its conquest (?)*by Henry the Second, was, in reality, nothing more than a tissue of falsehood and abuse, concocted in the spirit of indi- * They were never conquered by any people until betrayed to Henry II, in 1172, who bestowed the sovereignty upon his son John : but yet the kings of England were never called only lords of Ireland till the title of " king" was bestowed on Henry VIII. by the Irish states themselves in parliament. — Hales. TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. XXV vidual * and national hatred, additionally inflamed by an engrossing vanity, f and a profligate disre- regard even to ordinary decency in its indulgence J — * This was against Aubin O'Molloy, a monk of the order of Citeaux, and abbot of Baltinglass, by whom he was defeated in a quarrel. t His anticipations of repute and literary immortality from the performaaice, he thus pompously put forth in his preface : '• Ore legar populi perque orana secula fama. Si quid habent veri vatum presagia vivam." But hear what '* Gratianus Lucius," the assumed name of John Lynch, Archdeacon of Tuam, 1662, says of him — ** Li- bros suos plebeculae spurcitiis inquinavit, et vulgi naevis toti genti ab ipso adscriptis farcire constituit, sicut aratiea virus e thymo, mel apis exsugit ; sic e pessimis quibus que quorumvis Hibernorum moribus fasciculum ille fecit, missa faciens quae apud Hibernos praeclariora repererat. Sordes tamen istas ille pro gemmis habere visus est, quas eligens et excipiens tanquam elegantiora praesenti volumine digessit, instar suis cui magis volupe est sterquilinii volutabro quam inter suavissimos quos- que odores se versare." cap. 5. p. 41. Hear, also, what Ware, in his ** Antiquities," says of his imitators, ** Atqui nonpossura non mirari viros aliquos hujus saeculi, alioqui graves et doctos, tig- menta ea Geraldi niundo iterum pro veris obtrusisse." What would he say, had he lived to see more modern scribblers, such as Dempster, Abercromby, Mackenzie, '^ et hoc genus omne" unredeemed by any of the above qualifications, (graves et doctos,) but with igaoranrce corresponding to their dishonest audacity, appropriating our history to their own private use; and to that end, not only denying us those advantages which even our enemies before allowed us, but like the asp that borrows its venom from the viper, adopting hatred against Ire- land, as a legitimate inheritance, and calculating on impunity from its prostration and decay. X Having spent five years in composing this Jine work, the five books of his pretended history of Ireland came forth. In XXVI TRANSLATORS PREFACE. under the sanction, I admit, and auspicies of a wily monarch, who wanted such an instrument to veriiy the misstatements of " barbarism and impiety" with which he had himself previously loaded the Irish, and by virtue of which he had extorted that bull from the pope * conferring on him a right (how generous !) raptures with this Dew production of his genius, and unable to conceal his vanity, he repairs to Oxford, where, in presence of learned doctors and the assembled people, he read, after the example of the Greeks, his ** Topography" during three succes- sive days, giving to each book an entire day. To render the comedy more solemn, he treated the whole town splendidly for three days : the first was appropriated to the populace — the second to the doctors, professors, and principal scholars of the University — and lastly, on the third day he regailed the other students, with the soldiers and citizens of the town. ** A noble and brilliant action," says the author himself, "whereby the ancient custom of the poets has been renewed in England ! ! ! " Ussher, Syllog. ed. par. ep. 49, p. 84, 85. " Than vanity there's nothing harder hearted ; For thoughtless of all sufferings unseen. Of all save those which touch upon the round Of the day's palpable doings, the vain man. And oftner still the volatile woman vain, Is busiest at heart with restless cares, Poor pains and paltry joys, that make within. Petty yet turbulent vicissitudes." * Adrian was himself an Englishman, and consequently the less indisposed to listen to this application. His Bull is given at full length by Cambrensis and by Bishop Burgess ; —see also Leland's History of Ireland, vol. i. 8. It granted the sove- reignty of Ireland to Henry, who was interested in its subjec- tion on account of the annoyance it afforded him, and the aid it sent his enemies, upon the condition of the pajrmeatof " Peter's translator's preface. xxvii to the invasion of our country^ and, thereby^ /or the Jirsf time,* A, D. 1156, subjecting us at once to the authority of a foreign Crown, and the spiritual sur- veillance of the Roman See and Pontiff ?f — Who, I pence" in Ireland, which had never before been paid there; alledging the absurd claim, *' Hiberniam et omnes insulas qui- bus sol justitiie illuxit, et qii:€ documenta fidei Christianie acce- perunt ad jus B. Petri, non est dubium, pertinere." It then hypocritically exhorts him to inculcate morality and to plant Christianity, as if we had it not in its splendour and purity already, in Ireland! ** Stude gentem illam bonis moiibus in- formare et agas, tam per te quara per alios quos ad hoc fide, rerbo ac vita idoneos esse perspexeris, ut decoretur ibi Ecclesia, plantetur et crescat fidei Christianae religio." Alexander III. his successor, confirmed this Bull in 1173, and added insult to iniquity in representing the Irish as " barbarous," and " Chris- tians only in name." The Irish, it is true, spiritedly and nobly resented these intrusions to Vivian, Alexander's legate, at the synod of Waterford, held by Henry, 1177 ; but there it ended! * The Irish, who in the eighth century were known by the name of Scots, were the only dirines who refused to dishonour their reason by mbmitting it implicitly to the dictates of autho<. rity. Naturally subtle and sagacious, they applied their phi- losophy to the illustration of the truths and doctrines of religion, a method which was almost generally abhorred and exploded in all other nations. This subtlety and sagacity enabled them to comprehend with facility the dialectic art, and their profound knowledge of the Greek language contributed materially to the same end. This made them view with contempt the pitiful corapendiums of theology extracted from the fathers, and which the unlearned ecclesiastics of other countries accepted as oracles. — Mosheim . t This ominous title — attached for more than a thousand years to the regal and imperial dignity from Numa, b. c. 789, to Gratian, a, d. 375, who renounced its pagan office and name. XXVIU TRANSLATORS PREFACE. repeat, was the author of that imposture, every word of which its vile asserter, from compunction of con- science for the injustice rendered to an innocent and heroic nation, was oWiged subsequently to retract — though too late, alas ! to neutralize the poison which the baneful tenor of his combined subserviency to courtly favour and individual spite, — so opposite to the character of the true historian, — had but too successfully and extensively propagated ? Why, truly, it was a foreigner and a stranger — Gerald Barry — or Cambrensis, as he is generally called — from Cambria, the Latin for Wales,* his native as interfering with those of the high- priest of our profession, Jesus Christ — but ill accords in its assumption of spiritual and temporal dominion, with the meek spirit of Christianity as' ori- ginally founded. " My kingdom," says our Saviour, **is not of this world" — And when there arose a dispute among the apostles which should be accounted the greatest, he said, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and they that exercise authority over them are called benefactors," — euergetest benefactor, was a favourite title of the Macedo-Grecian kings of Syria and Egypt, as we sometimes denominate our sovereigns the "fountain of mercy and honour," — '* but it shall not be so with you." John xviii. 36 ; Luke xxii. 95. It is not known which of the popes first assumed the title, but Boniface III. — who, A. D. 636, first arrogated to himself the unchristian one of ** Uni- versal Bishop," which Gregory the Great, A. D. 590, had rejected with horror, calling himself in opposition thereto by the lowly designation of " servant of the servants of God," seems the most likely. — Hales. * Ina, king of the West Saxons, married a second time, ** Gaula," daughter of Cadwalladar, the last king of the Britons, and in her right inherited Cambria, thenceforward called by TRANSLATORS PREFACE. XXIX country — and yet his unfitness on that score was never questioned at the time, though possessing no other knowledge of the country than what could be gleaned from the sojourn of a few short months, during which he was domesticated at the castle as tutor to the king's son, where his sources of informa- tion were necessarily circumscribed — his ignorance of the native language being one great bar, aug- mented by the narrow limits of the English power within the island, amounting to no more than about one-third of its territorial extent — whilst even the scanty materials which such opportunities afforded were polluted and vitiated by the medium through which they passed, and the sinister influence which guided their expression ! But why dwell upon this instance of failure in a foreigner undertaking a province which he was not competent to discharge, when I should rather adduce those cases of splendid success in which foreigners have ventured as historians of other coun- tries, and won laurels in the attempt, as creditable to their labours, as they have been honourable to their subjects ? Merely to expose the illiberality, and her name " Wales," with Cornwall and the British crown. He was the first who was crowned king of the Anglo-Saxons and British conjointly, A. D. 1712 ; and the first measure of this wise prince, "by the advice and consent of all the bishops and chiefs, and the wise men and people of the whole kingdom,'* was, to unite the two nations by intermarriages as speedily as possible. XXX TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. make the action of their machinery, recoil upon those knaves themselves, who would uphold a princi- ple whilst it furthers their own objects — but no longer interested in the extension of the rule — scornfully reject it as an abortive bantling, though divested, perhaps, of the imbecility which disfigured their pre- cedent, nay, strengthened and adorned by the oppo- site graces. That I may not, however, altogether omit some instances of the description above adverted to, will it not suffice to mention the names of De Lome and Mills ; the former of whom, with a very superficial knowledge of the localities of England, has given a dissertation on its constitution that has earned for him — from its natives not more than from the whole civilized world — as much honour as the sub- ject itself had excited admiration in the bosom of the author; whilst the other, without ever having so much as set a foot in India, or within many thousand miles of its coast, has, notwithstanding, written a history of that country, the most comprehensive and satisfactory that has yet come from any pen. Coolly, therefore, and dispassionately to argue the point, I see no reason why a foreigner may not be as competent to enter the lists of literary adventure in the capacity of civil or local historian as any native — nay even more competent, if an unbiassed judgment, arising from a total disconnection with local preju- dices and parties, be considered a requisite ingredient for the exercise of such a trust. Or is Hterature with TRANSLATORS PREFACE. XXXi US alone, I would ask, such a corporate affair that none but the homeborn can intrude upon the mono- poly ? What will the sticklers for exclusion say, how- ever, when informed, that Dr.Villanueva in addition to the most varied and profound acquirements, embracing an intimacy with literature at large — has brought to the execution oithis favourite subject an acquaintance with our island, obtained not more from the writings of the ancients to whom its existence was familiar, than by a long sojourn and joer^omz/ residence amongst us, during which he has been occupied in digesting ma- terials for this work, and enriching his stores from our various libraries. But his principal and leading qualification, and what constitutes his peculiar fitness, in my mind, is his thorough mastership of the Hebrew language, of which the Phoenician was a dialect, and the affinity, of which with the Iberno- Celtic, or rather IhernO' Sanscrit, or ancient Irish, I may endeavour to elucidate in some future pages. This, then, is the lever with which, single-handed and unpreceded, he has encountered the difficulties of the Herculean combat ; and myself the venerable recesses of un- explored dates the basis of his plan, and the frag- ments of names and sacred inscriptions the fulcrum of his operations, he has removed that mountain of uncertainty and doubt which had so long obscured the horizon of our history, and — identified in spirit with the dignity of the cause — the cause as it is, of truth, of justice, and of letters — has triumphed in the XXXU TRANSLATORS PREFACE. enjoyment of literary renown acquired in the investi- gation of our long disputed ancestry. * * ** Cujus modi antiquitatis ne ipse quidem popuiusKomanus nominis sui testem proferre poterat autorem." — Ussher. — The value of this remark, emanating from so distinguished an autho- rity, 1 may be disposed hereafter to consider in a more appro- priate place. Meanwhile I feel that I cannot more happily conclude this discourse, than by extracting a sentiment from a very spirited publication, which has lately shot up in Dublin, and which — had it no other claims on public patronage than the chivalry it has evinced in embarking upon an ocean, where so many miscarriages have, in that department, occurred, and in thereby inviting into existence two similar periodicals which have since followed its example — should, I conceive, on this single score alone, receive countenance and encouragement from all enlightened Irishmen. The sentence I so admire, as in unison with my own feelings, is in a note, as follows : — The object of the writer of this article has been, to attack modern ecclesiastical corruptions under ancient names and forms ; he has therefore selected the historical materials or systems that suited his subject best, without the slightest in- tention of making an insidious or sectarian attack upon any description of believers, detesting as he does, from his soul, all sorts of polemical controversy, and convinced as he is, that its melancholy effects are at this day perceptible in the slavery of his country, which religious, or rather «Te%2o?/s differences, have caused, by dividing Irishmen against each other, who, if united, would be invincible ! Irish Monthly Magazine. — May, 1832. TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY. Gentlemen, Impressed with a sense of deep obligation to your country, celebrated for hospitality as it most justly is — not less so on this score, than because of the more imme- diate, and to me delightful, privilege of free access to the flourishing and magnificent libraries of your capital — a pri- vilege, I may add, which I value the more as deprived by adversity of my own little collection of manuscripts and books — I here respectfully tender to you, whose zeal for the elucidation of the " antiquities of Ireland" has been ever nobly conspicuous, this midnight effort of my pen, under- taken with a view to assist you in that task, and discharge, on my part, the offices, at once, of gratitude and of com- mendation. I might, indeed, give scope to my feelings in another form, and find materials, too, for the purpose, by drawing upon the fruits of a long literary life, no one moment of which, even when most disengaged, could be well called idle ; but, to your name, your reputation, and your assembly, foremost as they all stand in literary fame, 1 could conceive no offering either more appropriate or more apposite, than this enterprising excursion into the early periods of Irish D DEDICATION- history, to grope out, if happily to your satisfaction, from beneath the darkness of that beclouded age, the nations and the colonie.3 whence you derive your origin. If, however, in the attempt, my success shall be found not adequate to my expectations, yet shall I console my- self with the hope that this little ttact — on so interesting a topic as that of antiquity, which, as Quintilion well observed, whether local or universal, can never be too much studied, in regard to the incidents it may record, the characters it may develope, or the dates it may assign — may be found neither unwelcome nor unprofitable to the lovers of such pursuits ; and did I need any additional incitement to the luxury of this hope, I would find it in that praise, which you. Gentlemen, who must have often felt the influence of praise yourselves, have, after a diligent perusal of this my work, been pleased to bestow upon my humble labors. I have now only to beg that you will accept the Jirst fruits of that which you have before sanctioned with the high stamp of jour approbation ; and, while taking leave of your body, with every feeling of regard, may I be permitted to enforce my prayer, that you will — in accordance with the spirit of your previous career — proceed laudably and cheer- fully, by your diligence and your research — as well in push- ing your own enquiries, as in patronising those of others— to exalt the standard of yonr academic institution, and encir- cle new wreaths on the renascent genius of lerne.* JoACHiMus Laurentius Villanueva. * For the satisfaction of the classical scholar I give the ori- ginal of this and next chapter in the appendix. — H. O'B. PTOLOMYS ancient map of IRELAND, Ameuded and Modernized. Uy //crm, /Ir- ! \ lU til ft ratAjO of 34 and 60 par. do fy'jd ^ U ~-s PHCENTCIAN IRELAND. CHAP. I. Scope of the Work — Origin of first Inhabitants of Ireland uncertain — Way to trace it out — Difficulty of diving into early dates — Instance of this — Number and credibility of Irish historians — Foreign denominations of the old clans and localities of Ireland — Where to look for their etymology — The Author s acknowledgments as ivell to the more modern as the ancient writers zipon Irish topics — Not always safe to follow them. The origin of the early inhabitants of Ireland is not only ancient but uncertain, and not easily recon- cileable to the exact rules of proof. But though we must not altogether reject what tradition records of them, still it strikes me that in our pursuit after truth, the more likely road for its attainment would be to trace out the origin of the names of the several septs and tribes which from time to time have visited those shores ; a course which, as in other instances, will be found, if I mistake not, in this too, most con- vincingly demonstrative of their lineage, their pro- geny, and the country whence they emigrated. I d2 36 do not, however, mean to say that the conviction produced by such a search is in its nature so com- plete as that it may not even be superseded by other evidences; but this I assert^ that it is not contemptuously to be trifled with by ignorance or guess-work, and that until something more authentic in the shape of argument be adduced it ^.s entitled, at least, to a respectful hearing. If we consider hov/ dimcult a thing it is, as Pliny* well observed, to clothe antiquity in a modern costume, to give fashion to novelty, splendor to decay, light to obscurity, beauty to deformity, and belief to doubt, the mere endeavor after the object, however short it may fall of success, must, from the nobleness of the intention, command respect for its author ; so shall it be my humble boast that having been blessed with the advantages of literary ease, I thought I could not employ it better than by embarking in some such design, conscious that whatever be my fortune, my motives at least will be appreciated, as purely wishing, amidst the crowd of contributors that press forward at the present day, to offer my mite also towards the general stock of the republic of letters. But as the remarks which I mean to submit respect- * Res ardua Tetustis novitatem dare, novis auctoritatem, ob- soletis nitorem, obscuris lucem, fastiditis gratiam, dubiis fidem ; eatim non assecutis voluisse, abunde pulchrum atque raagnifi- cum est.— Hist. Nat. Praf. 37 ing the geographical names of this island, are neither few in number, nor inconsiderable in importance, involving, as they do, besides, an intimate acquaint- ance with the languages of the east and north, let it suffice for the present if, as a specimen, we but hint at the ancient names of our Irish clans, and the idol- atrous worship they indulged in, disregarding some sources of my own private conjectures, which, how- ever, I pledge myself shall be cheerfully supplied to any gentleman who may hereafter feel disposed to devote his patriotic pen to record the virtues and the heroism of this second Sparta. * In the mean time I flatter myself thr.t I shall not be alto- gether without reward in rendering those notes, of what value soever they be, interesting in their de- tails, as well to the admirers of what is amusing and light as to the more grave and austere student. It is greatly to be regretted that tho' no nation on the globe has been ever known to be more ob- servant of its antiquities,f nor more studiously care- * Dr. Villanueva having consigned to me those papers al- luded to in this sentence, the best use, I conceive, I can make of thera is to bestow them upon the public in the shape of an appendix to the present volume. f This extraordinary regard which the Scoto-Milesians, like the Jews, paid to their history and the genealogy of their fami- lies, bespeaks a nation equally polished and educated. By a fundamental regulation of the state it was necessary to prove connection with the royal house of Milesius before you could either ascend the throne, assume the sovereignty of any of the provinces, or be appointed to any capacity, military or magis- 38 ful of every thing that could appertain to their chronology, the deeds of their ancestors, the boun- daries of their jurisdictions, and their laws, than this has been, there should still appear such a mist of darkness spread before our path when we would in- vestigate the origin of its primitive settlers. This obscurity is the more to be deplored from the cha- racter given by Camden of the Irish records, viz. that " compared to them the antiquity of all other nations appeared as novelty, and, as it were, the condition of incipient childhood."^ Deplore it, however, as we may, it has been occasioned, in no small degree, by the odd and outlandish designations given to the different tribes, as well as to many of the towns, cities, mountains, lakes, and rivers, which seem to have no affinity with the idiom of the natives, nay, to be utterly at variance with it ; so terial. The office of the antiquarians, instituted by Ollamh Fodia, as part of the triennial council of the celebrated Tara, and whose duty it was to watch over those genealogies and per- petuate the memory of their houses, was under the strictest control of scrutinizing commissioners appointed for that pur- pose, and the heaviest penalties were wont to be enforced against such as were found to prevaricate in the slightest par- ticular. He enacted, besides, that copies of all registries which upon such examination were found pure, should be inserted in the great registry called the *' Psalter of Tara;'* and this practice and institution was continued and flourished up to the times of Christianity and long after. * Adeo et, proe illis, omnis omnium gentium antiquitas sit novitas et quod-ammodo infantia. — Carnd. Brit.ed. Lond, p. 728. 39 much so, that Strabo's declaration* respecting the illiterately-barbarous and geographical terms of Spain's first inhabitants, and the places to which they alluded — which, by the way, proceeded from ignorance on his part of the languages they were derived from — has been repeated of the Irish, with literal precision, by O 'Flaherty ,f a writer in other respects well-informed, and who has thrown no small light, too, upon the antiquities of his country. For instance, the names of our early progenitors, as enumerated by Ptolemy, he, forsooth, describes as no less outlandish in their sound than the names of the savages in some of the American for est s,X He * Plura autem Hispaniae populorum nomina apponere piget fugientem taedium injucundse scriptionis : nisi forte alicui volupe est audire Pletauros, Barduetas, et AUotrigas et alia his deteriora obscurioraque nomina. — Grogr. lib. iii. These are Strabo's words ; but is it not strange that a writer who ac- knowledges the settlement of Phoenician colonists in Betica and Celtiberia, should not have recognized in these denomina- tions the Syriac sources whence they sprung? For the name, Pletaurij is compounded of the Phoenician words, pletch aur, meaning a host of inhabitants in the enjoyment of freedom; or o{ pleta 2ir, a host of inhabitants living in a valley. The name, BarduetcB, is also Phoenician, from bardothe, residing in a wood or a grassy country. The AUotrigce were two Phoenician tribes established amongst the Celtiberi, whence their name alh-thri- iga, a divided people inhabiting an elevated country. But these and similar names of the ancient Spanish clans, ema- nating from Phoenician and Celtic sources, were any thing but agreeable to Grecian ears. t Ogyg, sen. Rer. Iber. Chron. p. 1, pag. 16. X In this rhodomantade of OTlaherty he was much more 40 even adds, " We are no less ignorant, for the most part, of the import of the names Ausona,* or Ausoba, accurate than he intended, or, as the English say of our coun- trymen, *• he blundered himself into the right." Little did he know how near a connexion there existed between the two peo- ple whom he affected thus ridiculously to associate; and any one who attends to the position which I subjoin, independently of many others which could be brought in support of it, will admit the happiness of this unintentional coincidence. The Algankinese are the most influential and commanding people in the whole of North America. Their name in Irish indicates as much, viz. algan-kine, or kine-algan, a nohle community^ corresponding to the Phoenician words al-gand-gens, which means the same thing. The language of this people is the master language of the whole country, and what is truly re- markable, understood as Baron de Humboldt asserts, by all the Indian nations except two. What then are we to infer from this obvious affinity ? Why, undoubtedly, that a colony of that same people who first inhabited Ireland, and assigned to its several lo- calities those characteristic names,which so disconcerted the har- mony of Mr. O'FIaherty's acoustic organs, had fixed themselves at an early date in what has been miscalled the ^* new world." * Ausoba, or Ausona, is the ancient name of a river in the western region of Connaught nearNagnata or Gallina, mentioned by Ptolemy. Some think it to be the river Galvia [or rather the Suck] in Galway ; others Lough Corbes, [or rather Cor- rib]. The name is, however, almost universally supposed to mean **a frith," from the old Britannic words, Auise aba, an •* eruption of water,'* or the old Irish words, Ause obba, of the same import, (Collect, de reb. Heb. iii. p. 284). To my mind both names appear Phoenician. Ausoba, from auz ob, means a narrow bay. Ausona, from aits-on, a resounding river, rich in water. In that part of Spain called Farsaconeses, the Hes- ania Citerior of the Romans, in the canton of the Ilergetes, between Manresa and Gerunda, beside the river Sambroca, there stood an ancient city called Ausona, or Ausa, which 41 Daurona,* lernus^f Isammum^J Laberus,§ Macoli- cum^ll Ovoca/'^ &c. ; and to crown all, "Even the few gave name to the people called Ausetani. Being destroyed by the Arabians, after their invasion of that country, and restored to its original level, it was called Vicus Ausonoe, and by the natives, A^ich de Osona, now merely Vieh. There is, also, in the canton of the Asturas, a chain of mountains called Ausona ; in Canta- bria we find Mount Ansa ; in Boetica the city of Osuna ; in the country of the Vacedi are the towns Ausejo and Ausines; in Cel- tiberia the valley of Auso ; and other names of this kind, of Phoe- nician birth, which borrow their names from the adjacent rivers. * Daurona is derived from the Phoenician words duron, a wealthy people. Spain had an old city in the canton of the Celtiberians called Duron, and the ruins of which are to be seen to this day. But the name of the river Duro in Spain, as well as of the river Dour in the county Cork (or rather county Kerry, called now, the Mang,) in Ireland, comes from the Celtic word deir, a river, t lernus, (now Kenmare river,) either from the Phoenician lerain, pious, religious, or from the Greek lerne, corrupted, as we shall shew in a subsequent chapter, from the Phoenician Jherin, and intimating Ireland. I Isaranium, (now St. John's Foreland,) from Isaninij ancient, or Izanim, armed people. § Laberiis, an ancient city in Ireland, recorded by Ptolemy, and called the capital of the Voluntii by Richard of Ciren- cester, (now Kildare,) was celebrated for the idolatrous super- stition of the Druids there pre-eminently cultivated. It is derived from the Phoenician words lahab era, a flame in a cave. Of the perpetual fire preserved by the sacrificing priests in the temples of their idols, or in caves, and here alluded to, we shall have occasion to speak more at large in the sequel. II Macolicum, (now Killmallock,) from macolim, the staffs or walking sticks of travellers ; as in Gen. xxxii. 10, «* For with my staff I passed over this Jordan.'* Metaphorically applied to a nation on a journey. % Ovoca, the ancient name of a river and bay in the eastern 42 names/' he says, '' which may perhaps be understood are in their meaning as vitiated and as corruptly perverted as the places themselves are decayed by time," Surely so distinguished a writer would not have so expressed himself had he but taken the trouble to compare such names with the source and origin whence they emanated. It may happen, indeed, in spite of us, and to our great detriment, I allow, that we may sometimes meet with obscure, nay, inexplicable, terms amongst the names given of old to some of our states, our cities, our rivers, or our mountains ; but this will be found, for the most part, to have occurred through the fault of historians and antiquarians mystifying words otherwise clear, and arbitrarily affixing to them whatever meaning may have been first sug- gested by either their caprice or their ignorance. How much more temperately, and at the same time more correctly, does that celebrated Irish historian, O'Connor, in his Rer. Iber. script, vet. 1, p. xlvi. seq. express himself on this head. " If we but com- pare," says he, ^^ the Irish names handed down by Ptolemy, severally, with the British, and afterwards with the Spanish names which he has also preserved. section of Ireland, named by Ptolemy, and by some supposed to be the river Arklow, by others the Dublin Bay, is derived from the Phoenician voe^ he emptied, he evacuated ; whence the Arabic ohec^ or abicy a water-conduit, a pipe whereby water is conveyed into a bath. 43 we must needs acknowledge that by far the greater part of them are Spanish, bearing reference to times of the most distant date, and as such accord with those accounts which we have heard respecting the very early landing of the Phoenicians in this ' holy island.' "* This erudite writer accordingly steered clear of the opinion of those who, pinning their faith upon some would-be antiquarians, affirm that almost all the names of our ancient tribes and colonists cor- respond with the genius of the native idiom, and must therefore be derived therefrom. Other critics, with more chastened taste, and no small degree of merit, derive them in part from the Celtic, in part from the Cambrian, in part, too, from the Cambrian and the old Teutonic ; but neither with these do I agree in all particulars, seeing that they would fain grub out from other sources, and no matter at what pains or cost, what I am convinced in my soul are derived from the spirit of the Phoenician language, and from that only. Bulletus I conceive one of those who have been thus led astray, being, as has been already observed by a gentlemanf profoundly conversant in the anti- quities of this country, evidently at much pains in his commentaries upon the ^^ Celtic Tongue" to * For the origin of this' name see Preface, or chap, xxxiv. sub. fin. t The English translator "of D. Mallet's work, *« De Sep- tentrionalibus Antiquitatibus," preface, page 14. 44 wrest, if possible, from that source, the names of most of our cities, towns, rivers, &c. Nor was Lhuyd more successful in his collation of the Irish with the Cantabrian language, bearing, as they do, infinitely less analogy, one to the other, than the Irish and the Phoenician.* I pass over, without notice, the names of other writers, who have displayed a good deal of industry, and to very little profit, upon the geographical names of this island. The truth is these gentlemen, with all their learn- ing, have not sufficiently sifted the rubbish of the Phoenician language, preserved and perpetuated in those names by the peasantry themselves, though knowing nothing, as we may suppose, of the authors of the contrivance ; and this observation I have had occasion to make before upon the geographical names of Spain, which, in my treatise upon the geo- graphy of that country, I have attempted to prove as emanating from the same source. And as it must be admitted on all hands that the marksman who aims at the object itself, however distant or elevated, is less likely to miss the line of direction, than he who would be content with grazing the circular superficies, therefore have I ventured to launch my vessel at once into the depths of the Phoenician fountains, there to explore, and mayhap with success. * S^e Essay on the Antiquity of the Irish Language, being a collation of the Irish with the Punic. Dub. 1772. 45 the genuine and true solution of those complicated denominations. The neglect of this on the part of a writer* who has otherwise shewn consummate information on Irish affairs, leads him to suspect that the Phoenicians did only occasionally touch upon the Irish coasts for the purposes of commerce, both export and import ; and that in the course of time, Britain, by reason of its wealthy tinf mines, holding out to them more commercial inducements, became, consequently, a more favorite rendezvous. Here he thinks it pro- bable that they built themselves temporary huts, in the capacity of purveyors for merchant's cargoes : and these abodes, he conceives, not to have lasted beyond the period of the third Punic war, when Car- thage J was destroyed, and Spain laid claim to by the Romans. * Vallancey, Collect, de Reb. Ibern. vol. iii. page 405, 406. j- The abundance of this metal it was that gave rise to the name of Britain, being compounded of Bruit, " tin," and Tan, ** country ;" corresponding to *' Cassiterides," the mercantile name given by the Phoenicians to both Ireland and England. I The Carthagenians were a colony of the Phoenicians, who, on account of domestic dissensions, had quit their native home, and built themselves a new city, which they called Carthada, or Carthage, which means as much, in contradistinction to Tyre, their former residence. The precise time of its founda- tion is unknown ; yet writers seem to agree that it was about 869 years before the Christian era, or according to others, 72 or 93 years before the foundation of Rome. The wars which this people maintained against the Romans — and which origin. 46 In the mean time I would have it distinctly un- derstood that I do not deny but that some of those names may have been of Irish (that is of Iberno- Celtic) origin. Nay, I readily admit the fact. This only I maintain, that most of those which are supposed to be compounded of the languages of the ated altogether in the jealousy and ambition of the latter — have been celebrated all over the world for the unexampled instances they display of heroic valour, on the one hand, of cold selfish- ness and calculating design, on the other; and the awful lesson held out on both sides of the inconstancy of human affairs, and the transient tenure of human magnificence. For upwards of two hundred and forty years, those two nations had beheld with secret distrust each other's power, till at length a pretext occurred for removing the mask, and the declaration of hos- tilities was the inevitable consequence of their inbred hatred. The two first Punic wars had passed away, and the combatants on both sides — kept in check by the vigilance of their mutual operations — had covered themselves with glory and military immortality; but in the third, the levelling maxim of Cato, who saw that the peace of Italy could never be secured so long as the capital of Africa had a being, gave a dreadful impetus to the Roman perfidy and dishonour. During seventeen days Carthage was in flames, and the soldiers were permitted to redeem from the fire whatever possessions they could lay hold of. But whilst others battened in the wasteful riot of the scene, the philosophic Scipio, struck with melancholy at the sight, was heard to repeat two verses from Homer, which contained a prophecy concerning the fall of Troy. Being asked by the historian Polybius to what he then applied his prediction, " To my country y' replied Scipio, *^for her too I dread the vicissi- tude of human affairs, lest in her turn she may exhibit another /laming Carthage,^' This event happened about the year of Rome 606. 47 Celts and Ancient Britons, are to be traced to a much higher quarter, namely, the language of the Phoenicians, who in the very earliest days, that is much about the time of the entrance of the Israelites into the land of Canaan, penetrated as far, in the first instance, as the coasts of Africa and Spain, and thence — their ambition increasing with the success of their enterprises — they extended their researches even to the Irish shores. This, then, is my grand posi- tion, to establish which I shall enlist all the energies of my mind and zeal — this the prize* to which I shall emulously press forward, to point out the riches of these Phoenician springs, and support that descent they so irresistibly suggest to us ; that it may become manifest to the world that they who neglect this scrutiny into the earliest days of the Phoenicians, are not qualified as historians to dis- cover the true origin of the first inhabitants of Ire- land ; still less so to vindicate their opinions on those heads, or to refute and overturn those of their adver- saries. From what has been here said the reader may, per- haps, imagine that the Phoenicians were, in my view,' the primogenial inhabitants of this country — that, in fact, '* Phoenicians " and ^^ natives" were, as re- * Palmarium — By this word the author would seem to allude to the QxeekphoiniXy a palm-tree ; whence some people derive Phoenicia, as abounding therein. 48 garded Ireland, perfectly synonymous and con- vertible terms.* To this point, however, my present disquisition I shall not direct. I am well aware of all that has been written by some ancient authors about the aborigines, or giants, and their sanguinary wars with the Partholani.f I know, also, what has been said, in more recent times, of the last arrival of theGadelians, or Milesians, from the coast of Iberia, or Spain. Without either subscribing to, or reject- ing, all that the most diligent searchers into Irish antiquities affirm, as to this country having been first colonized from the countries more adjacent to it, and that it was not until after a long lapse of years the Phoenicians, the Gadelians, and the Tar- * It is more than probable that Ireland remained desert and uninhabited from the creation to the deluge. No history, not even that of Moses, offers any thing which can lead us to sup- pose, that before the universal deluge, men had discovered the secret of passing from one country to another that was sepa- rated by water. The ark, which was constructed by order of God himself, and which served to preserve man on the watery element, is the first vessel of which we have any knowledge.- — McGeoghegan. t There are some old collections of charters, with many other monuments in writing, of the church of Cluan-Mac- Noisk, in Latin ** Cluanensis," cited by O'Flaherty in the dedicatory epistle of his Ogygia, which fix the arrival of the first colonies in Ireland, under Partholan, in the year of the world 1969, three hundred and twelve years after the deluge; this colony was followed by the Nemedians, the Fomorians, the Firbolgs, and the Tuatha de Danians. — McGeoyhegan* 49 tesiens had come hither. I have upon these and other such topics read over all the authorities, as well modern as ancient, that lay within my grasp ; and whilst in justice and candor I am bound to acknow- ledge myself indebted to their labors on many and important particulars that passed in review before me, still did I reserve to myself the privilege, as sacred as it is undeniable, of forming my conclusions unbiassed by any authority. The chief advantage which humble diligence and diffident sagacity can derive from the labors of able antecedent writers is this, that from their priority in point of time they may be considered as our torch-bearers through the thick and dis- couraging darkness of ages in the distance ; yet should we not so fix our eyes upon them, as they thus precede us in the way, as to omit all attention on our part to the safety of our own footsteps. Some of them often chalk out to themselves a road through which it would be any thing but safe to follow them, and I have accordingly, guarding against such a risk, thought proper in many in- stances to take an unbeaten track and a new line of journey. But inasmuch as no one hath before me ever attempted this career, I may be allowed, I trust, to hope that — if I shall inadvertently have omitted* any thing in those commentaries which may * "Where ancient coins?" We acknowledge we have 50 seem within the province of an etymologist's duty — and in so vast a medley of names it is impossible but that some such oversight will occur — it will be in- none. But you yourself tell us, that it was perhaps a thousand years before our era, that the Phoenicians traded to Britain and Ireland, (agreeing pretty nearly with the calculations of our native writers,) and you elsewhere say, that the Phoenicians did not coin money till six hundred years later. Do you ex- pect our Phoenician ancestors should have had coins (>0() years before they had learned how to make them? You also say elsewhere, that *' had the Phoenicians settled in any part of Britain or Ireland, their usual splendour would have attended them ; a few Phoenician coins," you add, *' may perhaps be found in Britain and Ireland, a circumstance naturally to be expected from their trading there, but had there been any settle- ments, there would have been ruins and numerous coins struck at the settlement, as at all those in Spain." To all this, it is only necessary to reply, that there are no remains of Phoenician cities now to be found in Spain, and that the Punic coins and inscriptions found there are clearly of Carthaginian origin, and consequently cannot claim a very remote antiquity. Had the Irish asserted a descent from the Carthaginians, the want of such inscriptions and coins would be conclusive against them ; but as the learned Lord Ross (then Sir L. Parsons,) observes, no writer of note has ever said so, and we refer the reader to that distinguished nobleman's " Defence of the Ancient His- tory of Ireland," for conclusive arguments on that point. Mr. Pinkerton finally shouts, " Where is the least trace of ancient art or science in your whole island?" We respond, they are exhibited abundantly in the numerous antiquities of gold, silver, and bronze, dug up every day in all parts of Ireland, and similar to the most ancient remains of the Greeks, Egyptians, and Phoenicians. Our gold crowns, collars, bracelets, anklets — our brazen swords, spears, and domestic vessels — our cinerary urns — our cairns with sepulchral chambers, which are not to 51 dulgently overlooked by the learned amongst my readers — and by them it is more likely to be so over- looked knowing by experience, as they do, the diffi- culties and the accidents to which such pursuits are liable — than by those who, receiving their information by hearsay from others, cannot appreciate the trouble which its acquisition may have cost, but think it as obvious to every one as it proved in their own in- stance. The variety and obsoleteness of those names have obliged many a searcher into their origin, after a wearisome and fruitless pursuit, to give it over in disgust : they have then contented them- selves, as they fain would their readers, with vague guesses, or obscure intimations of more obscure con* jectures. Often have they assigned to them a mean- ing not only different from the true one, but even- opposite thereto, and such as must at once so appear from the actual condition and circumstances of the inhabitants, the locality of cities, and several other divisional and characteristic denominations. Not that I would detract in the least from the merit of those worthy men who have bestowed their pains — and laudably so bestowed them — in illustrating the geo- graphy of this my adopted country : — no — I com- be paralelled in the British isles — and lastly, in those Cydopean works, agreeing- identically with those in the islands, and on the shores of the Mediterranean, universally attributed to the Phoenicians. These are the evidences of the early coloniza^ tion of Ireland. — Dublin Penny Journal. 52 mend their efforts — they have pioneered for me a path. If I shall appear to have surpassed them in any thing, for this I am indebted to that greater degree of care which the opportunities of my leisure have enabled me to bestow upon the valuable labors of the great men of antiquity. These I peruse with incessant delight — these I court with undiminishing assiduity, to see if from the overflow of their genius I may be able to imbibe a single drop to irrigate, with the vapour of their fructifying stream, the ste- rile plants of my shallow capacity. For I am not one of those who leave no engine untried, no stone un- turned, to detect little blemishes in every writer amongst the ancients, and who vilify and distort the very noblest discoveries — the very grandest pro- ductions of human ingenuity, — singly and solely, and without any other assignable cause, than because that their own petty souls cannot relish nor com- prehend the innate moral beauty of any thing that is laudable. 53 CHAP. II. Arrival of the Phoenicians together with the Iberians in IrC' land — Memorials of them in Fermoy — Leaba-Chaillde, its etymology — Origin of the luords Peine and Penians — the Vascones. But to return to our subject. — ^To me it appears indisputable, as it is also the opinion of O'Connor, that those Phoenicians who had invaded Boetica^ — and who in pursuance of, what seems to have been their original destination, the discovery of Mines,* had in conjunction with the Iberians or Celtiberians f pro- • Strabo tells us that they drew such quantities of gold and other commodities from this country as to make them pass a law declaring it death to discover its situation to strangers. The same was their motive for designating the British islands, Ireland and England, by the general name of Cassiterides, ex- pressive of their tin mines, withholding, however, their geo- graphical position for fear of intrusion upon their commerce. t The composition of this name, Celtee and Iberus, might have been designed to distinguish the Celtes on that, from those on this, side the Pyrenees — iber in the old Celtic, signifying over^ as Gaul was divided into Cis and Trans Alpine, and Spain into Citerior and Ulterior. Lucan, however, would seem to imply that they were so denominated as a mixed gene- 54 deeded thence onwards to Ireland, to work the iron and tin mines for which it was celebrated — were the earliest or amongst the earliest inhabitants of this island — at least the southern and western parts of it. I am convinced also, that the plain of Fermoy — called in the '' Annals of Innisfallen '* the '' Plain of the Phoenicians" — was not so denominated without a just and good cause, seeing that in this district we meet with stone pillars erected after the Phoenician fashion, in plains and upon little hillocks, in great numbers, and of almost monstrous proportions. In this opinion, therefore, I unhesitatingly acquiesce, in preference to that of a writer already alluded to, who has asserted that there are no vestiges of either citadels or old temples to be found in Ireland at this day that could properly be attributed to the Phoenician era. Why, an exceedingly antique and truly wonderful monu- ment of this description, * though in ruins, is to be ration of Celtae and Iberi — ** profugique a gente vetusta Gal- lorum Celtae miscentes nomen Iberis.'* — Lib. 4. They were a brave and powerful people, and made strong head against the Romans and Carthaginians in their respective invasions — their country is now called Arragon. * 1 should be disposed to include amongst this class the small vaulted stone chambers called in Irish " Teach Draoi/* Druids house, some of which are to be seen on the coast of Kerry, at Cashil, at Dundrum, &c. evidently pertaining to a distant date, coeval, almost with the *' round towers," but of a less noble — though still religious application. Nor should I omit to mention the sacrafieial altars called ** Cromleach," that 55 seen in the village of Glan worth, * barony of Fermoy^ county of Cork, and province of Munster, consisting of two stone pillars, placed at right angles, in an oblong square. This laborious and stupendous piece of workmanship is deservedly ascribed to the Phoe- nicians, after their expulsion by Joshua, and was in- tended, no doubt, either for the worship of some idol, or to pepetuate the memory of some hero there interred. The Irish call this structure Leaba-chaillde, meaning thereby Callid's couch, for '^ leaba " in Irish signifies a couch or bed ; but who this Callid w^as, no one that I can discover, even soothsayer or prophet, hath ever asserted or dared to guess ; much less can it be ascertained from the interpretation of the populace who understand by the term the '' old hag's bed." In support however of this explanation, it is alledged that is, the jftag of the Deity, being an immense flat stone, supported by pedestals, and sometimes, where the ground was sufficiently high, or where the weight of the incumbent stone rendered it too difficult to remove it, without any pedestals; nor the hypogae or antra Mithrse, being subterraneous vaults, of which the most astonishing yet discovered is that at ** New Grange," corrupted from Grein-Uagh, i. e. cave of the sun or Mithras, in the county of Meath. This name is still preserved in Innis Mithra or Murra, otherwise *' isle of sun," nine miles from Sligo, where is to be seen one of those clock greine, or clock muidkr, i. e. sun stones, being a conical pillar of stone placed on a pedestal surrounded by a wall to preserve it from profanation^ and cor- responding to the Makodee stone of the Gentoos, which is a corruption of the Irish words mah De, i. e. good God. * So called from the goodness of its soil. 56 all monuments similarly constructed are called the by Irish, Leapa na Feine, by which they conceive are meant the dormitaries or sleeping places of the Fe- nians, their celebrated militia of warriors. With all respect, however, to the distinguished in- dividuals who think thus, and otherwise, I am inclined to imagine that Leaba-Chaillde is a Phoenician expres- sion, slightly vitiated, and composed of the words lehab shallaid, a burned corpse, indicating the grave of some illustrious hero deceased and buried therein.* For lehab, in the Phoenician language, is a flame, whence zalehab, to burn, and shallaid is a corpse, or trunk of a dead body. Leopana too would seem to be derived from the Phoenician lepin or leponin, that is, swathings or liguments, or from leopin, linen or towels ; as much as to say, that, underneath was in- terred some Phoenician hero, and, according to the eastern custom, wrapt up in bandages. But what if it should appear that Feine was a name given not to any individual Phoenician, but in general to any chieftain or leader ? For in the Phoenician dialect fen or feineh, which means the gable or out- ward angle of a building, is applied metaphorically to the leader of a camp, the chiefs or captains, who are the strength of the people, as the corner stone or * In the Syriac version of the Gospel according to St. Mat-= thew, (xiv. 12.) it is said of John the Baptist, who was put to death by Herod, **his disciples took away his body, shailldahf and buried it*" gable is of a house.* Should this exposition be ad- mitted, — and I see no reason why it should not, — we need not then have recourse to Fenius the ancestor, according to an old Irish poemf of Breoganus who built Brigantia, now Braganza in Spain, and whose posterity are believed to have sailed thence into Ire- land, under the conduct and auspices of Heber and Heremon. I more incline to the opinion of those who would have the troops of the ancient Irish denomi- nated Fenians, not as though they were Phoenicians or descended from them, but because that they ex- hibited in their conduct the prowess and fortitude of the Ibero-Phoenicians, who had formerly settled in the country, and whose memory was preserved amongst the inhabitants by long and repeated traditions. For their soldiers, the Phoenii, who were equally called clannaj Baoisgene, or the sons of the Basgneans, that is the Vasconians, were never accounted of Phoeni- cian extraction, nor to have obtained that name from any leader called Baoisgenes, but from the Vasconse of Cantabria, whence we are informed that Milesius had emigrated to Ireland, of antient date, and with * &o in Judges, xx. 2. ** and ail the angles, (feinoth,) of the people njet." And 1 Kings, xiv. 28. " apply hither all the angles, gimoth of the people. t Coemanus in carmine : Canam bunadhus nan GoadhiL (Cano originem Gadeliorum ) X Clanna is an Irish word, signifying sons or decendants. So is baoisge also, and means a flash of light, and metaphori^ cally a vain glorious, or boastful fellow, — See O'Connor^ 58 an immense army.* Nor, indeed, should we omit noticing that those Fenii, that is, the celebrated old Irish militia, otherwise called feinne, might have been so denominated from the Irish word feine, sig- nifying a rustic or serf, as it is more than probable that this military corps were originally embodied from out of the class of the peasantry. To this point however, we shall again revert when speaking ex- pressly, and in detail, of the word Fene as one of the old clans of this country .f * See O'Connor, f The history of mankind would be one of the most pleasing studies in the universe, were it not often attended with the most humiliating, the most melancholy considerations. By studying human nature, we are led to consider in what manner we were formed by our all-wise Creator ; what we have made ourselves, in consequence of our disobedience to the divine law; what we may be through Divine grace ; and then what we shall be in glory. Principles of this nature, should strike deep into our minds, when we consider the state of the heathen world, and, at the same time, reflect on the many blessings we enjoy. In vain do we pride ourselves in any of our endow- ments, in vain do we pretend to superior attainments; for if our affections are as much attached to earthly objects as those of the heathens, then we are much more inexcusable than they. We have all the truths of the gospel laid open to us, while they remain in a state of ignorance, worshipping the works of their own hands. Nay, worshipping even reptiles and insects, offering human sacrifices, shutting up their bowels of compassion, and trampling upon every moral obligation. This will naturally apply to what we are now going to relate, for the dignity of our holy religion never shines so bright, as when contrasted with heathen superstition, pagan idolatry, and every thing else that can dishonour our nature. — Hurd, 59 CHAP. Ill Ireland called by different names by the Phoenicians — Inis nabjiodha — Fiod Inis- -Criocaf rind — Ere — Fodhla,from the root of which latter term the Phoenicians called all Africa by the name of Phut— Banba — Fail—Elga. But my present design being to illustrate the names of the several localities of this country, as- serted already and maintained to have been of Phoeni- cian birth, I shall begin from its very first settlers, whose tribes it will be shewn have borrowed their names from that language ; and in this retrospective view the island itself claims our first regard, as known both to foreigners and to natives under va- rious appellatives. By the natives it was called Inis nab fiodha, by which they would intimate the '' island of woods ;" in which sense it was also called Inis fiod, the "island of timber " or trees, from fiod, timber, and inis^ an island ; and again, crioca frindh, the final wood ; from croch, a boundary, and fridh^ a wood.* It may have happened, indeed, that subsequent * I never saw one hundred contiguous acres in Ireland in which there were not evident signs that they were once wood, or> at least, very well wooded. Trees and the roots of trees, of 60 settlers^ from ignorance of their true meaning, endea- voured to accommodate to the spiritof their own lan- guage these names and terms which they found ready to their hand, and sanctioned by the usage of their predecessors ; but as to their being originally Phoenician, that is indisputable and beyond the pos^ sihilify of doubt. Inis nab fiodha is compounded, as before observed, of the words, Inis, an island ; nab, of ; and fiod, a wood : Inis, again, is composed of the Phoenician words, In-is, meaning idolatrous inhabitants, of intrepidity and spirit — in or an being idolatry, and is, an inhabitant of manly spirit ; whilst the two latter words, nab-fiodah, are properly derived from the Phoenician naboa, an origin, and phiobd, those who dwelt in a vanquished land. So that Inis-nab-fiodah conveyed to the Phoenicians the following idea, viz. who dwelt originally in a van- quished land, or the posterity of those who sojourn- ed in a country which they took by conquest. the largest size, are dug up in all the bogs ; and in the culti- vated countries, the stumps of trees destroyed show that the destruction has not been of any ancient date : a vast number of Irish names for hills, mountains, valleys, and plains, have forests, woods, groves, or trees, for their signification. The greatest part of the kingdom now exhibits a naked, bleak, dreary view, for want of wood, which has been destroyed for a century past, with thoughtless prodigality, and still continues to be cut and wasted, as if it were not worth the preservation. — Young. 61 Fiod Inis, from the Phoenician words, fiot inis, that is, idolatrous inhabitants who deprecate, for fiot means deprecation. Crioca frindh, from cri-ocal, cities, towns, or vil- lages abounding in victuals, provisions, or food ; and firin, the earth's produce — all which enunciate the productiveness of this country. I pass over to the vulgar, yet most ancient names given to Ireland, such as Ere Fodhla, and Banba, borrowed, as some historians aver, from three royal sisters, the last queens of the Tuatha Dedan, to which Fiech* the Scholiast adds two others, Fail and Elga. But it is not safe trusting to fabulous records wrapt up in darkness and unsubstantiated by proof ; more especially when we may otherwise account for the origin of these words by tracing them to the spi- rit of the Phoenician language — for Ere comes from araa or eree, a country, a climate, the inhabitants of one region. Fodhla from the words phut lah, or phot lah, a green land, which was formerly the proper appellation of Ireland, whence the Greeks used to call it smaragdon, the emerald,f from the * This was the celebrated convert and disciple of St. Patrick, afterwards promoted to the bishopric of Sletty, in the Queen's county, who flourished at the end of the fifth and beginning of the sixth century — distinguished by many literary productions, but best known by his poetical hymn, or panegyric upon his beloved instructor, the apostle of our forefathers. t "The Emerald" stone, in its purest state, is of a bright 62 greenness and luxuriant freshness of its soil, as ap- pears from the quotation " grandes viridi cum luce smaragdi." Unless you would rather suppose it to have been so denominated by the Phoenicians from its likeness to the country inhabited by Phut, the third son of Ham. Nor need we wonder if some of these should have so named this island, as they had formerly all Africa,* whose western parts, namely, and naturally polished surface, and of a pure and charming green, without any mixture of any other color : Fair as the glittering waters Thy emerald banks that lave, To me thy graceful daughters, Thy generous sons as brave. Oh ! there are hearts within thee Which know not shame or guile. And such proud homage win thee — My own green isle ! — Barton. * In ancient times, this country was considered as a third part of the terrestrial globe, and it may be properly called a peninsular ; for were it not for that small tract of land running between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, it would actually be an island. It is remarkable, that in ancient times there were many christians here, who had fair and flourishing churches, and here some of the most eminent christian fathers resided ; among these were Cyprian, bishop of Carthage ; Austin, bishop of Hippo ; and Tertullian, the famous apolo- gist. These African churches continued to flourish till about the middle of the seventh century, when the Arabians, under their caliphs, established Mahometanism in many parts, such as Egypt, Morocco, Algiers, &c. but at present, the greater number of the inhabitants are idolaters. But here we find it impossible for us to inform the reader, from whence these 63 Mauritania Tingitana,* wherein lies Lybia^ are to this day known by this name ; and the river that en- compasses those parts is still called Phuti, and the country all about Phutensis.f Banba would seem derived from the Phoenician words bana baha^ cities built in an extensive region, or a country abounding in towns or cities. Fail from the Phoenician faila, or a husbandman, a serf, which comes from filah to plough, to harrow up the soil, whence also failhin, agriculture, tillage. Elga from the Phoenician helca, usage, privilege, designating probably the customs and ordinances of the primitive sages, which were the rule of conduct and the model of imitation to the Irish from the very beginning. modern idolaters derive their worship ; for it bears no manner of affinity to that of either the Greeks, Romans, or Egyptians; and there is so little of the ancient religion of the Ethiopians, Nigritians, &c. preserved in it, that it would prove a very dif- ficult task to trace from those remains the idolatry of their descendants. — Hurd. * So called from Tingis, now Tangier the capital, to distin- guish it from Numidia, which was called Mauritania Caesari- ensis after Claudius, who had reduced both kingdoms to the condition of Roman provinces. Mauritania is derived from Maur, i. e. a western, it being to the west of Carthage and Phoenicia, it is now the empire of Fez and Morocco. t Valent. Schindl. Oderan. lex pent col. 1427. 64 CHAP. IV. Ogygia an ancient name for Ireland — Various opinions as to its etymology — Ogyges king of Thebes — Egypt called Ogygia — would seem a Phoenician name, relating to geography , or else indicating the bloody sacrifices of the Druids — Gia a valley of Jerusalem — Perpetual fire in Tophet — As also in the temple of Hercules at Gades, and in other idol temples — Origin of this rite — Sons burnt by their parents in honor of Moloch — Meaniyig of dragging children through fire — Customary ivith the ancients to offer human victims to idols. Plutarch and the old poets have given to Ireland the name of Ogygia, to intimate thereby, as Camden and others after him have supposed, their thorough conviction of its extreme antiquity. This opinion they have formed, not more from the distant recesses of time which the Irish explore in their historical inves- tigations, than from the well known practice of the poets, giving — from Ogyges the most ancient king of Thebes^ — the name of Ogygia to any thing that is ancient. * Some w^ould have Egypt on this account * More especially if such antiquity be involved in darkness and in doubt, as every thing relating to the origin of this king, the age in which he lived, and the duration of his reign, con- fessedly is. Ogygium id appellant poaetee, tanquam pervetus 65 called Ogygia, because that its inhabitants are re- corded to be the most ancient in the world, and the inventors, at the same time, of all or most of the sciences and arts which were subsequently borrowed and improved, to much advantage, by the several Asiatic and Grecian states.* For my part, though I would not altogether ex- plode the purport of this explanation, yet I should rather imagine Ogygia to be a Phoenician term, compounded of the words hog-igia, that is, " the sea girt isle," or hog-igiah, an inhabitant surrounded by the ocean. For the Phoenicians who liad begun to frequent in distant voyages the uttermost part of either ocean, and who, as Strabo mentions, having proceeded even beyond the ^^pillarsf of Hercules," had circumnavigated the greater part of the habitable globe, finding the earth on every side encompassed by that watery expanse o'er whose bosom they were wafted to their enterprising destinations, very signi- ficantly gave the name of " hag" to that " watery ex- dixeris ab Ogyge vetustissirao. — Rhodogonvs, lib. 15, cap. 33. See Pint. lib. de facia in orbe lunoe. Slatyrius, an English poet, calls this island, Ogygia, in his " Pale Albioiie." * Canib. Brit. tit. HibeTuia. t Two lofty mountains named Calpe and Abyla, situate, one on the most southern extremity of Spain, the other on the opposite part of Africa, which Hercules is said to have erected, with the inscription of iie plus ultra, as if they had been the extreme points of the world. F 66 panse," intimating thereby the " sea circumference," not unhke what the Arabians designate it, " the circumambient sea." From hence arose the Greek word Ogen, the ancient name for the ocean amongst that people ; whence it is very probable, as many think, that Ireland was called Ogygia by Plutarch. It is worthy of note too, that hag, which is common as well to the Hebrews as the Phoenicians, occurs in scripture as a cosmographical term, used by Isaiah (xi. 22.) to express emphatically the circle of the earth, and by Solomon* to indicate the circle above the face of the abyss. f But the foregoing interpretation must not make us treat with contempt, nor fancy it a dream on the part of those who imagine that by the name of '^ Ogygia" allusion is made to the bloody victims which the Druids and other sacrificing priests, introduced by the Phoenicians into this country, used offer to their idols according to the Syriac custom in Ireland, no less than in Spain, and Gaul, and other nations of those denominated Gentiles. For in the Phoenician language, og-igiah means grief or sorrow for one burned, being compounded of og, he burned, and igiah, he made sorrowful. Whence the valley near Jerusalem wherein Tophet was situated, and in which fire was perpetually preserved for burning the * Proverbs viii. 27. t Bochart Geog. i. 36. 67 ofFals and bones of tlie dead bodies therein sacrificed, — sons, by the way, whom their very parents used to immolate to the idol Moloch, dragging them with their own hands through two funeral pyles until death interfered in mercy to their excruciations — was called gia or gianon, from that horrifying abomination. By this too is confirmed the belief of the Phoenicians having made it a custom to preserve fire '' iiiextln- gulshable" in the temples of their gods, as Sihus as- serts of the temple of Gades or Cades, which they had there erected and devoted to Hercules. * The '' evil spirit," no doubt, the great enemy of the human species, and consequently the rival of Jehovah^« in this the weakest quarter of the universal created scheme, had his priests also to preserve his fire in the temples of his idols, so as to appear not inferior to the people of Israel whom God had enjoined to feed the fire continually upon the altar. Hence the Greeks at Delphi and at Athens, used to preserve it both night and day ; and if ever, by any accident, it got extinguished, they used to light it again by the rays of the sun. The Pyrea of the Persians are also well known, in which they used not only to preserve the fire in an everlasting blaze, but even worship it as a divi- * Under this appellation was typified the sun, the twelve labors of the " hero," being nothing more than a figurative repre- sentation of the annual course of that luminary through the twelve signs of the zodiac. — See Porp. Sch. Hes. F 2 68 nity.* Strabo describes this pyratheia (xv) or fire- worship, as existing also in Capadocia.f The vestal virgins, never allowed the sacred fire to be ex- tinguished, it being a point of fearful and intense anxiety to the Romans, as they never failed to look upon its extinction as a sure presage of the overthrow of their city. This custom penetrated even to India, to the Brahmins themselves, who, we have the authority of Arumianus for saying, " used to guard the fire on hearths ever burning." But the superstition had its origin with the sacrificing priests of the Syrians, who were wont in honour of Moloch to drag their own children through heaps of fire. J This dragging amounted in some instances to an actual burning of children ; sometimes only to a scorching, produced by their being either conducted * Brison de regno Persarum. f This country — once so immersed in profligacy and vice as to share in the dishonor of the proverbial alliteration of the Greek, *' tria kappa kakista/' the Cretans and the Cilicians being the other two of the trio, was notwithstanding, ennobled by being the birth place of Strabo, and of many martyrs and heroes, such as Gregory Nazoenzen, Gregory Nysson, and St. Basil, not forgetting the celebrated St. George, who had been a tribune of soldiers (colonel) under the emperor Dioclesian, and afterwards appointed patron of the order of the garter by Edward TIT, all of whom shed a lustre over the history of the place, and redeem its character though almost irreparable. X Levit. xviii. 21. xx. 3, 4, 5. 69 or carried through a space betwixt two immense fires, by their comari or priests, or, according to their direction, by the parents themselves. Comar, or cumar, as also mar, meant, with the Chaldeans and Syrians, a gentile priest, a Camillas, or minister of idols ; whence the Syriac word cumaruth, priesthood, and the rabinical cumari, a monk. But they were so denominated from the burning of victims, for with the people of the east camar means to burn. There are those, however, who think that the verb " to drag across," when used in this acceptation, is equivalent in import with the verb to "burn." Vossius is of opinion that when the scriptures make mention of this dragging, " burning" is not thereby implied, but merely '' conducting" between two fires. Never- theless, he acknowledges that independently of this scorching, which prevailed in all families, no matter how affluent, or strangers to want, there was also a live-burning of their dearest pledges, and from the very flower of the people too, whereby, in the mad- ness of their superstition, they had cajoled themselves into a belief that their deities could be propitiated on occasions of great calamites. That this was the opinion of the Phoenicians is evident from Porphyry.* We learn from Scripture, * The original name of this writer and philosopher, and greatest enemy, in both capacities, that Christianity ever ex- perienced, was Melek, which in the Syriac language signifies 70 itiso, that this worship had obtained throughout the land of Canaan* and Mediterranean Syria, which comprehended Phoenicia within its extensive boun- daries. For we read of the Israelites, in Psahn cv. being mixed with the Gentiles, and learning all their practices, sacrificing, (izbechu) after their example, their sons and daughters to demons — that is to the graven images of Canaan. And respecting the Assyriansf who were brought over to Samaria, the history of IT. Kings, xvii. 31, records that those who were of Sepharvaim were wont to burn their sons in honor of Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. J Quintus Curtius§ treats of the human ** King," changed afterwards by Longinus, his preceptor, to Porphyrias, from poiphura, the Greek for purple, which kings usually wore, lie was a native of Tyre, and died, I believe, in Sicily, A.D. 304. * The first city founded in this celebrated country, known by the several names of Phoenicia, Palestine, Canaan, Israel, and Judea, and one literally flowing with milk and honey, was Hebron. t This, the first great monarchy established on the earth, took its name from Ashur, the second son of Shem, who founded it about the year 341 after the flood. It is at present called Curdiston, i. e. the country of the Curdes, from the Curdo mountains. X Supposed, by Sir Isaac Newton, to have been the Sephara of Ptolemy, and both to correspond with Pantibibia, where Zesuthrus deposited the records which he wrote before the flood. Pantibibia from pan, all, and biblon, a book, is the Greek translation of Sephara, which comes from Sphar, a book or record. § The era of this historian, the romantic biographer of Alex- 71 victims offered by the Syrians. Diodorus Siculus,* (xx) and Tertullian^f (Advers. Gnost. c. vii.) record the same of their Carthaginian colonies, as does Por- phyry of the people of Rhodes ; J and says Paulus Fagius, in the Chaldee paraphrase of Leviticus, " They used to dance in the interim whilst the boy was being burned in the blazing fire, striking their timbrels the while, to drown thereby the shrieks of ander the Great, is not sufficiently determined — some making him cotemporary with Claudius ; others with Vespasian ; and others, again, with Augustus. * This was the writer of whom Vincent used to say, that ** Every word of his was a sentence, and every sentence a triumph over error." He was called Siculus, as being born at Argyra, in Sicily ; and flourished about 44 years B.C. f This eloquent writer was originally a Pagan, and after his conversion became Bishop of Carthage, his native place, A. Da 196. He afterwards separated from the Catholic Church, and plunged into the errors of the Montonists. I This celebrated island, in the Carpathian sea, was so named from (Gesurat) Rhod, which in the Phoenician language means ** snake," (island) corresponding to " Ophiusa," another name thereof, and which, in the Greek, signifies the very same thing — from ophis, a snake. Others derive it from rodon, a rose, for which, as well as snakes, the island was remarkable, and adduce, in confirmation, several Rhodian coins, exhibiting the sun, to which the island was sacred, on one side, and a rose on the other. But this was a mistake of the moderns not knowing the Phoenician origin of the word Rhod, and wresting it to the resemblance of their own rodon, corroborated somewhat by the accident of finding of a rose-bud of brass in laying the founda- tion of the ancient city of Lindus. The same objection, how- ever, equally applies to this, being only a little more antece- dent in point of time. 72 the unfortunate sufferer." He therefore, methiiiks cannot be suspected of a wild-goose pursuit who, depending upon these authorities, .conceives that, in the name of Ogygia, allusion is made either to the Syriac settlers in this country who came from that quarter of the land of Canaan, or to the Phoenician worshippers of Moloch, who, as we shall hereafter prove, introduced this custom of human sacrifices, along with other bloody ceremonies and practices, into their several colonies.* ^ The inhabitants of all nations in the universe believe in the necessity of an atonement for sin, before men can be justified by the Supreme Being, and although very unworthy notions have been formed concerning the existence of such an essential point in religion, yet it does not follow that the principle itself is false. Nay it rather proves the contrary, for there is some- thing in every man's conscience which points out to him that he lias offended God, and that some attonement mu«t be made, either by himself or by another. Now these heathens in India believe, that an attonement has been made for their sins, and they are to have the choice of enjoying the benefits of it, on two conditions : either they are to visit several holy cities at a vast distance from each other, or secondly, they are declared to be absolved, in consequence of their repeating the names of their gods, twenty-tour times every day. Such as visit the holy places, offer up a sacrifice ; and on the tail of the victim is written the name of the penitent, with the nature of his offence. This practice seems to have been universal in ancient times ; it was so among the Greeks, the Romans, the Carthagenians and the Jews; and the prophet Isaiah alludes to it, when he says of Christ, '* surely he hath born our griefs, and carried oar 73 CHAP. V. The name Hibernia given to this island variously written hy the Greeks and the Latins — Of Phoenician origin — Other names, Eri, Eire, Iris, Lug — The Irish called Erin, Erion, and ErigincB — Ire Erion — Couri — Miluir — Guidhonod— All Phoenician names. But the most ancient name we meet with ever given to this island is Hibernia, the name by which Csesar, Pliny^, Tacitus, Sohnus, and others have designated it. Eustathius calls it Overnia and Ber- nia ; St. Patrick,* Hiberia and Hiberio. With the Greek writers it is louernia, louerne, and lerne, all derived from the Phoenician Iberin, meaning extre- mities, limits, or boundaries. From whence comes Iberne, the remotest habitation ; because, as Bo- chart, Geog. sacr. i. 39, well explains it, '' The an- * The family name of this venerable saint and celebrated apostle of the Irish was Succat, which, in Irish, signifies, ** prosperous in battle." He was afterwards named Magonius, when ordained deacon, and, finally, Patricius, when conse- crated a bishop. He was by birth a North Briton, born A.D. 372, near the village of Nempthur, or Banavan, in Tabernia, now Dumbarton, and brought a captive, at an early age, into Ireland, in one of those predatory excursions which our an- 74 cients knew nothing beyond Ireland towards the ocean except the vast sea." Whence he infers that the Phoe- nicians, distinguished as they were for pushing their voyages to the remotest extremities of the globe, must have been thoroughly acquainted with the locality of this country. For I cannot at all bring myself to coincide in opinion with those, who imagine that this name had cestors indulged in after the withdrawal of the Romans from Britain. Fiech thus alludes to these circumstances : — ** Patrick was born at Nempthur, As related in stories ; A youth of sixteen years, When carried into captivity^ Succat was his name among his own tribes : Who his father was be it known — He was son of Calphurnius and Otide, Grandson of the Deacon Odesse." This Odesse is, by St. Patrick himself, called Potitus, as was Otide, otherwise called Conchessa, being sister to St. Martin, Bishop of Tours. — The clergy at this period had not been en- joined celibacy. He died on the 17th of March, A. D. 493, at the great age of 120 years, and was buried at Down, in the same tomb with St. Bridget and St. Columba, according to the Latin distich — ** In burgo Duno tumulo tumulantur in uno Brigida, Patricius, et Columba plus." Thus translated : '* In Down three saints one tomb do fill, Bridget, Patrick, and Columb Kill." His long disuse of the Latin language during a continued re- sidence of sixty years in this island, combined with the ignO" ranee of copyists, will account for the inaccuracy of the names " Hiberia" and " Hiberio." 15 originated from the Spanish Iberi^ who had once sent hither a colony. No ; I should rather trace it even to the Irish word, lar, z. e. west, from its western position in reference to England ; a view in which I am sanctioned by Camden's approbation, on the ground that Spain had been called Hesperia from its western locality, and a certain promontory in Africa the Hesperian Cape, from its locality in like manner.* Vallancey thinks that the Persians, who had at a very early period established them- selves in this island, gave it this name in allusion to the district of Iran in their native country .f Cam- den's view of the matter is still further supported by the inference drawn from the Greek idiom by Cor- mac McCuillinan, Bishop of Cashel, and King of Munster, in the beginning of the tenth century, J viz. that Hibernia may be considered a Greek compound, consisting of the two words, Hiberse and Nyos, the former of which signifies the loest, and the latter an island ; w^hilst Bochart's explanation gains credence by the fact of the Phoenicians being really Iberin, or Oberin, that is, passers over the sea, in which ac- * From their proximity to the north in like manner, which in the Phoenician language is called garbaia^ the following Spanish towns have been denominated :— Garbi, Garbin, Gar- belos, Garbayuela; as also Algarbi, a district now in the pos- session of Portugal. t Observation on the primitive inhabitants of Great Britain. X Varaeus de Script. Ibernia, p. 6. 76 ceptation we meet with the expression in Psalm viii. 8, where it is said, " Who traverse (ober) the paths of the sea." The natives have indifferently called it Eri, or Eire, and not so correctly by the name of Erin ; whence perhaps the term Iris, which we find in Diodorus Siculus. To Eri and Eire we may also apply our previous conjectures on the etymology of Ere. This I prefer to the assertion of certain per- sons who would have this island called lerna and lerne, from the Greek Hieron, signifying '' sacred."* I must not omit to add that from Eri, or Eire, the Irish have been called Erigenae,f or sons of Erin, a name by which John, the illustrious Irish historian;}; of the ninth century, is universally and emphatically denominated. Varoeus de Scrip, Iber. i. 5. Another ancient name of Ireland, lu Erion, the learned generally take to imply, '^ the isle of the earth-born, or offspring of the very earth ;'* for iu, au,§ and eu, meant '' water," or '' island ;" and these * Ogyg. 1,21. t From Era, earth, and Ginomai, to be born. I And Chaplain to Alfred the Great, who, in the preface to his translation of St. Gregory's Pastoral into the Saxon lan- guage, was not ashamed to acknowledge his gratitude to Ire- land, that had given him his education, and additionally im- proved it by the superintending assistance of this distinguished ecclesiastic. § Aa and ea, i. e. Eau, i. e. Aqua, signify water, and it may be here added, that the termination of names of places in a, 77 were sometimes written more fully, aug, or ag, like the Teutonic oege and odghe, from the Greek auge, splendor, an obvious property of water. Whence, also, another name, T.ug, from luge, light. Era,* too, was used emphatically, to signify the land of ancient Greece, as Er was that of Britain. Where- fore the Irish at this day call themselves Erin, or Erion ; and from this Scotus obtained the name of Erigina, or of Eriniauch, compounded, as they state, of er, the earth, and geni, or eni, to be bom of In confirmation of this etymology, they tell us that that nation, before the arrival of the Brigantes or Phry- gians, had possession of Gaul, Spain, and Britain ; for to this day the Vascones and Cantabrians in a great degree make use of the ancient language of the Erii.f But the first men got the name, in the Greek and Latin languages respectively, of Autok- thones and Terrigenae, that is, ^' sons of the earth," and " earth-born," from the circumstance of their dwelling underground in caves, like rabbits ; J which aa, or ey, in the old Teutonic, signify places surrounded with water ; nor ought the word sea, itself, in this case to be forgotten. * It was in particular the name of a mountain in Messenia, the rendezvous of Aristomenes and his devoted band, where, after many marvellous feats of almost incredible heroism, — in which the women no less than the men had share, — he was at last betrayed and obliged to vacate his post. t Edward Lhuid's Archiologia. X Strabo says that the Scythians used to seek, refuge from the cold in caverns. Hence the name Troglodytes, from tro- ghs, a cave. 78 gave occasion to Gildas to say, "From their little caverns crept forth the Irish like so many swarthy, sooty little worms."* This has led some to suppose that the Couri, Miluir, and Guidhonod, as they are called, who are generally ascribed to a more ancient date, and who passed their lives in caves and forests, "were no other than those self-same original Erii ; and wishing to derive these names from the Irish language, they say that Cour, in the singular num- ber, means a giant, abbreviated from Cau ur, " a cave man," such as Cacus and the Cyclopsf are * Prorepsere e cavernulissuisfuscivermiculi Iberni. — Guild. Dr. Smollet, in his ironical manner, calls the inhabitants of Lapland the fag end of the human creation, which illiberal and invidious expression seems to arise from not considering that these people have the same rational faculties as others, and only want the means to improve themselves. Now under such circumstances let us seriously ask, whether these people are the objects of laughter and ridicule? Are they not rather objects of pity, especially when we consider that our ancestors were once as ignorant as they, and probably more barbarous. Nay, barbarity is not so much as imputed to the Laplanders, even by those who take a savage pleasure in ridiculing them for what is not in their power to prevent. That they are slaves to superstition is not denied, but that superstition never leads to any thing of a cruel or barbarous nature. Secure in their simple huts, they live without giving oiFence to each other ; and if they have but little knowledge, they have but few sins to account for. — HUrd. f The Cyclops are represented to have had but one eye in the middle of their forehead, the origin of their name, from Kuklos, a circle, and Ops, an eye ; but in reality were so called from their custom of wearing small steel bucklers over their 79 reported to have been ; Coures, meaning a giantess. Milur is a wild man, or a silvestrian, and there- fore a hunter, just as Milgi, is a hound. For with the Britons, Mil, meant a wild beast, as with the Greeks did Melon, cattle ; and to this they think that the Clanna Miledh of the Irish, from clann, or clain, an offspring, and miledh, a soldier or war- rior, bears reference. Guidhonod they conceive to arise from guidhon, a witch. But since the Phoenician language exhibits the origin of these names, I should, for my part, as- cribe them to that source in preference. For in- stance, lu Erion would appear derived from the Phoenician I-Erain, an inhabitable island, or one abounding in inhabitants. Lug, from log, which with the Arabians is logag, the deep, as much as to say, the island in the deep, or surrounded therewith. Erigena, which they would have a-kin to the Irish word Ereimane, or rather Erionnach, meaning Ire- land and Irishmen, I would venture to derive from the Phoenician word Erigain, foreigners ; and Erion- nach itself from Era-onag, that is, a land or country abounding in delicacies, for onag, in the Syriac faces, having but a single apertuve in the middle, which corre- sponded exactly with the form of an eye. This practice they had recourse to in their capacity of miners, or in their profession of archery, as we find a Scythian nation, too, who excelled in the same art, call themselves Arimaspi, from Arima, one, and spia, an eye, in allusion to the habit of closing one eye to take the better aim, by collecting the visual rays to one focus. 80 dialect, implies a delicacy or luxurious repast. The Couri were so from the Phoenician word curin, fishes, a metaphorical designation for expert and dexterous mariners ; or from cura, a fire-hearth, as if worshippers of fire. Miluyr, from the Phoenician Mila-ur, an assembly of fire-worshippers, or a mul- titude of inhabitants living in a valley, for ur signi- fies indifferently either one or the other, a fire or a valley. Guidhonod, from the words gui-donoth, a nation or people with leaders, gui,* meaning a na- tion, and don, he governed. Unless you would rather derive dhonad from donoth, that is, the chil- dren of Dan, that city of Phoenicia, at the foot of Mount Libanus, where its inhabitants had erected a graven image, and Jeroboam had raised the golden calf, as colonies, particularly from distant countries, generally retain the name of their parent or mother stock. Again, the name of Iris, by which this county is distinguished in Diodorus Siculus,f and from which * From Phoenician gui sprung the old Irish word ui, or %, signifying a tribe or clan. Ui is also the genitive case of the word wa, a son, offspring, posterity, the plural of which is i. From hy, a tract, or district, many Irish localities have ob- tained their names: such as Hj^-Anlan, Hy-Ara, Hy-Talgia, otherwise called Hi-Faillia, and primitively Hy-Bhealgia, meaning a barony of worsbijipers of Baal, and several others almost beyond reckoning. — See Collect, de Reb. Ibern. vol. iii. p. 862. t Diodor. Sicul. lib. v. 81 its inhabitants have been called Irenses^ or Iri, although I admit it may be derived from the old Irish word Iris, which signifies brass or copper, as it does, also, invention or investigation, as well as friend and friendly fellowship, and, finally, religion, law, era, and chronicle, yet it is more likely that Orpheus of Crotone, Aristotle, and other Greek writers who have used Iris as a name for Ire- land, have done so not from the language of the natives, which to them was unknown, but from the Hebrew word Iris, he possessed or obtained by in- heritance ; or from Irisa, possession by inheritance, which words, changing the s into t, the Phcsnicians used to pronounce as Irith, and Iritha. From this name, variously inflected irto Ire, Eri, and Eire, with the addition of the English word land, was formed the modern and now generally adopted name, Ireland. But Irlandia and Irlandi, as Latin for Ireland* and Irishmen, is evidently a barbarism. * The interest which I take in every thing that concerns Ireland, makes me often sigh for the additional misfortune which the general ignorance of its history produces, and has long since inspired me with a desire of remedying that evil. — Mac Geoghegan. While many who have left thee, Seem to forget thy name, Pistance hath not bereft me Of its endearing claim : Afar from ihee sojourning. Whether I sigh or smile, I call theestili, " Ma vourneon " JVIy own green isle ! — Bar/on, G 82 CHAP. VI. Ancient inhabitants of Ireland — The Partholani — Various opinions as to the etimology of this word — The aborigines or giants, why so called — Their bloody wars with the Partho- lani the first tribe of Phcenicians who landed on the coast of Ireland — Origin of their ancieyit name Formorogh — The Ne- methcey when they seized upon I eland — Where they settled — Etymology of their name — Why called Momce or Nomce. Having put the reader in possession of the several names given to Ireland, I come in the next place to its ancient inhabitants, whose names I at once recog- nise as Phoenician, or, at least, deducible from that fountain. The first that present themselves are the Partholani, undoubtedly the very earliest people in this island, of whose colonies — which are supposed to have preceded the arrival of the Belgians — we can- not at this day discover a single vestige any more than we can of the Nemethae. Some suppose that they were some of the aboriginal Britons, and that they arrived in Ireland much about the same time as the Nemethae, that is, as they say, in the sixth century before the birth of Christ. Others derive their name from the Irish words bhoeruys-lan-ui, as 83 much as to say, the shepherds or herdsmen beyond the great ocean, and therefore suppose that they must have been the first persons who introduced cattle into this island.* Others there are who think them so called from Partholanus, the son of Sera, of the race of Ja- phet, whom they assert to have first arrived in Ireland, having set out from Scythia, or as others say, from Grseco-Scythia, or Mygdonia, a mari- time district of Macedonia, about three hundred or more years after the deluge, with his sons San- guin, Saban, and Ruturugus, their armies and colo- nies ; and they tell us furthermore that he put in at Inversgene in Kerry, and took up his residence in Ulster at Inis Samer in the river Erne, an island called -from his castle, from whence also the river was called Samarius. f Some writers add that those colonists found before them on their arrival other inhabitants whose origin was not known, and who were therefore denominated by the Latins as abori- gines, by the Greeks as Giants ; intimating equally the natives of the soil, or the true born children of the country. With these gigantic aborigines they tell us that the Partholani waged an in- cessant and bloody course of warfare, and with such acrimony on both sides, that both were almost * See Collect, de Reb. Ibern. vol. iii. p. 404. f See OTlaherty, cap. ii. p. 3. g2 84 extinguished under one general massacre. These, and other such things equally involved in fable, are told of the Partholani amidst the darkness of an unknown age. As I take it, the Partholani are the most an- cient, or, if you prefer, the primitive tribes of the Phoenicians who landed on the Irish coasts, and from them was given the name of Partulin to all such as had transported themselves from their native country. The Syriac word para, signifies to sprout or shoot — tulin, number or plurality, from tul, translation. But para means also he grew or en- creased, so that partulin would then mean a body of emigrants who encreased and multiplied. This race the ancient Irish poets and historians call Fomhoraigh, Formhoraice, and Formoragh ; by which word, they think, is meant pirates, or transma- rine robbers, infesting those coasts' in prejudice to, and defiance of, the ancient colonies ; and they assert that they were decended from Ham or Midacritus * from Africa, with the exception of the first Formorii, to whom they assign neither other sect nor origin, f * Pliny (vii. v. 6.) tells us that Midacritus was the first who had imported lead from the island of Cassiterides. But later critics assure us that this was no other than Melicartus, or the Phoenician Hercules, mentioned in Sanchoniathon, to whom the Phoenicians ascribed so many voyages to the west. Mi- dacritus is in itself a Greek name, and we know that the Greeks were in total ignorance of the locality of the Cassiterides. — See Bochart. t O 'Flaherty, i. p. 9. S5 Some suppose them to have been Celts ; others, more correctly, Phoenicians, which the name itself would seem to indicate.* For, in their language, famori, means the lord of an extreme land, that is of an island, which they had supposed to be the utmost habitation of the globe, as we have observed conformably to the opinion of Bochart. The Ne- methaj or Nemetii, were, as some say, the posterity of Nemethus,f who, they maintain, planted a second colony in Ireland thirty years after the death of Partholanus, when it had now become almost a desert and been overrun with forests. In his time were built the fortifications of Rath Kinnech in Hy-Ni- ellan, in Lagenia, and Rath Kimbaith in Hy-Gem- nia, a district of Dalaradia, where the plains, being cleared from brushwood and trees, admitted the genial influence of the sun's irradiation J Some writers add, that on the arrival of the Boelgae on the * It is said, that Neivy or Nemedius, gi eat grand nephew of Partholan, having learned by some means the disasters and tragical end of his relations in Ireland, and wishing, as heir of Partholan, to succeed him in the possession of that island, em- barked thirty-four transport vessels, carrying each thirty per- sons, without counting Macha, his wife, and his four sons, Starn, Janbaneal, Annin and Feargus, who followed his fortune in the expedition. Macha died after twelve years, and was in terred in the place since called from her name, x\rdmach. — Mac Geoghegan. t See Collect, de Reb. Ibern. vol. iii. p. 352. X O'Flaherty, p. iii. cap. 6. S6 coast of Heremonia, which is now the province of Leinster, several of the Nemethae retired backwards into the northern districts of the island. There are some who assign to the Nemethae a different origin, and would call them Momse or Nomae, deriving the same from the Celtic words Mou or Nou, land or country, and Mam or Mae, maternal, so that Nemethae would mean the original people, * or aboriginal inhabitants of Ireland. But expunging altogether the fables of the old poets, to me it appears incontrovertible that the name of Nemethae was given by the Phoenicians to their tribes, as equivalent with pleasant, cheerful, or agreeable. For in their language nemoth signifies all these, from the root, neem, delightful, amiable, respect- able. This tribe was furthermore called MomaB by the Phoenicians, as having cemented their treaty by an oath,f (noma) which furthermore proves the veracity * Collect, de Reb.^Ibern. vol. iii. p. 400. + The Ostiac takes his oath upon a bear's skin, spread upon the ground, whereon are laid a hatchet, a knife, and a piece of bread, which is tendered to him. Before he eats it, he declares all he knows relating to the matter in question, and confirms the truth of his evidence by this solemn imprecation ; ** May this bear tear me to pieces, this bit of bread choak me, this knife be my death, and this hatchet sever my head from my body, if I do not speak the truth." In dubious cases they pre- sent themselves before an idol, and pronounce tVie same oath with this additional circumstance, that he who takes the oath, cuts off a piece of the idol's nose with his knife, saying, ** If I 87 and the fidelity of the people^ nom signifying true^ derived from naum^ a discourse or language. forswear myself, may this knife cut off my own nose in the same manner, &c.'' AH those nations, who inhabited the land afterwards called Palestine, were descended from Canaan the son of Ham ; for although we find many subdivisions among them, under as many different names, yet the general one was that of Canaanites : and here it is necessary that we should an- swer a deistical objection made by Lord Bolingbroke, and some others, against a passage in the sacred scripture ; and this we the more readily comply with, because many weak, though otherwise well-meaning persons, have been led into an error by those designing men. In Genesis ix. we read of Noah having got drunk with the fruit of the vine, and that while he was in a state of intoxication in his tent, Ham, his youngest son, came in and beheld his na- kedness ; but Shera and Japhet went backwards and covered him. When Noah awoke, and found how different the beha- viour of his sons had been, he said (verse 35) " Cursed be Canaan ; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren." Now Canaan is uo where mentioned as the aggressor; but there cannot remain the least doubt, but he was, at that time, along with his father, and like Ham, mocked at the aged pa- triarch ; a crime attended with many aggravated circumstances. But the deistical objection is this, " It was inconsistent, say they, with the goodness of God, to inflict a curse on a nation in latter ages for the guilt of an ancestor. Now let every unpre- judiced reader attend to the passage, and then he will find tliat the whole was a prediction, and not an imprecation. Noah, by the spirit of prophecy, foreseeing that the descendants of his son Ham, would commit the grossest idolatries, only foretold what would happen to them in latter times. — Hiird. 8g CHAP. VII. The name of the Momonii supposed of Celtic origin — Various opinions on this head — Mumhayn a southern district of Ire- land — The meaning of Mammoii — Different names of the idol Ops — The Momonii tribes of the Phoenicians — Their name Phoenician — Origin of the word Mammanagh — Mammuna the sacrificing priest in the temples of the Phce- nicians — The Mammacocha of the Peruvians. I come now to the Momonii, the ancient inha- bitants of the province of Munster, divided, we may observe, according to their several settlements, into Desmond or southern Momonia, Thomond or north- ern Momonia, and Ormond eastern Momonia.* The name of Momonians is agreed on all hands, as we have already said, to have been composed of the Celtic or Irish words mou-man or pou-man, a mother or maternal country. Mou, and pou were the same as magus and pagus, mais and pais ; f so that momon or mouman would signify the mother coun- try of the aborigines : this part of Ireland being chiefly inhabited by the Nemethae, who betook them- * Th. Burgo Ibern. Dominii append. Monastic 732. t Baxter, p, 100. 89 selves from the district of Bolgae into their own resi- dence in Leinster, about five hundred and fifty years, as they say, before the christian era. They add, that from the first annals of Ireland it was discovered that its southern regions were called Mumha, which they interpret, the settlement or habitation of the abori- gines, from whence its inhabitants were called Mum- hanii or Mbmonii, that is inhabitants of the country of the aborigines.* Others think Momonia is a corruption or con- tracted Celtic word Mammon, the ancient name of the province of Munster, signifying the country of the great mother ; as they derive Mama or Moma, the name of a cave or cavern between Elphin and Ab- bey-Boyle, from Mammoii, which, in the Celtic lan- guage, means the place of the shrine of the great mother. For tradition tells us that there existed there at one time a celebrated grot, consecrated to Ops, the great mother of antiquity, whither the Bel- gian chiefs used, upon occasions, resort to consult the shades of their departed heroes. This object of re- ligious resort was also known by the name of Sib- bol Ama, Anum, Anagh, Aonagh, and Mamman, whence the Bolgse, who had settled in the southern parts of Ireland, and who principally worshipped the idol Mammon, called themselves Mammanagh, (Mam- monii) to distinguish themselves from the Crombrii, * Collect, vol. Hi. 396. 90 Crumbrii, or Crimbrii, on the western coast, who worshipped Fate ; and from the Belgoe who wor- shipped Bal, or Beal, or Baal, that is the sun or the element of fire.* To me it appears sufficiently probable that the Momonii were one of the Phoenician tribes who be- came possessed of this district to which they gave the name of Mamon, which in their language signi- fies riches or wealth, and by a very natural associ- ation called themselves Mamonii, that is the wealthy, the possessors of riches and abundance, intimating the superiority of their habitation above the other districts of this country, as well in artificial resources as in the luxuriancy of the soil. But if we furthermore compare the words Mamo- nia and Momonii, or Mammanagh with the supersti- tion of that nation, I doubt not but that we shall find them strictly conformable with Phoenician ex- traction; for ammun, in that language, means the image or likeness of a mother, ammana, a gift or of- fering, presented to a mother. Mammanagh, I con- ceive not derived from Mammon, but from Mam- muna, the name usually given by the Phoenicians to the superintending or sacrificing priest belonging to any of their chapels. And it is very likely that that whole tribe took their name from them, as the heads or presidents of their places of worship. I would * Collect. deReb. Ibern. vol. iii. p. 398. 91 hint by the way, that the ancient Peruvians wor- shipped the sea as a deity, under the name of Mam- macocha, and paid similar homage and adoration to rivers and fountains as contributory to the great ele- ment.* But this name, though evidently bearing some analogy with Mamman and Mammanach, yet is of a different origin, though Phoenician all the while, if I mistake not. For maim macha in that language means, encompassing waters, and metapho- rically, people applauding or clapping their hands. t Jas. Acosta Historia de las Indies, lib. v. c. 2. 4, from which and other authorities it is manifest that the ancient pagans worshipped the sea and all large collections of water. The book of wisdom, xiii. 2, is clear on the point. Beyer (Selden de Diis Syrii) states that the inhabitants of Mexico, Vir- ginia, and Bengal offered adoration to certain rivers and foun- tains; for the ancients imagined, according to Lipsius, that rivers and fountains were lesser divinities or genii. The Nile was worshiped with the most scrupulous veneration by the Egyptians. (See Plutarch and Athanasius.) For says Julius Firmicus, from the universal benefits of water they conceived it must be a god. Wherefore we find (he poets calling rivers sacred, (Hor. lib. i. od. 1. Juven. sat. iiii.^ as they did also fountains because of the presiding nymphs. Amongst the an- cient idolotrous Spaniards, it is plain from an inscription of Vasconius, published by Gurter, that fountains were considered divine. " We," (the Spaniards) said Seneca, (epist. 41) " ve- nerate the sources of great rivers, * * * the springs of warm waters are worshipped, and certain pools, &c." The Persians also, with the Scythians, Saxons, and other nations, as well east as west, conceived water to be sacred, as appears from Herodotus, (iv.) Strabo, (xvii.) Tacitus, and others. 92 in which sense we find macha occurs in the psalm xcvii. 9, the rivers will applaud. Machoc, in the original, meaning, waters that brush or sweep away, as we often see waves do bodies upon the shore.* * The Peruvians, before their being governed by their Incas, worshipped a numberless multitude of Gods, or rather genii. There was no nation, family, city, street, or even house, but had its peculiar gods; and that because they thought none but the god to whom they should immediately devote themselves, was able to assist them in time of nee(J. They worshipped herbs, plants, flowers, trees, mountains, caves ; and in the pro- vince of Puerto Viego, emeralds, tygers, lyons, adders, ; and, not to tire the reader with an enumeration of the several objects they thought worthy of religious worship, every thing that ap- peared wonderful in their eyes, was thought worthy of adora- tion. 93 CHAP. VIIL The Crombrii Fate worshippers — Origin of the word Crom — Not indicating worship, but a nation that worships — Traces of it in Ireland — As also in several geographical names of Ireland — The Phoenician derivation of these words. But since we have made mention of the Irish Crombrii, we had best see to which nation they be- longed. Crom, or crum, or crim, amongst the an- cient Irish signified Providence or the Godhead, which would lead one to suppose these words were Irish, crom signifying God in that language. But if it savours of the place wherein this deity was worship- ped, which is not at all unlikely, then it takes its origin from the Phcenician, crom in that language signifying a shrubbery of trees. So that crombrii, crumbrii, or cimbrii would seem to mean crambri, foreigners, that is the Phoenicians, who paid worship to Providence or Fate* in this island. That under * Men, ever since the creation, have endeavoured to pry into the secrets of futurity : this desire is inherent in us, and has been by many philosophers adduced as one of the strongest proofs of the immortality of the soul, that, indignant at its con- finement, is ever attempting to release itself, and soar beyond 94 the name of foreigners the Phoenicians are meant, will appear from this circumstance, viz. that, in their present time and circumstances. Finding;, however, all their efforts to discover them by the force of reason vain, they have mutually resorted to the aid of that blind god, chance ; and hence, omens from the flight of birds, from the entrails of sacri- fices, have arisen : of this last I propose now to write to you. When a choice between two equal things was to be made, the referring it to chance by the casting of lots would obviously present itself as a fair mode of deciding, where the judgment was unequal to do so ; and we find, therefore, this among the most ancient usages recorded in the bible : thus Aaron cast lots for the scape-goat. The direction of these lots would, of course, be soon imputed to the divine pleasure of the Almighty observer and guider of all things, and it would then occur to the inquisitive that this mode might be adopted for looking into futurity. Accordingly we see that this superstitious practice was very quickly applied to such purposes, an instance of which is given in Esther, chap. iii. verse 7, where, when Haraan de- sired to find out the most proper time to slay all the Jews, he ordered the pur to be cast, that is the lot, from day to day, and from month to month, and discovered that the thirteenth of the twelfth month was most favourable for his designs; but he was deceived, and the event proved the vanity of relying upon such divination. This mode, however, was too simple for the generality of men, and the custom next adopted was the mixing together of a number of letters'm an urn, throwing them out, and examining the arrangement in which they might fall; but as frequently no sense could be discovered from these, in lieu of letters whole words were adopted, and even here the answer was very often not to be understood. To obviate this, Cicero tells us that a variety of predictions were inscribed on pieces of wood, which were kept in a box, shaken, and one drawn out by a child ; he informs us how these were first dis- covered, but observes, " Tota res est inventio fallacis, aut ad 95 language, bri or bari signifies a foreigner. And the practice of consecrating groves to the worship of idols, is established by innumerable testimonies from the ancient heathen writers. Virgil in his ninth JEneid, introduces Cybele thus speaking of herself. " On a lofty mount I have a grove, a piny wood, by me beloved for many a year "* And Prudentius in the " Roman martyr," says, '^ shall I go to the piny grove of Cybele." qucEStum, aut ad super stitionem.^^ " The whole matter is, how- ever, fallacious every way." And in another place, in speaking of it, he says, " Quibus in rebus temeritas et casus, non ratio et consilium valent.^' " Chance, not reason, presides over these things." This mode of divination is continually spoken of by the writers of that age ; thus, Lucretius, ** Nequicquam Divum numen, sortesque fatigant." *' In vain they implore the Gods, and search the lots.^* And Ovid, " Auxiliura per sacras qaerere sortes.*' ** To seek for aid in the sacred lots.^' And again, ** Mota Dea est, sortemque dedit." "The goddess was moved, and granted a lot," Numberless other instances might be given of the frequency of the practice ; but, as the urn and heaven-descended mystical pieces of wood were not always at hand, another mode was in- vented throughout Greece and Italy which superseded their use. This was to take the words of some celebrated poet, as Homer, Euripides, or Virgil ; to open this book at hazard, and to re- ceive as an oracle the first passage that met the eye ; these were termed *' Sortes Ilomericce," or '* VigilancB,'^ Among the He- brews too, there was a divination called Beth Cole. — Lim. 3Iag. * Pinea sylva mihi multos dilecta per annos Lucus in arce fuit summa. — Virgil, 96 But it may be asked, whence arose this cus- tom to the heathens of erecting altars to their de- ities in woods and groves. In imitation, no doubt, of Abraham, who, as we are told in Genesis, xxi. 33, planted a grove in Beersheba, and there invoked the name of the Lord.* These groves consisted of oak plantations ; for it is said of Abraham,f Genesis xii. * Abraham planted a grove. In the first ages of the world, the worship of God was exceedingly simple; there were no temples, an altar composed sometimes of a single stone, or sometimes of turf, was all that was necessary : on this fire was lighted, and the sacrifice offered. Any place was equally proper, as they knew that the object of their worship filled the heavens and the earth. In process of time, when fa- milies increased, and many sacrifices were to be offered, groves or shady places were chosen, where the worshippers mighten- joy the protection of the shade, as a considerable time must be empoyed in offering many sacrifices. These groves became af- terwards abused to impure and idolatrous purposes, and were therefore strictly forbidden. See Exod. xxxiv. 12; Deut. xii. 3; xvi. 21.— i>r. A. Clarke. t Abraham, the father of the faithful, was called away from his native country, somewhat less than three hundred years after the deluge, which naturally leads us to inquire into the origin of idolatry. Abraham, as a wanderer and sojourner in a strange country, had not been above ten years absent from Ur, of the Chaldeans, when a famine obliged him to go into Egypt, at that time a very flourishing monarchy. That Egypt should have had a regal government within three hundred years after the deluge, has been objected to by many of our deistical writers; but when attentively considered, we cannot find any thing in it of an extraordinary nature. People in those early ages lived in the most frugal manner, and few of them died be- 97 6, 7, that he passed over the land to the place Sichem, all along to the oak, (alon) Moreh, where the Lord appeared unto him, and that he there erected an altar in consequence. Moses afterwards designates this place in the plural number, saying, (Deut. xi. 30,) " Beside (aloni) the oaks, Moreh." With which also two other passages accord, one in Genesis, xxxv. 4. the other in Judges ix. 6. We also find in Genesis xiii. 18, that Abraham dwelt in the oaks (aloni) of Mamre, in Hebron, and there built an altar to the Lord. Afterwards also in Genesis, xiv. 13, he says, " he dwelt beside the oaks of Mamre."- All which passages the septuagint renders, peri ten drun, that is, about the oak. From hence the idolatrous Ca- naanites began to consecrate oaks to their own divinities, and to worship in groves of that wood. The Phoenicians subsequently introduced the custom* into Asia, Egypt, Africa, and the continent of Eu- rope, with the British isies. Ovid, speaking of the oak, calls it '' sacred to Jove." Virgil says " it was accounted an oracle by the Grecians." And Homer says the same in Od. xix.* fore they had attained to years of maturity ; so that there is no reason for us to be surprised, when we find the children of Mizraim founding- a monarchy, in the fertile plains of Egypt, as soon as a suflficient number of the human species had been collected together. — Ilurd. * See W. Cook's enquiry into the patriarchal religion, &c» H 98 The vestiges of the word, crom, can be still traced in Ireland in many of the old names given to its several localities ; for instance, we find the actual word occurs as the name of an old village which belongs at this day partly to the county of Kildare, and partly to that of Dublin, in the province of Leinster. In Crom-artin, a little village near Ardee, in the same province ; in Crom-castle, a town in the county Limerick, province of Munster ; in Mount Crom-mal, or Crom-la, between Loughs Swylly and Foile, in the county Donegal, province of Ulster, where the river Lubar, called by the natives Bredagh, and the river Lavath — beside which, in the declivity of a mountain, is a very remarkable cave called Cluna — take their rise ; in Mount Crom-la-sliabh, now called the Hill of Allen ; in Crom-oge, a little town in the barony of Maryborough, Queen's County, and province of Leinster ; in the old town of Crom-chin, which was otherwise called Atha and Rathcrayhan, and Drum Druid, but now more gene- rally known by the name of Croghan, being situated in the barony of Boyle, county Roscommon, pro- vince of Connaught, and formerly the principal city in that province. The name of Croghan is supposed to have been given to it from the likeness of the adjacent mountain to a pitcher, which that word in Irish signifies ; and Crom-chin from a cave in that mountain which the Druids had dedicated to Fate. And, finally, we may trace its vestiges -in 99 Crom-lin, or Crum-lin, a little town in the county Dublin, as well as a little village in the barony of Massareene, m the county of Antrim ; which name the Irish interpret as the chapel or shrine of Crom, where the idolators used to sacrifice to this deity. To this origin they also refer Crumlin Water, the name of a river in the same barony of Massareene, and same county of Antrim. But it being my opinion that the word Crom has reference not to worship,* but to a nation that * In giving an account of the religions of ancient nations, we must be directed by two guides; namely, sacred and profane history. The foriner gives us a general view of their abomina- tions ; the latter lays open all that now can be known concern- ing their public and private rites and ceremonies. Phcenice, Tyre, and Carthage, were all peopled by the sons of Ham ; they had the same form of religion, spoke the same language, encouraged the same arts and sciences, used the same instru- ments in war, and inflicted the same punishments upon crimi- nals. Thus their civil and religious history is so blended together, that we cannot illustrate the latter, without taking some notice of the former. The Phoenicians were a remnant of the ancient Canaanites, who were suffered by the Divine Being, to remain unextirpated, that they should be a scourge upOii the children of Israel, as often as they relnpsed into idol- atry. In scripture they are often mentioned, as a warlike people, under the name of Philistines, for the word Phoenice is Greek. They inhabited that part of Asitt adjoining to the Mediterranean sea, and worshipped an idol named Dagon, much in the same form as a mermaid is represented by the fa- bulous writers ; a human body from the navel upwards, and the lower part that of a fish. The figure itself was very expressive ; for it pointed out, not only their situation near the sea, but H 2 L«rc 100 worships, I shall now detail my sentiments respecting the derivation of the geographical names just alluded to. Crom-artin, then, I would derive from the Phoe- nician words Crom-arithin, a shrubbery dedicated to Fate,* and surrounded with pools or rivers. likewise that they were connected, both with sea and land. Invaded in their continental territories by the neighbouring na- tions, they settled in an island near adjoining, which they called Tyre ; and there remained in possession of it till the time of Alexander the Great. As a trading people, they sent colonies into Africa : but most of these were comprehended under the name of Carthagenians ; and such regard had Tyre and Car- thage for each other, that when Cambyses resolved to make war upon the latter, the Phoenicians refused to accompany him ; alledging in excuse, that they could not fight against their brethren, which obliged that prince to lay aside his design. Nay, the Carthagenians sent an annual tribute to the Tyrians, part of which was for the support of the civil government, and part for the maintainance of the priests and religion. The religion of the Carthagenians, which was the same as that of the Tyrians, Phoenicians, Philistines, and Canaanites, was most horrid and barbarous ; and so regular were they in practising what will ever dishonour human nature, that Chris- tians, in attending to their duty, may take an example from them. Nothing of any moment was undertaken without con- sulting the gods, which they did by a variety of ridiculous rites and ceremonies. Hercules was the god in whom they placed most confidence, at least he was the same to them as Mars was to the Romans, so that he was invoked before they went upon any expedition ; and when they obtained a victory, sacri- fices and thanksgivings were offered to him. * According to the notions of the Indian heathens, the 101 Crom-mal, from Cram-mala^ a congregation of people in a grove or shrubbery of the deity Fate. Crom-la, from Cram-lah, anxious worshippers of Fate in a grove. The word sUabh, at the end of the word Crom-la-sliabh, bears allusion to a fountain of this mountain, or forest, contiguous to the shrine ; for sliaba in the Phoenician, is the pipe of a fountain through which the water flows. Crom-oge, from Crom-og, which means, people burning victims in the shrubbery of Fate. Crom-chin, from Crom-schin, people applauding in the grove of Fate. Crom-lin, from Cram-lun, people entertained or sojourning in the grove* of Fate ; or hospitality beside the shrine of this idol. god Bruiua writes upon the forehead of every new-born child an account of all that shall happen to him in this world, and that it is not in the power of God or man to prevent these things from taking place. Thus we find that the doctrine of fatality has taken place in the most early ages, and even in the most barbarous nations. This system being entirely that which was embraced by the followers of Epicurus amongst the heathens, and the Sadducees among the .Tews, we shall not say any thing concerning it, be- cause it is but a bold attempt to set aside the utility of public and private worship ; for if God does not take notice of the actions of men in this life, then the vi'hole bounds of religion are removed ; there is no motive to duty ; there is nothing to restrain us as mortals from committing the most horrid, the most unnatural crimes. * As it was the universal practice the ancient heathen 10-2 CHAP. IX. Ops not the Apis of the Egyptians^ hut one of the names of . Cybele— She was the Roman Vesta — Etymology of the word — Variously called from the mountains v)here she was worshipped — Origin of the word Sibbol— Thence Cybele — Why called Ama, Mammon, Anagh, Aonagh, or Aona — Shabana. But, before we proceed any further, I would entreat the readers' indulgence for the few inci- dental observations, which I purpose to make, upon that celebrated idol of antiquity. Ops, which, an- cient writers assure us, the Momonians worshipped nations to worship their idols in groves, before temples were erected, it may be proper here to inquire, what gave rise to that notion ? It is a principle acquired by experience without reading, that in every act of devotion the mind should be fixed on the grand object of worship. Every one who has walked in a grove will acknowledge, that there was more than a com- mon reverential awe upon his mind, which must be owing to the small number of objects that presented themselves. We may justly call them the haunts of meditation ; but still it cannot be denied, that many abominable crimes were com- mitted in them : some parts near their altars were set apart for secret lewdness, and even for such unnatural practices as ought not to be related. — Hurd* 103 in a celebrated grotto ; — as well as upon the other names by which this deity was distinguished.* A learned gentleman, and a shrewd searcher into the Phoenician idolatry, suspected once that Ops was to the Phoenicians the same as Apis, not that which Tibullusf calls the Memphian Bull,J and which the Memphians consecrated to the moon, but that which the Heliopolites had consecrated to the sun.§ * See chap. vii. t Tibul. lib. iii. eleg. 7. X The most magnificent temples were erected for him ; he was adored by all ranks of people while living, and when he died (for he was a living Bull) all Egypt went into mourning for him. We are told by Pliny, that, during the reign of Ptolemy Lagus, the Bull Apis died of extreme old age, and such was the pompous manner in which he was interred, that the funeral expences amounted to a sum equal to that of twelve thousand pounds sterling. The next thing to be done, was to provide a successor for this god, and all Kgypt was ransacked ou purpose. He was to be distinguished by certain marks from all other animals of his own species ; particularly he was to have on his forehead a white mark, resembling a crescent ; ou his back the figure of an eagle ; and on his tongue that of a beetle. As soon as an ox answering that description was found, mourning gave place to joy ; and nothing was to be heard of in Egypt but festivals and rejoi-cings. The new discovered god, or rather beast, was brought to Memphis, to take possession of his dignity, and there placed upon a throne, with a great number of ceremonies. Indeed, the Egyptians seem to have given such encouragement to superstition, that not content with worshipping the vilest of all reptiles, they actually paid divine honors to vegetables. § Voss. de orig. et progress, idolat. 1. 29. 104 For the Phoenicians also worshipped the sun under the name of Baal, or Bel, by which, as the Assyrian^ and Babylonians, they understood, physically, the whole system of nature, as well terrestrial as celes- tialj and above all, the solar nature, as Servius tells us. They, accordingly, very appropriately gave to the sun the name of Belus, as the Moabites did that of Moloch. For as this latter appellation sig- nifies King, so does Baal, or Bel, signify Lord, as though the arbiter of all the blessings of nature. Wherefore, also, did they call him Bolatis, or Bolati. from the words Bol-ati, which means Baal,* or the Lord, who bestows.f But this Baal being distin- guished by various names, it hence happened that, in Scripture, the Israelites are blamed for serving Baals, in the plural number. This seems to have occurred in other countries also, for the Bolgae, a colony of the Phoenicians in Ireland, worshipped, as * But of all the gods of the Syrians and Canaanites, none were honored so much as Baal, who was no other than the Belus of the Chaldeans, and the Jupiter of the Greeks. It is probable the sun was worshipped under this name ; for Josiah, willing to make some atonement for the sins of his father Mauasseh, in worshipping Baal and all the host of heaven, put to death the idolatrous priests that burnt incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven. He likewise took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, and burnt the chariots of the sun with fire. — Hurd. t See Damascus in the life of Isidorus Photius. 105 We shall hereafter shew, the sun, or the principle of fire, as a deity, under various names. The name of Bolgae is compounded of the Phoenician words Bol- goi, meaning the nation that worships Bol, or Baal ; as Belgae is compounded of the words Bel-goi, amounting to the same. From whence the Bolgas and the Belgae were at first called by the Latins Bolgii and Belgii ; afterwards the Bolgian and the Belgian nations ; and finally, as we now call them, the Bolg£e and the Belgae. From this cause it was that the writer^ above alluded to, conceived Ops the same as Apis, which the Hieropolitans had conse- crated to the sun. Indeed I would think this conjecture probable enough, were it not evident, from another source, that Ops was one of the names of Cybele, reputed by idolators as the daughter of Heaven and Earth, and designated as the Mother of the Gods, the Good Mother, and the Earth itself.* Wherefore * Pliny (11, 65.) affirms that the Gentiles worshipped the earth under the name of Mother, and not only Mother but great Mother, because of its bountifulness. For this it was that they called her the eternal creator of men and gods, (Stat. Chebaid. viii. V. 304,) chief parent, and other such epithets ; for having fallen away into idolatry from the religion of the patriarchs, who offered sacrifices to the true God through faith in the pro- mised Messiah, and having thus contaminated the original purity of the knowledge of the Godhead, they worshipped the elements, from which they conceived all things to have been realized, either as actual divinities or symbols of divinities, and 106 the Romans worshipped her under the name of Vesta, as bemg clothed in the beauty of her own manifold productions,* according as some imagine ;f though others would account for it otherwise. J Un- der this latter name she had two temples at Rome,§ one built by Romulus, the other by Numa Pom- pilius, in the mid space between the Capitoline and Palatine hills, both hills being surrounded by one wall. Her temples were always round, in allusion of course to the earth's form. Others would derive the name of Ops from the Egyptian word hop, a serpent ; others from the Hebrew apoe, a viper ; whence the Greek ophis, a snake, the root of which is poe, or phoe, to hiss. But this has nothing common, or in connection with the fables which mythology tells us of this divinity. They come more near the truth who say that Ops is a mountain of Phrygia, where this idol w^as wor- shipped, the name Ops, or Opes, implying a boun- amongst these, in a special manner, the earth, whence themselves originated, and into which all things again return in a state of decomposition. (Plato. — Proclus.) Cybele was afterwards designated by various other names, many of which may still be traced upon ancient altars, and recorded by Plutarch, Paiisanias, Gruler, Smelius, &c. Camden mentions to have seen one of her altars in Biitain. * Quippe quae rebus omnibus vestitur, t See Lud. Despre. on the Odes of Hor. lib. i, od, 2, X Cicero de Nat. Deo. i. n. 67. § Dionys. Hal. cam. lib. ii. 107 dary, as though it were the limit of some particular country ; as also they think that she was called Rhea, the name by which she was worshipped at Hierapolis, from a mountain called Rea, meaning he saw, or he observed, from its lofty position command- ing a sight of distant objects. She was called Din- dymena, from the mountain Dindemain, which means, olive groves in an eastern quarter ; and Bere- cynthia, from breschin, or bereschin, a fir or pine grove. But our decision on the word Sibbol, a name by which the Irish, as well as almost all other nations, designated and worshipped Ops, or CybelC;, must be guided altogether by another principle For here I at once recognize the Syriac character as derived from sibola, an ear of corn, under which guise the Phoenicians used to worship the earth as the mother of all harvests, fruits, and vegetables. All nations, therefore, by one common consent, represented Cybele holding in her right hand some ears of corn * * Vossius states that there was at Rome, in the house which belonged to Cardinal Caesius, a marble altar, on which stood a statue of Cybele, with a ^0M;er upon her head, and holding millet and ears of corn in her right hand. The inscription was, ** To the Great Idean, Mother of the Gods." Many imagine that, in allusion to the same principle, she was called Rhea ; not from the mountain of that name, in Persia, but from the Phoenician reah, he yielded fodder ; whence rei, pasture : the metaphori- cal signification of reah is, he obtained dominion. She was called Idean from id or ida, power. 108 Whence the Greeks gave her the name of Cubele^ and the Latins that of Cybele. She was called Ama from the Phoenician word, am, a mother, and Mammon, from mammon, riches, or wealth, as the bestower of all blessings. The name of Anagh, by which she was also dis- tinguished, may refer, if you please, to the groves wherein she was worshipped ; for Anagh means de- light, or to be delighted, of course, with such worship. But I would prefer deriving it from nahag, he ruled, or governed ; for, as the daughter of Earth and Heaven, and the mother, besides, of the gods. Ops may be well supposed invested with no ordinary share of authority, in directing the affairs of the world. The Isle of Annagh, which lies between the island of Achil and the coast of the county Mayo, in the province of Connaught, takes its name from this ; as does also a little town of the same name near Charleville, in the county Cork ; and Annagh- uan an island adjacent to the county Gal way, intimating, as it were, a people who worshipped Anagh ; for the Phoenicians used, synechdocally, to call the inhabit- ants of any particular district by the generic name of "ben." Nor can I see any objection to the derivation of the names of these places from the giant Anac, the son of Arbas,* from whom the Phoenicians were * Joshua XV. 13, 14. Ben- Anac means literally the sons 109 called Anakin, or Ben-Anac, the sons or descendants of Anac, their principal or leading tribe^ agreeably and corresponding to the Irish appellatives, Mac- Carthy, MacMahon,* O'Brien, O'Connel, the " Mac" of giants or heroes, of the stock of which Anac was the first parent. Whence to this day, in the old Irish ballads, Feineagh means a champion, or heroic warrior. * At such time as Robert Vere, Earl of Oxford, was in the Barons warres against King Richard the Second, through the mallice of the Peeres, banished the realme and proscribed, he with his kinsman, Fitz-Ursula, fled into Ireland, where being prosecuted, and afterwards in England put to death, his kins- man there remaining behinde in Ireland rebelled, and, con- spiring with the Irish, did quite cast off both their English name and alleagiance, since which time they have so remained still, and have since beene counted meere Irish. The very like is also reported of the Mac-swines, Mac-mahones, and Mac- shehies of Mounster^ how they likewise were aunciently Eng- lish, and old followers to the Earle of Desmond, untill the raigne of King Edward the Fourth ; at which time the Earle of Desmond that then was, called Thomas, being through false subornation (as they oay) of the Queene for some offence by her against him conceived, brought to his death at Tredagh most unjustly, notwithstanding that he was a very good and sound subject to the King. Thereupon all his kinsemen of the Geraldines, which then was a mighty family in Mounster, in revenge of that huge wrong, rose into armes against the Kino, and utterly renounced and forsooke all obedience to the Crowne of England, to whom the said Mac-swines, Mac-shehies, and Mac-mahones, being then servants and followers, did the like, and have ever sithence so continued. And with them (they say) ail the people of Mounster went otit, and many other of them, which were meere English, thenceforth joyned with the Irish against the King, and termed themselves very Irish, taking on them Irish habits and customes, which could never 110 and the " O " prefixed to the latter^ importing the same as the Ben in the former instance, viz. '' the sons of," or " descended from." Aonagh, another name of Ops, was pronounced Aona by the ancient Irish, and by others called Shabana. And as during the celebration of her solemnities they always held a fair or markets beside her temple, it requires no great effort of imagination, as I should think, to derive this name from aon, wealth, or a place of public resort. Shabana evi- dently comes from shaban, abundance, which again is derived from shabaa, he abounded ; all obviously in keeping with mercantile views and attendance on the market-place. This is still more clearly proved by the name given to the first of November in their calendar, viz. Oidche Shambna, the day, or rather the night (Oidche signifies night) on which idola- trous ceremonies were usually celebrated.* The festival itself was called Tlachgo, which some refer to the rotundity of the earth, but I should prefer deriving it from the Phoenician tla agod, a gathering of yearling lambs, such being the usual victims on the occasion.f From Phoenicia therefore it was since be cleane wyped away, but the contagion halh remained still among their posterityes. Of which sort (they say) be most of the surnames which end in an, as Hernan, Shinan, Mungan, Sec. the which now account themselves natural [rish. — Spenser, * See Collect, de Reb. Ibern. p. 420. f Noah had taught his children the knowledge of the true HI that the worship of Ops, under her various designa- tions as particularized above, was introduced into Ireland, to procure for her votaries that successful career as w^ell in agriculture as in commerce, of which she was supposed the bountiful superintendant. We may this day observe a vestige of her name in that of an old town in Lower Ormond, the capital, at one time, of the district anciently called Eog- anacht Aine Cliach, called Aonoch. It is now God; and that they were to trust in his mercy through the mediation of a Tledeemer, who was to be revealed to them at a future period of time ; for the necessity of a mediator between God and man was a general notion from the beginning. But as no clear revelation was then made of this Divine person, the people began to choose mediators for themselves, from among the heavenly bodies, such as the sun, moon, and stars, whom they considered as in a middle state between God and men. This was the origin of all the idolatry in the heathen world ; and at first they worshipped those orbs themselves, but as they found that they were as often under the horizon as above it, they were at a loss how to address them in their absence. To remedy this, they had recourse to making images, which after their consecration they believed endowed with Divine power, and this was the origin of image worship. This religion first began among the Chaldeans, and it was to avoid being guilty of idolatry that Abraham left that country. In Persia, the first idolaters were called Sabians, who adored the rising sun with the profoundest veneration. To that planet they consecrated a most magnificent chariot, to be drawn by horses of the greatest beauty and magnitude, on every solemn festi- val. The same ceremony was practised by many other heathens, who undoubtedly learned it from the Persians, and other eastern nations.- JETierc?. 112 called Naiiiagh, or Nenagh, and is situated in the county Tipperary. I should observe that Aonoch, in Irish, signifies also a mountain or a leader. But Nenagh I would derive from the Irish words naoi- nach, an assemblage of people, rather than, as would others, from neonach, a player or buffoon. CHAP. X. The Iberi, a people of Ireland — Spain not cognizant of the Iheri of Mount Caucasus — Iberia, a Phoenician word — Calpe, the extremity of the earth in the estimation of the Phcenicians — A promontory and city in Spain, actually the extremity of the earth's extension — This occupied by the an- cient Iberi — The sun setting in the river Iber — The Irish Iberi, a tribe of the Spanish Iberi — Where they settled — The district of Ibrickin, a vestige of them — Derivation of this word, as also of Ibercon — The idols, Sicuth and Kion. The Iberi, a people of Ireland, of whom Ptolemy makes mention, inhabited the coasts of the county of Kerry, in the province of Munster. Irish writers make mention of another people of this name, who had settled in the county of Derry, in Ulster, be- tween Lough Foyle and the river Ban.* But who * Richard Cirenester, in his " De Situ Britannia^/' chap. 113 those Iberi were we must now betake ourselves to consider briefly. To suppose, then, that the Caucasian Iberi had gone into Spain, and given to that country the name of Iberia, I hesitate not to pron©unce as nonsense the most absurd, though supported by the authority of Varro,* and sanctioned by the adoption of Apianf and Diodorus Siculus.;}; No ; the origin of Iberia must be sought from another source.§ Eber, in the Hebrew, and Ebra or Ibra, in the Chaldee, signify a passing over, or any thing remote or far away ; their plurals, Ibrin or Ebrin, signify boundaries or limits : the Spaniards, therefore, were very naturally called Iberi, being, as the Phoenicians imagined, the very remotest inhabitants of the earth, and their city, Calpe, the furthermost spot in their opinion of the habitable globe. || Conformable to this is the character given by Possidonius to the temple of Hercules, in Gades or Cadiz, calling it ^^ the bound- ary of the earth and sea/'^jj From the same reason the Jews w^ould have Gaul and Spain to be the boundaries of their own land. The Zarphat and iii. says, from an old Roraau geographer, ** The ancients put it past doubt, that the Iberi took up their settlements in Ireland." * Varro ap Pliny, iii. 3. t Apian in Ibericis, p. 22b*. : Diod. Sic. V. 215. § Bochart. Geog. Sacr. iii. 7. II Strabo, lib. iii. IF See Erasmus on " Pill. Her." iii. chap. 20. I 114 Sarphad mentioned by Obadiah, ver. 20. the Jews would have to be Gaul and Spain ; because the ^^psalter" extends the empire of Christ even unto the boundaries of the earth, which Aben-ezra * says, are situated in the remote west. Finally, the Spaniards, themselves, have long since given the name of Finis Terrasjf or land's end, to the Nerian or Celtic promontory in Artabria. A city and district of the same country, in the district of Compostella, still preserves its name of land's end — Finis terre. Others suppose that the Spaniards were called Iberi, from the river Iber; just as Egypt got its name from the river Nile, which Homer designates — Egyptus. Iber, the name of the river, signifies in the Phoenician, rapidly flowing. J * Psalras Ixxi. 8. t Some Spaniards derive this name from the Celtic^n-es-tere^ that is, a fair and fertile mountain. As they do, also, the names of the towns, Finestras, in the Celtiberi, and Fiiiestrat, in the Edetani, from the Celtic fin-es-tra, a village on a hill beside a river. I The river Iber rises in the district of the Cantabrians, hard by Juliobriga, and flov^'s by the ancient Vetones and Vascones, dividing the Ilergates from the Editani. Avienus (in Oris Maritimis) mentions another Iberus, near the ocean, to the west of the former, being no more than a stream mid- way between Bcetis and Anas, now called Rio Tinto, or de Aceche ; these are his words : — " Iberus inde manat amnis, et locos Foeciindat unda. Plurimi ex ipso ferunt Dictos Iberos, non abillo flumine. Quod inquietos Vascones perlabitur. Nam quid-quid amni gentis hugus adjacet, Occiduura ad axcm, Iberiam cognominant." 115 The more ancient Iberi had not possession of the whole of Spain, but only of that part of it confront- ing the Mediterranean, and extending from the Pyrenees to Calpe, and the pillars of Hercules. But though the Iberi were, properly speaking, the more remote,* yet the ancient geographical writers accounted the Spaniards, indiscriminately, as the most distant people ; which gave rise to the fiction, on the part of the poets, of the sun's setting not only in the ocean, but more particularly in the river Iber, thereby to mark out the extremity of the earth's extent. f The Iberia, therefore, of the ancient Irish took its name from the tribes of the Iberi of Spain, and consisted of that tract of country in the environs of Beerhaven, in the county of Cork ; the families of which people would seem to have been the original inhabitants of the county Kerry, and a part of the county Clare, in the same province,! where we still find the barony of Ibrickin, a proof of the * Hence we may infer, that the Beetle Iberi, of whom Avienus speaks, were more properly so called Iberi, for they were the most extreme in respect to Spain in general. t Bochart i. 35. Spain retains the traces of this name in the Iberic Mountains, which pass through the middle of the kingdom of Arragon, in Ibera, the name of an ancient city of the Ilercaones, which Livy designates as " most opulent/' and in Iberum, a town of Cantabria. I The Poets tell us, that this district of Ireland, was ap- propriated to Heber, son of Milesius. See Seward. i2 116 presence of the Iberi, who gave it that name. It is probable, too, that the descendants of the Spanish Iberi, who all originated from a Phoenician stock, were accounted kin, as the sons of Obab or Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses,* and from him called Kini. This would account for the appear- ance of this word, as the last syllable of Iberi-kin : and who is it that does not know the avidity of the Phoenicians to perpetuate their nobility, and the fondness of delight with which they dwelt upon every memorial of the glory of their ancestors ? Or, Kin might be equivalent with Kini, that is the Cinnaei, a people in the land of Canaan, who were also called the Cinnaean race.f And this would seem supported by the names of certain localities still preserved in this country ; for instance, that of Cinneich, the residence of Dermott Mac Carthy, J Esq. * Judges i. 16. t Judges iv. 11, 17. X A pathetic incident connected with the Mac Cartys has such claims on the feehngs that I will not conclude this narra- tive of their fortunes without the mention of it. A considerable part of the forfeited estates of that family, in the county Cork, was held by Mr. S , about the middle of the last century. Walking one evening in his demesne, he observed a figure, apparently asleep, at the foot of an aged tree, and, on approach- ing the spot, found an old man extended on the ground, whose audible sobs proclaimed the severest affliction. Mr. S inquired the cause, and was answered — " Forgive me, sir; my grief is idle, but to mourn is a relief to the desolate heart and 117 near Bandon, in the county Cork ; that of Cineal Fearmaic, a district in old Thomond, in the county Clare ; and that of Cineal-Eoghean, an ancient and extensive tract of the province of Ulster, comprising the present counties of Tyrone, Armagh, Donegal, and part of the county Derry. This latter inter- pretation may be applied, also, to several names of the old Irish tow^ns beginning w^ith Kin. To a Phoenician source must we also refer the origin of the word Ibercon, the name of a place in the county Kilkenny,* between the baronies of Ida and Igrim, being composed of the words Iberi-con, that is, the staunch, the firm Iberi. Nor is it unlikely that they consisted of those, who borrowed from the Phoenicians the worship of the idol Kiun or Kion, which we are told by the prophet Amos, v. 26., the humbled spirit. I am a Mac Carty» once the possessor of that castle, now in ruins, and of this ground ; — this tree was planted by ray own hands, and 1 have returned to water its roots with my tears. To-morrow I sail for Spain, where I have long been an exile and an outlaw since the Revolution. I am an old man, and to-night, probably for the last time, bid farewell to the , place of my birth and the home of my forefathers.'* — Crofton Croker. * Canice, son of Laidec, a celebrated poet, was the founder and first abbot of the abbey of Aghavoe, where he died the fifth of the ides of October, in the year 599 or 600. The episcopal see was at length removed from Aghavoe to Kilkenny, or the cathedral (Kil) of Cannice (Kenny), called after this saint, to- wards the end of the twelfth century, by Felix O'Dulany, then bishop. — Mac Geoghegan. 118 Syrians worshipped in conjunction with their idol Sicuth. The septuagint translation of the bible calls this idol, '^ Astron/' a star ; the vulgate renders it, '' the image of your idols, the star of your God."* The Hebrews think it to be Saturn, who was called Keuan by the Persians and Arabians ; and it is well known that the Phoenicians worshipped this deity under a variety of names and symbols. * V. 26. The Phoenicians were accustomed to carry about with them some small imiiges, representing certain gods, in carved chariots ; the tabernacle of Moloch, above mentioned, seems to have been a machine of this kind. The first images or statues were made in honour of great men, who had per- formed extraordinary exploits; and these being set up in par- ticular places, great veneration was paid to them, which, in the end, turned to religious adoration. It appears, from Pliny, that those statues were at first made of brick, such as that used in building the famous tower of Babel. As to the text itself, above alluded to, it should run thus: — *' But ye have borne the tabernacle of your god, (Moloch) ; and i/c have also borne Chium, your likeness ; the star (Remphan) of your god, {the same Moloch.) The common translation insinuates, that Moloch and Remphan, or Chium, were different deities, whereas, according to that proposed, they were the same, since it makes Chium and Remphan the names of that star which the Arabians and Egyptians appropriated to the false deity, called by the Ammonites, &c. by way of eminence- Moloch, or King. 119 CHAP. XI. The Irish Brigantes, not the Breogani of a later date — neither Armenians, nor Phrygians. — Various names of Brigantia, in Spain — Pharos therein, by whom built — An oracle of Menistheus, in an observatory therein — The Irish Brigantes, a tribe of the Spanish Phoenicians — The Heneti — Why so called — Why the Briganters so called — Brigantium the re- sidence of the Irish — Vestiges of this name, as well in Ireland as in Spain. More celebrated than the Iberi far, in ancient Ireland, was another people, called the Brigantes, who were either actually Phoenicians, or descended from the Phoenicians of Spain. O'Connor makes mention of Gasman's poem,* wherein it is said that Brioganus, the son of Brathus, in a right line from Fenius, one of their wise men, was the founder of Brigantia in Spain. And that his posterity had sailed from thence into Ireland, under the conduct * Beginning thus, '* Canam bunhadus mon Gaodlail ;" that is, " I sing of the origin of the Gadalians." 120 of the two brothers, Heber* and Heremon.f The Spanish harbour, which the Greeks call Brugantia, by Ptolemy called Phlanuion Brigantion, and by the Romans, Flavia Brigantum, is supposed to have been so called after his name. Its modern name is Co- runa, and it is only forty-eight hours' voyage, straight a-head, with a fair south west wind, from any port on the coast of Ireland. (EticusJ still further tells us, that in the abovementioned town of Brigantia there is a watch-tower of prodigious height, called Pharos, and intended chiefly as a light-house for the direction of vessels lying out at sea.§ And Orosius,|| says that this had been built by the Tyrian Hercules, who, we know from Diodorus Siculus, had subdued Iberia, and all the countries thence to the going down of the sun, before he had crossed the Alps. Keating,^ nevertheless, asserts, that this tower was built by Breoganus the founder of the city, and that the first discovery he made therefrom, by the aid of a telescope, was the existence of this our island, to which he instantly transferred a colony of * Giraldus Cambrensis (Topog. Diet. iii. cap. vii.) in the following century, and Nennius in the ninth, have asserted the same. f Apud. Casaub. in Strab. t. 1. p. 206. note 3. X This was called the town of Augustus, in the time of Mela. § Adversus Gentes I. 17. Alias I. 2. II IV. If Psalter of Cormac. 121 his subjects^ that is the Brigantes, the same who in the Irish annals are called Sliocht Briogan, that is, the stock or the progeny of this leader. Straboj* alluding to the origin of this observa- tory, says, — " In this place is the oracle of Menes- theus, and the tower of Capio, built upon a rock, surrounded by the sea, a prodigy of art, like the Pha- ros ; and it is so contrived, that the rays of light falling thereon are refracted and reflected in every direction, as if issuing out of so many chinks, exhibiting all the beauty and the ruddiness of the sun or moon, when either rising or setting, and seen through the me- dium of a transparent and a dry cloud." The harbour of Menestheus is mentioned by him in the same passage, as it is also by Ptolemy ; Menestheus, himself, having been the leader of the Athenians at the time of the Trojan war, and the person who, as we read in the commentaries of the Grecians, on his return from Illium to Athens, had been expelled thence by the descendants of Theseus, and betaken himself forthwith to Spain. f * Hisce in locis, Oraculum Menesthei est, et Capionis tur- ns saxo imposita, quod mari cingitur, opus mirabile, Phari instar, quibus infractos radios visus, veluti in fistulas quasdama diffundi, et majorem vera quantitatem fingere, quemadmodum ciim solem lunamve orientem aut occidentem per aridam, te- nuemque nubem intuemur, rubere putamus." i. 3. t See Casaub. in Strab. O'Connor. 122 Baxter,* however, is of opinion, that the Brigantes were a people of ancient Phrygia and Armenia,f who passed over into Thrace, and made themselves masters, in the very earliest days, and by natural occupation, of almost the entire of Europe ; they were also, he conceives, called Heneti, from hen, which, in the two countries abovementioned, is equi- valent with ancient, or antique. But the Brigantes being evidently Phoenicians, or, at least, a stock of the Phoenician Iberi, I should think it more pro- bable, that they got the name of Heneti, in after times, from the depravity of their moral conduct, the word eneth, in the Phoenician language, signi- fying scandalous or depraved. And from thence, perhaps, comes the Spanish word, bergante, which signifies the same. It may, it is true, admit of another derivation, and infinitely more to their credit, namely, that of being expert at the management of the spear, for heneth, in the Syriac and Hebrew, * Gloss. Antiq. Brit. p. 48. t Armenia is a very extensive country, and generally divided into the greater and lesser, but taking both together, they are bounded in the following manner. It has Georgia on the north; on the south mount Taurus, which divides it from Mesopotamia, on the west the river Euphrates, and on the east the Cas- pian mountains. Georgia has the Caspian sea on the east, the Euxine sea on the west, on the north Circassia, and, on the south, part of Armenia. The river Cur^ or Cyrus, so called from the emperor of that name, runs through it, dividing it into two equal parts. 123 signifies a spear. Another exposition may also be adduced, from the custom of embalming the bodies of their dead, which the Jews, as well as Syrians, had borrowed from the people of Egypt.* In support of this latter exposition we shall state, that henet or hanat, in the Syro-Chaldaic language, signifies to embalm, the ingredients in which process we may, en passant, observe to have been myrrh, aloes, cedar oil, salt, wax, pitch, and rosin, invented with a view to the preservation of their dead, in a state of sweet- ness and indecomposition, in their appropriate recep- tacles. With this ceremony was the body of our blessed Saviour interred, with aromatic spices, which, Josephus tells us, corresponded with the form of the Jewish sepulture. It is not at all improbable, there- fore, that these Phoenician tribes were called Eneti, * When any of the Egyptians died, the whole family quitted the place of their abode ; and during sixty or seventy days, according to the rank or quality of the deceased, abstained from all the comforts of life, excepting such as were necessary to support nature. They embalmed the bodies, and many persons were employed in performing this ceremony. The brains were drawn through the nostrils by an instrument, and the intestines were empt ed by cutting a hole in the abdomen, or belly, with a sharp stone ; after which, the cavities were filled up with perfumes, and the finest odoriforous spices ; but the person who made the incision in the body for this purpose, and who was commonly a slave, was obliged to run away im- mediately after, or the people present would stone him to death. 124 that is the embalmers,* from having introduced this custom into Ireland, as they did, also, into Spain. * A question may here naturally be asked, Why do the heathens in the East Indies, in conformity with the practice of the Romans, burn the bodies of the dead ? There have been * several conjectures concerning the origin of this barbarous practice, as first, many of the eastern nations adored the fire, and therefore they considered it as an acceptable piece of de- votion, to offer up the dead bodies of their relations to it. Secondly, their pride might induce the most celebrated heroes, and the most beautiful women, to desire to conceal from the world, what poor helpless creatures they were while alive. Thirdly, they beheld many indignities offered to the dead, and they were willing, nay desirous that nothing of that nature should happen to their relations. Lastly, they might do it in order to prevent a contagious distemper, which often takes place from the noxious smell of dead bodies. Whether any, or all of these conjectures may be founded in truth, we leave the reader to judge, but, certain it is, the practice itself, is contrary to natural religion, as well as to Divine revelation. Natural religion points out, that as man was formed out of the earth, so at death his body should be consigned to it. •' Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return." Divine revelation teaches us, that as Christ laid down his head in the grave, so the bodies of those who are his faithful followers, should be deposited in the earth ; to rest till that awful period, when he shall come to judge the world in righteousness. Let us pity heathens, who have none of those consolations, which our holy religion holds out to us ; let us daily pray for their con- version ; let us not be afraid to lay down our heads in the silent grave ; let us not reflect much on the indignities that may be offered to our bodies after death ; for our Divine Re- deemer has gone before us, he has made the grave sweet unta us, and by his almighty power, he will raise us up at the last ^djy.—Hurd, 125 Baxter, however, thinks that the Brigantes or Heneti, as they may indifferently be called, having, as we have said, passed over into Thrace, got the name of Bruges, Briges, or Friges, from the cold- ness of that climate, and these names got afterwards inflected, according to the several Teutonic and Britannic dialects, into Brigantes, Frixi, Trigones, Frisii, Friscones, Brisones, Britones, and Britanni. Whence he infers, and gives himself credit for the discovery, that the Brigantes of Ireland were the Gauls and the foreigners, who in the older times were denominated the Erii * or Scots ;f and that this was a name common to the Britons, nay, to all the Gauls, before the arrival of the Belgae from Germany. This distinguished writer adds, that the original Brigantes on being expelled their own territories, * Baxter's Gloss. Antiq. Brit. p. 119. t Two kindes of Scots were indeed (as you may gather out of Buchanan) the one Irin, or Irish Scots, the other Albin- Scots ; for those Scots are Scythians, arrived (as I said) in the north parts of Ireland, where some of them after passed into the next coast of Albine, now called Scotland, which (after much trouble) they possessed, and of themselves named Scot- land ; but in process of time (as it is commonly seene) the dominion of the part prevaileth in the whole, for the Irish Scots putting away the name of Scots, were called only Irish, and the Albine Scots, leaving the name of Albioe, were called only Scots. Therefore it commeth thence that of some writers, Ireland is called ScotisL- major, and that which now is called Scotland, Scotia-minor. — Spenser. 126 came in quest of a new settlement to this island, and that the Ceangi, a people of the Dumnonian Belgse, called by the Irish Scoto-Brigantes, For- Bolg, or Belgian-men, followed them in the pursuit of similar adventures. But it being admitted on all hands, as we have said, that the Brigantes were a people of the Phoeni- cians, who landed in Ireland, from thej^coast of Gallacia, or France ; they could not possibly have been so named from the cold of that climate, which we all know to be very temperate, not to say warm. Neither were they so called from Briganus, the son of Brethus, who belongs more to the day-dreams of story-tellers, than to the rigid accuracy of historical truth. No ; Bregan or Breogan, I consider a Phoeni- cian term, from brekin,* which signifies, bringing offerings to an idol or performing the ceremony of genuflection before it, which again comes from, brie. * The conversion of the letter k ox c into a is easy and fre- quent. Bracca, a city of Lusitania, is pronounced Braga, by the Spaniards; Malaca, the emporium of Boetica, Malaga; Lucus, a city of Gallaecia, Lugo; Astorica, Astorga ; the river Sicoris, Segre, and so on. From the Latin secare, they say segar ; from pacare, pagar ; from decollare, degollar ; from vacare, vagar; from jocari, jugar; from joco, juego; from caeco, ciego ; from cato, gato; from lacus, lago, &c. A similar permutation of the same letter occurs in various words in all languages : so that it is not at all to be wondered at, that by the change of c or ^ into g, these people got from Breckin, the name of Braga, Breage, or Briganges. 127 that is, he bent the knee, the attitude at once of adoration, prayer, and thanksgiving. It also means to offer presents to an idol, by which we are to understand the phrase of blessing (brie) an idol, as it occurs in scripture. From brekin, therefore, they being the most superstitious of all the Phoenicians, they were at first called Breghan, then Bregan or Breogan, whence, afterwards, the Greeks called them Brigantoi, and the Latins, Brigantes, according to the genius of their respective tongues. Nor are there wanting persons who would maintain, that the Spanish Brigantes were called Brigantoi by the Greeks, from the words purges ant has, a florid tower, the name by which the Farus, in Brigantia, in Spain, was formerly designated. But the Spanish Brigantes, they should recollect, were not Greeks, but Phoenicians. Ptolemy places the Irish Brigantes in the south- western quarters of this island, as a kin to those who were distinguished under that name in Britain, living about the sacred 'promontory, leron, just opposite Wales : adjacent to them, on the west, lay the Vodii, and behind those, the Itterni, or Ivernii ; in the west, still behind the promontory of Notium, lay the Vallabori, to whom Drosius joins the Luceni. From these the Nagnatae, Erdini, and Venicnii, stretched towards the north ; but in the extreme northern point of the island lay the Robogdii, by the promontory of this name. On the west, the 128 Voluntii, the Eblani or Blanii, near the city Eblana, now Dublin, the Cauci and the Manapii, between whom, and the Brigantes. lay the Coriondi. These several people Ptolomy has handed down, as existing in this country ; but we find not the Scots included amongst them, and this has led Cellarius * to suspect, that they were subsequent to those people, at least under this name, in point of occupancy. The opinion of modern f geographers is, that they inhabited the eastern districts, now called Catherlaghensis, Miden- sis, and Waterford ; and that from them a part of the district of Media is called, as well in the Irish annals as in some old writings respecting Saint Patrick, Magh-breg, or the plain of the Brigantes, a name it holds to the present day. This our Brigantia then, the modern Waterford, was situated opposite to Brigantia in Spain. In it not only does the river Brigas, now the Barrow, but also the barony of Bargy in the south-west of Ire- land, seem to savour strongly of the Brigantine name. Bruighan-da-darg, a district in the county Meath ; Brigown, Brigowne or Brighghobban, formerly a city but now a little village in the barony of Condons, county Cork, all savour of the same, though some would suppose the last mentioned had * Geog. Antiq. ii. 4. t See O'Connor. 129 been called after St. Abban,* the reputed founder thereof. To these we may add Briggo, a village in the barony of Ardes, county Down ; Bright, a town in the barony of Licale ; Briggs, a series of rocks and cliffs projecting into the sea at Carrickfergus ; Breoghain^ an old district in the county Waterford ; * Though we have seen in the first part, that there were Christians in Ireland in the first century, and long before the mission of St. Patrick; that, independent of Cormac-Ulfada, monarch of this island in the third century, whom his piety and religion had rendered odious to the Pagans, several had left their native country on hearing of the Christian name, and that having become perfect in tlie knowledge of the evangelical doctrine, and the discipline of the Ckurch, some had preached the gospel in the different Pagan countries in Europe ; others, filled with zeal for the salvation of their fellow-citizens, had successfully expounded to them the word of God; still the nation was not yet considered as converted ; this grace was reserved for the reign of Laogare, and the pontificate of Saint Celestine I. This great pope, seeing the pious inclinations of those peoj)le, and the success of private missionaries amongst them, thought of sending them an apostle invested with full authority, to complete a work so happily begun. The number of histories, which have been composed on the life of St. Patrick, has, in a great measure, tended to darken the know- ledge we should have of the truth of what concerns him. According to Usher, and ancient monuments in the libraries of Oxford and Cambridge, there vtere sixty-three or sixty-six. However, we must confine ourselves to the most genuine, and those which appear the most authentic, and least liable to contradiction ; which are, the confession of St. Patjick, his letter to Corolic, and his life, written by some of his disciples. — Mac Geoghegan. K 130 the river Braghan, and the town of Brick-river. But chiefly, and above all, we may recognise the Brigantine lineage in the names of those illustrious leaders who swayed the destinies of this kingdom in the days of its former glory, namely the Hy-Brea- ghan or the O'Breaghan, subsequently altered into O'Brien and O' Brian, as Seeward,* no mean au- thority, has before observed.f In Spain, too, we find memorials of the existence of those ancient people in the name, for instance, of the town and country of Brigantinos, near the port of Flavia Brigantium, the modern Corunna ; in that of Brigantes, a river of the Edetani ; in that of Ber- gatiano, a town of the Vetones ; in that of Berganzo, a city of Cantabria; and that of innumerable other towns, such as Berga, Bergo, Bergara, Bergezo, Bergedo, &:c. But as to whether or not the Bergitani, a very ancient people on the east of the Lacetani, by the river Iber, could lay claim to this origin, is what I could not positively take upon myself to de- termine. Amongst the Pannonians there was also a place called Brigantium, which Aurelius calls Victor Ber- gentium. To this we should also refer the lake called Brigantium Lacus, now Lago di Costanza ; so that upon the whole, we see the nation of the Brigantes * See Topog. Article Breoghain. t Hy, signifies'* of," tantamount to '' O." 131 were the most numerous of any since the creation of man^ laying claim to all Europe as their proper country.* * See Baxter, p. 50. Strange, that from one extremity of the world to the other, even the most unenlighted nations should believe the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, and yet many of those who have been brought uj) under the joyful sound of the gospel should deny it. This will rise in con- demnation against them, and they will be convicted at the tribunal of the great Judge of all the earth, for trampling upon knowledge. We are surprised still more, that there should be none but learned men in the world so abandoned, but learning without grace, and the fear of God becomes a real curse instead of an useful blessing. — Ilurd. K 2 132 CHAP. XII. The Scots were Scythians, a people of northern Asia — Their condition and morality — Blended with the Phoenicians — Their various incursions — Passed over into Spain — Become friends of the Romans — Their remarkable victories — Land- ing in Ireland from Spain '—Where they settled — When called Scots — Whether this name can import Woodland folks — Whether the Scythians were so called from their adroitness in flinging the javelin — Scytha and Saca, both Phoenician names. As Cellarius * is of opinion that it was not until after the days of Ptolemy that the Scots f had effected a landing in Ireland, or that, at least, they were not recognised there under this distinctive name, we cannot, I imagine, consistently with the plan we have proposed to ourselves, let this oppor- * Loco laudato. f Whether they at their first comming into the la»nd, or afterwards by trading with other nations which had letters, learned them of them, or devised them amongst themselves, is very doubtful ; but that they had letters aunciently, is nothing doubtfull, for the Saxons of England are said to have their letters, and learning, and learned men from the Irish, and that also appeareth by the likenesse of the character, for the Saxon character is the same with the Irish. — Spenser. 133 tunity pass, without some disquisition respecting the origin of this people^ and their arrival in this country. Nennius, in his little treatise called Capi- tula,* or little notes, has proved to demonstration, that they were originally Scythians, who, as the old Irish annalsf still farther inform us, had started from Egypt in the tenth year of Darius, King of the Persians. Here, however, there was an obvious mistake as to the place of their birth, for the Scy- thians were not Egyptians, but Asiatics, the most celebrated, and widely extended people too, in the northern regions of that country, described by Horace,J the immortal poet of the Augustan age, " as wanderers and fond of living in the opeii plains." They built no houses, they had no fixed abode, spreading themselves abroad over the bosom of the surface, and taking up a temporary residence for themselves and their families, whom they carried with them in carts, wherever and long as ever their convenience and inclination afforded. Hence they were called Amaxohioi and Atnaxoforetoi, that is, as Sallust renders it, '' whose waggons were their abodes." The Scythians, says Trogus Justinus,§ have no * Cap. ix. et x. t Contin. Annal. Tigernach. ex eod. Dub., written in the fifteenth century, folio iv. vol. 1. X Carminum I. ode xxxv. and Carminum III. ode xxiv. § Lib. ii. 1^ boundaries amongst themselves, neither do they till the ground, nor build themselves house or habita- tion, being alone occupied in feeding their flocks and herds, and in wandering incessantly through the uncultivated deserts. Their wives and children they carry with them in carts, covered over with a canopy as a shelter from the weather, and thus answering all the purposes of a house. They cul- tivate Justice more by inclination and by habit, than by the obligations of law. Gold or silver they do not covet. They live on milk and honey. The use of wool and of clothes is to them unknown, being dressed only in the skins of wild beasts. This course of abstinence and habitual restraint, extended its influence even unto the heart itself, elevating the tone of their moral character, and eradicating every extraneous and artificial desire."* Hence in Homerf * I will begin then to count their custoraes in the same order that I counted their nations, and first with the Scythian or Scottish manners. Of the which there is one use, amongst them, to keepe their cattle, and to live themselves the most part of the yeare in boolies, pasturing upon the mountaine, and waste wilde places ; and removing still to fresh land, as they have depastured the former. The which appeareth plaine to be the manner of the Scythians, as you may read in Glaus Magnus, and To. Bohemus, and yet is used amongst all the Tartarians and the people about the Caspian Sea, which are naturally Scythians, to live in heards as they call them, being the very same, that the Irish boolies are, driving their cattle continually with them, and feeding onely on their milke and white meats. — Spenser. t Iliad v. 135 we find them called, Dikaiotatoi Anthropoi, '^ the most just of men." Strabo,* Herodotus,f Virgil, J and others, have made mention of their name, and equally honourable. Three things worthy of record are noticed by Justin § respecting them — their an- tiquity — their military valour || — and their having t iv. X Georg. iii. § Lib. xxi. II The Scoti or Milesian Irish, like their kinsfolk the Scy- thians, when rushing to battle, made use of the war cry, Farragh, Farragh. ** Here is another proof that they bee Scythes or Scots, for in all their incounters they use one very common word, crying Ferragh, Ferragh, which is a Scottish word, to wit, the name of one of the tiist Kings of Scotland, called Feragus, or Fergus, which fought against the Pictes, as you may reade in Buchanan, de rebus Scoticis : but as others write, it was long before that, the name of their chiefe Captaine, under whom they fought against the Africans, the which was then so fortunate unto them, that ever sithence they have used to call upon his name in their battailes. Some, who (I remember) have upon the same word Ferragh, made a very blunt conjecture, as namely, Mr. Stanihurst, who though he be the same countrey man borne, that should search more neerly into the secret of these things ; yet hath strayed from the truth all the heavens wyde, (as they say,) for he thereupon groundeth a very grosse imagination, that the Irish should de- scend from the Egyptians which came into that Island, first under the leading of one Scota, the daughter of Pharaoh, whereupon they use (saith he) in all their battailes to call upon the name of Pharaoh, crying Ferragh, Ferragh.'' — Spenser. It will soon be made manifest, that Mr. Spenser, himself, *' hath strayed from the truth all the heavens wyde," as to the origin of this war-cry. 136 founded the kingdom of the Parthians. To these we may add, the fame of the Amazons, a tribe of female warriors, who sprung up from their race^ whose exploits have been blazoned in every age and in every climate, and accompanied besides with such characteristics of romance, as to make some imagine the whole had been a fiction. In short, they were a nation indefatigable from the pursuits of labor and of war, possessed of incalculable strength of body, desiring to procure nothing which they might fear to Ir se, and seeking nothing, when victors, but pure glory."^ That the Scythians were incorporated with the Phoenicians, and had both together overran the whole of Palestine, is proved by the circumstance of their occupation of the city of Bethsan, which they called Scythopolis, after themselves — it is further proved by the name of Bambyx or Hierapolis, the modern Aleppo as some suppose, which they gave the city of Magog,f so called from the son of Japhet,J of that name, from whom the Scythians were descended, or in memory of its founder, who was supposed to have been the son of Magog, and to have come from the land of Magog into Syria. § * See more on this head in Bochart Greog. Sac. iii. 19. t Pliny V. 28. X Bochart iii. 13. § Bochart attempts to prove that Magog was the same as Prometheus, And we know that Deucalion ^ the son of Pro- 137 Strabo* says, that they had extended the Umits of their empire from thence all along to iVrmenia and Cappadocia, calling Saca, a district in Armenia, Sacasene, after their own name. We read, also, of a settlement of the Scythians in Trogus, along side of the Thermodon. But what Thermodon means, we must still doubt, as it occurs in Plutarch as a river in Scythia ; in Philostratus, as the boundary of the Scythian empire. From thence they advanced into Cimmeria, driving out the natives wherever metheus, a Scythian, is said to have been, according to Lucian, the founder of the city of Magog, iu Syria, and the erector therein of a temple to the ** Syrian Goddess.'' The name — *• Magog," says Valiancy, signifies {3ine tree, agreeably to the Asiatic custom. We have a beautiful allegory of this kind in the annals of Inuisfallen, A. D. 1314, composed extempore by Turlough O'Brien, on the death of his favorite chief Donogh O'Dea: Truagh an teidhm, taining thier, rug bas borb Taoisseach teann dainedh dhamh, Donncha Don ; Tome is cial, cru mo chuirp Craobh dom cheill an teidhm uach. Dire is the loss, alas ! of late Upon the western shore ! By ruthless death, and murth'ring- fate, A valiant chief's no more ? Ah ! woe is me : my soundest sense And kindred friend so true ! My wood has lost a tatcWing branch, My Donoh, dear, in you! Translated by 0' Flaherty, * De fluviis. 138 they went, thence to Caucasus and the Palus Maeotis, to the Tanais on the northern ocean, as appears from the testimony of Herod* and Diodorus Sicu- lus.f From thence they sailed over into Spain, as Varro, and from him Pliny, hear testimony, which accounts for the mention made in Silius Italicus,J of the Scythse or Sacas in Spain.§ Horace,ll speak- ing of the Cantahrians, who had been subdued by Agrippa, says, '' The Cantahrians, that ancient enemy on the Spanish coast, subdued at last by a long disputed victory, are subservient : the Scythians now meditate to quit their plains with their bows slackened." And they did actually quit them, first laying down their arms in submission to the Roman authorities. Such, says Seutonius,^ was the reputa- tion for virtue and moderation established by Au- gustus, all over the world, that the Indians and Scythians, who were not known of otherwise than by rumor or hearsay, were induced, of their own accord, to court his alliance, and that of the Roman people, by an authorised deputation to Rome, for the purpose which occasions Horace** in his saecular * De vita Apollon. vii. 11 t ii. X iii. 3. § iii. 3(30. II Carmin. lib. iii. Oilo 8, H In Octavios, cup. xxii. ** Carm. Soee. v. 55. 139 poem, to observe: " Now the Scythians, lately so proud, court our answer." Yes, they voluntarily sought after the friendship, the injunctions, and the laws of the Romans, which, as Justin * observes, was the more wonderful, inasmuch, *' they only heard of, not felt, their power. "f Nay, when the empire of Asia was thrice threatened by invasion, the Scythians stood untouched, or unconquered in their native independence, compelling Darius, King of the Per- sians to retire with disgrace, making Cyrus and his whole army the victims of their revenge, and cutting to pieces the forces of Zopyrion, and himself, too, at * Ibidem, cap. 3. f All Spaine was first conquered by the Romans, and filled with colonies from them, which were still increased, and the native Spaniard still cut off. Afterwards the Carthaginians in all the long Punick Warres (having- spoiled all Spaine, and in the end subdued it wholly unto themselves) did, as it is likely, root out all that were affected to the Romans. And lastly the Romans having againe recovered that countrey, and beate out Hannibal, did doubtlesse cut off all that favoured the Carthaginians, so that betwixt them both, to and fro, there was scarce a native Spaniard left, but all inhabited of Romans. All which tempests of troubles being over-blowne, there long after arose a new storme, more dreadful then all the former, which over-ran all Spaine, and made an infinite confusion of all things ; that was, the comming downe of the Gothes, the Hunnes, and the Vandals : and, lastly, all the nations of Scythia, which, like a raountaine flood, did over-llow all Spaine, and quite drowned and washtaway whatsoever reliques there was left of the land-bred people, yea, and of all the Romans too. — Spenser. 140 their head, though supported by all the spirit which the consciousness of being general to Alexander the Great, must necessarily have inspired. That the Scythians, having now concluded a treaty with the Romans, proceeded from Spain to Ireland, is the received opinion of the historians of this island. Accordingly we find in an old hymn,* in honour of St. Columba, this expression, '' that the Celtiberian Scythian had nothing equal toColumba." They first put in at the south, and took up their residence, finally, towards the north. Baxter f de- clares, that their posterity are, at this day, the occupiers of Valentia, and we have the authority of Ammianus Marcellinus and Zosimus for stating, that, whilst only an Irish colony, they were the confederates of the ancient Saxons, and successful ones they proved, in checking the encroachments of the Roman power. O'Flaherty, conceiving he had discovered the time of the arrival of the Scots from Spain, in an old Irish poemj of the ninth century, ascribes that event to the 3698th year of the Julian period, which ac- cording to Scaliger, would be the fifth of the reign * Servatur in Bobiens. Andphonar. an. 1200, ap. — O'Comior, t p. 211. I The poem of Euchad O'Floin, beginning with these words: " List ye learned." — It may be seen in the Dublin Library. O'Connor has published a fragment of it, which designated, under an allegorical veil, the year of the Scots or Scythians' arrival in Ireland. 141 of Solomon.* Others, tracing the matter still farther back,f assert, that when the Egyptians were drowned in the Red Sea, the survivors expelled from their body a Scythian of high birth who had lived amongst them, lest the facilities of his situation should foster his ambition to usurp dominion over them, whereupon he betook, instantly, himself, with his whole family, to Spain, where he lived for many years ; and his progeny, after him, being multiplied beyond the accommodation which the place could afford, proceeded from thence unto Ireland. But all the memorials of the Scots, says Tigernachus, up to the period of Alexander the Great, are vague and uncertain. Be it so ; yet still T cannot admit — Baxter's J assertion to the contrary notwithstanding — that, before the eighth century, there was no such place known in Britain as Scotia, .the name by which Ireland is designated by the venerable Bede, as well as by the monk Ravennas. " Ireland," says Bede, "is the proper country of the Scots, who, quitting it, added themselves as the third nation to the Picts and Britons in Britannia. Jas. Usher,§ also, a very distinguished writer, has furthermore proved, that the Romans called this island, Scotia. Gibbon, too, assents to this fact in his preface to his * O'Flaherty Ogyg. Prol. p. 34. t Walsingham's Hypodig. X p. 211. § Primordia. 142 history of the Roman empire. But it was not in Ireland that the Scythians were first distinguished by the name of Scots ; for Saint Jerom* introduces Por- phyry, saying, that *^ neither did Britain, that fertile province in tyrants, nor the Scotic nations, and all the barbarous provinces round about, know any thing of Moses and the prophets ;" which makes O'Connor to conclude, that the Scotic nations then lay beyond the pale of the British isle. Nay, Baxter him- self affirms, that Scotia was so called by the Romans from the Scoti. Orosius,f a presbyter of Tarracona, who flourished in the beginning of the fifth century, says, that, in his own time, Ireland was inhabited by the nations of the Scoti ;J and St. Isidorus tells us, that " Ireland and Scotia are the same, being called Scotia, as inhabited by the Scots." '' Hence, in aftertimes," says Ludovicus Molina, '* arose the * Epist. ad Elesiphontem. f Histor. lib. ii. X The most celebrated geographers agree, that ancient Europe was possessed by four grand classes of men, viz. the Celtes, who extended themselves from the Bosphorus Ciramo- rinus on the Euxine, to the Cirabric Chersonese of Denmark and the Rhine, dispersing themselves over western Europe and her isles ; the Scythians, who came from Persia, and spread from thence to the Euxine, and almost over all Europe, speaking the Gothic, and its kindred dialects, the Teutonic, the Trisic, Belgic, &c. ; the Iberi or Mauri, who came from Africa, and peopled Spain and Aquitain, and their language survives in the Cantabric or Basque j and the Sarmatae, whose language was the Sclavonic, and whose appearance in Europe was later than the others.— Mac Gregor, 143 origin of the Iberi in Ireland, who retained, as their characteristic, the very ancient name of Scythians or Scots, from whom the Spanish promontory, now called Finisterrae, or land's-end, was formerly desig- nated Scythicum or Celticum. These people removed themselves to Ireland from Spain, as Orosius informs us." Now, Baxter, inquiring into the etymology of the word Scots,* says, that the Britons, called them Isgwydhwyr, which, in the old scriptural style, is equivalent to Scoituir, or woodland men. The modern name, Guydhal, is the same as Brigantine, or woodland Gaul. For the Irish are, undoubtedly, a mingled race, consisting, as he says, on the one hand, of the Erii or barbarous natives ; on the other hand, of the Scots and Brigantes ; and, thirdly, of the Guydhali or woodland Gauls : and from this he accounts for the circumstance of their being so often designated by the British writers under the compound name of Scoto-Brigantes. Others, again, would look still higher for the origin of the Scythian name, and think it derived from their dexterity in darting the javelin, scutten, in the German language, signifying persons expert * Eginhard, secretary to Charlemagne, or, according to some, his son-in-law, in his annals on the year 812, informs us that the naval forces of the Normans landed in Ireland, the island of the Scots, and having given them battle, in which they were defeated, that those barbarians who escaped, shame- fully took flight, and returned to their country. — MacGeoghegan. 144 in this art ; just as a portion of the Scythians were called Arimaspi,* that is^ who close one eye, or use but one^f which, we all know, is the practice of those who aspire to any eminence in the science of shooting. It strikes me as more likely, not to say indubitable, that the Scythians w^ere so called by the Phoenicians from the moment of their first incorporation with them, occupying, as they did, a great part of Syria ; and that they did so call them, from the fact of having noticed their roving propensity driving them on as adventurers, through hill, through dale, through desert, and through forest. The word Scythian, then, I would derive from shitin, which, in the Phoenician language, signifies traversers, wanderers, or rovers, and is itself derived from shit, to go, surround, run about, or digress ; or, from shitah, to expand or dilate, either in allusion to their straggling, or the successful ardor with which they extended their sway, striking terror into their foes by the very name of their princes, and laying low at their feet the most numerous armies. Saca or Sa- casene too, a district of Armenia, called after them, would seem referable to the same source ; sacac, in in that language, signifying to run about or walk, as sacah, does a roof or covering. Perhaps, if we would regard the justice of the nation, we may suppose them so designated from zaca, praiseworthy or just, or * Derived from Arima, one, and Spia, an eye. f The better to collect the visual rays toward one focus. 145 zaki, blameless, irreproachable ; all which attributes we find briefly enumerated by Chaerilus, in his work called the'^Diabasis of Xerxes," saying/^ The pastoral Sacae, a Scythian race, Asiatics who tilled the land, colonists belonging to the roving nation of the No- mades, a people who practised justice." The word zaca, also, means to overcome or conquer, which agrees well with the warlike character of the Scythians.* * Their short bovves, and little quivers with short bearded arrovves, are very Scythian as you may reade in the same Olaus. And the same sort both of bowes, quivers, and arrovves, are at this day to bee seene commonly amongst the Northerne Irish-Scots, whose Scottish bowes are not past three quarters of a yard long, with a string of wreathed herape slackely bent, and whose arrowes are not much above halfe an ell long, tipped with Steele heads, made like common broad arrow heades, but much more sharpe and slender, that they enter into a man or horse most cruelly, notwithstanding that they are shot forth weakely. — Spenser. I have heard some great warriours say, that, in all the services which they had seene abroad in forraigne countreyes, they never saw a more comely man then the Irish man, nor that cometh on more bravely in his charge ; neither is his manner of mounting unseemely, though hee lacke stirruppes, but more ready then with stirruppes ; for, in his getting up, his horse is still going, whereby hee gayneth way. And there- fore it was called so in scoriie, as it were a stay to get up, being derived of the old English word sty, which is, to get up, or mounte.— Spenser. In fact, they were a tribe of that people whom Virgil (from the Punic records) designates as " Numdas infreni." 146 CHAP. XIII. The Irish Siluri a tribe of the Phcenicians— Whether so called because wearing breeches — Origin of the Spanish word Saraguelles — Not all the Phoenicians of Ireland called Silures — This word implying the condition of their race, or their superstition — From them the island Silura so called — Whether there be only one such or several — Derivation of the word Cassiteris — Islands of that name in the Spanish sea — Why called Cica by the ancients. To the Phoenician Iberi belong also the people of the Silures, who had fixed their residence in the British isles, and of whom Tacitus thus speaks : — " Their faces are colored, their hair for the most part twisted, and seem to encourage the belief that the ancient Iberi, who lay opposite to Spain, had crossed over and seized themselves of these settle- ments."* The Iberi alluded to are of course, says * This he speaketh touching the Silures which inhabited that part of South Wales, which now we call Herefordshire, Rad- norshire, Brecknockshire, Monmouthshire, and (xlamorgan- shire. And although the like reason may be given for that part of Ireland which lyeth next unto Spaine, yet in Tacitus we find no such inference. Buchanan, indeed, upon the con- 117 Bochart^ those of Tartasus, who were a colony of the Phoenicians, for these alone possessed either the spirit or the skill requisite for navigation, and the transplanting of colonies into distant countries. And as there will be an effort, no doubt, to scoop the origin of the word Silures from the vowels of the Phoenician language, the learned, says he, well know that the inhabitants of the British isles, as well as the Gauls, were accustomed to wear breeches. jecture of Tacitus, hath these words. " Verisimile autem iion est Hispanos rehcta k tergo Hibernia, terra propiore, & coeli Sc soli mitioris, in Albiura prirailrn descendisse, sed primiim in Hiberniam appulisse, atque inde in Britannia colonos missos." Which was observed unto me by the most learned Bishop of Meth, Dr. Anth. Martin, upon conference with his lordship about this point. One passage in Tacitus touching Ireland (in the same booke) I may not heere omit, although it be extra oleas. *• Quinto expeditionuni anno (saith he) nave prim^ transgressus, ignotas ad tempus gentes, crebris simul ac pros- peris prieli is domuit, earaque partem Britannia quae Hiberniam aspicit, copiis instruxit, in spem magis quam ob formidinem. Siquidem Hibernia medio inter Britanniam aque Hispaniam, sita, & Gallico quoque mari opportuna valentissiniam imperij partem magnis invicem usibus miscuerit. Spatium ejus si Britannia comparetur, angustius, nostri maris insulas superat. Solum coelumque & ingenia, cultusq ; horainum haut multdm ^ Britannia ditferunt, meliiis aditus portusq ; per commercia & negotiatores cogniti. Agricola expulsum seditione domestica unum ex regulis gentis exceperat, ac specie amicitae in occa- sionem retinebat. Saepe ex eo audivi Legione una & modicis auxilijs debellari, obtinerique Hiberniam posse. Idque ad- versiis Britanniam profuturum, si lloniana ubique arma, & velut e conspectu liber tas toller etur." — Sir James Ware, l2 148 For this he quotes Martial* — *' As an old pair of breeches belonging to a poor Briton." Then he takes shelter in the language of the Arabians, in which sirwal, and sarawuel, from which again comes the Spanish word saraguelles, signify all one and the same thing, namely, a pair of breeches. Sirwalin, therefore, in the Arabic, signified persons who wore this article of dress. From this the Romans, says he, by transposition, gave the name of Silures to those Phoenicians who had settled in Ireland, as a mark of distinction between them and the rest of their race, just as a part of Gaul, where the use of this article prevails, is called Braccata from that very circumstance — such is Bochart's opinion. To me, however, it appears more likely that not all the Phoenicians who had come over to those islands, but only a few of their tribes, the lowest and the poorest, got the denomination of Silures from the rest of their fraternity, and that not from an Arabian term relating to dress, but a Phoenician one, purporting obscurity and meanness of origin. For zeluth, in the Phoenician, means vileness or con- temptibility, as generally applied to the rabble ; and zaluth, impurities, filthiness. Thus much respecting their condition as a caste. But if you would prefer referring it to the superstition of the whole nation, it is evident that in this point of view we may derive * 11 Epigr. 22. 149 Silures from the words zil 'ur, that is worshippers of the sun or fire ; for or, as well as ur, both in the Hebrew and Syriac languages, signify the sun, to blaze, or any luminous body. In this sense we find it in Job,* where he says, "If I have seen the sun (or) when he shone ;*' and in Nehemiahf — '' From the morning (or) even unto the mid-day," that is * Men have, in all ages, been convinced of the necessity of an intercourse between God and themselves, and the adoration of God supposes him to be attentive to men's desires, and, consistent with his perfections, capable of complying with them. But the distance of the sun and moon is an obstacle to this intercourse. Therefore foolish and inconsiderate men endeavoured to remedy this inconvenience, by laying their hands on their mouths, and then lifting them up to their false gods, in order to testify that they would be glad to unite them- selves to them, notwithstanding their being so far separated. We have a striking instance of this in the book of Job, which, properly attended to, will throw a considerable light on ancient Pagan idolatry. Job was a native of the confines of Assyria, and being one of those who believed in the true God, says, in his own vindication, " If I beheld the sun while it shined, or the moon walking in brightness ; and my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand," &c. Job xxxi. 26, 27. This was a solemn oath, and the ceremony performed in the following manner : The person who stood before his accusers or before the judge's tribunal, where he was tried, bowed his head and kissed his hand three times, and looking up to the sun, invoked him as an Almighty Being, to take the highest vengeance upon him if he uttered a falsehood. — Hurd. t viii. 3. 150 from sunrise till noon ; and from this it was that Apollo was called Orus by the heathens. It also, as I have intimated, signifies fire, lit and blazing, and by synechdoche, the hearth wherein it blazes, in which acceptation it occurs in Isaiah — '^ In the blaze (or) of your fire.'* As to zila, it means to pray to, or worship, as ziluth does prayer, adoration. The introduction into this country of the Phoenician usage of worshipping the sun and fire, is a point beyond dispute, as we shall make by and bye more manifest. From the Silures is named the island of Silura, separated, by a turbid strait, from the coast, which is inhabited, as Solymus informs us, by a British race, the Dumnonii. There are those who would name as the islands of the Silures, or the Silenae, what we at this day call the Scilly Isles, and the Belgians the Sorlings ; and which Camden enumer- ates to the amount of about one hundred and forty- five, more or less, being circularly arranged, and about eight leagues distant from the extreme cape of Cornwall : these have been otherwise called by the ancients Cassiterides, from the tin in which they abounded ; Hesperides, from their western locality ; and Ostrymnidae, from the promontory of Ostrym- nus, in Artabria, to which they are opposite. Now there is no one so unacquainted with history as not to know that the Phoenicians exported an immense 151 quantity of tin from those islands. They alone,* as Strabo informs us, had repaired thither, from Gades, on those commercial speculations, studiously, the while, concealing their schemes from all others ; which Bochart confirms by several collateral testi- monies. This tin they used to ship off to Syria and Arabia. And we find in Numbers xxxi. 22, how much it was sought after by the Midianites ; and in Job xix. 24, by the Arabians. Of which see at large in W. Cooke, p. 23 ; PHny Nat. Hist. vii. 56. Take care, however, that we do not confound these islands with the Cassiteridesf in the Spanish sea, right opposite to Baiona of Tudium, which are supposed, by some, to have been so denominated from the immense rocks with which they are sur- rounded, called by the Greek inhabitants of Spain * From some passages in Plutarch, O'Halloran offers a conjecture, that the sacra et delecta cohors of the Carthaginians, mentioned by Diodorus and others, was a select body of Irish troops in the pay of that people. From the time of the Scipios until the reign of Augustus, a space of more than two hundred years, Spain struggled with the Romans for independence ; and we may naturally suppose, that as Ireland was but a few days* sail from Spain, they had auxiliaries from thence, and that the Carthaginians had them also. Hannibal's army was mostly made up of foreign troops, a great part of which he brought from Spain after the taking of Saguntum. — 31ac Gregor. t This name is derived from Kassitera, the Greek for tin ; being the translation of Bara anac, which, in Phoenician, sig- nifies the land of tin ; and from this again the word Britannia would seem to be immediately formed. 152 Cica, from cicos, which in their language signifies strength, a stronghold, or fortress ; whilst others, with more probability, think it a Phoenician name given to those islands before ever the Grecians set a foot in Spain, and from the same circumstance as the other islands of the same name were denomi- nated, namely, their tin mines, cicar or kicar, in the Syriac, signifying metal of any kind. CHAP. XIV. The Vodice, in what section of Ireland they had settled-^ Whether they were of the race of the Erigence, or a tribe of the Phoenicians — Conjecture upon the Etymology of the name — Vodie the country called Dergteachneagh— Origin of this word — The Lucani, or Lucent, a people of Ireland — This name supposed originally Irish — Where they settled — Whether different from the Lugadii — Whence the name Slioght — Lucus and Lucena cities of Spain — Conjecture on the Phoenician origin of the Luceni — Fire worshipped amongst the Phoenicians — The promontory of Notium. The Vodiae, or Vodii, were, according to Ptolemy, an ancient people of Ireland, contiguous, on the west, to the Brigantes in the county Cork, being the same as the Mediterranean Momonienses ; what you 153 would call in English, says Baxter,* the woodland folk, and consequently of the primitive stock of the Erigense, or real natives. Vydhieu, or Guydhieu, means woods at this very day amongst the Britons. Others would interpret Vydhieu as people living in woody places by the water side ; for in Ptolemy we also read of a place called Vodie, which the Irish writers call Dergtenii, or Dergteachneagh, — and give us to understand it means a woody habitation beside a lake, — comprising the southern coast of the county Cork, namely, the old baronies of Corcaduibhne, Corcabhaisin, and Corcahuigne.f It may be worth the attention of the learned men of this country to see whether the Vodise were not one of the Phoenician tribes who had settled here ; for Bohodi in the Phoenician language meant a con- gregated clan ; as you would say, stop with me, live with me ; from whence, in the Arabic, bahad, he stopped, or sojourned, and badi, the origin of a race, the introduction of a family, a congregation. This conjecture is supported by the name of the country called Dergteachneagh, being, as I imagine, an abbreviation from Derc-teachin-agch, which sig- nifies travellers, or strangers, in a wilderness ; for derc means he walked, teachin, living or lurking in a lonely place, and agah, he passed the night. Derg- * p. 253. t See Collect, de Reb. Iberu. vol. iii. p. 333. 154 tenii sounds like that langnage too, derc-tenar mean- ing in it a rocky road, and derc-tenin a road on which men, or beasts of burden, carry provisions or other merchandise. The Lucanii, or Luceni, are to be found also in Ptolemy as an ancient people in this island, of whom Orosius also makes mention. Richard Cirencester says, that their settlement lay in the county Kerry, near the bay of Dingle.* The name is supposed to be compounded of the two Irish words lugh-aneigh, meaning the inhabitants of a district adjoining a lake, or sea, what you would call, says Baxter, mari- gene, or sea-born. This gentleman imagines that these were originally a colony of the Dumnonian Belgae, and that they gave their name to the pro- vince of Lugenia, or Leinster, which certainly does sound very like the land of the Lugeni, and in after times had advanced farther into the interior, into Momonia, or the province of Munster. Seward,f and others more modern, J suppose that they were the Lugadii, who, according to the old Irish writers, inhabited the south-western coasts, extending from * This remote town in the province of Muns»ter was once of considerable importance. The Spaniards held a direct inter- course with the place, and built many private residences there, besides the parish church, &c. Queen Elizabeth granted to it a charter in 1585. t Seward, Topogr. Ibern. A pp. II. p. 8. X Vid. Collect, de Reb. Ibern. loc. laud. p. 381. 155 Waterforcl harbour along to the mouth of the river Shannon. The name of Lugadii to the natives was equivalent with sliocht lugach macithy, that is, a maritime race of dwellers by the water. Yet, sliocht, may perhaps be of Phoenician root, coming from shlic, a neighbour ; in this sense, too, we shall find ourselves at home, for slioght, in Irish,* signifies alliance or kindred. But Baxter, descanting upon the origin of the word Lacanii, or Luceni, says, aug, by the old Britons, was understood for the liquor of water, and thus for the sea, whilst geni, or eni, meant descent. * It is well known that in Munster and Connaught, in the western parts of Ulster, and the south of Leinster, this ancient dialect is spoken most extensively; and although many of the native Irish are sufficiently acquainted with the English tongue to use it for the purpose of daily traffic, and mere busi- ness, yet it is in their beloved Celtic that they think, through that they feel, and by that they communicate to each other the deep purposes of present revenge, and future triumph. It is no random assertion, but an authenticated fact, that among the most abject poor, who cut turf on the bogs, or break stones for the roads of those districts, the proudest legends of their country's former glory, and the prowess of her native chiefs, couched in language the most exciting that can be conceived, are frequently repeated ; together with the wild prophetic rhymes of gifted bards, handed down orally from father to child, predicting the re-appearance of that sun which they con- ceive to have set beneath the dark night of English usurpation^ Those who have studied the Irish language concur in pronoun- cing it to be most richly and powerfully expressive, highly figurative. — Charlotte Elizabeth. 156 or to be descended. Hence he infers that the Saxon pirates were called by the Britons Lhoegyr, corruptly for Luguir, or seamen, and from this, he says, comes the modern name of Anglia or England ; Ihuch, in Britain, signifying at this day a lake, as loch does in Ireland. If one may indulge conjecture in a matter not very clear, I should think myself near the true ex- traction of this name by deriving it from lucus, a grove, which we know those were in the habit of resorting to, nay, of worshipping. In this case we may seek for the origin of slioght in the Phoenician slocah, or sliocah, which signifies divinity. But this I do not like, for the people called Luceni, or Lu- canii, existed before the time of the Romans, which would make it incongruous to take as a parallel in- stance the name of the Spanish city, Lucus, now Lugo, in the country of the Gallaici, which must be acknowledged to be designated from those religious haunts. Therefore, as well as Lucene, the name of a Phoenician town in Boetia, I should suppose it comes from lushen, or leshen, a word of very various significations, all of which, however, spontaneously apply to this people. First it is a people or nation ; secondly a difference of language or dialect, which we know to prevail amongst the several tribes of Syria. The Ephrataei, for instance, could not arti- culate the double letter, sh, instead of which they would pronouno© it in its single form, s, which may 157 have proceeded either from the air or local influence. Thus we find that when, in Judges xii. they were obliged to say shibboleth, a river, they could only call it sibboleth. The Bcetians of my country, also, pronounce z instead of s, calling it zabana instead of sabana. The Gallacians, too, differ from the other provinces of Spain, not in pronunciation alone, but in many other peculiarities of language. The same may be observed by every one in the idiom of his native country. But to return. It means, in the third place, a flame of fire, which would seem at once to point us to the practice of their worshipping this element in their sacred groves, a practice, I may add, which the Chaldaeans, the Persians, the Medes, and other nations of Asia, shared in common with the Phoenicians, who offered sacrifice to fire after the custom of the Persians,* at first only worshipping it * When the Persians drew near to their consecrated fires in their divine service, they always approached them from the Vilest side, because by that means their faces being turned to those as well as the rising sun, they could direct their worship towards both at the same time. * * The priests are obliged to watch day and night to maintain and repair the con- secrated fire. But it is absolutely necessary that it be re- kindled after the purest manner that can possibly be devised ; for which purpose they frequently make use of a steel and flint, or two hard sticks, which, by continual friction, will in time take fire. Sometimes, likewise, they kindle it by the light- ning which darts down from heaven on any combustible matter ; and sometimes again by those ignes fatui which fre- quently arise in marshy grounds; or else by common fire, in 158 as a type or symbol of the Deity, but so, however, that g-radually, and at last, this commemoration, and, as such, innocent adoration, degenerated and sunk into actual and downright worship of the element itself.* This superstition they imported into Ireland, as they did into Spain, and their other colonies. But as this people had established their settle- ment in the country by the promontory of Notium, I should not think it at all unlikely that they derived their name from that very fact, for lushen, or leshen, in the Syriac, is a cape, or oblong and mountainous tongue of land jutting out into the sea. The name of the Lugadii would seem to be equi- valent with that of allies, for luahin, in the Phoeni- cian, implies association or union. Or they might have got this name from luch, or lach, meaning- sturdy youths, valiant warriors, in conformity with lucadin, the stormers of towns ; whence evidently is derived laochd, the Irish designation for an armed soldiery, as well as lugh, active, and luch, a captive in battle. We find, besides, that laga, which signi- fies renown, or pre-eminent distinction, was an usual adjunct to the names of many of the leading families case it is pure and undefiled, or with such as the Banians make use of to kindle the funeral piles. But they have one other method still, as noble as it is pure ; and that is, by collecting the rays of the sun into the focus of a burning-glass. — Hurd. * Theodoret. Hist. Eccl. V. 38. S. Isidor. Hispal. Grig. XIV. 3. Cons. Voss. De Orig. et Progr. Idolol. II. 64. 159 of this island, as Lughaidh-laigha, Mac mogha nuadhat. Richardson makes mention of a cele- brated tribe of the Arabians, called Legah, or Lukah, that never acknowledged the dominion of a tyrant, or bent with abject and humiliating prostration to the inhuman attitude of slavery. Nor would the conjecture be altogether without ground if, after all our peregrination and excursive research for the origin of the name of this people, we would at last turn home, and look for it in the Irish word lughadh, meaning the interposition of an oath,* and which would indicate their compactness as a social body ; or in lughad, scantiness, as if they were but few ; or, finally, in luchd, a tribe or assemblage. * According to the annals of Ulster, cited by Ware, the usual oath of Laogare IT., King of Ireland, in the time of St. Patrick, was by the sun and wind. The Scythians swore by the wind, and sometimes by a scymeter or cutlas, in use among the Persians, upon which was engraven the image of Mars. — Mac Geogheyan. 160 CHAP. XV, The Voluntii—In what part of Ireland settled — Various opinions as to the etymology of this name — As also of the names Ull, Ullahy and Thuath — Conjecture with respect to their origin being Phoenician — Country of the Blanii — Eb- lana the ancient name for Dublin — Derivation of this name — Ebelinum, an ancient city of Spain — The town of B lane — Origin of both names. The Voluntii or Boluntii mentioned by Ptolemy, were an ancient people in Ireland, situated on the east of the Luceni, who took up their quarters in a tract of the county Down, which Baxter thinks is so called at the present day, by corruption, for the land of the Voluntii ; as„ also, that the Britons had called them Boluntii, as if from Bol or Vol-unte, that is the /art her head-land or Vennicnium. Others think it a degenerated term, from Ull-an- teigh, which they explain by the inhabitants of the county of Ull. But teigh, in Irish, means a house or shelter. Ull is, indeed, a district in this island, mentioned by Ptolemy, and called by the Irish 161 writers who have touched upon this point, Ullagh, and also Uilad. This word some would derive from Thuat-all-adh, a northern section of the county of Ull, which formerly was the modern province of Ulster, but was afterwards circumscribed to the single county of Down. Our old poems and chro- nicles call the inhabitants of this tract, Tuath de Donans, and understand thereby the northern people,* of intrepid bravery ; for tuath, in Irish, means not only a people, but the north: and dan, brave, intrepid. To my mind Boluntii is a name of Phoenician ex- traction, derived very probably from the quality of the ground; in that language, bolun means a glebe or gleby land, as it does, also, fruit and the shoots of palm trees : or, with still more appearance of probability, we may derive it from the superstitious worship of that nation, bolinthis or belinthis meaning the immolation of he-goats to the idols of Baal, and bolintir, his augurs or soothsayers. Akin to this is the gentile Spanish name of Bolontii or Bolonii, in- habitants of the old city of Bolona, built by the Phoenicians in the straits of Gibraltar, by tlie pillars of Hercules. But Ull, too, savors very strongly of the Phoenician tongue, in which it literally signifies fortitude, whence el, brave, powerful, and also an idol in * Vid. Collect, de Reb. Ibern. vol. iii. p. 424, 425, M 162 Isaiah. * With this acceptation agrees the name of Ullagh, for olagh in the Syriac means an idol, as olaha does a goddess, by which name the Phoenici- ans chose to designate Diana of the Ephesians, as appears from the Syriac version of the Acts of the Apostles.f I would not, indeed, deny but that the origin of tuath, may be essentially Irish ; but it is worthy of remark, that the word thohath, conveyed to the Phoenician mind the idea of a low ground, or skirt of a country, which is in perfect keeping with the situation of the province of Ulster, where the Voluntii settled, being encompassed almost on all sides by the sea. J On the borders of the Boluntii, in the eastern section of Ireland, the Blanii or Eblanii — whose name is supposed to be composed of the Irish words, ebb or aobb, a region or tract, and lean, a harbour, bearing evident allusion to their propinquity to the sea§ — had formed their establishment. The universal opinion of the learned goes to prove that from them the city of Dublin, the metropolis of this once flourishing and imperial kingdom, hath obtained in Ptolemy the name of Eblanum, which gave rise to * Isai. xliv. 10. «' Quis forraavit Deuni, et sculptile for- mavit ad nihil utile ?" f Act. Apostol. xix. 37. I Vid. Seward. Topogr. Ibera. V. Ulster. § Collect, de Reb. Ibern. ibid, p. 342. 163 that of Eblinii or Ebhleaneigh, generally rendered inhabitants by the water-side.* Of these we find mention made by the ancient chronologers of Ire- land, amongst the population of the county Dublin ; though others would place them in the county Limerick, and derive the name from ebhluin, a mediterranean region, or one widely separated from the sea.f He will not be far astray, who thinks that both Blanii and Eblani are Celtic terms, seeing that in that language we meet with the word ebelin, in the sense of a people or habitation alongside a river. I incline, however, to the belief, that they are of Phoenician birth, derived from eblin, uncultivated wilds, or hebelin, idols, from which in a former treatise I have taken upon myself to deduce Ebeli- num, the name of an ancient city in Celtiberia, in Spain, on the ruins of which it is supposed that the town of Ayerbe is now erected. From the same source would I derive the name of Blanes, another Spanish town amongst the Ilergetes on the coast of the Mediterranean, called by Nubiensis in his geo- graphical work, Eblanessa, although some would fain have it of Grecian root, from balanos, an oak; or planes, a wanderer ;J whilst others, again, would * V. Burg. Ibern. Dominic, p. 185, 187. t Collect, de Reb. Ibern. ibid. X When the daring adventurer, or one of the children of want, seeks, in a foreign land, that fortune which is denied him M 2 164 ascribe it to the Celtic words— blaen-ess, meaning a promontory in the water. CHAP. XVI. The Erdinii-- Where settled— Whether the same as the Ernai -^Etymology of the word — Vestiges of them in some of the Irish towns — Similar geographical names in Spain — The Venicnii conterminous with the Erdinii — The promontory of Venicnium called after them, not they from the promontory — Conjecture upon the origin of this word as Phoenician — why the Spanish promontories Juno's and Gora, called CeltiCy and Scythic. The Erdinii, an ancient people of Ireland, situated according to Ptolemy, on the north of the promon- tory of Robogdium, in the southern section of the counties of Donegal and Fermanagh, are called Hardinii, in the writings of Richard Cirencester. at home, and braves perils by land and by sea, for a bit of bread, he is cheered by the hope that he may be enabled, one day, to return to home and country with the fruit of his hard and hazardous toil, to spin out the remnant of life's thread in the land of his nativity, and to pillow his head in the lap of his native earth. — Viscount Glentworth, — Arliss's Mag, Sep. 1832. 165 Their name some would deduce from the Irish ex- pressions, eir dunedh, that is, a mountainous people, or inhabitants of mountains, in the west ; and think them the same as the nation which the Irish anti- quarians call Ernai, that is a western people, or rather the primitive aboriginal natives of the soil, for Erin used for Erie, is Ireland, as Erionnach is an Irishman. I should prefer, however, to consider them a haughty, arrogant and overbearing tribe of the Phoenicians, who obtained this name from erdin or eradin, which signifies, Hectors, from rod, he domi- neered or bore haughty sway. This nation appears formerly to have inhabited several districts of Spain, which to this day retain their vestiges ; for instance, Ardines and Ardon, amongst the Astures ; Ardanue, Ardanui, and Ardanse, in Celtiberiae ; Ardanaz, in Cantabria, and Ardon and Ardona, in Gallacia. From thence, too, it is very probable, that the town of Ardinan, at the mouth of the river Ban, in the province of Ulster, whither they had first introduced their colonies, hath derived its name, as well as Ardicnice, a village of the same : Ardoyne,^ a little town in the county Wicklow, and Erinach, another town in Ulster, celebrated from its spring well, de- dicated to St. Fionan; beside which was erected in the beginning of the twelfth century, a monastery, called by the old name of Carrig, from the immense cHff adjacent ; for carraic, in Irish, is a rock, from 166 the Phoenician carric, fortified. Perhaps to the same origin belongs Artane, the name of a very delightful village in Leinster, although it might have been derived from Araa-tanar, stony or flinty ground, corresponding with the Irish arteine or ar- tine, of the same signification. Conterminous with the Erdinii were the Venicnii or Benicnii, ancient residents of Ireland, noticed also by Ptolemy, situated by the promontory of Venicnium, on the western coast of the county Donegal, the Ergal of the ancients. Some imagine that they were so called from this same promontory alluded to in the last chapter, which Camden thinks equivalent with the English words, ram's head; Venictium being, by the authority of Baxter, dege- nerated from Vendne-cniu, which, in the old dialect of the Brigantes, indicates the head of a young ram ; cniu, to a British ear, conveying the idea of the young of almost every animal, in the plural number. It strikes me, however, as more like the truth, that they did not take their name from the promon- tory, but that the promontory, on the contrary, was denominated from them ; as that which we now call Cape Finisterre, on the Cantabrian coast, was called Scythic and Celtic, from those respective nations ; and that which the Arabians in after times called Taraf-al-garr, signifying a perilous extremity or point, the modern Trafalgar, lying on the maritime 167 coast of Boetica, between Calpe and the straits of Gibraltar, was called by the Greeks the promontory of Juno, their favorite deity ; and as the modern Cabo de Gata was called by the Phoenician settlers upon the Mediterranean coast of Spain, the Cape of Gora ; for gor, in the Syriac, intimates a stranger or foreigner taking up his abode in another place than where he was born, a sojourner ; whence the Greek georos, a neighbour, a tiller. As to the people themselves, whether Venicnii or or Benicnii, they appear to me to have been a tribe of the Phoenicians, and to have got this name from Kini, which imports, of a Cinnsean stock, or from the land of Canaan : benikini consequently implying a tribe from such a stock. Nor is it at all unlikely but that there might have been an additional motive for this name, suggested by the frankness of those people's demeanor and the purity of their moral character,* for, in this language, beni-enin means * Such appear to be the general principles and outlines of the popular faith, not only among the Grec ks, but among all other primitive nations, not favored by the lights of Revela- tion : for though the superiority and subsequent universality of the Greek language, and the more exalted genius and refined taste of the early Greek poets, have preserved the knowledge of their sacred mythology more entire ; we find traces of the same simple principles and fanciful superstructures from the shores of the Baltic to the banks of the Ganges : and there can be little doubt that the voluminous poetical cosmogonies still extant among the Hindoos, and the fragments preserved of 168 upright and righteous dwellers^ whether of town ojf country, from kian or kina, just and true, in which sense we meet it in the Syriac version of the gospel according to St. Matthew : — and Joseph, her hus- band, was (kina) a just man, As to beni, it is a term applied not only to sons, but to the residents of any particular place, which by a very natural association may be considered as their mother, being there born or educated. Thus in Ezekiel, xvi. 28, the people of Assyria are called beni, or the sons, of Assur ; and in Jeremiah, ii. 10, the Memphians are called Veni, or the sons, of Noph. The word is, also, referred to the condition or morals of the persons alluded to, as in the third chapter of the Acts, and 25th verse, the Israelites with whom God had con- cluded a covenant by the form of circumcision, are styled the sons of the prophets and of the testament, and in other passages throughout the sacred volume and elsewhere, the wicked are designated as the sons those of the Scandinavians, may afford us very competent ideas of the style and subjects of those ponderous compilations in verse, which constituted the mystic lore of the ancient priests of Persia, Germany, Spain, Gaul, and Britain ; and which id the two latter countries were so extensive, that the education of a druid sometimes required twenty years. From the specimens above mentioned, we may, nevertheless, easily console our- selves for the loss of all of them as poetical compositions^ whatever might have been their vtilue in other respects.—* Knight, 169 of wickedness ;* the unjust, as the sons of injustice ; and warriors, by the expressive circumlocution of sons of strength, or hearts of oak. * All we shall here add is, that those who have been the most irreligious in this world, formed their notions upon the inequality of rewards and punishments. Were all the wicked to suffer just punishments in this life, and all the virtuous to be rewarded, what occasion would there be for a future judgment? In many cases God has shewn himself to be at the head of divine providence, but not in all ; to convince men, that how- ever hardened they may be in wickedness while in this world, yet there may be a time, or a period, when the mask of hypocrisy will be laid aside ; nay, it will be stripped off, and the daring sinner will stand as a culprit at the bar of infinite justice. On the other hand, the oppressed virtuous man should rest satisfied in this, that God will be his friend at the last day, notwithstanding all the sufieriugs he may have been subjected to in this world ; for it is an established maxim both in natural and revealed religion, that the upright judge of the universe, will not deceive his creatures. — Uurd, 170 CHAP. XVII. The Caucii — Various opinions as to their exact settlement — Others of the same name amongst the Germans — Whether they derived this name from their stature r— Ancient inscription of the Cumbri— Interpretation thereof— Their name Phoeni- cian or Celtic — Cauca an ancient city of Spain — The ancient Menapii, where settled— Menappia the modern Waterford — Various opinions on the origin of their name — Whether they were Phoenicians — Customs of idolators to call themselves and their people after their deities and the worship of them — Aphrodisia, Portus Veneris, and Artemisia, ancient cities of Spain — The Isles of Momce — Evolenum — Coulan. Ptolemy makes mention of another ancient people of this island, the Caucii, whose residence he defines as on the east of the Cape Robogdium. Cirencester places them in the county Dublin, between the sand- banks of the river LifFey and the northern sections of the county Wicklow. Others assert that they had settled in the mountainous districts situated between the rivers Barrow and Nore, called in the old Irish dialect Hy Breoghain Gabhran, which they translate an elevated country between forks.* There were also, amongst the ancient Germans, two distinct people of this name, distinguished as * Collect, de Reb. Ibern. loc. laud. p. 305. 171 the greater and the lesser, of whom the former, we are told by Ptolemy, mhabited that part of the country between the Elb and the Wesser ; the latter from the Wesser all along to the Emse. We find, too, that the ancient Spaniards could boast of their Caucii, in the district of the Vaccei, whose princi- pal city was Cauca, placed by Antoninus as sixteen days' journey, or on the sixteenth station on the road from Emerita to Caesar Augusta. Some suppose that they had obtained this name from their extraordinary stature ; for cauc in the old British, and coc in the Brigantine, and hauch, or hoch, in the German, all imply one and the same thing, namely, lofty, or high. Hence, Baxter con- jectures, had been borrowed the inscription found amongst the ancient Cumbri, the Ceangi of the Brigantes, " To the god Cocis," which is supposed to have been executed in fulfilment of a vow to the genius of the river, at this day called Coque in the country of the Otonidae. But is it not possible that those Caucii may have been Celts,* cau, in their language, signifying a river ? This, however, I do not like, as I think it more likely that they were one of the tribes of the Phoe- nicians who had landed in Ireland from Spain ; whose name, like that of the Spanish city Cauca, I conceive borrowed from the temperature of the * The name of geilt, ceilt, or keilt, which signifies terror, a wild man or woman, a sylvestrous person ; and hence I think the name, Celt.-— Vallancey, 172 climate in which they had fixed themselves. This opinion I form from observing in the Phoenician language that cauzz, or coz, signifies the summer season, from which cauzzi, a summer residence ; and with this corresponds cauc, or coc, old age, infirmity, or a country adapted from the mildness of its air to renovate the energies, at least allay the irritation, of the aged and enfeebled.* The Manapii, or Menapii, were also an ancient people of Ireland, on its eastern coast, being a por- tion of the Brigantes Coriondi, in the city of Mana- pia, or Water ford, as Camden thinks, in which he is supported by the authority of Baxter. Others would have it that they were the inhabitants of the county Wicklow, the chief town of which bearing the same name, the Euobenum of Probus, they maintain to have been the ancient Manapia. They further state that they had taken up their settlement between the mountains and the sea, in that part of the country now called Coulan, Cuolan, or Crioch Cuolan, which means, says Seward, a close and con- fined tract, or as others prefer a corn country. Many persons derive the name of those people from the old British words, Mene-ui-pou, a narrow region, with which Coulan above mentioned almost corresponds. Others think that they took their name from the city of Manapia, which they say is com- pounded of the British words, Mant-ab, signifying the mouth of the water. * Regio senibus apta. 173 But to my ear their name sounds the certainty of their Phoenician descent. I had formerly supposed that it had been derived from Mana-pip, a double portion or part of some tribe or nation ; but as the Syrians had a custom of denominating themselves and their people from their idols, and their super- stitious v^^orship of them, I am more disposed now to think they were so called from Mani-apiin, which means, adorning with branches or flowers a multi- tude of idols, or singly, that of Mercury, which Mani also signifies, and whom the Phoenicians wor- shipped as the god of calculation. That this custom prevailed also amongst the ancient Greeks and Ro- mans, we have numerous proofs in the geographi- cal names of Spain. Thus, from Afrodite, the Greek name for Venus, and Afrodisios, which means belonging to Venus, Timoeus and Silenus have given the name of Afrodisia to the ancient city of Gades in Boetica, which was contiguous to the site of the present city of Cadiz. From her also the Romans gave the name of Portus Veneris, or the harbour of Venus,* to that maritime city of the Ilergetes, which * Who would not sigh ai ai tan Cutkereian ! That hath a memory, or that had a heart ? Alas ! her star must fade like that of Dian ; Ray fades on ray, as years on years depart. Anacreon only had the soul to tie an Unwithering myrtle round the blunted dart Of Eros : but though thou hast played us many tricks. Still we respect thee, ** Alma Venus Genetrix !" Byron. 174 is at this day corruptly called Porvendres, From Artemis, Diana, the Greeks gave the name of Arte- misian, or the temple of Diana, to that city of the Contestani which the Romans afterwards, and from the same cause, adapted to their own language as Dianium; and which now, from that decay to which names as well as things must submit, is called Denia. The Monapia of Pliny, called Menavia by Orosius, seems to me to have been inhabited by the people called Manapii : I mean that island in the Irish sea almost midway between England and Ireland, of an oblong form, extending from north to south — it is called by Ptolemy, Monseoida. This and another island lying more to the south, and wider in its dimensions, situated in the bay of the Ordovices, from whom it is separated only by a narrow strait, are both designated by the common appellation of Monoe. The more southern one abounded in a hardy popu- lation, which it hesitated not to strengthen by open- ing an asylum to all deserters, without regard to the cause. After its capture by the Angli, it got from them the name of Anglesey, that is, the isle of the Angli, or English. Mona is a term of Phoenician superstition, from mon, an idol or image. Moneoida would seem compounded of mon, and of oid, a festival, intimating a festival held in honor of an idol ; and Monoceda of mon, and chedad, which signifies bent or stooping, the attitude of reverence in the presence of their idols. Evolenum, which is 175 supposed to have been the city of Menapia, I would derive from hebelin, idols ; and Coulan from coulin, sounds, thunders ; elsewhere called Beth-col,* that is. * A divination called the Bath-coly which was the taking as a prediction the first words they heard any body pronounce ; and as superstitions have ever been contagious, we find some- thing similar to this in the Grecian records ; for when Socrates was in prison, a person there happened to quote from Homer the following line : — *' In three days, I, Phthiae, shall visit thy shores." Socrates immediately said to ^schinus — '* From this I learn I shall die in three days !" [He formed this opinion from the double sense of the word ** Phthice,'^ it being in Greek not only the name of a place, but also signifies deathJl Conformably to this prediction, Socrates was put to death three days after." All these various modes have descended to our times. The first Christians, in adopting them, rejected searching into pro- fane writers, and looked for these, as they termed them, divine ordinances, in the Scripture. They termed them the " sortes sanctoi'um/' 0,11(1 even attempted to justify the practice from the authority of Proverbs, chap. xli. verse 33 — " The lot is cast into the lap, but the disposing thereof is of the Lord ;" and again, of this text — ** Search, and ye shall find ;" but at the same time, they omitted to pay due attention to such verses as these — ** Thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God ;" and (Dent, chap, xxiii. verse 10,) " There shall not be found among you any that useth divination, &c., for all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord ;" aud their sentence (according to Leviticus, chap. xx. verse 27,) was to be stoned to death. When lleraclius in his war against Cosroes, wished to learn in what place he should take up his winter quarters, he purified his army for three days, opened the Gospels, and found '* Albania ?" A thousand other instances might be given to prove its prevalency ; and many learned divines have seriously argued in its favour, in many grave and ponderous folio 176 tlie daughter of voice, intimating not a real or solid voice, but the echo thereof, more particularly the volumes ! ! Nor is it less amusing, in our days, to remember the Council of Agda, at which were assembled all the chief dignitaries of the Church ; and all the learned men of that age thought it worth their while to take the matter into their serious consideration, and after discussing, with due solemnity all the pros and cons of the question, they, in the year 506, condemned the practice as superstitious, heretical, and abomi- nable, and denounced the severest ecclesiastical vengeance on all who should resort to it ! ! ! The Viryilian Lots, in the mean time, did not languish, though the *' holy" ones so much flourished ; there were still found many admirers of the Classics, who preferred consulting Yirgil to Scripture, not the less so, perhaps, from the then generally received opinion, of Virgil's having been a great conjurer. In the reign of Charles the First, when implicit credence was placed in lots, anagrams, &c., we meet with several accounts of this divination having been had recourse to. Howell, in his entertaining Letters, frequently mentions it ; and Cowley, writing of the Scotch Treaty, makes use of the following curious words : — '* The Scotch will moderate something of the rigour of their demands; the mutual necessity of an accord is vissible ; the King is persuaded of it, and to tell you the truth, (which I take to be an argument above all the rest,) Virgil has told the same thing to that purpose." Charles the First himself and Lord Falkland being in the Bodleian Library, were shewn a magnificently bound Virgil, and the latter, to amuse the King, proposed that they should try to discover in the " Virgilian Lots " their future fortunes. They did so, and met with passages equally ominous to each. Nor has this superstition been confined to Europe, or the borders of the Mediterranean ; it is equally to be met with in Arabia and Persia, for Credula mens hominis, et erectce fabulis aures" *' The mind of man is every where equally credulous, and the ears equally open in all parts of the world to receive fables." Superstitious practices are therefore never lost, but. 177 representation of the reverberated voice in the oracles. where the slightest intercourse exists, the first thing bartered for are these. We need not then be surprised to find that a pre- cisely similar custom prevails in the east, where this sortelege is termed '' tufal." Hafiz is the chief poet whom they consult; so great is the veneration the Persians entertain for him, that they have given him the title of '' divine f^ and on every re- markable occasion, his Book of Odes is opened for oracular information. When Hafiz himself died, several of the Ulemas violently objected to granting him the usual rites of sepulture, on account of the licentiousness of his poetry ; but at length, after much dispute, it was agreed that the matter should be decided by the words of Hafiz himself. For this purpose, his diruan (or collection of poems) was brought, and being opened at random, the first that presented itself was read ; it proved to be the following : — Turn not thy steps from Hafiz mournful grave, Him plunged in sin shall heavenly mercy save ! Of course every funereal honour was immediately ordered to be paid him ; he was buried at the favourite mosella, and a mag- nificent tomb was raised over his almost adored remains, shadowed, as Captain Franklin tells us, by the poet's beloved cypresses ; in this a remarkable fine copy of his Odes was continually placed. When the great Nadir Shah and his officers were passing by this tomb, near Shiraz, they were shewn the copy of the poet's works, and one of the company opening it, the first passage that met their eyes was the follow- ing, which they, of course, immediately applied to the con- queror : — ** It is but just that thou shouldst receive a tribute from all fair youths, since thou art the sovereign of all the beauties in the universe; thy two piercing eyes have thrown Khater (Scythia) and Khaten (Tartary) into confusion ; India and China pay homage to thy curled locks; thy graceful mouth gave the streams of life to Kheyr ; thy sugared lip ren- ders the sweet reeds of Mirr (Egypt) contemptible." N 178 CHAP. XVIII. The Auteri a people of Ireland — Various opinions respecting their proper country — Muriagh, whence so called — Various opinions likewise as to the derivation of the name Auteri — Whether they ivere Phoenicians — Coronaan epithet of Tyre — The Autetani a people of Spain — The Dannance a people of Ireland — Where settled — Whether from the Danes —River Dee — Conjecture on the origin of the name Dannance — Dan a city of the Phoenicians — Ardes — Ardea. The Auteri, emphatically designated as the real native ancient Irish, were situated at the mouth of the river Erin, in the farthest extremity of the pro- vince of Munster. Ptolemy, in alluding to them, calls them at one time, Auteiroi, at another, Auteroi, and places them in certain parts of the country then known by the name of Naquatia or Connatia. Others think they inhabited those districts which correspond with the present counties of Galway, Mayo, and Roscommon in the province of Connaught, being that old and extensive tract often called Muriah or Hy-Moruisge, which they interpret by the region of sea water, and which is still preserved without much 179 alteration in Morisk, the name of a barony as well a sa little town in the county Mayo,* and in Murrach a village of the barony of Carbery in the county of Cork. But Muriah would seem naturally to be de- duced from the Phoenician Moriaga, which means, habitations or houses systematically arranged, from whence it is probable that the Irish Murighin, that is, families took its rise, and the Spanish Amoraga, a gentile appellative. Baxterf is of opinion that the Auteri were so called by the Brygantes after they and the BelgGe had taken possession of the greater part of Ireland to their colonies, — that they were the Erigenae or real offspring of the Irish soil — and that they were driven at first by the Brigantes from Britain, who after- wards, in this country, followed up their pursuit till they made them take shelter in its remotest extre- mity. Wishing then to account for the origin of their name, the same author adds, " Er in British is land, from the Greek era ; from this the native Irish were named Erion or Erii by the Brigantes, and the island itself Iris, that is, the isle of Erii, by the Greeks. And seeing that ot, or aut, means to the Britons a coast or shore, what should hinder our considering, aut erion being so called, as the coast of the Erii, or the ancient autokthonos, or land of the * Collect, de Reb. Ibern. vol. III. p. 285. t Baxter, loc. laud. p. 30, 31. 180 natives/' He finally observes that the Cantabri, the Vascones, and the Irish used in a great measure the dialect of the Irish aborigines, interspersed v/ith many terms from the Phoenician, Celtic, and Bry- gantine languages ; and this interspersion may be accounted for by the fact, which some maintain, of the Frigones and Brigantes having had possession of either Spain, long before the days of the Punic wars. O'Flaherty* differs from this opinion, and asserts that the name of Auteri was forcibly twisted out of the term ath-en-ria or ath-na-rig, that is, the king's ford. But Ptolemy having declared his belief that Autera, an ancient city in Ireland, was the capital of the Auteri residing therein, many have been thereby induced to interpret the word as meaning a village or state by the waters of the west, compounded, as it were, of the Celtic aubh or aith, water, and eireigh, a western people. For the Auteri had inhabited near the sea coast. I, however, would venture to guess that the Au- teri, or ancient Irish, were the primitive Phoenicians who had discovered this island, and that they had obtained or assumed this name from that spirit of enterprising research which, in this as in other in- stances, had been so signally rewarded. I would, therefore, agreeably to this view, derive the name from, thar, he explored ; or from aatarin, adven- O'Flahert. Ogygia. p. 16, 17. 181 turers, deserters^ or people departing — as they did from Spain to fix themselves here. It may also have borne reference to a number of families of this colony ; for aatharin, in the Syriac, denotes^ a great muster of nations^ w^hilst it does also the wealthy^ and who can say but that by this name they would indicate the treasures they had acquired from the mines of this country, or the exportation of its commodities and the produce of its soil, to the most distant quarters of the then known world. Or what if they chose this name from autereh, or aature, a crown ? This, we know, was an epithet given of old to Tyre, the capital of Phoenicia, as in Isaiah xxiii. 8, it is said, '' Tyre formerly crowned," as it may well be called from the splendor of its buildings, the strength of its citadels and fortifications, and abundance of its riches, '' whose merchants were princes, and whose factors were the renowned of the earth." With the Hebrews and Syrians also, autereh, or crown, was equivalent with honor or delight. We meet fre- quently in the scriptures '^ the crown of old men" for their children's children ; '' the crown of glory in the hand of the Lord," &c. which perhaps gave rise to the custom amongst some ancient states to wear a crown on either their head, their neck, or their right hand. That the christians of the primitive church wore crowns on their hand is evident from TertuUian's book '' on the soldier's crown/' These Auteri may have been a tribe of the Ante- 182 rani or Autetani of Spain, of whom Ptolemy makes mention, and whom we now call the Ausetani. But it is to me beyond question that the Spanish Autri- gones, who had settled on the confines of the Can- tabri and the Barduli, were a part and parcel of the self same Phoenician colony ; for the name Antri- gones is obviously perverted from Auterigones, in- cluding in its formation the two Phoenician terms Autereh-goin, crowned nations, or atharin-goin, ex- ploring nations — goin, in the Syriac, as goim in the Hebrew, meaning tribes, nations, or families. The Danannae, or Dananni were also an ancient colony in Ireland, who, as some writers declare, had fixed their residence in the northern quarters of the island. Tradition tells us that they had originally inhabited the cities of Falia, Goria, Finnia, and Muria in North Germany, and spoke the language too of that country ; but an immense number of Irish an- tiquarians, as O'Flaherty observes, have irrefragably proved, at least put upon record, that they were in- habitants of the northern parts of Britain, more especially of those places that went then by the names of Dobar and Indobar.* In this section of the * The ascription which would make those people either Ger- man or British, notwithstanding the vagaries of would-be anti- quarians, even though backed by O'Flaherty, is egregiously erroneous^ as I shall show elsewhere. " The colony of the Tuatha de Danains, [thus called from three of their chiefs, named Brien, luchor, and Jucorba, — who were High Magi, or diviners, 183 sister isle, Camden tells us, lies the river Dee, which makes O'Flaherty suspect that the name of Tuath- Dee — intimating a people residing by that river — was thereby occasioned. He does not dare, however, to trace any affinity between the name Danann and that of the Danes, it being notorious that it was not until after the introduction of Christianity and the salutary doctrines which its professors had enforced, this scourge of the human species, and of the latin nations in particular, had burst forth from the ob- scurity of their previous existence, bringing death and dismay in their desolating career, ravaging the abodes of sanctity and religion, and obliterating every vestige of previous civilizalion.* as the word Tuatha signifies, -brothers, and children of Danan, daughter of Dealboith, of the race of Nemedius,] was in posses- sion of Ireland, according to the Psalter of Cashel, for the space of one hundred and ninety seven years, governed by seven kings successively, namely, Nuagha Airgiodlamh, Breas, Lugha- Lamh-Fada, in Latin, *' Longimanus," Dagha, Delvioth, Fiagha, and the three sons of Kearmada, namely, Eathur, Teahur and Keahur ; who reigned alternately, a year each^ for thirty years. Those three brothers were married to three, sisters ; they took surnames from the different idols which they worshipped. Eathur, who had married Banba, was called Maccuill, from a certain kind of wood which he adored Teahur espoused Fodhla, and worshipped the plough ; he was called Mac-Keaght. Keahur, husband of Eire, displayed better taste than his brothers, as he took the sun for his divi- nity, and was thence named Mac-Greine, that is to say, the son of the sun. — Mac Geoghegan. * Danann autem non audet Danorum nomini affine dicere ; 184 I^ too^ would not be positive, in furtherance of my own theory, in claiming those people as of Phoeni- cian birth, though my pretensions to the claim may not seem altogether groundless when I recollect that in that language are to be found the words danihain, sig- nifying illustrious, generous, noble, or rather Danin for Danani or Danita,the inhabitants of the city of Dan,* at the foot of Mount Lebanus, the boundary, towards the north, of the ten Israelish tribes, and still more celebrated as the spot where the Phoenicians wor- shipped the graven image given them by Mich a, and where Jeroboam had erected the golden calf. I wave these pretensions, however, on the probability that the Aradians, or natives of the island of Arad, friends and allies of the Phoenicians, had given their names as the very sound implies, to those towns in Ireland called Ard, Ardes, Arde, &c. on the probability also that the Aramaeans, or natives of Aramcea gave rise to the name of the Irish Aremorice, as will appear more fully in the sequel. ciim non nisi saeculis Christianis Danorum nomen cum eorum irruptionibus Latinis gentibus innotuerit. * Afterwards called by the Greeks, paneas, caesarea paneae, and Caesarea Philippi ; but by the barbarians Belina. 185 CHAP. XIX. The Damnii, ancient inhabitants of the county of Down — ■ whether so called from the river Davon — Or from Diuium — conjectures ujjon the origin of the name as Phcenician — Dam- iana a city of Spain — The Damnonii whence so called — where they settled — The Curiondi celebrated seamen — Inhabitants of Wexford — Various opinions as to the etymology of the name — Curucce, ships made of bark — Used by the Spaniards — Whether the Curiondi were Phcenicians — Whether descended fromCauriumor Cauria, cities of Spain. The Damnii, an ancient people of Ireland, to be found in Ptolemy, had fixed their settlement in the present county Down, in the province of Ulster, Some people suppose they had derived this name from the Brigantine term Davon, or Daun, a bay or river. Daunii, Dunin, &c. coming from which, sig- nify the country of lakes or rivers. In this sense it corresponds to the Irish denomination of a tract or portions of a country, Magh Gennuisg. Seeing, how- ever, that in some copies of Ptolemy, they are styled Damnonioi, there be some who suspect that the Damnii, of whom he makes mention, were so called from Dunum, now Downpatrick. In the Celtic Ian- 186 guage, dun is precisely the same thing as berga, the common name for a place of abode, and the Teutonic berg, meaning a fortress upon a hill, or a hill sur- rounded by a fortress. These have been borrowed from the Arabic and old Phoenician in which we meet with the word barg, a tower, and barga, a villa. Hence was derived Barca, the name of a town amongst the Vetones in Spain ; Barceo, another amongst the Vaccei; Barch, amongst the Edetani ; Bargos, amongst the Carpetani ; Bargo, Bargota , Barjas, Bergua, Berga, Berge, Begos, Borge, Bur- gas, and other names of this kind to be met with in almost every canton of that Peninsula. In this list I should not have omitted Bergio, an ancient fortified tow^n of the Lacetani, designated by Livy by the denomination of " the long town," which it afterwards changed for that of Celsona ; its modern name is Solsona. I should myself suppose that the Irish Damnii were a tribe of Spanish Phoenicians, descended from the Damnii, or Damniani, who built the ancient city of the Edetani, called Damiana, the name by which Ptolemy also notices it. And, though some Spanish writers would derive the term from the Celtic words da-min, a habitation beside a mountain or river, it strikes me as more probable that it originated from its Phoenician inhabitants, and in allusion to the worship which they paid their idols, damain, or damon, signifying in their language, idols or images. 187 Or, perhaps, the name belongs to geography, and comes from dumain, the descendants of Dumah, a city of Syria, or Dimona which was one of the lot of Judah, or from a city of Arabia of the same name, and called after Dumah, the son of Ismael, of which latter it is said in Isaiah, " the bm'den of Dumah," rendered by the septuagint Idumea ; and the Phoe- nicians, we may observe, never forgot the Arabian cities from whence they had emigrated into Syria. To the same source would I refer the name of the Damnonii, or Damhnonii, who according to the ancient* writers upon Irish topics, originally occupied the lands of Cornwall and Devonshire, laying to- wards the extreme west of England, just opposite our shores ; they subsequently took possession of the ancient Hy-Moruisge, or Morisk, an extensive district in the west of Ireland, being the present county of Mayo, in the province of Connaught, Others, on the contrary, think this name derived from the Celtic, or Cambrico-Britannic word, Dyvneint or Duvnon, meaning depth of water, Duvnonii^ * For their dear sakes I love thee, Ma vourneen, though unseen ; Bright be the sky above thee. Thy shamrock ever green ; May evil ne'er distress thee, Nor darken nor defile, But heaven for ever bless thee — My own green isle ! Barton. 188 Dabhnoiiii, or Damhnonii, therefore, would express to them a people settled beside the deep water or the sea. O'Flaherty asserts that they were called Fir-Dom- nan, equivalent to, the men or the clan of Domnan ; and that several places in Ireland have been named from them, for instance, Inver-Domnan, where they first put in on their landing from Britain, afterwards called Invermor,* and at present Arklow, being a river and seaport town in the county of Wicklow, and the capital of a barony of the same name. The Coriondi or Curiondi, a tribe of the Irish Brigantes, were celebrated sailors and lived almost continually and professionally upon the water. Ptolemy, in his writings, has made mention of them, and it is generally admitted that their settlements lay in the present county of Wexford, in the province of Leinster. There is a tradition very prevalent amongst the inhabitants of the county, that their * Avoiimore, which name signifying the g:reat winding stream, corresponds most happily with its character, the banks conti- nually forming the finest waving lines, either covered with close coppice woods or with scattered oak and ash of considerable growth — the ground in some places smooth meadow and pas- ture, in others rising in romantic cliffs and craggy precipices. At Avondale, the Avonmore meeting with the Avon beg, or little Avon, the united streams assume the name of Ovoca, and passing by Shelton, it empties itself, through a bridge of nine- teen arches, into the sea at Arklow, whence it keeps its stream distinctly marked from the sea for near half a mile from the shore. — Fraser. 189 chiefs were the Mac-Mooroghs, or O'Moroghs, who in the old records of Ireland are called the Leinster kings. Certain families, of their party, we find had separated from the general corps, and established themselves in the adjoining county of Carlo w, in a place then called Hy-Cabha-nagh, being a district of the barony of Idrone. The opinion most received is, that the name of Coriondi consists of the Irish words corcach, vessels, and ondiu, a wave. In this light it may fairly be rendered as equivalent with, navigators. The ancient Irish used besides to call them Corthagh, that is " the rowers," and their habitation or locality Hy-Moragh, that is, the maritime country. Some, however, on the authority of Camden, would take another road, though aiming at the same sense, and maintain that they were inhabitants of Corcagia or Cork, and the founders of that city, in Irish Corcugh, being the capital of all Munster, and next to Dublin the most considerable city in the kingdom, for extent, for commerce, and its concomitant wealth. Seeing then that the barky vessels or canoes of the ancient Bri- tons were called curucae,* they think it very probable that the town of Cork was so called, as you would say '' the dockyard," or naval store, and its inhabi- tants, coriondi, that is, navigators, from those curucse or bark boats. Others wT)uld derive their name * Curuca sen Currach eiat navis coriacea pene rotunda, 190 from corion-diu, which, for ought I know to the contrary, may signify a sea hide. Certainly the vitiie navigium, ut ait Pliniiis (IV. 16.) corio circumsutum. Pelasgos item et Etruscos, Britannorura et Scotorum more, navi- busex corio et vimine usos fuisse, auctor est Dempterus (Etru- riae Regal. III. 80.) '' Res, inquit Festus Avienus (Oi'ce Mariti- mce lib. I.) ad miraculum — Navigio junctis semper aptant pelli- bus — Corisque vastum saepe percurrentsalura." Lydii, aitlsi- dorus Hispan. {Orig. XIX. 1.) primam iiavem fabricaverunt, pelagique incerta petentes, pervium mare usibus humanis fece- runt." (V. Praes. Carol. Vallancey in n. XIT. Collect, de Reb. Jbern. p. C XVI 1 1.) Talibus Silures navigasse ad Cassiteridem insulam, scribit Plinius : quin et Cantabros et reliquos boreales Hispanos diphtherinois ploiois fuisse usos usque ad Brutum, ex StraboneTItl.) constat: imo et Babylonios ipsos ex Herodoto (V. Baxter. loc.laud.) Inde hodie Carraca vocatur Hispanis quaedam species onerariae navis : et situs construendis navibus aptus juxta Gaditanum emporium. Hanc navem carabum etiam appellatam, testis est Isidorus in etymologicis. Quae vox ducta videtur a Phoen. carab, adiit, advenit, quod de iter facientibus dicitur ; vel a caiab aravit : nam iter navis in mari similis est sulcis, qui fiunt arando. Carraca autem, seu currucak Phoen, carrac, circumdedit, ligavit, velavit, involvit ; quod apprime navibus congruit corio circumsutis. It is not unworthy of no- tice that this description of boat was quite common round the en- tire coast of Ireland not long since, the very look of them would be sufficient to appal the bravest seaman from embarking his pre- cious person in so small and frail a vessel, where in calm weather you can, in ten fathom water, see every particle through her bot- tom on that of the sea, as distinctly as you can discern an object through a window ; instances have been known where acci- dentally putting a foot between two ribs which it had gone through, the person vras obliged to keep the leg protruded in that position until the land was made. *' Where in leathern hairy boat. O'er threatening waves bold mortals float." 191 Britons, to this very day, call hides by the name of cruyn, from the Greek, krous, to which the Latin corimn, also, has reference. But we have the clearest evidence, in the very con- struction of the name itself, that this was a Phoeni- cian nation, and the accounts given of them by the Irish historians, if but diligently perused, would be sufficient to confirm us in this conviction. For, from the skill they evinced in the building of vessels, and the vast number and variety of them that they contrived to employ, from the adventuring trader and the daring man of war, down to the cumbrous lugger and the volatile skiff, plying them constantly on the water, in one form or the other, they were very appropriately, though metaphorically, charac- terised as curin or fishes,* which we find still applied, and for the same causes, to the Britons of this day. * The Inland Fisheries of Ireland have never been made available to their practical extent, although they contribute alike to the luxuries of the rich and the comforts of the poor. It is not a merely local or a partial improvement that we re- commend; the benefit is not confined to a spot or district here and there ; the advantages we suggest are as extensive as the rivers are many which beautify, refresh, and fertilize every county in Ireland. — And shall man, impious man, to whom the all-providing word of God gave power, when he said *' Let the waters hrijig forth abundantly the rnoving creatures that hath life, and let man have dominion over them ;" — shall man, by a devastating waste, counteract the beneficent design of his Creator, and even destroy, in its very source, that gracious abundance intended to feed millions ! 192 Nor must it be put down as a dream, and that of a sick man too, if I express my belief that they were Phoenicians who had proceeded from Caurium, an ancient city in Spain on the borders of Lusitania, now called coria, or from a city of Boetica, called Cauria Siarum, now Coria del Rio ; for the Phoenicians in- habited them both, and both are derived from cauria or coria, which in their language signifies a city, a villa, or a camp. Hence arose the name of many of the cities in the department of the tribe of Judah ; Cariathiarim, meaning the city of woods ; Cariath- sepher, the city of letters ; Cariath Arbe, that of the Patriarch Enoch, as well as of several towns in different parts of Spain, such as Corias, Coristancas, Lacoriana, &c. &c. Thus Coriondi, or Curiondi, quasi Corin, would express the descendants of the above mentioned cities of Cauria, or Caurium ; or quasi Caurionin, the robust and substantial people of those places ; on, importing strength, fortitude, and worldly opulence. 193 CHAP. XX. The Fomhoraice, or sea robbers ravaged Ireland — They were Phoenicians — Analogy of this Irish name with the Phoenician — -Vestiges thereof in certain Spanish towns — Sujjerstitioiis name of the Forcrabii inhabitants of Ireland ^ why so called — The Vellabori a people of Ireland — Conjecture on the origin of this name — Cape of Notium— The Uterni — Their prin- cipal city Uverni or Rufna — Whether these names be of Phoenician descent. The Fomhoraice, or Formaragh,* of whom the old poems of our island make mention, were a people who plundered its southern coast, long as the Neme- * Plutarch, in his life of Sertorius, tells us that this cele- brated commander «letermined to make the Atlantic Isle (that is Ireland) a place of retreat and residence from the persecu- tion of his enemies. In another work, entitled " De facie in orbe Lunae," he describes this " Atlantic isle" to be opposite the Celtae, and but four days sail from Britain. The Irish legions in Gaul, were called Fine Gall, those in Albany, Fine Albau. ** We may very well suppose," says O'Halloran, " that the Fine Fomharaigh, or African legions, so often met with in the old Irish manuscripts, meant no other than the Irish cohorts in that service." O 194 thae held possession of it. They are supposed to have been a body of Phoenician traders, who visited the British isles, about four hundred years before the Christian era, and obtained this name from the occu- pation of prowling sea robbers ; fomhor and fomhbrac in Irish, signify a pirate, as they do a giant also. These words, however, have originally their root in the Phoenician, where we find fom-horac meaning fu- gitives and disturbers of the earth, which well accords with the description given by ancient historians of those rapacious intruders into the British islands. Perhaps they were some of the first Phoenicians who flying before the face of the people of Israel, trans- ported themselves from Syria, whose footsteps are still preserved in the names of those towns in Spain, situated amongst the Gallaici Lucani, Formarigo, and Formaran ; in that of Famorca, amongst the Edetani, and that of Formanes amongst the Astures. The Forcrabii, or Fir-na-crabii, were ancient set- tlers in that part of the country called Hy-Magh- neigh, embracing in its dimensions the present county of Monaghan, with a part of what was anciently called Oirgail, and under the command of the Ma- honies, or Mac-Mahons. The name of this tribe would appear suggested from some superstitious con- sideration, as it is evidently composed of the Irish words7?re crahhath, true religion ; or if you prefer the Phoenician words, frin, fruit ; or farin, bullocks ; and crabin, oblations or sacrifices, which latter word 195 is itself derived from corban, importing any thing offered to God or to idols. The name of Oirgael too, or Orgiel^ which some call Oircael, and interpret by the eastern cael — being an extensive district, consisting of the present counties of Louth, Mo- naghan, and Armagh, and formerly ruled over by its own petty sovereigns — savors very strongly of Phoe- nician superstition. For, or, in that language, is fire ; and gael, or gail, delight, exultation, from the root ghil, which expresses that gladness of the mind that betrays itself by the gestures of the body ; and their combined import would appear to refer to the joy of that nation in the days sacred to the worship of fire. The Vellabori, an ancient Irish tribe, to be met vnth also in Ptolemy, were stationed in Munster, be- side the promontory of Notium. There are who think this name derived from the British words vel- aber, or bel-aber, the source of a frith.* What would the learned suppose of its being of Phoenician de- scent, and compounded of the words bali-bira,an anci- ent temple ? which, yet, I confess I do not incline to so * Baxtero (loc. laud. p. 236.) vitiosa sunt nomina oueliboroi. et OucUcboroi , qua^ in quibusdam Ptolemoei exemplaribus le- guntur. Si ver(^ haec genuina scriptura est, suspicarer fuisse Ibero Phamices, oriundos ex campo Abel seu Obel, quae erat magna Syriae planities (Judic. xi. 33.) viiieis coiisita, ubi Jephte devicit Amnionitas : quique ek de csiuso. Obel-Iberi appellati sunt: o 2 196 strongly as to the idea of its bearing reference to the victims offered in sacrifice to Baal — whether as actu- ally burned or only dragged through — in which view of the matter I would suppose its ingredients to be bel- aborin — which means, dragging across before Baal — from abar, the verb, which expresses this ceremony, the nature of which was to conduct or drag the vic- tim — and that too a human being, and generally a boy — between two pyres, or series of fires, until he was burned to death. In reference to this monstrous and unrighteous practice it is that we are to under- stand the passage in II. Kings, xvi. 3, where talking of Achaz it is said, " he hath devoted his son, bearing him over admidst the fire." But we have descanted upon this more diffusely in the early part of this work, and will dwell upon it still more when we come to treat of the idolatry of the Phoenicians in Ireland. The promontory of Notium seems to have got its name from the woods and forests in which it abounded ; for Notiin, in the Phoenician, from which it is manifestly derived, signifies plants, or planta- tions. The Vellabori would seem to have left traces of their name in that of Ballibur, a town in the county Kilkenny, province of Leinster ; in that of Bally- burris, a village in the county of Carlow, same pro- vince. In Spain too, from whence this people may perhaps have originated, the mind instinctively asso- ciates their name with that of Ballobar, a town in 197 Celtiberia, and that of Belabarce, a river in the district of the Cantabrians. The Uterni, a people mentioned by Ptolemy* as living on the borders of the Irish Brigantes, above the Vodiae, were stationed in the southern quarter of the county Kerry, and the western quarter of the county Cork which adjoins it, in the province of Munster. Their chief city, as mentioned also by this distinguished geographer, was Uverni, situated on the sea-coast, and called, Insovenach, by the natives, though Cirencester would call it Rufina, a name, it is supposed, vitiated in its formation from ruadh eanagh, which is generally translated, the habitation of the progeny of the waters. The exact site of this * This great Alexandrian geographer, who lived in the reign of Antoninus Pius, about the year of Christ 130, enumerates several illustrious cities existing in his time in Ireland ; and it is manifest they must have existed a long time before, else he would not have heard of them, for he never himself visited those shores — viz. — 1. Nagnata, an illustrious maritime city (poHs episemos) on the western coast. 2. Manapia, a maritime city on the eastern side. 3. Eblana, a maritime city, on the eastern side. 4. Rhigia, an inland city 13 60 ^ 5. Baiba, an inland city 12 59^ | 6. Laberos, an inland city 13 59 ^ 7. Makolikon, an inland city 11 J 58 ^ 8. Another Rhigia, an inland city... 11 59 J 9. Dounon, an inland city 12| 58^ | 10. luernis, an inland city 11 58 -} city is now unknown, though some think it likely to have been either the present town of Bantry or that of Kenmare. Many identify the Uterni with the Ibernii of Cirencester ; others deduce their names from the Irish words Ubh-ernii, that is, a more western people. But, perhaps, it is the Phoenician utrin, or atrin, explorers, called also thirin, that best accords with the elevated ground on which they had settled. It also signifies, leaders ; or persons dis- charging convoy. Whence, too, they would seem to have been called Ibernii, from the Spanish Iberi, who were their conductors, unless you prefer that they had got their name from their physical power and strength, for Iberin, in the Phoenician, signifies brave or valiant. This would seem to gain countenance by the name of their principal city, Rufina, coming from rufiin, giants ; as also by that of Insovenach, composed, as it is, of the Phoenician words izzab- anac, or the post where the giants stood together, namely, the race of Anac, the son of Arba, from whom the flower of the Phoenicians, as well in birth as prowess, boasted of having derived their origin. As to Uverni, by which in common with the two names just elucidated, this same city was indiscriminately called, it would seem to be, merely a geographical term, referring to locality, for uberin, in the Phoeni- cian, expresses boundaries, extremities, or sides. 199 CHAP. XXI, The NagnatcB inhabitants of Connaught — The islands of Arran — Sligo, why so called — Whether the Nagnatce were Phoenicians — The valley of Aran amongst the Ilergeti in Spain — Arana, Aranaz, villages and tracts of land in Spain — Promontory of Robogd — Its etymology — The Heremonii, what tract of Ireland they inhabited — Origin of their name — Whether they were the Aramcei — Footsteps of this nation in Ireland and in Spain — Etymology of the tribes into which they were divided. The Nagnatas,* mentioned by Ptolemy as an ancient people of Ireland, are called by him, in some of his writings, by the name of Naguatee. Baxter agrees with Camden in thinking, that their residence lay in Connaught, that is, in the western section of the island. This was a large and spacious line of country, lying on the north of the Luceni, * Nagnata, a if markable city on the sea coast, of which uo traces now remain, lay, it is supposed, northward of the Aiisoba. It must have been once a flourishing place, as we find that with the prefix '* Cuon," signifying in Irish, a port, or harbour, it gave name to the whole province of Con-naught. 200 in the extreme south of the island of Robogdium, by the promontory of this name. The name of Connaught is supposed to have been abbreviated from Cuan-na-guactic, that is, the port of the little islands, namely, those which from the natives, Erion or Erii are called, at this day, Arran, for le- rion. Cuan, Baxter tells us, signifies a harbour in the Irish, as in the language of the modern Gauls, or the French,— coin, means a corner ; and congl, in the British, means the same. Vict, also, or vact, or guact, as it is otherwise expressed, is a little island ; na, being nothing more than the mark of the genitive case in the old language of the Brigan- tes, as well as that of the Irish. Others account for the composition of Nagnatae, by the Irish words, Na-gae-taegh, meaning an abode near the sea, and affirm that our ancient historians had called them, Slioght gae, that is, a race or pro- geny settled beside the sea ; from which latter words combined, comes the modern name of Sligo I should rather think, however, that the name of this people was Phoenician, and borrowed from that of the chief or leader of their body ; for in that language I perceive, that nagud, means a prince or chieftain, to whom the people look up, and to whose decision they appeal in all matters of dispute or litigation ; this word in the plural, makes nagudin. Nor would it be straining our fancy at all too far, if we would suppose them to have been so designated 201 from the quality of our lovely isle^ which threw open to the delighted vision of those bold ad- venturers — at the moment, perhaps, when long estrangement from home and country was whisper- ing despair — the genial richness of its prolific bosom.* In support of this conjecture I would observe, that nagad, means a spacious country, a generous soil; nagab-natah, means the same, with the additional consideration of aridity or dryness ; which comports well with the nature of the western districts, in which those people had taken up their residence. Nacha-natah, means the inhabitants of a country such as we have just described. Nor do I agree with Baxter in his etymology of the islands of Arran or Aran, as they appear to me to have been so named by the Phoenicians, as a great many of the Irish mountains have been, from their abounding in trees, which they call Aran,f and to * Nee absonum est sic appellatos a regionis alienae qualitate, quae eis novas sedes obtulit. f It has also, in a peculiar degree, the property of preserv- ing bodies committed to the grave. Of this property, Giraldus Cambrensis took notice five hundred years ago — the following are his words as translated by Stanihurst — *' There is in the west of Connaught, an island placed in the sea, called Aren, to which St. Brendon had often recourse. The dead bodies neede not be graveled, for the ayre is so pure that the contagion of any carrion may not infect it, there may the son see his father, his grandfather, and his great-grandfather, &c. &c. This island is enemy to mice, for none is brought thither, for either it leapeth into the sea, or else being stayed it dyeth presently." 202 which sonobar, in the Arabic, meaning a pine tree or pinaster, exactly answers. Unless you would choose to adhere to the exposition of the Spaniards — known, as we must admit they are, for accuracy in such points — who think that the name of the valley of Aran, which lies in the county of Urgellum, and under the jurisdiction formerly of the Ilergetes, being watered with rivers and numberless fountains, had been given it by the Phoenicians from its simi- litude to Mesopotamia, which they called Haran. The valley of Arana, which belongs to the Canta- brians, is submitted to the same test of the reader's decision, as are also various other tracts in the Spanish peninsula of like name, such as Aranaz, Aranache, Aranda, Aranga. The promontory of Robogh is supposed to have given its name to the Robogdi, who were an ancient people in this island, inhabiting parts of the several counties of Antrim, Londonderry, and Tyrone, in the province of Ulster. Ptolemy represents them as facing the Voluntioi. Camden thinks Robogd to be synonymous with Fair-fore-land, being a shewy and imposing cape ; * for in the old dialects of the Bri- gantes, re, ri, and ro, are indifferently used for rae, or ragh, before ; and vog-diu means a wave,"so that * On the water it forms one of those ever varying and pecu- liar novelties of view, which in this northern region give sin- gular pleasure. 203 Robogd, ill his estimation, would express this local position, before the waves of the sea. But, as I take it, the promontory was named after the people living beside it, not the people after the promontory ; from the Phoenician words rabh-gad, a multiplicity of associates : or rob-gad, tumultuous allies, plun- derers, invaders. The Heremonii or Hermonii, who were classified according to their respective tribes of the Falgii, the Elii, the Caelenii, and the Morii, were inha- bitants of the eastern and central division, comprising the whole of the present province of Leinster. The fabulous story is, that they were the descendants of Heremon, who was the son of Milesius, from Spain. There is also another vulgar belief, that they were so denominated from residing in the west, the very name, it is supposed, signifying a western tract. But if it be at all of Irish extraction, it were better to derive it from armuinn, exiles ; but even this, I do not approve of. I shall, therefore, deduce the appellation from the Phoenician ermin, naked, un- clothed ; or ermon, a chesnut-tree, in which the hills of that district abounded. But what if I should assert that they were Phoeni- cians, from the vicinity of mount Hermon, which projects over Pameas ? For this celebrated mountain of Syria was so high, and so cold, that it was capped with snow in the midst of summer ; which made the natives take flight from its cheerless horrors, and 204 repair to the more attractive and congenial air of Tyre. Or from Hermonin, a small mountain be- tween Tabor and Hermon, at the other side of the Jordan ? whose inhabitants, also, are called by geographers, Hermonii, or HermonitaB. But if we may indulge conjecture, I would add, that the Irish Heremonii may have been so called as being essentially a tribe of the Phoenicians. For the Syrians were called Aramgei or Aremin, from Aram, a region of Asia Minor, whose maritime in- habitants, were Phoenicians, and their principal cities. Tyre and Sidon. Now this region obtained its name, not from Aram, the son of Camuel, of the family of Nachor, (mentioned in Genesis, xxii. 21, 23.) ; but from Aram, the fifth son of Sem, with whom the inhabitants of that coast ever plumed themselves as being connected. Accordingly, we know that Shur — that is — minus a syllable — Ashur, or Assyria, and Syria itself, which was confounded therewith — was called by them by the name of Aram. Hence, too, the Syrians living on the con- tinent of the land of Canaan, and the Phoenicians bordering on the sea coast, would fain affect the distinctive designation of Arameans. The Greeks used to call them Syrians, but they used to call themselves Aramaeans, as affirmed by Josephus and Strabo. The custom of the Old Testament, too, is to put Aram for Syria, and Arami, for Syrian — Arami and Armai, also, signified to the ancients, 205 idolators, because that the first worshippers of idols, recorded by the scriptures, were Syrians, as Thare, the father of Abraham ; as Laban, and Na- haman, were of that country* Add that the gods of Syria, (as in Judges, x. 6,) were called Elhei Aram, meaning emphatically, the goddess of Syria — by which name Juno was worshipped in the east, and had a temple dedicated to her in Hierapolis, a city of that country. Nay, the Syriac language itself, was called Arimith, from this very source, as in Esdras, iv. 7, and in II. Kings, xviii. 26, where it is said, '' We pray thee that thou speak to us, thy servants, (arimith,) in the Syriac tongue, and not speak to us, (ihudaith,) in the Jewish." Ireland seems still to retain some vestiges of this people in the name of Armoy, a small town in the county Antrim ; in that of Arman or Ardman, a village in the barony of Ballaghkeen, in the county Wexford. As does Spain, also, in the name of Armian, a town of the Astures ; and in that of Armona, a mountain between the Pyrenees, in the district of the Aragonians. That the Heremonii were Aremin or Syrians, you will be more apt to admit, if you but observe that the names of the tribes into which they were dis- tributed are Phoenician. Falgii, the first, from falg or flag, signifies a division ; Elii, the second, from elin, strangers, also eminent, surpassing; or from aeli, a sacrificing priest, derived from ela, a holo- 206 caust, or whole burnt oiFerings : elil, also in the Syriac and Chaldaic, signifies idols, as it does also illustrious ; Caelenii, the thirds the ancient inhabitants of the tract called Caelan, in the county of Wicklow, conveyed to the Phoenicians the idea of cloked, from calaen, a cloak or outer garment.* Nor is it at all improbable but that these were a tribe of the Babylonians, consisting of those who, after the cap- tivity were mixed with the Syrians, for Caleneh * Doe you thinke that the mantle corameth from the Scy- thians ? I would surely think otherwise, for by that which I have read, it appeareth that most nations of the world auncienllHy^ used the mantle. For the lewes used it, as you may read of Elyas mantle, &c. The Chaldees also used it, as yee may read in Diodorus. The Egyptians likewise used it, as yee may read in Herodotus, and may be gathered by the description of Berenice, in the Greeke Commentary upon Callimachus. The Greekes also used it aunciently, as appeareth by Venus mantle lyned with starrs, though afterwards they changed the form thereof into their cloakes, called Pallia, as some of the Irish also use. And the auncient Latines and Romans used it, as you may read in Virgil, who was a very great antiquary : That Evander, when ^neas came to him at his feast, did entertaine and feast him, sitting on the ground, and lying on mantles. Insomuch as he useih the very word mantile for a mantle. ** Humi mantilia sternunt." So that it seemeth that the mantle was a generall habite to most nations, and not proper to the Scythians onely, — Spenser. [" ■ Humi mantilia sternunt."] Evander's enter- tainment of JEneas, is set out in the 8 booke of Virgil's ^neis, but there we have no such word as mantile. In his entertain- ment by Dido we have it, but in another sence. iEneid lib. 1. 207 was a name given to the city of Babylon. The Morii, in fine, were so called from being professionally masters and instructors of others, this being the literal and exact meaning of Mori, or its plural Morin.* CHAP. XXII. The Fomorii subdued Ireland — They vjere Punic or Iberi merchants — Why so called — Whether the same as the Fom- horaice — The Firbolg or Bolgce — Various opinions on the etymology of this name — Whether it savors of superstition — Some roots of Irish names — The Gallionii, a nation of the Bolgce — Their name Phoenician. The Fomorii, or Fomoriani, whom some consider the Aborigines of Ireland, who were celebrated for their predatory attacks upon all its colonies, are lam pater iEneas, & jam Troiana iuventus Conveniunt, stratoque super discumbitur ostro, Dant famuli manibus lymphas, Cereremque canistris Expediunt, tonsisq, ferunt mantilia villis," Sir James Ware. * A family in Ireland still retains this name. 208 agreed on all hands to have reduced it to submis- sion, with the confederated assistance of the Dannani. Authors disagree as to the period of their arrival. Some suppose that they had been established amongst us before the time of the second importation of the Belgae, and that they consisted of Punic or Iberic merchants, who had frequently and from immemorial time visited the coasts : they would, therefore, in accordance with this view, interpret the word as seafarers, or mariners, from its similitude to the Irish fomhor, or fomhorac, a pirate. But to my mind it is differently composed, and comes from the Phoenician expressions, fom-or, implying a foot shaking the earth before fire,* as much as to say. * These consecrated fires are at present much in vogue amongst the Gaures, and preserved with so much care and precaution, that they are called idolaters, and the worshippers of fire, though without the least grounds to support the un- generous accusation. For they pay no adoration to the material fire, although they make use of that element in the celebration of their divine service. It is the deity alone whom they adore in the presence of the fire, as the true symbol of the Divine Majesty. Though fire, according to the Gaures, is the purest of all tlie elements, yet they look upon it only as one of God's most perfect creatures, and it is, as they imagine, his favourite habitation. When they pray, they neither make their addresses to Mithra, nor the sun, nor the fire, but God alone ; many in- stances whereof are produced by the learned Dr. Hide from whence we may very readily infer, that the imputations of idolatry are as rash and groundless in Asia as they are in Europe. 209 dancers in honor, and revellers in honor, of this element ; for we have it on historical faith, that the sacrificial feasts of the Phoenicians, and of all nations also, terminated generally in drunkenness, with las- civious dances and plays. But if the Fomorii be the same as the Fomhoraice, or Formoragh, of whom our old ballads make mention, and who are also supposed to have been pirates or sea-robbers, it being indisputably manifest that the latter were a colony of the Foeni, or Phoenicians, I should con- ceive the name originated from frima-arac, a scissure of fugitives. This is the origin of Formariz, the name of a town in Spain, amongst the Zamorenses ; and of Formiche, the name of two small towns amongst the Celtiberians. Perhaps, too, we may recognize a vestige of those people in the name of Fermoy, a very handsome town in the county Cork, which some think to be an abbreviation for Fear- magh, or Fear-magh-feine, a man living in a sacred level. The Firbolg or Bolgae,* had established themselves * The Firbolgs or Belgians, to the number of five thousand men, commanded by five chiefs, either by the defeat or deser- tion of the Fomorians, took possession of the island. Those five leaders were Slaingey, Kughruighe or Rory, Gann, Gannan, and Sengan, all brothers, and children of Dela, of the race of the Nemedians. They divided the island into five parts or provinces, which gave birth to the pentarcliy, which lasted with little interruption till tlie twelfth century. Slaingey, P 210 in the neighbourhood of the harbours of Wexford and 4rklow, in the east of Ireland. Frequent mention of them occurs in our ancient poems and annals ; and the received opinion is, that they came from Britain. They are called also Siol m Bolgae, and Slioght m Bealidh. They were distinguished into three nations, Firbolgae, Firdomnan, and Fir- galion, which are generally interpreted, clan Bolus, clan Domnan, and clan Galion : of the two last we shall speak under the head of the Domnanii and Galionii. On the origin of the name Bolgas the learned are far from agreeing in their opinions. Some think that by clan Bolus are meant the Belgae of Britain, who having passed over from Belgium, or the lower Germany, spread themselves over the counties of Somerset, Wilton, and the interior of Haverford ; and that the British language which they made use of in Ireland, was eloquently and expressively desig- nated Belgaid, intimating it to be a Belgic idiom. governor of lieinster, was the chief of the pentarchy, and monarch of the whole island. These people were known by three different naraes, viz., Gallenians, Damnonians, and Belgians; but the last was the general name of the whole colony ; their dominion lasted about eighty years under nine kings, who were, Slaingey, Rory, Gann, Geanan, Sengan, Fiacha, Rionall, Fiobgin, and Eogha, who married Tailta, daughter of a Spanish prince, who gave name to the place of her burial, still called Tailton, in Meath. — Mac Geoghegan, 211 Others would have them called Bolgae, from bolg, a quiver, as excelling in archery ; others from the Irish word bol, a poet or sage, as eminent in those several characters. They come nearer to the truth who think the name to be connected with superstition, and derived from the worship which they paid their gods. For Bel, in the language of the Celts, the Germans, and all the northern nations, stood for Sol or Apollo, the sun ;* and was indiscriminately called Bal, Beal, and Sol, intimating his dominion as lord of the world. This they received from the Phoenicians, the authors of such superstition, who in the infancy of their false zeal, scrupled not to offer human sacrifices to * ** Let us adore," says the Gayatri, or holiest text of the Vedas, as translated by Sir William Jones, "the supremacy of that divine Sun, the godhead, who illuminates all, who recreates all, from whom all proceed, to whom all must return, whom we invoke to direct our understanding aright in our progress towards his holy seat. What the sun and light are to this visible world, that are the supreme good and truth to the intellectual and invisible universe, and as our coporeal eyes have a distinct perception of objects enlightened by the sun, thus our souls acquire certain knowledge by meditating on the light of truth which emanates from the Being of beings ; that is the light by which alone our minds can be directed in the path to beatitude. Without hand or foot he runs rapidly and grasps firmly; without eyes he sees, without ears he hears all ; he knows whatever can be known ; but there is none who knows him. Him the wise call, the great supreme pervading Spirit/' P 2 212 their Baal, though he afterwards condescended to acquiesce in the substitution of brute immolation.* Hence, the first of May is called in Irish, La Beal teine, that is, the day of the fire of Beal. Several of the Irish mountains, too, retain the name of Cnoc greine, that is the mountain of the sun; and in many of them are to be seen the frame-work of the altars, and the delapidated ruins of the temples of those Gentile idolaters. The old Irish name for year, was Beal-aine, now Bliadhain, meaning, liter- ally, the circle of Beal, that is the period of the sun's annual revolution ; all which terms they bor- rowed from the rites and religious ordinances of the Phoenicians. From their bal, too, which signifies power or wisdom, is derived our bale, of the same import, and balg, a man of letters. Moreover, we may refer to the worship paid by those tribes to Sol or Beal, the above mentioned names of Siol m Bolga, and Slioght m Bealidh ; for in the Phoenician tongue, slil means a cymbal or timbrel, and shiol, fire. The Gallionii or Gallaenii, or clan Gallion, a tribe of the Fir-Belgas or Bolgae, who settled in Ireland, are supposed to have taken * Humanis saorificiis prim cultus, postea belluinis. — The Spaniards would seem to have reversed the case in their worship of Mars, for Strabo tells us, that ** Omnes, qui in montibus degunt. . Marti caprum iramolant, praetereaque captivos et equos." 213 their name from Gallena, a city of the Attrebatii, who bordered upon the Belgae in Britain. From them Lagenia,* which was formerly considered the fifth province of Ireland, was called Coiged Galian. It is to me, too, as clear as conviction can make it^ that they themselves were so designated, from the Phoenician name gallein, which means, departing or transported to another country, more properly applied to voluntary emigrants. Unless, perhaps, the name may have been derived from their idolatrous ritual ; for the Phoenicians used to give the name of gaelin, to heaps of stones huddled up together, on which they sacrificed their victims. From hence numberless Spanish towns, such as Galinda, Galin- do, Galinday, Galindush, Galinsoga, Gallinar, Gal- liner, Gallinera, &c. &c. would appear to have been denominated. We would appear, also, to have amongst us some vestiges of the clan Gallion or Gallionii, in Gallian, the name of that tract of countiy encompassing the greatest part of Kildare, Carlow, and the Queen's counties ; in Gallen, the name of a barony in the * In Lagenid statuit Regis et Regince comitatus Thomas Ratcliffe, Sussexiae comes, Iberniae prorex, anno 1556, reg- nantibus Philippo et Maria. Indeque capitale Regis comitatus oppidura Phillippi Burgus; Regince vero conutatus Marice Burgus vocantur. Wicklow in Lagenid, patrum niemoria co- mitatus jus induit. (V. O'Flahert. loo. laud. p. 27. Burg Ibein. Dominic.) 214 county Mayo : in Gallen Hills, the name of a town in the county Tyrone ; in Gal lion Point, the southern point of the harbor of Castle-haven, in the county Cork. CHAP. XXHL The People called Miledh, supposed to have been Milesians — The Milesians, fable of the Spanish prince — Miledh and Milesians why so called — Miletum a colony of the Phoeni- cians — Cities built by the Milesians — Vestiges of the Miled still in this Country. The people called Miledh, and so frequently alluded to in the ancient poetry of Ireland, are sup- posed by the more modern antiquarians to have be- longed to the Milesians. These latter again, it is believed, were the posterity of the Carthagenians, who sailed from Spain, under the conduct, say they, of Heber* and Heremon, the two sons of Milesius, the * Heber, after this first advantage, having refreshed his troops, advanced into the country to make further discoveries, in hopes of meeting some of the colony, that were scattered by the storm some time before, and after a long and fatiguing march, arrived at Invear-Colpa, where he found Heremon with 215 king of Spain, and settled in Ireland with a host of followers. In the poetical histories of the Druids, we have it upon record that this island was inhabited by the Miledh Slioght Fene.and the IMiledh Espaine ; which first names have been interpreted to us by later times, as equivalent to Milesius the Phoenician. The learned of our day, however, think that Miledh is a perverted abbreviation from M Bealedh, meaning the worshippers of Beal, and figuratively, the noble Druids, Fene, too, they say, means wise, so that Miledh Fene, to them, would represent the wise and his division, by whom he was informed of the disasters that had befallen his brothers Aireagh and Colpa, who had perished on that coast. The brothers now uniting their forces, formed their plans of operation for a campaign. They determined to go in quest of the enemy, who, according to the reports of their scouts, was not far off, They began their march, and after a few days came up with the three princes of the Tuatha de Danains, in the plains of Tailton, with a formidable army ready to meet them. The action began, and this battle, which was to decide the fate of both parties was for a long time doubtful, the troops on both sides making extraordinary efforts ; the latter to defend their patrimony against the invaders, who wished to wrest it from them ; the former, less to revenge the death of their countryman, than to obtain Ihe possession of an island which had been destined for them, according to the prophecy of the druids. At length the three princes of the Tuatha de Danains, together with their principal ojQficers, having fallen, the army was put into disorder, and the rout became so general, that more were killed in the pursuit than on the field of battle. That day, so fatal to the Tuatha de Danains, decided the em- pire of the island in favour of the Milesians. — Mac Geoghegan, 216 noble Druids, and Miledh Slioght Fene, a wise and s^ generous offspring. In like manner would some writers make Miledh Easpainne^ the son of Golam, un- der whose guidance and auspices the Iberi established themselves in the south of Ireland, to be equal in import with Milesius the Spaniard ; though others asserting that easpainne, espaine, or hespin, stood in the old Celtic for a bare, arid, and barren coun- try, understood by the words, miledh espainne mac golam, noble, from the barren mountany country of Gael. But it being an acknowledged fact that the Miledh, or Milesians, whichever you choose to call them, were a Phoenician race, who put into this country from the coast of Spain, I, for one, would derive their name, not from Milesius king of Spain — who has no existence in the records of that kingdom other than what the fictions of the poets invest him with — but from some one of the Phoenicians who had sailed over into Spain from Miletum, which was one^ of their very earliest colonies.* The Phoenicians, we know. * Greek history informs us that Miletum in Ionia was first colonised by Phoenicians from Crete — that this colony was at- tacked by the Persians and transplanted into Persia — that the Phoenicians and Milesians joined with the Persians against the lonians, at the battle of Mycale, and that they were made slaves by the Persians, but kindly treated by Alexander — and ih the time of Psamiticus a colony of Milesians settled in Greece, The Sacae joined the Persians at the battle of 217 after their taking possession of Miletum, disseminated themselves in tribes in every direction. These are the Milesians who pursued the Thessalonians from Caria, and who took up their residence, in the first instance, on the coast of Anatolia. To them is at- tributed the origin of the cities of Trebezon,* Hera- clea, or Penderaclea,f Sinope, J &c. After the ship- wreck of Pylades and Orestes, near the ; temple of Diana at Taurus, the Milesians visited the Crimaea, and laid the foundations of the cities of Theodosia or Kafa,§ Chersonesus, and Oliera on the Dnieper. They also, besides other cities, built that of Odessus, or Barna, on the western shore of the black sea. But their principal one seems to have beenf Appollonia, or Sizeapolis,|| which was exceedingly fortified, and con- Marathon, and broke the centre of the Athenians. The Liber Lucanes, an ancient Irish MS., informs us that one colony of the Milesians arrived in Ireland in the last year of Camboath (Canibyses) son of Ciras (Cyrus). — It then describes the divi- sions of Alexander's empire among his generals, and says, another colony arrived in Ireland in that year wherein Alex- ander defeated Daire, i. e. Darius. — Vallancey. * Trebezon k thrap eshan, fumus ex igne procedens ante idolum. J^eroc/ea, Herculi dicata. t Penderaclea, kpeneh, facies. Est facies sen simulachrum Herculis. X Sinope k zinip, thiara, vitta, insigne capitis ornamentum. § Kafa, k Kafaz, saltavit, saliit ; vel k Cafa, incurvavit, inclinavit, flexit corpus, genua, quod prosternentes se faciunt : utrumque denotat cultura idololatricnm. II Sizeopolis k Phojn. ziz, frons arboris, arbor :^plur. zizin: 218 structed partly in the peninsula and partly in the little island of Pontus, where the celebrated statue of Apollo — which Lucullus afterwards brought to Rome — was worshipped with all solemnity. Pieces of money, stamped at Appollonia by the Milesians, bore the impression of Apollo's head, with this motto, " Dorionos,"* that is, the bountiful. Miledh, therefore, is not the name of a particular race, but of the city of Miletum; nor is Milesian a proper or individual name, but a gentile or na- tional one. For the Milesii were the inhabitants of Miletum, and any thing appertaining or belonging thereto was called Milesian. Thus we read of Thales the Milesian ; Anaximander, Anaximenes, Hecateus, the Milesians ; so also we find Milesi- ourgos to signify any thing done by Milesian art — as Milesian tapestry — Milesian wool, which was cele- brated all over the world. But the name of the city of Miletum itself would appear to have been given it by the Phoenicians, from milet to escape or be liberated, which accords with the history of the first tribes of the Caananites, who had fled before the face of Joshua and the Isra- quasi disceres, urbs in arboreto vel neraore : vel a ziz, flos : urbs florida. Odesus a Odesa, fiuctus. Barna a harin, advena, peregrinus. * John Edward Alexander's Travels to the seat of War in the East, through Russia and the Crimea, T. I. p. 293. 219 elites. We should observe^ also, that Miletiim was otherwise called Anactoria, from Anach, a descen- dant of Anak, of whom many of the Phoenicians used to boast as the founder of their family. Ireland would seem to retain still some traces of the name Miledh in that of Malahide, a town in the barony of Coolock, in the county Dublin, just beside a fort called the court of Mai abide, and in that of Malahidert, a village in the same county, &c. Let us now pass over to other names connected with this. Espaine, Hespin, or Spania, is a word not of Celtic but of Hebraic and Syriac extraction, being derived from Span, or Sapan, a rabbit. Hence the name of Spania as abounding in them ; and this is the epithet by which Catullus distinguished that part of Spain at present called Celtiberia,* But the Phoenicians very deservedly extended the name to the country at large, seeing the multitude of those * We have the greatest authority from the ancient chronicles of Ireland to believe that there was a strict friendship and cor- respondence by navigation and traffic between the Spaniards and Irish, from the time that Eochard the son of Eire, the last king of the Firbolgs in Ireland, was raarried to Tailte, the daughter of Maghmore, king of Spain, so that the people of the two nations were well acquainted with one another long before Brah, the son of Breagar, was born. And this account is suf- ficient to destroy the credit of that idle fancy that Ith and the family of Briogan first discovered the country of Ireland, veith an optical instrument, from the top of the tower of Brigantia. Keating. 220 animals so overwhelmingly immense that they seemed to venture even to dispute its possession with man himself; nor did trees, roots, plants, and vegeta- bles alone give way, before their dense and desolating myriads, but the castellated dome was not safe from their attack, and whole towns have been overturned by their undermining. Most ancient writers, there- fore, impressed with this fact, treat of the rabbit as if it were an animal peculiar to Spain. Hence we may see how little weight is to be attached to the reveries of those who maintain that, as Lusitania was so named from lusus, play, so was Spain from Pan the Arcadian, one of Bacchus's associates. For His- pania, the Latin for Spain, some of the ancients wrote Espaine, and now frequently Spania, which Vossius and Bochart confirm by the testimony of Paul the apostle, Theophilus, Eusebius, Epiphanius, and others. Nay more, Eulogius, has in more places than one, written Ecclesia Spanioe, (that is the church of Spain) which Ambrosius Morus erroneously and unjustifiably transcribed into Ecclesia Hispaniae. Hence the color black is called spanus by Nonus, and Spanicum argentum, for Hispanicum, (that is Spanish silver) occurs in Athanasius Bibliotheca, in his life of the Pontiffs. Sliog, as we have said, is a Phoenician name, indicating a certain , species of superstition. It remains that we say something about Fene, or Feine, Fane, Fine, or Fion, an ancient Irish clan. 221 of whom frequent mention occurs in the ancient chronicles and ballads of this island. Some would look for the etymology of these names in the Irish fine, which signifies a tribe or nation ; others in feine, the celebrated ancient militia of our country ; others lastly, would expect to find it in feine, a steward or husbandman. There are those too to whom those words denote a standard, or ensign, or whatever is erected in an elevated and conspicuous position ; and, when connected with sacred matters, the officiating high priest or sacrificer ; a learned man ; a Druidical temple ; as the Romans gave the name of fana to the shrines wherein they worshipped their idols. They, however, come nearer to the truth who con- ceive that by these words is indicated some one of the ancient colonies of the Phoenicians, who settled in Ireland. For it is an admitted and established opinion, that the Phoenician name was invented by the Greek in imitation of the Hebrew form of ex- pression, phene-anak, that is, the sons of Anak, or Anaceans. Anak, as we have said, was a giant, and the son of Arba, whence comes Anakim, in the plu- ral, giants ; and being the founder of' that race, the Greeks thought that the inhabitants of all Syria had derived their origin from him. Indeed, it were more correct to say Bene-anak, but the Greek always soften the Hebrew letter B (beth) in this manner, as we find Josephus writing sopho instead of soba, a region of Syria. It is no wonder, therefore, that 222 Bene-anak, Phoenices, and Punici, or Poeni, should all stand for the same tlnng, the Phoenicians. In former times Beanak^ or Phianak, was used as an abbreviation for Ben anak, and from the name thus abbreviated, the African Phoenicians* were called Poeni, and those of Iberia, Fene, retaining in either case only the first member of the name, Fene-anak. But that the Phoenicians affected the name of Bene-Anak, or sons of the Anaceans, and would have them themselves so designated, you may infer from the fact of their calling the city of Carthage, built by them, Chadre Anak, that is the seat of the Ana- caeans, as you may see in the Paenulus of Plautus ; * It appears, that like some of the rest of the Pagan Afri- cans, they worship a being, who, according to their imagina- tions, can neither do them any good nor any evil. And which is still more remarkable, they worship another being inferior to this, whom they believe can do them much injury, unless his anger is appeased. This being they imagine frequently appears to them under the most tremendous form, somewhat resembling the ancient satyrs of the Greeks ; and when they are asked how they can believe in such absurdities, so inconsistent with the divine attributes ; their answer is to the following import : " We follow the traditions of our ancestors, whose first parents having sinned against the grand captain, they fell into such a neglect of his worship, that they knew nothing of him, nor how to make their addresses to him/' This may serve to shew, that however ignorant they may be in other respects, yet in this dark tradition they have some faint notion of the fall of man, which indeed is acknowledged by all the world, except some letter learned men among ourselves. 223 and, as we have observed in a preceding part of this chapter, their calHng Miletum, a colony of theirs, Anactoria, from Anacte, that is, a descendant of the great Anak. For, although, but few of the Phoeni- cians had really owed their origin to the family of the Anaceans — as Bochart has before observed — yet the celebrity of the race had charms for many to make them wish and lay claim to it as their parent stock. Besides, in all nations, it is handed down as a pre- sumptive usage, that they select their name from the elite of their nobility ; and amongst the Canaanites no family could compete with this either, in personal valor or the collateral influence of a splendid name. They were superhuman in strength, and so gigantic in stature that, compared to them, the Israelites ap- peared like so many locusts.* * Pepin the Short, perceiving himself the object of contempt amongst a particular set of his courtiers, who on account of his figure, which was both thick and low, entertained but a mean idea of his personal abilities, invited them, by way of amusement, to see a fair battle between a bull and a lion. As soon as he observed that the latter had got the mastery over the former, and was ready to devour him, ** Now, gentlemen," says he, " who amongst you all has courage enough to inter- pose between these bloody combatants ? Who of you all dare rescue the bull, and kill the lion ?" Not one of the numerous spectators would venture to undertake so dangerous an enter- prise ; whereupon the king instantly leaped into the area, drew his sabre, and at one blow severed the lion's head from his shoulders. Returning without the least emotion or concern to 224 CHAP. XXIV. The Clan Cuilean, a people of Ireland, where settled — Called also Hy-namor — Etymology of these names — The Deasii in what part of Ireland they settled - Their leader — Whence named — The Dareni^ inhabitants of Voluntia — City of Derry, why so called — Whether the Dareani derive their name from the Greeks or the Phoenicians — The Gadeliani, whether from Gadela — Whether it be a Phoenician name. To the list of the ancient inhabitants of this coun- try we are to add the name also of the people called Clan Cuilean, who resided in a part of the county Clare, on the banks of the river Shannon, comprising »all that tract formerly known by the name of Tho- mond. Clain, in Irish,* signifying sprung from or his seat, he gave those who had entertained but a mean opinion of him, to understand, in a jocular way, that though David was low in stature, yet he demolished the great Goliah ; and that though Alexander was but a little man, he performed more heroic actions than all his tallest officers and commanders put together. * What Erin calls in her sublime Old Erse or Irish, or it may be Punic; — (The Antiquarians who can settle time, Which settles all things, Roman, Greek or Runic, OO: genitive, the name of this people is generally ren- dered the growth or harvest of wheat near the water. They were also called Hy na mor, which sounds to the natives as the maritime region. But, in my opinion, clan cuilean^ is a name compounded of the Phoenician words, clain culain, that is, the summoned together from different or mixed nations, intimating their composition to be diversified and motley. Or, may be, of Clanu Culain, that is, the summoned Ba- bylonians, for the Chaldeans, who had accompanied the Isaraelites on their return into Syria from their captivity, attached themselves afterwards to the Phoenicians in their maritime expeditions, as well as in transplanting their colonies ; and, in the Chaldee language, Clanu and Calnah meant Babylon. Hy na mor, also, is a Phoenician name from, inamor, a variegated or party-coloured people in a sea-girt province. The Deassii, the Decies, formerly Deassies, an an- cient people of Ireland inhabited the southern sec- tion of the county Meath, and the northern bank of the rivers LifFey and Rye, which whole line of coun- try was very appropriately designated by the name Swear that Pat's language sprung from the sanae clime With Hannibal, and wears the lyrian tunic Of Dido's alphabet ; and this is rational As any other notion, and not national :) — Byron. Q 226 of Ean, or Magh Ean, that is, the region of waters. Their leader is supposed to have been named Mag- ean, or Ean-gus, afterwards abridged to CEngus, which is usually interpreted prince of the region of Ean. A tribe of this nation was afterwards trans- ported to the county Waterford. This region is at present divided into two baronies, namely, Decies within Drum, bounded on the east and south by the Atlantic ocean, and on the west by the black water ; whilst, Decies without Drum, bounds it on the north, and is itself the other part of this tract. The name of Deassies, or Deassii, is supposed to be derived from the Irish word deas, southern, and to indicate a southern people. This is not impro- bable. I would venture to guess, however, that they were a Phoenician tribe, so called from deassin, or deassain, or rather deazzin, that is, exulting ; from duaz, which means, he exulted with joy, to which daizz, joy, corresponds ; and there is no one who is not aware of the dancing and rioting of idol- ators during their sacrificial feasts.* The barony of * Although it is difficult to discover any relation between dancing and religion, yet among the Pagans it constantly made a part of their worship of the gods. It was usual to dance round the altars and statues ; and there was at Rome, an order of priests, called the Salii; they were dedicated to the service of Mars, and they danced on particular days, through the streets, in honour of their god, and had their name from that very ceremony. Indeed, religious dancing was so much the Deece, in the county Meath, which Seward tells us was formerly called Decies, or Desies, as well as another barony of the same name, Decies, or Desies, in the county Waterford, are vestiges in this country of the once existence there of the Deessii. In Spain too, the Phoenicians would seem to have had a tribe of this name, I mean the inhabitants of the old Can- tabrian city of Decium, which is surrounded by the river Aturia. Baxter is of opinion that the Dareni, or Darnii, taste of the Pagans, that the poets made the gods dance along with the graces, the muses, and virtties. When the Jews kept the feast of the golden calf, they sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play, which means to dance, and undoubtedly, they learned this in Egygt. Arnobius, an ancient Christian writer, asked the Pagans, if their Gods were pleased with the tinkling of brass, and rattling of cymbals, or with the sound of drums and musical instruments. The idolators in other parts of the world, even to this day, have the same esteem for this custom, and the greatest part of the worship they pay to their deities consists in dancing. On the whole it appears, that dancing was tirst practised by the heathens in their temples, as a part of their religious worship, to point out their gratitude to their gods, either for general, or particular favors; nor have the Christians been altogether free from this custom. The Christians of St. Thomas, dance in honor of that saint, before which they cross themselves, and sing a hymn. The men dance in one apartment, and the women in another, but both observe the greatest decency. At present, however, there are but few Roman Catholics who pay much regard to this ceremony, and in all probability it will soon fall into disrespect and cease to be practised. — Hurd. q2 228 the ancient inhabitants of Voluntia, mentioned by Ptolemy, gave its name to the city of Derry ; as also to Dairmach, which is interpreted the oaken city, called also Armach, that is, the lofty city, now Ar- magh. He furthermore thinks that they themselves were so designated, as if descendants of the oak, seeing that Ptolemy names them Darinoi, or Darnii, for dar, in the British, is an oak ; and eni, or geni, to be born. But I submit it to the learned to deter- mine whether it be not from the Phoenician darin, meaning foreigners, soujourners ; or darin, villas, habitations. From the Dareni, or Darnii, I should imagine that the island of Darinis, in the Black- water, in the mouth of the bay of Youghal, in the county Cork, took its name. After the introduc- tion of Christianity, this was called Molana, from St. Molanfid, who founded a convent therein, in the sixth century. You will pronounce the same judg- ment on another island of the same name, near the city of Wexford, where St. Nemham erected a mo- nastery, in the middle of the seventh century. Spain has an old town called Dapnius, on the banks of the river Muga, in the country of the Ilergetes, whose inhabitants, like the Irish, are named Darnii, in the ancient chronicles of the kingdom. The Gadeliani, an old Irish tribe, are commonly supposed to have derived their name from Gadelas, an ancient progenitor of the Milesians. Whether this Gadelas be a character of the real history of this 229 country, or only like Milesius, the reputed prince of Spain, an imaginary fiction for the songs of the poets, I leave to the decision of more competent judges. I cannot, however, but express my perfect disregard to what Geraldus tells us of the Irish being called Gaidheli from some grandson of Phenius, who was distinguished as a linguist. My dissent from his opinion I choose to couch in this strong phrase, not- withstanding his being backed therein by Nennius, Malmura, Eochodius, and other writers of the ninth century, and countenanced by the approbation of the more modern O'Connor. But what if Gadelas, or Gadhelus was some con- spicuous and honorable individual, belonging to some tribe of the Phoenicians,f whose descendants were after him called Gadeliani ? For gadel, in their language means, great, illustrious ; and gadelin, emi- nent, superior men. Hence, also, the inhabitants of two ancient cities, but now only petty towns, of the * In fine, there are no names or dogmata of the Phoeni- cians recorded by either Greek or Latin authors that are not to be found or explained in the ancient Irish, a strong collateral proof that the Phoenicians of the old Greeks were not Cana- anites or Tyrians, h\ii that mixed body of Persians, that is, Scythians, Medes, &c. whom Sallust informs you, from the best authority, the Punic annals, composed the Gzetulians and Numidians of Africa, the first settlement of the Phoenicians in that country ; and the same people that Varro, Pliny, and Jus- tin bring from thence to Spain, conformable to the ancient his- tory of Ireland. — Vallancey. 230 name of Gadella, in the district of the Astures and Edetani, in Spain, were called Gadelin, or Godeli- ani ; for I am satisfied that those cities had obtained this name as expressive of their magnitude and their magnificence. CHAP. XXV. The Degades, settlers in Ireland — In what part — Whether a body of fishermen — The Tuat de Doinan arrive in this country — Whence come — Whether a tribe of the Caledo- nians — Why called Ulleigh — Origin of their name — The Caledonians of Brigantine origin — The Irish Cangani, why so called. The Degades, an ancient people of Ireland, are supposed by some to have been a colony of the Lein- ster* Scoti, who settled in the western quarter of the county Kerry, some years before the advent of Christ. The name is supposed to have been made up of the Irish words, de ga deas, implying a situa- * Leighan, an axe or spear, it being with such weapons the Leinster people fought. — The country was thence called Lein- ster, from leighan, as above, and ter, a territory. 231 tion at the south of the sea. To me, however, it seems to express a colony of Phoenician fishermen ; for degah, in that language, is fish, collectively ; deg, to fish ; dughioth, fishing cots or wherries made of rushes ; deg, a fisherman, and adesa, profit, emolu- ment ; so that Degades would appear a name abbre- viated for deg-adesa, or expressive of fishermen who acquired their support from the profits of that pur- suit. The Tuatha de Danaan^^* or Danans, usually ren- f In my work upon the " Round Towers," it is proved to a demonstration, that these (who by the way had nothing to do with Britain) were the real authors o/Jre/awrf^s ancient ce- lebrity. They arrived here about 1200 years before Christ, under the conduct of three brothers, Brien, Juchorba, and Ju- chor, and immediately gave battle to the Firbolgs, commanded by Eogha their king, at Moyturey near lake Masg, in the ter- ritory of Partrigia otherwise Partry, in the county of Mayo. The latter lost in one day the battle and possession of the island, and were so reduced as to seek an asylum in the islands of the north, Nuagha, the Tuatha Danaan general, having lost a hand in the action, had one made of sdver, whence he attained the name of Airgiodlamh, which signifies silver hand. This narrative had been long supposed a day dream of fiction, which legendary chroniclers had of old trumped up. The hour, how- ever, has arrived for the restoration of truth ; and I rejoice that I am the first person to announce to my countrymen that this relic, or silver hand, is still extant. It was exhibited to the "Society of Antiquaries,'* a short time ago, who, q/cowrse, knew nothing about it. The moment I saw it I exulted in the con' firmation of our ancient history ; and did not hesitate, at once» intimating to the Gentleman who had the kindness to gain me 232 dered the northern race^ were an ancient colony in this country, situated behind the Fir-Bolgoe ; they are supposed to have originated from Britain, and to have been a tribe of the Caledonians, who emigrated over from Mull-Galloway, or Cantire, full an hundred years before the Christian aera. The old Irish poets seem to know nothing of the chieftains of the first colony of the Caledonians, or Danani as they call them ; but they are diffuse on the subject of their ar- rival, which happened only a few years before the birth of Christ. These were accustomed to style themselves Ulleigh, which some would interpret as worshippers of the sun, for in the Celtic dialect, uU is the same as sol, or beal, which is the sun. Ac- cordingly, their country was called Ulladh or Ullin, and these names still represent to the native, the pro- vince of Ulster. All that tract of country also, im- mediately encompassing the present county of Down was called Ulla informer times. Other relics of this name may be traced in Ullard, a village in the barony of Gowran county of Kilkenny ; and in Ulloe, a little town in the barony of Coonagh, in the county Limerick. access to their museum, that it was the long missing arm of Nuagha Airgiodlamh. I now give the inscription, which is in old Irish characters, for which I am indebted to the gentle- man above alluded to, whose name — T. Crofton Croker — perhaps, I may be pardoned if I publish. or JO p 1 K) 'q s 'S' .? o Z3 z Pi .^ Za i L- ^ 1 w-> 7" 5 1 P o (2 1 -> » •-- 5 3 2: .? to o u u •• f • p ►8 5 i §- re » ■3 - - u o J_ 233 But as some will have Ulleigh and Ulladh to be Celtic names borrowed from their custom of worship- ping the sun, so, perhaps, the name Tuath de Doinan may have originated from the form of that worship, which we know the Phoenicians offered to their idols, prostrate and silent before their banquets. For tuath donian, in that language, means those who meditate in silence and fasting. Nor yet would I reject the conjecture, nor deny the fact, of tuath being an Irish geographical term signifying the due north. The Caledonians were so named from Caledonia, at this day called Scotland, after the Scoto Brigan- tine Irish, and formerly Valentia by the Romans, after the name of their emperor Valentinian. They were of Brigantine extraction, and their constant allies, or rather vassals, in their several wars. The name of Caledonian is supposed to have been de- rived from the woods which they inhabited, being called in the British, Kelydhon, or Colydhon, and the woods themselves, coit kelydhon. Nor, indeed, were the foreign Brigantine s called Keloi on any other ac- count than that of their living in the woods, as the ancients generally did, nor were the Caletes, a peo- ple of the Attrebates, so denominated for any other reason. In the Scoto-brigantine dialect of the present day, coil, means a wood. In the Greek too, kalori, means the same, as did, cala, in the ancient Roman ; whence 234 are derived caliga, a wooden sHoe ; and calones, hewers of timber. I suspect, however, that the Caledonians were Phoenicians, who were expert in astrology ; or, per- haps, Chaldeans, associates of the Phoenicians ; for Ohaledain, or Chaldein signifies both, and that, there- fore, Caledonia was named after them, and not vice versa. The Cngaanii, or Ganganii, an ancient people of Ireland, mentioned by Ptolemy, were settled in the western section of the county Clare, in what is at present called the barony of Burrin, on the south of the bay of Galway. Baxter takes them to be de- scendants of the Ceangi, or shepherds of the Dam- nii, who dwelt in a district called, from the summer exposure, and the habitual recumbency of shepherds, Somersaeten, or, aeetival sitters. Tacitus calls them Cangi. But as from the singular, cang, is formed the Latin ceangus, so from'^the plural ceangon, do they also form, canganus. Many persons believe that every individual state had its own Ceangi, who were a co- lony of minors, or of youthful^ shepherds, passing their lives in mountains, in villages, in marshes, or in fens, as suited the interests of their pastoral occupa- tion. Of these, Trogus Justinus says, ^^ they transfer their flocks now to summer, now to winter lawns. As formerly, the ancient Romans had amongst the Calabrians and Lucanians, so now have the Spaniards 235 also amongst the Cantabrians and other states, dis- tinct pastures for their flocks^ as well in summer as in winter.'* The advocates of this opinion derive the word ceangus from the British ceang, or cang, a branch, in the same manner^ and with the same figu- rative licence, as '' youths" in Greek are styled '^ branches of Mars." Others think it compounded of cean gan, and interpret it, the external promon- tory. Whence Canganii, to them, will express a peo- ple residing beside such promontory ; as Burrin, or Bhurrin, the ancient seat of those Canganii, means an external region. There are those who flatter themselves that they have discovered the etymology of this name in the Hebrew chanoc, or chanic, ver- nal ; and, finally, others who think them called Ceangi, from the god Ceangus, the tutelary genius of the Cumbri. In a matter so perplexed, and as yet so undecided, I would venture to guess that the Canganii, or Cangani, were a people of the Canta- brians in Hespania Tarraconensis, who were a colony of the Massagetae, or else a tribe of Phoenician agri- culturists,* and that their name is composed of the words can-gannin, a society of gardeners, from gan, a garden, applicable as well to trees as to herbs ; * Omnium rerum ex quibus aliquid acquintur, nihil est agri- culture melius, nihil uberius, nihil dulcius, nihil homine libero dignius.—C«cero-c?e- 0/^c. l,c. 42. 236 or from gan-ganin, the Ganganii^ who excelled in that department.* * But they say, that the modern critics have despised and rejected those chimeras of antiquity to which the Scoto-Mile- sians aspire, as well as the authorities they produce to support them. It is evident that those critics should not be believed in respect to the monuments of that people : they were unac- quainted with the language in which they were written ; it was altogether impossible for them to know it. There are but few even among the natives capable of decyphering their ancient writings : it is by a particular study only, of the abreviations, punctuations, and of the ancient characters of that language, and the Oghum, that they can attain to it. The old Scotic lan- guage, which was spoken two (or rather three) thousand years ago, and which is made use of in their monuments, was entirely different from what is now, and has been spoken, within the last few centuries ; and has become a jargon by the adoption of many Latin, English, and French words. Are these not dif- ficulties, which are impossible for a stranger to surmount, who attempts to vrrite the history of that country ? If the primi- tive Irish language be scarcely known by the bulk of the na- tion itself, what knowledge can an Englishman have of it? — Mac Geoyhegan. Yet for the antiquities of the written chronicles of Ireland, give me leave to say something, not to justifie them, but to shew that some of them might say truth. For where you say the Irish have alwayes bin without letters, you are therein much deceived ; for it is certaine, that Ireland hath had the use of letters very anciently, and long before England. — Spenser, 237 CHAP. XXVI, The Aremorici, what nation they were — Whether the Ato-' brites — Where they settled — Whether Aramceans or Phce- nicians — The Alobrites and Morini, why so called — The Aradii, inhabitants of the island of Arad — Skilled in naval matters — Allies of the Phoenicians — Colonies of them in Spain and Ireland — The Armeri called Cardanum by the Phcenicians — Vestiges of their residence in Ireland as tuell as Spain, The Aremorici, in Irish, Armhorac, or Armho- raice, are supposed to have been transmarine Britons, namely, the ancient Belgae, that is the Alo- brites, or remains of Belgic Britannia, who were driven out by the Franks, or Sicambri, into Celtic Gaul. They are generally considered as refugees of the Belgas, who settled in the British islands, having come thither at the season of the Saxon war. The Aremorican tract, or line of country they inhabited, 'is by some writers accounted the Saxon shore of the Gauls, otherwise called Celtic Gaul, Neustria, and Britannia in the Marshes ; Caesar, however, and Pliny call it, Aquitania of the Vascons. 238 Baxter thinks that they were called Aremorici, from armor, or arvor, a shore ; as the Morini, who were the Vallonic Flandri, were called, he says, from the Celtic words, mor-eni, as if, marigenae, or sea- born. With all respect, however, to so high an authority, I would venture to guess that this was one of the Phoenician tribes who arrived in this island, and passed over from it afterwards into Bel- gium and Gaul. From them it is probable that the ancient city of Ardmore, in the barony of Decies, county Waterford, hath derived its name ; as also the promontory of Ardmore on the east of the Youghal harbor ; and Armoy, a town of the barony of Carey, in the county Antrim : just as the Phoe- nicians who inhabited the district of Aram in Asia Major were indiscriminately called Aramaeans, Syrians, and Phoenicians, and, by a junction of the two last, Syro-Phoenicians. Whence in the Syriac version of the Bible, the Syro-Phoenician woman, mentioned in the seventh chapter, and twenty-sixth verse of St. Mark, is said to have been *^ from Phoe- nicia of Syria." And Josephus declares that the Aramaeans were called Syrians by the Greeks. Strabo also asserts that some take the Syrians for the Arimi, whom they now call Arami. The Irish name Armorhac, therefore, would appear to consist of the Phoenician words Arami- arac, that is, a people, or nation, from the district of Aram, namely, from Shur, that is Syria, or Phoenicia. 239 For, arac, means a state, or nation, and Arami an Aramoean, or Syrian, a native of Phoenicia; it like- wise signifies an idolator ; for the first worshippers of idols recorded in the sacred Scriptures were, as we have above observed, Syrians. Alobrith seems an Irish name, signifying a por- tion of an ancient stock or tribe ; for, all, in Irish, means extraction, or lineage ; allod, antiquity ; and brith, a part or fraction of any thing. This I con- ceive more rational, than to say that they had been called Alobrites as equivalent to Galo-Britones, which is Baxter's opinion. Nor is it more unlikely if we would suppose it a Phoenician name denoting a tribe who had concluded a treaty by the obligation of an oath; for, alah, in that language, is an oath and, brith, a league or compact, any thing about which many dehberate and ultimately agree. What if we should consider this Alobrith to be an abridgement from Baalbrith,* or berith, that is, the * Baal-Berith, or lord of the covenant, was an idol wor- shipped by the Sechemite, and many of the idolatrous Israel- ites erected altars to him. To him human sacrifices were offered ; and it was common to appeal to him as a witness and judge in all matters of controversy ; and, especially, when pro- mises, covenants, engagements, or treaties of peace were entered into. In the most early ages of the world, the Pagans made their altars of earth or turf, and they were, for the most part, in groves or on hills, and besides offering up sacrifices to the gods, they were used for several other purposes. All alliances with foreign princes were ratified on the altars, that 240 Lord of the Compact ; namely, the idol with whom the children of Israel had concluded a treaty, after the manner of the Phoenicians, and in whose honor the Phoenicians had erected a temple in Gebal, a mountain and city at the foot of Mount Libanus, whence the circumjacent country hath obtained the name of Gebalene. This temple was restored in the time of Alexander the Great, and consecrated, by some despicable enthusiasts of the Pagan priesthood, " To Olympian Jove, the patron of hospitality." For few things are better known than that the Alobrites, as well as the other nations of Gaul, of Belgae, and of Britannia, had embraced the idolatry and the rites of the Phoenicians. It is very probable, also, that the Morini were those whom the ancient Irish called Morintinneach, high-spirited ; or the Phoenicians, Marin, lords, or Morin, teachers. Unless, perhaps, they may have been inhabitants of the land of Jerusalem, and so denominated from Mount Moriah, which is situated the gods might be witness of the faithful performance of them ; of this we have many instances both in ancient history and poetry. Thus, Harailcar made his son Hannibal lay his hand on the altar, and swear he would never make peace with the Romans ; and thus a poet says : — ** I touch the sacred altars, touch the flames. And all those pow'rs attest, and all their names : Whatever chance befal on either side, No term of time this union shall divide." 241 by the side of Mount Sion. We have already hinted, above, that the Phoenicians, like the other nations of antiquity, made it an estabUshed rule, that whenever they emigrated into foreign countries they should, through national affection, and a v,ish to perpetuate the remembrance of the present stock, transfer to their tribes and families the names of the cities or provinces, mountains or rivers, that were associated with their childhood ; a fact which we could prove by innumerable examples in the con- duct, as well of the Phoenicians themselves, as of the Celts, the Greeks, nay, of the Romans and the Arabians in Spain, and recently in the conduct of the Spaniards themselves, in North and South America. But it may suffice to adduce the instance of the Aradii, ancient inhabitants of Ireland, who made several voyages and maritime excursions, in com- pany with the Phoenicians. These were originally inhabitants of the island of Arad, on the coast of Phenice, at the mouth of the river Eleutherus, and with part of the adjoining continent, such as Antar- adus, Marathus, Laodicea, the principal city of the island, and which bore the same name, Strabo says had been built by some Sydonian exiles, and that the Aradians contributed much to the advancement of naval science. We must not wonder, therefore, when, on allusion to this, we read in Ezekiel's pro- phecy, that rowers from Arad and Sidon had held R 242 possession of Tyre ; nor when, in a subsequent verse of the same chapter, we find that, in the vigor of their bravery, they with all their forces had mounted upon its walls, and nobly fought in its defence. And not only Tyre but Tripolis, the most illustrious city of Phenice, consisted, as Pliny tells us, partly of Aradians, and partly of Tyrians and Sidonians. That from this island the Aradians, in conjunction with the Phoenicians, had sailed over into Spain, and there built the town of Arades amongst the Astures, Aradilli amongst the Vaccei, and Aradueniga amongst the Carpetani, all called after their own name, is to me certain as demonstration can make it. Ardisa also, formerly a city, now a small town of Celtiberia ; Ardisalsdo and Ardisana, villages in the country of the Astures ; Ardaiz, amongst the Canta- brians, and others of that kind in various quarters of Spain, seem to me indisputably as colonies of the Aradians. It is the opinion of a certain very learned person, that the river of Araduey also, amongst the Palentines, was called after them ; although others think the name derived from the Greek, ardeuo, to moisten. Again, that from Spain, still in company with the Phoenicians, the Aradians had shifted across to our coast, and there established a permanent colony, we may be assured, I think, from the names of the old districts of Ard and Arad Cliach, which comprise a 243 great part of the county Tipperary ; as well as of the tract of Ardes in the county Down ; and the citadel of Ardea in the county Kerry.* I pass over the names of other towns, beginning, like the Spanish, from the word Ard, and still used popularly and vernacularly as their current designations in the Irish geography. That a tribe of the Armenians, also, along with the Phoenicians, had arrived in this country, may be inferred from the names of Cany Rock, a town on the sea coast of the barony of B air udder y, in the county Dublin ; of Knordoe, a town in the county Galway ; of Cahirdonel, a village in the county Kerry, where are to be seen the ruins of an old cir- cular fortress, almost impregnably fortified, and con- * In the name of this county we discover the commercial nation by whom it was first inhabited ; for Cearagh, its Irish name, is derived from cear, a merchant; whence comes, ciara- ban, a company of merchants, equivalent to the eastern, cara- van, of the same signification. " O, native, (Kerry!) O, my mother isle! How shouldst thou prove aught else but dear and holy To me, who from thy lakes and mountain-hills. Thy clouds, thy quiet dales, thy rocks and seas, Have drunk in all my intellectual life. All sweet sensations, all ennobling thoughts. All adoration of the God in nature. All lovely and all honourable things. Whatever makes this mortal spirit feel The joy and greatness of its future being." R 2 244 structed of stones truly wonderful in size ; of Cahir- dowgan and Cahirdriny, which were camps or forts, in the county Cork ; and of Cardangan, a small town in the county Tipperary. For Armenia was called by the Phoenicians Cardu ; and an Armenian, Cardanun ; whence Ptolemy calls the lofty mountains of this country Gordoi ; and Quintus Curtius, Cordei. That this Cardanian or Armenian people had seized themselves of Spain also, in conjunction with the Phoenicians, we have proof clearer than the moonlight, in numberless names of places in that country; for instance, Cardena, the name of a river of the Vaccei ; Cardenu, or Cardenus, a river of the Ilergetes, flowing into the Rubricatum, now the Llobregat ; Cardenas, a town of Cantabria ; Carden- chosa, a little village of Bcetica ; Car dona, a very ancient city of the Ilergetes ; with the towns of Cardenosa, Cardenete, Cardena, Cardenueta, &c. in different parts of the kingdom. 245 CHAP. XXVII, The Attacoti, inhabitants of Ireland — Whether they were the Silures — Whether an ancient or modern people — Whether descended from Cuthah, a city of the Persians — Vestiges of the Cutheans in Ireland, and in Spain. The Attacoti,* mentioned by St. Jerom as ancient inhabitants of Ireland, gave their name to the country, or rather province, of Attacottia, which the * Gibbon has given a very strange perversion to a sentence in St. Jerom respecting the Attacotti, which runs thus: *' Et quum per sylvas porcorura greges et armentorum pecuduraque reperiunt, pastorum nates et ferrainarum papillas solere abscin- dere, et has solas ciborum delicias arbitrari," — which the historian thus translates, " They curiously selected the most delicate and brawny parts of both males and females, which they prepared for their horrid repasts." But he was misled by the word pastorum, which is not the genitive plural of pastor, a shepherd, but of pastus, meaning well-fed ; and thus the sentence should be : " When the Attacotti, wandering through the woods, meet with flocks and herds of black cattle, sheep, and pigs, they are in the habit of cutting off^ the rumps of the fat or well-fed he beasts, and the udders of the she ones ; and consider these as the only delicate parts of the animals." That 246 Emperor Constantine, from his own name, after- wards called Flavia Caesariensis. But as this people are not to be met with in Ptolemy's commentaries, Baxter has been induced to believe that the Silures, together with their dependants, the Demeti and Cornavii, and the Cangani, who were their vassals, again, had obtained this designation at a later period of the Roman empire. For what does Attacotti mean, he says, but, dwelling in the woods ? For At-a-coit, written loosely, means, in the woods. This he con- firms by some verse from Condelia, called Prydydh Maus, or the great poet ; whence he conjectures that the Irish Attacotti were named from the syno- nymous term Argoet, and Argoetnys, meaning men beside woods ; or, as the old Leomarchus would take it, Guyr Argoet. The condition of the country, which this custom, barbarous and savage as it is, was frequent amongst the ancients is evident, from that text of scripture, which says : — Neither shall ye eat any flesh that is torn of beasts in the field, Mr. Bruce, the traveller, threw light upon this command, by stating that this practice exists in Abyssinia, where pieces of flesh are cut out of the animals alive and eaten ; the creature being kept alive for further use. This statement was long con- sidered as a traveller's exaggeration, but it has subsequently been found to be true. The prohibition might have a two-fold object, first, to prevent the imitation of the cruel practices of the heathen ; and, secondly, to prevent the light treatment of blood, when the blood which was the life of the beast was shed in the sacrifices, being emblematical of the blood of the covenant. — See Dr, A, Clarke, The Attacotti, however, were not Irish at all, but a canton of England. 247 every one must be aware from the poem of Higdenus, to have been woody and uncultivated,, even so late as the Norman times, agrees well with this conjec- ture, to which we must add Ammianus Marcellinus's testimony to the effect, that the Attacoti, assisted by the Saxons, the Scots, and the Picts, had ravaged and laid waste the Roman province. I imagine, however, that their nation was more ancient; and would be disposed to refer their arrival in this country to the times of the Phoenicians, whom it is more than probable the Chutaei had accompanied in their maritime excursions. The Chutaei or Chuti were natives of the country of Persis, called Cuth, who after the dispersion of the ten tribes were carried off from Chuthah and the other cities of that empire, into Phcenice, by Salamansar, King of As- syria; and they and their posterity were, for the most part, so called, because the greater number of them were from the city Chuthah. Being intermixed with the Phoenicians, they introduced into their cities the worship of the idol Nergel, which many suppose Ijo have been, tharingol, that is, a dunghill cock, which they had perched upon a pole in the air, as the herald of the dawn. The word Attacotti, therefore, conveys to my ear the same idea as Atha-Chuthi did to the Phoenicians, and that is, the arrival of the Cutheans ; or as Athar-Cuthi, a place or country where the Chutaeans reside ; or as Chutaei scouts. 248 in keeping with the character of the people, which Zosimus designates as a warlike nation. From the Attacotti would seem to have been de- rived Annacotty, the name of a town in the county Limerick ; for Anna, in the Phoenician, hanna, means delightful, acceptable. This name, if we suppose it composed of the words Hanna-Chuttai, will mean, a place acceptable to the Phoenician Chutheans ; or if we suppose its component parts to have been Anakia-Chuti, it will then mean the offspring of the Phoenician Chutheans. Or, perhaps, it bears refer- ence to the idol Ana-Meloch, which the Phoenicians borrowed from the Chuthaeans and other Assyrians, in which case you may render it by, the oracle of Moloch ; — aonah or onah, being, an answer. On these points, however, let every one judge as he thinks fit. I volunteer my guesses, principally to elicit those of others. Before any such appear, perhaps the curious in antiquarian lore may recognise other vestiges of the Cuthaeans in the name, Cot's Rock, now Castlemary, in the county Cork, where is to be seen an immense stone altar, supported by three others. Inis Cathay, too, now Inis Scattery,* an island at the mouth of the * Scattery island is about three miles from the shore, and contains about one hundred and eighty acres of choice land : a priory was founded here, by St. Sennan, in the sixth century. It is recorded in St. Sennan's life, that during his residence in 249 river Shannon, where there is still standing, in toler- able preservation, one of the Round Towers in which this country abounds, may seem a vestige of Cuthaean occupancy ; so may Cath, also the name of a rock on the coast of the county Cork ; as well as Cotton, an extensive district in the county Down ; and Cot- land, a small town in the county Kildare. That the Phoenicians too, who had originally landed in Spain, had been Chuthaeans, appears to be indicated by the name of Cotinussa, by which, as Festus Avienus and Pliny inform us, the island of Gades was once known ; by the names of the towns of Cuthar in Bcetica; Cutanda and Cotanda in Cel- this island, which was then called Inis Cathay, a ship arrived there, bringing fifty monks, Romans by birth, who were drawn into Ireland by the desire of a more holy life and a knowledge of the scriptures. This island, called also Inisgatha or Inisga, the island in the sea, situated in the mouth of the Shannon, one of the most convenient harbors for the Danish and Norwegian invaders, who generally came north about round Scotland, was for a long time a bone of contention between them and the Irish ; and from the multitude of those round forts, said to be thrown up by the Danes — though in reality they were erected long before their inroads — in the adjoining parishes in the west of Clare — it is likely that the Danes was strong in this quarter. From the Annals of Munster, Act 55, p. 542, we learn that in the year 975, Brien the " Great," King of Munster, at the head of twelve hundred Dalgais troops, assisted by Doiunhall, King of Toanhuein, recovered the island of Iniscattery from the Danes, by defeating Tomhar, the Norman, and his two sons, Amblaib and Duibheann. Eight hundred of the Danes, who fled thither for safety some time before, were slain in this battle. 250 tiberia; Cotar and Cotillo in Cantabria; Cutian, (two of same name) in Gallacia; and Cutialla, an immense rock of the Pyrenees. To these you may add the names of various villas and villages in different quarters of that country, such as Goto, Cueto, Cotanes, Cotar ones, Cotovad, Cotolino, Cotorillo, &c. &c. CHAP, xxviir The Druids^ Magicians and Soothsayers — Whence named — The introducers of human immolation and human divination amongst the people of the West. It is admitted on all hands that the soothsayers and magicians, and as such — conformably to ancient custom, — the magistrates of the ancient Britons and Gauls, had been called Druids in the British language.* We have the authority of Pliny for * Of all the ancient heathen systems of religion, the Druid- ical comes nearest to that of the Carthagenians ; but then it will be naturally asked, how, or in what manner did the ancient Britons become acquainted with the religion of a people, who, 251 stating, that these had transmitted the science of the Magi, or the art of Magic, to the Chaldeans and Persians. Undoubtedly Orphgeus,* who was one of their number, taught music and theology to the Greeks .f The Gauls and the inhabitants of the British isles, had, as Caesar and Tacitus inform us, their own Druids. With both nations did the custom of sacrificing human victims to their idols prevail, which Cicero and others record of the Gauls, as Pliny does of the Britons ; and perhaps it would not in point of locality, were situated at avast distance from them? To a thinking person, this would afford much instruction, be- cause it will serve to convince him, that the account of the dispersion of Noah's children, as related in Genesis x. is genuine ; and that all idolatry originated from the mistaken notions which men embraced, after their dispersion on the face of the earth, when they vainly attempted to build the Tower of Babel. Lastly, the Carthagenians, or Phoenicians, carried on a very extensive commerce w^th the natives of Britain ; a circumstance which could not easily have taken place in those barbarous ages, unless their religions, manners, and customs had nearly resembled each other. That they did so, we have many evidences remaining in Britain, particularly in Devon- shire and Cornwall ; and to support this assertion, we have the testimony of the best Greek and Roman historians. * We should observe that the ancient name for a harp, in Irish, is Orpheam, an evident derivation from this great musi- cian's name. •f Whilst their first taught creed, the mystic or philosophical religion of an earlier age, came to them directly from India itself. And of this, Herodotus himself is the authority we choose to quote, who admits that the Grecian divinities were partly Egyptian and partly Pelasgic. 252 be straining commentary too far if we would take the observation of Horace, where he calls the *^ Britons savage to strangers," as allusive to the same ; for some persons suppose that they were in the habit of immolating strangers, which it is well known the inhabitants of the county of Taurus had practised without reserve. The Concani too, who were a part of the Cantabrians, as we have said above, residing in Hispania Tarraconensis, and a colony of the Massagetae, had some things in common with the Sarmatians, Thracians, and Scy- thians, as far as regards cruelty and beastly pro- pensities. The word Druid some would derive from the Celtico-Germanic, deruidhon, which means exceeding wise ; for, der, or, dre, in Celtic, is the same as, deur or, door, in the German Celto-Scythic; as are their compounds Druides and Deurwitten. Others choose to derive it from druis, which, both in the Celtic and German, is equivalent* to trowis or truvis, that is, a teacher of truth and faith. Others from the British and German, dru, faith ; by some called tru ; whence too, God was called by the antient Germans, Drutin or Trudin, as you may see in the gospel of Othfridus ; Drudin, therefore, may signify either, divine or feith- ful; either term being applicable to the priesthood. Others from the old British word, drus, a daemon or magician ; or the Saxon dry, an enchanter, whilst others, in fine, would derive it from the Greek, drus. 253 an oak, and that solely because of Pliny's remark, that '' they make choice of oak groves, neither do they celebrate any sacred rites without that tree, so much so that they may seem to have been thence denominated by a Greek derivation."* What Lucan says of them would seem to bear upon this, viz. '' deep groves, in remote uncultivated forests." Whence the Greeks, by an old taunt, used to call them, Saronides, from the worship of old oaks, which that word originally and properly signified. They who hold out for the Celtic etymology say, that this explanation would be satisfactory enough, if the Gauls had received the Druids from the Massilienses, and they from the Phocenses. But the Druids were unknown to the Greeks, so that we must look altogether for their origin in the Celtic, especially as it is supposed, on the authority of Caesar and Tacitus, that the Gauls had borrowed them from the British isles. Every one will doubtless judge for himself. To my ear the word sounds of a Syro-Chaldaic, or Phoenician descent, yet could I not dare to specify * In the Irish annals, Magh, a Magian priest, is sometimes put for Draoi, a Druid. The Druidioal religion was at first ex- tremely simple; but such is the corruption of human nature, that it was soon debased by abominable rites and ceremonies, in the same manner as was practised by the Canaanites, the Carthagenians, and by all the heathens in the other parts of the world. 254 its precise signification. In the Phoenician language, dor-ida means a progeny of wise men or benefactors, or of such as have the charge of the people ; dor-id, a powerful generation ; dra-id, powerful lords ; dru- sin, teachers and instructors, from the singular drus or dras ; each and all of which would admirably ac- cord with the established and well known literature of the Irish Druids,* as well as their power and influence amongst barbarous nations^ sunk in vice and devoted to the worship of idols. Drur or dreur, also, in that language, means exemption from work or ser- vitude ; freedom from debt or demand, &c. And we know that Caesar has declared of the Druids, ^^ that they do not pay tribute in common with others, having exemption from war, as well as immunity from every other demand." I am not so vain, how- ever, as to think that I have altogether in this particular hit upon the truth. Mankind are liable * The Scoto- Milesians, free and independent, lived within themselves, and were separated by their insular situation, from the rest of the world ; whilst the Britons were slaves, trampled upon by a foreign power, and often harassed by the Picts and Scots. The Scoto-Milesians held a superiority over them in every thing : they made war upon them in their own country ; they carried away prisoners ; and in fine were a lettered people, which cannot be said of the Britons. Shall it be then pretended, that, because there were not in the time of Gildas, any historical monuments among the Britons, the neighbouring nations must have been also without any ? The inferencee cannot appear to be a just one. — Mac Geoghegan, 255 to err in these matters, but I am greatly deceived, if I am not far less distant from the truth than they who, in the fondness of their zeal, would boast of their success in extracting this and other names from the Celtic language, or that of the old Britons and Germans.* That from the Druids, as well as from the other sacrificial forms of the Phoenicians and other nations, was introduced into Spain and Gaul, and the British islands, the barbarous custom of human immolation, called anthropothysia, together with * Tartars, who, in Isbrand's account of them, are called Daores, and who are a branch of the Orientals, assemble themselves together at midnight, both men and women, in some commodious place, where one of them falls prostrate on the ground, and remains stretched out at his full length, whilst^ the whole cabal make a hideous outcry to the doleful sound of a drum, made on purpose for the celebration of that particular ceremony. At the expiration of two hours, or thereabouts, the person thus extended, rises as it were in an ecstasy, and com- municates his visions to the whole assembly. He is perfectly apprized during his trance, of what misfortunes will befall this man, and what undertakings that man will engage in with success. Each word he utters is listened to with the utmost attention, and is deemed as sacred as that of an oracle. All their religious worship, however, does not absolutely consist in this ; for they have their particular sacrifices as well as others. There is a small mountain on the frontiers of China, which is looked upon as holy ground, and the eastern Tartars imagine their journies will prove unsuccessful, if, as they pass by, they neglect to consecrate some part of their apparel to this sacred mountain. 256 that of human divmation, called anthropomanteia, is a question that no one can contravene. Diodorus Siculus speaking of them says, " Whenever they deliberate upon matters of importance, they observe a wonderful and almost incredible custom : for they sacrifice a man, and from some old estabhshed ob- servation upon matters, affect to know the future by the circumstances of his fall, whether it be from some accident, or the laceration of his limbs, or the flow of his blood." Tacitus, too, says, " the Druids held it lawful to offer upon the altars the blood of their captives, and dive into futurity by the fibres of human victims."* This custom the Spaniards observed. * When the lights, after being just taken out, were found still panting, it was looked upon to be so happy an omen, that all other presages were considered as indifferent or of no con- sequence ; because, said they, this alone sufficed to make them propitious, how unhappy soever they might be. After they had taken out the harslet, they blew up the bladder with their breath, then tied it up at the end, or squeezed it close with their hands, observing at the same time how the passages, through which the air enters into the lungs, and the small veins which are generaly found there, were swelled ; because the more they were inflated, the more the omen was propitious. They also observed several other particulars, which it would be a difficult matter for us to relate. They looked upon it as an ill omen, if while they were rip- ping up the beast's side, it rose up and escaped out of the hands of those who held it down, and they also looked upon it as ill boding, if the bladder, which generally joins to the harslet, happened to break, and had thereby prevented the taking it out entire ; or if the lights were torn, or the heart putrified, and so on. 257 having borrowed it, no doubt, from them or some others of the Phoenician priesthood. ^^ The Lusitani," says Strabo, '^ study immolation, and inspect the en- trails of their victims before they have been cut out : they also examine the veins of the sides, and pretend to divination by touching. Nay, they prophesy also from the entrails of their captives, first covering them over with thick cloths : when thus, from be- neath, a pulsation can be distinguished, the soothsayer instantly predicts from the body of the slain. They cut off the right hands of the prisoners of war, and consecrate them to the gods." The same Diodorus Siculus says, that the Druids had a custom "of offering no sacrifice without a philosopher to officiate : for they thought that sacred rites should be performed only by men conscious of the divine nature, and as such in a near relation to the gods."* They attended also at the sacrifices * Some of theiv priests were extremely ingenious, and made amulets, or rings of glass, variegated in the most curious manner, of which many are still to be seen. They were worn as we do rings on the finger ; and having been consecrated by one of the Druids, they were considered as charms, or pre- servatives against witchcraft, or all the machinations of evil spirits. From what remains of these amulets, or rings, they seem to have been extremely beautiful, composed of blue, red, and green, intermixed with white spots; all of which contained something emblematical, either of the life of the persons who wore them, or of the state to v^^hich they were supposed to enter. 258 of the Gauls^ at which, TertuUian tells us, they were in the habit of offering human victims to Mercury. And Menutius Felix says, '' the Gauls slay human, or rather, inhuman, victims." Strabo, speaking of their sacrifices, which had been invented, or at least patronized, by the Druids, says, " they used in their sacred offices to pierce some individuals to death by arrows, or else crucify them ; or having reared up a pillar of hay and stuck a wooden pole therein, they used to burn cattle and animals of every description, nay, men themselves, whole and unmutilated." And Diodorus Siculus, " criminals kept for five years, they nail to the stakes, and sacrifice to the gods, and with other first fruits, immolate over immense funeral piles."* Which practices, as well as the others apper- taining to idolatrous ritual, were common to the Spaniards and Britons, and its various Celtic tribes. But as the first Druids were, in my opinion, the sacrificing priests of the Phoenicians, it is very likely that they borrowed this bloody and atrocious super- stition from the Phoenicians, of whom Porphyry says, * And barbarous indeed was the manner in which it was done: the victim, stripped naked, and his head adorned with flowers, was chained with his back to an oak, opposite the place where the Arch-Druid stood; and while music of all sorts, then in use, was playing, the Druid, having- invoked the gods to accept of the sacrifice, walked forward with a knife in his hand, and stabbed the victim in the bowels. The music pre- vented his cries from being heard by the people ; it was some- times four or five hours before he expired. 259 *^ the Phoenicians used to sacrifice on occasions of great calamity — whether of war, of draughty or of pestilence — some certain one of their dearest friends, appointed for this purpose by common suffrage." And Eusebius : " The Phoenicians used yearly to sacrifice their most beloved friends^ nay^ their only sons." What wonder is it then that the greater part of the religions of the barbarians should have at length accorded with the Phoenicians in this human immolation, finding it an easy transition, from sa^ crifice to malefice, from piety to enormity , from the blood of victims to the murder of man? a thing not only savage and revolting in the act, but monstrous and horrible even in idea ! The Thessalians we find used annually to sacrifice a man to Peleus and Chiron ; so used the Scythians foreigners to Diana. As the Syrians used to slay a virgin annually in honor of Pallas, so used the Arabians a boy. The Curetes, like the Phoenicians, used to sacrifice some of their children to Saturn ; the Lacedemonians, a man to Saturn ; the Chians, another to Bacchus ; the Salaminians, another to Diomed ; and the Rho- dians, another to Saturn ;* whilst the Phrigians, in * Saturn was the deity whom the Carthagenians principally worshipped ; and he was the same with what is called Moloch in Scripture. This idol was the deity to whom they offered up human sacrifices, and to this we owe the fable of Saturn^s having devoured his own children. Princes and great men, under particular calamities, used to offer up their most beloved s 2 260 the heat of their superstitious zeal, used miserably to burn and sacrifice themselves to the great mother, Cibele. The Greeks, before setting out upon any- military expedition, used to sacrifice a life, thereby making their devotion towards the gods to wreak its vengeance upon themselves. The Athenians, oppress- ed by a frightful famine on account of the assassination of Androgeos, consulted the oracle ; when they got for their reply, that they must send fourteen souls every year to Crete for sacrifice. The Italians themselves used to sacrifice every tenth man, or the tithe of their population, to Apollo and Juno. But I grow sick of the recital, and shall leave this unnatural and impious superstition to the merited lamentations of Lactantius and TertuUian.* children to this idol. Private persons imitated the conduct of their princes ; and thus, in time, the practice became general ; nay, to such a height did they carry their infatuation, that those who had no children of their own, purchased those of the poor, that they might not be deprived of the benefits of such a sacri- fice, which was to procure them the completion of their wishes. This horrid custom prevailed long among the Phoinicians, the Tyrians, and the Carthagenians, and from them the Israelites borrowed it, although expressly contrary to the order of God. * The ancient idolaters of Peru offered not only the fruits of the earth and animals to these gods, but also their captives, like the rest of the Americans. We are assured, that they used to sacrifice their own children, whenever there was a scarcity of victims. These sacrifices were performed by cutting open the victims alive, and afterwards tearing out their hearts ; they then smeared the idol, to whom they were sacrificing, with the blood 261 It was chiefly on account of these human sacrifices that Augustus Caesar interdicted to his subjects the introduction of the Druidical religion. Tiberius re- moved it from the city ; and Claudius abolished it in the Gauls themselves. Yet have we the lament- able truth to record, that this cruel rite was again revived and perpetuated^ at a subsequent period, in Gaul and elsewhere, as Lampridius, Vopiscus, and Eusebius, but too mournfully testify.* Some Spaniards suppose that vestiges of the Druids of that Peninsula are still preserved, in the depraved names of Drada and Dradas, which are small towns belonging to the ancient Lusitania, which became afterwards the jurisdiction of the yet reeking, as was the custom of Mexico. The priest burnt the victim's heart, after having viewed it in order to see whether the sacrifice would be agreeable to the idol. Some other idol- ators offered their own blood to their deities, which they drev^ from their arms and thighs, according as the sacrifice was more or less solemn ; and they even used, on extraordinary occasions, to let themselves blood at the tips of their nostrils, or between the eye-brows. We are however to observe, that these kinds of bleeding were not always an act of religious worship, but were often employed purely to prevent diseases. — Hurd, * No idolatrous worship ever attained such an ascendant over mankind as that of the ancient Gauls and Britons ; and the Romans, after their conquest, finding it impossible to reconcile those nations to the laws and institutions of their masters, were at last obliged to abolish the Druidical system by penal statutes a violence which had never, in any other instance, been prac- tised by those tolerating conquerors."^ — Hume's EngL I. 5. 262 Suevi, as it is now of the Lucani, in the district of Gallacia. They also suppose that Adrada and Adrades, the names of two towns belonging to the Vaccaei, allude to the same ; as also Adrados, the name of two villages in the country of the Astures, &;c. &c * * Some traces of the Druidical religion remained in Gaul and Germany, till the time of the Emperor Constantine the Great ; but in that part of Britain, now called England, it was totally suppressed, in consequence of the following incident. In or about the year 62, the Romans having cruelly oppressed the Britons, who were at that time subject to them by conquest, the latter took up arms, and massacred many of their invaders. .News of this having been sent to Rome, Seutonius, a gallant commander, was sent over to Britain, in order to subdue the insurgents, and the whole body of the Druids, calling in the aid of superstition, retired to the island of Mona, since called Angle- sey, in North Wales. To that island the Roman general pur- sued them ; and such were the hopes that the Druids had of success, that when the Romans made their appearance, they lighted up fires in their groves, in order to consume them. The Romans, however, put most of the Britons to the sword ; and having taken the Druids prisoners, burnt them alive on their altars, and cut down their consecrated groves. From that time we have but few accounts of the Druids in the southern parts of Britain, although there is the strongest reason to believe, that both in the western parts, and likewise in Ireland, their religion continued much longer. — Hurd. 263 CHAP. XXIX. The Phcenicians initiated the Samothracians in the discipline of idols — They also introduced it into Ireland — Astaroth, a Phoenician idol — Vestiges of its worship in Ireland and in Spain. Thus far have we seen all that is worthy of being known respecting the ancient manners of the early inhabitants of Ireland. Now lest any one should imagine that I have been induced, from the mere circumstance of the derivation of these names, to infer the possession of this island, as well in length as in breadth, from coast to coast, at one time by the Phcenicians, I shall endeavour to construct my theory still more secure, by the idol worship which anciently prevailed amongst us, and which was the same as originally obtained amongst the Phoenicians, from whom, doubtless, we have adopted it. In sup- port of this I shall adduce, first, the authority of Artemidorus, who says that " there is an island near Britain, in which sacrifices used to be offered to Ceres* * Prima Ceres ferro mortales vertere terrain, instituit. — Virg. Geor. i. 7. 264 and to Proserpine, in the same manner as in Samo- thrace." '^ Nor is there any reason/' adds Bochart, '^ that any one should think its inhabitants had the Greeks as their instructors at the time of Artemido- rus, who wrote in the reign of Ptolemy Latyrus ; the learned know well that no Greek ever landed in Britain : it remains, therefore, that those same Phoenicians, from whom the Samothracians had learned the worship of the Cabiri, had initiated those also in the same discipline." In like manner, are we furnished with proofs — as well from other memorials as from certain terms used by the Irish people, which savor strongly of the idolatrous ritual — that they had instructed in the principles of their superstition not only the Irish, but the Spaniards too, and every other people amongst whom they could get footing as a colony. To begin with Astarte or Astaroth, the deity of the Phoenicians, and the groves dedicated to'her, we may observe the evidence of her having been worshipped in Ireland, in the name of that town in the county Donegal, by the river Erne, called Astroth, or, otherwise, Ashro ; in Ardsrath or Ard- stra, the name of a town by the river Deirg, in the county Antrim, now called Bathlure ; in Aterit, the name of an ancient district and borough in the county Galway, now called Athenry or Atenree. For Ashro is the Phoenician word, Ashra, a grove or shmbbery that is worshipped ; or a tree planted 265 in honor of some idol beside his shrine or altar ; for the Phoenicians, like the other idolators of the east, were wont to plant a tree by the temples or altars of their divinities, as a meeting-place for the congre- gation ; a custom which, perhaps, had its rise from the similar one universally observed by the easterns, of planting trees over the graves of their illustrious men or heroes.^ A specimen of this custom we still see in the linden or elm trees planted over ancient ceme- tries. Spain, too, has to this day, in the district of Cantabria, a celebrated tree of this sort, which they call, de Garnica; under the branches of which, from the earliest date, the people have been accustomed to celebrate their general elections. That the idolators used to worship a tree situated in the centre of a garden may be inferred from the sixty-seventh chapter, and seventeenth verse of Isaiah. Holy writ speaks in more places than one, of woods or groves consecrated to Baal, a superstition which the Lord prohibited to Israel. The people, however, forgetting the Lord their God, are said afterwards to have worshipped Baalim and Ashroth or Asheroth, that is his groves. Which observance the Greeks and Romans in after times adopted. The Galli Narbonen- * Super tumulum Iddo, prophetae, qui sepultus est in urbe Phcenicura Dan juxta fontem fluminis lor-Dan (fluvius Dan) abor magna botam (terebinthus) collocata est. Ibidem tumula- tus est Sabuelj Moysis ex Gerson nepos ; et super eo arbor magna Sagadian. V. Schindl. he. laud. col. 378. 266 ses, who were called Massilii^ that is, the inhabitants of Marseilles, used to adore their gods in woods; or in other words, used to consider as gods the trunks of their trees ; an usage from which the Scythians, the Persians, and the Lybians did not differ much, who at a time when they had neither likenesses nor images, began afterwards to worship idols in woods. Unquestionably Jupiter was called Endendros by the Rhodians, as was Bacchus by the Boetians, from their being worshipped in groves, as this epithet signifies. Diana, too, was called Nemorensis, or presiding over groves, as she was also Arduenra, and the Albunean goddess, from a grove and forest of those respective names. Conformable to this is what we read of King Manasses, namely, that he laid down in the temple of the Lord, pesel hasherah, or ashrah, the idol of the grove. The first king who is recorded to have consecrated a grove under that name is Achab. What follows is in keeping with this, viz. '' And they made themselves statues and groves in every high hill, and under every shady forest." But why under every leafy oak they burned fragrant incense to all their idols may be in- ferred from Hosea, iv. 13, where it is said they did so '' because its shade is good." It will be enough for our purpose merely to hint that the oak to which the worship was offered, is understood by Salomon Jarchi as the word Asherah, which signifies an oak grove ; and that from it seems to be taken the sense of that 267 passage in Isaiah, Ivii. 5, ^' Ye comfort yourselves with your gods under every green tree ;" the Hebrew text has eUm, which the Septuagint and Enghsh versions render by idols. They, therefore, who understand by those scripture texts, not the real trees, but the idols consecrated by that name, bring forward in proof of this acceptation the lofty oak, which Maximus Tyrius assures us, had been a statue of the Celtic Jove. And, indeed, that Asharah means not a place planted with trees, as Flavins Josephus supposes, but actually a deity, or rather a false god, may be concluded from the fact of King Manasses having placed an idol of that name, and that too of wood, in the temple of Jerusalem. Whence, perhaps, by the terms oak and grove, is intended a reproach upon their fictitious, fragile, and perishable divinities ; as we find it to have been burned by King Josias, and ground to dust and then flung over the groves of the populace. In other places, also, the word Asherath or grove, is taken for the wooden image of Belus, which was consecrated above his altar. We likewise frequently meet with images dedicated to Astarte or Astaroth, called Asherim and Asheroth, or groves ; that, both, an attention may be enlisted by the allusion of the name, and a material so inade- quate to divinity find that merited reproach which the very sound must convey. All our conjectures about Ashros I wish to be understood as equally 2f6g applicable to Easroe and Easruadh, being but inflec- tions of this word^ and names of two towns in this country. With this accord the depraved names of Astrath, and of the village Ardsrath, that is the idol which was worshipped there, called Astaroth or Astareth, or Astrath, being an image of the Sidonians, respect- ing which the scripture says, "that the people of Israel had forsaken the Lord and worshipped Baal and Astaroth ;" for these were the supreme, not to say the only deities of the Sidonians, by the former of which they understood the sun, by the other the moon or the earth.* Whence some heretics, by reason of its being common to all men to receive their vital heat from the sun and heaven, and their grosser matter from the terraqueous globe, over which, and more particularly over its watery compo- nent, the moon exercises dominion, have specially attributed this to Melchisedec,f whose father they * This idolatry was founded on a mistaken notion of grati- tude, which instead of ascending up to the Supreme Being, stopt short at the veil, which both covered and discovered him: — " Ah ! how basely men their honours use. And the rich gifts of bounteous heaven abuse : How better far to want immoderate store Of worldly wealth, and live serenely poor ; To spend in peace and solitude our days. Than be seduc'd from sacred virtue's ways." MilchelVs Jonah. f He appears to have been a real personage. He had pre- served in his family and among his subjects the worship of the 269 state to be Heracles^ or the sun^ and his mother Astharte, that is the moon or Tellus. Nor would they have done so, but that his parents were not known. We see, then, that the idol Astrath or Astharoth, was also called Astharte, of which Lucian of Samo- sata thus speaks : " Now there is another temple in Phoenicia which the Sidonians have, and by name Astharte as they themselves call it ; but I consider Astharte to be the moon." Whence Eusebius hands down from Philo, that Astharte had the head of a bull placed upon her own as the ensign of royalty ; that by his curved front he may imitate fire, and exhibit at the same time the appearance of the moon. Nor can we conceive any more appropriate symbol of the moon than an ox's head, representing as it does by its horns the moon's curvature ; as the Egyptian Isis, — by which likewise was meant the moon — was in- vested by that people with a pair of horns. All which characteristics clearly accord with the Diana of the Greeks and Latins, whom Horace designates as true God, and the primitive patriarchal institutions ; by these the father of every family was both king and priest. By Salem most judicious interpreters allow that Jerusalem is meant. From the use made of this part of the sacred history by David, (Psa. ex. 4,) and by St. Paul, (Heb. vii. 1—10,) we learn that there was something very mysterious, and at the same time typical, in the person, name, office, residence, and government of this Canaanitish prince. 270 " mistress of the woods." Whence it is evident that Astharte is the moon or Diana ; groves having been consecrated to her, as Vossius and others have de- monstrated. From Astharte the septuagint has given the name of, Astarteion, to the temple of As- tharoth or Beth Astaroth; where the Palestines* deposited or consecrated the arms of Saul, whom they slew. You also meet Astartion in Flavins Josephus. There are those who maintain that Astaroth or Astharte was so called, from its images having been made in the form of a sheep, and considering Aster- oth to mean, flocks. Others suspect it was so named from the multitude of its victims. Others considered Astharte to be Venus, whom Procopius, of Gaza, asserts to have been worshipped by the Sidonians, and to have had groves planted in honor of her. * The appellation of Palestine, by which the whole land of Canaan appears to have been called in the days of Moses, is derived from the Philistines, a people who migrated from Egypt, and, having expelled the aboriginal inhabitants, settled on the borders of the Mediterranean ; where they became so considerable as to give their name to the whole country, though they in fact, possessed only a small part of it. The Philistines were for a long time the most formidable enemies of the children of Israel, but about the year of the world 3841, that is, before Christ 159, the illustrious Judas Maccabeus subdued their country ; and about sixty-five years afterwards Jannaeus burnt their city Gaza, and incorporated the remnant of the Philistines with such Jews as he placed in their country. Hartwell Home, 271 And here I may be allowed, in passing, to remark that Herodian has inconsiderately and ill-advisedly asserted, that the Phoenicians had no images of their deities ; what he and Strabo have also said of the ancient Persians, as Lucian has of the Egyptians. This has led some to conclude that the Gauls, too, and the Britons made no use of idols in their Druid- ical ceremonies: and hence that it was not to be wondered at that none were ever found in the ruins of their old temples throughout this island. But it is manifest from Holy writ, that the Phoenicians had Baal, and Astharoth, and Moloch, and other like- nesses of their deities, for idols. That the ancient Irish worshipped idols will appear equally evident from what Diodorus Siculus tells us of the " Hyper- borean" island, "Where," he says, '' peculiar worship is paid to Apollo, whom they worship every day with incessant singing of praises,* and in honor of whom * One would suppose that the most ancient sort of poetry consisted in 'praising the Deity ; for, if we conceive a being, created with all his faculties and senses, endued with speech and reason, to open his eyes in a most delightful plain, to view for the first time the serenity of the sky, the splendor of the sun, the verdure of the fields and woods, the glowing colours of the flowers, we can hardly believe it possible that he should refrain from bursting in an ecstacy of jfoy, and pouring his praises to the creator of those wonders, and the author cf his happiness. This kind of poetry is used in all nations ; but, as it is the sublimest of all, when it is applied to its true object, so it has often been perverted to impious purposes by pagans and 272 there is there a magnificent grove and a splendid temple, of circular form."* And a comparison of the original, in its several descriptive points, will prove beyond the possibility of doubt, that by this island was meant our own green Ireland,f as Dalton has before affirmed. But, more than abundant on this idolaters : every one knows that the dramatic poetry of the Europeans took its rise from the same spring, and was no more at first than a song in praise of Bacchus; so that the only species of poetical composition, (if we except the epic,) which can in any sense be called imitative, was deduced from a natural emotion of the mind, in which imitation could not be at all concerned. — Sir W. Jones. * These are the " Round Towers," or, to speak correctly, our Budhist Temples, as I have proved in my '• Essay :" Divine And beauteous island ! thou hast been my sole And most magnificent temple, in the which I walk with awe, and sing my stately songs. Loving the God that made me ! Coleridge. f '* Although," says Sir John Carr, " the Welsh have been for ages celebrated for the boldness and sweetness of their Music, yet it appears that they were much indebted to the superior musical talents of their neighbours, the Irish. The learned Selden asserts, that the Welsh music, for the most part, came out of Ireland with Gruffydh ap Conan, Prince of North Wales, who was cotemporary with King Stephen. " I am delighted," adds the elegant author of Julia de Roubigni, ** with those ancient national songs, because there is a simpli- city and an expression in them, which I can understand. Adepts in music are pleased with more intricate compositions, and they talk more of the pleasure, than they feel ; and others talk after them, without feeling at all. 273 head will be the testimony of St. Patrick,* whom we find continually and keenly reproving the adorers of the sun, whom he found before him in this country, — grieving from his soul that the Irish could, to that day, continue in the v/orship of ridiculous idols. As, therefore, the Iberes in Spain worshipped after the Phoenician fashion, the sun and moon, under the guise of Baal and Astharoth, so did the Irish embrace the same superstitions from the Ibero-Phcenicians, as well as the worship of those images that prevailed amongst them. Nor is it to be wondered at, if, in the old walls of those temples — which Ireland still pre- serves, despite the ravages of time — there are no such images as those to be met with, as I am perfectly as- sured that St. Patrick and the other preachers of the gospel, took particular care to overthrow, — to extir- pate, and, like Josias, to burn, — every vestige of an idol that came in their way or could possibly be met with. This I can more immediately testify with respect to Spain, where no appearance of the like is to be found, by digging beneath the rubbish of old castles or towns ; * S. Eleranus sapiens in Vita S. Patricii n. LIII. narrat beatum hunc episcopum, in loco ubi est hodie Ecclesia S. Pa- tricii, quae Scotice Domnach Paclruic vocatur,invenisse idoluni Slecht (vel in campo Slecht) auro et argento ornatuin ; et 12 si- mulachra aerea bine et inde erga idolum posita. " Rex autem, addit et omnis populus hoc idolum adorabant, in quo daemon pessimus latitabat." — Colgan. 274 though it is a well known fact that idolatry flourished there, in all its varieties, of Phoenician, Celtic, Grecian, and Roman forms. I will instance the town of Gades, in which Philostratus bears record there were deities worshipped that were scarcely elsewhere known or heard of. CElian tells us that it had one altar sacred to the year, and another to the month, in honor of time, of those respective durations. There, too, poverty had an altar, as well as art and old age; and death also, which, as Philostratus tells us, they used to celebrate with songs of joy ; unless, perhaps, by death we are to understand, Pluto ; whom it is well known, from Sanchoniathon, that the Phoe- nicians used to call Muth, which means death. But to return from this digression. Nor ought we to wonder that the Phoenicians should have named those towns in Ireland after their idol Astharoth, or Astharte, and the groves consecrated thereto ; for there was a city also of the name in Phoenicia, the royal residence of Og king of Basan, in which the modern Jews will have it, that the house of Job was situated. We have, however already proved, and without the possi- bility of doubt, from the ancient geography of Spain, that several of its towns and villages, as well as also its distinguished cities, have been named from the groves, or mountains, or caves wherein they used to offer their devotions ; as well as from the idols themselves to whom they used to offer them. 275 To these I add the example of the name Astarte,* or Astharoth^ at present under discussion : for it is to me unquestionable, that, from the worship of this idol, arose the names of the Spanish villages of As- trar, amongst the ancient Suevi, in the department of Compostella ; Asteire, in the Lucanian territory ; Astariz, in the Ariensian tract ; with the town of Astrain, and the deserted and almost ruinated little village of Astrea amongst the Cantahrians. Nor should I think those to be far astray, who — merely expunging the initial letter, as is usual in other geo- graphical names of Spain — conceive that, from the idol Asthartes, originated the name of Tartessus,f the most ancient city which the Phoenicians built near Calpe and the pillars of Hercules. This I beg leave to say with all deference to the authority of the poets of Spain, who, with Ovid at their head, insist that Tartessus is the extreme section of the west, and who think it so called from the river Tartessus, whose source is in the silver mountain of Oros-pedda, which abounds in mines of that metal ; or whose sides, say they, being overlaid with tin, exhibit the appearance of so much silver. * Astore, that word of bland endearment and familiar con- verse amongst the native Irish, implying, my refulgent delight, is an evident emanation from this Astarte or Lunar Goddess. t Sic a Enieritd, expuncta priore syllaba, dicimus 3Ierida : il Ccesaraugusta , Zaragoza: a Vico Ausonce, Vic, Innumera occurrunt exempla. T 2 276 CHAP. XXX. Vestiges both in Ireland and Spain of the worship of Moloch, the idol of the Phoenicians-^ Various names thereof — Des- cription of it — The name of God attributed to the deities of the Gentiles — The Syrians used to sacrifice their sons and daughters to Moloch — What meant by bearing over across the fire — The horrible practice, of burning alive, spread from Syria into other nations. Of Moloch toO;, the Phoenician deity, as there would seem to be some traces of his worship still remaining amongst the Spaniards, evidenced in the name of Malaca, a maritime town in the province of Boetica; and Malagon, or Malgon, a town of the Artabri, so here would the name of Ard-Mulchan, a town in the barony of Duleek, county Meath, seem to prove itsexistence amongst the ancient Irish ; as would also another town of the same name in the ba- rony of Skreen ; Macroon, a town in the barony of Bantry, county Cork ; Meehck, a town in the ba- rony of Bunratty, county Clare ; Melick, a small town in the barony of Gallen, county Mayo ; Melches- town, a village in the barony of Moygeesh, county 277 Westmeath ; Melcombe, a town in the barony of Canagh, county Mayo ; Malco^ a lake in the county Mayo ; and Melogh, a river^ in the county Down, with numberless others ; all of which, until undeceived by some other more convincing authority, I shall con- tinue to derive from various inflexions of the word Moloch, which the Phoenicians themselves used some- times to pronounce, Molech ; and, with the initial letter repeated at the end, Milcom, and in the Sy- rian vulgate, Malcum. But the place wherein this idol's sacrifices used to be performed, was called Malken, or Malaken. Molock, or Milcom was expressly the deity of the Ammonites, amongst whom he had a temple in the city of Gebal, and in it an image of stone, overlaid with gold, and seated upon a throne ; on either side of him were two female images, also seated, and in front an altar, whereon the sacrifices and incense used to be offered up. But the Assyrians, who had been carried away into Samaria, had other idols of Moloch, which they called Adra-Melech and x4na- Melech, that is, the brave and magnificent Moloch ; for adir, which is one of the attributes of the deity, signifies great, powerful, excellent, or magnificent. And no wonder, for as the Chaldee paraphrast, com- monly known under the disguise of Jonathan, ob- serves, " the Gentiles called their idols after the name of the Lord Jehovah." Which is the opinion of several of the Hebrews " conceiving," as St. Jerome says. 278 " that their idols were made in the name of the Lord^ and after his likeness. Let the learned judge, whether or not, the town of Ard Mulch an in this island, had not been so called from the name of the idol Adra Malcum. Moloch was represented with the face of a calf, having his hands stretched out ready to receive any- thing offered by the bystanders ; it was a concave image, with seven distinct compartments ; one they used to open for offering flour, another for turtles, the third for a sheep, the fourth for a ram, the fifth for a calf, the sixth for an ox, but whoever affected to be so exceedingly religious as to sacrifice a son for him, as a mark of special approbation, they would open the seventh.* Under the symbol of this idol the * The Rabbins say it was made of brass, the body resembling that of a man, and the head that of a calf, with a royal diadem, and the arms extended. They add, that when children were to be offered to him, they heated the statue, and put the mise- rable victim between his arras, where it was soon consumed by the violence of the flame. From the whole of this we may learn, that human sacrifices were the most acceptable at the altars of Moloch; which, undoubtedly, made our great poet Milton rank him among the infernal deities, as one of the fallen angels ; and as one who was to be a curse to the idolatrous world, " First Moloch, horrid kiog, besmeared with blood Of human sacrifices, and parents' tears ; Though, for the noise of drums and timbrels loud, 1 Their children's cries unheard, that passed thro' fire To his grim idol." 279 Phoenicians used to worship the sun and Saturn, namely, that large star in the firmament which they used to call Melee, king of all the rest. They who think Saturn to have been the Moloch of the Phoenicians, seem to gain countenance in the idea from the practice of sacrificing children to Mo- loch ; which thej, in common with the Carthaginians observed ; whilst we know from the Greek and Latin writers that victims used also to be sacrificed to Saturn. But the scriptures inform us, in divers places, that the Syrians had unnaturally burned their own seed, their own sons and daughters, in honor of this deity. This abominable sacrifice of the idol, then, consisted in dragging children through the fire, and by the hands of their parents in honor of him. That this \vas a Phoenician custom is evident from Philastrius, and Porphyry, and Eusebius too, as I have already shewn when treating on the subject of the Druids. It obtained particularly in the land of Canaan and the Mediterranean Syria, in which Phoe- nicia was comprehended ; and the author of the book of wisdom, as well as Jeremy and Ezekiel, seem severally to allude to the prevalence of the practice in Syria of immolating their children. Whence the valley of Gia, or of the sons of Hinnon, in the out- lets of the city of Jerusalem, obtained its name from the wailings or lamentations of boys whilst burning before the idols. 280 It appears too^ from the testimony of the ancientsy that these impious rites had travelled from Syria into Africa and Spain ; Pliny informs us, that the Her- cules of the Carthaginians, like Moloch, was usually appeased by human sacrifices ; whence to me it is clear as demonstration that human victims had been im- molated to Hercules in the celebrated temple of Ga- des, built by the Phoenicians ; and where, as Diodorus Siculus mentions, splendid sacrifices were wont to be solemnised after the Phoenician form ; for the Phoe- nicians, who — we are assured by St. Athanasius, Cyril, Eusebius, Minutius Felix, and others, were wont to sacrifice their sons and daughters to their deities — ^ made it an invariable rule to carry with them their peculiar rites with the worship of their idols to their several colonies. Of the Carthaginians, who were a colony of the Syrians, Ennius says, they practised " that custom of sacrificing their little children to the Gods." Fescenius Festus relates that the Car- thaginians were wont to immolate human victims to Saturn.* They who had no children, used to buy them from the poor to offer them in sacrifice, as Plutarch informs us. * Diodorus relates an instance of this more than savage bar- barity, which is sufficient to fill any mind with horror. He tells us, that when Agathocles was going to besiege Carthage, the people, seeing the extremity to which they were reduced, imputed all their misfortunes to the anger of their god Saturn, because that, instead of offering up to him children nobly bern. 281 I should wish — in my zeal for the fair character of Ireland, — I could have access to proofs, whereby to shew that its early inhabitants, — on accepting from the Phoenicians, like the Spaniards, the worship of Moloch, Astarte, and Baal, as also of Hercules, — had nobly rejected, — at least one, the most unhallowed, the most unnatural feature in their superstition, — human immolation. In the absence of such proofs, and bound by the responsibility of a faithful histo- rian, I am painfully obliged to refer my readers to the authority of Ledwich, who, in the footsteps of Keating, Baxter, Jurieu, and Vallancey, asserts that on the festivals of Ops, or Astarte, and Baal, when the heads of the people were assembled together on the eve of the first day of November,* whatever criminals had been convicted by the Druids on Mount Usneach, on the first day of May preceding, and sentenced to he had been fraudently put off with the children of slaves and foreigners. That a sufficient atonement should be made for this crime, — as the infatuated people considered it, — two hundred children of the best families in Carthage were sacrificed ; and no less than three hundred of the citizens voluntarily sacrificed themselves, that is, they went into the fire without compulsion. * A prince, on Saman's day, (1st of November,) should light his lamps and welcome his guests with clapping of hands; procure comfortable seats ; the cup-bearers should be respect- able, and active in distribution of meat and drink ; let there be moderation of music ; short stories ; a welcoming countenance ; failte for the learned ; pleasant conversations, &c. These are the duties of the prince, and the arrangement of the banquetting house." — Cormac. 282 deaths they were now sacrificed by way of expiation to Baal^ and burned for that purpose between two fires. To these I should add Seward's* remarks in his Irish Topography^ under the article Usneach. Walker too, after declaring that the Hebrews, in common with the Turks, and the Druids of the British isles, made use of cymbals to drown the shrieks of the human victims offered at their sacrifices, adds — in a tone of that inevitable horror which the very thought must suggest, — '^ I shudder and feel my pen tremble with a religious dread, in the execution of its task, when necessitated to record, that this rite was ob- served by the Irish Druids, and for the very same purpose/'f — or words to this effect. * His words are as follow. — " Usneach, a mountain, ... on which fires were kindled by the Druids on 1st May^ in honor of Beal, or the Sun. This was the grand Bealtinne of the northern parts of Leinster, where the states assembled and held judgment on all criminals worthy of death, and such as were found guilty were burnt between two fires of Beal: children and cattle also were purified on this day by passing them between two fires." t The best way to point out false religion, is to display it in its native colours; and men, by seeing unaccountable absurdi- ties presented to them as objects worthy of their notice or regard, will become in love with the truth. Truth carries conviction along with it, and happy must that man be, who seeks wisdom. He who sincerely enquires after *' truth," has great reason to hope, that God will direct him to it, and convince him^ of its excellency above every other thing in this world. The Tuatha Danaans, or Iranian colony, the real authors of Ireland's an- cient grandeur, and the erectors of the '' Round Towers,'' never 283 CHAP. XXXI. Tyrian Hercules worshipped in Ireland — Transferred from the Phcenicians to their colonies — The celebrated ternple of Hercules at Gades — His sacred rites perforined in the Phcenician fashion — The altars of Hercules — The Alps — Vestiges of this superstition in the geography of Spain — Whether the worship of Iphis had obtained amongst the Irish — Vossius's opinion about Iphis. That the Tyrian Hercules^ too^ who was worship- ped in the celebrated temple of Gades^ which had been built by the Phoenicians, has had sacrifices and oblations, with all corresponding ceremonies, offered to him in the British isles, may be inferred from a very ancient altar, found a few years since, by Dr. Todd, in a church-yard in the town of Corbridge, in Northumberland, bearing an inscription deeply cut in the old Greek characters, and purporting to be in honor of him. Doctors Hunter and Todd have practised those horrid rites. They were indulged in only by the Fir Bolgs, who were Celts, and who contrived the cromleachs for the occasion. The Scythian Druids would fain re-establish the usage, until repressed by the humanising precepts of the enlightened Danaans^ So they immolated only criminals. 284 both given a very accurate description of it. Cooke, who has sketched a drawing of it, thinks it still more ancient than Todd, and that it was erected — not by the Phoenicians, who unquestionably, he says, would have inscribed those characters in their own language, and not the Greek — but by the I onians, natives of Asia, sons of Javan, otherwise called. Ion, and the founders of the great city of Phocea — furthermore distinguish- ed by their expertness as seamen, and by being the first amongst the Greeks, as Herodotus testifies, who undertook expeditions over the vasty deep. I incline more, however, to the opinion of Todd, who endeavours to prove from this altar, that the Phoenicians made use of the letters of the Greek alphabet after their arrival in Greece, as the Cartha- ginians did those of the Latin language, which they had borrowed from the Romans. This latter cir- cumstance Aurelius Victor appears to allude to, when, speaking of Septimius Severus, he says, '^ he was versed in all the literature of the Latins, and spoke the Punic language with ease ; the more so, no doubt, as being born in Leptis, in the province of Africa." Which custom we may conclude had flourished amongst the Carthaginians in the time of Plautus,* from a Carthaginian fragment inserted in * Valiancy, a name never to be mentioned with disrespect, encountered much ridicule, in consequence of his having traced Irish in the Carthaginian's speech, in a play of Plautus. He 285 his Paenulus, and written in Roman characters. Seve- ral inscriptions found in Africa, relating to the epoch of the Carthaginians, and all written in Roman cha- racters, give strength to this conjecture. Dr. Todd has rendered the abovementioned in- scription thus in Latin : " Herculi Tyrio Divina Dona Archi-sacerdotalia," — that is. Divine offerings to be presented to the Tyrian Hercules, by the hands of the high priest. On either side were engraved the heads of bulls, crowned with garlands, with the, sacri- ficing instruments,* as represented in the opposite plate. This learned gentleman still further conjectures, that Erkelens in Gonderland, means the camp of Her- cules ; and Hartland Pointf in Cornwall, the promon- was quite correct in doing so ; and so was Bochart, when he discovered Hebrew, in the same speech. The reason is obvious; the Irish, Carthaginian, and the Hebrew, can all be traced to the Assyrian. This fact also oflfers a true solution of the dis- pute about the Basque, or language of Biscay ; one contends that it is Celtic, another that it is an African tongue ; and both are right— it is the language of the Iberi, and Mauri, who peopled Spain, and which is also derived from the Syriac, The resemblance, therefore, between the Irish and the Basque, offers no support to the imaginary colonization of Milesius. — Whitty. * An Essay on the Antiquity of the Irish Language, being a collation of the Irish with the Punic Language. Dublin, 1772. Preface, p. V. seq. f Hartland Point, on the coast of Cornwall, in Britain, called in Camden's time, Harty Point, is evidently a cor- 286 tory of Hercules^ and that from the words, Hercuhs castra, which is the Latin for, the camp of Hercules, was made the name, Hercul-ceaster, of the Saxons, which became afterwards abridged to Colchester. And Cook is convinced that the name of the town of Hartlepole on the Durham coast, is a manifest de- pravation of the word Heracleopolis. To me, too, it appears exceedingly probable that the great western promontory of Airchil, with the islands of the same name, were the promontory of Hercules, as denominated by the Phoenicians; and whether the town of, Errigall, in each of the two counties of Monaghan and Londonderry, may not also be some vestige of Hercules' name, I leave to the decision of more competent judges. The worship of this deity, it is certain that the Irish, as well as the Spaniards, had borrowed from the Phoenicians ; for they alone had erected temples and altars to the Tyrian Hercules as their national hero ; it being under his conduct, — whom some describe as contemporary with Moses, — that the Phoenician tribes had sailed to Gades. Whence, after his death, they built a temple at this place in honor of him, which was deemed illustrious for its religion, its antiquity, and its wealth ; and if at a loss to know ruption from its original name, Herculis promontorium, which it obtained from the celebrated navigator, the Tyrian Hercules, known in our annals by the designation o£ Phenius. 287 why it was particularly sacred, Pomponius Mela ex- plains : ^' because that it contained Hercules's bones." There were no statues in this temple, according to Philostratus, but only two brazen altars without an image. We have a verse of Silius Italicus to the same effect, which may be thus translated : — " In it were seen no sacred effigies, Nor well-known likeness of their deities;" conformably, as would appear, to the worship in which Hercules had instructed them. Bochart, how- ever, thinks that it was from the Jews the Phoenicians had adopted the practice of not worshipping images in this temple ; or, perhaps, from the patriarchal re- ligion, which did not recognise images. For Cornelius Tacitus declares, that the Hebrews thought it im- pious in any one to represent the deity by any statue or likeness, and consequently ridiculed the Assyrians, as Macrobius asserts, for their habitual worship of the sun and moon. Plutarch tells us, that Lycurgus's doctrine corresponded in this particular with the Hebrews ; and though the Scythians, the Persians, and the Lybians, not only differed, but were directly opposed to one another in their respective creeds, in one point, however, they harmonised completely, and that was — ^the invisibility of the godhead. The Romans, likewise, some time subsequent, and more especially in the reign of Numa Pompilius, adhering to the authority of Moses, Pythagoras, Socrates, and 288 Lycurgus, continued to adore their gods without statues for a period of upwards of one hundred and seventy years. The ancient Germans did the same, as appears from the testimony of CorneUus Tacitus. But Hercules might have learned this system of religion in Arabia, whence some antiquarians suppose that he was descended. For the Arabian* idols con- sisted, in a great measure, of huge rough stones, which the posterity of Ismael had taught them to worship, and upon which they used to pour oil and wine, in imitation of Jacob, who poured oil upon the stone which served him as a pillow at the time of his vision .f Afterwards, however, they practised their * The Arabians were the descendants of Ishmael, the son of Abraham, by his concubine Hagar ; and they are, in some re- spects, even to this day, the most remarkable people in the world. The angel told Hagar that her son should be a wild man, and the Arabians remain uncivilized even to this hour. His hand was to be against every man, and every man's hand against him ; and so it is even now, for the Arabians live by plundering, not only such as travel from this part of the world, but even the Turks themselves, who pretend to be their masters. He was to live in the midst of his brethren ; and it is very re- markable, that the Arabians were never yet conquered. In vain did the great monarchs of the east attempt to subdue them, they still remain what they were three thousand years ago. t Eastern travellers, in modern times, have been known to do the same; the night air is not generally injurious in the East as it is with us. We are not to suppose that Jacob laid his bare head on the bare stone; a cap or turban probably guarded the one, and a portion of his long garments or perhaps a wallet, formed a covering for the other. 289 adorations upon those very stones, which it is very probable that the Phoenicians did also originally ; although, in process of time, before the people of Israel entered into the land of Canaan, they betook themselves to the worship of graven images. Where- fore the Lord had commanded his people, before ever they arrived at the promised land, to overturn their altars, demolish their statues, and cut down their groves. Strabo relates in what spot of the island of Gades, and on what occasion, the Phoenicians had erected that temple, as advised by the oracle. Appian and Arrian, both, assert that Hercules was worshipped therein, after the Phoenician manner, as we have said, with religious solemnities and magnificent sacrifices ; whilst we have loads of monuments as well in Asia as in Europe, to prove that the custom was thence transferred, and by the same people, to their different colonies, where they erected altars and shrines for its celebration. Of this number, it may suffice to remind the reader, only, of the altars erected on the Alps, of which Petronius says, '' On the aerial Alps, — where lofty cliffs ascend under a Grecian name, and suffer themselves to be sur- mounted, — lies a spot consecrated to the Herculean altars." From Hercules, its founder, did the ancients give the name of Heraclea to the Phoenician city Seta- bim, in the province of the Edetani, in Spain; as also to another Phoenician city in Boetica, at the u 290 foot of mount Calpe. For as in Greek, Heracleia — with an acute accent over its penultimate — means, in the general, anything belonging to Hercules, so the same word, with a circumflex — thus, Heracleia — over the same syllable, means, sacred rites or sacrifices de- dicated to Hercules ; and in either sense are to be found several cities of this name, in various parts of the East. From Hercules, too, it is probable that the Phoenician settlers in Spain, gave the name of Eriguela, as it is now called with some slight varia- tion from the original, to a village of the Artabri ; as, also, to Arcalis and Argolell, villages of the Iler- getes ; Arcal and Argalo, towns of the Suevi, near Compostella ; Arquillo, amongst the Numantines ; Argul], Arcallana, and Arguiello, amongst the As- tures. Wherefore, I should hope it will not seem over-absurd if I should trace, in this country also, some vestiges of the name Hercules — in that of Arklow, a town in the county Wicklow, near the vale of Ovoca, where are to be seen, at this day, the remains of an ancient camp ; and in Errigol-Keeroge, a little town in the barony of Clogher, county Tyrone : for as Keeroge would seem derived from the Phoeni- cian, Kerag, a census or cess ; or Kerac, a citadel or fortress, we may easily understand by the name of this town, either '' the fortress of Hercules," or tri^ butary to the worship of Hercules.* * In every stage of society men naturally love the marvellous ; but ia the early stages, a certain portion of it is necessary to 291 I should wish to give a whet to the investigating talent of the learned sons of Ireland^ to ascertain whether IfiPa and OfFa, the name of a barony in the county Tipperary, prorace of Munster, may not be a vestige of the worship of Iphis, that we may be able thence to infer whether or not the Phoenicians had imported it among us. For some Spaniards are very positive, that from Iphis, was given the name of Iphae, to a rock of a conical form, and miraculous elevation, without the slightest support on either side, lying on the Mediterranean coast, between Alona and Dianium. Although others derive it from the Phoenician word Ipha, handsome ; and others, again, from the Celtic If-ach, meaning standing alone, or unsupported. As to Iphis itself, some Syriac make any narration sufficiently interesting to attract attention, or obtain an audience : whence the actions of gods are inter- mixed with those of men in the earliest traditions or histories of all nations ; and poetical fable occupied the place of his- torical truth in their accounts of the transactions of war and policy, as well as in those of the revolutions of nature and origin of things. Each had produced some renowned warriors, whose mighty achievements had been assisted by the favor, or obstructed by the anger, of the gods ; and each had some popular tales concerning the means, by which those gods had constructed the universe, and the principles, upon which they continued to govern it: whence the Greeks and Romans found a Hercules in every country which they visited, as well as in their own ; and the adventures of some such hero supply the first materials for history, as a cosmogony or theogony exhibits the first system of philosophy, in every nation. u 2 292 antiquarians suppose it to be a corrupted name from Jepthis^ that is, the daughter of Jephtha, and so called after him ; from the union of which name with, anassa, which, in the Greek, means, queen, was made up the name of Iphianassa ; as from its union with genia, which signifies descended from, arose Iphige- nia. Wherefore, also, the daughter of Jephtha had a place amongst the deities of the Phoenicians, having divine honors paid to her by the inhabitants of Sa- maria, who celebrated an annual festival in her honour — as we learn from Epiphanius — the origin of which we will see accounted for in the book of Judges. From the story of Jephthah, who devoted his only daughter in fulfilment of his vow to God, Homer took occasion in his fable of Agamemnon to make him sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia, with all suit- able solemnities. Memnon, too, who had been slain by Achilles, after he had come an auxiliary to Priam in the Trojan war, is a farther instance, having been wept* for, after his death, and worshipped by the As- syrians as a distinguished scion of Aurora — as Oppi- an relates — with a temple, also, built in Egypt, to * Sunt lachrymae rerum etmentem mortalia a tangunt. — This reminds me of the philosophic tears of Xerxes, at the contem- plated mortality of his innumerable army ; and as I happen to light upon an unpublished poem — written by a young officer of the artillery corps, merely as a school exercise during his pre- paratory education — I feel happy at the opportunity of inserting 293 his honour by the inhabitants of Thebes. And here I cannot avoid reflecting with Vossius on the great an extract from it here, as z. foretaste of talents which I have reason to appreciate, and which I doubt not will shine out, some day, an honour to their possessor, and a benefit to his country. " Unnumbered plumes are waving o'er the plain. The gentle zephyrs wave them back again : So golden corn that ripens in the sun, Stoops, gently stoops, the zephyrs' force to shun : T^ave after wave in soft succession roll. Cheer the glad eye, and sooth the musing soul. The monarch saw, and high in fortune's gale Pride, hope, ambition, in their turn prevail: And as he saw his countless hosts below With her bright garland victory crowns his brow He looks again, but other feelings rise. Rush on his heart, and sorrow dims his eyes ; He thinks, he feels — and with averted head Soils the proud purple with the tears he shed. Why weeps the king ? — 'Tis nature at this hour Claims her full force, and proves her rightful power : By her subdued as by some magic spell. In fancy's ear he hears the funeral knell. Knell of those myriads whose bright banners stream. While martial music aids the living dream. Whose plumes around them cast a moving shade. Their souls all fire, their limbs of iron made. That fire shall die : those plumes shall cease to wave : Those swords and spears shall rust within the grave ; Where music floats around, shall silence reign. And prostrate banners strew the desert plain. Ere one short century shall near be run. To tell the dreadful tale shall live not one ; 294 similarity existing between the Phoenician and the Egyptian sacrificial forms ; and on the extreme probability, that the fleet which first landed in that colony in Spain, consisted not only of Phoenicians but of Egyptians also ; so that both countries may severally lay claim to the honour of the enterprise. I may be allowed just to hint, that it was, probably, from this very cause, that Hercules was indifferently called the '' Tyrian " or the " Egyptian." Expunged each name — the mighty and the mean, From being's page, as though they ne'er had been : Thus fade the flowers in Tempe's lovely vale ; Thus vanish clouds before the driving gale : Thus Time, omnipotent, sweeps all away — Grandeur's proud blaze, and pleasures of the gay. Stanley Hornby » 295 CHAP. XXXII. The Cabirif divinities of the Phoenicians — Their worship in Ireland — Etymology of the name — The Coryhantes sacri* ficing priests of the Cahiri — Whence so called — Vestiges of them in the Geography as well of Ireland as of Spain. From the Cabiri, Seward thinks is derived, Cab- ragh, or Cabaragh, the name of a very ancient Irish town situated formerly near Dublin Castle, but now so in corporated with this Metropolis of the kingdom, that its very limits cannot be pointed out. The name Cabiri itself, he conceives consonant with the Irish word Cabhar, a prop or buttress ; or rather, I take it, with Cabhaire, one who props, a supporter. These deities, he says, the Corybantes invoked, who were the sacrificing priests of Ireland as they were of the Greeks too, on sudden and unexpected emergencies* Whence he supposes it likely, that the above men- tioned term of Cabaragh was so called as containing within it, or as being itself a seminary of, the Cory- bantes. — From the same source would he derive the name of the district of Cabragh, or Cabra, near 296 Rathfriland, in tlie county Down ; to which we may add Cabra-castle, near Kills, in the county Meath. The Spanish towns of Cabeiro and Cabeiros amongst the Suevi, in the canton of Toledo, savor strongly of the same superstition ; which would rather seem de- rived from Cabirse, or Cabiria, the sacred rites of the Cabiri ; just as the district of Asia Minor, where they were worshipped, was called after them Cabira. Pausanias, too, assures us that a district of Perga- mus was called by the name of Cabiris. Some of the ancients have supposed that the name of the Cabiri was borrowed from that of a mountain in Phrygia, called Cabirus, where they were worshipped with religious solemnities. But the reverse is more likely to have been the fact, and that the mountain was so called after them. They were themselves ancient divinities, belonging to the Phoenicians, which they designated as, Cabirin, that is, great or potent, from the singular, Cabir, which, by the addition of, a, and the expunction of, c — which to them is only an adverb of similitude — becomes abir, that is, strong, or preeminent in fortitude. This word — originally, truly applied to God — the Syrians transferred to Ceres, Pluto, and Proserpine — by some called Axieros, Axicersus, and Axicersa — whose father too they state to have been Vulcan. Therefore it was, perhaps, that in some coins, these deities were re- presented under the appearance of a man holding in his right hand a mallet, and in his left an anvil. 297 Some would have them to be Jupiter, Bacchus, and Ceres ; others, Osiris, Orus, and Isis.* Julius Fir- micus, in his ^^ Errors of profane religions" says,, that the Cabiri were three brothers, the eldest of whom having been slain by the two others, was enrolled amongst the Gods, and worshipped by the Thessa- lonians. But this I look upon as foreign from the truth, and merely a fiction of the poets. For the worship of the Cabiri had its origin in Phoenicia, whence it passed over to the islands of the JEgean sea, and more especially to Samothrace and the Imbri, where their religion was flourishingly esta- blished, until, at length, it made way to Athens and * These were the general gods of Egypt, and such as were worshipped by the king, and his courtiers ; for almost every district had its particular deity ; Some worshipped dogs ; others oxen ; some hawks ; some owls ; some crocodiles ; some cats ; and others ibis, a sort of an Egyptian stork. The worship of these animals was confined to certain places ; and it often happened, that those who adored the crocodile, were ridiculed by such as paid divine honours to the cat. To support the honor of their different idols, bloody wars often took place ; and whole provinces were depopulated to decide the question — whether a crocodile or a cat was a god ? It does not, however, appear that these people were idolaters, in the strict sense of the word, although it is more than pro- bable, that, in many instances, they deviated from the worship of the true god, according to its original purity. Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, calls the God of Abraham, Jehovah and Elohim, both of which are the highest titles that can be as- cribed to the Divine Being, because they include all his incon- ceivable attributes. 298 the other cities of Greece^ with Spain and all the other colonies which the Phoenicians had planted. There are those, too, who add a third to their num- ber, namely, Kadmus, or Kasmilus, or Kadmilus, whom many suppose to have been the same as Her- mes, or Mercury ; for by Varro's testimony, in the Samothracian mysteries, Kasmilus is the name given to a certain officer or attendant upon the sacred rites offered to the great gods, that is, the Cabiri. The natives of the island of Lesbos, also, worshipped him under the name of Kadmus, or Kadmilus, which, by the way, they borrowed from the Phoenicians, in whose language cadmi, means a harbinger ; and cadmilac, a forerunner of some news or message. Therefore, also, it was that Mercury was called Her- mes, from the Greek word signifying an interpreter, or messenger — which was his province amongst the heavenly inhabitants ; and they who conceive his real name to be originally Celtic, derive it from the words, mere, traffic, and ur, a man ; which emi- nently accords with the Phoenician word Cnani, or Canani, which signifies not only a Canaanite, or na- tive of the land of Canaan, but also a merchant or trafficer, the inhabitants of that country having been ever intent upon trade, in the furtherance of which, with a view to the improvement of their for- tunes, they spent their whole life and energies. These four Cabiri were worshipped in some shrines as the gods of the deceased ; Ceres, who was also 299 called Cabiria^ as the earth that sustains them ; Pluto and Proserpine as a symbol of hell, wherein they re- side ; and Mercury, as their leader and conductor. A great portion of the leading men of that age used to visit the celebrated temple of the Cabiri, in Samothrace, to be initiated in their mysteries. This journey was undertaken by the heroes of the Trojan* * Sir Isaac Newton brings the sera of the destruction of Troy about three hundred years lower down than any other chronologist had done before, fixing it to the 78th year after the death of Solomon, the year before our vulgar sera 904 ; — and the year of Dido's building Carthage, to the year 883, i. e. 21 years after, when ^neas might very well be alive. Those who vrill take the trouble to examine his book, will find it no easy matter to withstand the weighty reasons he offers in support of his singular opinion. To shorten the reader's labour, I shall briefly mention a few of them. 1. He observes that Virgil agrees with the Arundel marbles. As Tirgil relates, probably from the archives of Tyre or Cy- prus, that Teucer came from the war of Troy to Cyprus in the days of queen Dido (see Mn. I. 623.) and with his father seized Cyprus; so the Arundel Marbles say that Teucer came to Cyprus seven years after the destruction of Troy, and built Salamis. 2. In the temple built at Cadiz to Hercules, under the name of Melcartus, was Teucer's golden belt, beside Pygmalion's golden bow, by which it appears, that the temple was built in their days, and that they were contemporary. 3. Dionysius Halicarnasseus reckons sixteen kings from La- tinus, who reigned in Italy in the time of the Trojan war, to Romulus ; and from him to the consuls were six kings more : which twenty two reigns, at a medium of eighteen years to a reign (taking the lowest reckoning, because many of them died violent deaths), amount to 396 years. These, counted back- 300 war, by Philip of Macedon, and others — not solely because of the protection and support which they had promised themselves from those deities against dan- gers and accidents, and more especially storms, but be- cause of the respect which ever attached to any indivi- duals who happened to have the honor of initiation in those solemnities. Heathen writers have omitted all allusion to those mysteries, f either from ward from the consuls Brutus and Publicola, place the Trojan war about seventy-eight years after the death of Solomon, according- to Sir Isaac's first computation. 4. Herodotus, who says Homer and Hesiod, were but 400 years before him, wrote in the time of Nehemiah, i. e. 444 years before Christ. And Hesiod said he was but an age after the destruction of Troy. Now 400, 444, and 60 years more for the time between Hesiod and the war of Troy, bring it to the year before Christ 904, as Sir Isaac reckons. 5. Lastly, in the year 1689, the cardinal points had gone back one full sign, six degrees, twenty-nine minutes, from the cardinal points of Chiron (in the time of the Argonautic expe- dition) as nearly, he says, as can be determined from the coarse observations of the ancients. Consequently, at the rate of seventy-two years to a degree, 2627 years had then passed since Chiron, which brings us back to the forty-three years after the death of Solomon, for the time of the Argonautic expedition ; and the destruction of Troy was about thirty or thirty-five years later. So that all these collateral proofs agree in one point, and fix the sera of the ruin of Troy about one and the same year, viz. 904 years before our vulgar aera. * There never was any one religion whatsoever, that had not a particular set of mysteries, which none but a few select devotees could ever attain to. In order to arrive at that pitch of perfection, there have always been such extravagant cere- 301 some groundless veneration which they thought silence would encourage; or, what appears more cer- tain, from the obscenities of conduct with which they were but too grossly defiled, and to which even the high priests themselves would be ashamed to give utterance. Therefore it was, probably, that during their celebration they made use of a peculiar dialect, unintelligible to the vulgar ; which Cam- byses very humorously upbraids them with, at the doors of those deities, as Herodotus informs us. Some people confound the Curetes, or Corybantes, with those Cabiri, whilst others think it more pro- bable that they were their sacrificing priests, and more especially of Ceres, Cibele, or Rhea, whose agonising spirit and disconsolate heart for the dis- astrous loss of her darling Atys, those ministers af- fected to represent in their devotions, rending the air with the most hideous yells, adding thereto the confused conceit of timbrels and brazen cymbals, running about all the while, and shaking their heads from one side to the other ; in short, exhibiting every symptom and gesticulation that madness could suggest. Strabo conceives the Corybantes were so called from, coruptontes hainein, that is, from their walking as if they danced ; whence lunatics and frantic monies to be observed, as were sufficient to surprise, blind, shock, and even confound the inferior class of religionists. 302 people have been called corybantes. Others think the name derived from corns, a helmet ; others from, corutto, to butt with the horn, or toss the head ; others from, crubo, or cruhazo, to conceal, as they assisted Rhea in doing with respect to her offspring ; others from, crouo, to beat, or make a noise, at which they excelled— clashing instrument against instru- ment, and metal against metal, bearing the brunt of all upon their sonorous shields, and seasoning the whole with their *^ most sweet" voices.* But in as much as these all, coming from a Grecian source, are disapproved of by some people — as too far fetched, injudicious, and at variance with one another, — they look upon it as more to the purpose, what Diodorus Siculus asserts, namely, that the Corybantes were so called from Corybas, the son of Cybele, by Jasion ; or from another of the same name, who con- veyed into Phrygia the sacred rites of the mother of the gods, and named the directors of her religious ceremonies after himself. But Corybas, the son of Cybele, belongs to mythology; and as it appears from other sources, that the names of Cybele and the Cabiri took theirs from Phoenicia, I consider the same may be said of the Corybantes, who were the officiating ministers of the Cabiri ; for in the Phoe- * Such is the origin of drums, and although they make at present a distinguishing figure in our armies, yet they were no more, originally, than implements of idolatry and superstition. 303 nician language, Corban, or Coriban, means a gift or offering presented either to God, to idols, or to men ; as it does also, the treasury, or the coffer, in which such presents were deposited ; and idolators took occasion subsequently to transfer the name to their shrines or chapels ; and, as the superintendants of such shrines had the charge and custody of all donations consigned to them, they thence, naturally, were denominated Corybantes. Or they may have assumed to themselves the name from, Coribin, mean- ing kinsfolks, kindred, or relatives, with a view to conciliate the affections of the populace from the fa- miliarity of its tone. The geography of Spain appears still to retain some vestiges of the names of Corybas and Cory- bantes in that of Corbate, a town situated in the province of the Vaccei ; Caravainos, Caravion, and Caravanzo, amongst the Astures ; Corbite, Curbian, and Curantes, in the district of the Suevi. The learned men of this country also may, perhaps, please to consider whether the proper names of, Corballys and Corbally, with that of Carbery and Lake Corib, as also that of, Corribinny, which is a promontory situated near the harbour of Cork, and on the sum- mit of which is still preserved an ancient sepulchre, may not be vestiges of the same name. The analogy too, which we may observe between Camilus, or Kadmilus, a name of Mercury, and the names of cer- tain Irish towns, such as that of Camlin, in the 304 county Antrim ; Camolin, in the county Wexford ; not forgetting that beautiful and delightful mansion belonging to Lord Mount Norris, near Gorey, in the same county, called Camolin-park, deserve especial and particular notice. To me, at least, it is extremely probable, that, the ancient city of Camala amongst the Astures in Spain, was so named from the Phoenician worship of Ca- milus, or Kadmilus ; though others consider it a Grecian name, from, Kemelaia, a little olive tree — to which I must add the names of, Cameles and Cama- leno, towns of the Astures ; Camellera, a village of the Ilergites, and Comillas, a maritime town of Can- tabria. 305 CHAP. XXXIII. Fire worship in Ireland — Bi/ whom introduced — Ur a city of the Chaldeans, why so called — Called also Camerina, and why — Vestiges of these names in the geography of Spain — The religion of fire transferred from the Phoenicians to other nations — The Estia of the Greeks, and Vesta of the Romans. That the ancient Irish were worshippers of fire is a point upon which the antiquarians of the country are all unanimous. — But whether they derived the superstition from the authority of the Celts or Phoe- nicians, is what has not yet been determined, though closely contested by the partisans of either side. I think, however, the controversy admits of a very easy solution, if we but attend to the rise and pro- gress of the worship itself, as well as the names of certain localities in this island, which are considered to bear a direct reference to it. The first, then, who, according to Vossius, ordered fire to be worshipped as a deity, was Nimrod,* whom * Or, rather, in whom they considered the Belus, or Sun, to be personified. He resided for some time at Babylon, but X 306 the Gentiles called, Belus, that is, master or lord. From this circumstance, Ur, a city of the Chaldeans, in which sacrifices used to have heen performed to fire, obtained its name, as it did also those of Urge, Urie, and Camarina ; for, ur^ or, or, means a flame or blaze of fire, or the hearth wherein it blazes ; camar, as before observed, to burn ; cuma- rin, idol priests, and cumarith, the office of priest- hood. But as from. Urge and Ur, I conceive were named those very ancient Phoenician cities of Spain, called Urci and Urgellum ; as well as that extensive and flourishing district in Ireland, which formerly constituted a dynasty in itself, and comprehends within its compass the modern counties of Louth, Armagh, and Moneghan, I mean Orgeal. — And as from Camarina, I imagine, were denominated Cama- rena and Camarenilla, towns of the Carpenti ; with an Camorina — both town and river — of the Suevi, near Nineveh was the grand seat of his empire. This city was built on the eastern banks of the river Tigris, and was one of the largest ever known in the world. It was about sixty miles in circumference ; the walls were one hundred feet high, and so broad, that chariots could pass each other upon them. They, were furthermore, adorned with fifteen hundred towers, and each of these two hundred feet high ; which, may, in some measure, account for what we read in the book of Jonah, that Nineveh was an exceeding great city, of three days journey. Her lofty towers shone like meridian beams, And asa world within herself she seems. 307 Compostella ; in all of which fire worship was insti- tuted by their several founders. — ^So from the plural^ Urin, signifying, hearths, or fires lighted, do I think it exceedingly probable that the river Urrin in Ire- land, in the county of Wexford, and barony of Scarewalsh, had been denominated. Again the town of Uregare, in the barony of Coshma, and county Limerick, is obviously compounded of, ur-egar, mean- ing, a shrine dedicated to fire ; or else, of, ur-egur, an altar consecrated to the same. Urglin, too, the name of a village in the barony of Gather lough, county Carlow, is made up of the words ur-glin, a manifestation, or revelation of fire ; or, ur-galglin, fire in a round heap of stones ; for, glin, in the Syriac, means heaps of stones, as well as it did, a manifest- ation ; and galglin, rotundities, or roundnesses. It is not improbable but that there might have been erected there some one of those round towers so jQrequent in this kingdom. St. Jerome makes mention of this fire worship amongst the Chaldeans, whose whole country, from the same circumstance, was called, Orkoe The Persians too, had their, ur ; and it is well known that they held fire in great veneration, having first only worshipped it as a symbol of the deity, but this figurative worship gradually passed into actual and downright homage, until, in the progress of time, as Lucian observes, they were content with no less than offering sacrifices to it. x2 308 The same is asserted by the ancients of the Medes. from whom this superstition was transferred to the Syrians, and from them again to other nations inha- biting Asia ; nay, to the Cauromatians, Macedonians, and Cappadocians, whose Magi were called ^' Purai- thoi/' that is, fire kindlers, and their temples " Pu- raitheia, that is, places wherein fire is kindled, which latter, we may add, consisted of '' immense inclosures in the centre of which was erected an altar, where the magi used to preserve a heap of ashes, besides the ever burning fire," resembling, as D'Alton affirms,* our * Yes, but Mr. D'Alton, and Mr. Higgins, (Celtic Druids,) and all the other ^re votaries ^ should know that those tire tem- ples of the Ghebres, were nothing more than, what Dr. Hurd, an ocular witness, has appropriately styled them, viz. '* sorry huts/' — the ancient ones, being, according to Sir John Malcolm, arched vaults about fifteen feet high ; and the modern ones, ac- cording to Captain Keppel, without any covering at all ! Han- way, who appears to have misled all our fire speculators, fell into a similar mistake, himself, with respect to the " Round Towers," or Budhist Temples, which he met with in the east — calling them, "fire temples."— Yet, by and by, when he has occasion to describe an actual fire temple, he represents it as a vault, not exceeding^ in height, ten or Jif teen feet, of which, by the way, we have several still in Ireland, before hinted at in an early note in this volume, and distinct altogether from the *• Round Towers," which are specimens of the^wes^ architecture extant in any country. In 1820, Henry de Loundres, archbishop of Dublin, put out this fire, called" unextinguishable," — which had been preserved, though a remnant of the pagan idolatry of Baal — -from the earliest times, by the nuns of St. Brigid, at Kildare. It was re-lighted, and continued to burn until the 309 Irish '' Round Towers/'* as well as the '' Atush kudu/' or fire chapels, which Zoroaster had ordered to be total suppression of monasteries; the luins of the fire-house and nunnery still remain, and bear no relation to the " Round Towers." Here was Dr. Villauueva's greatest mistake. * As the benefit of light is best known when contrasted with darkness, so truth is the more admired for being compared with falsehood. On this principle it was that the early missionaries of the Christian church have proceeded in Ireland. Finding, on their arrival, a hallowed regard attached to those localities, whereon stood the memorials of previous Pagan adoration, the best use, they conceived they could make of this *' regard," was, to erect, on the same " localities," Christian houses of worship; to, at once, conciliate the prejudices of those whom they would fain persuade, and divert their adoration from the creature to the Creator. "We observe, accordingly, mouldering in decay, beside each of the three species of ancient Irish worship, the Celtic, the Budhist, and the Druidical — the ^rst and last of which be- came ultimately identified, and of which the Cromleachs and Mithratic caves are the memorials ; while the " Round Towers" represent the purer^ the bloodless, and the inoffensive Budhist faith — Christian ruins of more modern structures, yet venerable in antiquity, and composed by architects who could not vie in skill, of either design or cement, with their pagan predecessors. And yet upon this single circumstance of contiguity to Ec- clesiastical dilapidations - coupled with the bas-relief of a cru- cifix which presents itself over the door of the Budhist temple at Donoghmore in Ireland, and that at Brechin in Scotland — have the deniers of the antiquity of those venerable edifices, raised that superstructure of historical imposture, which, I pro- mise them, will soon crumble around their ears, before the indignant eflfulgence of regenerated veracity. It might be suf- ficient for this purpose to tell them that they might as well, from this vicinity, infer that the Cromleachs were also erected 310 erected. These ancient temples of Cybele or Vesta, wherein was preserved the perpetual Jive, were by the early missionaries, as tliey would fain make out, by precisely the same mode of inference that the Budhist temples, or Round Towers, had been ! But this would not suit. They could find no ascription associated with Christianity, to which to assign the Cromleachs ; — and thus have the poor missiona- ries escaped the cumbrous imputation of having those colossal pagan slabs affiliated upon themi. Not so fortunate the towers. After ransacking the whole catalogue of available applications, appertaining to the order of monastic institutions, with which to siamise those temples, the Royal Irish Academy have at last hit upon the noble and dig- nified department of a — dungeon keep ! or, lock up ! — as the sole use and purpose of their costly erection ! Now, if the monks possessed the secret of fabricating those Round Towers, or even the materials whereof they are con- structed — being, in some instances, an artificial substance resembling a reddish brick, squared, and corresponding to the composition of the Round Towers of Mazumderan; or else, when natural, a reddish grit, or pudding stone. — Why were not the monasteries, the more important edifices, according to our would-be-antiquaries, composed of the same elements? and is it not strange, that all elegance and extravagance should have been lavished upon the appendages, while uncouthness, inele- gance, want of durability , or other architectural recommendation, are the characteristics of, what they tell us were, the 'principals? Yet, neither in the Monasteries, nor in any other Christian struc- ture, do we meet with those materials above described, either generally ox partially ; except where the ruins of a neighbouring " Round Tower" have made them available — which, in itself, is sufficient to overthrow, for ever, the anachronisms of those who would deny the existence of the Round Towers anterior to the Christian aera. 311 called by the Irish, Tlachgo, which some would de- rive from the Irish word, tlacht, the earth, the world. But the sign of the crucifixion remains yet unanswered? and, no doubt, my opponents fancy that it will remain so ; and, nay more, unansicerable, unless attempted to be evaded by the pretext of interpolatimi. No such thing. — Hand tali auxilio, nee defensoribus istis tempus eget. The genuineness of i\i\s emblem and of the other signs whXch. accompany it, is at once the triumph of my truth and my discovery. Do I mean to say that the crucifixion of Jesus Christ can bear any relation to the doctrine of Budhism'? That is the question which ignorance will ask. But our Saviour was not the only one who was cru- cified for his faith. In my work upon the " Round Towers," 1 have shewn that Budha, in whose honor those temples were constructed — was crucified alsOf in sustainment of a religion the very counterpart of Christianity, diflfering from it only in pri- ority of date. — And I have given, at the same time, an effigy of this idol, representing his godship in this attitude of cruci- fixion ; which, with two other effigies, all representatives of Budha — in different bearings of his incarnation — have been dug up in the bogs of Ireland, and reserved for me to develope and elucidate. Struck with this extraordinary similitude between the Christian and the Budhistical religions, the Jesuits — who went to convert the Beduins on the coast of Guinea, Mada- gascar, Socotora, and the countries thereabout — and unable, furthermore, to account for the veneration which those heathens universally paid to the cross — all of them, without exception, wearing it about their necks — while they celebrated^their divine service in Chaldee, a dialect of our ancient Irish — concluded most absurdly, that Budhism must have been a modification of Christianity before promulgated, — whereas Budhism was pro- pagated many thousand years before Christianity, or Brah- minism either ; and this cross was the symbol of Budha crucified. 312 But it more properly comes from the Phoenician, thlal, he exalted, in conformity with the elevation of those edifices. Nay, the word, clogha itself, the Iberno Celtic denomination thereof, appears to me of Phoenician origin, from clach, he shut up, in reference to the fire ; for the Phoenicians called these fires, cammia, from, camas, hidden ; because that in them was preserved the fire concealed. See Collect, de Reb. Ibern. p. 308. From the Greeks, the prac- tice of worshipping fire passed to the Romans, who worshipped it under the name of Vesta ; for it is past dispute that by Vesta, or the Grecian Estia, was meant not only Cybele, but also a public hearth, or fire place. But as all sacred names have been de- rived from the east, so were Estia and Vesta, from. It will readily be believed, therefore, that my indignation and my disgust were, in no small degree, excited, on reading an article in the " Dublin Penny Journal," written by Mr. Petrie, representative oi" the antiquarian literature ? of the Royal Irish Academy — in which, having never once dreamt of Budha or his crucifixion- he ignorantly attempts — but with a confidence which, in my ears, sounded as blasphemy — to identify the above image wilh that of our saviour Christ ! As I would fain hope, however, that this error was encouraged from any other cause rather than what has been broadly affirmed — a prejudice to me personally, 1 forbear — for the present — saying more upon the point, as — having appealed from the tenor of the late decision — I have adopted a course to remove every pretext for incertitude and scepticism; after which, if my just reward be withheld, or viciously neutralized, I shall make no secret of the pro- ceedings. 313 es, fire^ and iah, one of the denominations of the deity ; tantamount to the ^'God of fire/' or the ^' fire of God." Means were taken also to preserve ever burn- ing the hearth of Vesta, as the Romans appointed virgins to the superintendance thereof, while the Greeks elected widows, well stricken in years, as best adapted to the office. Upon which Tullius says, '^ ves- tal virgins guard in the city the eternal fire of the public hearth." Besides the name of Urrin, Uregare, and Urglin, there occur others in the topography of Ireland which evidently borrowed their origin from this wor- ship of fire ; Delgany for instance, or, Delgueny, as it is otherwise called, being the name of a village in the county Wicklow, Baxter conceives denominated from delgue, or delga, an old British word, signify- ing an idol or image ; whence the Delgovicia of An- toninus, the modern Wighton, he looks upon as equi- valent to '^the sacred image ;" — for there was a cele- brated temple belonging to some idol in a certain village thence called Godmundam, that is, the divine mouth. But to my mind, Delgany is a Phoenician name derived from, delkin, which means a burning fire, the root of which is, deleche, blazed or burned. From this worship also, would seem to be derived the name of the ancient district of Duleek, which at present forms both a barony and borough town in the county Meath ; for, in the Syriac language, du- leek, signifies an immense fire. Thus in the Syriac 314 version of the gospel according to St. John, verse 35, it is said, "he was (dulek) a burning light.*' From the same root was named the Phoenician town of Delica, amongst the Cantabrians in Spain. Aire-Caldachiaroc, the name of a district in the* county Tyrone, seems to me to be compounded of the Phoenician words, hair, he kindled a blazing fire ; Caildai, a Chaldean ; and, chiric, an enclosed place, or chirac, a citadel ; intimating altogether, a fortified place, where the Chaldasans — the name by which the Phoenicians designated all magicians and soothsayers— used to worship the sacred fire. Ac- cording to the testimony of Strabo, as we have just before observed, the fire temples consisted of immense enclosures, in the centre of which, upon an altar, was preserved the perennial hearth. From the word, hair, too, which indicates the worship of fire, it is pro- bable that the Phoenicians had designated the town of Airoa, in the county of the province of the Bri- gantes in Spain; as also that of Aireje, Aireja, Airesa, and Aireche amongst the Lucanians, who were also a colony of the Phoenicians. 315 CHAP. XXXIV. The worship of Baal in Ireland — Various names of Baal — The Baby Ionic Bel — The Edessenian — The Phcenician — Jupiter Thalasius — Bel with the Celts meant Sol — Whence the Irish designated the first day of May — Origin of the word Grian — Grange Mountain — Greenfield — Green Island — Green Mount, SfC. — The Cities, Countries and Nations that derive their name from Baal — Origin of the names MernSy Foggart, Feighe, and Feigh — Meaning of Baali. There are innumerable names in the Irish topo- graphy, which point out to the eye the extensive prevalence, at one period, from one part of the king- dom to the other, of the Phoenician worship of Baal, who was the principal deity of that people. Some of those places begin with the singular Bal or Bel, and Bally or Baily : others by the plural Balin and Ballin, or Ballim, There are, I know, those who derive all these from the Irish, ball or bail, a place, coast, or margin ; or from, balla, a wall or fortification. This may be true of some of them, but by far the greater part of them, if not evidently, at least, very probably. 316 savor of the worship of this idol. But though my intention is to shew this more fully in my forth- coming work on the Phoenician Geography of Ire- land, I flatter myself that my learned readers will not think I trespass upon them too much, if, in the interim, I give them a few as a specimen. Baillie Boroug, a town in the county Cavan, pro- vince of Ulster, beside a fort of the same name. Very probably, this may come from the Irish words, baill, grateful, delightful, pleasant ; and borg, a dis- strict or village, corresponding to the Teutonic borough ; or from the Phoenician words, ballei, ancient; or balHa, the same in the feminine; and barg, a tower ; or barga, a villa, a hut, which were in use amongst the ancient Persians and Chaldaeans ; but now they are not read of but amongst the Arabian writers. Yet I look upon it as more likely, that, Boroug, is a corruption of the Phoenician word, borac, implying genuflexion, from barac, he bent upon his knees ; and that Baillie, too, emanates from Baal, under whose veil the Phoenicians worshipped several idols, of which we will discuss a little more diflusely when oppor- tunity shall offer, because that very many of our Irish towns and little villages have been denominated after them. The Sidonian Belus, the Phegorian Belus, and the Babylonian Belus, were almost the same in reality as the Jupiter Olympius, Jupiter Latiaris, Jupiter 317 Cretensis ; or the Apollo Clarius, Apollo Delphicus, Apollo Selinnutius, &c. &;c.* The word Bel, omitting the letter, a, after the manner of the Chaldeans, was peculiar to them and the Babylonians. Thence the Greeks and the Latins indiscriminately call the Phoenician Baal, Bel — utterly regardless of Eastern dialects. Perhaps the temple of Belus, the Babylonian, was the '^ great house," which Periegetes mentions, that Semiramis erected to Belus in the Babylonian citadel. Bel was wor- shipped from the earliest times at Edessa, a city of the Phoenicians ; as was also Mercury, whom they name Monimus ; and Mars, whom they name Azizius, * The primitive religion of the Greeks, like that of all other nations not enlightened by Revelation, appears to have been elementary, and to have consisted in an indistinct worship of the sun, the moon, the stars, the earth, and the waters, or rather of the spirits supposed to preside over those bodies, and to direct their motions and regulate their modes of existence. Every river, spring, or mountain, had its local genius or peculiar deity; and as men naturally endeavour to obtain the favor of their gods by such means, as they feel best adapted to win their own, the first worship consisted in offering to them certain portions of whatever they held to be most valuable. At the same time that the regular motions of the heavenly bodies, the stated re- turns of summer and winter, of day and night, with all the admirable order of the universe, taught them to believe in the existence and agency of such superior powers ; the irregular and destructive efforts of nature, such as lightning and tempests, inundations and earthquakes, persuaded them that these mighty beings had passions and affections similar to their own, and only differed in possessing greater strength, power, and intelligence. 318 as you may see in a hymn to the sun, composed by Julian the Apostate, who acknowledges that the sentiment and the information here alluded to, was de- rived from Jamblicus the Syrian, who had been once his preceptor. As bearing reference to this Phoenician Belus, it is that we are to understand what is said in the II. Kings, xvi. 31, 32, where King Achab in compliment to his father-in-law, Ithoboal, King of the Sidonians, is recorded as having consecrated a temple to Baal in Samaria, called Beth Baal, that is the shrine or chapel of Baal. But the Syrians have handed down from age to age, that this Belus, who was called the Jupiter Thalasius, or Marine Jupiter of the Sidonians, and who, Hesychius mentions, had been worshipped in Sidon : — the Syrians, I say, have a tradition that he had descended from this latter place, which was a maritime and flourishing com- mercial city of Phoenicia. The Europeans called Belus by the names of Zeus* and Jupiter, as applied to whom we are to receive that sentence in the first * As the maintenance of order and subordination among men required the authority of a supreme magistrate, the continuation and general predominance of order and regularity in the universe would naturally suggest the idea of a supreme God, to whose soverign control all the rest were subject; and this ineffable personage the primitive Greeks appear to have called by a name expressive of the sentiment, which the contemplation of his great characteristic attribute naturally inspired, Deus, signify- ing, according to the most probable etymology, reverential fear or awe. Their poets, however, soon debased his dignity, and 319 iEneid, where it is said, that " he filled with wine a goblet, which Belus and all descended from Belus, were accustomed to fill ;" for the Carthaginians had sprung from Phoenicia, and the poet is here speaking of the libation of Dido, their queen. Stephanus also relates, that there was a temple in honour of the Carthaginian Belus or Baal, in Balis, a city of Lybia. Bel, in its diminution from Belin, meant, with the Celts, Sol or Apollo ; which they borrowed from the Phoenicians, the authors of this superstition, and to whom Baal, Beal or Bel expressed the sun, which they originally worshipped with human sacrifices, as we have mentioned, afterwards substituting the brute creation. Hence the first day of May, in Irish, was called La Baal teinne, that is, the day of the fire of Baal ; and several of our Irish mountains still retain the name of Cnocgreine, that is, mountain of the sun ; in numbers of which you may yet see the ruins of heathenish altars and chapels; for the sun is sup- posed to have been called Grian, Gren-ur, or Gren-or, in Irish, from the circumstance of the worship paid thereto ; which accords with the Grynean Apollo of Homer, and Grynaeus, a town of Asia Minor, where, as Strabo asserts, is a temple, and an oracle, and a grove sacred to Apollo^ and celebrated for their an- made him the subject of as many wild and extravagant fables as any of his subject progeny ; which fables became a part of their religion, though never seriously believed by any but the lowest of the vulgar. 320 tiquity, together with their other attributes. To these we may add the river Granicus, as called also from the sun, since its source lay in mount Ida, which was sacred to Apollo, and where the I dean stone was preserved, upon which Homer asserts that Hector was in the habit of sacrificing. From the same worship of the sun was named Grange, a con- secrated mountain mear Drogheda^ formerly Tredagh, which is a town in the county Louth, where O'Conor testifies is to be found a circle of immense stones,* * This extraordinary monument or pyramid, or rather sub- terraneous temple, which is now but a ruin of what it originally was, covers two acres of ground, and has an elevation of about seventy feet ; but its original height was not less than one hundred. It is formed of small stones, covered over with earth; and at its base was encircled by a line of stones, of enormous magnitude, placed in erect positions, and varying in height, from four to eleven feet above the ground, and supposed to weigh from ten to twelve tons each. Of these stones, ten only remained about fifty years back ; and one has since been re- moved. About a century ago, there was also a large pillar stone, or stele, on the summit of the mount, now also destroyed. These stones, as well as those of which the grand interior chamber is built, are not found in the neighbourhood of the pyramid, but have been brought hither from the mouth of th river Boyne — a distance of seven or eight miles. The stones of which the entire structure consists, are of great size: those which form the lintels or roof of the gallery, are but six in number; and, of these, the first is twelve feet four inches long, the third eighteen feet, and the fifth about twelve feet; the breadth of these stones is not less than six feet. The tallest of the upright ones forming the entrance to the recess, is seven feet six inches in height, and its companion seven feet. The 321 and other vestiges of idolatry, of wonderful magni- tude, as appears, also, in the descriptions of Llhuydh and Pownall. These and other such vestiges of the sacrificing priests, are even at this day called Leab thacha na bh Feine, or the monuments of the Phoe- nicians. From the sun's worship, too, it would seem that Greenfield, which is situated by the banks of the Blackwater, in the county Cork, had obtained its name ; as well as Green-Island, which lies in Dona- ghadee harbour, in the county Down ; Green-Mount, a town in the county Louth ; Green-Hills, which are the summits of certain mountains in the county Kildare. But we should observe, that hill, which with us means a mountain, meant with the Phoeni- cians, an idol, and was spelled with one, L The Irish word Grian or Green, too, — the sun, — is derived from the Phoenician Krew, the sun's ray or splendour. Hence the Irish call the zodiac or sun's revolution, by the name of Grean bheach ; and a sun dial, by vase or urn within this chamber, is three feet eight inches in diameter ; that in the opposite chamber is displaced from its supporter : these urns are of granite. On the first examination of the interior, a pyramidial or obeliscal stone, six or seven feet in height, is said to have stood in the centre, near which the skeletons of two human bodies were found ; and about the same period, two gold Roman coins were discovered on the top of the Mount — the one of the elder Valentinian, and the other of Theodosius. 322 the name of Grian clog, that is, a solar clock ; to this I refer the names of Cnoc Greine and Tuam Greine, that is, hills of the sun ; very many of which, as the Irish writers attest, were remarkable for idol- atrous altars ; Aois-Greine, called Cnoc-Greine, from the hill of the sun, lying in the county Limerick, up to the suburbs of the very city. And although Aois may well be derived, as O'Conor imagines, from the Irish word Aos, which signifies a religious sect or society, because there formerly a certain leading sect of the Druids was worshipped, or paid worship them- selves ; yet the Irish word, aos, itself, must be derived either from the Phoenician, aoz,he assembled; or, aos, he was assembled. Likewise the name of that Druid- ical altar, called Granny's* Bed, near Fermoy, in the county Cork, is supposed to have been corrupted from Grean Beacht, which is usually interpreted, the sun's circle. I prefer, however, the word, bed, which is, the Phoenician, beth, meaning a house, a shrine, a temple. The Phoenicians named some of the cities of their country from the name of Baal ; for instance, Baal * Caile, or Granny, that is, " old hag," the name of a giantess, who devoured all the children of the neighbourhood, corresponding with the destructive goddess, Calee, of the Brahmins, whose neck is ornamented with a chain of human skulls, descriptive of the human sacrifices which were annually offered to her in Hindostan. 323 A Meon, mentioned in Numbers xxxii. 3S ; Baal Hae- mon, in Canticles viii. 11 ; Baal Zephon, in Exodus xiv. 2 : for the story of Aben Ezra is, that this idol was constructed by Pharoali's Magi, in imitation of the position of the heavenly bodies, and placed beside the Arabic Gulph, with a view to observe and retard the Israelites, — being vested with the power of in- veigling them on their march, and diverting their course from their heaven-ordained enterprise. The Phoenicians, also, gave the name of, Baal Gad, to a part of Mount Lebanus, beginning within the precincts of their own jurisdiction, under Tyre, afterwards called Gibel ; and the plain of Jericho, they called Baal Thamar, as you would say the palm-grove of Baal : for, Jericho, itself, was called Thamar, or the city of palms, from the numerous plantations of this kind with which it was environed and ornamented. Of this Phoenician custom of consecrating to Baal the names of cities and of people, Spain still retains evi- dent proofs, in the names of Balin and Balina, towns belonging to the Astures and the Gallicians ; as it does, also, in Balimana, a village of Celtiberia. Madrid had formerly a gate, opposite to the river Manzanares, named Balnadu, comprising, in its for- mation, the Phoenician, Baalin dub, that is, the river dedicated to Baal; or beside the temple of Baal; which I shall also prove, in its proper place, to be the etymology of Dublin. So also Baillie Boroug would y2 % 324 seem to have been a town or temple of Baal ; or as, bending the knee before Baal.* But it is not only to the names of places and cities, but, also, to those of men, that we can ad- duce the most copious instances to show, that the name of Baal was added as an honorary adjunct. Certainly, we may trace it in the final syllable of those ancient and distinguished Carthaginian appel- latives — Annibal, Ardrubal, and Adhubal. The Easterns, too, have very often modelled their names after the same plan, as we may see in the first sylla- ble of Beladane; the last of Ethobale; and several others of the same kind. And Daniel, the prophet, was called Beltzazar, that is, " according to the name of my God," as that tyrant, Nebuchadnezar, ex- presses it. That the Phoenicians had introduced into Ireland, as they did into Spain and other colonies, the worship, sacrifices, dances,f and other religious rites, instituted * The Burates celebrate a kind of sacrifice, twice or thrice a year, which consists in driving stakes through their he-goats and sheep, whilst they are alive, and planting them before their teuts. They keep constantly bowing their heads to these victims, till they expire. + We are awakened from our first sleep by the sounds of tinkling instruments, accompanied by a chorus of female voices. I looked out of the window, and saw a band of thirty damsels, at least, come tripping towards us, with measured paces, and animated gestures. The moon shone very bright, and we had 325 in honor of Baal, is as clear as the noon- day, from numberless names of the topography of the country. The memory of this superstition is preserved to the present day, in the islands of Ebudae, Ebonise, or Evonas, situated in the Deucaledonian sea, and whose number is not known, but called, by the Scoto- Brigantine Irish by the modern name, Inseu Gal, or the Brigantine Islands. For as Martin, who is by far the most accurate and most diligent describer of them, has shewn, it is usual amongst them to apply to persons, who happen to stand on the brink of any difficulties, the expressive proverb of their " standing between the two fires of Belus ;" — alluding, of course, to the bloody sacrifices of youths and infants, who, in honor of this idol, as we have often before men- tioned, were cruelly burned between two funeral piles. Nay, more, the very word '' funeral pile " was, by the Anglo-Saxons, called Bael-fir ; and a priest, by the Aremorici, was designated Belec, as you would a full view of them, from their entering the gate of our street, until they reached our house. Here they stopped, and spread* ing themselves in a circle before the door, renewed the dance and sung with infinite spirit, and recalled to our minds the picture which is so fully given of these dancing females in holy writ. It seems that they took our house in the way to he river, where they went down to bathe at that late hour, and to sing the praises of the benevolent power who yearly distributes his waters to supply the necessities of the natives. Irivins Voyage up the Red Sea, 326 say, the minister of Bel or Baal. Whence, too, may I ask, comes the Vulcan of the Romans, unless from the Syriac, Bel-canna, which is the Celtic, Belcan, that is, the burning hot Bel or Baal ? Furthermore the Irish, Samhain, or sacred season, appears to me to have originated from, Shamain, which was another name for Baal amongst the Phce* nicians, in whose language, Shamain, litterally ex- presses, the heavens ; and, by Synechdoche, the god of heaven, or who dwells therein. An, ' likewise, in Irish, signifies a planet; and, samh, the sun ; whence after the manner of the Phoenicians, who looked upon the sun as the only god in heaven, as Phylo Bybli- ensis, the interpreter of Sanchoniathon mentions, they worshipped this planet under the name of Baal. Respecting which, Augustine, on Judges xvi, says, '' The Carthaginians seem to call Baal, the Lord, Whence they are understood to say, Baal-samen, as if, the lord of heaven — the heavens with them being called, samen ; " where instead of, samain, we per- ceive that he uses, samen ; in conformity, perhaps, with the Phoenician dialect of that age. But this very deity, which the Phoenicians styled Beal- samen, or lord of heaven, was no other, as Philo re- marks, than the Olympian Jove^, or the Jupiter of the Grecians. And observe now the origin of the Irish words, samh, (the sun) and samhain, (sacred season,) for the sun's circuit round the earth, or more properly, of the earth round the sun, is a mea- 327 sure of time, and this measure, which they ascribed to their deity, they naturally looked upon as sacred. To this too, I refer the etymology of Merns, the name of one of the Scotch counties — one of its most fertile, I may observe, both for tillage and pasture. For what else is it, with a slight alteration, than Marnas, the idol of Gaza, a city of Palestine, by which name the Gazeans affected to worship Baal ; for Mar or Maran, in Syriac, if you look to the ages after the captivity, is interpreted the same as Baal ; hence in the Phoenician, marnas, or marnasa, means the divinity, or lord of mankind.* When the island of Crete adopted the worship of this idol, he was called by its inhabitants, Jupiter Cretensis ; so that you see the Cretans borrowed their Jupiter from the Phoe- nicians, not the latter from the former. And they transferred their idol Marnas, with their own an- cient name into the British isles. The same con- jecture gains countenance in Foggart, a town in the county Louth, province of Leinster ; for under this name there seems to lie concealed the idol Fegor, or Baal Fegor, which the Moabites worshipped, and * We read in I. Kings, xix. that when Elijah the prophet was called upon, by the ** still small voice," in the wilderness, he answered, that he only was left in Israel to worship the true God. But let us remember the reply ; " I have seven thousand in Israel, who have not bowed the knees unto Baal, and mouths that have not kissed him." 328 \\'liich St, Jerome, commenting on a verse in Hosea^ affirms "^ we may pronounce to have been" Pri- apiis. Although others think the name derived from Fegor, a mountain in the country of Moab, opposite the desert of Jesimmon, in which Baal, or as Suidas calls him, Beal, had a temple and religious honors paid him, which may have been the origin, perhaps, of the Irishf words, feighr, a hill, and feigh, bloody, in allusion to the human victims immolated to this idol. Finally, Bel, or Baal, is a name impi- ously given to other images also, whether of stars> or of heroes, the memory of which they would far rather cherish, and was to them more dear. But the Baali, here indicated, does not only mean Baal, but, my Baal, or my Lord, which name was originally given to the true God. The Israelites, with propriety and devotion, called God their Baal, before that God himself, from the frequent applica- tion of that name to profane divinites, forbad its farther use. That the Phoenicians had often used Baali for Baal, is evidenced by the very localities and local names of this country, for instance, Ballibofy, Ballyboughan, Ballibrack, Ballibur, Ballicary, Bal- tinglas, or Beal-tine-glas, a mountain in the county t Yet the chastity of the women, and the bravery of the men, are traits of the national character on which these people, not without justice, pique themselves. — Philos. ^uro. of the South of Ireland. 329 Wicklow. This was the great Beal-tinne of the southern division^ in which were lighted fires by the idolatrous natives^ on the first day of May and Au- gust respectively, in honor of the sun. In its vici- nity are to be seen, to this day, several altars and monuments of ancient superstition. The word is usually translated in Irish, Beal-tinne-glass, that is, the custody of Baal's fire, or the fire of the mysteries of Baal, because of the fires then lighted by the Druids. From this worship of Baal, or the sun, and of Saturn — as also from the veneration paid to Astarte, and to fire, for which the Phoenician colonists of Ireland, and their Druids, or sacrificing priests were conspicuous beyond all the nations of the west — Ire- land was designated the '^ sacred Island,"* by them- * The land of beauty and of grandeur, lady, Where looks the cottage out on a domain The palace cannot boast of. Seas of lakes. And hills of forests ! crystal waves that rise 'Midst mountains all of snow, and mock the sun. Returning him his flaming beams more thick And radiant than he sent them. Torrents there Are bounding floods ! and there the tempest roams At large, in all the terrors of its glory ! And then our valleys ! ah, they are the homes For hearts! our cottages, our vineyards, orchards — Our pastures studded with the herd and fold ! Our native strains that melt us as we sing them ! A free — a gentle — s\m^\e— honest people. Knowles, 330 selves, and by the Bards,* and by other states; and the first head-land which presented itself to the Phoe- nicians on their sail from Cornwall to I erne, was characterised by the epithet of the " sacred promon- tory." f In Irish, the word " sacred,'* or otherwise, fatal "island," is Inis-fail ; which originated from the * Of the ancient bards or poets, Lucan makes this mention in the first booke of his Pharsalia. " Vos quoque fortes aniraa, belloque peremptas ** Laudibus in longum vates dimittis aevum, ** Plurima securi fudistis carmina Bardi." The word signified among the Gaules a singer, as it is noted by Mr. Camden, and Mr. Selden, out of Pestus Pompeius, and it had the same signification among the British. Sir lohn Price in the description of Wales, expounds it to bee one that had knowledge of things to come, and so (saith he) it signifieth at this day, taking his ground (amisse) out of Lucan's verse? Doctor Powell, in his notes upon Caradocof Lhancarvan, saitL that in Wales they preserved gentlemens armes and pedigrees. At this time in Ireland the bard, by common acceptation, is counted a rayling rimer, and distinguished from the poet. — Sir James Ware, The true origin of the word " Bard," however, was as much un- known to Sir James himself as to any of the above authorities. It being but a modification of Boreades, the name of the ancient Irish priests, as I prove in my work upon the ** Round Towers.'' f Opposite to " Hartland point, or Herculis promontorium, on the Irish coast, is *' Carnsore point," which in Irish is equi- valent to ''promontorium sacrum;" for '* came," from the ori- ental keron, ** a horn," is usually applied to those sacred mounts or high places on which Pagan temples or altars were wont to be erected; and *'soire," corresponding to, surya, of the same import, in Sanscrit, signifies in Irish, ** the rising sun," or the 331 prophetic stone, called liack-fail,*or stone of destiny, used by the ancient Irish kings during the ceremony of their coronation, a practice which continued up to the period of Murtogh Mac Earc, in the sixth cen- tury, who sent it to Scotland for the more solemn inauguration of his brother Fergus, the first founder of the Irish monarchy in Scotland. The epithet, sacred, was more aptly afterwards applied to this isle, when — after extirpating therefrom all idolatrous usages, by the exhilirating announcement of the gospel of Christ,f it became in St. Bernard's words east. In analogy with this name we find on the Atlantic, not far from Gibraltar, that of Cape St. Vincent, which was for- merly denominated, ** Promontorium sacrum." * Ware, speaks of the fatal stone called Liafail, or ^* saxum fatale," which the Tuatha Danans brought with them to Ireland, and which groaned when the kings were seated on it at their coronation. This stone, he mentions, was sent into Albania to be used at the coronation of Fergus; that Keneth had it placed in a wooden chair, in which the kings of Scotland sat at the time of their coronation in the abbey of Scone, whence it was transferred by Edward I,, king of Eng- land, and placed in Westminster abbey. t We cannot but admire the omnipotence of God, and power of his grace, in the rapid conversion of this idolatrous nation. So sudden a change can only be attributed to him who has the power of softening the most callous hearts ; for it can be said with truth, that no other nation, in the christian world, received with so much joy the knowledge of the kingdom of God, and the faith in Jesus Christ. Nothing can be found to equal the zeal with which the new converts lent their aid to St. Patrick, in breaking down their idols, demolishing their temples, and building churches. — Mac Geoghegan. 332 truly blessed and prolific in saints, yielding fruit many fold in the vineyard* of the Almighty, whose inhabitants, in virtue prospering — as with the impetus of an inundating tide — diffused the sweet odor of that celestial sanative, which they had themselves ex- perienced, into the remotest quarters of the habi- table world.f * Oh ! let the Christian philanthropist promote its general diffusion there; and, should no visible harvest crown his toil, yet his work will be with the Lord, and his reward with his God. But a harvest there will assuredly be ; for the fields are already white unto it : and glorious will be the *'day when he that soweth and he that reapeth shall rejoice together" — '* WHEN THEY THAT BE WISE SHALL SHINE AS THE SUN, AND THEY THAT TURN MANY TO RIGHTEOUSNESS AS THE STARS FOR EVER AND EVER." t Vert sanctus, fcecundusque sanctorum, copiosissime fructi- ficans Deo: cujus incolae virtute floreutes, quasi inundatione faciei y Christi bonum odorem in exteras etiam nationes effude^ runt. — Bernard. APPENDIX. 335 REGI^ IBERNI^ ACADEMI.E JOACHIMUS LAURENTIUS VILLANUEVA. Innumeris ab hospitalibus Ibernis afFectus beneficiis, et quod mihi, libris et MSS. codicibus spoliate, apprime cordi est, ad principes et ditiores Dublini bibliothecas admissus ; en tibi, illustris Academia, quae patriis antiquitatibus elucidandis raag- nopere studes, banc lucubratiunculam, Ibernicae laudis ergo h. me arreptam, in grati animi officium reverenter exhibeo. Pau- cula quidem alterius generis e peou meo depromere possem, cui ne otium unquam otiosum est ; sed nomini, institute, et eru- ditissimo coetui tuo nihil mihi visum est quod propriiis et con- venienti^s ofFerrem, qu^m ardua haec excursio in remotissima Iberniae tempora, si forte repererim inter spissas illius aetatis tene- bras, quae fuerunt gentes quae earn primitils incoluerunt. Quod si non plene assecutus sum, (nee enim in evolvenda antiquitate, ut aiebat Quintilianus, nee in notiti^ vel rerum, vel hominum, vel temporum, satis operae insumitur) non injucundam tamen, nee inutilem banc commentatiunculam hujusmodi eruditionis culto- ribus futuram, vel ipsa laus, quam vos, laudati viri, pro huma- nitate et benignitate vestr^, post censoriam operis auimadversi- 336 onem, labori meo contulistis, propemodum indicat. Nunc oro, ut quod k vobis probatum est, comiter excipiatis. Valete qua- propter, Socii eruditissimi, et Academiae vestrae, atque etiam Iberniae gloriam laboribus ac studiis vestris amplificare, ut jam laudabiliter ccEpistis, alacriter pergite. Datum Dublini Idih.Junii, ann. 183X, 337 IBERNIA PHOENICEA, &c. &c. CAPUT I. Scopus operis — Incerta Ibernice incolarum origo — Via earn, in- quirendi — Ardua res est in prisca fempora penetrare — Hujus conatus specimen — IbernicR historiarum copia et Jides — Iber- nice priorum gentium et locorum peregrina nomina — Unde petendum esteorum etymon — Gratus animus erga recentiores et veteres rerum Ibernicarum scriptores— Non semper tutum est eos sequi. Priorum Iberniae incolarum, qukm vetus, tarn incerta origo est, nee ratione satis concipienda. Quanivis autem quze de iis fama celebrat, ea non prorsils abneganda sunt ; ad veritateni tamen propi^s accedendi tutius iter est norainum originem ve- terum hujus insulae populorura et tribuum investigare ; quae certe, magnA saltern ex parte, sicut in aliis orbis regionibus ac- cidit, eorum genus, et stirpem, et patriani unde emigrarunt, ve- luti digito monstrant, Non dicam inconvulsa, sed aliquantula tamen huic expiscationi manet fides, cujus pretium non inani- Z 338 bus vilipendendum conjectiiris, nisi potiora et magis authentica accedant argumenta. Cilm enim res ardua sit, ut ajebat Pli- nius, vetustis novitatem dare, novis auctoritatem, obsoletis nito- rem, obscuris lucem, fastiditis gratiam, dubiis fidem ; etiam non assecutis voluisse, abuude pulchrum atque magnificum est. Id quod ego cordi habens, aliquali reipublicae litterarise bono, fa- cile ill id consilium veni, ut aliquid simile tentare, ne dicam perficere statuerim ; banc mod6 provinciam veluti otii litterarii caussa suscipere non dubitans. Cilm ver6 ilia, quce super geographicis Iberniae nominibus discutere in animo est, nee pauca, nee exigua sint, ac sedulo egeant examine, linguarumque orientalium et septentrionaiium studio ; eorum specimen in priscis Ibernarum gentium nominibus et idololatrico earum cultu interim innuisse sufGciat ; rejectis quibusdam mearum conjectationum fontibus, qui praesto esse possunt iis quibus banc Spartam deinceps ornare libeat. Ali- quantulam tamen gratiam inire confido, si hujusmodi scrinia, muiiusculi instar, tam iis praebeam, quiludicris levibusque cre- pundiis assueti sunt,, quam iis, quibus cordi est gravis ac severus litterarum atque honestarum disciplinarum cultus. Dolendum sane est, tot nebulis interfusum veterum Iberniae incolarum originis investigandi iter ; cdm ali^s nusquam gen- tium alia natio antiquitatum ab omni aevo observantior, exac- tiiis chronographiam, majorum facta, ditionum terminos, jura, et omnem deraum vetustatis supellectilem custodierit. Ut non immerito dixerit Camdenus '* prae illis Ibernicis historiis, om- nem omnium gentium antiquitatem esse novitatem, et quod- amraodfi infantiam." Huic obscuritati ansam praebuit raritas ipsa nominura, tam Iberniae gentium, qu^mplurium oppidorum, urbium, montium, lacuum, amnium, quae nihil habere videntur commune cum indigenarum idiomate. Adeo ut quod de ru- dibus et barbaris Hispaniae veterum incolarum et geographicis 339 nominibus scripserat Strabo, linguarum ignarus uiide desumpta fuerant; id ipsum de Ibernicis repetit E^odeiicus O'Fiahertyus, vir ceteroqui doctissimus, et de Ibernicis antiquitatibus bene^ meritus. Nam veterum hujus Insulge populorum nomiiia, quos Ptoleinteus receiiset, non minus sono peregrina vocat, qiidm A mericani tractus gentium. Flermnque etiam, addit, locorum nomina Ausona, vel Ausoba, Daurona, lernus, Isamnium, Laberus, Macolicum, Ovoca, &c. non minus nobis incognita sunt, Et tandem : Pauca locorum nomina nobis nota, non minus corrvpta ac depvavata sunt, qudm ipsa loca vetustate exesa, Heec forte non diceret vir clarissimus, si hujusmodi nomina cum scaturigine contulisset, unde emanarunt. Nostro enim vitio sit, qudd obscura quoedam, et, ut ita dicam, arcana, in veteribus Iberniac populorum, urbium, montium, amnium nominibus deprehendamus : plerumque vero historio- graphorum et antiquariorum culpa, qui sepe clarissimis alioqui vocibus tenebras offundentes, etyma pro arbitratu depravarunt eo sensu quern ipsis placuit effingere. Kectidscl. C. O'Connor (Rer. Ibernic. Script. Vet. t. 1. p. xlvi. seq.): " Si singula nomina Ibernica, inquit, a Ptolemaeo servata, cum Britannicis ab eodera servatis conferamus, et pos- iea cum Hispanicis; longe plura Hispanica esse fateamur necesse est, atque ad tempora antiquissima referenda ; ideoque cum lis convenire, quae de vetustissimis Phoenicum in insulam sacram expeditiouibus superius relata sunt." Cavit ergo eru- ditus yir in eorum sententiam ire, qui quorundam antiquariorum fide freti, pene omnia priscarum Ibernise gentium et tribuum nomina Iberno idiomati consentanea utpote ab eo ducta, au- tumant. Alios laudo subacti judicii criticos, qui partim e Celtico ducunt, partim ^ Cambrico, partim etiam e Britannico et veteri Teuthonico. Sed nee in omnibus eorum sententiam probo: citm mihi exploratum sit multa, quae evidenter e Z 2 340 Phoenicea linguA clucta sunt, conaii eos ex aliis f'ontibus eruere. Ita hullucinatus videturcl. Bulletus , qui in suis commenta- riis super Lingua Celtica, sinistra interpretatione conatur ex e^ educere plura Iberniae urbium, oppidorum, fluminum, &c. no- mina; ut obsorvavit vir antiquitatum Ibernicarum peritissimus. Nee propius ad veritatem accessit, cl. Lhydus in collatione Jinguse Ibernicae cum Cantabrina: inter quas longe minor affi- nitas est, qu^m inter Ibernicam et Punicam. Omitto alios seriptores, qui perperam geographica hjijus insulae noraina in- tellexerunt. Nempe viri alias docti, non satis scrutati sunt linguae Phoe- iiiceae rudera, quae in his nominibus servaverunt vel ruricoela^ ipsi, (\m\)\i^ jabricoB hujns auctores ignoti erant : quod et in Hispaniae veteribus coloniis et nominibus geographicis nuper observavi, quae ut plurimum ex eodem fonte manasse, in meo geographiae Hispanicae opere demonstrare proposui. Nam qui ad punctum collimare contendit, is certe a scopo minus aberrabit, quam qui superficiem circularem assequi contenius est. Ideo ad fontes usque Phoeniceos attingere ausim, si forte in illis veram et genuinam horura norainum rationem invenerirn. Haec quoniam non praestitit vir ceteroqui rerum Ibernicarum peritissimus, suspicatur Phcenices tautum pro re nata ad Iberniae oram ut negotiatores appuiisse, mercimonia peregrina advehen- di, vel importandi causs^; donee Britannia, ob ditissimas, quibus gaudet, stanni fodinas, locus fuit eorum copiis ad con- veniendum praescriptus. Ubi probabile existimat habitacula stabiliisse eorum ohlectamento, vel quasi mercatorum procura- tores. Sed haec tant^m durasse usque ad finem Belli Punici, quando Carthago deleta est, et Hispania a Romanis conquisita. Interea illud velim animadverti, non improbare nos aliquot horum nominum Ibernicam originem, im6 earn fateri ingenue. 341 Id taiitiim ostendere iiitimur, plura ex iis, quae Celticis vel Britannicis vocibus confecta ereduntur, altiiis esse repetenda, ex Phoeuieum nempe lingua, qui primis temporibus, id est, non longe ab ingressu Israelitarum ia terram Chanaan, ad Africae et Hispaiiiae primilnj, ei exinde ad Iberniae litora pervenerunt. Ad hoc nobis adnitendura est : hoc opus nostrum est palrnari- um, Phoeniceas scilicet has scaturigines indigitare, et ex iis spontaneum ortum fulcire : ut palkni omnibus fiat, eos qui re- motissiraa Phoenicum saecula penetrare negligunt, non satis esse aptos ad inveniendam veram antiquorum Iberniae incolarum onginem : miniis autem ad placita sua confirmanda, et ad contraria refutanda vel eluenda. Fortasse inde quis colligat, meo judicio fuisse Phcenices priscos Iberniae populos. Atqui non mod6 instituenda est mihi super hoc disputatio. Novi quae de Ahoriginibxis seu Gigantibus scripsere quidam veteres, et de eorum cum Partho' lanis bellis cruentissimis ; et tandem de postremo Gadelianorum seu Milesianorum adventu ex Iberice oris. Nee amplector, nee respuo quod scribunt Ibernarum antiquitatum solertissinii in- dagatores, primes nempe Iberniae incolas e vicinioribus com- migrasse ; et longo post intervalJo temporis suas in ea colonias statuisse Phcenices, Gaditanos utique et Tartesios. Super his et aliis Iberniae antiquitatibus percurri quas ad manum habere potui veterum ac recentiorum lucubrationes. Sunt quaedam, et non pauca inter eas magni pretii, quibus fateor me valde ad- jutum. Hie enim est fructus, quern ex excellentium virorum laboribus percipit modesta sollertia ; qui ideo nobis praeiverunt, ut in spissis remotissimae aetatis tenebris facem succedentibus praeferrent, Non tamen in superioribus ita oculi defigendi, ut propriis etiam gressibus non attendamus. Per illas enim qui- dam incedunt aliquando semitas, in quibus non tutum sit eos sequi : id quod et ego hie cavi, saepe vias parvim tritas seeutus. 342 Sicut autem haec tentavit ante me nemo ; sic indulturos viros doctos spero, si quid in hisce commentarioiis praetermiserim, quae ad etymologi officium pertinent. In tant^ enim nominum' farragine facile est aliquam negligentiam irrepere, quam liben- tiils ignoscent docti viri, qui qu^m proclive sit hujusmodi in studiis deficere experiraento didicerunt, quam ceteri, qui sin- gula in propatulo putant, et ut ipsi casu ab aliquo audieruut, ita eadem etiam unicuique in nuraerato esse vellent. Nam ut sunt varia et obsoleta haec nomina, indagatores eorum originis saepe efFugiunt, qui ciim in eam penetrare nequirent, divinando fet tentando prope, quantum fas est, accedere, vel k longe saltern indigitare curarunt. Affixerunt eis saepe-numer6 sensum, non modd diversum, sed etiam adversum, quemque ipsa incolarum^ conditio, et regionum aut urbium situs a veritate alienum de- tnonstrat. Non qu6d ego quid quam detractum eis velim, qui ante me Ibernicae Geographiae illustrandae operam contulerunt* Laudo conatus illorum; illi mihi viam aperuerunt. Si qua in re a me superati sunt, acceptum id refero magnis ex antiquitate viris, quos majori cum cur^, raajore cert^ otio assidue tero, ut eorum scaturigine ingenioli mei hortulos irrigem. Nee ex iis esse fateor, qui nullo labori parcunt, dum antiquorum vitia et naevos pervestigant, quique pulcherrima saepe inventa vexant, ideo tanlilm, quia quod laude dignum est, k genio eorum abhorret. CAPUT 11. Iberniam metallorum venis esse divitem, ait CI. Jac. Waraeus (Disquis. de Ibeinia et Antig, ejus cap. xxv.) quotidiana ex- perientia docet, speciatim sunt ibidem aliquae plumbi fodinae^ 343 quae mixtam habent lucrosam argenti quantitatem, Hadrianus Junius, in Iberniae laudem, fodinas hasce puri argenti venas poetic^ appellat. JEt pari argenti venas, quas terra refossis Visceribus manes imos visura recludit. Inde tot nummi aurei et argentei in Ibernia percussi : inde scyphi, monilia, et alia id generis pignora, de quibus in veteribus hujus Insulae Annalibus frequens mentio occurrit, et quorum spe- cimen exhibuit idem Waraeus loco laud. CAPUT IV. Ab idolorum sacrificulis parentes persuasos fuisse, unius morte, reliquos liberos hoc sacriticio ereptum iri, seque tot^ vit^ futures prosperrimos, affirmat judaeus hispanus R. Levi Barcelonius. '* Falsi flamines, inquit, patri prolis spondebant, beneficio oblati filii reliquam ejus stirpem prospere habiturum, quocum que se verteret, adeoque domi suae locum habituram benedictionem et prosperitatem. Utque dolus facilius suc- cederet, nuUam initio fixerunt legem, nisi illi, cui praeter filium datum, alius superesset, ne obsequium detrectarent, sive cora- burendus plane fuerit filius, sive tantiim traducendus juxta quosdam interpretes, perflammam. Et ut certos eos redderent benedictionis et prosperitatis in reliquis, sicque his blanditiis commodius simplices pellicerent ; acclamabant sacerdotes patri sacrificanti : Utile erit tibi : dulce conditnentum erit tibi, &c.'^ 344 Ideo Vallis Hinnon juxta Hierosolymam, ubi immolatos pueros constat, appellata est thophet, ob tympanorum usum^ quibus lamentabilem puerorum vocem, quae naham (rugiens) erat, supprimerent, ne audiretur a parentibus. Nam hebraeis thoph erat tympanum, a sono sic vocatum ut existimat Pas. in Novi Testam. Lexico, de rege Josia legitiir Reg. IV. cap. xxiii. 10. " contaminavit quoque Thopheth quod est in convalle jfilii Ennom ; ui nemo consecraret filium suum aut iiliam per ignem, Moloch." Appellatus est etiam locus ille malcken, quod significat fuinum ad conficiendos lateres, sed ibi ad comburendam te- nellam aetatem. CAPUT IX. Tellurem Mairis nomine a gentibus cultam, testis est Plinius (II. Go.) : neque Matris solum, sed magnce quoque ob nimiam, quam praestat utilitatem. Nisi forte in hoc, sicut in aliis bene- multis, sacra scriptura abusi sunt, quae terram matrem omnium appellat (Eccli. xl. 1.) immemores deum esse gui magna fecit in omni terra (Eccli. 1. 24.) Unde hmninumque deumque cEter- nam creatricem eam appellabant (Stat, thebaid. viii. vers. 304.) : almam parentem : summam parentem, &c. Priscae enim gentes, post quam k Patriarcharum religione, vero Deo ex fide in pro- missum messiam sacrificantium, ad Idolomaniam, cum caec^ sacrificiorum, defecissent, et prira^vam connatae de Deo Un6 vero notitiae puritatem infecissent ; elementa, ex quibus omnia 345 coaluisse arbitrabfanlur, vel pro Numinibus, vel pro Numinum symbolis coluerunt. Et inter haec maxime Terram, ^ qua origo ipsis, et in quam soluta reverterentur omnia, ut apud Platonem (Tim. Lib. IV.) ajebat Proclus. Quod autem Cibele, quae Mater Magna vel Mater Deum primiira fuerit, compluribus postea nominibus indigitata fuerit; inde Deorum Matrem nomina in veteribus aris reperta sunt, quarum mentionem invenire est in Plutarchi Marcello, et in Pausaniae Atticis. Plurimas ex insculptis hisce aris in Europa repertas prodidere Gruterus et Smetius. Sed et ejusmodi aram k se visamin Brigantibus meminit Camdenus, etiam ad majorum animalium sacrificia peragenda aptam. Hanc in Lancastria : alteram quoque habet in agro Dunelmensi : tertiae descripti- onem ad se missam, sibi ostendisse, asserit Seldenus. De Diis Syris Syntagm. II. cap. 2.) CAPUT XII. Doctorum virorum sententia est, Scotos, seu Ibernos, Scy- tharum more, ante'praelium, tum ad robur excitandum, tum ad hostes perterrendos, clamore Martio usos esse, Faragh, Faragh acerrime saepe iterantes. (Waraeus De Ibernia et Antiquit. ejus Cap. 11.^ Has autem voces e Phoenicibus mutuasse, mihi in- dubium est. Nam eorum lingua^ara^ significat lacerare, fran- gere, rumpere ; quod legioni in hostes irruenti apte dicitur, ut eos dissolvat, et abrumpat, faraa autem est liberari a jugo ser- vitutis, et ab injuriis hostium : tum et vindicari, ulcisci. Sic 346 Hispani olira ad prselium contra Saracenos euntes, acclamare solebant Santiago y a ellos, quasi dicerent : In hostes irruamus, Jacobi Apostoli munimene fulti. De vocibus ante piignam Graecis et Roraanis usitatis, consul! possunt Suidas, et Ammia- nus Marcellinus lib. xxxi. Nisi malis Sacas a Persis Scythas appellatos ob victoriam in eos a Cyro primitus reportatam : quam Sacarum cladem Photius in Miriobib. Cod. 72. libris succidaneis meminit, Inde opinantur quidam origineni habuisse festum Sacca, a Cyro hac de causs-^ institutum, et saeratum Anaitidi, Dianae nempe Persicae, quod numen erat patrium. Ipsum autem victoriae diem, unde festi initium, Sakeian dictum k Cyro, ait Eustathius (ad Periegeten), et Anaitidi dicatum. Addit Strabo (XI.) ubicumque hujus Numinis fanum esset, ibi et sancivisse ut sacra celebrarentur, velut bacchanalia interdiii noctuque ad morem Scythicuro ordinata, compotantibus viris feminisque et lascivientibus. Haec sacra fiehant quinque diebus continuis, in quibus morem esse, ait Berosus Chaldaeus (ap. Athenaeum Dip- nosoph. 14.), dominos parere imperio servorum : praesse autem familiae eorum unura, vestem regiae similem indutum, queni 20- ganen nuncupabant: nomen, certe, quod Chaldaicam petit originem, nam in ea dialecto Sayan erat proetectus, proepositus. Cons. Selden. De Diis Syris, Syntagrn, II. cap. xiii. CAPUT XXIV. Figmenta sunt etiam a viris doctis explosa, quae de Ibernicae linguae origine narrant quidam, cujus auctorem fuisse existimant Gaidhelum hunc, seu Gaothelum^ ^ quo Gaolic, seu Geolic appel- 347 ata est, qua si ex caeteris linguis desumpta; turn et Ibernos ipsos Guydhill nominatos ; quamquam haec Humfredi Lhuidi Cam- bro-Britanni senteiitia est in Fragmento Britanicce descriptionis. (Cons. Jac. Waraei Disquis. De Ibernid, et Antiq. ejus, cap. I.) Sunt qui existimeut nomen cualemalec quo olim appellatam putant linguam Ibernicam, ductum ^ nomine culamuam, quo antiquitus vocatam fuisse Iberniam, asserunt. Sed si verum est linguam Ibernicam sic olim dictam, quod in suis collectaneis historicis docuit Thadaeus Dowling, Phoeniceae esse originis hoc nomen probabile duxeris. Nam Syropboeniciis calam vox est, sermo, oratio : halecy viator ; adeo sponte fluit viatorum seu exterorum linguam, esse cualemalec. CAPUT XXVI. Ante divisionem imperii in Assyrios et Syros, ab Aram, Semi filio, dictos esse Syros Aramaeos, testantur Fl. Josephus et Strabo. (lib. xvi.) Hoc nomen apud Syros desiisse deinceps ex hac causszi quidam conjiciunt, quod nomen Aramcei pro gentili idolotr^ usurpatum fuit, ut in Gemara Talmud Babylo- nici, de idololatrio, ubi Samaritanus sive Cuthcens, medius ponitur inter JudcBum et Aramceum, vel idololatram gentilem. Apud Onkelos Levit. xxv. 47. Aramceus ponitur pro Idololairo, Et in versione Novi Testamenti Syriaca (Galat. ii. 14. et iii, 2.) pro gentibus et greeds, legimus aramceos. Eruditam super hoc edidit Dissertationem M. Andraeas Beyerus in Additamentis ad Seldeni Syntagm. De Diis Syris, pag. 2. seq. 348 CAPUT XXVII. De Romanis ait T. Livius (I. 22.) In bello Punico secundo, ex fatalibus libris sacrificia aliquot extraordinaria fecissc, inter quae Galium et Gallain, Grcecum et Groecam in foro hoario vivos sub terram demissos. Hodie, ait Minutius Felix, a Romanis Latiaria Jupiter ho- micidio colitur ; et quod Saturnifilio dignum est, mali et noxii hominis sanguine saginatur. Iramanius est quod de infantis, materno utero exsecti et mactati sacrificio, legitur apud Lucanum (VI.) *^ Vulnere si ventris, non qua natura vocabat, " Extrahitur partus, calidis ponendus in aris." Pratereo bustuavias victimas in certaminibus funebribus, qui- bus litatum est mortuis ; et in Spectaculis mutu6 caesos, de qui- bus TertuUianus (lib. De Spectaculis, cap. xii.) Ludovicus de La Cerda (in IV. JEneid. pag. 386.) aliique. Jure Romani, inquit Justus Lipsius (Lib. I, Saturnal. cap. viii.), quia gladi- atorum sanguine placari manes credebant, eaque prima ludicri caussa, hoc spectaculum dedicarunt crudo et sanguineo deo. Vid. Grotiuni de Verit. Religionis Christ, et Beyerum loc. laud. pag. 263. seq. 349 CAPUT XXVIII. Lucus dictusest, k lucd etrusca voce, senem significante juxta Franciscura Sanctium (Miuervse pag. 437.) NamjuxtaLucanuni Phaisalia, Lib. Hi. Lucus erat longo nunquam violatus ah cevOf &c. Claudianus etiam De laude Stilicon. Lib. 1. .... Lucosque vetusta Religione truces, et robora numinis instar Barbarici nostrce feriant impune secures. Truces dixit, propter victimas humanas. Robora vero numi- nis instar barbarici, vocat Deos arbores, de quibus Seldenus, et alii ; sive quercus superstitioni dicatos, de quibus Plinius, Lib. XVI. cap. ult. et nos in praesenti capite. Alii Lucos dictos credunt per antiphrasin, quasi minirae lu- ceant. Alii e converso, quia raaxime luccant, religionis caussa. (Vid. Scalig. Poet. Lib. III. c. 00. et Voss. Etymolog. p. 296.) £rant haec omnis nequitise et spurcitiae latibula, diaboU con- sistoria, in quibus libidini sub specie religionis vacabant. De quo legi merentur Dilher. (t. 1. disp. 127.) ubi agit de Meretri- cibussacris; et Selden. (loo. laud. Syntagm. II. cap. 27, p. 237.) ubi de Venere Babylonica, quae k Chaldaeis Regina ccelorum appellabatur. De veteribus Ibernis narrat auctor De Statibus Imperiorum, pag. 44. genua flexisse ante Lunani novam, ei dicentes : Ita nos salvos degere sinas, sicuti nos invenisti. Van a idolatrarum superstitio juxta diei praesidem, noctis quoque Lunam, utpote inter planetos terras proximam, et influxu sue notabilera coluit 350 (V. Hevelius in SeleMographicis, pag. 202.) Tempore ejus defectus, quantus fuerit eorum timor, quantaque trepidatio, vel ex Tacito (1. Annaiium) constat. Et quando deficiebat, ejus lumen aeris sono et tubarum, cornuumque concentu revocari posse stulte sibi persuadebant. Hane veterum consuetudinem produnt Jacobus Andraeas Crusius (De node et nocturnis officiis. Cap. IV. pag. 106, 107.) et alii. Etiam num k pluribus fere omnium terras partiuni colitur Luna ut divinum numen : ab Indorum benemultis sub nomine Schendra : sub aliis nominibus a barbaris Africanis et Nigritis maritimis, a Conganis, Anzi- charis, turn k sueciae populis subpolaribus, Catainis, Tartaris, et Samojedis, Hujus Selenolatrice vestigia reperta sunt etiam in insulis Java Majore, Moluccis et Philippinis. Lectu digna sunt quae de hoc argumento litteris mandarunt Kirchei us {CEdip, JEgypt. torn. 1. lib. V. cap. iv. p, 416. seq.) Barlaeus (De rebus gestis sub Maui' ^ pag. 62.^ Gottfredus (Historia Antipodar, P. I. pag. 30.) Ibernorum morem servabant etiam liomani qui solerani ritu Junonem invocabant Carthiginiensem, Lunam alloquentes. Calantes, nimirum, pontifices nonas mensium, quod fieri soli- tum kalendis in capitolio, in Curia Calabra, clamabant : '^ Dies te quinque Kalo Juno novella, aut Septem dies te Kalo Juno novella :" uti auctor est Varro (De Lingua lat. lib. v.) Nisi pro Junone Janam substituas, ut suspicatur Seldenus. Nam Varroni {De re rustica I. 37.) Jana, Lunay dicitur : et in ve- tustioribus excusiae (De re rustica) non novella, sed covella legitur. Covella autem, Urania, seu caelestis interpretatur. Nam veteres covum caelum vocabant, ut auctor est Sextus Pompeius. Et Uraniam, seu Lunam, quam a PcEnis accepe- rat, veneratus esse videtur Massanissa, Numidarum rex, dum Juno nis fanummagno honore prosequutus est in Melit^ insult; quod ex Cicerone constat (in Verrem Act IV.) Unde coelestem 351 banc Venerem, sive Lunam vocabant Assyrii Mylitaon^ ab Arabibus diffidentes, qui eani venerabantur sub nomine Alilaty et a Persis, qui earn vocabant Mitram. Mylita auteni vox est ducta ab Arabicae Mylidath, geiiitrix : vl/i/a^ arabibus etiam luna est nascejis et noctiluca. Cui affine est nomen Lilith, quo Zwwam vocabant Judaei; a lilah, nox. (V. Selden. De Diis Syris Syntagm. II. cap. 2. et M. Andreae Beyeri Additara. in hunc loc.) Ex hoc Lun£e corniculantis cuitu, qui apud veteres Saracenos seu agarenos invaluit, Mahumedanorum forte superstitiosus ritus ortus est, qui summis Meschitaruni et turriura fastigiis lunulas imponunt. [n hon6rem quippe suae Cabar, id est, magna deae, quo nomine Lunam seu Venei^em venerabantur, ut mox dicemus, insignia ilia antiquitus collocata et sacrata, doc- torum virorum sententia est. Quamquam alii volunt colocatus a Mahumedanis has Lunulas in memoriam Hegiroe, id est, fugas Mahumedis ex Mecha, quae accidit biduo post verum Lunce coitum, in initio videlicet, mensis Muharam, et anni arabici lunaris, corniculante jam Luna. (V. Scalig:er De emendat, tempor. Can. II. III. et Selden. loc. laud. Syntagm. 11. cap. iv.) Sed Hegird vetustiorem Lunularum apud Saracenos honorem fuisse, vel ex eo coUigi potesi, quod LunulcB priscis. Ismaelitarum regibus, eorumque camelis, uti singularia erant ornamenta, et veluti gentis symbola. Unde de Gedeone post quam occidit reges Zebee et Salmana, legitur (Judic, viii. 21.) Et tulit (^Schahoronim) ornamenta ac hullas, quibus colla rega- lium camelorurn decorari solent. Hasc autem ornamenta erant Lunae similia : bullcB in modum Lunas rotundas : quas postea (v. 26.) vocat torques aureas camelorum. TJnde arabes appel- lant, Schuor, Lunam, circulum : — turn et mensem, lunationem. Nee inverisimile est ab lis tulisse nobiles Romanos morem ha- bendi in calceis notam Lunce, unde Lunatos se esse gloriabantur. 352 Inde fortasse Asartai pluraliter dicebantur, quemadmodum repeiire est apud LXX. Seniores (Judic. ii. 13.) Nam, ut plures Junones, ait, Seldenus {loc, laud. Synt. II. cap. 2.) Plu- res Veneres, Dese Syriae plures ob simulachrorum multitudinem erant ; ita et Astartes plures. Id ipsuni pene dixerat D. Au- gustinus (ad Judic ii. qucest. xvi.) '* Juno, inquit, sine dubi- tatione, ab illis (a Poenis) Astarte vocatur. Et quoniam istae linguae (Phoenicia et Punica) non multum inter se difFerunt, merito creditur de filiis Israel hoc dicere Scriptura, quod J5aa/^ servierunt et Astartibus : quia Jovi et Junonihus. Nee movere debet quod non dixit Astarti, id est, Jimoni, sed tamquani mul- tae sint Junones, pluraliter hoc nomen posuit. Ad siraulacro- rum enim multitudinem referri voluit intcllectum ; quoniam unum quodque Junonis simulacium Juno vocabatur : ac per hoc tot Junones^ quot sunt simulacra intelligi voluit." Jocelinus, monachus Cistercieiisis ccenobii Furnessensis apud Lancasterienses in Vita S. Pair itii, cap. 96. tradit Loegarium, tilium Nelli, regis Iberniee adorasse idolum quoddam appelia- tura Caencrolthi, id est, caput omnium deorum, '* e6 quod, inquit responsa dare putabatur a populo stulto." Sunt qui du- bitent an eo nomine Apollonem Iberni intellexerint sed forte cean fuerit Saturnus, quern Hebraeis ciu7i, et ceuan, lingu^ Isma- elitica appellatum Persis et Arabibus, ex Aben Ezrae testimonio constat ; unde facile hoc nomen Phoenices, Saturni cultores, trahere potuerunt. Sub hoc nomine coluisse pravaricatores Is- raelitas Saturnum una cum Moloch, testatur Amos Propheta : qui cum dixisset : Portastis tabernaculum Moloch vestri (Amos V. 26.) addit : et dun, imaginem vestram: cujus loco habet vulgatus interpres : Et imaginem Idolorum vestrorum. Sed Aquila et Symmachus retinuerunt vocem Ciun, pro Rempham, in versione allocutionis B. Stephani Protomartyris (Actor, vii. 43.,) qui hunc locum Amos laudavit ad redarguendam seniorum judaic! populi et scribarum duritiem. Sunt qui in nomine Ciun reperire opinentur nominis Chon vestigium quo Hercules, ^gyp- tiorum lingua appellatus est. Sed hoc nee Seldeno placet, nee satis, ut ostendit, hue quadrat, Saturnum verb cofirmant veisio Novi Testamenti Coptica, turn consensus comraentariorum cop- ticorum in Caput. VII. Actuum, et Lexici Arabici coptici, quod Rephan, vel Rempham vocant Saturnum, Lunam esse opinatur Vossius (loc. laud. II. 23.) Victorious Strigelius (pag. 369.) Hypomnem. Alii Syrii stellara, veluti numen cul- tam apud ^gyptios pro felici agrorum inundatione : quia circa Syrii ortum incipit Nilus ebullire, ut ciun sit quasi canis : quod tamen vix Phoenicum theologia permittet. (Vid. Selden. loc. laud. Syntagm. II. cap. 14. et Addit. Beyeri in hoc caput : turn et. Hotting. Smegm. Orient, p. 89. Croithi vero duxerim, vel a voce Phoenicea cret. vel creit, thesaurus ; ut fuerit cean croithi thesaurus, vel ditissimum fanum Saturni: vel k gente Palaestinae bellicosissim^ crethi, vel ceretki, ex qua habuit David Satellites, seu corporis sui custodes (II. Reg, xv. 18.) et quorum pars cum caeteris Phoeniciis k facie Jopiae fugerat. De aho Idolo, quod Clochorce e lapide aureo responsa dare solebat, testatur Waraeus (loc. laud. cap. v.) fieri mentionem in Regesto Clohorensic, Clochora (mod6 Clogher prov. Ulster) existimant Ibernorum Antiquarii nomen duxisse a lapide aureo, plim dicto Lia fail, aut Lee fail, de quo serrao nobis est ad calcem capitis xxxiv. Clochora congruitcum vocibus Phceniciis clO'Cor, imago in aere, auro, argento, vel saxo sculpta. Plinii (II. 7.) testimonio constat Romanes morbis, et multis etiam pestibus, dum placandas esse trepido metu cupierunt, Aras erexisse: turn et publico Febri fanum in Palatio dicasse. Nee Paupertas h6c apud eos honore caruit, ob id Diva dicta, Ar- temque dignati sunt ut cam effugerent, teste ^liano (ap Eu- A a 354 stathium in comment, ad Dionys.) Apud Romanes etiam et alias gentes habuenint Aras Mors, Tartarus, Senectus, Lucius, Fames, Funus, Pavor, Dolor, Sopor, innumera alia. (Cons. M. Andr. Beyer, ad Cap. III. Seldeni Proleg. Cap. V.) CAPUT XXTX, Cuidam cordati interpretes Vallern Hinnon (Jos. xviii. 8.). Sive Ge-ben- Hinnon, vallisfilii Binnon, vel Ge Hinnon (Jerem. vii. 31.) vallis Hinnon, dictum maluut potius, quam ex nomine proprio, nescio cujus Hinnon, Vallis ista erat locus infamis, ob foedani istam idololatraim, infantum M olocho tostorum ulu- latus, elaots sordes, et perpetuum ignem ; at que ad inferorum horroretn represent ardum aptissimus. (V. Dilherr. Eclog, Sacr. p. 129.) Quare etjudaei Orcum, sive locum damnatorum usitatissime Gehinnon vocant. Est enim Infernus, uti vallis hoc Hierosolymee erat, communis totius Orbis sentina, quo itidem confluxit omnis generis, atque omnimoda spurcities, qua sepeliendi improbi numquam morituri, perpetu6 flammis ustu- landi, sicuti commune sepulcretum Urbis vallis ilia credita nonuUy est. Nom Ixx. Seniores Jeremiae xix. 2. et 6. per locum ubi multa sepulcra sunt, reddiderunt. Nee in Inferorum significatu salvator et scriptura ab hac voce abhorret, nempe gekenna ignis — gehenna ignis inextinguibilis. (Marc. ix. 44 — 46.) Cons. Lightfoot. Hor. Talmud, ad Math. v. 2. A Phoenicihus derivatam esse in Africam ad Poenos, banc immolandorum hominum cujuscumquae aetatis maxime impube- rum, superstitionem, Deorum pads exposcendce caussd, constat 355 ex Curtio, Lib. IV. cap. 3. et Justino, Lib. XVIIL cap. 6, Silius Italicus, Lib. IV. v. 767. Mosfuit in populis quos condidit advena Dido, Poscpre coede Deos veniam ac Jlagrantihus aris. Injandum dictu, parvos imponere naios, Germani, si quando aliquo nietu adducti, Deos placandos esse arbitrabantur, humanis hostiis eorura aras et templa funes- tabant, ut ne religione?n quidem colere potuerint (ait Tuliius Orat. pro 3f. Front. ) nisi earn prius scelere violarint. CAPUT XXX. Hercule Romano loquitur Solinus (cap. I.) ATrachiniis cul- tus est Hercules^ Koruopion sive locustas abigens : nam eorum lingua Parnopa (corrupte ^ Kornopa) locusta erat. Erythrseis Ipoktonos appellatus, quasi diceres, vermiculorum vitibus in- festorum occisor. Europaeis Herculem generatim Baalzehub nomine cultum opinatur Seldenus (loc. laud. Synt. II. cap. 6.) Baalzebub autem, Deus muscce, seu Deus musca interpretatuFj a Muscarum multitudine, quae Victimarum carnes in gentilium fanis plerumque sectabantur, dictus, ut nonnuUi coistimant. Quamquam Scaligeri judicio, '' id quod dicebatur Baal-zebahim (sic ille). Deus victimarum, immolationum, sacrificiorum, jocu^ lari vocabulo scriptura vocavit Deum Muscce quod in templo Hierolymitano muscae carnes victimarum non liguriebant, quum tamen gentium fana a muscis infestarentur propter nido-* A a 2 356 Probahilius taraen est Accaronitis ipsis, bujus idoli cultoribus, illud Baalzebnh dictum. Ctijus rei testimonium est, quod cum Ochorias rex Israel, per cancellos ccenacuU sui prseceps deci- disset, de salute consuluit Baalzebub deum Accaron (IV. Reg. 1. 2.) Ecquis, inquit Seldenus (ibid.) numen, quod coleret, ac de salutis instauratione contulandum duceret, in honesto et joculari vocabulo compellaret ? Accedit quod etiam Europaei Iioc nomen in Herculis cultu retinuerunt, quasi dominum musca eum appellantes ; in quo Accaronitarum Phoeoices aemuli vi- dentur extitisse. Cujus rei indicium est superstitiosus cultus idoli Achor, quem in Africam Phoenices, in ejusoram appulsi, invcnerunt. Nam de Ct/rewaim ait Plinius (X. 17.) Achorem deum invocare, iiiuscarura multitudine pestilentiara afFerente ; addens protinus interire muscas ciim illi numini litatum est. In Achore enim vestigia apparent Accaronis, et quae de tnuscis dicit, ea Beelzebub apertissime indicant. Quo nomine, eadem de causa et simili allusione, Herculem Phoenices invocasse, ad- modum est verisimile. Non enim AccaronitK in cultu sui idoli quam Phoenices in cultu Herculis pii magis censendi sunt, aut religiosiores. Quod de Grascis etiam et Romanis intelligito, qui Herculis sacra a Phoenicibus acceperunt. Et satis sit itinuisse Muscarum annua solemnia in Apollinis Actii delubro jfieri so- lita, de quibus in Annalium lib. XI. loquitur ^lianus. An autem Herculi acciderit quod Accaronitarum idolo accidit, mu- tatio nempe nominis Beelzebub in Beelzebul, asserere non ausim. Certe Accaronitarum idolum Beelzebul, id est, dominum ster- coreum legimus apud Athanasium, Origenem, Cyrillum, et alios Patres Grsecos. Quae mutatio apud Hispanos etiam obtinuit, quorum Celebris poeta Prudentius {Peri Stephanon Hymn V.) de Martyre Vincentio Levita canit. Sed Belzebulis callida Commenta Christus destruit. 357 Super hoc argumento multa scitu digna collegit complutensis theologus Leo de Castro in sue Apologetico. (Lib. VI. pag, 658.) Beelzebul autem pro Beelzebub legi in benemultis graecis Evangeliorura exemplaribus, turn et in vetustissim^ versione Arabica h. Thorna Erpenio Edita, Seldenus auctor est. Nisi velis inventum vocabulum Beelzebul^ in contumeliam idoli Accaronitarum, quae est sententia J. Drusii. Nam Judaeorum sapieiites hujusmodi appellationum variationes in fictorum nu- minum ignominiani fieri praecepisse, res est notissima. Sic impostorem Barchocebam (filium stellse), sub Trajano principe Messiae nomen venditantem, Barchochibam (filium mendacii) appellaruut. Mons etiam olivarum, qui hebraice dicebatur Har hamischah (Mons olivarum seu unctionis) : mutato ele- mento, et Jod addito, appellatus est Har hamaschith (mons corruptionis seu offensionis) post quam eum Salomon inquinavit cultu Astaroth, Chamos et Melchom (IV. Heg. xxiii. 13.^ Quo nomine locus indicatur, sed non sine opprobrio. Ad ido- lorum etiam ignominiam R. Abraham Ben-kattun verba Exodi. (XX. 3.) Non habebis deos alienos coram me, sic exposuit : Non sines apud te habitare qui colutit deos peregrinos, vel stercoreos. Sicut enim, spiritus sancti stylo, ab adjunct^ vanitate et turpi- tudine omnia idola hebraice, elilim, per paranoraasiam vocantur galilim, (nihilum, stercora) ita long^ apud judaeos praxi obtinuit, ttt ab idololatris nomina suis idolis tributa perverterent probroso aliquo nomine (V. Lightfoot. Hor. Talmad in Math. pag. 168.) Isaiam imitantes qui dxit (xxx. 22.) : Disperges ea (sculptilia) sieut immunditiam menstruatce. Sic quod vocabant idolatrae Faciem Dei (Strab. xvi.) vocabant judaei Faciem canis : quae idololatris erat Fons calicis, hasbreis appellata est fons tcedii, vel tribularum : Fortunes vocabulum gentilicum mutarunt in Fcetorem : idque levi litterarum mutatione, vel transpositione, oppidum, quod aliquando dicum est Bethel (Domus Dei) 358 (iictuni est postea Bethaven (Domus vanitatis). Quod aUteni banc praxim hodierni judaei nequitiose et saepiiis occulte imiten- lur, ostendit Buxtorffius Lexic. Talmud, (ad rad. cara.) CAPUT XXXIII. Bardos poetas fuisse, testis est Strabo {W .) y (\\xos cantionum factores vocat Diodorus Siculus (V,). De iis ait Lucanus (I.) in longnm cevum dimittere laudibus fortes animaSy belloque pe- remptos. Noraen gallicum existimat Pompejus Festus, quod non quemcumque cantorem significat, sed qui carit virormn fortium laudes. Sed cum indubia res sit veteres Ibertios Poetas Bardos appellatos, conjectare ausim a Phoeniciis hoc nomen traxisse, in quorum lingua bar significat polire, dilucidare, de- clarare ; duz autem, exultavit, gavisus fuit : Ut fuerit Bar-duz qui l^etanter declarat seu dilucidat heroum et fortium virorum res gestas. Quod apprime Bardis seu Vatibus Ibernicis congruit qui heroica sua carmiua, lingu^ cantui aptissima scripta> uti ad oculum demonstravit CI. Vallancey, dulcissim^ modulatione canebant, quae non aures pulsabat, sed cor. (V. Encyclop. Bri- tann. Art. Music, et Jos. C. WsAkeri Historical Memoirs of the Irish Bards. Vol. I. pag. 88. seq.) Idem de Musicis eorum instrumentis adstruit Giraldus Cambrensis ( Topograph. Ibernie, dist. III. cap. 11.) ** in quibus, inquit, velox et praeceps, suavis tamen et jucunda sonoritas. Mirum qu6d in tant^ tarn praecipiti digitorum rapacitate, musica servatur proportio, et . , . tarn suavi velocitate, . . . consona redditur et completur 359 melodia , , . Semper ab molli incipiunt, et in idem redeunt, ut cuncta sub jucundae sonoritatis dulcedine compleantur," &c. Fuisse Bardos inter veteres Ibernos Idololatras res est notissi- ma : e quorum numero fuit Dubtachus, de quo ait Jocelinus (in Vita S, Patricii, Cap. XLV.) carmina in laudem falsorum deorum studio fiorente peregisse ; conversum autem ad fidem, in laudem omnipotentis Dei, et sanctorum clariora Pcemata com- posuisse. Medii aevi scriptores appellare solebant Bardos in- ferioris notae Poetas, vulgo dictos Rythmicos ; qui carmina, seu Rythmos canebant, non semper ad aedificationem et pacem populorum, sed ad morum plerumque corruptel^m, vel ad sedi- tionis incitamentura. Qui abusus, ut observat Waraeus, ansam tandem praebuit statutis sancitis ab Anglicanis et Ibernicis commitiis contra eos, eorumque receptores (Waraeus loc. laud. cap. V.) Bardos etiam a quibusdam medii aevi scriptoribus vocatos reperies Stolidos quosque et impolitos. Lectu dignum est Ducangii GLossar. Medice et Jujimce Latinit. V. Bardus. Hoc Saxum aitWaraeus a Thuathededanis in Iberniam por- tatum, atque inde, regnante Moriertacho^ Ercae filio f Mortoghi Mac Earc) ad Fergusium fratrem in Argatheliam missum, sed ^ Kenetho rege lignea cathedra posteainclusum, Regibus Scoto- rum consecrandis, in Monasterio Sconensi coUocatum, ac tan- dem a rege Edvardo primo Angliae, Westmonasterium trausla- tum. Additque famam tenere, Ethnicismi temporibus ante Christum natum, eum dumtaxat Iberniae monarcham approba- tum, sub quo Saxum illud coUocatum ingemiscebat, vel (ut liber Houthensis penes I'homam StafFordium equitem habet) loquebatur (Waraeus loc. laud. cap. V.) Saxa, ut deorum simulachra, coluisse veteres, res est notis- sima. Exemplo sit Alagahalus (quem depravate Heliogabalum quidam efferebant), Sol, nempe, Pyramidis specie k Phceniciis iBultus. Venerem, pilae, seu quadrati saxi forma colebant 360 Arabes. Testatur Pausanias septem columnas erectas ritu prisco apud Laconas, errantium stellarum signa. Vetustissimus fuit Graecorum raos, Saxa, sive quadrata, sive rudia, saltern aliam, qutlm Saxi speciem prae se non ferentia, pro simulachris ponere, neque aliter, quam simulachris divinura honorem exhi- bere. Quod ex ejusdem Pausaniae (in Achaicis) testimonio constat. V. Selden. loc. laud. Prolegom. cap. III. Hujus lapidis portio usque hodie servari dicitur in throno Anglorum regio. Cave confundas hoc Saxum cum lapidibus seu columnis cir- cumlitis et vacillantibus, quas in Tyri urbe erexerunt Phoe- nices ; und^ probable existimat W. Cooke {loc. laud.) ab ipsis esse in Britaunicis insulis coUocatas, ubi vocabantur Ambre, et Main Ambre, id est, Lapis Ambrosius, ait Camdenus. Horum lapidum quosdam inventos esse in Ibernia, auctor est cl. Tolan- dus in Druidarum Historia. Robertus Sibaldus alterius me- minit in Scotia : alterius juxta Balvaird in Fife. Dr. Stukely asserit se aliud ex Gygonian, seu saxis vacillantibus vidisse in Derbyshire. Quod ver6 conspiciebatur juxta Pensans in Corn- wall, dirutuni est in bello civili ab uno ex Cromwelli guberna- toribus. Depictum est hoc saxum in Norden's History of Corn- wall^ p. 48. Num horum lapidum vestigium sit nomen Am- brose Town, oppidi baron. Bargiem comit. ^ea^brc?, aliis dis- quirendum relinquo. Mihi valde probabile est ab his Ambrosiis Saxis, quae Phoenices in Hispanic coUocaverunt, nomen sortitam urbem Lusitaniae vetustissimam AmbraciuSf non longe ab Eme- ritd ; turn et oppida Ambros, Ambrox, Ambroz, Ambres, Ambro- sero, &c. Habes hie, praeclara Iberniae sapientum virorum concio, quae in meis schedulis adnotaveram de Phoeniceo ejus colonum et idololatriag origine. Rudera sunt arcis vetustissimae, pulvere oblita, quae doctiores alii limpida forsan aliquando et a sordibus 361 libera in hujus insulae gloriam posteris otFerent. Fastidient, fateor, exilia haec nostra, si conferantur cum erudilorum lucu- brationibus, qui banc Spartam peragrarunt. Veriim prudeus lector, non ex operum sapientis cujusquam viri praestanti^ haec nostra metiatur ; quin poti^s ex bono ea duntaxat animo diju- dicet. Qukm vellem, ut ego gratam et obsequentera erga Ibernos voluntatem prodere nunc studui ; sic illi meam banc observantiam aequi bonique consulurent ! Sed quid ab insit^ Ibernorum, planeque singular! erga me humanitate nunc mihi polliceri dubitem ? Quae quidem etsi stimulis non egeat, nee precibus locum relinquat ; passuros tamen spero, ut de ea jugiter mihi conservand-^, tamquara de re mihi turn charissim*^, turn spectatissim4, cujus instar eorum, qui pretiosas res possident, soUicitum esse me decet, eos majorem in modum exorandos nunc censeam. Age interim et tu, quisquis es, qui haec legeris, accipe libenter has nostrii ingenioli conjecturas ; et si quid iilis rectius novisti, candidiis imperii : si wow, his utere mecum. FINIS. BINS AND SONS, PRINTERS, SOUTIIWARK. ERRATA ET CORRIGENDA. Instead of " Tuatha Dedanan," p. 20, pref. read Tuatha Danaan; and instead of, " Dedanite diviners," read Danaanite diviners. Instead of " Milesian" — and " Milesians," ps. 22 and 23, pref. read— Scythian — and Scythians. Scoto-Milesian, however, is the correct designation of the present Irish, as implying the intermixture explained in my " Dedication." Instead of " Myself the venerable," p. 31, pref. read, making the venerable. Instead of "eatim," p. 36, note, read etiam. Instead of " Iherin" p. 41, note, read Iberin. And here let me observe that of the notes in said page, only the words within parenthesis are mine. Instead of " Numdje," p. 145, note, read Numidas. Instead of " acquintiir," p. 235, note, read acquiritur. Instead of "landed in that colony" p. 294, read, landed that colony. A i ^ :m^/ ■^^' % \^ ^ A 0^ ^^<^^ =^. o>' // > ^ ^jY??^ '^. * 8 , ^ =^ %/. ' . 'Jl. >*<' • ■ 1'